Net Results: Web Marketing that Works

Rating:
Summary: A useful guidebook, with lots of relevant case studies.
Review: "Net Results: Web Marketing That Works"

Review by Madanmohan Rao ([e-mail]) Bangalore, INDIA

One year after publishing, this book is still a useful read for Internet marketers and Web strategists. If you are looking for solid practical advice from a Web solutions company that has actually made the Net work for business advantage, then this guide by USWeb and Rick Bruner is for you.

Nine chapters and an appendix cover a wide range of issues from Web return-on-investment and information architecture to online contest case studies and audience development.

Staying away from the "get-rich-quick" hype, the book urges online marketers to prepare for the long haul. "Successful marketing on the Internet requires nothing as much as persistence. Relationships, unlike bits and bytes, require careful seeding, diligent nurturing, and constant attention," the authors urge.

According to market research firm Jupiter Communications, Web sites fall into three categories: brochureware (static sites not much more than an online brochure), show-biz (infotainment sites geared towards brand building), and utilitarian (which provide great customer convenience).

For products about which there isn't a lot to elaborate, or which do not cost much - such as soap and breakfast cereals - banner ads and online sponsorships would be suitable forms of online marketing.

Some companies in this category have gone beyond this level (such as the Coke site where users discuss and trade novelty bottles, or the GirlSpace site developed by paper products company Kotex). Detergent company Tide has a useful online "stain detective," with stain-removal remedies for different kinds of fabric types and colours.

On the other hand, utilitarian sites offer Web surfers a genuine service, such as package tracking on the Federal Express site.

The Web offers businesses a return on investment in six key areas: brand building, direct marketing, online sales, customer support, market research, and online publishing.

The makers of Lexus cars reported more purchase inquiries and actual sales generated by online ads via the Pointcast "push" news service, targeted at users in Miami. Fragrance Counter claims it is making a profit selling perfume online. Tower Records reports that its site could become the biggest and most profitable sales outlet in its chain of music and video stores.

"Customer service on the Web has moved beyond nice-to-have to must-have," according to Carter Lusher, VP of Gartner Group's Customer Service and Support Strategies division. "It costs 10 times as much for a company to acquire new customers as it does to retain existing ones," he said. Hence the need to improve customer service by any means necessary, online and offline.

Asking all users to register at a site (to collect demographic information) may work for some sites (which offer high-quality content, such as the Wall Street Journal), but it may turn away too many users.

Sites using pattern recognition and collaborative filtering software for personalisation services include Amazon.com and MovieFinder.com. Database-driven sites are well-suited for online customisation, such as TV Guide's site which allows for TV listings customisable by zipcodes or day of the week.

The Web is particularly useful for real-time marketing of short-lived offers, such as auctions of discounted tickets (used by airlines for flights that have not been sold out).

"The Web is infinitely measurable. Every Web marketer should be poring over their logs to see what's working and what's not," the authors advise.

Marketers should also be searching for links from other related sites (other than search engines), such as specialty hubs, or "uber-links" (prize links which perform better than most others).

In terms of innovative marketing, marketers can try sweepstakes, treasure hunts, trivia quizzes, interactive mysteries, writing, recipes, and photo contests. Yahoo conducted a spectacular "Find the Y" contest, featuring its site without the famous "Y" - but with cartoon character Dilbert.

Yoyodyne conducted a "Get Rich Click" sweepstakes, where users had to browse through sponsor sites to find the contest logo and win prizes. Amazon.com conducted an interactive writing contest with Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Updike.

Marketers should also consider offline promotion schemes. For instance, USWeb helped "Star Trek" promotion by enlisting the support of cybercafes. A company called Zapworks promotes sites through mousepads distributed at cybercafes.

Public relations activities for corporate marketing are also being done online, by companies like PRNewswire and Businesswire. According to a 1996 MediaSource survey of more than 600 magazine and newspaper business editors, press releases accounted for 14 per cent of stories, while journalists generated 59 per cent based on their own sources.

An emerging trend is commission-based rates for transactions resulting from clickthroughs, as in Amazon.com's affiliates program. In this case, Amazon.com's banner ads contribute to brand recognition even if it does not lead to an actual sale.

Companies like PointCast, with a subscriber base of over 2 million users, also use interstitial ads. LinkExchange offers segmented targeting to over 10% of all sites on the Web (especially hobbyist sites), and shows more than five million ads a day.

Many of the tips outlined in the book are showcased in three case studies drawn from USWeb clients: Macromedia, Netiva and Women's Wire.

Intranet-application company Netiva chose to go with USWeb's recommendation of a compact quick-loading page, whose next level opened up a wide range of product information.

The Women's Wire site (www.women.com) approached USWeb for drawing traffic to its Stock Quotes and Fashion Wire features, via "grassroots" promotion on smaller sites and mailing lists. Macromedia turned to USWeb for promoting the launch of its Dreamweaver product.

Upcoming trends and challenges include the rapid pace of technological innovation and issues like online privacy.

"WebTV is going to be a hue force on the Web in the near future," according to George Lawson, creative director at USWeb. But it poses tremendous design constraints, due to colours vibrating on the TV screen.

In sum, this is a useful collection of tips, success stories, and reference information for online marketers. An online companion to the book would have been a welcome addition and could have helped extend the shelf-life of the book.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent source of 'real' business web tactics
Review: It is difficult, even for a consultant which spends a lot of his time in the eArena - as it is my particular case - to translate the pleasure derived from reading such solid, well-rooted, and at the same time innovative marketing approaches, as those covered in this book. At this moment in eCommerce history, simply put, I don't think you can find any source for eMarketing strategies & tactics better than this book. All the ground in between web sites and off-line promotion is very well covered, but I enjoyed the most the complete & practical way that "internet audience development" is explained because this is a very important and often overlooked part of any eCommerce marketing strategy, and the authors really know - and explain - the intrincancies very well, without unnecessary jargon or technical expressions. Another important point is that it is very easy to navigate from one chapter to another, wich makes this book very suitable for reference purposes. It is nice also that the authors put a lot of real life examples and an appendix at the end of each chapter full of URLs of Web sites worth to visit to see ideas put to profitable practice.

Overall, one of the best eCommerce knowledge sources small money can buy...

Rating:
Summary: An excellent source of 'real' business web tactics
Review: Many books about the internet are not very useful(can you say internet bull ! ) but this is one book that i am delighted to say is very useful. It provides real world examples and many case studies. Any internet professional that wants to do anything will benefit from this book. At Newdelhi.net we used some of these tactics and have had tremendous success since then.

Rating:
Summary: Well worth the money...
Review: Net Results: Web Marketing That Works is an excellent book for every webmarketers. It covers the most fundamental and yet power techniques to help you build the traffic to your site. The bottom line is that I found this book to be extremely informative about marketing strategies on the internet. It provides useful tips on how to get interest in your site, without spending a fortune.

Rating:
Summary: Dr. Lowe says, "I use it as a graduate Internet textbook
Review: Net Results:Web Marketing that Works is the book I selected as the textbook for my graduate Internet Marketing class at San Francisco State University. It covers all aspects of marketing online. It is easy to read and understand. The information is comprehensive and on point. It has plenty of real world examples and resources for more information. Currently there is no viable textbook for the classroom because there is a lack of serious research on the internet. This book combines excellent Internet content and an easy to read style that makes it a joy to read. Kudo's to Rick Bruner for this excellent book. This is the third semester I have adopted it.

Rating:
Summary: Dr. Lowe says, "I use it as a graduate Internet textbook
Review: Net Results:Web Marketing that Works is the book I selected as the textbook for my graduate Internet Marketing class at San Francisco State University. It covers all aspects of marketing online. It is easy to read and understand. The information is comprehensive and on point. It has plenty of real world examples and resources for more information. Currently there is no viable textbook for the classroom because there is a lack of serious research on the internet. This book combines excellent Internet content and an easy to read style that makes it a joy to read. Kudo's to Rick Bruner for this excellent book. This is the third semester I have adopted it.

Rating:
Summary: Acknowledged expert shares tips.
Review: This book is an excellent primer on how to leverage the unique qualities of the Web to beat the competition, whether you are in the technology industry or are selling soap. Because it is authored by US Web, it contains a number of fascinating case studies, as well as quite a few incidents where they cop to (and learn from) their own mistakes. It is a quick and very visual read. Two thumbs up, way up.