With all of the media coverage lately about the current economic situation, more and more companies are hesitant about 2009 spending. Budget freezes, tighter purse strings, and more "red tape" is becoming a trend as I'm speaking with clients regarding first quarter planning. What companies need to realize is that the time for lead generation is NOW. With everyone's goal being more customers, more qualified leads and spending less to get those leads, where do I need to allot those precious marketing dollars?
A diversified marketing plan is key, however go with where the eyeballs are. Online. Print is dead, consumers are buying online, getting their news online, paying their mortgages online. You get the idea. As a marketer you need to intercept the eyeballs of your competition. An affordable SEO strategy is something pros are encouraging business owners to dig deep to invest in for 2009. Please see this article. A excerpt:
"High rankings are great, but what do they mean to a business? We
talked to Doctor Bowler from Georgetown Surgical recently, and asked
him, was he getting new business from the Internet? He was getting two
to four new patients a week with his old website, and he's currently
getting 50 to 70 new patients a week. That's a dramatic difference: he
was nearly going bankrupt and was close to shutting up shop, and now he
has to hire a new surgeon".
Utilizing blogs in your inbound marketing strategy makes sense. It's an extremely economical way to drastically boost your search engine rankings, while at the same time humanizing your company and giving your employees a chance to contribute. Blog content is most likely one of the most readily available resources you didn't even know you had. Whitepapers, newsletters, internal company emails. Using this existing content can do wonders for your traffic. More importantly, with the organized/topical system Compendium offers, it does wonders for qualified traffic. What's a qualified lead worth to you these days? Give me a call, I'd love to discuss it with you.
