Pay-Per-Click Search Engines. Pay per click search engines are another way to become visible to new customers. Use them carefully, however. Do not bid more per click than profit you expect to make from that click.

Search Engine Roles in Marketing Mix

High search engine placement can produce both short term and long term results. Short term, you can gain immediate sales. Long term, results come as potential business partners find your site.

Do not, however, become obsessed with search engine optimization to detriment of your other marketing strategies. Search engine marketing should be one part of a more comprehensive plan. Include other marketing strategies in your plan to reach additional customers.

As an example of how this can work, I generally put only two or three hours a month into direct search engine optimization. My primary focus is on quality content, which simultaneously creates stronger search engine rankings for my site and makes site more attractive to visitors. This approach has gotten me results with Google - nearly 20,000 visitors a month through free search engine as of June 2004.

Another approach to search engine optimization is to hire an outside expert to work on search engine marketing while you focus internally on other parts of marketing mix. If you take this route, however, be alert for agencies that use tricks that go against search engine guidelines to increase your rankings. These approaches may get you results in short term, but could get your site reduced in rankings or banned in long term.

Once you integrate both long term and short term strategies into marketing mix, your business is better poised to prosper for years to come.

Promotional products can be an easy, affordable and profitable addition to your marketing plan.

For example, carwash owner made an initial investment of about $1.30 for each of pens he was passing out. The minimum amount of money I had to spend to wash my car was $1.50 (it took six quarters to start washing process). Because no other carwash owner gave me a free pen, and because I was satisfied with washing experience, I’ve returned to that particular carwash on five other occasions in past three months. That’s a minimum of $10.50 spent at carwash—a $9.20 return on carwash owner’s original $1.30 investment. Of course, I’ve spent much more than minimum required to wash my car, so return on investment is even greater.

Promotional products range in price from less than a dollar to several hundreds of dollars each, and there is virtually no end to kinds of promotional products available.

You’re already familiar with promotional items such as pens, calculators, and key rings, but did you know you can get TV remote controls, microwave popcorn, and even executive leather desk chairs with your logo and contact information printed on them?

Given variety of promotional products available, there’s no reason you couldn’t find a product to fit your particular marketing need and budget. If you spend a little time searching, you will find a great price on a great promotional product that will significantly increase effectiveness of your marketing plan—generating sales and leads for your business.