Does My Business Need Internet Marketing?

Yeah. Chances are if you are a business owner that you should have an Internet Marketing presence of some kind. But that doesn’t mean the same thing that works for one person is going to work for all people. Depending on the type of business means you might be delivering certain expectations that should be met.

For Example, Internet Marketing is a broad term that signifies many parts of promotion through the web. But some things that you do are just not going to work with others. A tech firm that relies heavily on support and Q&A will probably not use the same marketing tactics that a mom and pop pizza shop will. For the sake of clarity, we are going to attempt to deconstruct the major parts of Internet Marketing for you.

Social Media Management

Social media management is becoming the most important aspect of Internet Marketing because people want to humanize the businesses they work with. Social media also provides a sense of validation for a business. Having active Social Media shows that business is still rolling and that you care about investing in your online presence.
Through Social Media you can work damage control if a situation goes viral, you can post promotions to gain more customers, and you can connect with local markets through regular posting. It is the lowest overall cost and highest reward part of Internet Marketing.

Content Marketing

Content Marketing is often the first threshold that blocks some businesses from investing in Internet Marketing. Content Marketing is all about creating a form of media for your clients. Soap Operas are by soap companies to appeal to housewives. John Deer has lawn magazines. Hell, video games main market appeal now have been a measurement of long-term investment vs quality content on a consistent basis.
But the term ‘content’ is often what confuses people to how it applies to them. If you are that tech company before, maybe you have a blog that you update with articles that people want to read. Next thing you know, your website now has two purposes. It is a website that people order from and finds tech support, but it is also a place of entertainment where customers go to read about things they need. The final step that people don’t take into effect is monetization. If you have a successful website that is generating leads, you should capitalize on it by integrating Google Ads.

Pay Per Click Campaigns (PPC)

PPC campaigns are simple. Places like Google and Facebook have people who regularly visit their platforms. Google has users that search for things that are relevant to your business; Facebook has people who you can define based on them being interested in things similar to your business. You can pay either of these platforms money, and they will promote your content, web page, etc.; above other people’s content on their feed.
For Google, that means your post and website will be one of the top 1-2 positions on the search results depending on your ‘bid’ and ‘budget’. For Facebook, it means that you can appear in someone’s feed or the sidebar of their business. PPC campaigns are great for getting a ton of appeal, but it is a costly endeavor. There is definitely a scientific approach when it comes to finding the best market, and for small business owners, it will often be the best thing to pay a company a premium to manage your money on the campaigns for you. This is a step that some business owners don’t want to take, but often it can yield the most fruitful rewards.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is the oldest form of Internet Marketing, and its importance has dwindled a little bit with age. In the beginnings of Google, it was an algorithm that would find the best sites for each query. But as Google evolved to incorporate Maps in Local Marketing, Paid ads in PPC, and Google Trusted Services for Labor-Oriented jobs to boost the importance of a rating system, SEO has been gently pushed farther down the list.
It used to be important that your website was on the first page of Google, but between then and now, Google’s first page has literally doubled in size. But optimising your websites so that they appear organically in the searches is still an essential step for small businesses because your relevance to the search term will still determine how much your Ad Campaigns are worth and how well your Maps marker appears.

How To Choose an Internet Marketing Company

For a business to grow, you need to get people to come through the doors or buy things online. It’s as simple as that. Traditional marketing still has it’s uses, Radio spots, TV spots and the like are going to be as relevant as ever, but now the shelf-life for that content has expanded to the Internet. TV ads can go on YouTube and radio spots can appear on Spotify to customers that are more relevant to you than all of the people in a general area.

You need to find an Internet Marketing company that will do two things, be honest and be cost-effective. You should find one that works within the budget that you need to play with because over-extending your marketing efforts can sometimes lead to non-cost-effective results. When those results come in, you need a marketing company that can be honest with how the process is going down.

Internet Marketing isn’t something where you throw cash and pray that it works out. It is a discernible science that on the higher levels of play end up being marketer vs marketer. When your business has been around enough, you need to make sure that your marketer is clear with what they’re doing and why so you are all on the same page because we don’t like wasting your money, we like seeing you be successful, it’s kind of our job.

So that’s it, when you are sitting down with or talking to a marketer on the phone, get a clear understanding of what they are doing and why it costs what it does. A good marketer is clearly explaining what is going on and why and lets you know your dollar is being put to good use.