Online Marketing 201
Over the past 5+ years or so, I have noticed that the constant struggle companies have with determining the importance of paid vs. organic search results has continued to increase at an alarming rate. This topic is something that falls under the category of “I need it…I’m not sure why, but I know I need it.” Because of this, companies often miss the glaringly obvious points when they decide to take on online marketing. I read a great article about online marketing on MediaPost a while back that got me thinking about those points. Here are a few that, in my opinion, I think get missed more often than not:
1. PPC is NOT cheap. Over the past few years, the cost per click (CPC) has increased so drastically that unless you’re willing to drop anywhere from $50-$100 per day at the very least on some advertising, it’s pretty much useless to jump into the PPC arena. Depending on the size of your company, products, services, etc., even that much might make you look like the cats that tried to climb the slide. You can’t expect to have a monthly spend amount on Google AdWords that’s the equivalent to the cost of an extra value meal at McD’s…super sized.
2. SEO takes work. I’ve heard people say, “I feel like doing something good in the world. I’m going to start recycling.” Then they get about 2 weeks into cleaning out every can they use, peeling the paper labels off, taking the lids off of every bottle, and then say, “Screw this! This is hard and way too time consuming. I’ve got better things to do.” Umm, well yeah. If you stop recycling, that doesn’t mean the world is going to continue to have less trash in landfills. Same concept applies to SEO, you have to keep at it or else you’re not going to get anywhere close to the results you want.
3. Online marketing costs money. See 1 & 2.
