Website Marketing Misconceptions

Online Marketing Confusion

Owning a website is expensive:

Not entirely correct. This is one big pitfall where many people are taken advantage of by online predators who know they can take advantage of a person’s lack of knowledge regarding internet website ownership. Although the options are virtually endless, and yes, I can spend literally tens of thousands of dollars competing with the “big national players” with audio/video, endless size, etc, we need to realize that it does not make sense for every (or virtually all) business to go that route. I will post more information regarding what it takes to build a website later, but in the mean-time, let’s take a look at a quick breakdown:

• You need to own a URL (or domain name, such as http://www.simplified-marketing-solutions.com). This is done through many places, such as Godaddy.com, or Hostmonster.com, and can often be purchased for as little as $7.00 or less per yr. (realistically).

• The other thing you need is a Hosting Service. This is basically a service that gives you the “bandwidth” you need, as it physically hosts your site. There are tons of hosting services available that are inexpensive. One service I use is Host Monster, and they can be found on my affiliate page. A few reasons…Guaranteed “up time” is very high (over 99.0%). 24hr. service (with real-people – which is very hard to find in this industry), free domains (so you do not have to pay for the domain names, as it comes with the service), not to mention they cost less than $7.00 month. So far I have been pleased with the service, and would highly suggest. You can visit them here.

• You would need FTP (File Transfer Protocol) – which is free. It is a little tricky learning, but if you are looking to save the dough, it is well worth it.

• You need to either have some basic knowledge of web-page building, or you can use a service, such as Simplified Marketing Solutions to assist you in physically taking your material, and placing it on a web-page, or pages. There are several free, or relatively inexpensive web-templates you can find online, if you are willing go through the trouble yourself. If not, just let us know, and we can help you with a basic look, and take your information and pictures and post it online for a nominal one-time cost.

• All said and done…you are often looking at less than $250 for the site, and a full year of service if you do it yourself, and have some of the programs necessary for basic design.

• If you are not interested in doing it yourself, and would like to go through a service, such as Simplified Marketing Solutions, then you are still averaging less than $1000 including web design, domain purchase, set-up, everything you would need to get going. You would be set up with the control and ownership, and would therefore be averaging around only $75yr. to keep the site online!

 

Web Marketing does not apply to my local business:

This has to be looked at from both an Organic (what Google sees without you paying money) and a PPC (Pay Per ClicK) perspective.

Organically - One big assumption is that marketing a business on the web pertains only to national or worldwide searches. That a company can not focus on local marketing, and local prospects. This is not entirely correct. Through proper search engine optimization, a local business can gear themselves to a certain area or market. First, ensure you have reviewed my article entitled “So what does a search engine look for.” It will help you understand how a search engine “finds” a potential business. For instance, if I sell Marketing Solutions in South Bend, IN. or Elkhart County, I can optimize my site by ensuring that everything relates to words, such as South Bend, or Marketing, or advertising, etc…This is done so that if a potential client searches for “Elkhart Marketing Solutions”, the search engine will see that those words appear throughout my site, and therefore rank it higher in that particular search. Since no one in Pittsburg would be looking for marketing solutions and use words like South Bend, Indiana, then having those types of words appear in your site name, in your code (HTML code – more advanced – we will delve into this later), and most importantly – your Domain name (website address), you will gain a higher rank for that particular search, and be more likely to show up on a higher page.

PPC – PPC stands for Pay Per Click advertising, also known as Ad-Words. Marketing in this type of venue is a way to physically bring qualified leads directly to you. You get charged a set amount (you set the price in cents/dollars) to have your site appear in the right-hand side of a Google search. You set the physical words that you want to have associated with what you do, in my case, it would be words and phrases like “South Bend marketing, Elkhart posters, Elkhart County marketing, Search Engine optimization, Marketing firms, marketing firm (the keywords are literally limitless, which is why I highly suggest Speed PPC if this is something you are serious about) and the list goes on and on. One thing that is very effective as well is that you set the price you will “cap out” at per day. In other words, if my budget is only $150 month for advertising, I can set my advertising campaign to max out at $5.00 day. The nice thing is that you will pay less to get higher ranking if you choose a specific local area you are doing business! And no…generally speaking, a person can not just go in and out of Google, clicking on your Ad to rack up your budget. It is a safe way of doing business, and proven to bring in leads that are already interested in somewhat relate-able material.

 

I don’t have the time to create a website

This is where businesses like Simplified Marketing Solutions comes in. We can do virtually anything from getting a basic site put together, and visible online for you to control. We would work within the confines of your budget, to create a web presence, domain name, and literally get you up, running, and online. We work with you to find out information regarding your business, and how you want the information to flow, and we get it done. More importantly, if you decide to work with us on an ongoing basis, providing “Total Web Management”, we would be available as your “johnny-on-the-spot” throughout time to ensure your website is linked to the appropriate places, and the verbiage is correct and highly marketable. We would assist you in adding new content, sales, specials, etc., to ensure that your site is seen as clean and updated, and our main focus will be ranking, tracking, and page views. Click here to view our packages.

 

 If I can not continue to pay for my website, everything will disappear:

If you were working with someone like Simplified-Marketing-Solutions, we would ensure that your website will always be active, and nothing would get erased. You would physically own a back-up copy as well, and in most cases, we would put the physical FTP access on your computer. More importantly, if you decide not to continue to venture with Simplified-Marketing-Solutions, we simply turn over control to you. The website will not change unless you change it, and it would be your responsibility to pay your host service (not through us), the approx. $75 per year to host the website. They basically just send you a bill.  If you do not keep that up, your website will cease to exist online, but you still have the physical web-pages on your computer, so that if you decide later to place them back online for that whopping $75yr., then it will be a seamless process.

 

I don’t sell items that can be purchased online, why do I need a website?

People don’t just use the web to find something to by instantly. They use it to research local businesses, isolate there search to one or two possible items, find store hours, and get an idea of what is being stocked at that location. In a lot of ways, people use the website as a way of forming a first impression about a local business or businesses. Many people, such as myself, will make judgments (like it or not) about the professionalism of a business by what is on the computer monitor in front of them. A confusing mess of a website will give the potential customer the same feeling about the brick and mortar operation itself! No online marketing presence often means you won’t even get noticed, or stopped at. Name recognition as well, plays a massive part in marketing online.

 

My customers are not “techno-geeks” – They don’t go online:

I hate to say it, but times have changed. You can rest assured that a bare minimum of 65% of your clients have been online to research, or make purchases if they are over the age of 18. If your clients are kids, then I am referring to their parents. Chances are…you’re not a “techno-geek”, but here you are going through this information right now. The reason for this is that over just a few years, the web has grown to such a vast size that it is literally second nature for any one of the 75% of all Americans that own a computer to get online to research, study, communicate with friends, do business, surf sites, shop for the holidays, or a host of other things. Wouldn’t it be nice if they saw your business on a reoccurring basis?

 

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