What is Online Marketing?
Online marketing is the marketing of products or services using the Internet. Online marketing is conducted through such services as SEO (search engine optimisation), SEM (search engine marketing), Social Media optimisation, PPC (pay per click) and banner advertisements, to name but a few options.
Traditional Marketing can be viewed as:
Brand Name + Marketing Efforts + Quality = Potential Customer
For example the iPod (brand name) is a popular brand that is heavily promoted (marketing efforts) as a high quality product (quality) and will garner business as a result of the perception generated (potential customer) by traditional marketing.
Online Marketing can be viewed as:
Definite Customer + Search Engine + Quality = Brand Name
In this example a pre-qualified searcher (definite customer) is online (search engine) searching for “Best MP3 Player” (quality). If any company selling iPods has a strong online marketing presence they will have these pre-qualified customers delivered to them on a silver platter. They become theirs to lose.
Online marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including: design, development, advertising, and sales.
A little overwhelming, isn’t it? It needn’t be. Any experienced web design company should (these days) create a website that will be fundamentally search engine friendly. What this means is that the ‘foundations’ of the website will be setup in such a way that, if you do nothing, there’s a good chance that, over time (6 months? A year?), your website will rank well for appropriate keyword searches in Google.
Your friendly neighbourhood web design company will ensure that your website is W3C compliant, that you have access to all relevant fields (such as meta and title tags) to SEO (search engine optimise) your own website, and that you have access to your websites traffic reports, preferably through a system such as Google Analytics.
BUT is that enough? For most businesses who want to maximise the return on their website – and sooner rather than later – it’s not. Although ‘success’ in Google is usually an important factor, there are an array of *potential* opportunities to drive more visitors to your business and dramatically increase sales, e.g.
- Google Adwords
- Banner advertising
- Keyword optimisation
- Google analytics reporting, advanced configuration and analysis.
- Google local maps
- and many, many more
But which of the above should a company choose, and how much is enough to see a worthwhile return on investment?
Here’s how to make sense of it all:
An Online Marketing Strategic Plan. Think of it as a business plan for your online marketing strategy.
One of our consultants will thoroughly review and document your existing site’s configuration, your competitors, your company aims and objectives, the industry you operate in… and make clear written recommendations and suggestions about an online marketing strategy for your business for the future.
You can then make an informed decision about where and when to best allocate your online marketing spend.
Online Marketing Strategic Plan
What is an Online Marketing Strategic Plan?
A typical online marketing strategic plan is essential in establishing what it is a company wishes to achieve from their online activity. Consultation begins with an initial consultation session to establish the following:
- Goals for the Website
- Situation Analysis
- Where are you currently as a company online?
- Customer Analysis
- Who are they? What do you think they want from your website?
- Online marketing plans
- Do you currently undertake any online activities
- Recommendations from your chosen web specialist for activities to undertake
- SEO requirements
- What industry does the website target
- What terms do potential clients search for?
- What SEO based activities if any are appropriate for this website
So what next?
With an Online Marketing strategic plan, a business owner will be presented with all options available to them to market their website online – a medium that has consistently demonstrated superior returns on investment. This plan could be implemented in full or selectively, as resources permit.
Would you build a house without having a plan? The answer to this question should definitely be no. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. For your new website to truly be a success, put in place a strategic plan to market, improve and promote your website, now and into the future.