Bulletin Vol. 2 No. 5 May 2003

B U L L E T I N

Tools and Resources for Data-Driven Market Research

Vol. 2 No. 5 May 2003


	IN THIS ISSUE: Special Focus: Your Web Site Survey: What's Your Web Site Up To? Tool Tips: New Data, Services now at bCentral Market Research Tools	Bulletin Archive

FROM THE EDITOR

Special Focus: Your Web Site

What are you doing with your Web site? Please drop by our 10-question survey and tell us. Next month, I’ll summarize your responses in this column.

In the meantime, I’ll share what I’ve been thinking on the topic. And I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I’ve been working on a second edition of my book, the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Marketing (due in stores October 2003), and I’ve added a new chapter on Online Advertising. Here are some highlights from that chapter.

When it comes to marketing, every business belongs online. It makes no difference whether your business model is e-commerce or traditional. You need to include some form of Web presence, including online marketing, in your plans.

A business that exists online will of course deploy a sophisticated Web site strategy. But offline businesses need a Web site as well, to communicate with customers who go online to look for information.

Most Web sites function in one of three ways: as landing pages, brochures, or stores. It’s possible for any page to serve more than one of these functions, of course, but it helps to consider each to be sure you’re meeting the needs of all visitors who might look for you online.

A landing page is a specific Web page designed for visitors who click through from another online source, often an advertisement. The landing page is coordinated in look and content with the link the click-throughs came from. A landing page entices visitors to spend some time exploring the rest of your Web site and experiencing your brand.

Landing pages serve a specific purpose, while online brochures meet a wide range of information needs. The once-ubiquitous request to “send me your brochure” has been replaced by “what’s your Web site address?” Brochures need clear navigation (and better yet, a site map) to showcase the wealth of information available to curious visitors.

Online stores provide convenience, and convenience is vitally important. If it’s at all possible for you to process sales over the Internet, consider adding e-commerce to your Web site. Setting up an e-commerce Web site is not difficult. To read more about it visit Wilson Web and look for the e-book The Shopping Cart Report produced by “Dr. E-Biz” Ralph Wilson.

You could start your own online store, post your offerings on an existing group Web site, or do both. Here’s an article on bCentral that explores the value of group Web sites: “Join a group Web site — it’s good for your business”

It makes sense to launch your presence at an online mall at the same time you are building up the traffic to your own unique site. I know a number of people with thriving home businesses based around sales on eBay. These people are letting eBay provide the search system that effectively distributes word of their product lines. They concentrate on fulfilling the orders, not on marketing the store.

Whether your online presence includes a landing page, a brochure, or some version of an online store, this component of your business is an important part of your marketing mix. Now you know my thoughts on what your online presence should be. What are your thoughts? Click here to share your reactions.

Resources
“Dr. E-Biz” Ralph Wilson
www.wilsonweb.com/wct
“Join a group Web site — it's good for your business”
www.bcentral.com/articles/marketing/126.asp

TOOL BITS

New Data, Services now at bCentral Market Research Tools

2003 Data Now Available—And New ZIP Code Methodology

Third Wave Research has just released its updated 2003 Census data. All reports produced by the Market Research Tools now draw on this updated data set.

In the March 2003 issue of this newsletter I reported that over 60 percent of demographic report purchases using our Market Research Tools are for ZIP Code geographies. ZIP Codes weren't originally designed for statistical analysis, and that created problems for demographers like Third Wave Research.

The U.S. Census Bureau addressed this problem by developing a new statistical entity called ZCTAs^TM (ZIP Code Tabulation Areas) to overcome the difficulties in precisely defining the land area covered by each ZIP Code. Each ZCTA is an aggregation of census blocks that have the same predominant ZIP Code associated with their addresses. With this change, whole census blocks were adjusted to resemble the Postal Service's delivery areas, so that the Census Bureau can tabulate data by ZCTA.

With our 2003 update you now get reports of ZIP Code data using geographies that are compatible with other geographic options used by Third Wave Research and the U.S. Census Bureau. (And if you want to know what the U.S. Census Bureau thinks about ZIP Codes, click here.)

New Option for Volume Buyers

We now offer a Market Research Tools Subscription. It’s the ideal solution for your business if:

you want access to multiple reports without worrying about the cost.
you want to give multiple users access to the Market Research Tools.
you want to make the tools available for a time without incurring per-report fees.

Subscriptions are licensed to a purchasing business. Once you have a subscription account set up, you may choose who has access to the account. All registered users on your account will have free unlimited access to all reports covered by the subscription until it expires.

2008 Projections Now Available

You'll find a valuable new addition next time you visit the Market Research Tools. Now, in addition to current demographic profiles and household spending reports, you can purchase companion reports that project data for the year 2008. Use these projections for business planning, new product development, and market segmentation.

Watch This Space!

Next month we’re unveiling a major new addition to the bCentral Market Research Tools! Read about it here in the next issue, or drop by the Market Research Tools and see what’s new.

Resources
Market Research Tools
bcentral.thirdwaveresearch.com
U.S. Census Bureau information on ZCTAs
www.census.gov/geo/ZCTA/zcta.html

SURVEY

What’s Your Web Site Up To?

Tell us about your use of Web site(s) in marketing and operating your business. Click here to take our 10-question survey. Next month, see how your answers compare to other respondents.

Tell a Friend

You can help a friend with just one click! Click here to send the link to this issue to a friend or colleague.

I look forward to your feedback. Click here to write to me and I will try to respond promptly.

Best regards,
Sarah White, Editor, the Bulletin
Third Wave Research

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About Third Wave Research

The BULLETIN is published occasionally by Madison, Wisconsin-based Third Wave Research. Editor Sarah White and other associates of Third Wave Research write articles that appear in bCentral's "Demographics" and "Market Research" topic areas. For information about Third Wave Research's services, click here.

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Authors Seek Small Business Owners for Interviews

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Staff have bosses, and CEOs have board of directors, but small business owners don't usually report to anyone. In running our own husband-and-wife small business, we've become aware of the need for managing management. We've arrived a strategy of co-management, where each of us supervises the other. We've found this a very fruitful way of operating, so much so that we are planning it as the subject of our next book.

Are you in a close partnership in running a small business? How do you and your partner or partners coordinate tasks and projects? How do you divide up responsibilities? What has worked and what hasn't? We'd love to exchange ideas in email, possibly leading to an interview and a mention of your business in our book.

Contact info@ducks-in-a-row.com if you are interested.

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