Internet Marketing is Marketing

Many of my SCORE clients ask me "how do I market on the Internet" or "I have a web site but I get no hits". It seems that many of them are looking for the "Internet" to be the "marketing magic wand" that drives business to them in some kind of magical manner.

When I get into this discussion it usually comes down to a weakness in the overall marketing strategy, not to the failure of their web site or the lack of "Internet marketing"

My advice is that "Internet marketing" is only one of the tools that can be used in an effective marketing strategy. therefore one should have a knowledge of how the "Internet' fits into the overall objectives of the marketing plan.

Marketing is the bow; you have a quiver full of arrows and Internet marketing is one of the arrows along with direct mail, media advertising, cold calling, etc. that one might use to reach the targeted customer. Your marketing plan may use one or more of the arrows depending on who is the targeted audience and were are they.

So the questions that you need to answer are:

• Who is my targeted audience?
• Where are they?
• What are they buying now?
• Why should they buy my product or service instead of what they are buying now?

If you can answer these questions you are in great shape to design a marketing strategy to reach your audience and be able to formulate an effective Internet strategy as well.