Website budgets have been growing larger and larger every year as more and more companies are recognizing the need to invest in their websites.  As more and more consumers are turning to the Web for their purchasing, businesses are responding.

Nearly every week I encounter someone who is shifting their marketing budgets away from print advertising in places like the yellow pages and newspapers and allocating them to online marketing.  That money may be reallocated for website development or for social media campaigns, link building, pay-per-click, or search engine optimization but no matter where it ends up, customers are happy to have taken the leap.  Happy because they know that marketing dollars are finally going to be easily measured and their ROI will be easily calculated.  With yellow page advertising, for instance, you can calculate your ROI but if you realize after the first month that your ad isn’t performing, too bad. You can’t change it.  You’re stuck ’til next year, and you’re still on the hook for $1000 a month for the next 11 months.  With Internet marketing, you can modify, improve, tweak and test.

Reason #1

Testing is one of the most beneficial reasons for using the Web for your marketing.  It’s so easily measured.  No other medium allows you to see immediate, real-time testing results.  You can change a headline, and measure the performance over the next hour, provide you’re getting sufficient traffic to the site.

Reason #2

Fish where the fish are at.  It’s an old adage.  If you want to improve your odds of catching a fish (or a customer), then you need to fish where the fish are at.  If your customers are on the web, then you should be too.  If you’re one of the few businesses that caters to a group of people who are still using the yellow pages, then by all means, use the yellow pages, but if you’re like 99% of all businesses who have customers who turn to Google first, then you should be found on Google.

Reason #3

Long-lasting results are one of the major benefits of onlike marketing, particularly, search engine optimization.  With traditional advertising, when you stop running your ads, the customers stop coming in, the phone stops ringing and you’re forced to pay more or go out of business.  With search engine optimization and a well-designed website, you can achieve top positions on the major search engines and drive tons of traffic to your site with little ongoing effort.  Sure you need to continue to maintain your presence, but it’s nothing compared to the ongoing cost of traditional advertising.

If you’re on the fence and are considering moving away from traditional advertising, give us a call and we’ll be happy to discuss th pros and cons.  After all, we’re a full-service agency so it’s not like we’re anti-print.  We’ve been doing both online and offline advertising for more than 10 years.  Give us a call today at 970-674-0079.

Chadd Bryant