I-BDC
With the millions of websites now online, competition for web visitors is as fierce as ever. SEO and SEM are no longer the only avenue to capture the attention of internet visitors. The digital and data marketing era is upon us. Multi-channel and bundled marketing with digital ads, email and social media are new solutions for exposure. No longer is there a need to wait for search position, digital reach is here and the brandng of the business name becomes first and foremost.
The Advent of Online Search Engines and the Bidding Wars of CPMs and Keywords
Digital marketing started in the mid-1990's with Search Engine Optimization. Keywords mixed in correctly with page content became extremely popular in the late 1990's with the beginning of the term Search Engine Optimization. The bidding war of keywords skyrocketed prices on words and phrases.
Display Banner ads rose in price to as much as $50 per CPM (Cost Per Thousand) in 1998. While large dot-com's were making millions in Banner Ads and companies spending the same for that advertising it was a "false market," driven by large companies whose quest was to make billions on this new internet world.
Website Visitors is the Ultimate Goal, But it Must Be Earned
But "build it and they will come" didn't apply here. The problem was the CPM market was driven by false emotion, the large companies bidding on Banner Ads created the hype, void of the true factor of supply and demand and rise and fall of prices – the buyer. The buyer always sets the market.
The giant companies built their storefronts, the giant dot com's created their online warehouses and then, suddenly, by the fall of 2000, CPM prices plunged to as low as $2 per CPM. The online stores were built and nobody came. No different than driving along and coming upon a strip shopping center with nothing but vacant storefronts. The point has been mentioned, a business' online storefront is not the end, it's just the beginning, the quest for exposure, for more visitors.
The Endless Battle in Creating Website Exposure
Interestingly, while Banner Ads were about to see the end of their monetary heights, a new term was beginning to evolve in paid search advertising; pay-per-click by Overture and Google. While the war over Display Ads was ending, the new war over keywords was beginning.
This war has continued relentlessly ever since. The problem is that for mid-to-small companies, the fierce competition by the larger companies makes it difficult for these smaller companies and self-employed to compete over the most searched keywords.
A New and Cost-Effective Way of Advertising
Fortunately for these smaller companies, new forms of online advertising developed. Email campaigns became popular, and while "blackhat" strategies took over the internet (bulkmailing with hidden IP addresses and the use of VPNs.) "Whitehat" solutions developed in the form of permission-based email, double opt-in and validation.
Social media advertising came along and once display advertising settled down at an affordable rate of $2 to $5 CPM, bundled solutions have now taken hold with almost any budget size without breaking the bank with keywords.
The Digital Reach of Digital and Data Marketing
The most important difference between SEO and SEM compared with Email, Social Media advertising and Display Ads is that with SEO/SEM, a webstore must "wait" until a visitor searches the right term, finds the right link and then clicks on. There is no "waiting" for an online visitor to enter a search term to find the webstore with the use of email, social media or display ad digital marketing.
These ads are digitally reaching out to the very platforms online users are normally at. This "digital reach" is a very powerful digital and data marketing solution. Each single application can be used, or a combination of some or all; Acquisition Email, Bundling, Appending, Geofencing and more. At any time chosen and most importantly, without entering into a bidding war of keywords and adwords.
What to think about:
SEM, SEO, Digital Marketing, Data Marketing, Email Campaigns, Banner Ads, Social Media Marketing, Digital Reach, Bundling, Appending, Geolocation and Geofencing
If just one of the four fundamental steps of Internet Marketing is missing - the full process of storefront, exposure, acquisition and conversion (SEAC) is broken and results are doomed to fail, or, at the very best, disappointing expectations. To SEAC the success of your online internet marketing, contact me for a consultative plan to raise your web and foot traffic to greater levels than you've ever seen.
