Seasonal online exposure

A large percentage of products and services offered by small business enterprises is highly seasonal. For instance, snow ski resorts would not target the summer months to run a marketing campaign, but a summer resort on the beaches of Florida certainly allocates a significant portion of their marketing budget to the "hot" months. Most of my client's have a good marketing strategy in place long before their season starts, but occasionally a receive a call from someone who has failed to plan ahead or feel the need for a quick mid-course correction.

As my company's business model is to assist clients with online marketing strategies I am inevitably asked about the time required to launch a new website and begin attracting online visitors. Can it be done in 30 days? How will people find our website? How much traffic can we get to the site?

In most cases except in extremely complex web development projects a site can be created and launched in under 30 days, but what about attracting online traffic immediately after the launch date? The answer is Pay Per Click marketing. A service offered by all major search engines as a way for the search engine to monetize and a ready made solution for instant traffic results.

For example, lets assume that you are the owner of the resort in Florida and you want to attract search traffic from Google for the following search "Beach front resort Florida." You agree to pay Google $1.00 per click or visit to your website for being returned prominently in the search results for "Beach front resort Florida." Your corporate goal for the month is 300 unique visitors from this marketing campaign so you set your monthly budget at $300.00. Now anytime a potential client searches for your chosen search term and clicks on your website URL you pay google $1.00, and in return you have a potential client visiting your website. When you have received 300 visitors your budget is exhausted and Google shuts off your ad campaign.

While the above example was intentionally simplified it was intended to answer in simple terms a question I receive several times a week from my clients. Most individuals are pleasantly surprised to learn that a last minute website project can still provide a healthy return on investment and be used in a last minute marketing campaign. While I strongly suggest planning a website at least 6 months in advance for a seasonal marketing campaign it is still a tool that can be inserted into a hastily conceived marketing strategy.

I also receive a lot of calls from corporations who feel that their existing website is under performing. There can be a few different reasons for a website to be falling short of corporate goals. Sometimes the corporate goals are unrealistic, but in most cases the culprit is the design of the website or the online marketing strategies of the site. Perhaps the site isn't user friendly, doesn't provide good product photographs, poor copy, unattractive colors, incomprehensible navigation, or unreasonable pricing. However, even a perfect website cannot create business without online traffic.

Online traffic need be viewed in two stages. Short term traffic and long term traffic must be differentiated. If a website is well optimized it will eventually attain good organic traffic results. Organic traffic translates to free traffic coming from search engines, partner sites, referring sites, and links. However, if a site is either new or has a history of poor performance an organization cannot count on organic results for quite some time. In the short term it is wise to use Pay Per Click marketing to fill the gap. Eventually the organic traffic will come and Pay Per Click can become supplemental or non-existent in the marketing campaigns employed.

A few other online strategies can be employed for long term success such as blogging, online press releases, and using affiliate marketing resources. A good online marketing firm can make strategic suggestions and provide a road map to online success.

If your season is upon you or approaching quickly I suggest contacting an online marketing firm to prepare your business for online success. Enjoy your season!