Are you hip to search engine marketing? Or are you missing out on the huge potential right in front of you? The most successful use of your online efforts and dollars should be focused on search engine marketing. However, 95% of communities are doing it wrong.
There are three components that lead to success. Skip out on one of these three and you’re doomed for failure. Below are the three parts to use as a benchmark for any search marketing campaigns.
1) Getting Ranked On The First Page
Two areas you can quickly and inexpensively be listed on in the local search engines are the free local maps (called Google Places on Google) and the sponsored links called Pay per Click (PPC).
Your Google Places listing, once created, is a push-pin marker you see when you search for local services. This is prime search engine real estate, gets a lot of traffic, and people can leave you reviews.
I won’t go into details of PPC, other than it’s the laboratory of the internet. You can have a campaign up in 10 minutes, test different messages, control your budget, and find the exact keywords that convert into leads. PPC is a complex machine that requires rigorous monitoring and adjustments.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the third to focus on. SEO is very powerful, but it’s not a magic bullet. Many people think it’s free. Yes, you don’t have to pay once your listed, but you need to pay someone to get you there. It also takes time to get a top listing through SEO. The length of time depends on your market.
2) Get People To Click On Your First Page Of Listings
The fundamentals of marketing on the search engines go back 100 years. Advertising legend Claude Hopkins wrote a book called Scientific Advertising. His main discovery was that advertising is scientific and designed to generate a response. He’s most famous for inventing the coupon in order to track his results. When you track results you can know with scientific certainty how your advertising will work.
All the first page rankings in the world are useless if prospects do not click your listing.
Success happens when a few people take action from your carefully chosen words. You need to write powerful advertising copy. Here’s some tips of what’s worked. Include differentiating benefits, give a call to action, use a testimonial, use keywords in the ads, emotional benefits, etc. It’s important to test ideas and stick with what works.
3) Converting Visitors Into Qualified Leads
A big fancy website is good for brochures and business cards, but it’s an absolute money pit if you’re trying to generate leads from the search engines. It’s nothing more than a digital brochure.
A successful search marketing campaign should be the beginning point of a sales funnel. You should be generating leads, educating prospects, and furthering people in the sales process. To begin this process, we use something called landing pages. A landing page is the first page someone lands on after clicking an ad. It’s designed to get visitors to take action.
If you currently have a search engine marketing campaign, or if you’re considering creating one, I encourage you to measure your current internet marketing efforts against these three essential components of success. Follow them and you’ll save a lot of time, money, and frustration, and finally generate the qualified leads you’re desperately searching for.