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According
to Jay Schwedelson, corporate vice president of Worldata, "The Internet
is no longer a sales vehicle of tomorrow, but the dominant sales
channel of today." There are many things that business-to-business
catalogers can do right now - not six months or a year from now
- to maximize their Web ROI, Schwedelson says. He shared some of
them with attendees at the 16th Annual Catalog Conference & Exhibition
in Chicago in May.
According
to Forrester Research, business-to-business online sales were already
surpassing consumer online sales in 1998 ($43 billion for B-to-B,
and $7.8 billion for consumer). By 2003, business-to- business online
sales are expected to reach more than $1 trillion.
Schwedelson
warned his audience. He told marketers they should already be testing
impressions, clicks, inquiries, and sales if they're spending money
online for marketing purposes.
Technology Tricks of the Trade Schwedelson offered a list of the
technology available that catalogers might consider implementing
in their testing:
Multiple Creative Testing. Unlike direct mail, marketers
can see statistics every day to determine if their creative is working.
Page Flow Tracking. "How 'sticky' is your site?" Every page
is trackable, so marketers can determine which page is turning people
off.
Session-to-Session. "We can track from the initial click
to when the customer makes a purchase, even if the customer shuts
off his or her computer and buys on a different visit on another
day"
Frequency
Capping Reports. This lets the cataloger set the amount of ad
exposures an individual sees of a particular piece of creative.
Branding Effect. "Not only can we measure click-to-sale and
session-to-session, but now we can measure view-to-sell, so we know
we're reaching the right market."
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Site Integration.
The lines between advertising and editorial are blurring. Catalogers
can use that to their benefit.
Keywords or Trademarked Keywords. Catalogers can own words on
the Internet. They need to be able to prove their trade-mark to
have the rights to that word. Schwedelson suggests, "Own your own
name, and own it for at least a year."
Intranet
Advertising. Catalogers can do this, but it's still difficult.
Companies are offering unique rebates to other companies that allow
them to do advertising within their intranets. It's a great way
to reach people at their places of business, in an environment where
no other advertisers will be.
Cached
vs. Non-Cached Purchasing (Back Button Impressions). Marketers
should opt for non-cached, unique impressions so they don't have
to pay for an ad every time someone hits the "back" button and goes
back to a page where it was seen originally. Don't pay triple for
the same impression.
Thank-You
Page Post Purchase. How can catalogers reach someone who buys
online? On the thank-you or post-purchase page on an e-commerce
site. "The CPM's (cost per thousand) are a bit steeper," Schwedelson
noted, "but the click-through and conversion rate is outstanding."
Network
Portals vs. Niche Marketing. Networks should be included and
tested in a marketing mix, but they're not crucial in the B-to-B
community. According to Jupiter, 33% of online B-to-B sales are
being generated from portals, while 67% are generated via niche
marketing. "It just makes more sense, because niche marketing helps
catalogers reach the right people. And that's what marketing is
all about."
E-mail
Marketing Opt-In Lists. "The CPM's are higher here, also because
list owners know that there's no postage, no cost for creative,
and limited availability for E-mail lists. But they do work." Marketers
can have control over content and timing (down to almost the hour).
Just like banner campaigns, they can track how many E-mails were
delivered, clicked through, and led to sales the same day.
Sponsorships for E-mail
Newsletters. These are widely available. Marketers don't have
the same amount of control as opt-in newsletters, but they know
they're reaching the people who subscribe to the newsletters, who
are interested in their message.
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