Elements of a Web Marketing Philosophy

Dealing with a customer's concerns is one aspect of marketing, but getting him there in the first place is even more important. The more information you can give your potential customer on your field or industry, the more likely she is to find you on the Web search engines -- sheer number of Web pages counts, and the more helpful the title sounds, the more likely she is to click on it and come to your pages.

I could agree with the above view fully if only another medium of web could have been discussed. Web is primarily a graphical medium. Web marketers have over-learned the dictum that you shouldn't have many graphics on your site in order to minimize download time. Your Web pages must look attractive if you expect to capture your Web visitors' attention, to convince that your company is a high quality, reputable firm, able to deliver on your promises. Excellent photographs, sized appropriately, contribute to a high class look and feel. Don't just scan in snapshots. Spend enough on either stock photography or custom shots that photos tell your story with panache.

Web Marketing is so new, and each of our businesses so different from each other, that no one has it all figured out. Constant experimentation is the only way to maximize your business on the Web. And constant experimentation requires that you bring your updating function in-house. By all means hire experts to bring excellence to the look and feel of your Web presence, but then train someone on your staff to make minor changes to the pages, or learn HTML yourself -- it's not rocket science.