Small Business Internet Marketing Strategies…
Internet Marketing is a now a must do marketing activity for any small business wanting to prosper in the so called Information age. However, with this being said, marketing your small business on the Internet does not need to be expensive, nor does it need to be complicated.
And, just like in the real world, there are many small business marketing options available to you.
As a small business owner you just need to choose from the variety of Internet marketing options available to you, and then consistently apply these systems and strategies to get measurable results. In fact, small business Internet marketing can be a very cost-effective way of promoting your bricks and mortar business locally and/ or to the world.
So, what are these strategies and how does one apply them?
For the average small business there are only THREE approaches to Internet marketing that one needs to consider, being…
1. PPC marketing (Pay per click marketing, e.g. Google Adwords), and… 2. Information link marketing (linked via content on a specific topic), and… 3. Educational search marketing (all involving original content that educates).
And, what are the benefits/ costs (pros and cons) of these approaches?
1. PAY PER CLICK SEARCH MARKETING:
Paid search marketing works a little like the marketing you (as a bricks and mortar business owner) already know. It’s paid advertising. You pay for placement of your ad, and it’s placed before potential prospects who then find your PPC advertisement while searching the Internet for solutions to a problem. Who sees your PPC advertisement is determined by the keywords and keyphrases YOU chose for your individual PPC campaigns, and the effectiveness of your PPC ad.
The PROS: You get your ad before prospects quickly.
The CONS: A) This is a specialist skill. If you don’t know what you’re doing you can lose a lot of money, fast! B) Hiring a PPC specialist can be expensive. C) You have to continue to run your PPC ads. D) Competition for commercial keyterms is fierce. This continually drives their cost up, and you only get to play as long as you continue to pay.
2. HYPERLINK within CONTEXT LINK MARKETING:
This model utilizes other people’s existing web content (for your advertising benefit). The text links are placed within their keyword focused web pages. So, let’s say you’re selling financial services. Your keyword-related hyperlinks are run within the content about (guess what) financial services. People click on that hyperlink and end up at your offering about financial services.
The PROS: Information is the currency of the Internet. When you use these embedded hyperlinked, and within context ads correctly they can be a very effective advertising medium for small business. The clickthroughs may be lower than the PPC model, but the quality of visitor is usually much higher.
The CONS: A) Best results are achieved by utilizing specific landing pages, different landing pages for different ads. To be effective one needs to use a search path specialist. B) Competition for the profitable commercial keyterms is fierce which drives costs for these keyterms up. And, you only get to play as long as you continue to pay. C) You have little control over where the in-context links are placed within the web pages. The system places the ads for you.
3. NATURAL SEARCH – SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING:
Natural search is where people go to the Internet, type a keyterm into a search engine, and the search engine returns a list of the most appropriate web page on the web with has that keyphrase in it. When done correctly this marketing method has significant benefits for small business marketing their bricks and mortar businesses on the web.
Note: SEO is a term used to describe the optimization of web pages. Search marketing is different (though related). Search marketing integrates SEO and information search paths to better interface with the web user searching for specific information.
The PROS: With natural search marketing, if your business is the creator of the keyword-focused content, you have a distinct marketing advantage on the web. Long term, these advantages will far out weight both the PPC and In-context marketing strategies, because you are building a web business or traffic portal which belongs to you. Your results with natural search marketing are in direct relationship to your own efforts. And, here’s an interesting twist, small businesses wanting to primarily market themselves locally or regionally have a distinct advantage using this natural search marketing methodology.
The CONS: A) Search marketing strategies require more effort than the potential throwing money at the wall techniques of the other strategies. B) It can be a slower approach than the other methods discussed. However it has been proven time and again that search marketing is an ideal and cost effective method for small businesses to use on the net.
And so, to summarize… There is great divide between those business who understand the web and how to market on it and those who don’t. However, your opportunity to market your own small business on the web is now, while this confusion still exists in the marketplace.
Filed under: Internet Marketing