The Basics Of Internet Marketing

As you are probably aware, there are many options when it comes to using the internet to market your business. It’s easy to understand why so many people feel lost and not sure where to start.

Our marketing options consist of: search engine optimization, paid search, affiliate marketing, email marketing and blog marketing. How does each work?  

Well, search engine optimization using organic listings within search engines to get your business seen by those who are searching for specific keywords and phrases works very well an is one of the most popular. There is both an art and a science on how to launch and maintain a successful SEO campaign to maximize your results. A good SEO company should educate you on some of the basics. This is important so that you understand how everything works and that you are getting a good deal.  

A couple of things about SEO. 1) It takes anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks for your site to start showing up in the search engines after you initially submit it. 2) It can take up to 3 – 6 months to begin seeing any results. Make sure you factor this into your marketing plan. There is a solution though (refer to paid search). 3) With so many businesses competing for first page ranking, it’s very challenging to actually achieve it. Think about it. There’s only 10 positions on each page of search results. With thousands of businesses competing for first page ranking…it just isn’t going to happen for very many. So be wary of any company that guarantees first page ranking. There are ways to get first page ranking yet we’ll cover these in future articles.  

The next option is paid search. Paid search marketing consists of placing ads for your products or services on search engines and on content sites across the internet. These ads are typically small snippets of text linked to your merchandise pages. You pay when someone clicks through to your site from the ad. Cost-per-click (CPC) fees range from 5 cents to several dollars per click, with an industry average near 35 cents. Leading search marketing channels include Google, Overture, and Inktomi (now Overture Site Match).  

Paid search works best for catalogers with fair pricing, good websites, and strong brands. Paid search marketing also favors retailers with focused merchandising. Merchandising depth increases the odds you win the click, and the odds that click yields an order. Often companies will outsource their paid search campaigns, not because they can not learn to do it or can not manage it on their own but because they want someone with a great deal of experience to make sure they are getting the most for their money.  

Paid search, which appears online pretty quickly, can be used as one possible solution for the “SEO gap”. You simply use paid search until your site starts appearing in the search engines.  

Affiliate Marketing is an Internet-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts. Essentially you get another company to drive traffic from their marketing efforts to your website to effect a sale. You then pay them a commission for the sales that they drive to you. The great benefit to this marketing option is that it costs you nothing unless they in fact send your sales. The downside is at times its difficult to find the great affiliate marketers unless you have connections within the industry or your hire a company that knows how to go about recruiting effective marketers.  

E-mail marketing is great for enhancing your relationship with your current or previous customers, to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business, acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately. It has lost it’s effectiveness somewhat because so many of us have been bombarded with so many unsolicited emails that we’ve become somewhat jaded towards it. Just make sure your emails are engaging and have a very compelling offer.  

Lastly, blog marketing is the term used to describe internet marketing via web blogs. These blogs differ from corporate websites because they feature daily or weekly posts, often around a single topic. Typically, businesses use blogs to create a dialog with both prospective and existing customers to explain features of their products and services. The need for fresh content on the web makes the Blogs a preferred destination for consumers.  

Search engines love blogs and readers love to read them in their own leisure time. We pull in the feeds that are important to us so we can view them when we want to. A blog will help your viewers stay on top of your current offers, specials and important news. If you don’t have a blog, get one FAST!  

These are some of the basics of internet marketing. Combining and coordinating these basic elements effectively will get you great results. Just take it one step at a time.