Results are dwindling with conventional marketing avenues. As a result, careful analysis of future trends is a must. It’s not rocket science that businesses should be on the web. Yet that in itself isn’t sufficient. Purchasers won’t necessarily be able to find you.
Look at it this way - imagine a retail enterprise with new premises: They’ve spent a fortune on stock, fixtures, merchandising and systems. They open for business… And discover they’re in a tiny backstreet, 3 miles out of the city centre on the 4th floor, and the road outside is closed due to a diversion. And no-one has given any thought to advertising their location. Who’s going to find that store? The vast majority of business websites have just this problem.
The web has turned marketing on its head. As we left the 20th century, we all thought we had to have a web site. It wasn’t uncommon for businesses to spend huge amounts getting all the fancy bells and whistles on their site. Of course, web-designers happily lapped up the new business. Then everyone started to notice that they weren’t getting any traffic to their site. The belief was that if you had a site on the web, people would find you. Alas it wasn’t so.
Marketing on the web is essentially quite different to traditional methods. An expert in old-style marketing would compare your web presence with a catalogue. So to drive traffic to that website, you’ll need to use the regular methods of marketing. They’ll recommend media advertising and promotions in the press. Really just assuming websites need the same treatment as everything else! They produce the pretty brochure and then market every possible avenue to generate enquiries to send that brochure to. This is a fundamental misconception of the on-line economy.
This process only utilises the web as viewing gallery, which is quite wrong. The internet is a hugely interactive environment that allows billions of users to research, discuss, offer comments etc. And because of Search Engines like Google & Bing/MSN, there are huge indexes of sites that can be easily found (from the customers perspective at least) to perform these tasks. Off-line Business Pages would be useless if they weren’t properly structured: You’d never find what you were looking for.
This set-back is solved by Search Engines. Which means businesses can no longer use traditional marketing. Now, if you wish to be visible online, you must be indexed by Google, Bing and/or Yahoo etc. But there’s a lot more to it than that… #S#
Because it was often so complicated to rate highly for certain terms (and also because the Search Engines wanted more revenue), they introduced paid advertising with a unique spin. You only pay when someone actually chooses your advert - hence the name ‘Pay-Per-Click’. A very novel idea. Fundamentally, you were now only charged when an interested party looked at what you had to offer. This is an incredibly targeted way of advertising, and done properly, can yield some exceptional results.
Today however, most search terms are overwhelmed with pay per click adverts. The price of many clicks has been driven up massively, mainly because too many bidders are chasing the same terms. Now, in 2009, we’re seeing click prices that are so high, it can literally be unfeasible to make a profit. Most especially where companies need a lot of visitors for one purchase. So Search Engine Optimisation is now becoming a preferred method for many to get to page 1.
Have a go at this - Get onto one of the Search Engines now and look for some keywords that you think apply to you. Then check through as far as page three. Can you find your website? It’s unlikely. So you might as well not be there at all! If the answer was yes, are those terms actually being used by customers?
Maybe you’ve already tried some Pay Per Click advertising so you appear in the paid listings, and maybe you’ve achieved some success so far. Yet so much more could be done. Are you getting the best return on your investment? Are you aware of how to assess the quality and viability of each campaign? With PPC, testing and diagnostics are critical. If you don’t know what your stats are, then guaranteed you’re not getting the best results for your money.
Both in Britain and around the world, statistics show that commercial advertising and selling is experiencing a seismic shift towards the internet. There is no other choice but to deal with it - and ensure you’re taking full advantage of all the opportunities.