The 5 Most Important Components of Your Web Marketing Program

In this Internet age that we live in, website marketing is critical to the success of any business. By promoting your business online, you are able to reach a vast audience, and for a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising.

Here are five of the most important components you need to have in place when launching (and sustaining) an Internet marketing program:

1. Planning & Strategy

In business, it's never wise to rush into anything without a solid plan. The same is true for your web marketing campaign. If you want to ensure the best possible results, you need to have a plan / strategy that accounts for such things as audience, message, selling points, techniques, etc.

The best way to begin is by asking some key questions:

• Who is my audience, and how does my product / service relate to them?
• What are the key selling points of my product or service?
• How will I reach and communicate with my audience online?
• What are the primary (and specific) goals of my Internet web marketing program?
• What kind of information do I need on my website to accomplish these goals?
• Who is going to manage my website marketing program?

Obviously, the questions listed above will generate even more questions. And that's the whole point of this process. Asking questions, answering them, and playing devil's advocate will help you address all of the details before you get into the actual process.

2. Online Visibility

So let's say you've addressed everything listed above, and you are ready to begin promoting your website and growing your business online. What next? The next thing you need to focus on is online visibility. In this context, visibility refers to the ease with which people can find you online.

There are billions of individual documents on the Internet these days, and the growth rate is constant (especially with the rise of blogs). This makes it harder for the individual webmaster to rise above the noise and be noticed. Even within your industry and niche, there will be many websites for your audience to choose from. So you need your site to be extremely visible and easy to find.

Fortunately, there are many techniques you can use to increase your visibility online. Search engine optimization (SEO) can obviously help, but it's not the only thing you can do. You can also publish articles online to drive traffic and increase awareness of your site. You can distribute press releases across the web. You can publish a business blog, network with others, participate in networking websites and forums ... the possibilities are endless.

Here's a good rule of thumb to keep in mind. The more active you are online, the more visible you will be. On the contrary, if you are static you will be invisible.

3. Onsite Conversions

Traffic is important for Internet marketing success. If people don't visit your website or blog, how can you sell them your products or services? But traffic is only one step along the path to your ultimate goal, which is to increase sales and grow your business.

That's where website conversions come into the picture. For example, if somebody visits your website and joins your newsletter, then a conversion has taken place. The person has "converted" from just a visitor to a newsletter subscriber. Other forms of conversion include online sales, lead generation, inquiries and other forms of contact.

4. Tracking & Analysis

To ensure your success online, you have to know what's going on. So you need to track and analyze your results at each step of the way. This includes using a web analytics program to monitor your traffic, using feedback forms during online interactions, keeping tabs on your search engine rankings, etc.

One of the great things about website marketing is that you can get nearly instant results and feedback. You can try out a particular technique, judge the success of it within days, and then try different techniques for the sake of comparison. But you can't do any of this until you start tracking and analyzing your efforts.

5. Constant Evolution

As consumers, we are still motivated by the same things today as we were ten years ago. We still seek products and services that will help us in some way, by making us healthier, wealthier, smarter, happier, etc.

But while the motivations of consumers haven't changed much, the methods for reaching those consumers are constantly evolving. This is especially true online, where new technologies emerge every year.

To ensure the long-term success of your Internet marketing program, you need to keep track of emerging trends and technologies in this arena. For example, few business owners had heard of a blog five years ago, but now it seems that everybody has one. This is one evolutionary example of many.