Is Internet Marketing Working For You?
Determining whether or not your Internet marketing campaign is working for you is a very important part of the advertising process. This is so important because while there is a great deal of Internet marketing that can be done without a great deal of expense, other types of Internet marketing do have financial costs associated with them.Â
Also, in both cases, there is a time
and energy burden to orchestrating Internet marketing. For all of these
reasons, it is important for business owners to continuously evaluate their
marketing techniques and strategies to determine what is working and what is
not. This will help the business owner to focus his efforts on marketing strategies that are providing positive results as opposed to those which are
either not providing results or are only providing lackluster results. This
article will examine a few different marketing strategies as well as how
business owners can evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies.
Affiliate marketing is certainly one of the most cost-effective
Internet marketing strategies available. This marketing strategy involves
having other website owners known as affiliates post an advertisement on their
websites to direct Internet traffic to your website. This marketing strategy is
cost-effective because in most cases the affiliate is only paid when he
produces a desired result such as enticing an Internet user to click through
the advertisement or to purchase a product or service once they click through
the ad. While the business owner is only paying for the advertisement when it
produces the desired effect, it is still worthwhile to evaluate the effectiveness
of these ads to determine whether or not they are working well.
Fortunately, affiliate marketing ads have a natural feedback
mechanism that makes it easy to evaluate how well the ad is working. This
feedback is provided in the form of code embedded in the advertisement which
specifies which affiliate generated the website visitors. This information is
provided for the purposes of issuing payment to the affiliate but it can also
provide the business owner with useful information on which affiliate ads are
the most effective. This information is especially useful when the affiliates
are posting different ads. The business owner may conclude the ads posted by
the more successful affiliates are more appealing to potential customers and
may opt to use this style of ad for all of their affiliates.
Business owners who use Internet marketing strategies such as posting on message boards to promote their business might want to consider asking customers to complete a short survey when making a purchase.Â
This survey
can include useful demographic information which is always helpful for
marketing as well as information regarding where the customer learned of the
products or services you offer. Including the message board, and web address as one
of the responses will give you a good indication of whether or not the message
boards are helping to drive customers to your website. You may also have some
unofficial feedback in terms of the response to your postings on the message
board. If the general consensus is in support of your posts, you may infer you
are generating some interest in your business or website through this tactic.
Finally, an Internet marketing strategy can be evaluated by studying website traffic results as well as sales receipts. Anytime you implement a new Internet marketing strategy or technique it is worthwhile to study your website traffic reports and sales receipts carefully to determine whether or not there is a spike in either traffic or sales immediately after the marketing effort.Â
For example, if you send out an e-newsletter to those who
have requested additional information about your products or services, you may
notice there is an increase in traffic or sales soon afterward. This is a good
indication the e-newsletter was well-received and effective. However, if there
is not a marked increase in traffic or sales subsequent to the e-newsletter it
indicates the marketing effort was not effective.
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Internet Marketing with an E Newsletter
One very popular Internet marketing strategy is to publish and
distribute an e-newsletter on a regular basis. E-newsletters are essentially
emails that may contain content, graphics, links, and subtle forms of
advertising. In general, e-newsletters should be informative in nature and
useful to the recipient but should also serve some type of marketing purpose as
well. This article will examine e-newsletters and explain how they can be used
effectively as a marketing strategy.
The first item to consider when attempting to use an e-newsletter as a marketing strategy is the distribution list for the e-newsletter. This is very important because you want to ensure you are distributing your e-newsletter to recipients who will be interested in your products and services and will likely view the e-newsletter as worthwhile instead of viewing it as spam. Using deceptive tactics to harvest email addresses and sending out your e-newsletters blindly to a large audience is not a good marketing strategy.Â
This strategy is not worthwhile for a couple of reasons. Most importantly this
type of strategy does not help you to reach your target audience. You may reach
some members of your target audience by accident but are not likely to reach a
large population of this intended audience.
Additionally, sending your e-newsletter unsolicited to a large
audience with no interest in your products and services will likely result in
your e-newsletter being viewed as spam. This can have more serious consequences
than simply being a wasted effort. Specifically, recipients of your
e-newsletter may block your email address or even report you to their Internet
service provider as a spammer. This can have damaging consequences such as loss
of business or even harsher penalties.
A better way to establish a distribution list for your e-newsletter is to set up a forum for interested potential customers to register to receive additional information from you. This could include registering with your website online and requesting to be added to your email distribution list or providing an email address and requesting additional information in some other manner.Â
Sending your e-newsletter to recipients who
have specifically requested more information is a good idea because these
Internet users are already interested in your products and are likely to
appreciate the e-newsletter instead of viewing it as spam.
The content of your e-newsletter should be considered next. This may include the actual copy contained within the e-newsletter as well as graphics, links, and advertisements. Keeping direct advertising to a minimum is ideal but it is acceptable to use soft advertising techniques to promote your products or services.Â
- The copy in your e-newsletter should have insightful information which will be useful to your readers.Â
- You may wish to include objective articles, product reviews,Â
- or shorter articles containing useful tips.Â
- Links to your own website or to other websites which might be of use to your target audience can also be included.
- These links may come in the form of direct advertisements or the links may be embedded in the copy of the e-newsletter when appropriate.
If you plan to utilize an e-newsletter to promote your products
or services, you should consider hiring an experienced writer to create the
content for your website. This will help to ensure you are providing your
readers with top-quality content. Likewise, if you intend to include graphics
you should have a graphic designer assist you to ensure your e-newsletter looks
professionally put together.
