Search Engine Marketing w/o Proper Strategy = Poor R.O.I.

Profitable marketing comes from being strategic and thinking three and four steps ahead.

I used to pound the pavement and the phones in search of new prospects for a search engine marketing firm. The firm had a great service. The problem was…too many small business owners did not have a real marketing strategy. They wanted the benefit of traffic from Google and Yahoo, but had not developed a website that was ready to make the most out of the traffic we sent them.

In today’s marketplace, the winner will be the one who understands their customer/client inside and out, and services those needs in a unique way that delivers exceptional value. The only way to deliver that value is to research the markets you serve (on a continual basis) and give them what they are asking for. Market research is CRITICAL to business success.

Too many people think that all they need is to get more traffic to their website in order to increase profits. However, what they don’t know is whether or not the site is ‘converting’ the existing traffic at a good rate or not. Are the site visitors becoming prospects? This is what I call…a suspect becoming a prospect. In order to turn suspects into prospects, there must be a strategy in place. Then there need to be tracking mechanisms to see how well the process is working. We make changes, and track the results to see if it was a good move or a bad one.

True marketing is built on testing, testing, and more testing. BEWARE of the hit or miss approach if you are not carefully and methodically testing and tracking your results.

David Ogilvy (1911-1999) was stated as “the most sought-after wizard in today’s advertising industry” by TIME Magazine back in 1962. Ogilvy attributed much of his success to Claude Hopkins (1866-1932), author of Scientific Advertising. On the cover of that book, Ogilvy states, “Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book (Scientific Advertising) seven times. It changed the course of my life”.

Sadly, many of the principles within these pages never make it to the laboratories of today’s marketing professionals. Here’s the quick and dirty on developing an effective marketing strategy:

The Right Marketing MESSAGE – Communicated to the Right MARKET – via the Right MEDIA

An error in either of those three can blow what may have been a mega-successful campaign had the right decisions been made.

In order to make search engine marketing effective, it has to be built upon the foundation of the 3 elements listed above. The traffic that comes to your site needs to find a message that speaks to their needs, wants, desires, and fears. That message needs to connect with them on an emotional level…in language they understand. They will only arrive at your site if your ads are seen when and where they are searching.

Once you’ve done the market research to know who your market is, and what your market is looking for, you can set your website content up accordingly. Only then are you ready to ‘pay for traffic’ to come to your site. At that point, you still need to track how your visitors respond and make adjustments on an ongoing basis.