Internet Marketing

New World of Advertising

2008-11-16T13:29:00.009-07:00

It used to be in the "OLD" days before the Internet that all of your marketing was done through advertising. Either in the newspaper, radio,TV or some other print form like mailers and hand outs. These were/are driving the customers to your Company by way of phone or address. That was a good system in it's day In fact it was the only system! That form of Advertising is still being used but, it has become a little more complicated because of the Internet than most people Realize. While Traditional advertising you appeal to the masses hoping to get a small percentage of people that might accidentally see your advertisement and be interested in your products or services. Today we can target the people that are actually trying to find your product or services , so you talking to a more friendly audience.

Research has shown the 83% of all large purchases and B2B purchases start with Google!! 98% of all purchases get a Google search involved some where in the process! That's huge! and also why a web page is the most important business tool you can have today. If you don't have a web site or your web site is not set up SEO friendly for a Google search you are missing Sales!! If your web site is 3rd rate your customers think your company is 3rd rate. But even more important if your web site is set up to give the customer what THEY want you are well on your way to a sale and you never even talked to them yet! They all ready are partially sold on your products before you have a conversation.

One of the main keys however is "Search Engine Optimization" which simply put is your web site(if you have one) set up so that Google or Yahoo or Microsoft can tell what you are about and what you are selling! I'm not talking about the pay per click stuff, I'm talking about the free items just below the paid ads. (In Yellow) The pay per Click ads get only 25% of the hits while the free ones get the other 75%!! That is a little over simplified explanation. There is a lot more to the subject in fact so much more that companies are all over the Internet are trying to sell you on optimizing your site. Some are totally legit, but some are not so be careful and try to use someone you can trust.

It's not enough to have a great looking web site in fact sometimes it does absolutely no good and can even hurt your sales!!. Years ago I helped some people enter into a custom car show just like they have in most medium to large Cities everywhere. We were entering a fancy inboard boat with lot's of chrome and a big engine full of the latest goodies and we were sure that we would win a prize. But no we didn't even make honorable mention, and here is why. Because judging these types of events are very subjective, rules had to be established and a list of these rules were given to every judge. The judges would then go down the list and place a check mark by items on the list that your entry had like Chrome Valve Cover, Chrome Coil Cover and so on. The winners knew what items were on the list(they are usually not secret) and made sure there entry had every one of the items or as many as they could get on there entry. It was a simple matter of arithmetic determining the winner. We had no clue what was on the list so we lost.

The same is true with Web Sites there are certain rules that you have to adhere to in order to win the prize and that prize can be huge! If you can get on the first page of Google you win! and in some cases you can win big. Everyone now knows that it is HUGE to be on the first page so there is lots of competition to get there. Do this simple exercise pretend you are a customer that wants to buy or repair a HVAC unit but you don't know anyone in town or the name of your company, so you Google first your city name, then the state and finally HVAC so it looks like this "Sacramento,CA HVAC" replace the city Sacramento with your city and see if your HVAC business comes up.. Chances are it won't, that's because either you don't have a web site or your web site is not following the rules, it isn't SEO friendly.

Don't despair this can be remedied pretty easily and you probably won't have to change much on your site. You can do simple things like if your web site domain name is about to expire update it to 5 years or more. The Google,Yahoo,Microsoft crawlers actually look at that and if your site is going to expire in a month they will downgrade your rank. They want to see that you are going to be around for a while and if you have confidence then so do they. It's just one of many many rules on the list to make your web site a winner.

For a full list visit todday.com today and sign up (very simple no long forms to fill out) we just need your email address to send it to you.

All of this is well and good but, first things first. You have to set up your web site in such a way that the customers get the information that THEY want. They don't care about you or your web site as much as they care about getting information that they need in our examples case information about repairing or buying a new HVAC. If all you do is talk about yourself they will move on to the next site that offers what they want.

Next Blog More tips on how to make your site what your customers want and how to get more people to your site.

Newspapers in this country are a mess

2008-08-12T01:02:00.000-06:00

Newspapers, in general, are setting on a gold mine and they can't see it!! Start making people want to visit your web sites and you could turn the ad revenue around. Try putting the printed ads online for one thing. Add the circulations of the printed and online together for ad pricing. All of your printing is now digital so it can't be that hard.. The web is digital! Many people buy newspapers just to read the ads, yet those ads are not online! Why? Because you want to force us into to buying the paper? How's that working?

I don't think I am over simplifying, because, it doesn't seem that hard. The Internet is the key to the turn around. Make the Internet look like the Paper. Make everyone want to read your online version more than the printed version. Sure you all have web versions but it's fairly obvious that you're only doing it because you have to! Most newspapers only put part of the stories on their web site. You have to buy the paper to see the rest. You should be embracing the Internet.. I don't have to log onto Yahoo or Google as an example!

Everyone is reluctant to go to the Internet and read a newspaper because the experience is not that appealing. Make it easier for us to read the Web versions. The printed versions will probably start to fade as the Internet rises, so what(They are fading into obscurity now!!). All of the expenses are on the printed versions side anyway, paper, ink, shipping, delivery. The revenue would start to increase as the expenses go down. What a concept. The whole point of newspapers in the beginning was to print content that people wanted to see so that you could charge for ads. So simple yet newspapers have forgotten that concept on the Internet. Google hasn't. Google seems to be able to pull it off without charging any subscription fee's, because people WANT to use their services. In fact they have provided a way to search the Internet for YOUR content and charge for advertising!! They are actually just "cutting in line"! And getting rich at your expense! Just like Lawyers, or casino's they are feeding on your tragedy. The young people have to be convinced that they need to visit your site. I am a computer programmer and I am positive that the newspapers could technologically make it interesting enough to start growing the revenue and taking back THEIR territory..

Google/Yahoo/Microsoft are buying companies right and left just so they can draw more and more people to their sites for FREE so that they can charge more for advertising! While they are putting MORE content online newspapers are cutting back content.. Google and Yahoo are your competitors and they are not forcing us to buy anything. They don't even write the stories, they charge advertising for your stories. Their job is to get rid of your roadblocks..

As soon as your industry starts focusing on making it easier, more pleasant experience for us, the visitors, the sooner your ad revenue will start to increase and your expense's will start to decline and customers will increase. I don't mean little java applets with tabs on them I mean real honest changes like why are you charging for archived stories??. The whole point is getting a larger viewer ship, so you can charge more for advertising, right? Why then are you putting roadblocks in the way?? Google is trying to "cut in line" their too! , by putting all of your archived (and every papers) content on the web for free because you guys are to blind to see what they are doing. Forest and trees come to mind. Your industry has the chance to cut Google and yahoo and the rest out of the equation, and you are letting it slip through your fingers. Why would anyone go to Google or Yahoo etc for news when you already have it? The answer is you want us to buy the newspaper to see it, and you are dying because of it. You are paying reporters now to write the stories then giving them away to google and then, crying that you are loosing business.. You are NOT loosing it you are giving it away!

You have the content already! You are the source! Now just use it. The Internet is not killing your industry; YOU are killing your industry!! Make people want to come to you, make it a pleasant, valuable experience. I really truly wish I was in your shoes because the opportunity seems enormous to me, you have so much potential that it's unbelievable!!

Some day some newspaper is going to see the big picture and start fighting back and that newspaper is going to turn the whole thing on its ear. (If they don't wait to long) I think that the newspaper industry has the biggest wasted opportunity around today. You have all those employees with all their talent-writing stories and your marketing Ideas are stuck in the 1800's when you were the only game in town! You are actually in control, yet you act like victims. You have an absolute lock on local stories that Google and Yahoo etc can not compete against, but because the Internet is an after thought you are letting that opportunity die as well.

How long is it going to take to make you realize what a huge future you really have! Try making some Lemonade.

This story was written in a small town in Utah hundreds of miles from a TV station, well we have 1 local station but it is pretty weak. Anyway suppose you own a small business in town and you want to advertise, where would you go? You could try newspapers they used to be the way to go but no one under the age of 60 reads them any more so now where do you go? Radio, Okay but that can get expensive if you hit AM and FM many times a day and as good as it is nothing beats Newspapers because it sets on the coffee table for a couple of days and can sell stuff 2 weeks after the paper hits. But alas we don't have a paper we could try the internet and that works but it's mainly for National advertising and is more expensive than radio and TV.

Now lets suppose that the Local paper had the shit together (they don't) but the perfect place would be there web site BECAUSE IT IS DEEMED to be LOCAL! especially if every story and add stayed online for a lenghth of time. Local businesses would be fighting to advertise on such a site. Again if that site embraced the internet and acted like they had a product. Sure you wouldn't be able to sell the individual papers as well, or would you? My guess is that your printed circulation would go up.

Please somebody help your selves and help the small businesses in your town as well!!
Dayrl