..........Ed Taylor

Florists' Review
December 2000

Web Site Savvy

The country's foremost Internet marketing expert, Ed Taylor, shares simple but essential tips for building a great Web site or improving a mediocre one.

Like it or not, the day is coming when marketing products and services over the Internet will be the standard method, and a presence on the Internet will he required for every business. And as the proliferation of retail Web sites continues, competition for visitors is becoming more intense.

To help you give your business a competitive advantage on the World Wide Web, we sat down with Internet marketing expert Ed Taylor, president of Internet Marketing Group in Ashland, Ore., to discuss how to draw consumers to Web sites and entice them to stay.

F.R.: First of all, does every business really need a Web site?

E.T.: Maybe not today, but soon. The Internet is being used by more and more people every day for all sorts of functions. It is driving the most dynamic change in communication and commerce in history, and it will become a staple part of everyone's life in the next decade. In order to survive and succeed in the future, every business will eventually need to have a presence on the Internet.

F.R.: How and where does a florist start building a Web site?

ET: Planning is the first step in developing a Web site. And the place to start is identifying goals and objectives for the site. Decide what you want your Web site to cause people to do, and do this before a computer programmer, graphic artist, or Web site developer ever gets involved.

A lot of people put up sites without having decided what they want to accomplish. Having just an e-brochure about your business or just wanting a presence on the Internet are not adequate reasons for having a Web site. A Web site should generate something that is meaningful to your business, something that is measurable or quantifiable, such as sales or new customer leads.

F.R.: What about florists who already have Web sites but haven't done this planning?

ET: I advise them to wipe their mental slates clean and start over. They must identify some goals and objectives for their sites.

FR.: What are the next steps in planning a Web site?

ET: Define your target market(s), so you can develop a Web site that will appeal to that market(s). Think about how you can best present your products, services, or information to your target markets using your Web site.

During this process, visit your competitors' Web sites and identify their strengths and weaknesses. Then establish your differentiation point or what I call your "power point." What is it that separates your products, services, or information from those of your competitors?

This is crucial. You must describe the benefits that customers will receive as a result of doing business with you. Show that you specialize in something. Do you carry an exclusive line of products, or do you have a larger selection, lower prices, higher quality, better service, faster delivery? Then, whatever power point(s) you define, back up your claims with proof or facts.

Also, it's a good idea to find out what noncompetitive types of Web sites people in your target market visit, and evaluate a few of those, too.

F.R.: Are we finished with the planning process yet?

ET: Not quite. Two other steps remain: creating what I call a "pull component" for your Web site and determining the action you want consumers to take when they visit your site. And the two are related.

F.R.: What's pull component?

ET: Something that will pull your target market to your site, such as a free offer. A free product, service, or information - something that's relevant to your business that your target market wants, needs, and can use are excellent "freebies" for Web site visitors.

On my Web site, I give a free report entitled, "The Ten Fatal Flaws of Internet Marketing". For florists, maybe it's "Seven Steps to Better Flower Arrangements At Home", "Five Tips for Increasing the Life of Cut Flowers", or "Ten Common Mistakes Brides-to-be Make When Choosing Wedding Flowers" - something like that.

You must give people a compelling reason to visit your site. Customers have to make a conscious decision to visit a Web site; it doesn't just happen.

Spend some time coming up with and developing a great free offer for your target market, and if it's wanted, needed, or useful, and if it has a perceived value, it will pull visitors to your site.

F.R.: How can a pull component draw people to a site if they don't know about it until they visit the site?

ET: Once you've established your pull component, you must constantly advertise it in all of your "off-line" marketing, including direct marketing fliers, brochures, and post cards; statements, business cards, stationery, and fax cover sheets; and even on-hold messages.

F.R.: Does everyone who visits my Web site get this free offer?

ET: No. In order to get your free offer, you require visitors to take whatever action you decide you want them to take during the planning process. Perhaps it's filling out a form. If that's the desired action, and if you ask for the right kind of information on the form, you will be able to compile a database of prospective customers to whom you can market your products and services in the future. Obtaining consumer-related information that's important to your business is a great objective for your Web site.

F.R.: When our planning is finished, what's the first step in actually building a Web site?

ET: The first step is putting together a Web site development team. This team should consist of the owner or president of the company, members from various departments, a computer programmer or two, possibly a graphic artist, possibly a copywriter or content developer, and an Internet marketing specialist who can oversee the development and integration of all the components of the Web site.

F.R.: Is it really necessary to have an Internet marketing specialist?

ET: Yes! A good Internet marketing specialist will provide the direction necessary to make sure that your site is designed and programmed to maximize the likelihood of achieving the business-building result you desire.

I strongly advise that you never use a computer programmer or graphic artist as your Internet marketing advisor. Although those people are great at what they do, they're usually marketing adverse. You need both of them to be a part of the development process, but depending on them to make sure your Web site will produce business-oriented results is a mistake.

F.R.: Besides hiring Web site development companies or computer programmers and graphic artists, what options exist for developing Web sites?

ET: There are lots of Web site development software programs available that help you create a site. Two good ones are Macromedia Dreamweaver and Microsoft Frontpage. In a recent issue, PC Magazine evaluated and ranked several of the most popular programs.

You can also hire Web programming and graphic arts students to develop a site for you, probably for a few hundred dollars. Contact the computer sciences department at a nearby college or university.

Another option is Internet service providers (ISP). They typically offer Web site building and hosting services.

F.R.: What is the most common mistake people make when designing a Web site?

ET: Most people don't start with any goals and objectives in mind. Instead, they start with the home page, and that's the wrong place to start. You should start with whatever will get visitors to take the action you previously decided you want them to take.

F.R.: Once you get people to your Web site, how do you entice them to stay for a while?

ET: First, you must make the content interesting to your target market. And the content is determined by the goals and objectives you set during the planning process.

Once you get people to your Web site, you don't want to bore them to death. Captivate them with powerful headlines and romance them with descriptive text. Hire a good copywriter to generate compelling content for your site. It's not that expensive, and it makes all the difference in the world.

F.R.: How much and what types of information should be provided on a Web site?

ET: Your Web site visitors must understand what separates you from your competitors, and it's crucial that they realize how they will benefit by using your products and services. Make your messages benefit oriented, not feature or sales oriented. Benefits are powerful; features are boring. List as many benefits of your products and services as you can, and tell people how buying or using your products and services will benefit them rather than what your products will do.

For example, instead of saying only that you offer delivery service, explain how your delivery service can save customers precious time by preventing them from having to mail or deliver another type of gift themselves.

In getting these points across, it's important to provide only as much information about your products and services as is needed, then stop. Don't overwhelm visitors with more information than they need. Stay on target.

F.R.: In addition to generating customer leads and additional sales, what kinds of things can a Web site do for a business?

ET: A well-designed and well-marketed Web site can also help you reduce your expenses, especially those associated with customer communication. Direct marketing online is more cost-effective than using postal mail. Administering your reminder service and notifying customers about expanded store hours, sales and specials, new products, and changes on your Web site via e-mail is also more cost-effective than with traditional methods. Even recruiting employees online is less costly than placing classified ads in newspapers.

Also, providing online access to information that customers commonly request as well as having an online customer service department will reduce the number of calls coming into your shop.

F.R.: In addition to a pull component, what other suggestions do you have for drawing people to a Web site?

ET: Businesses must develop marketing strategies and campaigns to promote their Web sites the same way they promote their products and services. And one of the best groups to market products and services to is newsgroups.

Newsgroups are bunches of people who get together to talk about a certain topic, hobby, or interest. Currently, there are about 47,000 newsgroups on the Internet discussing every imaginable subject. You can go to any of the search engines and add "newsgroups" to the end of your search word(s). For florists, viable search words might include flower, flower arranging, plants, houseplants, gardening, and so on.

Perhaps the most important and often overlooked strategy is submitting your site to the major search engines like Yahoo!, Excite, AltaVista, and Lycos - there are more than 300. All you have to do is visit each search engine's Web site, and you'll find instructions for submitting your site.

F.R.: Do search engines accept every Web site that is submitted?

ET: No, but there are some secrets to success with search engines. First, it's important to know how search engines work. When a Web site is submitted, the search engines send out "spiders" to that site to evaluate it using a bunch of different criteria. Following the evaluation, the search engines assign a relevancy rating to each site. Those are the percentages you see at the left of the listings when you do a Web search.

F.R.: What can a florist do to increase the chance of being accepted by search engines and to get as high a relevancy rating as possible?

ET: There are several things you can do to optimize your Web site for the search engines. First, put your key words or search words in larger fonts; by doing so, many search engines will think your site is more about that subject and will give it a higher ranking.

Second, establish strategic page titles, and be sure they include your search words. Also, make sure your web pages have an adequate search word density. And position your site to be found even if search words are misspelled.

Search engines also look at how many people visit your site and how long they stay as criteria for ranking sites. If you're rejected by a search engine, monitor the rejection, and resubmit your site when changes have been made.

For more information on Web site development and marketing or to schedule an audit of your Web site or an evaluation of your Web site plan, contact Ed Taylor at (888) ED-TAYLOR (338-2956) or ed@internetmarketinggroup.com, or you can visit www.internetmarketinggroup.com.

Be sure to inquire about Mr. Taylor's monthly newsletter and his booklet; 50 Simple Steps To Building Your Business On the World Wide Web.

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