Internet marketing is one of the most powerful ways to grow awareness, audience, and customers for your business’ products and services. Surprisingly though, many businesses delay or avoid online marketing and suffer the results in lost sales.

Your customers are looking for you on the Internet. Why wouldn’t you be there? Convinced? Ready to give it a try?

Here are three critical components every business’ Internet marketing system should include:

1. Careful Research and Clear Goals

Don’t forget that the Internet is not just a marketing channel, but also a very effective research tool. Use searches to find consumer demand and competitive snooping to look for opportunities.

In addition, to searching and browsing websites related to your industry the rise of social media can give you direct insight into the mind of your customer. Researching social media chatter can reveal potential customers, their needs, and how they make buying decisions.

Pay particular attention to how they are using the Internet to find products and services to purchase. With this information, you will know exactly how and where to market your product to maximize your reach.

Once your research is done, use the information to set goals for your marketing campaign. All goals should follow a SMART system: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timetabled.

Finally, take an honest look at your company’s capabilities along with the market information, and make sure your planned marketing campaign is something that you can realistically accomplish in a timely manner. A successful online campaign can always be expanded later.

2. Create an Online Elevator Pitch

First impressions are critical in life—business is no exception.

Unfortunately, the Internet only compresses the time you have to give a positive impression. Your prospective customers are only going to give your email, website, or landing page a few seconds.

Seconds…that’s all the time you have to convey your value proposition and convince them to take action. Crafting an effective elevator pitch is the best strategy to building a compelling message that will ultimately convert that visitor to a customer.

Start with a brief, but informative introduction to your product or service, one that highlights your unique value proposition. The key is to quickly differentiate your business from the competition.

Central to any good elevator pitch is a clear explanation of the problem, need, or want that your product or service addresses. Try to personalize your message(s) to fit your target audience. And in all cases ensure that your message is simple and clear.

Strengthen your claims with statistics, testimonials, and case studies that will quickly draw the attention of potential buyers.

3. Feed Your Campaign with Fresh Content

Now that you’re armed with good research and a strong core value proposition, it’s time to start your Internet marketing program.

Whether you market through a company blog, on a social media site or directly on your company website, the key to building a buying audience is fresh, unique, compelling content. Great content will not only help optimize your website to reach the top search engine ranking, but will also keep you customer tuned into your social media channels for your latest updates.

Granted, adding fresh content requires and investment of time and resources, but it’s one that will be richly rewarded in the future. However, it takes consistency and frequency to get the results you want. This is where hiring professional content creators—writers, designers, and videographers can help accelerate your online marketing plan.

What have you found important in building an Internet marketing for your business?