How to become a successful Internet Marketer

Internet Marketing is the art & science of attracting visitors online. Marketing is an art of attraction, Internet is the science Marketers need to understand. The question becomes; How do you mix art & science to be a successful Internet Marketer?

Banners, Emails, Search & Social Media
Internet Marketing started in 1994 as a science by people exchanging public emails. The first books on Internet Marketing came shortly afterwards and some time in the beginning of the new millennium Internet Marketing became an established field.

Most people think of banners when they hear the word Internet Marketing. Maybe you also connect it to solicited or un-solicited email? Google search and Facebook advertising are definitely part of the picture. As you who reads this probably are very well into the subject, you know its also so much more.

What is the number one factor behind successful Internet Marketing?
Internet Marketing is no different than any other marketing. In order to succeed you need to have something brilliant or at least something very good to market. Companies like Apple & Google have had brilliant products as a foundation for their marketing success.

The challenge for most of us marketers is that what we’re trying to market is not as brilliant as Google’s Search Engine or as unique as Apple’s products. So how do we succeed when the product is neither brilliant or unique?

Content & Communication
Creating compelling content  is fundamental. Even though your product might not be unique or brilliant, the way you create content for it in the form of text, graphics & video will help you attract the audience you want to reach.

The second factor is to make sure you communicate your content to as many as possible of the target audience you’d like to reach online.

Online Communication  preferences
In the beginning of Internet email was the “only” communication method. Email existed before homepages, that existed before Social Media.

If you should choose one method to market online, it should be through email. Why? Because every person online will have at least one email-address. That email-address is the starting point to communicate with your target audience.

Complex online communication
Since email began, its been an explosion of possibilities to communicate online. Depending on your Industry, the target audience maturity level and their technology power (do they have high-speed Internet access, do they use cell-phones to access the Internet etc.) the methods to communicate online can be very complex.

My advice to you is to be very clear; this is how I will communicate to you! If you choose Facebook, then be an expert at Facebook communication. If you choose to build your own homepage, then make that homepage so great that it by itself is a sufficient way to generate awareness.

Exclusion of communication methods has become key to Internet Marketing success
Its natural to jump on new bandwagons as they drive along. Its also natural that most bandwagons will not lead you to the right destination.

There are a few exceptions to the key to success that are outlined in this blog-post which basically are very, very large organizations that can handle every communication method. However, most of us are not in those organizations, and for us selection is key; how do you choose to communicate?

Summary; content + selective communication
The great thing of being a marketer has not changed anything with the Internet. The foundation for the biggest successes is to have a great story to tell about a great product.

If you don’t have the best or most unique product in the world you can still be very successful by weaving a great story around it.

However, the challenge for all Internet Marketers today is to choose from the magnificent landscape of mobile web, applications, search engines, social medias, avatars etc to find the communication method that fits yourself your audience and remain true to it.

Disclaimer
What I’m not recommending in this blog-post is that you should avoid all other communication methods than the selected one. Its always recommended to have “protected” popular or to be popular online communication places like Facebook, Google+ etc with a page or information about how to get in touch with you or a selected stream of content. The idea however is that you can only be good at “so much” so even though you’ve created a Google+ page, its not necessary for you to communicate actively through it or to publish all content in all channels.

More sources of information
Email – still the workhorse of Internet Marketing