Essential Business Tactics for the Net - Softcover

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A renegade veteran of twelve years on Madison Avenue, LARRY CHASE is an international Internet marketing expert who has consulted with New York Life, 3Com, Nasdaq, Con Edison, EDS, Electrolux, Auto-By-Tel, 1-800-FLOWERS, and other Fortune 500 companies. He founded the first online ad agency and is the publisher of Web Digest For Marketers. His interviews, articles, reviews, and columns appear in such publications as Advertising Age, Bottom Line Business, DM News, and Inc. magazine. His insights on the Internet are sought after by such media giants as The New York Times, BusinessWeek, USA Today, CBS, CNN, and CNBC as well as scores of trade journals and newsletters.

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"A great primer for anyone who wants to excel in e–marketing! Larry Chase covers all the basics in this ′must have′ book for online marketers."– Patricia Seybold, author, Customers.com and The Customer Revolution

From the nation′s #1 Internet business expert: how to work faster, cheaper, and smarter inside your company, while implementing strategic marketing tactics outside your company.

The founder of the first online ad agency, Larry Chase was developing successful Internet business, marketing, and sales strategies long before most people had ever heard the word "cyberspace." In his new book, Chase reveals insider′s secrets and tips, garnered from his own experiences and those of his clients, on how to exploit the Net for all it′s worth. You′ll be armed with an arsenal of strategies and tactics that will keep you one step ahead of your competitors.

You′ll learn how to use the Net to:

? Increase purchasing power and reduce operating costs

? Find free information that other people pay for

? Conduct competitive reconnaissance missions

? Test new products, services, and ideas while developing your brand

? Prospect for new business and

create instant, inbound leads

? Build new markets for your products and services

? Design and implement direct marketing, sales, and PR strategies

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Part Two

Integrating the Internet into Your Marketing

Your Brand Image and the Internet Just because you're not Tony the Tiger or the Jolly Green Giant doesn't mean you shouldn't be concerned about your branding-quite the contrary. No matter who you are or the size your company, you should think of yourself, your firm, and your products as brands in this age of one-to-one branding. You may have the best intuition about where the marketplace will move to, or the best technology, or the most cogent advice, but if you don't package yourself and your firm correctly, it'll be your own little secret.

In this chapter, we're going to start with presenting you as a package on the Net, with lessons you can use offline as well. Whether you work in a small or large company, the reality is that you actually work for yourself. Then we'll examine how existing brands offline are migrating online, and vice versa. What should you obsess over? What should you ignore? Where and how should you spend your money to promote your brand? We're going to look at new types of brands emerging on the Net, such as intermediary brands. Perhaps you should be one. But right now, I want to talk about just one thing: You. In this chapter, you'll learn all about:

* Your personal brand on the Net * Address for success * Your company's image and the Internet * Marketing professional services on the Net * Starting a brand online * Online intermediary brands * Marketing to yourself * Building brands with online communities * Web page, design, and your image

Your Personal Brand on the Net Since you have your own unique destiny, skill set, and character, it's in your best interest to present yourself as a package or a brand. It's your responsibility to identify what 1950's advertising legend and author of Realities In Advertising, Rosser Reeves called the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) for that brand called you. The Net will help you, if it doesn't force you, to concentrate on what benefits you offer to which constituencies. Whether you're in manufacturing or modeling, the key to establishing your personal brand on the Net is reputation.

If you do work for another corporation, you will want to carefully measure what is appropriate for you to do with branding yourself, as it may be in conflict with your company. If you're queasy about asking your managers what they think, just try putting yourself in their shoes (assuming they fit) and see how you'd feel if a subordinate did what you want to do. It may actually be helpful for the firm you work for, or it may be counterproductive. Tread lightly.

Big Place, Small Place "The Internet is a very big place. The Internet is a very small place," observes long-time Net columnist Daniel P. Dern. What does he mean? In the aggregate, the Internet is a huge environment, now too large for any one person to fully comprehend; in fact, it's kind of intimidating in that way. However, you shouldn't be concerned with branding yourself to every being on the Net; that's too unfocused. Your mission is to laser-target one, two, or three niches within that huge bio-sphere and concentrate your power, your expertise, and your brand within those spaces. In this way, the Net is a small place, kind of like a village. Unix wizard Chris Graham calls this "Tribal Marketing." In this tribe or village, reputation is everything. You don't want to risk ruining your reputation for short-term gains at the expense of losing your long-term face. Contribute to your tribe. Figure out what your target tribe needs, and then fill it if you can-whether with a Web! site, an emailed newsletter, or a moderated discussion list. John Audette moderates the I-Sales discussion list and has garnered a reputation that goes far beyond his 8000 participants.

Personal Branding Strategies

Begin your personal branding by asking yourself the following: * What groups do you want to market your personal brand to, and why * What sets you apart from anyone else like you? * Who is like you and what are they doing out there to promote themselves? * What can you learn from them? * What mistakes of theirs shouldn't you make? * What do you want from each constituency? Referrals? Sales? Leads for jobs or potential clients?

Maybe you simply want to grow your colleague-set, as Tom Peters suggests in his landmark article on "Brand You" in Fast Company's August 1997 issue. These strategies are all very valid reasons to employ the Net to propagate your brand with its USP.

Getting Your Name Out There To further illustrate this, let me give you a page out of my own book (so to speak). I started my biweekly newsletter, Web Digest For Marketers, in 1994. It was a $50 subscription service at the time. When The Wall Street Journal put its entire paper online, and then some, for $49.95 per year, I realized that the boom had been lowered on the cost of content for the consumer. So I made the newsletter free. However, before doing so, the legendary Dick Rich (cofounder of Wells Rich Green Advertising) advised me to change it to Larry Chase's Web Digest For Marketers. Now my name is seen, at a conservative estimate, by over 80,000 marketers every month. Over 500 Web sites point to my publication. This is about a hundred times more than the number of sites that point to my actual company Web page. What's the branding lesson here? Give something away of value and put your name prominently on it.