The Internet has permanently changes the business is done in US and worldwide. Although tons of electronic commercial solutions are being made available, methods of marketing on the Internet are in their infancy and only a limited number are available. A Website is a necessity for Internet marketing but a website alone is not effective at getting new customers through the Internet. Here are some facts on Internet usage and growth, according to Nielsen Media Research: § 97 million people in the US have access to the Internet § 1 Billion people may be connected worldwide to the Internet by 2005 § 47% of US adults use the World Wide Web § One out of five Internet users buys products or shops online § Average consumers spend $754 a year online § Business-to-Business Internet sales reached $1.3 trillion – 9.4% of business-to-business annual sale § 10,000 domain names are registered daily § E-mail marketing reached $31 billion in 2003 The Internet is moving beyond just a functional tool and becoming a mainstream medium, concluded a study released on September 21’04 by the Online Publishers Association (OPA). The study, conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates, found that 97 percent of respondents thought online was equal to or better than magazines for finding information about products. Eighty-three percent said reading a news story online is better than reading one in a newspaper. The Internet is used more for garnering information. OPA noted that 73 percent of respondents said the Internet provided them with useful information about products and services. According to the study, 47 percent of respondents indicated they now spend more time online compared to a year ago. SECRET I HOW TO CREATE AND IMPLEMENT SUCCESSFUL INTERNET DIRECT MARKETING CAMPAIGN Rule 1: Use dynamic creativity in your Internet direct marketing campaign Rule 2: Be consistent with your message throughout your entire campaign Rule 3: Reinforce the traditional branding with a consistent Internet branding Rule 4: Follow through with consistent and timely back-up Internet direct marketing campaigns Rule 5: Use innovative techniques in your Internet direct marketing campaign such as virtual postcards Rule 6: Enhance your database so your message reaches your target audience Rule 7: Integrate back-end (fulfillment, customer service, shipping, etc.) database access into your Internet direct marketing campaign Rule 8: Reinforce your Internet direct marketing campaign with existing customer service program. Follow up with voice mail after a customer purchases from you. Rule 9: Reinforce your Internet direct marketing message across delivery channels Rule10: Think award-winning creative when designing your online direct marketing campaign. The creative must communicate effectively and meet the needs of the client or prospect. SECRET II HOW TO MAKE BEING ONLINE MORE PROFITABLE § You must have a website § You must give people a reason to visit your site § You must give people options to buy § You must constantly change your website § Register your website with search engines § Print your website on everything § Participate in online discussion groups § Cross-promote yourself in partnerships with stone-related websites SECRET III HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR WEBSITE § Keep it simple. The best pages are organized and uncluttered § Avoid elaborate graphics in the background or large images § Display who you are, what you do and how to get more information § Give your address and phone number § Make it easy to contact a person, or provide a link to an instant e-mail form § Content should include the firm’s specialties and capabilities, location, key people, and project photos and descriptions § Have stone-related articles, news stories and recent press releases to extend your public relations efforts § Every additional page should have your firm name and a link back to your home page § In one of your pages is still in development, warn visitors so they won’t waste time § Update information by adding new items from time to time § Promote the site in directions, in other browsers, and in search engines § Promote your site through traditional print media. Have your internet address on your business cards and in your brochures, news releases, articles, technical papers and all advertising SECRET IV HOW TO DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE § Put your URL on all promotions § Use search engines § Encourage prospects to register with you to build your e-mail database § Consider testing banner ads § Link your site to others § Build strategic partners and alliances § Offer your prospects reason to keep coming back § Offer a weekly update of some sort to keep people coming back § Write an online newsletter you can push to your prospects to remind them about your website § Make electronic direct mail campaigns SECRET V HOW TO USE ELECTRONIC DIRECT MAIL IN THE STONE INDUSTRY Direct mail is a powerful tool, which enables you and your organization to pinpoint your customers and make customized offers. Electronic direct mail is direct response marketing that takes place over the Word Wide Web instead of on paper. You can send electronic direct mails for stone-related products primarily to acquire customers, generate leads and increase customer retention. Electronic direct mail is not a completely separate discipline from conventional direct mail. Many of the sales dynamics for both forms are similar. The main difference in electronic versus printed direct mail is the length of copy that prospects are willing to read. Evidence indicates people are more likely to read and respond to long copy in printed direct mail than electronic direct mail. People seem more willing to scan printed pages than they are to scroll down a long e-mail message. If you have a lot to say, you might put part of your message in your e-mail and the rest on a Web page the recipient can click through to for more information. Here are some advantages of using electronic direct mail over traditional paper direct mail: It’s faster. According to the recent survey, 75 percent of nationally distributed third-class bulk rate mail reaches its destination in two weeks. Electronic direct mail can reach its target in seconds. You can make a campaign, receive results and make money in days, even in hours after sending, Response is immediate. You start getting responses the day you send your message, and you will receive 90 percent of your responses in about four days. You know your results sooner, so you can measure it and manage your next campaign with confidence. E-mail is a global medium. Electronic direct mail is not limited by geographical boundaries (currencies, time zones, postal systems and regulations). It is less complicated to produce. The typical electronic direct mail is a typed e-mail message you create right on your computer screen. You can add your products’ pictures along with the link of your website. If you release a new color granite material, you can add the picture and increase awareness as well as generate leads by offering “free” samples. It costs less to send. The costs to send a paper direct mailed – including printing, postage, mailing list rental, and production- is typically sixty to eighty cents each. By comparison, you can send your electronic direct mailing for only pennies per prospective customer. If you offer education seminars on stone care and maintenance, you can attach Power point presentations along with your message. It works as well as or better than regular direct mail in many instances. E-mail increases response rates by making the purchase easy, fast and at a time and place of the prospective customer’s choice. You might have customers for stone products only in North America or in Europe, once you send your message, they can review and respond it whenever and wherever they want. § Electronic direct mail can be used to: § Acquire new customers § Sell more products to existing customers § Get orders for products or services § Generate requests for follow-ups from sales staff § Direct prospects to a website or page § Generate inquiries for more information § Create affinity programs § Announce new products, services, pricing, and policies § Promote special offers and closeouts § Conduct market surveys § Renew policies, service contracts and subscriptions § Promote upgrade offers § Invite people to participate in a stone-related seminar or online discussion § Follow-up a paper direct mail or telemarketing or both § Publish and distribute online newsletter § Build brand awareness § Convert web surfers to online buyers § Build customer relationships § Keep your name in front of your customers and prospects. § Increase frequency of communication at minimal cost Six Steps to Electronic Direct Mail Success 1. Planning 2. Determining your offer 3. List Selection 4. Creative 5. Testing 6. Rollout 1.Planning: You need to answer following questions in the beginning. § What is the positioning of your product? Is it a stone carrier unit, new released marble slab, new released granite slab, stone care seminar program or a guide to select stone products for specific projects? § Who is your target? Do you need to reach businesses such as architects, designers, contractors, construction companies, retail stores or consumers such as new homeowners, previous customers? § What is your competitive position? How different is your product from your competitors? Color, size, thickness? § What are your sales objectives? Be specific. Profit margin, amount of sales in dollar, number of sales. § What do you want to achieve with this direct mail campaign? Getting new customers, selling new products to existing customers, introducing a new product, etc. § Does this potential audience have access to the Internet? § Does this potential market like to communicate via the Internet, or are they reluctant and infrequent users? You need to answer these questions and write down your plan as well as your objectives. Furthermore you need to plan fulfillment, delivery, customer service and other activities will be affected by the electronic direct mail campaign. 2. Determining your offer: Basically offer means What are you going to give them and what are they going to give you in return? Sometimes the offer is a straight sale: You’re going to give them the product with its associated benefits, and they are going to give you money. It is also possible to structure more compelling offers, or offers that sound like an exceptional value. Whatever you offer, you should emphasize that in your ad copy. You can offer better terms, services and bribes as well. Let’s review some of them: a)Improving Terms Payment with order. This is not a motivating offer by itself, but it is simple, straightforward and easy to understand. It’s often used with a money-back guarantee and sometimes with other incentives, such as a credit card payment option or a premium. You can offer your stone care product set along with a free stone care booklet. You can back this offer with money-back guarantee. Bill me later. You get some of the promotional power of a free trial offer but with a stronger sense of obligation. This appeals to the modern consumer who has been trained to postpone payment until the last possible moment. This offer can double response over a straight cash upfront offer. Installments. This offer takes a larger price and divides it into a set number of smaller monthly payments, usually with no interest. This makes a high price less painful. It’s most effective when you highlight the installment amount and de-emphasize the total price. Positive option. Customer must take some action in order for an item to be shipped. Response to this offer is low, but overall customer quality is often better. This offer can help you find loyal customers for years. Reservation option. You offer to reserve or set aside an item that will soon be announced to the general public and which may sell out. You also may give a special price or a premium as a reward for responding by a certain date. Urgency is the main point of this offer. You can offer a new released granite slab at a special price level and you can increase urgency by declaring a certain date to respond. b)Offering Services Free shipping. People are used to paying extra for shipping and consider it a necessary evil. But you can offer it free as an unexpected and inexpensive incentive. You can offer your marble tiles with free shipping. You can offer your stone carrier unite with free shipping option. Giving a certain date for the availability of the offer can increase response rate. Rush shipping service. You promise to ship an item overnight or within a shorter time than normal shipping. You can offer this for free or for a small additional charge to cover the extra cost of FedEx, UPS or other trucking service. c)Offering Bribes Free keeper gift. This encourages prospects to make the decision to try your product or service. You offer a gift, and they can keep it even if they change their minds later. You can offer free attaché for prospects who request more information on a stone maintenance seminar. Free gift with payment. This encourages prompt payment, increases cash flow and helps reduce no-pays. You can offer a gift for every paid order or for orders of a minimum value. You can offer one gift or multiple gifts. You can offer free attaché for prospects who request more information on a stone maintenance seminar. If they enroll your seminar program and pay for it, you can give away gift cards. Choice of free gifts. Here, you offer a choice between two or more gifts. Though this seems very appealing, it often does not work as well as offering a single gift, because the choice may create indecision and inertia. Stepped free gifts. You reward customers based on the size of their orders. The more they order, the more gifts they get or the higher the gift quality. If you are wholesaler of stone products, you can offer stone care products for the retailers of your products. The more they order the more you can give away stone care products. Two-step gift. The customer gets a small gift for a first step and a bigger gift for the next step. For example, you can offer a freebie for trying your product, then another freebie for actually buying it. Cumulative incentives. This is a reward for customer loyalty, such as points for buying stone products and stone care products for resale as well as stone-related seminars. This works best when the customer can see the value increasing. For example, you can provide a running total of points earned on each billing statement or order form. 3. List Selection: You house file is the best list that you can ever have. However the target market you’ve identified in your plan will determine which list or lists you e-mail to. Some list providers offer many e-mail lists with varying demographic or interest areas. Some providers own only one list, but they should be able to tell you what the characteristics or interests of their recipients are. Never mail to a compiled list of Internet addresses. Only mail to opt-in lists of Internet users who have agreed to receive unsolicited promotional e-mails. Online prospects who have opted in and voluntarily given their e-mail addresses are ten times more likely to respond than people whose e-mail addresses were appended to their files in an existing lists via an e-address appending service. Electronic direct mail can generate a high response when the list is well matched with the product or offer. It is important to use opt-in lists from stone and stone care related websites. 4. Creative: Creative refers to the concept, format, copy and design of an advertising piece. Offer and list selection are probably the most critical choices you are going to make, but if your creative isn’t effective, you campaign can fail. You need a list server, bulk e-mail program, or other software or service bureau to transmit e-mail marketing messages to your house file of Internet addresses. Doing electronic direct mail to AOL users is more difficult because most versions of AOL do not allow you to embed a URL link in the e-mail message, and embedded links are the most effective response mechanism for electronic direct mail. "From" line. What's one of the first things you do when you get a letter by snail mail? You look at the upper left hand corner of the envelope to see who sent it. Likewise, when people get e-mail, they look at the "From" line to see who sent it. You can use a company name (From: SharperStoneCare), personal name (From: Richard Thalheimer), e-mail address (From: Richard@shaperstonecare.com), department address (From: SpecialOffers@sharperstonecare.com), anonymous address (From: 23456@si.com), or just about anything you want. Generally, however, people pay more attention to messages from people they know. Write an attention-grabbing "Subject" line. You can state your offer (Get granite counter tops for only $69.95!), offer something free (Free stone care instruction Video Just For Asking), announce exciting news (research reveals how stone products increase your home’s value), appeal to the how-to instinct (How to find exclusive marble tiles for your bathroom), or ask a question (Want the best design for your kitchen?). The "Subject" line is like teaser copy on an envelope. Its only purpose is to get people interested enough to want to know more. Get creative with your "Subject" line. Arouse curiosity by ending your line mid-sentence (To cut your stone maintenance costs in half just...). Establish a personal feel with the "forward" abbreviation (FW: Here's something I think you'll like). Create excitement with a "nuts" line (We're going nuts trying to reach you!). Create familiarity with a "whoops" line (Whoops! Important correction to my last e-mail). The possibilities are endless. Get to the point quickly. Expand on your "Subject" line in the headline or first paragraph of your e-mail letter. Present your offer clearly and completely. If your "Subject" line says, "Get $100.00 off your vanity top order," your first paragraph could say, "Try our RISK-FREE 30-day trial of Shopper's Discount and you can get $100 off your vanity top order! We will send you $100 in Cash-Back Check. Absolutely FREE." Include a salutation. Many e-mail letters work fine without a salutation - they're more like short ads. But if you want your letter to look like a letter, you'll need a salutation at the top or after a headline. You can make it generic (Dear Stone Professional, Dear Homeowner), but a personalized salutation is better whenever that's an option. Simply include the word "Dear" followed by a field for the first name or first and last name of the recipient. You can personalize your body text in the same way with names, places, locations, and various bits of information. Don't overdo it, though, or you'll raise privacy concerns. Include at least three links. Unless you're trying to sell something directly from your e-mail, you will be sending your reader to an HTML page to complete the transaction. That means including a link that the reader can click on or cut and paste into a browser's address window. This link should appear at least three times: after the offer in your first paragraph, somewhere in the middle of the letter, and again at the end. Statistics claim 95 percent of click-throughs are from the first two links, which is why it's important to get them up-front as well as at the end. For newsletters, you can break your copy into several short items, each on a different subject with its own link. Keep it short. Prevailing wisdom is that a prospect letter should be from 200 to 500 words and a newsletter from 500 to 1,500 words. In general, if you want to sell right from the letter, you need more copy. If you want people to go to another location, keep it short and say just enough to get the click-through. Don't look like a spammer. Keep your tone friendly and informative. Avoid overblown language. Keep the exclamation points to a minimum. Avoid lots of all-cap lines, which mean screaming in cyberspace. Opt-out Statement. The opt-out statement prevents flaming from recipients who feel they have been spammed. All they have to do is use their e-mail software’s reply function and type “unsubscribe” or “remove” in the subject line. You must honor all such requests. Following is an example of opt-out statement: “ We respect your online time and privacy and pledge not to abuse this medium. If you prefer not to receive further e-mails of this type from us, please reply to this e-mail and type “Remove” in the subject.” Allow the entire transaction to take place on the Web. Don’t force prospects to call on the telephone or use maul, although you may want to give them the option. It is essential to accept credit cards on your website for true e-commerce. 5. Testing: Once you’ve selected your lists, created your message, and arranged all back-end process (fulfillment, customer service, shipping, etc.), it is time to test. You may have several found several lists that match your target market. Each list may have tens of thousands of addresses. Test your mailing on smaller samples such as a few thousand per list. Then study the response to see which lists generate the highest response rate. Code your tests to determine where response is coming from. You can also test “From” lines, “Subject" lines, personalization, plain text vs. HTML, offers, length and the page to which you're sending people. Every little improvement translates into more revenue for each subsequent mailing. 6. Rollout When you’ve identified responsive lists and workable offers and creative approaches, it’s time to roll out your campaign to a larger audience. Be sure to track the campaign and measure your response. You can publish your online newsletter and place ad in other online newsletters. Highlights of your Electronic Direct Mail Campaign § Be clear about what you’re trying to achieve § Have a clear, powerful offer § If you have an offer and it isn’t pulling satisfactory response, figure out a more exciting offer § Lead with your biggest benefit or most compelling offer § Break the text up into short, easy-to-read sections § Write in a personal one-to-one, natural style § Test § Make it easy to respond SECRET VI HOW TO CREATE RESPONSIVE BANNER ADS § Use clear qualifying language § Use a strong call to action § Create a sense of urgency with deadlines § Use the word “ click here” on the banner § Keep it simple § Use color carefully § Use movement to draw attention § Think of a banner ad as teaser copy of a website § The cleaner and more professional a banner ad looks, the more credibility it conveys and the higher the click through rate § Test SECRET VII TOP 8 BANNER AD AND TOP 10 WEBSITE DESIGN MISTAKES Banner Ad Mistakes § Overloaded § Unattractive § Too many bells and whistles § Missing link § Link errors § Weak message § Confusing message § Boring banners Website Design Mistakes § No price presentation especially for business-to-business sites. § Inflexible search engines § Horizontal scrolling. Users hate going left to right § Fixed font size. 95% of the time, they are specified too small, reducing usability for people older than 40 § Blocks of text. A wall of un broken text is deadly § A link should be a simple hypertext reference that replaces the current page with new content § Infrequent asked questions in FAQ. Too many companies list questions they wish people would ask, but never do § Collecting e-mail addresses without privacy policy. Every time a web site asks for an e-mail address, users react negatively § URL greater than 75 characters. Long website addresses make it impossible to e-mail a recommendation to visit a web page § Unexpected mail-to link. When people click, they expect information, not to be required to write an e-mail September-26-2004 H.KURSAD DEVECIOGLU Copyright 2004. Do not use this article without permission of the author. Contact hasankursaddevecioglu@yahoo.com to have written permission