By K.K. Campbell

The dot-com bubble has burst and the overheated Internet hype has cooled. In many ways this is an entirely healthy development. After all, it’s difficult to make rational decisions in an irrational market, and in these more sober times, solid business issues are again on the front burner.

The ’net has now been revealed for its true self: it’s the “fourth channel” of business communications. In fact, the need for an impressive Web presence is even greater in Canada, as citizens are, per capita, amongst the most wired in the world.

Most estimates put the number of Canadian Internet users in 2001 at more than 14 million.

Operating without an Internet presence is about as practical as not having a fax machine or phones. But unlike faxes and phones, the Web experiences significant and lasting change on a regular basis.

And it will be obvious to your partners and customers if your site hasn’t kept pace.

Business Web sites have moved through five major phases:

The era of splash pages
When the Web opened for business in 1993, companies viewed it as a broadcast medium, rather like television or newspapers. The first sites developed were essentially ads, containing information about product lines and services.

It was not long before companies realized there was more to generating business benefits than posting simple “brochureware.”

The era of raw e-commerce
A financial transaction is pure information, so it was logical that the Web could deliver that way.

Business sites began laying in e-commerce infrastructures, but companies saw that people didn’t buy just because a product was online.They needed convincing.They needed to be drawn in.

The era of advanced marketing
Online marketing became (again) a standard driver of Web development. The explosion of new sites resulted in info overload, and tools were developed to help customer A get to site B.

We saw maximization of search-engine usage through embedded “tags” hidden in Web sites, link campaigns with other sites and communities that were naturally interested in the product or service, Web advertising and e-mail newsletters.

But businesses noticed users were coming in, filling up shopping carts and then abandoning them just before “check out.”

The era of assurance
It became clear that people didn’t trust the ’net.Years of bad behaviour from spammers, pornographers, teenage flamers and Internet service providers conditioned users to regard the Web with scepticism.

A report from market researcher Vividence found three-quarters of U.S. users abandoned shopping carts.The travel industry has long been aware of the “look-to-book” problem. Some 80 per cent of “wired travellers” researched travel plans online, but only 15 per cent actually booked those plans in the same medium.The main reason was lack of comfort in transmitting financial data.

Sites looked for ways to ease customer fears. Lawyers wrote privacy policies. Accountants performed data audits to prove their Web sites were secure from hackers and snoops. Little privacy seals appeared on home pages.

The era of human contact
The other primary reason for travel’s look-to-book problem was lack of human contact. Every year, new studies appear demonstrating that e-mail is underutilized by business. Companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on Web design, crammed with e-commerce and privacy features, and then ignore incoming e-mail.

E-mail is the most powerful direct marketing tool ever invented; it’s direct human contact. Sites have started assigning people to answer incoming e-mails. Or, being even more proactive, they hire “live people” to answer questions, like call centres do with phones.

Each of these broad phases has ushered in new tools to help businesses function online. Most tools, as listed on the next pages, are still with us, still useful and make up the complete kit of online business.

Navigation
Some things never change. From day one of Web development, the most important feature of a site has been navigation—the ability to move around a site to find what you need quickly.

In a January 2002 WebWatch survey, 80 per cent of business site users said navigation was crucial to their opinion of what constitutes a successful site. This is never going to change. Design your site to minimize the number of clicks between the user and the desired information.

Responsiveness
Have a prominent e-mail contact point—usually a button saying “Contact Us.” And don’t stink up that contact point with a maze of required questions.Why do I have to give my age and sex if I want to know how many days it takes to deliver a wok?

Have a human available to respond to complex questions.

Many research firms think the lack of basic customer service contributes to a decline in consumer Internet confidence. A recent report from Jupiter Communications said that about a third of online retailers respond to online inquiries in six hours. But 40 per cent take more than three days—or never respond at all.

The most advanced response design is the “live human” contact in which a user clicks a button to “chat” with a person about the product or service through interactive text. The “chatter” can be a company employee or hired service. The latter operates like a traditional call centre. If a microphone is hooked up on both ends the Web can even support a voice chat.

Check out WebHelp.com for an example of this service. The company has more than 1,000 online service staff based in India, the Philippines, Romania, Mexico and Canada.

Automated e-mail services
Some customer contacts, usually for common queries, don’t require human response. Automated e-mail replies are a cost effective way to deal with this situation.

A January survey of online retailers from AnswerThink found 91 per cent have some form of automated e-mail. But beware of overusing automated services. They can be annoying to users if the automated replies don’t actually answer the person’s needs. Avoid the bureaucratic-looking form letter.

Opt-in e-mail
People regard their e-mail as very intimate. If they give you permission to write to them, they will usually read those emails.

That’s a direct marketer’s dream.

This is why opt-in e-mail is the only way to go. Don’t send out unsolicited e-mails—people who receive them will learn to hate your brand name. If you have enough content related to your product, create a newsletter and send it out every month or so. A March 2002 report from Ipsos-Reid shows that 79 per cent of Internet users in Canada have opted in to some kind of e-mail marketing campaign.

A couple of years ago, e-mail newsletters were best sent out in straight text format. But multimedia e-mail is now common.

Consider using HTML to make your newsletter more attractive. Keaton Communications reports that in 2001, 68 per cent of all U.S. e-mail marketing was in HTML, up from 34 per cent in 2000.

Complete data
This one seems straightforward, but it’s a design feature often overlooked by business. A January study by AnswerThink shows that 50 per cent of e-business sites in 2000 had detailed product information. That rose to 88 per cent in 2001. It should be 100 per cent.

Consider adding a product or service centre. Check out how companies with public relations (PR) staff design their media centres. Check out PR-savvy sites like http://www.adobe.com.

Click on “Press Room” at the bottom of the page.

And if your site is large, install “advanced search” features.

There’s no point in having detailed product data if people can’t find it. Some search programs are free.

Internal sales centre
If you have a sales staff spread over any distance, create a password-protected sales centre. The Internet is the ultimate sales management tool and you can track sales activities and construct detailed customer files. Customer relationship management ( CRM) is a major industry buzzword; explore what it can deliver for your organization. There are very affordable plug-and-play technologies out there.

See http://www.salesforce.com for an example of this in action.

Privacy assurance
People don’t buy from those they don’t trust. Back-end security tools are important for marketing purposes. Tell people what you are doing to protect their personal data, and if you have the budget, get a privacy seal. This little icon means the site has been audited by a third party and meets or exceeds its security standards.

In January, PrincetonSurvey Research Associates found that only 26 per cent of users trust sites that sell something.

Of those that do, small business ranked first at 59 per cent, with news media sites second at 48 per cent.

Analytical tools
These tools are another absolutely essential back-end technology. Web sites automatically produce user data that you can collect and turn into meaningful marketing information. There are hundreds of services and different software products out there to fit whatever budget you have. Fancier tools will permit precise calculations on things like cost per visitor, qualified lead development and general marketing ROI (return on investment).

Remember: the Internet is the most responsive of all your media channels. It lets you see the effectiveness of a campaign immediately.

Check out http://www.netiq.com as an example of these kinds of software tools.

Another important tool is referrer analysis. A referrer is a Web site that brought a user to you, and these can be tracked—an important metric in ad and link campaigns.

Ease of loading
This remains a timeless design feature. Sure, user Internet connectivity speeds are climbing. If your target market tends to have high-speed access, feel free to make Web pages that hold a lot of data. But remember, many users are stuck with slower connections.

Take a look at Yahoo.com. No sizable images to download there and it remains a top destination year after year.

Function, not flash
Lastly, a word about what not to do—don’t over-design.

Keep your techie geek or hired graphics gun under control.

Complex designs usually only please the designer. Less is more. If a design feature has no perceptible function, kill it.

That goes for about 99 per cent of Flash animation. Even those who like goofy little cartoons on Web sites don’t enjoy viewing them more than two or three times. Save your money and put your potential customer first. Focus on function.