Posts tagged web content

Purchasing Content: More Effective Than Web Advertising?

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You have probably heard many sources online, including Hat Trick Associates, talk about the future of the Internet and how vital web content has become to the search engines and your SEO efforts of your website. Ideally, you want new content on your site every single time the Google crawler or one of the other large engines index your website. So a common question we hear from clients is, what is more effective for growing my website  and doing more business in the future: Using my online marketing budget on advertising, or using those same resources to create more fresh content?

The answer may surprise you! Here are more vital web content-related statistics:

  • More than 8 out of 10 Internet users look on search engines first to find information on the products or services they want to buy
  • Up to 86% of searchers will ignore paid listings, or other advertising they know has been purchased as opposed to organic results
  • On the flip side, 64% of the top natural (organic) listings will get click thrus

The reasons are fairly simple – people typically want to feel as if they have “discovered” the solution to their problem – the product, service or brand that they need – on their own. Which is why natural search results convert 35% higher than Pay Per Click campaigns! That’s a significant difference.

That doesn’t mean that web advertising should have no place in your marketing mix. But how many folks spend thousands upon thousands of their marketing dollars on Pay Per Click or Pay Per Impression campaigns, and then spend very little, or even nothing whatsoever, on their ongoing content? The answer is: many more than who actually should! And that is certainly a business mistake.

The One Thing Your Competition Can't Buy

Many companies don’t even realize that their email list of contacts is the most valuable piece of data they own. It provides a low cost and instantaneous communication channel to many of the most important people to their success. And unlike other more traditional marketing, it can provide real-time, measurable results.

You have probably heard that it is far less expensive to keep a customer than to acquire a new one. This holds true for most other groups, associations and non-profits also.

And your email newsletter can help you communicate and stay “top of mind” with current business relationships – and increase retention – while also allowing you to share knowledge and promotions with prospects, too.

It’s all about increasing the lifetime value of your contacts. Remember: Competitors can always buy their way into your market – and match your pricing, your products and services, and even the “look and feel” of your brands or organization.

But the one thing they can’t purchase? Your relationships.

Every E-newsletter you send helps solidify the connection between your organization and your customers, members, participants, clients, volunteers, donors… and even prospects!

Even More E-Newsletter Stats

In 2008, 60.8% of US businesses surveyed said that sending an email newsletter was a component of future marketing plans.

…and has this number gone up since then?

What day of the week is most popular to send your publication? Percent of newsletters being sent by customers weekly:

Monday  17.1%
Tuesday  17.0%
Thursday  16.2%
Wednesday  15.8%
Friday  14.5%
Saturday  10.3%
Sunday  9.0%

49% of email marketers said their E-newsletter routinely justified itself. Only 10% said their newsletters were not being justified at all by revenue.

Packaged food giant ConAgra found that consumers who subscribed to their email newsletter generated 34.25% more product sales overall.

30% of small businesses execs say they had an improved image of a vendor from the (email) newsletter they received.

No surprise there…

44% of marketers surveyed believe the biggest challenge in email is providing ongoing, relevant content.

Luckily, we’re here to help!

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