e-Business, e-Commerce, Online Marketing & Web Strategy

Creating the e-Business - Part 1: Success Determinants

E-Commerce Example - The Travel Industry

Website Analytics - The Customer-Centric Organization

Creating the e-Business - Part 1: Success Determinants

E-Commerce Example - The Travel Industry

Website Analytics - The Customer-Centric Organization

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Oct. 10th, 2008 at 12:36 PM

Creating the e-Business - Part 1: Success Determinants

ABC Company

E-business is more that just selling products and services online. E-business runs the gamete from e-commerce sales to inventory management. E-business also encompasses operations, marketing and finance. The reality is e-business touches, in some way, every department within an organization. This is what makes e-business so complex. This is also what makes e-business so powerful. Over the course of this ‘blog, we will paint a picture of the many facets of e-business and thoroughly examine each of these facets in order to help the reader comprehend the vast nature of this beast. The first step to creating a successful e-business is to form a strategic plan based on the long-term goals of the organization.

ABC Company has a vision to grow its business into new industries, new product markets and increase overall sales via the Internet. It has begun these efforts by creating a functional e-commerce site. This site has a goal of becoming the preferred source for engineers and purchasing agents for sourcing, procuring and applying cogs. ABC’s hope is that along with increased sales, the site will allow its customers to self-service themselves around 50% of the time, if they so choose. This will allow its sales and customer service personnel to spend more time researching and contacting new potential customers.

In order for ABC to succeed in its efforts to increase sales, break into new markets and industries, and create an environment wherein customers can self-service their selves, ABC needs to accomplish some major objectives. First, it must work to integrate its core business functionality into the site. The site must answer the types of questions that a typical customer or potential customer would ask, and it must give the user the power to research products, procure products and check on their orders after the purchase. These are the main functions that customers demand in ABC’s sales and customer service personnel.

Another success factor would be to integrate the information received online into ABC’s customer resource management (CRM) software program. The information obtained from online users could then be transferred to the larger enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The results from online leads and sales could thereby be measured, studied and refined. The information from these studies could be used to market the site differently, allocate more or less resources to the site, change the functionality or usability of the site, etc. This phase of information integration is a key determinant to the future success of the program. A further review of internal and external environments is necessary in order to move forward with creating a successful e-business.

The analysis in question would come in the form of a SWOTT analysis. SWOTT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and trends. The SWOTT analysis forces the company to look at its internal vision and the external realities that await it. If ABC wants to enter new markets and new industries, it must first understand the competitive nature of these environments and the buying nature of the customers.

In Part 2 of this "lecture" we will discuss this fictional company's goals and determine what role e-business plays in those goals.

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Your Company. Your Website. Our Purpose

The blog for e-marketing and e-business professionals

Copyright | emarketingprofs | All Rights Reserved

Sep. 2nd, 2008 at 1:41 PM

E-Commerce Example - The Travel Industry

Before we talk about the role of the Web Manager, let's go over a relevant example of how e-commerce is changing the landscape of business. In this case, I'll use the travel industry as an example of which we can all relate.

The travel industry has been dramatically altered due to e-commerce. In an examination of the effects that e-business has had on this dynamic and extremely personalized industry, we see that not long ago, travel agents ruled the travel industry. These agents performed their service from their brick and mortar offices. After the popularity of the Internet hit mainstream, travel became a new animal. Individuals decided that they enjoyed researching their vacations online before they called their travel agents. These individuals became a prime target for online, e-commerce travel companies. Two of these companies are Hotel Reservations Network and Priceline. These two companies have done the best job thus far in reaching the do-it-yourself audience of travelers.

Hotel Reservations Network, or Hotels.com, made strategic alliances with major hotel chains around the world. They were granted rooms to these hotels at a discount, even when the hotels are “sold out”. Travelers have really begun to utilize Hotels.com in a major way. Another big hitter in the industry has been Priceline.com. Priceline offers the customer the opportunity to enter what they are willing to pay for a service, and the companies on Priceline’s list all bid on accepting your request. One other thing that sets Priceline apart from its competitors is its horizontal partnerships. They have brought in companies from airfare and hotels to companies that offer car rentals, vacations and cruises. Priceline has become the one stop source for all your travel needs. This one stop source mentality has become the war cry of many do-it-yourself e-commerce users. The belief is that both bricks and clicks will win in this thriving industry. However, one would give the edge to the clicks.

Travel is so personalized that most people, other than the busiest individuals, would prefer to make their own travel plans over the Internet. More horizontal partnerships in the industry will also lead to increased online research and procurement. Travel agents will be forced to move from their bricks into clicks in order to compete with the other online travel houses. Of course, the travel industry is just one example of traditional business being transformed by the e-business revolution. As companies move from bricks to clicks, or clicks within bricks (such as ordering from an electronic user interface at a fast-food restaurant), they will need competent Web managers to lead the transition. Professionals that understand sales, usability, functionality, tracking, storing customer information, advertising, community building, customer research, surveys, content building, and many other areas of e-business will be in high demand. These attributes can all fall under the umbrella of a "Web Manager". In our next post we will discuss the growing role of the Web Manager within an existing brick and mortar.

Your Company. Your Website. Our Purpose

The blog for e-marketing and e-business professionals

Copyright | emarketingprofs | All Rights Reserved

Aug. 26th, 2008 at 1:50 PM

Customer-Centric Organization

Most businesses think they are customer-centric, but most of them are not. What does it mean to be customer-centric? How can Marketing managers and Web managers help in the creation of a more customer-centric organization? These are vital questions that must be answered in order to gain market share in the new economy. So the first question is: What does the customer want? Sounds reasonable doesn’t it? It turns out that customers tend to only want one thing; they want you to help them solve a problem. Now, I think most marketers understand this, but most marketers still end up touting, or over-touting their capabilities and products.

They do this in an attempt to make the customer feel comfortable in conducting business with them. And where it is necessary to help the customer bridge their confidence gap, hyping your own company is not the best way to do this. This sort of marketing or selling approach is more effective later on in the buying cycle, once the customer has pretty much chosen you as their preferred buying source. Right now, we are talking about the initial stages of the buying process, the stages in which the customer is fact finding and problem solving. They don’t know what product or service they want to buy. So they don’t need you telling them how great your company is. So, for now, let’s focus on the customer.

Let’s say that you are John Smith, a plumbing supplies distributor, and you get a call from one of your customers saying that they are having trouble with one of the copper fittings you are selling them. He says that the pipe needs to support the very high water pressure that is created when they add garnet to the water spray. So some sort of heavy duty pipe is needed. So, you go online and type into your favorite search engine the phrase ‘heavy duty copper pipe for garnet water spray’. First, let me point out that this type of query is not unusual. The typical person sourcing a product or service online types in between 4-10 keywords in their query string. Why is this important to you?

It’s important because as a Web manager for a company that produces copper pipes, you don’t want to be spinning your wheels trying to get to the top of the search engines with the keyphrase ‘copper pipes’. Where that would be nice to have that top position for ‘copper pipes’, the reality of the situation is that the competition is probably too fierce for that phrase to gain the top spot. Also, your customers are not typing that phrase. They are typing in ‘heavy duty copper pipe for garnet water spray’. And not only is it easier to get to the top of the search engines with this phrase, anyone typing that phrase in and clicking on your link are going to be a much more qualifies lead.

You see, it’s all about content. You can have the words ‘copper pipes’ plastered all over your site, but if you don’t have ‘heavy duty copper pipe for garnet water spray’ anywhere on your site, you probably won’t be seen. But let’s say that you have a product that is especially designed for high pressure garnet water spraying. It is a copper pipe fitted with a barrier ring. It still would not have done you a whole lot of good just to promote the term ‘copper pipe with barrier ring’, because the customer doesn’t know they need a barrier ring. The barrier ring is the solution, not the problem. You have to market to the problem. So, how do you know what John Smith is going to type in? There are many ways to find out.

One way is to look at your Website tracking results and physically look at the keywords and search phrases that visitors are typing in. Another way is to conduct surveys or conduct research expeditions towards your customer’s customers. In other words, find out everything you can about John Smith’s customers, specifically focusing on their ‘hot buttons’, which are the biggest frustration points, biggest problems and most common application issues that they face. If you had known that XYZ Co. was manufacturing pressure sprayers that stripped paint and rust from hard metals, and if you had known that they were having trouble with their machines breaking because their copper fittings were breaking with the new combination of garnet and water, and if you would have known that XYZ Co. was looking for a reinforced copper pipe, then you would have gone in and sold them your product, right? Well, the Internet works the same way except that you can now sell to hundreds or thousands of XYZ Co.’s just by having the right content on your page.

And to make the story even better, the XYZ Co.’s are beginning to skip calling John Smith and going right to their computer to solve their problems. Now, with the research you have done within your own Web analytics, and with your surveys and research complete, you have discovered XYZ Co.’s hot buttons and you have optimized your site for those hot buttons. Now XYZ Co. can find you, and because you spoke intelligently about their problem and offered a good solution, you have bridged the confidence gap successfully. They are now ready to hear about your company; then and only then can the up-selling and cross-selling begin.

So, if you are the pipe manufacturer, or if you are John Smith distributor, the best thing you can do is get to know your customer or your customer's customer and find out what is important to them. This is being customer-centric and this is how the Web managers are changing marketing for the better. But remember, it all starts with Website analytics.

September 2009