Executive Thought Leadership

Filtering the Hype on New Web Tools

It pays for SMBs to employ best practices―and keep customers in mind―before implementing the latest Web technologies.

There was a time when many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) primarily used one medium―the yellow pages―to get the word out about their product, service, or business.

The advent of the Internet radically evolved the methods they could use to promote their business and generate demand. Just about every SMB today has a Web presence and for many, online commerce represents a growing portion of their business. Today, marketers have an array of exciting new tools for reaching out to customers, such as blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds, online video, click-to-chat, wikis, and interactive forums. Without a doubt, these tools are exploding in popularity. Consider blogs: More than 175,000 new ones are posted everyday not to mention 1.6 million daily updates of existing blogs, according to Technorati, which tracks Web-based media.

When used effectively, these tools can help SMBs communicate with customers in compelling and innovative ways. For example, a video clip on your Website demonstrating how to use a product can be far more effective and reach many more people than a printed brochure.

However, these new online tactics―that many are now collectively characterizing as eb 2.0 require time, staff, investment, and other resources that most SMBs don't have in abundance. And these new tools may not deliver the desired results if your customers don't find them useful or compelling. Enthusiasm for nurturing a blog or podcast series can wane as the content creators among SMBs, these are often key executives―realize how much time and effort they require. The end result could be a poorly executed tool that not only wastes time, effort, and money, but potentially harms your brand and negatively impacts your customers experience.

Before committing considerable resources to the next cool new eb 2.0 tool, SMBs should do these things:

• Start with the basics: make sure your current Website employs fundamental best practices
• Identify your short- and long-term business objectives
• Create a picture of your customers and their needs, wants, and online behavior patterns
• Assess any new online marketing tactics with your business goals and the needs of your customers in mind

Cover the Basics

Before branching out into trendy new Web tools, make sure your overall Web presence is fundamentally sound. Employing just a few best practices could make a dramatic impact on the effectiveness of your Website.

On a high level, an effective Website quickly moves visitors from awareness of your product or service to consideration. To accomplish that goal, your Website must clearly communicate your business product or service as well as what differentiates you. Is your business the only one among its competitors to offer 24x7 support? If so, that information should be front and center.

Can site visitors easily find what theye looking for? Is information organized in a logical, intuitive way? Do visitors generally complete the tasks for which they came to your site? Invest the time to learn about Website usability―or how usable your site is―and determine if you should first retool your basic Web presence before establishing a storefront on Second Life. It pays to conduct formal or informal usability testing in which you observe customers interacting with your site that they like or don't like, how easily they found what they sought, and where they got confused or even abandoned their visit.

Usability experts such as Steve Krug, Gerry McGovern, and Jakob Nielsen offer extensive insights into what works on the Web, and there is much useful information freely available online.

Couple your usability efforts with Website traffic analysis tool―some of which are quite affordable―and you can begin to understand how effective your site is, and where some changes would enhance your customersonline experience. Such tools can give you a detailed picture of who's coming to your site; how they find your site; what they're viewing―and not viewing―and for how long; peak traffic periods; and more. Use what you learn to make adjustments to your Website that will translate into higher online satisfaction and greater customer loyalty.

Another absolute that has emerged is the importance of search. Look no further than Google success to see that search is how the average Web user seeks information online. With that in mind, it pays to invest in search-engine optimization efforts that help the major search engines easily find pages from your site that are relevant to search terms, and improve your rankings in the result listings. Making some relatively straight-forward, no-cost changes with your site can make the difference between appearing on the first page or two of search results or not showing up at all. It may also be worth considering aid search essentially advertising that offers top ranking based on parameters such as relevance to the search terms.

Know Your Goals and Your Customers

Start with your business short- and long-term goals. If you haven captured these in some way, it's beneficial to do so before executing any new marketing activities. Only with a thorough understanding of what you want to achieve and where your business is heading can you effectively use online marketing tools to help you get there.

For instance, are you trying to aggressively add new customers and enter new markets? Or is it more important to retain existing customers and expand within existing markets? Do you plan to diversify with new products or services, or enhance current offerings? What results, in terms of sales and profits, are you trying to achieve short- and long-term? The answers to these and other strategic questions can help you obtain a clear picture of your business key goals.

It's equally important to truly understand your customers. Who are they, exactly? What are their needs, interests, and priorities? What are their challenges? What do they expect of your company and its products or services? Which of your previous marketing efforts have they responded to (or not)? The better you understand your customers, the more successfully you can market to them.

Map Tools to Goals and Customers

Once you've covered the basics and have a solid understanding of your business goals and customers, it's time to use that information to assess the potential value of implementing new Web-based tools. Your objective should be to invest time and resources only in those tools with strong potential to help you meet your business goals and enhance your customer experience.

Certainly, these new online marketing tools are exciting, and they can be extremely effective. But it's most important to consider any tool from the customer's perspective. Will a blog, podcast series, an interactive forum, or some other tool help to create a more positive interaction with your business? If the answer is yes, and you're prepared to commit the resources the new initiative will require, it's worthwhile pursuing some of these new tools to see what they can do for your business. The beauty of marketing on the Web is that you can get answers to that question relatively quickly.