The Good, the Bad &
the Ugly of e-marketing

The Good : Referrals from search engines and directories

Let's forget the Internet for a minute and talk about real life. When my wife and I were looking for a family doctor we called some friends of ours who also have kids and asked them for referrals. I also asked a friend who is a nurse and works with several doctors in several locations. I asked her because she could help us "rate" the doctors and she knew what kind of doctor we were looking for. We ended up using her recommendation and are extremely happy with our new family doctor. What I was looking for was a good referral. That is why people use search engines and directories. 

The Internet is no different. The reason why people go to the search engines is because they are looking for referrals. You have a favorite search engine (friend) that you usually use and so do I. It is because we feel we get the best "referral" or we find what we are looking for there than on any other search engine. Some of us, actually most of us, use more than one search engine to "confirm" what we found on our favorite one. Just like you might ask more than one friend for a movie recommendation.

Once I have found the referrals, I start looking at what they say to see if they have what I am looking for. I will typically click on some of the links in the first two or three pages of referrals and pick the company that I feel the best about, and do business with them. If there is a company that is recommended several times over the competitors I will give them more consideration than the others, because it has so many recommendations. Isn't that how you do it too? Statistics show that is exactly how most people do it.

Websites that are listed on the first page of referrals will get 10 times the number of clicks than those on the second or third pages. The sites from the fourth page and on hardly get any hits at all. Just like you and me, we will only spend so much time looking until we just buy it somewhere. You don't ask everyone you know for a movie recommendation just a few people.

That is why it is so important to be listed in the first three pages of the search engines. That is where the customers come from. If your website is not listed in the first three pages you are not going to get the return on your investment because people are going to typically stop looking before they ever see the referral to your site. We can get your business listed at the top, guaranteed.

The Bad : "Featured Listings" & Paid Positions

When I go to the yellow pages in my local phone book, I go there because that is where all of the "auto parts stores" or "dry cleaners" are listed in a group. From there I can find the store I feel most comfortable with. I spend very little time looking at the big ads because that just shows me who spent the most money advertising not who is the best. Just like on the Internet, I don't spend time looking at the "featured listings" in the search engines, because those are just purchased advertisements. I am looking for a real recommendation not another advertisement. Why pay for an ad that people ignore? If you are going to spend money advertising spend it on what customers are looking for, real referrals, not paid ads.

The Ugly : Banner Ads

I don't know about you but having someone's advertisement flash on and off forever in front of me really annoys me. It is just another paid ad and may have no relevance to what I am looking for at all. Banner ads have such a low rate of return that the advertisers are trying to have them take up 50% of the screen in the hopes that people will pay more attention to them. They are just bad business. 

Is your first choice for a restaurant the one with the biggest flashing sign or the one your friends recommended? It is the same for banner ads. They just don't work. People who use the search engines, like you and me, are looking for real referrals, not just ads. Ask yourself; have you clicked on more referred links or banner ads? See what I mean? Banner ads don't work for the business or the customer.

We can get you what customers are looking for, a top referral (position) from the search engines. Isn't that what you are looking for as a business owner and a customer? Contact us right now via phone or e-mail and we will start getting the customers to your site the best and most affordable way possible, with top positions on the search engines and directories.

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