What Is Internet Marketing?

If you already have a website on the Internet

, you know what Internet marketing is. There's no point having a beautifully crafted website filled with killer copy, great deals and special offers if nobody knows that it exists. So to turn that position around and get your website noticed, you have to embark on a bit of internet marketing.

So what is it, exactly?

The exact definition of Internet marketing is a case of 'it does exactly what it says on the tin'. It is the marketing and selling of products and services using the Internet as your 'shop window' rather than more traditional offline methods. Online marketing also includes more complex techniques such as digital customer data management and ECRM or Electronic Customer Relationship Management systems. Because of the way the Internet is structured, it gives you a perfect opportunity to 'data mine' your customers for information so that you can adapt and change your strategy according to measurable results and responses.

How much do you already know about Internet marketing?

Even if you're a relative 'newbie' (another Internet term that has entered our everyday language) to the baffling world of online marketing, you actually know more than you realise already. To create your website you will have already have to have thought about 'keywords'. You will already know through reading blogs and articles online about the importance of killer content that engages and encourages your users to interact with your website, rather than merely visit and view. You know that clicks have to lead into conversions. And you know that getting onto page one of Google is imperative if you are to grab a slice of the traffic currently out there, searching for companies just like yours.

So you already know the basics of Internet marketing. Like many strategies, Internet marketing is 50% instinctive and 50% 'other'. It's that 'other' half of the equation that you need to learn in order to create a strategy that works.

Finding your 'hotspot'

What are you offering that others aren't? What is it that makes your product or service stand out among your competitors? Why should people click on your link rather than your rivals? To answer these questions you need to find your website's 'hotspot' - the place that gets the most traffic and the most interest. This is the part of your site that is working hardest, engaging with customers and encouraging click-throughs, linking or that ultimate goal, sales. If you can refine the parts of your hotspot that work and translate them over to other parts of your site, you will find that these too begin to pick up traffic - and the right kind of traffic as well; the kind that follows your routemap through to the final checkout destination with a shopping cart full of your products and their credit card details.

Internet marketing can be improved simply by enhancing your website - not with fancy flash graphics (which tend these days to make your visitors bounce) but with killer SEO content that engages, encourages debate and demonstrates your expertise. The key is to make the site user-friendly, so Internet marketing experts will always advise you to keep your site clean, uncluttered and relevant to the search engine marketing terms your visitors use.

Getting serious about your Internet marketing

Internet marketing is constantly changing. Is your site optimised for social media platforms? What about mobile users? Does your message come through loud and clear and are there strong calls to action on every page? All of these are aspects of online marketing that will strengthen your profile and push you up the page rankings. If it seems like a lot of hard work and something that will take you away from your core role as a business owner, then perhaps it's time to call upon the services of an Internet marketing agency to do all the hard work for you. If you're really serious about your business, you have to be really serious about your online marketing strategy.

by: Paul Smith

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