january, 1998

Happy New Year! This is our sixth newsletter on how to promote your organization on the Internet. Each month we publish suggestions on how to increase traffic and prosperity with your Web site and also update you on what's happening in the industry. Our aim is to make your Internet experience a success and we welcome your input on how we can better serve you.

give them credit

In the past, it was very difficult to find any credit information on millions of small privately-owned businesses. Now, American Business Information, Inc. has developed credit codes for all 11 million businesses in their database, and you can access them free on their site.

ABI's credit rating codes are indicators of probable ability to pay. They are based on business demographic factors such as number of employees, years in business, industry stability and barriers to entry, and government data. While they do not reflect actual payment history, the ratings are a good starting point.

Check out their site: http://www.abii.com

six ways to increase sales

1. Tell customers how to think about your organization
We arrive at conclusions by making comparisons. If you don't let customers and prospects know why it is in their best interests to do business with you or buy your product, they won't. The rating of life insurance companies makes an impact on customers. The J.D. Powers' customer satisfaction surveys on cars and personal computer brands influences buying behavior. Wise companies spend time and effort consciously influencing the way they are perceived by the public. Show your partners' logos on your site. List your company's memberships in Chambers of Commerce, Guilds and other professional organizations.

2. Target the right person
The biggest job in marketing and sales is getting to the right person inside a company. Addressing an e-mail to "Owner" or printing a "routing slip" on the outside of an envelope full of marketing materials is ineffective. Hitting the target is the challenge. Scoring a bulls-eye means making contact with the right individual, and that is the only way to make the sale. Taking time to be highly targeted in business communication is essential. If you can't send your materials to an individual inside a company, you are just throwing them away.

3. Surprise your prospects
Ordinary is out; getting attention is in. It isn't easy, amid all the clutter and competition for attention. Now is the time to be innovative and dramatic. One paper products supplier, for example, offered to buy small business owners "the biggest steak dinner in town" if it couldn't save them money on their products. This challenge was enough to make the phone ring.

4. Be creative
Putting up a beautiful Web site isn't doing the job. Ask yourself: "Will anyone be intrigued enough to read the pitch -- before surfing away?" Ask the same question about the company e-mail newsletter. A highly creative approach is necessary to be different and distinctive. Creativity costs money. But, if more people read the Web page, take time with the newsletter and decide that the offer makes sense, you have accomplished your goal.

5. Track marketing responses
Always give yourself the means to analyze the source of your new business leads. The least complicated way of doing this is ask new customers how they heard about you, and track the responses. But this process should be automated whenever possible. In Web marketing, it's easy to clone a new index page for each advertising vehicle you utilize. For instance, if you enroll your Web site in LinkExchange, create a duplicate of your home page titled "index-LE.html," and give this as your link-to page. Your site's server report information can then be added to your marketing analysis.

6. Target your customers' concerns
After listening to the personel director talk about what should be covered in the company's new recruiting Web page, the marketing consultant asked, "Is this what prospective employees are interested in knowing?" Suddenly, everyone became less confident. Someone suggested asking the company tour guides what questions the visiting prospects asked. When creating a Web site or any kind of sales material, knowing what the prospect wants, needs and expects is what works.

news

Web Ad Revenues Up Again in Third Quarter 

Web advertising revenues continued to increase in the third quarter, up 225.9% from the same quarter last year. Simba Information Inc.’s Advertising and Directory Report newsletter estimates $169.8 million in revenue as opposed to last year’s $52.1 million. The third quarter was the largest fiscal period in 1997 which indicates that the market is maturing in spite of the summer advertising season which was relatively slow. The top seventeen ad-supported Web sites generated $85.1 million in ad revenue, a 13.5% increase from last quarter’s $75 million. Yahoo led the way earning $14.7 million with Excite coming in second at $9.9 million. These numbers should increase into the fourth quarter as advertisers gear up for the holiday shopping season.

Source: Internet Advertising Report
Date: December 15, 1997


Market Size 

Total U.S. Web site ad spending was an estimated $260 million in 1996, according to new AdSpend data from Jupiter Communications. Total online spending was $301 million - $260 million of which went to Web sites, $41 to non-Web publishers such as America Online and PointCast - representing a more than 500% increase over online ad spending the year before. 

The Web advertising market was $37 million in 1995 says Forrester Research, which forecasts $400 million in revenue this year and growth continuing at about 250% annually through 2000. 

Source: Internet News
Date: October, 1997


Targeting Goes a Level Deeper

SelectCast from Aptex Software in San Diego is taking advertisement targeting to a deeper level. The software is a program which "learns" on its own and relies on a pattern-matching technology just like those used in credit-card fraud detection. Profiles are generated by observing online behavior where the program watches what the user clicks on and creates an "ad profile". Infoseek uses the software under the name Ultramatch. The click-through rates are twice as high as those for all other advertising links across the Internet and Ultramatch provides keyword-level preformance for all the ads. Please see the article in Scientific American for greater detail.

Source:  I/PRO
Date: October, 1997


Fastest Backbones

There are multiple Internet backbones. A recent study of national backbone Internet service providers provided the following list of the fastest backbones...

1.Compuserve
2.Gridnet
3.AGIS
4.UUNET
5.Savvis
6.Genuity
7.AT&T WorldNet
8.GeoNet
9.IDT
10.iStar

... and the slowest:

1.Bell Canada
2.Global Center
3.GoodNet
4.CRL Network
5.IHM Global Net
6.PSI Net
7.NetRail
8.GetNet
9.BBN Planet
10.CERFNet

Source: Boardwatch
Date: June 27, 1997


That's about it. Please contact us if you have a topic you'd like to see covered here. Back issues of this newsletter can be found in the Resources/News section of the CityStar Web site; look for the links at the bottom of the page. Till next time...

Warm Regards,
Artie Romero 
CityStar Group
http://www.citystar.net

back issues of citystar web marketing news:

April, 1997 | June, 1997 | September, 1997 | November, 1997 | December, 1997 | January, 1998 | February, 1998 | March, 1998 | April, 1998 | June, 1998 | September, 1999