"It's Online Marketing That Works!"
By Mark
Sceats
Here are 8
compelling reasons why you should include search engine marketing
in your online marketing mix and the very real competitive advantage it
can give your business...
1) The #1 way people find websites
Numerous surveys
have shown that search engines and directories are the most popular method
used to find websites. More than 80% of Internet users rely on search
engines & directories as their preferred method for locating websites.
(GVU
10th WWW User Survey)
2) People use search engines - a lot
The majority of
Web users search the web every day (57%). The only thing done online more
often than using search engines is checking email - 81% check email every
day. (Statistical
Research Inc Feb 2000)
3) Billions of pages. Millions of
searches
There are more than 320 million searches are made
through search engines and directories each day. Google alone had
over 55 billion searches during 2002. The exponential growth of the Web
means there are now billions of web pages and consequently this has
increased peoples reliance on search engines as a way of locating
information online.
[If the statement about the Web containing
billions of pages has you wondering just how big the Web is, check out Internet
facts and figures - lies, damn lies and Internet statistics]
4) Qualified traffic ready to
buy
Traffic search engines and directories deliver to
websites is highly qualified because users are actively searching
for the information. This is the major difference to traffic delivered by
banner advertising.
5) More effective than
banners
There are 5 – 6 times more online purchases
made from traffic delivered by search engines compared to banner
advertising. The cost for online marketing campaigns using search engines
is significantly lower than that for banner advertising. Not only are
search engines highly effective online marketing tools – they’re also cost
efficient.
6) Marketing managers "know" they
work
Given the above facts, it’s not surprising that 66% of
web marketers rated search engine marketing as the top method for
driving traffic to their web sites. Second was email marketing (54%).
(American
Direct Marketing Association survey - Aug 2000)
7) The experts say they work
A
report by Forrester Research stated "search engines reach valuable,
motivated, and ready customers. To capitalize on search as a marketing
tool, marketers should shift acquisition email and ad dollars to
search..." (Forrester
Research - April 2002)
And finally here is a very
compelling reason to include search engine marketing from your online
marketing mix...
8) Competitors inaction - your
opportunity
Nearly 46% of marketers surveyed by CyberAtlas
Research allocate less than 0.5% of their annual marketing budgets on
search engine optimization (SEO) services. Only 10 percent spend more than
25% of their marketing budgets on increasing their visibility on the Web.
(Search
Engine Optimization Strategies: A Marketer's Perspective
-Aug 2001)
In other words, search engines may be the top method for
finding sites on the Web, but only a small percentage of businesses
dedicate a portion of their marketing budget for building cohesive
search engine strategies.
This gap between recognition of
the benefits of search engine marketing and actually doing it is
your opportunity. By exploiting it you can give your business a
competitive advantage.
But you'd better move on it - as
reported by eMarketer many businesses finally woke up to this fact
in 2003 and started investing heavily in search engine marketing. Details here.
Contact Viz Marketing to make
the most of this opportunity before it's too late. The clock is
ticking... |
Next topic: Key search
engines and directories
 
| Why search
engine marketing | search engine
optimisation | the right
keywords | search engine
compatibility | link
building | PPC pay
per click | search engine
marketing - do it yourself |
This page last updated September 17, 2007
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