What Tools Do Internet Marketers Need?

Any successful internet marketing plan must have certain basic tools which later on become essential components without which the business risks collapse.

1. A Domain Name & Website: No discussions or prevarication are allowed on this one like I’ve said before when I discussed web resources. It doesn’t matter where you’re running your business from , people tend to trust companies that they perceive as being real businesses. Your website is your sales pitch. Make sure your design corresponds to the what your target audience would love to look at. The last thing you need is selling a product targeted at kids with a theme/design for adults.
   
   
   
2. A Domain Name & Blog: In some cases when you aren’t selling your own products or services and you’re on a shoe string budget, blogs are the way to go. With thousands of blogging themes out there and blogging softwares like TypePad, WordPress and Google to mention but a few, you could be up and running in minutes.Blogs are cheaper than websites and it’s a lot easier to drive traffic to a website because search engines are more blog friendly and there are so many social bookmarking sites that could help you in traffic generation. For those who have a loyal number of subscribers to their blogs, owning a website would give them an added advantage as their followers would definitely want to see what they have to offer and will most times buy from them because of trust that has been established.
3. E-mail List: Always provide a way for your customers to leave their email addresses before leaving your sites. It could be through subscribing for updates, free downloads, newsletters etc. These email addresses constitute your mailing list and can be very crucial to the success of your business. Under no circumstance whatsoever should you buy an email list. Most of your emails to addresses on the list will not be welcome and you risk being labeled a spammer and that in turn will HURT the credibility of your business entity. You might end up seeing your URL on sites that seek to alert web surfers on web sites/online businesses that spam the life out of email addresses.

With an authentic email list, you could promote future additions to your catalogue of products or special offers and even get them to forward promos to their friends who might be interested. When these friends land at your site, they could also sign on to your newsletter if they like what they see.

Make sure to include a privacy policy on your site stating how these email addresses will be put to use. Since most web surfers don’t read such things as terms of service or privacy policy, it will be wise to leave a small note beneath the sign up form that states that their information WILL NOT be shared with third parties and that they can leave the list anytime they want by just clicking on the unsubscribe link in every email you send to them. Protecting your customers is one big way of gaining their trust.

NOTE: Don’t go crazy sending out emails to your subscribers every 2 days as most of them will end up tagging you a nuisance to their inbox thus leading to their clicking the unsubscribe link. Always strive to reduce the amount of unsubscribers by not bugging.

P.S: Do let me know if this post has been helpful by leaving your comments below

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