The ABC's of Internet Marketing

Back in the 1870s, US department store pioneer, John Wanamaker, lamented, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half!" In today’s increasingly global market, this is no longer a problem. Every successful marketing agent knows that leveraging pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is the key to controlling costs. This unique form of marketing makes it easy to budget advertising dollars and track return on investment (ROI), while attracting traffic to your Web site and qualified leads and sales to your business. Compared with other traditional forms of advertising, paid search marketing, or PPC, is far and away the most cost effective.

This report examines the role of PPC as a central component of a successful marketing strategy. It begins with an overview of PPC’s place in the digital market place and the reasons for its continuing worldwide popularity among business owners and entrepreneurs. It also provides tips to ensure your business is getting the most from its PPC campaign. 

With this introduction, our latest whitepaper immerses you in internet marketing technique known as Pay per Click or PPC.  To learn more about what PPC can do for your business, download this whitepaper, visit our web page about Pay Per Click advertising, or call us at (916) 933-7414 to learn more.

 

 

 

One of the big challenges for business owners and decision makers today is understanding the different Search Engine Marketing techniques enough to be able to decide on where to invest their scarce marketing dollars to maximize ROI.  

In my conversations, the heart of the discussion seems to focus around Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Pay Per Click advertising (PPC).  Business needs, target market, product and service offerings, pricing and margins, and marketing budget all factor into the deciding which search engine marketing techniques are appropriate for the company, but the biggest challenge is to ensure they understand it is not an "either/or" decision. 

In many situations, the combination of SEO and PPC can have a synergistic effect on demand generation and revenue growth.  sion as to which technique is right for the company  which is the right combination of them to use to drive propsects to their business and increase revenue.   Below is a blog post from Jody Nimetz, Senior Search Marketing Strategist at Enquiro and can be found at http://ow.ly/2QEyS  .


SEO or SEM (PPC), organic vs. sponsored? Where should your online marketing budgets go? Well the answer is both. SEO and PPC can work very nicely together depending on where you are with your online marketing efforts. We came up with ten instances where SEO and PPC should be used together as an effective online marketing campaign.

1. Preparing for a Site Redesign - when planning a redesign and making sure that all of the SEO best practice are being put in place as you prepare to launch, you'll want to bolster your online campaign with sponsored efforts as you transition your site from the old site to the new. Once the SEO efforts kick in post launch, you can reduce your PPC spend and focus your sponsored efforts elsewhere.
   
2. Preparing to Launch a Microsite - Microsites allow you to try out a more targeted online strategy. For quick traffic generation to your new microsite, you'll want to utilize an well planned sponsored startegy. At the same time your SEO efforts can be geared towards a focus on long-tail, and less competitive keywords to drive additonal traffic to the microsite.
   
3. Launching a new Sub-Domain - Similar to launching a microsite, sponsored efforts can be used to direct traffic to the new sub-domain while an SEO strategy can be developed to obtain long term rankings for the sub-domain.
   
4. Launching a new Website - Anytime you launch a new website, you should have both an SEO and SEM strategy working together to help obtain traffic to your new web property. Initially your sponosred startegy might be the only means of driving traffic to your new site, until you can improve your visibility in the natural search results of the search engines.
   
5. Marketing Your Website on a Shoestring Budget - If you have a tight budget, you can focus efforts on SEO and compliment that with a smaller PPC strategy where you bid on phrases that are less expensive. You may want to focus your PPC spend for local search while you concentrate your SEO efforts for more genreal search engines rankings. As you develop content through SEO and on-page optimization the only cost you incur is time.
   
6. Company Mergers & Merging Web Properties - In the dynamic economic environment that we have experienced in recent years, it's not uncommon to see companies merge. Quite often startups are bought out and you are left with multiple web properties at your disposal. This is another great example of when you should be using SEO and PPC simultaneously to educate your target audience of your recent merger or acquisition. You may want to phase the old company out, as a resul you may want to move some content from that companies website to your own. Developing an SEO transition strategy that is backed up by a solid PPC strategy can be an effective way to educate your existing consumers as well as any new prospects who may be looking for your solution.
   
7. Releasing a New Product Line - PPC can be used in conjunction with SEO to promote your new product or solution line. Chances are that your new product name will be easy to rank for orgnically, backing that up with some non-branded traffic from sponsored efforts and you can quickly acheive some additional branded and non-branded traffic that will convert on your site with the proper type of messaging and promotion.
   
8. Online Reputation Management Camapaigns - Experienced some negative press? Use SEO and sponosred solutions to protect your brand in the online space. From an SEO point of view, you'll want to ensure that any negative organic listings are pushed to page two of the search results page, by optimizing your site for blended search, and leveraging social networks to dominant the SERP landscape. Furthermore you will want to protect your branded via PPC efforts so that negative or "questionable" listings do not appear within the sponsored results.
   
9. Entering New Markets - If your company is large enough to go global or is entering new regional markets, you might want to use SEO and PPC to target these geographic demographics. Depending on your expansion, you might want to try a GEO-targeted sponsored campaign, backed up with content development for organic rankings in the natural search results of the search engines.
   
10. Plateauing Search Engine Traffic - Seen your website traffic start to plateau? Maybe you need to modify or add a sponsored strategy to your SEO strategy or vice versa. Revisit both your SEO and PPC efforts and get creative with some new messaging to drive more traffic to your site.

While many companies are doing SEM or are developing SEO strategies, there are still a number that are not leveraging SEO and PPC efforts together. If your company is experiencing any of the ten issues above, you may want to establish a co-existing SEO and SEM strategy to ensure that you effectively intercept your target audience and that you continue to drive qualified traffic to your site. Search engine optimization and sponsored search marketing efforts can work together to provide you with optimal results. The more effective you become with your online marketing efforts, the less spend it will take to drive more business. While it takes time and is subject to the changing nature of the Internet, realizing when to use SEO and PPC together can return tremendous results.

I read a blog post focusing on which provides more value, Pay per Click or Search Engine Optimization. Those arguing for SEO claim that 80 percent of clicks come from organic rankings.  Those on the paid search (PPC) side, contend that more revenue comes from the Sponsored Links.  Microsoft conducted a study which found that 60 percent of revenues were driven by paid search, while 40 percent of revenue was driven by organic.  As you might imagine, opponents claim the numbers are misleading.

Here's how I see it--I believe PPC and SEO have different roles, and they add value at different stages of the buying cycle. Paid Search is sales oriented, comes into play at the end of the buying cycle, when consumers are read to make a purchase or commitment.  The most successful ads are those written around specific offers.

Organic listings represent the value proposition of the company and describe what they do rather than a specific offer.  Organic listings  come into play at the beginning of the buying cycle. And if you have consistently high rankings and visibility for related keyword phrases this will ensure that as the buyer progresses through the buying cycle, they will continue to see and engage the company through its organic listing, eventually making the purchase or taking the conversion action.

Bottom line--they both have a role, they both add value, and if the economic model is right for the company, doing both simultaneously will provide maximum opportunity and benefit. Learn more about how to use these powerful tools by visiting SEO vs PPC.

It is safe to say that 2009 was a year of economic crisis for markets all over the world. As the "R" word resonated in the minds of business owners everywhere, they began tightening their budgets to adapt to the economic challenges.

 

Participation in the recession is a choice, and companies must challenge themselves to evaluate their businesses and understand how they can change in order to surpass the economic conditions.

 

Though 2009 was a year of hardship, many believe that 2010 will be a year of economic recovery. Over the past year, Internet advertising spending in the US increased drastically, as spending through traditional advertising venues, such as newspaper, radio and television shrank. This trend is projected to continue in 2010.

The #1 fastest growing advertising channel is the Internet, and businesses need to re-invent their marketing strategies and capitalize on this medium in order to rise above the economic challenges.
 

This Internet Marketing Trends Report is a brief synopsis of the current  online marketing activities in the US, as well as the projected trends for the coming years. Specifically, the report covers Internet usage and penetration, total advertising spending, Internet marketing spending and social media trends.

When most businesses make a commitment to Internet Marketing, their first step is to create a website.  Unfortunately, many business owners believe this is where their work ends.  They think “if you build it, they will come”.  In reality, “they” may come, but only if a business owner takes the necessary steps to make their website easy to find and visible.  And even then, considering how many websites there are competing for high ranking and visibility, it can be a time consuming, expensive, and sometimes frustrating effort.

While there are myriad tools and techniques available to drive awareness and visibility online for today’s businesses, small and medium-sized companies can get started by focusing on a few core techniques that will move them down the path to visibility, and driving more, qualified visitors to their website:  

SEO – Of all the techniques, SEO may still be the most effective, highest volume source of gaining visibility on the search engines, and the lowest cost of long term online customer acquisition.  SEO continues to deliver the highest visibility by ranking you at or near the top of the organic search rankings for phrases your target market uses to find your goods and services.  For developing long term brand awareness for your website, for being visible to searchers as they start their online purchasing process and for being there when they are ready to take the next step, SEO continues to be worth the investment in time and money.

Paid Search (PPC) – Many people think that they need to make a choice between SEO and PPC when deciding how to increase their visibility online.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The two are complimentary and work well together to provide maximum visibility.  Using both together in an integrated plan will provide a synergistic jump in online traffic to your site.  PPC provides companies the ability to appear prominently on the search engine results pages (SERPs), with a tailored offer to a target geography and demographic.  It is very sales focused and enables companies to exploit unique opportunities, react quickly to changing market dynamics, and engage with a targeted audience at the time they are ready to buy.  While SEO benefits take time to manifest, benefits of a PPC campaign can be felt immediately, and can begin the inflow of online leads while you are waiting for the results of your SEO project to be felt.

Local Search – The third of three sections on a SERP, Local Search is an incredible opportunity for small businesses serving a local community to get first page SERP visibility.  While it may technically be considered part of SEO, Local Search is the fastest and lowest cost technique to achieving first page SERP ranking.  And with the growing mobile internet phenomena in full swing, getting your local business on the first page of the SERPS is more important than ever.

Social Media – Search engines are not the only vehicle for being found online anymore.  This newer and dramatically growing dimension of online marketing continues to offer fresh and exciting ways to engage your target market, build your brand and interest in it, and generate both buzz and new customers.  Whether it is Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn or any of the hundreds of other sites, Social Media enable businesses to create a community of like minded people around their brand, directly interact with their customer and fan base with dynamic content and a two way conversation, and bring a more human element to their business online.

Blogging – Blogging enables you to establish a recurring conversation with your target market.  You can use this tool to establish yourself as a domain expert in your field, to communicate trends, the latest news, case studies, and any  number of different themes.  This will bring attention to you, your business, and your website, and build a following that will translate into more visitors to your site.  Blogging is also a significant component of “off page” SEO, important in it’s own right.  And when you combine blogging with a strong Social Media presence, you begin to establish a more visible and authoritative presence online, and lay the foundation for long term brand building and website traffic.

Creating an attractive website and driving new visitors to it are critical to your the success of your Internet Marketing efforts.  But you can’t stop there. Once visitors start arriving, is your website designed to make it easy for them to find what they are looking for?  Have you eliminated friction in your conversion paths to make it easy for your visitors to take the action you want them to take?  Is your business ready to accept this inflow of new visitors and engage them attentively, professionally, and courteously?  There are many dimensions to growing your business via the Internet, and you need to pay attention to them all if you want to maximize your ROI and maximize your success.