When growing the marketing infrastructure within any company, especially a startup, there is a point at which online marketing techniques incorporate or transition into more traditional forms of marketing, or vice versa. Online marketing differs greatly from traditional marketing concepts and recently has become as important, and sometimes more important, than traditional brick and mortar marketing techniques. Many companies today thrive entirely online and their sole marketing focus is to create a viral buzz, branding awareness, and increased traffic to their site. For most established companies, their marketing platforms have been relatively set and they have found moderate success with traditional forms of marketing and are hesitant to try new unproven mediums. However, ignoring the advantages of creating an online marketing presence will cost your company much more in the long run. There are number of opportunities when deciding how to diversify and expand into an online marketing medium that require relatively little investment and can make a huge difference on your ROI.
Utilize existing contacts - If you are a well established company with clients, suppliers, and business contacts, the easiest way to let them know of anything new or of note is to email them. Email Marketing can be a powerful medium and a great way to let them know of anything new or exciting your company is offering. Personalized emails work the best and can offer immediate results. It is important not to overuse this method as it can lead to a sense of spamming and eventually your emails will be ignored.
Marketing Exchange – As you are an existing company, you will undoubtedly have suppliers, partners, and customers. Many of these contacts will have websites which offer a great medium for an advertising exchange. You can utilize a banner or PPM exchange with these contacts as their clients might very well be your clients as well. Using this method will cost next to nothing and can benefit both parties.
Utilize existing platforms – Depending on the type of business you run, there are many platforms that may allow you to advertise or sell with very little upfront cost. If your business sells products, it would be worthwhile to explore a site like EBay to sell directly to the consumer. Your margins might be squeezed as EBay offer a very competitive landscape, but if you can supply the market with additional inventory you can make up for those margins with volume. Craigslist also offers a great platform for advertising goods for free, as well as services. If your company offers consulting, financial, legal, or other non-material services, Craigslist can offer a direct marketing medium. If your company is simply looking for more brand and social awareness, utilizing networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace can provide various viral platforms for awareness.
PPC / PPM Affiliate Marketing – Utilizing other affiliate sites as an advertising platform with PPC, PPM (Banner) advertising can also be highly effective. This will cost some money but can be very effective if you choose the proper websites to advertise on. For this type of system, you want to ensure that you have a conversion tracking code in place so you can apply a quantifiable number to your expenses and conversions.
Search Marketing – Basic search marketing can give your site quality traffic for precise keywords. The set up cost is free and you can set up conversion code to see if it is worth your time. Start with a relatively small amount of money and see if the results pay off. There is no reason you cannot try this on a small scale to see if the medium will pay off.
Local Search – If your business has any storefront or brick and mortar location you should make sure it is listed in all of the major search directories. More on taking advantage of local search in Local Search.
Basic SEO – There are many aspects to SEO that a webmaster can do to drastically increase your rankings for very little cost. Reference these articles for more information.
Danny Walters
October 16, 2008