Archive for the ‘Marketing Methods’ Category

I’ve been telling businesses for almost a year not that they have to get into video marketing no matter what they are selling or how small they think they are.

I’ve even put some development work into overdrive so I can get it launched on the Internet very soon.  This will be a service putting promotional videos online for businesses of any size.

Want to see an excellent example of a fantastic promotion?

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As with all things new, it is very easy for us to become wrapped up in the innovation, the convenience, and the excitement we experience with something never available to us before. Internet marketing is no exception. Despite the obvious advantages offered by this new medium for commerce and business in general, internet marketing does have its limitations. It is also easy for us to assume that a new product or technology can do more than it really can. Following are some factors in considering what internet marketing is not.

First to consider is that internet marketing is not a replacement for the traditional means of shopping and/or selling. Assume for a moment that you are looking to buy a diamond ring for someone special. You go online, browse through picture after picture, find some really beautiful and eligible pieces, and that’s where you stop. You can’t feel that ring, nor can you take a close look at the diamond. You have only a limited scope of what the merchandise will be like when you physically possess it. Are you going to pay potentially thousands of dollars for that ring, or will you go to a local jeweler instead, where you can get a much better idea of what you’re buying?  This is a key limitation to internet marketing for many products.

Internet marketing is also not a fail-proof system. Nearly everyone who conducts any form of business or shopping online has experienced the temporary unavailability of a website. The site goes down, and you can’t get your business done when you had planned. Furthermore, you may not even get an indication as to when the site will be operational again. It can be a frustrating fact of e-commerce.

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Internet marketing is the business of both advertising and selling goods and services over the internet. This form of business is ever-increasing in popularity, with millions of people now making purchases on the internet. Internet marketing began in the early 1990s as primarily a means of product description, consisting merely of text descriptions. As technology progressed, internet marketing rapidly advanced to include pictures and other rich graphics as part of advertisements for products and services. After realising the remarkable potential of this means of marketing, internet-based companies started opening their virtual doors for business. As opposed to what are now known as “brick and mortar” operations, these e-businesses offer their products and services to a growing number of consumers, conducting all, or nearly all, of their business in the virtual world of the internet.

There are many forms of marketing on the internet. Among them are video marketing, social media marketing, article marketing, blog marketing, e-mail marketing, search engine marketing (to include search engine optimisation), banner ads, pay-per-click ads, and pop-up ads. It is important to note that each of these forms catches the attention of the target market in different ways, and some may be more effective than others depending on the product or service, the target market, and the strategy and goal of the business marketing itself. Among the business functions that may require use of different means in their strategies are customer service, sales, public relations, information management, and others.

Internet marketing has also become an integral component of many “brick and mortar” operations, but online-only businesses have offered some challenge in the arena of retail sales, an example of business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing, business-to-business (B2B) marketing, and peer-to-peer (P2P) marketing. However, other online-only businesses have specialised into newer approaches, such as online auctions, sites that allow you to find the best price on what you’re shopping for, and also sites that allow you to name your own price. Further, affiliate marketers have emerged, offering marketing solutions to virtually all types of business. These firms typically receive what is called pay for performance. Even home-based businesses now flourish thanks to internet marketing.

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The online marketplace can do much to help promote your business and bring loyal customers to it. However, if you want to keep succeeding and stay up with the competition, you will need to maintain a good online reputation. Just as much as the social media networks can help your business, they can also do a lot of damage quickly. Rumours can spread like wildfire, and if you do not take the time to deal with them quickly and efficiently, your success could be threatened. So you must learn not only how to spread the word about your business, but also how to maintain a good online reputation.

Have a good customer service: As a business owner, you probably already recognise that issues are going to arise. Legitimate or not, customers will have reasons that they are not satisfied with some area of your service. And when this occurs, you need to have a team on hand to respond quickly and take care of the matter efficiently.

Handle the negative comments with extreme politeness: In the real world, you know that not everyone is going to be happy with your business. So if someone starts to leave some negative comments about you, This is an opportunity for you to take a problem and turn it into positive business marketing. It is important to answer them on the spot with a positive, polite, and humble attitude. Often those people will quickly back down when they recognise that you are on top of the issue, and it will save your reputation with many.

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I thought I would start a Social Media News Roundup which I will publish each week with some links to interesting stories I find in the Internet.  Let me know what you think and if I should keep it going.

This set of articles come from a site I constantly receive email from with their latest articles and I always I keep an eye on them closely as the writers seem to have their finger on the pulse.

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