Market Your Business Online; Let Google Know You

Representing corporations with annual revenues between $250 million and over $10 billion, 175 chief marketing officers surveyed this summer by Epsilon indicated they are changing their marketing channels by shrinking traditional marketing pools and shifting resources to increase interactive and digital marketing.

By the numbers:

• 59% decreasing traditional marketing
• 13% increasing
• 29% making no change

• 14% decreasing interactive/digital marketing
• 63% increasing
• 23% making no change

If you’re a business sending me one of those direct mail pieces that I receive every day, is it a surprise to learn that I look at the sender, and nine times out of ten, deposit it directly in my blue recycling bin? If you are hoping I read it, think again.

When was the last time you turned on a TV and saw commercials? In a era of DVRs and Tivo programming, the ads must be personalized and engaging to the viewer or they’ll never be seen.

After describing CPM rates and distribution metrics that Fox Networks spends and profits with its “24″ primetime drama program, Carlos Granier-Phelps offers 8 tips to make money with digital media:

1. Get your content online; it adds to your regular programming.
2. Give the viewer the choice to watch your content online.
3. Foster a community around your content: it’s all about the engagement.
4. Being online lets you target and personalize advertising. Use it to your advantage and charge a premium for it.
5. Your online audience will tend to be younger and more attractive to advertisers.
6. Online content will not cannibalize your regular programming; it will enhance it.
7. Use online distribution to your advantage: if you run out of inventory, find partners that will give your content additional exposure.
8. Allow the viewer to gain control.

As more companies and products go online, Google indexes them. Now, maybe you’re a stalwart of some other search engine (and there are hundreds of alternative search engines, some of them worthy for this or that type of search), but you must keep in mind that despite the global financial meltdown, Google still has a 70% market share in the U.S. search engine market, and about 60% globally.

If you’re not marketing online, Google doesn’t know you. And if you’re not seen by Google, then I’m guessing you’re not doing any social media monitoring to ascertain if anyone writes something positively or negatively about you, such as when I wrote about a Massachusetts leader in new media communications; here’s what Google shows on that phrase.

“For the longest time, the web has been in collective denial of this phenomenon,” said Jakob Nielsen. “People still have this old media thinking: They think of the web being similar to TV because it’s on the screen and visual. The main distinction is whether it’s active or passive, not whether it’s on a screen or not.” – via GigaOm, on running ads that nobody sees

Steve Rubel continues this trending in a blog post about social media expanding despite the economic downturn that he’s publishing in this week’s AdAge:

As it speeds, the social web is transforming into a giant, 24/7 global chat room distributed across hundreds of sites. Unlike the chat rooms of old, these are a lot more influential. In this era there are more people engaged and everything is being indexed in Google – also in real-time.

….Digital marketers who continue to plan campaigns months in advance and then unleash them will lose relevance. The more successful programs going forward must feature real human beings. They will need to be dynamic, adaptable and able to turn on a dime depending on where the live conversation goes. That’s no easy feat and it will require brands and agencies to rewire themselves for speed. Get ready to race.

A few hours ago, I emailed with a friend living in Texas who is generating buzz for her business, as she recently moved to town. Apparently, people only go online to check the news or trade stocks. She says companies don’t care about marketing themselves online. I believe her because I see the same thing in my hometown of Newburyport.

Do you want to know how many local firms operate on a limited or zero advertising budget? Here’s a Yelp review of a restaurant called Park Lunch. (Yelp is a great online tool for finding and reviewing restaurants, by the way. I frequently review places I like and hate.) I don’t know if they advertise, but they definitely don’t have a website. It’s ludicrous!

And they’re not alone. I moved to Newburyport last year and had a heck of a hard time (and still do) finding online menus of local restaurants. So, I’ve accumulated paper copies and am thinking of scanning them in to some wiki so Google can index them and people won’t be as clueless and frustrated as I was.

Are you getting the point? If you’re doing business and not conducting social media marketing, you’re losing the war – and probably witnessing a decreased return on investment, like the 175 CMOs in the Epsilon survey.

Gary Vaynerchuk, the podcaster in the above video, and I cannot stress enough for you to move your mouse over the center button where it says PLAY and click it, references Google as the primary vehicle that you should be marketing yourself on. He says:

“This is the new space to spend money on because the costs are much lower and you get true value on your ROI. People are going to gravitate to Google.”

I look forward to seeing you online. If you have something to add, please do so below. And, if I can help you, feel free to click on the applicable link in the top right of this page.

Thank you for returning to my blog! If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, email delivery, or Kindle subscription. You may also reach me on Twitter @ariherzog.

Related posts:

1. How SEO Relevant is Google for Search?
2. How to Be Ubiquitous like Google
3. Q&A: How to Save RSS Searches in Google Reader?

Tagged as: Google, onlinemedia, productivity

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