What Should My Corporate Web-Page Look Like?

Lots of people ask me to show them a good example of what a corporate web page should look like... That's a tough question to answer. But I'm going to show you two ideas that might get your brain working and point you in the right direction.


Of course what your corporate web page looks like depends a lot on what kind of business you are in. If you are Toy-R-Us, then your site might be fun and colorful... But this type of image is not good for a company that does, say, Liposuction or performs frontal lobotomies. So spend a lot of time thinking about what your company stands for...


As I have mentioned in other posts, here, and here, you have to give in order to get people to come visit your site; people have to be motivated to go to your site or they won't come. They'll be motivated by free give-aways or by free content that is useful and beneficial to them.


Anyway, I do not want to get into a long discussion about what the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 at this moment (I promise that I will explain this, in detail for you, by the end of this weekend)... So just let me jump forward to two examples of fun pages that are up now and doing well.


The first example is of Monty Python's Flying Circus page on YouTube.

The YouTube page bio reads:


"For 3 years you YouTubers have been ripping us off, taking tens of thousands of our videos and putting them on YouTube. Now the tables are turned. It's time for us to take matters into our own hands.

We know who you are, we know where you live and we could come after you in ways too horrible to tell. But being the extraordinarily nice chaps we are, we've figured a better way to get our own back: We've launched our own Monty Python channel on YouTube.

No more of those crap quality videos you've been posting. We're giving you the real thing - HQ videos delivered straight from our vault.

What's more, we're taking our most viewed clips and uploading brand new HQ versions. And what's even more, we're letting you see absolutely everything for free. So there!

But we want something in return.

None of your driveling, mindless comments. Instead, we want you to click on the links, buy our movies & TV shows and soften our pain and disgust at being ripped off all these years."


So Monty Python creates this great page (that does allow comments - so it is a start at Web 2.0) and what were the results? Amazingly, it created renewed interest and Amazon.com sales of Monty Python's products (CDs, DVDs, books) exploded up 23,000%!  

This was a campaign I arranged for Domino Pizza.

5 Lucky couples buy a pizza and win a vacation to Macau!

Another good example of a company that I have been working with who really "gets it" is Domino Pizza Japan. Their page isn't perfect, but, for now is pretty darned-near perfect. The guys handling this for Domino Pizza, Mssrs. Ikeda, Karasawa, and Higa deserve some kind of award!


Domino Pizza has the right idea about their web business. Their landing page has videos, contests, and free games for people to play.


This is genius because, if they can make money off the web page itself, then they create their own media, replacing the old "advertise on TV or print" model.


The results?


Their web page gets over 1.2 million unique users per month... They have an e-mail magazine mailing list of over 750,000 people... 


Domino Pizza Japan also "gets" the idea that their pizza boxes and menus are "media" too! In fact, I am now arranging a few campaigns this year whereby 4 or 5 couples who order Domino Pizza through the Internet and sign -up for the e-mail magazine get the chance to win all expense paid vacations to Europe or the United States. 


Who wouldn't want to join a contest like that?


I have also arranged a contest for people to visit Croatia this year along with several other vacation spots. The fans of Domino Pizza get a chance to visit one of Europe's most beautiful countries and the airlines and Croatia win too because the campaign is featured on Domino Pizza homepage and in 5.5 million menus that Domino Pizza prints...

Zagreb is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.

Croatia is "The Mediterranean As It Once Was"... Beautiful!

Don't forget that those Domino Pizza menus are powerful media as they are kept by the people on their refrigerators by magnets for a month or two... What a great vehicle for promotion.


The customers win, Domino Pizza wins and Croatia wins. Everyone is happy...

Dubrovnik, Croatia... The Mediterranean As It Once Was

I'll have more on these types of mutually beneficial promotion tie-ups later this year as this is my forte... and what I spend most of my time doing. It is the future of advertising and marketing in, not only Japan, but the world. Don't forget, Google gives away everything for free and is one of the most profitable companies in the entire world.


So when Domino Pizza and the government of Croatia get together and start giving away things for free, they both get great promotion and new customers and everybody wins! Of course, it is free!


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Keywords:


Domino Pizza, Croatia, Google, free, Dubrovnik, Zagreb, Europe, menus, advertise, TV, print, Monty Python, Toy-R-Us, web 1.0, web 2.0, unique users, e-mail magazine 

Make Money Giving Away Stuff for Free

If your business is not selling as you wish it would or if you are not getting the page hits or enough people to sign-up for your e-mail magazines, then let me suggest to you that you increase sales by starting to give away stuff for free...

You read correctly. Free.

"What!? Rogers, are you out of your mind? We aren't making any money now as it is... We can't afford to give stuff away for free!" I can almost hear you say it...

Oh yes... Free is the key!

Trust me, you do not have to give away the entire store, but I suggest that if you want to get good internet page views and good traction, then start giving things away for free... That not only includes great internet content for free, but also product or services. For a good example of a page that does everything for free, check this... I typed in "free" on a Google Search and this was #1: free.com

Let's say you are a wine distributor, how about giving away quality wine bottle openers for free? I'll bet that if you talked to some of your winery client's, they could give your several hundred bottle openers for free (you barter the promotion for them)...Or how about cook books? Think about it, the sky is the limit. Just ask people to sign up for your e-mail magazines or newsletter, and they get a freebie.

You may not want to give away your bread and butter product or service, but giveaway something that leads people to your main product. That's the key.

Give people who join your group something free and they will come to visit your site and learn about you. (Just make sure that when you do have people sign up that you ask for the minimum amount of information... It's best of you to just ask for e-mail addresses only to join... Then, if they want, say, the wine bottle opener, you can direct them to a place where they can sign up and give more details.)

Now, a lot of people are going to say that giving things away cannot possibly generate any income, but the entire internet today is proof that what I am saying is true.

Those who remember the early days of the internet will remember that, way back when, everything cost money... We had to pay for our e-mail accounts, Microsoft Office, etc. etc., Now? Look at all the things that are free! Online games are free; software; e-mail accounts... I could never name them all....

Just the state of the internet today shows that giving things away for free is a good way to build a customer base...

Now, your hard-headed boss will tell you that I am wrong... That I am just some internet geek who doesn't  understand business... If he does, then tell him about Google.

Google is the contradiction to old fashioned thinking.... Google gives away everything for free; e-mail, search engine, Google Docs, etc., etc., Google gives away EVERYTHING FOR FREE!

Yes. Google gives away everything for free and yet they are one of the most profitable companies in the world. How do they do it? If you think deeply about this, you may find the key to fixing your own company and your own business.