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Trends In Internet Marketing
Internet Marketing Basics

Almost all of the articles on Internet marketing lacks coverage on all the basics and all the avenues of Internet marketing because there is just too much information to cover in a few words. Here I am going for an attempt which will be an overview not an in depth affair.

Here I would cover four basic marketing subjects:

Market Research

Search Engines

Ezine Advertising

Email Marketing

Market Research This is the most basic part of any marketing campaign. This involves how much you are going to invest in the campaigns and where you are going to invest. Investing the right money at right place is the key. If you dont know your target market and how to reach them; if you dont know the value of the message youre attempting to convey; if you dont know the answer to all the pertinent questionsyour advertising and the whole project will fail.

The most basic step in researching your market is to first have a target. There should be a clear picture in your mind about the target audience and you should treat them as your potential customers. This means you know who youre aiming for their likes dislikes general age group income business type etc. and have a general idea how to hit them. Sample target markets would include:

This includes the segregation based on

Age group

Qualification

Per capital income

Spending capacity

Geographical location

Business class

Technocrats

Once you know who your target is the more information the better youre ready to get into the nittygritty of market research. There are five basic ideas in market research: Primary Secondary Combined all types of research and Qualitative and Quantitative ways of gathering the information.
A quick definition of each:

Primary research is research conducted by the primary user of the information. Secondary research is gathered elsewhere and used by you purchased leased etc.. Most small businesses conduct both of these types of market research customer surveys for primary information and by researching free or paying fees for secondary information. This is called Combined research.

Qualitative research is usually exploratory and has a direction or goal. It generally aims at specific issues in the subject matter and gives you a better idea in which direction you should proceed. This type of research is loose and is geared more towards finding a market or narrowing your market than it is towards getting specific information on that market and where your product fits within it.

Quantitative is much more rigid than qualitative marketing. This research gets much more accurate statistical results and information and is best used when your target market is already narrowed and you wish to find ways to reach or explore that market as well as find specific information on your product as it relates to that market.

Generally businesses conduct qualitative research during the exploratory research and development phase of their product to see if it is viable on the market and what they need in order to reach their market more fully with the product colors shapes uses etc.. Once the item is ready to hit the streets qualitative research is used to finetune the market niche and begin offering the product for sale.

Conducting your own market research is timeconsuming but is very well worth it if you have a need for information or if you are spending any considerable amount of money on your marketing for specific products or services.

Search Engine Marketing
This has for a long time now been a hot phrase in online marketing circles. Im not sure why since while it is generally an important part of a presence online it is not the endallbeall of marketing on the Internet. Search engines have become one of the most expensive forms of advertising on the Web but have also become one of the most effective. Great search engine marketing read: placement strategy etc. is done by professionals and takes a lot of time to do correctly. There are two types of search engines to market towards: search engines/directories and payperclick PPC engines.

Search directories Yahoo! and engines Google require a lot of patience to market effectively. Even if you are paying for your listing it can take weeks to appear on their site. Further your positioning on their site can change regularly as their indexes change or they change the rules of ranking on searches. On top of all of that you have paid advertisements and paid listings see PPC below that can usurp your position or push you further down in the results.

Payperclick PPC engines are much easier to use but also more expensive. A campaign on Overture for example can total hundreds of dollars in a single day. These engines however can usually get you a higher listing on a regular search engine such as Yahoo! much faster and with steadier results. Google Adwords is one more example in this category. This approach should be taken when the site is a new site there is no brand name associated with the website. This gives instant traffic to any website and which in turn increases popularity of the site among the affiliates who are in constant search for the good affiliate program websites.

Whichever course you take I would recommend both if youre serious about search engine marketing be prepared to spend a lot of time and a goodly amount of money in your endeavor. A listing at Yahoo! for example is 300/year and the average perclick cost on Overture is about 0.75.

EZine Advertising
In my experience this is by far the most effective form of advertising at very low cost online. That said be leery of offers to get your ad in 50 email newsletters for only 25. I doubt youll see one response for your 25 since most of the readers of these ezines are probably other people who paid for advertising as well.

If you have researched your market well then you know the general wants and desires of your targets. Using that information you can find the online newsletters email or webbased that these people would be interested in. Chances are that publication takes advertising. There are three basic types of advertising to a newsletter list: solo ads topline ads and classified ads.

Solo ads are sent to the entire or a part of depending on the options given newsletter list these ads contain ONLY your advertisement or perhaps your ad plus an article to get the reader interested in looking. These are the most effective type of advertising through most newsletters but are also the most expensive. Expect to pay 20 or more per 1000 impressions in a good publication.

Topline ads are just that: ads that appear at the very top of a newsletter or at the top of an article in the newsletter. These are also highly effective and are fairly costefficient at about half the price of a solo advert.

Classified ads are the most useless of the three options given. Theyre usually very cheap but almost always appear at the bottom of the newsletter and are generally bypassed by the readers who rarely read that far into the publication. These are cheap though 5/issue is not uncommon and can be effective when combined with one of the other two options to spread your advertising over several issues.

Email Marketing
Marketing online using email is a touchy affair and can easily lead to many problems. Despite this it is by far the most effective form of advertising online bar none. An email advertisement to a targeted and strong list of people can generate responses of close to 1/3 1 response for every 3 targets. Thats phenomenal in ANY form of advertising.

There are three types of email marketing: SPAM/UCE optin and newsletter marketing.

SPAM/UCE Unsolicited Commercial Email is something that everyone whether savvy online or not has heard of. The word SPAM has risen from questionable meat in a can to plague of the Internet in the past three or four years. Despite its bad name and any personal feelings I may have opt for it because SPAM is a very effective form of email advertising. If it werent it wouldnt exist. Doing it correctly however is expensive and requires much thought using it even just once can affect your business for better or worse for the duration of your time online.

OptIn email advertising is extremely effective and carries very little of the weight of SPAM marketing. The idea is pretty basic: you create a list of email addresses and send marketing messages to them occasionally. The hard part is getting those names to start with. Usually other forms of advertising get your website going and this type propels it forward.

Newsletter marketing is similar to optin marketing but includes useful information such as articles or insights. In fact youre probably reading this article through a newsletter that is being used to market a business of some type or another. Newsletters can be timeconsuming but are well worth the effort. Some newsletter publishers supplement their income by running advertisements in their publications see newsletter marketing above.

Of these three types of marketing I have had the most success with newsletter marketing followed closely by optin advertising. That said be VERY wary of email lists for purchase or hire that claim to be optin. Generally these are NOT what they appear to be and you will receive several complaints of SPAMming if you use them. Building a list of names and emails for optin or newsletter publication is difficult but very much worth the trouble for the payoffs in the long run. I have run my own newsletter for over a year now and receive more comments input and business through that than I do any other venue excepting wordofmouth. If done right a proper newsletter or optin list can greatly increase your success online. If you feel you dont have the time or skill to publish your own newsletter there are those who will do it for you .

Conclusion
Advertising online is a very timeconsuming affair but essential to your success. If you dont advertise your business will fail. There are no exceptions to this rule. Some form of advertising takes place for every business type without exception. Marketing requires thought time and effort to succeed but as an essential part of your business its directly related to your rewards at the end of the day!

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Himanshu Singh Partner Himshilp Internet Marketing Consultants have over 8 years of experience in Internet marketing services like SEO SEM.

http://www.himshilp.com

8 Things That Motivate Web-audience Response

It’s always a good idea to stick to the basics. When businesses stray too far from the fundamentals problems arise but sticking to the basics doesn’t mean boring people into a state of unconsciousness. If Webvisitors’ eyes glazeover upon entering your site you’ve lost them before you’ve begun.

Web success is based on creative implementation of the basics and that’s where your Webmarketing presentation should begin.

1. WebAudience Response Demands Communication

The Web has a lot in common with television but there are fundamental differences; it is important for Webentrepreneurs to understand these differences and similarities and learn from them.

Television and the Web are both communication environments but television like magazines and newspapers are primarily advertising platforms. Of course there are plenty of websites around that follow the advertising financial model but for the average business website depending on third party advertising not only dilutes their marketing message and brand but it also makes for a confusing and cluttered visual presentation.

Just because your website presents information doesn’t mean it’s communicating it to your intended audience in any meaningful way. The manner in which you communicate your message is as important as the message itself. The medium is increasingly becoming the message and even in situations where it isn’t it definitely shapes the message.

2. WebAudience Response Demands Content

You have repeatedly heard the comment ‘content is king’ but we think ‘communication is king’ because without communication your content is meaningless. But here’s the dilemma your information is basically advertising after all you’re in business and business is about selling something a product a service an idea or your knowhow. So the real underlying purpose of your website is to make that advertising message worth listening to and to do that you need to turn it into content.

To turn advertising into content you have to accept that sales take time. You have to be patient. You can’t hurry a sale you first have to build confidence; stop rushing the close and start thinking of selling as a courtship. You would never ask someone to get married on a first date so why would you expect to get an order from a potential Webclient on their first visit.

3. WebAudience Response Demands Courtship

No one is going to make a substantial financial commitment without reaching some level of comfort with who you are and what you do and that requires some repeated contact: a courtship or negotiation if you prefer.

Therein lies the similarity and difference between websites and television: the success of a television program is based on habituation. If you get people to tunein every week on the same night at the same time to see their favorite program you will be able to keep delivering your marketing message through the commercials that pay for the content. In the same regard if you can make your website interesting enough through the compelling presentation of content you will get visitors to return again and again each time gaining confidence and respect for what you do and what you sell.

The difference is people accept television commercials as the price they pay for free TV programming but the same cannot be said for the Web. People want free information on the Web without the irritation and bother of ads; so the challenge for website owners is to turn their marketing message into compelling programming that creates habituation which is just another form of negotiation or courtship of potential clients.

4. WebAudience Response Demands Consistency

You hear the word strategy bandied about with little relevance to its precise meaning. In marketing terms strategy is a big idea a sustainable concept that you can build a business around.

Successful companies rarely change their strategies a concept that should not be confused with tactics which are the various methods used to implement strategy in order to secure the ultimate objectives.

Business has to be resilient and openminded enough to adapt to an everchanging business environment by constantly updating tactics but strategy needs to be a constant a touchstone or benchmark for implementing action. Staying on course requires confidence in the strategy with a vigilant eye on the big picture.

Websites that are nothing more than brochures or catalogs of product that anyone can purchase at the local mall or box store is a tactic that delivers little relevance to today’s Websavvy consumer. And the same can be said for the blatantly obvious direct marketing sites based on old magazine subscription techniques. The new multimedia communicationbased Web requires new presentation tactics in order to successfully implement marketing strategy.

5. WebAudience Response Demands Expectation

Successful marketing is not just about persuading people that what you have is what they need it’s about creating a series of deliverable expectations.

If you expect a product to be easy to use because that’s what the marketing communication states then that product better be easy to use. Effective marketing presentations not only prompt action but just as importantly they create a set of realistic deliverable expectations.

Ask yourself why do people mistrust politicians car salesmen and telemarketers? We all know the answer: many will say and promise just about anything to get your vote or order and the result is a disgruntled cynical voter or customer. Read my lips no false expectations!

6. WebAudience Response Demands Trust

When customers’ expectations are met you begin to create trust and trust is one of the hardest things to achieve on a website that lacks any kind of human connection to the audience.

I can’t tell you how many websites I’ve visited that make no effort to humanize their presentations and consequently their businesses. When you go to a contact page and all that’s there is a form to fillin with no contact name or phone number it says to people ‘I really can’t be bothered talking to you.’ Hiding behind email tells people not to trust you and if they don’t trust you they are not going to do business with you.

Business is about connecting to people whether they are consumers purchasing agents or suppliers. If your website doesn’t have some kind of human element like a video Webhost audio message or even a contact name and phone number how can you expect to connect and build confidence and trust in your intent to satisfy their needs?

7. WebAudience Response Demands Personality

By building trust with your Webaudience you are also building your brand and defining your corporate personality. Here again we have a bit of a dichotomy since personality is a humanbased characteristic so how then can we create a personality and instill human characteristics into an inanimate entity like a business?

Corporate personality does not derive from a logo packaging or your website’s aesthetic qualities. Corporate personality is the sum total of the collective experiences your audience has with your company. In the brick and mortar world corporate personality is a result of dealing with people sales people receptionists and telemarketers; in short personality is derived from interaction with real human beings.

Clever well written website copy can help create personality as long as it is written in a distinctive human voice but we know that 70 of all website text is never read; people skip to bulleted points and captions. But the same material delivered by a real person either through Webaudio or video not only delivers the marketing message in the most memorable and compelling fashion but it also defines the business personality and humanizes the website.

Two caveats: avatars are not people and unless you can afford to hire the creators of the Simpsons to develop your animation you best forget it; as well using yourself or a nonprofessional as a spokesperson or Webhost is a dangerous practice and speaks more to ego than it does to effective business development.

8. WebAudience Response Demands Motivation

Lastly your website must communicate content that excites and motivates people to do business with you. The ability to motivate people isn’t about what you’re selling; it’s about how you present it.

Motivational speakers whether in the business entertainment personal coaching or sports arenas all deliver a similar message; but the ones that truly stimulate people to act are the ones that know how to present their ideas in the most exciting and compelling manner. If you want to motivate your Webaudience to respond your presentation has to be delivered by a real human being: a professional with charm charisma and a distinctive character.

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia a website design firm that specializes in Webaudio and Webvideo. Visit http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads http://www.136words.com and http://www.sonicpersonality.com.
Contact at infomrpwebmedia.com or telephone 905 7641246.

About Us

People ask “What do you do?” You could say we inform enlighten innovate and create; you could also say we deliver our clients’ marketing messages in memorable ways using video audio webmedia campaigns and websites; all created inhouse from concept to implementation from graphic and motion design to Webdesign from script writing to videoproduction to postproduction from music composition to signature sound design.

What do we do? We motivate action by speaking to your audience’s real needs. We tell your story so your brand your message embeds in the minds of your clients. We are corporate storytellers.

Digital File Preparation Guide

Use Page Layout Programs such as InDesign or Quark
Create your document in the exact size of the final trimmed piece. For example if you are creating a letter size multiplepage document with facing pages your page size would be 8.5×11 not 11×17.
Use the master page to place common items such as page numbers in the same location on multiple pages.
Create multiplepage documents in readers spreads.
Extend images that bleed off the document page by an 1/8 standard.
Delete unused colors in the color palette from EPS and page layout files.
Images that crossover facing pages should be divided into two separate picture boxes and aligned on their respective pages.
Scale bitmap images no more than 10 up or down from their original size. A drastic enlargement will cause loss of detail and a drastic reduction may extend imaging time and delay your job.
Link images in your Illustrator and FreeHand files. Do not embed them.

Tip: Remember to include any special Quark Xtensions you may have used to create your document.
Tip: Creating files in drawing programs such as Illustrator FreeHand or Corel Draw can sometimes incur additional charges by printers.

Saving images
Save all PhotoShop files in the CMYK color mode which includes any nested or embedded files.
Submit PhotoShop files only in the TIFF or EPS formats DCS is an EPS.
Delete any unused alpha channels or clipping paths in flattened PhotoShop files.
Delete unused colors in the color palette from Illustrator FreeHand.
Turn off JPEG LZW or ZIP compression in your PhotoShop files.

There are two types of images: Vector and Bitmap. Vector images consist of lines and curves you create in programs like Illustrator or Freehand.They are called vectors because they can be described in mathematical terms such as size length and position .Vector graphics are deviceindependent meaning they can be scaled up or down with no loss in detail.

Bitmap images are created in painting programs such as PhotoShop. Bitmaps also called raster images are created on a grid with small squares called pixels. Each pixel has a location and color value assigned to it. These images are devicedependent meaning they have a fixed number of pixels for a given area. Images that look jagged or bitmapped do not have a sufficient amount of pixel information or resolution. A high resolution image will have more pixels per grid which allows for greater detail and color transitions.

Tip: A formula for determining resolution dpi is: 1.5 x the line screen = resolution. Many still use the old formula of 2x the line screen but there is no visible loss of detail at this lower dpi and it saves valuable disk space.

Image types
Bitmap in Bitmap mode Typically black white images no grays used for text or logos. These should be saved at 600 dpi as a TIFF and scaled to 100 of the intended size.The background can be set to
none.Use your page layout program to colorize the image.

Bitmap in Grayscale or CMYK mode These are black white or color images.They should be saved at 225 dpi as a TIFF or EPS and scaled to 100 of the intended size. Printers prefer TIFFs if there are no clipping
paths because EPSs tend to have a slightly larger file size.The background should be set to white or a color in QuarkXpress.

Tip: If you are creating an image with a clipping path it must be saved as an EPS and the tolerance should be set between 2 and 4 with 2 being a tighter setting for irregular shapes.

Bitmap in duotone mode These images can be monotones duotones tritones or quadtones and must be saved as an EPS.

Tip: Use channel 1 for the darkest color and if you are using black make sure it says Black in the window not Process Black your page layout program will see it as a different color. Set the screen angles in your page layout program not in PhotoShop. Scott Lithographing can select them for you upon request.

Vector Can be saved at any size and scaled up or down in your page layout program we suggest 100 for a better preview and they can only be saved as an EPS.

Tip: Prevent gradient banding: Set the output resolution to 2540.

Color Modes
You may color correct in RGB or LAB but save images that will be imported into you page layout program in CMYK mode. Importing in RGB will prevent the image from being output properly. RGB is for images that will only be viewed on a monitor.

Tip: Remember to calibrate your monitor frequently and delete any alpha channels to reduce the file size.

Color Selection
Spot PMS colors must use the same name in all image files. For instance if you are using PMS 185 CV in a file and PMS 185 CVU in another your page layout program will see them as two separate colors. Please indicate if a PMS color is to be spot or built out of process colors.

Tip: Keep in mind that some spot colors do not reproduce satisfactorily when built out of process.

Tip: If you are using metallic inks it is a good idea to aqueous coat or varnish the sheet to prevent smearing.

Fonts
Be sure to include the printer and screen font for each Type 1 font.
Check the font usage window to ensure you have included all your fonts.
If youve used fonts in EPS artwork: Either convert the text to paths or include the fonts.

Basic types of fonts: PostScript TrueType OpenType.
Postscript comes in Type 12 or 3 Type 1 is the most popular.You will have two fonts; the screen font and the printer font.The screen font is for
displaying the font on your screen the icon shows a single “A”.The printer font is used by printers and imagesetters to create the type mathematically.

TrueType contains both the screen and printer fonts in one file the icon shows three “As.

OpenType fonts are gaining in popularity due to their crossplatform ability and flexibility. They are essentially a Type 1 or TrueType font in a TrueType shell so you will have only one file per font weight or style i.e. bold italics small caps etc….

Tip: Use current and brand name fonts whenever possible ie.Adobe Bitstream. Keep a compressed version of your font library and replace any fonts that cause printing problems.

Tip: Use the actual weight of the typeface such as Helvetica Bold.Do not use menu styling.

Trapping
Printers normally handle trapping so discuss any concerns you have. If you are comfortable doing your own you should relay that to your printer. Although it may make you liable for any trapping errors.

Spelling
As a rule printers do not check the spelling of documents because they are not privy to the jargon product names or special pronouns of other industries. Spellcheck and proofread your document carefully. Its also an excellent idea to have two other individuals proofread the text before submittal.

PC Files
Printers were primarily Macbased but virtually all of them now accept PC files created in QuarkXpress Pagemaker InDesign PhotoShop Illustrator Freehand and Corel Draw EPS files. Its a good idea to check with your printer before submitting files created with Microsoft products such as MS Word or Publisher.

Collecting Files
I strongly suggest using the Collect for Output option when using QuarkXpress. Collect all the elements of your job images fonts and final files and place them into one of three folders: Finals Support and Fonts.Do not send files that are not pertinent to the job. Please be aware that Quark will list the fonts on the collect for output report but it will not collect them for you.

Tip: I strongly recommend using FlightCheck or your page layout program’s “preflight” feature prior to submitting your files.

Media
Printers accept just about any media today and many have ftp sites that can save you travel time.Your printer should have a list of acceptable media.

Archiving
Many printers archive your work for the purpose of rerunning it but do not count on it! Be sure you have a backup copy of your project. I suggest a regular archiving procedure to ensure you have your work in the future. Personally I use a digital tape system with Retrospect and I keep a full catalog outside the studio in the event of fire or other loss.

FINAL CHECK LIST:
All electronic files support images and fonts on disk
All photos transparencies or art to be scanned
Any special instructions
A set of color proofs or lasers
A set each of bw laser composites/separations
A mockup if applicable
A previously printed sample if applicable

About the Author
Derald Schultz is the founder and principal of Mediarail Design Inc. A design firm based in Atlanta Georgia specializing in graphic design web design and commercial printing services. Mr. Schultz holds degrees in Printing Publishing and Visual Communications. He worked within the design and printing communities for over 25 years before launching his own firm. Mediarail Design serves a wide variety clients across the country.

20062008 Derald Schultz Mediarail Design Inc.

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;a insurance agentdoing business articles more