The Perils of Poor Online Strategy

Let's face it the internet is today a part and parcel of our lives. Unless you are in the business of selling blankets to Eskimos, your target consumer (or most of them) would be accessing the internet.

Just for a moment stop thinking you are a hot shot marketer and think like a consumer. Would you survive for a week without reading your email? Or if you are considering purchasing a LCD TV would you not Google first to check out your options? In case you need to service your product would you not try and look up the company’s website for the service center?

Now get back into your work shoes. Your consumers are no different. The internet is increasingly becoming the first point of information search and probably the last point of opinion formation. If one of the hundreds of user groups is shouting down your product do you think a prospective buyer would be too impressed? Or if the consumer were to come to your site and not find the relevant info on the latest products you launched on national television would he be too impressed?

Not Likely. And this sadly is the truth about most marketers today the world over. The lack of Vision and strategy when it comes to the World Wide Web.

The reasons are not hard to come by and here are some of the most popular ones (we have added a rejoinder to make for interesting reading):

Ok so what am I trying to say? It’s quite simple really if you extend traditional sales and marketing wisdom to the World Wide Web. And the analogies are equally straightforward.

The internet is another channel through which your consumer interacts with you. In the physical world this could be your company store or franchise. Now when you roll out a marketing and sales strategy for your products and services how much effort do you take to ensure that your stores are well briefed and capable of handling consumer enquiries. You go that extra mile to ensure they are well manned and well trained as well. Your communication ensures that the interested consumer is directed to your physical storefront.

But when it comes to the Internet do you do the equivalent? Here is a checklist that you might consider ticking off

• Is your website updated with the same amount of information as your physical channels in the same time frame?
• Does your web site have anyone dedicated (akin to a sales person of a physical store) to handle customers when they come in?
• Does your online strategy seek to generate traffic for your website?
• Do you have a strategy to direct a website visitor to an ultimate sale?

Ignore the internet at your own peril. We have seen most companies spend far less on their online strategy than on a couple of physical stores. The frequent justification is that the sale comes from these stores. Yet companies fail to recognize that the stages on information search and opinion formation across most categories takes place online. It is only after that that consumers walk into the physical storefront. While most corporates are still living in the "website" era smart marketers are moving ahead with a comprehensive online strategy (read the Samsung Wideo Case study for an example). Where you take your company is really up to your wisdom