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The Chicken Or The Egg And Internet Marketing. What?

Added by Kevin B on Mon, Mar 16, 2009, 02:12 AM

This ever ongoing argument about the chicken and the egg that never seems to stop and sometimes can provide highly emotional reactions from many folks even today's world where modern science provided the answer almost without any doubt, is very intriguing to think about if we apply it to the world of Internet Marketing.

Many times an independent observer can find a similar emotionally heated situation unfold when watching an argument between two camps of people: the ones who favor Pay Per Click advertising and the others who stand by Search Engine Optimization (SEO) coupled with Social Media Marketing when it comes to different methods of making a website popular on the Internet. This could be a seemingly unimportant issue and it can be easily dismissed by many as 'geek talk' that an average person would not understand anyway. However, if you are a business owner, you might want to listen up because as you may know, you would need to familiarize yourself with this funky thing called Internet advertising if you want your business to survive at all.

How can we make such a bold statement?

Take a look at the current state of the economy today. It is a major mess and many people say that nobody really has a solution and nobody knows if the recently passed stimulus package would work at all. We have no crystal ball either. But once you examine the current situation you can suddenly realize, that no other company than those who have solid Internet presence or the ones who actually make the Internet happen as it is today are not on the brink of bankruptcy because they still have a lot of cash. In fact, many of these companies are still hiring even when most others are currently laying off people by the thousands.

So here is the reality

The companies with solid Internet presence have cash and they are still hiring and will keep hiring. How do they drive traffic to their websites? Many of them use Internet marketing experts like us who create pay per click and social media campaigns for them and they make sure that visitors who come to their websites will become buyers by providing highly relevant content. Now cash rich companies like the big corporations that still have huge advertising budgets can easily do both at the same time. But if you have a limited advertising budget because you are not Amazon.com, but a small business owner who are just trying to learn about Internet marketing, then you really need to watch where your advertising dollars go.

One thing that you should not do:

start wasting your money now on newspaper or Yellow Pages ads because the proven fact is that they no longer work. If you have ads in those mediums that work, keep them, but if you experienced a significant drop in their effectiveness, you need to explore other ways. These other ways are pay per click advertising or search engine optimization coupled with social media advertising on the the Internet. Question is: which one should you start using first when you have a limited advertising budget?

That is where lies the problem of the chicken or the egg... 

One camp says you should start using search engine optimization coupled with social media marketing first because you need to bring as many visitors to your website as possible because even when only a few of them become buyers you still made money and bringing them to your website did not cost you any money. Search engine optimization is nothing else, but applying certain methods in creating content on your website that fulfill all the requirements set by search engines in order to give the site a high ranking score. A high score means that your site could show up in the first two pages among the search results. Which means visitors to your site would likely buy from you if your content is good enough.

In plain English:

you must make a content rich website that search engines 'like' in order to be on the first two pages among the search results. An excellent tool to achieve high rankings in the search engines is social media marketing. You already probably heard about Facebook, Linked-In, Twitter, YouTube, Digg and many similar highly visited websites (called social networking sites) where you as a business owner can sign up as an individual or as a business and start 'making friends' with other users. These highly visited sites rank high in the search engines so a link to your business could easily and up high as well if you get enough links back to your site.

There is even a bigger advantage

You can also perform certain marketing activities and ask your friends to perform these activities for you in their network and ask their friends to promote your business too. This way because of the exponential 'snowballing' effect of networking many visitors can come to your site and eventually some of them will buy your product or service. You can also get almost instant feedback from your on-line friends and their friends about your website, your products and services and your promotional ideas. These friends tend to be very honest when it comes to criticism. When you have enough friends who agree with you on your idea of rolling out a new product or service or simply promoting your existing ones, then you have a good chance for a successful launch. But when the majority of them disagrees with you, then you should reconsider or should tweak your product or service until they like it. Your friends are your 'focus group' and basically you are doing market research this way.

Question is: 

How are you getting these friends of yours in the first place? Unless you already have many off-line friends who are Internet savvy plus their friends who are Internet savvy too, you have a problem. You must have exceptionally good content on your website to generate interest so people would start showing interest in your product or service and basically start working for you for free when they promote you to their friends. I do not know how you are, but in our experience, many small business owners do not have that many Internet savvy friends.

And here comes the other problem:

How do you decide what good content is? Whatever you think is good content for you is not necessarily interesting enough for other people. So you need to do market research and have your on-line 'focus group' in the first place. Now that is the problem of the chicken or the egg. It is almost an unsolvable problem for the less trained. Of course, you can also go with your gut feeling and you might be lucky on-line if you had a good product or service off-line in the first place. However, having a good product or service off-line does not guarantee any on-line success if people are not looking for your successful off-line product or service on the Internet in the first place.

There is even a bigger problem:

Say you were lucky and found the right content for your website for the first try (it is almost impossible) and not only your visitors, but the search engines 'like' the content you presented or you hired someone who did a couple of 'magic tricks' for you pretending to create an 'optimized website' for you for the search engines (in other words: performing the so called SEO (search engine optimization)) by 'fooling' the search engines, you can still run into many risks. Say, some SEO 'expert' used some black hat (in other words: illegal) tactics to 'fool' or spam the search engines and your website gets listed in the first two pages, their solution will only be temporarily as search engines always figure it out and ruthlessly punish those who try to 'fool' them. And guess what? It is not the guy who did the work for you who gets punished, but your website and your business because it gets blacklisted and it will never show up on the first two pages again. 

So what can you do now? 

There is another way to approach this problem. It is called pay per click advertising or PPC. There are companies who created websites where they let people search the Internet for anything. These websites are called search engines. You probably already heard of them. There are hundreds of them, but the most frequently visited are Google, Yahoo, Windows Live and Ask. You might not heard about is the way their PPC advertising works. We are only going to talk about Google's PPC a bit because almost 70% of people use Google for searching and Google's PPC is somewhat different than the others. Once you mastered Google's PPC, the others can be a cakewalk.

What is PPC?

When we correctly want to describe PPC, we have to talk about Google first a bit. When you do a search in Google you would see the results page divided into two columns. The wide column contains the so-called 'organic' search results. They are determined by Google's automated search algorithm. This algorithm is nothing else, but a sophisticated computer program that 'makes its decision' based on many relevancy factors that Google shares with the world only to a certain extent to avoid the previously described 'fooling' by unscrupulous advertising 'experts' (we like to call them Internet criminals, to be honest). As its name describes, PPC is based on a simple concept. In the narrow column on the right side among the search results, most of the time you see many different small text ads once you search for something. In other words, you type in a search keyword or many keywords (called the keyword phrase) in the appropriate search field. The ads that show are related, in other words, they are relevant to the search keywords that the person who performs a search typed in. The more related a certain ad is to the search term, the higher position it can achieve.

The higher the position of an advertiser's ad is

in, the higher the chance that a person who searches for something would click on it. Advertisers bid on certain keywords or key phrases that they are willing to pay when someone clicks on their ad that would lead the searcher to the advertiser's website. The higher the bid an advertiser provides the better the chance that his or her ad shows in a higher position.

However, if the ad is totally irrelevant to the search keywords

it most likely ends up showing lower than an ad that is more relevant to the same keyword or phrase even though its corresponding bid for the same keyword that triggered the ad was less than the previous, irrelevant ad. As we previously mentioned, Google's sophisticated search algorithm determines what is relevant and what is not so the subjective human factor that could provide biased results is totally eliminated from the system. Therefore, all advertisers are at the same playing field and what really matters is not how much money you have as an advertiser, but how relevant you are. This highly controlled, yet creative environment, allows small companies with a good niche go against a huge corporation and win. It is a true David against Goliath battle and Google actually let David win if he is more relevant.

Most importantly,

you do not have to have many Internet savvy friends

who essentially have to work for you for free for many months to provide initial visitors to your website. With Google's PPC advertising, visitors can come to your site as soon as in 15 minutes. More bad news for social media advertisers is that Google now watches for not only link popularity, but link quality as well. They mercilessly 'slap out' irrelevant comment spam. We wrote about e-mail spam in a previous article. Nowadays

the 'latest and greatest' technique of spamming is comment spam.

A guy in a basement writes a scipt that creates thousands of fake blogs about a certain topic using a relational thesaurus database. The script scans for other blogs that contain the related keywords and start pulling prewritten comments from another database and start submitting them to the related blogs making the search engine believe that the original blog or website where all these artificially created 'satellite blogs' eventually point to is an authority, expert website because of its high back link popularity. However, Google's algorithm recognizes the pattern in the comments and punishes the spamming website or blog instead of ranking it higher.

Google also finds many of the unscrupulous advertisers who want to pay money for other websites to link back to them. In Google's opinion, and we agree with this 100%, the Internet should be free and open and only honest, hard work and relevant content should be rewarded. So in todays world they 'slap out' websites who buy links besides slapping out those who belong to a link exchange or a web-ring scheme.

The only good way to advertise in social media is

to hire several professional expert copywriters who write relevant articles on a daily basis and share them in blogs and forums and other places where that certain topic is being discussed. Moreover, the writers need to make expert comments (no comment spam!) on these forums too. Now, if you think about the costs involved in doing Social Media Marketing in the right way, you might get discouraged.

The good news is that you can always use PPC first to test

out your initial website and tweak it until you reach your desired ROI. After the first few months (sometimes even weeks) you should be able to find your true niche that does great on the Internet, so you can afford to build up some Social Media Marketing as well. We do not want to discourage you from Social Media at all. If you feel that you have the capacity and time, by all means, do it. The sooner you start doing it the sooner your website could show up among the organic search results (on the left side, the wide column among the search results). However, in today's economy when businesses work razor thin advertising budget where you want to keep track of every penny you spent.

And here we just answered the question of the ongoing debate about the 'chicken or the egg':

In other words: do you have to start with Social Media Marketing or PPC to bring your initial visitors fast? We believe that in most cases, especially when you have a low budget,

you absolutely have to start with PPC.  

Now that does not mean that you do not have to do some initial Search Engine Optimization when you start your website. Of course you have to. Your search engine optimization should actually evolve as you get closer and closer to your best producing (highest ROI generating) keywords with time. Constant search engine optimization is a must along with your PPC campaign. However, you Social Media Marketing should not start until you find good writers who help you.

You may argue that you have a great idea

and you already know what sells on-line. That sounds great, but would not it worth testing it first before you start putting too much time and money into an idea that might not even work? What you initially show to your visitors in your initial version of your site will determine where you want to go next based on your test results. Even when you think you know it all, you might be wrong because the Internet is a whole different world and the rules that worked for you in off-line marketing, do not necessarily apply. The good news is that Google's PPC gives you a chance to test whether your off-line idea, catch phrase or your product itself would work or not. And your result can come in pretty fast depending on your daily budget and keyword bid amounts.

Of course,

social media marketing people would argue

that Google should not be glorified and there are other ways of testing an idea just like the previously described social media marketing where people on Facebook, or Twitter will tell you whether they like your idea or not. And yes, this way of testing could work as long as you have many computer savvy friends. If you do not, then you need time (we are talking about months) to run just one test. Do you have many months just for testing in this economy? We did not think so either.  

So how do you actually test your idea, catch phrase, product in Google? 

Very simple. You always have to create two competing versions of your ad, title, phrase, coupon, product and the page that shows them (the page that will show right after a searcher clicked on your ad is called your landing page) and compare the two and declare a winner. How is the winner declared? Obviously, the version that made you more sales or brought in a higher return on investment (ROI) on your advertising dollars. You have to keep refining the winner until you reach your desired ROI. Easier said than done. Google provides you with state-of-the-art, objective, unbiased tools for measuring your results. To write about all the technical details of the testing would make this article longer than it should be and this article would really turn into 'geek talk' that would make many people's eyes glazed over pretty fast.... So we'd rather spare you from the technical details and tell you why 

social media marketing can almost never be unbiased.

Because there is always a leader of in a community of people and the leader will tell the rest of the people what they should favor, social media marketing will always be biased. Simple as that. Well, of course the leader is not going to do this flat out, but in a subtle way. Of course, on many social networking sites, just like on Twitter, action is going on so fast that people really have to form their own opinion independently from other users on the fly (many Twitter users actually use their Blackberries or Iphones to give their own feedback almost instantly). However, even on Twitter opinions can still be biased sometimes because many people who follow highly respected 'gurus' in their fields will do the exact same thing as their 'guru' does.

All in all, social networking sites are not reliable and measurable

for quantifying your advertising results. Google's PPC business model is very simple. They want you to succeed because that is the only way you stay with them in the long run. They do not want your cash fast, but want your advertising dollars to work for you over time and want to build a long lasting relationship with you. Now of course there are people who are not familiar how exactly Google PPC works and they blow a lot of money on it before they learn it. And yes, you definitely have to learn it so you can do it in the right way, because otherwise you will just donate your hard earned money to Google. Question is: are you willing to take the time to learn it and implement it yourself or

would you rather run your business and trust your advertising needs to an expert?

Many times, some unscrupulous companies tell business owners, just like you, that for a certain monthly fee they would put you in the first page in the search engines. It sounds great, but they forget to tell you, that they

• do not put you in the organic results
• write generic ads that show only until the money you paid to them dries out
• and they create a generic landing page for you that is in no way would make a visitor take action.

All they care about is collecting your hard earned money as their monthly fees (whether it is only $50 or $250). Maybe you already tried them and got burnt. For how many months did you pay them? How many months passed by when finally you had enough and you realized that there were no results and you became the part of a statistic? After how much money you started saying that this "Internet thing is not working for me and it would be better if I returned to the old school methods."? Was there a different way that you could have spent that money?

We feel your pain and we know that these Internet criminals should be somewhere else instead of freely conducting business. However, we do not write the law and we all know that

many times what is perfectly legal is not ethical.

Our company works by upholding the highest ethical standards when conducting business. We always tell you how it is and we always set the right expectations for you up front so you would not have any surprises. We provide you with a strategic marketing plan and we work on your advertising from day one right after you signed up with us. We also provide easy to read logs at the end of each month that show you where exactly your advertising dollars went and how they worked for you.

By the way: Let us tell you a secret.

Google's PPC is actually THE old school method that worked even in the Great Depression!

Obviously, Google did not exist during the Great Depression, but the people at Google based their advertising business on the same concept that was first used in the late 1800s way before the worldwide economic crisis in the 1930s.

Before the advertising agencies

that create flashy posters, unmeasurable graphic designs that would not say anything, but looked good, there were actually people who quantified and tested every single title, picture and paragraph in their ad copies, down to the science. And guess what? These real 'old school' methods actually worked even during the Great Depression. Nowadays many people are afraid of an economic downturn similar to that era where the chronic lack of cash and the unsolved real estate crisis created significant deflation and huge unemployment. Today, many of the symptoms are very similar and most business owners are frightened to spend the last money they think they might have.

Of course, Google's 'old school' methods need to be learned and applied in the right way.

The good news today is

that we know exactly the reasons why the current downturn happened and what to do about it. There are methods to start credit (which is equivalent to cash for most businesses) flowing again. The other good news is that today we have the Internet and Pay Per Click advertising with sophisticated tracking and measuring tools to be able to tell you within days or maybe only a few weeks whether a certain product, service, headline, ad content would work or not so you would now exactly how to spend your precious money to bring the biggest bang for your buck. In those old days business owners who used systematic ad testing and tracking had to wait for months for the results of their testing efforts to show and they still succeeded eventually. Now, when you have the leverage of the Internet and the right tools and our highly trained professionals that businesses did not have during the Great Depression, you have a huge advantage.

And the smartest ones who used scientific methods in advertising, survived. This is your chance today. Even in this economic environment you can still succeed.

We are optimistic

and we definitely believe that you and us working together for your goals will make your business better off than without these efforts. Now the real question is about your start date. The longer you wait, the higher the chance that your competitor will take the place that you are supposed to be taking. Remember, just like anything in life, there is no one size fits all because your business is yours and it should be treated individually. And that is exactly what we do. We sit down with you and have you fill out a free, no obligation questionnaire about your business. We then present you with a solution that we think would work. We craft a Strategic Internet Marketing Plan for you that would contain not only the marketing, but the maintenance services so your web presence is always up to date.

Well, you might dismiss this article

as just another salesperson talking out of his/her head. We know that confidence in salespeople was totally shattered in the last few months and the trust of small business owners in the salespeople is at its all time low.

We do not ask you to trust us.

We only ask you to give us a chance and fill out a free, no obligation questionnaire and fax it back to us:

888-428-8557

You can also e-mail to us or you can

call us now with your question:

 888-969-3887

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