Netalot

The online marketing world makes use of some offline tools such as advertising, direct mail and viral campaigns, video and ‘radio’ or more appropriately using the online term of podcasts.

All of these tools are used in digital format. In other words your advert will show on a website, your direct mail campaign might use e-mail or Twitter, your video will show on YouTube or on one of the many competing video sharing sites and your podcasts may be downloaded from iTunes.

The principle is the same though. Every bit of material that you put out into the internet that promotes your products and services is part of your marketing campaign and is similar to what the offline marketers use. It is often just the vehicle used to deliver the message that is different.

It is of course also the case that offline marketers are starting to bring their product offering online. Some companies such as Apple have done this very effectively by offering some of their product range via the web only. These are the songs, movies and videos they sell via iTunes and the third party applications for the iPhone available via the App Store.

Some of the more recognised marketing tools used by internet marketers are article marketing, blog marketing, search engine marketing and social media marketing. Most of these techniques may be used without having to spend any or very little money.

Posting articles on your product to article directories is mostly free. Using social media such as Facebook or Twitter doesn’t cost anything for the ordinary membership. Other tools such as bookmarking and setting up pages in hubs is free. Submitting this self-promotional material takes up a huge amount of time unless one purchases software applications that automate the process.

Then there are advertising that one has to pay for. These are pay per click ads, the main promoters of these being Google, MSN and Yahoo. You may wish to place banner and pop-up ads on other sites that you negotiate with personally or that you pay Google to place.

The principle boils down to being visible with your product or service and enticing people back to your store or blog to sell it to them. It’s very much the same in the real world. Be noticed and be followed so that a sale can be made.

What makes it slightly more difficult is that the shopper can’t feel the jersey that she is going to buy or smell the bunch of flowers. She can’t see the meat or fresh rolls, she can’t try on the frock. As internet marketers this is a fairly large hurdle to overcome but don’t be discouraged, remember that anyone who is successful today made a start somewhere.

What that means is that the online customer would still like to try things first. If she can’t try it first then expect a high number of returns. Etsy, the wonderful online arts and crafts store has one third of the goods it sends out returned for refund. That’s a large percentage but it is something one has to factor in when considering the doing business online model.