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Internet Marketing Basics
Almost all of the articles on Internet marketing lacks coverage on all the
basics and all the avenues of Internet marketing because there is just too
much information to cover in a few words. Here I am going for an attempt
which will be an overview, not an in depth affair.
Here I would cover four basic marketing subjects:
* Market Research
* Search Engines
* E-zine Advertising
* Email Marketing
Market Research This is the most basic part of any marketing
campaign. This involves how much you are going to invest in the campaigns
and where you are going to invest. Investing the right money at right
place is the key. If you don’t know your target market and how to reach
them; if you don’t know the value of the message you’re attempting to
convey; if you don’t know the answer to all the pertinent questions…your
advertising and the whole project will fail.
The most basic step in researching your market is to first have a
“target.” There should be a clear picture in your mind about the target
audience and you should treat them as your potential customers. This means
you know who you’re aiming for (their likes, dislikes, general age group,
income, business type, etc.) and have a general idea how to “hit” them.
Sample target markets would include:
This includes the segregation based on
* Age group
* Qualification
* Per capita income
* Spending capacity
* Geographical location
* Business class
* Technocrats
Once you know who your target is – the more information the better –
you’re ready to get into the nitty-gritty of market research. There are
five basic ideas in market research: “Primary,” “Secondary,” “Combined”
(all types of research) and “Qualitative” and “Quantitative” (ways of
gathering the information). A quick definition of each:
Primary research is research conducted by the primary user of the
information. Secondary research is gathered elsewhere and used by
you (purchased, leased, etc.). Most small businesses conduct both of these
types of market research – customer surveys for primary information and by
researching free or paying fees for secondary information. This is called
“Combined” research.
Qualitative research is usually exploratory and has a direction or
goal. It generally aims at specific issues in the subject matter and gives
you a better idea in which direction you should proceed. This type of
research is “loose” and is geared more towards finding a market or
narrowing your market than it is towards getting specific information on
that market and where your product fits within it.
Quantitative is much more rigid than qualitative marketing. This
research gets much more accurate statistical results and information and
is best used when your target market is already narrowed and you wish to
find ways to reach or explore that market as well as find specific
information on your product as it relates to that market.
Generally businesses conduct qualitative research during the exploratory
research and development phase of their product to see if it is viable on
the market and what they need in order to reach their market more fully
with the product (colors, shapes, uses, etc.). Once the item is ready to
hit the streets, qualitative research is used to fine-tune the market
niche and begin offering the product for sale.
Conducting your own market research is time-consuming, but is very well
worth it if you have a need for information or if you are spending any
considerable amount of money on your marketing for specific products or
services.
Search Engine Marketing
This has, for a long time now, been a “hot phrase” in online marketing
circles. I’m not sure why, since while it is generally an important part
of a presence online, it is not the end-all-be-all of marketing on the
Internet. Search engines have become one of the most expensive forms of
advertising on the Web, but have also become one of the most effective.
Great search engine marketing (read: placement, strategy, etc.) is done by
professionals and takes a lot of time to do correctly. There are two types
of search engines to market towards: search engines/directories and
pay-per-click (PPC) engines.
Search directories (Yahoo! ) and engines (Google) require a lot of
patience to market effectively. Even if you are paying for your listing,
it can take weeks to appear on their site. Further, your positioning on
their site can change regularly as their indexes change or they change the
rules of “ranking” on searches. On top of all of that you have paid
advertisements and paid listings (see PPC below) that can usurp your
position or push you further down in the results.
Pay-per-click (PPC) engines are much easier to use, but also more
expensive. A campaign on Overture, for example, can total hundreds of
dollars in a single day. These engines, however, can usually get you a
higher listing on a regular search engine (such as Yahoo!) much faster and
with steadier results. Google Adwords is one more example in this
category. This approach should be taken when the site is a new site, there
is no brand name associated with the website. this gives instant traffic
to any website and which in turn increases popularity of the site among
the affiliates who are in constant search for the god affiliate program
websites.
Whichever course you take (I would recommend both if you’re serious about
search engine marketing), be prepared to spend a lot of time and a goodly
amount of money in your endeavor. A listing at Yahoo!, for example, is
$300/year and the average per-click cost on Overture is about $0.75.
E-Zine Advertising
In my experience, this is by far the most effective form of advertising at
very low cost online. That said, be leery of offers to “get your ad in 50
email newsletters for only $25.” I doubt you’ll see one response for your
$25 since most of the “readers” of these e-zines are probably other people
who paid for advertising as well.
If you have researched your market well then you know the general wants
and desires of your targets. Using that information, you can find the
online newsletters (email or web-based) that these people would be
interested in. Chances are that publication takes advertising. There are
three basic types of advertising to a newsletter list: solo ads, top-line
ads, and classified ads.
Solo ads are sent to the entire (or a part of, depending on the options
given) newsletter list – these ads contain ONLY your advertisement or
perhaps your ad plus an article to get the reader interested in looking.
These are the most effective type of advertising through most newsletters,
but are also the most expensive. Expect to pay $20 or more per 1,000
impressions in a good publication.
Top-line ads are just that: ads that appear at the very top of a
newsletter or at the top of an article in the newsletter. These are also
highly effective and are fairly cost-efficient at about half the price of
a solo advert.
Classified ads are the most useless of the three options given. They’re
usually very cheap, but almost always appear at the bottom of the
newsletter and are generally bypassed by the readers who rarely read that
far into the publication. These are cheap, though ($5/issue is not
uncommon) and can be effective when combined with one of the other two
options to spread your advertising over several issues.
Email Marketing
Marketing online using email is a touchy affair and can easily lead to
many problems. Despite this, it is by far the most effective form of
advertising online – bar none. An email advertisement to a targeted and
strong list of people can generate responses of close to 1/3 (1 response
for every 3 targets). That’s phenomenal in ANY form of advertising.
There are three types of email marketing: SPAM/UCE, opt-in, and newsletter
marketing.
SPAM/UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email) is something that everyone,
whether savvy online or not, has heard of. The word SPAM has risen from
“questionable meat in a can” to “plague of the Internet” in the past three
or four years. Despite its bad name – and any personal feelings I may have
about it – SPAM is a very effective form of email advertising. If it
weren’t, it wouldn’t exist. Doing it correctly, however, is expensive and
requires much thought – using it even just once can affect your business
for better or worse for the duration of your time online.
Opt-In email advertising is extremely effective and carries very little of
the weight of SPAM marketing. The idea is pretty basic: you create a list
of email addresses and send marketing messages to them occasionally. The
hard part is getting those names to start with. Usually other forms of
advertising get your website going and this type propels it forward.
Newsletter marketing is similar to opt-in marketing, but includes useful
information such as articles or insights. In fact, you’re probably reading
this article through a newsletter that is being used to market a business
of some type or another. Newsletters can be time-consuming, but are well
worth the effort. Some newsletter publishers supplement their income by
running advertisements in their publications (see “newsletter marketing”
above).
Of these three types of marketing, I have had the most success with
newsletter marketing followed closely by opt-in advertising. That said, be
VERY wary of “email lists” for purchase or hire that claim to be “opt-in.”
Generally, these are NOT what they appear to be and you will receive
several complaints of SPAMming if you use them. Building a list of names
and emails for opt-in or newsletter publication is difficult, but very
much worth the trouble for the payoffs in the long run. I have run my own
newsletter for over a year now and receive more comments, input, and
business through that than I do any other venue excepting word-of-mouth.
If done right, a proper newsletter or opt-in list can greatly increase
your success online. If you feel you don’t have the time or skill to
publish your own newsletter, there are those who will do it for you
(including myself!).
Conclusion
Advertising online is a very time-consuming affair, but essential to your
success. If you don’t advertise, your business will fail. There are no
exceptions to this rule. Some form of advertising takes place for every
business type without exception. Marketing requires thought, time, and
effort to succeed but as an essential part of your business, it’s directly
related to your rewards at the end of the day!
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