You have heard it said and read it everywhere on the
internet: there are secrets to successful internet marketing. Internet
marketing gurus implore you at every click to fork out you hard earned
dollars to receive their downloaded packaged supposedly containing the key
to the marketing kingdom. The truth about internet marketing is that there
is no key, no silver bullet, no killer solution. Internet marketing is the
same as any other kind of marketing: you have to go about it dispassionately
and methodically in order to find ways to get as many sales as possible with
as little outlay as possible. There will be expenses. You must put aside
funds to advertise. The difference between your outlay and your sales will
be your real income. There are certain ways to go about this which are
explained in this article.
It is important not to separate internet marketing from other types of
marketing. Whether a CD or a downloaded product is being sold in a store on
the strip or via the internet, that transaction is the same. The only
difference is the medium. By extrapolation you can assume that the marketing
challenges are the same too, namely how to get interested customers into
your shop or onto your website to make purchases. In every city there are
millions of people. You dont want them all to pile into your shop. You only
want those who are likely to buy your product. The same goes for the
internet. There are a billion users out there. You only want to attract
those who are likely to buy your product.
I have heard the marketing process likened to a funnel, an ordinary funnel
such as you use to pour oil from a large container into a narrow necked
bottle. The broad end of the funnel represents the mass of people out there.
As the funnel narrows, so the market is thinned out according to the market
segment you have identified. Even if people visit your site, click around,
sign up and start to receive emails from you it does not mean they will buy.
The same applies to the physical on street store. You get lookers and
browsers but not everyone buys. Finally, a small percentage of interested
people, sometimes fewer than 1, buy your product. That is the way the
marketing process works.
Marketing on the internet starts from fairly broad advertising e.g. Google
ads directed at people looking for auto spares, and once these people have
clicked on your ad and indicated their interest, the process becomes more
intensified and more automated. You will be appealing to fewer people now by
email campaign but they are better prospects than the mass of people you
originally targeted. An email campaign should comprise 5 to 7 emails to your
prospects.
Research has shown that buyers need five to seven exposures to a product
before buying. The same applies to the internet. You will need to find the
best tools to support your marketing efforts: keyword research tools for
your ad campaign, lessons on how to write great sales copy and of course
great emails. Your website should be attractive, informative and deliver on
the promises of your ads and emails. Most of all you will need patience.
There is no telling how long the testing and refinement of your internet
marketing efforts will take before the sales start to roll.
About the Author: James Copper is a writer for
http://www.marketinglinx.com
where you can get help with internet
marketing
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