Insider Tips - 31

A past issue of Digital Marketing ( May 2000 ) offers a wealth of information - everything from "How To Win Online" by Andrea Zoe Aster to the "Best Bookmarks" column contributed by Steve Williams, vice president of Highway Communications Ltd. of Calgary.

Read through the entire issue and you're bound to pick up lots of tips and information, whether you're full throttle into E-commerce, or putting together your first basic Web site.

Aster's interviews with the judges of the interactive categories for the Marketing Awards 2000, were particularly illuminating.

The judges agreed solidly on one key point, and to quote Aster, who used it in her lead: "If good television ads seduce with emotion, and print ads can approach the visual impact of great art, online ads only work magic when the technology is developed far enough to interact with the viewer."

The article also contained some basic questions to ask oneself about the efficiency of your own Web site, as per the judges' criteria:

Is there a reason for the visitor to come back?

Is it easy to navigate?

Is there a fun way to interact with the content?

Can a visitor actually learn something in an interactive way instead of having to read through a list of product benefits?

Does the site reflect the company's image?

Does your homepage say something about your company? Is there a "warm welcome", in other words, an introduction that offers info beyond the company's name and icon?

How is the architecture, overall experience, and customer service offered by your site? Up to the mark? Or does an e-mail query, for example, get lost in the void until, someday, some one finally gets around to responding?

The article includes the names of some of the winners of the 27 different categories. Check them out: Vancouver's Palmer Jarvis DDB for the interactive-corporate information category (creators: Palmer Jarvis DDB); the Bank of Montreal's homepage, for the e-commerce consumer category (creators: Toronto's VBDI Inc.) and General Motors of Canada Ltd. (Pontiac Grand Am) for the interactive - brand promotion - category (creators: MacLaren McCann Interactive).

Of course, for a magazine writing about the digital world, it might have helped if they'd included the site addresses.

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