Conquering the internet marketing frontier!

At the speed at which technology is advancing and the ways in which consumer behaviour is shifting it is not about the battle between online and traditional marketing but rather strategically selecting which marketing tools complement one another. We are moving from mass to individual marketing and the more info or data you have, the better you can target a consumer. As a marketer we are faced with one of the biggest decision making processes when confronted with internet marketing as it is such a broad concept with so many different angles and choices and the list can go on. Therefore, before we start undressing this mannequin, we first need to decide what is the major goal that we would like to achieve, for example, to establish an increase in sales within the next year with an average of 15% through e-commerce or repositioning. So how are we planning to execute this jack-in-the-box? Well, by keeping the following objectives in mind: (a) establish a great flow of traffic (people) to our site; (b) establish an interest to keep the potential clients for a longer period on the site to confirm possible sales; (c) persuade potential clients to respond through the great offers advertised and most importantly; (d) get permission to interact with them via newsletters, e-mail campaigns and mobile marketing.

If you have ever found yourself in this foreign space of (a) online advertising (search engine optimization, adwords and affiliate marketing), (b) permission marketing (e-mail marketing, newsletters and mobile marketing) before moving on to (c) social media marketing (social networks, online communities, blogging, viral marketing, online public relations and reputation management), then welcome but know that once conquered, you can consider yourself as the internet’s Joan of Arc!

What are the next steps?

• Build a keyword strategy
• Optimize your website
• Create a blog & marketing offers
• Promote content through the social media portals
• Convert website traffic into leads
• Nurture leads with targeted messages
• Optimize your marketing for mobile viewing

Now go and have fun! Remember to tackle each tactic step by step to make internet marketing more manageable.