Four Cost-effective Internet Marketing Strategies

Everything is measurable when it comes to Internet marketing. That's why it is the perfect choice for your limited marketing budget during this recession. Use measurable Internet marketing strategies to target a customer's decision to buy, rather than just boost brand awareness. Researchers at Forrester see interactive marketing formats like pay per click and social networking as perfect ways to engage customers and start conversing. Increasing engagement is more likely to generate sales.

Individuals are more likely to become loyal repeat customers through positive online engagement than they are as passive TV viewers. Why? Because studies show that consumers will sacrifice cable TV when money runs tight before they'll give up their Internet and mobile phone accounts.

How well do you know your target audiences? Before you charge full steam ahead with any Internet marketing campaign, you must first clearly define your key target audiences and create a profile for each segment.

Measure outcomes to determine what actions you want your visitors to take. This "look before you leap" step is critical to your online marketing strategy. You must identify your key performance indicators (KPIs) to help you structure your Web site and measure its performance.

What problem are you solving? Now that you understand your target audiences and you know what KPIs to measure, your Web site must address your customer's problem and solve it. If your content does nothing more than pat yourself on the back, you miss the opportunity to connect with your customer, make him smarter, and solve his problem. Use your expertise and channel it through online content to educate your prospect and he will bookmark you as a resource.

Four Cost-effective Internet Marketing Strategies

Now that the foundation of your Internet marketing strategy is set on three stable legs, including defined key audiences, measurable KPIs, and problem solving, it's time to address four cost-effective Internet marketing strategies to get the most bang for your buck!

1. Analytics - Measure, Track, Assess, Target

Remember, everything is measurable in Internet marketing. How do you measure? Use analytics. The key is to know what to measure. That's why identification of your KPIs is essential.

Analytics helps you understand your visitor because it tracks where they came from and what they did on your site. What path did your visitor follow to conversion or where did they exit before converting? Analytics takes the guesswork out of Web design changes and guides modification to improve conversion rates and customer satisfaction.

2. Pay Per Click Advertising Delivers Qualified Leads

Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) delivers immediate, measurable results because it directs your defined audience to your Web site.

Does PPC work? Yes, if done right. LogiXML, a background - developer of Web-based business intelligence tools, saw their leads increase more than 50 percent from January to April 2009.

PPC can help your customer find you because your ad and budget can get your Web site on the first page of results for applicable keyword searches on Google, Yahoo! and Bing. These ads are often listed by the phrase, "sponsored by." If you use the search terms your customers use to find your product or service, they can find you online!

3. Social Networking Builds Relationships

A growing number of people use social networks for business and pleasure. While still young in its development, now is the time for your organization to develop a social strategy and use this powerful new outlet to build and strengthen relationships and brand awareness.

eBizMBA ranked the 20 most popular social networking Web sites in May 2009 using the combined criteria of inbound links, Alexa rank, and U.S. traffic data from Compete and Quantcast. The top four included Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, (AAAS), uses social media to enhance membership interaction and attract new members. It launched its first page on Facebook in June 2007. The Science Careers fan page currently lists just shy of 5,000 members. This presents another way to meet members online.

4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

When someone types your keywords into a search engine, then visits your site, it is no different than him calling to ask a question. Upon the initial visit, that prospect believes you can solve his problem. The question is do your SEO efforts prove him right or are you using the wrong keywords and links to attract the right customer?

Full-fledged SEO is a complicated process of writing relevant content built around keywords you've researched, an inbound/outbound/internal linking plan, competitive monitoring, and more. If you want your site to benefit from a comprehensive SEO approach you should consider hiring an SEO consultant to implement an overall plan; however, there are still many SEO tweaks you can make to your Web site that don't cost a dime and that can, over time, improve your Web site's search engine rankings and qualified traffic, including submitting to niche directories, blogging, visiting your competitors' sites, using Analytics to find keywords, and updating your content. 

While you may need to tighten your belt to ride out the recession, you must still maintain an online presence. Four cost-effective Internet marketing strategies can stretch those dollars and pinpoint your target audience: analytics, PPC, social networking, and SEO. When combined, these key elements of your Internet marketing plan will keep your organization's name visible and help attract qualified leads.



Rodney Loges is the president and cofounder of Northern Virginia based Internet Marketing Company NetStrategies. He also developed the Online Performance Optimization Web Hierarchy, which can be found at [http://www.netstrategies.com/internet-marketing/opo-hierarchy.html]. If you are ready to improve your Internet Marketing Efforts, contact Rodney today at 703-642-3800, toll-free at 866-464-6781, or on the web at http://www.netstrategies.com/contact-us.html. Together we can optimize your Internet marketing plan.




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