The business of marketing--promoting a product or service through ads, targeted mailings, public events/appearances, and so on--is an old one. But now it has a new client: Web sites. Whether your company has built a Web site to complement your existing business or you've started a company that conducts its business primarily via the Web, your Web site won't earn its keep unless your customers know about it, find it, and use it. And while some established marketing techniques can be used to promote Web sites, the Web also offers 1,001 new ways to reach an audience.

But if you don't know where to start, you're not alone. The challenges of marketing a Web site have grown as rapidly as the Web itself. Innovative techniques pop up all the time, supplanting what seemed like tried-and-true, time-tested techniques.

When the Web was young and the players small, many people thought branding wouldn't be as important for digital entities as it was for companies hawking toothpaste, soda pop, sneakers, and other consumables. It was just a few short years ago when banner ads seemed like a novelty-and could be effective.

As the number of Web sites grew exponentially, promotional strategies became more complex. Cyber marketers hurled ever-splashier banner ads at unsuspecting Web surfers and e-mail addicts. When banner ads became passé, big-budget marketing guerrillas placed ads in mainstream magazines, on TV shows and billboards, and almost anywhere you can think of. But they also started getting sneaky. For instance, they placed the right key words in the right places in their sites to garner high placement in search engine and directory results.

These days, the Web site marketing arena is a confusing blur. There are too many options and too many competitors. But one thing is clear: You can't stick with techniques from Marketing 101. The most successful marketers are creative and know how to use the Internet to their advantage.

So here's the new Marketing 101 for the Web: the distilled wisdom of marketing experts from sites large and small. We've also weighed the pros, cons, and costs of various marketing techniques. To see the numbers, check out the sidebar "Marketing Techniques: a Cost Comparison". Although what works for one Web site may not work for yours, these strategies can put you a step ahead of the competition.

Define Your Goals

Successful marketing campaigns start with a plan. "Decide why you're [online]. Too many companies think they have to have a site without thinking through what they want it to be [or do]," says marketing professional Craig Settles, author of Cybermarketing Essentials for Success (from Ziff-Davis Press). Web site marketers understand exactly what they want to achieve from a campaign, whether they need to emphasize branding (building name recognition), traffic (driving more people to their sites for sales leads or to justify advertising fees), or acquisition (collecting customer data like e-mail addresses or demographics). Ideally, a marketing campaign addresses all of these missions to some extent. Identifying specific goals for your campaign will also help you gauge its success.

Web-based companies, such as Yahoo!, Netscape, and Amazon.com, have become household names by using aggressive marketing tactics. They also know whom they're targeting, what their surfing public does, and what those surfers need. Gathering this sort of information can be simple (talking to customers, gathering feedback from your Web site) or more complicated (conducting online or mail surveys). For a recent review, see "Surveying the Scene" at www.currents.net/magazine/national/1609/crpc1609.html. Another method is to hold a focus group. This is one of the most expensive, if more enlightening, research tools available. Depending on the amount of research you are willing or able to do, you can gather rich details about your customers' browsing, buying, and using habits that, in turn, can lead to new features or services for your site or give you data with which to attract new advertisers.

Any way you slice it, marketing should be an ongoing process. Continual branding efforts to keep the name alive should be accompanied by spurts of activity when something changes (a launch, the addition of new features) or when promotional opportunities arise (trade shows, magazine year-end awards).

Create a Great Site and Offer Incentives to Come Back

When discussing the most important ways to market a Web site, the pros de-emphasize advertising and stress product improvement as the best way to attract and build an audience. "No amount of marketing makes up for a sub-par product," says Ed Graccyk, Microsoft's lead product manager for MSN.com and HotMail. "The goal of any Microsoft product, whether it's online, like Expedia, or a packaged product like Office 97, is to deliver a solution that's best-of-breed in its category."

That's as true for a small site that dreams of becoming the best pet food site ever as it is for the Web's most popular site, Yahoo!, which currently averages 95 million page views per day. Yahoo! started as an innocent little directory, but it grew fast. It continually added new services, and it never stopped promoting that ridiculous name. Today it leverages that potent brand-name to bring more people to the site, where it offers something for everyone. "We've added a search engine, news feeds, e-mail and chat, classifieds," says Karen Edwards, vice president of brand marketing. "It's become a full-fledged service."

It's no coincidence that Yahoo! launched areas dedicated to finance, chat, and e-mail. These are all topics Edwards calls sticky applications that users are likely to return to. They boost the amount of time people spend on Yahoo!, which, according to Edwards, is "significantly higher [in minutes per use, per month] than on other navigational sites and services."

Today, Yahoo!'s critics no longer suggest that newbies will eventually graduate from Yahoo! to other sites. "A lot of people talk about the killer app," says Edwards. "We don't believe there's any single killer app, but there are certain features or services that are very relevant to key audiences. So we target our Yahoo! finance area to the investment community and business professionals. We promote Yahoo! chat in very entertainment-oriented areas or media ... [and] we go after the next generation of users who aren't on the Internet yet. We try to just let them know the name so that when they are finally online, they think of starting with us first."

Many directories and search engines have since followed Yahoo!'s lead, varying the mix with regional guides and other kinds of local content plus personalized versions of the service. Web sites that sell airline tickets and travel packages are another good example of this technique. They often feature travel guides or features, luring customers with information that will lead them to a sale.

Almost any site can attract new and repeat customers with one-time events (such as chats and sweepstakes), discounts, timely updates (daily news and reviews, for example), and a slew of free stuff like tips, columns, and giveaways. Have customers register with the site and you can send them promotional e-mail with special discounts. Plus you'll have their e-mail and postal addresses for future marketing drives. Offer loyalty programs (discounts to members only) to motivate them to return to your site for future purchases.

Design for Speed, Not Looks

A smart Web site doesn't mean just a pretty face and nice fonts. A site should be easy for visitors to navigate quickly and be coded so search engines (such as AltaVista) and directories (such as Yahoo!) locate your site when surfers type in specific key words.

A clean, intuitive design helped make Yahoo! what it is today. Edwards says, "The most important thing is making sure that anyone can access your site. That means keep it very fast, don't use unnecessary graphics, make sure people can get information quickly." Edwards recommends tuning your site design and estimated download time to your target audience. "If you're selling to a corporate market, then most of the people using your site are probably on a T1," she says. "If you're trying to reach regular consumers, they're probably dialing in with slow modems." Microsoft's Graccyk agrees. He says, "There are lots of sites out there that have huge graphics or video files. They look great on a T1 line, but in the real world, they just don't cut it."

Every site should also include certain elements so users don't get frustrated or confused. Naturally, you should showcase your site's URL and name and include a site map to help users quickly find what they want. You should also make it easy to find basic contact information such as phone and fax numbers, e-mail addresses, and the physical address of your company. Even if you want to prevent people from calling, writing, or visiting you, hiding this information may foster suspicion. One page should describe what your site does, why it exists, and how it's different from its competitors. Some sites suggest that users bookmark them immediately, a tactic that seems shamelessly promotional. But it could help bring some surfers back. If you must use fancy Shockwave multimedia or frames, offer Web surfers alternate Shockwave-free or frameless entrances as well. Finally, pay attention to basic housekeeping: Don't misspell words, don't use ALL CAPS (it's harder to read, and many users consider it obnoxious), and don't include links to areas under construction.

Beyond these basics, your specific goals should dictate design. For example, with sales-oriented sites, "think of all the things that are important to the sales cycle and try to figure out how the Internet can facilitate that," says Cybermarketing author Settles. "If people call you 10 times a day with the same questions or are looking for the same documents, then you know you need to post answers and those documents [on your site]."

Even well-designed sites also need makeovers. "We redo our site every four to six months," says Deirdre Polson, director of marketing at San Francisco-based HomeShark, a site that offers discounted mortgages and home buying services. The dynamic industry HomeShark serves dictates periodic changes. But the fundamental reasons for a makeover-to stay up-to-date and address your customers' evolving needs-apply to nearly every business. This is especially true on the Web, where people expect you to be current.

Register with Search Engines and Directories

Many businesses think the first and most important way to drive users to their sites is to register them with every search engine and directory on the planet. Yahoo! is the Holy Grail and not an easy place to crack. But you can increase your chances if you follow these tips from the pros.

First, resist the urge to pay quick cash to companies that promise to register your site with 450 search engines and directories. You can register your site with most of these places for free. And only a handful really make a difference: Yahoo!, Excite, AltaVista, Lycos, WebCrawler, InfoSeek, and HotBot. Sure, you can register elsewhere, but that could generate just one percent of your hits. Concentrate on the biggies.

Almost all search engines and directories have a link where you can "suggest a site." Read the guidelines carefully, since they'll tell you the best way to categorize your site.

Even if your site isn't registered, search engines can find you if you tweak your HTML code the right way. This method particularly helps people who are searching for specific topics. "There are all kinds of tricks you can do on your site so that it will show up higher in a [search engine/directory] list," says Microsoft's Graccyk. One common trick is to use a metatag, a special HTML tag that includes key words describing the page. Visitors can't see metatags, but search engines often use them to find pages matching a user's search terms. For instance, explains Graccyk, "If you type in travel, you'll get Expedia, because it's been properly tagged as a travel site." (For more information on metatags, check out "META Tagging for Search Engines" at search.internet.com/plweb-cgi/fastweb?getdoc+search+WDVL+1190+15+wAAA+meta%26tagging.)

You can pay programmers to optimize your site for various search engines/directories, but you can also buy books that tell you how to do it yourself. Or consider sites like Submit It! (www.submit-it.com) and similar services, which can send your URL to hundreds of sites. Programs such as Deadlock Software's Promotion Artist (www.deadlock.com) and Exploit's Automated Submission Software (www.exploit.com) can also help you with this chore. The list of links in the sidebar "Marketing Resources on the Web" can point you to useful sites as well.

Yahoo!'s Edwards says placement in the directory is done alphabetically "or if there's one site that we think is cool, it may go to the top." So it would behoove you to have a name that starts with an "A" rather than a "Z." And what does she mean by cool? "We mean 'is it one of the best in its category?'" says Edwards. "Let's say you're a Madonna fan. My guess is that one Madonna fan site is better than all of the others since there are millions of them. So we'll put a 'cool' [icon] next to this one since it's probably the one people should check out first."

Edwards offers one more insider tip: "The easiest way to get listed is to have a site that's clearly unique and different and has a clean and neat description that doesn't require a lot of additional effort on our part. When you submit your URL to Yahoo!, there is a field that asks you to describe what the Web site offers. If you write, 'This is the most bitchin' site ever blah, blah, blah,' our people won't use that. You have to be descriptive."

And don't forget that Yahoo! and its ilk pitch themselves as dynamic, daily sites full of original content to keep users coming back. So they also have regional areas for specific cities and New Sites areas to announce recently introduced sites. These are places where your new site can stand out from the crowd.

Just keep in mind that even the huge search engines and directories may not really benefit you. It's like trying to get the best spot in the Yellow Pages: It's helpful, but it's not a business maker or breaker. "There's a certain mind-set that's very 1995," says Cybermarketing's Settles, "where you try to jockey for position in the hopes that people will find you. Well, there are millions of Web sites out there now." And you may just be raising your site from result number 9,000 to result number 8,000.

"Remember, too," he says, "that no one goes online to find marketing specialists or surgeons. They call somebody. They go to the Web to find more information, [but that's it]. The pricier your product or service, the truer this is. I took our name out of the Yellow Pages, because anyone who called me from there couldn't afford us. Web sites can be the same thing." Your efforts might be better spent building links from vendor or information sites that attract the kinds of customers who can use and afford your products or services.

Swap Links and Banners

Since search engines can literally be a hit-and-miss affair, you may generate more traffic to your Web site by swapping ad banners with relevant sites. This is one example of how targeting, an age-old marketing technique, has found a new venue on the Web. For the same reason that athletic shoe companies advertise in health and fitness magazines and food purveyors sponsor cooking shows, you put your ad on a targeted site because its audience is likely to be interested in what you have to offer.

LinkExchange (www.linkexchange.com) and other free banner exchange programs let Web sites essentially trade ad banners with targeted sites. Banner-swapping businesses are numerous--I recently counted 69 of them online--but LinkExchange is easily the largest. Founded in March '96, LinkExchange started by coordinating banner trades among 50 Web sites in the Bay Area. Today, it has blossomed to 250,000 sites, with more than 1,600 categories.

Ideally suited for small businesses, LinkExchange essentially offers the following proposition: For every two ads you show on your Web site from other LinkExchange members, other members will show one ad for you. Members can choose their target categories but not the sites that run their ads. However, members can omit particular categories or ads from commercial sites. Skye Ketonen, LinkExchange's director of marketing communications and public relations, says, "The value we add to that transaction is that we have so many [kinds and number of] sites, we're able to target your ad to the right sites."

Like any smart Web site, LinkExchange offers free services to keep you coming back. "We have a list of volunteer banner makers," says Ketonen. "So if you don't know how to make a banner, these people will offer their services for free. We also have an e-mail digest which is totally focused on issues important to Web marketers, owners, designers, and developers. There are 70,000 subscribers now. Even nonmembers can participate, and it's free. It's got tools, tips, and access to site utilities such as Web counters."

LinkExchange also offers ad tracking services for its members, says Ketonen. "You can go into our system and see how many times your ad has been clicked, tweak your creatives [the ad's look and feel], change your targeting, anything like that."

People who are not satisfied with the two-to-one nature of exchanging impressions can opt for LinkExchange Express. "For $50 you can buy 3,000 impressions in targeted categories of your choice or 4,000 untargeted impressions," Ketonen says. "We also have a partnership with Yahoo! to sell untargeted advertising in increments of $100. The minimum targeted buy at Yahoo! is [normally] a few thousand dollars."

Nurture Web Site Partnerships/Syndication

Another popular and economical trend is to work out a deal with another site: You feed them original content, and they'll give you exposure. "If I'm a medical equipment manufacturer," says Cybermarketing's Settles, "I might call an HMO and say, 'I'll write a monthly column for your Web site. In exchange we'd like to have a link back to our site.' It's better than an advertisement, because the ads that you see on the Web are so easy to ignore."

A real-world example comes from Roughcut online, a movie site that was recently informed that it could no longer ride the coattails of TNT's Roughcut TV show and needed to generate revenue on its own. "We had to build traffic," says Andy Jones, editor in chief. "We weren't going to succeed just by selling banner ads. We also had to get distribution. So we looked at the college market-offering contests, movie reviews, or other licensed content to college newspapers, for example. The whole idea is exposure, which leads to traffic."

Roughcut is aiming at loftier targets as well, according to Jones. "The next step is partnerships with any big search engine, like Lycos or Yahoo!," he says. Jones approaches these partnerships with clear ideas about what Roughcut brings to the table. "The cool thing about being with TNT is that when a popular star comes through the TNT factory, we can say to Lycos, for instance, 'Wouldn't you like us to host a chat for you [with this star]?'"

At a time when sites are trying to grow and stabilize traffic, Roughcut's content and connections sell, maybe even better than sex. "Our PR people at Glue Communications said we should go to the search engines right when the search engines were saying, 'We need to develop neighborhoods, we need to develop communities. And we need to keep people here to get more than one or two page views out of them.'" If you've got special access or expertise, partnering with a search engine or a major Web site related to your field can be a potential win-win situation, giving your smaller site the kind of attention that's hard or expensive to come by otherwise.

Community Outreach

Every marketer I interviewed emphasized community building as a way to generate positive word of mouth about a Web site. These grassroots efforts can take many forms. They can start at your Web site or go public in online or real-world venues. In nearly all cases, it's the personal touch that counts.

When community and word of mouth can sell a product, a little effort goes a long way. "We just finished doing a project for Academic Systems, a company that sells training programs to universities," says Cybermarketing's Settles. "A lot of the selling within the university happens when one professor adopts something and talks to other professors about it. That does infinitely more to sell a product than anything any marketing company could do. So what Academic Systems did was create a roundtable [on its site] so users could talk to each other and to people at [the company]." In short, Academic created a community on its site that ultimately benefited its marketing aims.

Noncommercial (and some shareware) sites may post to the general new site announcement newsgroup at comp.infosystems.www.announce. (An FAQ site explains the rules at boutell.com/~grant/charter.html#two.) You should also consider listservs, which are public e-mail lists. Two starting points can be found at Tile.Net/Lists (tile.net/listserv) and E-Mail Discussion Groups (www.nova.edu/Inter-Links/listserv.html). In both of these cases, you can search for a relevant newsgroup or listserv by key word. For example, to locate a newsgroup that discusses issues related to golf, type golf to get a list of discussion groups or listservs that includes the title, name, subscription address, last update, and (possibly) description of each one. Alternately, you could join or initiate a Web ring, a private collective of related Web sites that link to each other. To locate one specially suited to your interest, start at www.webring.org.#ringworld. Then click on any of the sites listed in the Web ring.

But remember that community is not just a buzzword. Participants in newsgroups and forums can smell fluff a mile away, and they resent intrusions. "If you're going to play the newsgroups/community game right," says Settles, "you have to be a participant and not a spammer. Take the time to read stuff, follow threads, and think of coherent, intelligent ideas so that you build your reputation. You can check newsgroups to make sure no one is talking [negatively] about you. Or you can field product support inquiries. From a proactive standpoint that's monitoring time well spent."

You wouldn't think Yahoo! needs any help, but even the most popular site on the Web works hard to keep its users happy. Yahoo! starts by shifting its hard-sell tactics to venues other than its own site. That way Yahoo! users don't feel overcome by marketing hype. Edwards says, "We don't do a lot of intrusive stuff on our site. We feel like once a person is using Yahoo!, we don't have to market to them again."

Yahoo! also associates itself with causes that catch the attention of its users in much the same way as other companies sponsor sporting events. "Last year, we tied in with Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Both companies made a donation to Net Day," says Edwards. "It benefited Ben & Jerry's because it gave the company a lot of online promotion; we actually ran a sweepstakes online. And we were on its packages."

Some of these techniques may seem intangible, but so is the idea of brand awareness. Putting your Web site's URL on pens, T-shirts, coffee mugs, and key chains is one thing, but getting people to associate your site with positive qualities is another. "You can definitely feel different plateaus of word of mouth or critical mass," says HomeShark senior marketing manager Kerry Glancy. But if old-fashioned word of mouth isn't working, it's time to move to the big leagues and consider advertising or direct mail.

Use Direct Mail--But Don't Spam

Unsolicited, direct postal or electronic mail using targeted lists can be one of the most effective ways to spread the word about your Web site and reach potential customers, clients, and registered users. Combine this technique with a limited-time promotion that's only available through your Web site or through a postage-paid card recipients have to mail back. In either case, just remember that a two percent return is a good response rate.

Online direct e-mail is well suited to small, Web-based businesses because it's efficient. People who are reading your e-mail are already using their computers and are probably prepared to reply to it immediately or surf to a URL. Targeted e-mail lists usually include people who have registered for a site, magazine, or service that's related to your business or have indicated that they want more information about a given topic.

Targeted is the key word. Every marketing professional we talked to said the same thing: Don't spam. So blow off companies that claim they will send your URL to millions of cyber-savvy consumers. Market only using targeted mailing lists. Period.

Direct e-mail may not work for everyone. Availability is a problem: The lists are hard to come by and pricey. So assuming you find a list that fits your target audience, you'll typically pay $250 per 1,000 names compared to $150 for the same number of postal addresses. Most companies that sell e-mail lists also require you to use their third-party transmission companies to send your messages, which costs another $150 per 1,000 names. You also must determine whether e-mail is the best way to reach your audience.

HomeShark's online direct mail campaign succeeded in reaching people that were already online. "We [sent] some e-mail to Internet World attendees pre- and post-show," says HomeShark's Polson. "We've e-mailed our existing customer base to let them know about new site functionality, redesign, and products. And we use e-mail for surveys."

But direct e-mail wouldn't have worked with realty professionals, HomeShark's other major customer group, because they're not as cyber savvy. So to reach them, HomeShark used traditional direct mail. "There was a National Association of Realtors Technology Expo in Washington, D.C.," says Polson. "We did a pre-show mailing to get the realtors to our booth. If they brought the letter by the booth, which is a great way to track results, we'd enter them in a drawing to win a free laptop. It worked phenomenally well, and almost everybody who came by the booth mentioned the letter or brought it with them. And a lot of people came looking for the booth, which meant it was a complete success."

In addition to being less expensive than direct e-mail lists, postal mailing lists have a few other advantages. For one, they're easier to find. They'll also be more targeted: Perhaps they'll be subscribers to one or more niche-interest magazines that fit your target market.

The cost of the actual mailing piece starts low, but can get expensive fast. Costs associated with traditional direct mail include designing and producing the piece, adding letter shop (printing logos on all materials, etc.), and printing in volume. You may also have to pay merge/purge fees, where the list is combed to remove duplicates or names whose characteristics don't match your target-say you're targeting a certain geographic area or you don't want to reach existing customers. Postage costs include outgoing and possibly return fees, such as for business reply mail. And don't forget follow-through mailings, since these campaigns work best when repeated. If you send a general No. 10 envelope with a plain letter, figure on spending $350 to $500 total (including buying the list) per 1,000 names. Once you get into four-color inserts and fancy designs, the production and mailing costs increase depending on the complexity of the piece.

These campaigns can get expensive, even for big-budget companies. Graccyk says Microsoft is conservative with its direct-mail budget. "Chances are if you received a disc from us, you didn't receive 10 or 12," he says. "We don't carpet-bomb because, frankly, it's really expensive to send a CD in the mail."

Weigh Advertising Options

Do you think direct mail is pricey? Advertising is worse, whether it's online, in print, on TV, on radio, in banners, or at trade shows. The primary objective of any advertising media is to reach the most and most-appropriate potential customers. Often this is expressed as CPM, the cost per thousand names/addresses/eyeballs you buy or reach.

Before you decide on the medium, pinpoint your target audience. If you sell golf clubs, you know that your likely target customer reads golf magazines. You must find out how much it costs to advertise in the golf magazines-rates vary depending on the frequency and placement of the ads and on the magazine's circulation-compared to the cost of renting the subscriber list for direct mailing. A cheaper test could be to place your ad banner or link on the magazine's site before buying ads in the printed edition. Better yet, get a package deal. Advertise in both print and online and compare the results. Track the response from your ads daily or weekly and experiment to see what works best.

Online Advertising: Pros and Cons

Since most Web sites hope to steer traffic their way, it's natural-and relatively cheaper-to advertise on other Web sites. And with online ads, you know you're reaching Web surfers.

Unlike print and billboards ads, online ads allow interactivity (sometimes even games) and simple animations. Microsoft's Graccyk suggests using key word advertising. "When someone types in a travel-related term [on a Web site's search page], your ad pops up," he says. But also keep in mind that banners, like sites themselves, should always be simple, fast to load, and eye grabbing. Keep graphics to a minimum and avoid technologies that require plug-ins, no matter how cool they are.

Pricing for banner ads is complicated. For example, on ZDNet, the minimum you can buy is 100,000 impressions, the number of times your banner shows up on a page. You can spread those impressions across any time frame you like and choose to be shown on one channel or multiple channels. The CPM can range from $35 to $100. A Web site might charge higher rates for its products page than it would for its index page, even though either way, we're talking about one impression. The more you buy, the cheaper it gets.

HomeShark opted for online ads early on, although, according to HomeShark's Polson, the results have been mixed. "It's driven traffic, which was our goal, but it hasn't been very cost-effective," she says.

But should you advertise on niche-interest sites with smaller traffic or on high-volume sites that appeal to general interests? HomeShark advertised with a wide variety at first. HomeShark's Glancy says, "We brainstormed about all the sites we could potentially advertise on and categorized them into financial resources/research, financial transactions, news sites, starting points, affinity sites like lifestyle sites. We used sites like 411 and Rocketmail (before it was acquired by Yahoo!), E-Trade, NewHomeSale.com, a broad range." HomeShark's criteria were the potential traffic generated from the site and the likelihood those visitors would complete a sale. "Then we went out and started placing banner ads, buttons, text links."

HomeShark also monitored the effectiveness of each site. "We built an in-house tracking system to monitor traffic coming from each site, and we tracked how many people filled out loan applications," Glancy says. If you lack in-house analysis tools, you can use shareware packages like WebTrends or commercial software, which typically costs between a few hundred bucks (for sites with just one server) to tens of thousands of dollars. Some third-party services can also analyze your data, usually for a few thousand dollars per month.

HomeShark's monitoring yielded some interesting results, notes Polson. "The sites that we advertised on said, 'You can expect a yield or click-through percentage of five to eight percent on a targeted site for key word buys.' But to date, not one has delivered on its claims. In most cases, companies will make up the difference in additional impressions. The problem is you end up with the same [yield], but it's over three months instead of one month. With an Internet-based business, you want to boost volume and revenue as fast as you can."

TV Land's Price of Admission

Television reaches a massive audience for a massive price. But if you want widespread brand recognition, it's the best way to go. Yahoo!, one of the first Web sites to advertise on television, took the plunge because it needed a push into the mainstream. Edwards says, "In May '96 when we went public, we were losing money. TV can be very expensive; it's something that you don't do just once and hope that people remember." No other Web directory had seriously invested in mass media marketing, however, so Yahoo! hoped that if it got in early, it could establish significant name-brand awareness. And according to Edwards, the investment paid off with both users and investors. "It [also] demonstrated to Wall Street that we were very serious about building a brand."

The TV spots promoted a new image for Yahoo! that surpassed its directory roots and most of its competitors, says Edwards. "At the time, people didn't know if a brand mattered in technology. But we're not really a technology company; we're a media company. And the three things that are important to media companies are brand, content, and distribution. We knew that if we made that image investment it would really raise the bar for our competitors. [Other sites] are all using similar tactics now, but it's harder for them to catch up."

Television continues to be an attractive but expensive option for marketers. Microsoft's Graccyk says, "We do some TV advertising focused on shows that-based on research by our advertising agency-fit our audience: sporting games and things like that." Tightly focused ad placement is one way to balance the inefficiency of television's mass reach, Graccyk says. "So much TV advertising gets wasted," he says. "What percentage of the people watching Seinfeld have a PC with a modem and Windows 95 and are looking for an online service?" Like Yahoo!, Graccyk says, Microsoft monitors television closely to make sure it is getting its money's worth. "For every given marketing program, we know how much we spend and we track how many new users that program generated," he says.

Trade Show Face Time

Another form of advertising takes place at trade shows, where the potential customers are usually clearly defined. HomeShark went out of its way to find the right trade show, prepare the right giveaway, hand out promotional flyers to everyone who came by, and do all of this well in advance of the show, says Polson. For example, at the fall and spring Internet World shows, Polson says, "We went out of our way to be noticeable. We threw a beer party at our booth every afternoon. We handed out literature and gave our pitch. We got published in the press and got a lot of word of mouth." HomeShark also used freebies as an acquisition tool. "We gave away shark-shaped, key chain bottle openers. We scanned attendees' cards when we gave them the key chain, and everyone also got product sheets," she says.

HomeShark also promoted its trade show presence online. "We set up a separate URL for the show and a sweepstakes," says Polson. As far as she is concerned, these tactics worked beautifully. "Not only did they drive people to the site and increase brand recognition, but we could track when customers came to the site and when they registered for the product. We also captured their e-mail addresses. That's a perfect example of where we have some component of brand and some component of acquisition [in a campaign]."

Meet the Press

Rather than spend gobs of money on advertising, you might generate buzz by sending press releases to key writers and editors at the appropriate publications. Not only can you reach millions of interested readers, but you can add excerpts from a good review to your Web site as a testimonial.

If you decide to do your own press relations, here are some guidelines. First, there are right and wrong ways to write a press release, send it out, and follow up on it. Editors love sharing stories of gaffes like egregiously misspelled names, annoying blitzes with dozens of releases, and worse.

Target your releases carefully. Your best prospects are publications or Web sites that cover your industry or product category. Read an issue or two of a publication to see which sections might cover your site. Obtain the editorial calendar to see if any upcoming stories relate to your site, and check on the lead time-the length of time between when a story is finished and when it appears in print-so you don't send your news too late. The same goes for Web sites. Send the press release to just one or two editors whose beats encompass your site's content. Don't mail a release to everyone on the masthead. Also remember that since most monthly magazines have a two- to three-month lead time, it could be several months before you see a review or mention in print.

Whole books have been written about how to write the perfect press release. Here are some basic dos and don'ts. Include the date and time of the release, a short summary headline, and your press contact's name, phone number, and e-mail address at the top of the page. Make sure the news is worth announcing. Make sure your site's URL is easy to find and repeat it; no one wants to dig for it. Keep the release short but provide context: Why should an editor care about your site? If you were an editor at this magazine, how would you cover this site? Suggest ways in the release.

Follow up your press release with a phone call or three. Don't be offended or discouraged if you never get a call back; most editors can't return all their phone calls. If you leave a message, keep it short and to the point. Rambling voice messages may be erased midway. Leave your name and number and briefly name the site you're promoting and why you think it deserves a mention in print.

While press relations can be managed in-house, most serious sites hire professional PR firms to work their magic with editors, analysts, and the media. (See the "When to Go to the Pros" sidebar on page 46 for a discussion of related costs.) A good PR firm has the contacts to grease the wheels of a campaign, and it also has access to research and resources for getting the word out.

PR firms also help you decide who to pitch and when, says Heather Hahn, senior account executive for the Antenna Group, a San Francisco-based PR firm. "If we have a client who has a dynamic CEO, we will work on a very aggressive public speaking campaign for that person. If the client has a great product, we will work hard to get award recognition."

If you play your cards right, you'll see your site in magazines and on TV shows. The Antenna Group helped HomeShark grow from 13 employees one year ago to almost 100 today. It also secured critical national coverage from ABC, Good Morning America, National Public Radio, Newsweek, and many other media outlets. Antenna had the connections that counted, and that's exactly why HomeShark hired the company.

Try Unconventional Methods

Some companies with Web sites have found effective marketing methods outside the norm.

Take postcards, ones with an eye-catching image on one side and your message on the other. Offline Media (www.offlinemedia.com) will distribute hundreds of thousands of postcards to college students at 400 schools this fall, promoting only Web sites, according to company President Mike Ackerman. Postcards are less threatening than direct mail and also somewhat less targeted, but they're much cheaper. You fork over $5,495 to reach 125,000 students or $21,500 to reach 500,000 students. (That's $43 per thousand students.) Offline Media also lets you enhance the message side of your postcard with a variety of devices, like a perforated coupon or a scratch-off card.

How does this device drive business to your Web site? Rockport's postcard gives students a 30 percent discount on its shoes-if they purchase them on Rockport's Web site.

If you live in the Bay Area or other major cities, chances are you've seen the m@x Racks, standing containers of free promotional postcards most often found in cafes, clubs, movie theaters, or central locations on college campuses. The company can distribute 140,000 postcards in New York or Los Angeles locations for $4,200 per city.

Roughcut used postcards in a controversial promotion last year, and editor in chief Jones liked the results. "We distributed in L.A. in restaurants and some clubs," says Jones, "They said, 'Yes, he's gay' and 'Yes, they're implants' and 'Yes, with a prostitute.' On the back the postcard said, 'Watch Roughcut and go to our Web site.'" Did they work? "They were tremendously successful," Jones says. "I ran into a guy refilling these things and he said, 'I can't keep these in stock: They're gone.'" Jones considers the campaign a branding and public relations triumph. "I can't say our hits doubled, but it did get our name out there. And we got a wonderful response from the gay community and tons of letters."

Another controversial way to get people to see your site and your ads is to pay them. At CyberGold (www.cybergold.com), members fill out a demographic profile and are paid to look at targeted ads. For every ad a member sees, the vendor pays both the viewer and CyberGold a fee, ranging from $.50 to $5. This strategy has its skeptics, to be sure, but you can decide for yourself.

Let's not forget the tawdry kings of marketing: the porn sites. Many of these companies experiment with an amazing variety of sneaky and duplicitous techniques. Most popular, perhaps, is plain old lying, where a site advertises something completely different from what it offers (nude Gillian Anderson!). Trick number two involves using banner ads that make Web surfers think they can click to see a graphic image. A related scam uses banner ads disguised as either Windows 95 error messages or dialog boxes. They hope you'll click where it says OK. The most annoying technique involves launching a second, third, and perhaps fourth browser window as soon as you click anywhere. But think twice before using these methods. You may attract visitors initially but then alienate them.

Timing and Follow-Through

Timing and follow-through are as important as the marketing campaign itself. For instance, your Web site's initial launch is probably the most opportune time to stage a media blitz, since that's when directories and publications are most likely to highlight your site for a day. This is also the time to submit your site to other sites that might list you, like Yahoo!, Excite, and all the others. And it's the time to consider hiring PR folks to get the word out and make sure your site gets covered in magazines, television shows, analysts' reports, and so on.

Once all the hoopla dies down, make sure you have strategies to keep your site in the public eye. Revise your site as often as possible, not just because your content changes but because search engines and directories could drop your site listing or customers could stray unless new features keep them interested.

Also remember that great content won't sell itself. You want people to recognize your brand. You want users to seek out your site when they want travel info, modem tips, dog-grooming products, or whatever it is you're selling. Then it's up to your site to convert casual surfers into customers.

It's All a Crapshoot

Lest you think you're in over your head, even rich, experienced companies make marketing mistakes. "I think the biggest mistake we made was trying to work with outside agencies," says Yahoo!'s Edwards. "Because our business changes so dramatically, sometimes we're better off doing things on our own."

"There's no magic formula," says Microsoft's Graccyk. "So much of what we've done in the online space in the last three years has been experimentation. In the online world, there are no rules. We're setting the rules along with everyone else in the industry."

© 1998 James Oliver Cury. All rights reserved.

James Oliver Cury, a former senior editor with The Web magazine, has written for PC World, PC Computing, MacWeek, Spin, and Rolling Stone Online. This is his second feature for Computer Currents.

Marketing Techniques: A Cost Comparison

Now that you're ready to spread the word, here's the way to spread some of your dough around. The costs of various marketing techniques are listed below in order of cost per unit used, ranging from free to exorbitant. These prices were current as of May 15, 1998, but rates change all the time.

Please note: Magazines will charge more for one-time purchases and for better ad placement (like inside covers). TV shows will want to know when and how often you want them to run the ad spot. Billboard companies will charge more for high-traffic locations and less for package deals. Bigger trade shows cost more than smaller ones, and you'll end up paying more for larger areas and for busy spots on the floor. Banner ad costs depend on a wide variety of variables, such as the number of impressions you want and where on a site you want the banner to appear. Direct mail "in the mail" costs include the price of the mailing list, design, production, printing, incoming postage, letter shop, merge/purge fees, and postage of the promotional items.

LinkExchange ad trade: Free Consultant fee: $50 to $150 per hour LinkExchange's Yahoo! ad rates: $100 for 10,000 ad views ($750 for 75,000 ad views) Direct mail list only: $100 to $150 per 1,000 names/addresses Direct e-mail list only: $250 per 1,000 names/addresses Direct mail (total "in the mail" cost with a No. 10 envelope and plain letter): $350 to $500 per 1,000 names/addresses Direct e-mail (total "in the mail" cost): $400 per 1,000 names/addresses Billboard (San Francisco Bay Area): $3,000 to $4,000 per month Postcards: $4,200 for 140,000 postcards distributed on 300 racks throughout New York and Los Angeles Banner ads (major sites, like ZDNet or c|net): Start at $8,000 for 100,000 impressions Focus group study: $10,000 Public relations firm retainer: $5,000 to $50,000 per month One four-color ad page in Computer Currents: One time is $3,500 One four-color ad page in PC World: One time is $56,000 One four-color ad page in PC Magazine: One time is $59,000 Cybergold guarantees 100,000 people view your ad: $160,000 Fall Comdex trade show floor space: $5,000 to $1 million

-J. O. C.

When to Go to the Pros: Third-Party Marketing

Whether your site is still in the planning stages or just needs a shot in the arm, there will come a time when you need expert marketing advice. Here's a guide to the professionals you may consider. Remember that the best time to make a splash is when you have news to share: your site's launch, new features, or impressive sales or traffic figures. Also, don't forget that marketing isn't cheap.

Consultants. You'll need to bring in consultants when you want a one-time change. This could be getting your e-commerce system off the ground, redesigning the site's look and feel, adding a database, etc. Consultants charge hourly rates or per-project rates, typically $50 to $150 per hour. Project costs vary depending on size.

As you interview potential consultants, make your needs and expectations clear. The candidates should demonstrate that they have experience accomplishing the task you need. But don't expect these pros to work full time for you; otherwise you'd hire them in-house.

Public relations agencies. Public relations literally means meeting the public. What you're really paying for is a PR firm's connections, contact list, and competitive research. You want them to know whom to send the press release to and how to follow through in order to land a review or news coverage. That's why companies often go to PR firms even when they have their own internal marketing staff.

Do not expect PR firms to do your ad purchasing. That's often a separate ad agency's function.

PR firms keep clients on a monthly retainer, usually between $5,000 and $50,000 per month and commonly between $10,000 and $20,000.

In-house staff. If you've got the money, it's cost-effective to have your own marketing staff. An internal marketing manager can do a more consistent job of maintaining the image and tone of the site, adapting to market changes, and overseeing all your marketing needs, including PR, special promotions (giveaways, contests), merchandise development (logos, T-shirts, mugs), advertising, and business development.

HomeShark employs five in-house marketers as well as an out-of house PR firm and ad agency. Even if you still hire consultants, PR firms, ad agencies, and other third-party companies to help market your site, a good in-house marketer can keep them all on track and update them whenever there's a change or new campaign in the works.

-J. O. C.

Marketing Resources on the Web

Web sites devoted to marketing abound; my top picks follow.

The Internet Marketing Center
www.marketingtips.com
Marketing, promotion, and advertising tips, strategies, and secrets can be found at this site.

Northern Web's Search Engine Tutorial
northernwebs.com/set
Designers can learn to build Web pages that get noticed by the search engines.

The Postmaster
www.netcreations.com/postmaster
This is one of many sites that will, for a fee, submit your site's data to search engines, directories, and other sites that offer What's New and What's Cool areas.

Ultimate Exposure
www.turnpike.net/~hotspot
This site has a free Web search engine/directory promotion page with links to other popular Web locations where you can submit your site.

Marketing Manager's Plain English Glossary
www.jaderiver.com/glossary.htm
Here you'll find a glossary explaining Web marketing phrases.

Marketing Topics
www.duke.edu/~mccann/mkttopic.htm
This collection of papers discusses the Net and its impact on marketing.

Promotion World
www.promotionworld.com
This site features an intriguing compendium of marketing tips, emphasizing free or cheap strategies. It also has "expert interviews" with marketing pros covering specific topics.

The Art of Business Web Site Promotion
deadlock.com/promote
Free downloads, a free newsletter, and an area for learning about site promotion and search engines can be found at this site.

How to Announce Your Web Site
www.ep.com/faq/webannounce.html
This text-only compilation and discussion of ways to promote Web sites includes links to books on the subject.

How to Publicize a Web Site Over the Internet
www.samizdat.com/public.html
At this site you'll find links to marketing sites plus a host of ideas for publicizing Web sites at newsgroups, listservs, and search engines.

-J. O. C.