Search Engine Marketing - PPC Management Services

Advertising Isn't The Only Way To Grow A Company

Watching otherwise successful companies miss huge opportunities for growth is probably my greatest frustration.

Just yesterday a business owner I spoke with said, "that won't work for us". He was adamant that no form of marketing would work for his industry other than cold calling. He's wrong. And his growth is hindered by such a closed view. Many of his competitors totally dominate him. He's forced to work long hours as a slave to his company and unable to take off more than two or three consecutive days a year. His family rarely sees much of him.

This isn't completely his fault though. Traditional advertising had been such a huge waste of money for him that anytime something new comes up he immediately discredits it without checking.

He?s not alone.

Business owners are so tired of over-hyped marketing promises from online and offline advertisers that as soon as anyone mentions anything remotely related to increasing sales they flee like an ostrich that runs and buries its head in the dirt.

It only takes once or twice of being burned by empty promises before people began to think that marketing doesn't work. They stop believing in possibilities.

I admit it. I've been burned too. In the early 90's I took every penny I had (and then some) and put it into a cluster of radio commercials to promote a business I owned back then. The ad agent told wonderful stories of how so-and-so used radio ads and became an overnight success. I was excited for that to happen to me too.

He lied. I lost everything. That was a very painful learning experience.

No wonder people are reluctant to believe in marketing. Sometimes it takes hitting bottom before we learn how to reach the top. No child came out of its mom's womb walking. Falling is part of the learning process. At least that's what I tell myself.

Really though it doesn't have to be that way.

Smart marketing is totally measurable and predictable. And it doesn't involve spending more money on ads. It took me a long time to learn that.

The two most overlooked areas of fast business growth include marketing to past and current clients and customers.

The first area involves increasing the frequency of client purchases.

The more frequently clients buy, the more money a company generates. Offering exclusive incentives, coupons, discounts, or special offers arranged with other companies or vendors are just a few ways to get clients to buy more frequently. This doesn't mean screaming "sale" every few days either.

One company near me sends out a mailer once a month that shows some of their new, special interest arrivals. There are no coupons. Everything is available at full price. How do they get away with this? They are not positioning their offers as low ball, loss leader offers. They are promoting limited availability, seasonal availability, uniqueness and exclusivity. For that, people are willing to pay full price. After all, in the eyes of their buyers these are not commodity items. These are something special you can?t find anywhere else.

Exclusive offers are easy to pull off. Do you have excess inventory you?d love to get rid of? Why not make an exclusive offer to a select group of clients or maybe to all of your clients and no one else? They will love you for thinking of them.

How ever you choose to pull this off the bottom line is to encourage existing clients to buy more frequently. Special offers is just one way to do that.

The second most overlooked area of fast business growth involves increasing customer retention.

Clients drift away for a number of reasons. Often complacency of the business owner and staff is the cause. Other times clients drift away for reasons that have nothing to do with us. ?Salvaging? clients from leaving has the same impact on a company's bottom line as increasing sales by that percentage.

For example, if a business normally has an annual 30% loss of clients but works to bring that to zero, that is the same as giving the business a 30% increase in sales. But the best part is, the business grows without taking on a single dollar of additional advertising expense. This is as close to getting free money as a business is likely ever to find.

And it?s far easier and cheaper to improve the bottom line by preventing attrition, than prospecting or advertising to generate sales through new clients.

These are just a few ways to increase sales without spending more on advertising. There are dozens more. Test different ideas. The goal is to avoid missing the opportunities for growth others in your industry may be overlooking right now.

--- Note to Publishers: You may publish this article in your newsletter, on your website, or other online or offline publication as long as the article content is not altered. Online the resource box must include an active link. Notification of use of this article is appreciated, but not required. The author can be reached at http://www.andrebell.com/askandre/

Andre Bell is a business growth specialist and author specializing in low-cost and no-cost marketing methods for high-tech companies. Visit his informational site at http://www.AndreBell.com for a free copy of his 12 Step Business Growth Report

MORE ARTICLES:

Search Engine Marketing Firm iProspect Wins at Search Engine Strategies Awards
iProspect Client Microsoft Small Business Center Wins Award for Best Business to Business Search Engine Marketing Campaign

Local Search Engine Marketing Expert to Speak at Search Engine Strategies Conference in Chicago
Janet Driscoll Miller, a local leading search engine marketing expert, will be speaking at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in Chicago on Monday, December 4, 2006. Miller is the president and CEO of Search Mojo, a search engine marketing firm.

Search Engine Optimization Firm, Brick Marketing Revises Search Engine Optimization Service
Brick Marketing, an internet marketing company, has recently revised and re-launched their search engine optimization services to adjust with growing trends. Brick Marketing has acknowledged that a revision of this product and the way it was offered to our clients had to be revised in order to stay competitive with other agencies. Potential customers can now be accustomed to similar pricing strategies has other players in the industry. The online marketing industry is a very fast moving industry with changes occurring sometimes over night. In order for firms and consultants to stay in a competitive range a watchful eye must be kept on all offerings in order to be able to provide only the best solution for clients.

Engine77 -- Search Engine Internet Optimization Firm Unveils New SEO Technology and Service
Infinidigm, Inc., a search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and software development firm, announces its cornerstone search engine marketing and search engine optimization technology-based service called Engine77. Engine77 is a robust software platform and service used to optimize web sites, perform market research, and develop sites based upon the analysis.

Internet Marketing Agency Reveals Search Engine Optimization Secrets
If your web site doesn't have a Top 10 search engine ranking, you're missing out on approximately 85% of the Internet users who are looking for the exact products or services you offer.

Atlanta Search Engine Marketing Firm Prominent Placement is Finalist for Three American Marketing Association Awards
Prominent Placement, Inc., a leading Atlanta search engine marketing firm, received three Atlanta Marketer of the Year (AMY) Finalist Awards from the American Marketing Association (AMA). All three of the firm's entries were selected as finalists out of 130 total submissions.

BrainPulse Technologies: Launches Advanced Internet Marketing / Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Services
BrainPulse has stepped forward to revolutionize Internet marketing and SEO Services to help global businesses achieve their internet marketing goals effectively and in a planned strategical manner to enhance the marketing campaing effectiveness and maximize the return on investments.

SpiderSplat.com Expands Search Engine Marketing to Include Social Media Optimization Services (SMO Consultant)
SpiderSplat, a leading provider of Search Engine Marketing, Pay-per-Click marketing and Keyword syndicated press releases, has expanded its offering to now include Social Media Optimization services. This new service called the SMO Consultant, offers clients the ability to have the opportunity to dramatically increase traffic and turn visitors into paying customers when used with SpiderSplat's SEM services.

SEO Link Building and Copywriting Service Relaunched by Search Engine Optimization Firm Brick Marketing
Brick Marketing has realized the importance of incorporating and combining link building into all aspects of online marketing for each of their clients. They have since re-launched their link building service for those interested in introducing online marketing in their business model.

Search Engine Optimization Firm, Epiar Inc., Unveils New Paid Search Advertising Service
After months of testing, Epiar has taken pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to the next level with the launch of its new service to the general public. Epiar is introducing the service at the New York Search Marketing Expo Conference Oct. 6-8.

Icelandic Internet Marketing Firm Invited to Speak at London's Search Engine Strategies Conference
Nordic eMarketing's Director of Internet Marketing, Kristjan Mar Hauksson, has been invited to present at the Search Engine Strategies Conference and Expo 2007 in London, England.

Why PPC And SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Are The Most Popular Web Site Promotion Methods
There has to be a reason why PPC (pay-per-click) ads and SEO (search engine optimization) are the two most popular website promotion tools on the World Wide Web today. As a matter of fact, it is not too difficult to figure out why these two website promotional methods are so popular. It is quite simple ? they work. Actually they are very fast and effective in getting traffic to a web site. Internet Marketing can be overwhelming for some but if you leave it to the reputable professionals you can expect great results. Picture this situation. You select a few keywords come up with some attractive headlines and then launch a PPC ad campaign with Google Adwords. The next thing you know is that your site is receiving a steady flow of traffic...

Search Engine Marketing Agency, Target Marketing Solutions, Announces Four New SEM/SEO/PPC Clients
More and more companies are utilizing search engine marketing as a key advertising strategy for reaching potential customers. Through the use of website analytics, search engine marketing provides trackable and actionable data to maximize advertising effectiveness.

PPC Summit Workshops: Learn Search Engine Marketing in Two-Day Seminars from Search Industry Experts
PPC Summit unites some of the foremost minds in the pay per click advertising world to change the way the subject is taught. Targeted at a range of skill levels and suitable for a wide variety of professionals, participants acquire new skills and leave with a solid understanding of search engine marketing. The team is bringing their seminars to cities all over North America, as well as London in the UK, in 2007.

Internet Marketing Expert Shows How Search Engine Optimization and RSS Can Boost Public Relations Visibility
TopRank CEO Lee Odden to Speak at Bulldog Reporter's Advanced Public Relations Technology in Practice Event