SEO Is Not the First Step in Online Marketing
June 9th, 2007
On occasion, I talk to prospective clients who have a relatively low amount of cash flow. Some of these are ready to spend many hundreds of dollars on Web site re-designs, SEO experts, and pay-per-click campaigns. If you are becoming desperate at the lack of growth in your sales base, here’s what I suggest you do before you start throwing money into risky SEO, Pay-per-Click and re-design projects.
- First, evaluate what contacts you have made with customers and prospects. Do you have a database of customers who have already purchased from you? Do you have names of prospects collected from a newsletter sign-up script?
- Second, plan some basic content for a 4 paragraph email with or without images that solicits these contacts with a special offer and a request for referrals to friends
- Use a handy email broadcasting tool such as Constant Contact, Vertical Response, or Aweber.
Stick at the email campaign effort for several months by watching response and adjusting your offers or email design accordingly. If there is a market for your product, this approach should have a measurable effect and should begin to raise cash flow. After you’ve learned about your market and expanded your income by taking this approach, you will be in a better position to evaluate SEO, Pay-per-Click, and re-design services.
Entry Filed under: Internet Marketing
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3 Comments
1. rdkelsey | December 26th, 2007 at 10:54 am
Hello,
I do not, by any means, totally disagree with what you state above. However being from the “SEO” side of the fence, I really feel and see the need for a good, working, optimized website … in my opinion … “before” you begin any other type of marketing.
My reasoning lies in that the cheapest traffic you will ever get is from the search engines. Any, and all marketing you do, will get you some traffic, and get people to your site. These people need a nice, optimized, easily navigable and professional site to visit.
I guess I just feel that getting people to visit a site, that isn’t ready or still under construction (lol I love it when I see those signs) just doesn’t show the person you just got to visit you that you are professional, and established.
I also feel that SEO should be done by the site owners, or the staff (hired help), and not necessarily farmed out to an established SEO firm. There is so much fraud in the SEO industry, and unqualified individuals calling themselves guru’s, that it’s hard to tell them all apart. There are some good SEO firms around … they charge you an arm and a leg.
There are training courses around (I run one but I won’t mention it here because I’m not here to spam), and that is what I would recommend anyone getting into any type of website business.
–rdkelsey
2. Harvey Ramer | January 1st, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I agree that the cheapest traffic comes from SEO efforts … however, I have seen too many people expend money in wasted efforts without first figuring out what works and why.
Small businesses are addicted to immediate results, and SEO will NOT give them that. That’s why I recommend other measurable instant marketing methods first.
It’s easy to overlook the many prospects a small business makes contact with and focus instead on those they don’t get. The point I want to make is that it’s quicker and cheaper to put a little effort into selling directly to those customers and prospects you already have.
3. KindHOST Web Design | January 18th, 2008 at 3:31 am
I agree that SEO is targeted traffic. But it is only cheapest if your time is free. The best customer is one that knows you so be sure to acquire name and email address from every visitor. Your list could be cheaper traffic than search engines.
Trey
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