The internet - not only the fastest growing global retail marketplace, but also the most competitive. It’s a double-edged sword that can see some online companies with a strong proposition fall by the wayside, and others with a comparatively weaker offering succeed. Why? Because it’s not just about what you offer – it’s how you offer it. The battle is won and lost in the marketing, and a good internet-marketing-company can devise a strategy to put you above the competition.
Internet marketing can be split into two distinct categories: Search Marketing and Non-Search Marketing. Search Marketing encompasses methods that aim to boost a website’s exposure in natural search listings, while Non-Search Marketing covers pretty much everything else.
Internet-marketing-company – Search Marketing defined
For your Search Marketing campaign, your internet-marketing-company will learn the finer details of your site, your market and your competition, and stitch the three together in a bespoke Search Marketing strategy aimed at not only attracting high quality traffic to your domain, but also converting it once it’s arrived there.
The latter is critical and often overlooked, with many companies pouring all of their resources into Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) in isolation, and neglecting the design and critical process flows on their site that are vital to converting visitors into paying customers. A good internet-marketing-company will put together an end-to-end search strategy designed to identify, attract AND convert traffic.
Internet-marketing-company – a recipe for Search Marketing success:
- Research – thoroughly research your website, your market and your competition.
- Keyword Analysis – identify the keywords and long tail phrases that your target audience type into the likes of Google, Yahoo! and MSN.
- SEO Copywriting – seamlessly blend the identified keywords and long tail phrases into relevant and engaging optimised content.
- Link building – create a high quality inbound link network to your domain.
- Pay Per Click (PPC) – supplement your organic search efforts with targeted sponsored links.
- Web analytics – study in detail how the changes to your website are performing, and identify weaknesses in the site that are failing to convert traffic into business.
- Multivariate Testing – conduct live tests of re-designed pages aimed at generating a better conversion rate.
- Refine – implement the most successful pages from the Multivariate Testing
- Web analytics – yes, again! Ongoing analysis is critical. Flexible, reactive search marketing strategies are the most effective strategies.
Internet-marketing-company – Non-Search Marketing
The two main non-search internet marketing techniques are email marketing and banner advertising. Email marketing is direct marketing on the web, giving you a line straight to your customers, with more flexibility and control the traditional paper-based direct marketing. An effective ongoing email marketing campaign involves meticulous database management by your internet-marketing-company, being careful not to misdirect communications or contact customers that wish not to be contacted.
Banner advertising aims to capture user’s attention and drive awareness through the use of strong visuals and messages on other carefully targeted websites. Banner ads can drive traffic your website by drawing attention to special offers, promotions or simply serve to build your brand awareness. As with PPC and search marketing, the effectiveness of a banner advertising strategy is judged not simply by how many visitors it draws to your domain, but how many of them are converted. The success of internet marketing lies not just in the strategy, but also in the website design.
The marketing mix explained diagrammatically:
The Web Marketing Group
We can devise and implement a bespoke Search Marketing campaign that will drive visitors to your website and maximise your potential for converting them.
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