By Matt Pine

It has now become essential for businesses of all sizes to market themselves online. Every day more and more people are spending a higher percentage of their income online. Naturally, the online business is becoming much more competitive. 10 years ago, online marketing was nothing more than having a website. 5 years ago, it consisted of setting and managing a PPC campaign on Google and Yahoo. In the Web 2.0 world, a company must be much more aggressive to get their share of the business.

Today, search engine optimization is way overpriced and seemingly ineffective for most companies. Likewise, PPC bids have increased to a point where most online businesses must find other sources of leads. Fortunately, these trends coincide with the transformation into Web 2.0.

Users today are very sophisticated and search a myriad of sites before purchasing a product or service online. Consider the following example. Jill wants a new pair of sunglasses. She goes to Google and types in “sun glasses”. Like 90% of Google’s users she never goes to the second page. So every business on the 40+ million pages, never gets a chance at Jill’s business.

Now Jill is as sophisticated as any other American in 2009, and realizes that she will have to shop around to find the right pair for the right price. In fact, instead of clicking on the sunglasshut.com or prada.com, she goes to the images search to find the pair she wants. Now every business that spends thousands of dollars each month to be on the first page of Google has lost their chance at her business as well.

As Jill clicks on different styles she likes she is taken to numerous websites. In fact as of 10/9/09, the first image takes Jill to a social networking site. Soon she finds articles, blogs, and even discussion forums that discuss or display the glasses that she wants. After looking at several different pairs, she finally finds the pair displayed on a blog. These glasses are custom made, and the producer only makes a handful for sale as a hobby.

Now Jill has a great pair of sunglasses and the producer has made a sale. The connection between buyer and seller is now complete. Neither of them took a moment to realize how complex this process has become. In fact, most online businesses are becoming overwhelmed at the thought of marketing their business in the Web 2.0 world.

“Where do I even start?” is a question that I hear all the time. My answer, “give us a call.” I respond this way because each business needs to take a different approach to marketing themselves. In the Web 2.0 world, that means a unique combination of search engines, forums, blogs, wiki’s, social networks, multi-media, press releases, contests, chat rooms, etc.

This is best left to an expert. In fact, the best online marketing companies today will work with you as a partner. You tell them what your business needs are in terms of revenue and the demographics of your client base, and the marketing company should be able to get you the exact exposure that your business needs. Oddly, there are very few guarantees in this industry, which I have never understood. One of the leaders in the Marketing 2.0 industry is VMX Marketing. They have a 100% money back guarantee, which basically states that if they do not get the desired amount of exposure for their client within a set a time frame, then the client’s money is refunded automatically.

My question is, “who is going with the other companies that don’t have a guarantee?”

http://www.vmxmarketing.com

Matt Pine has been on the forefront of online marketing for the last 10 years. Through his experience with numerous businesses of his own and his clients’, he has gained a level of expertise that is unrivalled in the online marketing world today.

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