Myth 1: The Web Makes It Easy for Customers to Find You

Truth 1: The Web makes it easy for people to find you if they're already looking for you. It's a great way for your existing customers, suppliers, and investors to find you. If you publish your Web address in your print and media ads, people will remember it better than they remember 800 numbers.

It's also a great way for people to find you if they're looking for something very specific and your Website has been designed to be found. If you're one of three suppliers in the US for a particular kind of industrial part, or people ask for your products by brand name, or they want to find you and only you, then, yes, the Web is even easier than phone numbers. But don't expect people "just looking" to find you--they won't. If you sell women's clothes or pizza or floral arrangements the odds are very low that a consumer is going to bother going to a search to find companies like yours. Web addresses are like 800 numbers--fantastic for people who are already looking for you, but not a first point of contact with most customers.

There is no foot traffic on the Web: people need to see your Web address somewhere else, and then decide to get in touch.

Myth 2: There's a Market of 40 Million People on the Web

Truth 2: Nobody knows how many people are really on the Web. Our senior designer has eight internet accounts--most surveys count that eight times. More than 100 million people have phones in the US. So what? If you list yourself in the phone book, do you think 100 million people are going to pick up the phone and call your business? It doesn't work that way.

A Web address is like an 800 number. Who your customers are and how they find you has to do with how you market.

Having a Web address is helpful for many businesses, because it means that the 1 million, or 1,000, or 100 customers that you are trying to reach can find you on the Web. Just as with an 800 number, having a Web address can be a competitive edge: it means that customers who are already in your market can reach you a little more easily. But don't get sucked into the hype of "a market of 40 million people."

Your market is the same market you had yesterday--the only difference with being on the Web is that now people can reach you through the Web.

Myth 3: The Web is Fast

Truth 3: The Web is slow. Very slow. About the speed of a FAX machine. What's fast about the Web is how quickly you can change the information you make available. But your customers are going to get it from you at FAX speed. So if what you need to send is a three page spec sheet, that's great. Don't expect to publish a 300 page catalogue and have customers browse it online.

On the other hand, the Web is even better than a FAXBACK system for selectively pulling just the three pages that your customer wants to see. Since they can see the Table of Contents on the screen instead of having to sit and listen to their choices on the phone, your customers will be happier and find what they want at least as quickly. So if you have a very well-organized site with good searching capabilities, you may be able to put that 300 page catalogue online after all--and only show each reader the three pages they're willing to sit still and wait for.

The Web is good for helping customers find specific items: not for browsing through a whole catalogue when they're not sure what they want.

Myth 4: The Web is Visual

Truth 4: Most of the Web is text--served up on 3 x 5 cards. Small windows that aren't that easy to read. Sure, your readers can print it out--if you catch their interest. But will they? Get ready to learn a whole new set of design techniques for a medium that gives you all the space you need--carved up into little tiny pieces.

Besides, designing artwork for the Web is like designing for television--you have no idea what kind of receiver your viewers have. They may be on black and white. They may have the red turned up so far even Dracula looks rosy-cheeked. They may have a different size or shape or quality of display than you do. Get used to it. Graphics designers can talk all they want to about the Web as a visual medium, but it's visual in the way that television is visual, not books and magazines.

Your most effective visual marketing on the Web is going to be done the same way as television ads: with techniques that look pretty good for most people, and that allow for individual display variations.

Myth 5: Netscape is 80% of the Web

Truth 5: There are a lot of ways of counting, and none of them are very accurate. The real question is what does your audience use? And how many people do you want to turn away just because they have last year's computer? Some commercial sites say that America Online provides 25% of their visitors and 50% of their sales. Technologists like to ooh and ah over the "wonderful new features" that Netscape or Microsoft or the next big Brand Name Browser bring to the Web--you need to remind them that your target audience may not be the kind of people who buy a new computer system every six months.

Remember that the Web is a broadcast medium, like television or radio: you don't control what kind of display your viewers have. If you design a site that requires the latest and greatest technology to view it, you're going to lose some customers. How many? That depends on your target market.

Myth 6: Designing a Great Website is a Technology Issue

Truth 6: Designing a great Website is a communications issue: what do you want to say, and who do you want to say it to? Sure, you can show little movies or exploding volcanos or play background music--but most people aren't interested in that. The Web is too slow. It's not television. But if you could reach your market, whether it's for sales, promotions, or customer service, with an 800 number and a two-way FAX, the Web may be just right for your company.

Design your message on the Web so that it's simple, it's easy to update, and it creates good communications between you and your customer. Then you're going to find that the Web, with its instant update, easy to remember addresses, and reader-controlled selection is even better than a FAX.

How many of your customers will be able to reach you through the Web? More every day. That part's true. If your target market already has computers and modems, it may even be worth the $15 a month to get them on AOL or Compuserve, just so they can reach you.

You already know your market. The Web is just one more way for them to reach you. Don't let the technology people get too carried away with their future visions. Treat the Web like a FAXBACK or voicemail system and let the technologists get the system up and keep it running, but don't give up control of the design.

The medium may be new, but the message is still the same.

We make the Web work the way you want it to.