Getting started with Internet marketing

Internet marketing is still a relatively new concept for many Caribbean businesses. Although many businesses have a presence on the internet - a simple brochure website or a social-networking profile - they still seem unaware of the enormous potential of using the internet to market a business.

Here is an overview of how you can get started with a solid plan that gets results.

As the business owner, you need to decide what exactly you are trying to achieve by using the Internet to market your business. Most times, your goals for traditional offline marketing are the same for online marketing.

At the end of the day, you want to generate new business leads, increase revenue and brand awareness, cut or shift costs, recruit new talent and improve customer service.

• Create a strategy:

Instead of jumping in head first, take a step back and think about a strategy. A simple brochure website from the cheapest vendor or a Facebook page is not an Internet marketing strategy.

You want results, so you need to plan - create a strategy! Think about the tools and tactics you want to use and how they will help you achieve your overall business goals.

What content and features on your website will help you to generate new leads and cut/shift costs? Are you going to make use of social-media websites and, if so, to what end? Customer service, lead generation, brand awareness?

How is your Internet marketing going to support your offline marketing ... and vice versa?

• Allocate a reasonable budget:

No business has an endless marketing budget. Try to estimate a realistic budget to support your online marketing efforts. One can understand the need to be frugal, but also understand that you cannot spin straw into gold - what you put in is what you get out!

If all you're looking for is the cheapest vendor, expect that your returns from internet marketing will be minimal. You need to set a budget for developing your website, creating content and for promotional expenses.

• Learn about your tools and tactics:

It is your job as the business owner to market your business. That being said, you must allocate some time to learning about the tools and tactics you will use in your internet marketing.

Learn about the elements of a successful business website so you know your web developer is using them. Learn about using social media like Facebook and Twitter for business, how to write a blog article, how online advertising works. Learn about how to measure the success of your internet marketing strategy and how to get found online.

You can learn almost anything on the internet, so fire up your favourite search engine and start searching. Keep following this series and you'll learn everything you need to know about marketing your business online.

• Learn how to measure results:

If you have developed a serious marketing plan, then you've included how your results should be measured. With your new internet marketing tools, some new measurements come into effect.

You should be able to measure customer acquisition cost from your website. For example, if you spent $500 on an online ad campaign and you get one customer as a result, then your acquisition cost is $500. But you would have also got other leads who have not converted to customers as yet, so you would then have to calculate your cost-per-lead.

Customer acquisition cost and cost-per-lead can then be judged against your other marketing tactics, such as electronic and print ads, trade shows and direct marketing.

• Define some objectives:

After you learn how to measure results, you then need to set some benchmarks for success. If you're just starting out, then you are starting from a position of zero.

Do not let that stop you from setting realistic benchmarks. You may decide that getting one new customer coming through your website each month is worth the effort financially. Social-media sharing and 'following' numbers are also good objectives to set.

It is important to at least cover your costs and get a decent return on your investment.

• Observe what others are doing:

A lot can be learnt from observing what other people do online, especially the people who seem to be successful. Your job as the business owner is to observe these people and adapt (or tactfully borrow) what they are doing and apply it to your own business.

It's also a good time to include your earlier lesson about tools and tactics on what not to do online. This, too, can be learnt from observing what people do.

• Learn from your mistakes:

If you've tried a particular tool or tactic and after serious effort it does not seem to be giving you the desired returns, you need to take a step back and analyse the situation.

See where you may be making a mistake, analyse it and try again. Do not be too quick to write off a tool. Maybe your website copy needs work on being more persuasive or maybe you need to give an incentive on Facebook for people to 'Like' your page.

Don't be discouraged. Understand that this may all be new to you - you're not an expert - and always remain open to analysis and adaptation as part of the process of change.

An expert can help you to get off the ground with internet marketing quickly, while ensuring lots of hand-holding.

Sherwin Ramnarine is the managing director of imarketSB Limited. sherwin@imarketsb.com