Lead Generation & Internet Marketing: How to grow your business in 2011

Posted by Salem Global on Dec 28, 2010

Happy New Year Everyone! What are you doing now? Are you on vacation or are you working? Or as my father used to ask, “are you working hard or hardly working?”

(As you can see according to my pictures I am hardly working as the snow has shut down New York City: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=254976&id=655317826&l=85b7897080)

My conversations with friends, colleagues, business partners, family, fellow networkers and anyone on the street these days usually turns into a reflection of how the year went and how next year looks. Sort of like a State of the Union address. So I guess, while I got my ice skating in Bryant Park NYC out of the way today and while my computer uploads my snow blizzard pictures of Dec 2010 to my facebook account, here is my 2 cents about how things went this year and what’s in store for 2011…

2010 started out on a positive upswing. After 2 miserable years of hemorrhaging business, (2008 and 2009 were particularly terrible years due to the economy) and the fact that organizations usually cut their marketing budgets in bad times… (usually a short term save but long term loss since any competition that continues to market throughout unfavorable market conditions usually recovers faster since they show consistency and continue the momentum of branding while others get left behind in the dust…) 2010 was relatively a decent year. It wasn’t as great as 2007, when the economy was rocking and the Internet marketing industry was hot, but we picked up a few accounts and that added to our bottom line.

So starting out with a positive attitude is always necessary but realistically speaking, companies were still afraid to bite the full marketing bullet and invest in their websites, online marketing and general marketing.

At SalemGlobal, we always learn from our mistakes as well as from the good things we have done. Just like Brian Tracy and Ken Blanchard teach, reward your employees or “catch them doing something RIGHT” (as opposed to something wrong.) You will find that their self-esteem and confidence will rise and so will their productivity which will have a positive effect on your work environment as a whole.

For us, this was the year of “lead generation” as opposed to your plain old SEO-search-engine-optimization-we-can-get-you-to-the-top-of-Google strategy. SO WHAT if someone can get you to the top of Google. And as a matter of fact, in 2010 Google made some design changes to its SERP (search engine results page) so that they can sell more ad space. Now, in addition to the top 3 sponsored ads (now just called “Ads”), they have elevated the local listings so that the organic listings are way way down on the page. Sometimes they don’t just show the top 3 local listings, sometimes depending on the keyword they will show ten!

So where does THAT leave your SEO company? Who cares right? What you really want are leads. And more than that, you really want QUALIFIED leads and even better CLOSED BUSINESS!!!! I started out in the web design business in 1997 and have built hundreds of websites. But did the doctors get more patients from their websites? Did my real estate clients sell more houses and condos? Did my car dealerships sell more cars, parts, and accessories? Did the non-profits get more donations? The truth is that some years they did and some years they didn’t. The Internet has made many twists and turns on the roller coaster of an industry. Now everyone wants to be on twitter. Yesterday everyone wanted to be on linkedin. Before that you NEEDED to be on facebook. And everyone needs a mobile app. Oh and of course you HAD to be on Google. And of course don’t forget Yahoo, AOL, Lycos, Alta vista, excite, Ask, prodigy and CompuServe. What does it all mean? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI)

I will tell you what it all means. Like I said earlier. All businesses need to CLOSE business. Not seek out the latest and greatest trend. What works for one organization might not necessarily work for another. We have changed our business plan a few times over the past 14 years and each time we get closer to getting it right. As the refrigerator magnet says: “It’s all good in the end. And if it’s not all good, it’s not the end…” Business and making money is a journey. It should be fun and frustrating along the way but ultimately you need to live your life. So my message as we close out 2010 is to seek out and find that balance. Figure out what is your best marketing strategy. Keep on monitoring your Google analytics and keep on looking at the numbers. As the economy gets better, we will all benefit. This week however, enjoy the snow

Want to know more about lead generation for your business. Call Raphi Salem at 212-993-5828 or just email info@salemglobal.com and we can have a great brief to the point chat about how you can benefit from our Internet marketing and lead generation strategies.

Happy New Year!

Raphi Salem