Does your business have a website? Bet you use email to communicate with clients and customers. Maybe you’re delivering, or at least considering, an eletter. Driving any sales through ecommerce? Congratulations, you are part of the amazing world of interactive marketing. Here’s the question you need to ask yourself: Am I using interactive marketing to the fullest? When reviewing a client’s emarketing we evaluate effectiveness based on several criteria.

Website
More than just an online brochure, your website needs to connect with viewers by offering viewers what they want, when they want it…and maybe a little something special. That doesn’t mean lots of flash animation or irritating noises. It does mean offering viewers the information, content and resources that help them connect to your business and the services or products you provide.

Search Marketing
There is lots of interest in SEO and how to improve search placement for your site. Paid search is great if you need a broader web presence and if you have a 4 digit monthly budget for search. For smaller businesses that need more local search results, there are cost effective alternatives. Web rich content, metatags and newness on your site are important; placement on other sites can work, too, as long as the reciprocal site generates activity. Increasing the opportunity for customers to find you online can be done without paid search. All it takes is time, effort and planning.

Emarketing
A huge and virtually untapped opportunity for most small and mid-size businesses, emarketing can be an effective communication and sales tool. A valid permission based eletter can connect with subscribers, offer great information, improve client retention and loyalty, drive business results and entertain, all at the same time! Email marketing growth is expected to triple in the next five years.

Email
If you haven’t setup a personalized signature file for all you business emails, do it now. It’s free, included with every email provider, and takes just a few minutes to setup. Every email you send will carry with it your name, company, phone numbers, addresses and whatever tagline or slogan that supports your brand.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 at 5:12 pm and is filed under Marketing Insights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.