What the Heck is Internet Marketing? - The Best Definition
of Internet Marketing EVER!
Yesterday, somebody asked me to explain what Internet
Marketing is. This question resulted from a discussion that I
was having with someone on an email group. I had boldly stated
that a few
well known home business experts DID NOT do Internet Marketing.
WOOPS!
Well, I may have ruffled a couple of feathers, but I'm
certainly not going to rescind that statement. Just because
someone does business online does not mean they do "Internet
Marketing", in my humblest of humble opinions.
Let's Start with...What Internet
Marketing Isn't
Many people come online and start applying traditional
offline marketing methods to doing business online. This
includes networking and advertising in various publications (AKA
websites). These are effective methods that take up a lot of
resources --- time and money --- but they do work.
There are very successful online business people who say,
"Online Marketing is just like marketing offline." Well...yeah
the underlying principles are the same...but I think these
people are missing the truly unique feature that Internet
Marketing allows and here it is:
Internet Marketing allows you to
work less and make more money!
Let's look at networking. Networking is a very time
consuming...and necessary...task for your business. It shouldn't
be the main focus of your marketing plan if you want to achieve
the make more, work less goal. The biggest problem is, if you
solely rely on networking and one day stop doing it...your
business stops too. OUCH!
Let's look at advertising. You place a banner on a website or
a text ad somewhere with absolutely no guarantee of response.
It's a crapshoot and you're just hoping that you can reach that
target market, meanwhile burning through tons of cash. Doesn't
sound like fun to me.
So How Should Internet Marketing
Really Work?
Well, I'd better get to the point and I'll just come out with
it. Here is what true Internet marketing really is.
It Starts with Your Website....Which
Most People Forget
Internet Marketing includes creating a website designed to
create a relationship with your visitors and sell your product.
It includes writing solid copy, making your website very useable
and employing proven marketing techniques throughout.
You aren't there personally to build that relationship when
these visitors come, so your website has to do it for you. This
is not as crucial when you are just networking to build your
business. You are actually selling your product through personal
contact and what your website says isn't as important.
It Continues with Getting TARGETED
Traffic to Your Website
Through search engines, pay per clicks, solid content and
other methods, you can drive TONS of targeted traffic to your
website....more than networking or website advertising ever can
(at least on a modest advertising budget). If
you have built a site designed to sell and people want your
product...it will sell. I promise.
It's My Philosophy and I'm Sticking
to It
This is basically how I work online. I love my business and put
plenty of hours into it, but I'm not a slave to it. I don't
belong to every networking group and not everyone in online
business / work at home circles knows me. I'm not in it for
fame...I'm here to make money.
Trying to build a personal relationship with every single
person in a networking group is just not a good use of my time.
I would love to meet everyone and be friends with everyone, but
I'm just one person and I've got a business to run. I build a
great website, get the traffic coming in and THEN I build the
personal relationships from there. This method
saves me time, money and makes it easier for me to build my
income exponentially.
So, what's your vote...just doing business online...or do you
want to do Internet Marketing?
_________________
Alice Seba is a web writer and marketing specialist that
loves to share Internet business secrets. She's a mom who works
from home and thrives on helping other moms do the
same...successfully. Moms can join Alice for some serious
online business mentoring at
http://www.mommasterminds.com
_________________
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