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What is Internet Marketing? |
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“Rich, I have a website so my online advertising is set and ready to go!” This statement is the major reason for my interest in writing this blog. I wanted to take a position of a consultant without getting caught up as a sales representative. Marketing in general is not simple. Just walk outside your door and you will be hit with advertising. It’s on the truck riding down the street, the newspaper on your door step, the billboard on your way to work to the tattooed back of a boxer on espn fight night. The key here is that there is not one perfect advertising media. People are diverse and so are their buying reflexes. They key is to make the best investment to cover the most areas that will influence that client when they are ready to make a purchase. I could go on for hours just on the philosophy of creative and directional advertising. That we can save for another time. So I will try to keep it simple. Search Engine Marketing- The practice of marketing or advertising your website through search engines such as Google, Yahoo, ASK.com or MSN to name just a few. It may involve or consist of one or more of some of these components: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)- the practice of applying techniques to maximize your ranking in an organic or natural search result. Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)- The practice of placing ads on search engines based on categories, keywords and geography that best fit your want and focus for that online business or lead and linking it to your website. Pay for Inclusion (PFI)– Similar to the above pay per click however the main search engine you are advertising with is classified as a directory search engine. These include Internet yellow pages such as yellowpages.com and other sites such as Yahoo directory. These are search engine that sell advertising and then partner with research engines like Google and the others to have their advertisers extend into their network when they are a match to a specific search. I like to say this is the back door approach. What I mean by a search engine and a research engine can be describe this way. If some ones types in a search for African American Clothing Baltimore on a search engine like Superpages.com they will get information directing them to a location that sells or stocks this type of clothing. If the same search is done on a research engine like Google, not only will you see locations with this type of clothing but possibly website discussing the history of African American clothing in Baltimore. This leads to the importance of SEM to an online advertising campaign. Search engines bases their function on words. SEM takes those words and filters them to focus the outcome based on the clients/advertisers objectives. SEM directs online traffic to your website which should lead to new clients. Where this issue comes into play is when the traffic out weighs the business coming in. It would be similar to setting up a table at a trade or home show every weekend for a year and having thousands of people coming to your table, talking to you (probably taking any free give always) and then moving on and never making a purchase. SEM would be the tool used in this scenario to analyze the show to make sure you only set up at the locations that bet draw in your perfectly targeted client at the best time of day, year and season. Easy right? Let’s break some info out: SEO- This is based and focused on your website. This is the process of your web designer actively supporting your website to keep all your “behind the séance” information current and pertinent to the information collected from searches performed. Your website no mater how pretty is just words and numbers to a search engine. When a search is done those information seeking “spyders” shoot out to return the best match. Some folks will say this is the best online advertising because it is less expensive. We will discuss this a little more but just like the old saying “you get what you pay for.” To keep good placement your keywords, geography, spellings and photos have to be tweaked to continue to keep the placement you desire. SEM PPC- A managed advertising program. It is checked and analyzed so that the focus is that clicks equal business rather than just clicks equaling traffic. You choose keyword, geography and categories. These can be changed quickly and easily. The changes get based on what the account manager sees is happening on the web as it relates to your campaign and that of your competition. So the campaign can be based on buying habits. PPC(Performance based)- A basic ppc can be described as a link from searches to your website. This can be effective to gain awareness however the focus is on clicks not on the business coming from the click. This can be an issue when a company says they will guarantee you an amount of clicks. Clicks don’t pay bills clients pay bills. Well I think I have gone past keeping it simple so let me try and tie all this together. BENEFITS:
SEM PPC-
DOWNSIDE:
SEM-
If I have cleared up online marketing for you than I’m better than I thought. The bottom line is there are many factors in any marketing. So to leave some bullets to success lets try this:
-------------- Written by Rich Lewandowski |
