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7 Essential Internet Marketing Tips That Everyone Should Know

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Internet marketing is an art form.  You have to know what your message is, how to present that message so it produces the desired result, and how to effectively get that message out to the right people so that it can work its magic.

Below are some essential internet marketing tips that will help you do all this and more.   

Know The Exact Purpose Of Your Marketing Efforts

Why are you launching this marketing campaign?  This is a question that is too often skipped over in internet marketing.  Vague goals like wanting more customers and more money are fine, but you want to get more specific.  Do you want to reach a new audience?  Do you want to double your profits this month?  Do you want your company name to be known far and wide?  Knowing your goals can help you decide how realistic they are and, if they are realistic, how to achieve them.

Target A Specific Audience

Too many enterprising individuals try to target the entire world with their marketing campaigns.  While broad campaigns of this nature are fine, you will often experience much better results when you target a specific audience.  You can always take both approaches simultaneously to get maximum results, but never forget that unfocused efforts yield unfocused results.

When you have decided on your specific audience, ask yourself where they are.  Do they frequent certain websites, message boards, or social media sites?  Where can you best get their attention and face the least amount of competition while you are trying to do that?  You may even want to ask your customers where they hang out online because you may have a community of potential customers online somewhere that you can tap into if you only take the time to find them.

Social Media Is Your Friend

Social media is incredibly popular right now, so use it.  You will be competing for attention, but you might as well use this trend to your advantage.  Keep in mind that the content you put out there has to represent your interests, be compelling, and must be updated or added to regularly to keep everyone’s attention.

Social media isn’t about creating an account and then letting it sit there.  It’s about constantly adding new ideas, information, and stimulation to keep people coming back.  Actually, this is what your personal website should strive for, too.

Though many businesses (including giant figures like Microsoft and IBM) are taking social media as part of their customer support center, it is actually not a wise idea to let unsatisfied customers complain right in front of the whole world. Use social media for “pleasure” and leave “business” to a live chat box or email support system.

Assess Your Content

Whenever you put out content, you want to assess the quality of that content.

Is it high quality content?  Is it engaging?  Is there enough content available to make visitors want to come back again?  How often is there new content available?  Does the content represent you well?

All these questions are important and will seriously impact the effectiveness of your internet marketing efforts.

Make Sure It All Fits Together

Whatever you put out there, make sure that it all fits together.  When you are marketing anything, you want to create a brand.  You need the content, the look, and the overall style to feel like a single unified effort instead of a bunch of disjointed ones.   Every marketing effort that you engage in reflects back on you, so be sure that every one is sending the right message.

Have Measurable Goals

To be able to measure the success of your internet marketing campaign, you need to have measurable goals.  Your goal could be measured in products sold, visits to your website, or anything else that you choose.  Just make these goals measurable so that you can tell if your internet marketing approach was successful or if you need to make changes the next time around.

Next, you want to evaluate your campaign.  How effective were your efforts?  Why did they work, or why didn’t they work?  Take ample time to look at what you did and what the results were so that you can learn from this experience.  Pinpoint what went right and what went wrong because you may be surprised by what works and what doesn’t.

Learn From Your Competitors

If your competitors are successful, then learn from them.  You don’t want to copy the competition, but if they are having the success that you want to have, then they probably know things you don’t.  Don’t be too proud to learn new ways of running your marketing campaigns.  The secrets of success might be right in front of you.

Internet marketing is about knowing what to do and then taking the time to see if doing the right things is working for you.

Anyone can create an internet marketing campaign , but not everyone can create a truly successful one.  These essential internet marketing tips that everyone should know and use will help you do just that.

Image © peshkova – Fotolia.com

About

Kevin Gao is the founder and CEO of Comm100, a leading provider of live chat software for business. As a software developer as well as a small business expert, he’s always ambitious to revolutionize the way of online customer service and communication. Find Kevin on Twitter to find out more about him.

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{ 12 Responses }

  1. Scott Warner says:
    Excellent Tips! I even learned the structure of this article, very well put.. neat and organized. One good tip I personally liked, was the introduction. You need to be so clear in your vision, in your goals, that you can vividly see it in your mind, as if it was happening.. The second tip I really liked, was learning from your competitors.. Success leaves clues, and you want to model something that works, and stop wasting effort trying to reinvent the wheel. Just wanted to leave my appreciation, I know I got a ton of value from this article.. And like I always say, keep on furthuring your knowledge by educating yourself daily! Scott Warner
  2. Kumar Gauraw says:
    Kevin, I couldn't agree more on the heading that said, "Target A Specific Audience". I think this is the most important aspect. Too many times we target too many people and get distracted. I learnt the hard way that "Less is actually More". And that's one of your points here. Really enjoyed this post. Regards, Kumar
  3. Guido says:
    Thanks. Great article! Especially the point of learning from your competitors. When you start a business you should look to the left and to the right. What is everyone else doing? It does not mean you have to do it the same way. It can also be inspiring to do it in another way. You just have to find your own way. But therefore it is important to know as many ways as possible ;)
  4. Harkunwar Singh says:
    Nice cool tips. Will work hard on these points of mine. I am bad in most of these things but this talk will soon become thing of past.
  5. Javier says:
    Engaging your audience is really a big point, difficult sometimes, and unbelievable easy others. Just putting a simple question like "What do you think"? at the end for your post or email, can have a completely different response, don't you think? :)
  6. Jane says:
    Targeting the "right" audience is one of the most crucial keys when it comes to marketing success. Most bloggers do it wrong all the way - some learn their lessons and make things right (ahem... I'm one of them). Others don't realize it until they quit - that's pathetic!
  7. Evan says:
    great, when every business owner will follow these tips we would have so many successful bloggers/business owners.. Ok, maybe we don't need it but in perfect wordls it would be very suited)
  8. Rajkumar Jonnala says:
    Do the best with social media. Get the message delivered to the people. Have a unique plan and execute the social media strategies.
  9. Daniel Law says:
    Excellent tips Kevin. I especially agree with self-content assessment and learning from your competitors. These are vital points which every marketer should be doing.
  10. Jacob Arvin says:
    The flipside of having clear goals is that oftentimes internet marketing can be completely unpredictable! That's why I set goals in terms of the amount of work that I'll put into a project (like X number of hours, or X amount of posts) but I don't set goals in terms of revenue or profit. I've learned over time that I have no idea what to expect from most of my SEO campaigns until they're actually finished.
  11. Carissa Dunphy says:
    Great Tips! Some businesses or website owners still have not befriended social media! You are absolutely right, it is everyone's friend. Consistent updates and engaging with followers and fans is essential, letting it sit will do nothing. Well put!