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How to market your products or services using the Internet?
Last Updated: 01-Feb-2010
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| Any business irrespective of its size gets equal opportunity to advertise its products or services on the Internet. Internet marketing allows businesses to reach out to markets across the globe at a cost that is much lower than that of conventional marketing techniques. |
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| Choose a simple url that is easy to recall: |
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- Having a good domain name is one of the key ingredients to promoting your products online. Your domain name should reflect your identity and make it easier for customers to understand the products or services that you sell. The name should also be simple to spell and recall.
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| Have a web site: |
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- Use the web site to market your products to potential customers.
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| SEO of the web site: |
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- Web sites can be optimized to rank higher in Search Engines using SEO techniques so that it is found when a potential customer is looking for your product or service.
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| Offline marketing of the web site: |
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- Place your website's URL address on all your printed business literature -- business cards, brochures, newsletters, letterhead, invoices, ads, etc.
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| The advantages for a business in having its own web site are: |
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- Comparatively inexpensive, providing higher value for money.
- Potential customers find much more detailed information on the company's website than they would on a half page ad or a 30-second commercial.
- As potential customers come straight to your site, an immediate sales opportunity is created.
- The whole world gets to know of your product or service at no additional charge.
- Your website, which acts as your salesman, is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- It is easier for customers to decide on purchases by providing detailed description of products in your website.
- Every visitor to your website is interested in your company's products or services and is therefore a warm lead.
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| Use E-mail marketing: |
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| Email is an effective and economical tool that can be used to promote one's products and services over the Internet. Unlike other types of marketing, customers can be targeted immediately and cost-effectively. Email ids of potential customers can be recorded to announce special deals. Recipients are often persuaded to forward these emails, a technique called word of mouth or viral marketing. Emails are also being used to enhance customer service thereby building stronger bonds with customers. |
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| Use Internet Advertising: |
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| Pay per click ads: |
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| Pay per click (PPC) is an Internet marketing method used in advertising networks, websites, and search engines. PPC ads are commonly found advertisements found in the search results page of a search engine. The advertiser has to pay a small sum when the ad gets clicked. A successful pay per click search engine campaign involves multiple tasks such as: selecting the most cost-effective keyword phrases, selecting the best PPC programs, writing effective ads, designing and writing effective landing pages PPC is of two types: |
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| Search-based ads: |
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- This type is more effective of the two. Here someone is looking for a product or service and your ad gets displayed.
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| Non-search-based ads: |
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- Here ads get displayed when products or services are related to a page. For example, Google Ad-Sense puts related ads after checking for page context.
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| Banner ads: |
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| Banner advertising is done by identifying web sites that are likely to be visited by the target audience and placing your ad in them. The purpose of the banner ad is to drive traffic to a particular website by connecting them to the advertiser's web site. The banner ad is shown when a web page refers to the banner during a search. Web banners, much like traditional commercials are designed to educate buyers about products or services and how they are better than those of the competitors. However, web banners can't be monitored real time and are not specifically directed at a viewer's interests. |
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| Things to avoid: |
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| Pop-Up ads: |
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| As Pop-Up ads annoy the visitors as they are distracted when windows pop-up in the midst of some serious surfing, they are best avoided. |
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