Next, determining what type of product you have is single most important part of defining your channel strategy. Product type, pre & post service requirements, and revenue generated per customer transaction are key. Understanding these points are important and will focus manufacturers sales & marketing resources.

For example, if transaction per customer is low (under $500), then channel will expect manufacturer to create demand in market through effective advertising to targeted end-user accounts. The ideal channel will fill orders to a broad customer base in order to cover individual sales costs. If product carries a higher value, channel will be more motivated to pioneer product because they will be able to sell additional value (local stock, service, integration, etc.) that not only covers their sales costs, but provides cross-selling opportunity yielding higher, overall profit per customer transaction. This dictates that sales & marketing resources are applied strongly to partner channels.

Understanding your value proposition per customer transaction is key to defining major components of your channel strategy.

E-traffic - new channel dynamic

If you are not utilizing power of web as an integral part of your marketing program and sales channel strategy, you are simply asleep! And your competition loves you for it.

The web has had a dramatic affect on channel partners. Most buying individuals have access to online information. Product pricing and specifications can be quickly downloaded for easy comparison-shopping. This real-time dynamic of web has forced channel partners to be true and tight.

However, web has also yielded many channel enhancements to forward-acting manufacture.

Many companies use their web site as a clearing and linking depot for their channel partners. Listing channel partners' web site gives customers quick access and information on local channel presence. Channel partner enhancements include creation of an Intranet. This channel-access only Intranet is virtually cost-free and provides timely (24/7) order entry, literature and information downloads as well as on-line service support. Surely you can think of other services that Intranet can provide. Done right, this can be a customer plus and a competitive advantage.

Blending all channels to market - dealing with channel conflict

Global Marketing's contention is that companies must utilize all channels to market. Typically small and mid-size companies favor one channel. Usually it is channel that assisted their early growth. Early on, there may not have been much choice, but to grow to next level, mutli-channel marketing must be deployed. And this brings up biggest barrier to an effective channel strategy - cross channel conflict.

Cross channel conflict is when two or more channels compete for same sale with same brand. Realize that any company will face channel conflict. As markets and products mature, you must add new channels to cover all major market segments. Conflict cannot be eliminated. The goal of marketing must be to optimize market coverage and manage conflict so that it does not become destructive. Balancing this conflict is demanding, yet essential to sustained growth.

Too much conflict is destructive causing price issues and loss of market share and excessive sales management time. Too little conflict yields less market share with major coverage gaps. Optimum market coverage drives high market share, low coverage gaps and manageable conflict.

Recognize that driving influences of channel conflict are both economic and structural in nature. Economics motivate channel and structural controls help to define and guide how conflict is managed. Pricing strategy, market penetration, channel support issues, and even company politics are challenges that generate channel conflict. Understanding, reviewing and managing these problems enhance your firm's ability to maximize market coverage and manage channel conflict.

One final point. Figuring out your channel strategy is only part of issue. Communicating your strategy and any required updates to all active channels on a regular basis is an imperative. Each channel must understand how they will part-take in generating businesses and make money.

Frank Williams is a marketer. With many post graduate courses in management, leadership, marketing and technology to his credit, Williams is a widely respected speaker, author and technologist. He has significant knowledge in marketing strategies and is the founder and CEO of Global Marketing, Inc. - a leader in business, marketing and sales consulting

While not as compelling as fact that Google is now tied to Alexa, it's no small issue that other webmasters are beginning to show interest in Alexa.com again. Now that Alexa is being positioned to have a closer integration with Amazon, has improved their toolbar to include a free pop-up blocker and Google search results, as well as given webmasters incentive to install Alexa toolbar, many site owners either offer toolbar or display their Alexa ranking proudly on their sites.

So, no matter what your personal feelings about Alexa toolbar are, it may be a good idea to gain advantages it offers, before your rivals do.

4. Client awareness is rising

Even if you're not a commercial website, and don't really compete with other sites for anything other than traffic, you still have to deal with fact that your visitors are becoming more aware of Alexa toolbar again. Alexa allows you to customize a version of their toolbar and allow you to offer it as a free download from your site. Not only can you profit from their amazon.com purchases, but when regular visitors return to your site with toolbar installed, it can help maintain your ranking.

The way things are going, situation of having clients checking your Alexa reviews and ratings before they buy from you to one day be routine. Do you want to be ahead of that possible trend, or wait, and push it when everyone else finally catches on?

5. Alexa's Perceived Importance

The whole reason for this article is that in answer to last article I wrote about Alexa, I got a lot of feedback questioning whether Alexa Internet and its toolbar were still important to webmasters. So far, at minimum, for last two reasons I stated, Perception of Alexa being an important webmaster tool is increasing.

So even if you don't think it is important, if your visitors feel it is, then it may be time for you to at least pay attention to recent changes.

6. Alexa's Actual Importance

As Alexa's perceived importance is growing, it's actual importance seems to be moving at same rate. Here's why.

It would be one thing if all hoopla about Alexa took place and everyone installed or re-installed toolbar, and everyone found out that both site and toolbar were useless. Remember when auto-surf exchanges first became popular? Everyone jumped on bandwagon for about a month, then several articles came out about six weeks later, stating that they were ineffectual because real humans weren't viewing sites anymore.

Look around Net for about an hour and see if you can find any new negative press about Alexa from webmasters since November. All I've seen are same questions there were before- is my Alexa rating important, and why? Are Alexa's traffic stats accurate?

And I still have same answers. Your Alexa rating is important to you if you have a commercial website because it is important to Google and to your competition. And whether your site is commercial or not, it is becoming important to your visitors, which is why your site exists- to cater to them, you should make your site's relationship with Alexa.com a priority.

As to Alexa's statistical accuracy, I can't say for sure. It's a much debated topic. But it's pretty much indisputable that getting into top 100,000 sites is a significant achievement, though perhaps not as difficult as some think. And having a top 50,000 site is not something that can really be cheated or faked. So perhaps it is not perfectly exact as a comparison of your site to another unrelated site.

But it is closest thing to a universal, impartial 3rd party measure of traffic we have. And more importantly, it can give your clients yet another reason to trust you enough to buy from your site. Testimonials in form of reviews on their site, as well as fast access to your contact information from outside your site can mean difference between a browser and a buyer.

If you haven't had chance to download Alexa toolbar, you can get it from http://www.freetrafficdirectory.com/alexatoolbar - or you can get Alexa Snapshot from www.alexa.com if you have Netscape or if you're not on a PC. It's a free resource, and all you have to lose- or gain- is more free traffic.

For more free traffic secrets, subscribe to the Free Traffic Secrets Ezine by sending any blank email to ftdsecrets-subscribe@topica.com - bonuses for subscribers include free access to a resource that gets you free advertising for life in 9 minutes a day. Or, get Tinu's free Google optimization guide at http://www.freetrafficdirectory.com