Is It Marketing Or Is It Advertising?

Internet marketing and online advertising have two similar yet different ideas in mind.

Answers.com has this definition for marketing:
1. The act or process of buying and selling in a market.
2. The commercial functions involved in transferring goods from producer to consumer.

And for advertising:
1. The activity of attracting public attention to a product or business, as by paid announcements in the print, broadcast, or electronic media.
2. The business of designing and writing advertisements.

On the Web, these differences are blurred with respect to website development, quality link building, and the process of attracting attention to products or services using various Internet marketing tools available.

Email for example comes to mind. When sending an email it becomes a powerful tool when marketing to other businesses or individuals. However, having a footer with a signature block that advertises some of the other aspects of a company falls under the category of advertising and likewise becomes a powerful advertising tool.

These terms become even more blurred when it comes to the search engines and search engine marketing. The term search engine marketing or SEM represents the process of having a website rank well in the Search Engines.

Google, Yahoo, and MSN are the top three Search Engines. If you take a look at each of these companies for marketing and advertising comparisons we find that they all have some form of advertisements themselves. Many times these advertisements are subtle in the approach taken. For example Google has a program called AdSense in which sites that publish content can run advertisements. Google will pay a portion of the revue back to the publisher. Sometimes Google runs there own advertisements through their own AdSense program. This is no different than someone like ourselves that has built online ads to be displayed in conjugation with or individually displayed on our website.

Taking a Bite Out of Apple

Apple Computers is another website that does of great job of both marketing and online advertising. If you have not been to their website, and studied it from an understanding of marketing, advertising, and branding then you have missed a very unique experience. Each of their Web pages has all three concepts firmly embedded into the structure of the website. Apple even advertises using Google AdWords to continually expand their brand.

Some observers would suggest that there is way too much information on the Apple Website and they should stream back what is placed on it. However, with the number of different components and interrelated business divisions, they are in a unique position to promote, advertise, and market between all of the entities. Many individuals that have one Apple product would certainly be interested in other products. Apple's brand is extremely strong and consumers know that the products are well built. So, it stands to reason that they would want to advertise their products across all divisions.

What lessons can we learn from Apple?

First off, many businesses have a wide variety of products or services provided. It stands to reason that a customer that is using one particular product or service from a company is likely to be interested in other products or services provided by the same company.

So, start increasing your sales today. Promote your products and services on the web with Internet marketing services from Professional Web Services.

Website Design vs. Internet Marketing

Here is an article that really hits the nail on the head when it comes to Internet marketing a website from the very foundation of the B2B or B2C website design project.

Great Websites Doing Nothing

With millions of websites competing on the Internet for top search engine rankings, it should go without saying that website owners should be sure to commission web developers that are SEO (Search Engine Optimization) smart from the very beginning of the web design project.

Surprisingly, many companies do not realize the significance of having their website developed and designed to be read and understood by both search engines and human visitors. Companies get blind-sighted by designers that impress them with flashy presentations, impressive creatives, and clever navigation techniques.

Many extraordinary looking websites are being launched onto the worldwide web daily. Impressive splashy entry pages and dazzling creatives demonstrate the creativity of the web designer, but unfortunately these websites do very little for the websites' rankings in the search engine results. Very often, the only objective that is achieved by these types of websites is that the person or company that designed the website has unquestionable creative talent. As brilliant as these websites may look, unfortunately many of these are simply doing absolutely nothing for the company. It is surprising how few web designers today are taught the skill of optimizing the websites that they design for search engine rankings.

From the start of the web development project, a website owner should commission an experienced search engine optimizer to prepare the website brief for the design company, thereby defining those essential elements that should be incorporated. Without properly configuring the page architecture, and content; a website stands very little chance of being positioned anywhere of significance on search engine results pages.

There are more than one-hundred variables that search engines include as part of their ranking algorithm. Thus, website owners, web designers, and marketers should take cognizance of the fact that it is simply not good enough to publish a fancy looking website onto the Internet, and expect it to start attracting and converting customers in the hope of producing income from their new online presence.

It takes a substantial amount of research, skill, and careful planning to create a website that will be recognized by search engines as relevant enough to rank anywhere on the first page of results. This alone does not guarantee that the website offers a user experience that satisfies the researcher's needs and eventually may convert the researcher into a customer.

Getting ranked highly on search engine results is not a quick fix. It is a process that requires a great deal of planning, editing, and monitoring in order to first climb into the top ranking positions and then to try to remain there. With the algorithms changing at will, there is no one technique 'cast in stone' that will guarantee top rankings. If you want to reap the rewards, you need to invest time and effort into properly researching your competitor's position, and then carefully planning a strategy that will hopefully outrank them, while at the same time attracting niche targeted audiences.

Beware of companies promising to have websites ranked in the top ten results pages within weeks. Although some websites do rank much faster than others, those companies practicing spamming techniques may get websites ranking in a matter of weeks, but in return they can expect to be dropped from the rankings – or even worse, be blacklisted by the search engines within as little as six weeks.

Companies should be careful to approach search engine optimization from an ethical, spam-free perspective if they want to thrive in this very competitive environment. Until such time that a website ranks highly, there certainly is a place for paid advertising (pay-per-click).

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Word Of Mouth Marketing And Advertising

Is Word Of Mouth Marketing And Advertising Good Or Bad For Your B2B Or B2C Business?

That all depends. Most businesses that have been around for years and have top notch customer service, takes care of customer problems when they occur, and places the customer first, probably has an A+ rating with the public. Whereas the business that does not listen and respond to customer complaints, thumbs their nose at the public, and generally takes the customer's money and runs, is likely to be found online in the online forums and blogs being trashed and generally not well spoken of. Both of these businesses are the recipients of word of mouth marketing and advertising.

In an article by Chuck McKay, author of Fishing For Customers, Chuck enlightens the reader into some interesting perspectives on this issue.

Control Over Word-Of-Mouth
Nearly every business person you talk to will tell you that word-of-mouth is his, or her, best advertising. Then someone, (usually a media rep), will point out that word-of-mouth is also the worst form of advertising, because you have absolutely no control over it.

I disagree. You have total control.

The Internet has been a great tool for business to use. But, what many businesses have failed to realize is what the Internet has done for the public. The public has been impowered by the Internet. No, I am not referring to the speed at which a person can search online for the local movie listings and times, or look up or place car ads for free on craigslist.org. What I am refering to is the power for the consumer to make a difference using the Internet as their own private marketing tool. It is simple today for any consumer that has a grudge against a company, to start a free blog to tell their story of what is going on. If a consumer has gotten to the point where they feel a story needs to be told, then a company may have lost more than one customer. This company has built, through their lack of good customer service, an everlasting record by this one customer's article, that can now be found in the search engines for a very long time. And guess what? Other consumers will likely read that same article online and go someplace else.

Every business needs to heed this advice. It is much better to approach the customer with the respect they deserve, then to ignore the problems when they occur. Every business will have problems at one time or another. How they deal with customer issues, both the good and bad will be a sign of what kind of company they are. Therefor, it is wise for businesses today to share both the good and the bad in a controlled environment where logical communications can take place.

Chuck states in his article, "So, if you want shoppers to start trusting you; if you want customers to keep trusting you, you need to tell it all, brother. Tell it all. The good, the bad, and what you’ll be doing next."

So, it really comes down to trust. And, I assure you, the consumer will attempt to verify before they trust you.

Above All, Tell It Like It Is, And Do It With Style!

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