Why Should You Use Internet Marketing?

Some people still struggle to see the point of Internet marketing.  Some think it’s full of scammers and identity thieves.  Others think they’ve missed the boat with Internet marketing, or that their business doesn’t lend itself to IM anyway.

They’re all mistaken, although there’s an element of truth in each of those ideas.  Selling large, heavy products online is rather like selling office safes by mail order – delivery can get expensive.  But actually, office safes have been sold by mail order… they have to be delivered anyway, so why not? 

There has been identity theft and fraud – but most of it happens offline.  When did you last see your credit card disappear for a minute or two in the hands of a restaurant waiter or shop assistant?  Do you know for sure that nobody’s been looking through your dustbin?  The fact is that online traders almost all use ultra-secure payment processors, because it’s in their interests: they’re actually much easier than taking orders manually, they cost next to nothing and they give peace of mind to customers, so traders make more sales.

But the best thing about Internet marketing is that the Internet can act as your shop-front, your sales person, your cashier, your bookkeeper, your production workers, your workshop and your delivery system.  All, pretty much, for free.

And the more you sell, the closer to ‘free’ it gets.  Digital products cost nothing to deliver via the Internet, so margins are astronomical.  Almost regardless of the business you do now, you will be able to create, or have created for you, a digital product – an ebook, a software download, an audio or video recording, a ‘how-to’ manual, or whatever.  The recurring income in IM is from products that cost very little to create except for time and imagination but which sell over and over again, with free delivery and zero manufacturing costs.  And ‘physical’ products like manuals, DVDs and the like sell for prices far above the cost of reproduction and delivery anyway.

And while it’s delivering your merchandise and collecting and recording payments, the Internet is also building you a database of clients you can go back to time after time.  By integrating an auto responder system like Aweber, you can automatically add every online customer and every enquirer to your database, so you can repeat your sales message as often as you see fit.  You can also be more subtle with your email marketing, by providing useful content and information, as we do with our Cinnamon Edge newsletter, building the trust and respect of your potential clients until they feel happy to buy from you.  Or they can just keep reading. 

Either way, it still costs you next to nothing to stay in touch.  If all these other people can do it, so can you!

Roy Everitt

The Complete Marketing Manual from Cinnamon Edge