Are you unsure what internet marketing is? Or have you attempted to explain to someone what internet marketing is and they just didn’t get it? If you’ve had trouble understanding it or explaining it, you’re not alone. On several blog posts and on many occasions I’ve compared a beautiful website that receives no visitors to a restaurant that has excellent food that receives no customers, both are doomed regardless of how great their offering is.
To help you understand it yourself or to help you explain it to others we’ve broken down some different aspects of internet marketing into simple analogies that will allow you to better understand the subject.
Inbound Marketing is like dating
When you begin dating someone you don’t ask to marry them right off the bat, do you? No, you get to know the person, you determine if you have similar interests and so on. If a website only offers a contact us page as a call to action, you’re basically asking someone to make a commitment right away. You’re asking visitors to get too serious, too soon. Why would they commit to someone that they just met? Offer valuable information, resources and content to your site’s visitors. Generate trust and allow them to get to know you before they have to approach you. It may seem like a lot of time effort and honestly when done right it is, but in the long run it will pay off, either with marriage or a website conversion rate.
Blogging is like Jogging
Just like jogging, if you blog 20 to 30 minutes every other day you’re going to see much better results than if you run like a maniac just once a month. On a frequent basis I hear small business and website owners mention that “blogging doesn’t work,” that they’ve “tried it but didn’t see any results,” but, in most cases this is because of how the blogging was executed. In order to have a successful blog for your business it’s all about consistency and long-term effort, not short sprints of activity. If you post a lot, then stop for a long time and start again, neither your readers nor search engine crawlers will know when to visit your site. Be consistent when blogging and you’re sure to see results in the long run. (no pun intended)
The Internet is a Popularity Contest
How do we decide who the president is? How do we decide who Miss America is? How do we determine the next American Idol? We vote. The same holds true for your website. When a blog post, article or website is good, it is frequently shared and posted. The shared links pointing towards these pages are called inbound links. An inbound link is just like a vote and the more votes pointing towards your website the better. However, keep in mind that all votes are not equal. A vote from someone within the same industry will have more value than a vote or inbound link from a different industry.
A Website Conversion is like a Discovery Channel documentary
No, you didn’t misread that. Your website conversion rates can be compared to a documentary on the discovery channel. You lure an animal in, capture it, tag it and then release it back into the world. That process can be directly related to a websites conversion process, which is the process of taking a visitor and turning them into a lead or customer. Here is how the discovery channel documentary – or conversion process looks:
Call-to-Action (The Bait): Lure them in with a great offer, promote to them with enticing messaging and an eye-catching design.
Landing Page (The Capture): You’ve almost captured them, you just need to make sure they don’t get away. Remove your navigation, write good copy and make sure the call to action is very clear.
Form (The Tag): Once they convert and fill out your form you’ve captured their data. You now know who they are and when they leave can still contact them. They aren’t gone forever – only until you take action.
Thank-you Page (The Release): Once you’ve captured your visitors information, they are presented with thank you text that offers more great resources such as more great content or your social media accounts.
Marketing Automation is like taking an Airplane
I am currently in Rhode Island to get to Florida, it could take me about a day to drive or about three hours in a plane. That’s the value of automating your marketing efforts. Let’s look at email automation. You could take the time to write a personal email to each and every customer or you could use an email marketing program to write one or two emails and send these messages to segmented lists. You can read the open-rate, write follow-ups and much more. Why drive when you can fly?
