02/ 23/ 2007
by Marc Barach
Small-business owners want increased control of marketing dollars and are demanding visibility into performance and return on investment. But, developing and executing integrated marketing plans that are both tactical and strategic and deliver the performance businesses expect can be a daunting experience. There are a myriad of marketing possibilities to juggle, including direct mail, ad-placement in industry publications, Yellow Pages, TV/radio and, more now than ever before, the Internet.
According to industry estimates, Internet advertising is expected to reach an estimated $153.7 billion this year (TNS Media Intelligence), and this means great marketing opportunities for small-business owners. Whereas opportunities with traditional advertising mediums were often limited to those with the big budgets, the rise of new Internet advertising tools and technologies make it possible for small businesses to be front and center with new customers surfing the Web--without committing to large-scale marketing campaigns. What's more, the popularity of local search on the Web is also paving the way for small businesses to grow their local customer base, impacting both customer awareness and the bottom line.
This is great news for small businesses, but what else can they do to increase their growth, without a lot of capital?
- Monitor pay-per-click advertising accounts. Click fraud is a persistent problem for businesses of all sizes that rely on online advertising to drive traffic and sales leads to their Web sites.
There are two types of click fraud:
1. When scammers repeatedly click on ads to cause a rival company to be overcharged.
2. When fraudsters place the ads on their own Web sites and then click on the links to get a piece of the shared revenue they've agreed to with search engines, such as Google or Yahoo.
A recent study from research firm Outsell, Inc. found that advertisers estimated that 14.6 percent of the clicks they were billed for were fraudulent, which means that Internet advertisers spent nearly $800 million in fake clicks in 2005. With the increasing sophistication of online fraud, bogus clicks cost businesses money and can drain their marketing budgets. Be on the lookout for volume and patterns that differ from the past, especially spikes in click volume without a corresponding spike in sales.
- Pay for ads that actually deliver. Today's newest online ad systems, both Pay Per Call and Cost-per-Action, allow businesses to only pay for an ad after it delivers a solid lead. Due to the nature of the systems that power these products, fraudulent activity is greatly minimized or even eliminated. Another upside--oftentimes phone calls bring in more productive sales leads. According to Jupiter Research, most businesses (in a variety of industries from professional services to auto repair) prefer phone leads over Web site clicks in a ratio of 2 to 1 and would pay as much as 5 to 15 times more for a phone call than a click to a Web site.
- Multi-channel marketing on a dime. When it comes to search marketing, the "one size fits all" mentality won't work; in some cases, you might opt for clicks, calls, both or neither. New developments in the paid search industry mean marketers can have it all--and evaluating new innovations is key to making your marketing dollars work their absolute hardest. Whether it's via text messages or audio ads, etc., free directory assistance services, such as1-800-FREE411, and mobile search providers are all tapping into ad-supported models, creating a variety of channels to market your company.
- The next frontier: the mobile Internet. Consumers are increasingly using mobile devices to locate businesses in their area, but how can a small business with limited resources navigate tricky mobile advertising waters? Interestingly, there are tons of new and simple tools out there to help small businesses be front and center with consumers on the go. With the recent availability of search on mobile devices, along with paid listings and pay-per-call advertising opportunities, small businesses can take advantage of mobile technologies through search optimization and advertising.
Regardless of how large or small your marketing budget is, you don't have to be left out in the cold to watch your competitors drive exposure and sales. To effectively market your small business, it is important to embrace a multi-channel approach. New developments in search engine marketing illustrate that "search" is not necessarily going to be synonymous with "Web search." The attributes of the paid search approach--the self-qualified customer lead, the pay-for-performance model--are being extended to other formats, providing you with many cost-effective and easy-to-use options to generate brand awareness for your company.
About the Author:
Marc Barach is Chief Marketing Officer of Ingenio, Inc., a San Francisco-based Internet technology company whose products allow buyers and sellers to connect and transact using today's most powerful communications vehicles: the Internet and the phone. Barach is a 20-year marketing veteran and regularly speaks on search-engine marketing topics at industry conferences, including Search Engine Strategies, DMA Days, and Kelsey Group Events. Barach can be reached at marc@ingenio.com.To learn more, please visit www.ingenio.com.
