We all know that a good website is essential to branding and marketing your company online. Here is a list of the seven different types of websites that currently exist…

The informational / brochure site: This type of page is intended to provide information to the user. They usually include a home page, products page, FAQ, testimonials, and a contact us page.

Opt-In page: This type of site is designed to collect contact information from a user. In many cases there will be some sort of offer; a discount, access to additional information, a special bonus offer, etc. The page provides just enough information to get the user interested in “opting in”. This can be a good way to develop prospects for a sales team, or sign people up for an email list.

The Sales page: This type of site includes a compelling offer and a strong call to action. If a site has a shopping cart, it is a sales page.

Blog: A page that uses video, audio, and text to create content based around different topics. The page you are on right now is a blog (thanks for visiting by the way).

Membership site: This is a type of site where specific (usually paying) customers are given access to special information or content. Usually the content is protected by some sort of password protection or login process.

Portal site: When a company owns many different brands, sometimes a portal site is needed. A portal site provides links to different websites all connected by some topic or company.

Social network: Sites like Facebook and linkedin. These sites bring users together in a way that they can interact with each other.

When you create your website, you need to think about what your goals are for the site. This will help you determine which type of site (or combination) you create.

What do you guys think? Did I leave any out?

There used to be only a few channels out there for businesses to communicate with their customers: radio, television, and print. Now there are an infinite number. The eighth trend in Seth Godin’s Meatball Sundae is “Infinite channels of communication.” Today, every interaction with a customer is a channel of communication. Sure, your Facebook page is a channel, so is your Twitter account, but so also are the interactions your customers have with each other and with potential customers. Let’s face it, people talk to each other, and in today’s marketplace it’s easier than ever for people to have discussions about your company and your brand. In the wise words of Luke Skywalker, “you can either profit by this or be destroyed. It’s your choice, but I warn you not to underestimate my power.”

So what does this have to do with you? Everything. Before, companies had to broadcast their messages to anyone and everyone out there in the hopes that the message would reach their target demographic. This meant that it just wasn’t economically feasible to market niche products. Why spend a fortune marketing something using mass media that has limited appeal? Sure, there are specific demographics for specific programs on TV, radio, or print articles, and so it’s not impossible to reach your target demographic in this manner. However, you will waste alot of money reaching people that don’t care about your product. Not only that, but people are actively trying to avoid these types of interruption messages.

On the internet, it’s not only possible to reach these niche audiences, it’s actually preferable. You don’t need to interrupt anyone; customers will look for you and your products if they pertain to them. You can succeed with a smaller market, but a larger market share. All you need to do is stay relevant, and treat every interaction with your customers as a channel of communication.

Notable quotes from this section:

• “In order for a customer to make a decision, two things need to happen. The second is that she needs to determine that it’s worth the time or money or risk to take action. But first, she needs to know about the opportunity.”
• Instead of reaching everyone (because you have no other choice) and creating generic products for large audiences, you can now reach a tiny slice of the market - just the people who are passionately interested in your products and services.”
• “The product is everything the company needs to spread the idea itself.”

One of the first rules of marketing is to segment the market. You probably already know that, but if you don’t, now you do and remember kids, knowing is half the battle (the other half is apparently blowing stuff up). What’s been happening lately though is that the market has actually been segmenting your business. Before, you could get away with packaging products together, but in today’s market, customers are demanding pick-and-choose component based solutions. Look at products like iTunes where you can purchase individual songs instead of complete albums. This phenomenon is Godin’s seventh trend, “Google and the dicing of everything.”

I’m not sure exactly when Google became the standard for web searches, but one thing is certain. They have completely changed online business forever. Before Google, we had to go though a company’s main web page and then click though different pages to find the one with the information we needed. Now with Google, we can jump directly to the page that pertains to our search. This means that your company’s offerings should be very specific as opposed to the pre-packaged offerings of the past. If I’m looking for an adult sized banana costume, I can Google my query and pull up a number of sites where I might find exactly what I’m looking for. That’s just an example… no really, I’m not looking for a banana costume, stop looking at me like that!

The point is that no matter what your company offers, you need to understand that the customer will not be satisfied with the package that you put together. They demand to pick and choose the best elements themselves. They want to jump directly to the products (or services) that pertain to them, and they want to do it with minimal clicks. Respect your customers time, and segment your products accordingly. If you don’t, your competition will, and then they’ll reap the benefits while you go out of business.

Trend eight discussion, “Infinite channels of communication” coming soon.

Notable quotes from this section:

• “Specific searches mean that bundling is not necessary.”
• “If you can’t offer more than a commodity, someone else will sell it cheaper.”

A few years ago Chris Anderson wrote a book called The Long Tail. It’s an excellent read and very much recommended. Godin’s fifth trend in Meatball Sundae is exactly this, “the long tail.” Basically what this means is that as a company introduces more product lines, sales usually increase as a result. This means that companies are creating more and more products to cater to small niche groups rather than mass appeal, one size fits all type of products. In the past there was a clear market leader, but as the marketplace has become more and more segmented, the leading brand is often “other.” For example, the leading soft drink may be Coke (don’t hold me to this, I didn’t do any research on it), but if you look at the leading soft drink among 25 year old males, it may be different.

In the past, if you didn’t have mainstream tastes, then you were out of luck. Products that you would enjoy simply weren’t promoted. And why not? Why would a company spend millions of dollars to market to a small little group of pinball machine enthusiasts (or whatever). Today, on the internet, you can find a fan page or a discussion board for just about any subject you are interested in. And it doesn’t cost millions of dollars to put a product in front of this captive audience. There’s money to be made for companies that serve these niche markets and know how to promote to them.

So what does this mean for you, the evil marketer? It means that you should find a market that hasn’t been found yet; a group that is under served. Create something so awesome that the people in that market will go out of their way to find you, then serve this community. If you can connect enough of these types of markets then you will definitely be on your way. In today’s marketplace, you don’t need to be one of the big boys to be profitable. Concentrate on a market that the big boys don’t serve and don’t really care about, and you can really succeed.

Notable quotes from this section:

• “Consumers reward providers that offer the most choices, and the economics of creating and selling a product have fundamentally changed.”
• “It’s not about what you think the market wants, or what you want the market to want. It’s about creating and assembling a collection of goods and services that captures the attention (and commerce) of the people who truly care.”
• “The web allows minor obsessions to coalesce.”

It’s time for another book discussion. This time, I’m reading Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync? by Seth Godin. The general idea is that not all organizations are optimized to take advantage of the new marketing opportunities out there today. Instead many companies are still focused on old marketing techniques. Godin discusses 14 trends that have re-shaped marketing, and illustrates how you can optimize your business to take advantage of these trends. Since the organization of the book is a bit different (and you really should read it yourself), I won’t be discussing the book chapter by chapter. Instead, I’m going to discuss each of his 14 trends in turn.

Let’s start the discussion by defining old marketing vs new marketing. Godin describes the era before advertising as a time when small and local businesses thrived. Products were usually made by hand, and sold locally. Many of these companies failed to invest properly in marketing to the masses and therefore died out when the advertising age hit. The era of advertising is what really describes “old marketing”. Godin define’s old marketing as “the art of interrupting masses of people with ads about average products.” (reminds me of those old toy commercials when I was a kid) Many companies are optimized to take advantage of this approach. However, we are in the era of “new marketing”, and many companies aren’t set up to take advantage.

“New Marketing” Godin says, “leverages scarce attention and creates interactions among communities with similar interests. New marketing treats every interaction, product, service, and side effect as a form of media.” See the difference? Let’s break it down a bit. Old marketing relies on a limited number of media outlets (print, radio, television, etc); new marketing has unlimited media outlets. Old media is focused on appealing to masses; new marketing focuses on appealing to niche audiences. Old marketing is based on marketer-to-consumer communication; new marketing is based on consumer-to-consumer communication. Old marketing sells with features; new marketing sells with stories. The book outlines many more differences, but you get the idea.

Think about it for a few minutes. From the ground up, many companies are designed with this old marketing approach in mind. They create average products for the average consumer, and use mass media to let the world know. If this describes your approach to marketing, then you will not be able to take full advantage of all the new marketing opportunities available. I’ve talked about companies using social media poorly. Many times, it’s because they focus only on the new toys and not enough on organizational changes. If you want to take advantage of new marketing opportunities, you need to create outstanding products and then tell stories directly to the people that you’ve gained permission to talk to.

What do you think defines old marketing and new marketing? Do you agree that we are in a new era? Discuss in the comments or send me an email.

Next time we’ll discuss the first trend, “direct communication and commerce between producers and consumers”.

Nothing stays the same, everything changes. Everything I’ve been talking about, and will talk about in the future can and will change with time. The information in “Crush It!” is not absolute, it can change tomorrow or even later today. It’s up to you to stay ahead of the curve, and you need to always be willing to adapt, especially when something isn’t working. As a matter of fact, social networking and new media is a fantastic way to find out what people think of your brand.

In the past, it was very difficult for businesses (and individuals for that matter) to address criticism or feedback from the masses. With social media it’s easier than ever, and you need to take advantage of the opportunity. Look at what Dominoes Pizza is doing. It’s very impressive that they are willing to interact with their customers on a one on one basis. The new social media offers this opportunity, but far too few major companies are taking advantage of this. Think about how you can interact with individuals within your community (more on this later when I attempt to define marketing) and you will always be ahead of the curve.

Notable quotes from the final chapters:

• “If you see falsehood, you can correct it. If you see praise, you can show appreciation. If you see confusion, you can inform.”
• “We’re all in the public eye now.”
• “Think through the consequences of every business decision you make before you actually make it.”
• “No matter how big you get, every email, every customer, every friend, every single person with whom you come into contact matters and deserves respect and attention.”

This concludes the discussion of “Crush It!”. It’s an excellent book and worth the read so check your local library or purchase using my shameless link.