Publication Date: August 9, 1996

The Web Trek: Don't Start This Trip Without a Plan

By Ken Shulman

If Jack London were alive today, he might well be working as a Web page consultant. Who better than the author of White Fang and The Call of the Wild to outline the perils of setting out unprepared on an improbable trek toward riches on the Internet?

There may well be gold in them there hills for those companies willing to dedicate the time and energy to sufficiently explore them. But after the initial euphoria about the 'Net – and the subsequent rush of companies to stake their claims in cyberspace – most industry professionals are advising clients to fine-tune their product and marketing strategies before they even begin to consider questions of graphics, interactivity and page design.

"A company's Web strategy should be integrated into its overall marketing strategy," says David Radin of Marketing Masters in Pennsylvania. "If the Web page exists on its own, in a sort of vacuum, it is far less likely to be successful. People tend to assume that the Web is cheap or free advertising. In fact, it is neither. It is a cost-effective vehicle, but only if you put the right effort behind it. It's amazing how many people have gone out on the Web without a strategy."

Know Your Market

What then, is the right effort for a company looking to go online? "The first thing I try to do is establish whether a client has reasonable goals," says Nathan Wagoner of Duck Soup Information Services. "If a company is trying to create a product support mechanism, or if they are looking at their Web page as an investment in the future, I'd say those are reasonable goals. But if we're talking about a retail operation looking to create a direct revenue stream, I think that client will be very disappointed."

In order to draft a viable Web game plan, a company first needs to identify and analyze its potential market. Those firms that target their products to home users have to remember that most home systems operate at 14.4 or 28.8 baud, and design their pages accordingly, with low-bandwidth graphics that users can download quickly. Companies hoping to do business directly over the Internet may want to consider tailoring their pages for the browsers of online services such as CompuServe and America Online, where people are more used to making credit card purchases through their computers. Software companies have had better luck on the World Wide Web because their customers are more comfortable downloading new products and updates.

Wagoner believes in making his Web pages as "human" as possible, favoring interpersonal communication over a more sterile one-way information format. For Pennsylvania's Juniata College, he helped design a site that allows potential applicants to contact deans, department heads and professors. "The college application pool is the ideal audience for the Internet," he observes. "They are computer literate, and are already in the habit of obtaining their information online."'

The college's Web page seems to have hit its target. David Hawsey, Juniata's dean of admissions, says that during the 26-week period between February – when the Web page went up – and July, the college averaged 50 to 75 electronic inquiries a week. During the same period in 1995, the college averaged only three to five electronic inquiries a week. Hawsey credits much of the Web site's success on how quickly administrators respond to those inquiries.

The Personal Touch

"I always emphasize high touch over high-tech," says Radin, whose clients have included Silicon Graphics and WordPerfect. "You want a site that makes a person feel good, that makes the user feel that the person who put it together did it just for him. Too often a company just puts its catalog up online, or designs a real fancy page with no effective value. Companies that are very astute in their use of traditional media are far less discriminating when it comes to the Internet."

Apart from the computer industry, which has been the most consistent winner in the pioneer stage of the Internet, success stories relating to the Web are scattered across the economic spectrum. Wagoner points to another one of his sites, that of Mercy Regional Health System in Altoona, Pa. With a goal of attracting the attention and referrals of physicians in the region, Wagoner designed a site with numerous specific links to the hospital's departments, and created a rapid, responsive medical information center. "Physicians generally have very little time, and don't want to hang out on the 'Net," he explains. "We wanted to provide them with fast access to information, and to get them to use the hospital's facilities."

Yet for every Web success story, there seem to be just as many online failures, home pages that neither enhance a company's image nor attract new eyeballs to its site. Now that the dust has begun to settle after the first Internet stampede, both consultants and their clients are asking whether they might even benefit from a Web presence. A few industry professionals privately observe that the vast majority of the companies on the Web have no business being there.

"In the early stages of the 'Net, consultants were telling their clients that they had to have a presence at all costs," admits Radin. "Now we know that a company has to have a reason to want to go online."

Ken Shulman writes from Cambridge, Mass.

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David Radin and Nathan Wagoner are featured speakers at DCI's Internet Expo. Radin will also speak at DCI's Field and Sales Force Automation Conference.

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