Smart Marketing During Lean Times

Our current economic environment has many clients pulling back their advertising budgets. So knowing where to place the advertising dollars when times are lean is extremely critical. One of the most effective and least costly marketing tools is search engine marketing (SEM). Of course, it performs better when your web site is optimized with relevant content, keywords, meta data, etc. Our clients typically obtain 35 to 50 percent more leads/success through their SEM program over other individual tactics within their marketing mix. To top it off, it is easy to track and identify the ROI. There are no guarantees in garnering the top organic listing(s), but an online pay-per-click ad campaign will provide first-page exposure while increasing organic listings. Some industries perform much better than others, so I recommend at least a three-month SEM program to see if it can be a top perfomer for your company.