What is Internet Marketing?
People often ask me, what is internet marketing?
Internet Marketing, in my opinion is a very broad term that encompasses many elements of marketing your business using the Internet. While much of Internet Marketing is similar to offline marketing (advertising, shopping carts, promotions), there are many aspects that are unique to the tools of the Internet. These include:
- Search Engine Optimization
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
- Conversion Optimization
- Online Lead Generation
Search Engine Optimization
One of the unique elements of Internet Marketing is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The goal of SEO is to optimize your website such that it ranks high in the "free" results of search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. SEO marketing involves keyword research, content development, page optimization, and link popularity efforts. Search Engine Optimization requires constant attention and management, in order to keep rankings at the top of the search engines.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
PPC Advertising is another unique element of Internet marketing. With PPC Advertising, you pay only when someone clicks on one of your ads. In addition, most PPC advertsing services are organized as auction systems, in which advertising can bid on keywords, categories, or themes -- advertisers with higher bids get more prominent placement. PPC provides the opportunity to create highly target advertising campaigns, attracting people who are search for information on keywords that are directly relevant to your business.
Conversion Optimization
Conversion Optimization is the art and science or maximizes the number of web visitors who are converted into paying customers (known as the conversion rate). By making a series of changes to the layout, copy, color scheme, and other elements, you can often dramatically increase the conversion rate of your web site. Conversion optimization seeks to make the most of the web traffic coming in to your site.
Online Lead Generation
Internet Marketing can be an effective way to generate sales leads for your business. Often cobined with the activities described above, Online Lead Generation is a method of using websites to collect sales leads, which you can then use to follow-up and close the sale. The basic form of online lead generation is the placement of web form on your website, that collects some basic information about the visitor. Since many people are more comfortable filling out a form that picking up a phone, online lead generation can often be a profitable way to increase business.
Internet Marketing encompasses all of the activities, strategies, and techniques to market and promote a business using the tool of the Internet. As time passes, Internet marketing will continue to change and evolve with the Internet, and it will always be a valuable tool for both online and offline businesses.
MC Internet Marketing offers Internet Marketing to clients worldwide. Services include search engine optimization, pay-per-click strategy and management, conversion optimization, and online lead generation.
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