This article is intended for the layperson.With business in general becoming more global and with the number of businesses offering any given product or service growing it is important to differentiate yourself from your competitors.
You can differentiate yourself in many ways. You can offer the highest quality, the cheapest prices, the best support,... You can value ethics, shareholder profit, or brand consistency. The list of differentiators is literally as large as you can imagine.
Given what I do in my business I am interested in ways of differentiating your business that I can affect within a reasonable budget and with a minimum change to your way of doing business. This leads us to internet marketing.
Right now, many businesses do not understand or practice internet marketing. On the flip side, many consumer and institutional customers use the internet to search for products and services.
What is Internet Marketing?
Internet marketing is any marketing done via websites, email, online chat, etc. This includes but is not limited to:
Search Advertising - paid advertising on search engines so as to display alongside regular search results. (e.g. Google AdWords)
Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - a wide range of activities intended to improve your site's rankings for any given search phrases on any given search engine. This includes:
- Keyword Research - determining what phrases your prospective customers are likely to search for through Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc.
- Content Optimization - reviewing and rewriting your website content as necessary to ensure phrases from your research are used appropriately.
- HTML Optimization - making sure the HTML code behind your page is clean and easy for the search engines to index (e.g. minimal use of tables, proper use of H1 and H2 tags, using external files for CSS and javascript)
- META tagging - adding an appropriate unique META description tag to each page, and META keywords relevant to each page
- Links / Link Exchanges - making sure you are listed in the appropriate business directories and exchanging links with appropriate third parties
Email Marketing or Electronic Direct Mail (edm) - sending targeted emails or newsletters to your existing customers or lists of potential customers that have opted to receive them. These may include special deals, general news, announcements, etc.
There are many other forms of internet marketing, depending on your budget and market.
Why consider Internet Marketing?
Internet marketing can be done with a relatively high return on investment compared to more traditional forms of marketing.
A customer gives a high level of credibility to a business that it finds ranked in the top ten results on a search engine.
The number of customers searching for products and services using the internet is growing. The number of businesses using the internet to market themselves is also growing. (Deduct away!)
Many businesses aren't savvy about internet marketing
yet. Even some of your larger competitors may not market themselves over the internet well or at all. Depending on your market, this combination of little competition and relatively low cost can reap huge rewards.
Professionally I believe that there is no point in your having a website without some form of internet marketing (that is,... unless you are not interested in new customers.)
Final Words
If you have a website or are considering a website for your business I very strongly encourage you to consider some form of internet marketing. There are forms of internet marketing to match any budget.
Whoever you work with should be able to explain internet marketing to you in terms that you understand. Internet marketing is not a black magic or an obscure science - it is a relatively straight forward set of actions and procedures intended to increase the number of prospective customers that find you when looking for one of your products or services.
Start researching internet marketing today, it is a valuable way to differentiate your business.
