Think Big Blog

In the last post we talked about the integral part that online marketing plays in the overall marketing of any company today – and the successful growth of their brand over the long term. We identified that successful marketing rests with delivering the appropriate message in a manner that will get it noticed by the appropriate audience. If any of these components are off in some way the entire process will fall apart. Most companies have no problem with their message; they know what they want to say and it is incumbent upon the marketing professionals who work with them to create an interesting way in which to say it so that the audience perks up and takes notice. More difficult, however, is finding that audience – of making sure that the message is in fact delivered.

Those companies that have yet to realize that their audience is at least partially online during the course of any given day are missing huge opportunities. Without online marketing the overall marketing strategy will collapse because at least one of the supporting structures will be missing.

Once companies understand the importance of reaching this audience they must determine what works best for them in terms of implementing a marketing strategy to increase web site traffic; thereby getting the business noticed and effectively growing the brand.

Working with a web site optimization firm is paramount for long term success because online marketing requires consistent effort that is best attended to by professionals who constantly have the company’s objectives in sight and consistently measure progress against those goals. A web site optimization firm will help determine if search engine optimization or pay per click is the way to go for your company and help put together a strategy for success – helping to reach your audience and deliver your message.

When we look at search engine optimization (SEO) or pay per click (PPC) we look at them as a part of the entire scope of online marketing – the effort of growing a brand through its online presence in much the same way that we grow a brand through traditional efforts that have nothing to do with the Internet. It used to be that companies had particular options when it came to marketing – advertising in a variety of venues, public relations efforts, event planning, product launches, and the like. The ultimate success of the effort was determined by how appropriate the message was for the target audience, the ability to reach the target audience, and the ability to make them listen. Creativity existed – and still does – in the gray areas; the variety of interesting things that marketing teams develop to get their audience’s attention.

Today, companies do not have a shot at fully marketing their brand if they do not implement at least a partial online marketing strategy. Remember that successful marketing efforts are largely based on gaining access to your audience. You can come up with all the creative ways to deliver your message that you want but if you can’t find your intended listener then your message falls on deaf ears. The thing is this – today’s audiences are online. Period. And by skipping this important marketing avenue you are surely missing the boat.

So when we say marketing today the term is inclusive of online marketing in a very big way. It is important to first understand this essential point before moving forward with whatever online marketing plan you determine to have the most merit. Without fully embracing this central component in your marketing strategy you cannot fully understand the benefits it can deliver you. More in the next post…

Online marketing requires the coming together of a variety of components that work in tandem to grow a brand. When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO) keywords are the crux of the methodology – the foundation of the entire program. The goal? To move a web site up in the search engine rankings so that it is more accessible to its potential customers and web traffic is increased as a result – as is the company’s conversion rate of visitors to customers. SEO is an organic process which means the tools are put in place and through time and persistence the efforts pay off in delivering a web site to its desired location.

Keywords are chosen based upon their relevance to the brand and the likelihood that a potential user of that brand will use those keywords in an online search. The keywords are then integrated throughout the content so that they are picked up by the search engines as relevant to particular searches. This requires that content be implemented on the site that makes use of those keywords in a natural way.

To that end, content creation in terms of online marketing is important. Content must embody the spirit of the web site – helping to market the company and the brand and deliver a message to the intended audience in a manner that is interesting/entertaining to them and to which they are likely to give their attention; but it must also incorporate SEO in that it must include the keywords that were chosen for the site.

In this way content must straddle the line between traditional brand marketing and SEO. A reputable web site optimization firm will provide content services that do more than meet their SEO needs; content will be created to elevate the site’s ranking on the search engines but also do the business justice in terms of effectively communicating its products, services, and philosophy.

In the world of online marketing you will often hear the term landing page – an important component in helping web sites appeal to unique visitors and measure their rate of success. Landing pages refer to the page on a web site that a visitor is taken if they click on a pay per click (PPC) ad or a link on a search engine results page. The page to which the visitor is taken is a continuation of that link or the full representation of the ad that is posted in the sponsored link section, so it is important that whatever is on that page is relevant to the click, so to speak.

In a pay per click campaign a company has placed a sponsored link at the top or along the side bar of a search engine results page. Those visitors that click on the ad are taken to the landing page – or lead capture page. With pay per click, the information that appears on the landing page speaks to the information provided in the ad and is optimized to include particular keywords relevant to the search. Such a page can be used for lead generation or for a specific call to action. Additionally, the landing page in a pay per click campaign can also be created to actually measure the effectiveness of the ad by measuring CTR (click through rate) which shows how often the ad was shown and how many people clicked on it during that time.

In a search engine optimization campaign, a landing page will deliver the visitor exactly to the page that has the information they are seeking. Again, the page is optimized to include those keywords that have been identified by the web site as being pertinent to what they offer and likely to be used in a search.

In the last post we talked about the practice of most companies to hire vendors to expertly handle those things that cannot be handled in-house. This is an important part of business; those companies that do not look behind their four walls to accomplish particular goals are missing out on a wealth of talent and expertise. In fact, such relationships help companies in all industries to be the very best they can be and to offer the most comprehensive service to their own customers and clients.

There are those projects that are best handled exclusively by expert vendors and from which companies can just step back. In this capacity such vendors ultimately become another arm of the company – working on the outside to meet internal goals. But when it comes to search engine optimization and other means to increase web site traffic, success is best achieved by a combined effort between the web site optimization firm and the client’s internal marketing team.

As we discussed previously, search engine optimization, pay per click, and other online marketing efforts are often looked at as something that can be done completely separately from a company. But while a reputable web site optimization firm will be able to completely manage and focus on a web marketing project it is most successful when an in-house marketing team is able to work alongside the web site optimization firm.

Why? Because marketing starts from the inside out and this is how it relates to online marketing:

• No marketing firm – including an online marketing firm – is going to be successful marketing a company that has not defined its branding. A company’s brand and message begins in-house and the web site optimization firm takes that brand and message and extends it into search engine optimization and pay per click programs with the use of keywords.

• No one knows their audience better than the company itself. Who do you want to reach online? Who are your customers? What are they searching for – what products or services? What keywords may they use to describe those products or services? Gathering this kind of information from the people who know best allows a web marketing firm to do its job most effectively.

• A web site marketing firm works on a company’s web site – tantamount to working in a company’s physical office space. The company knows it intimately and has the power to make the changes that can benefit their business. It is up to the online marketing company to make those recommendations – working hand in hand with their client to achieve success.

It is a natural thing for businesses to turn to professional vendors to help them achieve particular goals; and in an ideal situation business principals are able to turn over the project(s) to their vendor with confidence and not give it another thought. Also ideally, such a vendor acts as an extension of the company and fills a role that those within the company are not trained to fulfill. Working synergistically in this manner the company in question is able to get what they need without having to retain extra staff and the vendor is able to work together - but physically apart - from its client in order to meet pre-defined goals.

In many cases companies that retain professional search engine optimization (SEO) and other web marketing services think that they can turn over the helm and call it a day. While it’s true that any web site optimization firm worth its weight is more than capable of overseeing and completely handling such operations, it bodes well for the company involved to sit up and take notice for a variety of reasons. More than anything, it is often overlooked that SEO and PPC (pay per click) are all a part of online marketing; and those businesses that expect to reach a particular level of success without understanding online marketing are more than likely headed for disappointment.

Online marketing – like traditional marketing – is most successful when it is adopted as a companywide philosophy and practice – rather than something that is thought of in terms of project goals and completion. The entire company should always be thinking in terms of marketing, no matter what its actual purpose on a daily basis. A committed in-house marketing team is only a benefit to a web site marketing firm. More to come in the next post….

In the last post we talked about the fundamental difference between pay per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO).

PPC is a very effective marketing technique that allows for immediate results in that you pay the price for the program and earn instant placement on the search engines. But once payment stops, the placement is lost.

Search engine optimization provides for longer term exposure because the web site will have reached its ranking in the search engines organically. It takes longer to achieve results with SEO but the results hold up as long as someone is focused on the task at hand. The web site optimization firm offers this kind of focus.

Take, for instance, the difference between advertising and public relations. With advertising you pay for product placement – through an ad, a billboard, or whatever the case may be. You hire advertising experts to help you secure that space and to create an advertisement that will get people’s attention in whatever method you choose to advertise. The results are quick – your ad appears in the spot that you intended it to run and the audience that you intended to see it does indeed see it. The ad remains there for the amount of time for which the space was purchased.

In public relations you are counting on professionals to place your company in organic positions so that it is noticed – i.e. getting the attention of editors on a particular story angle so that they want to run an in depth editorial piece on the company, getting news coverage on television, and so forth. Just like advertising, public relations requires focused effort from professionals who understand the game.

In the same vein, it is important to hire professionals who specialize in each component of online marketing to achieve the best results for your web site.

We are a society that is used to getting what we want when we want it; no questions asked, no waiting required. Because we are so accustomed to instant gratification it may seem absolutely ridiculous that we should wait for anything as important as web site traffic to come our way. After all, we built the site and we did it right. Where’s our traffic? But here’s the thing…web site traffic doesn’t come just because you want it to; just because you launched your site. Getting web traffic to come to your site is all about putting the work in and making a consistent effort. Consistent effort results in consistent marketing results and there’s no way around that.

A great number of web site owners feel strongly that pay per click (PPC) is the way to go in terms of marketing their site and they wouldn’t be wrong. PPC is very effective in terms of getting the web site out there and getting noticed by the search engines and by an audience. But it must never be forgotten that once payment stops on a PPC program the placement that the site has enjoyed on the search engines ceases as well.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a longer term approach to marketing. It requires consistent “elbow grease” to get the job done. But really, the job is never done because as quickly as a site can reach the higher elevations of search engine results is as fast as it can fall again in rankings. It requires consistency and focus and that is where a web site optimization firm can come into play. Working in tandem with a web site optimization firm means that someone’s eye is always on the ball and that the business at hand is always being considered. More in the next post…

When college students are being advised to learn about search engine optimization, no matter what their career plans, then you know that there is more than a buzz in the air about this particular topic. The fact of the matter is that search engine optimization has fast become the cornerstone of online marketing built steadfastly into any solid marketing plan. Web site owners and those who work with web sites (and these days, who doesn’t?) are finally understanding the importance of taking the steps to market their site – not just build them and see where the chips fall.

This has resulted in the need for greater education about SEO; to deliver a more in depth understanding to those who will undoubtedly be called upon to bring some kind of online experience to the table. Marketing a web site has become the norm for those businesses that understand the need for remaining competitive in an ultra competitive environment. The more information that we have the better able we are able to promote our business and grow our brand online.

Choosing a web site optimization firm is important for making sure that marketing is pursued aggressively and in the most appropriate manner possible. So it stands to reason that some independent research should be done prior to choosing an appropriate online marketing firm. But in so doing, it helps to choose a firm that is as committed to educating their clients as they are working hard for them. A reputable firm is one that will want to make sure that their clients understand the process so that they can make educated decisions. The best web marketing firms understand the value in working with their clients as a team and will make sure that their clients are fully engaged in the marketing process so that they have control of where their site is going.

Previously we discussed the inability of some businesses – whether the entirety of their business is their web site or their web site is another leg of their business – to abandon all their excuses and simply get moving into the world of online marketing. This indecision or inability and unwillingness to act can have huge ramifications in an economy where those who are slow on the uptake are left on the side of the road. Competition is always fierce in business but we’ve never seen fierce like this as we all fight for the scraps that will keep us alive.

Online marketing may have once seemed like an option but it hasn’t been for a long time. It’s a necessity if any web site is really going to make a go of it online. So what aggressive steps can you take – today, right now – to make sure you are on the path for survival and ultimately success?

• Find yourself an expert. No one is expected to know about every facet of running a business. If you sell widgets then you had better be an expert in widgets but that doesn’t mean you’re an expert in manufacturing or human resources or marketing – all components of your business for which you call on the experts who DO know about these things. Online marketing is best orchestrated by a web site optimization firm that can chart a very reliable course towards success.

• Learn the tools. It’s important to understand what is out there when it comes to online marketing – from search engine optimization to pay per click, and the ways in which these differ. Know your budget, know the resources available to you, and commit.

• Do what is asked of you. Chances are, with an expert in the mix you’re going to have to make some changes to your site or include some additions. Your job is to sell your products and services to your customers; the job of online marketing experts is to make sure your products and services get into the hands of those potential customers.