What is Internet Marketing?

There are a lot of buzzwords floating around when it comes to websites and how to make money from a website - and as usual with the IT industry, they all have their own acronyms!. Search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), pay per click (PPC), Web 2.0, social networking - you get the idea!

Trying to wade through all of the technologies and buzzwords can be very daunting. In this special report, we’ll cut through all of the buzzwords and technologies and give you the low down on Internet Marketing in simple, plain English.

Q. What Exactly is Internet Marketing?

A. Internet Marketing is the promotion of a business using The Internet as the medium.

It is important to note that the business could be online, offline (i.e. a traditional bricks and mortar business) or a combination of both.

We have a client in Belfast, Northern Ireland who sells jewellery. Up until 2007 he had a very basic website that didn’t generate a single lead for the business. In 2007, the business decided that their website really should be doing more for the business. The new website is actually an online showcase, without prices, that encourages visitors to request quotes from the company and then to visit the shop to actually make the purchase. Even though this isn’t an online business, by doing some search engine optimisation and getting good top 10 rankings for a number of keywords, the website now generates numerous leads every day that have resulted in very significant amounts of new business for the company.

So, you don’t have to have an actual online business to be able to use The Internet to make (more) money.

 

Q. What Activities Make Up Internet Marketing?

A. Typically, Internet Marketing includes the following activities:

Search engine optimization (SEO) - getting first page search engine rankings for specific keywords, knowing that a certain percentage of people will click on your listing. Getting first page rankings can take time but it is the most cost effective way of getting a steady stream of targeted visitors to a website.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) - getting traffic to a website by using paid ads that appear on the same pages as normal search engine results. Like SEO, it relies on a certain percentage of searchers clicking on your ad. SEM incorporates the term ‘pay per click’ (PPC) because that is what the website owner does, - pays the search engine owner every time someone clicks on their ad. SEM is a quick way of getting traffic to a website but it can get expensive and needs to be closely monitored. It also suffers from ‘click fraud’ whereby people click on an ad with no interest in what the website has to offer, often competitors.

Email Marketing - once you’ve got visitors coming to the site, it’s vital that you somehow capture their email address. Sure, if they buy something then you’ll get their email address automatically - but most people won’t buy the first time they visit your website. How do you get them to buy from you in due course - when they’re ready to buy? Capture their email address and then use email marketing.

Article Writing - a great way of getting traffic to your site that also has the added benefit of helping with SEO. Articles can be written by either yourself or you can hire someone to do it for you and will give useful information on a topic that’s relevant to your website. These articles then get submitted to article magazines, other website owners, etc. and there will be a link from the article every time back to your website.

Affiliate Marketing - this technique gets other website and email list owners to sign up as affiliates to your website. They then send visitors and customers from their site to yours and, if any of these people buy from your site then the affiliate gets paid a percentage of the sale. It sounds complicated, but there is software available that automates the whole process and, therefore, makes it an attractive option. It’s a great way of getting your products out to a much wider market quickly.

Joint Ventures - similar to Affiliate Marketing, joint ventures is about partnering up with other website and list owners to offer your products to their customers, and often, their products to your customers. It’s not as official as Affiliate Marketing but again, joint ventures are a great way to easily get your products to a targeted audience.

Sales Copy Writing - too many websites (particularly service company websites) have a lot of information about the company on them e.g. ‘About Us’, ‘Who We Are’, ‘Company History’, etc, etc. To be honest, no-one really gives one iota about your company - they just want to know what you can do for them. As a result, there is a certain way to write the text on your website that really will help your website visitors get what they’re looking for.

So, there you have a brief of overview of what Internet Marketing is. If you would like to find out how any of these Internet Marketing techniques could help your business, please request a Free Consultation.