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Building a Revenue-producing Ebiz Brand

by
Lee Traupel
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Building a revenue-producing online brand takes an
investment in time, resources and viable partnerships!
There is no shortcut to success - it takes plain old
blood sweat and tears! If you listen to the Charlatans
and digital snake oil types you'd think fortunes were
being made by simply launching a web site and using a
free search engine submissions service! This is far
from the truth!

We tell clients it's a rapidly maturing marketplace,
millions are being invested in marketing daily and
they will have at least 3-4 entrenched competitors!
Use targeted interactive campaigns to reach customers
who can respond immediately to their message.

Want to learn how an interactive marketing company
builds a campaign? Well here are ten short steps we
recommend to our clients!

1) Identify clearly defined goals for an interactive
marketing campaign - whether its brand awareness, web
site traffic, downloads, registration, online
ecommerce sales, etc.

2) Analyze your competitors carefully what appears to
be working for them what isn't - leverage their
investment in marketing resources! But, be aware they
are doing the same; so trademark your core brand
(company name, taglines, etc.) and secondary brands
(product names, unique processes, etc.).

3) Utilize Search Engines and Directories to bring
highly qualified traffic to your web site. Be prepared
to invest 3-6 months in this process to achieve page
1-3 listings in the top ten Search Engines. Carefully
develop content, keywords, targeted doorway pages and
a submission process that involves manual submissions
to the top ten engines - this is where 85% of the
traffic originates.

We have a list of 170 commercial directory sites and
typically charge our clients $1-3K (USD) to submit
them to this list but we give the list out freely, if
you want a copy simply subscribe to our "Canine
Online" monthly newsletter and let us know you want
our directory list. This is our plug for "permission
based marketing" - see below.

4) Develop a "net buzz" using Newsgroups by announcing
your company, new products or services or some type of
a limited offer to this influential group of "early
adopters." We don't advocate spam of any type - so
manually submit your post to each Newsgroup, indicate
it is a commercial announcement, carefully monitor the
Newsgroups and respond back to people's comments and
remove any Newsgroup from your list that indicates
they aren't interested in your solicitations.

5) Utilize banner advertising to develop brand and
lead generation - it works well if you have the right
content and make intelligent media buys! We use
multiple sources to purchase media, including
AdAuction,Flycast, 24by7Media and many others -
enabling us to purchase banner ad space that is
typically 50-75% less expensive than what we would get
buying space directly from a top tier site or portal.
Also, look into your vertical market and find second
tier sites that have a decent amount of traffic but
typically charge a $15-20CPM (cost per thousand
impressions/views) rate.

6) Deploy a customer direct opt-in e-mail campaign
that incorporates a message and a unique offer that
has real value and meaning to a specific segment of
your market. Track the results by working with your
interactive agency by doing an initial test with
multiple messages/offers to a small portion of your
list; then select the message/offer with the best
return to use for the majority of the campaign.

7) Create, deploy and manage a web site that with
hard-hitting content that matches your overall
marketing processes. People read differently on the
web; they don't want long paragraphs with lots of
text, they want information that is presented in
digestible chunks - build short/concise paragraphs
with 2-3 sentences only with liberal amount of whites
space in-between.

And, give them content that speaks to them - what you
do, how you do it, what it costs (or not) and how to
contact you! I use CNet's site or our own site as a
reference point for web-enabled content

8) Build online brands that inculcate permission based
marketing - meaning, you want to build a long-term
relationship with your clients by providing knowledge
that is useful. Then ask them if you can continue to
market to them by having them sign up for a
newsletter, subscription service, web cast, chat room
or whatever process you want to build to establish
rapport and dialogue.

9) Build speed into all of your marketing and ebiz
processes - don't get hung up in the details! It is
far better to get to market with a few flaws in your
marketing than not at all or much later with
perfection - the tide is rising and the market is
maturing at warp speed, so get your boat in the water!

10) Reference your established customers in all
processes - there is so much hype in business today to
overcome! Use your established customers as a
touchstone in all marketing. It really works - we all
want to purchase products and services used by our
peers!


======================================================
This text may freely be republished or distributed
provided the following resource box is included intact
either at the beginning or the end of the article and
a complimentary copy or notice (link) is sent to the
author at the address specified below:

------------------------------------------------------
Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of business development
and marketing experience. He is the founder/CEO of a
Northern California based, privately held Interactive
Marketing Agency and Software Company, WolfBlast
Interactive, Inc., < http://www.wolfblast.com/ >
and can be reached via e-mail at:
mailto:wolf@wolfblast.com
(c) copyright 2000 by wolfblast.com
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