an effect web agency white paper

3 major risks
of "casually"
investing in
the web
and the rewards of having
a comprehensive web
strategy

109 West Washington St., Goshen, IN 46526

Ph: (574) 533.3800 - Fax: (574) 534.8170
Web: effectwebagency.com
Email: partner@effectwebagency.com

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table of contents (links)
Executive Summary ..... 3
Introduction ..... 4
Risk & Reward: Brand Awareness and Visibility ..... 5
Risk & Reward: Brand Perception ..... 7
Risk & Reward: Engagement Opportunities with Potential Customers ..... 9
Concluding Summary ..... 11

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executive summary
This white paper is for marketing executives who want to understand the risks and
consequences associated with not fully embracing the web. As marketing leaders are being
asked to produce more measurable results with shrunken budgets and tightened margins
they must commit to fully investing in the web in order to make a positive impact on the
bottom line.

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introduction
As the web has become the central hub of all communications, no longer can marketing
executives afford to take a casual approach to the web by relying on an ineffective
corporate website. Rather a full-throttle, all-encompassing web strategy must be in place in
order for a business to grow. A holistic web strategy includes components like social media,
search engine optimization, video and multimedia, campaign based microsites, email
marketing, and methods to measure ROI, in addition to a results-based corporate website.

For marketers who do not choose to put a solid web strategy at the foundation, they will
face many business-altering risks. In addition to the obvious risks of wasting time and
money other risks include:

▪ Lack of brand awareness and visibility

▪ A negative brand perception
▪ Missing out on engagement opportunities with potential customers

The following sections of this white paper will uncover the very real risks that business who
take a casual approach to the web face, along with the huge rewards that come with
approaching the web full-force.

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lack of brand awareness and visibility
risks
One of the biggest challenges in the sales process for many businesses is making their
existence known. In order for that to happen a company must be highly visible in search
engines and social networks. This has become increasingly important as 65.3% of B2B
buyers and 70% of consumers begin their searches for products and services with search
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engines.

David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing, observed this fundamental
shift in how people gain information and the importance of being visible in the search
engines and social arenas. Scott said,

"In the old days, marketing was about buying, via advertisements, or begging, via
media relations, your way into the public eye. Marketers talked about their products
or company, and the focus was on the sales cycle...[Now] buyers go first to the
internet to do their research, via search engines and recommendations from friends
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and peers. If you're not there as a company, you simply don't exist."

To be "visible" means appearing on

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the first page of Google. 68% of
users click a link within the first page
of results and the majority of users
never see results from the second
page or beyond.

If a brand is not visible, potential

customers may perceive that the
company is not trustworthy or credible
since users have been taught that if
they "Google" something the best,
most relevant sources will rise to the
top.

Another risk to consider is that lack of visibility can open the door for the competition to
gain market share. Jeremy Victor, founder of Make Good Media, acknowledges how market
leaders don't take web strategy lightly. Victor said,

"Your business is at risk when you take a "casual" approach to anything...let alone the
web. "Casual" just doesn't align with the type of execution that is necessary to be a
market leader today. Add the fact that barriers to entry into just about any market
today are much lower, "casual web approach" businesses become the targets of
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competitors and start-ups.

1. "Business to Business 2007," Enquiro Research. 2007

2. "Successfully Surfing the Marketing 2.0 Wave," Econtentmag.com, Nancy Davis Kho.
May 2008.
3. “Blended Search Results Study,” iProspect. April 2008.
4. "What is the biggest risk incurred when your business takes a casual approach to the
web?," LinkedIn Answers. Jan 2010.

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rewards
By creating websites and other web tools that are optimized to be easily indexed by the
search engines is one of the most-cost effective ways to spend marketing dollars.

Being highly visible will increase traffic dramatically and thus offer more sales opportunities.
In fact 70% - 80% of traffic comes directly from search engines.

Along with being highly visible also comes the increased likelihood of free publicity and
blogs and stories be written about a brand.

Another great way for marketing leaders to get their brand noticed is to utilize social media
tools such as blogs. Companies that have a blog have 55% more visitors than those who
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don't, fueled by 97% more inbound links and a whopping 434% more indexed pages . Also
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according to Technorati 2009 State of the Blogosphere companies with blogs experience:

▪ 71% have greater visibility in their industry

▪ 63% said customers purchased products and services as a result of the blog
▪ 56% stated their company was now regarded as a thought leader
▪ 40% have been asked to speak at conferences

example
PRSA, the world's largest organization for PR professionals, wanted to improve visibility,
traffic, and usability of one of its key resources, the PRSA Jobcenter. To achieve this PRSA
upgraded the architecture of the Jobcenter to be more user-friendly and easier for search
engines to index. They also created RSS feeds for each category and utilized a variety of
link building tactics. Results included:

▪ Total traffic to PRSA’s site increased substantially, while page views for PRSA’s
Jobcenter increased by over 40%
▪ Search engine rankings and visitor referrals from competitive keyword phrases
increased substantially. For example, referrals from queries on the #1 Google
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ranking keyword phrase increased by over 450%

5. "Study Shows Small Businesses That Blog Get 55% More Website Visitors," Hubspot
Inbound Marketing Blog. August 2009.
6. "2009 State of the Blogosphere: The Full Blogworld Presentation," TechCrunch. October
2009.
7. "SEO Case Study: PRSA Jobcenter," TopSEOs. Jan 2010.

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a negative brand perception
risks
More than any other marketing channel, the web provides the best chance a company has
to make a lasting impression, positive or negative, on potential customers. Upon visiting a
website or social site potential customers begin to infer a lot of things about a company's
identity, culture, and brand.

Talia Kingsbury, Information Architecture and Product Management Consultant, offered

insight about what goes on subconsciously in the mind of a potential customers when they
visit an outdated, poorly designed site.

"When a company has a web presence but does not commit resources to it, one of the
biggest risks is exposing the internal dysfunction of the company.

Is the site content organized by the company's departments rather than by products/
services or another scheme that better serves the user? This might communicate that
products or services relying on interdepartmental cooperation will suffer due to
dysfunctional internal dynamics. Alternatively, it could paint the company as too self-
absorbed to truly understand its clients' needs.

Does the design and/or voice of the site differ unnecessarily from section to section?
This may tell the user that the company is unfocused, lacking a big picture
understanding of its products and services.

Is the branding on the site older than the print branding? A user might question what
else is allowed to stagnate.

Of course, a user might not consciously observe these things, but, if moderately web-
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savvy, he or she will be likely to perceive the site - and the company - negatively."

In addition, if a website fails to meet

the high-expectations of potential
customers while a competitors site is
well-designed and focused on the
user, it sends the message that the
company's products or services are
inferior to that of the competition,
even if that is not the case.

It's also important for marketing

executives to be aware of what their
competitors are doing in terms of their
web-based marketing efforts. The
marketplace sets the standard for
what needs to be done to compete
and win, not a pre-conceived budget idea. Investing in the web without consideration of

8. "What is the biggest risk incurred when your business takes a casual approach to the
web," LinkedIn Answers. Jan 2010.

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what is being done in the market is irresponsible.

Jesse Bohannon, Director of Account Development, Spearhead Sales and Marketing, helps
his clients see the full-range of opportunities the web can provide their business. He said,

“For a vast portion of potential customers, the website will be the only contact they
will have with a company. And if they can’t find you on the top search engines, they
likely won’t keep looking for you. To those shoppers during initial investigation,
whether they are researching for a B2C or B2B transaction, the website it is the
product, the show room and the sales person all rolled in one. If they are
unimpressed, they will likely move on. Unless a company builds a presence on the
web that brings credibility, provides easy access to product and pricing information,
and allows visitors to take the next step in the purchase process, the company’s web
investment will serve only to help shoppers make a decision in favor of their
competition.”

rewards
By focusing on the customer and creating a rich, engaging user-centric website and other
web-based marketing tools marketers can position themselves as a company who cares
about their integrity of their brand and their customers. This positive lasting impression will
also differentiate a brand from it's less web savvy competition.

example
A recent case study on MarketingSherpa focused on how Bob Weagle, VP of Marketing at
the Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Co., recognized that his company needed to
redesign their very technically-based website to be more user-friendly in order to connect
on a deeper level with the end-user, consumers. After creating a new message, Weagle and
his team implemented a series of banner ads and video landing pages to test the new
message strategy before implementing the new site. They then chose the message that had
the best results and implemented it along with a more user-centric design. The redesign
was successful and achieved:
▪ 18.5% lift in traffic
▪ Search terms for the Swiss Water Decaffeinated brand increased from 112% to
140% in major search engines for the first six months after the initial ad run
▪ Visitor loyalty metrics, such as page depth, and time spent, increased between 4%
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and 15%

9. "Banner Ad Test Drives Site Redesign: 4 Steps to 18% More Traffic," MarketingSherpa.
Jan 2010.

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missing out on engagement opportunities with potential
customers

risks
The social media audience is equal to
122 million people in the US, about
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64% of the total internet audience
and growing rapidly. Social media
sites such as Facebook and Twitter
are becoming an integral part of the
buying cycle as consumers and B2B
buyers use social sites to receive and
share information about the products
and services that impact their
lives.

People put a great deal of faith into what their peers say on social sites. This is evident by
the fact that 66% of people on social sites have asked friends or followers to help them
make a decision and 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations over ads and Google
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search engine results pages.

If a company does not have an active presence in the social sphere they are at risk of not
being able to defend themselves should a person or group of people begin to talk negatively
about their product. According to Reed Smith, director of project management at the Texas
Hospital Association in Austin,

"These conversations are going to happen anyway, so it's just a matter of whether or
not you're going to participate in the conversation. If you're not involved, you don't
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really have any influence."

An unengaged company also stands the risk of becoming out of touch and disconnected
from target customers. According to the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study:

▪ 93% of Americans believe that a company should have a presence on social media
sites

10. "Blended Search Results Study," iProspect. April 2008.

11. "From Search to Discovery, What's the Link Between Search and Social? and PR, Social
Media & Search," SES Chicago. Dec 2009.
12. "Marketing: Are Social Media's Rewards Worth the Risks?," HealthLeadersMedia. July
2009.

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 ▪ 85% of Americans believe that companies should use social sites to interact with
consumers
▪ 60% of Americans regularly interact with companies on a social media site
▪ 43% of consumers say that companies should use social networks to solve the
consumers' problems
▪ 41% believe that companies should use social media tools to solicit feedback on
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products and services

rewards
By creating an active, engaging presence on social media sites companies can increase their
visibility, brand awareness, and credibility. Brand reputations can be monitored more
accurately as well. Social media also teaches companies how to create more user-focused
products and services. However, perhaps most importantly when companies leverage social
media to interact with their audience they have the ability to build lasting relationships and
turn customers into brand advocates.

example
Graco baby and infant products utilized social media to connect with the large influential
parenting audience that was already active in social media. According to the Word of Mouth
Marketing Association,

"The strategy involved a series of Graco Get-Together events with parenting bloggers
around the country to organically “join” the community and learn from leading
community members. This was followed by the launch of a corporate blog about
parenting and babies authored by a multi-disciplinary team of Graco employees. The
blog was a tool to facilitate two-way communication with customers and to build
relationships with key online influencers. The blogging effort has been supported by
using other social media tools like Flickr, YouTube and Twitter."

The results included:

▪ GracoBaby blog featured on the Today Show and as a case study at BlogHer
Business conference
▪ Volume of the online conversation for the Graco Brand nearly doubled, while the
polarity of online mentions rose from 68% positive in 2007 to 83% positive in 2008
▪ Thousands of monthly unique visitors to the Graco Blog
▪ Graco Blog ranked on the front page of Google for many relevant search terms
▪ Positive reviews from industry commentators and parenting bloggers alike

13. "Business in Social Media Study." Cone. 2008.

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concluding summary
Marketers will undoubtedly face
large risks if they chose not to invest
full-force into the web. In parallel by
leveraging the full power of the web
with a comprehensive strategy,
companies can make a lasting
positive impression on potential
customers, become highly visible,
and be able to participate and
influence conversations that are
already underway. All of these
things lead to increase brand
awareness, more sales opportunities, and ultimately a positive impact on the bottom line.

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