Internet Marketing is BOTH an Art and a Science

Depending on your nature you probably look at Internet marketing, all marketing for that matter, as a numbers game. You send "x" number of letters, faxes, or emails and you get "y" results. So you concentrate your efforts on activities geared to increasing the percentage of replies. It's a numbers game to you.

Others place the vast majority of their effort on why they are marketing what and to whom. While their counterparts above will blast the message to a wide audience hoping for a few sales of leads, these marketers will send very very few messages to the precise individuals they want as customers, expecting that they will be able to move every one of them from suspect to prospect to first level customer to key account.

In fact the most effective Internet marketers combine the art and the science better than the unsuccessful marketers - because it takes both to achieve optimum results. And that is why we collected several hundred articles by experts from both camps.

Our mission is to provide resources for business owners and professional solution providers and it occurred to us that offering the widest range of opinions makes more sense than trying to tell you that we have all the answers.

In the nav bar on our web site we have a link to our "Internet Control Panel" where we describe how we are using the Internet to grow our business, but your business is likely very different and you have different goals, objectives, strengths, weaknesses, contacts, etc. If you visit that page and those connected to it you might find a tool or strategy you can integrate into what you are already doing, or not I don't know.

One reason we have so many articles about Internet marketing, in several different article sub-directories, is because of the discussion going on hot and heavy between those who believe in push marketing and those who prefer pull marketing.

Pull marketing is about having such a compelling offering in such an attractive package and available especially for people like them that they can't resist. If you want to know what pull marketing looks like check out a fly fishing video.

In fly fishing the "fly" at the end of an incredibly long fishing line connected to a very long fly rod, never seems to touch the water. The fish keep looking up as the "fly' dances tantalizingly just above the surface. Eventually they can stand it no longer and leap out of the stream and grab the "fly" in mid air.

That's how your pull marketing should work too. And since there are so many ways to approach it we've collected many different explanations in numerous articles.

When people think of push marketing they usually think of email marketing. That's because it is an economical, compelling, and direct marketing tool. If done right it will drive responses in impressive numbers and with today's technology it can be personalized endlessly. But that doesn't make it easy or simple to do.

Email's just a tool and so it is only as effective as the person or company using it. And the same elements to consider as any other direct marketing tool still apply before you send the email, during the process itself (delivery issues for example) and after the campaign is over - when you work to figure out what went right, what went wrong, and what you'll do differently next time.

Among the articles in the Internet Marketing article directory are various examples and strategies that will make your next email marketing endeavor more effective.

And because there are so many articles, 2,500 plus, you will save time by using the keyword based internal search engine in the nav bar. That's also true because often articles written about something other than Internet marketing contain just the nuggets you are looking for.

Finally, we all tend to look for other people's opinions to support our own. Then when things don't work we have someone else to blame. I encourage you to resist that temptation here and read articles on both sides of whatever strategy you are considering. Then make a well considered business opinion based on the whole story.

Remember, it is easier (and more cost effective) to do it right the first time, than it is to do it over!

Wayne Messick, author, consultant, and peer group facilitator is the publisher of articles to help you grow your business at http://www.iBizResources.com/article_directory/ If you are a business advisor wanting to maximize your potential,here are strategies we are using to generate record revenues. If you are a business owner wanting to leverage what you are already doing right visit the Peer Groups area of our website.