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The Shift To Internet Marketing Continues?But Consider A Blended Marketing Strategy In 2010
Companies of all sizes, industries, and regions continue to aggressively refocus their marketing budgets from traditional tools and techniques to Internet Marketing–and with good reason. As a technology marketing executive for many years, I constantly struggled with two challenges:
How to control, and even reduce our marketing spend—especially during the “dot.com bust”, but also during the past few years of overall challenging economic conditions, and
How to justify our marketing spend when it was virtually impossible to measure the results and quantify the ROI.
Internet Marketing addresses both of these issues. Costs are significantly less than traditional marketing–as much as one quarter to one eighth the cost, depending on a variety of factors. And with the ability to track virtually every aspect of activity and calculate the ROI of marketing initiatives using web analytics, marketing spend is no longer a mystery. Not only can you capture traditional metrics such as Cost Per Lead and Customer Acquisition Cost, you now have an unparalleled opportunity to measure every aspect of visitor behavior and how they interact with your business.
There are significant benefits in cost and transparency offered by Internet Marketing not available with traditional marketing. That said, when developing your marketing strategies and plans for 2010, business should consider whether it is appropriate to maintain some combination of both offline and online marketing programs. Take the best from both worlds to create a go-to-market plan that enables you to reach your market with the right message and the right offer to create build awareness, increase qualified prospects, and convert them into lifelong customers.
Lou Unkeless is a certified internet marketing consultant. His office helps small to medium-sized businesses increase their revenue via the internet by making them more visible online, attracting more qualified visitors to their website, converting those visitors into customers, and maintaining profitable lifetime relationships with them. Lou can be reached at (916) 933-7414 or Lou@wsiMarketBuilders.com. Lou’s website is www.wsiMarketbuilders.com
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Rasmussen College Breaks New Ground With Internet Marketing Degree Program
Rasmussen College is believed to be the only higher education institution in the world to devote a degree program to teaching students how to reach consumers through Internet marketing-based tactics.
ORLANDO, FLA. — The advent of the Internet is changing the face of advertising and marketing by opening up a new world of opportunities to reach consumers of myriad products and services.
To address these new demands, Rasmussen College recently introduced a bachelor’s degree in Internet Marketing . “After conducting extensive research, we found that Rasmussen is the first college in the world to introduce a degree program dedicated solely to the field of Internet marketing,” said Brandon Steele, Online Marketing Manager for Rasmussen College.
Two other schools offer similar programs, but neither matches the depth of Rasmussen’s Internet Marketing degree, Steele said. The University of Virginia offers a certificate program in eMarketing. The University of British Columbia offers a Diploma in Web Analytics, a subset of Internet Marketing .
“Our degree program is much more encompassing,” Steele said. “It teaches all of the different aspects of Internet Marketing.”
Rasmussen’s Internet Marketing program combines traditional marketing skill sets with cutting-edge “e-strategies” and Web skills. It covers topics including Internet consumer behavior, search engine marketing and Web media marketing, among others.
The program was created in response to the growing need for education in this field, Steele said.
When the first banner ads appeared on www.hotwired.com in October 1994, the Internet Marketing craze began. Until now, those interested in learning Internet marketing relied on website chat rooms, books and trial and error tactics. A great deal of contradictory information exists on this topic, and the fact that this is a skill set which continues to evolve made learning the ropes more difficult, Steele said. “This is the program I wish had been around when I first started out.”
In the United States, 68.5 percent of the population uses the Internet, according to the Internet World Stats Web site.
“Internet Marketing is becoming so important because so many people are on the Internet today,” Steele said. “At this moment there are more web-pages than people in the world.”
The growing number of web-pages and websites means that companies must make concerted efforts to market themselves online and avoid being lost in the vast sea of information. “The Internet Marketer is the difference between a website ranked high in a search engine and one lost in cyberspace,” Steele said.
Students who earn bachelor’s degrees in Internet Marketing will be equipped to help companies set themselves apart on the Internet.
They will learn to assist companies in designing sites that are navigable and user friendly.
“On the Web, content is king,” Steele added “and if people can’t easily find that content, they will leave the site.”
Besides optimizing a website, graduates of this program also will learn the best ways to bring people to a site, the latest strategies in social marketing and the importance of relevant content.
Preparing for an Internet Marketing Degree
There are some steps students can take to prepare for a degree in Internet Marketing, Steele said.
High school students should take computer courses and learn basics, such as Microsoft Word and Excel. Basic web programming such as HTML or CSS is also good to know, Steele said. Good writing skills are a plus for writing Web copy and blogging, both of which are important Internet Marketing elements. Introductory business courses and marketing courses also are helpful.
One important item to remember is that Internet Marketing continues to evolve as technology improves and marketing professionals learn more about the Internet’s possibilities in reaching target audiences.
“This degree program will help you learn the fundamentals,” Steele said. “Graduates can branch out and specialize, but this will provide the solid foundation needed to succeed in Internet Marketing.”
The constant changes are one of the exciting aspects of this growing career field.
“You can never rest on your laurels,” Steele said. “In this field, you will be constantly learning. That is part of what makes this career so challenging and exciting.”
Learn More
If you would like more information on Rasmussen College’s Internet marketing program, visit their Web site: www.rasmussen.edu or call 888-572-6877 .
About Rasmussen College
Rasmussen College is a private institute of higher learning founded in St. Paul, Minn. on Sept. 1, 1900. The school serves students through its network of 12 campuses in the Midwest and Southeast and its virtual campus. It is regionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, a Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, to award associate’s and bachelor’s degrees and diplomas and certificates in a variety of program areas.
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Experts Avinash Kaushik & Nick Mihailovski answer your burning questions about Analytics and other Google tools. Topics covered include macro vs. micro conversions, using analytics on affiliate sites, tracking different domains, and more.
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The Benefits And Components Of An Integrated Internet Marketing Strategy
Achieving your operational objectives using Internet Marketing techniques has a number of significant benefits, including being:
It’s Targeted– you can delivered specific messages to your target market, or any segment of your target market—by virtually any demographic dimension.
It’s Measurable–you can track all aspects of your marketing spend and campaigns, whether monthly, weekly, daily, or in real time. There is no more wondering whether your marketing spend is achieving the ROI and benefits you anticipated.
It’s Flexible–you can plan and execute campaigns more quickly, with shorter durations, with far less up-front costs than with traditional marketing
It’s Adaptable–with web analytics tools, you can identify trends as they are occurring and react quickly to modify your campaign, thereby saving significant marketing dollars and taking advantage of a new opportunities.
It’s Cost Effective–typical Internet Marketing campaign costs are 20-25% of those of a traditional marketing campaign.
With these benefits firmly in mind, let’s take a look at the major elements of an integrated Internet Marketing strategy.
An Optimized Website—this is the foundation of your Internet Marketing efforts. I firmly believe that your website should be the center of the universe as it relates to your business. By combining relevant and frequently changing content with targeted messages and offers, you will build a community of prospects and customers that will return frequently. Add an architecture based on maximizing conversions, and you have a solid platform to build your Internet Marketing strategy around. .
Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Website—A website alone is not an integrated strategy. It is a place where content resides, where people come to when they are searching for something, and where they will hopefully take the desired action. Your website may be a fantastic testament to your company, but if no one knows it exists, it’s value is limited.
One of the most important aspects of your Internet Marketing effort is to drive targeted traffic to your website. There are a number of different techniques to accomplish this, including paid search marketing or PPC, organic search marketing or SEO, and a variety of Social Media opportunities.
These and other Internet Marketing techniques can be deployed simultaneously, but it is essential to understand how and where your target market looks for your product or service, so that you can create a plan that combines the right balance of these techniques to reach your audience with a targeted message and bring them to your website.
Convert Prospects into Customers—Getting your visitors to take the action you want once they land at your site is the closing step in the online process. This could mean registering as a lead, requesting a proposal, making a phone call, downloading a white paper, making a donation, signing up for your newsletter, or purchasing a product.
An aggressive Internet Marketing program that drives qualified traffic to a poorly designed website so that prospects don’t take the desired action is a waste of marketing dollars. Success is getting your prospects to land on a page specifically designed to drive a conversion and to take the action you want them to
In a later article we’ll talk in depth about the elements of a website designed to promote conversions.
Create Lifetime Customers—the old adage is that it is 8 times more expensive to find a new customer than to keep an existing customer. The expensive “courtship” process is over, and you have “consummated” the relationship. A key benefit of Internet Marketing is the ability to continue to engage your existing customer base periodically with relatively little cost and effort–enabling you to retain them as a customer so you can cross sell, up sell, and even sell them new products and services as they become available.
Email Marketing can help you accomplish this, while also enabling you to stay in touch with and develop prospects who have not yet become customers. Email marketing is a fine vehicle for continuing to stay top-of-mind with your customers, and bring them new content and new offers.
Another effective tool is Re-marketing, using techniques like Display Ads to retarget your message or offer to customers who have previously expressed interest in your business by visiting your website.
Measure, Analyze, Improve—perhaps the most straightforward adage is “you can’t manage what you don’t measure”. A strong analytics tool and a commitment to use it religiously is an essential part of your Internet Marketing strategy. You can measure every aspect of your campaigns, at any point in the process, enabling you react far more confidently and quickly to changing conditions than with traditional marketing techniques. This will have a direct impact on the effectiveness of your campaigns while far more effectively utilizing your marketing funds.
A successful Internet Marketing strategy is made up of all of these components—an optimized website, campaigns to drive targeted traffic, the right path, message and offer to make conversions easy, a commitment to nurturing your customer relationships, and the use of analytics tools to measure and manage you progress and results. And by taking an integrated approach to marketing your products and services over the internet, not only will you achieve the benefits above, but you will also increase the likelihood of achieving your operational objectives for 2010.
Lou Unkeless is a certified internet marketing consultant. His office helps small to medium-sized businesses increase their revenue via the internet by making them more visible online, attracting more qualified visitors to their website, converting those visitors into customers, and maintaining profitable lifetime relationships with them. Lou can be reached at (916) 933-7414 or Lou@wsiMarketBuilders.com. Lou’s website is www.wsiMarketbuilders.com
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Keeping Up In The Changing Search Engine And Internet Marketing Environment
The search engine marketing environment will continue to change as new technology becomes available to the masses. It should be a major concern for businesses of all types and sizes. Historically, small businesses have found a way to stay connected and to evolve with new technology; however, it seems to be much more difficult for large organizations to adapt. Whether or not the economy is on the road to recovery, it is still imperative that businesses evolve their marketing mix, begin to incorporate new ideas, and adapt to the needs and wants of their target marketing.
With the latest changes in search engines such as Google and Bing, it will be increasingly important for businesses to engage in search engine optimization. In our opinion, Microsoft’s Bing search engine provides new search innovations that never crossed the minds of most users. Furthermore, the Bing and Yahoo “search alliance” raised their position among search engine users. It was not a surprise to many in search marketing when Google announced “Google caffeine” back in August of 2009, after the Bing & Yahoo deal was completed. The big question is: how did your business adapt to these changes made to the search engines?
The changes to Google and Bing are not only important to search engine optimization but also to search engine marketing as well as pay-per-click advertising. The changes within the search engines will noticeably change the overall strategy of business campaigns. In most cases, there are several keywords and phrases that are critical to conversion results. If the search engine alters the position of a business for critical terms, then the business must effectively and accurately develop a strategy to offset these changes. Good search engine optimization takes time, which is why the most common alternative is to implement a pay-per-click campaign, targeting critical keywords and phrases that were altered with the changes to Bing or Google.
The viral marketing and social media networks are impacted by the search engine changes as well. More specifically, Google’s improvements appear better at capturing breaking news. It will increase the probability of users finding new information and sharing the information through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The ability to optimize blog content will improve keyword positioning and again, increase the opportunities of information to become viral.
For years, marketers have been waiting for the mobile marketing explosion and we believe that the iPhone and natural competition were the missing pieces to launching the mobile marketing explosion. Natural competition has made it possible for just about everyone to have access to the internet through their mobile phone. Businesses are developing web applications to service the needs of customers, and customers are searching for products or services through iPhone, BlackBerry, etc. This has, and will continue to have businesses develop searchable and navigable websites for mobile devices. Furthermore, it will force businesses and marketers to explore innovative ways to connect with their target audience.
With marketing and human resource budgets being reduced to a bare minimum, businesses will need to truly understand which marketing campaigns are delivering results. The most effective and accurate way to measure the success of search engine optimization, social media marketing, pay-per-click, and mobile search is through web analytics. We are not referring to click stream data, but to actionable business intelligence! It is unfortunate that not all businesses see the value in business intelligence. It is the ability to combine quantitative and qualitative information into actionable recommendations. Keep in mind that businesses are not going to get this from an analytical tool. Businesses will need to invest in the human capital as well.
Even the state of web analytics and testing is subject to changes. It is our opinion that web analytics, metrics, and testing will dramatically change in 2010-2011. Adobe will be the organization that will force a change in the landscape of creativity, optimization, and analytics. Adobe laid out the groundwork for this change in October 2009 with the acquisition of Omniture. At the time of the acquisition, Omniture was already on the verge of becoming the number one web analytics tool. Now, Adobe and Omniture join to create the most complete creative and analytical process. Eventually, marketers and designers will be able to create, deliver, engage a user, analyze, and optimize an internet marketing campaign on a single platform.
The nature of competition will surface within the marketplace and create a marketer or designer’s dream. Businesses will be provided with the opportunity to voice their opinion on analytics and design products. The design and analytical vendors will be forced to deliver less expensive but more productive tools just to compete. We can only hope that some geniuses at Microsoft, WebTrends, Google, or elsewhere develops a product that can compete.
So what is the point of all this? The short answer is that technology and evolution are the keys to thriving in an internet marketing or search engine marketing environment. None of the numerous tactics such as email marketing, search engine optimization, web analytics, search engine marketing, pay-per-click or social media marketing are going away. These tactics will simply evolve with new or enhanced technology. The challenge is that most businesses are so consumed by increasing short-term growth that they fail to notice the opportunity for long-term success. It is time for all businesses to implement these tactics into their overall marketing plan. Today’s version of Facebook, Search Engine Optimization or Google AdWords will not be as simple in 2011. Keep your business or marketing team ahead of the competition. The best way to stay engaged and to evolve within an environment is to live in it.
Mr. Laws is the President of DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC. He has worked for organizations such as Idearc Media/Verizon SuperPages, Liberty Mutual Group, and Sovereign Bank. He is a Google AdWords Professional, Google Analytics Qualified Individual, and SEO trained by the SEMPO Institute.
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The Benefits Of Using Web Analytics In Internet Marketing
Web metrics and analytics are important tools for any business. These are the tools to use in order to monitor how the business is meeting up its targeted goals and objectives. Using these tools will be a way for the site owner to monitor what the site visitors are checking out, their interests on the site and where these visitors and potential customers are coming from. These tools can also be used to monitor what keywords these visitors are using in order to get into your site. This can give you the opportunity to use these keywords as a way to promote the online business. The information that can be delivered by these tools is valuable and should be targeted by any serious online merchant.
There are a number of web analytics that can be used, some are for free and some may cost you a small amount of money. A common web analytic tool that can be used by the merchant is the site statistics. This is a powerful tool that can offer loads of information. This can tell the merchant about server hits, number of unique visitors per day, repeat visitors, and their entry and exit pages. The site stat feature can also give out the average time the visitor spent on the website. There are newer versions of log analysis software and these are used by businesses that want specific information. These are advanced tools and may come at a price. Some of the information that can be delivered by these tools include conversion ratios, the browse-to-buy rates and other customer-related data.
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