It's no wonder so many business owners have the ultimate desire to employee a marketing director. There are so many different means and methods to marketing a company to the public it can be difficult, at best, to mange them all and run a business.
There are certain elements that share a commonality between traditional marketing and online marketing, but there are elements to Internet marketing that may seem foreign to the sensibilities of a traditional marketing specialist.
Some of the more common themes are news items such as press releases that encourage the news media and interested individuals to keep up your firm's latest news. There is also the general commonality of simply getting your name in front of people. The differences often come in the 'how' and 'why' of marketing and not the 'what' and 'should'.
Most businesses understand the need to get people tuned into what their business is doing. Long standing brick and mortar marketing principles would suggest traditional media outlets such as newsprint, radio or television as obvious choices. While these media outlets certainly have a place in marketing, the bulk of successful Internet marketing happens online.
Marketing for the web requires an understanding of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques along with linkable connections scattered throughout the web. What this means is that every time you post on a blog or forum you should make sure a link to your business is included in the signature box. This also means you ask business associates to consider placing a link to your site on their websites.
One of the most cost effective means of advertising your online business will be Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. This is one of the smallest advertisements you will ever see, but they are highly targeted so you have the best chance of reaching prospects that can be turned to customers.
Internet marketing may also mean developing knowledge-based articles or ezines that can readily connect with your customers. Many site owners have either personally developed articles or hired a freelance writer to produce an ebook on the subject of their business that can be passed along to members of their site either through autoresponders or as part of an opt-in membership. These members help you establish a mailing list online. List building techniques include offering a freebie to customers and often result in a very low cost means of growing your contact list.
Internet marketing is vitally important to the establishment and growth of your ecommerce site, but it may require learning a new language and developing new marketing skills. If you can't afford a marketing specialist you can still learn the skills needed to grow your site into a premier online ecommerce destination.
About the Author
Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with HighPowerSites at: http://www.highpowersites.com. Start your own ebook business with BooksWealth at: http://www.bookswealth.com
