Internet Marketing Explained - Short version

Part 1 of 3 Internet Marketing Introduction
Part 2 here. Part 3 here

This is a short version of a detailed whitepaper that explains how all the components of internet marketing fit together. Internet marketing is key to any business that is looking to grow, especially in this recession and unsettled times around the UK election. 1. Internet Marketing Introduction The internet is a wonderful thing but there are now so many technologies and products out there that it has become confusing for the non internet professional to understand it and more importantly how to exploit its undoubted potential.

This paper is certainly not a get rich quick guide or even a detailed how to guide but is deigned to explain the key elements of an internet marketing strategy, and importantly how they all fit together to give you the solution you require – normally to increase your sales or bottom line.

The story is told in a logical manner starting with your existing web site – what do I do with it? The story is illustrated with simple diagrams along the way.

2. Executive Summary

Internet marketing is essentially about lead generation or if you have an e-commerce capability (you sell online) that it can be a revenue generator in itself. Therefore if we are increasing our lead this needs to be seen in the wider context of marketing and is also likely to have some impact on sales – hopefully.

Everybody has heard of the power of the internet and the rise of organisations like Google has shown that millions of companies have embrace certain concepts of the internet marketing such as advertising on Google (Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) ).

However, whilst this is a popular and important element of an IM strategy, it must be seen in the context of an over all IM strategy.

In order to obtain the best return on investment, the sole measure of marketing or sales success, then a strategy, however simple needs to be put together. This will include potentially many different elements. This paper gives an introduction to each of these topics.

3. Your Website

Websites have been a common part of a businesses marketing strategy for many years now. The first generation sites were characterised as simple shop windows providing basic information about a company and its products and services. 2nd generation sites improved interaction and added e-commerce. This was improved with the addition of so called Web 2 features such polls, pod casts and videos. More sophisticated sites included personalisation of the user experience.

More recently social networking and blogs, rich interactive features and advanced customisation have become available and the tools to enable these have become more and more affordable and manageable so that even small businesses can have professional and creative web sites.

However, given that the majority of web sites seek to be found and generate leads for the company, the look and feel and experience off the web site are now often secondary to the issues of being found on the internet, though a web site is usually at the heart of an internet marketing strategy.

4. Analytics

In order to assess the efficacy of a web site and the improvements required when embarking on an IM programme, the performance of the web site is important.

Many specific analytical products exist to provide a plethora of statistics on a web site. A few years ago however, Google provided a fairly comprehensive analytical toolset – Google Analytics – completely free.

Any web site should install Google Analytics on to their site to receive the statistics, freely available, Google provides many metrics broken down into the following main categories:
• Intelligence
• Visitors
• Traffic sources
• Content
• Goals
• Content Management System

There are many ways to manage a web site these days. You will often buy a domain name and usually these companies will provide some sort of hosting package, These packages will often come with a “site builder” that will enable you to add pages to the site and generally manage it, for instance setting up emails. In addition many will allow you to add functionality such as shopping carts or blogs.

The next step up and one to consider for business is a Content Management System. These can be purchased, rented or obtained open source. They allow a professional template to be used and prove all the facilities to manage a sophisticated web site.

Much development can be undertaken without an html editor but often this will be useful to have as well. Page layout may often be developed in an external HTML editor then loaded into the CMS along with support for blogs, images, administration and user registration.

Part 2 available here