The successful online marketer uses a variety of traditional and Web2.0 techniques to drive leads into their online marketing funnel. The funnel illustrates the process of moving a website visitor to a buying client and then on to an evangelist for your products and services. The funnel is widest at the top and must be filled with a variety of leads in order to have qualified prospects filter down through the buying stages of the funnel. Blending traditional marketing methods with some of the newer avenues can prove extremely beneficial to filling your funnel.

Traditional Online Marketing Methods:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): SEO is the process of organizing the content on your website to increase its potential relevance to specific keywords on search engines. It also involves building external links to your site and making sure they are titled correctly. The process is best done from the initial point of building the site and it may be beneficial to work with an SEO expert who is up-to-date on the current methods the search engines use for targeting keywords and assigning rankings.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC): PPC is an internet marketing method which allows advertisers to bid on keyword searches and pay only when a user actually clicks on their ad. Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter are the largest networks which offer PPC advertising.

Link Building: Link building involves seeking out strategic partners to add links from their web sites to your web site. Strategic partners can include: trade associations, customers, suppliers, professional organizations, and others in complementary businesses. Quality links are just as important as the quantity of links. It is often easier to get a link to your site by offering a reciprocal link in return.

Web 2.0 Marketing Methods:

Social Networks: Social networks are a means of building online communities of people who share the same interests. They offer an incredible way to communicate and share information. The most popular social networking sites in the U.S. include Facebook and Twitter.

Viral Video: A viral video is a video clip that gains widespread popularity by people sharing the clip through email, instant messaging, blogs, and websites. They are often humorous in nature which makes people want to share them with friends. YouTube is commonly associated with viral videos and offers a way to host your video clips for others to see.

Pull Marketing: Pull marketing involves creating quality content, products or services that consumers want to learn more about. Rather than pushing your product on the consumer, you offer them something of value that they want to get more of. You’re pulling them to your website where you can then sell to them. Article marketing, forum posting, and blog contributions are all ways to pull people to your website.

Social Bookmarking: Social bookmarking sites like Digg, del.icio.us, reddit, and Stumbleupon offer a method for internet users to store, organize, search, and manage their favorite web pages. Being the source of quality content that people bookmark to these sites can build a viral flow of traffic to your site.

RSS Syndication: Providing quality content on a regular basis is key to building a following of internet users. Utilizing an RSS feed allows you to publish your updated blog entries, video and audio clips, and articles in a standardized format. RSS feeds allow publishers to syndicate content quickly and automatically. Readers who want timely updates can subscribe to your feed and have their feeds from multiple sites centralized in one place.

If you’re new to internet marketing, implementing just one of these strategies can bring exponential growth to your website traffic. Those who’ve already tried one or two of the traditional approaches should work to put a Web 2.0 method into place to renew the flow of traffic to their site.

photo credit: The Travelling Bum