Part 1: WebCritique, market intelligence and the power of viral promotions

Cheryl, thanks so much for talking to us. Tell us about your company WebCritique, and about your strong background in writing and web marketing.
WebCritique came about due to a number of circumstances, ideas and observations that have arisen over the past two years.

I'd looked at so many sites that weren't particularly good and had learned a great deal about site usability, web writing and promotion. Then friends and family started to ask for my advice about maximizing their website's performance. I realized that: 1) the majority of websites need substantial (and sometimes costly) tweaking, 2) that many web designers and company directors aren't very good with words and 3) that there are very few sites that get it right first time. So I saw an opportunity to offer website appraisals and personalized promotion plans to SME's, to help them fine tune their existing sites and to save them the time of having to find sites to register on, link to/from, advertise on, etc.

WebCritique has been trading for just over two months and I've had nothing but positive feedback so far from all of my customers and now have some resellers of my site appraisals and promotion plans who are generating good business (for themselves and me). My customer base now includes companies from the UK, US, Greece and China. My Maximum Impact Website Appraisal Reports, Personalized Web Promotion Plans and Web Copyediting services are now 'going down a storm'.

Tell us about your unique Market intelligence Report and what it entails.
The Market Intelligence Report is part of WebCritique's Personalised Web Promotion Plan. The aim of the plan is to save people the time of finding sites to promote on and to help them optimise their online marketing efforts. For this section of the plan people get a personalised and researched report on what their three main online competitors do and don't offer; plus advice on how to use this information to improve their own offers. The other sections of the plan include:

• Researched recommendations: a list of websites, e-zines and directories that relate to their business/website/industry that they should submit announcements, articles and press releases to, register their site on, request links from and advertise in.
• A 2-month Internet Marketing Plan to help them on their way.
• A short press release they can submit online or offline.

What is a common problem you find on many client websites?
Usability problems are fairly common, but the most common is poor readability through the use of dark backgrounds, small font sizes, large chunks of text and lack of compelling headlines. In fact, the most common mistake I see being made by so many sites is slow load speed of their home page. The rule still stands. People can't be bothered to wait more than 10 or 20 seconds (absolute maximum) for your site to load. If it does, they'll click away to a competitor's site. So give them what they want and quickly!

Why is viral marketing important and how does it work to build up a strong subscriber base?
Viral marketing offline is simply called 'word of mouth' and has always been one of the best marketing tools to bring results. You must have a good or exciting offer or information for viral marketing to work. Large corporations, such as Virgin, have used the power of their brand awareness (everyone in the UK knows Virgin) and viral marketing strategies to lower acquisition costs and promote their site and products successfully. By sending an e-mail to just 25 people that announced a '30,000 free cinema ticket giveaway' and asking that they pass the message on, the free tickets were claimed within hours and those who got them also visited the Virgin site, many of them buying. The acquisition cost was minimal and the power of e-mail and word of mouth brought great results.

To boost your subscriber list you should always include some text in your e-zine asking your subscribers to forward the issue to two or more friends, and include a 'tell your friends about this site' or Recommend-It button on your website, to make it easy for people to do so.

How do you make your e-mail stand out above the rest?
Just as the headline is the most important part of any advert or direct mail shot, the subject line is the most crucial element of any e-mail. We all get e-mail and we all know which ones we don't even bother to open. Any that have "!!!!!!!!" or "YOU HAVE WON", or are mainly in caps, they're history. The subject line needs to summarize the content of your e-mail in a crisp and compelling one-liner. So, rather than saying 'James's site update', say 'Web marketing tips that guarantee results'.

You can also enhance your brand identity by using e-letterheads. And always, always use a signature file.

Continued...