Marketing online

Black Enterprise, Sept, 1996 by Tariq K. Muhammad

IN EARLY 1994, CARLOS A. HOWARD WAS issued a challenge when he began planning to add three more regional locations to his Norfolk, Virginia-based, company. "Why expand locally, when you can go worldwide?" asked Rodney Jordan, co-founder of MelaNet Information and Communications Network (www.melanet.com), an African American online content provider.

Of course, Jordan meant the World Wide Web and specifically, MelaNet's African Marketplace, an online mall specializing in goods and services provided by African Americans. An online mall is a conglomeration of different vendors arranged in a single Web site. Each vendor has its own Web site within the African Markeplace, where they provide products and/or services. MelaNet is a service of New Perspective Technologies, based in Norfolk.

The Internet, notes Jordan, "provides African American companies with the opportunity to expand our reach beyond the traditional geographical confines of our communities."

With some prodding by Jordan, Carlos A. Howard's Funeral Home was online by April 1994. The results were immediate: casket sales increased by 25% within a year, and over 200 caskets were sold throughout the U.S. and the world--including Canada and Finland--via the Net. "There's no way I could have been able to reach such a wide market without the Internet," says Howard.

In a few short years, the Internet has been transformed from an online military and scientific information database to a commercial juggernaut moving at warp speed. Low barriers to entry and the potential to reach millions of consumers throughout the world has small and large businesses flocking to cyberspace. For small businesses especially, the Internet has the potential to drastically increase market share and foster competition with large, well-financed corporations in a way that was previously impossible. In the world of the Web, company size is nearly irrelevant.

In fact, Howard employs only five staff members yet business has been booming, causing concern among funeral service providers across the country. Selling via the Net lowers Howard's overhead, allowing him to sell his caskets slightly above wholesale cost--thus drawing the ire of competitors. His arrangements with suppliers lets him point, click and ship caskets directly to customers, bypassing the showroom and drastically reducing shipping costs.

MelaNet's African Marketplace is home to 12 businesses, with products ranging from books to wedding services. To generate traffic to the mall and value for his virtual tenants, Jordan provides links to other related sites, joins newsgroups and mailing lists and distributes printed literature on his clients' services.

Jordan also sets up chat sessions in which one or more vendors from the marketplace have a live, online question-and-answer session with interested cybernauts. New Perspective Technologies also provides technical support, including Web site design and maintenance. "It's not enough to have people rent space in the marketplace and not promote their services," contends Jordan. "They might as well not be on the Web."

Daniel Janal, author of Online Marketing Handbook (Van Nostrand Reinhold; $24.95), offers some important things to consider when selecting an Internet mall:

* Make sure the mall has high-quality connectivity to the Internet, which means a T1 line or better. If a mall doesn't offer fast access, consumers could get turned off by the long wait to connect.

* The mall must have an address (URL) that is both easy to type and easy to remember.

* It should have an attractive and easy user interface.

* The company that runs the mall should have experience in publicizing and promoting the site.

Not all online malls are as successful as Jordan's. In fact, some analysts believe that the only ones that will thrive are specifically targeted online malls, like the African Marketplace.

A single location for a wide variety of goods and services--the premise of physical malls--just doesn't translate into the virtual world, says Hal Logan, CEO of Vicinity Corp., an online content development firm in Sunnyvale, California. "The exceptions will be malls that have a particular focus or theme," notes Logan, a former technology consultant.

BEFORE YOU SPIN THE WEB

Online malls are only one way to market and promote your business on the Web. A well-managed Web site can be just as beneficial to your business. But online success means more than merely building a site. "If you build it, they will come" doesn't hold true for this vast new medium.

Many companies have built Web sites only to shut them down in frustration because they didn't devise a clear online marketing strategy. Taking the time to learn and understand the medium, and following some basic online marketing tactics, will help you make the most of your virtual venture. And planning is key to the process.

Whether for sales, public relations or customer service, it's important to determine one or more clearly attainable reasons for being online, asserts Janal. "One of the biggest misconceptions about the Web is that it's just for selling. Right now, it's primarily a marketing tool."