SpeedieConsulting

The Internet is a big place – a very big place….

According to Kelkoo (a shopping price comparison site) the UK online market grew to £38 billion in 2009. The report, carried out by the Centre for Retail Research, predicts a 12.4% growth in online UK spending in 2010, bringing the total to £42.7 billion.

The research also showed that UK shoppers are increasingly confident about online shopping. The proportion of people prepared to spend £1,000 or more in a single transaction rose from 12% to 25%.

Using this as a back drop, it is easy to see why more and more companies are looking online for their customers. Are you?

While some think marketing online is simply having a website, sadly this is not the end of the story. I in fact it is more like the introduction.

As a way of introduction to internet marketing , online marketing techniques for attracting customers include:

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
• Search Engine Marketing (Pay Per Click)
• Affiliate Marketing
• Media Buying
• Article Marketing
• Blog Marketing
• Forum Marketing

This list goes on and on, as more and more companies create and release technology that allows us to better interact and communicate with potential customers.

Now for a smaller sized company this can appear quite daunting but the fact is that the Internet has been a great leveller of the marketing field, with smaller companies being able to not only compete but dominate certain niches online.

And not because they spend more money than the next guy, but because they understand the best ways to attract customers on a better ROI. Sometimes smaller can be better – as they can move faster and react quicker. Think Speed Boat – not Super Tanker!

Some of the techniques above will return a better ROI than others. Affiliate marketing for example is a great way for companies to attract business on a good ROI and just as important on a low risk model. Set up correctly, marketing costs are “paid for” when the customer has bought the final product.

Even within a single technique such as Affiliate marketing, there are a raft of possible payment models.

• pay per click ;
• pay per visit;
• pay per view;
• cost per action;
• cost per lead;
• cost per acquisition;
• cost per sale.

As you can see there are a wide range of options to attract business to your site and how you pay for it. If you know how well your site performs at converting traffic to sale or enquiry, you may feel comfortable with any number of these options.

If you are new to this but see the benefits it may be best to look at a cost per sale option which means you pay a flat fee or %commission when the product is bought.

Affiliate marketing is a great way to attract business and leverage other company’s expertise to drive you traffic and sales.