What is Internet Marketing and How Can it Help My Home Business?
What is Internet Marketing?
Depending on whom you ask, the term Internet marketing can mean a variety of things. At one time, Internet marketing consisted mostly of having a website or placing banner ads on other websites. On the other end of the spectrum, there are loads of companies telling you that you can make a fortune overnight on the Internet and who try to sell you some form of "Internet marketing program".
Today, Internet marketing is evolving into a broader mix of components a company can use as a means of increasing sales - even if your business is done completely online, partly online, or completely offline. The decision to use Internet marketing as part of a company's overall marketing strategy is strictly up to the company of course, but as a rule, Internet marketing is becoming an increasingly important part of nearly every company's marketing mix.
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For some online businesses, it is the only form of marketing being practiced.
Internet Marketing Objectives
Essentially, Internet marketing is using the Internet to do one or more of the following:
Communicate a company's message about itself, its products, or its services.
Conduct research as to the nature (demographics, preferences, and needs) of existing and potential customers.
Sell goods, services, or advertising space over the Internet.
Internet Marketing Components
Components of Internet marketing (also referred to as online marketing) may include:
A website, consisting of text, images and possibly audio and video elements used to convey the company's message, to inform existing and potential customers of the features and benefits of the company's products and/or services. The website may or may not include the ability to capture leads on potential customers or directly sell a product or service online. A website can be the offline equivalent of a brochure or a mail order catalog and is a great way to establish your business identity.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM), which is marketing a website via search engines, either by improving the site's natural (organic) ranking through search engine optimization (SEO), buying pay-per-click (PPC) ads with search engines which are based on selected keywords and then displayed on search engine results pages when those keywords are used in a search, and/or on other websites whose content includes the keywords specified, pay-for-inclusion (PFI) listings in website directories. PFI listings are similar to offline yellow page listings.
Email marketing, which is a method of distributing information about a product or service or for soliciting feedback from customers about a product or service through Email. Email addresses of customers and prospective customers may be collected or purchased. Various methods are used, such as the regular distribution of newsletters or mass mailing of offers related to the company's product or services. Email marketing is essentially the online equivalent of direct mail marketing.
Banner advertising, which is the placement of ads on a website for a fee. Offline this would be similar to traditional advertising in newspapers or magazines.
Online promotion, including press release distribution, which involves placing a newsworthy story about a company, its website, its people, and/or its products/services with on online wire service, or blog (web log) activity, which is the act of posting comments, expressing opinions or making announcements in a discussion forum. Blog marketing can be accomplished in blogs either by hosting your own blog or by posting comments and/or URLs in other blogs related to your product or service.
Internet Marketing and Home Business
Of all of the components of Internet marketing, prospective customers and clients expect a business to have a website. In fact, not having one could raise a red flag to a prospect. Online usage has become so pervasive today, many prospects might easily choose to do business with a company that they can get up-to-date information on 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
Even a business that only has very local customers, such as a single location restaurant or shoe store can benefit from having a Web site. And, those businesses whose customers are not restricted to a geographical area might have a difficult time finding an alternate method of attracting customers that offers the reasonably low expense and worldwide reach of a Web presence.
Because of the "virtual" nature of most home businesses, websites, if not an absolute necessity, can certainly provide benefits to a home business operator. Since most home-based businesses don't have a physical location, a website provides an inexpensive means for prospects to get to know what you do or what you sell and can even be a "storefront" for selling goods and services directly.
The Internet has greatly enabled home businesses to prosper because of the reasonably low cost to start and maintain a web presence. Therefore, Internet marketing should be part of your business plan and your marketing strategy.
