Internet Retailer - Internet Marketing

If your business is based on the internet your initial marketing focus should probably be almost exclusively internet based.

I have gone to great lengths in the past to try and dissuade people from promoting (possibly great) but obscure products on-line, in the knowledge that people tend to use the internet to research, find and purchase products they are already aware of. It stands to reason that people aren’t going to look for items they don’t know exist.

There are, of course, techniques where you can attempt to create a market for your product. It’s a very risky strategy to base a new internet site on a innovative concept or product line, as people in general may find it difficult to grasp the concept.  Also, putting your point across within the average persons attention span is often extremely difficult.  However, the internet would be pretty dull if it could not be used to discuss and promote new and innovative concepts and products.

Understanding where your product fits into the market place is key. Attaining an extensive knowledge of who is likely to be interested in your products and the sites where those people spend their time on the internet is also very important. Once you have an understanding of who your target audience is, you then need to find the sites, discussion boards, forums and blogs they read.

The next part is potentially very difficult. On the internet the average window of opportunity where you can hold the visitors attention is limited to a maximum of a couple of sentences (or a single well constructed image, where the advertising medium allows). If you can produce a two-sentence catch-line that creates significant interest in your product you may have cracked it.

You need to create a catch-line that is sufficiently irresistible that people feel compelled to have a look at what treasures lie on the page behind the link. Once you have their attention it is then your job, once again, within a very short space of time, to create a need for your product within the visitors life. You will be amazed how quickly people lose interest and click away; you have to blow their socks off within the first couple of seconds. Remember once you have them within your own web-space you can construct your pages however you want, quality descriptive pictures, interesting descriptions and limelight grabbing headlines can be used as you see fit. Having a catch-line that gets the visitors to your site in the first place is key and most advertising mediums available will only afford you a couple of sentences to generate this interest.

Lifestyle, love, sex, relationships, money, wealth, power, health, fitness, security and entertainment are some of the themes you can use to appeal to your target markets basic wants and needs. Use every trick in the book to tie your product to an aspiration within a mainstream theme.

For example Rolex never advertise watches they advertise the lifestyle and the perception that wearing the watch creates. People who wear Rolex watches crave the high-life; often they also like others to believe they are successful people. Rolex’s clever marketing convinces the customer that being seen wearing a Rolex will convince other people that the wearer is a successful person who is living the high-life. 

Your website is, in effect, one big advert, every page should be constructed to promote whatever it is your website is selling. Even non-commercial websites are selling you something, simple informational sites are there to provide you with a service in the hope that you will return again or tell other people about the site. Otherwise, what’s the point?

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