Web Marketing

Do you have a strong internet marketing strategy for your business?

If not, you should. Internet marketing can be one of the most cost-effective ways to market to your target customer base, assuming they are online and use the internet to try to find solutions to their problem. However, the challenge can be prioritizing all the things you could be doing to market your product or service online given the limited amount of time that most of us have to do it in.

Don’t forget: even if the marketing activity is a “free” one (for example, take a look at this article for some affordable internet marketing strategy ideas) it is taking time that you could be spending on other things to increase your sales. So only do it if it aligns well with the key strategies identified in your marketing strategy planning exercise.

You may already have a website, but if you haven’t developed a web site marketing strategy then you probably are not getting targeted visitors to your site. Without traffic, a web site will not drive sales or grow your business.

What are some good resources and tips for building your internet marketing strategy? Well, here’s my recommended list of web site marketing tactics. You should prioritize these according to your overall marketing strategy, target market, and business goals.

1. Author a blog. Having a blog will help build your credibility and visibility in your particular niche. Three important things to remember: keep it content rich, keep the selling to a minimum (direct them to your website or other contact medium for the sales pitch), and make sure it is updated frequently so your visitors stay interested and keep coming back for more.
2. Post in blogs, forums, discussion groups. If you do this, it is critical to keep your posts useful to the audience, concise, and relevant to the question/discussion at hand. Avoid any marketing or selling hyperbole – that is only going to backfire on you or may get you blacklisted in the forum. Include a link to your website and a catchy tagline in your signature, as allowed by the forum guidelines.
3. Write articles. There are a couple of possible approaches to article writing: First, you could author an article for one of the authority web sites in your field. Many of them accept guest articles, and usually they allow an author bio or resource box that can briefly describe your company and link back to your site. A second option is to write more general articles for one of the online article directories, such as eZineArticles.com.
4. Advertise online. For example, Google AdWords can be very doable for small companies without a big online marketing budget.
5. Use webinars or podcasts to reach target customers. Presenting online can be a significantly more effective use of time and money than doing an in-person seminar. The downside can be maintaining the attention of your audience. You can either host these on your own website, or participate in a webinar run by one of the online magazines or content sites in your niche.
6. List in online directories. There are many directories online, some of them good and some not so. Find ones that are relevant to and have credibility in your niche.
7. Publish an e-zine or newsletter via email. But whatever you do make sure it’s opt-in: subscribers should sign up on your website or blog, you could reach out to Webinar participants, include a link in an article you write, etc.

Stay organized and efficient in your internet marketing efforts by following these top four internet marketing tips to increase your productivity online. Or if you have zero budget for your internet marketing efforts, don’t worry! Check out this article on developing an affordable internet marketing strategy.

To figure out which internet marketing strategy is best for your product or service, try putting yourself in your target customers’ shoes for a minute. Think about how they get their information about solutions to the problem your product addresses: What online ezines do they read? What forums do they frequent? If you don’t know, then I suggest you take some time to further refine your marketing strategy by talking to current or potential customers before you spend time, energy and money on a mis-directed internet marketing strategy.

For more information on internet marketing strategy, take a look at the following articles:

• Affordable Internet Marketing Ideas – How to Market Without a Budget
• Internet Marketing Tips to Increase Your Productivity Online
• Developing a Web Site Marketing Strategy

RETURN TO MARKETING STRATEGIES HOMEPAGE