Virtual Marketplaces

1
Virtual Marketplaces

• Discussion led by Bruce Brorson
• June 19th, 2002

2
About this Workshop

• Intended Audience
• Business Leaders, Entrepreneurs, Internet Service
  Providers and Developers, Individuals interested
  in the Internet as a business platform.
• This session will examine
• Internet Marketing Services
• ..including a discussion on website design,
  registering, and scoring with the search engines
  of the Internet. Are the rules changing?
• Business to Consumer Webstore Catalogs
• Partnerships with Online Giants such as
  Amazon.com and eBay.com
• Business to Business Intranets, Extranets, and
  Portals
• Getting business ready for your entry into a
  virtual marketplace.

3
Will the Internet really offer us opportunities
to reach distant markets?

• Yes, but only with a carefully considered
  marketing and technology enabled strategic plan,
  that includes
• Traditional - personal contact marketing,
• Traditional - mass media promotion,
• An information rich website,
• Email marketing tools,
• Possibly a privately operated webstore intranet,
  extranet,
• Internet sales and marketing collaborations,
• .and more

4
Internet Marketing Components

• The Website. Your website should be a centerpiece
  in your overall marketing program. Build a great
  website and then begin driving traffic to your
  site.
• The domain name. www.yourname.com. Should be
  the same as your company name or product name,
  easy to remember and easy to guess, no
  punctuation, no alphabet soup. When choosing a
  new name, don't count on finding a name that has
  not already been reserved. Pick a good name then
  find out who owns the name and see if they would
  be interested in selling it.
• Check with The International Corporation for
  Assigned Names and Numbers for an official list
  of domain registrars.
• Network Solutions, now owned and operated by
  Verisign, Inc. was the original registrar and
  still considered by many to be the best.

5
Internet Marketing Components

• Metrics. When a new user arrives at your site,
  you can know where he came from from a search
  engine, which search engine, from a banner ad,
  which ad, from a link in your newsletter. You can
  then track that user's subsequent behavior which
  pages does he look at, what products does he buy.
  In this way Internet marketing shares the
  characteristics of direct mail advertising. You
  can calculate cost of customer acquisition, cost
  of leads, and cost of sales. Webtrends software
  provides excellent tools for log analysis and
  report presentation.
• Privacy. Because we can track every aspect of a
  user's behavior on our website, we inherit a
  special responsibility to respect that user's
  privacy. Every business website should have a
  privacy statement created under P3P publishing
  guidelines.
• Cross Promotion. Print your URL everywhere, on
  all your printed promotional literature and
  traditional advertising.

6
Internet Marketing Components

• Coordinated Campaigns. Make sure that your
  Internet advertising is coordinated with your
  traditional media advertising. Traditional media
  include broadcast TV, cable TV, radio,
  newspapers, magazines, outdoor, and direct mail.
  Most advertising agencies specialize in either
  traditional media or internet advertising, and
  they partner with each other.
• Circular Promotion. Martha Stewart bakes a cake
  on her TV show, and refers you to her website to
  see the list of ingredients. Once on the website,
  you find a schedule of her upcoming TV shows. You
  are lead in a circle from TV to website back to
  TV again.
• Viral Advertising. Advertising that spreads from
  person to person on its own. An email newsletter
  that offers rewards for referrals, for example,
  encourages recipients to forward the newsletter
  to as many of their friends as possible. Hotmail
  is the classic Internet example of an Internet
  business that grew with from a viral marketing
  effect. Email this article to a friend applets
  on a page increase the impact or viral marketing.

7
Thoughts on Assessing Your Informational Website

• For what purpose was the site prepared?
• Marketing
• Sales
• Customer Service
• Does you site include the basic information
  expected by site visitors?
• Basic Company Info
• Sales / Service Info
• News Releases
• Opt-in Email Options
• Job Postings
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Does the site reflect the marketing image as used
  in your organizations traditional media?

8
Website Design Suggestions

• Know the Competition Does their website offer a
  competitive advantage? Todays designers should
  help companies with an analysis of current market
  conditions.
• Evaluate your work, or that completed for you,
  against a established set of criteria
• From a message standpoint examine the Best
  Practice Briefs content suggestions.
• Technically examine the World Best Websites
  pages for a comprehensive list that might be
  helpful.

9
Is a listing, and being indexed by a search
engine, really that important?

• Yesand No!!!!
• Yes, if you would like your website to be located
  by strangers. No, if you dont.
• Yes, if you feel your customers dont know how to
  access information about your company by typing
  in a URL address. No, if the address is widely
  publicized and shared with your customers through
  traditional and other Internet channels.
• No, if your website was created for a very
  targeted and specific audience, such as
  registered customers only, your dealership
  network, or your employees.

10
What steps should I take to get indexed by a
search engine?

• Make sure your website metatags are correctly
  crafted and the textual content of your page will
  allow your pages to be indexed under your terms.
• Page title, description, and keywords must be
  identified in your webpage code. Use the view
  source command in IE to see what you currently
  have specified in your website code.
• Invest in a basic Internet promotion software
  package that can assist you in analyzing your
  website, identifying and notifying search engines
  of your existence, and completing the actual
  promotion of your website.
• AddWeb from CyberspaceHQ is the leading promotion
  package in 2002.
• ..another option http//www.selfpromotion.com
• Once the promotion is complete, check often on
  the impact of your promotion and consider making
  changes to your website to improve listing
  performance

11
Demonstration Time

• AddWeb from Cyberspace HQ
• Is your website coded for promotability?

12
E-Mail Marketing

• Email is both the most under utilized and over
  utilized component of an Internet Marketing
  Strategy.
• If you consider best practices for operating a
  business in 2002, creating an email list, that
  will allow a company to quickly communicate with
  customers, should be considered an essential
  requirement. Lets look at Nordic Needle..
• A key element in any e-mail marketing strategy is
  to obtain customers approval before sending them
  any e-mail that includes a marketing,
  promotional, or even a service message.
• Finally be careful, industry analysts have
  severely criticized some companies for sending
  e-mail messages to customers or potential
  customers. Buying an email list or opting in to
  a mass marketing email collaboration could be
  more detrimental than beneficial.

13
Business to Consumer Webstores / WebCatalogs

• The web catalog model is a revenue model of
  selling goods and services on the web, that is
  based on the mail order catalog revenue model.
• In the web catalog model, a website replaces or
  supplements print catalog distribution with
  information on its website.
• Examples of catalogs that have supplemented with
  webstores quite nicely
• Lands End LL Bean

14
Options for Getting Online with a Webstore

• Working with an ASP (Application Service
  Provider), webstore hosting company.
• One that provides web catalog posting and order
  email service.
• One that provides catalog posting, web order
  administration, shipping calculation and payment
  processing services.
• One that provides catalog posting,
  administration, and financial systems integration
  services.
• Acquiring, Installing, Setting Up, and Operating
  Off the Shelf Webstore Software.
• Numerous packages are on the market. Many are
  used by website developers to provide
  individualized services.
• Carefully examine the feature set to see that the
  package will meet your needs. Turn to your
  workbook and well examine the feature set of
  Actinic and Line9.com.

15
Suggested Guidelines for Operating a Webstore

• Accept credit cards and as many other forms of
  payment as possible. There is little to be gained
  if you launch a great site and then ask for
  payments to be mailed to you in the form of a
  check or money order. It is better to wait for
  your merchant account to be approved before going
  live prematurely.
• Carry as many items in stock as possible to avoid
  backorders. Often convenience goes hand-in-hand
  with timeliness and customers want to know right
  away if they have to wait three days or three
  weeks for an item.
• Send an e-mail confirmation for all orders. Some
  sites state on the final transaction screen,
  "Print this page for your records." Well, what if
  the customer doesn't have an accessible printer
  at the time of the order?
• Only ask for the basic information required for
  order processing - shipping address, billing
  address, e-mail address, payment data. You can
  follow-up with your market research questions
  another time.

16
Suggested Guidelines for Operating a Webstore
(cont)

• Offer a variety of shipping options including
  overnight express. You don't want to eliminate
  orders from last-minute shoppers because the only
  form of shipment constitutes a five-day wait for
  delivery.
• Your site should be searchable by keywords or
  phrases. Many customers want to get in, find the
  item, checkout and get out.
• Post all the company's contact info visibly.
  Sometimes a customer just needs a quick question
  answered before making the final click that
  processes the order. Don't run the risk of
  abandonment because a shopper couldn't find your
  toll-free number.
• Make sure all the components of the site load
  quickly. That includes all text, graphics and
  interactive elements. In this instance, time is
  definitely money. Customer frustration starts to
  build as they wait for pages don't load.

17
Partnering with the Online Giants like Amazon.com
and eBay.com

• Numerous opportunities to increase the number of
  product impressions you place on the Internet
  exist. The two leader leader online eTailers
  have much to offer. Lets look at each
• Amazon.com will help you sell used items, new
  items and even participate in online auctions.
• eBay has been the single most successful
  implementation online technologies with an
  understanding of how customers may want to
  interact with each other online. Their website
  offers more than just auctioning functionality.
  The eBay webstore is especially compelling and
  affordable.

18
Business to Business Intranets and Corporate
Portals

• Becoming increasingly important as a key resource
  strategy in providing customer service.
• Requires a username and password to access.
• Does not support 2-way exchange of data. The
  customer, dealer, business partner must provide
  data back to the community portal provider.
• A couple examples TV Resource Thief River
  Falls Linen
• Numerous firms are offering commerical packages
  and hosting services for b2b intranets and
  corporate portals. A few inexpensive options to
  review include
• http//www.ultraapps.com http//www.metadot.net
  http//www.infostreet.com

19
Next Generation of Business Partnership
Integration on the Web -Two-way Data
Interactivity through Web Services

• Will we really see the Internet replace EDI?
• Many systems have been developed and implemented
  but the creation of standards based solutions
  that allow for systems to seamlessly interoperate
  may still be a future technology for most small
  businesses.
• Where do the technologies of web services come
  in?
• Web services technologies being advanced by
  Microsoft with their .NET initiative and Sun with
  J2EE, as well as standards organizations like
  RosettaNet will provide the means for developers
  to write and market software that is Internet
  enabled and functional without the need of a
  gateway.

20
Additional Information
Bruce Brorson University of Minnesota,
Crookston Center for Business and Technology
Information Technology Management Dowell Hall 217
2900 University Avenue Crookston, MN 56716 On
the Web http//www.brucebrorson.net By phone
at 1-218-281-8196 Fax at
1-218-281-8457 Bruce Brorson Email Address
mailtobbrorson_at_umn.edu