| |
| |
|
Internet Marketing Information |
|
Outsourcing Your Web Marketing
The online world is constantly evolving. You may be thinking about outsourcing your Web promotion to an expert who is immersed in this world as their fulltime occupation, rather than trying to acquire this knowledge yourself, and cope with the pace of change in-house. So, what should you look for in a consultant, and what guarantees can you expect? Choosing The Consultant The consultant should ask a lot of questions about your business and your objectives. They need to be very clear about the specific goals of your site. Do you want as many visitors as possible (as in: "We get millions of hits on our Web site"), or are you more interested in attracting qualified leads? Are you selling products? Are you looking for new customers, sign-ups for your newsletter or events, media coverage, etc. It's possible that there could be different markets for each of your objectives. The consultant should show that they clearly understand the demographics of the audience you want to attract. This includes whether your markets are currently online, whether they are comfortable using e-mail, etc. It's also important to clarify any restrictions on your marketing - for example, if you're only targeting specific locations. The key to effective Web marketing is to have a comprehensive, integrated plan that focuses on where your markets "hang out" online. It's absolutely not enough to concentrate your efforts on search engines - that's a passive rather than an active approach. You want to reach out to your potential visitors, not wait for them to come to you. And, you want to ensure that your offline marketing includes your Web site - up to a third of your traffic can now come from real-world sources. So, the consultant should propose to you a wide-ranging plan (assuming that's appropriate for your goals) that includes: * Search engine strategies Effective Web marketing must also include an e-mail strategy. The consultant should include in their proposal some ideas for targeted, personalized (and fully opt-in) e-mail that is compliant with all State and Federal laws. This requires a contact database that you can use to select out the different audiences that you might have for these messages. The consultant should also be able to help you create this, if required. And finally, the consultant should explain how they propose to evaluate the success of any marketing campaign against your goals and objectives. Marketing is an ongoing process, during which you'll learn a lot about your site and about your visitors. This knowledge should be analyzed and used to tweak your site and refine your business strategies. A good consultant will be able to work with you to achieve this. What Guarantees Can You Expect? Let's be very clear - there is a distinction, which often gets blurred, between sales and marketing. The job of a marketing consultant is to bring qualified traffic to your site (or in other words, into your storefront). Completing the sale is then a separate challenge. Marketing is also a very gray area, in which it's difficult to provide cast-iron guarantees of results. This is particularly true in the area of search engine optimization, since the search engines are so unpredictable. In my opinion, if a consultant promises you "top ten placement" you should be very wary - it's possible that they are using tactics that could be classified as spam - soon if not now. And that can really hurt you - I have a colleague who was banned from Google because he hired "experts" who used this type of approach. Obviously you do want to check that the consultant has a good track record, and that they can provide references from other clients. I believe that good Web knowledge and proven online marketing tactics are as important as an in-depth familiarity with your industry. In setting your contract with the consultant, it's important to have a mutual comfort level with your goals, expectations and budget. There are many opportunities for free promotion online, but if you're prepared to spend some money, you can potentially build your traffic faster. Since building awareness of a site takes time, perhaps a minimum six-month period would be advisable, but with appropriate get-out clauses for both parties. Conclusion Good Web marketing is a team effort! Hire a consultant who you feel very comfortable with, who asks lots of questions to really understand your business and your goals, and who seems genuinely interested in promoting you. But then be prepared to work with them - respect and consider their suggestions, and allow them to be creative in their approach. © Philippa Gamse, 2003. All rights reserved. Philippa Gamse, CyberSpeaker, is a Web strategy consultant and professional speaker. Check out her free tipsheet for 23 ideas to promote your Website: http://www.CyberSpeaker.com/tipsheet.html Philippa can be reached at (831) 465-0317.
MORE RESOURCES:
Joint Effort Marketing Named Second Best Video SEO Company by topseos.com for ... - Press Media Wire
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Marketing Your Web Site Effectively Every new generation of a Web site brings the hope of increased success on the Internet for your business or organization, but too often, a project is completed and lacks the fundamentals for ensuring success on the Web. While we certainly don't claim to be Google or MSN experts, the spider-based search engines want their results to be accurate and setting up your Web site correctly can be the difference between page 1, 2, or 2,000,000. How To Hold On To Your Customers Like Hell And Make Them Pay You Again And Again! With the years competition online, has become fierce. Studies shows already that there are more web pages in cyberspace today than there are humans on the face of the earth. The Easy Days The easy days are gone when you could build your website and two or three months later see it heading for the top of the searches in Google. Now you must be prepared to wait six to nine months to even see your website in the searches. Dont Baffle Me - Talk to Me Congratulations, all you Internet marketing people you. You now command a whopping 3% of total advertising and marketing budget. Internet Marketing Online: How To Make Your Customers To Keep Coming Back To Buy From You There are a few internet marketing online secrets that when implemented, will force your customers to keep coming back to buy from you.Some of the factors that are involved in getting repeat business are: pricing, quality of products and services, excellent customer service etc. Choosing Effective Programs for Your Internet Marketing Plan Objectives, strategies, and tactics (i.e. Web Internet Marketing: 10 Magical Secrets To Make Your Ad Appealing Do you want to make your ad appealing and increase Your sales?If you answer yes, here are a few web internet marketing secrets to make it happen:1. Use plenty of examples in your ad copy. Internet Marketing Online: 10 Breakthrough Secrets To Heat Up Your Sales If you desire to heat up your sales online, then pay attention to these 10 breakthrough internet marketing online, secrets:1. Email each visitor a satisfaction questionnaire after they purchase. What Big Pharma Can Teach You About Niche Marketing A recent newspaper review of a new book, Selling Sickness, got me thinking about niche marketing (The Globe and Mail, Saturday, August 6, 2005, D8-D9). The book in question considers case studies that purport to show how "Big Pharma" (the entire pharmaceutical industry, from manufacturers to drug salespeople) manipulates data to "create" a disease that they have the "cure" for. The Fatal Attraction of Online Marketers Suppose you were offered 263 links coming into your website from 263 other websites all in one fell swoop. Everybody knows that the more inbound links you have, the higher you will rise in the search engine rankings. Internet Marketing Strategies The right strategies to win a share of the Internet pieEvery move in life needs a sound strategy to succeed. Now that you are keen on making some serious money on the Internet, what you need is the right strategy to help you attain your goals. Personality Profiling Your Prospects for Internet Marketing, E Commerce, and Ebay Ads Do you want me to tell you the truth or just what you want to hear?"In your opinion how much would you need to earn to be able to do all the things you really want to do in life, try to be realistic?You may think this is a bizarre opening line to ask, you may be wondering why anyone would want anything but the truth. Fact is many people know the truth when they hear it or read it (or so they believe) but do they?When we write copy for marketing purposes, which if you think about it is almost everything that goes into print. Physical and Mental Fitness for Internet Marketers As you may have already read in our article "Health effects of internet marketing", internet marketers are particularly prone to a number of negative health effects due to the long hours and significant effort necessary to develop and maintain an online business. Those who choose to do so at the end of an already long working day are perhaps more at risk than most and could therefore benefit most from an improvement in both their routine and their environment. 10 Explosive Ways To Elevate Your Sales 1. Publish an ezine. Scam And Scheme Free Advertising For Your Business Web Site Since I own my own business web site and have looked for many ways to advertise cheap and for free, I have noticed how many sites there are out there that will try to get you to either join or buy advertising in one form or another. There are sites out there that will promise you the moon if you either join their "viral marketing" scheme or site that will cause your email box to become inundated with email ads from others who have fell for this. How You Can Acquire Exclusive Rights To Products; Part 2 of 2 The steps to gaining exclusive rightsYou will need to give valid reasons to the manufacturer as to "why" you should have exclusive rights to his product for your specific niche markets. Don't be in fear of this requirement, believing you must be a fortune 500 company or at least doing millions of dollars per year in sales to be deserving of it. So What If You Dont Have A Website? Gasp! Choke! Gag! That's how people react when you tell them your business does not have a website. So do you really need one?This article attempts to show you how you can use the internet (and websites) to maximise your business potential using simple internet marketing strategies. How To Profit From HOT Niche Markets - Every Time! Do you want to learn two proven niche marketing business models that are virtually guaranteed to succeed - in all niches? So do hundreds of my clients. They ask me every day. Internet Marketing: Are You Penny Wise And Dollar Foolish? It never ceases to amaze me how many people set-up a web site, without any type of plan or clue about how to promote it--how to write a sales letter--how to write an ad--nothing! Fact is, nowadays, anyone can have a web site. But once you get one, then what? How are you going to make money with it?If you don't know what you're doing, then do the smart thing and consult with an Internet marketing expert. Take the Direct Route to Internet Gurudom - Are you tired of chasing down publishers just to get a few of your articles distributed? - Do you wonder where those Article Announce emails you faithfully send out *really* end up? - Is the monthly search for fresh email newsletter content giving you premature gray hairs?Well, friend, I have good news.Now, there's a way to instantly reach scads of appreciative readers who can't wait to put your content on their "categorically-correct" websites!Now, instead of putting in hours of O/T the night before your Ezine release, you can locate five high-quality articles to share with your readership audience in less than fifteen minutes.
|
| Home | Cell Phones | Watches | Make Money | Work at Home | Web Hosing | Free Traffics | Free Classified Ads | site map |
| © 2006 |
