By Krista LaRiviere

The Hierarchy of Web Presence Optimization

Much has changed in the SEO landscape and the practice of organic search optimization over the past year – from the ongoing Panda and Freshness updates to the introduction of Google+ and Search plus Your World. Then Google started encrypting a vast majority of keywords referred from organic search, and now Google has announced that websites will be penalized for “over SEOing.”

Although a lot has changed, two aspects of SEO remain certain:

1. SEO is not dead, nor will it die in the foreseeable future. Billions of marketing dollars are invested every year into “being found” organically in the search engines and this trend will continue. With more than a billion Google searches performed worldwide every day SEO is not going away.
2. The way we perform and measure organic search optimization has to change and is changing. Blatantly building out backlinks and optimizing on-site content is not enough. Measuring only rank and position is not enough either. Today organic search is about fresh, relevant, findable, optimized content that generates leads.

A New Theory: The Hierarchy of Web Presence Optimization

The idea of building out a hierarchy of web presence optimization (WPO) comes from the belief that basic fundamentals are required before organic search success can be achieved. The purpose is to visualize how the execution of SEO and the services required to perform SEO have evolved due to Google’s algorithm enhancements, and to maximize your SEO efforts and investment.

There are five different tiers in The Hierarchy of Web Presence Optimization:

1) Technical SEO Fundamentals & Foundation

If you are serious about being found in Google and optimizing your entire web presence, it is important to start with a strong baseline or foundation. We call this first tier Technical SEO Fundamentals & Foundation. A strong base layer will accelerate your efforts in the higher tiers by ensuring your web presence has a strong infrastructure, can be effectively indexed and is identifiable.

Technical SEO Fundamentals & Foundation accounts for approximately 10% of the SEO efforts often consisting of one-time tasks such as:

• Setting up Robots.txt, 301 redirects, sitemap, title tags, etc.
• Configuration and cross referencing of a blog presence and social accounts including: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+ and any other industry-specific social media or sharing sites.
• Implementation of social sharing icons throughout the main web and blog sites.
• Backlinking from respected industry and local directories.
• Setting up Google Places listings.
• Understanding web page load time and server details that may affect rankings.

This is not an exhaustive list and is bound to change as Google continues to tweak its algorithm to serve up the most relevant search results.

2) Keyword & Competitive Research

At the core of every organic search strategy are keywords. Coincidentally, at the core of Google’s organic search algorithm is relevance for keywords. There will be constant competition for every keyword you are trying to rank for – guaranteed.

The Keyword & Competitive Research tier is an on-going process that will expand and evolve as you venture deeper into your organic search optimization strategy. It is important to understand that the keyword phrases your prospects use will change as they progress through the buying cycle.

Approximately 25% of your organic search optimization efforts should be focused on continually understanding the keyword phrases that drive targeted traffic and conversions.

Before advancing any further up the WPO pyramid, become very focused on your keywords and your competition for those keywords. To get started, determine a shortlist of (two to four) unbranded keyword phrases your prospects are actually searching for to find the products and services you are selling. Only after you develop a keyword list should you scale your efforts into the next tier – The Optimized Content Marketing Plan.

3) The Optimized Content Marketing Plan

Content marketing is experiencing a lot of buzz lately, and it should be! Content marketing is not new, but “optimized content marketing” is. Optimized content marketing is at the intersection of organic search optimization, social media, all the recent Google algorithm changes, and content marketing. Planning and creating your optimized content accounts for the majority of your SEO efforts – approximately 55%.

The Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs interviewed 1,092 B2B marketers in August 2011 and found that 60% plan to increase their content marketing budgets in 2012. Also, 40% are using SEO rankings as a measurement of the success of their content marketing campaigns.

So what would the impact be to your organic search rankings, impressions and clickthroughs if you optimized your next major piece of content for the keyword discovered in the previous tier?

An optimized content marketing plan addresses four major Google algorithm changes from the past year:

a) Freshness Updates – Google favors fresh, relevant content in the form of press releases, blogs, case studies, news and events.

b) Panda Updates – Optimized content distributed to valid, reliable sources will assist in building strong backlinks that are less likely to be penalized.

c) Google+ – Social networks and social media are about relationships and relationships prove relevance. Google’s social network, Google+, is indeed factored into its search algorithm. Build your Google+ presence and circles and start sharing your content today.

d) Search plus Your World – Most importantly, when you share your content publicly in Google+ it has a broader reach and a longer life than any other social network including Facebook and Twitter.

Additionally, an optimized content marketing plan will provide you with sustenance for other lead generation techniques such as paid search campaigns (i.e. Google AdWords and banner ads) and email marketing. And you need content to be successful at generating social signals, which is the fourth tier.

4) Publishing, Socializing & Sharing Content

Now that you have effective, optimized content that your prospects want, you need to tell them about it. Distributing your content effectively and frequently should occupy about 5% of your SEO effort. Here’s where to publish your content:

• Corporate website and blog site
• If a blog post, then to industry specific blog sites that your prospects will visit
• If a press release, then through a newswire such as PRWeb or Marketwire
• Social channels including: LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, Facebook (with Twitter the content should be tweeted multiple times over a specified period of time)
• Subscribers and client base via email marketing

The distribution of your optimized content marketing is key because it accomplishes the following goals for your SEO campaign:

• Backlink building
• Indexing by Google so it can ultimately be found
• Social signals creation (Tweets, Retweets, Likes, Shares, Views)
• Beginnings of a sales conversation with prospects

5) Measurement & Improvement

In order to improve a content marketing campaign for further execution, not only must you master the previous tiers, but you must measure, benchmark, tweak and repeat. This is the final and ultimate tier – the remaining 5% of your SEO effort.

But how do you measure the success of an SEO campaign? Compare the following SEO metrics to other marketing campaigns (i.e. Google AdWords, email marketing, banner ads):

• Impressions
• Clickthroughs
• Conversions
• Social signals
• Backlinks
• Keyword Rank

Conclusion

As organic search optimization and the services required to “get found” evolve, so too must our tools, techniques and tactics. The Hierarchy of Web Presence Optimization can be used by marketers to guide their in-house SEO efforts, as well as by agencies in their sales conversations and implementation processes.

Marketing CoPilot worked closely with the TRC team to map their customers’ buying process and apply this insight to their website and online conversion tactics. Originally, the focus of the program was on products that TRC was selling as part of their EPOS solution, but after testing several email, blog and social media campaigns, and tracking the downloads and pageviews on the website, it was apparent that the message was not resonating with buyers. So the marketing and sales team regrouped and examined the key questions that prospects were asking in the sale process. By using blog content that addressed potential customers’ pain-points at the beginning of the buying cycle (How much does an Electronic Point of Sale System Cost?) and areas relating to retail business profitability (Employee Theft and How to Prevent It), TRC saw a dramatic lift in blog pageviews (455% increase) and average time on page (121% higher than site average).

“TRC is a retail industry leader; they offer premium, cutting edge solutions to retailers that drive business results, but that’s not what their target market wants to hear,” said Marie Wiese, Marketing CoPilot. “By tapping into their client’s pain points and responding to their concerns and challenges, TRC can position itself strategically as a thought leader and expert in its niche market. And our research confirms that ultimately, this is what converts sales.”

The Marketing CoPilot strategy moved TRC’s online presence from a position that was product centric to one that anticipated and addressed reader’s questions and concerns (e.g. – how to buy a point-of-sale system; how to prevent employee theft; how to use retail intelligence to refine business processes, etc.) and as a result, has been more engaged with potential leads.

“Initially, our email campaigns for our blog posts were seeing 10-15% click through rates,” said Gavin Peacock, CEO, TRC, “But after Marketing CoPilot revised our content marketing strategy, that number increased to 25%. In addition, we are seeing much more search engine traffic and social media traffic being attracted by our newest customer-centric blog posts. The increase was quite remarkable.”

In particular, Marketing CoPilot was able to:

• Clearly define and articulate TRC’s value proposition
• Design and implement a compelling conversion tool
• Craft meaningful content that engages, develops a relationship and positions TRC as experts in the retail industry
• Track deep, real-time analytics to demonstrate and analyze traffic patterns

For more information about Marketing CoPilot’s products and services, contact Marie Wiese at marie@marketingcopilot.com and visit the newly redesigned website at www.marketingcopilot.com.

About Marketing CoPilot

Marketing CoPilot helps companies move their website from “brochure” to a lead generating engine. They build and execute online strategies for B2B companies that want to use their web presence as the front door to their sales process. Marketing CoPilot has a proven methodology for building an integrated marketing engine that supports business growth and the resources to build it and execute it monthly on behalf of clients. Founded in 2006, Marketing CoPilot has worked with over 70 companies in a variety of industries and sectors with a strong focus on technology and service-based businesses.

About Total Retail Control (TRC)

Retail solutions empowered by TRC deliver the best retail intelligence to grow your retail operation. TRC retail insights help managing retail staff, managing retail suppliers, controlling retail cash, managing retail customers and managing your retail stock to boost your bottom line.
Total Retail Control (TRC) was launched in 1991 and over the past 21 years, the company has established a reputation for providing excellence in retail and hospitality solutions to a wide variety of clients across Ireland and the UK.
For more information about Total Retail Control, please visit: www.trcepos.ie or email sales@trcepos.ie.

But ultimately, if your content doesn’t drive leads, it’s not working for you. The proof is in the pudding as they say and that is why Marketing CoPilot believes in testing, applying learnings and testing again.

We work with clients year-round to help them map their customers’ buying process and apply this insight to their website and online conversion tactics. And we recently did this with Total Retail Control (TRC), a leading provider of EPOS systems and point-of-sale hardware and software for retailers. We found, after testing several email campaigns, blog posts, and tracking downloads and pageviews on the website, the company’s message was simply not resonating with buyers. So the marketing and sales team regrouped and examined the key questions that prospects were asking in the sale process. By using blog content that addressed potential customers’ pain points at the beginning of the buying cycle (How much does an EPOS system Cost?) and areas relating to retail business profitability (Employee Theft and How to Prevent It), TRC saw a dramatic lift in blog pageviews (455% increase) and average time on page (121% higher than site average).

Prospective clients want to know how you are going to make their lives easier. Period.

If your website content doesn’t speak to customer pain points, it’s missing the mark. And this was true with TRC. Once we responded to client concerns and challenges, traffic started to explode.

Ultimately, we moved TRC’s online presence from a position that was product-centric to one that anticipated and addressed reader’s questions and concerns. We wrote about:

• How to buy a point-of-sale system
• How much does an EPOS system cost?
• How to prevent employee theft
• How the VAT tax rate will impact retailers

Suddenly, the site was getting hundreds of hits. People were reading the content and spending time on the site.

Specifically, we were able to:

• Clearly define and articulate TRC’s value proposition
• Design and implement a compelling conversion tool
• Craft meaningful content that engages, develops a relationship and positions TRC as experts in the retail industry
• Track deep, real-time analytics to demonstrate and analyze traffic patterns

This is just one example of how optimized content marketing can explode your blog traffic and your lead stream. Share your thoughts and reactions in the comment section below, and don’t forget to Tweet, Like and Share this post if you found it useful and informative.

The overwhelming majority of consumers and businesses are searching online and doing their own research before making a purchase.

Millenials (perhaps more than any other cohort) are demanding greater access to information and enhanced engagement in all of their professional interactions.

And the playing field has been leveled for any emerging company looking to extend their impact online.

It is no longer enough to have a static website that heralds your company’s achievements.

Click on image below to download this guide.

Many people in upper management just don’t believe that the web can drive sales leads.  They know that their website is a necessity in today’s world but really just feel that it is a branding exercise or a place to house their marketing collateral materials so that when they have a prospect, they can easily direct them to information.  These are the people who hold the purse strings to support sales and marketing initiatives. In today’s economic climate, those purse strings are being held tighter and tighter and investments in marketing tactics are scrutinized, as well they should be.

“We are only allotting budget to marketing tactics which directly result in sales,” says Mr. CEO. “We have nothing in the budget for a branding exercise on the internet.”

These are smart, experienced people who have earned their way up the ladder to their positions.  But these people are wrong.  Quality, cost-effective leads can be generated from your website.

In fact, driving leads with your company website can be one of the most cost-effective ways for your company to drive revenue. Instead of spending on marketing collateral in hopes that the right person gets their hands on your material and you get a chance to “Wow!” them with your value prop, consider this…

There are over 2 million searches on Google per minute*; people searching for recipes for peanut butter cookies, the best price for their vacation, celebrity gossip…AND YOUR PRODUCT. Some are doing research on your product.  Some are trying to solve a problem and your product is the solution.  And some are ready to buy.  In fact, 71% of business purchase decisions start with an internet search**.

How are you going to make sure they find you?

Here are 7 easy ways to engage with prospects on the web:

1. LinkedIn allows you to build a network and your reputation.

LinkedIn is a simple to use social networking tool for professionals.  If you are not on it, you should be. And to get the most out of it, in terms of prospecting, you should ensure:

a) Your profile is up-to-date and robust including a picture.  Most prospects will look to your LinkedIn profile immediately to get an idea of who you are before they even consider buying from you.

b) Connect with professionals in your circle: colleagues, customers, someone you’ve had a recent industry conversation with.  Ensure you tread carefully and approach them in the appropriate manner suited to your relationship.

c) Participate in group discussions and start your own.  This is a great way to interact with potential prospects directly.  Additionally, there is always an audience for every discussion – people who don’t participate but who take it all in.  You want to position yourself as an expert in their eyes so they feel compelled to reach out to you because they connected with what you said in a discussion.  Make sure to invite this in your discussions.

d) Share interesting and relevant posts with your network of connections and groups.  It can be an article you read or a how-to video.  Others will start to see you as being in-the-know for your industry and will come to rely on your expertise.

e) Once you’ve built your empire, LinkedIn makes a great place to throw out your ideas, materials, conversion tools, press releases.  This can result in driving some very strong and interested traffic to your site.

2. Blog Content – If you build it, they will come.

It is simple.  If you build it, they will come.  If you create compelling content that is relevant to your prospects and addresses their “pain points” and optimized for search engines (specifically long-tail keywords), they will find you.  The more targeted your blog is to a specific issue for a specific industry, the more likely you will be able to rank in Google and be found.

3. Leveraging Google Analytics

Using Google Analytics, you can really dig deep into what is working and not working on your website.  You can identify which pages are working and which are not.  You can see what keywords are driving traffic and conversions on your site.  This helps you identify which keywords you want to work with to drive new content (including blogs) which, in turn, will drive new leads.

4. DNS Resolution – Identifying Visitors to Your Website by IP Address

One of the most overlooked areas for a Sales Team to go prospecting is DNS lookup which can identify visitors to your website via IP address.  There are tools on the market (Leadlander, Optify) which can provide you with a list of companies who visited your site and tell you exactly what they did on your site: how many pages visited how long they spent on your site, etc.  Combined with LinkedIn and your Sales Team’s initiative, you can track down a very interested prospect and sell them on your value proposition. Again, work gingerly as you don’t want them to feel like Big Brother.

5. Phone Number – Olly Olly Oxen Free!

This isn’t a game of hide and seek! It should be easy for potential prospects to contact you, however they want to do it: by email, by phone number, by form.  If they are ready to reach out to you, whether it is to make a purchase or ask a question, make it easy to do so as they are one step closer to being a sale.  And make sure you set up an exclusive phone number and email address so that you can keep track of and measure ROI.

6. Email blast follow ups

What does your sales team do after you send an email blast about your new product launch?  Most email tools provide the ability to export people who opened and people who clicked.  You can even tell which link they clicked on (if you sent a newsletter type email with multiple topics). Your Sales Team should be using this information.  Reach out and provide them with a free whitepaper related to the topic they clicked on.  Start the conversion that leads to a sale.

7. Last but not least… Use a Relevant Conversion Tool to Capture those Leads

You can drive relevant traffic and it would be great if the prospects covert themselves to a sale and just call you up and place an order. But realistically, in B2B, we can’t depend on it being that easy. There may be more steps in the sales process. So, it is essential to have a method to collect the visitors’ contact information and it is easier to get than you might thinking.

What would incentivize them to give you their information?  A free whitepaper?  A free step-by-step guide?  An industry report?  1 hour of free consulting? A free 30-day trial? Give it to them.  As long as it is cost effective to execute, you can provide them with an enticing offer and all they have to do is supply their contact information.  Make it worth their while.

Easy and Cost Effective Ways to Engage with Prospects through the Internet

So, although there are many doubters, it really is possible to drive relevant traffic to your website which can result in highly qualified leads at a lower cost than any of your other channels.  Try these 7 suggestions and don’t forget to implement analytics so that you are able to measure which tactics worked better so that you focus your energy on the tactics with the best ROI.  When you see the results, perhaps you will see the benefit and divert some budget to Website Lead Generation.

*SearchEngineLand: http://searchengineland.com/by-the-numbers-twitter-vs-facebook-vs-google-buzz-36709

**Brafton – Search marketing alert: 71 percent of business purchase decisions start with search http://www.brafton.com/news/search-marketing-alert-61-percent-of-business-purchase-decisions-start-with-search

You need to build it, gain its trust and maintain it. Of course if your goal is to be on page one for a common keyword in a Google search then you need to find a way to become Google’s “go to girl”.

To become Google’s golden girl you need to be relevant, valuable and trustworthy. Google will be ready to start a long term relationship with you. But he hates speed dating.

So here are the 3 main qualities your site needs to have:

1. Relevance
2. Value
3. Trust

Here’s how to be relevant, valuable and trusted

Google’s complex and sensitive algorithm combines different elements to rank your website. So when an organic search query is triggered the magic begins. In a nano second, Google asks your site:

1. Is your site relevant to the search query?

You can achieve this with a strong value proposition,  a documented buying process and keyword strategy that targets your ideal buyer.

To build relevance on the internet you need a website that has:

• Marketing content that resonates with the person searching
• Page titles and layout that are optimized in relation to this search
• A keyword strategy and relationship
• Site/company description

2. Okay, your site’s content is relevant, but is it valuable?

The architecture of your site is the window to illustrate your core business value proposition and brand. You must set the stage online to demonstrate your value. Here’s how you know if you have a valuable site:

• Is it built with an easy to crawl site structure?
• Is your site slow or fast to upload?
• How is your social web presence? Active or passive?
• Do you have or get backlinks? The more you have the better.
• How wide is your web presence?

3. Perfect your site is relevant, has value, but is it trustworthy?

Like in a relationship, building trust is a long process. You need to maintain it to gain the most trust from Google. What Google trusts is:

• Sites with a long history
• The regular visits your site gets and how long they stay
• How often your links are shared with others sites or social media
• Fresh content, do you update your content often? Are people interacting with your site?
• The quality of backlinks your site gets.

You are convinced your site and web presence meets these three Google qualifications and you’re still not on page one.

Then this means your competitor is better at it then you are.

Keep working on these three levels and you’ll see results in your Google relationship in the long run.

Or it simply means you haven’t applied the Marketing Copilot Formula. Download our free eBook here and start today.

If you put the phrase “web presence” in your search bar, you are going to see a lot of amazing results. There will be lots of sites dedicated to “how to quit your job and make millions on the web”. Don’t click on those. Look at the ones that explain what a web presence can do for your current business. The business you have spent years putting time and effort into.

An web presence is a way to start a conversation with customers and prospects about why they should buy from you!

Click on the image below to download this guide.

WHY DO I…A Need Web Presence Guide

Hang in there. Even if you could care less about Las Vegas, there is a valuable formula at the end of the post that will make highlighting Sin City worthwhile.

Having never been to Las Vegas, I was amazed at two things:

1. That a city exists for the sole purpose of getting people to spend money.
2. That navigating “The Strip” on foot, helped me understand what makes email marketing successful.

Here’s what I learned that I want to share with you…

MECLABS, a division of Marketing Experiments puts on the Email Summit to showcase best practices in email marketing. It is the largest research-based email marketing summit in the world. What I learned is that there is a formula. And it works! There were many, many cases to prove it and the outcome is revenue growth.

But before you think it’s a secret, it’s nothing more than the psychology of human nature.

• Capture
• Convince
• Close

What I didn’t realize before the Summit is the obvious. Your email marketing exists for one reason and one reason only – to get someone to click through to your website.

So why are we still trying to do a million things in our email marketing. Why are there a myriad of headings, copious captions, thoughts and ideas? Why are we still trying to sell without giving the reader a reason to engage in the first place?

Here’s the thing…

1. We are living in the “me era” of the customer. If your content is not relevant to them, they immediately hit delete or worse SPAM. Most of the time, this happens with the subject line.
2. Clarity trumps persuasion. Instead of selling try honesty and transparency.
3. Forget thinking you are a marketing expert. In this fast moving online world, the best you can hope for is being an experienced tester. Test, measure, repeat! It’s the only way to get results.

So what’s this got to do with Las Vegas?

The people that designed the Las Vegas strip are genius at directing you to follow a certain path and take an action. If the singular purpose of your email marketing is to get someone to click through to your website, then the singular purpose of The Strip is to get you to navigate to a place for you to spend money whether it’s gambling, shopping, eating or entertainment. You can’t make a move in Las Vegas without being channeled to this singular objective.

Case in point… (note the signage on the windows)

(Now that we’ve gotten to know each other, want to come in? Just a quick peek!)

As I walked past the Cosmopolitan Hotel, not only do I have to use a walkway to cross the street, which is only available to me by entering the lobby of the hotel, but the building speaks to me, wooing me.

Singular focus! Get the pedestrian to just come inside.

Look at your next email marketing campaign.

• How well does the subject line capture the interest of your audience?

• How well does the subject line get them to the first paragraph and convince them to read on?

• How well does the body copy get you to the call to action?

Here’s the formula that will change your email marketing, and quite likely your online lead generation program forever:

eme = rv(of + i) – (f + a)©  [MECLABS]

eme = email marketing effectiveness
rv = relevance
of = offer value (why)
i = incentive to take action
f = friction elements of process
a = anxiety elements of process

If you want to learn more about the formula, please leave a comment on this post and I will share the presentation from MECLABS with full credit to them.

And mark your calendar. We are going to be running our own Email Marketing Workshops on May 10^th and June 7^th at the Markham Convergence Centre in Markham. If you want to get into the workshops and receive help optimizing your email program, email us with the email heading “Early Bird Enrollment” in the subject line to lindsey@marketingcopilot.com.

You’ll be glad to note that what happened at the Summit in Vegas, isn’t staying there!

• Tactics that failed
• Marketing managers that failed
• Websites that failed

So I started to keep track of what CEOs were telling me and devised a list of the attributes of marketing programs that succeed.

Why is marketing of vital importance to today’s small business owner?

Look around you. No matter the size of your business, big or small, new or old, competition is fierce and instantaneous. Companies that fail to answer the answer the question, “why should I buy from you?” in a clear and compelling way, find their market share getting smaller and smaller and new business harder to come by.

The ground has shifted significantly for companies trying to grow and compete. As marketing tactics have become more complex, the average CEO has gotten more confused and frustrated. The trap is thinking this is because of the complexity of online marketing and new online tools. Don’t fall into this trap! While complexity is due in part to clutter, confusion and an overabundance of choice, which the internet has produced, the real reason marketing fails is because CEOs and marketing professionals don’t take the time to understand the foundation of marketing success.

The first step to creating marketing programs that succeed, is a compelling and clearly stated value proposition. A value proposition is your deal closer. It explains to people why they should buy from you. The clearer you make the statement, the easier it is for someone to make the decision. If you would like to get a jump start on figuring this out for your business, we invite you to download “How Do I…Discover a Compelling Value Proposition for My Business”.  In this guide, we review how to look at your product or service from the perspective of your customer and how to identify value statements for the sales and marketing dialogue that is the foundation for marketing success.

Maybe your story sounds like this?

Back in 1999, I was working for a software company that had raised a lot of money from venture capitalists to build out their business plan and attempt to achieve spectacular revenue results that would please shareholders and create an exit strategy for the founders. As vice president of marketing, I had a budget, a working product and paying customers to work with, but the marketing plan we executed in support of the business plan was a bomb.

What went wrong?

Aside from the perfect storm of bad market conditions, there were some fundamentals missing in the business:

1. Lack of value proposition – we didn’t document why our customers were buying
2. Lack of focus – we were trying to be all things to all people to make a sale
3. Lack of brand – customers didn’t see themselves reflected in the way we presented ourselves in the market
4. Lack of consistency – we’d try something once and then drop it
5. Lack of delivery of repeatable value – every customer project was complex and customized, so it was tough to scale

As a result, our marketing program did not deliver measurable business results. In 2002, I walked away from the experience determined to do something about. I studied the problem, talked to lots of CEO’s and began testing. Marketing CoPilot and our proven Three Step Methodology is the fruits of that labour and we offer the formula and guidance to help business owners build repeatable lead streams for their business. Download the guide here…

Today, your sales and marketing strategy may be a combination of things: telemarketing, direct mail, advertising, word of mouth, referrals, or other tactics you use to start a conversation with people who might potentially buy from you. You probably have a website because you realize its today’s Yellow Pages. And maybe you’ve already decided to leverage the internet to drive more traffic to your business, but now what?

A good online presence might not be a lot different than the conversation you are probably already having in your offline activities except that are more benefits to having the conversation online.

Here are ten reasons why an online presence makes good business sense:

1. You can track and measure everything instantly. Unlike a newspaper ad or radio advertisement, you can view elaborate details of who looked at what on your website, press release or blog post and you can see it minutes after you send something out.
2. You can engage rather than disrupt. Instead of trying to get attention like you would with telemarketing or direct mail, you can start a conversation. When was the last time you answered a telemarketer’s call or responded to a flyer? Disruption is failing. Starting conversations about a topic of mutual interest to you and your prospective buyer gains trust, long term relationships and helps to gain valuable insight about what your prospects care about.
3. You can be everywhere. You can use your website, a blog, directories, social media, press releases and a wide array of cost-effective online tactics to deliver a consistent conversation about why you have something of value to discuss. They are many ways to slice the conversation from a 140 character tweet to a 12 page “how to guide.”
4. You can compete. In bygone days, a small business usually lacked the resources of their larger competitors. Now even a small business can access much of the same technology as big companies. You can use auto-responders, accept online payments and even deliver products over the Internet.
5. You can create niche marketing faster and more cost effectively. If one area of your business is taking off, you can create microsites and specific promotions and web pages to support this area of the business. An online presence opens up all sorts of niche marketing opportunities that never existed before or were too expensive to go after.
6. You can look bigger than you are. With a professionally designed web site, it’s now easy for a small business on the Internet to have the appearance and credibility of being a large company.
7. You can sell locally and globally at the same time. Search engine marketing now allows you to have a local presence through Google Local. For those people who like to buy locally, you can optimize your website so that people searching in your community come directly to you. But you can also optimize keywords so that prospects from all over the world can find you.
8. You can be open 24/7. Think about how you shop for something. Google stats indicate that 87% of buyers initiate their buying process with an internet search. Unlike traditional office hours (9 to 5), that search can be done any time of the day of the day or night. By automating a web site, a business can be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No extra staff costs and no overtime rates to pay!
9. You can speed up time-to-market. It is easy to quickly change promotions or offers on the Internet. Emails can be sent out or you can change a website instantly. Time sensitive promotions such as running contests or product specials can be a good way to attract customers.

Finally, and most importantly……

10. You can listen. An online presence gives you the opportunity to get feedback instantly from the market, listen to what they care about via forums and social media conversations.

If sales is about listening to your customer and applying a solution to a problem then an online presence gives you the ultimate engagement and listening tool. If however, you still want disrupt your prospects with overpowering details about product promotions, then go back to the Google search and click on “get rich quick.” A consistent and value-based online presence is not for you.