1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax Web Strategies: What Executives Must Know To Remain Competitive Presented by: Len Muscarella DMD New York Conference & Expo May 25, 2004

1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax Len Muscarella – brief bio Online career began in 1982 in CBS-AT&T test market First managing editor at Prodigy New media consultant to Fortune 1000 in the years leading up to the Web Author of book called NetSuccess

1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax NetSuccess Published in 1999 Forward by Steve Case of AOL Nearly 25,000 in circulation Wisdom of 24 leaders in the online world

1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax How has the Internet economy changed since NetSuccess? Broadband HH 0% Retail Sales $20 billion $65 billion (projected) Internet HH 30 %>75% 35%

1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax How hasn’t the Internet economy changed since NetSuccess? 1.Business innovations are more important than technology innovation 2.Network effect remains the single most important competitive advantage 3.User Experience is imperative 4.Customer Service is crucial 5.Tracking, measuring, and analyzing to improve is critical

1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax Business innovation is more important than technology innovation Selection Price Convenience Location Efficiency Service Markets Flash™ Java XML MPEG SOAP Etc… vs.

1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax Why is technology innovation less important than business innovation? In consumer sites, adoption lag often means that newest technologies reach smaller audiences Newest technologies are most likely to present problems or issues The impression left with the customer needs to be paramount, whether they be early adopters or laggards

1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax

1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax

Network effect defined The phenomenon whereby a service becomes more valuable as more people use it, thereby encouraging ever-increasing numbers of adopters. Examples: eBay, eLance.com, monster.com, many others

1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax Network effect impact Responsible for some of the worst dot-com boom behavior – the search for “first-mover advantage” Natural barrier to entry But NOT insurmountable

1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax Network effect – how to counteract? Refining the definition of “audience” to slice off a market from a larger rival Improving the user experience Driving greater value Using viral marketing, traditional advertising, and Web promotion to create own customer network

1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax

Why Web customer service Builds relationships Increases loyalty Provides competitive advantage Meets expectations

1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax Customer Service value continuum Auto-response FAQs Online discussion groups Online libraries and technical specs 3 rd party system integrations (ie, FedEx) Personal response Individual account information Personalized Web pages Auto-notification services Value Low Cost Low High

1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax Customer Service imperatives Integrate Web and traditional sales (brick & mortar, direct mail) information to provide customer with complete information Use the Web to create long-term productivity gains to provide a kicker benefit Make self-service easy enough, and you won’t have to support gimmicks like Customer Service chat

1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax

User experience It keeps users coming back It encourages users to tell their friends about it (viral marketing) It facilitates what you want users to do (purchase, sign up, register, view information, click-on advertising, etc.) It yields the volume of transactions that generates ROI in productivity and efficiency

1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax User experience Know your user Know your user’s needs (and the behavior you want to enable) Offer “appropriate” solutions Perform customer testing Focus on usability Create a compelling look and feel on all levels of the site Develop and maintain a consistent navigation Keep it fresh

1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax User experience – the payoff Visitors/UsersConversion Rate/ Adoption Rate Sales/Savings 10,000.5% 10,000.75%

1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax

Track, measure, analyze -- to improve Who is the user? Where did she come from? What did she see? What actions did she take? What is her behavior over the any period of time? How do these statistics compare: –With the competition? –With my brick-and-mortar experience? –With other measures?

1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax At WebTrends™ Seminars they call this RADAR Report Analyze Decide Act React

1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax

Track, measure, analyze to improve… Content Marketing Sales / Conversion Rates Retention Productivity

1719 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ | | Telephone | Fax The important principles don’t change 1.Business innovations are more important than technology innovation 2.Network effect remains the single most important competitive advantage 3.User Experience is imperative 4.Customer Service is crucial 5.Tracking, measuring, and analyzing to improve is critical