June 1998                                                                        NET CRACKER

Masterfile

Say-So

Computer
Business

Telecom Line

Front End

User Front

Offline

Country Buzz

Keynote

Telecomment

Online

The Circuit

By Sarita Agarwal

So, you've got your team in place, you've identified your IPP and registered your domain. What next? It's time to decide exactly what will go into your site, that is, the content. Success on Internet depends less on old-fashioned sales techniques and more on creating a useful learning fountain. Provide content of the type which leads to community, establishes credibility and helps sell your stuff, either directly or indirectly.

You can attract traffic to your Web site, but if people do not like what they see they will click-off as quickly as they had clicked-on. Customers should have compelling reasons to visit it. Reasons like getting useful information that they don't have access to otherwise; obtaining speedy updates, especially if these are more frequent than is possible with other media; making available the kind of things they'd otherwise have to call, or make a trip to get?these could as simple as the updated flight schedules or as complex as tracking cargo by inputting an airway bill number; consolidating information they'd otherwise have to spend time collecting and collating, such as a table of interest rates; and getting better rates than when they buy retail.

Giant in the Crowd

In the Web, the sites which consistently attract traffic are those with a specific purpose that addresses a real customer need, or which develop, support and foster communities of existing and/or potential customers.

What could you put in as content? Leaflets, brochures, forms?all the things people have to come to your office to collect. FAQs, interest tables, price lists, schedules, press releases, usage instructions, background notes?all the information you keep dishing out by fax and/or phone. A database with a search facility to make it easier for people to answer who-which-where-is-there questions. Articles, newsletters, tip sheets, top- ten lists, symptom/solution ideas?things representing an expertise you've built up over the years. Checklists that steer visitors towards your product or company, by letting them tick off pluses, or compare prices etc.

Self-assessment quiz?People love to know which percentile they fall into. Cash in on this.

• Product selection guides?Help your prospects, help them decide which model to buy, show them how to use it, and may be even give them a money-off coupon to spur them into walking into the store for a trial.
• Bulletin Board/chat/matching service?This way, your site becomes a platform to link up people. It lets you assume category leadership.
• Visitor contributions/questionnaires?Let visitors respond to your content, and include their responses as part of your content... who knows, you might even get a new fix on old problems owing to feedbacks.
• Contests?Everyone likes the chance to win something useful. Should be simple and interesting.
• Games?If visitors enjoy interacting with your site, they'll stick on. And games allure them a lot.
• Applications?Provide functionality previously delivered through a computer program to which your customers don't have access. As the 'Net grew popular, people said Fedex would die. Instead, Fedex gave customers access to their tracking system, over the Web, and opened up a new level of consumer service.
• Special offers?Give 'em something that they can get only on the site. This'll get your site to stand out.
• The latest about yourself?Make your site the most updated source of information about yourself.

Generating the Content

• Collate it. Every organisation is sitting on a mine of info, if only they bothered to put it all together.
• License it. If there's a column that gives you interesting reading, go ahead and try licensing it.
• Let visitors provide it. The readers tips/anecdotes would only add to the page's attractions.

What else? Identify yourself up-front to establish your credibility?don't assume that everyone knows who you are, what you do and where Chennai is.

A simple way of contacting you should be in place in every page on your site. A contact form is a must, but also include your address, telephone and fax numbers, and E-mail address. Is there a call to action? What do you want your visitor to do after visiting your page? Browse around and bookmark your site? That's all very well, but what's the benefit to you? Answer some questions, read a press release, fill in a job application form... tell them so. Let guests sign up to get an automatic notification as your site changes.

Use autoresponders and list-management software to deliver some of the content on your site, to prospects, by E-mail. This has three advantages: (a) E-mail reaches a larger audience that might not have access to the Web (b) Since E-mail is pushed to interested users, it demands less effort from them than a regular visit to your site, and therefore tends to be read more regularly (c) It reminds your audience that your site exists and can be used as a teaser to stream traffic into your site.

Issue Contents    Write to us    Subscriptions

© Living Media India Ltd