How to market on the internet?

[happybrain814]

As others have stated, this is a big question that many, many people ask. There are lots of methods to online/internet marketing, and there's no one perfect answer: Any given method or combination of tactics can work brilliantly for one site and flounder miserably for the next.

You could seek out an online marketer or Search Engine Optimization (SEO) professional for hire to help you. There's certainly a cost associated with this, but experience in this area is worth a great deal.

If you were my client, here's what I'd recommend:

1) Answer these two questions to identify your target audience and begin to narrow your online marketing focus - the more specifically you can answer these questions, the better:

a) Who is the ideal customer for your product(s)?

b) How do these ideal customers use the Internet?

As an example, if your answer to 1a was something like "Teenage girls in the USA" and 1b was "Shopping, updating their MySpace page, Twitter, etc." then you can see you pretty quickly get a general idea where you should be marketing.


2) What can you give away to your customers?

Everyone likes freebies, and especially when they can receive something they value at no cost - the keys here are "value" (it has to be valuable to the customer, not necessarily to you) and "no cost" (you can ask for something in return, but it shouldn't be money).

For example, some companies will send samples of their products to you - in exchange for an email address they use to follow-up and send additional announcements / information. It could be a "free" catalog, it could be coupons - these are generic examples of course. For a website, though, obtaining someone's email address (and their permission to email them) can be a very powerful tool in your marketing toolbox.

3) How optimized is your website?

It's great that you have a website - have you confirmed that it is easy to navigate, is it "findable" by all the major search engines, is the content compelling to your would-be customers? Any marketing success you have will be quickly erased if your website isn't solid.

4) Take it off-line

Starting any website is a big deal - be sure to tap everyone you know for help, even just visiting the site and offering suggestions can be a life-saver (see #3 above). Send an email to everyone you know inviting them to your website, and ask them to do the same.

Again, these are my basic suggestions in the absence of knowing your specific products, website, etc.

In my opinion, the critical steps are: Know as much as you can about your ideal customer, then try to get your products and/or website in front of them.

Regards,

Jason