Understanding an Online Marketing Campaign - Part I

By: C M Harris Click author's name for more of his/her articles

No matter what business you have ever been involved in, whether it's retail, telecommunications, investing, or insurance, each and every one has their own terms or shop talk. The same is true with online marketing. ("Online marketing" might include affiliate marketing, MLM, rebranding, ebooks, viral marketing, and several others.)

As an online marketing newbie, you will have seen the term marketing campaign thrown around. What exactly is an online marketing campaign?

First of all let's look at it in relationship to its counterpart. That would be the marketing campaign of a brick-and-mortar business. If you had a storefront business, your campaigns might include:

** Newspaper ads
** Radio ads
** Television ads
** Yellow pages ads
** Press releases
** Coupons and giveaways
** Special in-store events

And many more, all of which, as you have already surmised, cost a LOT of money.

Now let's look at a possible marketing campaign for an online affiliate business. First of all marketing for your work-from-home business will be much less expensive. Will you have to invest SOME cash? Of course. But much less than an annual Yellow Pages ad, that is for sure.

Your campaign will be based on your business goals. The main goal of marketing obviously is to create cash flow. The key is not only to make sales, but make repeat sales. This means there must be a trust level. Most successful online marketers work hard to create customer trust. Look for ways you can do the same.

The structure of your particular campaign will depend a great deal on the niche that you have chosen. (Oh dear, another jargon term: niche. That simply means the arena or category of your product. Does it have to do with pets? Real estate? Debt management? Weight loss? Jewelry? Food? Whatever it is, that's your niche.)

The structure of your campaign will also depend on your budget. If you have $500 to spend per month, your campaign will look much different than if you have $50 to spend. Plan ahead and make wise decisions where to spend your marketing cash. Because, be assured, once you get out there you will see dozens of offers (such as, "We will drive 80,000 targeted customers to your website"). And every one of them will look good. Can they deliver? Maybe. But do you have the expendable cash to find out? If not, stay with the tried and true route first. Learn the basics first, and then go for bells and whistles. In other words, walk before you run.

In Understanding an Online Marketing Campaign Part II we will learn more about the basic foundation for building a simple campaign for your online business opportunity.