Internet marketing – how to get started
Internet Marketing – How To Get Started
Internet Marketing – How to get started
The thing about Internet marketing today is that there are lots of avenues, lots of ideas that you can try. So how can you get going?
Of all the tools and channels available to you, some are free, some are low cost and some can involve substantial costs. The interesting thing is that those with the higher costs are not necessarily better than the others. (Those who believe that you «get what you pay for» may be surprised. Experienced Internet surfers probably won’t be.)
Let’s consider just two of the many marketing channels that you might think about.
Take social networking, a key tool of the Internet marketer. The best known networks are free to join, although some offer ‘premium’ services for a fee. For example, I make extensive use of Twitter in my marketing strategy and this is a free service. At the time of writing I have over 31,000 followers – that’s 31,000 people who see my messages on this channel alone.
There are also classified advertisement sites, such as http://www.vivastreet.co.uk/. Here you can post free classified adverts, although you can ‘feature’ your ad for a fee. Featuring will give the advert more prominence on the web page.
Try out a variety of different tools and channels and see what works for you.
Whatever you do, there are some important principles that need to be followed.
You should try and be original, think out of the box. There are lot of other guys out there all trying to win the same business as you. What would attract you more? Same old, same old or something different and exciting?
You must plan your campaign.
- What are you trying to achieve?
- How will you achieve it?
- Why do you think that your approach/methods/tools/channels will achieve what you want?
- What is your timetable? Can you really meet it? (Tasks often take longer than you think.)
- How will you determine whether and how well your plan has worked? How will you know if your results are due to this plan, another plan or just a coincidence?
This brings us to the next point. You must monitor and test your plan. Note the outcomes. (For example, have new subscriptions to your service or newsletter increased or decreased? How long did the marketplace take to react to your campaign? Have visitors to your web site increased or decreased?)
Try variations to the plan and note what happens. (What difference does it make if you change a headline or the content of an advert?) When you prepare your plan, build variations into your timetable.
Successful Internet marketing may be as much art as science. But solid thinking and planning up front will help make the most of your time, effort and money.