work at home
"Web Marketing Disaster?"
By work at home expert, Jim
Daniels
Here's a cute little story of a
web marketing campaign that
turned sour in a span of three minutes. If you're marketing
online (or plan to) this is a story you'd better read.
In the next few minutes you'll learn how easily a web
marketing disaster can happen to you, and what you can do to
right the ship when it does...
- It's the Nature of the Web:
First, you need to understand something about online
marketing. Web promotions are not at all like off-line
promotions.
For the most part, when promoting off-line, you do your
thing and then wait. For example, you run an ad in a
magazine or mail a few thousand direct mail pieces and then
hope for results over the next few weeks.
Online, it is very different. Promotions can happen in a
flash, especially if you're utilizing email marketing.
For example:
Yesterday was the day I picked to announce a special site to
my subscribers. I had been planning on introducing it for
months, but wanted everything to be 100% complete before I
did. I got word that it was a go on Tuesday. On Wednesday I
set up my release page at http://www.bizweb2000.com/go.htm
and scheduled the announcement for Thursday. Why wait? Not
only was this joint venture going to be profitable for
everyone involved, it was going to help lots of other small
business owners too. It was new and it was unique.
So unique in fact, I had cajoled the site owner to let me
release it first. After all, what better way was there to
kick it off than to get the initial word out through my
50,000 BizWeb eGazette subscribers? After all, direct
opt-in email marketing is the number one tool I've used
throughout my five years online. It ALWAYS results in a
flood of new orders, especially when the product or service
fits in with my audience like this one.
Sounds like a pretty exciting release right? Well it was,
for 3 minutes. That's when technology decided it did not
want to go along with the plan. And online, when that key
ingredient doesn't cooperate, it can throw everything
off kilter in a hurry. Here's how it all started unraveling
for me yesterday...
At 11am EST I pulled the trigger. News of this new
information went out to my subscribers and the release
looked great. I clicked my own link just to test and
everything was purring along smoothly.
Or at least I thought so...
At 11:03 the site went down -- just three minutes after I
released news of this special resource to more than 50,000
subscribers.
Aw, what a bummer. Technology didn't agree.
Thanks to a nasty combination of server hiccups, script
errors, backbone burps and more, the site was not accessible
for close to two hours.
A web marketing disaster, right?
Well, almost...
Luckily, with a little creativity and some last minute
maneuvers I was able to avoid total disaster. This is the
part you REALLY need to learn...
As the savvy web marketer I am, (or I'm at least supposed
to be!) I scurried to get together a plan B. I called my pal
Sam, the main man at the new site. He was already working on
it but it would take time.
So I decided that I could not let thousands of my
subscribers go through the trouble of reading my release,
clicking in, and finding only a dead site. I figured I'd
better make it worth their while.
Luckily, I had originally set up my email release so that my
subscribers would be directed to a page on MY site and not
the site that was down. (Actually I always do this and now I
know why!) Since my own site was handling the traffic just
fine, my next move was to quickly redesign that entry web
page. I had to give my readers something of value to make up
for the few minutes they gave me. Here's what I posted
temporarily, in place of that web page...
http://www.bizweb2000.com/planb.htm
As you can see from that page I did not want my readers to
be disappointed, or worse, start cussing' me out. (That's
right, I've got some ornery cusses on my list!) And while I
could not get them to the information they wanted, I COULD
make it up to them with.... gifts! Sure, why not give some
valuable stuff away. And hundreds of folks took me up on my
"consolation" gifts.
(If you didn't, today's your last chance as that plan B URL
has to come down!)
And to those of you who DID get through to the new site from http://www.bizweb2000.com/go.htm -- I thank you for all the
feedback. (good and bad!)
- Lessons to take from my wild day:
At the end of this hectic day I called Sam and asked him for
some tips that others could take from our experience. Here's
what he had to offer...
From Sam Robbins...
After this huge mess, both Jim and I sat back and asked,
"what could be learned from this?..." My first thought was,
"Nothing!... I'll just sell the business and move to an
Island and not have to ever deal with this stuff ever
again!" Hehe. But after I came back to reality, I wrote out
a few simple tips that could possibly help YOU learn from
our mistakes and successes.
1) First and foremost, EXPECT problems. I don't care who you are, where you live or
what your business is, you can hope for the best, but PREPARE for the worst. Things NEVER
seem to go as planned in life OR business, and when it comes to technology, there is NO
exception to this rule.
(Did you know that the most often used bit of technology -
the computer - is also the most UNRELIABLE?!!...Yuck!)
2) Test everything. Regardless of what you are doing, test it all and start
"trouble-shooting". For example, test your website in a variety of browsers (Internet
Explorer AND Netscape). Have your friends test things out as well... visually, as well as
technically (are the links working?... are the scripts operating?..., etc.)
3) Be available. After you do all the above, don't send out your promotion Friday and
go away for the weekend only to come back to HELL on Monday. If you are doing a large
promotion (or any kind for that matter), make sure you are around for at least 24-48 hours
after the initial send off. Just in case something goes wrong or your assistance is needed,
you'll be minutes away.
4) Remain calm. When things DO go wrong, it's OK to get angry and frustrated for a few
minutes, but then... STOP!
Handle the situation. Think about, and concentrate your
energy on the SOLUTION, rather then the problem. AFTER
you've fixed the problem, they'll be plenty of time to sulk
and feel bad. But first your efforts should be concentrated
on FIXING THE PROBLEM.
And try not to stress out too much. That was my biggest
lesson for the day and it's probably the hardest thing to
control. When the "problem" occurred at our site, Jim,
myself and my programmers all got on top of it ASAP! But
I'll admit, I stressed more than I should have, and this
wasn't the first time I've had problems with technology (and
unfortunately, it won't be the last either!). But stressing
out to the point of getting a stroke or getting sick isn't
healthy (nor constructive to the situation at hand).
5) Regardless of whether your promotion ran into snags or not, always follow it up
with a chaser if possible. This is a step I seldom see marketers take, but it always helps
your campaign. If you get an opportunity to follow up with more lessons or something
similar to what we're doing here today, great. If not, then at least try to do a secondary
promotion through the same resource. This gives people who either ran into problems or
simply did not have time to read your info, a chance to see what you're up to.
In closing...
The web is a great place to do business. But as yesterday
proved, it isn't always fun. Just try to take what comes in
stride, and remember, there will always be more days to make
money on the web.
To your online success,
Jim Daniels - Helping online businesses since 1996. Whether you own a medium
sized company or you work from home, Jim can help you. Visit
http://www.work-at-home-site.com
for more expert advice.
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Internet Marketing info
from bizweb2000.com
Website Promotion info from make-a-living-online.com
