Internet Marketing

Internet Marketing is #1 on the list of the Top 20 Marketing Searches. Internet marketing, online marketing, web marketing and digital marketing are all the same thing; these terms refer to things being done online to market products and services. Sometimes digital marketing includes online marketing and marketing to mobile phones or through software as well.

Online Marketing Mix by Cost

The typical national online marketing mix in terms of cost is:

• 70-90% paid search or SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and ppc (pay-per-click) advertising
• 1-20% affiliate marketing
• 1-20% SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• 1-20% banner and display advertising
• 1-20% email marketing
• 1-20% social media, viral and online promotions
• 1-20% PR and blogger relations

The above mix is typical for Internet based businesses that advertise nationally. The mix will vary considerably depending on the company’s audience and the temperament of the business owner.

Web Marketing ROI

Internet marketing tends to have a very high ROI (return of investment).  Most online marketing is trackable and can provide almost instant sales and/or feedback. In terms of ROI the above marketing methods pay for themselves in the following order:

1. SEO – Search Engine Optimization – this doesn’t cost much, but is very time intensive and tedious to do well. Search Engine Optimization is free if you do it yourself through blogging and the way you build and structure your site. It takes a while to get going & needs to be thought about before you build your site, but tends to have staying power and improve with time. This will get you the most bang for your buck – especially if you do it through things like: initial positioning keyword research, your domain name, site design, blogging, and PAD (professional article distribution). See anything James Martell has written on SEO, he’s a big lovable teddy bear of a man, who is a guru on affiliate marketing; most of his methods for site promotion and making money as an affiliate revolve around doing an exceptional job on your SEO. He does an Affiliate Marketing Super Bootcamp for people who want to be power affiliates making a living working from home. Also see the client blogs of compendium blogware.
2. SEM – Search Engine Marketing – this can get expensive, but can get you customers quickly. This is advertising paid for on a cost-per-click or ppc (pay-per-click) basis, meaning your only paying when prospects are interested enough to click on your ad. Google has the most volume and is the easiest to set-up and test campaigns through. Start there and import your campaigns into Bing after you have them running well. Stick to exact search terms and longer keyword phrases, so you don’t waste money when you are first starting out. Also as you read through Google’s directions on how to set-up and test campaigns keep in mind that Google’s idea of winning may be different than yours. Google will tell you how to get the most clicks to your site as possible. They get paid for each click. You probably care more about sales or leads. Be sure to set-up your conversion tracking before you start spending money; track conversions through both through AdWords and Google Analytics.
3. Email & Social Media Marketing are both important for building your prospect lists and clientele. Set-up an email subscription list, twitter account, and Facebook page so visitors have some way to get on your email mailing list, friend you or follow you as soon as you set up your site. Email & social media are almost free and easy ways to stay in touch and continue to send new information and offers people who are interested in you, your area of expertise, and your products and services on an on-going basis. You can use aweber to automate communications with an email subscriber list & HootSuite to automate communications on your social media pages. It is wise to keep social media in mind even before you choose your domain name. Twitter limits account user names to 15 characters & it is better for your overall brand if you have the same username everywhere, so if you can find and use a name for your site that is exactly the same as what you use on twitter and Facebook it will make you easier to remember and make your branding more consistent.
4. PR (Public Relations) and blogger relations helps with SEO as well as providing a nice boost of traffic immediately after a story about your site gets picked up. It is a fickle beast and can get fairly expensive and time consuming. It is a good idea to do press releases on a regular basis. The good free services that used to exist don’t anymore. PRWeb.com has been the standard default press release distribution for years. Blogger relations, setting-up Google Alerts on your topic, compiling lists of journalists that write about your topics, adding them on your twitter feed, & updating them on when you have something new going on or have photos, video content, or contacts directly related to a hot story you can help them with is a good best practice. It is also a good practice to list yourself as an expert who is willing to be interviewed or help answer questions on your area of expertise. Speaking at conferences, especially if you say something controversial, can get you a lot of press.
5. Affiliate Marketing is where you pay an affiliate, like a blogger, on a CPA (cost per action) basis, meaning you only have to pay when they bring you in a sale or a lead. The best affiliate programs are cj.com, share-a-sale, and Google’s affiliate program. Most affiliate marketing programs have a fairly expensive initial anti-up cost to be included and then charge 30% of the affiliate commissions.  Despite what they charge and tell potential advertisers they usually don’t do much to actually get your program picked up by the power affiliates and you will need to do quite a bit of initial set-up work to start with. To get the power affiliates you should go to one of the big affiliate conferences, actively seek out and court the power affiliates. Best bests to start with are any of the affiliates trained by James Martel and some of the big affiliate discounters like eBates.com or Upromise.com. Linda Wood’s company PartnerCentric is well connected to many of the power affiliates and if I was starting from scratch, I’d use her services to set-up my program. You can also get the software to run your own in-house affiliate program, but a lot of the power affiliates prefer to work through the big affiliate programs where they trust the tracking and payment terms.
6. Banner and display advertising usually isn’t the most effective. It is mostly sold on a CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) basis on big advertising networks that will throw your ad up anywhere they have available on their entire network RON (run-of-network) where the most you can expect out of your advertising is branding rather than direct sales.  I recommend using a low cost network like BuySellAds.com or a pay-per-click network like Google’s content network and testing cautiously to figure out the specific placements where your ads perform as well as to test ads vs one another. The best way to advertise with banner and display advertising is through a Google remarketing / retargeting campaign where you add a pixel on your website, then when people who have been to your site go anywhere else on the web that is part of Google’s network, your ads show up. It makes it look like you have a huge marketing budget and really you are just advertising to the few prospects who already know your site. It reinforces your brand, reminds them of your products and services, etc. Facebook is another place that is excellent to do display advertising. They let you target by user area, interests, and a number of specific demographics.

Good Online Marketing Deals for Small Local Advertisers

Small local businesses have different needs than large national advertisers. It is important to make sure you show up when people do local searches and to see that you show up in a favorable light. The most important online marketing and advertising venues to look into if you are a small local business are:

1. Google Maps
2. Google Search Results (for good measure check MSN & Yahoo also)
3. Yelp
4. Groupon, LivingSocial, & any other local online “Deal of the Day” advertising
5. Email, twitter, and Facebook – discount and event subscription lists

On Google Maps, the Search engines, and Yelp you will want to make sure you show up, hopefully within the top 5 listings, when people are searching for businesses like yours in the local area. Google and Yelp will show reviews – you will want to have at least 10 hopefully as close to 5 stars as possible. If you don’t have enough reviews, start asking your regulars to rate you or put up a sign saying “10% Off Your Next Visit with a Print Out of Your Review of Our Business on Yelp or Google.” Or maybe even give something away for free to people who “check in” at your business from Yelp or Facebook. If you have bad reviews, don’t take it personal; try to fix whatever is bringing your ratings down. Definitely claim your business listings on Google Maps and Yelp. Upload pictures, menus, hours and coupons, etc.

Daily Deal Online Advertising – Groupon & Living Social

Groupon and Living Social advertise your business, essentially selling a gift certificate or coupon for your products and services. They tend to ask you for a promotion you can offer customers at 50% off your regular price then give you 50% of the total revenue they generate from advertising the deal.  It is great for bringing in a lot of new customers, up to thousands within a few weeks. The tough part is making sure the deal you offer is one you can deliver in a timely manner, won’t overload your phones, and won’t do a number on your cash flow.  Groupon and Living Social works out best for small businesses when what they are offering doesn’t cost much to start with – like a class where having more people just fills up the class instead of costing more or $20 worth of food for $10 when the average order at the restaurant is $40, so you can expect on average they will still spend enough that you won’t loose your shirt giving away $20 worth of food for the $5 Groupon paid you. Do keep in mind you are getting free advertising to Groupon & LivingSocial’s entire local email list, the people who buy your offer are most interested in your business, and even of those who buy only about half will use the coupon for your deal, so it will probably be less costly than it appears at face value. It is important to know how you will handle the huge number of phone calls or traffic immediately after your deal runs. It is a good idea to set-up some kind of automatic scheduling system online before you run the deal.

Opt-in Subscription Email, Twitter, and Facebook Lists

Email, Twitter, and Facebook are great ways to let current customers know about discounts and special events. You can advertise your discount lists on your business cards, your store window, a magnetic sign on your car, or inserts in your bag.