Download Launching Your E-Business

Launching Your E-business
Chapter 10
Beta Testing Your Web Site
• Software companies allow users to test their
software programs, before selling them to the
public, in order to find problems in the
software.
• It is a good idea for an e-business to test its
web site with a beta launch.
• By allowing visitors to test its web site before
marketing it to the public, an e-business can
get feedback and make changes.
Marketing an E-Business
• The early approach to marketing ebusinesses was “If we build it, they will
come”.
• Today this approach is not effective.
• Most conventional marketing approaches
are useful to the e-business.
• Some techniques and methods are unique to
the e-business environment.
Search Engines and Directories
• The reality of web marketing:
• Despite all marketing expenses, most
viewers locate relevant web sites through
the use of search engines and directory
services.
Search Engines and Directories
• Examples of search engines and directories.
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AltaVista.
Northern light.
HotBot.
GoTo.Com.
Google.
Yahoo.
Others ..
A Popular Search Engine
Search Engines
• Use a variety of methods to gather and
index information.
• This process may take time due to the
volume of materials to be examined.
• Some services accept submissions.
• Some may require a fee to review and index
quickly.
A Web Page Submission Site
Indexing Methods
• Different search engine sites use differing
indexing techniques.
• This is why two different engines produce
vastly different results at times.
• It is important to add “Meta Tags” that
accurately describe the content.
• These tags are used by some indexing
systems to help build their indexes.
Techniques to Improve Index “Hits”
• Write clear but descriptive web page text that
a search engine can index.
• Avoid using frames, or have an alternate noframes site to help search engine spiders
locate all web pages at a web site.
• Use static HTML pages for products that can
be indexed by search engines, instead of
active pages that are generated by the server
from data from a product database.
Techniques to Improve Index “Hits”
• Use fewer or smaller images to keep
page load times down.
• Provide links to complementary pages.
• Arrange for inbound links from other
web sites, which are used by some
search tools to determine a web page’s
ranking or relevance.
A Meta Tag
Public Relations
• A public relations effort is one of the
more cost-effective marketing tools.
• Part of the art of a public relations effort
is writing effective press releases and
sending those releases to the
appropriate destinations at just the right
time.
• There are many businesses that
specialize in providing public relations
services.
Customer Communications
• Direct communications with potential
customers is important.
• Usenet newsgroups and forms
represents a significant way to
disseminate news and respond to
customer concerns.
Affiliate Programs
• Affiliate web sites are an important source
of customer referrals.
• In an affiliate program, the e-business
pays a referral fee (usually a flat
amount) or commission (a percentage
of the sale) on all sales sent to the ebusiness from another Web site.
Other Cost-effective Promotion Methods
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Link exchanges
Web rings
Awards
Word of mouth – goodwill marketing
Web Ring
E-Business Advertising
• Conventional advertising techniques may be
necessary.
• It is important to include web address and email
address in conventional advertising materials.
• This will “drive” potential customers to the web
site and promote brand awareness.
• Web based advertising can be purchased from a
number of popular portal sites.
A Portal With Ads
Benchmarking a Web Site
• A benchmark is a performance based
objective for a business’s web site.
• The process:
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Determine the goals
Set the benchmarks
Measure the results
Draw reasonable conclusions
The Benchmarks
• A brick & click e-business has historical
records to utilize.
• A new e-business lacks historical or
traditional data.
• Look at sales, expenses, ratios, etc.
• May be difficult to attribute to a single
source or input factor
Measuring Web Site ROI
• Traditional financial measures available
include NPV, ROI.
• Look at customer satisfaction and intangible
benefits.
Online Measurement Tools
• Web servers record all of the events
that they process to files called log
files.
• A careful examination of these log files
can reveal much about a web site’s
effectiveness.
• Analysis software is available to
examine logs
Logging and Tracking
• Some of the information gained will be:
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Number of visitors.
Number of page views.
Views per visitor.
IP addresses of visitor.
Referring URL’s.
Browser type.
Conversion rate.
Errors.
Return visitors.
Server Log