In just the last five years, the Internet has become a mammoth force used by more than 330 million people worldwide. In July, it reached a population of 2.1 billion unique, publicly available pages, according to a study by Cyveillance®, an Arlington, Va.-based Internet company. What's more, with a daily growth of 7.3 million pages, the Internet hasn't reached its greatest period of growth and will double in size by early 2001.

According to experts, the Internet's reach already surpasses many forms of marketing media. At its current growth rate, it will soon be the undisputed leader. "The medium is essentially taking over the way businesses will communicate in the next three to five years," says Barry Silverstein, CEO of Directech | eMerge, a multimillion-dollar, business-to-business direct and interactive marketing agency based in Lexington, Mass., and the best-selling author of two books on Internet marketing, Business-to-Business Internet Marketing and Internet Marketing for Information Technology. "The implications are just absolutely enormous to business," he says. "You're going to have to adopt it. You're going to have to use it. And from a marketing perspective, you're going to have to understand what to do with it."

Because so many businesses are online, companies that don't act now are at a disadvantage, says Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, director of Wilson Internet Services in Rocklin, Calif., and editor of the email newsletter Web Marketing Today. "[Businesses that aren't online] may not be able to service their customers as well" or meet their expectations, he says.

Expectations, however, can cause trouble for companies that assume once they're online, business will skyrocket. Experts say firms that ignore their previous marketing efforts will be treading rough seas. "I hear about all of these people who are only doing Internet marketing...thinking that that can be enough," says Ilise Benun, author of the quarterly print newsletter The Art of Self Promotion, the bi-weekly email newsletter Quick Online Marketing Tips and the book Self Promotion Online, due out in January 2001. "My perspective is more about integrating certain online marketing tools gradually into the rest of your marketing plan, so that it's just one more tool, one more medium, one more way for people to reach you," she says.

GETTING YOUR FEET WET
One of the keys to a successful Internet presence is building a Web site that will market your company well. "Sometimes one of the questions I get is, 'Do we have to have a Web site?' or, 'When do we have to have a Web site?'" says Benun. "And I often think that the person to answer that is your client." Media hype has given many businesses the impression that they're the only ones not online, but most firms aren't nearly up-to-speed, she says. "If your client is asking you whether or not you have a Web site, then you still have time. If they're asking you for your Web address, then it's too late-you should already have one."

Secure a URL
Getting up-to-speed can be challenging. First, if a business doesn't have a Web address, it has to secure a Uniform Resource Locator. A URL is literally a name for a Web site. But that task may be more difficult than it sounds. "Unbelievably, the market is so hot now that you could search almost any name on the Internet and find that somebody else has it," says Silverstein.

Businesses can visit search engines such as www.checkdomain.com and www.register.com to see if a domain is available. They can then visit www.icann.org to view contact information for all accredited domain name registrars. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the non-profit corporation that assumes responsibility for IP addresses (each machine on the Internet has a unique IP address, similar to a Social Security number), domain name system management and other Internet functions.

Experts say businesses should also consider securing similar domain names (mycompany.com and mycompany.net) and common misspellings of the correct name. Another good idea is to secure a domain with the full spelling of the business name because acronyms are difficult to remember. Securing a URL costs approximately $35 for one year.

Consider Your Image and Audience
"Once you secure a URL, you have to really think about what it means to build a Web site," says Silverstein. "You can approach it in-house if you have the internal talent and skill. You can approach it outside, or you can use some combination of those two." Organizations that don't have Web sites but want an online presence can hire a Web development firm or an interactive marketing agency that has business-to-business marketing experience. "First and foremost, [the Web site] has to represent the image of the company, so it does have to be a marketing-oriented site," Silverstein says. "Frankly, the rest of it is approaching [the task] very much like you would any major communications project. It's not unlike approaching a major direct mail campaign."

Before designing a Web site, businesses should consider what their target audience will want from the site. Companies often fail to realize that the Internet is one-to-one marketing, not mass marketing, says Gail W. Houck, CEO and president of Houck & Associates, an Internet marketing advisory and Web site solution firm based in Alexandria, Va. But, she says, the Internet is also permission marketing because users self-select what they see. "That's why I [believe] you can never have enough information at a Web site," she says. "People will pick and choose what they want or what they do not want. But for the person who wants a lot of information, if they go [to a Web site] and cannot get it, they are not exactly happy."

Businesses should also be able to succinctly explain what they do, Houck says. "[For] a lot of clients we work with...you ask them that question, and they go dead in the water," she says. "They know what they know, but they do not know how to tell somebody else what they do. And that's probably one of the biggest disaster potentials for a Web site."

Establish Goals
The next step is establishing purposes and goals for the Web site. Whether the business wants a Web site to sell or market its products, it still must consider its users' needs. "Before you begin, you need to carefully think about what you want your site to do for your business," says E. Brooks Warner, director of sales and marketing for Web Graphics, a manufacturer in Glens Falls, N.Y. "To answer that question, you probably need to do a lot of research. There's no better way to learn about the Internet than getting out there and surfing."

Distributors and manufacturers should talk to others who have Web marketing experience and learn from their mistakes, Warner says. They should also consider reading publications and journals on Internet marketing. "The most important thing you need to know about getting on [the Internet] is that what you do today will be different tomorrow," he says. "So you need to plan for change. You need to leave capacity for additions, corrections and changes. You need to realize the requirement of flexibility."

INTO THE DEEP END
Once the planning stage is complete, businesses must undertake the actual design and construction of their Web sites.

Organize a Site Map
One very important step is organizing the site's content layout, which is very similar to the architectural planning needed for a house or commercial building. "How many people do you know who start building a house without an architectural plan?" asks Houck. "You could have some pretty interesting outcomes, and that is exactly what happens with Web sites." With site maps, businesses plan the construction, navigation, content sections and sub-sections for the short, medium and long term. So even if their budgets do not allow for a certain feature in the beginning, the feature has been planned for and can be included later.

Make the Site Stick
Experts say sites should be built in increments, not all at once. "Sites are overwhelming enough as it is," says Houck. "By doing it incrementally...it is a more continuous process, [and] it offers a reason to get in touch with your clients or prospects and say, 'Hey, come take a look at our site. We have got something new.'" An incremental build helps to create a "sticky site"-a site that provides breaking industry news or information, tools such as electronic analysis sheets or calculators, or other valuable information that will keep visitors returning. "When you get a prospect to go to your Web site, they have a reason to go once...they may not have a reason to go twice," says Silverstein. Calculators, tips and breaking news are useful to visitors, leading them to bookmark sites.

Keep Updating
Perhaps most importantly, businesses should realize that once they upload sites, their jobs aren't over. A Web site is a very dynamic medium. "There's nothing worse than an incomplete or incorrect piece of information," says Warner. "It's suicidal....You need to designate clearly somebody or some people within your organization who are responsible for the completeness, correctness and thoroughness of all of your content. It's a terrible business mistake to overlook that."

GETTING CLIENTS TO JUMP IN
Building a Web site and not marketing it is like building a billboard and placing it in your basement, experts say. This statement rings true-but many businesses still neglect marketing their sites. In the ever-growing Internet clutter, it's highly unlikely that a business' site will be found if the company doesn't tout its strokes.

Find Search Engines That Work
"Search engines are still a big part of how people are finding other businesses," says Houck. Five years ago, a few hundred search engines existed. Listing your firm was less of a challenge than it is today, when 6,000 or more search engines exist.

Businesses must be sure they're listing themselves in search engines appropriate to their industry, experts say. Most webmasters submit their pages manually via search engine Web sites, but companies can also purchase software that submits their pages automatically. It's not logical for businesses in the printing industry to list themselves in entertainment search engines. Houck suggests B2B portals relevant to the industry and to prospects. Some portals for the printing industry include www.printbid.com, www.printcities.com, www.printnation.com and www.58k.com.

It's important to design your Web site so it can be found easily by search engines. A Compaq study found that 68 percent of 500 million users of the Internet's top search engines looked only at the first page of results. "A lot of firms are using strategies that actually hamper or literally undo any attempt they are making to seed their site in a search engine," says Houck. "And a lot of people just do not know this. A prime example would be the use of frames. Search engines cannot index words in a frame layout." Frames are multiple, independently controlled sections of a Web page. Pages that use frames are built using separate HTML files with one "master" HTML file identifying all of the sections. Businesses using frames may have very little to show for the money they spent to be listed in search engines.

Advertise Online
Business should also consider purchasing advertising on other Web sites geared toward the same industry or audience. Banner advertising is a good way to attain publicity, but experts downplay its lead-generating ability. Every year, fewer people click on them, Houck says. "There is so much clutter and so much noise out there that...we learn to tune them out," she says.

Aside from a Web site, businesses can market themselves through other online forums. Email newsletters are so popular right now, it's hard to imagine anyone who doesn't subscribe to a few. Companies should consider offering email newsletters, special offers, or industry updates and tips Web site visitors can receive regularly.

"The advantage of [email] newsletters," says Wilson of Wilson Internet Services, "is that you can go out and send your message to people at your own initiative rather than waiting for them to come back to your Web site. A Web site is essentially passive; email newsletters are essentially active. You want to have both going for you." Use the Web site to pull people in and the email newsletter to push information out, he says. Businesses can send email newsletters and messages to current clients because those messages are not considered spam. Recipients should be able to opt out if they wish, Houck says.

Use Print Collateral
Companies also should market their sites offline. Businesses should list their Web site addresses and email addresses on business cards, invoices and any printed material that leaves their offices. They should also mention the addresses every time they speak with customers or prospects. Direct mail tools such as simple post cards reminding customers of the Web site and its features also prove beneficial.

THE WEB HORIZON
Though building an Internet presence isn't always easy, the Internet offers boundless opportunities distributors and manufacturers cannot afford to ignore. "The Internet has already established itself...as a major communication medium that businesses will have to deal with and have to take seriously if they're going to be considered competitive," Wilson says.

Other Internet marketing experts agree. "The sky's the limit [for Internet marketing]," Houck says. "It will continue to grow, but it will also continue to evolve. So everyone needs to be aware of new trends, stay current and take advantage of these things. You cannot just learn it today and think you've got it, because tomorrow it will be slightly different."

The benefits of using the Internet to market your business are seemingly endless. In fact, reaching prospects through Internet marketing is 60 to 65 percent cheaper than through traditional direct marketing, according to Silverstein. And then there is the concept of reach. "The Internet allows marketers and advertisers to reach particular segments of a market that [previously] might have been unreachable," says Warner. For companies that can sell at a distance, the Internet opens a tremendous marketplace that wasn't affordable or accessible before.

Silverstein stresses that domination of the Internet in the marketing world may come sooner than many people think. "People should understand that we're in a transitional state," he says. "They have to recognize that all of these traditional media are going to be subordinate to the Internet someday. And that someday is probably not more than a few years away. The Internet has too many compelling reasons for why it's going to be better, cheaper, faster and broader. It's going to be widely adopted. Everybody's going to be doing business on it. You're just not going to have a choice."