Improve business with Internet marketing with Caracom Consulting
Advertising and marketing are the lifeblood of any business. And, increasingly, the Internet is becoming an integral part of any advertising and marketing program. Having a website isn't just a nicety or something that a business does as an afterthought anymore. In today's business environment, it's an absolute necessity. Potential customer and business partners will know you by your website, and making a website that is attractive, informative, functional and easy-to-use is the starting point of any href=Internet marketing program.
There are no lack of companies with the technical ability to put a website together.
Although website design and construction is a subject unto itself, we will assume that you have the ability to find a good website person or company (if not, contact us and we'll help you out). For the time being let's assume you either have a website or have the ability to get one done.
Okay, now that you have a website, now what? What you are now faced with is the big problem that everyone doing business on the Internet faces: How do you now drive traffic to your website?
This is not an easy question to answer. Many companies that have the wherewithal have resorted to taking the sledgehammer approach. What is meant by this is that in order for them to do Internet marketing and drive customer to their site, they have resorted to spending millions and millions of dollars in order to promote their website address and try and drive potential customers to their site.
Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. But we've all seen it. The big software company or computer company that is constantly advertising through every medium they can get their hands on. Television, radio, print, and so on. Problem is that very few companies or businesses have the millions that are necessary in order to get that kind of exposure.
"The Internet is a bit of a strange animal when it comes to advertising and marketing," say Michael O'Day of Caracom Consulting (www.caracom.com)
O'Day makes an excellent point, and it is one of the biggest reasons why advertising on the Internet is so difficult. Instead of the hundred or so channel that we have on cable, for example, there are literally millions of websites that a user could be found to be on at any given time. The idea that anyone could advertise on all the possible sites that anyone could visit just isn't practical.
The closest thing that the web has to a group meeting place is Google (or one of the other major search engines). Google, by far, has the majority of searches that are done on the Internet. And research shows that most of us will click on those sites that are the highest rated under whatever search term we put in the search bar.
Question is, how do you get your site to the to of the search engine rankings on Google?
"Most business owners automatically think in terms of Google ads when you start talking about gaining exposure through their search engine," observes O'Day. "But that is not only expensive, it is also ineffective. Google ads are clicked on with great infrequency. Not only that, they will do nothing for your websites search engine position. The real solution is to use a technique that will increase your website's Google rankings under a given search term."
What O'Day is referring to is something he calls marketing articles. Marketing articles are stories about some aspect of the company that are specifically written around a particular search term. For example, a travel agency might have an article written about some aspect of the travel industry. A software company would talk about what their software does. A lawyer could talk about some particular aspect of the law.
"Marketing articles are not traditional press releases," notes O'Day. "The idea behind them is to write them in such a way that they are interesting and informative, while at the same time helping a website gain exposure and begin to climb up the Google rankings. They re incredibly effective when properly done."
When beginning a consultation with a company, O'Day's company does a complete evaluation in order to determine what keywords would be ideal for an Internet marketing program. This consists of finding keywords or search terms that not only fit the company, but determining words that the company can get traction on. A keyword that is "too big", like "computers" for example, could take forever to get very high in the Google rankings. Once that is accomplished, stories are written around those search terms.
"Testimonials and third party endorsements are particularly effective when we can put them in a marketing article,' says O'Day. "We want them to look like a news or magazine article" something that the public and media would actually be interested in. Done correctly, this is an extremely effective method of attracting attention for a website and moving up the Google rankings."
More importantly, it doesn't cost millions of dollars and it is something that most businesses can easily afford.
Internet marketing and advertising can be done without breaking the bank, but a business has to pick the right methods. Correctly done, marketing articles are one of the most effective ways of getting new business through the Internet and reaching potential customers.
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