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Internet Marketing

The Internet provides a number of tools that can be used to generate sales. Here are several that can be added to your overall marketing strategy:

Email Newsletters

Many businesses sell, cross-sell, and re-sell through email newsletters. (See our article: Start Spreading the News Through an Email Newsletter.)

However, it's not as easy to get an email newsletter rolling as some think. There are serious content, subscription, and delivery issues with even the simplest newsletter that can trip up the unwary.

A typical email newsletter setup includes:

• Loading your list of subscribers on iContact, our preferred email service provider (full disclosure: we are an affiliate of iContact)
• Creating a custom email template that aligns with your other marketing materials
• Building a newsletter page and signup form on your website
• Either training on iContact or sending the first newsletter and monitoring the result

Cost: $500

Content editing and newsletter archive maintenance are available at our standard rates. (See Services > Website Management > Timely Updates for more details.)

Please note that Crystal Point Consulting has a no-tolerance spam policy. Every person on your subscription list must have actively chosen to be there.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Can your website be found in Google, Yahoo, and MSN? Are you getting referrals from these and other search engines? If not, your site can be optimized through the Crystal Point SEO Plan:

1. Selecting 2-3 search phrases for each page to be optimized
2. Editing your content to incorporate your search phrases
3. Coding your search engine tags to incorporate your search phrases (learn more about search engine tags in our article Gain Higher Search Engine Rankings)

Cost: $300 per page to be optimized

An analysis (typically quarterly) of your search engine results along with incremental improvements is $100.

Please note that while we have obtained good results for our SEO clients, search engines are continually changing their ranking algorithms. Also, good rankings do not necessarily result in good clients. For these reasons we make no guarantees of specific rankings or return on investment for SEO work.

Pay-per-click (PPC) Advertising

For businesses with new websites or those in an exceptionally competitive arena, it can be difficult to impossible to generate substantial web traffic through accepted SEO techniques.

One alternative is purchase ads shown by the major search engines, known as pay-per-click ads. (See our article Website Ads: Should You Pay for Clicks to learn more.)

We recommend a 1-month pilot campaign to see if pay-per-click is a good investment for your business. Your campaign includes:

• Selecting a single audience and goal
• Creating search phrases and ads to appeal to that audience
• Developing a landing page with your offer (see Website Landing Pages that Close the Deal to learn more about successful landing pages)
• Analyzing the return on investment (ROI)

Cost: $900 + $300 for one month of ads on Google

Please note that the pilot campaign results may indicate value in continuing to pay for the existing ads, adding additional campaigns, or discontinuing the ad campaign. Pay-per-click ads are a business investment that may or may not pan out just like any other form of advertising. 

Just Having a Website is not Enough

A comprehensive marketing plan is an important part of every business. Contact us if you would like to discuss how internet marketing can fit into your overall business strategy.

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