"Pull Marketing" has always been, and will continue to be the most effective internet marketing strategy at your disposal. Allow me to explain. Most marketing efforts can be placed into one of three categories:
1. "Push Marketing" or advertising basically screams at the viewer. "Hey Look at ME, Buy My Stuff NOW!" Because we are exposed to this type of marketing thousands of times a day, we've learned to tune it out, hate it and even protest against it. Look at SPAM for instance. People even get arrested for using email to "Push" their offers in front of us!
With Push Marketing we have no choice in the matter. We get a sales pitch whether we want it or not. And who doesn't want a choice in what they see, read or hear?
2. "Permission Marketing" on the other hand aims to seduce us into allowing others to advertise to us. They offer up promises of great useful content, special offers and discounts if we signup, opt-in or subscribe. It's effective but loosing ground day by day as we see the content more and more diluted by the ads.
Basically, they ask us if they can advertise to us and we have a choice whether the content they're offering is valuable enough to us to put up with the ads.
3. "Pull Marketing" is when people come to you, with a purpose. If I'm seeking the services of a programmer to develop a script for a web site I'm working on, the first place I begin my search is either a search engine or a site where I know programmers can be found like Elance.com. I actually visit these sites with a purpose and seek out the best person for the job.
Maybe I read an article or web based tutorial on designing scripts for my purpose. Maybe I searched through HotScripts.com and couldn't find what I was looking for.
The Point is, I went looking for them. I took the time and energy to find them and I'm ready to buy now. I'm the most targeted prospect the programmer could ever hope for.
Now, the key to effective Pull Marketing on the internet is visibility. If that programmer was not visible when I went searching he would have lost the sale. He used Pull Marketing to his advantage and it was to my advantage as well because I needed his services at the time.
Here are 7 ways to implement "Pull Marketing" into your internet marketing strategy:
1. Make sure your web site is listed in the major search engines. Your site needs to be optimized so that it is listed under the appropriate keywords and phrases, making it visible when your potential customers and clients are ready to buy.
2. Make your expertise memorable by writing informative articles relevant to your industry or niche. Make those articles visible by submitting and syndicating them to sites and ezines for future publication.
3. Contribute meaningfully to online forums where your potential customers gather to exchange their views, opinions and talk about their problems. Leave a subtle keyworded link in each of your postings. Now that other forum visitors know who you are and what you know, they'll be more inclined to check out your link.
4. Brand your email with a signature. Every email you send out should have a short blurb at the end along with your URL. Make sure the main benefit of your business is stressed and make it compelling and irresistable. Make it memorable.
5. Provide a content rich web site that pulls visitors into interacting in some way. They have to come back for the newest articles, they have to come back to see the results of a poll or quiz they took part in. Constantly give your web site visitors a reason to return.
6. Leave your URL and signature on any other related sites that allow link submissions or link exchanges. Sign guestbooks, send webmasters testimonials touting what a great source of info their site has been to you. They may publish it, and your URL right on their main page.
7. List your site in the appropriate category of every online directory you can find. Drill down through the categories as if you were a prospective customer looking for the services you offer and submit your listing there. Targeted visibility will do wonders for your marketing pull.
The bottom line is: Targeted Visibility is the key to effective "Pull Marketing". You need to be there when your customers come looking.
Paul Short is a search engine optimization and web site promotion specialist who's been helping his clients implement pull marketing as an effective internet marketing strategy since early 1997. His web site web site and blog for more info at http://www.top100marketing.com/
paul@top100marketing.com
