How to Get Started in eMarketing

In its broad sense, Internet Marketing, also termed eMarketing, web marketing, online marketing, website promotion or online business, refers to the marketing of products or services over the internet. Evolving from this definition, it also means a range of marketing techniques that a company may employ to increase its sales and clientele. At the same time, a person using the internet to sell something online, may call his home based and exclusively online work an internet marketing business. Therefore, web marketing is a means to increase sales and business, increase the visibility of the business to customers, as well as a plan of conducting that business. Use it however you like, due to the all-pervasive nature of the world wide web, internet marketing is ‘the’ medium to promote a business and is the fastest growing advertising tool.

Up until a few years ago, internet marketing consisted of simply setting up a website and perhaps posting a banner advertisement or two on other sites. However, with the rapidly expanding number of internet surfers who rely on the medium for not just information but to conduct their business, it has become imminent for companies to expand their presence on the Web. With this goal, online marketing too, has had to broaden its scope to – design of the website, development and updating of the speak, deploying various methods to increase visibility, conducting research as to the needs of customers, advertising products and services offered and steady e-commerce.

Some of the main components of eMarketing are -

1. Designing the website in accordance with the specific message of that particular company. Text, visual images, videos etcetera all need to be in sync with their overall comprehensive strategy. Focus should also be on customer demands and feedback.

2. Search Engine Marketing – the process of getting the website listed on popular search engine pages like Google, MSN and Yahoo, through paid or unpaid rankings. SEM further incorporates the following –

• SEO or Search Engine Optimization- Search engines typically rank results pages by virtue of their relevance to a particular search. SEO aims at improving this natural or organic ranking by working on the links of the website through keywords and constant updating.

• Pay Per Click- these are advertisements placed on search engine web pages, that are paid for depending on the number of ‘clicks’ or visitors to that page.

• Pay For Inclusion – online directories like DMOZ, Verizon’s Superpages and Yahoo Directory offer advertisements either free, or for a price.

3. E-mail Marketing – the process of sending regular newsletters and offers via emails, soliciting information, feedback and offering advertisements to clients. However, this mode can often be abused (termed spam) and is often discouraged.

4. Web 2.0 Strategies – birth of social networking sites, blogs and such to increase creativity on the web, increased communication and collaboration via comments, opinions and announcements.

5. Banner Advertisements – the practice of posting paid advertisements on other sites.

Whatever strategies you might have implemented, however, need to be kept track of, to stare how effective they are. In this too, the digital nature of the media is an advantage over traditional types, offering easy and instant access to statistics. Another significant advantage of internet marketing is that it provides access to a large audience at a part of the cost of conventional methods of advertising and conducting business. For home business operators, especially, the benefits are tremendous. It is also easier to advance the specific target audience due to the use of specific information such as age, sex, country, organization, IP address etc. At the same time, frauds using customer information are not uncommon.

In retrospect, it can be said that web marketing brings together the technical and creative aspects of the Internet, allowing businesses and individuals to originate a common platform for interaction and mutual symbiotic relationships. It is safe to say that ‘Internet Marketing’ is a term coined by the 21st Century that has assumed sizable proportions and is here to stay for a long time to come.