Internet Marketing Primer

Many businesses are attracted to the Internet because of its huge user base. Businesses are no longer restricted to marketing to a small geographically based demographic. With the advent of the Internet, a garage business may compete with the established brick and mortar businesses and reach millions of consumers across every continent in the world.

The Credibility Issue

Perhaps the biggest hurdle to successfully marketing your products or services on the Internet is the credibility issue. In the offline world as a consumer, you walk into a store or office and make a judgment call based on the appearance of the merchant. Is it an upscale office in a downtown high-rise? Is the store located in a high end mall with plasma displays adorning the walls? These things instill credibility.

Anyone can put up a website. And “anyone” does put up websites. This includes teenagers, criminals and incompetents. Because of this, there is a certain skepticism within the Internet consumer that every merchant must overcome.

A few things that you can do to overcome this:

• Ensure that your website is professionally designed and reflects your level of professionalism.
• Display a 1-800 number on your site, preferable every page.
• Display somewhere on your site your physical address.
• State your professional associations. For example, Chamber of Commerce membership, Better Business Bureau, ETC.
• Staff photographs are also helpful in establishing credibility.

Usability

Now that you have a professionally design, confidence instilling website, you want sales. But is your website usable?

A consumer should be able to enter your site, find the product, and purchase it without excessive pain or blood tests. In a recent study, one in 10 Internet shoppers were put off by the amount of personal information required to check-out purchases.

Brand Building

Once you’ve got all the bugs work out of your website, it’s time to promote. This includes search engine optimization, advertising, public relations activities and brand building. The most important of these is brand building. Brand is credibility. Brand is familiarity. Brand differentiates you from your competition. Brand is added value, and added value means higher prices and greater margins.

In Summary

Internet marketing, like offline marketing, revolves more around marketing your company than it does around marketing your products. Remember that. Market the company, not the products.