But, in the midst of all the doom and gloom, one huge marketing trend has quietly been transforming the way we advertise our businesses. The fact is, websites are moving from the periphery of marketing strategies and are taking a new position at the very hub of a comprehensive marketing program. I've been working in advertising and marketing for 20 years now, and I believe the Internet will make the single biggest change in marketing since the introduction of mass media.

In order to assess the Net's marketing potential, the best thing to do is forget the recent dot com craze and slaughter that ensued. That was a result of several online businesses and their investors trying to push the public into changing long established buying and sociological habits. (Previously, I examined this situation in a column. It can be found on our website.

What the Dot Com malaise hasn't changed is the Web's potential as a communication and marketing tool. The website's place in overall marketing strategies is moving from being one piece of a linear marketing strategy to being the central hub of an overall marketing strategy.

Funnelling Visitors into the Web

Modern marketers are using their websites as a type of online clearing house for prospects. Increasingly, other forms of advertising work to direct prospects to the website. Here, the advertiser can use the advantages that websites offer to provide more information and qualify the prospect in a very cost effective manner. Visitor tracking tools and CRM software are used to gather information and begin the customer relationship. Even if the prospect has no intention of buying online, market research studies have shown that a large percentage of consumers use the Web as a tool to research their purchases.

It used to be that advertising drove prospects to a 1 800 number where sales representatives could further quality the lead. If more information was needed, sales brochures would be sent out by mail. The whole process of qualifying the lead in this manner could take weeks and a once hot lead could cool off dramatically in that time. With the capabilities of a well organized website, a prospect can visit the site, get the information they require, check prices and availability and then decide if they want to place the order online or contact the business to talk face to face with a person. For this reason, one 800 numbers are still part of the sales process, but the leads picking up the phone are much more qualified. In fact, online chat tools and voice over IP can even give websites the ability to handle this one on one contact as well.

The Advantages of a Website

Driving prospects to a website for further information and qualification can offer many advantages over qualifying those prospects by other means. Here's just a few of them:

Better Use of Human Resources

With a website, a prospect can gather the information they need and pre-qualify themselves. Contact with a sales representative is only made when the person is ready to buy. By driving sales leads to a website where this qualification can take place, sales resources are used much more effectively. At the point of contact, the sales representative almost becomes more of a customer service representative, answering specific questions about the product or service in question.

Most Cost Efficient

Printed information packages can be quite expensive to produce on a per piece basis. Add to this the costs of preparing the package and actually getting it in the customer's hands and you can easily be spending $10 per lead just getting product information to them. This information can easily be obtained online at minimal cost to the advertiser.

Global Accessibility

Websites can be accessible around the world. If you're using your website as a marketing and information tool, it doesn't matter if you're located in Albany and your lead is in Auckland. All your product information and the ability to contact you is just one click away.

Able to Disseminate Information Easily

Websites have proven to be the best way to put huge amounts of information at the fingertips of our customers and allow them to find them information they want in a user friendly way. A well designed site with clear navigation tools and a keyword search option allows the prospect to quickly find exactly the information they're looking for, even if you site has thousands and thousands of pages of information online.

Interactivity

The Internet is the first communication medium in history that allows advertisers to reach huge numbers of potential customers in a way that facilitates two way communication and interactivity. Sites can interact with the customer, presenting the information in a way determined by them. Customers can interact with the site, requesting the information they want, using online applets to further qualify their buying decision and even changing the site's interface to suit their preferences. A website can provide the most personalized contact with a customer possible, short of an actual face to face meeting.

Of course, websites also offer visitors the opportunity to purchase online, the ultimate test of interactivity.

Accessible 24 Hours a Day, 7 Days a Week

Websites never sleep or demand overtime. Your online storefront is up and running round the clock. This becomes increasingly important as you start to do business around the world and time zones start to come into play. There's something very satisfying for a business owner to be able to fire up the computer in the morning and see sales requests from Japan, Thailand and Australia.

Efficient Tracking of Prospects

As I said in a previous Net Profit, websites offer the ultimate customer tracking tool. You can follow your prospects movements through your site, seeing which pages interested them and where they spent the most time. Online Chat tools such as HumanClick (www.humanclick.com) and Groopz (www.groopz.com) allow you to do this in real time and have a sales representative step in and proactively initiate communication with the prospect.

Primetime for Online

This marketing evolution that's driving websites front and center in advertising strategies is natural and will continue because of the Web's overwhelming advantages as a communication tool.

Today, the comprehensive marketing strategy drives potential consumers to a web site, where they can gather more information, validate their buying impulse and even act on it. This is the reason industry analysts predict online marketing budgets to grow exponentially over the next 5 years, while the percentages of budget allotted to traditional marketing will continue to decrease. In the US alone, over $65 billion is projected to be spent in digital advertising. (For more, see the article at www.internetnews.com/IAR/article/0,,12_570351,00.html) And that's true of all sectors, not just dot com marketers. Perhaps the "com" in dot com should stand for communication, rather than commercial.