Website Marketing Strategies

On September 18th, Google announced that they will start crawling any published Google Docs that are linked to from a public website.  Those docs will not only be crawled but also indexed which means they could appear in search results.

I’m not a Google Docs user, in fact, anything that can give Google more access then they already have with the data on my computer, is in my estimation “Not Good”.

One thing we know is that whenever Google gets its hands on data, it loves to share it with the world, despite copyright laws or trademark laws.  Just look at their Google Books program – rather than obeying copyright laws, it indexed tens of thousands of books and published them online.

Rather than getting permission from the various authors guilds and writers associations, they just posted the material which lead to a 3 year court battle where the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers and a handful of authors and publishers eventually settled with Google and agreed to let them post those books online.  Copyright Laws Be Damned!

I can promise you that at some point in the future, any content you post to Google Docs will show up online, despite the fact that you never published it or linked to it from a publicly crawled website.

Just be careful, don’t use Google Docs for sensitive data – remember, once something is posted online, it is there forever.

Trevor Walter is senior marketing director and vice president of Freelance Marketing Group www.trevorwalter.com :: www.fmgconsultants.com

An article by Mike Sachoff over at WebPro News, outlines the details of the most common types of advertising platforms.  Not surprising, Internet Advertising tops the list.  92% of advertisers are relying on the Internet as their number one source of revenue generating ad models.

>> read full article

A joint survey performed by Hearst Electronics Group and Goldstein Group Communications (GGC), revealed that nearly half, 47% to be precise, of all marketing budgets are being directed to online marketing programs as opposed to traditional forms such as trade shows, print and the like.

According to Goldstein Group Communications President Joel Goldstein, “The sense of urgency to move to online marketing has been felt by leading marketing organizations for some time now, but the extent to which budgets have been re-defined is dramatic.”

There are several schools of thought as to why this trend is increasing but the most obvious is cost and lead quality. I believe the rising cost of traditional marketing coupled with the inability to focus campaigns to the extent possible with online marketing, the lack of ability to provide measurable results, and the downturn in consumer spending has heavily encouraged companies to embrace the internet as a viable marketing alternative.

Traditional advertising in places like the Yellow Pages or trade magazines can run as much as $2,000 per month per ad. Trade shows can be even more expensive when you consider the cost of travel, lodging and meals for each sales rep, the cost of booth space and of course the large expense put into trade show graphics, display stands and printed marketing material.

Several recent polls have suggested the average online marketing program will run a company between $1,500 to $5,000 per month, depending on the size and scope of the program. While that seems to be inline with some traditional marketing costs, you have to remember that your online programs target a wider array of customers through multiple web mediums.

When you combine the lower cost per acquisition with a higher quality of lead, you have a winning combination. Traditional marketing has very limited abilities that don’t often allow businesses to target customers based on geographical regions, age, gender, interests or buying habits, but online marketing programs are developed specifically to target customers based on these criteria.

According to a recent article by Mike Sachoff, a staff writer at WebProNews, marketers are reporting that their websites generate the best source of leads, roughly 24%. Search engines follow closely behind at 19%.

So, what does all this mean for you? Well, first off, it means you’re on the right track!

As your marketing progresses so will the success you experience, but you need to know that as the web continues to develop there will be positive trends that will produce more business than you can imagine, at the same time there will be negative trends that will test your patience and at times make you feel it’s time to through in the towel.

What I can tell you is that there’s no magic to good marketing – the success of your campaign depends on the amount of time you are willing to invest, the quality and overall availability of your products and the type of campaigns your marketing firm sets up for you.

Let me be the first to tell you – the more online tactics you can use, the more success you will see in the future. But, the longer you are willing to stick with these programs, the more stable your results will be, the higher your search engine positions and the more success you will experience as a whole.