Internet Marketing

whatisseo.jpgDid you know there are well over 2 billion commercial websites on the Internet right now competing for business and the number rises daily?

Right now you’re probably thinking: that’s a lot of competition. Yes, it is. But if you’re doing your Internet Marketing the right way it won’t matter, because, trust me, a lot of those other guys are doing it wrong. How wrong? Very wrong indeed.

You see the problem is that Internet Marketing is at the same time a very simple and a very complex process. There are many disciplines with in Internet Marketing; such as Search Engine Optimization, Behavioral Targeting, PayPerClick, Analytics Interpretation and countless others. On the surface anyone can learn the most basic application of any one discipline in a week. What this has resulted in is a landscape cluttered with many so called Experts, Consultants and Specialists.

Now look some of these people are pretty good at what they do, some are even exceptional but it is the application and interaction of the different techniques that makes or breaks a successful companies online efforts. To highly simplify this concept let’s look at 5 hypothetical companies each that actually has applied a given aspect of Internet Marketing and done so quite well.

  • Company A - Hired or consulted with an SEO and is now ranking well for key terms and phrases in Google, they have excellent daily web traffic.
  • Company B - Has set up an exceptional lead capture and follow up system that incorporates automation into converting leads into sales.
  • Company C - Has utilized exceptional sales and marketing copy and images in their website so visitors to the site convert at a high percentage.
  • Company D - Has integrated a good analytics package and can clearly see where traffic comes from, where their site fails and where it succeeds.
  • Company E - Has hired an exceptional Behavioral Targeting and PPC Specialist and he is bringing their perfect target demographic to the site.

Let me ask you which of the above companies is the biggest success? The right answer is they have all failed. These five approaches are at the bare minimum what should be put together in a proper Internet Marketing program. Only by incorporation of all 5 can you know exactly the who, what, where, why and how of your market place.

I personally loathe “buzz words” so I am hesitant to use a phrase like “holistic approach” yet a buzz word is only a buzz word when it is used solely because it “sounds cool”. So when it comes to a proper Internet Marketing campaign “holistic” the most accurate word I can use. Imagine a company doing all 5 of those steps above properly. That company would…

  1. Have excellent low cost long term traffic from their SEO efforts
  2. Take advantage of each visitor by converting a high percentage into leads that are placed into a follow up system.
  3. Get outstanding conversion percentages that would make each dollar spent return a high ROI
  4. Know the exact value of each visitor and the effect of EVERY change they make to their website
  5. Be able to purchase as much additional traffic as they wish and know the exact profit before a penny was spent

While this may all sound complicated it really isn’t it is more accurately complex and what I mean by that is you must properly understand the fundamentals of all each discipline, be able to accurately and effectively apply them and be prepared to adjust and learn as you move forward. The reality though is doing all of this does not have to be expensive and it can all be implemented for far less then the cost of a single additional employee.

This also doe s not to have to all be done at one time. You can start with analytics to get an idea of your sites current performance, build in lead generation and follow up, then start to purchase a small amount of paid traffic which will lead to accurate targeting of your eventual SEO efforts. At that point you can then really ramp things up and know your ROI before you start. This very fact is why I choose to put all my efforts into Internet Marketing 8 years ago. No other method of sales or marketing offers this level of opportunity and ability to track results.

To learn more about how Internet Marketing can improve your business just contact me and I will be glad to give you a free 30 minute initial consultation to determine what you next best step is.