Nothing Sticking? Don't Stop Throwing it Against the Wall

By Special Guest Writer Tom Roeder, WebSourced, Inc.

If over 50% of the market knows that Google is a good place to look, but you can't be found on Google, then there must be something seriously wrong with your marketing strategy. Tom Roeder takes a look at the importance of search engine marketing.

You've tried and tried again, but all efforts seem to ruin the dream of ROI. Effective marketing is a tricky venture, and one that, believe it or not, requires more failures than successes to be educational.

However, this seemingly endless catch-22 is the reason most companies prematurely kick the marketing budget to the curb when the market takes the slightest down turn. What a waste.

Marketing should not be a budget that is eliminated… ever. You simply need to tweak and encourage the knowledge of your existence. Keep throwing "it" against the wall, and something will stick, but if you want to thrive, you can never stop throwing. If you stop, there is nothing to be caught.

Example: I was recently speaking with one of our company's sales people and they were telling me about a potential client that didn't want to do any marketing at the time, because he wanted to wait and see what happened with the war. The guy sells pillows online for crying out loud.

The United Nations isn't going to have much influence on my desire to lay my head on something more comfortable. If someone needs a pillow, they will search for one and buy it from one of the companies they find. Thus, if you want to sell your pillows, people need to know you exist.

At the same time, the marketing budget should not be ridiculous. Pets.com had to reflect the most phenomenal marketing flop of all time. Spending 9/10 of your company's entire budget on marketing alone is not an effective means of producing ROI. Moderately expanding the budget on campaigns that are producing results, is an effective means of producing ROI.

If you have read anything I've written in the past, you know I like to keep things simple; elementary even. It never ceases to amaze me to see the complicated equations people use to come to simple solutions.

How many of you, when trying to come up with a percentage, use long division rather than the company provided calculator sitting on your desk? Exactly - that's why the calculator was invented (probably by someone with close relation to the genius who invented Cliff's Notes). Don't reinvent the wheel, but rather, come up with ways to make it spin faster.

In the same respect, the days of doing things "in-house" are fading fast. You now see companies having more and more success with less and less salaries to pay. The simple solution is called, outsourcing. Why pay a $40,000+ salary for someone to try and figure it out, when you can pay 1/4 of that to a company that has had it figured out for years. I like to refer to the concept as, using other people's means to generate your ends.

I recently read an outstanding article by Richard Roberts discussing the efficient, cost effective, controllable, and measurable methods MTV uses to not only market themselves, but also encourage others to take advantage of cost effective marketing with them.

While I don't want to rewrite the article, Roberts made a valuable point when stating, "If you want to get their attention you don't have to hit them over the head." I couldn't agree more, but would add to the end, "You simply need to ensure they know you exist to provide what they desire."

There are two main effective types of marketing to meet this goal - "Acquaintance Marketing" and "Entry Point Marketing." Acquaintance Marketing is aiming your message at those who are already familiar with your product or service, while Entry Point Marketing is aiming it at people looking for a change in general and venturing through unchartered waters.

The beauty of the Internet is that you can market to both simultaneously. Just think, a message that can be viewed anytime, any where, by qualified parties seeking that very message.

It seems the most efficient way of doing this is through Search Engine Marketing (SEM). I know, I know… you tried it before and it wasn't effective. Well, to pour salt, 95% of them won't be because they don't have the revenue or resources to be effective.

However, when done properly and legitimately (and I can't stress properly and legitimately enough), it will prove to be the most cost effective means of generating ROI available.

The companies that still fear the former "dot com crash" seem to have the same mentality as those who fell victim to it - "If you build it, they will come." What could be further from the truth? You could have the most magnificent business with the most beautiful Website in your industry, but if no one knows you exist, both are useless.

Whether someone is looking for an improvement over a current product or service, or they are looking for an entirely new solution, odds are good they will be looking online for it. Odds are also good that they won't be looking too far.

Thus, positioning yourself as prominently as possible on the search engines can be the most cost effective means of advertising available, additionally allowing you to reduce expenses through other avenues.

Let's tie the two together. Google is an entirely online entity that has established itself only through Web presence and word of mouth. I work with search engines everyday, and have yet to see an off-line advertisement for Google. Yet, they dominate over 50% of their market and were recently found to be the most recognizable online brand name, beating out the likes of Apple, Coca-Cola, and Nike.

How did they do it? Not by pounding their name into your head, but rather making sure you know, if you're looking for relevant search results, Google is a good place to look.

Bringing it back home - If over 50% of the market knows that Google is a good place to look, but you can't be found on Google…

I realize the marketing budget is fundamentally easy to cut in rough times. You may not even need a calculator to do it. However, if the Marketing Director and CFO can ever find peace and compromise, it can also be your most valuable asset in not only surviving, but thriving into the long term.

Tom Roeder is the Manager of Marketing for WebSourced, Inc., a leader in Internet marketing strategies and development. He can be reached directly at TomR@WebSourced.com, or for additional information, please visit www.KeywordRanking.com or www.ProRanking.com.

See also Pandia's new Search Engine Marketing 101 tutorial.

More search engine news...

The Pandia Post is our free bimonthly newsletter on Internet searching, search engines and directories.

We will give you the latest news from the world of Internet exploring, useful tips on how to improve your searching skills or search engine ranking, as well as information on the development of the Pandia Search Central.

We will never give your address to any other company or organization.