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You have heard it said and read it everywhere on the internet: there are secrets to successful internet marketing. Internet marketing gurus implore you at every click to fork out you hard earned dollars to receive their downloaded packaged supposedly containing the key to the marketing kingdom. The truth about internet marketing is that there is no key, no silver bullet, no killer solution. Internet marketing is the same as any other kind of marketing: you have to go about it dispassionately and methodically in order to find ways to get as many sales as possible with as little outlay as possible. There will be expenses. You must put aside funds to advertise. The difference between your outlay and your sales will be your real income. There are certain ways to go about this which are explained in this article.

It is important not to separate internet marketing from other types of marketing. Whether a CD or a downloaded product is being sold in a store on the strip or via the internet, that transaction is the same. The only difference is the medium. By extrapolation you can assume that the marketing challenges are the same too, namely how to get interested customers into your shop or onto your website to make purchases. In every city there are millions of people. You dont want them all to pile into your shop. You only want those who are likely to buy your product. The same goes for the internet. There are a billion users out there. You only want to attract those who are likely to buy your product.

I have heard the marketing process likened to a funnel, an ordinary funnel such as you use to pour oil from a large container into a narrow necked bottle. The broad end of the funnel represents the mass of people out there. As the funnel narrows, so the market is thinned out according to the market segment you have identified. Even if people visit your site, click around, sign up and start to receive emails from you it does not mean they will buy. The same applies to the physical on street store. You get lookers and browsers but not everyone buys. Finally, a small percentage of interested people, sometimes fewer than 1, buy your product. That is the way the marketing process works.

Marketing on the internet starts from fairly broad advertising e.g. Google ads directed at people looking for auto spares, and once these people have clicked on your ad and indicated their interest, the process becomes more intensified and more automated. You will be appealing to fewer people now by email campaign but they are better prospects than the mass of people you originally targeted. An email campaign should comprise 5 to 7 emails to your prospects.

Research has shown that buyers need five to seven exposures to a product before buying. The same applies to the internet. You will need to find the best tools to support your marketing efforts: keyword research tools for your ad campaign, lessons on how to write great sales copy and of course great emails. Your website should be attractive, informative and deliver on the promises of your ads and emails. Most of all you will need patience. There is no telling how long the testing and refinement of your internet marketing efforts will take before the sales start to roll.