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Internet Marketing
for Your Business
I am not sure what people
think it is so much different to market online than in any other
medium. Yes, it is true, the resources are different, the
opportunities are different, but in the end, advertising is
advertising.
Whether you place an add on a
billboard on the highway, in a magazine or on a website, the same
rules hold true.
The ad needs
to send a message
The ad needs
to get people's attention
The ad needs
to have some impact
The ad needs
to generate some type of result
The only difference between
any other form of advertising and advertising online is the media
itself which is not really any different than any other medium.
So what is Internet
advertising so mysterious and filled with all of these seemingly
unknowns?
It is not about the
advertising, it is about promotion and marketing.
Anyone can go to the CNN
advertisers and place an add on their TV channel. And anyone can
place an add on CNN.com as well. You call their advertising
department, tell them what you want and pay them some money. Its
done, and you have advertised your business.
But when people talk about
advertising online they for some reason think it can be free, or
there are tricks to use to get hoards of traffic without spending
any money.
That is not going to ever be
true.
Nothing is free and
advertising is advertising.
But when you talk about
marketing and promotion, those are very different things than
advertising. But still, they do not change from real world
marketing and Internet marketing.
The only difference is, online,
everything is virtual.
So while you might set up an
event, a local fair, church bazaar, car show, diner or such in
person, when you try to do those things online it is not quite
the same.
There are events online, but
for the most part, online marketing is a one on one experience.
At least in the sense that you can target individuals with ads
and promotions rather than groups at the same time.
Tools like youtube are
essentially the same as TV, however, rather than 2 million people
watching a program at one time where you can run an add, videos
are viewed one at a time and getting an ad in front of 2 million
people is more difficult and usually more expensive.
The advantage of Internet
advertising is:
For small businesses this is a
huge opportunity, because you can target individual users for a
few pennies each rather than spending huge amounts of cash to try
to reach your potential client base.
But the process can be time
consuming and the results very limited, slow and ultimately cost
more to generate than the actual sales that will be made.
There is so much
competition for advertising that it is often more expensive
that what it is worth.
Just because a TV
station charges $10,000.00 for a 30 second spot does not mean
you will make that $10,000 back as a result. And online, it
is the same.
With targeted ads from good
running a several dollars a click in most markets it is not
making much sens financially to use it unless you have the
potential to earn that back.
While the small hobby shop
jeweler is trying to make handmade earrings for $5 a pair and
sell them from home, targeting one customer or buyer for $2 does
not make much sense.
But for Jarred Jewelers or
Gordons Jewelers, they are huge and offer much more, so to
acquire a customer for $2 is quite cost effective for them. They
can turn that customer into multiple sales over many years.
In that scenario, it becomes
impossible for the small retail jeweler to compete with the
larger franchises or mega retailers.
This is the same story in most
industries and has ended up pricing most small businesses out of
internet advertising.
So small businesses look to
internet marketing as the answer. They look for cheaper, or free
alternatives to online advertising.
Business owners
flocked to facebook and built pages thinking they would generate
customers.
Now, I saw this as a huge
mistake, leave the biggest market in the world, to build a page
on facebook which had a fraction of the users that were actually
online. But none the less, everyone did it and most regret
spending the time doing it.
Small retailers here
on pageBuzz.com closed their websites and tried to open
stores on facebook. It should not come as a surprise that
they are back now and the whole facebook or bust thing ended
in bust.
Everyone is looking for the
next big thing, the next answer, the secret recipe. But there isn't
any.
The Internet has not brought
ant new tricks to advertising and over the last decade, the big
companies have taken a stronger hold of the market just like they
had in other markets, nudging the smaller guys out.
While small businesses were
distracted with social networks like facebook, the big guys were
cleaning up with online advertising and now they have push the
costs beyond most people budget.
Everyone is looking for that
viral video, then one that gets 10 million views and makes them
famous and rich. But companies like walmart, target and even
political campaigns are spending billions producing videos to try
to get that vial video. So now, you are competing once again with
big business.
There are no short
answers. No easy solutions.
While you try to corner the
market with social media a couple of hours a week, large business
hire hundreds of people in call centers to spend 8 hours a day
online, advertising their products on the same networks. So how
does your 2 hours compare to their thousands of hours? It just
doesn't.
The reality that small
businesses need to face is that if it works for them, it will
work for large businesses and they have more money, more
resources, more incentive to do it. So as much as you want they
simple solution, there are none.
As much as you want
the free, solution, there are none.
As much as you want the
business with spending time to get it, it wont happen.
Just like anything else,
marketing online takes hard work, effort, time and money. Yes it
can build a business, just like any good advertising campaign,
but it takes time.
In 1997 when I started
marketing online, the landscape was very different. You could put
up a 5 page website and have customers inside a week. But today,
that is not possible and putting up 100 page website typically
wont get you any customers even in 1 year, unless you do some
type of advertising or marketing.
If you were aggressive enough
back in the 1990's and built a customer base, you are lucky and
probably have a great business today. But trying to take
advantage of any loop holes, tricks or SEO magic today is just
not very likely.
Anyone getting online with
a website thinking they can compete with webmasters that have 20
years experience or business that have millions of dollars to
spend are just insane.
The Internet is a great
marketplace, but it is not magic, it is not special and the same
rules apply as they do offline. It is highly competitive, very
tough to manage and requires 100% of your attention to make it
work.
If you think you will find the
one trick that nobody else has, you wont. It has been tried, it
has been done and you are too late to the game.
But if you are in business,
you need a website and a web presence, it is just part of doing
business in the modern world.
That web presence is not your
marketing campaign, it is just a tool like your store. You still
have to use advertising and marketing to generate sales.
I always tell people, an
ecommerce website is simply a cash register, you have to get
people to it to get sales. It will process the sames, but it won't
drag people into the store to shop.
Just follow the same rules you
would offline when you advertise online.
Don't look for magic secrets
of tricks, just use common sense and build an advertising and
marketing campaign that works for your business.
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