It doesnt take an MBA in internet marketing to know that the way businesses are marketing is changing. In todays highly competitive business environment, old school tactics have gone the wayside in luau of a new form of marketing inbound marketing. In bound marketing is all about being found, not getting in front of people who may or may not want what youre offering.
This being said, even traditional outbound marketing is changing quickly. New tools have given marketers insight that allow them to target, more specifically, and reach groups of audiences most likely to be interested in their product while also analyzing metrics that will affect the way the next campaign takes place.
Internet marketing encompasses a suite of marketing tactics derived from both inbound and traditional outbound marketing approaches. Some of the methodologies include:
- Websites An online presence to clearly articulate you value proposition to the world of potential customers is essential. A well designed site streamlines your content to reduce bounce rates (people who leave after visiting page one of your website) and converts that traffic into leads who take action.
- Organic SEO - (Search Engine Optimization) Although SEO isnt new, the tactics people use to attain optimization have. Google and Bing and other major search engines are constantly adopting to create a better user experience for its users, and that means that webmasters have to conform.Organic SEO is broken into two major areas on-page SEO and of-page SEO. On page consists of asking sure your code is up to speed and everything is done right. Being W3C compliant, optimizing keywords, keyword density, alt tags, page load speed, robots/txt files, etc., etc. all play a key roll in on page optimization. (This is just scratching the surface) Off page optimization accounts for about 70% or more of your SEO, and encompasses things like link building, submitting to social bookmark and directory sites, gaining reciprocal linking from sites with high page ranks (PR). Ultimately, youll want to make sure you are covered in both areas - on-page SEO and off-page SEO.
- PPC Being #1 in Googles SERPS (search engine results pages) is every business owners dream, and with the right tactics, it is actually somewhat achievable (depending on various factors) PPC or Pay Per Click using systems like Google Adwords, is a great way to artificially be #1 in Google. Essentially, the more you pay, the higher you are up on the page. So, with a PPC campaign, it costs big bucks to play. Pay per click campaigns are often a strong compliment to organic SEO, and can bring noticeable immediate traffic to your website.
- SMM (Social Media Marketing) Building a community of followers that can like and share your product and or services with their immediate sphere of influence is no longer optional. In fact, a good SMM campaign is now a direct influence on your SEO endeavors. Social media marketing is one of the easiest and most cost effective ways to immediately gain exposure for your brand or service. Do your homework on SMM best practice, as you will want to be sure that you exercise good etiquette and proper technique so as to now allude your followers.
- Article Marketing Though many critique article marketing as dead, it is still a highly viable way of gaining traffic and attention to your product or service. In article marketing, the concept is simple provide valuable information on a topic, and make that information available for free in the form of an article or whitepaper or e-book. Prospects find these articles and download them through an information exchange (where they provide you their information in exchange for the article topics information) Forms are an effective way to execute this information exchange. Articles can be share with others, so always include your contact information at the bottom of any article that you compose. Make it easy for people to share your articles on your website, Facebook accounts, etc.
- E-Mail Marketing E-Mail marketing is an oldie but goodie, and it too is changing. Gone are the days of spray and pray, and creating a much more targeted message which youll send to a highly targeted list is now the common practice. E-Mail Marketing is an effective way to communicate a special offer via a fairly cost effective means. Procuring a competent ESP (Email service Provider) is a good way to be sure that your message is sent while ensuring good deliverability. Be prepared to who them how your list is white hat based, or built by means of permission based compilation only. Also, be sure that your email design is in line with best practice techniques.
Behind every good e-mail marketing campaign is a good landing page, which aims to convert that viewers enthusiasm into a lead, or better yet, a sale. Just like the email design itself, the landing page should contain a strong call to action and reiterate your value proposition clearly and concisely.
All in all, internet marking is highly essential for any growing business. Be sure to test, measure, an try again pay attention to the KPI (Key performance indicators) behind your efforts to maximize your ROI (return on investment) for each marketing type.