Introduction.
Welcome to the world of Internet Marketing!
This guide is designed especially for those who are new to the world of internet
marketing…or IM as some may call it. With this guide, you will be introduced to the
basic policies of this industry and also to the much higher-end and more complex
systems of internet marketing.
However, before reading this guide, open your mind to the enormous possibilities of
the marketing world. At some point, you may find some of the things that will be
discussed too complicated for you in the beginning. However, these topics and
pieces of knowledge will all fall into place and will further help you understand this
systematic way of marketing. In the long run, this will guarantee your overall
success in this journey.
Just try to think of this mini-guide as a bunch of puzzle pieces which will eventually
connect to give you a complete picture in the end. Sounds exciting? Great!
Let's
begin.
What Is Internet Marketing?
Internet marketing is now called so many other names – e-marketing, web
marketing, i-marketing, digital marketing, online marketing and the like. However,
in plain and simple language, it can be defined as the marketing of one's products
or services that a business or person offers through the use of the internet.
This type of marketing encompasses a very broad area of the subject as it also
includes many types of marketing strategies like e-mail and wireless media
marketing. Under this general scope of internet marketing also falls the aspects of
ECRM or electronic customer relationship management and digital customer data.
Why is internet marketing a big advantage to many businesses?
The world wide web has given us many unique and essential benefits. This
technology enabled the entire world to be connected with each other in a matter of
seconds. In terms of online businesses, the internet has provided a global portal in
which goods and services can be sold and bought by almost anyone and in any part
of the world.
With internet marketing, all types of businesses have enjoyed the lower costs of
information dissemination and advertisements. The internet's interactive nature has
benefited business marketing through instant responses and its ability to elicit them
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in the fastest way possible. Furthermore, internet marketing has tied together all
the aspects of creativity, technicality, advertisement, sales and product
development.
With its inexpensive cost, internet marketing has also enabled businesses to save
on their means of reaching their target market or audience. Through a small
fraction of the cost of traditional advertisements, businesses can further allow their
customers to conduct research and eventually purchase their products in the most
convenient way. This also makes them more appealing to their clients because they
can provide results in a very short span of time.
Internet marketing has also allowed these businesses to measure their statistics in
a much easier and inexpensive way. Since almost all the aspects of this marketing
type can be measured, tested and traced through the use of ad servers, advertisers
can easily use and observe their data as to which ads reap the most customer
views or purchases. This way, online businesses will be able to determine which of
their advertising messages are more appealing to their target customers. The
results of all their campaigns can be tracked right away since this marketing
initiative simply requires a customer to click the ads, visit a certain website or
perform a desired action like filling out a form or purchasing a product or service.
Now as a beginner in the world of internet marketing, you will be responsible for
the task of bringing in potential clients by providing them the services or the
company that suits their needs or preferences in various internet venues. You will
help these customers find the product that they are looking for. The targets are the
people who have computers with internet access. Entrepreneurs like you can visit
your online store anytime. Consumers can also do the same whenever they want.
The future of the world wide web is so bright with its projected online consumer
traffic reaching almost 60% and over 80% of these customers shopping online. So
if you are determined to make it successful for you, you may just find yourself
enjoying the benefits of having an online business that will give you more profit in
the long run.
With that said, internet marketing brings you many advantages of incurring minimal
costs in starting up your business including cheaper advertising options, a global
marketplace, becoming your own boss, promoting stuff that you are passionate
about and profiting from these passions along the way. Sounds amazing doesn't it?
Though there are many benefits from internet marketing, it does come with its own
share of risks and investments. You must understand that this process will not let
you rake in a lot of cash quickly. Your time, diligence, persistence and passion for
learning more are very important in your success in internet marketing.
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Those who think that this is a get rich quick scheme are bound to be disappointed.
Though many businesses have become extremely successful, you will find that
those who have failed in this venture have simply wished to become overnight
millionaires. The realities of a physical business are still applicable to your online
store, including tax payments, customer services and even hiring employees.
Furthermore, it is important that you know that starting an online business is not
free. There are costs that may be less than what will be used in building a physical
business, but you will still have to shell out for web design, software, hosting,
domains and advertising costs.
Another reality of having an online business is site
downtime. Yes, your site may go down due to technical difficulties or glitches, and
this will probably bring a lot of frustration not just on your part but also on the
customers’ end. Every single minute or second that your site is unavailable to
visitors and potential customers, you will be losing money. You need to be prepared
for this.
Furthermore, you cannot just rely on certain system and have it run on autopilot
to generate profit. Technology changes and the industry evolves rapidly, making
any “autopilot system” that is supposed to generate cash a complete lie. A
marketing tactic that worked for someone in the past may not work for you at all in
the future. Therefore, it is very important to keep yourself updated with new
technologies and marketing trends.
Competition will always be around so if you do not keep yourself informed and you
do not work hard, you will not stand out in the crowd. You have to make an impact!
Work hard because if not, you can be sure that one of your competitors is out there
doing so. Besides, if you want your business to be a long-term investment, your
first profits should go back to your site's services and advertising efforts. Maximize
your profits and do not just cash out your first earnings. It will also be helpful to
learn about taxation and other related laws that affect this industry. This way, you
know what your tax and legal advantages are once you set up your business. This
will also help in protecting your assets, thus, it should never be overlooked.
With all these realities in mind, you will need to be very determined to stand out in
this industry. Internet marketing is not for the person who likes simple routines.
You should be flexible in learning new strategies and trends in order to keep up
with your competition.
Now that you know what internet marketing is and all the good and bad that comes
with it, you will now learn the marketing methods that online businesses have been
using in order to promote their services and products to the global marketplace.
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The following methods that will be discussed further in the next few passages are:
Affiliate marketing
Article marketing
E-mail marketing
Blog marketing
Pay per click ads or PPC
Search engine optimization or SEO
Pop-up ads
Banner ads
Social media marketing
Mobile marketing
These internet marketing methods are not equal at all. Each of them have
strategies to reach a target market and will produce varying results based on your
goal, marketing pitch and relationship with your customer. Whether you are going
to market your own website or choose to get involved in affiliate marketing, you are
most likely going to use a couple of these methods at various times. Remember,
what you earn in this industry is always proportionate to all the effort and time you
have invested in developing your website.
Now let's proceed to the juicy part of this subject. In the next few pages, you will
learn each of the internet marketing methods mentioned above. You will get to
know what they are, what they do, how they work and why they are effective.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is an online practice wherein a business rewards an affiliate for
the visitors or customers brought in by his marketing efforts. The rewards are
either cash or gifts and are given for either an offer completion or site referral. In
this process, there are four players – the merchant, network, publisher and
customer. Recently, this market has grown complex with the secondary players like
affiliate management agencies, third party vendors (specialized) and superaffiliates. It works by simply using the affiliate's website to drive traffic to the
merchant's own site or to allow visitors to be forwarded to the merchant's main
web page.
Basically, this is also what we can call revenue sharing between the online
merchants and online affiliates. The compensation given to the affiliates depend on
how many user clicks, sales or registrations were made on the merchant's website
via their own. Affiliate marketing enables the automation of the advertising
processes and the payment for desired actions. Merchants have preferred this
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internet marketing strategy because it is a “pay per performance” model, where
they do not incur any expenses for marketing their products unless the affiliate
produces the results they need.
Affiliate marketing can also be translated as a type of business relationship where
you, as an affiliate, promote a merchant's services which is different from yours.
This means that you do not need to have your own product in order to venture into
affiliate marketing. You only need to promote your business provider's services and
products.
This is how it works – you need to have a web page that contains a link that directs
your users or visitors to the main page or online store of the merchant. When one
of your site visitors clicks on that link and purchases something from the
merchant's website, you will get a sort of commission or a referral fee. This way
you are the one driving traffic to your merchant's website through your own web
page. The merchant will pay you whenever a visitor from your site buys something
or signs up for something on their site. A special affiliate link is assigned to your
web page, making it easy for the merchant to track customers coming from your
site. One merchant is allowed different affiliate links and all of them will direct the
users to its website.
Another strategy that works in affiliate marketing is the use of web page codes or
web cookies. This is actually a very interesting way to still profit even if your visitor
clicks on the affiliate link and does not purchase from the merchant's site at once.
How does this work? The moment a user clicks on the link, a cookie is stored in his
computer, indicating that he or she visited the merchant's site and recording your
page as the one that referred him to that website. If, let's say a couple of weeks
later, the user finally decides to buy something from the merchant's online store
and types the web address of the merchant directly into his browser, the cookies
stored in his computer will still recognize the purchase as a referral from your
affiliate link, allowing you to receive a compensation from the merchant. Note that
cookies have expiration, so you must read the affiliate program's terms carefully to
check the life span of these cookies.
The success of affiliate marketing has also paved way for the rise of many online
companies such as Amazon.com, which now has thousands of affiliates.
Article Marketing
Article marketing is an online advertising strategy used by many businesses to
market their websites, products or services by writing short articles that are related
to their industry. It is the practice of posting these keyword-focused writings on
article syndication sites that have a good readership following. These articles will
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then be distributed and published in the marketplace. Many opine that article
marketing is an essential element in any internet marketing strategy. These articles
have the intention ofproviding information and entertainment to online users.
Typically these articles have a resource box or bio box that indicates the references
and contact information of the writer's business. The resource box may also contain
a link back to the website that the author is promoting in order to attract the
readers to visit that website.
Articles that are well-researched and written are usually released and distributed
for free in order for the business to gain more credibility within the market.
Through these articles, a website or online business will be able to attract more new
clients. Internet marketers usually submit the articles to several article directories
in order to maximize the results of their online campaign. In order to avoid the
filtering process of the internet for duplicate content, internet marketers attempt
what we call article spinning or article rewriting and rewording to give certain
variations to the original article. Through this, the article can acquire site visitors
coming from several websites for article directories. Getting your article to be
featured in niche blogs or focused content websites that are managed by others is a
good and popular strategy in terms of article marketing. If you are a guest blogger
on these websites, you will be able to introduce your business to an interested
audience that may have been otherwise unreachable.
The common practice in internet publishing is to have your articles use relevant
keywords and catchy titles with around 250 to 500 words in the body. If you
incorporate the keywords or keyword phrases in your articles, it is possible to get
more search engine traffic.
Which, among the hundreds of article directories, should you submit your articles
to? This is actually one of the most tedious tasks in this marketing method. Today,
businesses and experts usually outsource their article marketing methods including
the submission process. The most popular article directories that are recommended
include EzineArticles, IdeaMarketers and GoArticles.
Article marketing can also help you generate leads that you can include in your email list. In writing your articles, you must give the readers an offer so irresistible
that it will prompt them to visit your website and sign up for your services. Once
you have their information, you can start creating a sales-winning partnership with
them. Failing to do this will not give you another chance to sell to your leads.
Among the best offers you can give your readers may include quizzes, special
reports on a certain topic, free consultation sessions or free book chapters. This
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way, your readers will be enticed to provide you with their e-mail addresses that
you can use to further send marketing news and information about your website.
Overall, the most important factor in article marketing is to get people to visit your
website and sign up or purchase one of your services. Writing articles that are
accurate, specific and helpful will attract more potential leads or clients.
E-mail Marketing
This is one of the most cost-efficient methods of internet marketing that promotes
your business. In order to execute an effective and successful e-mail campaign, you
need the right information to achieve your desired results.
E-mail marketing is a direct marketing method that makes use of e-mails to
communicate a commercial message to your target market. It is the process of
sending messages to your previous or current customers in order to encourage
them to do business with you again and in turn enhance your business relationship
with them. E-mail marketing is also used to acquire new clients and convince your
current customers to buy something at once.
There are several advantages in using this type of internet marketing. For one,
almost all internet users have e-mail accounts that they check regularly. With this
form of communication, advertisers can easily reach those who have signed up to
receive regular communications regarding subjects that interests them. It is costeffective and has a short impact time.
E-mail marketing can be categorized into three types: direct e-mail, intermediary email and retention e-mail.
Direct e-mail usually is an email message with commercial sales content. They are
usually sent to customers who have previously used a certain product or service or
to potential clients in your target audience who might enjoy and benefit from the
service you are offering. Direct mail marketing may make use of a company's email list or a purchased or shared e-mail list or a list that is acquired from a third
party service. These third party services may already know which audience can be
target through e-mail marketing or they may conduct an analysis to find out which
e-mail addresses will bring the highest conversion or responses for your business.
Retention e-mail or newsletter mail on the other hand, are designed and written for
promotional use. They aim to provide a long-term impact to the customer's mind,
thus, their content is more than a sales message. The retention mail specifies the
benefits of the products or services that a company offers in a more informative
format.
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Intermediary e-mail is a message sent by a company delegated by the main
provider to send out advertising and marketing e-mails to a list of subscribers that
is usually owned by the intermediary company.
In order to be successful in e-mail marketing, you must always use all relevant
information that is necessary for your business. You may send messages to your
customers if you find that they will benefit from what you are about to offer them.
In sending these e-mails, you must also write an informative and straight forward
headline in order to grab your customer's attention. Before sending out your e-mail,
check the message and use both text and HTML formats to make sure that your
message will be received and read, or you may include options to view your mail in
these formats.
Blog Marketing
Blogs have become one of the useful platforms for internet marketing. Subscribers
of a blog usually sign up to receive content on a regular basis and since most
subscribers remain loyal when they receive relevant and useful information, a
strong following and readership will be a good way to reach these potential
customers and get them to either sign up or purchase a service from your business.
Blogs have continuously reached their targets most of the time, making them a
very effective way to market one's services or products.
Blog marketing, as the name suggests, is done via a web blog through a series of
weekly or daily posts about a certain topic. A lot of businesses have used blogs to
communicate and interact with their customers while featuring their services.
Organizations have also used blogs to share and review a product’s features and
benefits prior to their official launch. They also pave way for companies to gather or
receive feedback from the consumers in order to confirm if their services and
products meet the expectations of their clients.
Since blog marketing focuses on interaction with online users, you may also start
blogging in order to market your product line to get more exposure to the cyber
market.
However, you will have to write and design a blog that will stand out from your
competitors. This way, your blog will also gain more popularity, making more
websites want to link to it. The more websites linking to your blog, the more traffic
and profit you will get. You must always remember to give your audience or target
subscribers a reason to always visit your blog. If your subscriber leaves any
comments, be sure to send them a thank you e-mail. Hold small contests every
now and then where you can give away discounts and coupons to your subscribers.