Internet Marketing For Your Business

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:17:09 +0000

Internet marketing is a strong tool to reach potential customers and provide them with an ‘experience’ of a brand, while at the same time allowing an immediate feedback loop which empowers the customer and promotes a feeling of engagement but also allows the marketer to collect information to enhance approaches to that customer in the future.

Internet marketing done well is a powerful thing. The problem is that if often is not done well, and not only that but it is done so badly in some cases that the net result is brand damage rather than enhancement.

The ‘traffic’ fallacy
Internet marketers are obsessed, by and large, with directing traffic to predetermined websites of greater or lesser value to the customer. The purpose of sending the customer to the site is either to impart a message or to extract information, usually both. Systems are employed to count the number of unique hits a site receives in a day, and less sophisticated marketers feel confident in their success if a certain number is reached, meaning that X number of customers have been exposed to the brand.

There are a number of things wrong with this limited view. The main two issues are that the content used to drive the traffic is often of limited worth to the reader and the end site is commonly nothing more than an advertisement. Online material which is devoid of any benefit to the customer endears itself neither to Google nor the customer. In the worst cases, where the copy provided is nonsensical and simply stuffed with chosen keywords at a ‘density’ which renders the page unreadable, the marketer might have been as well or better off to have an empty site.

Poor quality online material can damage the reputation of a business with potential customers. The fact that a ‘hit’ registered tells a business nothing about the customer’s experience on the site and parting sentiments.

The second primary issue in poor use of the internet is that it fails to leverage what should be an amazing, interactive marketing channel. A great website with lots of good quality content can enhance customer relationships and encourage word of mouth traffic. The best online marketing is ‘viral’, whereby customers electronically forward information to friends, who forward to friends …and so it goes.

Monetized sites
Sites which use a pay-per-view or pay-per-click advertising revenue mechanism are said to be ‘monetized’. A monetized site must satisfy the advertiser’s requirements, usually Google, which normally stipulates a required level of quality. Factors such as excessive personal backlinks and content that Google deems inappropriate will result in no advertisements appearing and consequently, no revenue being earned.

Viral marketing and email campaigns
Savvy online marketers tap into the desire of regular internet users to be entertained. Recent years have seen enormous successes in the field of viral advertising, whereby short, entertaining online material is made accessible to be quickly emailed from one user to another.

Like viral email campaigns, all smart Internet marketing considers the customers wants and needs rather than simply seeking hits.

Internet Marketing For Your Business is a post from: Making Money From Blog

The power of Internet marketing

admin — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 05:04:38 +0000

Any successful business—from a small, locally owned dry cleaner to a colossal, nationally operated department store—will agree that a large part of their success can be attributed to the marketing technique they employ. The simple truth is that consumers need to know about you and the products or services you offer before they can buy them from you. This is a truth companies have been acquainted with and been exploiting for years. From the first newspaper advertisement printed in the early 1700s to the latest Internet marketing technique available today, advertising has had an impact on the economy, on society, on culture, even on politics—this venture has transformed the twentieth century into the age of the advertising firm.
What many companies don’t realize, however, is that the advertising technique that was so effective for their company five years ago is no longer their best option. Traditional advertising techniques, while still beneficial, are not as effective as they once were. Even the once all-powerful 30-second spot on television is losing its strength with the development of such innovations as Tivoli and other digital video recorders (DVDs). Now TV viewers can do more than just change the channel to avoid commercials: they can actually program commercials out. Consumers are gaining more control and it’s beginning to have an effect on the marketing industry.
If consumers are gaining control, how can the marketing industry use this to their advantage? Here’s a novel advertising idea: instead of pushing advertisements at people about what we think they like or will be interested in—assumptions based on general trends of an audience’s demographic type—why not target what we know they want? This is exactly what Internet marketing can do for you.

The Rise of Internet Marketing
Since its birth in 1989, the World Wide Web, and its worldwide use, has exploded. According to Nielsen/Net Ratings, there are now nearly 900 million Internet users worldwide, over 200 million in the United States alone. Research firm marketer reports that U.S. adult Internet users will spend an average of $878 online this year which equates to more than over 100 billion dollars in e-commerce business being generated from the United States alone.
In spite of these astounding numbers, Internet marketing—which includes such marketing techniques as e-mailing, display ads or banners, rich media, and the most effective: keyword search—is only a $3 billion industry? That may seem considerable, but a study conducted by ZenithOptimedia reports that Internet marketing makes up less than 4% of global spending on advertising, putting it far behind television and newspapers which combined compose more than two-thirds of total global ad spending.
However, statistics show that spending on Internet advertising is increasing at greater percentages than spending on advertising in other media. As reported by Jupiter Research senior analyst Gary Stein at the 2004 Search Engine Strategies Conference: “Spending on Internet advertising increased 27% from 2003 to 2004, while cable advertising increased 14.1%, broadcast TV advertising was up 8.2%, radio advertising was up 7.0%, magazine advertising increased 5.0%, newspaper advertising increased 4.8%, and Yellow Pages advertising was up 3.2%.”
Internet advertising is growing so much faster than other forms of advertising for a reason: The Die ringer Research Group reported in late 2004 that “online product research conducted by consumers the past year was responsible for driving $180.7 billion in offline spending, compared to $106.5 billion in direct online consumer spending.” Integrand’s Business Barometer for spring 2005, a nationwide survey of over a thousand leaders of small- and medium-sized business, showed that those businesses that are applying Internet marketing techniques are getting “a clear return in top-line revenues for their investment.”
The simple truth, then, is that if your company is not dedicating a significant percentage of its advertising/marketing budget to the Internet, particularly to search engine marketing (SEM), you’re giving up a valuable opportunity. Marketing Sharpe claims that “so few marketers are budgeting enough for SEO [search engine optimization] that it can be a massive competitive advantage for you still.” Here’s why you should.

The Benefits of Search Engine Marketing
Acquire Qualified Visitors
the greatest benefit to SEM is that the people you reach are the ones you want, and the ones who want you, because they are searching for exactly what you sell. SEM has the advantage that it delivers exactly the information the searcher is looking for at the time that they need it. As opposed to television viewers who are watching for entertainment purposes, Internet users, and searchers in particular, are searching with a purpose—they want the information.

Enlarge Your Audience
In addition to bringing highly-qualified visitors to your site; SEM exposes you to a much larger audience. Not only is the number of people online increasing but the number of people searching and buying online is also growing, dramatically. Approximately 140 million in the U.S. have Internet in their homes and those who don’t have it at home have access to it at work or in public places like libraries. That’s better coverage than you can get through any other advertising medium.

Be Cost Efficient
because the visitors you are bringing to your site are qualified, you’re not wasting marketing money on people who don’t matter to you. In addition, Piper Jaffrey reports that search engine marketing is the most cost effective Internet marketing technique available. At only $.45/lead, it far outweighs banner ads at $2.00/lead and direct mail at an astonishing $9.94/lead. Not only is search the most cost effective technique, but it’s also the most profitable. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, keyword search dominates any other category (including rich media and display ads/banners), producing approximately 41% of U.S. Internet revenue for 2004.

Measure Your Results
There is a vast array of technology available, such as Omniture’s Site Catalyst ™, to help you track exactly what’s going on. You can track such things as the specific keywords that people are using to reach your site or where visitors are entering and exiting your site. This information is quantifiable and it can be gained immediately. Not many advertising firms can boast measuring and quantifying their results with that level of detail.

Revise Your Campaign (Easily)
Unlike TV commercials or magazine ads, which can both be expensive and time-consuming, especially if they fail, your Internet marketing campaign is quickly and easily revised. You rarely need to start from scratch but instead just need to do something as simple as rewrite a page or two on your website.

If you haven’t jumped on the Internet marketing bandwagon, it’s about time you do or you’ll soon find you’ve been left in the dust. Go beyond your traditional advertising firm and consult one who can offer you Internet marketing techniques with proven, measurable results.

The power of Internet marketing is a post from: Making Money From Blog

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Internet Marketing For Your Business

The power of Internet marketing