 Summary:
How internet marketing can transform
your small business or home based
business. Search engine optimization
presents an online marketing
opportunity.
For
everyone who believed in the power of
the internet, the dot com bust of 2000
was always a short-term phenomenon. Over
the last few years, the internet has
matured into the most amazing economic
and social engine since the dawn of
television. In this past holiday season
alone, U. S. online sales in November
and December registered more than $15
billion – a whopping 30% increase over a
year ago.
Savvy marketers are already taking
advantage of the unique power of the
internet as an advertising medium.
Online advertising is now siphoning
money away from traditional media,
including local media such as newspaper
advertising and yellow pages. And
according to advertising analysts,
online advertising as a whole is poised
to overtake total magazine advertising
by 2007. It’s a long way from the dotcom
bust of a few years ago.
Internet marketing options for small
businesses are plentiful – and this is
true whether their market is local,
regional, or national. Local businesses,
in particular, have opportunities that
are frequently overlooked. Because they
have a local focus, these businesses can
make sure that their website is
“optimized for search” at the local
level – which simply means having their
website set up properly, and maintained,
so as to take advantage of the fact that
Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, AOL, and
other search engines make it fairly easy
for local businesses to be found on the
internet. The “pay-per-click”
opportunities from Google and Overture
are also an important tool both for
local and national advertisers. A local
business in Norwalk, CT, for example,
can tailor their Google ads to be seen
only by customers in their local region
– and they can track precisely which ad
(and which keyword) led a visitor to
click through to their website. Want to
take it a step further? The advertiser
can now track where on their website
this visitor goes – and even what they
click on. It’s a powerful way to monitor
spending and ad dollars ROI (Return on
Investment). You can’t do that with an
ad in your local newspaper.
A good internet marketing plan is now
essential for any small business. The
plan will be unique to that business,
because the choice of internet marketing
options virtually demands that the plan
be customized. This is a good thing,
because a unique internet marketing plan
will help the business stand out from
the competition. Our internet marketing
and
web design company has clients who
are successful using one or more of the
available tools, including Google Adwords and Overture “pay-per-click,”
online publicity,
search engine
optimization, email marketing, internet
yellow pages, vertical directories,
regional directories, and so on.
The most important thing for the
small business to recognize is that
internet marketing is an ongoing
process. The internet is a dynamic
medium. It is constantly changing. Sites
come and go. Links (which are crucial to
search engine success) disappear. Search
engines change the way they rank
websites. The list goes on. In order to
be successful, an internet marketing
plan must embrace this dynamic nature of
the internet, and be ready to switch
tools as the situation demands. The
thing to keep in mind is that internet
marketing, while it need not involve a
huge budget, must involve an ongoing
budget, if it is to succeed. The days of
“if you build it, they will come,” are
long gone, if they ever existed.
The great news for small businesses
is that it does not have to cost a
fortune to get involved in internet
marketing. We have clients in several
businesses who are spending $100 a month
on Adwords, and seeing big ROI. What’s
important is to find a good internet
marketing consultant, and get started.
Internet marketing is unique in its
ability to be tracked, monitored,
measured, and tweaked. This means that
even with a modest budget, a business
can keep track of where the dollars are
going, and whether they are well spent.
There is an old saying attributed to an
exasperated business owner: “I know half
of my advertising works. I just don’t
know which half.” With the exciting
options on the internet today, that
saying need no longer hold true. You can
find out exactly what works, and what
doesn’t. For small businesses
everywhere, that’s really big news.
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