If you were jostling your way through a crowded store in a big rush and a bored teenage clerk asked you to fill out a survey of forty questions but wasn’t offering anything in return, how likely would it be that you’d do it? A more effective approach for Eddie would have been to narrow down his list of questions to four instead of forty, and offer a coupon for 10% off any online purchase in return for filling it out. If you want to create leads using your website, offer something for free and require your visitors to give you a bit of information first. They’ll be much more likely to respond if they get something they perceive as valuable in return. Give people what they want, an incentive.

Regularly study your website statistics Another area that Eddie seems to miss e-marketing boat is in analysis. He doesn’t have time for looking at all those pesky Web statistics. He can’t be bothered with analyzing number of visitors who come to his site, or how they got there, or where they go once they’re there. He’s rendered blind to his e-marketing campaigns’ successes and failures. It’s like always ignoring your checking account balance and then despairingly wondering where all your money went each week. What’s worse, because he ignores numbers, he has no useful information to help plan his next campaign. Numbers help in life.

A jumbo jet is off course 90% of time. It reaches its destination successfully by constantly checking data on its exact position and continuously making appropriate adjustments until it lands on target.

Likewise, an e-marketing objective can be best reached by analyzing data and making necessary modifications. For example, if your target is a thousand visitors a week, then look at your website statistics and learn where majority of your visitors are coming from. Discover what type of site, link or search engine is doing a lot of referring. Then adjust your time and budget accordingly.

It’s been rumored around office that Eddie sometimes locks himself in his office and counts his new website’s hit counter, prancing around in jubilation each time counter goes up by one. Yet he hates to hunker down and look at all numbers, all visitors, all referrals, and then conduct a meaningful analysis to help understand past and better plan for future.

Since Eddie hates looking at his site statistics, he has no idea how well his last email marketing campaign went. He sent out five thousand emails to a rented list and then asked his sales people if they got any more phone calls that day. It’d be like a television network executive asking his employees if they happened to see their neighbors’ TV sets on night before to determine if new show did well. Hey Eddie, I have an idea, check your Web stats for page views and you’ll know exactly how successful your email was!

Poor Eddie erroneous e-marketer, is he condemned to sub-par performances in life and business? If he tries to learn from his mistakes, if he starts to treat Web differently than print or any other medium, he’ll start to see results. If he uses more of Web’s power and potential, tapping into its interactivity and offering easy ways for his site visitors to communicate with him, and if he offers incentives to motivate his visitors to take action, then maybe, just maybe, he may not be doomed after all.

Unfortunately, after choosing longest line at toll booth again, his car’s engine seized from idling and poor oil maintenance. So to pass time waiting for tow truck, he popped in an eight-track cassette, flipped open his cell phone and purchased some more Enron stocks.

Jason OConnor Copyright 2004

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Jason OConnor is President of Oak Web Works

Jason is an expert at Web design and programming, e-strategy, and e-marketing http://www.oakwebworks.com

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A word of caution, however, don't make "structure" your end-product. Consider structure only as a means to get results you desire. This does not have to be a painful exercise--my plan and various lists usually fill only one or two pages. What's important is that there's always something to do . . . and that something always gets done.

You'll also want to maintain an element of flexibility in all that you put on paper or commit to your computer screen. Create your plans and follow them knowing that from week-to-week and month-to-month your objectives can--and most likely will--change.

4. MAKE TIME

Allot time each week to pursue your marketing goals. Pull out your calendar right now and schedule an appointment with yourself. It could be an hour, two hours or three--whatever you need to keep moving forward. It could be same day each week, it could be different days. Whatever you choose, honor this commitment of time. Make it sacred.

MAKE MARKETING MORE AUTOMATIC Remember, marketing doesn't happen in a vacuum, nor is it automatic. You have to tell people why they should want to buy your product or service--and then tell them again.

Only once you've adopted a marketing mindset and are willing to commit time and energy necessary to sustain your marketing efforts--only then will your marketing become more automatic, more natural . . . and more successful.

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Copyright (c) 2004 by Matt McGovern--All rights reserved.