By Jon Bailey, President of Wood Street

First of all, What is Marketing? According to Merriam-Webster, Marketing is...

1 a : the act or process of selling or purchasing in a market b : the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service
2 : an aggregate of functions involved in moving goods from producer to consumer

This is an older definition. However, the second one still holds a lot of truth and applicability.
In other words, marketing is the act of drawing attention to a person, place, thing or idea and then promoting or facilitating some sort of desired response. How does this translate online? The concept isn't that different.

According to NetPlusMarketing.com, Internet Marketing is:
"Strategies and techniques applied on the Internet to support the organization's overall online marketing objectives."

We think Internet Marketing is nothing more than marketing using the Internet and related media. The difference isn't so much in the core theory but in how the information presented is processed and acted upon. The game is much quicker and the players are very aggressive.

Marketing vs. Internet Marketing:
What are you selling and how does it translate online as opposed to in a traditional marketing campaign?

Everyone who engages in business using the web or email is selling something. They are selling a product, service, organization, idea, etc. Even if a site is a resource, it is selling itself as such. It is providing information in the hope that the visitor will return later.

The first question you should ask yourself is "What am I selling or promoting?". Once you have determined that then ask how this "what" will translate onto the web.

Ultimately the translation has everything to do with the medium. You are no longer dealing with paper or other tangible marketing mediums where audiences are much more targeted. You are in cyber space. Your audience is much more elusive. The key here is not to find them as much as it is to be easily found. You can read more about this in the "visibility" section of this article.

Once you are found, the next challenge is keeping the visitor engaged. Some tips on how to do that can be seen below in the "content" section.

When you have gotten to that point, the next up-hill battle is getting them to act. In some cases this is easier than in traditional methods. In other cases it can be much harder. See the "call to action" section below for details on this.

How is your audience going to find this information?
Generally speaking, in traditional marketing promotions, the audience is sought out through traditional marketing means such as radio, print ads or television. In these cases the marketing efforts are more targeted.

While you can target audiences using the Internet, the better results come from being "found". If someone on the net is looking for content you provide and they find you, you have just successfully attracted a "qualified" prospect. In the world of sales and marketing this is huge.

So again, it is not as effective in terms of Internet Marketing to find as it is to be found. We provide some tips on how to do this in the "visibility" section of this article.

Once they find it, how will they deal with it? How is this different from how information is processed in the real world?

Again, your goal is to be found on the net by your qualified prospects. However, let me dispel a rumor. Simply having a site and getting found is not the only keys to success. You have to engage your site's visitors... and you only have 5 to 10 seconds to do it.

Web viewers suffer from major ADD and are generally scanning content instead of actually reading it. Reading on a screen is much harder on the eyes than reading print.

Beyond text, other content is dealt with quite differently on the net as well. With radio and even television, you will never hear the term "bandwidth".

On the net bandwidth is still a very important issue. You have to know who your audience is, what they use to access information on the web and how that will effect your what types of graphics you use to enhance your message. This is broken down into useful tips in the Part 2 of this column to be presented next week.

You can't succeed in marketing or Internet Marketing unless you try. So, get out there and start MARKETING!

Jon-Mikel Bailey, Director of Client Services Wood Street, Inc.
301.668.5006 ext. 222 www.woodst.com

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