New technologies change ways to market on Web

When Jim Sterne, president of Target Marketing, wrote the first edition of “World Wide Web Marketing” four years ago, Java was barely known, Internet initial public offerings were unheard of and few business were selling anything online.

Since then, the Internet’s impact has changed monumentally — technologies like Java, push advertising and intranets/extranets have rewritten the rules for online marketing. This new edition has changed with the times. Sterne includes his own insights of how the Web changed the way we do business, based on his experienced grasp of the industry.

The hard part about writing a book like this is the plethora of books on the subject. Sterne decided to target his audience not to those who just want to learn to build a Web site, but to non-technical marketing managers, advertising professionals and publicists who already

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have some online marketing experience and want insight into the next wave of opportunities in the field.

However, he could have cut most of the first 50 pages, which is a familiar beginners’ primer on the Internet and the Web, including their history, how they work, how to view a Web page, and a discussion of newsgroups and e-mail. Most marketing professionals already know these basics in this day and age.

But once you skip over those chapters, you’ll find the book’s main thrust: How to develop relationships with valued customers and build brand loyalty by using personalization tools that tailor content to individual users. Sterne discusses, through case studies and examples, the latest technologies and strategies for banner advertising (both good and dubious), cable access, outsourcing, expectations, value-added marketing and measuring success.

The most comprehensive chapters cover usability, navigation, value-added marketing in a realistic way and the most important, return on investment. Here, Sterne shows how many methods can be deceiving and what works or doesn’t work based on usability testing — the key to success.

Although you won’t learn the step-by-step process of designing a Web site, nor what tools to use, Sterne does devote time to explaining how to make your site fun, interesting and useful by making your customers’ lives easier. He points out errors designers make, such as applying multimedia and fancy graphics, when those techniques can actually be detrimental to a site. Only use multimedia for three reasons, he says: “decoration, navigation and information.”

A main part of Web success, Sterne asserts, is ensuring that consumers be able to visit your Web site without fear of their privacy being exploited. Called “permission” marketing, this is when the consumers themselves grant a company permission to communicate only if they know what’s in it for them. Sterne offers six levels of permission marketing and what rules apply. For example, you can’t send direct e-mail (spam) without permission or sell consumers’ addresses. You must build trust, first and foremost.

The book is chock full of examples of what works on the Web and what doesn’t, based on Sterne’s own experience, research and interviews. The Where Do You Start? chapter, although some 300 pages in, is a must-read to find out how to establish your goals, round up the right players, garner leads, strategize and price out your implementation and public relations plan, and how to launch and get feedback.

All in all, check out this book if you want to set up a complete Internet marketing strategy with clear business objectives and measurable return on investment.