An introduction to Internet marketing

February 19, 2008

As more and more people are spending more time and shopping on line, a trend which is only likely to grow in the coming years, the burgeoning world of internet marketing is turning into one gigantic, globally networked mall.

Today’s netizens constantly hunt for the best value for their money, and as more and more ‘traditional’ businesses are joining the bandwagon, internet marketing is booming.

Also called as e-marketing, it has its own laws, own gurus and its own ‘netiquettes’. What has also grown exponentially, is our imagination – of how to market utilizing the power of the Web ! A few common methods of internet marketing or IM, are :

  • affiliate marketing

  • SEM – Search engine marketing

  • Advertisement displays

  • Email marketing

  • Marketing through blogs

  • Viral marketing

  • Business analysis

  • Direct sales

  • Link building

  • Search engine optimization

  • Article submission

  • Press release

  • Newsletters

  • Directory submission etc

The basic marketing strategy is however deceptively simple - focus on increasing the customer traffic to your client’s (or your own) web site and develop a brand recognition or generate sales. The main focus should therefore be on getting as many potential buyers as possible from the client site and also make it more visible towards the top of search engine listings.

When a customer searches for a product in her search engine the top ten pages have the highest odds of being visited by the customer. When the preferred technique is email advertising, email lists have to be targeted by special software for marketing your services. Similarly, link building and web directory submission needs linking to as many sites as possible with the least possible cost. The web master has a choice between manual submission of links, permanent reciprocal links by negotiating with other websites, and free directory submissions. The main focus is always on increasing the traffic to the website involved.

To fully utilize the benefits of IM, every website should use all the techniques possible concurrently - from SEO and SEM, link building and directory submission. You cannot just rely on just one or two features. In addition, web promotion continues even after the business has been successfully established, and even then it needs a lot of continued marketing to sustain its rank on the search engines.

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