Is SEO in Your Marketing Budget?
January 8th, 2009
SEO has proven itself as effective. There are any number of studies dating back a number of years that prove that SEO is no longer a theory, but a science. Research as far back as 2005 gives a definitive answer in the discussion on whether it is a viable marketing tool. With the global economy in a downturn that many economists think won’t begin to turn around until 2010, many businesses are looking at trimming their marketing budget. Unfortunately for many of them, I fear that the first thing to take a cut will be the SEO budget. (Marketing Sherpa has a great article on defending your budget from cuts!)
It’s hard to know exactly how much to spend on any marketing budget. Some smaller businesses spend as little as 2% of their annual sales on marketing, while a medium sized business might spend anywhere up to 10%. No matter what your budget, you need to make it work hard for you. SEO has a proven track record of turning that investment into leads or sales at a higher rate of return than traditional advertising.
Think about it this way, traditional marketing blankets the market, it saturates it, if your budget is big enough. How many times do you fast forward through a commercial, or just flip channels? Do you ever look at the Sunday sale ads? Do you hear the ads on the radio? I’m sure you do, to some extent anyway. How many of those ads even appeal to you, personally? Very few, I’m guessing. They are launched at a broad audience, in hopes that a small fraction of the people receiving the message take the bait. On the other hand, SEO presents your product TO THOSE WHO ARE SEARCHING FOR IT! SEO hands you potential customers, people who have searched for your product and are more ready to purchase than the guy who is trying very hard to ignore the noisy commercial on the radio. I hate to say it, but as our current population ages, and the kids who hog the computer are turning into consumers, SEO is a vital link between your product or service, and the customers who will go to the internet FIRST, to find what they want. They’re smart, too, they will check blogs and forums for reviews, opinions, best prices, etc. before making a purchase. These are the smartest, most well informed consumers in history, so you better be able to show them your product, and why you can provide the best value.
These are simple principles, and many in the SEO industry have been preaching it for years. Amazingly though it’s not being heard. SEO still gets a tiny share of the average marketing budget.
Don’t make the mistake of cutting SEO from your budget. Double it.
January 12th, 2009 at 9:25 am
[...] and the ineffective and expensive marketing, where do companies turn? The internet is where those marketing budgets should be put and here is [...]