Five Internet Based Marketing Tools
Matthew A Eigbe asked:
Since internet technology joined other technologies to improve, accelerate or extend the reach of human efforts, it has not hesitated to invade any profession. And every profession, if you think of it really, has its tools. Marketing is not an exception. Most marketers would agree that marketing is driven by communication. This is why the internet as a great technology for communication is a good servant of marketing.
It’s not a moot point at all that marketing far, far pre-dates the internet. Thus, marketing tools conveniently split into two broad classes; namely, non-internet based marketing tools and internet based marketing tools. Alternatively, you may come across expressions like offline marketing tools and online marketing tools. They correspond to the first two broad classes.
We will look at some necessary marketing tools which are based on the internet. Before we do this, I would like to draw your attention to a growing phenomenon whereby internet based marketing methods are used to drive traffic to brick and mortar businesses and offline techniques are deployed for generating leads for online commerce.
Without any attempt to imply any order of importance amongst the tools mentioned below, let’s review them briefly.
1. Keyword research tool. This is an indispensable tool for a serious internet marketer because it enables you learn about what people are searching for on the internet. And this knowledge helps you in two ways. First, you will be able to find a niche market to target since this tool tells you what people are looking for and whether many people are supplying them answers. Secondly, you can use the keywords you dig up as a guide for your articles, sales pages, websites and pay per click (PPC) campaigns. Keyword research is an important internet marketing skill. There are several types of this tool.
2. Email. This stands for electronic mail and is a very commonly used tool for not only marketing but also for official and private social communications. There are free versions but you wouldpresent a professional image if you use a paid version.
3. Autoresponders. This is software that enables you send out emails to those on your list of prospects. Its professional use requires that the intended recipients of you emails would have given you prior permission to communicate with them. It’s a very powerful and useful tool. I sometimes wonder what internet marketers would do without it. Here again there are free versions and paid forms. The drawbacks of the free version are that you may not be able to upload many names at once, there may be a limit to the number of names you can have on your list and you will have to put up with adverts on your messages. Distracting.
4. Skype. “Skype is software that enables the world’s conversations. Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users. Everyday, people also use Skype to make low-cost calls to landlines and mobiles.” This quote is from about.skpe.com. It’s great software. The best part is that it’s free. I use it.
5. Article Spinners. This makes my list because of the power of article marketing, which is virtually free. Article spinners are able to give you several versions of one article each of which is unique. You can them submit them to different websites or article directories without being accused of and punished for duplicate content. You need it because it clearly increases your efficiency in article production.
It’s likely that if you asked five people to draw up a list of five necessary internet based marketing tools, each submission would be different.
