May 2004: Aspects of Marketing
A State of the Industry Commentary from Amparo Alcarez, of
Epoch Transaction Services
We all know that Marketing is usually the key to the success of any business. How you choose to market your website is essential. There are many free features offered by processors to aid in the success of marketing to your customers. Three years ago, Epoch (www.epochsystems.com) developed several innovative, dynamic marketing tools for webmasters. These new features helped revolutionize the way e-business was done, increasing revenue, and inducing other processors to follow suit by offering their own, similar, tools.
One of the most popular tools has been multi-sale transactions for subscription-based websites. Webmasters have the option to offer additional products on their join form and possibly an additional product on their approval page and e-mail confirmation. This provides an easy way to trade traffic with other webmasters, generating revenue in the process.
Retention incentives help reduce membership losses by offering select bonuses when the member requests cancellation. Bonuses offered are generally reduced membership rates, or offers of additional websites at no additional cost. By offering one or both of these options, webmasters will reduce their overall membership losses.
Truth in advertising is essential in using these features and on cross sells. Increased losses in revenue occur with chargebacks when the terms are less than clear. By not dealing honestly with your members, you will lose their membership, and potentially, much more. Current allowable chargeback ratios do not leave room for such easily corrected problems.
Another important aspect of marketing is choices. Specifically, offering a variety of payment options to your potential and current customers. There are many more alternative methods for payment than ever before. No credit card, no problem! These alternatives include ACH or Electronic check processing, 900 number billing, international dialers, and most recently, Epoch introduced ePassporte, a pre-paid instantly issued Visa account.
Making your business known will drive traffic to your website. Advertising, by getting your business ranked in search engine listings (like Google!), trade publications (as in KLIXXX, of course), and industry bulletin boards (justblowme.com or X-biz.com) will circulate your site and encourage the possibility of cross-traffic opportunities.
Industry shows are an excellent vehicle to encourage cohesiveness within the industry. They are a great place to network with other people in the business and gain additional information. There are great opportunities to learn new things to expand your business and impart your knowledge to others, domestically and globally. Major upcoming opportunities include the Adult Webmaster Event in Hamburg and the CyberNet Expo in San Diego.
Working for Epoch has given me the chance to work with some great people. Building a good relationship with your clients is important to the success of any business. As time goes by, more changes will affect the industry and we need develop new ways to market our businesses. I plan to be around to assist in the implementation of new methods and strategies as our industry expands. I'll see you around!
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