Marketing
Linked
Resources
News*GOLD
Table of Contents
(1—7)
- The positions of Web management
- 4th Primo Award: final thoughts
- Web Awards
- Direct Marketing
- Linked Resources
- Mark (tm)
- DMLR retrospective
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| I. The positions of
Web management.
Some emails I receive are from students at universities. They are studying the new media based on the Internet. This time I will run you through what are the professions of the Web management because someone could be in the future —don't think much in the present, dot-com aside— called to cover similar positions within a business. I would like to start from the Web master or Web manager. This position involves the development and operating building of the Web site, in a way that both technological performance and commercial goals will be achieved. Such a n.1 position gets the Web site responsibility as general task. More detailed duties are the management of tech assets, the update of pages contents and information, the measurement of web traffic and suggestion about its improvement. Web project manager is the person in charge of the Internet project, let's say the coordinator whom the other positions have to report to. Main duties consist of generating the business plan for the multimedia project, that is the strategic and operating system to make it a real thing. This project needs its own resources, schedule and objectives —I mean tactical and intermediate steps to become a final executed plan. It's a pivot role to say in a sport team term. Web designer should be the computer-savvy person responsible for the Web site appearance. His skills are highly specialized onto the potential opportunities a Web site offers as communication medium. It is nor the chief neither the manager but his task is very important to define the Web architecture and to best render the Web look plus respectfully make the most of the corporate or product image. Consequently the optimization of Web interactivity and system of navigation are resulting from its competence. Web graphic designer is not a repetition of the prior position. He does the Web pages by means of HTML and other programming languages. It's a technician but recently this position has been acquiring less technical character and more graphic skills. Web account manager works in a interactive service agency, where her duty is to deal with the clients. This position is about connecting the web business to the off-line enterprises that would enter the new channel —as said before the account is building the connection between old and new economy. Note: in my own experience of working with small-sized businesses I have just rarely stumbled across managers covering such positions as official roles. Only one among bah-zillion business cards from real managers I collected in the past three years was formally named as Web manager —it happened in a firm selling mobile telephones accessories. I selected these five professionals because they are the most integrated with the marketing area. Many other posts are starting or growing into the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) but they are plausibly linked to different business functions, such as administrative or commercial area. To know more on the new economy jobs, I would like to point out here the book published by Edizioni Internos. Find direct link to the online book preview on DMLR Guide (Media category).
II. 4th Primo Award: final thoughts. While the virtual prize has gone to the winner of this annual edition —see DMLR*News Brief, March— I would here explain some trends I noticed during the last visits to the selected websites (28). 2 out of 28 are no more available because they were event-bound at the moment of the first visit in 2001; one was bought out during the last months. These three sites have no score in the final listing (=n/a). Most appreciated by me are the sites easy to download/navigate and visitor oriented. Penalties occurred in fact to the sites which had lowly user-friendly system to enter to since the front page (Levi's portal) or blocked by the condition to get a software (I.e. Triennale/Flash 5.0). Best front pages I visited are strongly designed to offer the visitors a direct path to the section they are interested in, so to make good impression suddenly. Search function, site map, table of contests are highlighted in the best places on the first page as layout primal goal, all building a scenario of Web achievement. Get rid of creativity? I think it is largely pumped up in Italy, but a matter of first impact, not content or purpose. Interactivity is the third but not least element I used to use when I judge the Website relevance from a visitor's perspective. This factor is the more developed since two years on, resulting highly perceived from Web managers as the most important tool to get in touch with the Internet users. These prospects are relevant for a commercial Website as both potential offline customer or online buyer. This edition several sites were non-profit organizations: they are not different in their efforts to establish contacts to their visitors online, that are relevant (again) for a not commercial site as both actual supporter of social activity or associate contributing to fund-raising. Major trends I was aware of by analyzing such a host of sites are: a) the navigation of the site is becoming a two-level experience, all free for generic and occasional users and opt-in for registered ones (the latter mode allows users the in-deep navigation because they go accredited to entry the section protected by log-in hurdle); b) the appearance of the site gets the best results with a high resolution monitor, so it's quite an error to keep on believing the websites are best designed for old computers setting...; c) the language continues to be a serious problem for organizations with different audiences, that have to build from two to five/six alternative sections or micro-sites, in which the main language has been translated in favor of foreign visitors; d) "nobody's at home" is my expression to say that many contacts I tried out to reach the web management have gotten no follow up, so the interactivity via email or by online form is very limited and even harder to receive information from a PR department before evaluating the web site as it is. To read the information I gathered from contacting the staff behind the website, see at the Web Files last updated on April.
III. Web Awards. 1. The 7th Annual Tenagra Awards for Internet Marketing Excellence were awarded this year in Houston, USA. The Tenagra Awards showcase achievements in five award categories, including: Integrated Online Marketing Effort, Online Business Model, Individual Contribution to Internet Marketing, Publication Focused on Internet Marketing and Online Customer Service. Winners were determined by a panel of four industry expert judges and two Tenagra judges. (C@ www.tenagra.com) 2. IP Top Awards recognises the best content in Europe's online industry. The 4th IP Top Awards were handed out during Content Summit in Zurich, Switzerland (last November). An international team of more than 50 experts is used to compare the finalist publications on elements such as user-friendliness, design and newsworthiness. (C@ www.iptop.com) 3. The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences are running the 6th Annual Webby Awards. The organization is seeking submissions in 30 categories (!). To submit a Web site for consideration, visit The Webby Awards Web site, where you will find submission rules and an official online entry form. Winners will be announced in May 2002. (C@ www.webbyawards.com) 4. @d:tech awards honor achievement in interactive advertising and marketing. Winners of the 5th annual @d:tech awards were announced Dec.2001. Awards list consists of the best overall in the category of industry-specific campaign or Web site and best campaign within the technology category; best consumer campaign in the category of audience-specific campaign, and best branding campaign in the category of objective-specific campaign; overall award in the Web site category, and best overall web design award in the same category. (C@ www.ad-tech.com/awards) 5. In Italy the most important Web sites have been awarded every year by Il Sole 24 Ore, the economic daily publisher. The Premio WWW consists of an array of awards for the best Website in each of 13 categories, plus the design-specific and the banner-specific awards. All best Web achievements are chosen through the opinion poll by Web surfers (C@ www.ilsole24ore.com/premiowww) These are the 5 locations I have selected for DMLR readers. They are not the unique specialized prizes for Web properties, managers, and agencies, of course, but we all have a lot to learn from these Internet-savvy judges awarding the excellence online.
IV. Direct Marketing. Measuring the marketing efforts and expenses is the most powerful advantage a DM campaign allows you as opposed to mass marketing or advertising campaign. The cost-vs-gain balance derives from the control you get on every step of the marketing process when you promote directly to a list of prospects. This is true in both cases of online and offline DM. The traditional DM —mail, telephone, coupon on pack— is the natural system for measuring redemption, so the best predictor of what you have to call return on investment (ROI). Even if you are testing or using the interactive medium that is the Internet, the first evaluation for online acting is how much ROI-oriented it is. Let's see the principles and formulas you have to consider in doing that control. - REDEMPTION as percentage of responses over the total number of contacts. Math formula, R = n. of responses / n. of contacts (x 100). - GROSS MARGIN as product price less product cost plus shipping cost, but excluded the costs for promoting the product. GM = unit price - unit costs per each item sold. - PROFIT as the difference between the gross margin and the cost per order. P = GM - CPO. Application. You send 7,506 postal pieces to promote an alarm and provide a mail order, for example (but they could be email messages at different price per unit). Cost per each mail piece €0.45 (euro). Mail replies returned 98, i.e. mail orders. Product list price €300.00 (enc. VAT = 50.00). Product costs amount to €125.00. You measure the campaign profitability as follows: R = 98/7506 (x 100) = 1.31 CPO = 0.45 x 7506 / 98 = €34.47 GM = 250 - 125 = €125 P = 125 - 34.47 = €90.53 Exercise. Fixed the GM as above, and established the goal for your profit margin —for instance 20%— how much should you spend per order? (Answer on DMLR*News Brief, May).
V. Linked Resources. Recently I have read the book titled "Planning Your Internet Marketing Strategy" by Ralph F. Wilson (Wiley & Sons, Inc., pp.256, US$19.95). This is the short review for the readers of DMLR*News. Among the deans on Web marketing, Dr. Wilson was one of my first sources of information since I kept reading his Web Marketing Today newsletter in 1997. It seems to me that the book mentioned is the summa of Wilson's Internet marketing strategy, so it's worthy of attention because it's deriving from an actual case history. A second quality of the book is the thorough list of what is important to think up, write down and really do before launching your own Web venture. Even though you are the smallest business in your country there is more than a chance to achieve success on the Net —as fine as an encouragement is the finding of your Unique Selling Proposition. Probably the very plain and simple language used by the author reveals the most interested readers should be the beginners or the young people who are approaching the Web world with genuine intentions —I mean for business! Third useful element to read this book is the steady reference to resources listed as URLs to reach when you get connected. So any topic touched upon on the book you can immediately deepen by other (American) listed web sites. To get details or a copy, click HERE (Amazon)!
VI. Mark (tm). I resolve to register it, so dmlr.org is becoming a trade mark (tm) or more exactly a service mark (sm)! What does it mean? After registering I will be able to emphasize the use of that name in doing business as Web marketing consultancy. Why do register a trade name? The registration of a mark allows the registrant (owner) to use in an exclusive way the mark and counter to other people using the same sign if they are offering the same product or service. What can you register as trade name? Everything is represented by signs such as word, figure, design, product packaging, slogan, in every color and shade. To talk frankly a trade mark must be graphically characterized and recognized as an original and distinctive medium of business. What's the procedure? In Italy you may first register a mark as long as 10 years. Each registration must affect one or more product or service classes. It exists a 45-class list, the so called Classification of Nice, France that reports the detailed classes of products (1 to 34) or services (35 to 45) for registering a mark. How much does it cost? The cost depends upon three factors: a) number of classes you're registering the mark for; b) the range of countries you want to protect it into; c) the complexity of the external factors to verify before registering. For example, I get you the expenses to register within two typical cases: - trade name for one class, Italy only = 400—500 euro (plus VAT); - trade name for one class, Europe extension = 2,000—2,500 euro. Personal tip. Dealing with the local chambre of commerce directly you can eventually drop the expenses because you avoid to pay the legal study or advertising company whose fee weighs often up to 50-70% of the total cost above. Many DMLR articles are a good resource to get prime information on the naming and branding of products. If you want to trade two words or more on this stuff, please contact me at www.dmlr.org/webmarketing/GO.htm.
VII. DMLR retrospective. DMLR's past 55 months online and years go by. Diggin' up the historic pages of DMLR, say the collection of the first two or three years' newsletter or magazine or guide, is possible thanks to the biggest archive the Net has ever had, the Internet Library, where over 10 billion pages are stored (1996 to now). Retrieving one page as it was is a task for curious researchers or scholars visiting the WayBack Machine at web.archive.org —to get response on DMLR lost pages, enter the old Web location as follows, http://space.tin.it/economia/rdondi. I have tried it and unexpectedly recovered some pages published in September 1998, so the far back DMLR history is even a little documented by this huge and startling record of the World Wide Web. To rest at present day I will remember the importance to use the internal search engine powered by Atomz when you want to keep pace with changes in DMLR. For example, since March beginning I added 19 new or up-to-date pages onto this website. Search by date is the best way to find all the newest documents if you are not interested in subscribing to DMLR*News. Or you had better meet the interactive services I set up for you as workshops and events at www.dmlr.org/webmarketing/EVE.htm. |
Roberto Dondi - word processing, HTML and the ropes.