Success! It's something we all want. We spend our working days striving for it and our nights dreaming of it. To some, success is money, to others good health, yet to others perhaps it's love. But in the realm of Internet Marketing, what can be viewed as success?

Internet Marketing via a World Wide Web site has had it's success measured in a number of ways:

HITS - that ever-present counter.

AWARDS - We're the cool site of the day!

While many web sites strive for these things and indeed many achieve them, do these things really mean success?

It was once said; "Marketing is simply getting the phone to ring". With this simple but true statement in mind, let's examine the traditional measures of Web Site success.

HITS

It's true that without "hits" you're web site would be practically worthless in getting your message across, however the preoccupation with hits should be examined rather closely.

What is a hit? A "hit" occurs every time your server is called upon to provide a page of your web site, nothing more, nothing less. If your site receives 1,000 hits in one day it could possibly be 1,000 people visiting your site or it could be one visitor hitting reload 1,000 times!

If this is the case, "what are hit counters good for?" you might ask. Hit counters do provide fairly reliable comparative data, and the larger the number of hits, the more reliable. In our scenario of 1,000 hits per day, the odds are that over time an equal number of reloads and repeat visits will be occurring. A sudden increase in the number of hits to 2,000 a day can be viewed as reliably reporting that the number of new visitors is twice what it was previously (but not necessarily 2,000 unique visitors).

A more important factor to consider is getting "quality hits". Sheer numbers of visitors may slightly increase your sales leads and ultimately have a positive business effect, however the old 80/20 rule can still be applied: 80% of your business comes from 20% of your marketing efforts. Wouldn't you rather have 100 hits a day by people who are real business prospects than 1,000 hits a day by those who are not? Whenever you publicize your site, and especially if you are paying for the publicity, ask these following questions:

• Is this publicity aimed at my target audience? (business prospects)

• Will this publicity generate alot of non-qualified traffic? And will that traffic cost me in terms of responding to inquiries by visitors who will never become customers?

If your site sells golf balls, you will be better served by publicizing your site to those who are interested in golf balls. The Sunday paper may have good advertising rates, but publicizing your site in any of many monthly golfing magazines may raise the percentage of "quality hits" much more effectively.

Use the "hits" at your site to determine what parts of the site is the most popular, and what parts of the site could be improved as demonstrated by low comparitive hit counts. Use hits to track overall trends in site visit activity, especially during periods when you try other types of publicity such as newspaper, magazine, radio, or tv advertising.

AWARDS

Receiving any of the numerous web site awards currently cropping up may be flattering to the web site author, but they have no real place on a commercial web site (with one exception). Unless your web site is selling web sites, qualified prospects visiting your site are interested in your services not the site developer! Don't waste your potential customers time making them read information about how "cool" someone else thought your site was. If you have to convince them you haven't provided the information they really find valuable.

This point has long been known to the entire marketing community, but seems to be forgotten all too frequently on the web. There is little doubt that if your printer won an award for printing your brochure he would tell his clients, but he would never think to ask to include the award on your brochure! While the web is a different medium, sound business thought should prevail.

SUMMARY

Site popularity is not a goal in itself. Be extremely judicious in your expenditures to increase site activity.

Ascertain that you are inviting in the people who have a need or desire for your product or services.

Use visit volume as a comparative indicator to evaluate both specific areas in the site as well as to evaluate other publicity efforts.

And when the phone rings you've succeeded.

The Author, Gary E. Torello, is President and founder of QGM, an Internet based marketing company that specializes in assisting other businesses get the most out of their involvement on the Internet.

©copyright 1996 QGM

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Professional Web Site Development & Maintenance by QGM All information © copyright 1996 QGM

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