Marketing

Online Advertising For Today is a Good Marketing Strategy

J. Warholic

Creative AdvertisingGood advertising is a natural extension of marketing.

Marketing and advertising go hand in hand. Doing one without taking into account the other is like eating a steak without a good baked potato. Edgar Watson Howe, an American novelist and a newspaper and magazine editor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries put it this way, “Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but nobody else does.”

When the internet was in its infancy, with only a few million pages of information, getting your message in front of the right audience was much easier, as compared to today. Why the difference? The bottom line is that it mainly has to do with the billions of new webpages online today. In fact, the number of websites going online is very difficult to calculate at any given moment. But, at the midpoint of 2007, the total base of domain name registrations worldwide was 138 million across all of the Top Level Domain Names. This represents a 31 percent increase over the same quarter last year. (VeriSign) Every country has its own top level domains, with over 840 domain name registrars worldwide. Keep in mind, that while the number of Domain Names for all Top Level Domains are able to be counted, this does not accurately reflect the true nature of the actual number of websites online today. With subdomain names being considered as separate websites, the true number of websites online is substantially greater. Many Second Level Domain names have thousands if not millions of subdomains, each having hundreds or thousands of webpages. Take for example, www.blogger.com. The .com represents the top level domain name, and Blogger represents the second-level domain (SLD) names, and the www and all others represent third or higher level domain names and are also known as subdomains. Here are two other examples of subdomains on top of second-level domains. See Advertising.pwebs.net and B2B.SalesAndMarketing.ws both of which are separate websites.

How Are Search Engines a Marketing Force Factor?

So, it really comes back to understanding search engines and how they will display the results for any particular search query. Imagine how many times your particular keywords of your business are used throughout all of the webpages online. Google gives an estimate as to the actual number of pages that have a particular keyword or keywords within the webpages themselves.

As you can see, to display any business online, within the natural search results takes quite a bit of webpage and website optimization to develop the keywords within the site, and the time and Web patience in developing quality links back to the pages of a website. Quality links back to webpages effectively provide a type of authority vote online that the page represents what it is talking about. During this period of time when the website is being optimized for its keywords, there is another way of quickly getting a business found online. This is through online advertising models.

Online advertising for today represents a viable solution to bringing in new customers and leads through the internet. Advertising online also is a great tool for testing and evaluating additional horizontal or vertical markets for any business today. Advertising campaigns can probe the market places quickly and help determine if there really is an additional horizontal or vertical market or markets in which to concentrate your company’s Internet marketing dollars and other forms of marketing efforts upon.

Professional Web Services is a company that has the experience for developing new markets through effective online advertising solutions and internet marketing know-how to bring in new customers via the Net. Contact Professional Web Services today for a free internet marketing evaluation of your business website.

Local Internet Marketing Provides More Local Sales

J. Warholic

New Home
Local home builders are tapping into the Internet to increase home sales.

This story reflects the true nature of what is happening with the Internet and sales generated. Other homebuilders need to look at the following results of what has happened with Lennar and apply those lessons learned into their own home building domains.

For example, in June, Lennar had 251 Internet generated leads and 255 live chat sessions (roughly 7.5 per day). By the end of the month, the internet team helped drive 20% of the total homes sold. In July, the number are even more impressive with internet leads reaching 439 and roughly 25% of sales impacted by one of the internet avenues of communication. The most recent results indicate that the internet channel played an active role with just over 40% of home sales in August.

Read more Local Internet Marketing for Home Sales

In the age of the Internet that we live in, all businesses would be wise to consider the importance of using Internet marketing to get their message out. Local, National, or International searching for products or services provided by your company may be missing the buyers’ eyes in the search engine results pages.

What is your business about? Business Services, Consumer Services, Electronics, Technology Services, Biotechnology, Industrial Equipment Supplier, Manufacturing, Computer Products, Medical Equipment, Health Care, Real Estate, Wholesale and Retail, B2B or B2C, or Small Business; if your pages are not found online, how will customers discover your business on the Internet?

Contact Professional Web Services for the local and global Internet marketing solution.

Sales Oriented Internet Marketing for More Business Growth

J. Warholic

Internet Marketing Services

Is your online marketing and business website sales oriented?

With much online talk about having information for the search engines to find, and information from a marketing and advertising standpoint, many times the overlooked area for Internet marketing are the call to action items or lack thereof.

Information is certainly one of the prerequisites for any website to have today. But, it is important to consider that while a web page can be an information provider, it should also have a call to sales oriented action item.

Call to action items as the name implies requires something for the reader to do. For example, having a web page and not giving a link to provide more information is leaving your reader hanging. If a visitor reads a page and finds it interesting, then provide a call to action that is creative, engaging, and highlights the topic at hand. Simply saying contact us is not the best way to do it. Having a hyper link to a contact page is good, but an even better solution is to engage the reader to interact with the page topic itself. If you are talking about your product or service then provide a colorful means of enticement to click a link. Consider using the words of the product or service in the call to action item.

If you are offering a free consultation then hyperlink the words free consultation.

With billions of web pages on the Internet, a business needs to get a little more creative in their marketing approach to Internet marketing. Engineers, buyers, and consumers are tired of the same approach. Give them something different, something that is of perceived value, and the contact conversions will occur much more frequently.

This also factors into another topic of online advertising. Online advertising in the form of Pay-per-click (PPC) and Pay-per-thousand views (PPM) are two of the more common types today. Each of these forms of advertising require some form of landing pages. Even banner ads, when clicked on take a web surfer to a landing page. If your landing pages are not sales oriented, it is likely that your business will not have very good sales conversions. Each click of the mouse is a step in a potential customer becoming a true customer. Don’t leave them hanging on a page with them saying to themselves, “that’s nice but now what?” Don’t make them scroll to the top of the page in order to contact the sales department. This is especially true for the B2B Business to business buyer, because chances are they are ready to get more information if they clicked on your ad in the first place.

So, before you spend a ton of money on an online advertising campaign, make sure your website is properly set up with call to action items, with hyperlinks in the copy of the pages, and engaging text that is sales oriented.

For your B2B and B2C business solution, contact Professional Web Services for your free Internet marketing evaluation.

B2B Marketing Strategies – Teamwork Corporate Marketing

J. Warholic

Strategic marketing a business-to-business “B2B”  company involves teamwork from the president on down.

Getting everyone on the same page for B2B marketing strategies can sometimes be the toughest part of a president’s job. As Internet marketing specialists, Professional Web Services needs to get the feedback from our business customers, concerning their customers through the sales and marketing personnel of what is happening with online advertising campaigns, website landing pages, information requests, referral leads, and current and future products or services. In addition to this direct information from sales and marketing, there is a need from the engineering department to provide the nuts and bolts information of what is being designed, manufactured, or fabricated for their business customers. All of this information must be taken into account when maintaining a website.

As technology changes, or improvements are made in the manufacturing processes, it is important to share the information in a way that does not directly divulge intellectual property rights of either the business being served, nor of the company processes themselves. Simply staying quiet is no longer an option for businesses today. B2B Businesses jump ship as quickly as they can do a search online for the next manufacturer, fabricator, or the technology expert that can solve a problem with a (Wow I didn’t know I could do that!) new solution.

In addition to the competitive nature of just about every industry on the planet today, there is an international competitiveness, that the Internet has made our planet into a very small world indeed. China for one example has become a powerhouse. With their low overhead in labor rates, along with their relatively week adherence to pollution controls, companies in the developed sectors are having their products, OEM parts, and components built in China at a fraction of the cost of what any of the developed countries in the world can build them for.

Take for example, the PCB industry. As recently as ten years ago, the United States was king in the manufacturing of printed circuit boards. However, the Internet has made the United States a past performance item for PCB manufacturing. I have visited many printed circuit shops and can tell you that the United States can’t build a circuit board at the prices that are quoted from China. The raw materials, laminate prices, copper costs, and carbide drills alone are more than what many of the boards can be built here in the USA.

The Internet has also made it easy to transfer information at light speed from one end of the globe to the other. Computers process the data in a fraction of a second. Software programs are used in India to generate the circuit board data from Gerber files. Drill and rout programs can automatically be generated and then transferred to a Chinese manufacturing plant where labor rates are a fraction of anywhere else in the world.

Businesses have squeezed their suppliers so much, that many of them have simply gone out of business. Is there any doubt, in anyone’s mind that we are living in a very competitive landscape? For this reason alone, it is important to maximize a business’s exposure online.

The Online Landscape

But, that brings us back to the teamwork scenario. A B2B business has to work as a team from all facets, in order to maximize the marketing potential available through the online landscape. The online landscape is ripe for opportunities. To take advantage of the situation is like playing a baseball game. Everyone must work together in order for the team to be successful. Take for example of managing an online advertising campaign. Web metrics can only do so much. Sure a person can figure out the conversion from impressions to clicks, but can a person tell with Web metrics alone, how many of these clicks became actual customers? No way. Web metrics can give you an idea of what percentage of people that click on an online Ad go to a specific page, or sign up for a specific item, but Web metrics alone can not tell you for sure if they became a customer later on down the line. The only way to get exact details is to ask.

Why is the Concept of People Metrics so Foreign?

This goes to the first contact principal. When dealing with a customer for the first time, does anyone ask the simple question how they found your business? So, a person says they found your business on the Internet. Great, but did they click on an Ad, did they click on the website in the search results, did they come from an online directory, did they already know your name and search for your company using the search engines, or what was the keyword, keywords, or key phrases were typed into the search bar at Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft Live Search to find your company on the Internet?

The importance of feedback can not be overstated. Without feedback, a company has no way of knowing of how successful anything is. This requires the first or second contact person asking the simple question, and documenting that information for upper management, sales and marketing, and the person or group in charge of Internet marketing and online advertising campaigns.

With solid marketing information, the Internet marketing specialists can make adjustments to online advertising campaigns and improvements to the website design for better overall customer conversions.

Engineers Need To Tell Stories

Many of the businesses that are looking for solutions for manufacturing of their products, or technology solutions to a particular software or hardware issue, often converse with the resident engineers of many of the manufacturing, fabrication, or software technology companies in the world. How often are these stories being shared between what an engineer has talked about with a customer and the sales and marketing staff, or the Internet marketing team? If everyone is just doing their own job mode, your business is missing a wonderful sales and marketing opportunity.

Internet marketing experts do not magically know the inside scoop from each and every business in the world. Every market sector has its own unique set of keywords used. The only way online marketing personnel can learn about that information is for it to be shared with an individual or the Internet marketing team. Companies that supply technology services, or various OEM products to a wide variety of fields, will have a different communications language with the engineers from those market sectors. That is why, it is important to share that information with the team.

Internet Marketing Services

Teamwork is your B2B key to success.

Make Professional Web Services part of your marketing team and we will go above and beyond what your expectations are with Internet marketing services designed to produce results for your company. It’s all a matter of Results Oriented Internet Marketing Services.

Marketing Strategies for Business-to-Business – B2B Websites

J. Warholic

Website information is required to get found in the search engines.

The number one thing required in a business to business website is to provide pertinent information for customers and future customers to find via the search engines online.

While e-commerce B2B websites must be focused on providing an easy means of order taking and checkout, and also secure shopping carts, there are large numbers of businesses that sell to other businesses in which true e-commerce is not a factor. These business websites that are structured for information, marketing, and advertising purposes, are really about how well the information is marketed online.

Are you a good story teller?

Marketing a B2B business today, especially online, requires good story telling to bring a marketing message alive on the Internet. When marketing online, creativity is a must. Sure, it is wise to keep a message simple, but keeping a message simple from a search engine standpoint simply will not do. There are some things that can be done from a best practices approach for both the graphics presented and the website text copy that can help in this area.

Here is one question that is important to consider. How many businesses compete in your market sector; five, ten, fifteen, or more? How many of these businesses have websites that look like the others. Does your business website look like the competition? If the website looks like all the others, what will set it apart? More than likely, it will get lost in the search results.

Having a website online forces you to write down the key points about your business, and this is good. If you are going to have a web presence, then you should try to make it all it can be. Don’t skimp on what is said. Don’t dismiss the importance of a website either. The old ways of doing business with just advertising in the Yellow Pages, simply will not produce the same results that it did fifteen or twenty years ago. You must have a web presence to compete in most markets today.

Everyone is searching online. Businesses are no different than the rest of us. Engineers and buyers are using the Internet and specifically the search engines as the new B2B Exchanges. Tell me, why would any company want to be left out in the cold. Maybe you are thinking, “my business is such a specialty market, and everyone knows me throughout the whole market place, there is no need to have a web presence.” These types of thoughts are not very logical today. Even if you are correct in your analysis (which I highly doubt), don’t you think existing customers would want to find your phone number or email contact information online?

OK, now your thoughts say, “I am convinced that a website presence is required. Where do we start?” you might ask. Well, I’ll bet that you probably have brochures or something in writing that talks about what it is that your company does. That certainly can be a good starting point for prompting you into writing some items down. Once these thoughts are written out, a good copywriter can come up with the essence of what to say in a website. Writing something down in an idea form has been some of the toughest hurdles to overcome for many businesses. Years ago, where “word of mouth” was everything for many businesses to promote themselves, will not necessarily work the same way as before. There is too much competition, from the local markets and the international markets in which price seems to have more of an impact today than ever before in all lines of business.

Having a website published is not the end. Don’t make this mistake into thinking that you never have to update your website. Your competition will surely not sit idle with their websites, and more importantly their marketing efforts online. Evaluating the impact of every marketing strategy, will be important for the next move to be made. Just like in a chess game, where competitors are looking five or more moves ahead, so to must a business evaluate the next moves ahead.

It is important to note that many of the marketing moves online will not have an immediate impact on a businesses bottom-line. There are however a couple of things that can make an immediate impact. Search engine marketing, also known as online advertising is a quick way to get a business started. This is because keywords can be bid on through the search engines themselves. If you bid high enough for your keywords then you can get your ad to show up in the search results pages on the right or top side of many of the search engines. These results are paid for through this bidding action. The natural search results generally take more time and Internet marketing efforts to establish a website in the general population of search results. This is due to search algorithms making an automated calculation of the website’s importance through a multitude of variables which each search engine keeps tight lipped about.

Search Engine Optimization, SEO is another one of those words that has many meanings, depending on who you talk to. The basic idea is to fine tune a website, optimizing the pages, to have the website rank better in the natural search results. Many individuals will say this is a one time process. I don’t believe this to be correct. Search engine optimization must be ongoing. Much like an article written, there is usually more than one draft as time goes on. Even the simple things in a website much be updated annually. For example, copyright dates should be updated to reflect at least the attention to a website details. This can quite possibly make a bad first impression. A potential customer that comes to a website, with old copyright dates, tends to think that maybe the business does not pay particular attention to details. Even though they might not say it, the question is now in the back of their minds.

There are many other factors that also must be addressed for a business website on a regular basis. But, you need to take the initiative, and start today with a website presence if you do not have one, or develop and improve what you already have online.

Contact Professional Web Services today to find out how our Internet marketing services can make a difference in your business’s bottom-line.

Marketing B2C Begins With Information and Trust

J. Warholic

What does the consumer want in a B2C website?

The first thing a consumer wants in a new B2C website that they are visiting for the first time, is to be able to find the product they want to buy or the information that they were searching for in the first place. The Web simply is too easy to use the back button on the browser to not focus on supplying the relevant information in the first place.

For example, if a company were to talk about a particular product and not show, or have any information related to the product, then that company is not likely to hold the customer’s attention but for a second. There is a prerequisite for a landing page, (the actual page a consumer lands on when arriving from an Web based ad or even a page through the search engines) that the page needs to stay focused on the topic at hand.

That is only the starting point for the website. Once a consumer decides to make a purchase using some form of eCommerce they want to know two very important things. How secure is their credit card data that they are prepared to give, and are they going to receive spam or have their personal data or email address shared with outside sources.

Not showing, or having quick access to the privacy policy of a website sends up a red flag with many consumers online. Consumers are getting much more Web savvy, and are beginning to understand that some websites have better forms of security than others. They want to be reassured that the information will remain private.

Certainly there are other aspects of a company selling online that a consumer would want to know about. Like the product return policy, and can the customer talk directly with a business representative. But while these are important from a customer service perspective, they are later thoughts in the mind of the consumer in regards to the company.

The process of making a purchase online involves a kind of pipeline. If the pipeline from the beginning to the end is not solid, but has holes in it, a consumer is likely to fall out of the pipe before they actually become a customer. So, think like a consumer when having your website designed and ask yourself the questions that will be going through the consumer’s mind.

Once you focus on the foundation of the website, then it will be much easier to send the customer flow through the pipeline, converting browsers into buyers.

Signed Jim

If you need help getting your company website found online, Professional Web Services is never too busy to help you out with an Internet marketing evaluation of your website today. We provide Internet marketing services, Online advertising strategies, ethical search engine optimization, and Web branding solutions for your business online. Contact us for the Internet marketing services B2C and B2B global business solution.

B2B vs B2C Marketing

J. Warholic

Professional Web Services

Professional Web Services For Business

Folks, it doesn’t really matter whether your business is Business 2 business or Business 2 consumer centered, the important ingredient between the two is marketing.

Sure, there are some key differences between B2B vs B2C but for a company to be successful in the long run today, all companies need to have a good Internet marketing plan established to get their message out on the Internet. Because as stated in the link, “More Sales For You” should be a prime motivator behind establishing a greater online presence. With a greater online presence, your business message will have greater penetration into the various online market places.

Everyone is searching online. Is that statement debatable anymore? I would think not, considering all the research by Internet media sources that show significant increases in the number of searches online annually. Google, Yahoo, and MSN are still the key players in the world of search, but new search engines are coming on the horizon, that are building up niche markets for themselves. While these new search engines are developing new technologies for searching, it is highly likely that one of the big search engines will buy out some of the new startups that offer new looks into the Web. This directly affects the B2B and B2C market places for all types of commerce. Forget the traditional definitions for B2B or B2C being that of businesses operating in an eCommerce mode, because that traditional definition is no longer restricted to eCommerce alone.

B2B and B2C represent just about all companies on this planet. Granted, there are some in the C2C classification for Consumer to consumer, but that is limited to a very small minority of businesses operating on the Internet today.

Many businesses that are local for their areas think that an Internet presence is not necessary, because they are thinking that they only serve the local markets. This reasoning is no longer valid. Local markets are driven more and more by the power of local search. Yellow pages are being thrown out or never opened and both buyers and consumers are frequenting the Web in order to find a local phone number or get directions off the Internet.

Every business needs to develop their Internet presence because the competition is surely Creating A Web On The Internet for themselves in more ways than one.

Get your B2B or B2C business on the fast track to success. Professional Web Services provider of Internet marketing services, online advertising strategies, ethical search engine optimization and Web branding solutions. Contact us for a free Internet marketing evaluation today.

Professional Web Service provides online marketing for businesses looking to get more search engine exposure, and more sales for the bottom line.

Marketing Creativity Online

J. Warholic

Professional Web ServicesSay It isn’t so. Sorry folks. Your B2B or B2C business website is not the only website on the Internet.

How in the world do you get your marketing message out on the Internet? How can you get it into the hands of potential customers?

Well, Professional Web Services has the online answers for your business.

EyeImagine the sheer numbers of new websites that go online every day. It is quite amazing to think that 10 or 20 pages of a website are going to be found in the proverbial “Needle in the Internet Haystack.” With billions of pages online, you need more than just a graphic designer, designing your logos or fancy website to get found online. There is much more than meets the eye for Internet marketing and advertising your business Online.

You must adapt your marketing techniques with the adoption of Internet marketing techniques for your business to take advantage of the new Web 2.0.

Here are some get acquainted articles that will give just a little sampling of what life is like on the Internet. Take the time to read a few. Then send us an email for your free Internet marketing evaluation today.

Internet Marketing Industry

Building Pay-Per-Click PPC Ads
The Google Adsense program is a great way to earn some extra dollars for your website. Sometimes for various reasons the normal pay-per-click, PPC ads are not available from the server and what will ..

The DMOZ ODP Report
STRATEGIC MARKETING | An extensive research project on the category of strategic marketing in the ODP, Open Directory Project, also known as DMOZ was just completed. The results were quite surprising. ..

Staying On Top Of The Internet
Understanding The Online Web | The Internet is becoming much more interesting in our Life and Times as time goes on. Staying up to date with the latest technologies available is most important for the ..

Advertising On The Internet With Style
New Style Interactive Online Advertising | In the advertising world much of a message is lost in the delivery. Other times an advertisement is so unique that it can really give a “that is cool” aspect ..

Editor Application ODP – Open Directory Project – DMoz
Instead of just talking about improving the ODP – Open Directory Project – DMoz I decided to see if I could help out. Open Directory Project Editor Applying for an editor position with the ODP is qui..

Claim Your Blog At Technorati
Technorati Profile By: James A. Warholic | Technorati is an area online where you can search for various blogs, find out what is popular at the moment, check out the top blogs, and top favorite blogs a..

Web 2.0 Advertising
The Internet is About Interactivity | Interactivity can take many online forms in marketing a business through a website, click through emails, call to action items, enticements, free offers, games, ch..

DMoz ODP Internet Marketing Abuses
As difficult as it is to get some Internet marketing sites listed Online in the DMoz, ODP, Open Directory Project there are many sites listed in multiple categories. In fact one website has over 230,..

How Can RSS Help Your Business?
What Are RSS Web Feeds? RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. Many websites, blogs, and news feeds produce RSS feeds or webfeeds in an XML format. These are known as: “RSS feed”, “webfeed”..

Impressive Google Online Advertising
Well, I must say that I am impressed with some of the new interactive ads that Google has been serving to their AdSense providers. For those that are not familiar with the AdSense program, Google has..

Professional Web Services, Internet Marketing Services, Online Advertising Strategies, Search Engine Optimization, Ethical SEO, and Web Branding Solutions. Contact us today for the Solution.

Professional Web Service provides online marketing for businesses looking to get more search engine exposure, and more sales for the bottom line.

Why Call It Marketing Adaptation

J. Warholic

Globalization Internet Marketing Adaptation


Internet Marketing Services

The online world is all about change, new technologies, and being able to recognize the changes in the global marketing landscape. Once those patterns are even a hint on the Internet horizon it is very important for businesses, both in the B2B, Business-to-business and B2C, Business-to-business sectors to recognize it early enough to take advantage of these opportunities from a Sales, Marketing, and Advertising perspective.

Marketing Adaptation in Multinational Companies

Marketing adaptation has been talked about for years for businesses adapting to the local cultural market place along with responding to the social climate and economic conditions in the various global locations. Certainly product and service pricing adaptation has also been a concern for the Global Corporations.

Global Businesses

As the Internet has created a “Flattening of the World”; this has had a direct affect on businesses universally at all levels of the supply chain. As with economics affecting every facet of our society, so to has the economics of the Internet affected the very core of B2B, B2C, and even C2C, Consumer-to-consumer businesses today.

Local Business Search

What was once viewed as being in a local service sector for certain businesses such as plumbers, electricians, doctors, and lawyers; the Internet has broadened all these service sectors. The reason is the numbers of people using on line Search Engines have increased dramatically in recent years. It is also important to note that from a standpoint of the local service providers to be found on-line, can directly bring in substantial new revenues. Though any company that may think of themselves as being only a local provider of a service, the majority of these small businesses do not readily recognize the need or even the advantage to have an online presence.

Local businesses sometimes have a very narrow and limited view of the Internet. Actually, these same small business owners spend extensive time on the Internet themselves, searching for consumer products, comparing prices at the various stores, staying abreast of the news, shopping for homes, and even shopping for new and used cars, but discount having their own business on the Internet. There is a very large disconnect with these same small business owners as to the advantages afforded them through the Internet.

Fortune 500 Companies and Search Engines

At the other end of the spectrum are the large corporations that would do well to improve their online search engine position. These companies have invested heavily in the online advertising arena with large numbers of the Fortune 500 companies giving very little thought into the Organic, or Natural Search Engine results for keywords targeting their respective industries.

What are the Advantages of Being Found Online?

First off the numbers of people doing local search on their computers is continually increasing. The Local Yellow Pages have shown a steady declining response rate in recent years. Ads that just a few years ago generated very good returns on investment are now in the doldrums. In fact the response rate is so low, that it is hard to justify spending the increased fees for advertising in the Local Yellow Pages. Real Lawyers Have Blogs – Law Firm Yellow Page Advertising Not Working And On Decline These same Yellow Pages are now having to adapt to the Internet with marketing adaptation taking place by offering not only the print copy of the Yellow Page Advertisement, but also providing an Online Directory in which they include the local business to be found Online.

In essence these same B2B, B2C, and C2C businesses that once thought of themselves as only a local provider of services and thought they would only have to advertise in the local community have had a rude awakening. The Internet has broadened these local business horizons. Being found online now can have additional advantages of another business or consumer being able to find out the information at their computer keyboard fingertips.

The International and National Giants, along with the mid-sized companies can also profit by implementing a website improvement campaign. For these companies to invest heavily into various forms of advertisements and ignore the Internet marketing aspect of what can be accomplished with a good Search Engine friendly foundation website structure are simply ignoring the Internet marketing adaptation that is passing them by.

For more information about being found online contact Professional Web Services, a provider of Internet Marketing Services, Online Advertising Strategies, and Web Branding Solutions for your business today.

Take a look at the marketing adaptation that is going on online, either with you, or without you; but in either case it will continue to occur. The question that must be asked, “Are you going to take advantage of it?”

Subscribe to our Free E-News Newsletter and for some creative and fun web site ideas in advertising visit TGI Fridays website.

Professional Web Service provides online marketing for businesses looking to get more search engine exposure, and more sales for the bottom line.

Strategic Marketing From an Internet Perspective

J. Warholic

What is Strategic Marketing?

Internet Marketing StandoutStrategic Marketing attempts to determine how an organization competes or how it will compete against its competition in a market place. In particular, it aims at generating a competitive advantage relative to its competition. From Wikipedia.

Various marketing buzz words abound online. The above definition for strategic marketing is probably one of the most concise and defines it in a manner which can be easily grasped.

There are strategic marketing firms that will analyze the market place for the entire business structure and come up with a marketing strategy for their clients to compete on a global scale. While this type of service is needed to help determine a direction a company wants to go, there are however requirements for more specific strategic marketing evaluations that can have a major global marketing impact.

Understanding Internet Marketing

It is imperative for companies, as part of their strategic marketing, to understand the relationship the Internet has on a company’s market reach in both vertical and horizontal markets. The Internet provides a wealth of information, tools, and potential to expand a company’s sales through the use of the company website, online advertising, and Web 2.0 technology. Learning to use the Internet to fine tune (optimize the website) for various market segments are one of the keys to having more penetration both horizontally and vertically online.

Developing the penetration into these markets is what Internet marketing really is all about. A company can be all over the Internet, or not at all found online, but if it is not found in its industry specific area for engineers, buyers, and consumers searching for the products or services provided by the company, it will have little impact on the bottom-line sales generated.

Strategic Internet Marketing Evaluation

Marketing has what is known as a SWOT analysis tool. The acronym SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. The SWOT analysis  is a way of evaluating the direction a company wishes to go. For example below is a SWOT Chart courtesy of businessballs.com

Subject of SWOT analysis:
(define the subject of the analysis here)

strengths

  • Advantages of proposition?
  • Capabilities?
  • Competitive advantages?
  • USP’s (unique selling points)?
  • Resources, Assets, People?
  • Experience, knowledge, data?
  • Financial reserves, likely returns?
  • Marketing – reach, distribution, awareness?
  • Innovative aspects?
  • Location and geographical?
  • Price, value, quality?
  • Accreditations, qualifications, certifications?
  • Processes, systems, IT, communications?
  • Cultural, attitudinal, behavioral?
  • Management cover, succession?

weaknesses

  • Disadvantages of proposition?
  • Gaps in capabilities?
  • Lack of competitive strength?
  • Reputation, presence and reach?
  • Financials?
  • Own known vulnerabilities?
  • Timescales, deadlines and pressures?
  • Cash flow, start-up cash-drain?
  • Continuity, supply chain robustness?
  • Effects on core activities, distraction?
  • Reliability of data, plan predictability?
  • Morale, commitment, leadership?
  • Accreditations, etc?
  • Processes and systems, etc?
  • Management cover, succession?

opportunities

  • Market developments?
  • Competitors’ vulnerabilities?
  • Industry or lifestyle trends?
  • Technology development and innovation?
  • Global influences?
  • New markets, vertical, horizontal?
  • Niche target markets?
  • Geographical, export, import?
  • New USP’s?
  • Tactics – surprise, major contracts, etc?
  • Business and product development?
  • Information and research?
  • Partnerships, agencies, distribution?
  • Volumes, production, economies?
  • Seasonal, weather, fashion influences?

threats

  • Political effects?
  • Legislative effects?
  • Environmental effects?
  • IT developments?
  • Competitor intentions – various?
  • Market demand?
  • New technologies, services, ideas?
  • Vital contracts and partners?
  • Sustaining internal capabilities?
  • Obstacles faced?
  • Insurmountable weaknesses?
  • Loss of key staff?
  • Sustainable financial backing?
  • Economy – home, abroad?
  • Seasonality, weather effects?

The table above can be used for all types of analysis. Using the four main keys and applying it to an Internet marketing plan is beneficial for helping visualize and evaluate what needs to be done.

While the particular example above is more general in nature, it can be applied to specifics. For example when determining how a website needs to be optimized and/or the Web presence, a person needs to look at the four keys. Some of the questions that can be asked are: What is the company’s online strengths in meeting their marketing goals? How well is the website designed? Does the website provide quality information for readers, visitors, and the search engines? What types of links point to the website? Are these links quality links? What opportunities exist in the types of niche markets that the business can expand online? What are the current weaknesses with the business’s Web efforts? How can the business improve their brand recognition online? Does the website provide a solid tool for the sales and marketing departments? What threats are faced from the competition and other market factors online? What other tools are available to take advantage of online opportunities? Is the company advertising online? Is the competition advertising online? All of these items and more can be written down or verbalized to help develop an Internet marketing plan to help grow and promote your company.

Once the market analysis is performed then a strategic plan needs to be developed, and then implemented. Certain items can be quickly changed or applied, while others on the list will need substantial time and effort to attend to. All of the items will factor into the viability of the company competing across the Internet.

Developing a quality web presence is one of the most important items a company can invest in. It is very shortsighted to think in terms of “the cost” of developing a website. It is a business investment, and it is an investment that has the potential to bring forth many returns.

Get the Business Solution today from Professional Web Services. Contact us today for a free Internet marketing evaluation or other Internet marketing services.