Targeted Internet Marketing Strategies
Internet marketing is one of the most powerful and consistently-expanding industries to date. Today it is not an option, but a must have, if you want to compete in the ever changing economy. Some have described the digital marketing landscape as opportunistic as the “Wild, Wild, West”. There are so many new marketing channels that have yet to be exploited, that the winners will be those who master the art of using all of them creatively.
Now business owners are daunted with the task of finding the best way to harness the powers of all the resources at their disposal to make more profits for their companies. Not only is this space getting more crowded, new marketing tools are becoming more prevalent everyday. It poses constant pressure on the Internet marketer to learn new ways of penetrating the market.
Whether you are a brick and mortar company, or a online business using the Internet to reach your audience, one thing remains the same; Marketing is still the most important aspect of running a business.
Today the marketing mantra is not, “Location, Location, Location”, it is “Traffic, Traffic, Traffic.” But how exactly do you get it traffic in the first place?
If you try porting the same advertising tactics that businesses traditionally used in the old paper world, they will not work. Yes, you can still advertise in the Yellow Pages online, but that is just not enough. Using the billboard strategy online, placing banner ads on sites only has a limited lifespan. When the ad comes down, so does your revenues.
Many of the online businesses today are run by one-man operations that are not backed by Angel investors willing to beef up the cash supply until the company makes a profit. These one-man ventures need to conserve all the cash they can. So spending an endless about of money on advertising is sometimes out of the question.
For them to win at the online marketing game, they need a different approach. One that has a solid foundation with the potential to keep increasing marketshare over time. And one that does not deplete the bank account in the process.
To compete in the fierce Internet marketing environment, companies must have a definite, yet flexible marketing plan aimed at, not just attracting more traffic to their websites, but also converting that traffic into buying customers.
But how do we do that?
The Cupid Affect
With Valentine’s Day approaching, it’s easy to think of Cupid flying around with a bow and arrow just waiting to point it at the people who are ready to fall in love. I’m sure he just doesn’t shoot it into the air in hopes that it will land on anyone who happens to be walking down the street.
He is so experienced at spotting the people who are in desperate need of a mate that he uses his expertise to take the best calculated shot. Chances are when he fires that arrow, it will land on just the right person. If he hits that right person, hopefully they will develop a relationship, fall in love, and be together forever.
The sames principles apply to Internet marketing. Aiming at the herd hoping to get lucky will not always get you what you’re looking for. It may hit someone, but chances are, they won’t be around long. We need a more calculated approach.
With our cupid analogy, we are talking about two things, hitting the right target, and then forming a relationship that will turn those targets into raving fans.
Not only should our strategy get the client, but figuring out how to develop them into a long-term relationship is the challenge.
In this article we will present several approaches that can be used to achieve our goal, but be advised that there is no one size fits all solution. So using the methods that feel suitable for your businesses are the best to employ.
Target marketing has its basis in identifying the need, and filling it. Which potential customers have raised their hands to get the help you plan to give them? Finding those people is the first step, and matching your solution to meet their needs is the key.
The Dance
Let’s start this dance by discussing the strategies to target our audience. These strategies will prevent your site from being an invisible blip on the radar, and turn it into a beacon for all those who are interested.
Take a look at the following items and follow the strategies that you think will work for your Internet marketing business. With this approach, you can turn your targeted traffic into real money.
Strategy I – Identifying The Right Market
The foundation of your marketing efforts lies in selecting the right market for your business.
There are several components in choosing the correct market. These may take some time to evaluate.
But the effort will pay big dividends.
Is there a market need for what you are offering?
Is the market size big enough to support the revenue you want to make from this market?
Are there people looking for you product?
Is there enough money in the market to meet your financial needs?
Is your market easy to reach?
Do you enjoy the people that are a part of this market, and do you want to provided the best solutions to solve their problems?
Once we get the answers to these questions, we can begin to set up our website content, advertising, and marketing to reach our chosen market.
This targeting identifies the very clients we need to make our business venture a success.
The main objective is to position our entire message around providing a solution to the people who are looking for one. This solution must be infused into the keywords we select to target our content with the search engines.
The object is to put our best foot forward, and reach the right people with the right message.
Strategy II – Blogging
The next strategy is probably one of the best for generating targeted traffic, and turning that traffic into loyal lifetime customers.
Blogging’s benefits are three-fold.
First it produces new content on a regular basis, which is not only good for the search engine rankings, but it also helps build a long-term conversation with your customers interested in the valuable solutions you have to offer.
The second benefit of having a blog is that you get a first hand opportunity to converse directly with your potential clients. Interested readers can show their level of engagement when they leave comments to your posts. Those comments can be mined for valuable information that you can use to measure how well you are doing with your marketing efforts.
The third strategy with blogging is to use every post as an opportunity entice your readers to sign up for your mailing list. This mailing list is gold to an Internet marketer.
Strategy III – Mailing List
Attracting targeted traffic to your website is great, but turning that traffic into buying customers is hard to do without the help of a mailing list.
Recruiting interested prospects to your mailing list is the real knock out punch.
The No. 1 tool in your marketing arsenal is the mailing list. This list is like a conversion magnet.
It will help you develop personal interactions, which you can use to build their trust in you, and in your company.
This email marketing strategy is a complete marketing channel that has many approaches to making sales.
Volumes are to be said about this method, and is too exhaustive to cover fully here.
Strategy IV – Link Exchanges
Linking to sites which are relevant to your market or niche is a way that your site can gain page authority. Page authority is what Google uses to determine how important your site is to other sites on the Internet. If you link to other sites, they link to you, Google believes your site has relevance.
Cultivating relationships with other sites that are seen as import to your market is something you want to do. Make sure you have something to offer in exchange for the links you get. That way a mutual arrangement is made.
Strategy V – Article Writing
One of the most overlooked weapons to your marketing campaign is the effectiveness of article marketing. Articles not only distribute information about your product or service, but it is a great way to get SEO credit. Fill your articles with keywords that people use to find you on the search engines.
If you structure them right, they create backlinks to your site, plus provide valuable information that your readers can actually use.
You can submit the articles you write to article directories, and have them republished on high-traffic websites. This just increases you website presence even more. Your business information quickly gets distributed all around the Internet.
Don’t neglect to use this powerful strategy.
Strategy VI – Social Media
Using social media to present yourself and your company to your market is a strategy that cannot be ignored either.
Get online to join the conversation using all the social media channels you have at your disposal.
Give your business a personal face by communicating online as much as possible.
Yes, it is best to build a plan and strategy around social media. But it can be a very powerful way to reach to your market.
Also, don’t forget to look up forums that will allow you to contribute your expertise to a waiting audience.
There you can invite potential clients to visit your site, and take advantage of your goods and services.
Getting noticed on the Internet is the best way of becoming successful in the Internet marketing world.
But if you take these strategies, and build a plan to use them, it puts you miles ahead of others who just believe that building their website is enough.
It takes work to build traffic to your site, but planning and strategy is what you need to convert them to buying customers.
Moreover, anyone that you will convince to visit your site, as much as possible, must be transformed into your long-term product evangelist.
But with the right-targeted marketing strategies, you will see how great, and easy it is to earn money on the Internet.