Internet Marketing Consulting
If you're trying to figure out if Internet marketing is truly worth the time, or if your struggling to hire an Internet Marketing Consultant, keep reading. In this article, I'm going to answer the question, "Why is Internet marketing important?"
According to Wikipedia :
"Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising, and sales. Effective Internet marketing requires a comprehensive strategy that synergizes a given company's business model and sales goals with its website function and appearance, focusing on its target market through proper choice of advertising type, media, and design.
Internet marketing also refers to the placement of media along different stages of the customer engagement cycle through search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), banner ads on specific websites, e-mail marketing, and Web 2.0 strategies."
So why is hiring an Internet Marketing Company important to your business?
Internet Marketing Company
The quick answer - The Internet has truly become a part of our daily lives. Not only as a tool for us to learn new things and do our shopping from home, but as a tool that businesses can utilize to reach literally millions of potential customers. The Internet has completely redefined the way consumers interact with businesses. It's important to work with experts to truely understand the importance of Internet marketing consulting.
At one time, this type of targeted advertising would have only been available to giant corporations. Now, whether you're a Solopreneur (Individual Entrepreneur), or own a small to medium sized business, you can use online marketing to target millions of customers 24/7.
The sharing of information through social networks has changed the marketing game yet again. Now, people share recommendations for hotels, MP3 players, movies, websites, cell phones, and just about anything else you can imagine, all online. And for the first time you can interact with customers first hand through social channels that were once not available.
Marketing on the Internet is important because it provides a convenient medium for your customers to reach you, it's cost-effective, and allows you to build your brand further through social media. If you're not using the Internet to take your business to the next level, you're missing the most lucrative opportunity of our time.
Now the long answer
Convenience
As I mentioned earlier, one of the main reasons that people use the Internet is convenience. In 2004, 33% of all searchers were shopping online. And 77% of people who researched a product before buying did so online. I expect that those numbers have increased in the last 5 years.
Nowadays, consumers can log on to their computers and shop for discounted books at Amazon, participate in auctions on eBay, book travel reservations on Expedia, and research used cars using the online version of the Kelly Bluebook. In addition to these major web businesses, hundreds of thousands of searches take place each day for products and services of all kinds. CertifiedMarketers, an Internet Marketing Company, understands what it takes to reach consumers in these types of channels.
Let's say for example that you sell Verizon phones. If your website doesn't appear in the first few results for the terms "Verizon cell phones" or "cell phone service" you're out-of-luck! This is why search engine optimization is so important.
Even if you're goal is not sell a product, your website needs to be found in order to accomplish the goals you have in. Whether you are a not-for-profit company like the American Cancer Society, a church, or even a site allows people to trade free stuff like Freecycle, you need the Internet to make the most of your Internet marketing consulting, and web-based efforts to reach your audience.
Cost-effectiveness
Beyond the fact that your customers are using search all the time, there's another compelling reason to add search to your marketing budget: Search marketing is a great value for companies of all sizes. To give you an idea of the value of advertising on the internet, compare the following average cost per leads among various advertising methods.
As you can see, using paid search and e-mail marketing are the most cost-effective ways to generate leads. If you're having trouble finding the money in your marketing budget, it may be wise to look for areas where you can make some tradeoffs (direct mail or the yellow pages, perhaps?).
Brand building & social media
Marketing through social media provides a new and innovative way for you to build your brand and interact with your customers. Over the past few years, social media communities have come to life and changed the way people interact online. Social networks such as MySpace and Facebook allow users to create their own profiles and connect with other members to share their daily lives.
Speaking of sharing your daily life, a growing service known as Twitter, allows users to answer the question "what are you doing right now" by sending a short, one sentence message, known as a Tweet, to all the people in your network. While that may not sound very exciting, people are hooked on it, and marketers are following suit. Twitter has become a part of a larger movement called social media optimization (SMO) that aims to generate publicity through social media.
In many ways, social media is connected to the idea of viral marketing, or word-of-mouth marketing, since it is created by social bookmarking sites like Digg, video-sharing sites like YouTube, and photo sharing sites like Flickr.
Since social media is without a doubt, here to stay, it's best to embrace the current technology in order to avoid being left behind by all the emerging technologies.
Summary
Once you take a look at the big picture, it's easy to see why marketing on the Internet is important. It's important not just because your customers are using the Internet more every day, but because it has also proven to be a cost-effective means of advertising. The Internet also continues to open new channels of communication between businesses and consumers, as witnessed by the huge number of social media networks. This gives your business an opportunity to build its brand and reach customers in a completely new way.
If you understand how important Internet marketing is, but don't know where to start, get a free 3-hour consultation from Certified Marketers.