Part 1: Understanding target markets and common needs

Hi Philippa, could you describe the process you go through when analyzing a new e-business client. What are some of the main things you are looking for?
My first step is to work through with them an in-depth questionnaire that I've developed. It helps us to analyze their business, their markets and the goals and outcomes that they want from their online activities. It invariably brings up issues that they hadn't considered, even though they might think of themselves as pretty marketing savvy. Not to say that I'm especially brilliant, it's more the effect of having an objective and new third party look at their strategy.

The most important thing that I'm looking for is a clear understanding of who the target markets are for their online business and why those prospects would be coming to them. Often, I find that they haven't fully analyzed this and sometimes there can be markets for a website that are different from the traditional, real-world markets of the business.

For instance, I have a client whose main business is providing management-training programs around creating respectful workplaces. They are employment lawyers and their website contains hundreds of pages of in-depth legal information and analysis. We realized that many employees come to the site researching their rights.

We then developed some online tools to help them which are instantly available after payment and are selling very well, so we've created a whole new revenue stream. But these employees are not at all the buyers of training packages who are the traditional markets for the business.

Can you talk about the different issues involved in trying to get everyone on board in regard to the company's online presence?
Often the major issues are around getting buy-in for the online business from all management and staff involved. There are still many people who (often understandably) are resistant to working in this environment, or who just don't get it.

There's also often the organizational issue of where the website belongs, especially for budgeting purposes. The problem here is that, to me, it doesn't necessarily belong in any one place. It has such an overall impact on your business that it's not just an IT thing, or a marketing tool, or an operational cost. So, traditional turf and accounting issues really need to be discussed and overcome in this context.

And, there are personal involvements. I often like to say that the Internet is constantly evolving, and we need to learn and evolve with it, but do so without personal attachments. I worked with an organization that had a really awful splash page, all black, except for a logo and the page led to another entry page with three "enter here" choices on it.

Apparently, the Marketing Director was very attached to the splash page, and opposing all efforts to remove it. We were able to show him from the traffic analysis that they were losing 30% of new visitors at this point before they even saw the site. That was evidence that he couldn't argue and it went! But without the traffic reports, we'd have been unable to convince him.

Your client list runs the gamut from Citibank to the Missouri Arts Council. What are some of the common online needs of businesses, both large and small?
I think really knowing the target audiences for the site, and being open to new ideas for this. Then, understanding how to clearly "ask for the business." There are so many sites that provide excellent information, but tail off without asking for any interaction with me.

Also, providing excellent customer service and making it very easy to do business with your company - many of the Fortune 100 have been criticized for slow, or non-existent responses to email. I was on three different websites this morning, all belonging to companies that you've heard of, and in every case, I was unable to complete the transaction that I wanted due to an apparent problem with the site. So make sure that you can and do fulfill what you promise, at whatever level that might be.

The other major area, which I find very few businesses are doing well so far, is in understanding the traffic analysis for your site. There is a wealth of information in this, which can be used to develop your overall business strategy, as well as your Web activities.

You can really begin to understand the cost of acquiring and keeping online customers, and thus establish an idea of the ROI (return on investment). You can also see pretty clearly how effective your site is in terms of ease of use, and generating the outcomes that you're looking for. But usually, Web traffic reports look like a lot of complex numbers or graphs that very few people can understand, or use to make strategic decisions.

Continued...