The importance of planning cannot be stressed enough. Consider the dot-com failures in 2000 as an example. Many of the companies that failed did so, at least in part, because of poor planning. Not knowing the market, the competition, and the environment of business were just a few of the factors that could have been addressed and avoided with proper planning. Therefore it is essential in today's world of internet marketing that planning be conducted thoroughly. Consider the following as steps in your plan.
Research is the first key step in the process. You must know your product, your company's competitors, your target market, and the capacities of each. When planning you should be able to list both the benefits and the potential disadvantages of the product or service you are selling. Through planning at this stage you can avoid the potential problems associated with a product deficiency by developing ways to correct or even compensate for that deficiency.
Deciding what type of campaign you will run is very important as well. What is your budget? What is your staffing need? What will be the time-frame for the marketing campaign? These and other questions, some of which will depend solely on your unique situation, should be asked and answered at this point of the planning process. With the information laid out in front of you, it will be much easier to see just what limitations and hurdles you may have to overcome in order to effectively launch and carry out your marketing campaign. Also, don't forget, this is a company-wide effort. Marketing staff should not be the only staff involved. Interdepartmental communication is critical.
Once you have your campaign up and running, be sure to monitor its impact. Various methods exist for monitoring the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. However, be sure to rely on the most important of all means first: sales and customer feedback. No matter what business you are in, these two factors will exist in one form or another, and they are crucial pieces of data you can use to fine-tune your strategy.
When the campaign is over, perform an exhaustive review of the entire process from beginning to end. Look for any signs of trouble, and also for points of excellence, and make note of them for your next campaign. Marketing is a learning process every time you do it, and only by noting what went right and wrong last time will you know where to place your focus next time.
While this is a very compact overview of the process, one common thread must be sewn throughout: Be aware, at every step in the process, of the strengths and weaknesses of the company, of your staff, of the product, and of the market. Only through this awareness can you make an effective plan, and only through effective planning will you succeed in internet marketing.
~Gerard Doret~
Monday, November 17, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
What is Not Internet Marketing
As with all things new, it is very easy for us to become wrapped up in the innovation, the convenience, and the excitement we experience with something never available to us before. Internet marketing is no exception. Despite the obvious advantages offered by this new medium for commerce and business in general, internet marketing does have its limitations. It is also easy for us to assume that a new product or technology can do more than it really can. Following are some factors in considering what internet marketing is not.
First to consider is that internet marketing is not a replacement for the traditional means of shopping and/or selling. Assume for a moment that you are looking to buy a diamond ring for someone special. You go online, browse through picture after picture, find some really beautiful and eligible pieces, and that's where you stop. You can't feel that ring, nor can you take a close look at the diamond. You have only a limited scope of what the merchandise will be like when you physically possess it. Are you going to pay potentially thousands of dollars for that ring, or will you go to a local jeweler instead, where you can get a much better idea of what you're buying? This is a key limitation to internet marketing for many products.
Internet marketing is also not a fail-proof system. Nearly everyone who conducts any form of business or shopping online has experienced the temporary unavailability of a website. The site goes down, and you can't get your business done when you had planned. Furthermore, you may not even get an indication as to when the site will be operational again. It can be a frustrating fact of e-commerce, and trust me, I know this by experience.
Another fact of internet marketing that many fail to consider is that it is not a "get rich quick" scheme. True, many entrepreneurs have entered this lucrative market and become millionaires. However, when you compare the number who have had such wild success, with all the businesses who have failed or never really taken off online, you will find that the “overnight” millionaires are not the standard of what internet marketing is. Most of the business realities of the brick and mortar world still apply to the virtual world. Success in internet marketing requires a lot of hard work, just as any other type of business venture requires. If you do your due diligence and you will see success.
Internet marketing, finally, is not today what it will be tomorrow. As fast as one model of computer replaces another, so do the options provided in the world of internet marketing. Just fifteen years ago you could go online and find little more than text-based product descriptions. Now look at what you can find on the internet. Entire stores exist online, and their number is growing. Even schools and colleges like DeVry uses the internet for their classes. Furthermore, laws on everything from personal security to taxation are changing and promise to make a different landscape of internet marketing than the one we see today.
Thank You for Reading blog
~Gerard Doret~
First to consider is that internet marketing is not a replacement for the traditional means of shopping and/or selling. Assume for a moment that you are looking to buy a diamond ring for someone special. You go online, browse through picture after picture, find some really beautiful and eligible pieces, and that's where you stop. You can't feel that ring, nor can you take a close look at the diamond. You have only a limited scope of what the merchandise will be like when you physically possess it. Are you going to pay potentially thousands of dollars for that ring, or will you go to a local jeweler instead, where you can get a much better idea of what you're buying? This is a key limitation to internet marketing for many products.
Internet marketing is also not a fail-proof system. Nearly everyone who conducts any form of business or shopping online has experienced the temporary unavailability of a website. The site goes down, and you can't get your business done when you had planned. Furthermore, you may not even get an indication as to when the site will be operational again. It can be a frustrating fact of e-commerce, and trust me, I know this by experience.
Another fact of internet marketing that many fail to consider is that it is not a "get rich quick" scheme. True, many entrepreneurs have entered this lucrative market and become millionaires. However, when you compare the number who have had such wild success, with all the businesses who have failed or never really taken off online, you will find that the “overnight” millionaires are not the standard of what internet marketing is. Most of the business realities of the brick and mortar world still apply to the virtual world. Success in internet marketing requires a lot of hard work, just as any other type of business venture requires. If you do your due diligence and you will see success.
Internet marketing, finally, is not today what it will be tomorrow. As fast as one model of computer replaces another, so do the options provided in the world of internet marketing. Just fifteen years ago you could go online and find little more than text-based product descriptions. Now look at what you can find on the internet. Entire stores exist online, and their number is growing. Even schools and colleges like DeVry uses the internet for their classes. Furthermore, laws on everything from personal security to taxation are changing and promise to make a different landscape of internet marketing than the one we see today.
Thank You for Reading blog
~Gerard Doret~
The Basics on Internet marketing
Internet marketing is one of the biggest and fastest way to make money. To simply put, internet marketing is the concept of business marketing, both to customers and to other businesses (ALS), by use of the internet. However, getting inside the concept and looking at how it works may not be considered as quite so simple. The primary reason for this is that the internet, still relatively young, is ever-evolving and therefore subject to waves of change.
New advances in internet technology are constantly providing new opportunities for all types of businesses to add to their marketing approach and content. Likewise, advances in technology are making more affordable options available to the consumer, and so many more people are logging onto the internet every day. As they do, the demographic is changing, and no longer is the wealthy individual the only target of internet marketing. Today virtually all income levels must be considered in the internet marketing approaches of business.
In the 1990s, internet marketing went berserk. It was a brand new concept, and caution had been thrown to the wind in all the hype. Companies did not take into consideration that the same variables of marketing in other forms of media should logically be applied to internet marketing as well. Their failure to study markets and create sound strategies led to the fall of many so-called dot-coms in the end of 2000. The survivors, and successors, began to look toward time-tested logic in marketing for direction, and the result was massive growth.
Through the now-careful approach of businesses and marketers alike, targeted advertising on the internet has brought forth great success. Virtually any market you may wish to break into can be tapped on the internet. Many marketing firms offer the solutions a business needs to get their products out to consumers, while a small firm may wish to handle their marketing on their own and can find lower-cost solutions for their goals as well.
Search engines are a major resource for marketing, but typically are only able to provide ideas for what the consumer is already searching for. To accomplish the spontaneous suggestions offered by television or radio, pop-up ads and ads placed directly on a web-site are used. E-mail is an excellent form of marketing, but typically only has success once a business has built a good relationship with the consumer.
More and more people are spending more and more time on the internet daily. The reason is simple: the convenience offered by the internet, coupled with the increasing abilities of the internet to help you get your tasks completed, has allowed for all types of business to be conducted with point and click ease. Many tasks no longer require a trip in the car to be completed. Thus, relationships are growing on the web, and as they do, the pace of internet commerce has rocketed into the trillions of dollars. Advances in technology, and increased traffic, are leading to a future for internet marketing that can only point skyward.
This is the best time for people to get involve with internet marketing. As technology grows, so will the marketer's income.
~Gerard Doret~
New advances in internet technology are constantly providing new opportunities for all types of businesses to add to their marketing approach and content. Likewise, advances in technology are making more affordable options available to the consumer, and so many more people are logging onto the internet every day. As they do, the demographic is changing, and no longer is the wealthy individual the only target of internet marketing. Today virtually all income levels must be considered in the internet marketing approaches of business.
In the 1990s, internet marketing went berserk. It was a brand new concept, and caution had been thrown to the wind in all the hype. Companies did not take into consideration that the same variables of marketing in other forms of media should logically be applied to internet marketing as well. Their failure to study markets and create sound strategies led to the fall of many so-called dot-coms in the end of 2000. The survivors, and successors, began to look toward time-tested logic in marketing for direction, and the result was massive growth.
Through the now-careful approach of businesses and marketers alike, targeted advertising on the internet has brought forth great success. Virtually any market you may wish to break into can be tapped on the internet. Many marketing firms offer the solutions a business needs to get their products out to consumers, while a small firm may wish to handle their marketing on their own and can find lower-cost solutions for their goals as well.
Search engines are a major resource for marketing, but typically are only able to provide ideas for what the consumer is already searching for. To accomplish the spontaneous suggestions offered by television or radio, pop-up ads and ads placed directly on a web-site are used. E-mail is an excellent form of marketing, but typically only has success once a business has built a good relationship with the consumer.
More and more people are spending more and more time on the internet daily. The reason is simple: the convenience offered by the internet, coupled with the increasing abilities of the internet to help you get your tasks completed, has allowed for all types of business to be conducted with point and click ease. Many tasks no longer require a trip in the car to be completed. Thus, relationships are growing on the web, and as they do, the pace of internet commerce has rocketed into the trillions of dollars. Advances in technology, and increased traffic, are leading to a future for internet marketing that can only point skyward.
This is the best time for people to get involve with internet marketing. As technology grows, so will the marketer's income.
~Gerard Doret~
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