Why You Need to Trust (and Keep) your SEO Company in a Down Economy
October 16, 2010
When there is an economic downturn, it is no new fact that the first thing in a company’s budget that is cut is its available marketing spend- usually it is the search engine optimization (SEO) budget that is hammered. This is usually the result of a lack of cost justification with hard facts. It has been said over and over again that cutting search engine marketing budgets in a down economy is like slitting your own throat in regards to your company. Of course, the question that first follows a statement like this is “Why?”
Not only is it important to keep your budget for your SEO campaign intact during rough economic waters, but you also have to trust your company to do all the right things to actually take advantage of the down economy and use it to bring you to the top of the SERPs. Most companies would agree at this point that because of the current economic choke chain, there are probably fewer people who are actively searching for their products and services. Naturally, companies approach this fact by reasoning that they shouldn’t pay the same amount of money towards their search engine marketing campaign when their current target market has shrunk. This seems rational, but unfortunately it does not lead to rational decisions.
Enter the coined terms “Push Marketing” and “Pull Marketing”.
Push marketing describes using billboards, direct mail, TV spots and magazine ads to push your message out to the masses, hoping to target some of your ideal customers. This involves spending money to reach a ton of people in hopes that a tiny percentage of them are looking for what you are offering. However, think about it: With the down economy, if your sales have dropped, woudn’t you expect your push marketing results to also drop? Of course. But, too many companies won’t cut their push marketing budgets because “It works”, right?
On the contrary, SEO campaigns and search engine marketing pulls your market in- you are able to target a potential customer at the exact time he or she is looking for what you are offering, and this is regardless of any marketplace declines. Talk about focused progress- you aren’t paying for shots in the dark with your SEO campaign like you are with that billboard on the deserted street that no one can see anyway because of all of the ugly overgrown shrubbery in front of it.
One more thing about holding on tight to your SEO company- Even though your budget for search engine optimization is fixed, think about this for a minute- it is highly likely that many of your competitors have cut their SEO budgets in this economy, leaving you a lot more of the business that is out there.
Can you say “OPPORTUNITY”?