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-   -   Web 2.0 marketing. Some food for thought. And your OPINIONS are highly encouraged... (http://www.sowpub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3755)

GordonJ February 25, 2007 10:51 AM

Web 2.0 marketing. Some food for thought. And your OPINIONS are highly encouraged...
 
Web 2.0

Are you ready? Here's my take. Feel free to disagree.

If you had a product to sell, a real one, not a virtual one...like a water purifier for example...

Which would you rather have...a team of Salespeople selling directly to the customers OR a Web Site that sold your product?

There is NO right or wrong answer, your opinion is wanted. I'm going to share mine.

Before I get into it, some food for thought:

Derek Gehl took over Internet Marketing Center (IMC) when Corey Rudl passed away in a race car accident (we should all be so lucky to go out doing something we love doing like Corey did). The IMC has made over 60 million dollars in the last 10 years, and is, I believe, one of the larger and more successful Internet marketing companies...with a REAL product that gets shipped out.

You could probably name several more, but consider that Rodale, Time-Warner, Publishers Clearinghouse, SCI, AARP, Credit card companies, banks, publishers...yada, yada, yada...

many of whom will take in 60 MILLION dollars in the next few months...and do that amount every year...YEAR after YEAR after YEAR...well,

It just makes me wonder...that's all, makes me think about the REAL world out there...cause sometimes, I forget it exists as I'm focused on this screen in front of me.

I was down in Canton, Ohio the other day and I drove by several companies including London's Candies, Hoover, Timken, Suarez Corporation Industries, Universal-Syndications, James Direct, Fitness Quest, NCP Marketing Group (Billy Blanks and Taebo)...

and several other companies...and these all SELL products. Sweepers, Ball Bearings, Chocolates, Heaters, Jewelry, Collectibles, Books, Exercise equipment, DVD, audio programs...all kinds of products.

And I noticed their PARKING lots were full. In fact I was surprised because a couple of these were PACKED with no place to park...some off line brick and mortar businesses must be doing pretty well.

Friends, my point is this: Just because you "live" online, look around your home and see how many products you bought from a real person.

AH. Web 2.0.

It is in MY opinion bringing the CONNECTION between people back...the so-called High Tech-High Touch that John Naisbitt wrote of in his 1982 best seller, MegaTrends.

And it is also my opinion we have just seen the beginning of PEOPLE TO PEOPLE marketing done online.

You might want to cut and paste that into a document and ponder on it for awhile.

You've seen the video testimonials at scores of sites.

WEB 2.0 is going to put the SALESMAN back in front of the PROSPECT (another keeper).

Real Time Connection...your question...my answer. Your INTEREST, my SALESMANSHIP...no longer in "print" as a letter (or screen)...

BUT with all my ability to persuade, control, lead, influence, manipulate, encourage, cajole and get you to say YES to my offer.

Isn't that what Internet Marketers have been trying to do for the last decade...lead you through either a long winded, multi-page sales "letter" or to cut to the chase and say...here it is, buy it now (for a good reason)? They have been trying to get your YESes, and some copywriters have made fortunes with their "salesmanship in print".

How will YOUR online promotion, your web site stand up against MY directly competing WEB 2.0 site? How will your sales of that Water Purifier compare to mine, where a prospect gets a LIVE person...in real time...and has all her questions answered...all her objections addressed, all her reluctance to buy taken care of...

OF course, your well targeted NICHE web site, with a quality OFFER (salespage) will probably continue to make you sales. But some of those companies I mentioned above already have DOZENS of people at desks, on the PHONE...ready to take your credit card number...

And I think a few of them may very soon have the ability to have those "operators standing by" types...armed with professionally crafted sales script on the wall...and TALK directly to you and SEE you and.... well...

USE SALESMANSHIP at it's most effective level...person to person.

Web 2.0 is that: PERSON TO PERSON.

Same TARGET niche, say those searching for Water Purifiers. Your google ad against mine. My PEOPLE ready 24/7 to answer your questions, to 'guide' you, to take your money and make you a satisfied customer.

And write this down. Before the year is out, there will be DIRECT MAIL solicitations that take you ONLINE to a real person.

I think it was Gary Halbert who wrote many years ago...and I'm paraphrasing from memory...that the object of your web site was to get people OFF line and to get them to deal with YOU (your sales team) DIRECTLY...

and the next huge Direct Marketing Revolution will be to get you to GO ONLINE, where you can CONNECT WITH ANOTHER HUMAN being...
and there will be windfalls made in record breaking time...just

WATCH what happens.

But, that is just my opinon.

OH. And one other thing...I've had friends all over the country lose power for up to a week or more...some longer. Their INTERNET only businesses came to screeching halt...a few headed to the nearest HOT spot with their notebooks to "keep the business alive".

It will NEVER happen. NEVER. But, what if, for whatever reason...the Internet wasn't available to you for, say a month. I wonder how sales would be at the Internet Marketing Center?

I do know that sales in Canton, Ohio would be just like the Energizer Bunny at this point...they'd keep going, and going and going.

Direct Marketing is alive and well outside of that box sitting on or under or behind your desk...

OK. How do you think WEB 2.0 will impact marketing? Any ideas? Any comments?

Thanks for your time and attention.

Gordon Jay Alexander

PS. I wonder what is going to happen when the first REAL TIME person to person dating, introduction, WEB2inar takes place? I better head to the gym right NOW.

Ankesh February 25, 2007 12:23 PM

Re: Web 2.0 marketing. Some food for thought. And your OPINIONS are highly encouraged...
 
Thanks for writing about web 2.0 Gordon.

I think every good marketer should study the techniques of FutureNowInc.com

They've helped sites get 5-10-20% response rates consistently. Even as high as 60% response rates! That is unheard of in the direct marketing world.

I'm not sure if they call it web 2.0 selling - but what they do is give people options based on their personalities. One site will have 4-16 different sales funnels based on 4-16 different imaginary personality profiles.

More than direct person-to-person contact - what web 2.0 has done is shown how easy it is to give different options to sell the same thing depending on what people show what they like. For me, web 2.0 is simply better "user interactivity".

In direct marketing jargon - its latency based (or trip wire based) marketing on steroids.

Which product does a customer buy? What information did he read or search for to make that purchase decision? How long before he showed interest in the product did he actually buy it?

Based on such questions - show more relevant buying options to the customer - in real time.

Pete Egeler February 25, 2007 01:55 PM

Web 2.0 =
 
ZIP.

Yup, ZIP. Mostly, Web 2.0 is nothing more than hype. It involves doing what people have been trying to teach you to do all along. In other words, there is no "Web 2.0".

What there IS, is a new phrase coined by a marketer trying to give his stuff some zip.

I've been to a couple of hard-nosed marketing forums in the past few weeks were this has been kicked around, and kicked to death. And, most all of those that have participated in the discussions all agree.. Web 2.0 is nothing more than doing what you SHOULD have been doing all along. :)

But hey, it makes for some lively discussions, and it gets the newbie to buy something that they might otherwise pass on. Shoot fire, if it says Web 2.0 it must be something really hot! (Not)

My 2¢

Pete

James Anthony February 25, 2007 02:24 PM

Re: Web 2.0 =
 
Pete,

I've heard you say this before but didn't reply to it.

I think you have a misunderstanding of what web 2.0 is all about.

For the kind of stuff you do, like mostly ebooks and sales pages, web 2.0 is pretty much meaningless, as it is to most marketers.

I've got a few web applications being built right now where web 2.0 is totally for real and a key part of what I'm doing.

I'd like to hear your defination of what you think web 2.0 really is because I'm guessing you've got it all wrong.

Jim

Sandi Bowman February 25, 2007 02:27 PM

Re: Web 2.0 marketing. Some food for thought. And your OPINIONS are highly encouraged
 
I haven't had time to do the research on Web 2.0 so no direct opinion there yet.

IF, and that's a big if, web 2.0 or some such allows more direct sales like interaction, then I'd be all for it. One of the big frustrations for me has been the lack of a real sales situation. As a long time salesperson, trainer etc..I really miss the face to face interactivity. There's nothing quite like seeing a person's reaction and judging their body language etc...to increase comfort level and leverage for both parties, IMHO.

Until I have time to read and study, that's the best opinion you'll be able to get from me. Personally, for anything major, I would hate shopping online as it now stands...in fact, I won't do it currently, if I have a choice. Yet, I've been known to buy from catalogs so...go figure.

Here's another little thought: I find I buy more confidently and easily from catalogs these days. Wonder if the influence of the internet has anything to do with that change? Could it have something to do with not being rushed by 'time outs' and being more in control of the entire ordering process (like going back and re-reading portions of the description, for example, without having to re-do everything again) from a catalog versus internet? More food for thought?

Sandi Bowman

Ankesh February 25, 2007 03:17 PM

Re: Web 2.0 =
 
Hi Pete,

You might want to read:

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/orei...is-web-20.html

Yes web 2.0 is a term coined to describe an idea. It was coined by Tim O Reilly - the publisher of all those web programming books.

This snapshot pretty much gives you the difference between web and web 2.0:

Web 1.0 --> Web 2.0
DoubleClick --> Google AdSense
Ofoto --> Flickr
Akamai --> BitTorrent
mp3.com --> Napster
Britannica Online --> Wikipedia
personal websites --> blogging
evite --> upcoming.org and EVDB
domain name speculation --> search engine optimization
page views --> cost per click
screen scraping --> web services
publishing --> participation*
content management systems --> wikis
directories (taxonomy) --> tagging ("folksonomy")
stickiness --> syndication

* List taken from the above linked article. Bold is my emphasis.

Ankesh February 25, 2007 03:29 PM

Re: Web 2.0 marketing. Some food for thought. And your OPINIONS are highly encouraged
 
In the last decade, two somewhat similar but different thoughts have emerged.

1. Wisdom of the Crowd. How crowds make better decisions than a single person.

2. The Long Tail. How different people want different and very uncommon options. Best example: 60% of books sold by amazon.com are unknown hidden books that aren't carried in the retail brick and mortar book stores at all.

Internet is the only medium that allows efficient use of the idea behind the "wisdom of the crowd" and the "long tail" together.

Provide a lot of options to people (or let the people themselves create the options). And let them make a decision as to what they want and what is hot.

And web 2.0 is the term coined to describe that idea.

Is the idea itself new? Not at all. Just look at Dell.

Pete Egeler February 25, 2007 04:42 PM

Re: Web 2.0 marketing. I agree.. and disagree..
 
I fully understand what Mr. O'Reilly is saying. HOWEVER, I do NOT agree with those that are claiming that if you don't follow their "Web 2.0" methods, you aren't going to make it on the Internet. You don't have a choice!

If you look at Tim's explination of Web 2.0, you can see it's more or less a natural progression, not some "Whoa.. The Holy Grail" as some are shouting, and that's what's tickin' me off about the whole thing.

Web 2.0 as outlined by Tim O'Reilly is just a natural progression in my mind, not some great, hot-off-the-press-grab-it-or-lose concept as many marketers would have you believe.

Consider those just hitting the Internet for the first time. They never knew the Web 1.0 stuff. They're starting right out of the gate with "Web 2.0" and know nothing else. Just like you folks that have never had the "joy" of starting out on a Commadore Computer. You started out with Computer 2.0. :)

So, guess I'm saying that there's nothing "Super Natural" about Web 2.0 as many marketers would have your believe. It's simply using the platforms that are available to everyone.

Some guy saw the O'Reilly term, said "hey, let's use that term and we'll sell more stuff 'cause everyone will think it's something they just have to have."

Clear as mud? :)

Pete

James Anthony February 25, 2007 06:16 PM

Re: Web 2.0 marketing. I agree.. and disagree..
 
Pete, I think you're missing the point.

I don't see marketers pushing anything about web 2.0. I don't hang out in those circles.

It's not any sort of sales tactic or associated with any type of product you can purchase so I'm not sure what you are getting at there.

It's all about user connectivity and user generated content and building communities where users can interact and share. It's about websites built and directed by it's users in real time. (or at least that's a big part of it without getting too deep into it)

Take a look at the top 10 websites in the US and tell me if you see any web 2.0 stuff there....

-Yahoo
-Google
-MySpace
-Microsoft
-eBay
-YouTube
-Facebook
-Wikipedia
-Craigslist

Most of it!

And the "heavy" web 2.0 stuff on the list we had never heard of a couple years ago - MySpace - YouTube - Facebook - Wikipedia

It shows that web 2.0 is what users are looking for and demanding.

Jim

Phil February 25, 2007 07:18 PM

Re: Web 2.0 marketing. Some food for thought. And your OPINIONS are highly encouraged
 
The Concept of Web 2.0 is Great for Nichifying business and marketing...

But overall How Many sites can & Do Most people spend time at Daily, weekly...?

Although http://secondlife.com/

Has been one Incedible business model of Success. ;)

Stay on Top of it all... Right? :)

http://www.econsultant.com/web2/
http://www.go2web20.net/
http://www.web2journal.com/
http://www.techcrunch.com/

Phil


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