Tomorrow I'm off to London to visit my old stomping ground, see friends & family. If you fancy keeping up with me while I'm away, you can follow me on Twitter. We're only there for a week but have a superb line up of events for those few days. I can't wait to be back in the hood visiting all my old haunts. It's going to be an absolute blast!
This is one of the first questions asked by prospective clients. To which I answer, “It’s as much as you can afford.” And if we do things right, the business will eventually be able to afford more.
One myth I would like to clear up is that online marketing isn’t just for businesses with big marketing budgets. The truth is that anyone can afford to promote their business online. Even the smallest shops can start today for free.
Outlined below are some of the basic costs involved. This is in no way an online marketing strategy, but it’s a way to get started.
If you’re new to online marketing, the first thing you need is a web address. You can purchase one from Godaddy for around $10 a year.
You need a place to put your site. Hosting costs can vary significantly depending on your needs. It can run you anywhere from $5 a month on upwards. Looking for a dedicated server hosted on an island outside of western IT laws? Call me.
The options here are unlimited. Agencies will differ depending on their techniques. Some won’t touch a site unless they have $20K budget. Others will pull something together for you for around $300.
The “Aston Martin” of sites invest in researching keywords and creating engaging content. They do a ton of research upfront before they even start on the design. It costs more, but in the end you get design and content that works.
At the other end of the spectrum are free templates available all over online. Some are visually very cool. You can plug your content into a template & hope it fits. It will probably come out more like a used Chevy with Ford bumpers, which can look very cool depending!
The cheapest option is to get a Facebook or Myspace page. At the very minimum, this gives you a place where you can put your contact details and promote your business.
The website is worthless if no one can find it. So it pays to invest in an SEO and online marketing strategy. The prices here range and are worth what you invest into it. In fact, the costs should pay for themselves.
Again, this isn’t just for the fat cats. Mom & pops can start promoting themselves through Twitter updates. They can also create free blog on Blogger or Wordpress. Other great marketing promotion spots are YouTube and Flickr.
Sites take love and care just like a garden. You need to monitor the stats. An excellent tool for this is Google Analytics. It’s worth it to pay someone to do this for you and strategize how to level the wealth of information available.
You also have to make sure the content is up to date and you’re using the latest keywords. Again, this takes time and research.
Or should a say in the pizza? If you still need convincing of a good online marketing strategy, just take a look at what Papa John’s was able to achieve with the internet & pizza. Over $1 billion onlines sales. Cha-ching!
Today I came across a great article about generational targeting. It states that "there are four generations out there right now, all with money to spend: the Silent Generation, the Baby Boomers, Generation X (or the Thirteenth Generation) and Generation Y (or the Millennial Generation)."
It then went on to describe what motivates each generation. Because I love pictures, I matched an image from Stock.xchng with the descriptions to give it another level of substance. It would be interesting to compose the same list based on geographic locations and culture.
Silent Generation: respect for authority; conformity and adherence to the rules; law, order and duty; dedication, hard work and sacrifice.
Baby Boomers: personal gratification; personal growth, health and wellness; optimism and positive attitude; teamwork and being involved.
Generation X: diversity and global thinking; self-reliance and independence; life balance; fun and informal attitude; technologically literate.
Generation Y: confidence and achievement; sociability and collective action; diversity and morality; street-smart; optimistic and savvy.
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