Short-Term vs. Long-Term Marketing Efforts
6 Marketing Strategies That Pay Off
by Sharon Housley
In order to create consistent sales cycles and a positive growth trend
businesses usually engage in both short and long term marketing efforts.
Short-term marketing efforts tend to cause sudden sales spikes which
rarely last. These sharp sales increases are usually the result of a
targeted marketing campaign or time limited offer. While short-term
marketing produces sales, long-term marketing efforts must be mixed in to
sustain sales.
Short Term Online Marketing
Mentions
Positive product mentions in forums, newsgroups or within trade
organizations can result in a traffic or sales surge. Product endorsements
and newsgroup conversations are difficult for marketers to control and
time, so while product mentions in forums are short-term marketing, they
lack the organized exposure necessary to maintain sales momentum.
Discounts
Marketing campaigns that involve coupons, discounts or time-limited offers
can also generate product interest. It is important to use promotional
offers sparingly or long-term sales could be jeopardized by having
customers "wait" for the next offer to purchase.
PPC / Advertising
The easiest and fastest way to generate product interest is, of course, to
pay for it. Pay-per-click campaigns are known to drive significant
targeted traffic. Sadly, when the campaign funding ends, the traffic and
sales generally do, too. Regardless, it is important for marketers to
realize that with short-term marketing, sellers can often control sales
and infuse cash into a fledgling product, service or business.
Short-term marketing is also useful for test-marketing new products or
split-testing to find the appropriate price point. With pay-per-click
advertising marketers can control the ebb and flow of site visitors and
make a determination about what banners, keywords, text copy and graphics
convert at the highest rate. The lessons learned in short-term marketing
can then be implemented in the long-term marketing strategy. Marketers can
determine the effectiveness of sales copy and landing pages, implementing
them in a long range of marketing activities.
Long Term Online Marketing
Search Engine Optimization
Undoubtedly the most time consuming, yet important aspect of long-term
marketing involves preparing and optimizing a website for search engines.
Currently the majority of Internet surfers seeking a product or
information look to search engines. Most Internet surfers use keywords to
search for the product, service or information that they are looking for.
Knowing your audience and optimizing a site for keywords and phrases that
potential consumers would use in their search for a product or service is
critical to being found on the Internet.
Search engine optimization pays long-term dividends, but is an ongoing
process, as the search engines themselves are constantly evolving their
algorithms. The goal of search engines is to provide web surfers the best
sites suited to the web surfers' search terms.
Often, changes implemented will not be "seen" by search engines for
several months. It is important to follow search engine guidelines and be
patient.
Fresh Content & Communication
A stream of fresh content like newsletters, tips or blog posts will result
in long-term quality traffic. Fresh content that is posted and updated on
a regular basis will encourage visitors to return. Archived content will
build a base for a variety of related keywords.
Syndicated Articles
Related industry articles will result in genuine interest from a very
targeted audience. Providing related content articles that are available
for syndication will result in links back from websites that contain
similar content. Over time, articles can define a company's expertise on a
subject area. Ultimately, syndicated articles can build confidence with
prospective customers and a level of trust.
When designing a marketing campaign, consider threading long-term and
short-term marketing efforts so that sales are stable and consistent. By
implementing a marketing plan that involves both short and long-term
efforts, sales success can be achieved.
Copyright 2005 Sharon Housley
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll
http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing
RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage
http://www.notepage.net
a wireless text messaging software company.
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