Internet Marketing 101

Effective marketing can help your company reach new customers and stand apart from competitors. So-called “new marketing media” like the Internet and e-mail offer unprecedented campaign tracking, resulting in a higher return on investment (ROI) and conversion rates. Consider the extent to which the web has become an integral part of doing business today. I can’t remember the last time I saw a business card without a web address and an email address on it. Customers simply expect it, and businesses realize the immense marketing and sales potentials of this new channel. This is amazing, if we recall that the World Wide Web is barely 15 years old this year.

The New World Wide Web

The world has changed drastically in these last 15 years. The web is still the only marketing channel that allows you to proactively attract potential customers, educate them about your products or services, and close sales – all without your direct involvement. But now there are over 25 billion web pages on the internet. Simply having a website is no longer enough – you need to market it. In 2006 alone, US companies spent $16.9 billion on internet marketing, and it is likely that your company was one of many that year to re-design a website, upload product literature to your site, or launch an email marketing campaign.

But how and what should you market on the web? The choices abound: Search Engine Marketing, Pay-Per-Click advertising, Geo-Targeting, Direct Marketing, streaming video, Podcasts, and now Blogs and Social Media. In fact, internet marketing offers such a multitude of possibilities that many businesses attempt to pursue all of them at once, and often succeed at none. There are billions of websites out there, full of text, photos, videos, and downloadable brochures, all competing for the attention of your customer. Yet, relatively few of them will reach their potential or even the target customer. Many business owners can’t tell you exactly what their website is doing for their business.

Measures of Success

How do you know if your internet marketing is successful? Many businesses fixate on a single metric such as the number of website “hits” or visitors to measure the success of the site. This makes about as much sense as if a brick-and-mortar store measured its business by how many people walked through the front door. At the end of the day, the real question is not how many visitors come to your site, but how many of them take the action you want them to take – be it buying your product, or filling out an information request. In marketing this is called conversion: you are “converting” visitors into sales or leads. The higher your conversion rate, the more successful your marketing campaign.

So, how do you start down the path of increasing conversions? All you need to do is answer one question: “what is a successful visit to your website?” Once you know this, the other pieces will fall into place as you develop your internet sales and marketing strategy.

The truth is, everything on your website should focus around and work towards this “successful visit” experience. From page layout and usability to the types and location of the visuals, the keywords in your text, and the meta tags in your programming code – everything has an impact on your conversion rate.

Going Forward

Building a website should not be an end onto itself – it should instead be the first step of an on-going, coordinated, and — most importantly — profitable marketing program with specific goals and measurable results. Take your internet sales and marketing efforts to the next level!