Three (Simple) Categories of Electronic Marketing

Hello all!

I figured that it would be a good idea to demystify Electronic Marketing as a whole, and shed some light on how one would go about launching an internet campaign. Please remember, these are the Cliff notes of Internet Marketing; the actual nuts-and-bolts of these packages are much more intensive than they let on.

We first start off with:

• Viral Marketing: Easy, Cheap, and effective, this may be the best way to get the word out on what your product is. It allows the news and marketing of your product to spread organically; the benefit of this is that 9 times out of 10 we will hit our target demographic. The downside is that it may be a little slow in getting started, and it's also user-intensive (users telling other users instead of us telling users about your product)

Organically-grown marketing is becoming more and more favorable as the social networking phenomenon continues to boom: as more sites connect more people, viral marketing can be a quick, potent way to get your message out. Next:

• Hybrid Marketing: A mix between Viral and Traditional, this would marry both styles into a single flow; Viral marketing would allow for a deep penetration of our market, whereas the traditional marketing would allow for a broad user awareness of our product.

A majority of my clients seem to fall into the previous category, but mainly because they have their own long-standing graphics, or are trying to create a brand image all their own. This is good for many brick-and-mortar businesses, as often Hybrid Marketing leads to real traffic. Finally,

• Traditional Marketing Campaign: This would rely on graphic design, strategically placed ads, and possibly paid ads in order to get the word out. This would also rely on strategic partnerships to get our product to the end users. Upside is, you usually get what you pay for - we're not charged unless we get results. Downside is, it's more cost-intensive and requires an additional amount of capital to start.
  

This is the traditional way of marketing on the internet - banner ads, pop-ups (before they became annoying), paid-click ads - these things used to be very effective, but more and more frequently are being ignored by users as they've become commonplace.

As always, if you're interested in anything I've said, or are curious as how to best market your product or website, drop me a line at epicfurysites@gmail.com - I'll be happy to answer any questions and help you get the ball rolling.

-E.F.