Black Hat Uni Blog

Any Internet marketing campaign that hopes to be successful needs to strategically employ social media outlets. It’s not difficult and it sends the right kind of traffic to a company’s main website, which is the ultimate goal of any Internet marketing campaign. Even more, it’s a cost-effective method to gradually raise brand-awareness. Word of mouth between friends has been shown by psychological studies to be the absolute most effective way of spreading information about a brand; it is far more influential than any other source, even ones that are factually more reliable. People trust those they know personally. A customer’s behavior may be influenced more by one friend’s comment than 200 television ads!

Studies like those have influenced corporate behavior in favor of internet marketing through the increasingly popular social media websites, discarding snail mail and even email, which are becoming increasingly neglected ways of communication. Especially amongst younger people, social networks is where the conversations converge.

These young consumers who are active in social network are also free-spending, disposing of larger percentages of their income on consumer goods or services. Word-of-mouth through social networks can have a huge impact, whether positive or negative, on a company’s reputation. Occasionally in extreme cases, an Internet “buzz” can boost profits literally overnight if particularly influential sources or groups of people are affected.

Companies can also learn from their customers through social networks, getting feedback on existing products and researching preferred features and updates for future models. If they appear to take this consumer feedback seriously and reasonably, companies can promote users’ interest in products and boost return visitation to a website. Features that can increase website appeal include games for entertainment or free content like blogs or promotions. By capturing customers’ interest, the website pulls traffic, feedback, and conversations among consumers that draw other visitors’ attention and also give the company important information.

Begin an internet marketing campaign with research. For instance, you can learn a lot from online surveys about feedback and ways of improving a product. Visit competitors’ websites to see how they incorporate social media. In what ways do they tap into your customer base with social media tools? Think about the target communities within social networking. What do they want and need, and what do you have to offer them?

Thus research may lead to a marketing plan that will help your company with its online presence, and allow it to reach potential consumers within minutes of launching new products or product updates.

Then test the plan with different social communities and networks. You’ll see positive or negative results quickly and can then adapt your strategy to keep the best features and discard the less successful ones. Although there is no single or “bullet-proof” strategy, a carefully developed plan will help your company adapt to new ways of communication and can be a bulwark against increasingly rapid changes in marketing trends.

Justin Harrison is an internationally recognised Internet Marketing expert and entrepreneur who has built up multiple 7 figure online business and consults to some of leading online brands including Amazon, BBC, AIG and many others.