In today's tech-savvy marketing community, SEO, PPC and Social Media are common buzz words in the industry. There are endless blog posts, articles and webinars on maximizing your ROI and perfecting these areas of business, but for those who are completely new to the Web Marketing arena, we want to provide a quick and easy guide to get you started.

1.     Why should you consider web marketing?

After you put your time, effort and money into creating or redesigning a website - it is likely that getting potential clients and customers to your site is important to you. Instead of waiting for customers to find you, web marketing will help you find them when they are in the buying mindset. The costs of web marketing are much lower than traditional advertising and there are more measurable results. For example, a Google AdWords advertisement can cost as little as $0.25; once placed, you can determine how many people viewed and acted on your ad.

2.     What is web marketing?

Search Engine Optimization: Often called "organic" or "SEO," this type of web marketing is represented in the listings that appear on the left hand side of Google, outside of the yellow Sponsored Ads box. The position that your company holds is dependent on 100+ factors; your goal is to optimize your website to satisfy as many of those factors as possible to boost your organic ranking. This can be done through selecting keywords and using them in web copy, increasing credible inbound links, submitting sites to search engines and ensuring that back end items like ALT tags and H1 headers are optimized. Not only does a higher ranking give you credibility, but once you secure a comfortable ranking it takes a long time lose it. With SEO, potential customers are actively looking for your product or service and you have the ability to be at the top of the list when they search.

Pay Per Click Marketing: PPC is often considered the opposite of SEO. It is represented in the yellow Sponsored Ads box at the top of the page, and down the right hand column. You select the keywords you want to advertise your company on, and ads only appear when that keyword is entered into the search engine. When your ad does appear, you only pay when someone clicks on it. Your advertisement position depends on your bid and past click through history, so it is important to choose relevant keywords and ad copy. Companies like PPC because it is a quick way to advertise on the web, it offers good visibility and there is complete control over advertising costs when you set budgets for your campaigns. After setting up your account on Google, Bing or Yahoo! (which will soon merge with Bing) you can select keywords and write ad copy. As you move forward and tweak your campaign, you should shoot for a position between 1-3.9 and pay attention to click through rates.

Social Media: Social Media is essentially a variety of websites and tools that allow you to share information, connect with other users, and increase brand awareness. Some common avenues of social media are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Blogging. The benefits of social media include the ability to communicate with existing or potential customers, develop your brand, and establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Getting started it easy, just sign up for accounts with a consistent username, determine your goals, create a strategy and begin publishing content that is consistent with your strategy and meaningful to followers. It is important to interact with others through various methods on each site. On Facebook you can "like" companies and post on user's profile walls. On Twitter you can reply, retweet and use hash tags (#) to engage in conversations. On LinkedIn, you can follow companies and respond to posted questions. You should continually monitor what is being said about your brand, and engage in discussions with people who are talking about your company, or the industry it is in.

3.     How do I begin web marketing?

There are a few strategies for beginning web marketing. Companies can choose to do all work internally, hire an agency to do the work for them, or a combination of the two. We recommend the combination, especially when it comes to social media. The people representing your brand should have an in depth knowledge of your organization, which only comes from being immersed in it. In order to determine what is right for your company, ask yourself:

• How much time do we have?

Typically social media is the most time consuming avenue of web marketing, with SEO close behind. PPC Advertising requires the least amount of time because once it is set up, only minor maintenance is required.

• How much money do we have?

In general, you will find that PPC Advertising is the most expensive, since you pay for every click on one of your ads. You can always set budgets, however, to control these costs. SEO requires ongoing maintenance, which can introduce costs for items like directory submissions. Social media is likely to be the least expensive option, as networking sites are free to use.

• How soon do we need results?

The quickest option to get results from your web marketing efforts will be PPC Advertising. To set up an account and post ads, you only need a couple hours to start receiving leads. Social media demands more time to build a following and establish your company as a leader. SEO efforts need to be spread out over a longer period of time so search engines don't perceive the website as spam. In order to increase your organic ranking, a few changes should be made each month, rather than all at once.  

With this brief overview of web marketing, you now have the ability to select what areas you would be most beneficial for your company. All industries, companies and customers have different needs, and they like to be communicated with in different ways. Make sure you have a firm understanding of these things before diving in to any of these web marketing tactics.

One of my absolute favorite attributes of pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns is that you can geographically limit your audience.  Sure, there are more sophisticated features that Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft AdCenter serve up with their respective marketing tools.  However, geographic targeting is definitely one of the most functional.

Geographic targeting allows you to pick the cities, states and countries you want to see your ad.  For example if you own a pizza store in Akron, Ohio you can choose to only show your ad to people searching for “pizza” in Akron, Ohio.  If someone in West Palm Beach, Florida searches for “pizza” they won’t see your ad. (There’s no way you could deliver that pizza in 30 minutes or less!)

Pretty simple.

I have clients who use geo targeting in many different ways:

-          An online retailer who ships only to the lower 48 states excludes Hawaii and Canada from their geo targets.

-          A marketing firm wants to expand from Cleveland, Ohio to New York City and Chicago.  They target these regions and nothing else.

-          A manufacturing firm with a global presence targets North America and Western Europe but excludes less profitable continents.

 If you are an international company, or aspire to be one, geographic targeting by country is important.  You can take it one step further by offering native language ads to searchers.  For example, if you sell your product to both the US and France, you could target those countries and run both English and French ads.  Google can detect that (a) someone is in France (b) is using a French version of their search tool.  Then, Google will display the French language version instead of the English.

Obviously, not everyone speaks English so native language ads are going to definitely help increase click-throughs for that reason.  Less obvious, native language ads show that your business is committed to serving that region or culture (which also increases click-throughs).  I’ve also seen that native language ads tend to be less competitive and much less expensive than their US/English counterparts.

There’s a couple different ways to implement native language ads:

First, you can use Google’s Translator Toolkit.  While quick and easy, there’s the risk of misinterpretation of your keywords and ad copy when using this computer assisted brute force method.

Second, you could hire a native language PPC specialist.  This is probably the optimal solution but not really realistic from a budget and logistic standpoint.  Even if you were to find an experienced Solvenian speaking PPC specialist (good luck!), you’ll pay an arm and a leg.

Third, you can hire a translator to translate your ads and keywords.  That’s what I’ve done in the past with success. 

 It’s not as hard as it seems:

1.       Get an eLance account.

2.       Create a new job opportunity indicating which languages you are requesting.

3.       Upload your existing keywords and ads.

4.       A bunch of off-shore translation (and maybe even a few US ones) companies will bid on your project at super cheap rates.

5.       Pick one with both cheap rates and good ratings.

6.       They do the work.

7.       You pay them.

8.       Create a new Google campaign targeting your regions and languages and upload your freshly translated keywords and ads.

9.       Get lots of click-throughs.

 One thing to keep in mind – there’s line length limitations for ads.  I learned the hard way that Swedish words are really, really, really long.  Make sure you tell the translator up front how many characters they have to work with. 

If you are an international company, you definitely should consider native language ads and geographic targeting.  And even if your company sticks to the good ‘ole USA, geographic targeting can be beneficial to your business.

By now you’ve probably heard about the Yahoo/Bing Search Engine deal.  So what’s that mean for Joe User?

Basically, it all boils down to the fact you’ll need to start paying more attention to Bing.  Google still dominates the market and will for some time.  However, Bing is gaining traction with this deal and could gobble up some search market share over the coming months.

That said, I’m recommending to clients that they don’t make an abrupt strategy decisions just yet but instead address the merger with a measured approach.

From an organic search engine optimization standpoint, I am keeping a closer eye on their Bing search rankings and making some site changes that will specifically help their Bing placements.

Most of our clients use Google exclusively for pay-per-click marketing for reasons explained in my earlier post, Pay-per-click Marketing – Where to put your money?  However, I am considering splitting some PPC campaigns between Google AdWords and Bing on an experimental basis.  I’ve read some anecdotal evidence where others have had better success with Bing than Google.  I’m curious if it will translate for our client base.

In summary, pay attention to Bing but don’t go change everything just yet.

P.s.  SEOmoz published a great blog post, Top 10 Things the Microsoft/Yahoo! Deal Changes for SEO, that explains the implications of this merger more in depth (and perhaps more eloquently) than I have. 

WRIS client Factivity was featured in the Cleveland Plain Dealer discussing their lean manufacturing software and how it can assist companies to be more efficient during bad economic times.

...

Manufacturers will have to be able to gear up quickly or lose out. Now -- while customers are still scarce -- is when these businesses should be fine-tuning their operations to prepare for the recovery.

"They'll need as much efficiency as they can muster to be competitive," said Susan Helper, a manufacturing expert and professor at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School.
 
Readying to meet future demand when business is slow is no easy task. But Helper and others say manufacturing companies that started preparing for the future as soon as the downturn arrived last year will have a huge advantage.

…

Factivity Inc. in Beachwood sells computerized scheduling systems to help factories coordinate machines, supplies and workers for jiffy shifts in production and efficient operation. The goal is quicker manufacturing, freedom from excess inventory, smarter use of tools and personnel and improved quality -- just what some factories need for the turnaround.

But John Leiber, Factivity's president, has found that with money tight, few companies are shelling out for new software and the touch-screen stations that run it. Just what manufacturers need -- a way to get ready for when the economy roars again -- seems out of reach to many of Factivity's potential customers for now.

Factivity is no stranger to being in the news.  They were featured in USA Today last month– not for their shop floor control software but for their love of dogs!

… among CEOs, company presidents, chairmen and founders that percentage jumps to 66, according to an unscientific USA TODAY survey. Seventy-five of 114 who responded to a USA TODAY query own at least one dog

…"Never trust a person that does not hug his or her dog … too cold and not caring," says John Leibert, president of technology company Factivity and owner of a 5-year-old wheaten terrier named Scooter.

Factivity uses WRIS for their web hosting, search engine optimization, and pay-per-click marketing needs. 

I often get asked by new clients if they should spread their pay-per-click advertising dollars between Google, Yahoo and MSN or just stick with Google AdWords.

My standard response is “if you have the money and have optimized your Google AdWords accounts already than go for it – otherwise, stick to doing one (Google) really well.”

The latest stats from HitWise seem to confirm this advice:

Search engines continue to be the primary navigational tool of the Internet, and Google continues way ahead of the pack. Just fewer than 73% (72.74%) of all searches carried out online in the U.S. in April this year were via Google.

Google is overwhelmingly where the searchers are, so that’s where you should concentrate your budget.  Of course, that can mean more competition and maybe added expense.  But for a small and medium size business with a limited budget, you need to weigh the upside of exposure with the added cost (if any).