Marketing On The Internet 

By Marty Fox

Hold on to your hat because you are about to enter the new frontier. The Internet is the most extraordinary and cost effective marketing tool you could possibly imagine. If you are like me and you do not have an unlimited advertising budget read on because the dynamics of marketing are about to change in your favor forever!

I have had great success marketing a variety of products on the Internet. I receive orders from every continent, every day, even as I sleep. I am doing a thriving business with people I never would have been able to reach through traditional advertising, My monthly marketing costs are negligible - less than you might pay for dinner for two and a movie. This success has come as a result of studying the Internet culture, experimentation and just plain hard work. I want to take this opportunity, in the course of this article, to pass along to you what I have learned. I will tell you why I think you should be using the Internet as part of your marketing campaign and what has worked for me.

Let's begin by discussing some of the advantages of marketing on the Internet.

* One of the beauties of Internet Marketing is that you control the entire process from start to finish. You do not have to rely on printers, manufacturers, media people or anyone else. Marketing on the Internet is fast and it is effective. With some products you can bring you manufacturing and distribution costs to practically `zilch'.

* You can support users on your terms for very little cost to you or the user.

* You can establish one-to-one or one-to-many communication directly with the customer. In many cases the customer will approach you for information.

* Your message can easily be tailored to meet the specific needs of the customer and much of this can be automated to minimize the work involved. Your message can be delivered to your customer, or customers, by e-mail instantly.

* The Internet is a great leveler. For the first time in history big corporations and small businesses are put on an equal footing. The clever businessperson no longer has to worry that he or she will not be able to compete because they do not have the resources to foot a multimillion dollar marketing campaign.

* You receive immediate feedback from potential customers and can adjust your marketing campaign accordingly.

* You can create order forms and receive orders electronically. I do it today even with all of the controversy about the insecurity of financial transactions on the Net. If customers do not feel comfortable sending credit card information over the Net they will certainly pick up their telephone and call your 800 number without any hesitation.

I believe that marketing successfully on the Internet is more of an art than a science. It is an art that is well worth learning because the rewards can be enormous.

Let's jump right in and see how you can take begin marketing on the Internet

ADVERTISING IS WELCOMED ON THE INTERNET!
Well, you might say, `I thought advertising on the Internet and World Wide Web is a no-no'. Nothing could be further from the truth. Let's clarify this once and for all, advertising on the Internet is welcome. Netizens want information on useful products and have the capacity to buy lots of stuff. 

If businesses follow a few simple steps and abide by proper Netiquette they will be welcomed on the Internet and will reap tremendous rewards for little investment. I am living proof of this and you can do the same.

The secret to doing business on the Internet is to make sure that Netizens know about your business in a non-obtrusive manner. There are an estimated 30,000,000 million Internet users out there. But, it really is a small community in many ways. Word travels fast and if you have a good product or service Internauts will find out about it. It is also easy to get the word out to a large portion of the Internet population.. If you use the proper techniques you can do great business on the Internet, but I must stress if you use improper techniques contrary to the philosophy of the Net you will receive a tremendous backlash that can paralyze your business. You must realize this. People who begin marketing on the Net blindly are in for a rude awakening.


THE WORLD WIDE WEB
The Web is the fastest growing and, in my opinion, the most exciting section of the Internet. And to the person who wishes to sell on-line it is a dream come true. The Web is making front page news in major newspapers and magazines every day. Time, Newsweek, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have all carried prominent stories extolling the popularity of the World Wide Web. 

If you are a business person The `Web' is a great way to get your marketing material into the hands of millions of affluent computer users or to make direct sales to a global community. And you can do it for very little investment. 

One of the things that immediately grabs your attention when using the Web is it's ability to show graphics and handle video and audio files on the fly. It is the only portion of the Internet that has these capabilities. The Web is easily accessed with a browser such as Mosaic, Netscape or Cello. You can read information on-line or print it to paper. 

Many popular Web sites get in excess of 25,000 accesses called `hits' per day! Imagine have thousands of people reading about your product or service in a given day. Every day. And beside the direct orders you receive from on-line buyers you also have the advantage over your competition as being perceived as `high tech' and differentiating you from the crowd. You can and will use your World Wide Web address in your conventional marketing literature.

What's selling on the Web today? People are successfully selling everything on the Internet from pizza to flowers to automobiles. From my experience the products with the biggest potential are computer related products - software, books, reports, magazines, hardware, videos, supplies, etc.. 


GETTING NOTICED ON THE WEB
The question I am frequently asked is, with the thousands of Web pages out there how can I generate traffic on my Web page? How will people find out about me? Both very good questions.

There is no central directory or official top to the Web. On CompuServe you have the Find function and on AOL you have the Keyword function. But on the Web there is nothing comparable. There is no comprehensive index where everyone does their searching. In a way this can be used to your advantage. If you are a little more resourceful than your competition you can get the business by listing your site in the proper places. 

LIST IN THE MAJOR WEB DIRECTORIES
Even though there is no official Top to the Web, the unofficial top is the Web is generally acknowledged to be the site at CERN. This is the first directory in which you will want to list your Web site. In addition, you should also list your site with Lycos, the World Wide Web Worm, What's New on the Web and the World Wide Web Yellow pages. When I bring new businesses on-line we make sure that we list them in at least six of the most popular Web directories and sometimes in as many as 15. It is very important. Some of the popular directories get in excess of 2,000,000 accesses per month. I get many hits as a result of being listed in so many directories. 

It is extremely important that you make your Web site visually attractive. Use a nice splash image on your home page. Try to keep the image under 70k. 

SET UP LINKS, LINKS and MORE LINKS
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Links - hypertext links can bring a tremendous number of people to your Web site. In fact links are so important that some of the popular sites, such as Hot Wired, are selling link space on the their Web pages. A link on the What's New page can cost thousands of dollars a week. But because a popular site can generate 300,000 hits per week they may be worth it as an avenue to your site.

Many people will do a reciprocal agreement for free. You place a link to the other persons site on your page and they will place a link for your page on their site.

When the person clicks on the link they are magically brought to your Web page.

By listing other interesting sites on your Web page you are making your site that much more interesting and of value to your readers.

MAKE YOUR SITE A CLEARINGHOUSE
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Another great way to keep people coming back for more is to establish your site as a clearinghouse of links to other exciting related site. This can be an invaluable service and can quickly generate lots of steady traffic. For example you could create links to all of the music oriented sites on the Web, or all of the museum sites, or all of the colleges. Or all of the restaurants, and charge the restaurants to be part of the directory. Many businesses will realize the advantage of being a part of a centralized location on the Internet and will be happy to pay you if you can lead people to their sites. 


KEEP YOUR SITE CURRENT 
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It is important to keep people coming back to your site on a regular basis. Make sure your site is up-to-date and constantly changing. A real estate broker should have new houses on line and mortgage rates listed, a financial firm should have the latest market happenings. Lists are always a good way to keep people interested.

GIVE VALUE
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Give something away to people who visit your site, I give away free software to entice people to visit my site and try out my products. Some people have even given away cars as a promotion. But it could be something small - maybe a mouspad or a free video rental. A publisher could certainly consider giving away the first chapter or two of a new book. I know of one instance in which a publisher brought in over $100,000 in sales for one book by letting people try the first chapter for free.. For a recent offer of mine instead of giving demo software away for free I decided to experiment and charge $12.95 which could be used toward the purchase of the product. This pulled many responses.

Remember, the paradigm of the Internet, first give the consumer something of value and then lead them to your offer. This is by far the most effective way to do business on the Net. In traditional advertising you are invading the consumers space and trying to sell them with a hard sell. On the Internet you are softly leading them to your offer, and it works!


POST TO SELECTED NEWSGROUPS
Another great way to generate traffic on your Web site or to sell directly to the Internet Community is by posting selected messages in appropriate Usenet newsgroups. There are over 10,000 different newsgroups on the Internet so you have a broad choice of subjects to choose from.

Step one is to make a list of the newsgroups you feel are appropriate for your posting. Here is where you have to be careful. Whereas, on the Web advertising is accepted and expected on Newsgroups it is controversial. Although no one can stop you from posting messages, if your posting is deemed as inappropriate you may get flamed by some readers. 

Flaming is the sending of nasty e-mail messages. That is not to say that you won't get many orders and inquiries as well. Maybe even thousands of orders. There have been numerous documented cases of companies which have spammed the Internet. Spamming is posting the same message in many newsgroups. The name spam originates from a famous Monty Python comedy skit. One company posted to over 5,000 newsgroups in one felt swoop. They were flamed incessantly but they also made a killing for one nights work -. more than most people make in a year. I do not condone spamming and feel that it is a bad way to do business but I do mention it so that you are aware of everything that occurs on the Internet.

Even if you do everything by the book you may still get flamed so I want to prepare you. I remember the first time I was flamed. It was many years ago on CompuServe. The message came from someone who did not think it was appropriate that I mentioned a book that I had published about FoxPro in the FoxForum - specifically for FoxPro users. I could not understand this, nonetheless this person wrote me a very harsh message and made me feel really bad about what I had innocently done. I couldn't believe that someone had actually spent time writing a two page message to me in response to a tiny message I had posted. 

He later must have realized that he had gone too far as he sent me an apology, after the fact. To this day that message left a mark on me. I had never even heard the term `flame' and didn't even realize that what was done to me. P.S. the positive response to my message was fantastic. I went on to publish 9 more computer books and marketed all of them successfully on-line!

No matter how much care you take you will probably offend someone. If you are playing by the rules and you get flamed don't let it concern you. It is just part of doing business on the Internet and the potential rewards are great.

My advice is before you post to a newsgroup read the FAQ's which are the frequently asked questions concerning the group, most newsgroups have them. Also become familiar with the culture of the newsgroup so that you do not post inappropriately.

Beside posting messages about your relevant product answering newsgroup participants questions is a great way to generate lots of goodwill and business. For example I frequently answer peoples questions in the Entrepreneur newsgroup. At the end of the message I always include my signature which mentions my Internet Marketing 101 Video/Software Suite. This is perfectly acceptable and generates a lot of business for me. I also include my signature with any e-mail that I send out. You might think of it as your on-line business card. 

All told using newsgroups and mailing lists can potentially make your marketing material instantaneously available to over 30,000,000 Internet users. And the cost to reach this huge market is minute compared with traditional advertising.


GO THE EXTRA STEP!!
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If you do all of the things we have spoken about you will be off to a great start and with time will be able to build up a thriving on-line marketing business. 

At this point you should have a good feel for what the Internet and the World Wide Web are all about. Now, you will want to get hands on experience with Newsgroups, mailing lists, e-mail, FTP, Archie, Vernica, Gopher Telnet and the Web. There is nothing like experimenting with each of these Internet components. At the beginning it will all be a little overwhelming but take my word that everything will eventually become very clear with practice. And it won't take that long. It is time well spent because the rewards can be great indeed. This is knowledge you can use to promote your business or sell to others. It is very much in demand.