Article: The Promotion ‘P’ and the Internet

Marketing on the Internet is a new business channel, yet in many ways it remains the same as traditional marketing using the five P’s of marketing. Today, use of the Internet for business marketers is a reality. Television, print, newspaper, and other traditional marketing avenues will continue to be used but those who ignore the Internet will lose the race for competitive advantage. On the other hand, those who have embraced the Internet to inform and sell have demonstrated its power and are innovators.

But companies need to learn what works on Web sites, how to communicate their message and how to differentiate their Web sites. You should examine companies who use their Web sites as a promotional tool, for brand image building, as a distribution channel, for customer service, and in building supplier relationships.

As in balancing your marketing mix, a disproportionate accent on any of the ‘P’s’ will unbalance your efforts. So it is with Internet ‘Promotion’. When you search any popular search engine for ‘website promotion’, you are inundated with sites that offer to cure all your search engine ills with the latest brand of submission oil. This fixation with search engines as the prime method of promotion on the Internet is a simplistic approach that only fulfils one of the many promotional aspects of the Internet.

While it agreed that the best e-commerce site in the world is worthless if no one can find it, but, too often, e-commerce start-ups either rely on search engines alone or use shotgun marketing, simply advertising everywhere, to everyone, in the hope that a fraction of a percent of those who see the ads will respond.

Promotion on the Internet has many methods, is complex, yet as with more traditional advertising requires that you understand where and how you will spend your marketing budget and what results are to be expected, as with any marketing campaign.

Search engines will provide you with new visitors attracted by your keywords and phrases but does your website have the personality to retain their interest? Banner campaigns on selected websites or in E-zines will provide many visitors and is advantageous in quickly producing those visitors.

In fact, in respect to online promotion, there is currently no better method for effectively targeting your intended market, no matter what your market than Online Email or E-zine Newsletter Advertising using either text or banners. 

There are thousands of online newsletters and E-zines, many of which have thousands of subscribers in every category imaginable. Many newsletters are published and written by experts in any given field or area and with email newsletter advertising, you can target the exact customer for your business, product or service directly.

It must be noted however that that the quality and reputation of the E-zines you select for your promotions must be excellent and have published statistics.

The above are but a few of the many methods used in attracting visitors to your website as part of your promotion, yet once there what do they do? What pages do they visit? What pages do they not visit? You must track visitors habits on your website, there are many solutions available. Install one of these cost effective monitoring services on your website and use it to learn who visits, from where, how they navigate your website and what pages they viewed.

Promotion on the Internet can provide almost instant feedback of all your visitors’ activities, but as with any promotion, once these visitors have entered through your virtual front door do you have product and services they need for the price they are willing to pay? If the other ‘P’s” were chosen wisely then your Internet promotion ‘P’ will bring many targeted visitors to your website. - John Shenton - May, 2002