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The World Of Online Marketing

November 19, 2008

Online Marketing or Internet Marketing is a cost effective form of promoting your products or services over the World Wide Web. In today’s competitive world, Online marketing has become the most preferred choice for advertising, especially for Small Businesses. Online Marketing includes but not limited to the following:
a) Advertising in Search Engines like Google, MSN Live or Yahoo Search
b) Email Marketing or opt-in mailing lists
c) Affiliate Programs
d) Banner Advertisement
e) Link Sponsorship in high traffic websites

Each type of the above advertising methods has got its own merits and demerits. You need to explore and find out which one best suits your Business.

Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing is a great source for promoting your products or services as it is highly targetable. You can target keywords (search phrases) that are related to your products/ services. When a search-engine user searches for a particular keyword which you are targeting, your advertisement would show up as “Sponsor Ad” in a highlighted box.

It is also feasible to receive free traffic from Search Engines. If your website is optimized for Search Engines and has the right content your site may rank higher in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). You could also seek the service of a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) professional to work on this.

Email Marketing

Email marketing refers to the process of promoting your products thru email. You can buy advertisement space from newsletters which have a huge number of email subscribers. Email ads may not be much effective as there are lots of unsolicited emails delivered to an email user.

Affiliate programs
Affiliate programs are the great choice for any wise Businessman. You pay commissions only when a sale occurs. There are lots of affiliate programs which can help you to sell your products.
 
Banner Ads or Link Sponsorship
Unlike the affiliate programs, you pay only a flat rate of amount to display your banner advertisements/ Textual Link. You need not pay any commissions if the visitor who came thru the Banner Ad buys your product.

Advantages of Online Marketing

As said earlier, Online marketing is cheaper compared to some of the other types of Advertisement. It is cost-effective as it is highly targetable. It is easy to track the performance of your online advertisements and to calculate the ROI (Return of Investments). It has the potential of promoting your products to global audience.

Disadvantages of Online Marketing
Online marketing may not be suitable for everyone especially if you don’t own a website. Say for instance it would be more effective when you place a hyperlink to your website from the Banner ad rather than just phone numbers. Search Engine marketing may be very expensive if the target keywords selected by you have huge competition. If you use Affiliate programs you may have to sacrifice a portion of your profit as you pay the commissions. If you price your product including the commission to its actual price, it may be overpriced and difficult to sell.

Written by admin · Filed Under Marketing 

Small Business Marketing

February 19, 2008

What it takes to promote salesEvery business has a specific marketing strategy that usually works best and has already been proven by your most successful competitors. You can benefit from their experience by copying successful marketing plans, including selling methods, pricing and advertising. Make a list of the most successful businesses that fall within your field of interest and study them (and even go to work for them). Visit these businesses and be prepared to ask the questions that are most important to you.

Learn as much as you can about the needs of your customers and how to gain feedback from them. For example, if you open a restaurant, a displeased patron will probably not complain because it is not a pleasant experience. Instead, he will not return. So, for example, you must take care to inspect the plates as they are returned to the kitchen.

Will your customers be looking for convenience, pricing, quality and/or service? It will be difficult to make sound marketing and promotional decisions without being informed on their real wants and needs. If a specific geographical area defines your market, low cost demographic reports based on the census can be obtained that will furnish information on population by race, income and home ownership. For resources that provide this information, use Google.com to search for “demographic data” on the Internet.

Written by admin · Filed Under Marketing