Next week, I’m going to provide my NoSpin "checklist" for web site content to respond the question, "So what should I put on my site?" I will give you a few ideas and helpful hints. But as mentioned for weeks now, the key to web site marketing is compelling content: content that provides real information that will keep visitors coming back to your site. You do NOT have to actually sell good and services online to have a highly successful web site that contributes to sales.

The E Commerce Special Section of the Wall Street Journal Reports this past week (Monday October 29, 2001) is entitled: "The Rise of I-Commerce-- Companies are discovering that giving consumers information online is as valuable as making a sale." Sound familiar? We’ve been dancing around the issue of I-Commerce for several weeks now. It’s sort of like déjà vu in that the Web really started out as a way to better share information in academia and government circles. The dot.com aberration is over, and now the Web can again be about sharing information among businesses and individuals–and become a powerful vehicle of commerce for businesses, globally. I-Commerce is commerce: commerce without the yak and spin.

Here are some examples mentioned in one of the special report WSJ articles:

"Information Please--How three companies are using the Web to find out more about their customers–or to let their customers know more about them (page R6 Oct 29, 2001)"

1) King Arthur Flour, a 100-year-old Vermont miller, at www.kingarthurflour.com plays up and builds on its cult-like following for its brand of flour with recipes, contests, baking classes–and yes, a flour catalog. It does a phenomenal job of providing information and selling its flour online (which is tough to get in some groceries across the country).

2) Wells Fargo at www.wellsfargo.com is one of many financial institutions that provides a significant range and depth of online mortgage information from online account information for current customers, to step-by-step advice about every phase of the home buying process, to mortgage calculators. Right now, you have to actually apply for a mortgage loan by phone, but that too, Wells Fargo may add like others have done.

3) Proctor and Gamble is the granddaddy of marketing and market research in the consumer goods world has radically changed its web presence from typical corporate yak for bored investors to a powerful mechanism to collect market research information more quickly and economically and to test market products online. Check out www.pg.com to see what this huge company is doing online to provide and gather information to sell more P & G products–and not necessarily take more toothpaste orders online.

Other examples of companies that the WSJ mentions that are successfully using online information strategies to market their products and services are:

Kraft Foods at www.kraftfoods.com

Consumer Reports at www.consumerreports.org

Consumer Review at www.consumerreview.com

Consumer Guide at www.consumerguide.com

EHealthInsurance at www.ehealthinsurance.com

Insurance Web at www.insweb.com

Edmunds at www.edmunds.com

Kelly Blue Book at www.kbb.com

And if you want to check out my favorite online and offline newspaper–it’s the Wall Street Journal at www.wsj.com. No one does it better in print and on the Web.

OK, maybe your company can’t attempt to do everything online that P & G or Kraft Foods can. But you can get creative and provide (and also collect) some level of valuable information to engage your customers/prospects. It takes understanding of your customers and what they are interested in, and it takes time, effort, and commitment to provide them information they want on a continual basis. If a flour company can do it, so can you.

So remember, it doesn’t matter where your customers buy your products and services, online or offline. What matters with web site marketing is that you provide compelling information and/or collect information from your customers--information that tangibly adds to the sales process. And if you can’t answer the question: "Why would anyone come back to my site?" then you need a new web site strategy.

PS--The new NoSpin web site is a few days behind schedule but should be up by this coming Wednesday, and I will send out an email announcement. Please give me your NoSpin on my site and take the first poll (which will pop-up when you hit the site). Poll results will be provided real time. Now, you’ll be able to easily look back at any prior debunkers. I have added lots of helpful business, marketing, and fun links. And you can find out more about NoSpin Marketing Services and my customers. Developing the new site has been quite a process that I will share!

 NoSpin Debunkers are free weekly online newsletters written by Tom Ranseen. If at anytime you would like to be removed from the NoSpin Debunker reader list, please Unsubscribe. Otherwise, enjoy, join the conversation, and please forward this debunker to as many friends/acquaintances as you think may be interested–or send me their email addresses. Thanks.

Tom Ranseen NoSpinMarketing 615.383.7157