THE 10 BIGGEST BLUNDERS THAT BUSINESSES MAKE ON THE WEB By Jerry Lazar In the mad rush to set up shop on the Web, businesses tend to make some common blunders. Here are the top 10: 1) Rushing in without a master plan. Companies are so dazzled by the prospect of establishing a Web presence, that they lose sight of the original reasons for being there: Promoting product and/or service? Point-of-purchase sales transactions? Building a customer database? Soliciting customer feedback? Even though it's still difficult to assemble meaningful projections, it's still important to make a list of short- and long-term goals. But don't go to the other extreme. It's better to experiment with a test site now, and make your mistakes while the medium is young and the audience still limited to a few million. Too many Websites are bottlenecked in committee meetings or stillborn while awaiting budget approval. A site can be established for a relatively small expenditure, and then tweaked and cultivated as needed. And thanks to the interactive nature of the medium, you'll know quickly what is and isn't working. "You don't need to spend $100,000 to put up a homepage," says David Scott Lewis, president of Presence. "You can get established and then build incrementally." 2) Appointing the wrong person to the task. In too many corporate boardrooms, this week's VP of New Media is last week's marketing director who has never ventured past e-mail, if he's ever used a modem at all! "Invariably, when people from the Old School get handed this job, they try to fit this new technology into the same old pigeon holes," says Ryan Bernard, founder of Wordmark Associates, a Web consultancy in Houston. "They want to deliver their brochure over the Internet. What they really need to do is give customers a complete on-line transaction, from first peek to showroom tour to final handshake." The solution: save money in the long run and subcontract Webdesign to the pros. "People who do not understand the mechanics of Web construction end up redoing their site endlessly until they finally get it right," says Bernard. "They end up paying for it a dozen times. Why not just hire someone who knows what they're doing, and do it right the first time?" 3) Failing to research the competition. Chances are, whatever you're promoting or selling, there are already hundreds of sites devoted to the identical product or service. "See what the standard is, and who's the pacesetter," advises Jim Wray, VP of WebNet Services. But don't be discouraged. "Most Web sites going up now are really as a result of people trying to catch up," speculates Bernard. "They wake up one morning to discover that their strongest rivals are up on the Internet. Then they make the mistake of trying to ape the competition, rather than figuring out how they could do a better job." Presence's Lewis was approached by a computer company that requested a site that looked like IBM's. "We told them we'd rather kick butt than give them a clone site," he says, citing 3D data visualization and Video User Interface (VUI) as examples of impending technologies that can give new Websites a critical edge. 4) Not appreciating the unique interactive aspect of the medium. "Many of the biggest companies still don't understand that it is not just a matter of slapping information up there with pretty pictures," says Wordmark's Bernard. "And just putting up a form does not really work unless the customer has some impetus to fill it out." But even those who comprehend that a Web page is not a display ad or a brochure still don't fully understand that interactivity is a two-way street. Soliciting customer feedback is only the first step. "Be prepared to respond to e-mail," warns Digital Planet CEO Paul Grand. "The first goal is to get the audience to respond to you, but then it's a big mistake if you don't follow through and respond to them." Or, as Jim Griffin, Geffen Records' director of information technology, advises: "Get your content on the Net, but also get the people in your company on the Net." 5) Being too commercial. Internet protocol dictates that you supply free information and entertainment first, and then ask for the sale. "The clients I have that offer something free -- a sample of some software, a book chapter, a collection of recipes, a cut off an album -- have 2 to 3 times the hit level that [other] clients have," reports Eric Ward of NetPost. "The trick is to lure customers by providing non-commercial hooks: information and services that they vitally need," agrees Bernard. "A company selling industrial solvents might provide a generic solvent selection guide. Also, use the proper tone of voice and personality. Be mindful of the fact that you're talking to a single individual. The best sites simulate a one-on-one conversation. Save the slick marketing hype for another medium. Don't be afraid to let down your corporate hair. 6) Disorganization. You're competing with hundreds of thousands of webpages for a customer's attention. If he gets lost or confused, he's gone. Snazzy graphics will make your home page memorable, but the only sites that entice customers past the front door are those that obey the first commandment of webdesign: Content is King. And it better be easy to find. Make sure that the sale is never more than a click away. "If a customer can't navigate easily," notes Lewis, "he won't stick around." Most importantly, says Bob Novick of Impulse Research, "Your product or service should be the 'hero' of your site; you should be promoting and enhancing what you have to offer, not detracting from it." 7) Using unnecessarily large graphics. The single most frequently heard complaint is that those hefty GIFs take way too long to download, forcing visitors to beat a hasty retreat. "Simple, crisp, attractive icons are the way to go," instructs Stuart Halperin, Hollywood Online's executive vp of marketing. Webmedia director Steve Bowbrick blames designers whose oversized egos belie an insensitivity to the medium. "It is quite possible to create compelling, graphically-rich pages without squeezing monolithic, square graphics down ill-suited channels," he says. 8) Not supplying sufficient reason to return. Sites that fail to constantly update and revise their material run the risk of quickly becoming flame bait. "Spotlight 'What's New' and 'Coming Attractions' with special icons," advises Mark Kelly, marketing director of DirectNet, a Los Angeles Web provider and server. "The most successful Web sites are like magazines," adds Bernard. "People go there to get the latest news about a particular set of products or a particular market. The customers will know they can always learn something new." Paul Grand says that he strives to freshen his sites "at least every three weeks." 9) Forgetting to promote your Website, on and off the Net. Negotiate reciprocal links with compatible sites, submit your site to Web directories, judiciously post notices in appropriate Usenet Groups, alert the trade and consumer press. And tout your site in all your corporate literature, and on your packaging. "There are so many ways to build awareness" says Eric Ward. "There are at least 100 sites that will give you a free link, from Yahoo or Infoseek to BizWeb. I find new ones everyday. Then there are magazines, both e-zines and print, all over the world. Every one of them needs stuff to write about. Why not about you?" Jim Wray offers one caveat: "You don't want to get press too soon, so make sure your site's ready before you publicize it." 10) Overlooking the fact that it's a global medium. "There are Web pages now in French, Italian, Mandarin, and Czechoslovakian," observes Bernard. Accordingly, counsels DirectNet's Mark Kelly, "Offer translations of your contents in several languages. Make it possible for the remote user to click on a choice in their native tongue." Ross Veitch, of the Australian Tourist Commission, says he perceives "a need to provide a certain amount of content targeted at specific nationalities." He foresees accomplishing this by having users select customized mirror sites that "carry a certain amount of local content on top of a core of global content that would be [universally] replicated." The biggest mistake of all, of course, is not to establish a Web presence. There's too much potential reward for such small risk. "We're not talking $50,000 in print costs," scoffs Jim Wray. "Corporations can gain from this technology if they are willing to look at it as more than just a simple marketing tool," says Bernard. "They need to think of it as an environment that can enhance communications both externally and internally between employees, customers, suppliers, and dealers." If you build it, customers will come. "It's like putting a piece of cake on the balcony of a fourteenth-floor highrise," jokes Jim Griffin. "You'll be saying, 'How did all these ants get here?' " "It's raining, and you want to get water in your bucket," notes Wray, employing another metaphor. "Where do you put the bucket? It doesn't matter! Just put it somewhere... I haven't heard a bad idea for the Web yet." Jerry Lazar, a veteran magazine editor and TV producer, is president of Lazar Productions, a Los Angeles-based Web consulting company. Adapted from Interactive Age, May 22, 1995. Copyright 1995, Lazar Productions. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Original article loacted at: http://www.gigaplex.com/10top/10blund.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -