The fact that you are online means that you obviously know that the Internet is a valuable tool.  With a large effort to have the majority of people get on the Internet, that means that there are a lot of consumers online.

If you are a business, having a medium where people can not only find your product, find more information, do product research, and even buy online is not something that you can afford to ignore – but is has to be done properly!

I don’t have a business, why do I need to know about Internet Marketing?

Even if you are not in business, marketing on the Internet is not something that you should close your eyes to.  If you study marketing at any level, you will know that every interaction you make with anyone is a form of marketing.

This includes chatting with friends (Marketing yourself as a friendly, good to know person), going shopping (In many ways the things you buy create the identity that you project, and how others see you), or even playing sports (Being good at sports is a marketable skill in many ways, as well as improving your long term prospects – health).

Online, this readily translates into social networking, because even if it is unconscious, you will be managing you online ‘brand’, even if it is only to get invites from really cool people online.

As a consumer you should be aware of the tactics that businesses use to get money out of your pockets.  After all, if you know the way that they work, you can find out how to get the best deals and discounts.

How to use Internet Marketing

There are literally millions of websites talking about Internet marketing, and how great it is, this blog seeks to do something different to most: take the idea that Internet marketing is a good idea, and break it down into simple concepts.  When talking to people about what I do, most people have a vague idea that a website is a good idea.

Here is why.

If you have done any sales or marketing, you will probably have heard of the 4 P’s of marketing:

• Product
• Price
• Place (distribution)
• Promotion

Product

As a business you will almost certainly have a product.  If you don’t, I would be curious as to what your business is (Comments below please – remember, even services are a type of product).

Unless you are selling websites or Internet marketing services (Ahem), your product, will most likely be either be something that can be sent through the Internet (Information), something that can be bought online and then couriered, or something that can be paid for and then used, like theatre tickets for example.

While in most cases, the Internet can’t be used as the product itself, it can be used to aid transmission of the product.  More on that later.

Price

As you have probably noticed, a lot of companies have ‘Internet only’ discounts.  There is a reason for this: Internet companies don’t have quite the same overheads like a shop front etc, so can afford to give the same product for less money.

Also, with regard to payment, marketing on the Internet has another advantage: the people who are buying your stuff will most likely have an easy means of payment: Credit / Debit cards.

With the power of sites like PayPal, any site can have a payment option built in, meaning that you can capitalise on the immediate ‘buy’ impulse that people have when looking at your products.

Place (Distribution)

Most people who are looking online for something, either can’t find something locally, want a better deal than they can get locally, or want the convenience that buying online gives them.

If you have a product that can be sent via post, the Internet is ideal for your business.  Your potential customers are used to the fact that they will have to wait for delivery for things that they have bought on the Internet.

Apart from having somewhere to store all the goods that you are selling, and being friendly with a local distributor such as Royal Mail, FedEx, or Business Post, you are more or less set, as far as distribution is concerned.

Promotion

As shown with the examples above, it is very feasible to have an Internet only business, however, the real strength in the Internet is in marketing and promotion.

Because of the number and variety of people on the Internet, there are millions of potential customers, all with the capability to look for your product, pay for it, and get it delivered.

Those are all big strengths of the Internet.  However, there is more to the Internet than just being a big convenient shop.  Because of the dynamic programming capabilities of programming languages such as PHP, Flash, and Javascript, there are a vast number of possibilities that can be made using modern technologies.

Don’t forget the traffic

Of course, all of these benefits wouldn’t be complete without discussing traffic.  Your traffic or visitors to the site are absolutely vital.  Without it, you don’t have a valuable addition to your business, you just have something that looks pretty that you can write off against tax!

Conclusion: What is Internet Marketing?

My personal definition of Internet marketing is this:

“Getting visitors to your site, turning those visitors into customers, and turning those customers into repeat customers.”

I think that that covers most bases.  The whole idea is not just to sell stuff once, but to have a viable business by having repeat business from an army of loyal customers.

Conclusion: Why should you care?

Unless you have been living in the middle of a swamp for the past couple of decades, you will have noticed that the Internet is quite popular these days.  While you can still have a viable business in a shop, or using advertising on traditional media such as newspapers, posters, or direct mail, if you don’t have some kind of Internet presence, you will be leaving money on the table, that your existing customer base could help you pick up.

We specialise in Internet marketing for small businesses, so we know that if you have a website, it really has to mean something.  It can’t just be sitting on the Internet like a couch potato, drinking beer, and watching TV, it has to be a hyper-energetic sales team getting you leads and sales.

So, in essence, if you want to access the large amounts of business available on the Internet, building a website is only the first step.

If you are interested in any of the things that we can do to turn your couch potato into a sales machine, contact us.