Back in the old days (you know, three or four years ago) it was still true that placing an ad in the Yellow Pages was the single most important marketing move your business could do. It was the fundamental. If people couldn’t find you in the Yellow Pages then you were in trouble.
Not so anymore. Now, Google is the new Yellow Pages.
Now if people can’t find you on the Web – mostly Google but also Yahoo, Bing (MSN) and others – then you are in trouble because that’s where the majority of people are looking for what it is you sell or do.
The Internet Marketing Revolution is NOW
Times have changed. No longer is marketing your business about throwing some money at a few unmeasurable ads and hoping that this will work to attract the new business enquiries and sales that you need.
This change has been in the air for some time, and now as we head into the second decade of the new millennium, the Internet has solidified itself not only as the way of the future but as the primary battlefield where the majority of the marketing stakes are at play.
Basically if you don’t know how to effectively market (including advertise) your business online then you are in real danger of getting overlooked by your potential customers and going belly-up. At the very least you are missing out on a lot of genuine new-business (sales) opportunities.
Getting Found On The Internet Is Not As Simple As Placing An Ad – But It Is Relatively Inexpensive And Highly Effective
Whereas placing an ad in the Yellow Pages, magazines or similar was a fairly straightforward task, getting found on the Web is a little more complicated (but arguably much more effective).
Here’s are the main ways to get found online:
A) Via Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) – Organic (Free) Results:
Good organic search engine results are the holy grail of Internet marketing because it is so effective and can be very low-cost.
B) Via SERPs – Paid advertising:
Usually either banner advertising or, Pay-Per-Click, which is more useful and cost-effective for small-to-medium sized businesses.
C) Via links from other websites, including social media hubs like Facebook or Twitter.
D) Via direct entry of your URL into the browsers address bar.
Methods C and D have a lot to do with word-of-mouth recommendations and brand awareness, and this can certainly be influenced with the right online marketing strategies.
Points A and B are highly configurable. You can greatly improve your Organic Search Engine Results by investing in expert Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You can achieve great results out of PPC advertising by investing in the space itself and – importantly – expert PPC management. (However, how many experts can you afford to hire? Keep reading for the solution to this conundrum.)
But How Do You Get Started?
If this is all new to you, or if you have been thinking about it already, you may have some burning questions. Questions like:
How much new business can your website generate?
And can you do it all in-house?
Or do you need to hire experts?
And are these experts expensive?
Is it all just a waste of time?
Or are you selling your business short by failing to properly market your business online?
The trouble is the whole thing is just so damn confusing and time consuming right? All these different areas of specialization, most complete with their own acronym: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Pay Per Click (PPC).
And then there’s Landing Page and Website Optimization, Copywriting, Shopping Cart Optimization, Mailing List Marketing, Social Media Strategy and the list goes on!
How’s a small-to-medium business manager supposed to find the time to get their head around all that? Let alone find the time to actually execute it all!
And who can afford to hire experts in all of these areas to do all this for them? And do we really need all the different fields of expertise? All these micro-systems of niche specialization?
Relax – we are here to help.
Call us now on 1300 975 224 from anywhere in australia for the price of a local call
or email us – info@SquareEyes.com.au – and one of us – Steve or Seamus – will get back to you to see how we can be of assistance to get your online marketing mix right.
Leave a Reply