Rocky Mountain News staff writer Price Colman reported from the Aspen Summit: Cyberspace and the American Dream II: The kind of economic upheaval that characterized the Industrial Revolution will mark the emergence of a cyberspace economy. But it will happen much more quickly. Change is coming quickly, inevitably and those who fail to adapt will suffer.
Marketing on the Internet looks at ...local Internet business pioneers. According to these Internet business pioneers, marketing on the Internet provides the following five unique features:
Real Estate marketing is a perfect match for the Internet," notes Harris Reiter, owner of Rocky Mountain Real Estate Group. "The economics are astounding. The only other way for a Seller to market his property to as many people would be to take out a daily ad in every major newspaper around the world."
Several months ago Reiter ... set up a "Web Site" for Rocky Mountain Real Estate Group. ..."In the first two months of operation our Web Site has generated over 50 leads from out-of-state buyers", says Reiter. "And from that leads list we have several appointments set up with buyers flying in for a look see at Evergreen."
Taking off on the concept of instant access, Reiter notes, "Our listings are exposed to potential buyers nationwide and worldwide at the very moment they are actively involved in looking for real estate in Colorado. This translates into a tremendous benefit and marketing advantage for our sellers."
Reiter has found that people using the Internet are information junkies. In spite of the fact that the Rocky Mountain Real Estate Web site provides color photos, specific information on homes for sale, general information on Evergreen, biographies on all 15 agents, AND links to the Denver and Evergreen Chambers of Commerce, he still receives a steady stream of e-mail requests for additional information. Reiter states, "You have to be there for these people. A characteristic of Internet users is that people send e-mail messages, they expect answers immediately." Reiter observes philosophically, "If you give an information junkie everything they want, maybe they will appreciate it."
...What advice is offered by these pioneers of the Internet? "Become personally involved," says Harris Reiter. "The design of a Web Page that actually works, one that surfers actually communicate with is not an exact science." Each Web site can track the number of "hits" on each hypertext link. A "hit" is counted any time a Surfer clicks on the link to your page. An owner of a Web site can continually modify the look and feel of Web pages in response to the number of "hits" to maximize the response.
At one point, Reiter had 300 hits on his Web pages and only four E-Mail messages. Feeling this to be a poor response, Reiter worked on the look of his Web pages and increased the number of e-mail responses.
The instant communication feature of the Internet was really emphasized at the Electronic Publishing & Design Conference '95. Conference speakers felt instant communication to be such a key part of Internet genre that they advised, "Don't waste time getting on the Internet if you can't provide an interactive Web site."
Perhaps the most important factor in successful marketing on the Internet is how many "directories" your Web site is listed in. "You want to avoid having a beautiful Web site that nobody can find," advises Reiter. "My Web site is listed in 40 directories as part of the service. In addition, I spend several hours two to three days a week looking for new directories in which to list my Web site."
The explosion of interest in the Internet, and the World Wide Web, in particular has come on much like the explosion of interest in FAX machines. The Internet is immensely more complicated than FAX machines. Unless you are a computer "geek" you should seek assistance ... in setting up your Web Site. As pointed out by Harris Reiter, "Overnight everybody had a Fax machine... But all Fax's fax... Not all Web's web."
