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Going Green And Reaping Profits With SEM
The economic climate has pushed the long-term problems of the ‘other’ climate off top spot as far as the news is concerned. However, many businesses are finding the triple whammy of rising energy costs, cash flow squeeze, and global warming a reason to increase their use of internet marketing.
A good example is Foneshop.com, which is one of the UK’s leading online mobile phone retailers. When they launched their web site in 2003, they managed about 10 orders a day, according to the company’s Group Marketing Director, David Hyett. Their goal was to reach 100 orders a day. By using an AdWords campaign in conjunction with SEO techniques and landing page optimization, Foneshop.com has seen its total orders rise by about 56% and, more importantly, the average value of each order has risen by 54%. They invest about 60% of their monthly advertising budget in AdWords. The result? Over half of their customers find Foneshop.com through Google and the conversion cost per customer has decreased by 29%.
In stark contrast to this, research by Microsoft last year estimated that UK small businesses are spending £3 billion annually on invisible web sites. In a survey of 400 UK SMBs, the research uncovered that
“44% of SMBs not doing search marketing think it is too time consuming; 56% think it is too expensive; and 33% too complicated. However, 76% of SMBs promoting their website on search engines see an immediate increase in sales.”
It’s no surprise, though, that companies that do ‘get it’ are choosing to switch from paper-based advertising campaigns to online marketing. And those that do are reaping the benefits, not only of being first to exploit the potential of reaching a wider market for less cost, but also of grabbing the kudos of being environmentally friendly.
