Just as it is in real-world marketing, there are many strategies in online product marketing. This is where most of the new online marketers make their primary mistake – they believe that the Internet is a separate market that follows a different approach.
Marketing a product on the Internet needs parallel strategies just as they need these same sales strategies in marketing products in the real world.
There may be other methods and styles of advertising now (Google AdSense, affiliate marketing, etc.) in the online world. However, these new approaches in selling a product cannot guarantee sales based on these new marketing techniques.
The following are some of the aspects you have to consider in doing online product marketing.
Competition
Know your product’s competitive advantage. Better yet, create one. How different is your product from the others? (More effective? More durable? Stronger? etc.) If you can’t find a unique competitive advantage, inventing one is the best solution.
To break through the fierce competition, your product must have a competitive edge over the others.
Niche / Specialty Market
Today, there is no more market for products that sports a one-size-fits-all quality. Your product must find its own niche – the right market where the target group is interested in your product. Scissors for left-handers sell better than regular ones, if marketed in the right niche.
Niche marketing also has the advantage of getting your product away from competition because it is regarded as a specialized one.
Right medium
Finding and using the right communications medium for your product is another important factor in online product marketing. You must know the right media to use in the marketing.
The communications medium should deliver the marketing message (including its competitive advantage) to the right customers. Whether it be a blog, a website or an online ad, the medium must serve to fit your product.
Opening a website with the plan of pushing your product online without any clear marketing message and planning (positioning, USP, target strategies, etc.) will not prosper very much.
Repetition
Just as it is in the real world, constant repetition is another important factor in selling. A marketing message that is reinforced by constant repetition has more chances of being retained in the market’s mind than those that are seldom seen and heard. (The success of products advertised constantly on TV proves that.)
After finding the right online medium for your product, ensure that the message is repeated enough times (and in different online media) to get programmed in the people’s minds to buy your products.
Message delivery
The forms of delivery of your marketing message are also crucial. The communication medium can be in the form of a blog, a dedicated website, display ads or some social networking sites.
One caution: Do not use one medium and exclude all the others. Today’s online media is in a unique form of network by themselves. You need to support the medium you are using with the available others using the unified message of your product’s competitive advantage.
A logo, however great-looking and effective by itself, is not sufficient to start a campaign on your product’s competitive advantage. It is nothing more than a visual tool, a component of your strategies on your online product marketing.