Understanding Internet Marketing

Understanding Internet Marketing

Internet marketing as a whole is a collective of the marketing channels which make up our internet marketing campaign. Every business is different and it is therefore important for businesses to identify which channels they should use.

How does a business know which channels they should use? This should be focused around their customers and what their customers use. So how do they know what their customers use?

There are a few tools which allow people to find these sorts of things out if we use them well it makes our life easier and the work we put into marketing online much more effective... If we look at each channel as an example it would help us understand if our customers are likely to use them.

Choosing the best methods:

It is pretty obvious that all customers tend to use Google, but then they also have connections with the internet in other ways. They will also use social media, respond to emails, look at adverts on other websites and so on. They may also be reading blogs like this one.

So if we take SEO as an example it is a good idea to start with the keyword research, this can give you information about the number of people searching on a phrase and should give you an indication of the demand for this.

Once you have identified key search phrase areas this gives you a starting point for creating content, tailored around what your potential customers are searching for. Another scenario may be social media, are your customers using it? We know that pretty much every person engages with social media to some degree, but what will make them react to you using it?

If you are a business to business trade then social media may not be the best starting point because people are using it to connect with friends, however if your business is business to consumer based, then everyone on social media can be a potential customer.

It is worth thinking about who to target and what they are thinking at the time of interaction with that channel to understand how likely they are to respond to your internet marketing in that area.

Marketing using Email Marketing:

If we want to connect to our customers we can send them emails offering news and updates about our products and services however as part of our understanding of internet marketing we may wish to look at a number of factors which will help people to respond to the campaigns they are being sent.

Firstly we need to think about the number of emails we send them, too many and they get overwhelmed or bored of hearing from us, meaning they are likely to unsubscribe, if we send them too little then we may end up losing them to another competitor who looks more pro-active and potentially attractive. Therefore our understanding of this process is key.

We would then have to look at what they would be sent, is our email sales orientated, is it helpful, promotional? This needs to be ideally a mixture of all of them so that the customer is listening to what you have to say.

If every time you email them you are asking for money then unsubscribing is an easy way to save themselves from spending! Also you may need to consider the context of your market. Do they know as much about the subject area as you? Probably not, therefore it is advisable to keep the content in a context which is understandable.

People don't enjoy reading what they don't understand. If you can break down the key facts and details so that it is punchy and simple enough to understand then you are more likely to get a click through if the person wants to read more.

Finally the design also plays a key part. I think that to stand out each email should be carefully designed and considered, people like brands and they like lifestyle, it is hard to attach this in plain text emails.

They need to buy into the lifestyle of what it is you are selling, if you don't do this then you won't make an attractive business to buy into because the next email that came from your competition looked much cooler.

Marketing using Social Media

If you want to attract visitors to your website or business via social media you need to think a bit about the psychology of the users when they are using these platforms.

They may not be interested in what you have to offer if it is too sales oriented so you need to connect with them on a personal level. Your business may be doing something different it may then relate to what they like.

You may be running a cool event or doing something partnering up with another brand they like. When using social media there really does need to be some sort of campaign behind what you are doing rather than just asking people to like your business because you exist and they enjoyed the offline interaction with your company why not make them enjoy the online interaction too. How do you do this?

You can create a competition of some sort or you could create some sort of game / interaction which makes the interaction between your business and the potential client more entertaining.


For more information on our techniques you can visit us at www.expectbest.co.uk or if you would like to speak to me about this article you can contact me alex@expectbest.co.uk