This post has the potential to be the longest post in history. In fact, it’s tough to decide where we should even start. The best thing to do is to establish what scenario your company is in right now.
- You have a business that you’re trying to bring online. You have an established brick and mortar company that you want to establish an online footprint with, you’re starting up a completely new business that you want to have both a brick and mortar and online presence with, or you are starting a brand new online business (i.e. e-commerce store). Any way you cut it, you have zero online presence…not even a website.
- You have an online footprint but you’re not getting the traffic or conversions you want to see.
- You have an online footprint, you know a little about SEO, but you’re not seeing results
For most medium-sized, corporate, or enterprise companies, the thought of throwing marketing dollars at online marketing causes heart palpitations to kick into high gear. Why? Because it’s a long-term strategy that’s not always measured by traditional marketing metrics.
While SEO claims to be a “free” marketing strategy, it really isn’t. How will your SEO work get done? You’ll either have to outsource to a company that specializes in it or hire an employee to take on the responsibilities. On top of that, you’ll probably have to spend a few dollars here and there for software that you’ll need to SEO your site properly among other things.
Traditional marketing is used to “hard” statistics. Things that can be held, coveted, calculated, and loved. “Impressions”, “purchases”, “quota”, “cost per conversion”. These are like little love notes to them. Now, all these things can certainly be measured with online marketing tactics, including SEO, but there are factors that cannot be controlled that can directly effect these metrics. For example, you have no control over the exact time or date that search engines crawl your site. You can’t tell search engines to crawl every single page on your site (well…you could tell them that’s what you want by submitting a sitemap, but submittin’ ain’t gettin’). There are also new metrics that are just as important, if not more important, than the old-school benchmarks. What about Domain Authority? What about your SERP for certain keywords? What about community building?
We live in a time where we insist on immediate gratification. Fast food, microwaves, disposable diapers, cell phones, free wi-fi. We expect a lot and we want it fast. It’s tempting when you throw many at ANYTHING to desire fast results…but most of the time, you just won’t get those immediate results you’d like. Though people would love to sell you on the idea that within one month or less of selling you an SEO package, you’ll see your sales rocket, it’s probably not going to be the case.
Which leads us to yet another concept. SEO alone doesn’t do the trick. There’s so much emphasis put on SEO, to the point where people think “Oh! SEO is most important! I’ll just invest in that!”
URBAN SEO LEGEND #1 – FAIL! Do you know how many clients we’ve talked to whose chief complaint is “Well, I’m on page one, but I’m just not seeing any traffic or sales.” Truth is, SEO needs a companion. It’s sorta like chicken in a chicken pot pie. Can you eat just chicken without the pot pie? Of course, but we don’t think it’s as tasty. The chicken’s the star of the pot pie, but it just wouldn’t work without the peas (social media), the carrots (community building/interaction), the crust (trust factor/authority ranking), and the gravy (good web design).
Can you see why it’s easy for big companies to dislike online marketing? It’s the black sheep of the family. It’s not easily trusted. It’s Kevin Bacon trying to convince a small town that dancing is a-okay. As an SEO company, what you’re really asking your clients to do is take a leap of faith. That said, the leap of faith must eventually be taken or they’ll be blown away by their competition.
So Why Do You Need SEO & Other Online Marketing Tactics?
- You need it to gain visibility for your company – Over 1 billion searches are performed on Google every day, and that’s just Google! Print, radio, and television advertising are losing marketshare. You need to stake your claim on the Internet or someone else will.
- You need a robust online marketing campaign – Picking online marketing tactics a la carte won’t give you the full-fledge benefits of an online marketing campaign that touches on all important aspects: seo, social, paid marketing (for some), community building, etc.
- You need to brand and position your company – Too many times consumers don’t have the faintest idea what a company’s suite of services are. By targeting keywords with SEO strategies, you can be sure to snag customers who might never have found you otherwise.
- You gain valuable insight into your company’s business model – Analytics is always a part of SEO. Do you know how your customers are searching for you? You can find untapped insight into new markets, and may even discover that parts of your business model aren’t profitable compared to others. We’ve seen companies change their entire product line based on data mined out of SEO campaigns.
Did we tell you this post could be long? Be fair, we warned you! There’s a long, laundry list of more benefits, but to make a long story short (too late!)….eh…you get the point.
If you have questions about SEO and how it could benefit you or your company, give us a ring for a FREE consultation. No obligation!
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