Eyes on the prize

Entrepreneur, Feb, 1999 by Melissa Campanelli

Jim Sterne of Target Marketing of Santa Barbara, an Internet marketing consulting firm in California, agrees. "If what you're after is qualified leads," he says, "then give away something that only your prospective buyers want. If you're selling home loans, offer free closing to the lucky winner. If you sell telephone systems, give away free installation. This way, you only get people who are serious about buying."

Garden Escape's Sharples launched such a promotion last September. The promotion, which appeared on Yahoo!, offered a $1,000 shopping spree on the company's Web site. By visiting the site, consumers could enter for a chance to win. "We got a ton of traffic," says Sharples. "But the question is, how good is that traffic? A click onto the Web site may not mean much, depending on where it comes from. Still, this promotion was very successful for us."

Sharples says, in general, sweepstakes and promotions are good customer acquisition tools. "[But once] you have the customers and they have a good experience with you, you don't need to rely as much on promotions," he says. "You can do more sophisticated merchandising and marketing and keep your margins high."

NEXTSTEP

* Need more information about Web promotions? Try the Association for Interactive Media (AIM), the trade association for businesses with Web sites. AIM recently joined forces with the Direct Marketing Association, making it one of the world's largest trade groups for Internet businesses. Click on www.interactivehq.org to receive free e-mail newsletters that cover all aspects of Internet marketing.

* For more Internet information from an entrepreneur's perspective, pick up a copy of The Complete Small Business Internet Guide by Tom and Lori Heatherington (Que Publishing). This book guides you through the process of planning, creating, marketing and promoting an online business. To order, visit www.theinternetbook.com.

Melissa Campanelli is a technology writer in Brooklyn, New York, who has covered technology for Mobile Computing & Communications and Sales & Marketing Management magazines. You can reach her at Melisscamp@aol.com.