Chapter 43
Advanced E-Marketing
My formula for success is rise early, work late, and strike oil.
—J. Paul Getty
Strike oil, eh? No, you will not strike literal oil. But figurative oil, why not? Today, there is no better place to tap a gusher than online. Just ask Jeff Bezos whether he feels as if he struck oil when he discovered in 1992 that the Internet was then growing at 2,300 percent a year. And what about Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin? They probably feel as if they struck oil, too. But they are not the only ones who have struck oil online—millions of businesses have, and you can, too.
What Works Online?
To really tap the power of the Internet, it helps to first understand what makes it unique and how to use that uniqueness for maximum advantage. Bezos is as good an expert as there is on this subject. Here is what he says makes for a great business website. Ask yourself:
Does the website harness the unique characteristics of the Internet to create a strong value proposition for customers, one that could not be easily duplicated in the physical world?
According to Bezos, the reason Amazon.com took off like it did was that it did something online that could not be duplicated offline—namely, it offered every book in print for sale. Because it was impossible to duplicate in the physical world what he created in the virtual one, his business became a hit. So the question then becomes, what other unique characteristics of the Internet can you use to your advantage? ...
