Internet Web Marketing - 5 Key Components
Article summary: An explanation of the main parts of an Internet web site marketing program and how they interact with one another.
Any type of business can benefit from a strong web presence. That's where Internet marketing comes into the picture. By promoting your business online, you can reach a much larger audience than ever before, and with relative ease (compared to the pre-Internet days).
Here are some of the things you should have in place to ensure Internet web marketing success.
1. Planning & Strategy
You can't just rush into a web site marketing program and expect great results. Before you do that, you need to have a solid plan / strategy that accounts for such things as audience, message, selling points, techniques, etc.
The best way to address these things is by asking some key questions:
These are just a few of the question you should ask about your web site promotion and Internet marketing campaign. Obviously, the questions listed above will generate even more questions. And that's the whole point.
2. Online Visibility
So let's say you have answered all of the questions above and addressed the issues they present. Now you have a web site and you are ready to promote it in order to generate business. What next? The next key component of your Internet web marketing program is online visibility. By this, I mean the ease with which people can find you online.
The size of the Internet is measured in billions of documents / pages, and it's growing every day. Even within your industry and niche, there will be many web sites for your audience to choose from. So you need your site to be extremely visible and easy to find.
There are many ways to accomplish this kind of visibility. Search engine marketing can obviously help, but that's not the only thing you can do. You can also publish articles online to drive traffic and increase visibility, distribute press releases online, publish a business blog and more.
3. Lead / Sales Generation
Website traffic is important for Internet web marketing success. There's no doubt about that. But traffic is only one step along the path to your ultimate goal, which is to increase sales and grow your business via the Internet.
That's where lead generation / sales generation come into the picture. These are also referred to as online conversions. For example, if somebody visits your web site and joins your newsletter, then a conversion has taken place. The person has "converted" from just a visitor to a newsletter subscriber. Other forms of conversion include lead capture, sales, inquiries and other forms of contact.
Here are ten good ways to increase conversion rates.
4. Tracking & Analysis
How will you know what's working and what's not if you have no tracking system in place? The answer, obviously, is that you cannot. So in order to further your Internet web site marketing success, you have to track and analyze your results.
This will include such things as watching your website analytics program to a customer feedback form at conversion points. There are many ways to track and monitor performance, so the important thing is to find what works for you and stick to it.
One of the great things about Internet marketing is that you can get nearly instant results and feedback. You can try something, judge the success, and then try something new for comparison. But you can't do any of this until you track and analyze your web site marketing efforts. This is the strategic side of Internet marketing.
5. Constant Evolution
As consumers, we are motivated by the same things today as ten years ago. We still seek products and services that will help us in some way -- by making us smarter, healthier, wealthier, happier. etc.
But while the motivations of consumers haven't changed much, the methods for reaching those consumers are constantly evolving. This is especially true online, where new technologies emerge every year.
To ensure the long-term success of your Internet web marketing program, you need to keep track of emerging trends and technologies in this arena. For example, few business owners had heard of a blog five years ago, but now it seems that everybody has one. This is one evolutionary example of many.
Any type of business can benefit from a strong web presence. That's where Internet marketing comes into the picture. By promoting your business online, you can reach a much larger audience than ever before, and with relative ease (compared to the pre-Internet days).
Here are some of the things you should have in place to ensure Internet web marketing success.
1. Planning & Strategy
You can't just rush into a web site marketing program and expect great results. Before you do that, you need to have a solid plan / strategy that accounts for such things as audience, message, selling points, techniques, etc.
The best way to address these things is by asking some key questions:
- What are the key selling points of my product or service?
- Who is my audience, and how does my product / service relate to them?
- How will I reach and communicate with my audience online?
- What are the primary (and specific) goals of my Internet web marketing program?
- What kind of information do I need on my web site to accomplish these goals?
- Who is going to manage my web site marketing program?
These are just a few of the question you should ask about your web site promotion and Internet marketing campaign. Obviously, the questions listed above will generate even more questions. And that's the whole point.
2. Online Visibility
So let's say you have answered all of the questions above and addressed the issues they present. Now you have a web site and you are ready to promote it in order to generate business. What next? The next key component of your Internet web marketing program is online visibility. By this, I mean the ease with which people can find you online.
The size of the Internet is measured in billions of documents / pages, and it's growing every day. Even within your industry and niche, there will be many web sites for your audience to choose from. So you need your site to be extremely visible and easy to find.
There are many ways to accomplish this kind of visibility. Search engine marketing can obviously help, but that's not the only thing you can do. You can also publish articles online to drive traffic and increase visibility, distribute press releases online, publish a business blog and more.
3. Lead / Sales Generation
Website traffic is important for Internet web marketing success. There's no doubt about that. But traffic is only one step along the path to your ultimate goal, which is to increase sales and grow your business via the Internet.
That's where lead generation / sales generation come into the picture. These are also referred to as online conversions. For example, if somebody visits your web site and joins your newsletter, then a conversion has taken place. The person has "converted" from just a visitor to a newsletter subscriber. Other forms of conversion include lead capture, sales, inquiries and other forms of contact.
Here are ten good ways to increase conversion rates.
4. Tracking & Analysis
How will you know what's working and what's not if you have no tracking system in place? The answer, obviously, is that you cannot. So in order to further your Internet web site marketing success, you have to track and analyze your results.
This will include such things as watching your website analytics program to a customer feedback form at conversion points. There are many ways to track and monitor performance, so the important thing is to find what works for you and stick to it.
One of the great things about Internet marketing is that you can get nearly instant results and feedback. You can try something, judge the success, and then try something new for comparison. But you can't do any of this until you track and analyze your web site marketing efforts. This is the strategic side of Internet marketing.
5. Constant Evolution
As consumers, we are motivated by the same things today as ten years ago. We still seek products and services that will help us in some way -- by making us smarter, healthier, wealthier, happier. etc.
But while the motivations of consumers haven't changed much, the methods for reaching those consumers are constantly evolving. This is especially true online, where new technologies emerge every year.
To ensure the long-term success of your Internet web marketing program, you need to keep track of emerging trends and technologies in this arena. For example, few business owners had heard of a blog five years ago, but now it seems that everybody has one. This is one evolutionary example of many.
Labels: Internet Marketing
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