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Your Marketing Wakeup Call

January 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Times are changing. I read another article today that by the end of the year The New York Times will cut 100 newsroom positions. I write for About.com, which is a company owned by The New York Times, so this news saddened me.

I’m fortunate that I started in the online industry in 1997. As such, I’ve always adopted new media easily, but I think it’s because that’s where I began my career.

I’ve met with general managers of newspapers, editors and writers – our discussions always end up around the lack of adoption of new media when it was introduced by traditional newspapers. Unfortunately, those same newspapers are feeling the pinch during this time.

I’m not saying that traditional media is a dead-end, but let’s think about it. When was the last time you went out into the driveway to pick up your daily newspaper? When was the last time you pulled out the yellow pages to look up a telephone number?

We all knew that the Internet would change our daily lives – some of us slow to adopt, but now we can’t imagine living without it. There are many people who could handle a cable outage easier than an Internet outage. Need proof? Turn off your computer for 24 hours – cut off your access to the Internet. Did you just have a panic attack thinking about it? I did.

I find it amazing that companies still often depend upon the traditional means of marketing and look at the new media options as alternatives. They will pay more for a one time advertisement in a magazine than they will on their website design. They will seek out a radio spot before measuring the impact social media could have on their business. Do you see my point?

Put your business into check.

  • How is your website? Does it reflect your business accurately? What message does it reflect when it comes to professionalism?
  • Are you writing a blog and interacting with potential customers or is your website static and dull?
  • Are you doing search engine marketing? How are you ranking when customers type in keywords? Are you showing up?
  • What about social media? Have you dipped your toe in the water? If for no other reason than to monitor your online reputation and protect your brand?

Don’t abandon the traditional vehicles of marketing, but be sure to integrate it with online marketing and new media options; otherwise you may end up struggling like the newspapers are today.

Filed Under: General Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Relationship Marketing, Social Marketing Tagged With: , , ,
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Why Search Engine Marketing is Important

January 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Why is search engine optimization and search marketing important?

I Can Give You 134 Million Reasons.

Why should you care if you are listed in the search engines? There are 134 million reasons. That is how many people use the web each month. Over 85 percent of those people use search engines. Search Engines serve as an information clearinghouse to large majority of Internet users.

Search engine optimization is often referred to as internet public relations. High rankings in major search engines enhance the credibility and the brand awareness of your company, but this is not the only reason search engine optimization is important.

Major search engines have a job to do and it is to provide the most relevant information on terms searched for. In order to perform their jobs accurately they are programmed to take the path of least resistance when it comes to exact terms that users ask for.

There are two common ways to get listed in search engines. One is to use a pay-per-click search engine. The other is organic or natural search engine results. Utilizing both options are considered Search Engine Marketing.


Why is Search Engine Optimization Important?

When you consider that even the largest search engine index only contains 20% of the three billion web pages that reside on the Internet, it’s easier to understand how search engine optimization increases your chances of being found by your target audience. Without search engine optimization and proper search engine marketing your site will be as difficult to find to your prospective customers and clients as a needle in a haystack.


Build it and they will Come: Can you really afford to take that risk?

While professional search engine marketing is not cheap, it’s important to understand it’s one of the most vital marketing weapons available to those who wish to use the Internet as a vehicle to create and increase their business. It’s a myth to think that just because you build a website the visitors will just show up. It takes work, consider investing in search engine optimization in order to draw the traffic into you rather than your competitors.

Filed Under: General Marketing, Interactive Marketing Tagged With: , , , ,
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It’s Mine – I Own It, But What Will I Do With It?

December 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment

It’s Christmas. While most people are surrounded by family and friends I have found myself snowed in. I could have spent time gorging on food or watching chick flicks that make me cry, but instead I spent the day redeveloping and designing Laura Lake.com

I launched LauraLake.com the day my name changed to Laura Lake. I’ve been in marketing for 12 years now and if there is one thing I’ve realized, if you can’t market yourself – well you won’t be very good at marketing anything else.

I’m fortunate, I am my brand. I’ve locked down the front page of Google and I don’t care that there is a life coach by the name of Laura Lake that appears on Oprah quite often and an attorney that appears on Nancy Grace at least once a month named Laura Lake – I’ve beat them all.

Do you market your brand? When someone searches for you is it you that they find? I have many people that tell me that doesn’t matter, but even if you are job hunting or established in your career – when people search for you it says a lot about you when you can be found.

I’m making promises on this Christmas day to write more in my own “personal” blog and to be honest I hope I can stick with it – no, this isn’t my first year making that promise, obviously. My problem with writing here is I run out of things to say – Hey, stop laughing, I can hear you ya know, it’s a new feature in this blog it records everything you say and do while reading (ok, not really but I’m sure we aren’t far away from that invention.)

Truth is it’s not that I run out of ideas or topics to write on, I just put more of that information on the About.com Marketing site. I’ve always used this site as more of my ramblings, rants and revelations. I’m hoping that now that I’ve spent Christmas day redesigning and giving it a fresh look I will again find the excitement that LauraLake.com once held for me, if not you are free to yell at me.

Until next post – it’s me signing out!

Filed Under: Smalltalk / Ramblings Tagged With: , , ,
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