Okay, the title is a little cheesy (watch the video at the link to see why I chose that wording) , but I just watched the outrageous marketing video at Make My Logo Bigger.  I almost fell out of my chair.  This is a great example of outrageous advertising.

All kidding aside, video marketing has been growing for years on the net.  Primarily due to the increased bandwidth available to the average user.  And rightly so, video marking should be a component of most internet marketing projects.  People have a very short attention span and hitting them with a compelling video and grabbing them quick is necessary if you want to share more detailed stuff.   A number of folks with a lot of experience in online video marketing however are realizing that it takes more than video to help a small business.

Just today I saw a fairly well known internet video marketer who is not only promoting his video skills, but is adding a few other goodies to the mix…. Google Maps, Wordpress and email opt-ins.  I suspect this is because he also realizes that it takes more than video to improve traffic and conversions on a site.   The Google Maps, Wordpress and opt-ins are nothing new to internet marketers however.  They are pretty basic items that are only a small part of a bigger arsenal available.

Don’t get me wrong, they are all very valuable things to have, and depending on your competition they may be enough to make a difference.  In more competitive markets however, you will need the skills and expertise of a “full service” internet marketer.  You will need someone who can do heavy duty page optimization, link building, copywriting, social media marketing IN ADDITION to good old site building (using Wordpress), video marketing, email marketing and google maps.

One size doesn’t fit all and as you grow you need a bigger shoe

Here is a summary of the click distribution for page 1 (details of where this data came from is included in the original article from SEOBook – link at the bottom of this post) :

In addition to that interesting bit of data, the original article shared some other fascinating morsels.

They took the same data used for the above example and categorized it into 20 different types of searches.  Of those searches, the largest percentage fell outside of the big categories.  Translated – People are searching on a lot of very specific and unique items that are not easily categorized.  Here is the chart from the original article :

To drive this data home, it was also mentioned (via comments made by folks at Google, speaking at different events over time) that in 2004 there were an average of 200 MILLION different DAILY searches on Google and of those 200 million, OVER 100 MILLION WERE UNIQUE ! Another Google employee in 2007 mentioned that on an average day, 20 – 25% of the search terms have NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE by Google.

This is one of the better articles I have seen on this subject and is a very good read.

The full article  (Beware  – Your Brain will begin to hurt as you read this) is at http://training.seobook.com/google-ranking-value

You Can’t Afford Not To Be Findable In Today’s Market

Small businesses should understand that the Internet is replacing the Yellow Pages. And just like the good ol’ days of the Yellow Pages, when a customer starts searching they are usually ready to buy.

Will They Be Able To Find You?

If your local business doesn’t have an internet presence as part of your advertising strategy then you probably can’t be found in the place where 80% of potential local customers start their search for your product or service.

Your Customers Expect You To Be On The Internet

Whether you are a real estate agency, plumber, dentist, lawyer,contractor, it doesn’t matter, if you can’t be found on the internet you are losing business. Even if you have a webisite that isn’t being promoted it’s like putting up a billboard in the desert. It still means no customers.

Does Your Current Web Site or Internet Advertising Convert Visitors Into Customers?

If you are in business to make money then your website should have a sole purpose. Convert visitors to customers! While many business websites are nice to look at, they completely ignore the principles of salesmanship. Remember the goal is not to just have a website. It is to make money.

Geographically Targeted Searches For Local Business

Is your local business competing with national companies for front page of the search engines. That is a loosing proposition.

Doing the right things to be found locally by your customer base requires an entirely different strategy than that employed by national branding websites.

The Fastest Way To Get In Front Of Your Potential Customers

Your online presence isn’t limited to a website. The internet is constantly evolving. According to a recent study search engines are now the #1 Media type consumers use to find local businesses. That means you.

Did you know there are several avenues for customers to find you online even if you don’t have a website?

You can gain new customers in as little as a few hours.

Our methods are designed to get you found fast by utilizing our special arsenal off site campaigns for your business. Direct response methods are implemented to drive traffic to your web site, telephone or storefront utilizing:

Online Coupons

Directory Submissions

Google and Yahoo Local Listings

Regular Ad Submission To Online Classifieds

Internet Marketing is not about having a web site. I’ts about being found by local customers ready to do business with you.

SEO is the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a website by ranking high in the search results of a search engine.   There are two types of search results that are returned, Organic (Free) and Paid.  SEO is primarily concerned with organic search results.  The higher a website ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user.  SEO is the combination of research, art, creative writing and detailed analysis.  When done properly, it places your website at a place where you can expect your business to improve.

A professional SEO consultant should first take the time to understand your business and help you define the most important keywords for your website.  Keywords are simply those words or phrases that you type into Google, or other search engines to find results.  For example, if you owned a dental practice in a town named Flowery Branch and SEO consultant should help you optimize your site for keywords such as “Flowery Branch Dentist” and NOT keywords such as “Dentist”.  The keyword “Dentist” is not the phrase that a potential client to this business would be typing in when they are looking for a new dentist to visit.  This is a very simple example, but hopefully it helps you to understand the importance of having a seasoned SEO consultant that knows how to do keyword research.

Search engines operate with algorithms and specialized software,  sometimes called “crawlers” or “spiders”–that read the source code and page content of websites to determine what they’re about.  Search engine spiders like websites that are easy to get around , contain relevant content and are linked to by other good sites, so it would seem like  a fairly simple equation.   In reality SEO can be quite complex and the search engines are constantly changing and new competition for your keywords can appear overnight.

I break down SEO into two categories, On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO.  On-Page SEO relates to the actual website content.  Off-Page SEO consists of building links back to your website and using other types of Internet Marketing to point the search engines back to your site and increase the authority of your site in the eyes of the search engines.

In summary, SEO is important because most people on the Internet find what they are looking for using search, whether it is a search portal like Google or Yahoo or the onsite search within YouTube or MySpace.  This means that making content findable by search is important to the success of that content.  SEO is important because if your web pages are not targeting the right keywords to draw the attention of the top search engines the likelihood of potential traffic to your site will never grow.  When your pages are SEO friendly some of the obvious advantages to expect can be, increased traffic, and more traffic means more sales and publicity.

We at Marketing Hunters are committed to providing the best SEO solutions to small businesses.  By doing this we help improve sales and profits and reduce advertising expenses.

Another good source of user data is eMarketer, and they also recently reported that U.S. online video viewers will grow to 188 million by the end of 2013 and more than half of the U.S. population will view videos online in the same year.

Now get this, in the month of July 2009, there were a total of over 21 Billion (Yes, the billion with a B) videos viewed around the world.  Wow !

They broke the videos down by categorizing them as either coming from Google, Viacom Digital or Microsoft sites.  Of those 3 sites, guess who took the TOP DOG share of the views?  Yep, you probably guessed it…. Google.  Google accounted for 42 percent of all videos viewed online and within that group, YouTube captured over 99% of that traffic.  As a whole, Google accounted for almost 9 Billion viewed
videos.

So if you think that video isn’t important, you might want to think again…. Before your competition decides to try it and starts grabbing customers away from your biz.

The good news is, YOU ARE NOT TOO LATE ! Now is the perfect time to jump on this bandwagon.  Other studies confirm the continued growth of online videos, including video’s viewed on mobile devices.  That is a whole other subject for later.  I’ll follow up with a post later where I’ll show you that you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to get a video posted that will help turn internet visitors into walk-in customers.