Susan,
I am interested in your comments and those of others related to the WWW
homepage marketing potential for museums. Having just completed a page for
ICOM's Marketing and Puclic Reelations Committee, I am hoping to assess at
first hand the effectiveness, based on membership growth and expressions of
interest via our mailback response facility, built into the page.
The cost effectiveness also needs to be assessed. Our service provider is
charges a flat rate of 12 cents a "hit" to host our page. As a non-profit
organisation I would welcome someone who is prepared to host our page at no
charge. The other option is to have the page sponsored.
Museum merchandising should be able to capitalise on the WWW. The Museum of
New Zealand now has it's mail order catalogue on-line.
For my own part, I planned a recent trip to U.K. and Europe including a
multitude of museum visits, by first consulting museum homepages, satellite
weather forecasts and travel information on the Web.
Here in New Zealand, we want our German Backpackers to learn about us via the
Net when they begin planning their itinerary, not when they arrive in the
country. Our visitor surveys will need to include the question: How did you
first hear about us?  Magazines, brochures, The Web....etc.

I hope others- will share their experiences of marketing their museums via
WWW.

Best wishes,
Roger Smith
Chairman of ICOM MPR
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