Printing Industry Needs Internet to Weather Recession- Part II
Part 2: Print Industry Internet Marketing
By now most companies know they need and already have a Website. Many of our clients come to us with a Website already in place and ask one simple question: Why isn’t it working? By that they typically mean they’re getting little to no business from it. Surprisingly, some of the client sites are only a year or two old. Of course, some also date back to the late 1990’s. Age of the site can play a role, but it isn’t a dominant factor. So, what are the dominant factors? The answer is deceptively simple. Only two elements will determine who gets business from the Internet:
1. Your Website must be at least equal to, but preferably better than your competitors
2. Your Website must be easily found in the search engines
Now that I’ve told you the answer, one would think I could end my post here, but the truth is that both items are easier said than done! Let’s discuss them in detail.
What does it mean that a Website is equal to or better than your competitors’?
Let’s start with what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean the design is simply breath taking. Websites that use Flash to capture the eye of the visitor and colors that dazzle don’t necessary “sell” or accomplish the business objectives the company had in mind. There’s nothing wrong with the proper use of design technology, but it is not what makes a Website a heavy weight contender in the market place. The real answer is that the marketing must dictate the design. In effect, the marketing must be built into the Website from the beginning. Here’s a simple “short list” of the marketing elements:
• Branding, especially related to competitive positioning
• Compelling offers related to what you’re selling
• A “call to action”, including at least a form and phone number
• Trust builders, such as trade organization logos and highly recognized logos like the BBB
• Simple and intuitive navigation, where the visitor is never more than two clicks from the information they seek
• Lastly, and most importantly, it must be search engine optimized
Every item on the above list is important, but I am going to single out two as critical, the compelling offers and search engine optimization.
What is a compelling offer?
It is an offer that addresses a potential client’s “pain point” (i.e. need). The more pain points that the site addresses, the more likely the visitor is to respond to the call to action. It’s that simple. Or is it? Coming up with compelling offers that make visitors want to respond to the call to action isn’t simple. They need not only to address the potential client’s pain points, but they must also differentiate you from your competitors. Remember, on the Web your competitors are only a click away.
Here is a good exercise.
Write down what you believe your target market’s five most critical pain points are. Then develop a compelling offer to address each one. Review your Website to see if it addresses the critically pain points with compelling offers. Then visit the sites of your top competitors and see what they’re doing.
Search Engine Optimization – Getting Found in the Search Engines
Having the world’s best Website is of no value if it isn’t easily found in the search engines, especially Google which controls over 60% of the search market. Here are five simple statistics regarding the importance of being easily found in the search engines.
1. 87 percent of visitors arrive at a site as the result of a search
2. 90 percent of “found” sites show up in the first two pages of results. 65 percent of searchers stop after looking at the first page of search returns and only 35 percent go to page two.
3. 55 percent of all online purchases are the result of a search
4. Having the first position in paid search has been show to provide 27 percent unaided brand lift
5. 75 percent of searchers prefer the “organic results” over sponsored (i.e. paid) listings
Therefore, it is crucial that your Website rank highly in search engines like Google and Yahoo for keywords that people actually use to find the products and services your company offers.
How can you achieve top rankings in the key search engines? Here are two key factors that determine your search engine rankings:
1. The keyword phrases must be properly built into the page coding tags and copy
2. External links with elements of the keyword phases must point to the page
Teaching search engine optimization goes beyond the scope of this post, but there are some excellent books on the subject. I suggest you visit Amazon’s book section and do a search for “search engine optimization”. You will find some excellent books and be able to see how other people have rated them. It is entirely possible to do your own search engine optimization, if you are willing to invest the time. Alternatively, you can have it done professionally by a firm like ours. The typical return on investment is enormous.
How about paid listings? Paid listings, also know as pay per click advertising, are a critical part of search engine marketing. It is simply impossible to get your Website to rank in the organic results for all the keyword phrases your target market is likely to use. Pay per click can fill in the gaps and can be used to dominate a search engine page, by having more than one or two listing on the page. The benefits boil down to the following:
• Request based advertising (“search return”) is capable of reaching the entire online search segment you are targeting
• ROI based – bid on keywords & only pay when searchers click on the listing
• Degree of control when it comes position, budget, timing, region, country and results tracking
• Rapid indexing
Search engine optimization plus pay per click advertising together represents the most cost effective, thorough search engine marketing approach.
Again, it is entirely possible to develop your own pay per click advertising campaign. Simply go to Google and click on “Advertising Programs” and they will walk you through the steps of setting up a pay per click advertising campaign. However, building an effective landing page and optimizing/maintaining the campaign is generally time consuming and requires significant knowledge. It comes down to how much time and money do you want to invest. Often, having the campaign set up by a professional agency is the most cost effect in the long term.
Before I wrap up this post I like to address what I believe is the most important question of all: How do I measure the effectiveness of my Internet marketing? Here is what I suggest:
1. Add a Web analytics program to your site such as Google Analytics
2. Use trackable phone numbers
3. Calculate the return on investment (ROI)
That’s it for now. In “Part 3: Print Industry Internet Services”, we’ll discuss Internet services you can offer that will compliment your print offerings, differentiate you from your competitors, and likely increase your profitability.
