| It may seem obvious, but it is true: If a customer can't find it, the best website in the world won't help your business. It's one thing to have a website but it's another thing entirely to make it a powerful tool for generating sales, improving customer loyalty, and spreading brand awareness. The difference lies in a successful internet marketing campaign.
There are three important aspects to a well-rounded marketing initiative:
#1 Search Engine Optimization
They say the best things in life are free, and that holds true on the web as well. Paying for ad placement can be an important part of your overall strategy, but it's even better when your website appears at the top of the "organic" search listings. When someone types your company name or one of your products into a search engine, you want to be at the top of the list.
You can't buy top search engine rankings in search engines, and anyone who tells you otherwise is not to be trusted. You can, however, optimize your site to make it as visible to the search engines as possible. Through careful editing of text and the implementation of a number of behind-the-scenes coding and labeling techniques, you can make a real impact on how easy your site is to find. If customers can find you, they just might hire you.
#2 PPC Ad Campaigns
Largely pioneered by Google, Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising has revolutionized the world of online ad sales (and earned Google a pretty penny in the process). There are other players in the game now (most notably Yahoo and MSN), but the process is essentially the same for all of them.
Rather than blindly purchasing expensive banner ads that no one might see, your company bids on specific search terms, or "keywords", and your ad will only appear when someone enters one of those terms into a search engine. Even better, you don't pay anything unless they actually click on your ad! Ad placement is determined on an auction model with the top spots going to those who have the winning combination of a high bids and a popular ad. If more people click on your ad, Google considers it to be more relevant. They make their living providing relevant results, so they reward good ads with a leg-up in the bidding process. (The actual formula is complex, but that's the idea.)
PPC is a wonderful new approach to advertising because your audience is self-selected for your interest in your services! Not only that, but PPC campaigns offer incredible reporting and data collection services. Ever wonder if a particular ad was working? With a well-run PPC campaign, you can answer that question in great detail. For every visitor who comes to your site, you know which ad they saw, what search terms they entered to see it, and a whole host of other details.
#3 Viral Marketing
Viral marketing is the art of going through the side door. The internet is a crowded and chaotic wonderland of companies and people and rock bands and everything else you can imagine. There's not a lot of organization to it all, but there's one thing you can always count on:
Everybody has an opinion.
And they tend to express those opinions in blogs and chat rooms and anywhere else they can find a sympathetic eye. Viral marketing is the web equivalent of product placement. It's putting in a good word about your product during a chat session or casually alerting influential bloggers that your company offers so many great services that would be worth writing about.
It is subtle and time-consuming work, but it is the closest you can come to manufacturing word-of-mouth. And that is powerful stuff.
Contact Avity for a web presence that delivers real results. |
