All online businesses can benefit from SEM. Any service or product related company must have a web site - that’s a given. But simply having that on-line presence is not enough. Your clients need to know where you are.
Phase Computing can help with this
Look at it this way - imagine a retail enterprise with new premises: Heavy investment has gone into fitting it out and setting everything up. It’s opening time, they look for clients… Then notice they’re in a backwater miles from anywhere. So no-one will have a clue how to find them. Can you see a fundamental flaw?
Nearly all commercial sites on the web are in exactly the same situation.
The internet has dramatically changed the shape of modern marketing. Ten years ago, as everyone was getting on the bandwagon, there was an idea that everyone needed a web site. Businesses scrambled to get themselves an online presence, often spending tens of thousands to create fancy graphical sites. This trend was cheerfully encouraged by on-line design companies, who relished the business! It started to become obvious though that these sites weren’t receiving any traffic. There was a belief that if you built it, they would come. This proved to be a complete fallacy…
A traditional approach to marketing breaks down on the web. An expert in old-style marketing would compare your web presence with a catalogue. So to drive traffic to that web site, you’ll need to use the regular methods of marketing. They’ll recommend media advertising and promotions in the press. Basically keeping it within their frame of reference. First they make a nice looking catalogue. Then they utilise various marketing methods to get people to look at the catalogue. Completely missing the point of the web environment.
The internet itself is not just a viewing portal. It’s a huge dynamic environment with complex interactivity. Users drill down to investigate the services they’re interested in. We can find the sites we’re looking for because Google, Bing and Yahoo etc. have formulated huge site directories to simplify the task. Can you imagine trying to find something in Yellow Pages if there wasn’t an order and an index? You’d never find what you were looking for.
The Search Engines solve this dilemma. Which means businesses can no longer use traditional marketing. As the only thing that counts now is being indexed on Google or the other major Search Engines. Even that though isn’t enough. Research shows that only a tiny minority of people look beyond the fifth slot on page one. Which means you’ve got no chance if the best you can do is page six!
So to give all companies a chance to be on the first pages, the Search Engines came up with a novel form of paid advertising. You only pay when someone actually chooses your advert - hence the name ‘Pay-Per-Click’. It was revolutionary. Basically the only time you now paid was when someone already interested asked to look at your site. Professionally monitored and targeted adverts can bring spectacular results.
However, most fields are completely overrun with PPC ads today. New online marketers have forced up the price per click, largely through over-the-top bidding. Now, in 2009, we’re seeing click prices that are so high, it can literally be unfeasible to make a profit. In particular where every sale requires a large number of clicks. This has brought Search Engine Optimisation to the fore, where driving a site to page one is the goal.
To illustrate the challenge: Enter some service or product keywords (relevant to your business) on Bing or Google. Does your site appear in the first 3 pages of results? It’s very doubtful. Which puts you in the exact situation detailed above. And if your site is listed, is it appearing for keywords that your customers will actually enter?
Maybe you’ve already tried some Pay Per Click advertising so you appear in the paid listings, and maybe you’ve achieved some success so far. But is your campaign properly managed? Are you getting the best return on your investment? Which are your most successful areas? Testing, measuring and split-testing are some of the most important factors with all PPC campaigns. With gaps in your data, you can’t expect to be getting the best return on your investment.
Trade stats now reveal a huge move to online sales and marketing the world over. Make sure your business isn’t getting left behind. Capitalise on the huge benefits the internet brings.