Marketing FAQs
What is Internet Marketing and what will a marketer do for my site?
Internet Marketing or Website Promotion as some refer to it, is essentially creating a visibility for a website on the Internet whereby that presence can increase interest in the site's products/services, resulting in potential for new sales and entry into new markets.
To what degree will the marketer work for you? Well, you must first decide on the level of 'visibility' you want - do you want a basic internet presence, being found under one or two keywords/phrases on a handful of top search engines? This might be your first step to testing the potential of the Internet or you might simply feel that you couldn't cope with the demands that greater exposure would bring to your business. The latter is a very important factor and should be considered carefully. On the other hand, you might wish to consider the other end of the scale and believe that your business needs a strong presence on the Internet, particularly if export trade is an important factor for you. If so, your marketer is going to have to customize a programme of involved work to be undertaken over a period of time - ie. an Internet Marketing Plan.
This might for example include:
- extensive keyword research in order to identify the most appropriate terms to target;
- optimisation for a selected number of keywords/phrases (based on results from above);
- targeting the top search engines (a professional marketer will always
know the current top SEs and how their algorithms are working - they can and do change!)
- keeping a constant watch on the rankings achieved;
- re-writing the site when the databases refresh and the site's rankings
drop (as they sometimes do);
- considering paid inclusions and sponsored/featured listings (an important
consideration in today's market, particularly if there is strong competition
for a client's business);
- considering pay-per-click schemes (again if in a highly competitive category);
- getting your main URL listed in key Internet Directories, many of
which now require either monthly or annual fees to be paid, some substantial;
- implementing measures to increase web site traffic (secondary domains,
link popularity work);
- creating foreign language pages or even dedicated foreign language URLs;
- targeting selected foreign language search engines and directories
Such a level of marketing and promotion demands considerable time and expertise and so can prove understandably expensive. However, when one considers the average cost of a single, full colour advertisement in any national publication or magazine, be it weekly or monthly, then Internet Marketing that targets a current audience of around 950 million people is in real terms a relatively cheap option. (In 2006 the estimated global audience will surpass the 1 billion mark!) Moreover, for businesses involved in export markets, they can enjoy global promotion without sending a single sales rep out into 'the field'. The costs savings in this context are considerable.