AGIS | Web Development & Marketing Blog

Is it Worth it?

That is a question you may ask yourself everyday, perhaps even multiple times a day.

…is it worth doing this load of laundry now, knowing the kids’ practice clothes will be in the clothes hamper in four hours?

 …is it worth washing the car even though there is rain in the forecast tomorrow?

 …is it worth going to the gym this morning when the entire house needs cleaned and exercise will be obtained via vacuuming and scrubbing floors?

 Okay, maybe these are just the neurotic questions I tend to ask myself as I’m always looking for ways to be more efficient in time management, but you get the point! Does point 1 outweigh point 2? Does it make sense to do A, when you know what lies ahead with B?

In any business, one needs to ask questions and assess information to make good, solid decisions, especially in these volatile economic times. Most decisions directly affect bottom line, and that is where the question of “is it worth it” comes into play. Maybe the questions above aren’t the best to illustrate an “is it worth it” question from a financial standpoint (although with gas so high, daily exercise through cleaning house or jogging the neighborhood may outweigh driving 14 miles roundtrip to the gym and back). Every dollar matters today, and every decision made in business should be viewed from a financial standpoint.

 Take the situation of one of our clients. In the manufacturing sector, they and their peers, including other manufacturers, vendors, OEM’s, etc. participate in several trade shows per year. Trade shows are the perfect venue to display new goods/services, meet and greet customers, clients and prospective customers and clients, hold strategic planning meetings with vendors and distributors and generally speaking, “be seen”!

 But at what “cost” is it worth it to be seen these days?

 I’ve approximated the amounts below for a client’s participation in a recent trade show:

•  Booth space at expo hall: $33,000
• Exhibit company – prep, shipping, set-up/dismantle: $15,000
• Hotel for eight employees (3 nights/each): $5,400
• R/T airfare for eight: $6,000
• Meals, cab/bus fair, other incidentals: $5,000
• Meetings/meals for customers: $8,600
• New shirts for staff: $1,700
• Marketing firm work (i.e. advertising/press; coordination of all hotel, meetings, space, exhibit; correspondence with all staff, sales representatives, hotel staff, banquet managers, etc.): $8,000
• Other miscellaneous (i.e. shipping charges, special signage/printing, etc.): $3,000

 Total: $85,700

 Wow – a lot of ca-ching for three days of exposure! Think about the kinds of things a business could do to gain similar exposure with almost $90,000? That kind of money buys a lot of print advertising in trade journals and magazines. It would also buy a company a lot of air time on regional radio stations. A new website with all the bells and whistles, plus a mobile website for smartphone using customers? There is a good chance $90,000 would cover it! How about engaging the company in a new internet marketing plan, including SEO, PPC and a social media plan to go with? With $90,000 they’d be off to a great start!

 Now this article isn’t to knock trade shows as there is a lot of marketing benefit from gathering with peers, competitors and customers who are all like-minded in their business goals and who can share ideas, thoughts and product innovations. Instead, the point of this blog is to pose the question as you ponder business decisions for 2012…

 Is it Worth It?!

Call the internet marketing experts at AGIS for information and a quote (and yes…we do trade shows, too!)

Found a great article on working on long term relationships relative to Search Optimizaton and results.

To build trust you must first gain permission to communicate with your potentials clients. Here are a couple of ideas how do connect/educate and build a relationship with your clients.

1. Offer Subscriptions
2. Ask them to sign up on your email list
3. Blog Readership
4. White Paper Downloads
5. Helpful Tools
6. Twitter/Facebook/Social site engagement
7. RSS Subscriptions

Six steps to building that longer term relationship.

1. Ask for permission
2. Create stepping stones
3. Make your customers successful at something i.e. makeing a sale or increasing click through rates
4. Segment and treat them special. Give them something of value the can’t get anywhere else
5. Provide learning content
6. Be respectful of peoples time

If you focus on longer term relationship vs the One Night Stands you will win in the long run and gain repeat business.

Pay Per Click advertising is a search engine marketing tactic that is making its way into many businesses marketing budgets. Pay Per Click or PPC are the text advertisements that can be found on all your major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. They are the results that are found under sponsored links on the top and right side of the search results.

Many of our clients find PPC advertising appealing because of the relatively low cost advertising and that it provides instant search results for keyphrases related to your business products or services. If you want to be on the top of page one, that is a reality no matter how large or small your business is and you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.

Level The Competition

PPC advertising is primarily used to get your website searched for keyword phrases related to your products and services, so that when a potential customer searches for your products or services your website is found and given the opportunity to make a sale. One of the most over looked features of PPC advertising is the ability to target your competition. In addition to showing up for product and service related keyword phrases, your advertising campaign can be setup to show up for keyword phrases related to your competition. So when someone searches for your competitions name or url your ad will be at the top of the search result. This is a great opportunity for smaller businesses to get the exposure of a larger corporation and to take some of that market share. It’s like posting a billboard for your coffee shop right outside of Starbucks.

AG Information Systems is bases in Lancaster County, PA. We provide Internet marketing strategies including PPC advertising for clients local to Lancaster, York, and Harrisburg PA as well as client nation wide. For more information about targeting your competition with PPC advertising or Internet marketing in general contact us at 717-285-7105.

Brian Weit
AG Information Systems