Search Engine Optimization/Direct Mail

[Account Closed]

Hey BP,

How important is it to have a website for motivated sellers and hire someone who specializes in SEO(search engine optimization) when you first start your direct marketing campaign?

[Steve Milford]

It comes back to your marketing budget and tracking the results of your efforts, which you should always do.

After you send out direct mail, people that are interested will usually Google you and or visit your web site.

Ranking high and getting a lot impressions is one measurement, yet direct contact is what I measure most. I.e. what efforts result in best ROI to make the phone ring. In simpler terms, how much money did I spend to make the phone ring AND then how much income came from that lead.

I.e. Let's say I spent $500 in direct mail and I made $7k as a result. That translates into a decent return. It doesn't always go like that though. Another thing to look at is the durability of your marketing. 

For that I mean, how long does your message have staying power? Online impressions are a few seconds and then they are gone. Vs I have found post cards sit on the fridge for a few weeks. No matter what, be prepared to spend time, effort, and money to get phone to ring.

[Brad Carrier]

I'd say it's going to depend on what you're trying to get as a result. If you're doing direct marketing with a link to your site on the letters you just need a nice looking site. Dont' worry about SEO.

If you're doing web marketing you need to rank on the front page of google for your keywords that's different. A nice site for people typing your URL from a flyer is cheap. Paying for SEO to get your site on the front page of google quickly will be expensive. 

[Guillaume D.]

Hey! Having a website is important ONLY if you are driving traffic to it. Otherwise, it will be rather useless. Before considering SEO, I would by far invest in SEM (Adwords). SEO takes a lot of time and work before getting to the first page and it can get quite expensive. With SEM and Adwords, you can easily be on the first page IF you build a strong Adwords campaign (I recommend using specialist and not doing it yourself) and you only pay when people click on your ads on a PPC basis (pay-per-click). PM me if you need more info. Good luck!

[Account Closed]

[Account Closed]

Originally posted by @Brad Carrier: Thanks for your response! 

I

[Account Closed]

[Account Closed]

Hey @Account Closed made a very good point. If you have a URL on your direct mail going out, then there isn't really a need for SEO. If you were going to do anything additional online to help your campaigns, I would recommend retargeting through either Facebook or AdWords. This gives you the opportunity to follow up with customers passively using ads. If you use ad sets with different images, and you also adjust the frequency capping, those retargeting ads turn into powerful marketing tools. Good luck!

[Account Closed]

Thanks!

Originally posted by @Account Closed:

Hey @Account Closed! @Brad Carrier made a very good point. If you have a URL on your direct mail going out, then there isn't really a need for SEO. If you were going to do anything additional online to help your campaigns, I would recommend retargeting through either Facebook or AdWords. This gives you the opportunity to follow up with customers passively using ads. If you use ad sets with different images, and you also adjust the frequency capping, those retargeting ads turn into powerful marketing tools. Good luck!