Mr. Berst is the author of the leading on-line newsletter, which adds legitimacy to his description of marketing best practices to date for Internet-based businesses. In this book, he describes the best ways that audiences have been developed into long-term business supporters. The book is enlivened by sample pages from many well-known Internet sites. While much of what he writes will not be new to the reader, the way he stitches it together may well be.
The first step is to use a magnet of rich media (such as through television advertising) to attract an audience. He feels that this should precede knowing exactly what you want to do with the audience. In fact, he argues that your offerings should match the audience you are able to attract economically. This is quite contrary to traditional marketing thinking, but certainly worked out well for his example companies, Amazon and Yahoo!
He suggests six familiar elements for making your magnet work:
(1) content that is rich and constantly changing (eBay)
(2) community that adds value to one another (Amazon product reviews)
(3) commerce ("actionable content" -- usually this is something you can buy)
(4) convenience (RealNetworks enables streaming videos and audios from one site)
(5) customization (Yahoo! and Excite)
(6) communication (CD Now)
Second, you should use spiral marketing to retain your audience with enriched media and the Web. Rich media (like television) creates the intent. Then your Web site creates involvement. You use "opt-in" e-mail to create interaction. That interaction then leads to commerce for your business. Done properly, each element reinforces the next one, creating a virtuous cycle of prosperity for your business.
Third, you do as much permission e-mail as your audience is aided by and appreciates. This should focus on time-sensitive material, information that people will want to refer to again and again, and a format that is fun and free. Mr. Berst's newsletter uses all of these methods. He sites Guru as a site that fits this pattern.
The final element of the model is to predict which technology trends will impact your business. While the preceding information will probably seem like old hat to most Web veterans, this section contained much that was new. I found it to be the best discussion of how to evaluate competing future technologies that I have seen in print. If you only read chapter 7 on this subject, you will be well rewarded for your efforts in acquiring and using this book. You will gain a paradigm for evaluating technologies in this chapter that will serve you well for the rest of your life.
After you have finished reading the book, let me suggest that you think about how the model could be employed in less expensive ways. Television advertising is especially expensive. Why not do event marketing using your own events or by sponsoring other people's events? Creating fresh material is very expensive. How can you use your community to do it inexpensively for you? You get the idea, I'm sure. As wonderful as best practices have been, there's always a gigantic opportunity for improvement. Although Mr. Berst did not look too hard at that question, you certainly can.