www.MarketingAdvisoryCouncil.com
Internet & E-Commerce Marketing
A Marketing MostWanted Website...
Internet Marketing Revitalization Education, Intelligence, Strategies & Solutions
Web: www.MarketingAdvisoryCouncil.com
JW Davis, Founder & President
Email: MarketingMostWanted@gmail.com
Office: 727.657.3339
Cell: 727.218.9584
Please Feel Free
To Contact Us Anytime!
Internet Marketing 101
Internet marketing, or digital marketing, uses online channels to promote products, services, and brands to a target audience. Unlike traditional marketing, it is highly measurable, cost-effective, and provides immediate feedback, allowing businesses to connect with customers where they spend most of their time.
Core components of internet marketing
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The practice of optimizing your website and content to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) like Google. The goal is to increase organic (unpaid) traffic.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM): A broader term that includes SEO as well as paid search advertising (e.g., Google Ads). SEM aims to increase website visibility in search results through both organic and paid efforts.
Content Marketing: Creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content (like blog posts, videos, or guides) to attract and retain a defined audience.
Social Media Marketing (SMM): Engaging with your audience and promoting your brand on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. It helps build brand awareness and customer relationships.
Email Marketing: Building an email list and sending targeted email campaigns to nurture relationships with subscribers, drive conversions, and retain customers.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising: A model where advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked. It is a fast way to generate traffic and leads, though it requires a budget.
Affiliate Marketing: Partnering with affiliates who earn a commission for promoting your products or services and driving sales.
Influencer Marketing: Collaborating with social media influencers who have an engaged following to promote your brand.
How to create an internet marketing strategy
Define your goals: Start with clear, specific, and measurable goals. For example, "Increase our online store's sales by 10% within six months" is more effective than "increase brand awareness".
Identify your target audience: Determine your ideal customer by defining their demographics (age, gender, location) and psychographics (values, interests, lifestyle). Create a "buyer persona" to help you tailor your marketing messages.
Build a strong online foundation: Your website serves as the hub of your online presence. It must be visually appealing, user-friendly, and mobile-optimized for a seamless customer experience.
Choose your channels: Based on your goals and where your target audience spends time, select the channels that will be most effective. You don't need to be everywhere at once.
Create engaging content: Develop high-quality content that provides value to your audience. This could be blog posts, videos, infographics, or social media posts that address their pain points.
Implement SEO: Optimize your website with relevant keywords, internal links, and technical best practices to improve your ranking in search engines. SEO is a long-term strategy for organic traffic.
Leverage paid advertising: Use PPC ads on search engines and social media to gain new customers and generate faster results, especially when starting out.
Analyze and refine: Internet marketing is an ongoing process. Use analytics to track performance, measure results, and make data-driven decisions. Continuously test new tactics and adjust your strategy to improve over time.
Free Internet Marketing Tools For Small Businesses
For small businesses on a budget, many free internet marketing tools can help you cover the essentials, from SEO to social media and email.
Website management and analytics
Google Business Profile: Create a free listing that appears in local search results and on Google Maps, complete with your business hours, reviews, and contact information.
Google Search Console: Monitor how your site performs in Google Search. This tool helps you check your site's SEO health, spot technical issues, and see which keywords you're ranking for.
Google Analytics: Track your website traffic and user behavior to understand how people find and interact with your site. It provides in-depth insights into your audience, top-performing pages, and conversions.
WordPress: A leading content management system that offers a powerful and easy-to-use platform for creating a website or blog.
Microsoft Clarity: An open-source tool that provides unlimited heatmaps and session recordings for free, so you can see how users actually navigate and interact with your website.
Content creation and ideation
Canva: This graphic design platform makes it easy to create professional-looking social media posts, blog headers, and marketing materials with thousands of free templates and design elements.
Google Trends: See the relative popularity of search terms over time. This helps you identify trending topics to inform your content strategy and discover which keywords are most effective.
AnswerThePublic: Find content ideas by visualizing the questions and phrases people are searching for around your target keywords.
ChatGPT: Utilize this AI-powered chatbot for brainstorming marketing campaign ideas, drafting social media copy, and generating blog post outlines.
CapCut: Create and edit professional, high-quality video content for platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels using this mobile and desktop video editing app.
Social media management
Buffer: Schedule social media posts across various platforms and track their performance. The free plan supports up to three social accounts and 10 scheduled posts at a time.
Hootsuite: Manage and schedule content for multiple social media channels from a single dashboard. The free plan is more limited but still useful for getting started.
Email marketing
MailerLite: This tool offers an intuitive and minimalist platform with a free plan that supports up to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month, including automation features.
Mailchimp: A popular platform for newsletters and email campaigns. The free version supports up to 500 contacts and 1,000 emails per month and includes basic features like forms, landing pages, and segmentation.
Brevo (formerly Sendinblue): An all-in-one marketing platform with a free plan that includes email and SMS marketing, marketing automation, and a landing page builder.
Reputation and listening
Google Alerts: Monitor your brand's reputation by receiving email notifications whenever specific keywords, like your business name, appear online.
HARO (Help a Reporter Out): Get free publicity for your business by connecting with journalists who are seeking expert sources for their stories.
