i have a website. now what? - module 1

MODULE 1 OF 4

5 Necessary Questions To Ask When Developing Your Marketing Strategy

Based on the “I have a website. NOW what?” course by Allison Ross

© 2014 | Allison Ross. All Rights Reserved 1 of 22

I have a website. NOW what?

INTRODUCTION

You have a website. NOW what?

If you're like the majority of website owners, you're getting no traffic, no sales...NO MONEY!

Marketing's tough, isn't it?

But what if jump-starting your marketing strategy was as easy as 1-2-3-4-5? Would you

believe me if I told you there are only 5 questions you needed to ask?

1. Is your prduct tangible or digital/intangible? (T/D)

2. Does your product have search or material characteristics? (S/M)

3. Is your product in the introductory, growth or maturity stage of the Product Life Cycle?

(I/G/M)

4. Is your product durable or non-durable? (D/N)

5. Is your product perceived as convenience, shopping or specialty? (C/S1/S2)

Based on these 5 questions, your product has 1 of 72 "personalities" that provide clues

to how it should be marketed; A unique code that you could use to jumpstart your

marketing strategy quickly and easily.

Consider some of these examples:

• TSIDC - Packaging is important for Convenience products so ensure that your

packaging is more effective than your competitors'. To grab the attention of

potential customers, deliver information directly to them as opposed to waiting for



them to find you. Most importantly, make the product convenient to purchase.

• TSINS2 - Buyers of Specialty products are brand loyal. Therefore, when building

relationships, always reinforce the value of the brand instead of focusing on

prices and benefits. Provide product information offline and online, not only

online.

• DSIDS1 - Buyers of Shopping products are price sensitive. Therefore, when

building relationships, always offer the best benefits at the best prices. Provide

product information offline and online, not only online.

In this ebook, I'll share with you my unique methodology for analysing your product by

answering these 5 simple questions. You'll learn how to apply these results to get your

marketing strategy off to an effective start.



MODULE 1

5 Necessary Questions To Ask When Developing

Your Marketing Strategy

1. Is your product tangible or digital/intangible?

Tangible products can be held and felt, digital/intangible products cannot. Examples of tangible

products include clothing, footwear, computer hardware, and property. Examples of digital/intangible

products include ebooks, services, computer software, and music.

If your product is tangible, you would need to consider logistics, for example, storage, transport and

delivery. Think about how delivering your products to a broader audience will influence your delivery

costs. And will you need more storage space to hold higher stock levels?

Intangible/digital products, therefore, may be less complicated to sell via the Internet than their

tangible counterparts.

Often, a business may offer their products in both tangible and digital/intangible formats, such as

Amazon offering the same books in both digital and print format. In these cases, different marketing

strategies are required because the customer who purchases and downloads an ebook would have a

different profile, and therefore buying behaviour, to the customer ordering the print version. In addition,

stocking and delivering the printed version carries additional costs that need to be built into the profit

margins.

2. Does your product have search or material characteristics?

Search characteristics imply that your potential customers can decide to purchase your product or

service purely by viewing information about it. For example, you're able to purchase a holiday simply



by viewing pictures of the accommodation and customer reviews. A holiday, therefore, has search

characteristics.

Products that need further evaluation through smell, taste, touch or sound have material

characteristics. When planning your launch strategy for material products, consider whether potential

customers would need to have "testers" before buying. If yes, you may need to support your online

launch with traditional methods to allow your customers to experience the product. For example, the

launch of a new fragrance can be promoted in a store environment.

3. In which stage of the Product Life Cycle (PLC) is your product?

In the introductory stage of the PLC, the product is introduced to your target market so your launch

strategy should create a need within potential customers. Marketing activities may include heavy

advertising spend to create an awareness of the brand or product and communicate its benefits.

In the growth stage, the brand or product is accepted by a critical mass, and you can concentrate

your efforts on maintaining and growing market share as competitors enter the market.

In the maturity stage, competition intensifies because the knowledge of the product or service is

widespread. The costs associated with acquiring new customers increase so you should focus on

maintaining loyalty. The last stage of the PLC is the decline stage. As sales decline, you can either

discontinue the product or reinvent it, thereby restarting a new life cycle.

4. Is your product durable or non-durable?

Durable products are products that are capable of surviving many uses (such as appliances and cars)

and non-durables are perishable products that are used up after one or more uses (for example,

food). If your product is durable, you may have to focus on acquiring new customers instead of

retaining existing ones because repeat purchases are likely to be few and far between.

5. Is your product perceived as a convenience, shopping, or specialty



product?

Convenience products are those that the consumer is not willing to spend time, money or effort in

locating, evaluating and purchasing. Packaging is important to sell the product.

For shopping products, consumers want to make price, quality and suitability comparisons. They

make the time and effort to plan their purchases and the product with the best set of attributes is

bought. When product attributes are perceived as similar, price is the deciding factor.

Specialty products are those in which the consumer's buying behaviour is directed at securing a

particular good, service or idea without regard to time, effort and expense. Consumers are loyal to

their brand, store and person. They will pay a premium price for their products and will not accept a

product substitute.

IMPORTANT! A product is convenience, shopping or specialty depending on how the customer

perceives it.

Consider the behaviour of an in-store consumer seeking a cold beverage. If any type and any brand of

cold beverage is appropriate - whether sparkling water, a fruit juice or a soda - the product could be

classified as a convenience product because the buyer is likely to choose the product that is most

convenient to find.

For the consumer seeking a soda (not sparkling water or a fruit juice), the product could be classified

as a shopping product if the buyer compares the different brands of sodas before choosing a brand

that fits their taste or budget.

If the buyer selects a preferred brand irrespective of price and the other options available, the product

could be classified as a specialty product because of the buyer’s insistence on a particular type of

brand. If the preferred brand is not available, the buyer would go through the effort of going from store

to store searching for the brand.

Understanding how potential customers perceive your products is a driver for your site's navigation.

When you know how they're likely to shop – or if you know how to interpret their online behaviour -



you can build your website accordingly.

Consider some of the key metrics when analysing your website and how differently visitors are likely to

behave depending on how they perceive your product.

Metric Convenience Shopping Specialty

Navigation Minimum number of clicks to purchase is less than shopping and specialty as consumers spend little time or effort on the purchase process

Minimum number of clicks to purchase is more than convenience but less than specialty as consumers spend a moderate amount of time and effort on the purchase process

Minimum number of clicks to purchase is greater than shopping and specialty as consumers spend a considerable amount of time and effort on the purchase process

Duration Time spent on the web site is less than shopping and specialty as consumers spend little time or effort on the purchase process

Time spent on the site is inconsistent as consumers move between web sites

Time spent on the site is considerable as consumers do an intense information search

Depth Number of pages drilled down is shallow as consumers spend little time or effort on the purchase process

Number of pages drilled down is inconsistent as consumers move between web sites

Number of pages drilled down is deep as consumers do an intense information search

Recency and Frequency

No brand loyalty, therefore, no guarantees of repeat visits or purchases

Consumer is fickle, therefore, repeat visits and purchases are inconsistent

Brand loyal customers and, therefore, a high probability of repeat visits and purchases

Abandonment Consumer will abandon if the purchase is not convenient

Consumer will abandon if the product does not offer the best benefits

Consumer will abandon if the brand does not deliver to expectations

Conversion Consumer will purchase if the purchase is convenient

Consumer will purchase if the product offers the best benefits

Consumer will purchase if the brand delivers to expectations

For example, if your product is perceived as a specialty product, you'll provide as much information

about your brand many levels deep. However, if it's perceived as a shopping product, you'll make price

and benefit information easily available and not deeply buried in navigation.

The importance of these 5 product attributes



Based on these 5 questions, there are 72 unique product codes each representing a specific

product strategy.

• Tangible (T)

• Intangible/Digital (D)

• Search (S)

• Material (M)

• Introductory stage (I)

• Growth stage (G)

• Maturity stage (M)

• Durable (D)

• Non-durable (N)

• Convenience (C)

• Shopping (S1)

• Specialty (S2)

Based on your answers, the attribute codes are strung together to form a product code. For example,

a tangible (T) product with search (S) characteristics in the introductory (I) stage of the PLC, is durable

(D) and is perceived as a shopping (S1) product will have the product code TSIDS1.

When you identify the product codes for your products and services, you will be able to refer to one of

the 72 pre-determined strategies in which most of the thinking has already been done for you. See

“The 72 Product Codes” (Appendix 1) for the full list of codes.



How to use your product code to jumpstart your

marketing strategy

Consider this. The strategy for a product with the code TSIDS1 will be entirely different to a

tangible (T) product with search (S) characteristics in the introductory (I) stage of the PLC, is

durable (D) and is perceived as a specialty (S2) product. In other words, a product with the

code TSIDS2.

In this example, the difference in strategies comes down to 2 entirely different target markets:

• S1 is a price-conscious market and will shop around for different prices and benefits so

your strategy would be to offer the best benefits at the best prices.

• S2 is a brand-conscious market and will buy a product irrespective of price if it

identifies with the brand. In this case, your strategy would be to reinforce the value of

your brand.

Your product code will reveal the following information, which you can use as input into more

detailed strategy development.

1. Online feasibility

Although all businesses could benefit from an online presence, some products and services are

more feasible for online selling than others. This analysis indicates whether your product is more

feasible for online selling or whether you should be combining online and offline selling.

2. Overall marketing goal



For a business to be profitable, the sales generated should be more than the costs of running

the business.

In order to generate sales, the overall marketing goal could be to either consistently acquire new

customers or to retain existing customers. This analysis indicates whether the marketing of your

product should be aimed at customer acquisition or customer retention. Of course, it’s

imperative for any start-up business to first build up a database of happy customers. But the

decision whether to continue spending money growing your customer base versus spending

money to encourage repeat purchases with existing customers has to be made during your

growth stages.

3. Overall marketing strategy

Once your overall marketing goal has been defined, you need a strategy for achieving this goal.

Based on the way you answered the 5 questions, the 1-minute marketing strategy guide

recommends possible strategies for achieving your overall marketing goal.

Consider the overall marketing strategies for the following product codes:

• TSIDC - Packaging is important for Convenience products so ensure that your packaging is more

effective than your competitors'. To grab the attention of potential customers, deliver information

directly to them as opposed to waiting for them to find you. Most importantly, make the product

convenient to purchase.

• TSINS2 - Buyers of Specialty products are brand loyal. Therefore, when building relationships,

always reinforce the value of the brand instead of focusing on prices and benefits. Provide

product information offline and online, not only online.

• DSIDS1 - Buyers of Shopping products are price sensitive. Therefore, when building

relationships, always offer the best benefits at the best prices. Provide product information offline

and online, not only online.

This level of information is especially important when planning your marketing channels and



marketing messages because if you’re targeting a price-conscious customer, for example, they

would be interested in knowing about the prices and benefits of your offering. If your marketing

material, including your website, is cluttered with information about your company and your

brand, you run the risk of losing their sales.

4. How visitors behave when on your website

This is where you need to pay attention, especially if you're guilty of using the

same marketing message for all your marketing campaigns.

Potential customers who perceive products as convenience (C) will behave differently on your

website to customers who perceive your products as shopping (S1) or specialty (S2). Consider

some of the ways in which consumer perceptions can influence how they behave on your

website.

Suppose you're selling cars.

It's very unlikely for a potential customer to view a car as a convenience product as

buying a car is a high-involvement purchase that requires some effort. This means that

potential buyers would perceive a car as being either a shopping product or a specialty product.

As a shopping product, potential buyers are not brand conscious and their purchase is

motivated by prices and benefits. Typical search and purchase behaviour would include finding

pre-owned vehicles within a specified price range where brand is not high priority. When online,

this category of buyer is likely to visit mulitple websites that offer cars across a number of

brands. They are unlikely to spend too much time on one website or drill too deep to find what

they're looking for because the objective is to gather as much information across a number of

sources before making the final decision. N.B. IF PRICES AND BENEFITS ARE BURIED

BENEATH LAYERS OF COMPANY INFORMATION AND SALES PITCHES, YOU ARE

LIKELY TO LOSE THE CUSTOMER.



In contrast, a potential buyer who perceives a car as a specialty product is brand conscious and

would do extensive research about their favourite brand.

Online, they would go either directly to the company website (bypassing search engines) or

conduct keyword searches that contains the brand name. When on the website, they are likely

to spend long periods looking at the various options that the brand has to offer and drill deep to

find as much information about what's offered. N.B. IF PRICES AND BENEFITS ARE THE

FOCUS OF THE WEBSITE, YOU ARE LIKELY TO LOSE THE CUSTOMER.



Module 1 Exercise

Analyse your products using this sheet:

Product 1:

Is it tangible or digital/intangible?

Does it have search or material characteristics?

In which stage of the Product Life Cycle (PLC) is it?

Is it durable or non-durable?

Is it perceived as a convenience, shopping or specialty product?

Product 2:






Product 3:






Product 4:








Next steps

• In Module 2, you'll learn how to understand your potential customers' buying

patterns in order to choose the correct marketing tactics for your product strategies.

• In Module 3, you'll do a quick business-readiness check to ensure that you have a

solid business foundation before spending any more money on marketing.

• In Module 4, you'll learn how to put together the exercises from Modules 1, 2 and 3

into a 7-step strategy-development process.

See extract of Module 4 below...

Before proceeding to the 7 steps, complete the following questions about your product or service as

determined in Modules 1, 2 and 3.

Question Answer

What is your monthly marketing budget?

What product are you selling (choose only one category from your range per strategy)?

Who is your primary target market?

Why do they need this product/service?

How do they know they need this product/service?

Where do they search for more information about this product/service before buying?

How do they pay for this product or service?

How do they behave when they're happy or unhappy with this product/service?

Next, tell the story of your findings. For example:



“On a monthly marketing budget of $500, I'm selling high-end fashion shoes to ladies between the ages

of 25 and 45 based in USA. Although they enjoy online shopping, they still frequent malls as a leisure

activity. In between mani-pedis and coffee shops, they find the time to try on different styles in different

colours and sizes before making the purchase. Once they're comfortable with a brand, they'll happily

purchase online. If happy – or unhappy – with their purchase, they'll tell their Facebook friends. They

keep up to date with trends by subscribing to fashion magazines”

You’re now ready to strategise...

STEP 1

From the exercises in Module 1, derive a product code for the product you're analysing.

In the example of high-end ladies fashion shoes, the product attributes are tangible, material (as they

still prefer to try it on before buying from a brand they're not familiar with), maturity (who doesn't know

what shoes are?), durable (except in extreme cases, shoes are normally worn a number of times over a

number of years), specialty (as it's a high-end product, potential buyers would go through a considerable

amount of effort to secure a purchase regardless of price). In the example, the product code will,

therefore, be TMMDS2.

STEP 2

Look up your particular code in the “72 Strategies by Product Code” in the Module 1 Appendix 1

worksheet and note the proposed purchase channel, marketing goal, and marketing strategy.

Purchase channel

Marketing goal

Marketing strategy

Online marketers often make the mistake of applying one marketing strategy for all products across all

market segments.



By analysing your product in this way, it becomes evident that when a product is perceived as Shopping

by one market segment and Specialty by another, two distinctly different marketing strategies are

required. Or if your product can be positioned as either Search or Material, both would require different

strategies. This applies to each product attribute, which means that any one product could have a number

of codes and a number of different strategies.

STEP 3

From the exercises in Module 2, assign a marketing message for each marketing goal. These marketing

messages should be consistent across all your campaigns for that particular goal.

Goal Marketing message

1. Create a need for your product or service

2. Provide the necessary information to encourage a sale

3. Provide the sales and delivery platform to secure the transaction

4. Personalise the relationship with the customer to ensure that they're satisfied and will behave positively towards your brand

Potential buyers who don't know they need your product or service isn't likely to be interested in knowing

the benefits or prices or value of your brand. When creating a need, your marketing message would,

therefore, be different to the message you would use to persuade them to buy from you and not your

competitors. The content of your marketing material would also be adapted to whether or not the product

is tangible, search, introductory, durable, or convenience.



APPENDIX 1: 72 Product Codes

Code Channel

Overall Marketing

Goal Marketing Strategy

1 TSIDC Online Acquisition

Packaging is important for Convenience products so ensure that your packaging is more effective than your competitors'. To grab the attention of potential customers, deliver information directly to them as opposed to waiting for them to find you. Most importantly, make the product convenient to purchase.

2 TSIDS1 Online Acquisition

Buyers of Shopping products are price sensitive. Therefore, when building relationships, always offer the best benefits at the best prices. Provide product information offline and online, not only online.

3 TSIDS2 Online Acquisition

Buyers of Specialty products are brand loyal. Therefore, when attracting new customers, always reinforce the value of the brand irrespective of price. Provide product information offline and online, not only online.

4 TSINC Online Retention

To retain a customer who perceives a product as Convenience is challenging because of lack of brand loyalty. Consider repositioning your product as a Shopping or Specialty product.

5 TSINS1 Online Retention


6 TSINS2 Online Retention

Buyers of Specialty products are brand loyal. Therefore, when building relationships, always reinforce the value of the brand instead of focusing on prices and benefits. Provide product information offline and online, not only online.

7 TSGDC Online Acquisition


8 TSGDS1 Online Acquisition


9 TSGDS2 Online Acquisition


10 TSGNC Online Retention


11 TSGNS1 Online Retention


12 TSGNS2 Online Retention Buyers of Specialty products are brand loyal. Therefore, when building relationships, always reinforce the value of the brand



instead of focusing on prices and benefits. Provide product information offline and online, not only online.

13 TSMDC Online Acquisition


14 TSMDS1 Online Acquisition


15 TSMDS2 Online Acquisition


16 TSMNC Online Retention


17 TSMNS1 Online Retention


18 TSMNS2 Online Retention


19 TMIDC Online and offline Acquisition


20 TMIDS1 Online and offline Acquisition


21 TMIDS2 Online and offline Acquisition


22 TMINC Online and offline Retention


23 TMINS1 Online and offline Retention


24 TMINS2 Online and offline

Retention Buyers of Specialty products are brand loyal. Therefore, when building relationships, always reinforce the value of the brand instead of focusing on prices and benefits. Provide product information offline and online, not only online.



25 TMGDC Online Acquisition


26 TMGDS1 Online Acquisition


27 TMGDS2 Online Acquisition


28 TMGNC Online Retention


29 TMGNS1 Online Retention


30 TMGNS2 Online Retention


31 TMMDC Online Acquisition


32 TMMDS1 Online Acquisition


33 TMMDS2 Online Acquisition


34 TMMNC Online Retention


35 TMMNS1 Online Retention


36 TMMNS2 Online Retention


37 DSIDC Online Acquisition




38 DSIDS1 Online Acquisition


39 DSIDS2 Online Acquisition


40 DSINC Online Retention


41 DSINS1 Online Retention


42 DSINS2 Online Retention


43 DSGDC Online Acquisition


44 DSGDS1 Online Acquisition

Buyers of Shopping products are price sensitive. Therefore, when attracting new customers, always offer the best benefits at the best prices. Provide product information offline and online, not only online.

45 DSGDS2 Online Acquisition


46 DSGNC Online Retention


47 DSGNS1 Online Retention


48 DSGNS2 Online Retention


49 DSMDC Online Acquisition


50 DSMDS1 Online Acquisition




51 DSMDS2 Online Acquisition


52 DSMNC Online Retention


53 DSMNS1 Online Retention


54 DSMNS2 Online Retention


55 DMIDC Online Acquisition


56 DMIDS1 Online Acquisition


57 DMIDS2 Online Acquisition


58 DMINC Online Retention


59 DMINS1 Online Retention


60 DMINS2 Online Retention


61 DMGDC Online Acquisition


62 DMGDS1 Online Acquisition


63 DMGDS2 Online Acquisition




64 DMGNC Online Retention


65 DMGNS1 Online Retention


66 DMGNS2 Online Retention


67 DMMDC Online Acquisition


68 DMMDS1 Online Acquisition


69 DMMDS2 Online Acquisition


70 DMMNC Online Retention


71 DMMNS1 Online Retention


72 DMMNS2 Online Retention




About me

I'm an entrepreneur based in South Africa. As a small business owner, I understand that trying

to build a sustainable business while leading a balanced life is an ongoing challenge.

Through my journey, I was privileged to meet a number of mentors who helped me find my

space in business. Through it all, I’m realising that business can be simple! And it is this

simple process that I am sharing with you through this course.

In 2007, I completed a thesis titled “A Unified Framework for Internet Adoption, Estrategy

Development, Web Goals, Web Design and Web Metrics” as part of a post-graduate

degree. The thesis combined marketing, IT, retail, and psychology into one easy-to-

understand view of marketing. It is this process that I share with small business owners who

don’t have the time, money, or interest in becoming marketing gurus…all they need are a few

simple steps to get their businesses back on track.

I hope you find this information useful!

Warm regards

Allison

If you have any questions about how to apply this formula, or if you

need assistance implementing the strategy, or if you'd just like to

connect with me, please drop me an email, find me on Facebook or

contact me for a FREE 30-minute Skype chat.

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/allisonwross

Skype: allisonaross


http://www.facebook.com/allisonwross

mailto:[email protected]