If you want to create an effective internet marketing strategy, hire someone with marketing knowledge first and internet knowledge second. Think about the internet as a medium, like TV or radio. If you want to make a great TV commercial, you don't hire someone who knows how to build a TV, do you? You hire someone who knows how to identify your target market and create a message for THEM in the most powerful way possible.
I am a real estate broker. I talk real estate language, not internet jargon.
However, pre-real estate, I was a strategy writer for J. Walter Thompson, then the largest advertising agency in the world, and I created marketing strategies for clients that included Ford Motor Company, Burger King, Marathon Manufacturing and others.
Today, my first step in evaluating my internet marketing plan is to remind myself of my broader marketing goals and determine if and how the internet plays a role in achieving my objectives.
I've had some success in making the internet work for me. Go to any major search engine -- Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL -- and key in "Grand Rapids MI Real Estate" and you will see my web site in the top section of the non-sponsored search results on every single one. I have NOT hired a search engine optimization company; I learned how to do what they do.
Remember, though: "Internet Marketing" is TWO words; they MUST work together. Getting position is only one ingredient in the recipe for internet success. It is also essential to use direct-marketing techniques that generate leads and turns them into clients.
Recently, I have been asked by several agents throughout the country -- and some non-real estate companies, too -- to review and evaluate their web sites (and I am happy to do so, for a pretty nominal fee of $295.) What I have discovered is most agents' web sites are product-oriented, not consumer oriented. Even those web sites that have great position are not consumer-friendly; do not have calls to action and direct-marketing mechanisms in place.
One of my clients rose from the tenth page of search results to #2 position in ten days!! More importantly, her web site now has eight methods to capture internet leads on her home page. She told me just yesterday that she has landed 5 new clients in the past two weeks as a result of a few little tweaks on her site.
Before you spend thousands on search engine optimization, I suggest you have a marketing expert evaluate your marketing plan as a whole to help you identify if the internet is the right place for you and, if it is, how you can make it produce results.
Read more on this in my next post titled "Straight Talk About Owning a Web Site."
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