By IMOS Staff

Over the past 10 years there has been a fundamental shift in the marketing paradigm.
Traditional “outbound” marketing tactics are becoming less effective and being replaced with lower cost, “inbound” marketing tactics such as Search Engine Marketing and Social Networking.
Here are 5 reasons why every business needs Social Networking:

1. The golden rule of Marketing: Be where your clients are.

Social Networking is now the #1 activity on the web.

Globally, the average person spends 6 hours per day on social media sites.

Facebook just recently surpassed 350 million users. If it was a country, it would be the world’s 3rd largest.

Your customers are networking online. If you’re not there too, your competitors will be.

2. Create and establish trust.

78% of people trust peer recommendations, while only 14% trust ads.

There are a few ways people will trust you: They’ll establish trust by working with you first-hand; they’ll get a good recommendation about you, or they’ll learn about you through friends.

With Social Networking you can help create and build trust through peer recommendations, establishing your company as an industry expert or “thought leader”. Most importantly, you become part of the conversation.

3. Lower cost when compared to traditional media.

Internet Marketing as a whole offers a lower Cost Per Lead (CPL) than traditional marketing tactics. In fact, a recent study by Hubspot found that inbound marketing tactics cost 60% less than outbound marketing tactics.

4. Build content that will last forever.

Unlike a printed piece, great content never goes away on the internet. Companies have written things in 2006 that continue to pay dividends today.

The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll build an overwhelming collection of compelling, thought-provoking content that will last forever on the Internet.

5. Create a presence before your competitors.

Many companies do not understand Internet Marketing, let alone Social Networking. This is a golden opportunity for the proactive business that can establish a solid, well-formed internet marketing effort.

The time is now. The opportunity is yours. Gain the upper hand in your marketing efforts and jump into social networking. Today.

Inbound Marketing · Social Marketing · Social Media · Social Networking

Over the past 10 years I have seen MANY ad agencies allow themselves to get left behind in terms of the Internet.  Most will do a website, but past that, how to implement Internet Marketing is still a mystery.  Given the exponential growth of the internet, that is a big mistake.  Not only are many companies moving away from TV and Radio.  They are moving towards Internet Marketing. Why? The answer this that the cost-per-lead is dramatically lower for Internet Marketing when compared to traditional media.  Internet Marketing Outsourcing Services is dedicated to helping agencies of all kinds participant in Internet Marketing by allowing them to outsource all the backend work to us.  For those agencies that decide to continue to stick their collective heads in the sand, they will look up one day and see that they have been left behind. Let’s hope that does not happen.  As always, we are here to help when you need us.

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I can’t remember the last time I picked up the yellow pages.  But, given the demographic the yellow pages can be an important part of the marketing mix.  But if I was a business servicing a local area and I could only afford one marketing tactic, it would be Local Search.  Local Search is the process of getting a business listed on a search engine with a geographical modifier attached to a targeted key phrase.  Let’s take Google as an example.  Type in "roofing contractor + your city name”. Something like this: roofing contractor Madison WI.  Here is an example:

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 In less than 10 years a whole new industry has grown right before our own eyes…Internet Marketing. Most of you reading this are probably saying, what? I know a lot about Internet Marketing, I have lived it and in fact I sell it. But if you work with other businesses you know that you are the exception. Most have no clue as to the pervasiveness of Internet Marketing and the dramatic impact it can have on their business. Can you imagine not being aware of something that could cut your marketing spend by 50% and/or double or triple your leads? It’s not their fault. So much is happening so quickly, that frankly, most have just missed it. Many businesses are still trying to figure out that the yellow pages are not the investment that they once were. As a marketing professional, how many times have you recommended to a local business that they increase their yellow page spend in the last 3 years? This is why businesses need you. This monumental shift in how we market creates a huge opportunity to sell Internet Marketing services. Bill Gates seized an opportunity when he saw it and the rest is history. Everyone that sells Internet Marketing today has a similar opportunity to get in on the ground floor. And the good news is that this shift is actually great for the businesses and their customers. With Internet Marketing we can target and measure like never before. How many businesses know what their current marketing efforts are yielding? I have been selling marketing to businesses for over 16 years. In that time, I have only met 1 company that actually knew the true value of their marketing efforts. As a marketing professional, you know that proving that your marketing suggestions are working is the Holy Grail of marketing. Finally, with Internet Marketing we can answer all the “measurement” questions. How many times have you missed a significant business shift? How many times have you said, if I had only recognized “that” was going to happen! If I had only taken advantage of that! Don’t let this be another opportunity that you are missed. Start selling Internet Marketing right now!

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Here, we’ve come up with the top 5 customer objections to SEO and the reality behind each scenario:

1. “My budget is already allocated.”  You may have a budget committed to various media such as print, radio or TV.  The truth is that with these traditional marketing tactics, you’re targeting hundreds to thousands of people that are not necessarily looking for what you have.  With Search Engine Marketing, you’re targeting people who are specifically looking for your product or service.  The idea is not to abandon you’re traditional marketing strategy, but to compliment your efforts through Search Engine Marketing and optimize streams of income.

2. “Search Engine Marketing requires a large budget.”  This isn’t necessarily true.  With Search Engine Marketing you’re in total control of the budget.  In Pay Per Click, for instance, you can set a daily budget so you know how much you’re bidding for each key phrase.  In Natural Ranking, you can achieve a significant amount of traffic to your website for as little as $250/month.  A good online marketing company will sit down with you and take a look at your overall budget and come up with a strategy that maximizes your marketing dollars while using the right mix of Search Engine Marketing tactics.

3. “I have enough business without the web.”  The idea of any business is to expand your business, right? You want it to grow, make more money and be successful.  The web isn’t going anywhere and if you don’t invest in online marketing your competitors will get there before you and you’ll be left behind.

4. “The key phrases I’m interested in are too competitive.”  Even if it’s too competitive you’ve got to get in the game at some point… it’s your business.  Secondly, instead of optimizing for the more competitive, broad key phrases (e.g. solar energy), you can optimize for more specific key phrases (e.g. solar renewable energy or solar wind energy) and get just as good, if not better results in a shorter period of time.

5. “We cannot afford to redesign our website.”  Your website doesn’t need to be completely redesigned in order to benefit from a successful SEO campaign.  With the use of landing pages (accessible via the sitemap) we can create compelling content and a strong “call to action” that will get searches to take action and turn into a lead (or sale) for you.

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