Having a great looking website is just the beginning. It takes more than that to create a high demand for your offer. It takes planning, marketing & organizing your business to expand your reach and handle the demand. Here are a few strategies to help you along your way.  

**** Internet Marketing Preparation

**** Planning and preparation is at the heart of all of your strategies. It is where you determine the most effective approach to creating a successful internet marketing campaign.

Marketing Plan Development – All great marketing campaigns start with a clear, concise & effective plan with specific measurable results. As the old saying goes – “Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail.”

Keyword Phrase Analysis – Identifying the keywords or keyword phrases is the next step in creating an effective internet marketing strategy. Starting with a few root terms or phrases, conduct an extensive analysis of at least 100 keywords and how frequently they are search for over the internet each month.

Keyword Phrase Selection – After conducting the initial Keyword Phrase Analysis, you are now prepared to begin identifying the absolute best words and phrases for your marketing strategies and content development.

Website Theme & Description Development – By focusing on a major theme, your website becomes more that just another dot com. It because a valuable resource for your customers and visitors. It improves the overall experience and delivers high value.

**** Core Marketing Strategies ****

These strategies are the building blocks for your internet marketing success. They are fundamental to producing cost effective results and have stood the test of time. Each core strategy is a proven method for generating targeted buyers or users to your website. When combined with a comprehensive marketing plan, you are literally guaranteed success! 

Search Engine Optimization & Placement – Winning at the Search Engine Game is one of the most effective ways to promote your website and build your company! However, it is not the easiest game to play. It takes planning, preparation and patients. It takes completing the above internet marketing preparation, then creating website content that is keyword focused.

Keyword Landing Pages – In addition to selecting the best possible keyword phrases, you need to create 10 – 15 content rich website pages that focus on the terms. These pages could be articles, tips, advice, in-depth case studies, expanded product or service descriptions, etc.

Strategic & Reciprocal Links – As you know, “No Man is an Island” and neither is your website. Finding the right sites to link to yours is a very powerful strategy.

Pay-Per-Click Internet Marketing – Performance based marketing is one of the most cost effective marketing strategies available. By displaying targeted ads to targeted prospects, pay-per-click advertising allows you to pay only if a prospective visitor actually comes to your website. Sometimes as little as 10 cents! You are not charge for the number of times that you ad is seen – only when they click thru to offer!

Electronic Newsletter or Ezine Publishing – Since the invention of the internet, communicating by email has been one of the most cost effective ways to stay in contact with your customers and prospects. Even though, we are now dealing with the enormous amount of unsolicited advertising, it is still “King”.

**** Advanced Marketing Strategies ****

These strategies extend the Core Marketing Strategies. They are designed to further capitalize on an already existing internet marketing foundation.

Autoresponder Email Campaigns – By using Auto Responder Technology, you can put your messages on autopilot. Send a series of messages promoting your products and services or create your own e-course to be delivered automatically over a specific time period.

It’s a well-established fact that autoresponders are a necessary tool for selling online, because they automate the follow-up sales process. This means few (people) can do the work of many (people.)

Targeted Email Campaigns – Every business needs to communicate with their customers and prospects, and any business can get results quickly, easily and cost effectively using permission-based email marketing.

It’s Inexpensive… It’s Effective… It’s Immediate… It’s Targeted… It’s Easy!

“54% of small businesses surveyed rated e-mail as the top online promotion to drive site visitors and customers to their web sites and storefronts.”

Email marketing is one of the most powerful marketing tools available to businesses of all types and sizes. No matter how you define success, you can achieve outstanding results with email marketing while investing only a small amount of time and an even smaller amount of money…

Affiliate Partner Programs – Starting your own affiliate program is a very powerful way leverage your existing website and generate revenue for yourself and others. In short, it is a very simple concept. You give your affiliate partners a special link that is unique to them.

They place it on their website, include it in their newsletters, and/or promote it in their email campaigns. When one of their visitors or readers buy something or sign up for something, you will pay them a commission.

Online Directories & Vertical Portal Submission – On the Internet, every industry or market segment has 100s or even 1,000s of unique online portals and specialized directories. By placing your website name/address, description and other pertinent information, you can drastically increase the amount of pre-qualified visitors to your website.

Article/eZine Marketing Campaigns – Once you have created a series of articles about your area of expertise, it is really easy to find others that will publish it to their subscribers and in some instances, even pay you for it. In most case, one of the best ways to use your existing content is to have 1,000s of article directories & ezines circulating your articles to 100,000s visitors/subscribers with your byline and contact info.  There are a number of online resources that will help link ezine publishers & article directories with article writers.

Key Product Landing Pages – In conjunction with your search engine optimization strategies, creating key product landing pages is an excellent way to leverage your overall internet marketing strategy.  These specially designed web pages should include detailed information, customer reviews and comments about a specific product or product lines.

For a complete overview of these strategies, download the Internet Marketing Guide and Overview at http://www.vbocommerce.com/downloads/internet_marketing_guide.asp.

About The Author

Jonn Thomas is the President/CEO of VBO Corporation (VBOCommerce.com) – An eCommerce Development & Internet Marketing Firm. He is also the Founder of MBNet.com – The Minority Business and the Creator of  ArticleMarketingFX.com. For more info, contact him at http://www.JonnThomas.com/home/contact/.