"Not all those who wander are lost."
J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings Tolkien may well have been right as far as he was concerned, but there are countless wanderers in cyberspace who are hopelessly lost. Their web presence is triggered by some sort of herd mentality everyones out there on the Web so we should be there too. As a result of this lack of direction, they end up drifting aimlessly around in cyberspace. To be effective in the true sense of the word, every web initiative should be backed by a clearly defined strategy. An organisation must pinpoint the reasons for which it wants to be on the Web, and have a clear picture of what it expects the Web to deliver. Typically, an organisations reasons for having a web presence would be one of the following:- Communication
This is where most new entrants normally begin. They take their conventional offline communications on to the Internet. The vibrancy and interactivity offered by the Web is leveraged to add new value to the corporate and brand communications, and to reach out to a captive audience. Marketing
In the next phase, organisations who have become more web-savvy through a deeper understanding of the medium, start using it as a marketing tool in particular, as a channel for reaching new customers, making distribution more effective through supply chain management systems, and gathering market intelligence through data mining and knowledge management systems. Such leveraging of the Internet is highly visible in the West, where the usage of the medium has attained maturity. CRM
The inherent interactivity of the Internet as a medium makes it perfect for Customer Relationship Management. It is far easier to capture data online since the medium is completely non-intrusive, thereby resulting in higher levels of comfort among customers. In recent times, companies around the globe have been experiencing the power of the Internet vis--vis conventional media resulting in extensive and highly innovative usage of the Web. And all of them started in the same way: they defined their objectives, evolved their web strategies and theyve never looked back since then. Ref: http://www.istrat-india.com |
