On the Internet, it's Quality Over Quantity

Over the past year, I have written a series of articles for The Report on how to make the Internet a successful marketing tool for your business.  (You can read the entire series at www.nyreport.com/emarketing.)

The last two articles of this series dealt with pay-per-click marketing (better known as PPC), where online advertisers are charged when a user clicks on the search listing. In the fast changing world of Internet marketing, we should recap the key issues that have been discussed.

The opportunities for e-marketers are growing and changing at a blistering pace. In the last 12 months, the number of prospects finding company websites through pay-per-click plans has grown significantly. While this surge in users can provide your company with more tactical opportunities to bring in customers, it also means that your strategic focus and targeting decisions are more important than ever. For example, a year ago many keywords could be had for 10 cents, whereas today sought-after phrases can easily cost $10 per click and more. It is important to remember that if you stay with only PPC (and ignore search engine optimization) you are missing out on key opportunities as an e-marketer. Here are some practical e-marketing moves to get the most revenue for the least cost:

FOCUS ON LESS TRAFFIC, MORE SALES
You are often better off having less traffic with higher conversion rates. Use keyword analysis (see “News Flash: The Internet Tells You What Your Customers Want,”) to determine exactly what your prospects are looking for. While using a more exact phrase in your e-marketing such as “track shoes” as opposed to “footwear” may generate half as much traffic, you could direct those looking for track shoes to the exact page on your website that has the products the prospect is looking for. This will result in higher conversion rates and lower PPC spending.

THREE CRUCIAL WORDS: SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Search engine optimize (SEO) your website to gain first-page regular search engine positioning, and use PPC only to fill in the gaps. (Search engine optimization is picking the optimal keyword phrases and strategically incorporating them into your website so that your site appears on the first page of most search engines). SEO has become crucial in an e-marketing environment because prospects chose regular search results two out of three times over PPC listings, feeling that such results are more credible than those that are bought. (See “How To Search Engine Optimize Your Website,”).

ANALYZE, AND THINK BEYOND THE IMMEDIATE SALE
Consider the profit margins of what you are selling as well as future revenue streams that can come from the same customer. You might be better off selling fewer items that are more profitable, or getting responses rather than sales to use for a future marketing program. For example, attracting prospects to the keywords “DVD Players” — a low-margin item — may be more valuable for harvesting e-mail addresses for the after-sale market, a DVD club.

TRY MULTIPLE WEBSITES
Consider having more than one website. This opens up whole new ways of using the Internet to target customers. Consider the numbers: At most, a website can support four strong keywords for regular first-page search engine positioning, which will commonly attract 250,000 to 500,000 targeted prospects a year. Having three or more websites targeting different market segments can quadruple your traffic. (For example, commercial cruise lines can have three additional websites targeted to seniors, families and honeymooners.) While you will have some additional costs
(i.e., to build and host the additional websites), they can be kept to a minimum by using the same layout, database, etc. You would now have 16 keywords bringing in 1 to 2 million prospects a year. On top of that, multiplying the different streams of prospects gives you many more options for promotion and spreads the risk against failure from any one choice. One caution: This strategy is best done with the help of a sales-minded e-marketing professional who can work with you on keyword analysis, planning and building websites, negotiating with suppliers, creating post-launch promotions and handling e-marketing metrics and administration.

CUSTOMERS ARE GOLDEN
Treasure your existing customers — they have proven they will buy from you, and you have already paid to acquire them. Build a robust customer database to use opt-in e-mail offers such as loyalty programs and newsletters for targeted promotions, in addition to offline marketing programs. The bottom line: As millions of businesses have flocked to take advantage of the Internet, increasing your competition, it has become crucial to continually refine your approach as an e-marketer.

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