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Internet marketing is the most cost-effective means of reaching the global market. Reduce your marketing expenditures by letting your website market your products for you. For as little as PH 5,000. 00/year you can have a website done and hosted. Now is the time to venture into E-commerce. Consumers world-wide are ready and willing to purchase products online with increasing regularity. For as little as a 4% commission on your sales, you can sell your products online and category payments in 24 hours.
E-Marketing Methods Email Marketing Search Engine Advertising Cross-linking, Directory Listing Web Presence Email marketing is the most controversial but still one of he most effective means of E-marketing There are essentially two type: Unsolicited Bulk E-mail or Spam means hiring a company to email your advertisement to literally millions of email addresses. Typical returns would be around . 01% of the emails would respond. Opt-in Email. A couple of websites offer newsletters or registration in return for the option to send email ads to you. These websites typically rent-out” their email listings for interested customers.
In general, although email marketing is still an effective means of advertising, most people consider it in bad taste o send email to people who did not ask to receive them, so be wary of using this method. There are only two relevant services that should be considered when it comes to Search Engine Advertising: Google. Com. The number 2 top website in the world. Offers Ads posted to its website as well as affiliate sites. Overture. Com. Offers advertising to Yahoo (no. 1 site on Earth), MS, and other top sites. Both services offer the same type of service where the advertiser defines a budget on a per click basis as well as a daily budget.
In general, a budget of 10 cents/click is reasonable. E. G. 10 cents/click x $10/day budget = 100 visitors/day) Search engine advertising is ideal for any budget as the customer has complete control of the amount he/she is willing to spend. The disadvantage comes in when you”re looking to get Thousands of hits rather than hundreds per day. Cross-Linking To reach a broader range of your market you can opt to add your website in directory listings for websites with a common theme. Typically these sites offer this service for free in return for a reciprocal link in your website.
This not only gives you a broader reach but also gives our search engine rankings a boost. The key to cross-linking is finding the right website to link with. Ideally it should be a site with very similar offerings as your own. Alternately you can enroll in directories where reciprocal links are not required. The number 1 directory listing is Yahoo. Com (IIS$300/yr to Join) and a far second is The Open Directory (demo. Org) which is a free service used by Google. Com, Netscape. Com and other sites. Except for email marketing, the other methods of e-marketing requires that your company has a Website.
Websites can range from a single page with our contact info to a full fledged E-commerce portal. Cost of developing a site has come down radically over the years with freelancers and smaller companies now offering web design services for as little as PH 300/page. A well designed website is the most costiveness e-marketing tool. A well designed website will attract more visitors to you than thousands of dollars of web advertising can. Building an Effective Website What makes a website effective? An effective website allows you to reach your target audience and make them appreciate your site”s objective.
For example, an effective web corporate site should be able to attract visitors that are interested in the company”s products and services and are willing to explore a relationship with it. Is your site effective? How many visitors does my website get in a daily basis? Long does my visitors stay in my site? Many inquiries does my site get from its visitors? Much revenue is my site earning for my organization? Many repeat visitors does my site get? Making your site more effective. The first step in making a more effective website is to define your site”s objective and to define its target audience.
Once these both questions have been answered, designing an effective website will be much easier. Define your website”s objectives: Why am I putting up a website? Provide information about our organization? Provide information for researchers? To sell a product and services? Define your target audience (customers) : Who needs the information offered in my website? Country Age Group Educational Background What can I offer my target audience? STEPS TO MAKING A SITE EFFECTIVE: – Make it Visible to your Target Audience – Keep your visitors in your Website – Make it easy to them to Contact /
Purchase from you – Give them a reason to return and keep returning to your website Making your site known to your target audience Inclusion of website URL in all printed collateral’s of the company: calling cards, brochures, posters, stationeries Use of web-based marketing such as Google Ads or Overture Appearing Prominently in search results from search engines. Making your site visible in the web: One of the most technically difficult, but cheapest means of promoting your website is by making it appear prominently in Search Engine Results. Commonly termed “Search Engine Optimization” or SEE
To allow your target audience to see you using a search engine, your site must appear in the first page of search results for keywords related to your site”s objectives. Most important of all is to appear prominently in Google. Com and Yahoo. Com Keeping visitors in your website More often than not, if the visitors doses”t see what he is looking for immediately upon arrival to your website than he will press the back button and look elsewhere. Thus, once to get the lucrative “page hit” you must make sure your site is attractive AND informative enough to retain the visitor”s interest.
SEE is useless if you cannot retain your visitor”s interest once he arrives in your website. Update your website regularly A web surfer will usually base the validity of your site based on how often it is being updated. Out-dated information is a sure way to disappoint visitors. Present new information at least once a month. User friendly web interface Make it easy as possible for your visitors to find what is he is looking for Keep your site as “flat” as possible. “Everything is Just one click away’ As a visitor get deeper in your website, increase the level of detail and information o offer to keep his interest.
For websites with a lot of text content, offer a website search engine. Entertaining web experience Dazzle your visitors with flash animations and beautiful layouts, making sure you retain a look suitable to the site”s theme and objectives. Provide your visitors fast loading web pages with little or no waiting time Provide them with only the information they require, with an option to get into more detail through links to other pages. Offer a multimedia experiences but do not dictate it. (e. G. Option to view videos, or turn on/off background music)of ext content, offer a website search engine.
Making Contact Once your visitor is convince that your organization what he is looking for he most likely want to contact you. Provide clear and distinct contact information in your website Provide on-line forms that allows your visitors to contact directly the certain divisions of your organization Filter serious inquiries versus spammed (e. G. Email confirmation request, membership prerequisite, etc. ) Respond to email queries promptly. Use an auto responder to give acknowledgement of receipt and respond to relevant queries within 24 hours. Make them want to come back Update regularly.
Provide new and relevant information that are offered on regular basis. Provide your visitors an option of being sent a newsletter or email that will announce when new content is available. Tease your visitors with future site features or product/service offerings. Provide a venue for visitors-to-visitor interaction. A message board or forum that is well maintained is very interesting come-on for visitors who wish to interact with an organization. Introduction to E-commerce The Costs of doing business on-line has dropped significantly over the past years.