From Laura Lake(http://marketing.about.com)
Having a Internet marketing strategy gives you a measurable and definitive way to target your market and position your business so that those looking for what you have to offer are finding you easily. This is only the first level of the sales process, but it is vital to the success of your online business, but remember traffic marketing is not sales.
Traffic can be increased by search engine optimization, using pay per clicks, or marketing your site in advertising campaigns. After completing the marketing step which brings the traffic you must then turn your attention to selling to your visitor once they get there.
How are you approaching those prospective clients and customers that are visiting your site? Are you persuading them to take the action that you want them to take? Have you defined what it is that you want them to do? Perhaps you want them to...
Buy a product? Request more information? Subscribe to your newsletter or request a free report?
There are proven methods and tactics that you can use online to increase your conversion rate and get that prospect to become a customer or client.
If you haven't taken time to plan your Internet Marketing Strategy you have made a costly mistake that could be draining to your business and costing you customers.
Consider this "What is the annual worth of one customer to you?" Is it $25, $250, or perhaps $2500? If having an Internet Marketing Strategy would help you cultivate and convert just 1 new customer each week would planning that strategy be worth it to you?
Truth is that Internet Marketing differs in many degrees from traditional brick and mortar marketing, but there are a few strategies that remain the same and must be present in order for your online marketing to be successful. For example consider the following:
What is the Key Missing Component in the Virtual Sales Process?
When marketing virtually you are missing a key component to the sales process. Do you know what one thing is lacking and could cause a potential problem and cost you a loss of sales if not approached with a real solution? The answer is human interaction. This has been the biggest struggle to e-commerce businesses online.
Let's think about this for a moment. When a person enters a physical store they are met with the interaction of a sales person. Face-to-face contact takes place and over 90% of normal communication between the two people is non-verbal.
Websites or virtual storefronts as I like to call them don't allow that non-verbal communication to take place in the traditional way and the friendly sales person is replaced with the cold technology of background code.
The key question we must ask ourselves here is "How can you provide that human interaction to potential clients and customers so that you are able to move that client or customer through a successful sales process?"
Rabu, 21 Mei 2008
Internet Marketing Strategy: What Can it Do for You?
Marketing In A Virtual World
From Steve Van Yoder(http://marketing.about.com)
Before the Internet, small business owners like yourself were usually limited to a local market -resorting to expensive advertising and brochures, direct mail, cold-calling, networking at the local Chamber of Commerce or Rotary. You hoped customers found you through word- of- mouth or a Yellow Pages ad.
Today, you can work with a consultant, a financial planner, or a business coach across the country as easily as someone across town. In the Internet age, prospects often find you (instead of the other way around).
This is the age of the virtual customer. Yet, although the Internet has made it perfectly reasonable to land a major client you've never met in-person, it has also created new expectations among consumers.
Prospects now "Google" around to find someone with your skills.
They expect you to make a good virtual "case" for yourself. If you don't pass the test, or make a bad impression, or appear lackluster compared to your competitors, you will lose the potential client.
The only way to be truly successful in business is by establishing a good reputation. And understanding the way business has shifted in the Internet age can help you bring the potential of marketing your business into the virtual world.
The Virtual First Impression
The Internet has increased the expectation among consumers that businesses will have a credible online presence.
Many of us now form "first impressions" of people and companies via our Internet browsers. From the moment your name and business appear in a Web browser to the moment your Web site loads, your first impression often means the difference between a shot at your prospect's business, or being shut out.
Think about it. You have probably used the Internet to research a company or a person you're considering doing business with. Certainly potential clients and customers are checking you out online, too.
Prospects you've never met are forming opinions about your business at the click of a mouse. Internet first impressions are not just influenced by how your Web site looks, but also by how often your business appears or how high it ranks in a web browser.
Become an Online Center of Influence
We all know people who command rapt attention whenever they speak. Others want to listen to, learn from, and emulate them. They are centers of influence, a distinction you can pursue online by developing the following qualities:
* Share inside knowledge with your target market;
* Participate, listen, contemplate, and offer thoughtful responses;
* Be willing to voice an opinion;
* Assume leadership positions in your industry
Certainly, experience counts. But this is not the only prerequisite to becoming an online center of influence that will earn you the distinction of 'trusted advisor' within your target market.
Start by making your Web site a resource for your industry. Feature lots of useful information, including articles, links, downloadable files, customer resources, and anything else of use to your target market. Be generous and give, give, give!
Create a Virtual Podium with Teleclasses
Teleclasses are a great way for businesses to develop a virtual reputation. They can be promoted easily by email, and provide information to prospects, clients, and customers all over the world, with minimal cost and effort.
Business coach and teleclass leader Michael Losier set up a teleclass about exhibiting at trade shows: 'I had 60 students in my first class, which was very profitable, and many later hired me as a consultant."
Also, it may be just as effective and less effort to participate as a guest lecturer in another professional's class rather than producing your own teleclass.
Placing Articles Online
Online articles draw upon your expertise by providing useful information that Web site visitors are actively seeking out. Online articles position you as an expert in your field and convey a level of authority that establishes trust and sets the stage for sales.
When high-traffic, high-credibility Web sites and newsletters publish your articles, you ride on the coattails of their loyal relationships with readers. Your articles are seen by visitors as referrals from trusted friends.
Some of the most prime "real estate" in the world these days is at the top of the search engine listings. The most widely used search engines rank Web sites by the quantity of other Web sites that link to them. This means that every article you publish that links to your Web site can improve your search engine rankings.
Build Online Relationships
Most business networking used to happen when we recommended an associate, swapped business cards, or connected with colleagues over lunch. But increasingly, social networking is migrating to the Internet.
Through social networking Web sites and online discussion lists, entrepreneurs can access virtual communities of prospects and associates while developing virtual "platforms" to generate leads and sales and establish themselves as recognized experts.
Marketing consultant Max Blumberg credits his involvement in Ecademy.com, a business networking Web site, with elevating his business profile and generating new clients.
"When I first encountered Ecademy I'd never heard of online networking, but the benefits of a large community where I could share ideas and cultivate new relationships was very appealing."
Blumberg started by posting a profile about his business, then started sharing his knowledge with other Ecademists. "I set up a club where members could get help with common marketing challenges. Many of these people became clients and friends with whom I socialize. We reciprocally use each other's services," says Blumberg, whose Ecademy presence has even been noticed by large companies who are starting to contact him.
The key to building a niche community is identifying your ideal customers and the communities they belong to. By targeting the best, most favorably inclined prospects within a niche, you can become your target market's vendor of choice, and sell more with far less effort.
Top 10 Internet Marketing Strategies
From Laura Lake(http://marketing.about.com)
Internet marketing can attract more people to your website, increase customers for your business, and enhance branding of your company and products. If you are just beginning your online marketing strategy the top 10 list below will get you started on a plan that has worked for many.
1. Start with a web promotion plan and an effective web design and development strategy.
2. Get ranked at the top in major search engines, and practice good Search Optimization Techniques.
3. Learn to use Email Marketing Effectively.
4. Dominate your marketing niche with affiliate, reseller, and associate programs.
5. Request an analysis from an Internet marketing coach or Internet marketing consultant.
6. Build a responsive opt-in email list.
7. Publish articles or get listed in news stories.
8. Write and publish online press releases.
9. Facilitate and run contests and giveaways via your web site.
10. Blog and interact with your visitors.
