Marketing Your Business on the Internet (Self-Guided)

Lesson 1

Businesses on the Web

With billions of pages already on the web and more posted online every day, getting your website noticed isn't easy. When students ask what they can do to increase traffic to their sites, they're encouraged to learn all they can about Internet marketing. In this lesson, you'll receive a brief introduction to the Internet, learn the difference between e-commerce and e-business, and explore different types of business sites on the web.

Web Presence

The terms "website" and "web presence" can be used interchangeably, but there's a subtle difference. In this lesson, you'll learn how to establish a web presence. In order to do that, you'll need to understand your goals and your customers' needs and interests, accurately identify your target audience, and establish a market position that makes you stand out from the crowd. You'll go over how to do all of that in this lesson.

Domain Names and Search Engines

In this lesson, you'll discover the importance of selecting the right domain name for your site. You'll also find out how search engines work and how to use that knowledge to drive visitors to your website.

Website Optimization

High-quality content will keep visitors at your site longer and encourage them to return more often. In this lesson, you'll learn the importance of helpful, informative, educational, entertaining, or useful content. You'll also discover how search engines use the following factors to determine ranking in response to a query—text viewable on the screen, code not viewable on the screen, and external factors.

The Internet's Impact on the Marketing Mix (4 P's)

In this lesson, you'll discover the elements that make up "The Marketing Mix"—the four Ps. You'll learn how the elements of product, price, place, and promotion relate to each other and to your target audience.

Web Analytics

In this lesson, you'll learn how to develop a message that will cause the members of your target audience to take the action you want. You'll also become acquainted with online strategies you can use to advertise your website, products, and services.

Online Advertising

In this lesson, you'll learn how to develop ads that inspire your target audience to take the action you want. You'll then learn how to advertise your website using search engine (PPC) advertising, banner advertising, and more.

Email Marketing

In spite of the growing number of junk mail filling people's inboxes, email is a thriving medium, so it's important to understand how you can use email marketing to keep current customers and acquire new ones. In this lesson, you'll examine ways that you can use email to promote your business.

Creating Site Stickiness Through Content

If you want visitors to spend more than 30 seconds on your website, you'll need to make it interesting, entertaining, and informative. The factor that causes visitors to spend more time at your site is called "stickiness." In this lesson, you'll learn about the advantages of building a sticky site and how to use content to make your website sticky.

Creating Site Stickiness Through Community

In the previous lesson, you learned to build site stickiness through the use of content. In this lesson, you'll learn to build site stickiness through community. You'll also become acquainted with synchronous and asynchronous tools you can use to develop a community experience for your visitors.

Creating Site Stickiness Through Commerce

The last element you can use to build site stickiness is commerce—in this case, e-commerce. You'll learn how to use commerce to keep visitors at your site longer and return more often. In this lesson, you'll become acquainted with technology you can use to create an online store, including online catalogs, shopping cart software, and online payment systems.

Completing Your Internet Marketing Plan

In the final lesson, you'll have the opportunity to pull together all of the information you gathered during this course to complete an Internet marketing plan. To help you do this, you'll be given an Internet marketing plan checklist and samples of the following documents: Internet marketing plan outline, a calendar, and a budget spreadsheet. You'll want to use this opportunity to complete an Internet marketing plan that you can use to promote your business.