Online Marketing

Online marketing is one of the least expensive forms of marketing, which makes it very popular in recessions. SEO in 2009 has become one of the number one ways to market a business or product. Online Marketing is using the internet and online methods to market a product or service. Online Marketing, also known as Internet Marketing or Online advertising, has become popular for a couple of reasons. Online marketing is defined from Wikipedia as the selling of products on the Internet. Online marketing, (also known as web marketing, search engine marketing, SEO or internet marketing) is vital in today?s internet savvy world.

Online marketing is very cost effective and competitive for SMEs and it is even cheaper than marketing through trade fairs. Also, the web helps the producer and the buyer to connect directly through web-conferencing and flattens the supply chain as one can bypass distributors and get directly in touch with buyer or seller. Online marketing is not as difficult or expensive as you would imagine. Just determine a niche you can dominate. Online marketing is vital in today?s competitive online marketplace. With our expertise in harnessing the power of the web, your business will be positioned to capture your target markets more than ever.

Online marketing is not constrained by space or time, customers can access information or request service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Online Marketing is a modular product that provides interactive email and web marketing functionality for building on-going interactions that drive relationship communications and prospect qualification. Unlike simplistic email marketing solutions, Online Marketing offers a flexible data model, an open architecture, built-in analytics, and industry-leading usability and dialog marketing tools; these allow you to design and execute pre-planned interaction strategies with your customers. Online Marketing is a way of creating your web presence visible to your target audience and Search Engine Optimization will help your site achieve that. Search Engine Optimization is a science that requires careful research on the search behavior of the target audience, analysing the data, and the implementation of a target focused Online Marketing strategy.

Internet marketing incorporates numerous different elements of the web design process including design, development, advertising, and sales. Internet customers want fresh stuff. Stuff that will help them succeed in this new arena.

Affiliate marketing works in a way where people who sign up for affiliate accounts get a unique code and everytime someone purchases a product or service from you, you pay them a commission on the sale. A deviation of this is Pay Per Action for which you pay affiliates a set fee on generating you a qualified lead / sale. Affiliates can focus on driving traffic to their pages and not on managing lead buyer relationships. Over 80% of LeadPile's active affiliates are currently using the MicroClickâ„¢ form, offloading the responsibility for lead collection, management, and quality control to LeadPile.

Online marketing is proving itself every day as a powerful medium for driving sales. However not everyone knows how to use this medium. Online Marketing is included with the site content builder. Online web site builder. Online marketing is a fairly new arena, with self made pundits spouting new strategies on daily basis on how to get successful online. Marketers often get confused when faced with the dilema of making a choice between organic search engine optimization or Pay per click advertisement strategy, to promote their business online.

Online marketing is a popular field of study, and as such, it’s offered as part of the curriculum at many educational establishments of all kinds. There are also quite a few ways to receive training in online marketing by utilizing remote learning techniques. Online marketing is marketing that utilizes the power of the Internet to promote products and services to the widest number of people in the most targeted and effective way possible. In today's age of ubiquitous internet usage, the internet is fast becoming the most trusted source of information.

Effective online marketing means VISITORS, VISITORS VISITORS

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What is Online Marketing

What is Online Marketing?

Some think that having a website or getting good traffic from Search Engines is Online / Digital Marketing, but it more then this...

Online Marketing combines

Research and Design | User Experience (U.X) | Analytics | S.E.O | P.R | Branding |Customer Service | Multimedia - Video - Audio | Social Networks | Content Syndication | Banners | Pay per Click | Mobile and E-marketing - etc

The combination of these forms of media creates an awareness for a brand both Online and Offline.

On the internet 'Brands' need to quickly gain trust and credibility without the opportunity to be able to interact with a stakeholder face-to-face. Above all visitors online have a wide range of choice, they are able to quickly move onto the next provider if they feel they are not getting what they are looking for or that the product doesn't meet their needs.

Online Digital Marketing set out to take advantage of the wide range of places and platforms that people are using or seeking to find information about a product service or brand, as result the growth of online media is out-performing every other type. Therefore the task is to continuality improve and adapt the Marketing Communications mix as information becomes available, which can often be more effective online compared to some forms of traditional marketing which are limited to send and receive.

In recent years the internet has changed quickly the web always being developed as design standards such as interactivity are constantly moving forward to improve and enhance user experiences. The web has also helped to improve communications across verticals opening brands and business to potential World-wide commerce. Given the size of the task to be effective online we need to create a coherent strategy, like we would do in other forms of Marketing and within any other part of the business environment.

The role of search and the impact of online behaviour.

“When consumers hear about a product today, their first reaction is ‘Let me search online for it.’ Rishad Tobaccowala

“Yes, but we already have a website. We’re doing fine.”

A website becomes a place to communicate with your customers people are using technology influence purchasing decisions. Marketing has become a lot more complicated as there are so many more forms of media, touch points and processes, although there are many similarities as a tradition model - gather learn buy.

These days the sale has become more interactive, there are lots of other places people can go and almost everything can be researched in real-time, most people hit the internet even in a b2b context just to gain an insight into the product service or brand. People love to gain an edge by research.

The speed of this research is a lot faster then other forms as people only remember a few things about an advert, now adverts need to be supported through other marketing products. The sales cycle starts at research rather then at the point of sale. Customers need access to the information at the right time at the right place.

There needs to be an emotional connection to the product or service to support the customer to make the buying decision. to better understand this we as marketers seek to find out, 'Do we know where they are?' 'Where they go?' 'What information they are looking for?' we're constantly seeking 'Micro-trends' to better understand how our marketing should or could be more effective online.

'WOM' Word-of-Mouth, the oldest form of Market Research!

Online reviews , customers have always spoken to each other, maybe one to one in the past but now sites like 'Amazon' and 'Ebay' have tapped into other peoples experiences this goes beyond the product they speak about the service received. But when we look at these reviews most of them are good and only a few bad. which isn't the site(s) censoring the content in general people love to say good things when they've had a good experience. Bad reviews aren't even bad as they show a honest interaction that shows that there are real people involved.

Customers are watching demos on 'Youtube' to see what the product does. Price comparison sites are making the competition even harder if people are shopping around for the best price, which most are.

Google is currently driving forward their Plus Social Network in which the 'plus one button' is being seen as a vote (alike a link in SEO terms) from Google users, which admittedly is quite limited for now, but the fact remains the same people are able to be interactive and vote with their feet. The change here at this point, is that people are gaining a level of control over the information they receive, compared to traditional broadcast models where we would push out a message to a specific demographic and then expect a 2-4% response rate ( a typical Direct Marketing response rate)

'Never let your marketing write cheque's that your website can't cash' Avinash Kaushik

Which means are you prepared for the customers, is the site already optimised for the targeted content? What pages do the visitors arrive? and where do they do, we need to better understand the UX goals (User Experience)

If someone called you on the phone, would you answer the phone?

If we just look at the sales as a measure of success that can be a narrow view

The short term sale - buy today!

The long-term sale establish a relationship that enables communications across a range of platforms - i.e. Social Media

Email Blog

Mobile

Apps

Micro-sites

A website provides presences that needs to be optimised for the purpose.

Customers can now go prepared for a Sale through this research, they may already know, what colour, Model, Type and all of the specs that they want- even what price they should pay. Which is great isn't it? We've started to see the shift from Retail over to the internet which is great for convenience but poor for personal selling. So the task of our marketing should be to align our brands at the point of sale or the ZMOT as Google would say; 'The Zero Moment of Truth'

As we come out of the world wide recession people won't forget the hardship the world face and modern consumerism will become more savvy to how purchasing decisions are made.

By Liquid Silver Marketing Salisbury

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The evolution of online marketing

Put your hand up if you know what the following terms mean:

SEO

PPC

Social bookmarking

hashtag

If you're a business owner and you haven't heard of any of these terms or you don't know what they mean then it's time you learnt about modern online marketing for business.

If you have heard of these terms then this means you moved beyond the Yellow Pages.

Modern online marketing for business means all these terms above and so much more. Here we are going to take a short trip down memory lane to remember what online marketing used to look like and how far it has come.

Once there was Yellow Pages.....

Yes it was great to have your business in black and white (or colour) in the Yellow Pages but then when you got listed in the online Yellow Pages...well that was something. It meant you now had given your business an online presence.

It wasn't long after this though that businesses realised a Yellow Pages wasn't enough...that maybe a website was the way to go.

So not only large businesses had a website but small businesses also had their name in html lights. At this stage most small business websites consisted of one page. Some info on the company, and some contact details.

Soon small business realised that just a having a one page website was not good enough because no one could find them unless they had the exact url address. So businesses started employing fancy web developers to do up schmick online marketing campaigns with thorough keyword researchto achieve SEO.

This coincided at around about the same time as Google overwhelming every other search engine out there. Businesses soon realised that to get to the first page of Google they needed keywords to boost website traffic.

Then came email marketing. Some call it spam, some call it clever marketing, whatever you call it we've all received it. Small businesses realised that if they kept their subscribers informed with monthly emails this may mean they might buy from them due to constant reminders of how worse off they were if they didn't buy from them. This was the start of trust marketing for small business.

Then came blogs. Blogs were mainly the domain of high profile journalists or geeky IT people who used to have an opinion on everything and anything. Then these journalists and geeky people started getting thousands of people reading their blogs and put ads on them, sold things on them and made money! Businesses weren't going to miss out on this highly effective online marketing strategy so they blogged too! And discovered that blogs actually help boost they keywords which further helped them up the search engines! Great!

Next came Facebook. Small business scoffed (or ignored) this website which allowed teenagers to post debaucherous photos of themselves consumed in youthful over indulgence. But businesses soon realised that Facebook was a highly effective social media strategy that allows businesses to interact with their customers on a very personal level, not to mention the ability to use PPC (you know what that is right?).

And on the seventh day God made Twitter. Was it a spinoff from Facebook's status update feature? Who knows? Who cares? This weird website which allowed only 140 characters or less was also scoffed at as some weird vanity contest as to compare who had what for dinner. But alas it soon became clear that big business was using Twitter to drum up more business and soon small business wanted a piece of the pie and it became included in the top 10 online marketing strategies available. And now we know how important it is to have Twitter for online marketing.

In amidst this jungle of status updates tweets, and keywords we have also seen the proliferation of online article writing, images used for SEO, forum submission, social bookmarking and even pinging (who does this?). So we have seen the evolution of online marketing go from a full blown colour ad in the Yellow Pages to 140 characters on Twitter.

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Use Online Marketing Education To Boost Business

There is a mass of marketing education material online much of which is free. There are several benefits for the business owner prepared to invest just a little time in their marketing education (online or offline) including.
Avoid being ripped off by marketing tools and services providers.
Research what tools and services may provide the best return for any business situation
If required deliver all the information you needed to take on the marketing task in house.

A short cautionary tale regarding one marketing service (search engine optimisation) used by many small businesses follows. Anyone who has read just a little current information on search engine optimisation will be aware that the process has changed dramatically in the past 18 months. What worked in the past simply will not work today.

I was shocked when I recently attended an exhibition for small businesses to find two SEO agencies still pushing the old methods. After, a little thought I understood why they were pushing a service which simply will not deliver. They are relying on the fact that many small businesses are simply not aware anything has changed so there is still the opportunity for these agencies to spin a story, take the money and simply fail to deliver.

A marketing education can therefore prevent a business being ripped off. Good quality information can also help a business owner to understand how various marketing tools and services operate and their advantages and pitfalls. Armed with this information a business owner can decide what tools and services are likely to deliver the best return for the business before engaging with any potential supplier.

If a business owner has the time (and commitment) research into marketing tools and services can be extended to the point the marketing task can be taken on in house (with low to zero external costs). With good quality marketing education materials available it is possible for any business owner to learn the marketing tools and techniques they need to promote their business.

There are many sources of quality marketing information each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Possible sources include Blogs written by industry experts, Webinars delivered by marketing companies or individuals, how to You Tube videos from credible experts or specific online marketing education websites and forums.

The benefits of utilising the raft of free (or low cost) marketing education material online are significant for small and micro businesses. Just a little information can be enough to save a business from being ripped off or it may provide the information a business owner needs to secure the best possible return on investment.

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Online Marketing Tool

Some of the best online marketing tool options are free. Fancy banner ads and expensive pay per click campaigns are not always the best alternative when trying to market your personal or commercial website. So what are a few free online marketing tools that you can use to promote your website and increase your public image?

Social Networking is prevalent within our Web 2.0 culture. Even baby boomers are increasing their presence within internet networking site such as Facebook and Youtube. Using social networking as a marketing tool for your website will allow your website (or business) to receive a diverse set of web traffic. There are many successful internet marketers that have used Web 2.0 sites such as Twitter to generate thousands of dollars of income. So how come social networking sites are effective? Social networking is effective in generating traffic because a “viral effect” happens whenever a website with great content becomes popular. Word of mouth is a very popular marketing tool and with the internet, the possibilities are endless with viral marketing as one person could spread the word about your website to thousands upon thousands of other social networking users. However, there is a trade off of allowing social networking traffic visit your website as many of these social networkers are seeking friends and entertainment opportunities, not information. If your only goal is to make the public become aware of your product or website, then social networking is a great tool for marketing a website. However, if you are trying to target a specific target group and sell a product, then social networking might not be right for your marketing goals. Lastly, using social bookmarking sites such as Digg is a great way to share products and business information with millions of people. Bookmarking your blog and website pages within a social bookmarking site are a great way to share business ideas and products with millions of people worldwide.

Another free way to promote your website is to create a blog about your product or company. Blogging is a virtual diary and with great blogging platforms such as WordPress and Blogger, there are many more options available in the blogosphere besides writing. Having the ability to create supporting websites for your business website (or business) will allow you to promote your product and business to people that you wouldn’t have a chance to reach within your local region. Developing a website or blog will give your business a better reach that it would have if you didn’t have one. Plus, it couldn’t hurt, right? All it would take for one to create a blog is have a couple of hours to read about how to blog and to write a few posts.

The other benefit of blogging is developing an RSS subscriber list and an email mailing list. Many people who like the content of blogs like to subscribe to the site so that they can receive up to date information whenever the blogger posts new content. You can also have people “opt-in” into a e-mail list so that you can e-mail potential customers about new products and updates about your company. This is a great way to stay in contact with your fellow customers and the best effect of email marketing is that you develop a personal relationship with each person that you add to your mailing list. However, be careful about the amount of times you email people within a month or you might annoy many people. Only email these people when you have useful information and make sure that your intent is not always commercial. On the same lines of email marketing, using an automatic email responder is a very convenient way to send out emails without having to manually send out emails to each and every person on your email list.

On the same lines of developing a blog, developing a website is a great online marketing tool as you will have more exposure and coverage to many people. Instead of having coverage to your local area, you will be able to reach people as far as India or Australia. Your portfolio site should show off your skills, business or product. Remember, the more websites that you have, the more potential customers and traffic you will have.

Using article directory sites such as Ezine and GoArticles will allow you to create buzz about a certain product or topic. Also, coupled with a website, article directories are a good way to increase your rankings with a search engine.

These are only a few ways to increase your arsenal of online marketing tools to increase traffic to your business.

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Online Marketing Through Social Media

What Is Social Media?

The world is abuzz with news of online marketing through social media hitting every nook and corner of every business on a global scale. If you are considering on joining in on the rush of this new media that everyone is talking about, then you need to have a marketing plan to get started.

This type of marketing has a lot to do with the internet. Most companies these days are now tapping the power of the worldwide web to gain countless prospective customers online. The exchange of massive information on products and services of most companies are easily accessed worldwide by millions of people with the touch of a mouse.

So how do Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn play a role in online marketing? Companies gain instantaneous global social interaction for free! These sites are visited globally by millions of people on a daily basis. Tapping this powerful resource would be similar to having massive amounts of worldwide exposure. This is considered as an enormous advancement in globalization with companies evolving in their interaction and communication in marketing their products in various languages targeting clients worldwide.

Online Marketing Benefits of Social Media
One great advantage provided by social media is the seamless capability to segregate customers accordingly by age, sex, location, interest and a lot more. Businesses are now able to reach millions of potential customers with internet marketing.
Sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn all provide online advertising for free. There is no need to advertise on a billboard or pay for a newspaper ad to market your products and services. You can simply and freely promote it online on these popular sites.
This type of media also helps build customer rapport by mixing different aspects and strategies in marketing. Consumers have the option to contact companies through live chat, discussion forums and email regarding their concerns, suggestions and even complaints. Companies like Dell Computers and Starbucks have reported success with their social media campaigns in reaching out to their clients.

Businesses have made adaptations to their methods in communication and sales strategies just to accommodate the overwhelming social media interaction. Social media marketing is now being used as a tool to gauge a company’s social interaction with its customers. Nowadays, business owners see this media as a way to maintain a great interaction with existing clients while reaching potential customers as well.

With all the benefits laid out, it’s obvious that a business cannot and will not survive in this digital age where online marketing and social media are both hitting the streets like wildfire.

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Why online marketing is a smart investment for your small business

The reach of internet and social media is increasing daily and so will your business if you make the right choices when investing in online marketing. It is no secret that starting a business is hard, one of the most challenging tasks that start up and small businesses face is promoting your business and getting your name out there. Choosing online marketing as a promotional tool for your business can make that task a little easier.

What is online marketing?

Simply put, online marketing is the promotion of services and products over the internet. There are a many types of internet marketing, some of which include

Display advertising

placing ads on a third party website to increase awareness of your business and direct traffic to your business's website.

Social media marketing

increasing traffic and awareness of your website through social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn.

Search Engine Marketing

promoting your business's website by increasing visibility on search engine result pages through paid and free techniques, for example paid placements or SEO.

Email marketing

directly marketing your business through email

Why online marketing?

Marketing is crucially important for any type of business however many small business do not have a huge marketing budget. Online marketing offers a relatively inexpensive solution compared to traditional more costly marketing mediums. Moreover, with online marketing, statistics can be measured easily and inexpensively which will allow you determine which online marketing tools are doing the most for your small business, therefore maximising the value of your dollar. Although many online marketing tools are designed to increase the visibility and traffic of your website, in the hands of a professional marketing company it will also help you shape your business's corporate identity.

Getting started

Perhaps the easiest way to begin marketing your small business online is to consult a professional marketing company, especially if your business doesn't have a website yet as having an appealing and functional website is a very powerful marketing tool and is essential for every business in the internet era. A professional marketing company can provide your business with an online marketing expert who will help you choose which marketing tools are right for you and integrate them into your business's overall marketing plan. When choosing a online marketing company it is useful to do some research about them, having a look at their portfolio and most importantly ensure they understand the marketing needs of your business.

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