Succesfull Internet Marketer

It’s difficult to travel the roadway to success when you don’t know your destination. How can you plan out a travel route to get there when the end destination is vague and undefined? Without a specific goal in mind you can end up going around in circles without ever really accomplishing much. This is one of the biggest problems that most Internet marketers face and the sad thing is they don’t even realize it.

Defining the goal
It’s important to take some time to sit down and define your goals. You can have one main goal that you are trying to reach or a series of them. It doesn’t really matter which it is. It’s best though just to look at one goal at a time to keep things as simple as possible. You’ll have plenty of time to work on your other goals once you have reached the first. Getting too dispersed, especially when you’re first starting out, can be an absolute killer.

The more defined the goal is the better able you’ll be to mark out the route to get there. What exactly do you want to achieve? What are your monetary goals? What kind of marketing do you enjoy doing? What do you really want to accomplish once all has been said and done? These are the types of things that you should be looking at.

It’s not all monetary
If you sit down and write out that you want to earn $1 million by the age of 35, it’s a goal but it is not a complete one. You’ll need to dig a bit deeper in order to find out exactly why you want to have this million dollars in your pocket by this certain age. Perhaps you want to provide an education to your children that you weren’t able to experience when you were young. Maybe you want to get debt-free so that you never have to worry about being insolvent again. No matter what your “why” is it’s important to really examine it fully. This will give you a better shot at reaching the success that you’re aiming for.

It’s like climbing a mountain
Do you ever wonder why people spend their time trying to climb a mountain? Is it because they really want to get to the top or is it because once they do reach their peak they can see all of the other mountains ahead of them? It’s fascinating to see what can happen when you do reach one of your goals in life. All of a sudden a whole mountain range of other goals appears from out of the distance that you can strive to reach. After all, what is life without a goal? Without a goal you don’t have a game or any type of route to follow.
A life without goals really isn’t any fun at all. If you’re going to play the Internet marketing game to the fullest and find true success you’ll want to have a firm goal in place and then mark out the route to get there. When you have certainty about your destination you’ll find that you’ll be able to survive all of the ups and downs that come with the trip a lot easier than you would if you were traveling a road filled with uncertainty and doubt.
Now get connected with your Internet marketing goals and make something happen!

Guest posting is fantastic. The best part about it is that its benefits go far and beyond simply link-building.

Yes, one of the biggest advantages of guest posting is it’s amazing ability to easily give you safe and Google-friendly backlinks. For free! High-PR backlinks are usually a pain to get; they certainly are not easy to get, and even though Google frowns upon buying links, high-PR backlinks from authority websites will usually cost you a dime or two.

Which is one of the biggest advantages of guest blogging; you get use it to build authority backlinks for nothing! But like I said, its advantages go beyond the ability to give you a valuable backlink.

For one, guest blogging allows you to build authority, and position yourself as an authority figure in your niche. If you follow the best practices mentioned later on in this post, you could actually build a name for yourself.

Secondly, guest blogging allows you to get more exposure and drive in traffic to your blog easily. 

And then there are plenty of other advantages, such as building your influence, your portfolio and increasing your credibility, higher SERPs, the chance to improve your writing skills, the chance to network and build relationships with authority bloggers and some of the best minds out there, increase your sales, increase your subscribers, and of course, enhancing your social media profile.

Here’s a list of a few best practices to follow in order to real all the benefits guest posting has to offer, and become the best guest blogger out there:

1. Don’t fear rejection: When it comes to becoming the best guest-blogger out there, it is essential to understand that rejection or getting rejected will be a part of the process. Most guest bloggers fear rejection. It might be a good idea to start small, i.e. start off with a small blog which has a relatively-lenient criterion for submitting guest posts, and slowly build your authority by ‘climbing up the ladder’.

2. Always give it your best shot: Think of the guest post as a post on your own blog, and give it your best effort. Do not skimp out on quality, or try ‘saving the best stuff for your own website’. Remember that your post might be checked for quality before it goes up, and when it does, it will be seen and read by hundreds of people. A quality post will leave a good impression on its readers, play a part in establishing your authority on the matter, and will also be a fair reflection of the quality of your own blog.  

3. Always put up a ‘guest-bio’ for yourself: And be comprehensive, without being too long. A good bio would start off with your name, a little about where you work and what you do/your profession, including some of your responsibilities – all this is essential to establishing your authority. Also include a few lines about your hobbies or something interesting about yourself, and throw in a link to your blog, as well as your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter profiles. All this information will probably end up in the author-box on the blog – usually placed at the beginning or at the end of blogs. Here is a good example of what one of these author bio-boxes look like.

4. Devise a posting system: This includes a number of things, such as developing a schedule (e.g. one guest-post a week), developing a certain method of writing your guest posts which suits you the best. Make sure that you plan your posts in advance, and adhere to any rules that you might be asked to follow for submitting a post on the blog. As a blogger, you should already have a posting system for yourself in place, but if you don’t, developing one now might be a good idea.

5. Always respond to comments: Depending on the blog you post on, you may get anywhere between a couple of comments, to hundreds of them. It is very important to reply to all comments whenever possible, and be prompt when doing so. In most cases, the blog owner will expect you to do this, even if he/she hasn’t explicitly asked you to do it. If you’re busy, make it a point to log in at least once-a-day to respond to comments, even if it’s just a simple ‘thanks for your feedback’ reply.

6. Always thank the blog owner for the opportunity: Send in an email, thanking the publisher for the opportunity to allow you to put up a post on their blog. This is essential, as it leaves a good impression on them, allows you to stay on good terms with them, and could even lead to recommendation or a request to do more posts on their blog. Above all, you end up looking like a true professional.

Wikipedia describes ‘conversions’ as the amount of visitors on your website which take an ‘action’ on it, apart from viewing the content on your website/blog, or browsing through it.

As an example, a visitor who comes on your website and buys one of your Wordpress plugins, for instance, equals one successful conversion. Alternatively, it could also be something as simple as having visitors go to your Facebook page, in which case every visitor on your website that does go to your Facebook page equal one successful conversion.

So if, for instance, you convert 5 out of every 100 visitors on your blog, your conversion rate would come to 5%.  You can easily set up goals and monitor your conversions through Google AdSense.

Through those examples, it is obvious that conversions are important for all kinds of blogs or websites out there, not just for e-commerce websites. No matter which niche your website belongs to, there will always be something that you, as the blog owner, would want your visitors to do, an action that you’d want them to take on your blog – subscribing to your list, buying a product, ‘liking’ your Facebook page, downloading your free eBook, or something else.

By now, it must be quite obvious that the higher your conversion rate, the better – as it would mean that you are successfully able to convert more visitors into taking the action that you wanted them to take.

For this purpose, it is important to know about the different factors that influence the conversion rate, and how certain tweaks can improve the conversion on your website. Here are a few things that you can do to improve and increase your conversion rate easily (in no particular order):

1. CTA, CTA, CTA!
CTA is short for a Call-to-Action, and is perhaps one of the most important things when speaking of conversions. A CTA is what attracts or forces a visitor on your website to take an action, which is why its importance is so closely associated to a good conversion rate. You need to optimize your CTA for maximum conversions – whether it’s a ‘Buy Now’ button, a Subscribe button, a link that leads visitors to another page on your website or an external link, or whatever it might be. While the topic of CTAs and conversions warrants its own separate post, I’ll leave you guys with this excellent link on examples of 10 great CTAs and how they impact conversions.

2. Design Matters, a lot.
This is especially applicable to e-commerce websites, where the conversion rate is of the utmost importance (think ecommerce checkout pages). However blogs in other niches can and will also benefit from a good design and layout. Keep it simple and attractive. Choose a color scheme/theme that’s easy on the eyes. Make sure that the checkout process doesn’t involve a lot of clicks, and that the ‘Buy Now’ button is the single-most prominent feature of the page. Instead of taking visitors to the checkout page, use a system that adds purchases to their shopping cart and allows them to continue browsing the website.

For non-ecommerce websites, I would suggest creating attractive, reader-friendly landing pages with an even balance of text and images. Group your content into different sections, which highlight the features of whatever it is that you’re offering. Apple’s product pages (such as the one here, and here) do a great job with this.

3. Make it as easy and simple as possible to take an action.
Make the process of taking an action on your website as simple and easy as possible. Make the action that you want your visitors to take as obvious as possible. Keep it above the fold, and make it prominent, so that it’s the first thing that they see when they land on your website. For instance if you want your visitors to buy your eBook, subscribe to your mailing list, or sign up for your Fantasy Football league, put up a banner in the sidebar, or use something like the HelloBar for the purpose.

4. Convince your visitors to take an action.
… through your product/service, by offering a compelling offer, a discount, special bonuses, bundles, extra features or something else. In order to convert the maximum number of visitors, you need to give them something that they want. Above all, you need to market it in a way that convinces them to take an action. The more people you successfully convince, the more you convert.

5. Work on increasing your traffic.
The equation is quite simple: more traffic gives you a higher chance of conversions (provided you are doing everything else right). Focus your efforts on getting targeted traffic – people from your niche, those who share similar interest, those who might be interested in what you have on offer, and those who will give you a better chance of ‘converting’.

6. Break your text/content/copy down into easily-digestible parts.
In order to maximize conversions, I recommend breaking your copy into shorter ‘easily-digestible’ chunks. While there are no set rules as to how you should go about doing this, a good practice is to split your copy into multiple paragraphs of 4-5 lines each. Doing so will increase the page’s scan-ability, allowing people to skim through it (which is what most people do!). It will also make your main message more prominent. Using bullet-lists for this purpose might also be a good idea.  (And as always, grammar and spelling need to be correct)

7. Use a good font on your website.
This is essential, and very closely related to the design and layout of your website (see pt. 1). Avoid using fancy fonts, or fancy font colors for that matter. Use a simple, easy-to-read and highly-legible font instead. Use optimum line-spacing, and a font-size that can be easily read by different people. Embolden the important parts of your copy so that they attract attention instantly. If you want to attract people to take an action, you need to convince them to do so!

8. Use a mixture of images and text.
Use a good mixture of images and text that attracts people to what you have on offer, without overusing either one of these elements. This especially applies to your landing page. Wordpress has a large selection of great landing pages to choose from (such as these).

A good e-marketing strategy is the most important aspect for the success of any kind of business. This article will give you a fundamental understanding about an e-business marketing strategy and an e-marketing plan. 

In general terms, an e-marketing strategy consists of the steps taken and procedures followed for marketing a brand through the web. The center of attraction in any e-marketing strategy is the website of the company to which Internet users are to be attracted for increasing sales. But first, the company’s website needs to be in a proper design, format, attractive, and one that will have a good impression on prospective buyers.

 Components of a Good Internet Marketing Strategy

 Search Engine Optimization

A study conducted shows that around 90% of Americans use the Internet daily, with over 2/3rd of purchases being researched on the Internet. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a procedure that relates to attracting Internet traffic to your website as much as possible. SEO is crucial for online marketing success of your business. It includes optimizing your website in such a way that your site would be ranked on the initial pages of the search, so that web users can visit your website for the content they are in search of. This is done using keyword phrases that users generally put in the Internet search engine interface for searching a particular product or service.


Email Marketing Strategy

Another important component of an effective e-marketing strategy is email marketing which is all about sending information of product and services to potential customers using email. This is a proven effective method of using online marketing as an efficient tool for business generation. It is also a very good business marketing technique for building good business relations with potential customers, as well as prospective clients.


Online Advertising

Online advertising is a marketing method, that has a very substantial Return On Investment (ROI) value. It consists of placing advertisements of products and services on the company website, sites which are ranking on the first page of search engines, and sites which are getting a considerable amount of traffic from Internet users. Internet affiliate marketing is a very good example of online advertising, which relates to paying your company’s product advertiser as per sales generation.

 Online Newsletters

You can even think of online newsletters as a decent way to pass on product information for promoting product and services. Businesses generally issue online newsletters to regular customers for letting them know what new introductory offers are available and which new products are likely to be launched. Unlike email marketing, these online newsletters are issued at regular time intervals.

 Media News Rooms

A media newsroom is a facility on the web that includes most company blogs and information which can be accessed by social media. If the company information reaches the social media, it takes no time for the information and news to be transferred to the general public. The information in media news rooms is usually available to journalists and bloggers, who are visitors searching for specific news and facts of products and not just general information. This is also one of the most effective Internet marketing strategies.

A recent study by Google showed that 72% of consumers surveyed said want mobile-friendly site. And if you’re site isn’t one of them you may be losing leads and sales.

The fact that we’re a nation that is on-the-go and pretty much living on our smart phones or tablets means that you’re website should be adapted to these mediums to help monetize your business.

It also means that thinking about mobile marketing and how to incorporate various forms of that into your marketing strategy should be high on your list for 2013.

Mobile Friendly Must Haves

There are certain ‘must haves’ that consumers noted they are looking for in a mobile friendly website.
Such features include:

1.  Being fast.  This means having a site that loads in around 5 seconds or less.
2.  Being user friendly. Having large buttons, easy search capabilities, limited scrolling or pinching are key, based on consumer feedback.  Something to consider is having responsive templates that adjust accordingly based on the users device, albeit template, desktop or mobile phone. It’s also important to have quick access to company information such as easy-to-find business directions, contact numbers, product and purchasing information.  Even better, consider adding a ‘click to call’ access button to contact a customer service rep to take an order via the phone as well as an option for users to visit a non-mobile site.
3.  Being social.  To continue bonding and viral marketing, don’t forget links to your business’s social media profile page.
If you’re a smaller business that may not have the staff or resources to include these features into your website, there are some free and trial mobile conversion websites worth checking out, these include: http://www.ginwiz.com, http://www.dudamobile.com/ , http://www.mobilizetoday.com.

The App Attack

If you’re pondering if your business ‘app worthy’ or how you can leverage apps for additional sales or leads, here’s some food for thought…
Paid apps could be a great way to add ancillary revenues to your business and free apps could be used for collecting important data (leads) which can be used for cross-selling. Some businesses even obtain revenues through ads that are built in the app from sponsorship partners.
Whichever business model you choice, you still have to decide what you’re app will feature.  Typically, content is king.  For instance if you’re a financial publisher, you may consider having an app that has stocks alerts and ideas, technical analysis, commentary and actionable data that your end user (investors ) would find beneficial. Know your audience and decide what kind of content is ‘app worthy’.

Then of course you need to market and distribute your app for increased visibility. You can promote your app though affiliate and joint venture emails, press releases, content marketing, online classifieds, and guerilla marketing in related forums and message boards. You can also include your app in various marketplaces including Play/Apps Store (Droid and iPhone), Blackberry Appworld, Apple Apps Store/iTunes, and Amazon Appstore for Android.

Of course, fees and commissions vary, but some are more cost-effective than you think. Here’s a great article with more information. I also found a free service worth checking out called Freeappalert.com as an alternate distribution channel for your app.

QR Codes

You’ve seen ‘em, those little square bar codes on just about everything these days.  But not everyone is using them properly and not ever business needs them.  QR codes, used the right way, can be a great way to take offline marketing leads online. For instance, consider putting these little guys on your business cards, collateral material, fulfillment kits, promotional flyers, press kits, brochures and other printed materials. Why?  It’s a way for a consumer to ‘scan’ the barcode and be redirected to your sign up/‘squeeze page’ or promotional webpage to provide further information, and more importantly, collect valuable data on them so you can follow up accordingly.

SMS Texting

Recent studies show that 97% of text messages are read within minutes of receiving them. SMS text message marketing allows you to communicate directly to your target market by sending a simple, quick text message. This permission-based program is perfect because your recipients have opted-in to receive your messages. If you choose SMS texting for either bonding (editorial) or marketing (promotions), in addition to your standard anti-spam and privacy policy verbiage, make sure on your sign up form it’s clearly stated that subscribers who elect to be contacted this way they will receive important messages and special offers from the publisher and select third-party partners as well as may be subject to text messaging fees from the phone carrier. This article shows a good example of a text message disclaimer.

In my experience, this medium has been most effective with premium type services where members rely on critical real-time alerts from the publisher that are pure editorial. The marketing aspect is ancillary.

So if you’re looking to be a leader in your industry and not a laggard, it pays to conduct some ‘due diligence’ on your website and think about which mobile marketing strategies may be right for your biz and audience.  With our social and communications landscape always changing, staying abreast of the latest tools, trends and is imperative for businesses to survive and thrive.

Monetize Your Great Content In 2013!

Dozens of top publishers, marketers, business owners, and entrepreneurs are already using  my SONAR Content Distribution ModelTM to earn amazing ROI from content they already have. You can, too--even if you've never done Internet marketing before! Content Is Cash shows you how to systematically integrate and synchronize today's best web marketing techniques to drive more traffic, visibility, buzz, leads, and sales for your business. It's not theory. It's a proven, cost-effective and real-world strategy allowing anyone with content to turn traffic into profits...and the results are quantifiable!

What makes the SONAR Content Distribution ModelTM different from other online marketing strategies?

SONAR focuses on maximizing original, high-quality, and 'UVA' (useful, valuable and actionable) content then targets the dissemination of the content on the Web by audience (via manual research and selection) in relevant, synergistic locations.

The SONAR 'system' is successful because it leverages organic/free online channels (no additional advertising or PPC fees), it's comprehensive (using content marketing, social marketing, online PR, and more!) - and most importantly - it's timeless.

In other words, when done correctly SONAR is not applicable to search engine updates, such as Farmer/Panda, and the most recent, Penguin -- all of which ultimately go after spammy websites as well as irrelevant, low-quality content and links.  SONAR works with the search engines, not against them.

With SONAR, content quality and relevance is key!

What's your content marketing strategy for 2013?

Most companies start internet marketing by searching for an internet marketing services provider. They may get lucky and find a good one. But most companies are going to end up hiring a firm that only possesses half of what is required to make a client successful.
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If you'd like to be one of the lucky ones, you should learn how to detect a good internet marketing services firm from a not-so-good one. Make sure the strategy that your web design and internet marketing firm presents to you covers the following 4 pieces of a successful internet marketing strategy:
Data

Internet marketing starts with data. I was speaking with a small business owner the other day and I told her that I would take a look at the data from our analysis of her site. She asked me, "How do you have any data without looking at my webstats?". That's a logical question.

But, I'm not taking about traffic logs. I'm talking about data that is culled from the web about your website, your competitors' websites, search engines, blogs and social media sites.

Your website isn't an island on the web. A lot of factors determine whether you're likely to get much traffic from search engines, other blogs and social media sites. A good firm will be able to estimate how much traffic you can get without looking at what you get now.  They should also be able to tell you how much work it'll take to get that traffic.

This is the main reason why the HubSpot team created our free Grader tools including Website Grader and Twitter Grader. Although website grader will tell you what mistakes you're making, there are a bunch of tools included in HubSpot's internet marketing software that give much more actionable information to aid with keyword research, on-page seo, off-page seo and social media marketing.

But there is other data you should look at, too. If you plan to do a lot of pay per click advertising, you should start your research with Compete or SpyFu. If you're looking for more advanced social media data, check out Techrigy, Radian6 and Nielsen Online.

If you're interviewing firms to design your website or plan your internet marketing strategy, they should be presenting data to you that helps you start calculating the traffic, leads and sales you'll get from internet marketing.
Software

What software will power your website and internet marketing? You must ask this question of any internet marketing services firm you're interviewing. Very few firms have this figured out. There are still way too many web designers creating websites by hand coding them from scratch. And there are way too many websites that aren't built on an internet marketing platform. Most design firms will start pitching you by showing you mockups of pretty websites. Push back! Tell them that you know that the software is ultimately what's going to enable an ROI.

What software do you need? We're obviously a bit partial here. At some point, I will write a blog post called, "The Idiots Guide to Recreating HubSpot's Internet Marketing Software". But, suffice to say that the software that powers your website should include all of what HubSpot's software includes. Don't just stop with a content management system. Make sure you can launch landing pages and edit the right spots on your pages to do SEO. Make sure you have a marketing analytics package that knows where your leads are coming from. Based on my experience, it's very beneficial if your SEO analytics tools gather data from your analytics package and your customer relationship management integrates with your landing pages.

Depending on your circumstance, there are some other tools you should consider. If you run a very high volume site, you should consider a high end analytics package like Omniture. You should definitely start email marketing. For small businesses, you should consider simple email marketing tools like Constant Contact, Aweber or Exact Target.  If you're a larger business with lots and lots of leads to nurture, you should consider tools like Eloqua, Marketo or InfusionSoft. But, you should use logic to govern your software selection. Askyourself, "Will the software give you all the tools you need to controlthe traffic you want to attract, the leads you need to generate, and the sales you want to make?"
Skills

In a post a few months back, I argued that "time" is the most important ingredient in your internet marketing strategy. I still believe this. There is nothing about internet marketing that requires an advanced degree. If you have the right data and right software in place, all you really need is an interest in writing and the analytical skills required to read a graph. These skills are usually possessed by your average 11th grader.

However, if you're going to outsource your internet marketing to a firm, you should find a firm that has a stable of writers at their disposal; a quant or two on staff to plot your strategy; and a grunt or two to help with your repetitive social media and link building activities. Also consider hiring a liberal arts major out of college or a journalist. Just make sure they can read graphs.

No matter who you hire, give them the data and software they need. Then, measure them based on their ability to generate leads for you. If you're the expert at your business, your product, your customers' challenges... don't expect them to work in a vacuum. Whether you staff internally or outsource, you'll need to guide their activities, motivate and inspire them and teach them about your business. Just like hiring any new employee, don't expect them to produce leads in a vacuum. Internet marketing isn't magic. There are no such things as magic internet marketing skills. Or SEO pixie dust.
Network

Since a well executed internet marketing strategy requires your time whether you outsource, do it yourself or hire someone, "lack of time" isn't the best reason to outsource. However, a really good reason to outsource certain inbound marketing tasks is because the web is a network and your network is probably not on the web. A good internet marketing services firm has been creating content, building links, leveraging social media sites, blogging, etc for themselves and their clients for years.

For example, I have 700 readers on my blog, 500+ connections on LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter, know lots of webmasters and have built 1,000s of links. If you could hire me to help you with your internet marketing, it'd be like hiring my sales coach to work a room with you in Central MA. If you were to walk into a networking event in Worcester, MA with Rick Roberge, you'd meet a lot of people very quickly. If you walked in alone, you might not get to talk to anyone worth talking to. The same thing applies on the web. Working with a firm with a similar network online as I have, can help you make progress much quicker.  Without their help, and the help from their established networks on the web, you'd be the new guy in the room for awhile. Working with a firm can help you build your online network much quicker. Your firm's network will come in handy when launching your blog and building your readership, establishing credibility on social media sites, and sourcing content and building links for SEO.

This may be obvious now, but you'll be much more successful if you can connect online with your real world clients, suppliers and networking partners. If you can get your whole network blogging or using LinkedIn effectively, you'll stand a much better chance of success yourself.

As you can imagine, PR firms that have "taken to the web" are usually the best at building online networks.  They have the right skills. Web developers are usually not so good at this stuff.
Data + Software + Skills + Network = Internet Marketing Success

Are you successful online? Do you have all 4 bases covered? Or did you skip one? What data do you use? What software are you using? What skills did you build internally? What tasks are you outsourcing and why? Are you building your network online? Moving your network online? Did you hire someone to help you with building your network online?

Source: http://blog.hubspot.com/

Are you planning for explosive sales this year through an effective, organized marketing campaign or are you maintaining your status quo and hoping for the best?
A planned, organized Internet marketing campaign with rotation through a variety of targeted sites, is not hard to coordinate, does not need to cost a great deal of money and can generate traffic and sales faster than Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and/or social media marketing efforts. It takes a bit of research and a solid knowledge of your target customer, but you can plan and implement a simple online marketing campaign in the space of a dedicated day.

A Five Step Internet Marketing Plan follows, created by in the trenches experience with online marketing for small business. By doing each of the actions, you will quickly create an online marketing plan that can be implemented immediately and begin reaping sales successes.

Step 1 - Define Your Customer
Defining your customer is as important as defining your products or naming your business. If you have not yet done a marketing plan within your business plan, then you need to do this exercise. (Here's how to create a complete marketing plan, from your Unique Selling Proposition through advertising and promotions planning. And if you are starting from square one and need to write a business plan, this Business Plan Outline will lead you through the process step by step.)
If you already have this in your business plan, you can skip ahead to Step 2.
Action:
Answer these questions as honestly as you can. In other words, don't project your expectations or hopes on them. What is your perfect, solid customer really like?
•    Is my perfect customer male or female?
•    Does my perfect customer work out of the home or in the home?
•    What is the job profile of my perfect customer - an executive, manager, worker, entrepreneur, stay-at-home parent, etc.
•    What is the net household income of my perfect customer?
•    What level of education does my perfect customer have?
•    Does my perfect customer have room in her spending budget for my product/service on a one time, occasional or constant basis?
•    How do my perfect customers use my product/service - do they buy it for themselves or as a gift?
•    Does my perfect customer spend a lot, some or minimal time on the Internet?
•    Where does my perfect customer look for my product/service? Both online and in physical locations?
Once you have this written out, you should have a good picture of where to start looking to place your message and how to write your message copy.

Step 2 - Choose Your Targets
Now, where are you going to post your ads? A coordinated effort across several sites and venues commonly frequented by your customers is the most effective marketing campaign. If you are seen in several places your visibility and retained message is much stronger.
Complementary sites that you can help cross-promote to your visitors, who will then see you there too, will provide excellent reinforcement of your message. Holiday specific sites that are well promoted are excellent areas to consider.
When considering a website, social media network or newsletter for your ad, look at factors such as traffic, search engine placement, external linking (how many places link to it), quality of current ads and types of messages being presented in current ads.
•    Are there many competitors of yours already?
•    Is the advertising of a complementary nature to your business?
•    Are the ads completely unrelated to your business and to the intended traffic of the site?
These are all clues to measure a best fit of your message to the traffic of the site.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is another consideration for your marketing campaign. If you're new to PPC, stick to places that allow you to set limits on daily expenditures. Google AdWords is a good example. This will also help you to experiment and determine the most effective keywords by paying close attention to the statistics of the PPC campaign.
Conversion rates are an important measuring tool. What you need to do is determine what exactly you want to measure for your marketing campaign. Is it sales orders? Newsletter subscribers? Downloads of your free e-book? A conversion rate is the number of click-throughs it takes to achieve your target measurement. So if your page has 1000 hits, 14 clicks and 1 sale in a day, your conversion rate is 1:14 or 7.1%. In other words, 7.1% of the clicks are generating a sale during this period.
Close monitoring of your conversion rates will quickly tell you what is working and what is not. Don't hesitate to tweak or modify your ads if needed. This is a process in constant motion until you find the best fit. Remember too, an ad may work superbly in one place but not in another.
Action:
Create a spreadsheet or document that you will enter in all the sites and venues that are a consideration in your Internet marketing campaign.
Here are the last three steps for creating an effective Internet marketing campaign.

Step 3 - Budget
While some folks think this should be the first step, realistically you can better create the budget for your online marketing plan when you have a good idea of the costs involved. That can only be done once you've figured out your targets. You probably already have a figure in mind of how much you can really spend, so go back to your marketing campaign sheet and total the costs of all the ad spots you'd like to do. Chances are that total will exceed your overall spending limit.
Action:
Now go through that list and prioritize the ads in terms of where you think you'll get the most exposure and results that fit within your budget. Move the others into a holding list. Remember, as the ads start to pull in results you can always go back and expand your campaign from that holding list.
If you are engaged in pay-per-click advertising, check in daily for the first week or so and monitor your results to ensure you are paying for results.
Don't forget to consider ad swaps and bartering as part of your payment and marketing budget. Many sites will swap newsletter ads or banner ads for similar placement on your site. It never hurts to ask.

Step 4 - Creating Your Ad Content
Online marketing works best when you focus only on one or two things. You may have a variety of products but pick one or two items that are good sellers and have a solid appeal to your target market for your marketing campaign.
Next ask yourself, "What am I selling"? It's rarely the product or service. You are selling a benefit, something that registers at the emotional level. If you are selling fishing rods, for example, you're selling the excitement of successfully landing that monster in the lake. If you are selling cosmetics, you're selling beauty.
The most successful ads use words that relate to the customer. Use You and Yours and never put the focus on Me, Mine, Our, My or We. Create several emotional words associated with the product - fun, comforting, relaxing, stimulating, addictive - and use at least one of them in the ad.
Coupons are also an effective marketing tool. They can be easily tracked either manually or by an automated shopping cart system. Use different codes for different advertising locations and you'll quickly see which ones get the best attention.

Step 5 - Tracking & Monitoring Your Ads
Tracking and reacting to your campaign's successes are critical in maintaining an effective marketing campaign. From your website stats to PPC stats, there are many ways to determine what is working and what isn't. By paying attention you'll learn volumes about your ads and how to hone them for best results.
Tracking tricks include using specific coupon or sales codes for each ad placement, setting up separate entry pages on your site for each ad, and utilizing a service that helps track activity.
There are advertising management services that help you to track ad performance, such as Google's DFP Small Business, a free service that is relatively easy to implement and gives powerful ad tracking management and support. Some venues, such as Facebook ads, provide their own reports.
Action:
On a daily basis for the first two weeks, review the results of your various ads. Write them up in your tracking sheet and look for any trends or patterns. Which ones are performing, where and why? If some aren't working, replace them with others that are or try another from your hold list. Once you settle into a pattern of review and ad management you'll know better how often you need to monitor your marketing campaigns.

Happy Online Sales!
Successful Internet marketing campaigns are within the reach of any business, no matter what your budget. By following the five basic steps above and committing to the follow-through, you can create a cost effective marketing campaign with a substantial return on investment.
Good sales to you this year!

source : http://sbinfocanada.about.com