Online Businesses - Assignment Example

With the advancement in information technology and the use of internet, today online businesses have developed drastically. For anybody to survive in the online market and to sustain the growth of the own online business, traffic generation is the key to success. For doing this, you are required to market your website well. Due to the existence of millions and millions of websites, the competition has also grown rapidly. In order to compete yourself with the other businesses you need to get into rapid advertising of your website failing which there is a strong chance of losing in your business. The Internet is a global network for many networks connecting millions and millions of computers together. Today, the internet has become an integral part of business, of our environment, and even of our personal life. The article speaks about marketing in the internet environment and ways to improve internet marketing during peak seasons of sales in a world of competitive environment where everybody would want to lead the race. As this is the festive season, most of the shopping for the season has already started and consumers would like to order gifts online due to the ease of shopping and at the same lack of time to go out and do shopping in the real world. In such a scenario, most of the online shopping website owners would start dressing up their web pages in the most attractive way to attract the maximum number of customers. Internet marketing, if properly exploited can be an effective marketing tool. Strategies which suit the e-business environment need to be framed and implemented. As stated in the article, in order to increase web traffic online marketers need to change the presentation of their website on par with other competitors. Instead of using the traditional methods of designing the home page of the website, they need to innovative in their approach. They also need to introduce special offers like free shipping, combo products, bog off sales etc. Such attempts will definitely help increase we traffic. E-business can create value for organizations if they continuously use new technology to improve their marketing system and if customer expectations are continuously met. The Internet can be used to build long-term relationships with customers. With the evolution of the Internet, the customer today has become more knowledgeable. Companies must recognize the fact that most consumers can compare prices of products from various companies within minutes on the Internet. Therefore, the companies can either compete on price or convince the user of superior quality, but under all circumstances, they must aim to deliver what they promise. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of the website is the first thing that is to be done in order to get more traffic to the website. It is not a kind of rocket science to advance search engine optimization. However, it is not something which can be achieved just by repeating key words or key phrases constantly. An optimum balance is required in order to achieve the optimization. A major advantage of free or paid submission of websites to search engines is available these days. Websites or blogs can be submitted to search engines. Marking the presence into as many possible search engines is always better. This helps to get noticed by the maximum number of visitors as possible in various search engines. The higher one gets noticed, the higher is the scope of increased traffic. Taking advantage of the social media websites is another method of attracting customers which in turn may lead to increased sales. With the advent of Information Technology over the recent past, the way online business is developing has drastically changed. Currently, many internet marketers have started using social media as one of their important marketing tools in order to promote their online businesses in competition with other players in the e-market. The efforts of online marketing not only influence the service quality and the quality of the product but also the sales and volumes of business. The increased competition of websites available today also demands increased attention towards the measures of promotion that by online marketers in order to promote their websites and online businesses. If proper care and due attention is not paid towards promotion of the website, there is a possibility of not being to survive in the cut throat online competition. A few examples of social media are blogs, forums, and pod casts etc. All of these social media websites are good sources of attracting people towards websites and generate huge traffic. Online marketers use these social media in different ways to suit individual requirements. A blog can be used as a B2B service. For example, there exists a blog on the website of Mr. X. Mr. Y can use the same blog used by Mr. X to promote his own website. For using so, Mr. X can charge a service charge. The other mediums also will be helpful and generate higher income in the similar manner. Next important aspect to be considered is the communication with the clients. Website owners need to be in constant touch with all their customers however busy they become depending on the sales season and other similar activities. It is a common mistake that marketers do by ignoring sending mails to customers about various offers when they are busy during the peak sales season. Social Networking Community is something that helps you in list building. By making use of these, it is possible for you to grow you list to a huge number of subscribers in a very less time. After you grow your list to such a big number of subscribers, you can send mails to those subscribers in order to train them step by step on what to do next. There are many people now-a-days who are interested in business opportunities. Such people can be found in different forums of websites. By getting into such forums and by listing posts there, you attract not only the person who is actually looking for a business opportunity, but also many other people who actually visit such forums. Original Article There are only 73 shopping days until Christmas. Do you have a plan to woo holiday shoppers looking for gifts online Millions of people are about to descend on the Internet, and competition for their dollars will be tough this year, with money tighter amid a weak economy. You need an online-marketing plan to help you make the most of the season. Feel overwhelmed Don't. There are many easy, yet high-impact, things you can do in the next few weeks that will improve your results once the bustle begins. Here are some of the top tips we gathered from merchants and marketing experts. The Journal Report See the completeSmall Businessreport. POLISH YOUR WEB SITE Holiday Web traffic usually starts in early November, peaks in the first or second week of December and then comes back to Earth around Dec. 23. So, now is the time for you to take a look at your Web page and review which elements work and which don't, says Frans Keylard, director of optimization at Widemile Inc., a Seattle-based company that tests online campaigns to improve performance. For instance, does a Christmas-tree image keep people on your site longer Does a free-shipping offer boost sales You don't have to spend a lot to find out what works. Make changes one by one and track the results using software. One popular free tool isGoogleInc.'s Google Analytics, which shows how visitors interact with your site and measures success metrics like purchases. For instance, after you make a design change, the tool will let you see whether more people ventured beyond your home page to look around your site. Golfballs.comInc., of Lafayette, La., constantly tweaks its site during the holidays and watches the results with analytics software fromOmnitureInc. of Orem, Utah. This approach has helped the company figure out some winning strategies. For one, Golfballs.com uses a number of holiday designs, such as replacing its golf-ball logo with a snowball wearing a Santa cap. And it prominently displays shipping information, such as the last day people can order to guarantee holiday delivery. The site also highlights a service that traditionally has been popular over the holidays -- putting customized names, sayings and photos on balls and other products. These items have accounted for 60% to 70% of past holiday sales. Steve Spangler Science, an Englewood, Colo., company that sells zany science experiments and educational toys, plans to add holiday imagery and new products to its site this year. But it has also been adding tons of site content, from product details to videos of owner and front man Steve Spangler doing experiments. Engaging new visitors that come during the holidays is "a very, very big deal for us, not just to push product out the door, but to make sure we turn one-time customers into repeat customers," Mr. Spangler says. What if you don't have the resources to do anything complicated on your site Just be festive and use color and imagery, says Claire Kim, owner of Claire Design, based in Irvine, Calif. She also suggests companies with tight budgets dress up their sites with stock photos from Web sites such asiStockphoto.comandDreamstime.com, which can cost as little as $1 apiece. WORK THE SEARCH ENGINES Google, Yahoo and MSN may scrutinize your site only every few weeks to figure out how high to place it in their rankings. And that means you need to make holiday-related changes very soon. Your first task is to research which search terms relevant to your business are popular with consumers. One way you can figure that out is with Google Insights for Search. This free tool shows you how many searches consumers made on a given topic, by time period and geography. It will tell you, for instance, that the most popular chocolate-related terms among New Yorkers last holiday season were "cookies," "chocolate cookies," "chocolate cake" and "recipes." Knowing this, a Manhattan chocolatier might want to feature cookies on its home page and add a page with a killer chocolate-cake recipe. Lloyd Miller Beyond that, there are some general rules that will help you get better placement in searches for seasonal gifts. Be sure to use holiday-related terms in your site's page titles, as well as in the text on the pages themselves. And instead of giving links on your site generic names such as "click here," call them "holiday gift ideas" or use product names. What about paying for text ads on search-result pages This can boost traffic to your site in a matter of minutes, which is attractive during the holidays when time gets short. But "you have to be careful that you're not spending money foolishly," says Stephan Spencer, founder and president of Web-design and consulting firm Netconcepts Ltd., based in Madison, Wis. Marketers recommend that small businesses focus on strings of specific terms. These are less costly than generic search terms, especially during the holidays, when advertisers tend to bid up prices. And specific terms are more likely to result in a sale, because the shopper is usually closer to a purchase decision. For instance,PoolDawg.comInc., an online seller of pool cues based in Lafayette, Colo., avoids buying ads on broad terms such as "billiards," instead focusing on brands it sells, such as "Scorpion pool cues." During the holidays, PoolDawg will increase bids on some terms by as much as 25% to win a higher position on search-results pages, because more people who click on the ads will buy. TAP INTO SOCIAL MEDIA The hottest trend on the Web is social media -- services that allow people to connect with friends, family and colleagues, as well as interact with people around common interests. Social sites could prove crucial to marketers around holiday time, since shoppers often turn to people they know for help with making gift decisions. "People trust people like themselves more than they trust experts," says Greg Verdino, chief strategy officer at Crayon LLC, a social-media marketing consultancy based in Westport, Conn. "It would be advantageous to have these folks telling your story." Among the most important social sites for small companies are those where consumers post reviews of local businesses, such as Citysearch and Yelp. Matt McGee, director of strategic search at KeyRelevance, a search-marketing agency based in Dallas, recommends that businesses find ways to address poor reviews as well as encourage their loyal customers to write positive reviews. Companies might do this when they send emails to customers to confirm completed orders or in follow-up notes a few weeks later. A strong presence on review sites "encourages other shoppers to become customers, it's good word-of-mouth marketing and can have long-term impact in the search engines, which often award better rankings to well-reviewed businesses," Mr. McGee says. KEEP UP WITH EMAIL Lots of companies send out regular messages to customers who sign up for email lists, giving them special offers and letting them know about new products or providing other information. It's important for businesses to keep up that contact during the holidays. "During the holiday season, you might get too busy and your monthly newsletter might go by the wayside. That would be the worst thing you can do," says Mr. Spencer of Netconcepts. "You should send out more emails, not less." Finale Dessert Co., a high-end dessert maker that operates four cafs in Boston, relies on an email service from Constant Contact Inc. to publicize events and new desserts among more than 14,000 customers who have signed up. The company is trying something different for the holidays this year. In July, Finale sent out an email asking customers what they'd like to see on the holiday menu. Finale received more than 100 responses to its mailing in 24 hours and more than 300 in 72 hours. "People are writing back just saying thanks for asking," says Kim Moore, Finale's co-founder. "It's a very real way to be connected to our customer base." -Ms. Richmond is a writer in New York. Write toRiva Richmond atreports@wsj.com Read More