WHAT IS A WEB SITE FOR?
by Alan J. Zell, Ambassador of Selling

Ask this question to people in businesses selling their products or services on the Internet to the public and the most likely answer will be, "to make sales." That answer is only partly correct. All forms of marketing are done with the idea that they will, at some point, generate sales and, hopefully, profitable sales. Otherwise, why do it?

Ask this question to people in business selling to other businesses, and the answer will be different. To them it may be for branding, customer service, business processes, and/or cost reductions. Yet, the end goal, just as it is in selling to consumers, is making sales.

Too often, because of the hype generated by those selling hardware, software, and services associated with the Internet, it has been seen as the panacea for marketing ideas, information, products and services. The pitch is that traditional forms of advertising and marketing really don't pay off -- newspaper advertising is only good for the day(s) it runs on, magazine advertising stays around longer but is more costly, radio is only good if the advertisement is heard, television reaches more people who don't need what is advertised than do, telemarketing is irksome, and junk mail is just what it says it is. Besides which, seldom does any one of these marketing methods bring in enough business to pay for their costs. The common goal is to get a positive return on the investment in any or all of these marketing methods, which rarely happens. People expect these marketing mediums to do what they cannot possibly do by themselves because they are costly and take a considerable amount of effort to produce.

Ah, the Internet is different. E-mail and web sites are there 24/7 . . . ready whenever they are needed. The costs, we are told, are much lower, and Internet advertising takes much less effort that any of these other formats. This, however, may not be true if well done.

But, like all marketing mediums, not all marketing efforts result in a sale, yet they can be valuable as forms of facilitating sales. What the Internet has become, rather than a generator of sales is as most other marketing mediums are, a "facilitator of sales." It can:

* help get people interested in learning about products or services that may fit into their personal or business life. More important, they can access it on their time schedule without having to go out to many different venues to gather the information. In other words, it saves prospective customers their time.

* make it possible for people to buy products or services when they find something that fits into their personal or business life. This works well for known products or services. The less familiar potential customers are with products or services, the less effective the Internet is for making sales.

* give customers a way of showing others what is under consideration or has been bought. It allows customers to get confirmation that what they are doing/have done is the right thing which in turn helps customers justify their purchase to themselves and others. It is human nature to want that approval.

It is this latter point that has grown in importance as the Internet tries to mature. Every potential customer will, at some point, want to tell or show others what they are interested in purchasing or has purchased. Until the Internet, it was difficult to do this. Brochures had to be gathered, photos taken, sometimes mailed to several people. Trying to describe something in writing or telling about it does not aways tell the whole story. But, the Internet to the rescue! It is there 24/7 ready to be used when needed.

There is another way that a web site and, for that matter, all mass media formats of marketing, can do and that is to facilitate sales. They are a form of "training the other side of the sales process'– those the customers will be talking to -- so that the customer has less to tell because the listeners/readers/viewer already have some knowledge of the product or service.

Just having a web site does not mean people will find the site. It is not a case of "I'm there and people will find me." Each person/firm wanting to use the Internet will have to use many of the traditional marketing methods -- print, broadcast, direct mail, broadcast e-mail and fax to name a few -- to bring people to one?s web site.

Of course, there are listings on search engines that may bring people to the site. But this is not enough. With the proliferation of sites, the results of a majority of searches bring up a list of hundreds or thousands of site. If a site is not in the top 50 or 100, the chances of someone learning of the site are very, very small. One can buy banners on search engines, and other sites as well as have links on other sites to help get the word out. Still, these are not sufficient.

It means that everything associated with the business must have the web site listed -- stationery, business cards, posters, signs, brochures and almost anything that can be seen by others.Facilitating sales is making it easier for the customer to buy . . . to be seen as being a better person in their own and others' eyes for having done so.

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