What’s Your Online Marketing Strategy?

Marketing online, are you doing it right?

Search engine marketing is on the rise. Is your online portfolio complete?

We’ve mentioned before it’s not enough to just HAVE a website. The World Wide Web is just that: worldwide. So you offer a service, let’s pretend you’re a car wash business, ok, let’s Google the number of car washes in the world? How about your country? Break it down to even your county… too many, right? How do you know your name is going to be among the other multitudes of car washes in your area?

Having an online marketing strategy is more than having a website or being on the front page of your search engine IF you search YOUR car wash. Think bigger, think as if you’re a non-technical person just looking to get their car cleaned… with nothing more than a few minutes to check out what Google has to say.

The other case is, what if they’re NOT looking for a car wash, but it’s that time of year when they really should be thinking about it. Or maybe they haven’t been thinking about it at all because it’s been so nice out? Don’t you want to remind them that their car needs some TLC, too?

This is all about getting your website in front of your customers, whether they’re looking for it or not. This is where SEM (Search Engine Marking) comes in. And this doesn’t apply strictly to just search engines, but that’s where you start. Search engines, yes there’s more than one, have given businesses the opportunity to PAY to be at the top. Depending on your industry and its density in your geographical area, the geographical area you are trying to be seen in, and how much your competition is spending, this can cost a few hundred dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s not all cut-and-dry like buying a 30-second spot on your local classic radio station. It’s more like your local softball team versus the major league’s Pennant.

The best thing to do to really know more about this is to talk to your website developer and figure out your advertising budget. Next, you want to look at how much competition you have, and how much business you’re willing to take on. If you’re going to spend the money to get to the top of the food chain, you’d better be ready to chew what you bite off.

There are so many different levels to an online marketing strategy. With social media taking over the Internet more and more, there’s, even more, opportunity to make your online footprint leave a lasting impression with your customers.

How many times have you read an article, or checked out your friend’s social media, and seen an ad beside what you’re reading? Then you go to another web page, but there’s that same ad again. You may have seemed annoyed by it, or, maybe you didn’t even think about it, maybe it was just a great reminder that you need to visit your dentist, or get your car washed! Either way, it made an impression. Those impressions are vital.

Your online marketing strategy has to include more than just your social media. There are multitudes of people out there who still don’t use social media; they are, however, on news sites and other informational sites. Your online marketing should put you in front of these clients just as much as those on social media. Display ads are the way to go about this. There are multiple sizes and various publications where this can be accomplished. The biggest thing to look at besides your budget is the number of impressions. How many times is that ad going to be seen?

So talk to your developers. These ads, be they AdWords or display ads, all link the client back to your website which has your contact info and that’s the big deal. You want your phone ringing with new clients and increased business. Your ROI, in the end, will speak for itself.