 In
this segment, Jon talks about organic search
engine marketing, pay-per-click advertising and
viral word-of-mouth as successful internet marketing
strategies and how to determine the right mix.
Interview
Recorded Live: January
26, 2007
We
invite your comments, questions, feedback
and suggestions.
Websites Referenced
Today entrepreneurs want more
independence and freedom. With the use of technology
we are now able to create the life we want, whether
it is life on the run or working at home and
having access to the world from wherever you
may be. Small is the new big! Some of the small
businesses are not so small. Many times, they
have over a hundred employees. In Jon’s opinion,
Seth Godin should be given the credit for making
small the new big. Jon said that he realized
early on in his career that there was a ‘Grand
Canyon’ gap between people and technology. The
technology is developing so quickly that we need
more educational programs to help people understand
the power of these truly revolutionary technologies.
The three main categories of
internet marketing, organic search engine marketing,
pay-per-click advertising and viral word-of-mouth,
are important because people need to understand
the different strategies that a small business
can employ. Generally, business people face difficulties
because a lot of them are new to the web. So,
they really need an orientation of what internet
marketing is all about.
Organic Search Engine Marketing
The first one is "Organic Search Engine Marketing",
which is very commonly referred to as Search
Engine Optimization. However, the term SEO doesn’t
really describe the whole array of strategies
that are involved with Organic Search Engine
Results. In order to explain it very clearly
to the people who are new to this, Jon gave the
example of the Google results page. On that page
there’s a main body which is 2/3 of the width
of the page or more and down the left side. The
sponsored links are labeled across the top and
down the right side. The main body of the page
consists of the organic results i.e. the free
results that are not paid for. So, the first
category of general search engine marketing or
organic search engine marketing is working your
site up into favorable positions in this main
body so that you can get customers, clients or
prospects off of those organic results. In most
cases that means working to get your website
on the first page of the search results because
most people don’t even go beyond the first page.
Pay-per-Click Advertising
The second category is known as Pay-per-Click
Advertising (PPC). You could include Pay-per-Call
in this category too but it goes out of the reach
of small businesses. What we mean by Pay-per-Click
Advertising (PPC) is something like Google AdWords,
which is generating about 99% of the revenue.
People who have been involved in this type of
advertising over the years know that pay-per-click
advertising is revolutionary advertising. The
reason why it’s revolutionary is because it’s
the most accountable form of advertising that
we’ve ever seen. When you put an ad in the newspaper,
T.V. or radio, you hope that half of your advertising
works but you can’t tell which half is working.
You really don’t have a sense about how the audience
is responding. You do have a sense of whether
the phone rings or not but you don’t have any
specific trail to the sale. You can only measure
the return on your investment very abstractly
by using those other means of advertising.
Pay-per-Click advertising, sometimes
also known as search engine advertising, really
turns that upside down. You only pay when somebody
clicks on one of the ads that you put up, and
that ad is only optimized for the keywords that
you specify. As a result, you’re never advertising
to an irrelevant audience. You have to buy the
keywords that directly or indirectly link to
your business. For example, if you have a web
development business, you must buy the keyword "web
development" or "website design." Your ad will
only show up when somebody specifically searches
for "website designer". This is a subtle
distinction but this makes a big difference in
the success or failure of the search engine advertising
campaign. So if somebody comes to your website
by clicking on one of those ads, you can specifically
tell which keyword is drawing a specific amount
of traffic and track it to purchase activity
or to an inquiry that becomes a prospect. So,
it’s totally accountable and trackable and you’re
only paying for results.
Viral Word-of-Mouth
"Viral Marketing/Word of Mouth" is the third
category- and this is not just email marketing.
As a result of what’s going on with blogs, RSS
feeds, pod-casts and article distribution (which
overlaps slightly with strategies that we use
for organic search engine marketing), there is
a whole dynamic of sharing causing information
to spread like a virus. So now, apart from email,
material is increasingly being spread with the
help of blogs, videos, etc. It’s because of these
new innovations that the marketing trends are
moving from the bottom-up-where people are reviewing
sites and recommending them to friends. The buzz
is being built by the users themselves.
Segment 2: Pay-per-Click
Advertising as an Internet Marketing Strategy
Segment 3: Viral
Marketing with Video, Blogs, and Press Releases
Segment 4: Using
YouTube and Google Video as Online Marketing
Tools
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