Tasha Harrison

A few months ago I went to see a new online business with the view to working with a PR company, myself doing their social media. Unfortunately we didn’t win the work, they chose a PR agency with some large companies in their portfolio, who were big players in their industry.  Of course it was sad that we didn’t win the work (and I’m not going to name names btw!), but throughout the two meetings I had with them it really struck me how the impact of the internet has crept up on a lot of business people without them realising.

Their plan was to sell their service for, say, £25 and then sell products on behalf of another company. It seemed a lot of money when people wouldn’t be 100% sure of what they were getting. I worked hard at researching competitors, all of whom offered a similar service, but for free. The client said their service was better than all their competitors, which I had to take their word for.

In our final pitch meeting I tried to explain that their targets were unrealistic and that they would be hard pressed to pursuade enough people to spend the money.  The internet is a crowded place and throwing money at something won’t make it a success. In a futile attempt to win the account I tried to explain why Spotify is such a success – they allow people to try before they buy. They offer their customers the option of paying a monthly subscription with no adverts or they can have the service for free, but with adverts. People realise what a great service it is and consider paying a monthly fee. Some people don’t mind the adverts, so they continue with the free service, which is still great for Spotify.

(Sadly, Spotify now only offer the service free with an invitation. But this is because they were so successful!)

Now they sell music as well, which they make extremely easy to buy. They built mobile applications on both the iPhone and Android platforms. They could well beat illegal downloads and save the music industry (maybe I’m getting a bit carried away!).

The point of the Spotify story was to show them that people online will spend money, but first they need to trust the company they’re buying from. The internet is so overcrowded with various services that people don’t give a lot of thought to something and certainly won’t spend money on something they’re not sure about.

Number one rule if you’re starting an online business – be prepared to give things away for free. If your product is good enough people will spend money with you.

In the 1990′s, many businesses built their first website.  It included details of what their business did, why they were great and how to contact them.  In other words it was a copy of their corporate brochure.  As the web grew, business owners and marketing managers were left wondering why their sites weren’t generating any business.

The problem was that most of these sites were aimed at all the key target audiences – clients, potential clients, potential employees, potential investors, suppliers etc.  A company would have several different brochures aimed at each target market and different literature for employees and suppliers.  It makes sense to target each audience differently as they have different needs and so the messages are specific for each one.

So how do you target your website at all your different audiences?  Put simply, you don’t.  A website isn’t a brochure, it’s a website and people use websites differently from a brochure.  The majority of people online will visit social networking sites, like Facebook, or read news sites.  These are sites that are useful to them, they will return to these sites many times in a day, have them favourited and easy to access, possibly have them on their mobiles as well.

So businesses need to consider why someone would visit their site repeatedly, especially if they are not selling anything online.  They need to create a site that is a hub of industry focussed information, which in turn will reflect their knowledge and expertise.  It will also build up their online presence, adding value to their brand.  It will open up communications with their core audiences, building trust.

A website should not replace a brochure, a brochure can still be an important selling tool.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be in a printed format, it can be sent as an email newsletter, but it is still the most effective way of targeting a specific audience with a targeted message.