4 Major Reasons to Market Online

Monday, March 22nd, 2010 at 7:38 am

Reason # 1: People Are Spending MORE Money Online

According to a comScore research report, the number of people actually searching for products and services online increased by 21% in 2008. Today in 2010 almost 75% of the Internet population are searching the Internet before buying something. So the Internet is a growing trend and more and more of your prospects and customers likely to look for you online.

So why is the Internet a growing trend?

It’s convenient and a great way for them to save time and often save money too.

Remember that a lot of people are time-poor in today’s hectic 24/7 society.

Having more people searching for your product and service is one thing. The important question is: are they spending more money online?

A com Score study reported that US e-commerce spending in 2008 reached a staggering $214.4 billion – a 7% increase over the previous year. So importantly, more people are spending more money online too – they’re not just lookie-loos and information seekers. They’ve got cash to spend and they’re going to spend it online somewhere the only question is: will it be with you or your competitors? To get the most exposure, focus your efforts on Google and then Yahoo!

Where does your company website appear on Google for the typical phrases that your prospects and customers are searching for? If your company website doesn’t appear, ask yourself this; is your competitor site appearing? If they are, what are you going to do about it? One excellent way is contacting me and I will help you J The other way is just ignore it and hope your business magically go online.

You’re effectively invisible and don’t exist on the Internet. We can help you to greatly increase the visibility and sales for your business online. And not only with your

existing website (or one we can create for you), but also with online videos and landing pages that show up on Google as well as automated email systems.

Reason # 2: If You Don’t, Your Competitors Get the Profits

Chances are good that your competitors have already realized the benefits of marketing their business online. So if you don’t have a significant online presence then you’re losing out on the Internet visitors and they will go to your competitors instead – together with their money now and most likely into the future too.

Fortunately, most businesses that are marketing themselves on the Internet are doing a mediocre job at best and can usually be easily beaten online – with some correctly applied expertise.

Reason # 3: Online = Greater Return on Investment

As marketing budgets come under more pressure, businesses are now looking for methods that have a proven return-on-investment (ROI) so that they can get more

bang from their marketing bucks. Because of this, a lot of businesses are using online marketing methods such as e-mail marketing, search engine marketing and online video marketing which are proven to outperform traditional media such as conventional advertising.

But where should you spend your marketing dollars online? Well, a Sapient survey in 2007 found that 38% of online marketers ranked online search as their #1 marketing channel for providing ROI with e-mail marketing second at 24% and digital advertising at 15%.

According to a study by the Direct Marketing Association, the ROI from email marketing in 2008 was $45.06 for every dollar spend whilst direct offline marketing had an ROI of just $15.55 for ever dollar invested. (Source: The Power of Direct Marketing Economic Study 2008 by the Direct Marketing Association).

In yet another study by McKinsey of 340 senior marketing executives in June 2008, they found that 91% were using online advertising and over half said that they plan to maintain or increase their current online spend. More importantly, 55% said that theyare cutting expenditure on traditional media to be able to increase their online efforts.

One of the most effective ways to advertise online these days is with internet web video. In another study by comScore, it was found that “nearly 139 million U.S.

Internet users watched an average of 83 videos per viewer in March” (2009). How to Recession-Proof Your Business Using the Internet So, the trend is for savvy businesses to shift their marketing dollars from traditional offline methods such as advertising to online methods that have greater ROI. If your current marketing methods are not producing the results you want, then we can help you to get a much higher ROI from every penny of your marketing budget by helping you to use online methods with a proven and greater ROI.

Reason # 4: Online Marketing Influences Offline Sales

One of the key things to understand is that people’s buying behaviour has changed as a direct result of the Internet. People are increasingly likely to do a search for a product or service online and then either purchase it online there and then or use it later to influence their purchasing decisions once they do go offline.

A joint Google and comScore study on “The Role of Search in Consumer Buying” found that immediate online sales accounted for only 16% of activity and a further 21% of sales came online at some point later after the search. More strikingly, a whopping 63% of sales came from activity done offline at some point after the online search was conducted. (The study was conducted in March 2006 and examined activity across 11 product categories over a 60-day period).

This holds true for business-to-business sales as well as just business-to-consumer sales. For example, in their Business to Business survey of 2007, Enquiro discovered that 36.4% of respondents found vendors online but then completed their purchase offline later. (Source: Enquiro “Business to Business Survey 2007” May 2007

When you consider that comScore also has reported that 25% of all Google searches are YouTube video searches, it is no wonder why so many companies are focusing a large portion of their internet marketing on the realm of internet video. Further, it is no secret that video can be much more influential to prospective buyers than purely textual presentations. So, the buying decisions of your prospects and customers are being greatly influenced online and will lead to offline sales. If you are not there to influence them online, then they’ll most likely not buy from you when they go to purchase offline later and buy from your competitors instead.

I can help you to increase your online presence, with search engine rankings, email marketing, online video marketing, and landing pages designed to sell, so that online prospects and customers find your business instead of your competitors. And to generate leads and sales from the prospects who do find you so that they buy from you instead of your competition. Isn’t that what you really want ultimately?

Call me today at 0194751379 (Charles) and let us discuss how you can make more money online.

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