Smart Search
        Many folks still default to opt-in e-mail marketing. I’m not one of them. E-mail marketing may not be entirely extinct, but success
rates are almost universally low, and junk-mail fi lters are a big obstacle. Besides, customers rarely conduct buying research via saved e-mails. Better instead to concentrate on how prospective buyers actually conduct Web-based buying research.

        Tapping a search engine is the most popular way for any customer to research a purchase on the Web. Managing your company’s placement in this arena is key to successful e-marketing and a good starting point. With careful research, this can be a budget-friendly effort. For one, knowing which form of search is best for your business is essential.

        Paid search is my personal favorite, because you can start out with a very small budget and test your way to success. Just
contact a search engine’s sales staff and enter bids for search keywords specific to your business. Start with productspecific keywords and experiment with different variations. For example, an online CRM system that specializes in the plumbing industry might begin with “plumbing+CRM.” Over time, the company might also try “plumbing+hosted+ CRM,” “Web+CRM+HVAC,” or a host of others covering areas such as technology, geography, and industry buzzwords. Your search provider will furnish activity reports that let you see which phraseology is working, so you can correct your course to build a successful campaign.
       Another search marketing technique is to buy placement in a directory, such as Yahoo!’s Directory Search. This form of search lets Web users drill down through a topic list before conducting a specific search request; you’re paying for placement on that list. Sounds like paid inclusion, but that refers to a service for Web sites whose content changes often. Content changes usually mean a site drops out of specifi c search indexes until its content is re-indexed. Paying for inclusion means that your site gets indexed (by a particular search engine) more frequently.

        Also think about the search engine itself. Ask.com, Google, and Yahoo! are big names, but there are dozens of searchengine services out there, and many are related to specific activities or business categories—pure gold from an e - marketing perspective. Shopping.com, for example, is a huge resource for online buyers; searchers at the site are several times more likely to buy something online than from any other search starting point.

      Vertical industries have their own search engines, too. People in real estate management, for example, can use the search engine of the Institute of Real Estate Management to conduct searches specifi c to property managers and related services. Many other verticals have similar Web landing points, where an e-marketing effort can get a highly targeted search response. Sharpen That Web Site

      The next step is to consider where your prospect will land after clicking on your hard-won search result. Many technology SMBs give short shrift to designing a Web site, simply because sites have become ubiquitous. Fact is, your Web site is still the cornerstone of your e-marketing strategy.

        Forget logo colors and typefaces. Concentrate on usage paths for visitors. For example, a researcher coming in from a
Google search is going to click mainly on information-bearing links. Feed that need. You could provide a PDF-clickable case study showcasing your product, or a third-party industry report that highlights it. Make sure the prospect leaves the site knowing more than when she got there. Above all, provide numerous ways for this prospect to engage a salesperson.

        Now consider the buyer—the person whose mind is made up and has hit your site with the intention to buy. This requires a different usage path, different click triggers, and different information resources.

      triggers, and different information resources. I’ll hit softer e-marketing techniques in a future column—blogging and community marketing, for example. But for the beginning e-marketing campaign, the two strategies above are your bedrock. Concentrate on getting your business found, and then use your Web site to convert prospects into customers. Get a handle on that and everything else is gravy.