No one exactly knows what is going to happen in 2009. However, you will most likely not generate the same amount of business that you did in 2008. Times are tough for most everyone, but the ones who are ready to fight for new business will grow or maintain their sales, while the ones watching and worrying will lose!

I don’t have a crystal ball to forecast the future, but I’m sure that your existing clients will purchase less of your products or services in 2009. Unfortunately, some of us will lose clients during the year despite our quality products and services.

So what are you going to do in 2009? Are you going to cut your advertising and marketing budget as a way to save money? If so, you are making one of the classic marketing mistakes that businesses often make in tough economic times. Research has shown that those businesses that change, maintain or expand their advertising and marketing efforts recover faster, maintain their growth and find new customers ready and willing to buy now.

Older Marketing Techniques Just Don’t Work As Well Anymore

If you are advertising and marketing using the same techniques that you have in the past, you might want to look at modifying your budget to include new methods that allow potential clients to find you. Why would you modify your advertising plan for 2009? Here are a few reasons.

Less people will be purchasing newspapers and magazines, which means less exposure if you are a print advertiser. Direct mail marketing expenses will be going up in 2009 with changes to the postal requirements for direct mail and a pending increase in postage rates. This means your costs will go up, and your reach will go down. Yellow Pages and other traditional forms of advertising will not work as well as they have in the past.

You don’t think this is true? In our office complex there are eight businesses. Each time the phone books are delivered only one of the eight takes their phone book. The other seven copies sit under the mail boxes until someone picks them up and throws them in the dumpster. The primary reason for this is more and more potential customers are using the Internet (Search Engines) as their first source to find products and services.

Do you want to know where the fight for business will take place?

The fight for new business will take place on the Internet in 2009 and beyond. If you are still sitting on the sidelines to see if the Internet is the place to be, you are about to lose your chance to take advantage of the most cost effective media available. According to eMarketing $24 Billion dollars will be spent on Online Advertising in 2009. You don’t think for a minute that businesses are spending billions of dollars just because advertising on the Internet is cool? The two main reasons why businesses are using Internet advertising is that it works and there is 100% accountability for each dollar spent.

There are many types of Internet advertising that can be used by you in 2009 to generate more sales. And the best news; most of the advertising is less expensive than traditional forms of advertising and has a higher market reach. So are you going to be a fighter 2009?

Don’t know where to start finding out what new Internet advertising techniques are available?

If you would like to begin saving money and generating more sales in economic hard times, we can help. Contact us today for a FREE One Hour (no obligation) review of your current advertising programs and learn about the new cost effective techniques that are being used by successful businesses today.

Copyright © 2009 USA Marketing Associates

1. What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Simply put, it is providing search engines with a page of content written for a specific keyword/phrase in the way that search engines want it written. By doing so, the page optimized for a keyword/phrase will obtain high rankings in the search results.

2. Do I need to change my current website copy in order to obtain high rankings on search engines?
In almost all cases your website copy will remain as it is written. Search engine optimized pages are new pages that are added to your website.

3. Should I use a national company to create optimized web pages for my website?
In most cases, a local Internet Marketing company can do a better job at a lower price and offer personal service. Most national companies won’t optimize web pages for local market reach.

4. Do I need to resubmit my website to the search engines after the optimized pages are added to my site?
As part of any search engine optimization program, the person doing the optimization should be the one responsible for submitting web pages to the search engines. They should also provide you with a report on the new rankings of your pages on the search engines.

5. Can optimized web pages be created for more that one keyword/phrase?
Unfortunately this is not possible. Search engine use a strict formula to rank pages in the search results. Having multiple keyword/phrases on one page dilutes the effectiveness of all the keyword/phrases for ranking.

6. Can I create my own optimized web pages and post them on my site?
If you know all of the search engine rules, understand search engine’s ranking formulas then yes you can. However, there are many optimization techniques that are posted on the Internet that are incorrect and if used could cause your website to be Black Listed on the search engines. Bad practices like using hidden text, link farms and others are a sure way to get your site in trouble.

7. How long does it take before an optimized web page gets ranked by search engines?
In can take about a month for some search engines to spider and index new pages on a website. However, with proper submission, results can be seen in as little as a week or two.

8. Can an optimized web page be created for a single word rather than a phrase?
An optimized page for a single word is almost impossible to optimize and get a good ranking. Using a single word search generates too many results on search engines. Literally millions and millions of pages are ranked on search engines for single words. That’s too many pages in competition with a page that you might want to have optimized. In most cases a single word is not specific enough to give a searcher good search results. It is far better to be more specific and create optimized pages for phrases with two or three words.

9. Will it help with the page ranking to have Meta Tags on all of the pages on a website?
To some degree yes! The search engines do look at all of the text that makes up a page including the use of keyword/phrases in some of the Meta Tags. However, search engines no longer give much weight to words used in a Keyword Meta Tag. Of more importance is that search engines use the title and description Meta Tags when creating the search listing results. A good title and description can mean the difference in your listing getting more clicks than your competition.

10. Does it cost a lot of money to have an optimized webpage created?
For local optimization, a page optimized for a keyword/phrase and 5-7 locations (example: Auto Repair + Foxboro, Mansfield, Easton, Plainville, and Norton) will cost $200. Pages used to reach a national market or more competitive keyword/phrases are a bit more expensive as they require ongoing adjustments to maintain rankings.

11. What type of search engine ranking can I expect from an optimized web page?
Using proper search engine optimization practices, your keyword/phrase should ranking within the first 20 search results on all major search engines. Depending upon the keyword/phrase being optimized you could expect to see your page ranking be on the first page of most of the search engines.

12. How do I select the most popular keyword/phrases to have pages optimized?
You should provide your Internet Marketing professional with a list of 50 keyword/phrases that you think potential customers would use to search on for your products or service. They can provide you with a FREE report showing the most popular phrases for your business. (Not all Internet Marketing professionals provide free reports.)

If you have questions about Search Engine Optimization feel free to call me at 508-223-3653 or email me at (jconant@usamarketingassociates.com)

Copyright © 2009 USA Marketing Associates