Why  SEO has to be the tip of the spear for your online marketing.

One of the services we provide at The Phoenix Group Unlimited is search engine optimization, aka, SEO, “the science of search”.  Even though most businesses and marketers have been pounded into the ground about needing SEO, very few have had the opportunity to learn the basics about how it works, why it is absolutely necessary, and what is happening in the Google landscape that can be both beneficial and detrimental to your business. 

The question is To SEO or not to SEO?

The answer is very clear:  the Gap is widening, the mountain is getting steeper, and if you don’t optimize your website it is going slide down the side of the mountain and fall into the abyss,  and your website will become buried beneath thousands of pages of competing content and other URLs, perhaps even millions of pages. In this blog we are exploring and introducing some of the basic concepts and tactics of SEO to build an initial understanding of the process. We will explore some of the more complex metrics of SEO in later posts, but this should be a good place to start and will address and answer some of your questions, even the ones you haven’t yet asked.

 The David and Goliath Effect

Search engine optimization is one of the most powerful tactical weapons you and your business have available to you.  It doesn’t matter how big or small your company is, SEO will allow you to do what very few other internet marketing programs can. Compete on Google as David or Goliath, or even, David vs. Goliath! But before you engage in this battle, there are several Questions you should be asking if you are considering adding an SEO strategy to your internet marketing arsenal. The first is, what exactly is SEO? And what is the marketplace your website or online business is competing in? What are the market statistics? What do they say about how consumers are searching for and buying products and services?  What do I get when I hire an SEO Company? What does good SEO look like? How do I know if I am getting my money’s worth?

Here are a couple of statistics you should know to answer these inquiries:

1) Consumers execute over 250 million keyword searches everyday looking for products and services.

2) Your website is competing with over 400 million other websites online.

3) Consumer use of the internet to buy products and services is expected to quadruple by the year 2014 based on current market trends.

4) Approximately 70% of all Google searches end on the first page of rankings and results.

5) This last statistic has been disputed by those in favor of Pay Per Click campaigns, but recent business studies have indicated that achieving a page one ranking and having a page one organic result will capture approximatley 42% of the online traffic to that page and send them to your website, allowing you to beat your competition before they ever have a chance. (One of the variances in this statistic was that it altered when customers were executing searches based on finding the lowest price, which is why PPC ads might be more attractive, but also considerably more expensive.)

So the David and Goliath effect is that if you understand these statistics, then you begin to realize what it takes to beat the competition, and even the big boys at this game. However, there is another component to understanding SEO-the timeline and the cost and why it involves so many components to win at this game.

 Here are a few facts and figures to shed some light on it:

1) Last year, 2010, the Google algorithm changed more than 420 times. This is why it is critical to understand that SEO is a long term strategy for your marketing. This is usually one of the obstacles businesses have to get through and understand. SEO is a long term strategy that often produces amazing short term results, totally related to the depth and experience of your SEO provider and the competition in your market.

2) Because more and more businesses are beginning to participate in active SEO campaigns, the major search engines continuously change the metrics.  For example, there are only so many keywords that produce qualified traffic for a given industry or niche.  It is possible for these keywords to become saturated, and then Google has to reinvent the wheel to create a top and a bottom, and will add or compound the criteria for top producing search results.  This is why every 3-4 years, there’s a big shift or addition to the key metrics Google (and, to a lesser extent MSN/Bing and Yahoo!) uses to order competitive search results.

The SEO Evolution:

This is the evolution of tactics and variables over the last few years. Knowing and understanding this will help you get and idea on what to expect and why SEO is becoming more and more critical to the success and longevity of your website and internet marketing.

1996-1999: On-page keyword usage + meta data

1999 – 2002: PageRank + On-page

2002 – 2005: Anchor text + Domain name + PageRank + On-Page

2005 – 2009: Domain authority + Diversity of linking domains + Topic modeling + Anchor text + Domain name + PageRank + On-Page

The Gap is widening & the Mountain is becoming steeper

Look to Google, your Analytics, and what is next in SEO if you want to maximize internet marketing strategies for your business, and grow a presence online that will produce traffic, generate leads, and create sales. The bottom line is that over the last ten years the game of internet business development has become more and more sophisticated, and the strategies and tactics to win have evolved into a very complex agenda of tactical maneuvers for those who wish to win.

Google manages over 70% of all search engine traffic and is therefore the Mothership of search engines. To gain prominent position with them (search engines), you need hire an SEO team who will at a minimum to do these five things:

1) Website Grader and Analysis of your current Marketing Strategy

2) Keyword Analytics to see what keywords are going to drive qualified traffic to your website

3) Competition Analytics to see what your competitors are doing and what is working for them to get page one ranking on Google.

4) Execute heavy on page Optimization to your website to dial in Headers, Titles, on page copy, and Off Page page optimization, including aggressive Link Building campaigns to build relevance and authority for your website.

5) Set up Analytics and Reporting on your website to create a background and baseline to measure your progress and monitor the activity of traffic and it’s details to your website.

The degree of success you will have and the speed in which it occurs is mostly dependant upon two factors.  They are, the depth of competition in your field or niche, and the budget that you invest in your SEO campaign. You must begin with realistic expectations, and that begins with the timeline. Most Organic SEO campaigns will take a minimum of 90 days to gain traction and begin demonstrating results and producing a noticeable and consistent increase in traffic.  Once this occurs, you are on your way, but it is a constant battle of give and take, constant course correction, and you should allow 12 full months to really see the results you want, based on the Keywords and traffic that will create the exposure you are looking for to be a competitor. In short, SEO is a marathon not a sprint, and it can take a lot to get you off the launch pad and up into Internet Orbit where the action is!

The Ultimate Internet Marketing Machine 

The Phoenix Group Unlimited is a group of cutting edge digital partners who powerfully create internet strategy and deliver expressive marketing programs that effectively position your company to win on the internet! Our strategies will maximize the presence of your business online and turn your website into a marketing machine that is ranked at the top of the major search engines. We provide Branding, Website Development, and Internet Marketing Strategies that are focused on helping your business achieve its best possible performance. Consider us one of the best marketing allies your business can have.

Why businesses have to win the Facebook Game

Making friends and being Liked on Facebook is without a doubt one of the most powerful strategies on the planet right now, when it comes to internet marketing and generating leads and revenues for your business. Consider this, you have a marketplace of over 500 Million people, who habitually use Facebook.  By creating a Friend and Fan base, you are tapping into the biggest Ecommerce platform on the planet.  You can create the opportunity to share your Company, in less than 30 seconds, and to tap into the Viral Marketing Thing, in the blink of an eye! Why and How? You ask! Because for every one person that Friends or Likes your Facebook pages, they are opening the door to an average of 100 of their Friends, to see your updates, posts, and content.  The best part is, these potential customers already have something in common with you; their Friends!

First things First

The first thing you need to get clear on is figuring out who is going set up your account for a Facebook Page. This step is often over looked, however, it is the first of several very important steps because whoever sets up your page is the Primary Account Administrator. This means that they, as the original creator of the page will be in control of the page for as long as your Company wants to have a Facebook Page presence. Obviously, this is critical if you relationship ever goes sour.  So, think this through to build a solid strategy that will not be interrupted in the future.

The Importance of making Friends and being “Liked”

Although strategies and tactics for the development of content and marketing material will vary from business to business, there are some solid fundamentals that make a huge difference in beating your competition to the top of the mountain. At the end of the day, you will be successful if you can target your niche, and speak directly to your BPC (best potential customers) by executing tactics that set you apart from the millions of other Facebook pages.  One of the best ways to learn how to do this effectively is to study other Facebook pages, to see what they are doing right, and wrong; especially those that are your competition! The number one mistake that business make when setting up their page is that they don’t make it different and they don’t complete every section to deliver as much information and capture their visitors. Very few Facebook pages are set up correctly with a marketing strategy that deploys tactics to attract and capture visitors. You have to learn how to do this, or your Facebook page is worthless!  And having a worthless Facebook page in a marketplace of 500 Million is not a very good thing for your business!

Six strategies to win on Facebook

1. Choose Your Photo-Use the same profile photo for all of your Social Media accounts. This helps to build Brand recognition and trust and is way to help your BPC (best potential customers), identify you quickly and easily. It’s best if you select a photo that is professional and communicates who you are, what you do, and why it is important to your viewer.  If possible, a use a photo that pertains to your business.  

2. Choose Your Name- carefully for your Page. One that quickly communicates who you are to your customers and visitors. Remember, you have approximately 30 seconds to make a great first impression. So get directly to the point on this. This is where you deliver your Brand and again, tell your BPC (best potential customer), who you are, what you do, and why you are different.

3. Choose Your Vanity URL- Choose a url for your page that is as close to our business name as possible. People will search for you by Companies name, so it is important that you make it as easy for them as possible. (Use Facebook.com/yourbusinessname) be sure that this points to your business page and not your personal profile. One, this page will get indexed and is good for SEO for your business. Two,  You will lose people if you do that, so use your Personal Name for your personal profile,etc.

4.Educate Your Followers- by giving them as much complete information about you and your business as you can, and be sure to use Keyword rich text as much as possible. This will also help you in search engine optimization efforts, especially keyword searches. Most Facebook pages miss the boat in these two categories, unless they have been done by a professional developer, or someone who has really  understands how to maximize Facebook.

5. Design Your Page to be Different-if you are not familiar with FBML, facebooks personal HTML, and you want to give your page that little something extra, pay a professional to develop your page and add custom Navigation Tabs, custom Banners, and other items to keep your visitors highly entertained, educated, and engaged.

6. Create Contact Opportunities- be sure to complete your Information Page with as much contact information as possible. Leave as many breadcrumbs for your best potential customers to be able to find you, follow you, and get to know you as possible.  Building your Brand is about being available to your BPC (best potential customer) in as many ways that are already comfortable for them as possible. Don’t forget the power of Facebook. When a visitor clicks Like on your business page, that goes straight to Post on their page for all of their friends and network to see. So, the easier you make it for them to find you, the better, and the higher conversion opportunity!

Final message regarding Facebook. FB is the biggest marketing opportunity on the planet. Once you establish yourself in the FacebookOsphere, you have to be consistent, engaging, and always growing. Study the market, and learn what others are doing to win at this game. There are remarkable business people doing absolutely amazing things through Facebook. Now, identify your best potential customer, BPC, and get to work!

Inbound Marketing and the Silver Lining for Your Business

What Is Inbound Marketing?

What if all of your marketing efforts put you in front of your BPC (best potential customers) and allowed them to find you in ways that are already habitual for them?

Today we are in a Consumer Driven Economy and the table have turned in Marketing. In the old days of Industrial Media and traditional marketing, what we also call (outbound marketing) companies focus mass production of marketing material and placement to find customers. Think of cigarette ads. Many marketing tactics used media techniques that were primarily focused on blanket advertising to broad demographics. This was more a brand push in overall cold markets that reach more people who weren’t interested than those who where. Have you ever been interrupted at dinner time by a cold caller selling insurance?  

The long slow death of Outbound Marketing

The Internet and technology have changed the way consumers spend their time and especially buy things. The reason traditional marketing has lost its punch is because people are looking there anymore. The other reason is that print media is so expensive that business now see the cost doesn’t produce a respectable rate of return.  And it is much harder to track.  There are still opportunities with Traditional Media, however it cost much more and provides much less.  Recent Internet statistics estimate that the use of the internet for consumer use will quadruple by 2014. This means we are just getting started with internet marketing.

Why Inbound Marketing is so effective

One of the most notable strengths of Inbound Marketing is that it allows people to be reached to in ways that are already comfortable to them. Instead of interrupting consumers with passive and  invasive marketing, inbound strategist find ways to reach their best potential customers in ways they are naturally used to or are in control of. We are talking about the use of video, blogs, email, and of course Social Media networks.  They create content that potential customers want to see, have access to whenever they want, and can benefit from.

Another major strength of Inbound Marketing Strategy is that is for the most part FREE. Most marketers will give away 90% of their content as a way to build Brand recognition, Brand trust, and Brand loyalty. They create their own blog so people will subscribe, give them their contact information, and then look forward to receiving the information. Marketers also use content to  build authority, credibility, and a following. This is what has consumers looking for their tools, tips, tricks, and information.   These strategies target highly qualified customers, who are ready to buy, NOW! .

Why Inbound Marketing Makes Sense in any Economy and especially now!  

There are three components specific to Inbound Marketing that make more efficient, more effective, and more desirable than its predecessor, traditional marketing:

(1) Cost Effective – Inbound Marketing means creating content and publishing it yourself over the internet and into blogs, social media groups, and through email marketing. This means it is for the most part FREE. It is specific to and intended audience is typically much better received. It is also a conversation, meaning interactive and ongoing. You can set up a blog with no costs. Facebook and Twitter are free. And Email Marketing can reach thousands of people with no print or postage costs.  All of these can push and lead thousands of your best potential customers to your site.  Because the cost of Inbound marketing is so much less, the ROI can be so much more.

(2) Highly Targeted -Inbound Marketing strategies reach and intended audience. These are people who have qualified themselves to be on our list. This is hugely powerful because they have already entered the purchasing funnel. You are promoting your product or service to people who are listening and interested. They are not going to hang up the phone on you! 

(3)It is Investing in Internet Real Estate – Long gone are the days of quick hit advertising and marketing. Inbound marketing is about sustainability and producing Organic results in s many different ways as possible. The more internet real estate you own, the more content you have available to reach your BPC, best potential customer.  You also have power partners in Inbound Marketing that are there to work for you. The major search engines are your gateway to the best marketing strategy on the planet!

Outbound vs. Inbound

In 2009 25 billion left industrial media and moved to web based marketing in an effort to capture a piece of this GOOGLE driven market.  And was it profitable? You bet! In 2009 E-commerce grew to almost 141 Billion for American business!  (and yes…that is Billion…with a B!)

 Outbound with the Old vs. Inbound the new

Print ads              blogs, ebooks, white papers

Television ad       Viral YouTube Videos

Cold calling                   search engine optimization

Trade shows        webinars

Email blasts         feeds, RSS

 Three Most Important strategies to building a successful Inbound Marketing Campaigns

We have discovered that the most successful inbound marketing campaigns include these strategies and tactics:

Number 1) Blog and then Blog again. Create and write your own content. Content is the fuel in any Inbound Marketing Campaign and will do more to elevate you as an authority and build credibility than almost anything else, and it is for the most part FREE! Another benefit of writing and deploying content is that it allows you to sharpen your sword and will edify you as a leader in your field, which is why you best potential customers will be looking for you and your website.

Number 2)Optimize your website. Search Engine Optimization, aka, SEO is the tip of the spear for building your website up to be an internet marketing machine. If you are not partnering with the major search engines, your website might as well be a billboard in the middle of the desert. SEO calibrates your website through keyword analytics, backlinking, on page optimization and maximizes your search ability and will have you be found by your best potential customers. If you don’t do this, your website will be buried under hundreds of thousands of pages of content.

Number3)Get Connected. The almighty Social Media Machine, having your own network, creating your own following, building organic relationships online in FB, Twitter, Linked In, has a massive impact on sorting out those who will buy from you and those who won’t. Again, Social Media is for the most part free, but requires quite a bit of blood, sweat, and tears to build a high quality distribution system, but one you do, Social Media will amplify the power of your content and potentially send it viral! Statistically, over 90% consumers who have a positive experience with your Social Media will return and become followers and even buyers, and tell their friends.

The Inbound-Marketing Secret Weapon-Speed!

Build it and they will come! Go West, there’s Gold in California! Consumers all over the world are searching online for everything from movie tickets to their next car, and a down economy has only stimulated the online purchasing impulse. Most online buyers have become much more sophisticated and know what they are looking for. The trick is to be there, in front of them when they enter the keyword search for your product or service. The magic of inbound marketing is that your market is already there, your best potential customer is already going to buy, and the best internet marketers know this. This is why they rely on the secret weapon of Inbound Marketing. Get there first! Your Brand and the speed in which you get it out to the marketplace in as many coordinated attacks as possible.

If your internet marketing is not working, this is why. You probably don’t have a coordinated attack that is promoting and building your Brand as a system. Refer to the original three strategies in this article-Produce Content, SEO, and Build a Social Media network to send it to. The secret weapon is your brand, blogging your content, a well optimized website, a social media network, a content management system to operate it all, with velocity. Remember speed to the market means that whoever gets there first, WINS!

The Ultimate Internet Marketing Machine
Using modern marketing tactics is essential to helping any business compete in today’s internet marketplace. The opportunity to grow today and become more profitable and stronger is better than ever before– if you follow these tips to get your marketing strategy focused on one thing-by helping you generate more website visitors, convert more visitors to leads, turn more leads into customers, and analyze every step of the process.

By studying market successes, we have found that there are five common tactics that are consistent with the most successful internet marketing machines. We follow the very same principals, which why you are reading this in the first place!

Tip #1 – Digital Partnership and Search Engine OptimizationOf all internet marketing practices and campaigns, nothing is as effective as Search Engine Optimization and On Page SEO. This is because search engines rule the Internet, and working with the Google robots by calibrating your website to be found puts you in the cross hairs of hundreds of thousands of searches and KW results. Even if you paid lots of money to build your website, and it is truly a work of art, you are missing boat if the search engines can find it or if it is missing the right clues to help them understand what your website is about and what types of people should find your website.

What digital partnership provides is the “Science Behind the Search”. Without proper Keywords, On page and site optimization and backlinking, your website will be invisible to the crawlers and spyders. What they look for is the right keywords in the page content, the right page title that is short and has the right keywords, and that the same keywords are used in the H1, H2 and H3 tags on the page. There is a very definite science in SEO, and this is without a doubt the Tip of the Spear in Internet Marketing.

These are the components that need to be addressed:

• On Page SEO – parts of your site to optimize that you can see

• Page Title (in the top bar of your browser) is very important in telling search engines what your site is about

• URL or website address can contain keywords that will be picked up by search engines

• Headings with H1, H2, H3 HTML tags are seen by search engines as more
• important than other text on your site

• Page text is also somewhat important, especially bold text

• Alt Text – parts of your site to optimize that you can’t see, but search engines can

• Description – a brief description of what your site is about when you are listed in search engine results, for the reader’s (not search engine’s) benefit

• Keywords and Keyword Analytics – designated in your site’s HTML code, keywords give search engines a general idea about the content of your site Things to consider for on page SEO

• Strategic keyword placement- using KWP in metadata, domain names, and web page titles

Tip #2 – Backlinking Campaings and Off Page SEO tacticsBacklinking is one of the most effective ways to engage more targeted traffic from search engines and is essential to good SEO. Getting more links into your website alerts the search engine robots to the importance and authority of your site. Each link into your site is a “vote” that tells the search engine produce your site as a result and places it in a higher status than your competition.

Not all links are created equal and it is critical that your links are from more trustworthy websites. Although there are many different strategies to increase links in link building campaigns, organic manual link campaigns are the best. It is advisable to avoid link exchanges, link directories, and links that are not associated with you the field of content of your website.

Focus on getting ranked in searches on your industry, product, or city – using broader and more competitive keywords as descriptions in your links. Pay special attention to the Anchor text (the text that is in the link to you) –here again, use your industry, product, or city rather than your company name or click here. The link is now not only a vote, but becomes a more substantial vote due to the context. It refers the robots to your industry and demonstrates that your website is an authority.

Tip #3 – To be an Authority Become a BloggerPosition yourself as an educator, authority, and resource for your target audience. Blogging is a pro-active tactic reach your best potential customers. This is because they are looking for information to guide and help them along in their purchasing quest. If you Blog with relevancy, currency, and are pertinent in your selection of topics, you will generate traffic from your intended audience for five very distinct reasons.

Number 1-search engines will visit your website more often if you are producing fresh content. Writing a blog is a strategic way to get more fresh content into the web-o-sphere.

Number 2-. Consumers will typically link to websites that give them great and fee information. If your blogs are interesting you will create more readers and followers and build more links in the process.

Number 3- Because owning internet real estate enhances your visibility, each blog you publish becomes its own page. As each blog article is its own webpage, you are acquiring more Internet Real Estate with each Blog article published. This creates a unique SEO opportunity by capturing many long tail, focused, specific, and accurate keyword to drive traffic using a blog.

Number 4- one of the most important and potentially overlooked aspects of blogging is introducing your Company Brand and building relationships with your audience by engaging your customers in a dialogue and becoming real with them. Statistically, 90% of customers will make up their mind about you with just one positive interaction with your Brand. Your Blog Builds Your Brand!

Number 5-Blogging will help to optimize your site through social bookmarking and directory submissions. Again, this allows you to acquire more Internet Real Estate with specific Keyword focus and linking potential. One Internet Statistic suggested that Blog sites have approximately 25% more weight with the search engines that regular websites.

The bottom line is that Blogging allows you to reach your best potential customers, engage them in a conversation, build your Brand, improving your search engine rank, build links, and potentially capture more leads by adding forms to your website. Need any more reasons to Blog?

Tip #4 – Add Capture Tools to your Website If you follow this strategy and execute these tactics, you will generate qualified traffic through SEO and blogging campaigns. And you will have a new problem. How do you capture and convert the new traffic to potentially turn them into customers? The answer is Capture Tools, as in capture forms, as in get their name, email, and even phone number. Remember to use Testimonials on your site.

To Convert Visitors to Leads you must have Forms on your website. It may be necessary to test a variety of strategies with your forms, but it is worth it. Many websites are very effective at capture and conversion by using White Papers, or Free Reports, or valuable tips and tricks, etc., to appeal to the visitor by giving away free information. The focus is to increase your conversion rate significantly, capturing more leads from the same overall amount of traffic.

If you do some keyword research on Capture Tools and Conversion Forms for lead generation, you will find blogs and forums on how to do it. This is an excellent place to start!

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Tip #5 – Engage Your Analytics and Monitor Every Step of the ProcessEffective Internet Marketing is all about strategy, tactics, execution, and measurement. And then recalibration. Optimizing your activities based on the previous results. This is a never ending process, but once you begin to make progress and see the results, as in ROI and your bottomline, you will realize that the Internet has given us all of tools implement and to measure our marketing activities. If you are serious about winning the game of winning clients on the internet you need to use them.

Successful Campaigns measure:
o SEO page ranking
o Traffic Number of web visitors
o Website conversion rate (Leads / Visitors)
o Lead conversion rate (Sales from Leads / Leads)
o Cost per acquisition

The bottom line is this; it is critical to create strategy, execute tactics, and begin tracking each component of your results visitors, leads, and sales. Look for effectiveness. Learn and understand your marketing strategies strengths and weaknesses, know who your competition is and what they are doing, develop a new plan to engage in tactics to manage and strengthen your weaknesses, then get in action to win!

Evaluate Your Website, deal with reality, and then execute, execute, execute!

The more you understand Google, the more you can use Analytics to know and understand your Competition. You must compete to win. This is what strategy and tactics are all about. This is how they are useful. That which gets measured grows success. If you understand the intention of Google and how it works, you can then align your Internet Marketing Strategies to be better able to utilize it to your advantage and success.

Using modern marketing tactics is essential to helping any business compete in today’s internet marketplace. The opportunity to grow today and become more profitable and stronger is better than ever before– if you follow these tips to get your marketing strategy focused on one thing-by helping you generate more website visitors, convert more visitors to leads, turn more leads into customers, and analyze every step of the process.

By studying market successes, we have found that there are five common tactics that are consistent with the most successful internet marketing machines. We follow the very same principals, which why you are reading this in the first place!

Read our next Blog to discover the 5 Tips to Turn Your Website into the Ultimate Internet Marketing Machine!

(warning- do not read this if you are not serious about learning how to win the internet marketing game. It is not particularly exciting. It is like practice and intended to get you ready for the game. It will make you better, smarter, and more prepared to beat your competition-badly.)

Strategy 1: Begin with the End In Mind
Know your terrain and understand market trends and how the internet has changed them; then adapt your business to the demands of the current conditions.

How the Internet has transformed businesses
The Internet has profoundly transformed the way people communicate and interact with each other. This change has also dramatically affected the business world by altering the way people shop for products, both B2B and B2C. In 2009 over 25 billion dollars of marketing allocations were pulled from Industrial Media (newspapers, magazines, print marketing) and shifted into Internet Marketing. The results produced over 145 Billion dollars in revenues for American Based Business. This trend has not stopped and in fact is gaining more momentum and producing more results than ever before.

Ten years ago, companies reached their consumers through trade shows, print advertising, and other traditional marketing methods. Today, people start their shopping experience by looking on the Internet and, more specifically, search engines, especially Google. In order to remain competitive, today’s businessmen and Businesswomen need websites that can be found on the web and in search engines.

A remarkable opportunity for businesses has emerged to leverage the Internet to reach out to their best potential customers effectively and inexpensively (by comparison to traditional print marketing) with targeted Brands, targeted messages, and focused marketing strategies that attract customers into the inbound marketing funnel. These are the strategies and tactics that businesses must incorporate and embrace, the results are staggering, and most importantly, you can track them. Here is what sound principals and fundamentals in Internet Marketing will accomplish:

• Drive more qualified traffic to their sites
• Capture visitors as leads including names, emails, and phone numbers
• Convert leads into customers
• Analyze the activity on their site to optimize online marketing efforts

Industrial Media “Old School Marketing” = Outbound MarketingMany business are still battling with old marketing tactics and wondering why the results continue to diminish. With “old marketing” techniques, you are trying to reach a broad audience and hope for some small percentage (usually 1‐3%) to respond. The paradigm has shifted with the onslaught of Internet marketing and has produced a new way of looking at these statistics. The reality is that 97% of your marketing is wasted on markets that have no interest in your business or product or service. “Old School Marketing” methods include:

• Inside sales
• Telemarketing
• Tradeshows
• Seminars
• Print Advertising
• Direct mail/email

Marketing Proverb: He who can waste the most money wins! The Traditional Sales Funnel:
Leads
Prospects
Opportunities
Customers
Sales is in control

Spend more money, reach more people, get more business?

Internet Marketing, the New Model of Marketing = Inbound Marketing
The first thing you should know is that we are in a Consumer Driven Economy. The way people shop has changed drastically due to search engines, especially GOOGLE! Ppeople are much more in control of what information they receive and how they receive it. The Internet has changed the ability and dynamic of how people purchase products. People are now able to search for the information about different vendors, products, and industries themselves without interacting with your company directly. By the time they reach you, they are much farther along in the sales process but you know much less about them. This is the number one reason your business has to adapt the model of Internet Business Development and Marketing and begin to utilize strategy and execute tactics to beat your competition in the Internet Game of winning clients.

The Ultimate Internet Sales Funnel:
Internet Marketing strategies and tactics include:
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Pay per click (PPC) advertising
• Blogging owning real estate in the blogosphere
• Capture and Conversion tools
• Website analytics

One concept that the most successful websites have mastered is that the Searcher/
Customer is in control. This is why we call it a Consumer Driven Economy! Business have to be available to customers in ways that are comfortable, useful, and familiar them. The tables have turned and the best strategies give the illusion of customer control, while leading best potential clients down your path of breadcrumbs to your ecommerce checkout basket!

Follow the Yellow Brick Road. Google to Keyword Search to Page One to Click Through to Consumer!
Analytics are our best test of reality in Internet Marketing. we know that 90% of searches end on the 3rd page, 80% end on the 2nd page, and 70% of all searches will not go past the 1st page of Google! Being recognized by Google is critical to the success of your marketing analytics also tell us that 42% of all click throughs are owned by the number 1 position at the top of a Google search page. People focus on the top organic results that fall into the top Organic position in the upper left corner of the screen.

The name of the Game is page 1 and top 3 organic results produced!
The bottom line is getting to the top of Google translates into more web traffic to your website. Statistically 98% of B2B buyers search in Google! Your number one focus should be to make sure you get found on the web to position yourself in front of your best potential customers. These are the people who are ready to buy and ready to buy from you!

Search Engine Optimization: Organic vs. Paid Search
There are two kinds of search results: paid results and organic listing results.
Paid Search or Pay Per Click are those listings that require a fee for the search engine to list their link for particular keywords. Also know as Adword Campaigns, the most widely used form of paid search listing is Pay Per Click (PPC). This is where you pay each time someone clicks on the link in your advertisement. The price increases the deeper the competition of the keyword.

How to get the biggest bang for your Buck!
To get the most out of paid search listings you have to do it right. This means keyword search analytics, ad testing, and knowing the spend, or what your budget demand is before you start. In short, this is where a Digital Partner will save you money and make you money in the long run. Hire a professional SEO company!

For those entrepreneurs who insist on doing it themselves, consult prominent resources to get the education and tools you need. You might try GOOGLE Analytics and the wealth of information they offer. Or purchase Market Samurai to utilize SEO tools and keyword search analytics. You can also consult SEOMOZ.com for continuous education and tips and tools to SEO.

Organic Search Campaigns the Samurai Sword of Internet Marketing.
If you want to win in the internet marketing game, then you must compete for position in Organic search listings. This is your best bet and long term strategy for success on the internet. Organic results are gathered by search engines “robots”, the web crawlers and spyders that move through the internet scanning websites and content and then ranking them according to relevance to the search terms. If you have ever heard of the Google Algorithm, this is where it comes into play.
The strength of your website is calculated by specific criteria such as keyword accuracy, backlinking to other relevant sites, on page optimization, and several other intricate variables. The bottom line is it is much more valuable to be listed highly in the organic results than in the PPC advertisements, simple because of longevity and cost that produce typically higher click through of qualified clients.

These are the Core Benefits of being listed in organic results:
• The cost for organic SEO is typically 1/3rd of the cost of PPC because there is no cost per click eating away at your budget, and typically the organic results are real buyers.
• Get more traffic ‐ statistically most people click the organic search results, not the paid advertisements.
• Research shows that who enter specific keyword searches and click on organic search results more often have a higher level of education about what they want to buy and closer to making a purchasing decision.
• Organic rankings have greater longevity and produce more qualified traffic. This is because search engines record your ranking history, which allows you to rank highly longer.

The bottom line is Pay Per Click Results are responsible for approximately 25% of Clicks, while Organic Results 75% of Clicks.

There are host of other benefits for Organic Results, and there are even statistics that support utilizing BOTH PPC and Organic search to generate even higher ROI. These are the major benefits however of targeted Organic SEO.

• lower cost than PPC
• More qualified traffic
• Smarter people ready to buy
• Longer lasting results and rankings