Whats Internet Marketing all about

[SEO Kid]

Hi there

What is Internet Marketing all about? How many ways am I able to market my company online?

[Paz]

Hmmmm...

tricky question to answer in the time I have this morning.

Internet marketing is the promotion of a website or product made entirely on the internet.

- That includes getting your site ranking well in the search engines for your keywords nd getting lots of organic traffic to your website.
- Pay per click, whereby you pay for links to appear when search engine users make queries for specific keywords
- Affiliate links, banner advertisements on placed on popular websites
- Email shots to selected recipients - don't spam though!
- Viral marketing - create a buzz around something and let people spread the word for you via blogs, myspace etc.

Internet marketing is new and quite different from regular marketing and sometimes there's conflict between the two different "departments".

For instance for organic search engine traffic, some websites need to emphasise the "negative" because people specifically use a search engine for that product when they have a problem.

The regular marketing people want a shiny happy website, the internet marketers want a website full of words such as problem, crisis, struggle etc. to boost search engine rankings, and sometimes there's a conflict!

Cheers,
Paz.

[clickz]

Hey there SEO kid!

There are numerous ways to market you site online. At the top of my head these are some of the ways to advertise online:

1. Email marketing - sending emails out to a list of your clients or interested persons that have opted in to receive email from you. You don't have to start your own newsletter, you can buy space on on other popular newletters that share your target demographics
2. Affiliate marketing- sign up as a merchant with an existing affiliate network (must be compatible with their software) or start your own affiliate program (which you then have to market to possible publishers). You set an offer (commission/ fixed price per lead/ other) and webmasters place your banners and creative material on their sites.
3. Banner advertising on a network or site. There are numerous networks out there and you can choose how you run. On a cost per click basis/ cost per impression basis or on a cost per aquisition basis. The banners can run across all the sites on the network at random (blind network), run on channels (groups of sites with a specific topic/ demographic), or on preselected sites. The channels can be contextually based (based on content) or behaviorally based (based on user behaviour or demographics). Various networks have different softwares to enable targeting. The banners can also be keyword targeted on the network and are displayed when users type your chosen keywords. Advertising is generally going the rich media route as broadband increases.
4. There are also networks that run your advertising based on spyware or adware that users download (either willingly or unwillingly). Most free downloads online have adware attached.
5. Pay per click advertising on search engines.
6. There are numerous new consumer driven adverting options. These include blogs, podcasting, videocasting.... The biggest problem here is volume. Generally you are reaching a smaller group, however this group tend to be opinion leaders in the community and great to target with new innovative products. There are new blog networks emerging that are similar to banner networks and enable advertising on numerous blogs via 1 source.

The great thing about the internet is that new ways to advertise are continually emerging.

Hope this helps :)

[Wired]

Hi Guys. I am new to this forum and I must admit I had no idea that there were so many options out there. I am located in South Africa and I am not sure about the value of internet marketing here? How big is the market over here? Is it still worth it? and what products are the best to market online?

[daniel]

Welcome wired, great to have you in the forum,

There are a lot of options out there, each one with its own advantages and disadvantages. It really all depends on the type of product you are marketing.

I would market some products completely differently to others, ie: pay per click may not work for some industries that require brand awareness. Pay per click is very expensive for brand awareness and should only really be used to bring actual customers from a direct conversion metric from your site.

Banners etc are better for branding, whereby on some networks you pay cost per 1000 impressions.

What type of industry are you in at the moment.

Daniel

[Chatmaster]

I would like to first explain a few very important facts about online marketing.

They are all somehow related. Always remember that.

OK, you want to know the different ways of online marketing? First off all lets' start with ensuring you understand I am only discussing online marketing and not the traditional marketing techniques.

Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing provide one of the most powerful marketing strategies in online marketing. The benefits are endless as basic marketing functions are enhanced by a affiliates. Branding, networking and very important brand support online are increased with the use of an internet network.

Community Marketing
Communities offer a platform with targeted conversions. However communities have one downfall. They only work effectively in the first few months that you use them. But they are an excellent way to assist in retention and trust building which essentially is the secret to online success.

Email marketing e.g. Ezines and Newsletters
Email marketing is absolutely one of the top retention techniques and I doubt I need to explain that any further. .

Viral Marketing
Viral Marketing are one of the oldest and most successful online marketing techniques ever used. When hotmail originally started as a secret email network between friends in 96 they never thought it would grow into a network of 12mil users within 18 months, Without any advertising. Viral marketing comes in many forms and shapes but is built around a refer a friend principle. It also never stops growing the referrals and it’s effects usually are long term. Avoid combining this with a data collection strategy as that is a sure way of crippling it’s success.

Banner Advertising
Banner advertising is an high cost marketing project that also requires constant monitoring as there are allot of fraud related to it as costs are calculated on ppc. You easily get stuck with high click rates and bad conversions as that is the secret of a successful online marketing strategy. Quality traffic. This however doesn’t mean it is not a usefull online marketing technique. I just like to escort it with that warning.

SEM
SEM is often mistaken as a SEO function. The fact of the matter is the two are worlds apart, although most SEO’s are equipped to deal with it is very little technical. You need to understand how to write successful text that convert. Do regular keyword research and constantly monitor the bids on those keywords to ensure you stay on top.

SEO
SEO,… well to be honest is the king of online marketing and quality converting traffic.

Then there are offcourse RSS feeds and Articlesthat are a fabtastic way to atract traffic, built brand and improve natural linking for SEO.

Wired, I would like to add that the SA market is absolutely worth while. Also like to add that internet marketing in general follow the same trends all over the world. What works abroad works here, so go for it!