Developing an Internet Marketing Strategy

How do I effectively develop an Internet marketing strategy? Every online business owner asks this question at some point in time. Unfortunately there is no universal answer to developing your Internet marketing strategy.

There are many different methods being used and new ones being tried every day. However, there are fundamentals that must be in place to develop a successful Internet marketing strategy.

- Internet marketing strategy one: Know your target market.

Don't guess, those who guess fail. Check your reality; don't think everyone needs what you are selling. Take the time and effort to develop a very specific outline of your preferred customer.

Research, ask questions, talk to people, get a firm understanding of who it is you are selling to and don't depend on "if you build it they will come". When you have a grasp of your target market you'll be able to make accurate decisions about your business, not guesses based on guesses. Developing an Internet marketing strategy is like building the foundation of your business. When you analyze your target audience, you'll want to find out the answers to questions such as the ones listed below.

What products/services do you currently buy? Why do you buy your current brand? What do you like about it? What could be improved? If you could recreate the product/service, how would you change it? What Web sites do you frequent? What ezines or newsletters do you receive via email? Sex? Age? Annual income? Occupation? Title? Are you a business owner?

Depending on what your business sells or offers, there should be more questions you can develop to further hone your target market and therefore you Internet marketing strategy.

How do you get this information? Talk to people in person or in groups. Conduct an online survey. Surveymonkey.com offers excellent survey tools free of charge. Make use of online forums. Put a forum on your site. Use a promotional give away to get information. Be creative and be real.

- Internet marketing strategy two: Understand why people stay on your site once they are there.

People who come to your site and leave seconds later are not customers. Your first page should load very quickly. Be brief and to the point. Verbosity is marketing death. Good design, good writing and white space are preferred. Use tables with cell padding and cell spacing to give your pages a quality feel. Hiring professionals can be money well spent.

- Internet marketing strategy three: Don't base your sales pitch on deception.

Make sure your links accurately describe what the viewer will get. It is a common con to have a link to a freebie or discount lead to nothing more than a hard sales pitch that the viewer wouldn't have chosen. If you do, you'll likely lose the potential customer.

- Internet marketing strategy four: Always provide something for the viewer, even information can make them return again and again.

Your viewers like to get new, updated material. Therefore, make sure to provide ongoing quality information as often as possible.

- Internet marketing strategy five: Always research the methods you may want to use to advertise, i.e. link exchanges, click through programs, pay per click programs, advertising on search engines, banner ads, etc.

Make sure the methods you select reach your target market. Don't market your ego; market your product or service.

Copyright 2006 Stephen Pierce

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