The 100 million customer myth: February 02, 1998 issue of New Thinking

February 02, 1998 New Thinking:
100 million customer myth

Website content management

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February 02, 1998

100 million customer myth

By Gerry McGovern

Two aliens are having a conversation.

One says to the other, “Hey, Joe, why don’t you consider setting up a business on earth?”
“Why should I, Frank?” the other replies.
“Because if you do, Joe, you’ll then be able to reach five billion people!” Frank ads enthusiastically.
“Wow! Five billion people, Frank!?” shouts Joe. “That’s incredible! What would it cost?
“It’s really cheap to develop for earth, Joe,” Frank replies. “You just establish your business and you can reach five billion people.”
“Ah, Frank, what an opportunity!! Who’d set it up for me!?”
“Well, as it so happens, Joe, my company, Earth Business Set-up, specializes in creating earth-based businesses.”

Two humans are having a conversation. One says to the other, “Hey, Joe, why don’t you consider setting up a business on the Internet.”
“Why should I, Frank,” the other replies.
“Because if you do, Joe, you’ll then be able to reach a 100 million people!”

The phrases ‘not within an asses roar,’ ‘not a chance in hell,’ ‘not a snow-balls chance in hell,’ etc. etc., were invented for good reason. Because if anyone thinks that just because you’ve established a website you somehow magically can now reach 100 million people, then let me tell you this much: You don’t have a snow-balls chance in hell.

It is a ridiculous, nonsensical myth to say that having a website means that you have a 100 million market. It is still being perpetrated in far too many places. Long ago, it should have got knocked on the head with a fairly large, round metal instrument.

When you establish your website you might as well have access to *zero* people, certainly zero new potential customers.

Oh yes, in the early days, the very fact that a website was launched was an event in itself. It attracted traffic. ‘Hey, a shoe manufacturer has a website. I don’t need shoes but I’ve looked at all the other websites twice already, and maybe I’ll even buy some shoes because it’d be so cool to say I bought shoes on the Web!”

That early days sense of happening just doesn’t happen anymore. Launching a website is no longer an event in itself. Those 100 million people may be using the Internet but they are not going to be battering down your server the day after you launch.

Getting people to visit and come back to a website requires good thinking, hard work and money. More importantly there has to be a very good reason for people to decide to spend some of their valuable time looking at your website, and an even better reason to make them part with cash.

The Internet does get around a number of the limits which physical geography imposes. Yes, you can create new niche or laser-point marketplaces. However, these new marketplaces don’t just fall into your lap. Distribution costs may be reduced for, say, software, but other costs such as marketing still exist, and if anything may increase.

If you don’t have an aggressive plan to build traffic and establish loyalty online, then launching your website will be like dropping a grain of sand on a beach. Because 100 million people may be out there, but like the truth, they’re hard to get at.

Gerry McGovern

Next issue: Everyone is a publisher myth
Previous issue: The online community myth
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100 million people may be out there, but like the truth, they’re hard to get at.