Multiple Web Impressions
It is
my belief that if your company offers 15 different services, then you
need to have 15 different web sites in order to make the right web
impression and promote those services. I have never read this idea
anywhere before, or heard this idea presented by anyone before. I
arrived at this conclusion by myself. Further, I have been arguing this
idea for the past three years to thousands of businesses who attend my
lectures. So far, no one has even attempted to challenge my premise.
Please allow me to make my case with the following lines of thinking:
Good Growth, Inc.
Suppose
that Good Growth, Inc. is in need of a good international tax
advisor. Good Growth's management turns to the Internet in search of a
list of international tax advisors and relevant information pertaining
to international tax strategy and law. Presented below is a discussion
about two hypothetical consulting firms that both offer international
tax consulting - ABC Consultants and XYZ Consultants.
ABC Consultant's web site is a
basic web site that contains the same information in the firm's 4-panel
fold-out printed brochure. The information clearly states that the firm
offers the following 15 services: 1040 tax preparation; 1120 tax
preparation; state tax preparation; fiduciary tax preparation; 1065 tax
preparation; client write up services; compilation services; financial
review services; audits; international tax consulting; SBA loan
applications, etc. In this example, because international tax
consulting is a mere bullet on the web page, ABC's web site does not
rank very high as a result of a web search on the term "international
tax consultants". In fact, Google returns 298,000 web site hits, and ABC
Company's web site is number 49,300 on that hit list. Only those web
sites which are solely dedicated to the topic "international tax
consultant" rank among the top 20 to 30 hits. As a result, ABC
Consultants are not found by Good Growth, Inc. However, let us assume
that Good Growth does find the ABC web site - what then. In this case,
the folks at Good Growth are not impressed. The fact that international
tax consulting is listed as a mere bullet does not compel Good Growth to
follow up - instead, they simply move on to the next web site.
By
contrast, XYZ Consultants have created a separate web site to
promote each of their specific services. Their international tax
consulting web site exudes international tax information. The title
contains the words "international tax consultants". The keyword list
contains the words "international tax consultants". The content spouts
off a multitude of relevant international tax information including:
1. A
checklist of the ten most important international tax issues to
consider;
2. A list of laws currently pending in Congress which could affect
international tax law;
3. Case studies where the firm assisted other companies with
international tax issues;
4. Lists of conferences and seminars on international tax law;
5. Biographies of firm consultants as they relate to international tax
issues;
6. The top ten questions you should ask of your international tax
advisor;
7. Published articles designed to educate you about international tax
issues;
8. References to news stories about companies with international tax
problems;
9. A list of links to other relevant international tax information.
As a
result, XYZ's web site ranks high in Good Growth's search and is found.
When Good Growth's management accesses XYZ's web site - they shout
"hallelujah - we've hit the "mother lode". The company proceeds to
immerse themselves in the XYZ web site, printing pages for their own use
and forwarding other pages to their colleagues. Having found many of the
answers they were searching for, the folks at Good Growth stop their web
search and concentrate on the XYZ material. They find the materials very
informative and useful. They conclude that XYZ is a firm that has the
expertise they were looking for. They end up calling XYZ and engaging
their services.
In this
case, having multiple web sites enabled XYZ to make the right impression
and land the customer. The web can be a cold environment and you usually
have only a few seconds to make a good web impression. Companies wishing
to promote their goods and services via the web need to provide separate
web sites for each service and product in order to accomplish this most
important objective. It is important to note that once a company has
created one web site, the second, third and forth web sites are really
quite easy. The infrastructure is already in place and additional web
impressions are only a matter of a little sweat. Read on as I a develop
my point further with another example.
Tower Records and Tapes
We all
know about Tower Records and Tapes, but when I visit this web site, I
wonder why they only have one web site. Why don't they have fifty web
sites. For example, the company could maintain web sites specifically
dedicated to country music, rock and roll, classical music, big band,
punk rock, and Christian music. The Christian music web site for example
might be adorned with pictures on angels, harps, and the pearly white
gates of heaven along with a quick reference to the top 50 Christian
music songs. Thereafter Tower Records and Tapes could market this
particular web site to the church community. Similarly, the country
music web site might display cowboy boots and guitars and be marketed
towards the country music crowd. In each case, the massive database and
engine that has already been developed and published by Tower Records
and Tapes is the same database and engine that drives these additional
web pages. In this manner, Tower Records and Tapes need not re-create
the wheel from scratch, they need only create new home pages that link
to the database and engine that is already in place. A key point is that
the effort needed to create a second third and forth web impression
requires only a small fraction of the effort involved in creating the
original web site.
The Cost of Creating Multiple Web Sites
The
cost of this additional effort is a lot less than you might think. Web
hosting companies like Interland
offer web hosting services which will allow you to maintain up to 15
different domain names for only $68 per month or $816 per year. Domain
names cost just $30 per year. As you can see, the hard costs involved is
trivial compared to the potential benefits of the additional exposure
and multiple images that can be achieved. Of course there is a cost
associated with developing the additional home pages and administrating
those pages. However this effort does not need to be extensive. I am
frequently asked to explain how much effort is involved in creating a
web site. Here's what I do when I get this question:
I simply ask them to give me the name of their current
web site. I then visit that web site and from my browser menu I choose
File, Save As and I download their web site onto my computer - this
whole process takes only a few seconds. Next I open that web page up
in Microsoft Front Page and edit the page. I quickly change the
background color and font. I quickly insert a few pictures of fish
which I have previously saved to my computer. I then copy the revised
web page out to my web server and browser to that new page. proudly I
explain - there you go - there is your new web page, complete with a
fishy theme. It already contains your content and links and it is
ready to go. The whole process takes me about 5 minutes. People are
always impressed by this quick example using their own web page.
Content
It is
important to note that any web site needs extraordinarily good content,
or else all other efforts are for naught. This whole idea does not work
unless each and every web site your create is dedicated to delivery a
bevy of relevant, well-written content which is useful to the
prospective customer you are trying to attract. Please keep this in
mind.
Conclusion
I think
that the idea that a company should have one, and only one web site is
very short sighted. Many companies target different markets via other
more expensive efforts such as print ads, television commercials, trade
journals, etc. Why not do the same on the Internet where the incremental
cost of doing so is minimal? mark my words - this concept will become
standard operating procedure with five years - but always remember that
you read it here first.
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