Using the Internet as a marketing tool can be a very effective strategy which minimizes the risk involved in both dollars spent and time devoted to executing a promotional campaign. The following explains the primary types of marketing strategies and describes each of their component parts.

Repeat visitors are the currency of the Internet marketing business. To be successful, visitors must come to your site for the first time and then return there over and over again before any kind of selling can take place. This is the nature of the marketing situation on the Internet. There are strategies to first "get em there" and then to "keep em there". The first strategy has six component parts and the second has seven. With this in mind let’s explore the first strategy - How to get visitors to your site for the first time.

Getting people to your web site for the first time is accomplished by a combination of active and passive promotional techniques. On the Internet a business only has two basic choices to generate interest, (1) contact another person somehow [active] and (2) wait to be contacted yourself [passive]. The advantages of generating leads on the Internet as opposed to the material world is the relative cost is much lower and the efficiency is significantly higher. For a small fraction of what it costs in the material world, a similar strategy can be executed on the Internet with comparable or better results. Lets look first at the passive strategy.

The passive strategy seeks to (A) establish a web presence which will incite the user to visit your site and (B) spread the word that your site exists to the most highly pre-qualified potential clients. There are five component parts to this strategy.

First, your web page must have the capability to procure contact information from a visitor (via Forms technology), and it must be designed in such a way that the visitor will want to provide their contact information when asked (the art of managing the visitors experience). This is for developing an electronic mailing list used to keep people who’ve visited your site informed about new developments.

Second, your site should be listed is both the general search databases and industry specific (or related) search databases. General indexes are Yahoo, Lycos, Web Crawler, and other popular databases. Industry specific databases are too numerous to list here but can and often do cover every conceivable business practice. The most exhaustive list of these indexes can be found at the following site: http://www.a1co.com.

Third, you can cross link your web site with other web sites which are related to you business. The idea of cross linking is that you provide a link from your site to some other high traffic site, and they provides a link back to you. This particular arrangement may have to be negotiated however, because of the perceived value of the two links in question.

Forth, your can pay for advertising space on high traffic web sites like Yahoo, Lycos, Netscape, and Microsoft. Packages which include exposure rates and audience selection are common and expensive due to the web’s ability to pinpoint a target audience to a degree never before enjoyed in the material world. Packages on less highly traveled sites can still be very effective and will be less expensive.

Fifth, a business can be listed in an EMall (Electronic Mall). In this case a business can take advantage of the traffic that mall attracts whereas as a single store may not be as successful in generating as much traffic.

Sixth, your site can be submitted to the "Launching Pads" of the Internet. These services are created to announce the new and interesting sites to the rest of the Internet community. They are free, fast, and particularly effective. This leads us into discussing the second half of this combination, the active strategy.

The active strategy seeks to go out to the Internet community in it’s various forms and solicit inquiries to your web page rather than wait for people to find your site first. A serious issue is to avoid violating the cultures and charters of the various Internet communities. (i.e. Read the FAQ and AUP documents) With this in mind, lets examine the five component parts of this strategy.

First, interrogate the list of newsgroups searching for those which may be fruitful in finding leads for your business product line or service. Once you’ve located a few, read their FAQ and AUP documents to see if advertising is permitted. Assuming it is, "lurk" around the newsgroup and observe it’s "inhabitants" general behavior, participate a little, and when appropriate, post a plug for your web site, product or service.

Second, locate and participate in relevant forum discussions, executing the previous strategy. Forums are essentially the same concept as newsgroups but they are more exclusive and can be less restrictive to advertising .

Third, do the same with relevant listserv discussion groups. Listserv’s function just like newsgroups but communicate by email instead of on a web page or via the Internet news service.

Forth, participate in chat rooms, and follow the same strategy as newsgroups. Chat rooms are the Internet equivalent of a cock-tail party. It permits real-time discussions and private chats with participants.

Fifth, you can peruse perspective client’s web sites and engage them in dialogue there. To find these perspective clients, use the search engines at http://www.a1co.com to generate list of potential leads. It’s also fast, free, and incredibly efficient relative to doing the same amount of work in the material world. Now let’s discuss the strategy of keeping visitors coming back to your site.

There just can’t be enough said about the positive effects of pro actively managing the experience that a visitor has when visiting your web site. It shapes the image that he develops about your company, product or service and ultimately determines if he will come back or not. This is both a design issue and a content issue. The user must walk away with the intended mental image that you wish to portray, and he must be interested in the content of the material that your web page has to offer as well. There are seven components of building a web presence which will keep visitors coming back to your site over and over again.

First, you should leverage the interactivity that the web inherently provides. This is done because the relationship sell does particularly well on the web. Therefore your business should leverage this fact with the existing technology that the Internet provides such as forums, chat groups, listserv discussion groups, or news group participation.

Second, you should "give" them something. Give your visitor something that he will find valuable, anything at all. Be sure to be a good host and offer something which will interest the visitor and gather excitement for your web page, product or service. Useful give aways have run the continuum from research papers to free software to subscriptions to samples. The choice is yours.

Third, you should leverage database technology whenever possible. Anything useful on the web involves database technology in some manner. Some examples include 800 number directory, or a search able database containing a list of job openings at an employment agency.

Forth, change your site often. Sites which change every one or two weeks may as well not even exist in terms exciting visitors to return. People want to know that there’s new and interesting stuff to peruse at your site. Good sites change every day.

Fifth, Leverage the over abundance of useful information. Take "Yahoo" for example. Yahoo is an extremely interesting searchable database which categorizes everything of interest known to the Internet community. No one has been able absorb all of the information that Yahoo has to offer in just one sitting. They leave with the feeling, "Wow! So much to see and not enough time to do it all! I’ve got to come back!" That’s the strategy.

Sixth, leverage design, interesting graphics, animation, and other leading edge techniques to architect the users experience and tantalize their senses. People like to be entertained, and graphics and advances graphics techniques do just that. To pull it off right is not easy and definitely not cheap, but in terms of inciting visitors to return to your site it’s well worth it.

Seventh, Leverage exclusivity. There’s something about being able to access all sorts of great stuff and not being admitted to that one place in the site which invokes the curiosity in all of us. That is enough to keep people coming back to do what it takes to gain admittance.

Matthew R. Versaggi, MS, MBA is a principal at Electronic Business Solutions. Mr. Versaggi is frequently is requested to speak or write about electronic commerce issues by the media, local chambers of commerce, educational institutions, professional organizations and the business community. If you would like to contact him to address a specific Internet issue or a speaking engagement, please contact him via email at matt@versaggi.com or call him at 630-620-1840.