Online Marketing 101

Let's talk about the Internet. You know, the thing that Al Gore created a few years back. Well it has gotten pretty popular lately. So popular that over 78% of purchases are researched on the Internet before a transaction takes place. What does that mean? Well...people are doing their homework. They are also being thrifty. Most importantly, the Internet searches are leading them to the place of purchase. It has become the road map from which dollars travel. What can you do to get your share of dollars traveling down the high speed highway? Below you will find a few basics.

The first thing is the most obvious. You need a web site. If you are in retail, a website with a "buy now" function is best. This way consumers can buy online and the funds go directly into the bank account you choose. If you have a good online storefront you can advertise "two locations to serve you better, 104 ABC Street or on the web at www.yourcompany.com". The idea is to offer your products to the biggest audience possible. Being on the web with a good "buy now" function takes your customer base from being your local city or county to the whole country or world. At the very least you need a landing page that directs people to your storefront and tells a little about your business. It also lends a little credibility to what your doing as a whole.

Now that you have a web site you must drive traffic to the site. Nobody stumbles across a web site. First, all of your traditional advertising such as television, newspaper and radio need to have your web address included in it. Search Engine optimization (SEO) gets a little more tricky. Lets start with Pay Per Click. PPC is where you set up a budget with Google or Yahoo or the like, and each time a person does a search, your ad appears at the top of the page in a shadow boxed area as a featured listing. Each time a person clicks on your link, you are charged a fee. Let's say for easy math you are charged $1.00 per "click thru" and you set up a pre-determined budget of $100. Your listing would show up as a featured sponsor until it was clicked on 100 times, then your budget would be spent and that online campaign would be over. Most people who use this method to drive traffic to their site set up a monthly budget and stick with it.

Another way to utilize search engines would be to buy listings sorted by zip codes. One thing that most people do not know is that search results are based on where you are doing the search. Let's say you are looking for furniture on Google. (try this when your finished reading) You type in Furniture and hit search and it takes you to the first page of listings. Let's discuss what you are seeing. All the first listings on the page that are in the shadow box are the pay per click ads we discussed earlier. All the listing below the shadow box are what are called organic listings. (Listings from high traffic sites that have multiple links and so on.) On the right hand side of the page you see ads for local or regional businesses that sell furniture. These are the listings that were bought by zip code. Let's say you own ABC furniture and wanted your web listing to show up on every computer that did a search for furniture in the 35121 zip code. You simply buy that zip code from a broker and it's done. The cool thing about it is that with the zip code purchase, you get free "key words". What that means is you get to list related words within that zip code. If your a furniture store you would list Recliners, Bedding, Living Room Suits, Beds, etc. Whenever a person in the 35121 zip code typed in a word that you have set up in your "keywords", your ad would appear on the right of the page and would link them to your site. (The reason the Ads are always on the right of the page is because people read left to right) I like the zip code method of marketing your business best. You may sell an item to somebody in California once in a while, but most people research online, then buy local. That's why buying zip codes make so much sense. There are many more things you can do to increase your market share through a web presents. I would love to talk more with you about them. I also have a list of zip code brokers I can refer you to so you can own your back yard. (it's very cheap to do) Please email me at robbie@alpineadvertising.com or join this blog and post a question or comment. Good Luck!


Robbie McAlpine
President, Alpine Advertising agency, Inc.
alpineadvertising.com