All internet marketing should start with a strategy. Too many businesses these days just randomly undertake isolated online marketing activities with little or no thought regarding what they really are trying to achieve. It is little wonder that most businesses really do not get as much as they could out of their internet marketing efforts.
First step for an internet marketing strategy
All internet marketing strategies should begin by answering the question:
“What am I trying to achieve with online marketing?”
Its amazing how few businesses deliberately reflect on this question… and the answers are many and varied. Here are some variations which have been relevant to many of my clients:
- Direct sales for a shopping cart website
- Lead generation for a professional client
- Sign up to an email database for someone preparing for a new product launch
- Assist with brand awareness – no direct online sales but part of the sales process
- Provide information for existing clients (in this case students)
- A membership site for gambling tips
- Add credibility to the tender process
You will see how different each of these purposes is. Given each is so different, they should each have a completely different structured marketing strategy.
Document your purpose before you undertake any internet marketing work.
Step 2 for an internet marketing strategy
Once you understand why you are doing this, what you are trying to achieve, you can create your advertisement. In most cases, your advertisement will be a website, but these days it could also be a social media presence.
Regardless of the form of advertisement, when creating it it must be done with the specific intent of achieving the purpose you have defined in step 1. The structure of your advert AND the copy will be very different depending on what you are trying to achieve.
Ie. There is no point in having a direct response sales letter on a brand building style of website. This will simply make your piece of branding look tacky. Similarly, information copy on shopping cart websites just do not sell.
Step 3 for an internet marketing strategy
Next you put your advert in front of your target audience. This means you need to generate traffic to your online advertisement. There are many ways you can do this, I have included some ideas below:
- SEO
- Pay Per Click advertising
- Social Media activities
- Email a database
- Use business cards
- Networking and or seminars
- Any form of print advertising
Yes – you can use non-online means to promote your online efforts.
Step 4 for an internet marketing strategy
Now that you have people looking at your advert, you need to monitor what they are doing. Is your target audience responding to your advert as you expect them to do, converting commercially in the way you defined in step 1 of this process? You need to be able to measure this.
Once you are getting statistics about the performance of this marketing strategy, you can take measures to improve it.
Final step for an internet marketing strategy
Review step 2, 3 and 4 of your internet marketing strategy. Are there things you can improve? Think logically and creatively. If there are, do NOT just plow ahead and put them in. Take a deep breath, find some testing software and set up some tests.
Each time you want to try something different, split test performance against what you currently have to make sure the change adds lasting value to your business. Random and untested changes (including brand new websites) are simply gambles.
Think, test and measure to get lasting and long term improvements in your online marketing performance.
Is Your Gold Coast SEO Guy Spamming In Your Name?
We all know about email SPAM. All those horrible junk emails that hit your account every morning. Sure, we have SPAM filters and junk mail folders which work better and better, but there are always many more emails which still get through to your inbox, wasting your time and distracting you from more appropriate tasks at hand. It’s all very annoying.
Do you know there are other forms of SPAM too though and what’s worse, do you know that you may actually be responsible for performing acts of spam by choosing the wrong Gold Coast SEO company.
Its unfortunate, but many of my industry peers continue to do the wrong thing and do it in the name of their clients. With all our search engine optimisation services, we act with the precept that we must add value to the internet as a whole. This is what ethical SEO means. It is a pity that not all SEO companies are as ethical as this though. Many damage the internet and other people’s websites in the name of helping yours. This is akin to a car salesman scratching the cars of his rival in the next lot, in the hope of earning more business. It is just not on – and typically it is counter productive anyway.
One such example of this is blog commenting spam. Any owner of a blog will face this problem. People come along to their blog posts and articles and leave non-sensicle comments, hoping to get a link back to their website for their own SEO gains. Its clear that the commenter has not even read the article as their comments are not even closely related to the topic, let alone add value to the information.
Unfortunately, some of the search engine optimisation companies on the Gold Coast are very big on spamming other people’s blogs on behalf of their clients. When this happens, the person who owns the blog looks at the rubbish posted and associates it with your website and your business – not that of the SEO guy undertaking this practise. This means their lack of ethics damages your good business name. The blog owner will get annoyed by the constant comment spam he is being hit with and will blame you for it. He will tell his friends and acquaintances that you are damaging his website and it will be your business reputation that will be impacted by this.
If you keep in mind too that the practise is not to spam 1 blog, but as many as possible (ie. they will spam 100s or even 1000s of peoples websites in your name) to get many back-links and you can start to see just how damaging such a practise can be to your business reputation and local custom.
This problem is so big here on the Gold Coast that I have had new clients show me dozens of email complaints, which have been sent direct to them, from website owners that have been spammed on their behalf.
So what is the answer? Its a tough one – obviously you go to an SEO company because its such a specialised skill. Its hard to find the time and the expertise to learn all about SEO and then execute the initiatives so you find someone else and trust they do the right thing in your name. Its a bit like servicing a car for the non-mechanical minded. I know it is not practical to go and learn everything and then police your SEO guy, so what is the compromise.
Well, the one thing I do suggest you do is you ask your SEO person what initiatives he is undertaking on your behalf. If they are secretive I suggest you use someone else straight away – the real SEO techniques which work are not secret anymore. They are easy to find for the people who can be bothered spending the time. When you have found someone who is open enough to tell you what they are doing on your behalf – ask them how each of the initiatives being undertaken adds value to the internet as a whole. If they can answer that in a logical manner, they are probably a good company to use.
One more thing – using blog comments to generate inbound links for SEO purposes can be done in an ethical, non-spammy manner. What it requires is for the commenter to read the blog post thoroughly and add an insight or more information that actually adds value to the blog post. If you make the other person’s blog or website a better place because you stopped by and left a comment, you are adding value to the other person’s website and to the internet as a whole. Therefore your SEO activities are ethical. The real reason why the unethical SEO guys do not do this is simply because they are lazy. Rather than spend the extra 5 minutes to leave value in your name, they’ll save their time and leave junk in your name.