MARKETING ON THE WEB
Presentation Notes

Using the World Wide Web for marketing is quite different from traditional advertising. The two are as different as are email and snail-mail. Media critic Marshall McCluhan reminds us that new technologies are usually seen in terms of previous technologies: for example, film was first seen as a new form of theater, and television as a new form of film. As we use the new media more, we see it in a new light. Its own light. Right now, we think of the Web as new form of publishing, but we are beginning to see how different it is. Our experience with the Web is changing our views of it and we are becoming accustomed to its unique qualities.

Only you can determine whether creating a Web page is right for your business. But I will say this, if you simply want more efficient communication with clients, email will do the job. Thoroughly evaluate what you want to get out of creating a Web page before you take the plunge.

MOTIVATION

Why would you want a Web page? How will it add value to your business? Each case is different - only you can evaluate your needs to decide whether or not a Web page is right for you. Below I outline some of my reasons for creating a Web site, just to give you an idea of how I expected to use the Web. This is not a list of "right" reasons to create a Web site - it is merely a tool to spark your thoughts about how it may change your business.

• clients and colleagues can get information 24 hours a day (given there are no technical problems). It's point-of-need service: you can stop by without thinking about whether I'll be in my office.
• clients can get specific documents at their convenience if I mount them on my Web site. I haven't used this yet, but if someone wants to see a specific index that I did, I can put it on my Web site and say "the document is on my Web page as..."
• web pages are living documents, so I can update my client list or project list to reflect the real situation.
• newsletter-type publications can be distributed with no mailing costs.
• I can do more graphically pleasing documentation on the Web than I can afford to do in print.
• "marketing" is easy - potential clients come to me rather than me trying to find them. Sure, I won't attract the tens of millions of Internet users, but I will attract interested people. It is more efficient to talk to these self-selected individuals than to spend time, effort, and money on advertisements reaching disinterested people.
• PR , PR, PR! Two levels of PR are at work here:

1. personal PR - the Web site shows that I'm not afraid of technology. Since I'm a new indexer without lots of software publishers on my client list, the web page is my way of proving it.
2. professional PR - indexers can begin to create a professional presence on the Internet. When people do searches for Publishers or Editors on Lycos or Yahoo, I want them to find Indexers. Many publishers have established Web pages, but where are the indexers?

The actual results of my having a Web site have been interesting. I didn't have clear expectations about the response, but I certainly didn't anticipate such a positive reaction.

• 36 browsers stopped by my page in December (the first full month I was counting)
• 2 people interested in indexing as a career emailed me questions about indexing
• 3 indexers ready to create own Web pages asked me for help
• 1 editor emailed me to say she liked the page and she'll keep me in mind for future projects
• 1 publisher saw my resume and project list, gave me a call, and asked me to work on a current project
• I've received invitations for 3 speaking engagements with ASI groups.

TIME & EFFORT

Do you have the time and energy to create your own Web site? If so, I highly recommend it. Learning HTML is very simple (honestly). Should you do it yourself, there are several forms of instructional assistance available:

• Classes/workshops. Many community colleges and universities offer Web page design classes. You may also find them offered through libraries or computer stores. Plus, there will be an HTML workshop ("Weaving Your Own Small Web") at the ASI Annual Meeting in Denver.
• Books. There are tons of books on HTML. The one that I hear praised the most is Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML in one week by Laura Lemay (1995). See the last page of this handout for more starting points.
• Instructional Web pages. There are hundreds of Web pages that teach you how to write Web pages. Find a few that fit your learning style and dive in. For some suggested URLs, see the last page of this handout.
• Software. There is a handful of software designed to make creating HTML documents easier for you. They all do the same thing, so you might as well stick to freeware or shareware. Microsoft offers Internet Assistant at no charge through their web site. This is an add-on to Word for Windows that turns Word documents into HTML documents. See the end of this handout for the citation for a review of HTML software.

If you have more money than time to invest in creating a Web page, consider hiring someone else to do it for you. You can find plenty of Web Page Designers through search engines. You can pay anywhere from $200 to $2000 for the initial site. Be sure to ask about extra costs for space on a web server, updates to pages, more web space, large graphics, and other add-on costs.

Another option for getting a less expensive Web page is to find someone who is interested in creating Web pages, but who has little or no experience. You may find a student at a local university or know of a friend who wants to learn HTML. You can give them their first HTML project.

WEB SPACE

So, where do you put your Web pages if you design your own? Your easiest option is to find out if the provider through which you have an email account also has Web space. You may have to pay a bit extra per month, but it would be an easy transition for you. Some other places you might try:

• nearby educational institutions with relevant classes/programs. If Berkeley's School of Information Management and Systems has their own network with Web space, they may give you free space. Agree to mention on your page that they are providing you with space (you know, "you scratch my back..."). What other departments at UC would go for this? What other institutions could you talk to about this?
• find a brand new commercial internet provider or commercial web server that needs clients for references. They might give you very reasonable rates.
• remember to go outside your locale when looking for web space. Call "local" internet providers in other cities. If you use the account primarily for Web space (meaning, you'll only connect when you update your pages), you'll have small phone bills and few hours online to pay for.

Be sure to ask questions like:

• will I have any login restrictions? (e.g. can only connect from 6-9am, or only 2 hours at a time)
• are there space/memory limits? Can I pay more for extra space, or is there just no more space? (for perspective, ASI pages are only 288k)
• what are your user-to-modem ratios (12 to 1 is good, 25 to 1 isn't)
• what modem speeds do you support? (standard new modems are 28,800 bps)
• what kind of technical or customer support do you provide? Is the support only via email, or can I speak to a living human being? How many support people do you have?
• does your system support CGI or Perl scripts? (if you want to include forms on your page, you will need one of these)

DESIGN

Your experience using the Web will help you design your Web site. Think about the reasons that you use the Web. Have you sent email from the Web? Ordered products off the Web? Become impatient when waiting for graphics to load? Browsed with images off? (40% of Web users browse with images off, says Mary Cronin) Been frustrated by traveling to a site that looks interesting, but once you arrive, it's useless?

These are all valuable insights for designing a Web page. As a user, you know what you like and what you don't. So, will you want to include a form so that potential clients can get a project quote from you immediately? Will you rely heavily on graphics? What kinds of information will you give browsers so that they won't feel like linking to your site is a waste of their time?

The most important thing to remember is that your audience is coming to you, you aren't going to them. They are voluntarily visiting your site, so you need not be flashy. You do need to add to the "free information" culture of the Internet by adding something of value. In other words, offer information that is unique and/or needed and wanted by your browsers. Marketing on the Web is more about creating a presence than selling a service. Keep in mind that users can click the mouse (or hit the "back-arrow" key) as easily as they change t.v. channels with a remote control. Jill and Matthew Ellsworth share insightful thoughts about this in their Internet Business Book.

What do you include on a Web page? Unique information that keeps browsers returning and gets them to refer their colleagues and friends to your site. Provide useful information: a business biography, client list, resume, pricing information, published articles, brochures, awards, great accomplishments, or glowing client quotes.

Make your pages aesthetically pleasing, of course. Strive for readability, browsability, and consistency within and between documents. How do you carry out the presentation: How long does your page take to load? Can every browser get the same thing out of your Page? What does it look like using a text-based browser? Make your page just as appealing for the lowest common denominator.

Make use of the hypertext function- that's what the Web is all about. You shouldn't include long documents that (1) take a long time to load, and (2) users waste time scrolling down. To avoid that, redesign your documentation so that information is "chunked" and users only get as much information as they ask for. Let your users be active by determining how much information they see.

Remember: for many browsers, this is their first look at you and/or at indexing as profession. What does your page say about you? about indexing?

• use the Internet as a marketing tool without knowing what you aim to get from it
• expect immediate increases in clients (this is still experimental and evolving)
• begin your campaign without support ready to handle responses
• announce your Web Page until it's done (initial phases, at least). Even if you include an "under construction" note asking browsers to return later, they probably won't.
• rely on graphics for your presence.

GET THE WORD OUT

Once you've gone through the trouble to set up a Web page, how do you let people know you're there?

• get on major search engines (Yahoo, WWWWorm, Web Crawler, etc.)
• add your URL to your letterhead, business cards, your .signature file
• mention it to clients next time you contact them (or send out postcards announcing this new development)
• mention your page when networking with colleagues (on INDEX-L for example)

FURTHER READING

In any bookstore these days, you'll find tons of books about doing business on the Internet. The two I found most helpful are:

• Doing Business on the Internet by Mary Cronin.
• The Internet Business Book by Jill & Matthew Ellsworth.

There are also countless books & web pages that teach you how to create a web page. I would recommend that you take a look at these:

• Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML in one week by Laura Lemay.
• Yale's web page style guide (very helpful):
  http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/StyleManual_Top.HTML
• NCSA's "getting started" web page:
  http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html
• Resources on Bad Web Pages:
  http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~smfriedm/badpages.html

For reviews of HTML software assists, take a look at:

• "Writing Tools for Web Pages" by Steve Rosenthal in NewMedia, October 1995.

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