|
Internet
Marketing
SEO Design
Receive
a free report
audit & analysis to your
existing website for client
building, SEO design,
and internet marketing performance.
Click
here
to order
|
|
Offline
Marketing or Search Engine Marketing... Which Do You Choose?
by Jim Hedger
Compare
the costs and coverage of search engine marketing with the following
other forms of traditional marketing, Yellow Pages, Print and Broadcast.
Phone
Directories vs. Search Engines
A yellow pages listing can cost over $10,000 per year. For that
money, a business gets a display (or graphical) listing in a large
print book servicing their local area. Their listing is placed in
alphabetical order to be found amongst all their local competitors.
The Yellow Pages remains an essential form of advertising for most
small businesses but once the listing is placed, it is static and
cannot change for the remainder of the year.
As
an advertiser, unless you are willing to take out a full page listing,
you likely have very little control over the placement of your listing
aside from naming your business “AAAAAAAAA1-Website Design”,
a name that will inspire little confidence from your potential clients.
The local Yellow Pages are important as a business owner does not
want their competitors to be seen without the chance of being seen
themselves but given the growth of the Internet in North America,
the Yellow Pages are no longer the only essential game in town.
Print
vs. Electronic
Every city, town, county and municipality has a form of print media,
most having more than one. In our mid-sized city, there is only
one mainstream newspaper, which, being unique in its market is read
by over 90% of all adults in the city at some point in the week.
Advertising in print is expensive. A typical 1/8th of a page ad
can cost over $600 for a one-day run and can cost up to $3000 for
a full week’s run. That is extremely costly considering an
entire website can be constructed for less money.
While
the distribution and readership ratios may be extraordinary, unless
you are a long-term advertiser or willing to spend substantially
more for the ad, chances are you will not be able to choose or effect
the placement location of the ad. Other issues advertisers need
to consider is the use of color in the ad, the amount of space provided
for image and text in the ad, and the production of a photo-ready
graphic if images are to be used in the ad.
Again,
search engine advertising presents several clear advantages over
print. For the same cost of running an ad for a full week in a newspaper,
a small business can generally have a website created and marketed
on search engines. Concerns about the costs of color, size and preparation
are virtually eliminated while the versatility of the Internet offers
the advertiser a greater range of options. Another important point
to bear in mind when deciding where to spend your advertising dollars
is that, while we often wish to throw our computers in the trash,
we rarely do. Newspapers and magazines on the other hand are recycled,
used in the birdcage, or donated to the local doctor’s office.
Unless the ad you’ve invested in is seen the on the first
read, chances are it will never be seen again.
Broadcast
vs. Broadband
There are two types of broadcast media, radio and television. Both
are extremely expensive and difficult to work but both allow for
extended versatility from advertisers. Radio and television ads
are difficult to produce, often costing in the tens to hundreds
of thousands of dollars. Once the advertisement has been produced,
purchasing spots to air the commercials can be extremely expensive
and complicated. To further complicate the issue, tracking the success
of broadband advertising campaigns is also extremely expensive,
statistic heavy and time consuming.
Most
television and radio advertising is conducted by larger businesses
with a good deal of money to invest in production and the purchasing
of commercial airtime. Broadcast advertising is rarely an avenue
smaller businesses can pursue or compete on. Again, the Internet
and search engine advertising emerges as the great equalizer.
A small
business can have a much better website than its larger competitors
and be perceived as the stronger of the two companies. Aside from
the size of the website and the number of incoming links to the
site, all things are equal in search engine marketing and it doesn’t
take a lot of extra money or effort to push the small business website
higher than its corporate competitors.
Professional
Advise
The world of advertising is extraordinarily competitive and in the
decade old realm of Internet advertising, the rules often change
quickly and without warning. While an effective SEO job can often
be performed by website owners, (and aside from our obvious interest),
it is wisest to speak with a professional search engine optimizer
before starting your search engine marketing campaign. Many SEO
firms, including StepForth provide highly detailed consultancies
as well as offering hands-on-services. With the rapidity of change
in the SEO industry, it is good to know your advisors are fully
up-to-date and informed.
End
Game
Advertising is all about getting attention and pushing ideas into
the public realm. It is an important and necessary function in the
course of business and can be extremely effective if managed properly.
Unless CNN is coming to visit your shop on a regular basis you will
need to invest a portion of your budget in marketing. Take your
time to consider the effectiveness and longevity of every form of
advertising available in your community or business sector.
Back | Next
|
