This was when 14.4kbps was the fastest dial-up modem speed available unless you had the thousands of dollars to spend on a speedy ISDN connection. Broadband high-speed affordable access was a pipe dream.
Now the internet is part of the everyday fabric of most people’s lives. People spend on average as much if not more time on the internet as they do watching television, providing a new and exciting way for businesses to reach and create a relationship with their target client base. The availability of internet-enabled phones such as the iPhone increases the power and reach of the internet even further.
Online marketing is by far the most cost-effective, measurable and flexible marketing medium available to businesses today. Like anything however, there are several elements that make up an effective online marketing strategy.
1. Have a really good website
Gone are the days when your website was treated as just another piece of marketing collateral along with your business card, letterhead or brochure. Your website should be at the centre of all your marketing communications.
It should have clear objectives and should compel visitors to engage with your business either by joining a mailing list or database, transacting with the business or pre-qualifying potential buyers by allowing them to quickly and easily search for information on your products and services. For example – the website could have facilities for a customer to make an enquiry, visit a store, subscribe for regular offers and information, make a transaction, leave a comment or vote.
The website should be regularly updated with new and relevant information so that visitors keep returning to the website for new information and your latest offers.
2. Invest in search engine optimisation and search engine marketing
A good search engine marketing strategy (via search engine optimisation and search engine marketing) will send targeted traffic to your website ready to buy. This means ensuring your site is ranked highly by search engines when relevant search terms are typed in. This can be achieved through website design and structure, content, and links to your site from other relevant websites. The most important success factor with search engine optimisation is to measure, analyse and change information on your site accordingly. Adding the Google Analytics tracking code to every page of your site (visit www.googleanalytics.com.au) will give you critical insights and information as to how visitors to your website behave and how to increase the relevance of your site to them, improving your search engine ranking in both the paid and non-paid listings.
3. Use email marketing
Email marketing is quite possibly the biggest opportunity for retail businesses to drive sales, yet it is surprising how few retailers utilise email marketing, and, of those that do, how few do it seriously. Peter Alexander started his retail business using database and email marketing building it to the major brand it is today. Refer to the CEO profile p.10). Having a customer database allows you to segment your customers and test different offers and monitor customer behaviour. Email marketing tools available today allow you to personalise your message and offer by segment, view the amount of people opening your emails, how many forward them on and which content they look at specifically.
Who could say the same about a printed catalogue? While they still have a valid place in the marketing mix, email marketing is by far the more powerful marketing tool.
Better still it’s infinitely cheaper.
4. Investigate using social media
As opposed to the more traditional publisher model, social media refers to web-based applications or tools that give the visitor to your website the power to create content on your site. The obvious tools most people are aware of are social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and You Tube and more recently Twitter.
Social media also refers to tools applied to any website such as live chat, forums, blogs, voting applications etc. Allowing users to publish feedback on products or their purchasing experience, or perhaps giving them the chance to vote for their favourite products gives you insight into what your customer wants and doesn’t want and also adds credibility to your offering.
The trick with social media is making sure you use any feedback to improve your offering because negative comments can work against you too. More and more online retailers are using social media to allow buyers to design their own products. E-tailers such as Threadless.com, Dell and Australia’s own Brewtopia are innovating their offering through social media tools. Offline retailers also have an opportunity to do the same.
5. Constantly measure, analyse and improve
Online marketing is not a ‘set and forget’ medium like more traditional marketing mediums. Many businesses dabbling in online marketing have disappointing results because they don’t monitor its effectiveness and then make changes accordingly. Having good tracking technology on your site, regularly looking at reports and then changing and testing new content and offers is critical.
Once you start to see the results online marketing can bring, you’ll be surprised by how you can drive customers to your business more quickly and cost-effectively than ever before.
