The Five Basic Principles of Online Marketing
Copyright 2006 Mark Nenadic
Ask the experts about the most vital parts of online
marketing, and you’ll invariably come up with a list of
five major responses. These five critical online marketing
principles are:
1. Dead-ends
2. Giving and selling
3. Trust
4. Push and pull
5. Niche marketing
The dead-end principle means that your web marketing effort
can’t just exist. It must give prospective customers a
reason to look around and take action. Otherwise, it’s the
same as having them see your ad, then turn around and go
elsewhere – your ad was a dead-end to them, they didn’t get
anything out of it. No matter how informative your website
is, with gorgeous graphics and a winning layout, if it does
not encourage your visitors to take certain actions, then
it is just taking up web space and isn’t actually filling a
purpose. Therefore, when you’re designing your web
marketing strategy, before even building your site, you’ll
need to ask yourself how you’ll obtain your visitors.
You’ll then need to choose which activities will get you to
these results, and which of them can be done in-house, as
others are outsourced.
The giving and selling principle refers to the fact that
when people shop online, they expect to receive something a
little extra. Therefore, one fantastic method for
attracting customers to your website is to give something
to them for free, and then attempt to sell them something
else. The strategy typically goes as follows: the first
step is to attract people to your site using a good amount
of free information. The second step is to inform these
prospective customers about your products and services.
The free stuff doesn’t need to be something tangible. Even
the information has value, and then once they’re hooked,
they’re ready to learn about what you have to sell them.
Trust is an extremely important principle for web
marketing. In fact, many experts believe that it is the
most important of all the other principles for selling your
products and services. Without this trust, people simply
won’t buy from you and you won’t have a business. Trust is
built in a number of ways. This can include selling well
known and respected name brands, by clearly displaying your
privacy, shipping, and return policies, by joining well
known and respected organizations, and by offering
guarantees that you’ll stand by. A customer-friendly
system based on quality and transparency allows you to
build your credibility and will earn the trust of your
prospective customers, leading to more sales of your
products and services.
The push and pull principle works by pulling people into
your website using attractive content, and then pushing
your information to them on a regular basis using email.
This can be done in a number of ways; most commonly, this
has to do with opt-in programs such as newsletters and
updates about sales and other promotions. Since websites
are relatively passive, it is extremely useful to add an
active element to your marketing campaign that will remind
your prospective customers of your existence, and entice
them to act on what you have to offer.
Niche marketing has become a vital part of the web
marketing industry. It is a recognized fact that to be
successful, especially with an online business, you need to
know your niche, and market directly to them. With a small
business, finding the niche must be filled in order to give
them enough leverage against the competition. A niche
allows a business, no matter how large or small, to focus
on a certain corner of the marketplace, limiting the
competition, and focusing on the precise type of person who
is most likely to become a customer. The key to niche
marketing is to begin with a business plan to identify and
define your focus and purpose, and then build your website
and marketing strategy based upon the vision you’ve
outlined. This encourages consistency and accuracy
throughout your web marketing efforts.
All of these principles are very important to creating a
successful marketing strategy online. By making sure that
these principles are all fulfilled, you can be certain that
you’ll increase your number of new visitors, and – perhaps
more importantly – encourage past and current customers to
return.
Mark Nenadic
Mark is the director and face behind FifteenDegrees-North
http://www.15dn.com , where you will
find articles and
resources to help with SEO, marketing and Web design.
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