Archive for the ‘Internet’ Category

Building a Website: Should Your Business Go It Alone?

Internet, Marketing, Web Sites | Posted by Larry Greenberg
Oct 19 2010

Creating a website is within the financial means of virtually any organization.

First, a company can reserve an available domain – the web address (www.examplecompany.com) – for less than $10 a year.

Second, the business can purchase a hosting plan from Verizon, Blue Host, Go Daddy, 1and1 Internet and countless other providers.  Plans are available for as little as $5 a month and typically include free use of existing web templates, ecommerce and blogging tools, contact forms, traffic analytics and the ability to set up hundreds of email addresses under a company’s domain (e.g., john.doe@examplecompany.com).    There are also free blogging platforms such as WordPress, which now offer a diverse set of features and more flexibility than many of the templates offered under the hosting plans.  Many hosts such as Blue Host and 1and1 Internet allow for easy installation of WordPress software.

In short, for a small monetary investment, a business can plant its flag on the web without the assistance of a professional web designer.   WordPress and other platforms have Content Management Systems (CMS) that enable non-techies to update and edit text, images, video and audio at will, without having to rely on the availability of a webmaster.

But should your business go it alone? Here are some things to consider before making that decision:

  • Opportunity costs:   Are the low upfront fees worth the many additional in-house staff hours required to research and set up the site, as well as manage technical and design issues that will inevitably crop up with even the simplest plug-and-play hosting service?  Each hosting platform and template builder, although created for the non-developer/programmer, involves a learning curve.  How adeptly will you and your staff pick up on the technology?
  • What types of functionality should the site have – and will it cost extra?
  • How much bandwidth and storage capacity will the site require and are there additional fees involved?
  • How should the site be optimized so search engines will rank them high in search results (Search Engine Optimization)?
  • How is the site prepared to deal with malware and other security issues?
Before delving into these technical considerations, a business needs a marketing strategy for its site.  What purpose will the site serve?  Who is the target audience? What key messages should it convey?
Developing a website marketing strategy will be the topic of an upcoming post.

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More Small Businesses See Value of Websites

Audience Engagement, Branding, Internet, Marketing, Public Relations | Posted by Larry Greenberg
Oct 06 2010

Small businesses are finally beginning to appreciate the value of having a website, if recent surveys are any indication.

In late 2009, Ad-ology, a marketing and advertising research firm, conducted a survey that found that 46 percent of small businesses did not have a website.

Only six months later, another report sponsored by Network Solutions and the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business, indicated that about 67 percent of small businesses plan to have a website by mid 2012. That same report said small businesses don’t plan to abandon their website in favor of a social media-only approach.  Instead, 30 percent of those who use social media said social media is the reason they intend to spend more on their websites.

Another study by American City Business Journals (ACBJ) of over 1700 small and medium businesses (SMB) found that those whose owners are more involved with the Internet overall enjoy a greater market share than their less web-engaged owners.

Search engines have become the ultimate business reference desk.  People seeking information about an important product or service purchase will conduct an online search, hoping to learn more about their subject, as well as available providers and, if possible, those providers’ credibility.  Businesses that don’t have websites risk being defined by others – or worse, not found at all.  The days of letting your fingers do the walking through the yellow pages or dialing 4-1-1 are over.

Websites enable small businesses to do the following:

  • Describe concisely what the business does, its intended customers, and the problems and needs it solves
  • Build credibility by presenting information that underscores its expertise and conveys its integrity
  • Showcase a unique brand, helping to convey the company’s personality, and the set of attributes that set it apart from the competition
  • Establish a direct communications channel that allows prospects to contact the business directly, while those prospects are in the process of making a purchasing decision;  it’s also a platform for facilitating customer care
So what are the first steps for business owners who may be undertaking the creation of a website?  That will be the topic of the next post.

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Internet Marketing: Assuming the Mindset of a Media Company

Audience Engagement, Branding, Internet, Marketing, Public Relations | Posted by Larry Greenberg
Sep 27 2010

“Every company is a media company,” says Tom Foremski, the former Financial Times journalist.

Foremski is the force behind The Silicon Valley Watcher, which follows the business of technology and media. He also has a new website called, suitably enough, Every Company is a Media Company.  Foremski writes regularly about how the Internet, social networks and other types of digital media have radically changed the way we communicate – consumer to consumer, business to consumer, business to business.

Regardless of an organization’s size and structure – e.g., S-Corp., local service provider, or a multi-divisional international corporation – having a credible web presence has become essential to marketing and sales.   As I recently told a group of small business owners at the Mount Vernon Business Expo, a company’s strategy need not be extravagant.  In developing a strategy, however, businesses can benefit by assuming a mindset that is similar to that of a media company:  How can I be of use to my visitors?  What kind of information do they want and need?   By acting as a media company would, brands can build credibility and good will with target audiences and increase the frequency with which it engages prospects and customers.  Behaving like a media company means also abandoning the hard-sell and offering one’s expert advice without the expectation of a reciprocal sale.  The paradox, of course, is that the goal of such selflessness will lead to more sales in the future.

The financial barriers to web marketing are typically pretty low.  The time barriers – the amount of time that must be continually invested for a successful program – can be high.   Posts in the weeks to come will be written for the online marketing novice – the business owner or organization director seeking to understand the basics of creating a web presence and what type of investments, monetary and otherwise, are required.  I hope others who have already initiated Internet marketing programs will share their thoughts as well.

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The Promise of Hyper-local News Sites

Advertising, Internet, Journalism, Newspapers | Posted by Larry Greenberg
Sep 09 2010

More than 20 years ago, right out of college, I worked as a stringer for a chain of news weeklies in Westchester County, New York.  I was assigned to report on the regularly scheduled sessions of town and village councils, as well as various government boards.  Some meetings lasted hours, often ending well after midnight.  On a few occasions, things dragged on thanks to inane bickering among a few board members with personal scores to settle.  On the whole, however, it seemed that our locally elected representatives were taking great care to make sure they got right the minutia of zoning, planning and other matters affecting their municipality’s fiscal stability and quality-of-life.

From that experience, I took away little in monetary compensation. I did gain the glory of my first byline, as well as a fat portfolio of clips.  I was also able to provide a few thousand of my neighbors with news of value to them, the non-controversial, but relevant information that would almost never find a place in the pages of the larger dailies.

Today the Internet continues to wreak havoc with the traditional newspaper model.  Publishers continue to reduce editorial staffs, as well as cut reporters’ salaries and benefits, due to disappearing ad revenues.   In order to make a living wage, some journalists have left the business for good.  As budgets are reduced, there are justifiable fears that content designed to entertain and incite will push out the type of dispassionate, in-depth journalism that serves the public good.

‘Creative destruction’ is used to describe an industry experiencing painful restructuring.  The term sounds cold-hearted.   But it’s hard to assess what this tumult will produce in 5 or 10 years time.  There is certainly one development that looks very positive – the emergence of hyper-local news sites.

Organizations such as Baristanet.com and Patch, which last year was bought by AOL, have established networks of hyper-local news sites designed to empower entrepreneurial and civic-minded journalists, photographers and videographers. Both organizations focus on underserved communities, providing extensive reporting about happenings at the neighborhood level.  Patch is particularly ambitious.  It now operates about 100 sites in 10 states, and AOL has plans to invest $50 million in order to launch about 500 more sites by year’s end.   Thanks to the Internet’s low publishing costs, hyper-local news sites can provide a volume of micro-level coverage not previously offered by dailies and weeklies. The question remains whether there are enough advertising and other revenue sources to make this model viable in the long run.

Hyper-local news sites may not be a replacement for traditional newsrooms, but they seem able to serve the public good in a way that the news dailies and weeklies of yore never could.

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Are Advertisers Ready to Embrace Baby Boomers?

Advertising, Audience Demographics, Audience Engagement, Internet, Marketing, Media, Social Media, Television | Posted by Larry Greenberg
Aug 31 2010

Is it time for advertisers to cast aside 50 year-old assumptions about 50 year-olds?

Pew just released a study that reports social networking among the over-50 set has nearly doubled – from 22 percent in April 2009 to 42 percent in May 2010. Although still heavily dependent on email, “many older users now rely on social network platforms to help manage their daily communications,” said Pew Senior Research Specialist Mary Madden, author of the report.  “Young adults continue to be the heaviest users of social media, but their growth pales in comparison with recent gains made by older users.”

Indeed, wrote Nielsen, 8 of the 10 most frequently visited web sites for 18 to 34-year-olds are the same for baby boomers, the generation born between 1946 and 1964. Nielsen also reported that the boomers spend 38.5 percent of Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) dollars, yet less than 5 percent of advertising dollars are targeted toward the 35 to 64-year old age group.

Baby boomers number 79 million, according to USA Today, the largest age demographic in the nation.  Are advertisers missing an opportunity with this enormous group?  Are marketers still wedded to the notion, which became conventional wisdom some 50 years ago during television’s early days, that most advertising dollars should be spent in pursuit of the youth market? Or are we about to witness a shift in advertisers’ approach to older consumers?

Boomers, said Pat McDonough, Senior Vice President, Insights, Analysis and Policy at the Nielsen Company, “… are the largest single group of consumers, and a valuable target audience. As the U.S. continues to age, reaching this group will continue to be critical for advertisers.”

The television audience is getting older as well.  Forbes recently reported that the median viewing age for the four largest national broadcast networks is 51 years-old. The average age increase reflects in part the dwindling numbers of young people who watch the networks.

As a result, TV’s share of the advertising pie continues to shrink. A joint survey by ANA (Association of National Advertisers) and Forrester Research of more than 100 national advertisers showed that advertisers allocated only 41 percent of their media budgets to television in 2009, down from 58 percent in our 2008.  But that same survey also showed that about 80 percent of advertisers believe the 30-second spot will still be around in 10 years.

So as brands reassess their marketing mix, with branded entertainment and the Internet playing a bigger role, will they also reconsider their demographic strategy?  Instead of focusing predominantly on 18 to 34 year-olds, will advertisers also try selling more to older audiences?  Alan Wurtzel, president of research and development at NBC, told Forbes that advertisers are beginning to take a second look at this demographic.

This would likely please late-night host Craig Ferguson, who shared his own thoughts on television’s youth marketing strategy in a funny rant last year.  (See “Appealing to the Youngest Common Denominator.)

Most of all, it should make advertisers happy, as they see their sales increase.

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