| have an Internet marketing strategy for your online | | | | the advertising, then the marketer knows not to try |
| business? You should. Internet marketing and Internet | | | | that again. |
| advertising, when done properly, can drive traffic to | | | | The same split testing method used by direct |
| your website and practically double your sales | | | | marketers can easily be adapted and incorporated into |
| overnight. In fact, advertising your site may be the only | | | | your Internet marketing strategy, allowing you to |
| way for you to compete with larger, more established | | | | determine exactly how effective or ineffective your |
| competitors. | | | | Internet advertising is. |
| While there are many different forms of Internet | | | | To track the success and failure of Internet advertising, |
| marketing strategy that you can employ, one of the | | | | most Internet marketers typically use some sort of |
| easiest and most reliable forms is results tracking. | | | | tracking software to associate the key with sales. A |
| When you track the results of your Internet advertising | | | | simple way to do this is to develop two web pages |
| campaigns, you can quickly learn what works and | | | | that feature two different ads. You can then track the |
| what doesn't work. For obvious reasons, this method is | | | | sales results of each ad to see which worked best, |
| much better than a random hit and miss advertising | | | | and if necessary, adjust your Internet marketing |
| method, which can turn out to be quite costly, not to | | | | strategy accordingly. |
| mention ineffective. | | | | For example, let's say that on one of the pages, you |
| Of course, this form of Internet marketing strategy isn't | | | | received a total of 2,000 page views and 20 sales. |
| anything new. Direct marketers have been using | | | | This means that you have a success rate of one |
| results tracking for years, and it can easily be adapted | | | | percent. Not bad. This is the average for both direct |
| for the Internet. The key is to come up with a way to | | | | mail advertising and Internet advertising. Now that you |
| measure the results of Internet advertising accurately. | | | | have this information, you have statistics you can rely |
| If you're tracking is not accurate, there is little to no | | | | on. You can test other pages to see if they perform |
| point in doing it. | | | | better or worse. You can also adapt the original pages |
| To make sure their tracking results are accurate, | | | | to see if your changes have any effect on the sales |
| many direct marketers use a trick known as split | | | | outcome. For example, try adjusting headlines, graphics, |
| testing. Split testing uses a specific key or tracking | | | | text, and anything else you can think of. Then, |
| device to associate a sale with the advertisement that | | | | compare the results of these changes to the original |
| produced the sale. | | | | results. |
| For example, in a print ad, the key or tracking device | | | | After you have tested different variations of your |
| that may be used could be a specific phone number | | | | Internet advertising, you can quickly determine exactly |
| or extension. When a customer utilizes the number or | | | | what works and what doesn't. Your Internet market |
| extension, the marketer knows exactly which ad | | | | strategy and any future advertising that you do can |
| drove the customer to seek out the advertised | | | | then be adjusted accordingly. If you succeed, you may |
| product or service. If the same ad produced repeated | | | | be able to double your sales without throwing away |
| sales, the marketer knows that the advertising is | | | | good money over and over again on advertising that |
| effective and worth doing again. On the other hand, if | | | | doesn't work. |
| the ad didn't even produce enough sales to pay for | | | | |