Interactive Trends – 3 Steps to Online Success

by Erin Anjolie Green, Marketing Specialist at Plonka Interactive

Online commerce numbers are sky rocketing. Literally billions of dollars are being made. Almost every good or service imaginable is available over the internet and businesses are fighting furiously to position themselves to get their share. The problem is how. How do businesses set themselves up for success online?

The simplest solution that businesses pursue is pay-per click advertising. For one this can become outrageously expensive. Worse than that, we’re seeing more and more that users have learned to ignore pay per click advertising on the major search engines. This is a byproduct of the user evolving and usability. Basically, web users have spent so much time online that we now instinctively know what links are advertising and what parts of the page to not even look at that. If that’s hard to believe ask yourself this: do you click on the pay per click advertising on the search engines? If you’re like most people the answer is no or almost never.

The next route businesses take is to develop advertising and buy space along popular sites. This is slightly better than pay per click. If someone is really excited about a product they occasionally click on these ads. Look at the most popular ads though. The most prevalent ads you see online are for games. The rest are specific online based industries such as online education and hosting companies. The exception to this is Fortune 500 companies that can purchase space on the Yahoo homepage. In short, these ads need to be designed extremely well and are typically successful in targeted industries. This is again because of usability and the web user’s extreme hesitation to click on advertising. Worse than that, we’re discovering that viruses have made their way into online advertising and as they are imbedded in Flash or JavaScript. There is no software to scan for viruses of this kind..

So how does your business stake their claim online? There is a 3 step process. First your site needs to be optimized. This means doing detailed keyword research so you know what your target market is typing into the browser and tweaking pages to hone in on those words including geographic markers. Second, you need to increase popularity through links. The number of one-way links (sites that have a link to you) is a huge factor in determining your site’s rank. Three you need to leverage PR and social media. You do this by distributing articles, press releases and in appropriate cases implementing viral marketing campaigns. These steps make you visible, popular and generate positive buzz.

Once your site is easy to find and tuned up people will come. Think about your own web searching behavior. You go to your favorite search engine (Google or Yahoo) and type a phrase that you think matches what you’re looking for. If you don’t like your results you go back to the search box and refine your term until something looks appealing. Interactive marketing does just that, makes your business appealing to your target audience.