"The Desktop Global Marketer" (tm)



   A free on-line newsletter of Sidereal Designs, Inc.,

   for Internet Entrepreneurs, and those who are

   considering becoming one.

_____________________________________________________



                     May 2001



In this issue: "No matter what you think you are selling 

on the web, what you are really marketing is communication 

in some form."





_____________________________________________________



   "The Desktop Global Marketer" is free, and may be 

   re-published freely with permission. We encourage 

   you to give it to your friends.



   For subscription (or un-subscription) details,

   and other information, please see the end of the 

   newsletter.



   For any other purpose, please write to:

   	jamie(at)siderealdesigns.com

   Or visit us at:

   	http://siderealdesigns.com

_____________________________________________________



No matter what you think you are selling on the web, what you are

really marketing is communication in some form. (To state the

obvious, that's all you can do on the internet, but the issue

goes deeper than that.) Whatever product or service you sell on

the web, someone else sells off it. If you don't focus on what

you are offering that differs from their offering, you don't

understand what it is you are really marketing.



Every commercial web page is a billboard, and advertising is the

most primitive form of commercial use of the web. This is

fundamentally a communication issue, but it barely scratches the

surface of the ways an enterprise that understands the functions

of the internet can make use of it. (But for far too many

enterprises that's as much as they do.) 



Too many enterprises have a view of the web as a static, one-way

medium; it is not. The internet is a unique communications

tool. It is instant, it is bidirectional, it is both one to many

or one to one, it is global, and it is cheap. 



Your content can be dynamic, and your customer's interaction with

either you or your on-line database and information collection

can be in real time. To fail to properly understand and use these

capabilities is to miss enormous opportunity.



Your product or service may be informational in nature and can be

delivered over the web. Nonetheless your competition can deliver

it on paper; you are really offering location (they can find you

and deal with you from anywhere) or you are offering convenience

(they can search your database on line) or you are offering 24/7

access (they can do business with you while you sleep) or you are

offering instant gratification (they can get what they want

immediately.) All of these things are aspects of, and dependent

upon, the communication capabilities of the internet and that is

what you are offering that's different from the competition.



Your product or service may not be deliverable over the internet,

but interactive access to its description and selection is;

direct access to you for questions and information is; immediate

purchase and confirmation is; reservation and appointment making

is; the delivery schedule is; delivery tracking is. A host of

issues surrounding the discovery, selection, promotion, and

provision of your product or service are communications issues

regardless of what your product is. Your competition provides

these just as you do, but your edge lies in using the internet to

augment and expand your communications with your customer. This

is what makes you different; this is what you are selling.



Consider the pizza maker who takes orders for immediate delivery

on line, the beautician who shows this minute's available

appointments and lets you reserve one on line, the pub owner who

shows you the nature and performance times of tonight's live band

on line, the restauarant owner who shows you today's specials and

menu offerings on line. All of these are auxiliary communication

functions that enhance the product or service for the client. All

depend on unique features of the internet as a communication

medium. It is this communication that they are selling over and

above what their competition is selling.



What, besides your product or service, could you offer your

customer with an instantaneous, bidirectional, one to many or one

to one, global, cheap, communication system connected to their

home or office? Find the answer to that for your particular

business and you will have the key to marketing your internet

edge.



Best,



Jamie



_____________________________________________________



To subscribe, send email to: 

	newsletter-request(at)siderealdesigns.com

and include the word   subscribe   as the only item in

the body of the letter.



To unsubscribe, send email to: 

	newsletter-request(at)siderealdesigns.com

and include the word   unsubscribe   as the only item in

the body of the letter.



If you have problems with either of these, write directly

to jamie(at)siderealdesigns.com for prompt attention from

a human.



If you would like to re-publish any of our newsletters,

at no cost, please contact jamie(at)siderealdesigns.com.



"Sidereal" is pronounced sy-DEER-ee-all, and means "of

or pertaining to the stars, the heavens, etc."



_______________________________________________________________________

Sidereal Designs, Inc.               "Putting your business on the web"

http://siderealdesigns.com    301-916-5702   info(at)siderealdesigns.com