Getting New Customers in a Recession

It's safe to say that most businesses are always looking to do more with less... and during the current economic crisis, this couldn't be more true. Companies want to generate new leads with less money and one of the primary ways they're doing this is through the Internet. More specifically, paid search advertising and search engine optimization have been critical factors in obtaining new customers.

In a recent eMarketer article, they state that search engine marketing is more relevant than ever before.

"It makes sense when you think about it. As tough times force many customers to buy less—and to be pickier about what they do buy—search is becoming ever more important to marketers." - eMarketer

The article highlights four primary areas to focus on 1.) paid search 2.) contextual advertising 3.) paid inclusion and 4.) search engine optimization

So what are these?

Paid search is more commonly known as Pay Per Click Advertising. Simply put, you only pay when a visitor clicks on your ad in a search engine and visits your site. The process is slightly more complicated than that - but that's it in a nutshell. You bid on the keywords and phrases your potential customers are searching for and your ad shows up in the search engine listings. If a visitor sees your ad and clicks in to visit your site, you owe the search engine however much it was that you bid for that keyword/phrase - example: $1.50/click.

Contextual advertising is a targeted form of advertising. Contextual advertising systems scan the copy of a site and input relevant ads based upon the keywords/phrases built in to the text of that site. An example is probably the easiest way to understand this one. A lot of our sports websites use Google AdSense to generate revenue. This is Google's platform for contextual advertising. This is an example from BuckNuts.com - a site for Ohio State sports fans.

Paid inclusion isn't really what I would consider a paid search marketing technique - but I guess it could be. This is where a search engine charges a fee to have a website indexed within it. Indexing a site means that when someone searches for it, it appears in the search engine listings. Both Google and Yahoo have free site submissions. This is a must for search engine optimization. However, there are also paid inclusions. Here is some information on Yahoo's.
The only item open here to still explain is search engine optimization... and I'm tempted to leave that to another day. However, a brief overview goes like this: SEO is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website through natural or organic search results. So, you don't have to pay for placement. Overtime, you utilize a variety of SEO techniques to be seen at the top of the search listings for your keywords/phrases. So, where are organic/natural listings and how can I tell the difference? Those can be found below the sponsored links and are not highlighted or designed as "sponsored."

Some traditional SEO techniques include ensuring meta tags are input properly, optimizing content, images and links, creating an xml sitemap, submitting to directories, enhancing one way links and more.

For more info on search engine marketing, contact WSI.

Ambassador Training Session Held

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to facilitate an Ambassador Training Session for all of the WSI Internet Consultants (ICs) located in the Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. The goal of the session was to bring the ICs together to discuss topics such as best practices and lead generation and most importantly to begin networking within our region. Over 20 ICs joined us at the Courtyard by Marriott at the Easton Town Center for the event. We had a great time and look forward to holding similar events in the future.

Columbus Franchise Show a Success

Over the weekend we had the pleasure of representing WSI corporate at the Columbus Franchise & Business Opportunities Expo - February 21st and 22nd.

Lots of great people came to check out the various franchise opportunities available to them. We also met some wonderful exhibitors while we were there, like the guys from Precision Tune Auto Care, Tastee-Freez, and TattleTale.

All our favorite cast members were on hand to help introduce people to the WSI franchise system...

Gene Bonanno


Bonnie Reisland


Jessica Beck


Me


The whole gang...

YBI Makes National News

If you don't already know, our Youngstown office has the pleasure of being located in the Youngstown Business Incubator. That's why we were particularly excited to hear that the National Public Radio featured the YBI on their Feburary 17th morning broadcast.

Heard by over 13 million listeners (including my aunt in New Jersey!), the story focused on the software technology cluster being fostered by the YBI in Youngstown, Ohio. It highlighted some of the organization's key success stories, including Turning Technologies; maker of audience response systems.

Listen to the broadcast now.

Yay for Youngstown!

A Family Operated Business

WSI has an international presence in 87 countries with over 1500 offices worldwide. Fortunately for me, our local office is owned by my father, Gene Bonanno.

I graduated from Mount Union College in May 2006 with a degree in Pre-Law. At that time, I was all set to head off to The University of Akron School of Law... but after one miserable summer in a local law office, I changed my mind and decided to stay at home and work for my dad.

I had been involved with WSI on a part-time basis ever since we opened the doors in June 2005. My choice to stay on full-time was a risky one 3 yrs ago... but it's paying off now. At that time, I knew it was a great opportunity. I could work in a growing industry with an ever-changing landscape and challenge myself with responsibilities most other professionals my age would not have. Most importantly, it would allow me to contribute to an organization in which I had a vested interest. The downside being... it was still a small business in start up mode and working for family generally means working more hours for less.

In the last 3 years, I have been able to work side by side with my to father continually grow our company. We have also added another family member to the staff, my brother - Justin Bonanno - who is key factor in our success.

So, you may be asking why this post? Well, I came across the following article in The New York Times: Resilient in Hard Times: The Family Business. It basically breaks down some important points as to why family owned/operated businesses are better suited for the economic crisis. It's an interesting article in general - but from my perspective, it solidifies why we just keep movin' along. As we often say here, "Failure is not an option."