As a web marketer in the Pittsburgh Metro Area, I hear over and over again from my clients and prospects that they have been called numerous times by a local sales rep from Superpages.com, Yellowpages.com, YellowBook.com, or some other traditional phone book marketing group in Pittsburgh. Their promises are always the same, increased sales and so much new income that you won’t know what to do with all the business. They even leave messages telling a business owner that they want to send some business to them.
Often the pitch is the same: You have a limited time to get top placement or the highest rank on their site , We will get you over XXXXXX impressions per month (I hear it often from my customers), and although what they telling you is true: You do have a limited time to get top placement (limited until they sell the top spot to your competitor), and Although getting impressions of your Business is good for branding purposes; What they don’t explain is that neither of the above statements means anything about getting new business or new customers.
So I must ask all of you business owners, if the results are so great, why are so many businesses so frustrated by those traditional on-line marketing services? The answer is they have no interest in helping you get more business. Once that sales rep leaves your office you won’t see him again until your contract is up. They just cannot provide anywhere close to the same return that an effective SEO or SEM campaign can bring you. Traditional online marketing services fall short because they have invested all of their time and efforts into creating huge marketing platforms that inundate users with garbage ads and pop ups. They have not spent the time to keep up with the ever changing online trends like SEO and SEM. All they talk about is Pay Per Click marketing and how they can get you higher on their own online directories (or over the last guy they sold).
To succeed online, you need a company that takes the time to understand the way you run your business is going to give you the necessary suggestions and lead you down the right path. The company that you hire to market your business on-line should be an expert and not someone that has thirty different mediums to advertise you in. A company that specializes in on-line marketing is better than a company that specializes in all types of marketing.
I leave you last with a small case study: one particular on-line yellow pages company touts that its program will give you guaranteed clicks. Although guarantees are always good, do not be tricked by the wolf in sheep’s clothing. What good are guaranteed clicks if the clicks are coming from people that either have no intention of calling or contacting you. If you are a plumber, would you want all of your clicks to go to someone looking for plumbing fixtures or plumbing parts? The click program we are talking about also charges a flat rate for each click. If a click actually costs around .30 cents, why would someone charge you three dollars? A good on-line marketing company must take the time to understand your business in order to market you effectively. A good web marketing company also cares about the design and layout of your website and cares about how to turn on-line searchers into offline customers. If all someone talks about is clicks to your site, you should run in the opposite direction.
By: Dan Harmon the Sales Marketing Manager of Higher Images Inc.
Morgan Cushey writes SEO articles for clients who want to enhance their online authority and see their Google Rankings rise. She has written entertaining and informative SEO-focused articles across a wide range of industries, from dentistry and landscaping to tourism and pest control, giving her a comprehensive knowledge on a variety of subjects. Morgan has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism with a minor in political science from California University of Pennsylvania. She has been a lifelong writer and has extensive experience in many styles of writing, from SEO-focused articles and PR to non-fiction and feature news articles written for local newspapers. Morgan lives in Monongahela, PA, with her fiancé Aaron, where she spends her free time reading or snuggling with her two dogs, Biscuit and Ellie.
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