When you run a business, you always think of a way to earn back the money that you spent to gain customers. Sometimes gaining back the money with profit is more interesting. In running a business in the internet, the same thing also applies. But, you need to have a good marketing strategy? But what is a good marketing strategy for online business?
First, PPC or Pay Per Click advertising is popular and is the most expensive way of marketing a business online. The good thing is anyone can use it.
Next is SEO, Search Engine Optimizing. It’s a method that uses reverse engineering the mathematical equation. But sometimes, this formula changes to ensure that websites don’t trick search engines. To get relevant results from all the right places, a Search Optimizer presents desirable results of different websites.
Social Marketing. Again, anyone can play but most will never grasp the power of a free tool. Like giving out a complete set of carpenters tools to anyone who asks for it doesnt mean any houses will get built.
And finally Viral Marketing. If you thought SEO was tough try this on for size. Creating content that spreads all by itself online is what we call viral. Usually the things that take on a life of their own like this have nothing to do with business. However if you are really good at knowing how to get peoples attention and have enough creative ideas to keep pounding out the hits viral marketing just might be your ticket to fame.
You may prefer one over the others in the list or you may prefer two or three to be useful in marketing. Whichever way you choose, take note of the effectiveness of the strategies you will use. The marketplace you have chosen also plays a big role in making your strategies effective.
As you might expect, the results you get with a given strategy is directly proportional to the dollars being spent and focus given it. As you may have discovered on your own, Pay Per Click becomes an extremely difficult tactic to implement effectively in any sort of competitive market. Social Media on the other hand can be leveraged to great advantage with little difficulty even in highly competitive verticals. As reported by Forrester Research in their 2009 US Interactive Marketing Forecast: The Projected money spent on Pay Per Click advertising in 2009 will be $12,937mm, on SEO will be $2,456mm and $716mm on Social Media marketing.
PPC is a tough process, and it gets a great share of search money. Second comes SEO and third is Social Media where money doesnt pay a big role. Your results will depend highly on how good you play your game in your own selected market.
How do you determine which area is best for your business? You have to carefully weigh your goals, and resources. If you have a lot of money to throw at promoting your business, Pay Per Click will be the fastest way to get noticed. But it is not a good long term strategy in a tough economy.
Through SEO, you will get good and solid results. Recognition on your line of market is going to be evident. If you look at it, SEO is a good tool without having to spend too much money.
Social media marketing is free to be involved in but it takes a certain finesse to keep people interested without being annoying. If you make a plan of treating your social marketing like you would a weekly or daily special or promotion youre more likely to gain a loyal following.
All areas of online marketing are experiencing massive growth. As shoppers have shifted from the yellowpages and print advertising to searching online for the products and services they want the marketing dollars spent on SEO and PPC will likely double in the next five years.