Corporate Web StrategyWeb Marketing ideas, tactics, trends and more….

In the era of Web 2.0, Internet marketing is no longer an “optional” choice within the context of corporate marketing. Web presence has become the norm rather than the exception. For some small enterprises, a simple website or even a free blog page would suffice as a simple virtual representation of the existence of the business.

Thus, the next questions would then be, what can corporations do further to harness the power of the Internet for business expansion or to outperform their competitors? How can organizations incorporate a web marketing strategy as a crucial part of their marketing plan? Is it possible to influence the customer’s purchasing decisions with a solid web marketing strategy?

Surfing through the Internet, I’ve encountered countless of blogs and websites focusing on the “money-making” aspects of Internet Marketing, which would include selling online products, blogging for dollars, selling online Pay Per Click ad space, and to gel it all together, search engine marketing.  On the social media scene, I’m sure you’ve heard all that buzz about Twitter, Facebook and Linked-In.

But how do we put all these concepts to work together for us? We have sites such as www.web-strategist.com that provides analytical insights as well as web and social media trends targeted at Forrester. There are also sites such as www.mashable.com that offers great how-to guides and the latest tech news relevant to social media. Finally, just Google “make money online” and you will probably find a plethora of sites on this topic, in the likes of www.problogger.net, www.johnchow.com or www.courtneytuttle.com.

Ultimately, just by scouring the Internet, business owners should be able to discover piecemeal but valuable social media and web promotion ideas and how-tos. However, in order to stand out from the crowd, corporate marketers and entrepreneurs need to harmonize web tactics with a solid marketing plan and strategy.  Stuff like search engine optimization and social media marketing will only work when there is a master marketing plan in place to drive the direction of web activities.

Only then, would corporations be able to communicate value and drive demand effectively. This comes not just by influencing customers, but also by building relationships and understanding customer needs and requirements, with strategic online conversations.

This has been the pilot post of Corporate Web Marketing, with more insights on corporate web strategy coming soon in future posts. Stay tuned!