Techno-Phobes Welcome

~ Using the Web for Marketing Isn’t About Technology ~

© 2004 Trisha Torrey

Q: I have a Web site for my small business, but it’s not doing anything for me. My nephew built it in 1998, and I know it’s time to change it, but I don’t know how to do it myself and I’m afraid I’ll crash my computer. Even if I could do it, I don’t know what to put there. Help me!

A. Now that use of the World Wide Web has been adopted by the mainstream, and computers with Internet access can be found in most homes and businesses, there’s a secret you should know. Using the Web to communicate effectively is not about technology! Instead, it’s about making sure your messages are understood by the right people and influencing them to do business with you. That’s marketing.

When you ride by a billboard on the highway, does it matter who is driving your car? When you create a new brochure for your business, do you have to know how to run the printing press? When you purchase an item in the store, do you care who put it on the shelf? Probably not. Those functions are handled by professionals who have been hired to deliver those goods or messages. But they are just the vehicles – not the messages themselves.

And so it is with using the Internet as a vehicle for promoting the success of your organization; it’s not about technology – it’s about effective communicating. So if you have a good sense for marketing your business or communicating for your organization, but you’ve avoided use of the Web because you don’t like the technology involved, take heart!

Redeveloping your Web site should begin with basic marketing and communications strategies, the kinds that can motivate your target audiences to react the way you want them to -- call you, buy something from you, or send you an email. That’s true whether your delivery vehicle is a billboard, a printed advertisement, a press release, a brochure – or a Web site.

Just as you take your goods or services to the marketplace using a combination of skills and services, so it is with creation of a public Web site. Your best approach is to hire out those skills that will compliment yours – the people who can drive that Web vehicle for you. But be careful! The key to success is finding the right skill set. There is a difference between a Web marketing specialist and a Web developer who is simply a programmer.

Would you ask your car mechanic to plan your vacation? Of course not. And so it is the same with asking a Web programmer to develop your marketing Web site for you. While he has the know-how to make the programming function properly, he probably does not have the ability to present the information in a way that motivates your Web site visitors to call you, buy something from you, or send you an email.

When researching possible partners to help you develop your new Web site, be sure to ask questions about their background in marketing and their knowledge of using the Internet to influence your audiences to do business with you. Don’t let them dazzle you with technology buzzwords. Knowledge of the technology involved is vitally important, but when you also hear them using marketing terminology, and explaining how to translate that to your new Web site, then you’ll know you’ve found people who can help you

With your marketing-technology partnership established, you’ll have the team in place to redevelop your site – and hopefully the technology will no longer be so daunting! Next month we’ll talk about establishing goals for your site and figuring out what your site visitors want and need to know.

Trisha Torrey, owner of IntegriMark Communications and author of http://411, has been helping businesses score on the Web since the mid-1990s. From large corporations, to non-profit organizations, to individual entrepreneurs, her advice, planning and development services have helped raise the Web marketing bar while keeping a keen eye on the bottom line.

Email questions to her at: questions@http-411.com .