Internet marketing is vitally important for your business.

Not convinced?

OK, utilising activities such as article marketing, social media, blogging and other content creation will have a dramatic effect on your business’ online visibility and exposure.

Just in case you are still sitting there shaking your head, take a look at a few facts and figures that were compiled earlier this year by Pingdom about internet usage, social media, email etc.

So if you’re ready, prepare to be blown away.

Email

Whether you use email as a marketing medium or simply as a method of communication, it is a vital part of your business. Just take a look at these stats:

• 107 trillion – The number of emails sent on the Internet in 2010
• 294 billion – Average number of email messages per day
• 1.88 billion – The number of email users worldwide
• 480 million – New email users since the year before
• 89.1% – The share of emails that were spam
• 262 billion – The number of spam emails per day (assuming 89% are spam)
• 2.9 billion – The number of email accounts worldwide
• 25% – Share of email accounts that are corporate

Amazing eh? When you see those sorts of numbers you suddenly realise how reliant we have become on technology for our businesses and every day lives.

And that’s just the start.

Internet

This is the biggy – especially if you’re still unsure whether your business should be online or not. Bearing in mind there are 255 million websites (as at December 2010) with 21.4 million added in 2010 there is an enormous opportunity for online marketers.

Add in the following stats on internet usage and you’ll see why the internet is the place to be:

• 1.97 billion – Internet users worldwide (June 2010)
• 14% – Increase in Internet users since the previous year
• 825.1 million – Internet users in Asia
• 475.1 million – Internet users in Europe
• 266.2 million – Internet users in North America
• 204.7 million – Internet users in Latin America / Caribbean
• 110.9 million – Internet users in Africa
• 63.2 million – Internet users in the Middle East
• 21.3 million – Internet users in Oceania / Australia

When you view these figures as a potential market for your products and services you’d be mad not to be making the most of it.

But what about the new(ish) kid on the block? Well…

Social Media

Yup, social media is here to stay and is sure to morph into all sorts of new forms over the coming years.

It has opened up new lines of communication making it easier than ever for consumers to voice their opinions.

If you are one of the many people who still think social media is just a passing phase, take a look at this:

• 152 million – The number of blogs on the Internet (as tracked by BlogPulse)
• 25 billion – Number of sent tweets on Twitter in 2010
• 100 million – New accounts added on Twitter in 2010
• 175 million – People on Twitter as of September 2010
• 7.7 million – People following @ladygaga (Lady Gaga, Twitter’s most followed user)
• 600 million – People on Facebook at the end of 2010
• 250 million – New people on Facebook in 2010
• 30 billion – Pieces of content (links, notes, photos, etc.) shared on Facebook per month
• 70% – Share of Facebook’s user base located outside the United States
• 20 million – The number of Facebook apps installed each day

That doesn’t look like a passing fad to me.

If you want to grow your business exponentially, get on the internet and join in the social media conversation.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter, blogger and social media groupie

Your list is one of the most vital parts of your email marketing campaign.It doesn’t matter how great your offer or sales message is, if you don’t send it to the right people, it won’t work.

The quick option is to buy in a list but how can you be sure it is the right audience for your offer? Surely the best way to optimise your campaign’s chances is to use a home-grown list that you’ve developed over time from an interested audience.

So how do you get started?

Well it won’t be a quick process. Building your own quality list will take time. It will involve gathering email addresses from customers which means you have to maximise your opportunities to capture them.

You could:

• Have a sign-up box on every page of your website so your visitors can’t miss it
• Provide a free giveaway that’s of value to capture their email address
• Include a sing-up link in your email signature
• Promote your newsletter on your print materials too. Once  they’ve signed up for your newsletter you have their details to send other offer to as well
• If you use direct mail, send an offer that will drive them to a landing page that requires an email address to access the deal
• Promote your giveaways through social media (such as Facebook or Twitter) to widen your audience
• If you work regularly with other companies see if they would be willing to promote your newsletter within theirs

These ideas are easy to implement and in time will lead to the creation of a high quality in-house marketing list to which you can make offers and provide news and advice to constantly strengthen your customer relationships.

As I mentioned earlier, it will take time to grow your list but it is worth it as the results from your marketing campaigns will be much better than if you simply bought in a list.

Give it a go and see how it works for you.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

Online marketing – love it or hate it, if you’re a business owner you have to get to grips with it.

As the vast majority of the population use the internet to search for products and services these days, if you you don’t have an online presence you will be missing out on a massive marketplace.

But that doesn’t mean you can just lob any old website into cyber space and people will come running with open wallets.

Being online badly can seriously damage your business

The first thing to remember when starting out in the online world is that the internet isn’t a static entity.

It changes at an alarming rate so you must get to understand it and keep up to date with the latest thinking, ideas and pitfalls.

Being successful on the web will take time, patience and money. If you chuck any old thing together on the cheap you’ll do yourself more harm than good. After all if you had a High Street store you would make sure your window display was attractive and enticed people in the door.

Your website is your virtual High Street store so it must be professional, appealing and tailored to your business needs.

One of my favourite blogs is Copyblogger. A post appeared on there a while ago by Mel Brennan called 6 Online Marketing Mistakes that Will Kill Your Business. Mel takes you by the hand and leads you through the 6 no-nos of internet marketing.

Grab a coffee and have a read. Whether you think you’re web savvy or not, it’s worth taking a few minutes to check it out and make sure you’re not committing any of these cardinal sins.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter