World Wide Web

The World Wide Web (the now-famous "www") is probably the most familiar aspect of the Internet to the general on-line community. At last count, there were some 350 million gazillion webpages and that number is growing daily (that number is, of course, an accurate count to 6 decimal places).

The web, for marketeers, is the equivalent of a page of full color advertising found in almost any print magazine. There are differences, however.

Web pages can be of essentially infinite length -- the more you have to say, the longer your page can be, but shorter is better.

They can refer readers to other pages of interest and then transport them there via a mechanism called hyperlinking (the blue, underlined text you see scattered throughout a web page -- those are hyperlinks).

Web pages can contain active, moving graphics to better engage your reader's attention to particular areas of interest.

While you can sell goods and services via a magazine ad or a print catalog, the web will allow for much more "elbow room" to strut your stuff. Ever thought of having an interested consumer click on a picture of an item in a web page and be instantly connected to an extensive knowledgeable, FAQ -- Frequently Asked Questions database-- or even a live human able to respond to e-mail or a chat room question? And, unlike a catalog, you are able to instantly service a buy impulse via a simple mouse click.

They can be used to garner information from users (a beginning point for a "permission e-mailing" program).

Web page marketing doesn't require much shifting of mental gears. Just as you'd purchase television or newspaper ad space to enlighten consumers as to the wonders of buying from Acme Widgets, Inc., so too would you seek similar avenues to inform consumers about the existence of Acme Widgets on the world wide web. Additionally, consider a posting in one or more appropriate newsgroups (see next page).

The advantages are generally that a website is less expensive, more responsive to quickly changing events ("Flash! Acme Widgets now come in blue!"), and can reach a larger audience. Increasingly, more businesses are finding that a presence on the web is fast becoming the norm and that consumers are expecting to be able to do product research by mouse click.