Most of the time, the press is not kind to online marketing. In fact, if you can figure it out, it is one of the best things about the Internet.
How I Think About Online Marketing
If you can figure out online marketing, you can spend your time to promote your business instead of money. It gives you access to a market that is much bigger than any storefront business. It lets you beat big companies that just throw money at Internet marketing, which is a strategy that is often used to crush smaller businesses in the real world.
When it comes down to it, online marketing not only lets you compete on the same level as the big boys, it also gives you an edge. This is what I like to call the arrogance and leverage advantage.
Let's say you write one great piece of software and then try to start a small business in the real world. What will happen if the big software companies think that you are a threat? If you don't buy them out, they will kill you all. You are screwed, blue, and tattooed because you don't have many resources and don't have much power with retailers. It's not online.
Online marketing is great because it makes the playing field the same for everyone, no matter how big or small they are. Search engine optimization is the key. No matter how much money a big company in your field spends on search engine rankings, they will never have a natural advantage over you. They don't have any power because they can't buy anyone off. All they can do is buy ads, which not many people click on. If you get the top spot for your keywords on Google, Yahoo, and MSN, no one can beat you unless they do a better job of optimising than you do. In the real world, this would be impossible unless you had a huge amount of money.
The second reason you should market online is to show off. Marketing firms are used by big brick-and-mortar companies to get their brands on TV, billboards, magazines, and other places. When a company opens a website, they often hire the same marketing firms to handle their online efforts as well. Crushing them on search engines is like taking candy from a child. They just throw money at the problem, which never works on the Internet.
You, on the other hand, won't waste money by buying banner ads and other worthless things. No, you won't hire someone to help you with SEO. Instead, you'll do it yourself or with the help of a reputable group. While the top company spends $20 per click on ads, you'll be laughing all the way to the bank as customers come to you because you're at the top of Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
Is online marketing as bad as people say it is? Sometimes it does. Once you understand it, though, you'll never lie about it again.
