Recently we have celebrated the silver anniversary of the “Commercial Internet”. In fact, it was 25 years since the first .com in the world. From its humble beginning in 1985, the Internet has grown to a large number of innovative “dot-com” companies. According to a report from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), there are about 80 million .coms and over 200 million websites today. The same report also states that U.S. e-commerce grew by more than 400 percent during last ten years.
Internet has unleashed entirely new business models, encouraged the creation of new products and services, changed the way consumers shop and businesses sell their products and services. Internet has enabled businesses to effectively advertise and market their products and services to customers across the world. This extraordinary development of internet has brought lot of benefits to consumers and businesses alike. In order to reap the rich haul of benefits and stay ahead in today’s competitive market, most of the companies are going for online marketing.
Strategies of online marketing
Online marketing, also known as Internet marketing, web marketing or e-marketing is a method that uses the Internet as a medium for marketing. Internet serves as an effective medium for targeting the global market. However, the efficiency of internet marketing depends on the type of marketing strategy you choose. The basic motive behind the adoption of an online marketing strategy is to increase traffic to your company’s website. Any legitimate online marketing strategy helps increase the number of quality leads and potential customers to your website. Some of the best online marketing strategies include:
Market analysis
The first step towards successful online marketing strategy involves a complete analysis of the market. Determining and following successful online marketing strategies require a considerable amount of study and preparation in addition to flair, enthusiasm and desire. The goal of market analysis is to find ideal opportunities in the market based on customer needs, market forces and financial and strategic considerations. You should audit the business environment extensively and analyze the feasibility, to better understand the business goals and key performance areas. A detailed market analysis helps you to achieve business objectives quickly, within the reach of your budget.
Custom campaign development
Customized online marketing strategy formulations are needed to assure the web presence of business to meet individual business requirements. A well-developed custom campaign plan helps you drive targeted customers to your site. Every business is different and you may need a unique strategy to excel in the market. Custom campaign development helps you to determine your business goals and then refine them and build the optimal applications. All your business requirements should be constantly monitored and a custom-fit campaign should be developed for your business requirements to get more revenue. Remember, custom campaign development can be complicated and if poorly implemented, it can affect your time, sales and overall efficiency.
Identifying key factors for success
Online marketing strategies vary from business to business and market to market. Careful analysis of your strengths and weaknesses is required before you go for Internet marketing. Successful application of an online marketing strategy helps to identify and optimize the key success factors. This is done through an unbiased analysis of the product relativity to the market, customers and areas that need improvement. You should be able to identify newer and more potent products and business markets.
Spot future opportunities
Rather than merely identifying today’s key success factors, the goal of a legitimate online marketing strategy should be to spot the future opportunities. It should consistently provide the number of quality leads and paying customers to your web site today and even in the future. Your online marketing strategies should be able to handle the present challenges of driving measurable short-term results while simultaneously keeping an eye on the future developments and opportunities.
Use email marketing
E-mail marketing can play a significant role in the growth of your business or organization. You can convert the previous visitors of your website into actual customers by keeping in touch with them by sending e-mail newsletters. Due to its comparative low cost, high ROI and focus on customer retention, it is considered as one of the best options.
Apart from the above mentioned strategies, there are many other strategies such as practicing good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques, publishing articles and press releases, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, blogging and interacting with your visitors etc. You can seek the help of a professional and experienced Internet marketing firm to achieve business success.