A. Why your company should be on the Internet

The Internet is an international network of computer networks which now links millions of customers within and outside of North America. It is at the same time a new communication tool and a new channel of distribution. It is the fastest growing marketing tool today.

Your company must consider Internet marketing for several reasons. 

For the first time in the advent of the communication age, you are able to market your products and services "just in time". Using the Internet, your customers and you can communicate directly at any time and across any geographical boundary. The latest updates of products and services are communicated fastest via the Internet.

The interactivity of the Internet is unique. You can also forget the long lead time needed to get a feedback on your product and/or services. Your customers will give you a feedback right away, saving you time and money.  You can learn your customers' interests in your company, products, and services in minute detail simply by tracking their usage patterns on your World Wide Web site.

The Internet is also a wonderful marketing research tool. You can conduct online external research of your market, competitors, and trends.  You can conduct online customer surveys and internal employee surveys using the World Wide Web.

Perhaps the most potent marketing application of the Internet is the identification, promotion, and building of customer relationships with "microcommunities", special interest groups, demographic and psychographic segments of the marketplace.  Identify and sell directly to wine lovers, travelers, investors, ethnic interest groups, art-lovers, philanthropists at far lower costs than through traditional media such as mailing lists, print, radio, and television advertising because the Internet allows for pinpoint identification and marketing to passionately involved consumer segments.

The ability to purchase a product while reading about it is also unique. The Internet allows your customers to satisfy their needs in a second. Impulse buying is made easy.

To summarize, here are the advantages your company will have by being present on the Internet:

You can adapt your message in real time to internal and external developments. You can interact with your customers and thus get a quick and valuable feedback from your

customers. You can benefit from the marketing research capabilities of the Internet. You can efficiently find and sell to highly specific market segments. You can sell directly to customers immediately and at any time.

Analyst: For Part A, your role will merely consist in replacing the name of the company and the name of its products where product and company are underlined and italicized.

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B. A brief background on the Internet

1. History

The military origin: The Internet is a network of computers first created in the fifties by the US Army. The aim of this network, originally called the ARPANet was to give the militaries a way to communicate after a nuclear attack.  The survivability of the ARPANet depended on the fact that bits of data could be rerouted automatically to the clearest available channel on the network of  data networks. ( This principle survives today.  You can dial in to the Internet using a local access provider and the message will travel through the world using the most efficient route available at the time of transmission.)

Civilian research and education: Developed through out the 60's and the 70's with the help of educational institution, this network became increasingly used for  civilian research purposes. During the 80's, the National Science Foundation created the NSFnet by linking several high speed computers together. The NSFnet finally took over the Internet from ARPAnet in 1991.

Commercial utilization of the Internet: Despite considerable resistance from many elements of the Internet community, the Internet has become increasingly utilized for and by commercial organizations.  For example, the most heavily used element of the Internet is e-mail, which has been widely embraced by industry. Online services such as America Online also use the Internet to deliver its services.  Nonetheless, certain areas of the Internet such as Usenet discussion groups adhere to strict rules forbidding blatantly commercial announcements. The most commercial area of the Internet is undoubtebly the World Wide Web.

The World Wide Web:  In 1990 Time Berners-Lee, scientist at the European Particle Physics Laboratory ( CERN ) based in Geneva, started to develop an hypertext system, the key technical component of today's World Wide Web. The simplicity and user-friendliness of the World Wide Web technical protocols led to an exponential growth in Web utilization for technical and educational publishing on the Internet. Thanks to the development of browsers (software allowing the user of the World Wide Web to navigate through the Web and to display the information it downloads) like Viola, Mosaic, and Netscape, and to its multimedia characteristics, the World Wide Web became extremely popular for commercial and personal publishing.

Now the WWW is by far the most rapidly expanding part of the Internet. The number of computer hosts (end-user terminals) was approximately 6.64 million worldwide as of July 1995 with more than 35% of these hosts outside the USA. This figure as been doubling every year since 1981. In August 1995, there was also around 80,000+ Web servers, providing information and services to the WWW users. For more demographics about the WWW population, check the Yahoo subject tree for Internet demographics.

2. How The Internet Is Structured

The Internet: The Internet includes several diferrent networks or "spaces" having each diferrent applications. The Telnet space allows you to operate a computer on the Internet from a remote location. The FTP (File Transfer Protocole) space allows its users to transfer files from one computer to another using a common procedure. The Gopher space is organized by location. It is, to some extent, the precursor of the World Wide Web. Its users can access text documents through menu like presentations. The user navigates through sites and documents by clicking hyperlinks. The World Wide Web was the last Internet space to be created. Its success lies in its user

friendliness and its multimedia capacities. The Web will be the pillar of your company's Internet strategy.

The Matrix: The Internet is itself part of a bigger set of networks. This set of networks is called the Matrix (from John S. Quarterman, The Matrix, Digital Press, 1990). Their smallest common denominator is the ability to exchange electronic mail directly or thanks to gateways. The Matrix includes other networks such as the online commercial services (American On Line, Compuserve, Prodigy, etc.) or the Usenet network. Following are description of these two networks.

Online commercial services' particularity is that their networks  (and the services they offer) can only be used by their subscribers. Therefore, their scope is somewhat limited on a marketing standpoint. At the end of 1995, the three biggest networks (AOL, Compuserve and Prodigy) claimed between 2 and 3 millions subscribers each. In short, commercial services are a supplement but not a substitute to your Internet marketing strategy.  Note that most of the online commercial services now offer a gateway to the Internet.

Usenet Newsgroup: A newsgroup is an electronic discussion group in which you can share information and ideas about a specific topic with people all over the world. Within each newsgroup there are a number of articles that you can read and reply to. You can also post your own articles.

3. More information about the Internet

If you want to have more information about the Internet, its economic, institutional, and technological structure, go to Economic FAQs About the Internet by Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason and Hal R. Varian .

Analyst: For part B, as for the previous part, you will replace the name of the company and the name of its products where product and company are underlined and italicized.

Source for Part B, section 1 & 2: John December and Neil Randall,  The World Wide Web Unleashed, Second Edition, Sam.net publishing, 1995

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C. Best Demonstrated Practices on the Internet (Case Studies)

(Needs content)(Please fill in with case studies including description and links to sites)

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D. Acceptable commercial behavior on the Internet (Netiquette)

1. World Wide Web for Commercial Activities

The World Wide Web has become the de facto standard platform for commercial activity on the Internet.  There are few regulations that govern commercial behavior on the World Wide Web and most organizations tend to respect the broader business community standards on business ethics.

We suggest that you respect intellectual property rights and that you explicitly state the conditions under which your own content is to be used.  See Just In Time Marketing's statement regarding the use of this material.

2. Marketing outside the World Wide Web on the Internet

As in any community, the Internet has its code of conduct. Some behaviors on the Internet are "socially acceptable"; while some are not. This is what the Netiquette is all about. Respecting the Netiquette is especially important for two reasons.

First, the Internet has been traditionally a very closed community where commercial activities were banned. Even if this is not true anymore with the explosion of the World Wide Web and its wide commercial use, some behaviors have been inherited from this "prehistoric" period.

Second, the user of your site is also a customer or a potential customer. Following the Netiquette will ensure good relationships with him. The last thing you want to do is to upset them. And don't forget that the Internet is interactive. Angry customers might easily flood your electronic mailbox with flames (messages of disagreement) and will spread your "unacceptable behavior" around very quickly. Being aggressive or irrelevant has given terrible results in the past.

To avoid any Netiquette mistake, you can follow the following rules and refer to the links presented in this section:

1. Do unto users as you would have them do unto you. 2. Put yourself in the shoes of the user. 3. Be patient and helpful with "newbies" (new Internet users). 4. Use your corporate URL (Uniform Resource Locator -- your Web site address) with

discretion. 5. Be supportive of customers feedback -- both negative and positive. 6. Advertising through E-mail: Be extremely cautious. However, used wisely, i.e if you supply

information that your customer or prospect is seeking, it can be a very powerful marketing weapon.

7. Specific Netiquette for Usenet Newsgroup.

You can use Newsgroups to assist your venture. This does not mean just advertising. It includes using newsgroups to assist consumers with problems, answer questions, make contacts and generally participate like any individual might. Therefore, there are some dos and don'ts in the use of Usenet Newsgroup. More about Newsgroups and Advertising on Usenet

Dos:

Read the Frequently Asked Questions ( FAQs) first Observe the Newsgroup for several weeks before posting any article Be brief Be descriptive in subject headings Be tolerant of others who may not follow similar Netiquette

Don'ts

Don't post off-topic articles. Don't send Only Testing posts to newsgroup other than alt.newusers or misc.test Don't jump in the middle of a conversation Don't attempt to falsify your identity Don't publicly thank everyone for anything they post. It wastes space.

A good site to determine what is and what is not an appropriate behavior for advertising through e-mail and Usenet Newsgroup is the Blacklist of Internet Advertisers.  This site records individuals and companies which have not respected the Netiquette and the potential retaliation these individuals/companies risk from Internet users.

Analyst: you can search in this blacklist the most appropriate examples for your client. You can either look for similar industries or activities or look for similar Internet marketing tactics the client would like to implement. The intention is not to afraid  the client. It is here to show him/her potential traps to be avoided.

Source for Part D:  Sigma 6 Market Research Group

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E. Your Internet Marketing Plan (A Reminder)

This section is here to remind you few important features of a well conceived Internet Marketing Strategy.

1. Use your general marketing plan as the foundation for developing an Internet-specific marketing plan.

If you don't have a marketing plan or want to compare your marketing plan to an ideal one you can check  the The Marketing to Consumers: a Guide developped by David Tyler.

2. Define the goals of your Internet presence in an Internet Marketing Strategy.

What do you want to do with your Web site? What are your goals?

Who is your audience?

What kind of information do you want to present?

What kind of service/product do you want to sell?

Answering to the two previous questions will allow you to define the format of your WWW site. In short, your WWW site can follow one of this six formats: Online Storefront, Internet Presence, Content, Mall, Incentive Site, Search Agent (Novak, Hoffman,& Chatterjee, 1995). Following is a short description of each format. For a more thorough description and more examples, please refer to Commercial Scenarios for the Web: Opportunities and Challenges   posted on the Project 2000 site at the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University

a/ Online Storefront: These Web sites offer direct sales through an electronic channel via an electronic catalog or other, more innovative format. The number of products presently being sold on a single site ranges from one to many. Consumers order goods via fill-out form, 800 number, registration, or snailmail. Online storefronts cover a wide variety of offerings; examples include Absolutely Fresh Flowers , Internet Shopping Network , San Francisco Music Box Company . A recent innovator in this category is Security First Network Bank, FSB, the world's first Internet bank.

b/ Internet Presence: Internet presence sites provide a virtual "presence" for a firm and its offerings. They may also serve to signal to current and prospective customers and competitors that the firm is on the cutting edge, possibly driven by "mimetic isomorphism". We can identify three different types of Internet Presence sites:

Flat Ads are single page electronic flyers with no hypermedia links. They could just as easily appear in a newspaper or magazine, though a flat ad is decidedly less sophisticated than its print counterparts. Weightlifting 101  and Xopix represent current examples of flat ads.

In Internet Presence Image sites, the consumer appeal is emotional rather than rational. Examples include Late Show with David Letterman or Planet Reebok .

Information sites provide detailed, rational information about the firm and/or its offering. Example: Sun Microsystems .

c/ Content: As for the Internet Presence sites, three sub-categories can be identify within the content sites.

In Fee-Based content sites, the provider supplies and/or pays for content which the consumer pays to access. The   Washington Weekly  is a good example.

Sponsored content sites sell advertising space to reduce or eliminate the necessity of charging fees to visitors (Donaton 1995b). Typical current examples of sponsored content sites include HotWired for instance.

In the third type of content model, merchants or advertisers pay a provider for information placement in an organized listing in a Searchable Database. This is the inverse of Fee-Based content model. Selected examples include Catalog Mart  or the Virtual Headbook .

d/ Mall: These sites typically constitute a collection of online storefronts, each of which may contain many different categories of goods for sale. The provider charges rent in exchange for the virtual real-estate and may offer a variety of services to the storefront (Gaffin 1995). Some malls also accept advertising, as with, for example, the Internet Mall. Other examples include the Branch Mall , CyberMart, eMall , and Shopping 2000 .

e/ Incentive Site: This type of site represents a unique form of advertising that attracts a potential customer to a site. The objective is to pull the user to the commercial site behind it, thus helping marketers generate traffic to their Web sites (Cleland 1995a). Examples include Open Market or   As the Web Turns .

f/ Search Agent: The purpose of Search Agent sites is to identify other Web sites through keyword search of a database that extends throughout the Web. Software agents are used to generate and/or assist the search through the database. A recent trend in such sites is the emergence of fee-based

(e.g. InfoSeek) or advertiser-sponsored (e.g. Yahoo) search agents. Other examples are Lycos, Open Text, and Web Crawler,

The first three comprise the "Integrated Destination Site," and the latter three represent forms of "Web Traffic Control."

All the answers to these questions should be gathered and developed into an Internet Marketing Strategy. This in turn should dictate the structure of your Internet Marketing Plan.

Analyst: you must determine, by meeting with the client, the type of site he intends to develop. You can then detemine which category this site will fit in. By checking Novak, Hoffman, & Chatterjee Commercial Scenarios for the Web: Opportunities and Challenges , Vanderbilt University, 1995, you can then determine what are the the opportunities and challenges faced by the customer given the type of sites he chose.

3. Target Benefits from the World Wide Web's two way communication.

Any Internet marketing effort must take into consideration the two way communication allowed by this new medium. Your customers will expect it and you will benefit from it.

First, you can get feedback from your customers. This is easily done by including a comments or mail-to form. See for instance IPA Advertising Index site and click the "Contact Us" link for a typical mail-to form. Another way to get some feedback is to publish  an online survey. For example, Apple's and Volvo's customers can help these companies to assess their products' perfromance by answering the web site's online surveys.

You can also use the World Wide Web's interactivity. This level of two way communication usually requires a higher degree of technical expertise. It is usally supported by a database. Here, your customer sends a query setting different parameters and gets an answer from the WWW site. These is typically used to help the customer to find information or to help him or her in decision. See Search Engines, Goodyear, FedEx for parcel tracking and pricing information.

4. Don' t forget World Wide in World Wide Web.

Setting up an Internet presence is often referred to as becoming visible to the World. Behave accordingly. Your site users don't have the same cultural, social, linguistic etc. background than you. Therefore, ethnocentrism doesn't have its place on a commercial site. For instance, when you give an amount in Dollars, specify US Dollars. If you post an on-line survey, adapt it to your worldwide audience. You might also think of multilingual sites. Of course, the extent to which you will globalize your site will depend on your targeted audience. Have a look at Open Text Index and it's multilingual services (forthcoming).

5. When building your site, focus on content and functionality.

Your site must be heavily information oriented. This is the only way you will attract customers. This significantly differ from traditional marketing effort where you must primarily attract the attention of your customer. Here, you want him stay on your site and to comeback. Nice pictures are not enough. You must inform the user of your site and you must update the information regularly. Would you read a newspaper offering the same news everyday?

(Need to add examples of winning content and winning functionalities.  You can find them while you identify and analyze the Best Demonstrated Example sites above)

6. Advertise your existence on the Net. Promote your site.

7. As mentioned earlier, respect the Netiquette.

8. Monitor and measure your results.

Source for part E adapted from: Innovative Solutions, Valencia, CA

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II. Current Situation Analysis This is a brief exploration of the environment in which your company operates.

A. Marketing situation

B. Customer situation

C. Company situation

D. Product situation

E. Competitive situation

A. Marketing situation

Benchmarking study of exceptional site, both within and outside of clients' industry

A firm using the internet can gather a phenomenal amount of information about its position in the market. Just as importantly, it can gather information about its competitors market position and plans. An internet marketer should constantly check the home pages of its competitors. This is where a competitor will make announcements about product changes and announcements. A good competitive analysis should answer the following questions

What do their sites offer? How are they marketing their product/service? Is their site effective or not?

This effort will have to be maintained in your daily operations (see Implementation. )

For example, a firm in the telecommunications business could easily monitor the home pages of all major telecommunications companies, including manufacturers, service providers and consultants.

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B. Customer situation

Assess the technical proficiency and internet utilization of JIT's clients' target markets using secondary marketing research

The internet offers companies an unprecedented amount of access to their customers. Using the internet, marketers can obtain customer preferences by utilizing customer surveys and reviews. Technically savvy firms can respond to customers' questions and complaints faster than ever before.

However, before a company can use this tool for competitive advantage, it must assess the technical proficiency of its customers.

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C. Company situation

Assess the technical proficiency and internet utilization of JIT's client

Just as a marketer should assess the technical proficiency of its customers, it must also evaluate the technical competence of its own employees. Then, managers should train their employees on the intricacies of internet operation.

For example, a firm should confirm that all of its employees can easily use e-mail facilities and usenet newsreaders before launching an internet operation. Similarly, a firm should evaluate its computer systems and systems staff to confirm its ability to offer advanced services.

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D. Product situation

Specific to client

Just as the firm should evaluate its customers and its resources before establishing an internet presence, it should evaluate the "fit" between the internet and its own products. The companies that benefit the most from the internet are those that have the same demographics as internet users. Similarly, companies with technical products receive the greatest benefit from the internet.

For example, a dairy farmer would receive much less utility from using the internet than a computer consultant.

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E. Competitive situation on the internet -- industry web audit

What other companies in the same industry are on the internet? What are they doing?

A company should complete an industry web audit before launching an internet service. A company considering establishing an internet presence should constantly monitor the home pages of its

suppliers, competitors and customers. Similarly, it should monitor Usenet discussion groups related to its business.

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III. Marketing Strategies -- What do they need to do?

A. Designing a web site

B. Marketing and sales

C. Free access vs. pay for services

A. Designing a Web Site

1.Purpose

There is a very important question your company should ask before setting up a Web site: "What kind of presence should our site have?"

Presence

Three Stages: Paradigm

Tell about product/service (see Club Med) Sell product/service (see the FedEx site) Providing: Ability to purchase over the Web (see the CDNow site)

Also, you need to design your site so that first time visitors will make repeat visits.

3 Levels of Interactivity

The Web should be used as an interactive medium. Unlike mass media marketing, structures, visuals, and other adaptations are used to encourage interactivity. The Internet is a place to both give and get information and services. A successful Web site will incorporate this process of provision and retrieval. The 3 levels of interactivity are:

Navigation to the site - This is just the simple presentation of information and data. Activity - Potential customers don't want to just read a Web site; they want to be given

choices of places to go and different things to see. A Web site that makes the viewer decide and take action is a much more successful Web site.

Interactivity -A potential visitor can not only retrieve information, but can also leave feedback, send e-mails, order, and just basically interact with people from the site or even other customers. As long as you are taking the time to make a Web site, why not request feedback from your viewers! Viewers will return if they believe the company behind the site is really interested in what their needs are. This is what results in repeat visitors

2.Image

Your Web site provides people with an image of your company. Your physical location is not known so companies are more equal in people's minds. Your corporate headquarters on the Web, a.k.a. your homepage, gives you the ability to go head to head with larger and more established

companies. If your page looks professional, functional, and is an attention-getter, then your company looks good. Also, the Web is a global market so that those companies who have always been local may now gain a competitive advantage.

3.Value-Added Web Site

There is a tradition on the Internet called the "gift economy" of the Internet. When the Internet was first used, it was not very user-friendly so everyone was generous and shared advice. When planning a Web site, a business should consider what value to add. For instance, some sites offer links to related sites, some have directories of businesses or resources, and some offer free copies of their software.

4.Keywords

Search engines are useful tools because they allow the viewer to search on keywords for topics that are of interest. Jim Sterne's new book World Wide Web Marketing talks about how Web sites attract spiders(viewers) by using keywords. Viewers will search by company name, product name, and product type. You need to decide what keywords describe your company in these categories and any other categories that are related.You then strategically place these keywords throughout the site. Return to top of page.               Return to Internet Marketing Template Home Page.

B. Marketing and Sales

1. Internet Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing

Marketing on the Internet is not your traditional in-your-face-advertising but is a reactive stance. Customers should be attracted to your site by the information and services useful to them. One important marketing strategy is to offer quality support and expertise. Doing so proves your command of the industry and will improve your business and credibility. Also, online marketing is different than offline marketing because the Internet involves one-on-one promotion vs. mass media promotion.

Customer support  - Customer service is one key in attacting potential customers to your site. The Web is constantly attracting new users who are not familiar with how to navigate Web sites. They are unsure how to find all of the information that each site has to offer. If, however, they can easily find a customer support link to your company, they can contact your company to find out the information that they are unable to locate on your site. Also, for your existing customers, customer support is a must for maintaining repeat visitors.

Prospect Qualification - A salesperson's job consists of prospecting and selling, with the latter producing the actual profit. Thus, a company would like for a salesperson to spend more time selling than prospecting. Your Web site can be used to shorten the sales cycle by promoting products/services so that the salesperson just has to sell. 

Product Sales - Depending on your product/service, you might be able to sell without the intervention of a salesperson. Your Web site can let customers select styles, colors, configurations, shipping methods, and payment terms. Direct sales without human intervention!

Cybermalls - You might decide that your Web site would benefit from the association with other complimentary sites. Cybermalls or virtual malls are very popular with many companies. The malls offer companies the advantage of increased promotion and traffic.

Marketing research Public relations - A well-positioned Web site may attract industry-related journals that will

promote your site. It is also a key place for communication with the press. A very popular and effective feature to add to your site is a What's New section. This would contain new announcements, descriptions of new products, schedules, and news in general. You can also launch a press release through this What's New section or through trade publications in your industry to announce your online marketing scheme.

2. Target Market

You must decide what segment of the market you will be targeting as you would in traditional marketing. You could start by asking yourself "Who is my target market?", "What features are important to them?", and "How do they buy?". You can then determine certain attributes to include in your Web site that will appeal to the target market. This is directly related to encouraging repeat visits.

3. Communication

Businesses use the Web and HTML(HyperText Markup Language) for various communications activities. Such activities might be utilizing links, forms, and annotation features to create documents, to get feedback, and to coordinate projects.

a./ Web-site cross linking.

Related Non-competing links- "Synergy" is the marketing notion of launching diversified but related marketing activities that, as a whole, create awareness within the marketplace that is greater than each of these activities carried out separately. The Web can provide this synergy through cross-linking. You can increase your marketing success on the Web by linking your site with a non-competing site whose product or service appeals to the same target market. This way you're creating public awareness of your site not only through your own work, but also though the work of others.

Value-added links - Also, in the spirit of having a value-added web site, you should link to sites that would be of value to visitors to your site.

Search Engines - It is also a good idea to link to search engines which are devices used to make the finding of information on the Internet much easier. Search engines, such as Yahoo, WebCrawler, Lycos, and Open Text Index, facilitate Gopher navigation and searches and FTP file retrieval.

b./ Integration with other Internet features

Discussion Lists - Joining appropriate discussion groups is a good way to gain better visibility for your company and your Web site. Internet discussion lists are a way for individuals to network with others on a focused topic. The Internet-Marketing List Archives is the archives of the best Internet marketing discussion list.There is a Web document designed for searching for discussion lists by keywords.

FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions are a collection of commonly asked questions and answers to these questions. These were compiled so that readers of the postings to a UseNet group or discussion list would not have to see the same information every time they accessed a particular group. Also, new readers are expected to read the archived FAQs so that they know something about the group before becoming an active participant. After observing several FAQs, you could

implement one specific to your company's industry. This will help to establish your company's expertise, build public awareness of your company, and make your site more approachable.

UseNet Groups - UseNet groups are another way to gain visibility. The best way is to locate groups that might be of interest to your company is to find their FAQs. This not only tells you more about the groups, but tells you whether or not advertisements are allowed. The FAQ How to find the right place to post is a great place to start. Also, the Stanford NetNews Filtering Service will help you keep track of what's being said on miscellaneous newsgroups.

Sig Files - Signature files short blocks of text which can include your company name, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers and your Web site URL. They may be used as a discreet ad for your Web site and business. More on the use of Sig Files can be found in the FAQ Signature and Finger Frequently Asked Questions.

Mail Servers and E-Mail - Mail servers can automatically return a message to someone requesting information. It is an easy way to support your site and is available through some Internet Service Providers. The server can send out the information requested, but make sure your Web site's URL and any information about your company is included. E-mail is a very efficient means of communications. One use for E-mail is as a customer service tool for obtaining feedback and answering questions. It can also be used to launch press releases.

Announcements - Announcements can be made through various newsgroups concerning information on products or services being offered through your Web site. The URL is always included so that the actual site can be accessed.

FTP and Gopher - Although the Web is used more predominantly than FTP and Gopher, they can still be useful for large files, binary information, etc. Also, Gopher menus and FTP directories can be shown by most Web browsers.

4. The Attraction problem

a./ Initial Visit

Your first concern is how to get someone to visit your site initially. This can be done through registration and crosslinking. You then need to make use of cross-fertilization which means including your URL in your traditional print media.

You also need to establish a consistent corporate identity by creating a corporate, effective logo that can be put on business cards, stationary, etc. and carried over to your Web site. Implementing the above suggestions can create the public awareness needed for people to visit your site.

b./ Repeat Visits

Once someone has found your site, you need to encourage them to return. There are several ways to design your Web page to accomplish this goal:

Curiosity - The larger site, the more encouragement to return because it is impossible to see everything in one visit. You want to make surethe data is not confusing but the visitor needs to feel like if he/she returns, there will be something waiting for him/her right around the corner, though the next link.

Frequent updates - Your site should provide at least some item that changes possibly every time someone visits. This could be anywhere from a "What's new?" feature to a "Quote for the Day". You could even cover daily events associated with your industry.

Indispensable resource or useful tool - Link your site to existing databases, Internet guides, searching tools, or a collection of files and images. It is best to have these links relative to your business. (See cross-linking) Should be more convenient to come to your site to get information than to go elsewhere.

Unique event or resource - Your site can provide an "ask the expert feature" or can provide first-person coverage of industry-related events. Find some feature to uniquely identify your site.

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C. Free Access vs. Pay for Services

Is access to your site free? Information? Advertising Pull Strategy? Or will you charge for access to your site?

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Internet Marketing Plan Template

Please send comments and suggestions to Kevin Han at han@justintime.com.  

IV. Marketing Research -- Gathering intelligence

A. Primary research

B. Secondary research

A. Primary research

Monitoring mailing lists Monitoring Usenet discussion groups Surveys on clients web-sites

One of the most valuable tools available for a marketer using the internet its remarkable potential as a tool for marketing research. Using the internet, primary marketing research becomes much less expensive to acquire and utilize than ever before using traditional media. It is, however, very important to emphasize that such research is exploratory only. By using the internet for collecting data and information, a marketer has, by definition, limited the scope of his or her sampling frame to those members of the internet community who choose to respond. The demographics of users of the internet are strongly skewed from the general population. Therefore, results from internet marketing research should not be generalized to the entire population.

Fill-out forms on web pages have remarkable value in assessing the attitudes, wants and values of a firm's customer base. For example, a firm might implement a fill-out form to learn about its customers' demographics and product preferences. Then the firm could segment its market based upon these data.

The internet can also be used for product development. For the first time in history, a company can, on a global scale, ask customers about product changes or launches before any research and development investments are made. While data gathered in this fashion cannot be generalized to the general populous, it has enormous value for product development and niche information for product placement.

Similarly, marketers can learn substantially by monitoring Usenet discussion groups targeted at a firms customer base. Managers can use this information to learn not only of the perceived strengths and weaknesses of their own products or services, but those of their competitors as well. For example, Dell computers could monitor discussion groups to learn about its position, as well as its competitors position, in customers' minds.

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B. Secondary research

Demographics, industry data on the internet,...

Secondary market research is also abatable on the internet. Virtually all of the information gathered by the US Census Bureau is available for query on the internet. Using these data, marketers can learn virtually anything about targeted communities.

Another tool that is emerging for secondary research is the advent of on-line publication of newspapers and journals. For example, The Wall Street Journal recently began offering real time updates of its top news stories.

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Internet Marketing Plan Template

Please send comments and suggestions to Kevin Han at han@justintime.com.  

V. Budget Analysis Some of the most frustrating experiences you may have is in pinning down a budget estimate for building your company's Internet and World Wide Web presence.  Typically, the dialogue goes like this:

Client: "How much is this going to cost?"

Consultant: "How much do you want to spend?"

Client: "I don't know until I know how much it costs!"

Consultant: "It depends on what you want (read how much you have to spend)."

To take the mystery out of the budgeting process, Just In Time Marketing offers a range of potential budgets depending on sixe and requirements of you site.  The data comes from our extensive experience with working on a variety of Web and Internet sites.

An Estimated Budget for Internet  Presence

Elements of Budget

Large , complex site

with transactions

and client

need to control

entire site in-house.

Medium, complex site

with transactions

using JITM

MarkeTouch

hosting

Small, simple site,

no transactions

using JITM

MarkeTouch

hosting Server Platform (HW/SW) $  50,000 $  10,000 $          0 Modem/Router /LAN upgrade $  20,000 $    4,000 $          0 Router (Firewall) $  40,000 $           0 $          0 Web Server Software $  10,000 $    5,000 $          0 Consultant (Mktg, Tech) $  20,000 $    4,000 $   2,000 Web Design $  50,000 $  20,000 $   2,000 1 year of Hosting Service $           0 $    5,000 $   1,400 1 year of Internet Connection $  15,000 $    5,000       $200 Total $205,000 $  53,000 $   5,600

Source:  JITM Client Experience:

Key budget consideration:

Sites have been created by college students for hundreds of dollars and corporations have spent in excess of $1 million on sites.  Most companies budget for hardware and software and give short shrift to the planning process for the content.  JITM suggest strongly that the bulk of the budget be spent on meticulous planning of the marketing and technical strategies for the site  and in implementing content consistent with those strategies since it is the content and not the hardware that actually generates the benefits.

Variables:

Degree of organizational experience on the Internet Preparedness of Internet Marketing and Techical Plans Expansion and redesign versus new site Target customer characteristics Complexity of site design Need/desire to have all equipment and connections on-site and owned versus hosted.

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Internet Marketing Plan Template

Please send comments and suggestions to Kevin Han at han@justintime.com.  

VI. ImplementationPlan

A. Implementation

Training Awareness and support inside the company. Importance of word-of-mouth. Refreshing your information Expanding your site Information Intelligence: Observing your competition's moves and adapting them.=> Using

search engines, subject trees etc. Call them/e-mail them to test them etc.

B. Time line

Internet Marketing Plan Template

Please send comments and suggestions to Kevin Han at han@justintime.com.  

VII. Measuring the Impact of the Plan Specific to client