With the trend clearly going up one way regarding the shopping habits of the customers, and that is – whenever they are looking for something to buy, they turn to the internet for a start – it is clear that inbound marketing such as PPC, SEO and other complementary tactics are giving the answer satisfying the most important needs of advertisers: increase revenue, reduce cost, and bring higher and better customer loyalty.
This is why the question of whether to increase your budget for this kind of marketing is not even asked. It simply must be done, but how to do it?
Well, I can give you but one suggestion. Try allocating resources from “offline” programs. The best part about this is that you can afford yourself a testing period and you don’t have to do it with huge amounts.
The main reason I say allocate from offline campaigns is because advertising with print, telemarketing, and even direct mail, has long ceased to be cost effective. Although these are a great way to reach customers, and the customers are somewhat used to them (so they shouldn’t be abandoned in full), still they take up big amounts that can be easily subjected to a little reducing.
On the other hand, inbound marketing, or let’s say PPC, offers coverage that is difficult to achieve in any other way, and does it for a very reasonable price. Take the fact, for example, that Google offers about 65% of the market which can be used and utilized to the maximum benefit.
But, Google isn’t the only one out there; Yahoo and Bing still share the rest of the percentage and they shouldn’t be forgotten or neglected. Speaking about platforms, think of the social media enhancers such as Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads and similar. These also offer a great way of reaching customers and are worth giving a chance.
To cut a long story short, set something aside from your offline budget and spread it around the various platforms. Start up with a short testing period (let’s say a month) and see what happens. Even if you are not satisfied with the results, you will still have a huge pool of data that can give you a firm foundation for your future strategies and plans. If, on the other hand, you are pleased, you can always expand your testing period to something more lasting and in-depth.
And at the end, let me just say one thing. It is clear that PPC advertising is a great way to reach the right audience at the right time, and to do this within a specified budget. Don’t hesitate to use PPC to its full potential. It is not that expensive to run a testing campaign, and such campaigns usually turn out to give more than expected.
If nothing else, they will provide an excellent knowledge base, where you can use what is learned, back up these findings with an in-depth analytics and apply what you have learnt to other types of advertising campaigns.
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