Do You Have These Three Vital Internet Marketing Skills?

Posted by Chris Garrett on 30th Apr 09

Internet Marketing has a veneer of mystery around it. This is not helped by those long scrolling sales pages containing photographs of posh cars and stacks of large denomination bank notes. Many people are scrambling around trying to discover the secrets of internet marketing in the hope that they can land instant riches working in their underwear.

Really though, there are three main skills you need to learn, and preferably master ….

Attraction
Retention
Conversion

OK, I know you were hoping for something earth-shattering, but sorry.

In my coaching and consulting I also add another two categories of Internet Marketing activity, but really these skills are the core.

Attracting visitors, prospects, readers, and creating visibility, and the last one where you convert as many of those people into customers, members, or whatever, is what most marketers focus on. The part in the middle, the bit where you keep as many of those people around, happy and contented is much overlooked, but vital for your long term profitability and reputation.

Rather than focus on one particular technique for attracting visitors, you need to build a strategy and a framework into which you can plug all the appropriate tactics, and measure all the way down the line through to (hopefully) not just repeat visits, but repeat custom.

Even better if those happy customers bring friends!

You will see many headline-grabbing product launches where all they are concerned with is making an avalanche of sales over as short a period as possible. They never talk about all the disaffected customers with buyers remorse after the hype has subsided, and they very rarely talk about return rates.

Retention is not just about making your website “sticky”, though that is important. Key to a long term, prosperous business, is happy customers who get value out of what you do and refer their friends and colleagues.

As well as systems for getting folks in the door, you need systems in place to make them happy and supported once they are there.

So next time you are looking at a sales page, or observing a big launch, don’t just read their promises, look at how they are incorporating factors of attraction, retention and conversion … or if they really care about what happens after they make the sale at all …