Ready Set ? Then, Let’s get going...
So What Do We Know For Sure?
You know the old adage that goes, “You get 80% of the benefit with 20% of the effort?”
Well, with Search Engines, it’s more like 90 percent to 10 Percent for sales-oriented sites!
By far, the most cost-efficient way to reach targeted customers is via the Search Engines (SEs) and directories.
It’s the backbone of Internet marketing. It is the way to attract hundreds of new, targeted prospects each and every day.
Many surveys have studied how surfers find and hit your site.
Search Engines and directories are consistently at the top.
Here’s the order of importance (in decreasing order) in the process of building targeted traffic.
1. Search Engines and Directories -- These are about the most important way that visitors will reach you.
And they’re free. So it’s no contest when it comes to measuring cost-effectiveness.
2. Links from other Websites -- links from other sites are a close second, in terms of raw visits to all sites.
But, as we’ll see, link exchanging is simply not practical or beneficial in most competitive business situations.
And they cost you a “link out.”
3. Printed media -- this is the strongest offline way that visitors use to find your site.
4. Friends via word of mouth (Viral Marketing) -- this is actually not a result of promotion.
It comes from selling great products at a great price, and treating your customers like royalty.
Do that and your customer will tell 2 friends, each of whom will tell 2 friends...... and so on, and so on.
5. TV -- as an offline technique, TV is less popular than printed media. It’s easier to stuff a newspaper ad with the URL into your jeans than to remember one from a TV commercial that you saw last night!
6. E-mail signatures (i.e., sig files) -- these are not that popular, but easy to do, and free! It’s worth the few minutes it takes to design an effective sig file.
7. Use net Newsgroups -- newsgroups may be useful, if there is a great fit with your product.
They are becoming less and less important for business.
So what techniques will be conspicuous by their absence in our future discussions and probably not worth the time and money involved?...
8 Unsolicited e-mail -- I suspect that spammers try it, fail and then quit. The problem is that there is a never-ending supply of new spammers willing to give it a whirl.
9. Banner advertising -- is this a surprise? I never click on them, do you?
10. Opt-in mailing list or e-zine -- this technique is not meant to generate a first visit.
However, don’t write off the opt in option completely...
The opt-in method captures the person who is very close to delivering.
It allows you to build a relationship with that person until he is comfortable enough to buy from you.
So while the opt-in mailing list/e-zine won’t really explode your traffic stats, it will show where it counts... sales.
So What Do We Know For Sure?
You know the old adage that goes, “You get 80% of the benefit with 20% of the effort?”
Well, with Search Engines, it’s more like 90 percent to 10 Percent for sales-oriented sites!
By far, the most cost-efficient way to reach targeted customers is via the Search Engines (SEs) and directories.
Many surveys have studied how surfers find and hit your site.
Search Engines and directories are consistently at the top.
Here’s the order of importance (in decreasing order) in the process of building targeted traffic.
1. Search Engines and Directories -- These are about the most important way that visitors will reach you.
And they’re free. So it’s no contest when it comes to measuring cost-effectiveness.
2. Links from other Websites -- links from other sites are a close second, in terms of raw visits to all sites.
But, as we’ll see, link exchanging is simply not practical or beneficial in most competitive business situations.
And they cost you a “link out.”
3. Printed media -- this is the strongest offline way that visitors use to find your site.
4. Friends via word of mouth (Viral Marketing) -- this is actually not a result of promotion.
It comes from selling great products at a great price, and treating your customers like royalty.
Do that and your customer will tell 2 friends, each of whom will tell 2 friends...... and so on, and so on.
5. TV -- as an offline technique, TV is less popular than printed media. It’s easier to stuff a newspaper ad with the URL into your jeans than to remember one from a TV commercial that you saw last night!
6. E-mail signatures (i.e., sig files) -- these are not that popular, but easy to do, and free! It’s worth the few minutes it takes to design an effective sig file.
7. Use net Newsgroups -- newsgroups may be useful, if there is a great fit with your product.
They are becoming less and less important for business.
So what techniques will be conspicuous by their absence in our future discussions and probably not worth the time and money involved?...
8 Unsolicited e-mail -- I suspect that spammers try it, fail and then quit. The problem is that there is a never-ending supply of new spammers willing to give it a whirl.
9. Banner advertising -- is this a surprise? I never click on them, do you?
10. Opt-in mailing list or e-zine -- this technique is not meant to generate a first visit.
However, don’t write off the opt in option completely...
The opt-in method captures the person who is very close to delivering.
It allows you to build a relationship with that person until he is comfortable enough to buy from you.
So while the opt-in mailing list/e-zine won’t really explode your traffic stats, it will show where it counts... sales.
