"Internet Marketing"

Agenda:

1.  Public Relations 

Publicity, in its various forms, raises the visibility of a company's name and increases recognition (and acceptance) of services and products. It is a substantial lead generator --  probably the most cost -- effective method available. It can be used as a research tool to measure specific market category interest in specific services. It can be reprinted and used as a sales promotional tool and as a re-enforcement of presentations. Best of all, when properly executed and continuously pursued, it is less costly and received with more credibility (perceived as editorial endorsement) than paid advertising space.

2.   Search Engines: Ensuring high search engine position

There are over 3,000 search engines -some of which are true search engines and others which are free for all (FFA) links which emulate search engines.  They are a way for people to find you and, in many cases, there are specialized search engines dedicated to specific industries or functions.

Each search engine has different criteria for submission, and you have to review them all to understand their criteria.  The first 200 characters are the most important part of your site - its what many search engines pick up.  Use them wisely!  Some search engines use Meta Tags, which are technical code in your html that will tell the search engine what to use for keywords, distribution, etc.

3.   Banner Ads

Banner ads have proven to be the least effective method of generating business, but one of the best ways to conduct an awareness campaign.  A banner ad may be placed on a site, and a visitor would click on that banner to come to your site.  Payment for banner ads is usually on a  clicks per thousand@ (CPM) basis, i.e. the number of times a visitor views your ad.  This doesn't mean they will visit you, rather your ad is served up to the visitor. 

A second method of payment is based on results -- click thrus.  You pay every time somebody clicks through an ad on a site.  

Closely related to banner ads are the purchase of keywords, which are more directed to your audience's needs.  For example if somebody enters disease in a search engine, and if the Center for Disease Control purchased the keyword disease, their site would appear. 

5.   Text-sensitive keywords   (Contextual Advertising)

Text-sensitive keywords is a  new method of advertising that has just appeared on the Net.  As a visitor scrolls down a site viewing content, the banner ads change depending on the words the visitor reads.  

6.    Sponsorships 

One of the unique features of the Internet are discussion lists where folks who have like interests have online discussions. These are not to be confused with chat rooms, which are normally geared towards individuals who want to have a one-on-one (or one-on-many) online chat. With discussion lists, a list member posts a question, which is seen by all members, and anybody can respond. 

There are over 90,000 discussion lists and they come in four varieties: 

1). Open, unmoderated list where any member can post without moderator intervention. Members received each individual post, or may choose to have a digest which accumulates 10 or 20 posts (or one day's). 

2). Open, moderated list as above, except that the moderator reviews each post and rejects those that are not appropriate. The quality of the list content is much better. 

3). Moderated, digest list, where all posts come to the moderator who assembles them into an organized digest for distribution. 

4). A newsletter where the publisher assembles material of interest to list members. 

The merits of each list type will not be discussed here, as they each serve a unique purpose. Rather we will discuss the advertising opportunities. These lists usually have sponsors who pay to have an ad running in each issue (or post, in the case of open list). 

The advantages: 

• A highly focused group 

• The ad usually has more content - up to 20 lines of 60 characters each 

• It is a way of giving back to the community who benefits from the list content. 

• You know the demographics of the list 

• List owners usually promote you in addition to the ad 

• List members will spread the word about your products to other lists (they usually subscribe to at least 12 lists, with many subscribing to over 100) 

The disadvantages: 

• Cannot display logo or graphics 

7. Links/Barter / Link Relevancy

Bartering is very common online. You may place somebody's ad on your site in exchange for placing your ad on theirs. Or you may get free admission and advertising at a trade show in exchange for promoting their show. Bartering is a win-win situation and should be considered whenever possible. They cost nothing (except maybe time), as they are usually an exchange of goods or services. 

8. Affiliates 

Affiliate programs are very similar to sales rep organizations offline. A company signs up to become an affiliate and displays your banner on their site. When somebody purchases from you, the affiliate is paid a commission. 

There are three major affiliate control groups (Quinstreet, Commission Junction and Linkshare) who handle all the tracking of sales, site co-branding, banner ads, html coding, commission paying, etc. Linkshare recently introduced a B2B affiliate arrangement. They charge a fee for their service.

Affiliates are an excellent way to build a database very quickly. E-Toys obtained 2 2 million customers in 18 months mainly through affiliates. You should use affiliates to create an awareness in your products and to help build a list of prospects. 

9. Visitor Communication 

Keep in mind the Internet is a 24/7 operation - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Folks may visit you any time of the day or night. So you need to be prepared to respond. You should have autoresponders available whenever possible. They allow you to communicate with the visitor without any human intervention. Autoresponders can be of two types: 

1. Automatically from your site - as soon as a visitor interacts with your site, an e-mail is sent out. 

2. Automatically from your e-mail program. Some programs (like Eudora that I use) will allow you to automatically send a message whenever something is received to a special address. 

Always respond to visitors to your site within 24 hours or less! And, be sure you have contact information easily available on your site, i.e., name, address, telephone number, etc. 

10. E-Mail Marketing

Targeted email is one of the most effective methods of online marketing, although it's effectiveness is dropping. Don't go out and purchase one of those A1 million e-addresses for $1.98" lists. They are spam! Instead find companies who sell "opt in" lists and preferably double opt-in. An opt-in list means I signed up to receive something from you (i.e. I opted in). Double opt-in means I supposedly opted in, and to be sure I did it, you send me a confirmation, to which I respond. Hence double opt-in. 

SPECIAL SECTION

Is your site marketable? 

It is shocking to see how poorly the sites have been developed both technically - invalid URL's, invalid e-mail addresses, broken links - and from a marketing perspective. Why should visitors stop at your site? What makes you different from anybody else? Why should somebody buy a product or service from you? Is your message clear? Does your site load slowly? Are there too many meaningless graphics or "splash pages"? Are the colors browser-safe? 

Usage statistics for marketing 

The traffic logs at your site can help you determine the success of the campaigns and to determine where more emphasis is required. Traffic logs can give a wealth of information, like... 

1. Where visitors came from (which URL) 
2. Where they go in your site 
3. Where they go when they leave your site 
4. How long they spend at your site and at each page 
5. Who refers you the most visitors 
6. What time of the day, and day of the week do you get the most traffic 
7. The most active pages visited (this can surprise you) 
8. From which countries, states and cities visitors come from 
9. The least requested pages 
10. Analysis of browsers used to visit your site 
11. Organization breakdown, i.e., commercial, education, government, etc. 
12. Visiting spiders 
13. Most used platforms