Six steps to web advertising

"Internet marketing currently is more productive for
business-to-business sellers than in the consumer market."

Consumers often want to see a product before they buy it- a description on a web page is usually not sufficient. Consumers also balk at sending credit card information over the internet. But a web page that provides business information about product specifications, prices and availability can be very valuable- as a convenience for buyers and as a labor saver for sellers".
Hugh Hemple, Director-
Electronic Marketing, Netscape.

What Is The Internet? What Is The World-Wide-Web?
The Internet is a network of computer networks. It enables a computer on one network to communicate with any computer on any of the other networks. The World-Wide-Web (WWW) is, by far, the largest and fastest growing part of the Internet.
When people think of the World-Wide-Web (the web), they invariably think of a situation like the California gold rush. As cited by the Yankee Group, web page growth is as much as 1000 percent per year. In theory, achieving visibility on the web should be easy. Advertisers are anxious to reach web searchers who may be interested in learning about their products and services, business requirements or business opportunities of interest to them. In practice, it has been somewhat difficult.

In spite of all the developments and improvements in browsers and search engines, web site providers still don't have an easy answer to the question- "how will they find me?"
As opposed to just a search engine, an Integrated Search System is capable of indexing by geographic regions, business categories, industry categories and special interests. This can often be extremely useful. For instance, a user in the U.S. who is looking for "dealers of wooden furniture in the Caribbean", could use several options (e.g.): Search the data base for "dealers of wooden furniture in the Caribbean."

or

First clicking on "Region" to narrow the search to the Caribbean. Then through Standardized Industrial Codes (SIC) indexing, request only results that match wooden material, then launch the search for furniture dealers.
As in the case of i411 Caribbean /International Directory, Netscape's Frame Technology allows ergonomic considerations such as keeping the search box and 'drilling' buttons stationary, and reports where you are at all times during the search.

The Internet and the WWW enable anyone, anywhere in the world, to put information into a computer, link the computer to the web, and make the information accessible to any web user anywhere in the world, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The technical details aren't that important, as most of us don't really need to know any more about the technology behind the WWW than we do about the technology behind the telephone or cable TV networks.

Why should businesses consider advertising on the World-Wide-Web?

* Because it can enable them to reach the 30 million plus potential customers who are on the web. Because this number is growing by 10% a month.
* Because many of the potential, customers spend much more time on the web than they do reading their morning papers.
* Because a growing number of them view the web as their most important source of business information.
* Because more and more of their customers are on the web.
* Because more and more of their competitors are trying to reach their current customers through the web.

Besides the somewhat obvious benefits, there are threats. The World-Wide-Web, a more commercial subset of the Internet, is allowing non-traditional competitors to build web sites and market products in your markets. Fortunately, none of your competitors have been using the Internet that long. For businesses which are not on the Internet, if you move quickly and decisively you may be able to take advantage of the opportunities and deal with that threat head-on.

Simply put, if you are not considering the web as a medium for advertising today, tomorrow you will! The potential opportunities are important, although business leaders disagree on how the web will evolve. They do agree, however, that the web has become an important business tool. They also agree that there will be a definitive impact on how products and services will be marketed in the future. The threat is .. or will come from, not advertising on the web, especially if your competitors are.

Leslie Laredo of AT&T Interchange On-line Network talks about the Laws of web page advertising -Exposure; Frequency: Time; Space; Customer Service And Feedback.
* Exposure Your site should be designed to ensure that potential customers will be able to find your ads. You can ensure that they contain the key words and phrases that potential customers in your markets will use to describe their needs and interest- and, as a result, ensure that they can find your ads with the search system.
* Frequency Get the user to come back by making your message appealing, attractive and useful. Design your web page ads to provide your potential customers a great deal of information in a uniform, easy-to-read, easy-to-use format. Make sure that your address is easy to remember so as to be considered again and again.
* Time Be sensitive to delivery time and how fast information is retrieved. Realize that even a nano-second's delay may prompt a user to think about the cost of being on line, or worse, to think about going elsewhere. Remember that graphics take longer to download. Use graphics sparingly where they enhance the story- not where they simply look good.
* Space Web page space is unlimited but it can be costly. Do not be afraid of raw volume of information. Make information accessible in layers. It should be easy for the searcher to find what they want and skip the rest.
* Customer Service And Feedback Use your on-line presence to collect information. On-line users love eMail and use this option frequently to express their opinions. They will tell you what they think and what they want. They will also expect a response from you. Use your infospace not only to sell, but also to build customer relationships. Measure the feedback for usage patterns. Make sure your internal organization is prepared to respond quickly to the inquiries and feedback- positive or negative. Then use the feedback to refine the content and the organization of your ad. Be expecting orders and any new marketing opportunities that may arise.......or will arise. Remember, you will be reaching more people than you ever did before.

Using the principles above, Intelligenx (http://www.i411.com), a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, based company has developed a cost-effective way for advertisers and reach buyers, suppliers and business associates through the internet and the web. According to Intelligenx, the problem is that advertisers and web-users have been trying to find one another using unmatched tools.

Advertisers have been trying to lure clients with elaborate graphics and comprehensive descriptions of their offerings. On the other hand, users have been searching for ads of interest with browsers that cannot search for graphics. Some search engines ignore all but a few well-placed words in the product or service descriptions. Intelligenx uses the following six-step process to help you select the best solutions for your web advertising needs.

* Step One: Exposure Options
Yellow Pages and Marketplace directories enable you to expose your ads to potential buyers, potential suppliers, or potential business partners in your target markets. You can select the primary industry codes (SIC), Business Categories, Product/Service Categories, and Regional Categories into which your ads are placed. After selecting your primary categories, assess whether you need to place your ads in any additional industry, business, product or service, or regional Sub-Categories. You can increase your exposure by placing your ads in as many categories and sub-categories as appropriate.

* Step Two: Visibility Options
Choose from among the combination of billboards, high-profile, bold lettering and eye-catching options that match your needs. Directories may provide options for increasing the visibility of your ads by linking them to billboards placed at strategic locations within the web site. The other options below will increase the likelihood that potential buyers, suppliers, or business partners will see the "display line" for your ads when they search for a product, service, requirements, or opportunity.

* Step Three: Impact Options
A FAX-Back service will enable you to increase the impact of your ads by automatically responding to frequently asked questions or frequently received requests. You may want to provide this option to your customers which have complaints. The RFI (Requests for Information) service enable you to increase the impact of your ads by automatically logging and forwarding requests for additional information. Yellow Pages and the Marketplace directories enable inquirers to get additional information about your products, services, requirements, or opportunities by "clicking" on links to additional pages that you may have in the directory, or links to other web sites.

Step Four: Improvement Options
There are other options designed to help you to improve the effectiveness of your ads: Hit reports and impression reports on the number of potential buyers, suppliers, or business partners who found your ads; Self Updates is an option to immediately update your ads to reflect new strategies, new products, promotions- or to improve your ad to reflect what you learned from the hit-reports and/or RFIs.

Step Five: Dedicated Web Site
Businesses that need to give potential customers access to information in their databases or who need to use extensive text, custom formats, complex graphics, audio tracks, or video clips to describe their products need a establish their own dedicated web site(s). These businesses usually find that Yellow Pages or Marketplace ads offer more exposure, higher visibility, and greater impact by activating links to other web sites

Step Six: Web Site Provider or Directory Service Provider?
The final step is helping you choose the right service provider. You may consider a web publisher or a Directory Service Provider. You may consider your own computer site with options that could cost between (US) $10,000 and $1,000,000 or use an internet service provider. That decision-making process depends on your budget

Intelligenx is the Directory Service Provider of the "Caribbean International Directory." For information on your local Intelligenx representatives, call (954) 473-9902 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida or visit the site at "http://www.i411.com". (eMail) "carib@i411.com."

Executive Time "Online" also has a printed version which is available throughout the Caribbean and some selected North American cities.