XonMarketing.com | Blog of Experienced Marketer

In my last article on Cost Effective Marketing Strategies for small businesses I discussed how you can use Mass Media on a small budget very effectively. In this Part 5 article I will concentrate on Marketing Tactics, Customer Based Marketing and Important Marketing Elements.

GREAT MARKETING TACTICS

Free Consultations: Provide a free half hour or hour long consultation to prospects giving them advice and information. Follow up in two days and ask for the sale. This tactic establishes you as an expert and even if the prospect doesn’t use your services, you will have a fantastic referral source (make sure you ask for referrals!).

–Power your Consultation with visual aids and demonstrations.
–Turn your Free Consults into testimonials.

Writing Articles: Being published as an Expert will bring you targeted, continuous business. Be sure to submit your articles online and back link to your Website. Your web traffic will increase exponentially. Then offer Free E-books on your Website to solidify the relationship. When prospects understand your expert status, they will give you business, as well as, refer you to others.

Seminars: Depending on your business having a FREE or Paid Seminar can be a great way to mine prospects. Again, this strategy works well as the Expert strategy and piggybacks well with Free Consultations, Articles and E-books. Free Seminars can be unpredictable, but a nominal fee Seminar can be enough to guarantee success. A nominal fee ensures the attendee will show, while providing a ton of value for the information provided. Be sure to video all your seminars and sell them on your website.

–Lecture / instruct for half an hour to forty five minutes, then open it up for questions. Wrap up the seminar at the hour mark. Have an area with coffee and sweets set up so you can network before and after the seminar.
–The goal is to get as many business cards and contact information as you can from the prospects. Follow with a mailed hand written note or a personal email within 24 hours. Then call the prospect a day later. Have the Seminar on a Tuesday and follow up Thursday or Friday via phone to set appointments for the next two weeks.
–Have two Seminars a month. Make them a little different so you can attract the same prospects again! Give your previous attendees a VIP Pass. If you don’t sell them the first round you’ll have a much better chance after the second seminar.
–Write a Book and your Seminar attendance will increase three fold. The more you can foster the Expert Status, the better your results will be.

Free Demonstrations: I love Free Demonstrations! I cut my teeth in Sales in my youth selling Electrolux Cleaning Systems (ok, so they were vacuums and dry cleaners). Selling a premium product which had a ton of value built in required a Free Demonstration. If I couldn’t sell the prospect in 45 minutes then I would leave the Cleaning System with them for two days and return at a prearranged time to pick it up. With a good financing package backing me up, I closed 8 out of 10!

–A Free Demonstration can also be short in front of a crowd and take orders afterward. Depends on the product you are selling.

Note: At Seminars and Mass Demonstrations, make sure you have plenty order takers and appointment setters on hand. You can’t be signing up prospects and talking to them at the same time!

Open House Events: Opening up your business to existing customers and prospects for a day every three months is an awesome way to solidify relationships and drum up more business. Have refreshments and employees staged in different areas explaining how the business works. You, the owner, mix and mingle and mine! Make sure each employee is schooled prior, to get business cards and contact information. Be sure to teach the employee to make notes on the prospects’ biz card or contact info so you have personalized means of future contact. Make sure you have a demonstration room for the serious prospects! Make sure you are fully staffed fro an Open House. All hands on deck event!

–Send Press Releases to local / regional publications and look for creative ways to advertise your Open House. There are loads of Free Online and Offline Event Directories. Use Social Networking!
–Social Online Networks such as Linked In, Facebook and Twitter can be excellent forums to getting out information about your Open House or other Company Events and News. See my Article on Internet Marketing for more details.

Trade Shows: I am not a huge fan of Trade Shows because many shows will have absolutely no merit for the money and time you spend. However, many businesses have been successful with Trade Shows because they figure out through research which ones really have qualified buyers and know little success secrets. Some Trade Show Keys to keep in mind:

–Always attend and research a show prior to your participation.
–Determine ways shows let you contact prospects before and after the show.
–Partner with a good Strategic Partner and share a large 20 foot booth together. This attracts attention and offers prospects the best solutions.
–Have “roamers” walking the show continuously handing out circulars and flyers, which pictorially show prospects where your booth is. Offer a Freebee or discount for the prospect to come to your booth. Require the prospect to register to receive the Freebee or Discount.
–Have Brochures available at your booth for the motivated prospects.
–Be sure to mine each prospect’s information and product / service interests. Don’t rely on them to contact you after the show.
–Visually demonstrate your product or service. Let prospects see the final solution.
–Have plenty of staff on hand to sell, take information and greet prospects.
–Big Signs, Big Graphics, Large Font, Video, Audio – these are all key in helping the prospect visualize / own your solution.
–Take lots of pictures and video so you can post to the web during the show to create a viral buzz.
–Always get a prospects email address so you can send them an Opt In for your Newsletter, Company Alerts, RSS, etc.
–Make sure all of your Staff is instructed to take notes on the prospects’ business card so you can jog your memory on the prospects’ relevance and importance.
–Direct Mail response rates to Tradeshow Participants can be as high as 20%, as compared to the average 2% response rate for a first mailing.
–Trade Shows can be a good way to kick off your penetration into a new market.
–If you are going to the expense of going to a Trade Show, be sure to run some advertising prior (with an incentive to come see you).

Newsletters: I think Newsletters (both offline and online) are an excellent information and sales tool. This goes hand in hand with the Expert Role, providing interested prospects valuable information, while having information on how to contact you or a web page to visit. Newsletters should be sent once per month with an expert article as the main focus. I like to have the article in the center of the Newsletter with a narrow column to either side with supporting information and resources. These side columns are great areas to partner with other businesses to offer more expert information and help. Be sure to feature your FREE half hour or hour consultation service on the Newsletter and any seminars, webinars or such coming up. The more you get into and use your Newsletter, the more exponential the results. And, please, write your own content! You are the Expert!

Write a Book: I’m not saying get in the book business. A book sets you apart as a bonafide Expert and gives you instant credibility. It is one of the best sales generator tools you can use! Two books that I have written, The Business Success Guide and The Comprehensive Business Plan Workbook – A Guide to Effective Business Planning, lend instant credibility to my experience as a Business Planner and Consultant. You can use Print on Demand Publishing to print books and drop ship to customers as they are ordered individually for a price of $10 – $14 per book. Get writing!

Speaking at Club Events: Being a featured speaker at a private club event can drive great business for you. Make sure to have a brochure and make sure to feature an easy to remember website address. Feature a special promotion for just the club attendees. Again, being a Club Speaker sets you up as the Expert and a fantastic way to advertise your articles, newsletters and books.

YOUR BEST MARKETING SOURCE = YOUR CUSTOMER

Having excellent relationships with your Customers is the absolute best way to get a steady flow of qualified prospects. Moreover, it gives you the opportunity for repeat, highly profitable business. Ask for referrals before, during and after a sale to build an excellent pipeline of business.

A Mentor Group
–Select a group of 4 – 6 business people you respect and have a mentorship meeting with them once per quarter. They will not only help you with the direction and success of your company, but also they will be an excellent source of highly qualified referrals. This type of referral gives you instant credibility.

Networking Clubs
–Join one that doesn’t have too many competitors and can send you your “ideal” client. You can spend all day needlessly and unproductively going to networking events. Choose a couple and go consistently. Bring valuable information and advice with you!

Who is Your Best Customer?
–Simple Answer: Your Customers! Understand that a satisfied customer is your best repeat customer, as well as, referral source. One satisfied customer can exponentially bring you increased sales. 60-79% of your Marketing Budget, or Emphasis, should be directed toward your existing customers. I said “or emphasis” since marketing to an existing customer can be quite cost effective. It costs 80% less to keep an existing customer as it is to land a new customer. Remember two things: Repeat Sales and Referrals. Between the two, your marketing plan is 70% covered, which minimizes the necessary cash out lay for the remaining 30% of your Marketing Budget.

SOME ESSENTIAL MARKETING ELEMENTS

Not all Marketing is about running an Ad Campaign or sending out a newsletter; rather, good marketing is also about running an effective business and doing things to strengthen your Marketing Plan. These elements will help you successfully pull together a cohesive, effective Marketing Plan.

Service: Service should always be #1. Service is not what you offer the customer but really more what the customer wants and wishes for. If you define your Service Policy around what your Customers” want, then your Marketing success will be exponential! Listen closely to what your customers want and provide the services to fill the gaps.

Why do Customers patronize a business? The five top reasons are:

–Confidence
–Quality
–Service
–Selection
–Price

Address all five elements in a Cohesive Marketing Plan, you will be successful. Remember that each builds on the other in the indicated order, so Price becomes less of a high or low question, and more of how it relates to the preceding four elements. You can also put Referrals on top of the list, as that instills Confidence and an expectation of Quality. Referral Business is the best business.

Public Relations:
Cost you little or nothing but can brand your business very effectively, giving you a well known Identity in your Market place. Free PR stories, articles and news clips can be extremely effective in establishing your Identity. You Marketing Programs will be much more effective when you have a well established Brand and Identity. Good publicity gives you credibility, stature and authority. However, bad publicity can quite harmful so it is very important to honestly and forth rightly address any bad publicity or dissatisfied customers. When submitting company news to the media, always send a story that is worth publicizing. Give them a reason to give you free publicity.

Put together a good Press Kit (hire a PR Pro if needed) and take the media person to lunch. Relate your Company story and hand over the Press Kit. You are 80% of the way there! Cultivate your media relations so get great broad exposure when you submit your news. Always give the media an angle – a reason to run your story. Become a Media Resource by giving your media contacts important information about industry changes or consumer tips or free business advice. It will come back to you three fold!

Remember, PR is all about creating a Buzz. Word of mouth, viral marketing can be extremely successful for your business if it is positive publicity. Social Networking can be a powerful way to spread publicity about a business. Remember to have a system and forum in place to address any bad publicity because viral marketing can really accentuate the negatives, very quickly!

Follow Up:
Most businesses lose customers and momentum when they stop following up and being in contact with Customers. Marketing really begins after the sale; Marketing is a continuous cycle. Stay in front of customers with handwritten notes, newsletters, email tips, phone calls, specials, discounts and most importantly, asking them for referrals. Provide your customers news about your business as it occurs to keep them connected to you. Form and keep that bond – it is the future of your Company!

Word of Mouth:
Word of Mouth advertising can be very effective if you figure out where else your clients conduct business. Then partner with those businesses to effectively self-promote and spread the word. It is a win-win for both companies as you are more effectively satisfying your customers’ needs.

Competitive Edge:
All the Marketing in the world will be ineffective if you don’t have an Edge or Advantage to offer your prospects compared to the Competition. Remember, it isn’t solely about price. It is matching benefits, advantages, service quality and value with a fair price that helps you beat out the competition. Your Marketing should stress your Competitive Advantages – don’t wait to express them during your sales presentation. Competitive Edge should be the center point of any Marketing Plan.

20-30 Seconds:
This is normally how long you have to interest a prospect. So it is vitally important to be able to clearly communicate your offering and advantage very quickly and succinctly whether it is through a Marketing piece or when in person with a prospect. The first 10-15 seconds is critical. This is when you peek enough interest to listen to why doing business with you is a must. Always keep the presentation (whether through Marketing or in person) personal to the prospect and personal to you. There should be a common sales presentation theme throughout all your Marketing Programs, Advertising Pieces, Personal Contacts, Telephone Calls, Emails – any and all contact with prospects.

Guarantee / Warranty:
Both are see through, hollow promises unless you have something credible and real backing them up. This says to your prospects that you believe 100% in your product and service. Don’t use it unless it is genuine! Show what your customer satisfaction will be or look like, make it real to the prospect.

Branding:
Develop your Brand through strong Identity Marketing. Good branding can only be achieved with consistent, widespread Marketing through a cross section of related advertising mediums. Commonality of Marketing Themes throughout all your Marketing Platforms goes a long way toward establishing your business identity and brand. With that platform in place, use Viral Social Networking to spread your brand globally.

In the next article, I will discuss Essential Marketing Plan Elements and Successful Marketing Attitudes.

Now Pay Close Attention –

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Business Strategies for Small Business

The following business strategies for small business will help you grow your business, get more clients, retain your current clients and make you more sales.

First of all business owners need to understand that any business strategy needs to be implemented to be of any value. Knowing what to do and how to do it means nothing if you don’t put it into action.

Here a some simple business strategies for small business that will help you if you implement them.

Database Marketing.

Database Marketing is a business strategy that most small businesses do not use to its potential.

It is a simple strategy that involves creating a Database of all your current clients and prospects. Enter their names and contact details in to a program, management system or even a Xcel Spreadsheet. Group the Database in to Categories relevant to your industry. Categorise by geographical location, age, sex, previous purchase history, product needs or whatever category suits your business.

Once you have your Database categorised, you can then begin regular communication with your clients and prospects. Your communication should always be providing value to them. Deliver quality information that is of interest to the category you are addressing. The information can be hints, tips and strategies or you can even discuss a new product giving an independant review of its benefits and setbacks. Always be sure to inform them how the product will be of value to them either personally or to their business.

Give your Database Special Offers that apply only to them. Make them feel special that they are your quality or Premium Client. Have a special link in the communication so that you can track and measure the success of your campaigns.

Time your communication to an average of one every 10 days or so. This will keep your business in their minds. You should be the first one they think of when they need your product or service.

Making use of your current list of clients and prospects will help improve your conversions from Prospect to Client. It will also help improve your client retention.

Internet Stats show that an average of 7 contacts with your Database will result in a conversion to Prospect or Lead.

Referral Marketing.

Asking your Clients and Prospects for a referral is definitely a business strategy that brings great results for small business.

This strategy is reliant on you providing the best quality service, best quality products and outstanding customer service to your clients.

Showing your clients that you are the best in what you do will have them raving about your service and products to their family and friends. Now that you have satisfied clients, you need to ask the question. “Who else do you know that will benefit from our service?” Let them know that your business succeeds because of referrals from current clients.

You can offer incentives to your clients for every referral they make that becomes a new client. Consider a small gift of value, a free treatment or discount on a treatment. Send a Thank You card, free movie tickets or what ever you feel comfortable with.

Let all new clients know that your business has a referral system and they you expect at least three referrals from them if they are happy with your products and services. Every new client bringing in 3 new referrals will grow your business if you are the best at what you do.

Business Marketing Website

This business strategy is the way of the future for small business going in to 2011.

Consumers have certainly changed their behaviours in how they look for local services and products.

Historically, consumers went to the Yellow Pages, Newspaper Ads, Radio Ads and so on. Today, 85% of consumers search on the internet for a local service and products. If you fail to market your small business online you are going to miss a huge portion of market share that could be yours.

Your Website needs to be simple and it needs to be able to get your visitors to do what you want them to do. You have around 7 seconds to keep your visitor interested and to stay on your site. The content on your site needs to be good enough to show them you have integrity, you provide value and that you are the one they should be doing business with.

Big Flash Websites don’t really do much for your business. You need to have a website that is designed from a Marketing perspective to achieve the best results.

Once you have your Business Marketing Website, you need to have that Website on the Front Page of Google under the search phrases that are relevant to your industry. It is vital to be on the Front Page because that is where your prospects are looking. Rarely do people look beyond the first page and a large majority never go past Page three.

To get your business on to the Front Page of Google takes specialized knowledge and skill. We would recommend that you use the services of a Specialist Internet Marketing Consultant. Check out SolutionsToMarketingOnline.com.

These three business strategies for small business are simple to implement and will certainly help you grow your business.

Marketing Management Tasks
These core concepts and others provide the input for a set of tasks that make up successful marketing management.

Zeus, Inc. (name disguised), operates in several industries, including chemicals, cameras, and film. The company is organized into SBUs. Corporate management is considering what to do with its Atlas camera division. At present, Atlas produces a range of 35 mm and digital cameras. The market for cameras is intensely competitive. Although Zeus has a sizable market share and is producing much revenue for the company, the 35 mm market itself is growing very slowly and its market share is slipping. In the faster-growing digital camera segment, Zeus is facing strong competition and has been slow to gain sales. Zeus’s corporate management wants Atlas’s marketing group to produce a strong turnaround plan for the division. Marketing management has to come up with a convincing marketing plan, sell corporate management on the plan, and then implement and control it.

Developing marketing strategies and plans
The first task facing Atlas is to identify its potential long-run opportunities given its market experience and core competencies. Atlas can design its cameras with better features. It can also considering a line of video cameras or it can use its core competency in optics to design a line of binoculars and telescopes. Whichever direction it chooses, it must develop concrete market plans that specify the marketing strategy and tactics going forward.

Capturing marketing insights
To understand what is happening inside and outside company, Atlas needs a reliable marketing information system; it will want to closely motor its marketing environment.
Atlas’s microenvironment consists of all the players 10 affect the company’s ability to produce and sell cameras-suppliers, marketing inter diaries, customers, and competitors. Its macro environment consists of demographic, economic, physical, technological, political-legal, and social-cultural forces that affect sales and profits.

Atlas also needs a dependable marketing research system. Marketing research is an indispensable tool for assessing buyer wants and behavior and actual and potential market size. An important part of gathering environmental information includes measuring market potential and forecasting future demand. To transform marketing strategy into market: programs marketing managers must make basic decisions on marketing expenditures, marketing activities, and marketing allocation. How many dollars should support Atlas’s or three camera lines? Direct versus distributor sales? Direct-mail advertising versus trade-magazine advertising? East Coast markets versus West Coast markets? To make these allocations, marketing managers may use sales-response functions that show how sales d profits would be affected by the amount of money spent in each application.

Connecting with customers
Atlas must consider how to best create value for its chosen target markets and develop strong, profitable, long-term relationships with customers. To do so, Atlas needs to understand consumer markets. How many house holds plan to buy cameras? Who buys and why do they buy? What are they looking for in the way of features and prices? Where do they shop? What are their images: different brands? How does the digital segment differ from the 35 mm segment? Atlas also sells cameras to business markets, including large corporations, professional firms, retailers, and government agencies. Purchasing agents or buying committees make the decisions. Atlas needs to gain a full understanding of how organizational buyers buy. It needs a sales force that is well trained in presenting product benefits.

Atlas will not want to market to all possible customers. Modern marketing practice calls for dividing the market into major market segments, evaluating each segment, and targeting those market segments that the company can best serve.

BUILDING STRONG BRANDS
Atlas must understand the strengths and weaknesses of the Zeus brand with customers. Is it so strongly associated with certain technologies that it could not be used to brand new products in related categories? Is its 35 mm film heritage a detriment in the digital camera market? Suppose Atlas decides to focus on the consumer market and develop a positioning strategy. Should Atlas position its cameras as the “Cadillac” brand, offering superior cameras at a premium price with excellent service and strong advertising? Should it build a simple, low-priced camera aimed at more price-conscious consumers? Should it develop a medium-quality, medium priced camera? After launch the product’s strategy will need modification at the different stages in the product life cycle: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. Furthermore, strategy choice will depend on whether the firm is a market leader, challenger or follower. Atlas must also pay close attention to competitors, anticipating its competitors’ moves and knowing how to react quickly and decisively. It may want to initiate some surprise moves, in which case it needs to anticipate how its competitors will respond.

Most business owners believe that an ‘external’ sale of their business is their only (or at least best) Exit Alternative. Typically this is because business owners know that their employees and/or fellow family members don’t have the type of money required to secure a successful exit plan for them. So often times, business owners approach (view or see) the topic of Exiting a business as meaning that they need to sell their business to an outside buyer with enough money to pay them what they want.

So while an ‘external’ sale is intuitively appealing, it’s my experience that an understanding of ‘internal’ transfers will help open up a very good dialogue with a business owner so that they can understand all their options and make a well informed decision. In fact, analysis of an ‘internal’ transfer of the business can be a powerful alternative to a business owner looking for an Exit Strategy. And, depending upon the business owner’s motives, it may be the best alternative available.

‘Internal’ transfers of ownership in a business are often times overlooked because they are not intuitively understood by the business owner and/or the business owner’s advisors. So let’s examine some of the ‘internal’ transfer methods that are available to a business owner to illustrate the benefit of a well-conceived Exit Strategy.

‘Internal’ transfer methods include Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOP) Transfers, Management Buyouts (Sales to Family and Management), Gifting Strategies, Private Annuities, Family Limited Partnerships, and Charitable Transfer Strategies. The three (3) primary differences between these ‘internal’ transfer alternatives versus (and the) ‘external’ transfer alternatives are:

(i) the corporate assets, including future cash flows, are leveraged to achieve these strategies;

(ii) the driving force behind these ‘engineered’ strategies is a business owner’s motive of passing the business to someone other than an outside buyer, and;

(iii) the business owners will frequently be considering tax planning and estate planning along with their Exit Strategies. ‘Internal’ transfers, as a general rule, allow for more flexibility in these areas than ‘external’ transfers.

A business owner considering an ‘internal’ transfer can set the price and terms for the transfer and say to their family and/or management team, “Here is what I want/need for my business”. For this reason, ‘internal’ transfers are often referred to as ‘controlled’ transactions because the business owner is working with ‘assets’ that they already possess in structuring their Exit from the business. So if those ‘assets’ are sufficient to achieve that business owners’ goals (based on their motives), then it is worthwhile to examine an ‘internal’ transfer.

This is in sharp contrast to a business owner attempting an ‘external’ transfer because they are often subject to a process that includes outsiders investigating their potential investment in the ‘Target Company’ and then telling the business owners, “Here is what we are willing to give you for your business”. So, the Exiting business owner can expect to lose quite a bit of control over the process. And, because many business owners possess a unique psychological mix of independence, intelligence and control orientation, losing control to an outside buyer often leads to ‘choppiness’ in a deal.

Mergers and Acquisitions professionals will often advise business owners that if the business owner wants to set the price for the deal, then the outside buyer will be setting the terms for the deal. A deal is struck when each party is ‘equally happy’. Or, as one dealmaker said, every successful ‘external’ deal is a “little miracle”.

So, one will naturally ask, “What’s the downside of an ‘internal’ transfer versus an ‘external’ transfer”? Quite simply, negotiating with family members and key employees can be inherently dangerous. These individuals (and their advisors) will require detailed and confidential information from the business owner in order to fully understand all the risks inherent in owning the business – really no different than the ‘external’ buyer. And of course, most business owners are not anxious to share all their information with their employees; it goes against the nature of the relationship amongst workers and owners.

So then, how does one go about negotiating an ‘internal’ transfer? The answer is “very carefully”. And, the most cautious first step that a business owner can take is to engage an intermediary – which can be any one of the existing advisors to that business – to assist with the transaction. Having trusted advisors involved in the process raises the level of objectivity and lowers the level of emotions when negotiating the transfer.

Because, after all, if the ‘internal’ transfer does not work out, it will not add a lot of Value to the business to have [further] frustrated employees due to that business owner’s own doing. It’s easier to place blame for a failed transaction with a third party advisor so that all parties involved can amicably return to the business of running [and not transferring] the business.

Yet another downside to an ‘internal’ transfer is the loss of potential for extraordinary gain on the transfer. As a general rule, ‘external’ buyers for businesses include ‘Strategic’ (or industry) buyers and ‘Financial’ (such as Private Equity Groups) buyers.

A Strategic Buyer of a business stands to offer the selling business owner the highest total Value in buying the business because that buyer can apply ‘synergies’ to the valuation of the deal. In other words, a buyer who is already in the same business as the seller, can eliminate duplicate expenses and acquire new customers for their existing products. These ‘synergies’ help raise the Value of the transaction to the Industry buyer, and a good M&A intermediary will argue for the sharing of those synergies with the selling business owner. This synergistic value is likely not available with an ‘internal’ transfer.

So to summarize my original point, a business owner who wants to Exit their business should be aware of the various methods by which an Exit can be directed. Thereafter, consideration should be given to that business owner’s motives. In other words, what is most important to that Exiting business owner and how can it best be accomplished?

An Exit Strategy is defined as ‘The written goals for the succession of a businesses’ ownership and control, derived from a well thought out and properly timed plan that considers all factors, all interested parties, and the personal goals of the owners in a manner and time period that is accommodative to the business, its shareholders, and potential buyers.’ Accordingly, knowing the pros and cons of ‘internal’ and ‘external’ transfers is a critical step in establishing an Exit Strategy.

Exit Strategies are hard to design and even harder to properly execute. I am pleased that you are pursuing a pro-active interest in Exit Strategies because a pro-active approach to an Exit Strategy is the only approach to a successful Exit Strategy.

© 2007 John M. Leonetti

The method of marketing products or services by means of the Internet is referred to as Internet marketing. One of the major benefits offered by Internet marketing is its ability to reach the masses in minutes. Moreover, the costs of distribution of information are lower. Internet marketing, also known as web marketing is said to have a wider scope and a greater effect owing to the quality of its medium.

A marketing strategy refers to the means by which companies try to increase their sales and achieve a competitive advantage, focusing mainly on the satisfaction of their customers. Internet marketing makes use of one of the several business models to market goods or services. It includes the display of banner advertisements on websites, email marketing as also and search engine marketing.

An Internet marketing plan begins with online market research. During this phase, the companies research the market and find who their competitors are. They determine the section of their customers, which is to be targeted. The second phase of web marketing is known as data analysis in which the companies need to analyze market data and explore what their customers want. Next is the very important phase of developing a marketing strategy wherein the marketers choose a marketing method. The last phase of web marketing is the implementation of the strategy and the monitoring of its functioning.

It is advisable to start business marketing with a web promotion and development plan. It is important to get ranked on major search engines, for which it is essential to implement good search engine optimization techniques.

Marketing through emails, blogs, podcasts and forums can prove being an effective Internet marketing strategy. Blogs and forums can help the companies interact with their customers. Email marketing serves as an effective tool for marketing to a wide range of consumers. Running contests on websites is one of the best ways of web marketing. Online press releases and articles about the launch of the new products and services introduce the target customers to them.

Purchasing advertising and participating in forums are some of the short term marketing strategies while email opt-in lists, article marketing and application of social networking and social bookmarking methods are some of the long term Internet marketing strategies.

A well-targeted and responsive opt-in list is the key to Internet marketing as it enables the marketers to build relationships with their customer base. Article marketing is an advertising technique wherein short articles related to the business are published. Websites, which are known as article directories allow authors to post articles without charges. Articles can be used for search engine optimization by targeting frequently searched keywords. The promotion of articles through social networking sites is known as viral marketing. It makes use of social networks to increase brand awareness. Viral marketing leads people to spread the marketing message voluntarily.

Internet marketing is a relatively new avenue for businesses to achieve their marketing objectives. An effective use of the Internet can result in successful marketing as the Internet covers a wide range of audiences. Moreover, online marketing achieves a speedy spread of information, thus fetching for the marketers, quick success. I am sure you would want to go through this list of best Internet marketing strategies.