Internet marketing

For the last three months we at Kuzabiashara have been doing capacity building workshops with SMEs, giving them website management tips and other tips on online marketing and social media marketing. At one time, internet marketing mainly consisted of having a website and or placing banner adverts on other websites. But wait, just what is internet marketing?

I could say internet marketing is the ability of a business to take into marketing  and promoting their products or services over the Internet. However, there are many definitions of internet marketing and online marketing.

Internet/online marketing is today evolving into a wider mix of components which can be used by a company as a tool of sales increase.  Increasingly, internet marketing is becoming a marketing tool as many established and upcoming businesses are under pressure to attract the wider online client base.

For you to carry a successful online marketing campaign, you need to have a complete understanding of what you want to use the online platform. In this, you need to communicate the company’s message comprehensively, clearly outline the products and services offered in the company.

You are supposed to do this after you have conducted a comprehensive research on the nature, demographics, preferences and needs of the target customers. You will then be able to select the category of goods and services to upload onto the internet or your preferred online advertising channel.

Social Media Marketing

Just like traditional marketing, Social Media Marketing shares the same branding and messaging goals, but differs on its execution. Social Media Marketing is a form of Internet Marketing carried out through the many social networking sites.

 Social sites however include outlets and opportunities present on the Internet, such as social networks, communities, blogs, forums and other emerging forms of online media. Any site where users generate the content can be considered a social media site. However, unlike traditional marketing, Social Media Marketing takes a much more subtle approach because activities in this arena must be catered to the community-based nature of the social outlet that they searve.

An effective Social media marketing campaign must therefore stimulate interest and participation from its target audience without breaking the bonds of consumer trust. Social media marketing can ruin or build your brand and you therefore need to approach this new kind with caution.

While marketing on this channel, you still use the structures, startegies and understandings just like on internet marketing. The advantage with Social Media marketing is that, social media marketing attracts a wider client base owing to the large number of social media consumers.

The term social media applies to a variety of niche forums, news sites, blogs and industry-specific consumer generated content sites. The main activity on sites consists of connecting with other like-minded people and/or sharing some form of content. You can therefore write as much as you can about your service and product menu on these sites to entice the viewers. While using social sites, you need to comprehensively describe your product and give links to your website for further clarifications.

E-mail marketing.

This is a direct mode of online marketing where you target your clients directly by sending them mail. However, this is channel is more time consuming as you will need to find your clients E-mail addresses. Email marketing is basically the online equivalent of direct mail marketing. This can as well be used as a tool to direct people to your website especially when using the corporate emails.

Corporate emails have the title of your website therefore; you can attract traffic to your website as through curiosity, people may seek to know more about your firm. With email marketing, you can send basics about your product menu to specific people, citing therein your website as a source for more information.

Basically as technology advances, you as a business person have to grow with it. In this case everything is moving away from the normal physicality to online presence. You don’t need to visit your clients physically to showcase your wares since you can do this online. Social interactions such as Google hang out, Skype folder share, screen share, Facebook chat among other components of social media have made all these easy and simple.

You have the strategy, knowhow and a clear way on going about online and internet marketing. Now get up and grow.

Entrepreneurial learning.

Entrepreneurs need to make complete use of the online media and social media platform as this is the new trend on internet marketing. They need to come up with a working strategy, carry out a comprehensive market survey and establish their consumer needs before venturing into online advertising/marketing.