Getting Your Internet Marketing Strategy Right

Having a Proper Website & SEO

The main requirement for an internet marketing strategy is a website -one that aptly describes the business and explains what the company has to offer. In addition to providing this information, the website must also have the ability to direct the user to a specific action, either to purchase directly from a website or to contact you for further information. Moreover, the site must have proper call-to-actions to drive users to perform these specific actions. This means that the website must be user friendly so users can navigate and understand your site easily.

The website is, and should be, an online headquarters of your business. It is your online identity, which you should display whenever possible. If you opt for Search Engine Optimisation, your site will benefit traffic coming from search engines more likely Google Search, Bing and Yahoo Search. The site must be optimised so that it will be visible to users searching with your business related keywords. If SEO is included as an initial requirement for the website, this would be handled during the design phase, making your website more SEO-friendly. Proper SEO Consultancy will suggest creating an optimised sitemap with pages that will help the website rank in search engines, which can be monitored using website tracking. More often than not, this leads in creating a more structured sitemap - this will also make the site more user friendly. Nonetheless, in order to rank for competitive terms your site will still require quality links pointing to your website.

Creating Content

Content is a great marketing tool. Search engines rank webpages with content, while the users read the content. By writing new content on the company blog, you are frequently publishing new content on your website.  This will help your SEO by attracting more links and having fresh content on the site. The blog will also reach potential customers who are interested in your blog and company.  Blogs allow readers to subscribe to your RSS feed and they will know (through their RSS Reader) when new content has been published on the blog. Blog posts can also drive traffic from search engines by optimising the post itself by targeting specific keywords.

Social Media

Social Media is a great and inexpensive channel to market a business. The reach and effectiveness of proper social media campaigns provide impressive results. Social Media also helps to build up your brand online. The more followers you have on social media networks the more authenticity and trust your business will acquire. This will have a positive affect when a potential customer discovers your business for the first time.  On social networks such as on your Facebook Page, you must post interesting material - you must not only post promotional material related to your business but you must also post news and information that a target audience may be interested in.  In this manner, you are giving a reason for users to follow your company adding further reach for every follower. Social Media provide additional benefit by creating links for your website - this contributes immensely to better rankings. Sometimes you may need to seek help with your marketing campaigns since some companies do not have the in-house resources to develop content such as images and posts. The more professional and targeted the campaigns are, the better will the results be. Social campaigns can then be customised further by creating custom profiles and competitions. Taking Facebook as an example, you may decide to create custom page tabs where you can insert your marketing material.

Pay Per Click

Pay Per Click are adverts that allow the advertiser to pay only when the advert has been clicked. Advertising on the Google AdWords platform you will be able to advertise on Google Search.  Google AdWords platform works by having advertisers bidding on keywords in an auction and the best adverts will win the top positions.  In competitive markets such as the travel industry, other advertiser will bid on your business to appear on search results. If other advertisers are already bidding for your business name and you are not appearing with the top three sponsored listing, start doing it now properly with good account structure and tracking.

Every business must analyse its online opportunities. Not only will this lead to an in increase in revenue but new opportunities may arise. However, you need a professional website to handle all your business requirements and marketing channels. Remember to ask and seek guidance on how your website can have the proper features for the marketing channels above.

Conrad Bugeja is an SEO and PPC Consultant in the Internet Marketing division of Alert eBusiness (www.alertemarketing.com)