These top Internet
marketing tips to keep your communications savvy and successful.
"New media" lawyers Jennifer Shih, Mark Fowler, Kristen McVeety, and Mark Lerner of Satterlee Stephens Burke & Burke LLP use technology to collaborate on a project.
Marketing via the Internet is an integral reason why Terri Morrison's company, Getting Through Customs (www.getcustoms.com) has grown and profited. She and partner, Wayne Conaway, train executives to understand local habits and culture in business or social settings abroad. Their company created a database of reports on every country imaginable and the unique behavior, conversation styles, negotiating tactics, or other details that every traveler needs to know. The information is conveyed through books, on disks, in seminars, via e-mail, and the World Wide Web. Not using all the available delivery systems might overlook a potential customer, says Morrison, and the benefits of all that exposure far outweighs the costs.
Clever Ways to Draw Visitors
The Getting Through Customs
site has many quizzes on business and social customs. Correct answers
sent via e-mail could win someone a copy of their latest book while providing
a low-cost prospect list to the company. It's the electronic version
of a restaurant's fish bowl with drawings for a free meal.
Tip #1: Send your best clients reminders of sales, new products, referrals,
or interesting articles via e-mail. E-mail is much less expensive
than a long distance call. And e-mail gives you the personal touch that
mail or fax brochures usually don't. Caution! Use e-mail judiciously;
avoid becoming a nuisance by sending only valuable information to these
important clients.
| Tip #2: Offer Free Information. This can demonstrate a company's expertise and provide the company a chance to showcase its employees, a competitive strategy, or a unique work style, says Mark Fowler, a partner at the New York law firm, Satterlee Stephens Burke & Burke LLP. The 50-attorney firm lists biographies of its attorneys at its website, www.ssbb.com. That information would be much more costly to publish in an industry guide or brochure, he says, and prospective clients can learn about the firm's staff without asking uncomfortable questions in person. |
Satterlee attorneys David Leit, Mark Fowler, and Suzanne Kaiser are committed to leveraging technology to benefit their clients. |
Tip #3: As a smart business,
you should be checking the web, too. Look at competitors' sites
to see what they are offering for free, how often they update their sites,
and whether they offer valuable information to your potential clients.
Fowler says a number of clients are shifting
to regular use of e-mail and web-based research. By keeping up with them,
Satterlee Stephens developed new opportunities in media law, intellectual
property, and other Internet legal matters.
Maybe There's
a New Business for Your Business
For Irv Safra, the shift
in technology meant redefining his company. The Fax Bureau Inc., www.faxbureau.com,
in Southampton, PA, chose to provide "communications re-engineering" for
large corporations. Its initial fax broadcasting business was becoming
an over-offered service, and it needed to find higher value projects with
greater profit margins. Safra, the company's chief operating officer,
said the four-person company has redefined its focus three times in its
five-year life span. To stay flexible, Safra suggests asking questions
like "Why am I in business?" or "What can I do that's different from
the competition?"
Tip #4: Identify your objectives before seeking out the technology
to achieve them. The Fax Bureau's core clients were large chemical
companies that send out federally required safety data about its products.
By identifying the company's objectives, Safra now wants to be a clearinghouse
for companies that need to reach clients on short notice, such as hotels
that want to alert visitors or travel agents when good deals on unsold
rooms are available. Clients and recipients will choose whether to get
information via phone, fax, e-mail, print, or at the website.
Another new service is an automated fax letter retrieval system. Once
someone calls in to identify the recipient's name and fax number,
a company's customized thank-you letter or "here's more information"
letter can be sent out quickly with a detailed report of who received
which letters and on what date.
Tip #5: Find out which method of communication your clients prefer
and try to stick it. Make it easy to do business by including your
address or phone number on your website if you want direct contact. Or
include an e-mail response page so people can send you inquiries electronically
while visiting your site.
Tip #6: Don't miss the basic technologies. Even basic technology
can make a difference. For more than three years the innovative New York
marketing company, GOCard, was doubling its business every year. It prints
and distributes promotional postcards to more than 1,700 locations nationwide
for advertising companies and their clients. GOCard President Alan Wolan
says the switch to voice mail lets his 12 employees control their important
communications and never miss a message from the various people involved
in each project.
"We've improved communications with our clients tremendously," says
Wolan. The company now spreads the word about itself by posting examples
of its postcards at www.gocard.com and printing its web address and phone
number on every card they produce, Wolan says.
David Wallace is a business writer in Philadelphia, PA who reports
on emerging companies and technology for The New York Times, The Philadelphia
Inquirer and several national magazines. He can be reached at dwallace@compuserve.com.
To browse other articles in Bell Atlantic's most recent issue of Update magazine, visit the online version.
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