Just as Holistic Medicine treats the whole person, not the particular disease, Holistic Web Marketing covers all aspects of your online marketing in the form of an integrated marketing strategy, not emphasizing on individual areas such as SEO, SEM, PPC, etc. However, this does not mean that these essential processes are ignored or are considered redundant, but are absorbed within the web marketing framework. In short, Holistic Web Marketing defines the way you need to view your online marketing campaign in a comprehensive perspective.Primarily, Holistic Web Marketing has four facets, namely Captivation, Retention, Conversion and Analysis.
Captivation
Captivation involves driving qualified traffic to your website. This is attained through Search Engine Optimization, Blogging, Article Marketing, Podcasts, Pay-per-Click ads, social bookmarking (that includes Digg or Reddit), Social networking (such as MySpace or LinkedIn), social tagging that includes StumbleUpon or Flicker, plus traditional marketing and advertisement. Incidentally, it may also consist of posting relevant comment at other blogs, advertising on other podcasts as also contributing to online forums that relates to your niche audience.
Retention
Retention involves keeping or staying in touch with prospects. RSS feeds and Opt-in email marketing are considered as some of the best ways for keeping the connection workable and healthy. Needless to say, email newsletters, in spite of many challenges, still provide the most cost-effective method of staying in touch with clients, both prospective and existing. In comparison, RSS marketing is not much favored by online marketers, probably because it is rather new and therefore has not been time tested.Parenthetically, both email and RSS have a significantly suited plus point. They provide permission-based channels of marketing to persons who are interested in whatever you are selling. In most cases, you are not even required to check with them for the simple reason that these tools happily allow people to receive your information in a format they mostly prefer.
Retention also serves as a stepping stone in some complex sales. Even if you are unable to get people stomach your marketing strategies when they first visit your website, yet you can possibly sell them on subscribing to a feed or email newsletter. And of course, the whole thing again, is permission-based.
Conversion
Conversion entails getting people to buy or move down the sales funnel at your website. It mostly happens when you have a fascinating story to tell. More so, when your design is breezy and your navigation is easy to follow. Add to it informative content and natural links that prompts people to go to your contact page or pick up the phone. Unfortunately, most website owners pull all of their resources on Captivation but none on conversion. And as a result, they suffer.
Analysis
Analysis entails interpreting your search engine ranking, traffic reports, email signups, etc so that you can improve upon what you are currently doing. Perhaps Google is delivering the lion’s share of your traffic, but nearly none of them are closing a deal. Also, the link from your local chamber of commerce is delivering a scanty number of visitors in a month, whereas they are filling out your contact form as one way traffic.Unless you analyze these reports, you can never know how your Web marketing is functioning for you and if not in the affirmative, how best to improve upon it.
Conclusion
It goes without saying that every element of web marketing does not necessarily suit every business. If you focus on search engine optimization, neglecting everything else, you are likely to see that your website visits increase, but not your conversions. However, you will experience better results from a balanced holistic approach to web marketing, instead of focusing all of your on one or two areas.