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>>>> >>>> Featured Article <<<< <<<<
Developing an Internet Marketing Strategy
- By Stephen Pierce
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How do I effectively develop an Internet marketing strategy?
Every online business owner asks this question at some point
in time. Unfortunately there is no universal answer to
developing your Internet marketing strategy.

There are many different methods being used and new ones
being tried every day. However, there are fundamentals that
must be in place to develop a successful Internet marketing
strategy.

- Internet marketing strategy one: Know your target market.

Don’t guess, those who guess fail. Check your reality; don’t
think everyone needs what you are selling. Take the time and
effort to develop a very specific outline of your preferred
customer.

Research, ask questions, talk to people, get a firm
understanding of who it is you are selling to and don’t
depend on “if you build it they will come”. When you have
a grasp of your target market you’ll be able to make accurate
decisions about your business, not guesses based on guesses.
Developing an Internet marketing strategy is like building
the foundation of your business. When you analyze your
target audience, you'll want to find out the answers to
questions such as the ones listed below.

What products/services do you currently buy? Why do you
buy your current brand? What do you like about it? What
could be improved? If you could recreate the product/service,
how would you change it? What Web sites do you frequent?
What ezines or newsletters do you receive via email? Sex?
Age? Annual income? Occupation? Title? Are you a business
owner?

Depending on what your business sells or offers, there
should be more questions you can develop to further hone
your target market and therefore you Internet marketing
strategy.

How do you get this information? Talk to people in person
or in groups. Conduct an online survey. Surveymonkey.com
offers excellent survey tools free of charge. Make use of
online forums. Put a forum on your site. Use a promotional
give away to get information. Be creative and be real.

- Internet marketing strategy two: Understand why people
stay on your site once they are there.

People who come to your site and leave seconds later are
not customers. Your first page should load very quickly.
Be brief and to the point. Verbosity is marketing death.
Good design, good writing and white space are preferred.
Use tables with cell padding and cell spacing to give your
pages a quality feel. Hiring professionals can be money
well spent.

- Internet marketing strategy three: Don’t base your sales
pitch on deception.

Make sure your links accurately describe what the viewer
will get. It is a common con to have a link to a freebie
or discount lead to nothing more than a hard sales pitch
that the viewer wouldn’t have chosen. If you do, you’ll
likely lose the potential customer.

- Internet marketing strategy four: Always provide
something for the viewer, even information can make
them return again and again.

Your viewers like to get new, updated material. Therefore,
make sure to provide ongoing quality information as often
as possible.

- Internet marketing strategy five: Always research the
methods you may want to use to advertise, i.e. link exchanges,
click through programs, pay per click programs, advertising
on search engines, banner ads, etc.

Make sure the methods you select reach your target market.
Don’t market your ego; market your product or service.
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Stephen Pierce is strategic marketing advisor, innovation
faciliator, author and speaker. He provides strategies
that make growing profits in your business a fast reality.
Learn how to get Marketing Momentum for real business
success. To receive your free online video coaching visit:
http://www.stephenlive.com
To Watch the Latest Presentation by Stephen Pierce go -
http://ustoday.net/wisuk.html
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