Most businesses, including those that have an online presence, are continuously looking for ways to make more sales, and one way in which they achieve this is by utilizing internet marketing tools. There are various tools employed by different experts to ensure boost in sales over the internet. However, the true efficiency of these tools depends to a great extent on the manner of their deployment and monitoring. Internet marketing has its own set of peculiar problems, which each of these tools tries to address to some extent. However, the overall impact on sales is determined by the combined effect of all such tools working in conjunction with each other to create marketing synergy. Chris Brown, President of Marketing Resources & Results and author of Branding & Marketing, stated the following:
A strong online presence is a key to many business’ marketing programs.
The Importance of Analytics
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The overwhelming competition for online visibility implies that only the smartest shall survive. Thus a whole new field of internet analytics has evolved to get your business the right inputs which could make the difference to your sales strategies. The traffic pattern and preference is the first thing that is targeted by this type of analytics. There are tools galore that can give you an insight on the peculiar online behaviors of your target audience. This information then forms the basis of your sales strategy. The site is then optimized to suit the pattern tracked in the analysis process. James Archer, CEO of Forty, states that,
Not only do you get a skewed subset of the target audience-those willing to be forced to fill out surveys-but you’re going to get a lot of people filling out random information to get to the article behind it.
Tracking the Strategy
Once the results of the analytics are available, a well defined strategy can now be worked out towards increasing sales. Service related keywords need to be identified for creating unique and fresh content which can obtain better rankings in online searches. However the best results can be obtained if the keywords are used in conjunction with the overall plans. The next step that is put in place is a dedicated tracking plan, which monitors the ever changing search engine rankings and positions, and will thereby provide inputs for changes needed. Automated trackers can also be deployed for the purpose to generate regular reports on the rankings and thereby suggest changes in the given keywords strategy.
Mapping the Site
The more successful sites are usually the ones that are well laid out, making it convenient for the visitor to navigate and have a pleasant experience. This kind of engagement with visitors translates into increased sales. A good site map additionally helps in getting listed and indexed better with the search engines. It is then that the true benefits of employing related keywords with relevant content can be seen.
Once there is traffic generated, the site needs to be heat mapped in terms of analysis of the pattern of visit and the clicking habits of the visitors. That provides a fair idea about the most used portions of the page where critical buttons such as navigation points, headers and products etc can be displayed.
Social Media Bookmarking
This relatively new sphere has gained tremendous importance in the past few years. With social media gaining pervading status online, this type of bookmarking can also benefit your site from associated searches and related clicks. Emeric Ernault, on socialmediaexaminer.com, stated that,
By looking at each key Facebook metric individually, it’s very hard to understand how you can improve it. But when you compare one metric to another relevant metric, you can see what’s wrong.
While everyone knows the key internet marketing tools, the real challenge lies in employing them in combination to harness the best possible results.