Internet Marketing
Companies work solely towards getting their client's product or
services marketed online, and this is really becoming something that
modern businesses can't live without.

ONLINE MARKETING
SERVICE

Online
Marketing Service, also referred to as Internet
marketing service is about using the Internet as another channel to
market your business or organization. It's about broadening your
Web visibility, attracting qualified visitors to your website or
getting interested people to email or call without even needing to
come to your site. When visitors do come, through on-site marketing
efforts and strong features, you lead them to do what you want them
to do: fill out a form, register for an event or make a purchase from
you through the internet usage. Some people would be eased to make
their necessary work about their company by providing online worker
from other place to make their job more easy to do.

Online
Marketing Service builds, executes and measures
direct response strategies using the Internet. Some key areas that
the company should consider to concentrate on are acquisition of
specific information, retention of the data being given on the site,
awareness of how the site should be handled, optimization of the site
content and behavior, and conversion of details through a more useful
resource to the users online.

Here
are some of the processes that the company should consider in getting
their online marketing more effective:

1.
Define Your Goal
- work together with every member of your company to help clearly
define exactly what it is you want to accomplish towards a more
fruitful future using the online marketing service and how to set up
goals which are important to the company.

2.
Develop the Plan
the company should develop strategic, effective and measurable direct
response marketing plans designed to achieve the company goals.
Through the company's efforts of each member, a more suitable and
easy way of conducting the plan can be performed.

3.
Execute the Plan
- provide capable and experienced project management throughout the
entire implementation process. Each member of the company should be
reliable, thorough, well-connected, and determined to make satisfied
clients that are connected to the company. With these at hand,
satisfied clients are willing to cooperate and pay more for the
efforts of the company.

4.
Measure the Results -
No online marketing campaign is complete without measuring the
results. Internet marketing strategies take tracking and measuring of
the clients website advertisements before implementation occurs. This
way, the company can measure their effectiveness to the clients as
well as how better they know their company's effectiveness in the
process. With the good results that the company is displaying, more
and more clients are willing to be with the company and won't have
second thoughts of paying a good amount for a good service that the
company offers. Clients' satisfaction are very vital when it comes to
consideration about the company's main goal.

ONLINE MARKETING
DEGREE

Online
Marketing Degree generally refers to the degrees
that are offered in the internet through advertisements and
well-presented by different courses that are being offered by the
colleges and universities throughout the globe. It most likely want
to prepare individuals in undertaking and managing the process of
developing consumer audiences and moving products from producers to
consumers by the use of the internet.

A
more easy way to determine whether you're making the right decision
in improving and pursuing your career as student is to continue
studying and taking one of the major courses that the college or
university offers. Online
Marketing Degree includes instruction in buyer
behavior and dynamics, principle of marketing research, demand
analysis, cost-volume and profit relationships, pricing theory,
marketing campaign and strategic planning, market segments,
advertising methods, sales operations and management, consumer
relations, retailing, and applications to specific products and
markets.

Many
colleges and universities have come up with the idea of advertising
their different online courses because through this, a more
practical, faster and easier way of advertising through the web can
be seen and noticed. They will no longer have to make certain
advertisements through television and radios just around their
country but through online marketing service. The degrees that they
offer will be seen by anyone from anywhere around the globe by the
use of the internet. An effective way of advertising without the high
costing.

A
slight example on the online marketing degree is the Bachelor of
Science in Business Administration Marketing (B.S.B.A./MKT.)
which puts working professionals on a clear path to lifelong learning
and success. Maximizing their career opportunities, making important
contributions to the profession, reaching the potentialthat define
success.

Through
a program that combines academic theory with practical application,
and includes courses in Ethical Leadership and in Social
Responsibility, the students will gain knowledge and experience in
areas vital to business and society. This concentration will help the
students develop insights into an organization's marketing effort
by learning not only the traditional disciplines of alternate
marketing channels, sales management, advertising and research, but
also emerging marketing approaches related to consumer motivation,
global customer management, customer relationship management, and
marketing on the Internet.

Another
example of an online
marketing degree is the Master of Business
Administration in Marketing (M.B.A./MKT.), it provides students with
the ability to examine the relationship between marketing and
corporate strategy and the tools necessary for developing and
implementing strong marketing tactics throughout the companies in
which they work. Through a hands-on curriculum including case
analyses, this specialization lays the practical groundwork necessary
for students interested in strengthening or furthering their career
as a marketing professional or decision maker.

INTERNET MARKETING
COMPANIES

Internet
Marketing
is
a broad term that can include everything from pay-per-click
management to a full-blown online marketing campaign that builds
traffic and tracks site visitors to increase conversions from all
mediums. Internet Marketing can be thought as encompassing all of
the following disciplines: search engine optimization, pay-per-click
management, link building and affiliate marketing.

Internet
Marketing Companies work solely towards getting
their client's product or services marketed online, and this is
really becoming something that modern businesses can't live
without. Obviously, an Internet marketing company can't use the
same techniques that a traditional advertising agency would use, such
as television commercials and special promotions.

The
things that an
Internet
marketing company can do are pretty amazing, though, because the
costs are fairly low and the results can potentially reach a global
audience. The interactive nature ofInternet marketing, which allows
businesses to draw out an instant response from potential customers,
is a unique quality of the medium. Internet marketing companies can
bring creative and technical aspects together, including design,
development, advertising and sales. Internet marketing methods
include search engine optimization, pay per click management, display
advertising, email marketing, interactive advertising, blog
marketing, and viral marketing.

The services that an
Internet marketing Company offers aren't always something tangible
that people can see, although things like banner ads and social media
marketing (using sites like MySpace) are quite visible. Things like
search engine optimization and pay per click management are more
intangible, but they help promote a website by placing it where
people will see it when they are looking for that type of product or
service. Internet marketing companies grow and promote an
organization using online media.

An Internet marketing
company does not simply build a website or promote a website They
make that website visible to people who are likely to become real
paying customers. For some reasons, people are making easier ways of
advertising their products and news through the Internet because of
its lower cost and its effectiveness. Consumers can see the products
and massive orders and requests could be in any instant on line with
the company which provides the products.

An online marketing
campaign is necessary these days with the Internet become bigger and
bigger by the day. Therefore, it is crucial to hire an effective
Internet marketing company to help your business achieve the online
results you are looking for.

Since the advent of the
World Wide Web, there have been many new evolutions to online
marketing. Thankfully, there are many Internet marketing companies
that can show you the ropes about the industry so that you can
capitalize with your online venture.

There
is a wide variety of items that a quality Internet marketing company
can provide to your business. One of the main sources of online
marketing is in search engine optimization, commonly referred to as
SEO. This process simply refers to the act of ensuring that your
website appears in the top of the major search engines such as
Google, Yahoo and MSN. This is achieved by submitting articles and
keyword phrases all over the Internet because the more links that
your website has on the Net, the higher your search engine ranking
will be. Since most customers will choose to use the services of a
company that is among the top ten in the search engines, SEO can work
wonders for your online venture.

However,
an Internet marketing company also has many other services that can
benefit your business. Many of these particular companies also
provide website designing and graphic design help that will make your
website much more appealing to the public. If you search hard enough,
you will be able to find a quality company that will produce your
website from the ground up and then use SEO to ensure that your site
gets the recognition it deserves.

About the Author

Jan Michael Balasa is a
link builder for
Agentsofvalue.com.
I'm an Electronics and Communications Engineering graduate. I have a
good written and communication skill when it comes to research and
projects.

Introduction

It is estimated that up to 60% of new traffic to your Web site will come from search engines. This means that unless you are already so well known that people will be using your name to search for your site, you need a search engine strategy. Thousands of new Web sites are created daily, so the axiom "Build it, and they will come" does not apply.

Effective Web site promotion requires a serious and continuing investment of time and resources, whether you do it yourself, or hire a professional. It is not a one-shot deal, but an ongoing process, meaning you should evaluate the return on your investment. You can collect a vast amount of crucial information about your traffic, and make strategic business development decisions, in ways that are unprecedented in the real world.

Setting your goals

We've all met the person who boasts of "thousands of hits a day" on his Web site, and maybe we felt a little envious. But let's debunk the hype . . . .

It's important to distinguish between individual visitors, and "hits". The latter refers to every piece of your site that is downloaded, and this includes all graphics files separately. Thus, one visitor viewing your home page, which contains text and four images, will generate five "hits". If that visitor explores your site further, he or she will generate more hits, but it's still the same user.

You want to ask yourself whether you want every visitor that you can get – which could be thousands of indiscriminate, unqualified people, or whether you would prefer 20 highly qualified decision makers per day, looking for exactly what you provide?

There are no right or wrong answers, but you should have goals for the volume and quality of traffic that you would like, so you can measure results (more on this later!)

Designing keywords

The next step is to identify some keywords and key phrases that will differentiate you. Imagine if we all used "professional speaker" as our main key phrase. How many of us would show up on top of the search engines?

Furthermore, there are too many results for the typical search. So, visitors will be combining "professional speaker" with something that narrows down what they are looking for – perhaps "customer service" and "banking", or maybe a location, such as "teambuilding" and "Chicago". You will discover the keywords that work best for you when you run a log analysis – for now, make your best guess.

Think about the topics you offer, which industries you specialize in, which locations you serve, and anything else that sets you apart. Make sure that your keywords are in the language that your clients use, and not industry jargon – I have never seen the phrase "keynote speaker" in actual searches.

Then, build these into a set of keywords and phrases. Because of the frequency of most single words, phrases often work better in narrowing a search. Include your name, common misspellings of your name, and any other key element of your site. Use both singular and plural forms, and mix capital with lower case letters, except for proper names (some search engines are case sensitive and will exclude lower case searches for words that you have capitalized).

As an example, here are the key words and phrases for my site:

Philippa Gamse, Phillipa, Games, CyberSpeaker, internet speaker, internet seminars, Internet marketing programs, internet marketing speakers, search engines, online marketing strategies, Web site promotion, traffic logs, internet consultant

Not an exhaustive list, but a good start

When you have the keywords and phrases, use those to build:

1. a page title containing your most significant keywords. It doesn't matter if the title doesn't read well – it's the piece that appears in the colored bar of the browser at the top, and very few people see it. Contrary to popular belief, titles are for search engines, not people!

2. a brief "knock their sox off" description. This will be displayed in the search engine results, and will attract visitors to come to you. Most search engines display 2 lines or less, so wording such as

"Welcome to My Company – a full service provider of . . ."
is probably most of what you'll get – and you haven't said anything yet! So keep it pithy, and include the keywords.

Now – do this for every significant page of your site!

Your site is (or should be) more than your home page. The spider search engines that index every word on a page allow you to submit multiple pages. So do it! This increases by many times your exposure, and the angles that you can use to promote yourself.

For example, I have an article on my site about choosing an Internet Service Provider (if you want to read it, check out my list of articles). Many people searching for this topic find this piece as their entry point to my site. If they want to find out more about me, they can follow the navigation aids back to get more information.

Reviewing and updating your pages

When you have your keywords, key phrases, titles and descriptions ready, it's time to insert them into every significant page of your site. You may need help from your Web designer to do this.

First, you need to incorporate these elements into the header record for each page – in special places called "meta tags". These tags, which aren't visible to visitors, are used heavily by several of the major search engines.

As an example, the header record for my home page looks like this:

Also, make sure that the text of each page includes the main keywords again – but don't spam – that is, repeat them incessantly. At best, the search engines will ignore more than about 7 occurrences of each word, at worst they may even exclude your site.

While you are reviewing your Web site pages, look for any hidden roadblocks for the search engines that your Web designer may have unwittingly introduced. These can include:

* Frames: the separation of the screen into different sections. Several search engines will not go inside these.

* Java: a programming language used to create "cool" animation effects, and other applications on your site – again, the search engines will not work with Java script.

* Images: pages that contain only graphics with no text, (even if words are part of the graphic) will be passed over by the search engines unless you include alternative text tags for the images.

Note: there are big differences between the various search engines as to what and how they will index. My suggestions here will help you well through the basics, but for much more detailed information, check out "The Webmaster's Guide to Search Engines".

Submitting to the search engines

Now it's time to submit to the search engines.

By the way, they all (currently) accept your listing free of charge – they raise revenue from the advertising banners at the top of their pages.

You may have already received some unsolicited e-mail (not from me!) offering to submit your site to 500+ search engines for a seemingly very low price. My advice would be to avoid these services, for several reasons:

1. Most of the 500 search engines will be obscure (such as "Fred's Cool Links"), with few people ever visiting.

2. These services will submit your site to all the engines on their lists indiscriminately, whether or not it is applicable. Worse, some of them may be adult-oriented.

3. The services use software to submit your site automatically, which means that they do not take the time to ensure that you appear in the optimum category within each directory. Also, some of the search engines are now rejecting automated submissions.

If you decide to do your own submissions, these are the ones that I recommend using:

Alta Vista; AOL Netfind; Excite; Google; Hotbot; Infoseek; Lycos; Microsoft Network; Northern Light; Webcrawler;

Be aware that the search engines take vastly differing amounts of time to list you. Alta Vista and Infoseek are usually very fast, while Excite and Lycos can be delayed by several weeks.

You should also get yourself listed in the major directories – these are reviewed by human editors, so make sure that your site is ready for close scrutiny! These include:

Looksmart; Snap; Yahoo!

If, and only if, you are selling product directly from your Web site via a secure server, you can apply for Yahoo!'s Business Express Service. This costs a one-time fee of $199, but seems to virtually guarantee you a listing – and Yahoo! is still by far the highest trafficked directory.

And, if you are willing to pay per click (visitor to your Web site), check out Goto. This search engine is arranged on an auction system – you bid per keyword or phrase (bids start at $0.01), and the highest bidder's site is displayed first. Your account is debited by the amount of your bid when someone clicks on your listing. Again, this site is controlled by human editors, so the results are pretty clean.

Traffic analysis – evaluating results

Once your site is promoted and starts appearing in the search engines, you can evaluate your traffic. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) should provide your site's usage logs, which give you incredibly useful information. (And if they don't, take your business elsewhere!)

You will need a good analysis tool to break down this data (some ISP's and / or professional Web site marketers provide this service as well). I currently use Hitbox, which is excellent.

The report will show you how many individual visitors came to your site, as well as the hit count. You can see which pages of the site are the most popular, and which pages draw little traffic. Maybe this is because you haven't made them enticing enough in your links.

Armed with this analysis, you can intelligently review your site structure and content. For the purposes of this discussion on search engine promotion, look at the sections on search engines and keywords (you can find these by using the navigation links in the left-hand frame of the report):

"Top Referring Sites"
"Top Referring URL's"
"Top Search Engines"
"Top Search Phrases"
"Top Search Keywords"

These charts and tables show you which search engines (or other Web sites that link to you) are driving the most traffic to your site, and what keywords and phrases people are using to find you, broken down both by individual search engine and overall. Here's where you start getting some great feedback. You may have been fairly sure that you knew the keywords that your markets would use to find your site, but you could be wrong! With this information, you can adjust the titles, keywords and descriptions in your pages, and then resubmit the site. This ongoing process helps to improve your position in the search engines where you may not be so well placed.

This also provides wonderful market research on your audience. Rita Risser's company, Fair Measures, provides legal training for managers in the area of employment law. Her Web site is an extensive information resource, attracting over 6,000 visitors per month.

Rita told me that her logs showed that many visitors were searching for a specific topic that was a total surprise to her. But there was such demand for this subject that she decided to write a book on it.

If you view the Webtrends report while online, you can click on the most popular search strings and perform that actual search. This will show you how your site appears, and also what other pages are being returned. So if your competition is ahead of you, it may be possible to look at their promotional techniques and work out how they do it!

Conclusion

Take your web marketing seriously. The Web affords you the opportunity to track the results of your marketing investment in ways that you never could with traditional advertising. You can learn something about literally every visitor to your site.

Get serious about your Web site marketing; set your goals, invest in an ongoing strategy, and then become even more successful!

Copyright, Philippa Gamse, 2000

About the Author
Philippa Gamse, CyberSpeaker, is an internationally recognized e-business strategist. Check out her free tipsheet "Beyond the Search Engines" for 17 ideas to promote your Website: http://www.CyberSpeaker.com/tipsheet.html Philippa can be reached at (831) 465-0317 or mailto:pgamse@CyberSpeaker.com