Are Businesses Doom?
If you believe what you hear in the news your business is doomed because “the economy is worse than it has been since the great depression.” My advice is not to follow this defeatist philosophy.
The Crux of the Problem
If you are not getting as many customers as you were before the economic downturn you may need to do something different. If you sell cars, for example, there may only be ten people in your area purchasing automobiles this month when there were a hundred this month last year. This is a problem but the answer is simple. Instead of giving up you should go after the ten people who are buying.
Reasonable Expectations
Of course the effort and cost of getting these ten customers must yield you a reasonable profit. This means you must first determine how much a customer is worth, and should know within a reasonable doubt that your effort will at least cost less than this. Contact me and I will show you how to do this. For the purpose of this article we will assume we are reasonably certain that the effort is worthwhile.
The Four Steps Revealed
Just about everyone uses the web. We all know about search engines and e-mail marketing, and many more are familiar with terms such as social media and viral marketing. Many, however, do not fully understand how powerful this internet tool can be. As powerful as television, radio, newspapers, yellow pages, and the US mail is, they lack interactivity.
The one major difference between old and new media is interactivity. Television, for example, is not yet able to allow consumers to search for what they need; nor does it support an environment where businesses can tailor a response to the consumers. This follow-up makes the difference in how much control you have in delivering the sale. This is the essence of what the internet offers and is revealed in the following four steps:
1. Paid Search—at this point some of you are probably saying “is this all? I have been doing this for years.” To this I have two responses, speed and precise targeting. There is no better method to quickly and precisely a) target who you want, b) immediately get them to study your offer, and c) begin a back and forth dialog where the goal is to sell your product or service. Unlike other online marketing options, with paid search you can get quantifiable results in hours instead of months.
2. Search Engine Optimization—Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most inexpensive methods for maintaining a constant flow of online customers and prospects. One mistake that is made by many search engine marketers is to target the wrong search terms. Notice in my solution hierarchy that I included paid search first. This is because you used what was learned from the paid search to determine how you should plan and execute your search engine marketing strategy. Where a paid search campaign can be producing results in hours an SEO effort may take month.
3. Search Retargeting—many may not be as familiar with search retargeting as they are with paid search and search engine optimization. Paid search and search engine optimization is the first step to a search retargeting effort. Once prospects show interest in the product or service offered, as indicated by their click through to the site, the site visitor is profiled and the marketing message is evolved. They are then re-engaged with the improved marketing message until they become customers. The actual re-engagement occurs on targeted network sites that the prospect visits over the next 30 days. The re-engagement is an effective method of keeping your offer in front of people who have previously shown an interest.
4. Opt-in E-mail Marketing—Opt-ed in e-mail marketing should not be confused with spam. Where spam is unsolicited e-mails, opt-ed in e-mails are ones that the recipients has specifically said they want to receive. As with search retargeting, the prospect has previously indicated interest. This occurred as a result of their contact through paid search or search engine optimization. Based upon their interest, buying habits, demographics, and a multitude of other attributes, periodic e-mails are sent with the goal of increasing sales. Once the list is in place the cost of a long-term e-mail marketing campaign is extremely economical.
At each step in the process customers are acquired but it is not the goal for one method to stand on its own. If a prospect does not become a customer right away they are re-engaged a second, third, or forth time. The long term goal is to minimize the cost associated with the acquisition of a customer. Moving from an aggressive paid search campaign to a low cost search engine optimization strategy is a means to this end. Once the SEO effort has met the established goals, the paid search campaign is turned down but is still used to fill the gap for the SEO search terms that are not performing as well. Finally, e-mail marketing is also used for re-engagement. The prospect has given you their permission to send them e-mails. You leverage this by presenting them with the right combination of price and offer to turn them into customers. E-mail is also used on existing customers to increase repeat sales.
Get Started Now!
No matter what the economic outlook, if you have a viable product or service, you can go to the head of the line for the acquisition of customers. There may be a drop in the number of people buying your product or service. You simple have to get to the people who are still buying.
As previously mentioned, the first step is to determine if an effort like this will yield you a reasonable profit. All the tools are available and waiting for you. It’s up to you to take the first step to make sure they are leveraged on your behalf.
Contact Steve at 816-587-8880 x102 or at steve.thompson@siteedgeagency.com .
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