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Formal
Web
Site Promotion and Experienced Management Critical to Online Success, Yet
Three out Four Sites Lack Plans
By Peter De Legge
While the new new economy means moving
fast, transforming your business and thinking and exploiting new channels,
it seems that the good old process of having a solid promotions plan,
allocating the necessary funds to achieve your objectives, monitoring and
assessing your results, watching ROI, insight and experience and
fine-tuning your efforts as you learn are still critical success factors.
Even in the dot-com world.
A recent study tracking the relationship
between Web site promotion and Web site success was released by ActivMedia.
While the study looked exclusively at dot-coms, the findings are relevant
to all marketers with online efforts.
Not surprisingly, the study found that a
good formal Web site promotions plan, heavy promotion and experienced
management are significant factors in Web site success:
"The websites that are most
successful promote heavily to reach their target audiences and don't
leave success to chance. Profitable sites are more likely to promote
than sites that have yet to turn a profit."
With $13.1USD billion or approximately 10% of expected total Web revenues of
$132USD billion spent on promotional budgets in 2000, it's pretty clear
that a lot of marketers believe in promoting their sites.
You're probably saying: "well, that's
great, but none of this is very surprising...A company that puts together a good plan
and a budget to promote their site is bound to be more successful than one
that doesn't. That's marketing 101." And of course, you're
right.
Too bad the majority of dot-com companies don't seem to realize this.
In fact, according to ActivMedia, only one in four Web
sites has a formal
Web site promotion budget.
It's also clear that even in the dot-com
world, experience still matters, as the report found:
"There appears to be many
inexperienced dot-com website managers who mistake trial for long-term
success...Unfortunately, too many inexperienced dot-com's are plowing
lots of money into trial-generating measures prematurely, before
backstage businesses have been perfected to the point where the lure of
promotion can pay off. Trial can only pay off when the entire positive
business experience of purchasing from the website supports the
promotional message, and a mix of methods dedicated to promoting
loyalty, as well as to stimulating trial, is what will pay off for
online businesses."
According to ActivMedia VP of Market
Research Harry Wolhandler, "The business of website promotion is
acted out quite differently depending on the nature of the web site
business, the size and experience level of the business and the
communication goals of the online business. As traditional advertisers and
marketers have recognized for years, the key to success is to clearly
identify the promotional goal for the program and to address it in a way
that is both efficient and suitable to the task at hand. Today's
sophisticated marketers integrate online and offline promotional
techniques for optimal promotional mix."
Source: “Real Numbers Behind Successful Website Promotion 2000”
ActivMedia Research LLC © 2000
Peter De Legge is the publisher and editor of
Marketing Today. He has more than 15 years marketing and advertising
experience that includes holding various marketing management posts at
several corporations and consulting to numerous companies, from start-ups to
Fortune 500's, in the areas of Internet Marketing, integrated marketing and
Internet strategy.
E-business efforts and Web sites Peter has been a part of have won the praise of
leading marketing and e-business experts, including being selected being
selected among E-Week's "Top
500 E-business Innovators of 2000." Peter's MarketingToday.com
Web site has received the praise of e-marketing innovators like Seth Godin
and industry publications such as Folio
Magazine, which recently selected the site as one of several "Web
sites worth watching." To learn more about
Peter De Legge visit: http://www.businessmarketing.net
or e-mail marketingtoday@usa.net.
© Copyright 2000, Peter De Legge. All
rights reserved.
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