Anyone who uses internet marketing on the WWW knows that the landscape is always in ebb and flow, and you need to keep on top of new developments to make sure you’re current. Particularly with the latest techniques and gizmo’s that are coming out of using social media effectively, but there are some more traditional values in the Internet marketing world that hold true and can still be considered old standbys.
Like everything else you need to learn to crawl first on the Internet and that means you need to start by having a professional web design put together (don’t stint on this one and go the ‘cheep’ route as it will cost you more in the long run) so you can put your best image forward when you venture out into the global economy.
It’s still the case the best websites are the simplest and the old adage about content being king is still true because you need to have a good blend of the visual and the written to sell your customers on your goods and services. You want your landing page to be concise and easy to use as well because many studies have shown you only have up to nine seconds to hook your customer and if they need to go looking for the right tab or button to take them where they want to go for too long, the chances are they might just click away.
Of course there are things you need to look at outside your website to get it noticed and one of the great techniques that has been working for years and is showing no signs of abating is article marketing which now incorporates well written Blogs as well. You need to find a good content supplier that understands the nuances and strategy of your online marketing efforts. Once you do, you can start positioning yourself as an expert in the field and pointing several links back to your website to get both reputation and traffic in a one-two punch.
E-mail marketing is another of those traditional techniques that still seems to be in widespread use today. It’s important to keep in mind here that you want to have a responsive opt in e-mail list of clients and prospects you can send a newsletter to.
Once again, it’s in your best interest to use a professional content writer so your newsletter has a professional edge that will draw prospects and clients to it.
You should also be aware research has shown that men and women use the Internet differently and this can affect your content choices once you narrow down your niche market. For example, men are more apt to stay updated on political news while women are more interested in health-related issues. Women are more spiritual in the type of content they search for on the Internet while men are more likely to buy travel reservations online.
While this information may have nothing specifically to do with the kind of newsletter or Internet marketing techniques you use, it’s still a good idea to understand the background of the people you will be targeting so you can adjust the kind of language you use accordingly.
Myths about Online Marketing
If there’s any one myth that refuses to die it’s the one that says, “If you build a website, then traffic will come to it.” Completely untrue. Totally untrue, yet it’s still around, and we know that because we still read comments, in forums, that reflect that type of belief.
Before you ever finish that website you’re working on, hopefully you already have some kind of plan or idea in mind about generating traffic to it. If you do nothing at all and just hope “they’ll come,” then you will starve if you’re depending on it for food. Should you be interested to be number one for your keywords in Google; then you will have to do the appropriate on and off page search engine optimization.
Another myth is that marketing on the Internet requires only a few hours of your time to manage. This is not true because you will eventually have to work hard in order to see any results. This means that you have to test and do more testing if you want to be successful.
You will have to try new methods and tweak website details in order to find out what performs better for your site. In addition, monitoring different campaigns and talking to your targeted market will require hours of your time. Sometimes you will have to spend days working on a campaign just to get it up and running.
So do not believe that you only have to commit 2 hours a day to internet marketing because this is false. Again working with an SEO professional will reduce the ‘learning; time and fast track your site.
The easiest way to get traffic is pay per click – or is it so? This is actually a myth because dabbling with PPC and actually finding success with it requires you to put in a lot of time, effort and above all, money. It’s really not recommended for brand new marketers if you are going to do it yourself only because it requires knowledge about a lot of areas to do well in.
Once you’ve made enough money, you can go ahead and experiment. All we can tell you is to get some learning on the subject, then proceed with caution if you’re new to it. What may seem like common sense may not be that way for another, and that’s why it will help to work with an SEO professional to assist you to learn what works and what does not and doing it this way will allow you a ‘tactical’ tool for driving up traffic and conversions but be prepared to allocate a budget for at least six months.