Why do you want to use the Internet to market your business?

Online marketing:

Why do you want to use the Internet to market your business?

§  Do you want more brand recognition?

§  Are you looking to increase your bottom line?

§  Is it the most viable way to support your cause?

§  Do you want to interact with your customers to find out what they’re really like? (social research)

Knowing “Why?” will help you build the most stable foundation for your online marketing strategy.

Why Online Marketing?

Think about this for a second. 99.99% of the internet is made up of nothing more than text and imagery.

Why do you want to be online?

Answering “Why” gives you a tangible goal.

“Why?” gives you something to work towards.

Knowing “Why?” you can build, shape and mold your online marketing strategy with an end result in mind.

“Why” as a foundation makes for better web design, better content strategy, better brand character, and better user experience better everything?

Why?

Because when you know “why” you do anything it always has more defined outcome.

When you know why you’re developing an online marketing strategy, questions like “Why use a certain platform?” and “Why put that button in that spot on the website?”  And “What?” metrics to use to determine online marketing success, become much easier to answer.

After all, if you don’t know “Why?” you’re developing an online marketing strategy, why is your target market supposed to care?

So, if you haven’t answered the question in the first line of this article, and you’re asking yourself, “How am I supposed to get my target market to care?” Kindly please go back to the beginning of the article and read again.

The Trouble with “How?”

If “Why?” is your starting point, than really “How?” should be the last set of questions that you answer.

But here’s the truth, most anything you’ll read about online marketing strategy talks about building on a foundation of “How?”

“How do I drive traffic to my website?”

“How do I SEO  my site?”

“How do I use Twitter/Facebook to market?”

“How can YouTube make me money?”

The problem with a foundation built on “How?” is its focus on platforms, tips, tricks, and techniques. Yes this stuff is important to know, but starting here puts the cart before the horse.

Building a foundation that focuses on platforms and tips, inevitably leads to discussions about budgets, time, and resources. Meanwhile, nobody has really stopped to consider “Why?” or even “Who?”

And knowing “Who?” your target market is, and “What?” they need are probably more important to the success of your online marketing strategy than “How?” ever could be.

Without background, without goals, without substance “How?” very quickly loses its meaning. As a foundation for online marketing strategy, “How?” is not sustainable.

Maybe rethinking the order of the 5 W’s entirely is the secret to successful online marketing strategy?

Why do I want to use the internet to market my business?

Who is my target market(s)?

What issues can I solve? What metrics determine success?

Where do they hang out online? Offline?

When are they most likely to be on the Internet?

How can I be useful?

What do you think? What is the foundation of your online marketing strategy?