Google Adwords: An Untapped Resource?

As almost everyone knows, Google is the most popular Internet search engine ever created. Besides being the world's best search engine, Google is also a calculator, an interactive mapping tool, and, in recent years, the most popular place for small to mid-sized businesses to advertise online. Why? Because they have devised an ingenious method of making online advertising extremely affordable and easily accessible to the small business community (defined here as businesses with 500 employees or less).

Google's unique advertising tool, Google Adwords, has taken the Internet by storm. It may be particularly useful if your firm is in a traditional business where your closest competitors are not early adopters of Internet technology. Consider the following set of questions to determine if Google Adwords could help your business get more qualified sales leads:

Is your firm in a traditional industry where you have the opportunity to be an "early adopter" of new Internet technologies? Many traditional industries, like manufacturing and food services, for instance, are notoriously late adopters of Internet technologies. There is still a significant percentage of firms in traditional sectors that barely have a Web presence at all. Depending on your industry and your geographic reach (in terms of sales) you may still have a window of opportunity where you can get the jump on your competitors.

Are your closest competitors fully explioting their Internet marketing potential? If you're curious about the number of incoming links you or your competitors have (links to your site from other sites), simply type "link.yourwebaddress.com" into Google. Don't use the quotes, and type in your actual Web address. If you want to do a little corporate spying you can do the same for your competitors' sites. The link information Google provides is part of the public domain and is available to anyone who knows how to access it. Also, visit your competitors' Web sites. Compare theirs to yours. Are they better, worse, similar? Is their content relevant and current? Is the site easy to navigate? Is there some interactive feature/online client service you could offer that would help to set you apart?

If you think of something interactive you'd like to offer email us at info@nurelm.com and we'll give you a ballpark figure of what you can expect to pay. You may be surprised at the low cost of some interactive features, and they could make all the difference in your Web traffic/sales leads generated.

Do you offer a specialized product or service? The more specialized it is, the better you will do advertising with Google Adwords, or with any other form of online advertising, since there are already less competitors out there. The Web is perfect for highly specialized products/services because you may not have enough clients in one geographic region, but if you sell nationally or internationally, you may find that you have hit upon a very lucrative niche, since your target market will grow exponentially as your geographic service region is expanded.

Do you have an established relationship with nationally/internationally known firms that have a large, well respected position on the Internet? If you do and you can get them to place a link to your company Web site from their Web site(s) this will significantly increase your general Google rankings, and place you in a better position to take advantage of Google Adwords. The Google search engine algorithm now ranks you based on QUALITY of incoming links, rather than quantity. A "quality" link is defined by Google as a large, popular, high -traffic Web site.

Is your current Web site consumer-driven or does it simply tout how great you are? Many smaller businesses make this mistake. They build Web sites based on what they want them to say/do, rather than on what their consumers want. Hire a professional Web design firm whose core focus is designing effective, high-traffic, consumer-driven Web sites. If you have done that, you've won half the battle.

If you're not sure if your Web site is a "consumer-driven" site, fill out NuRelm's online Web assessment form and one of our online marketing experts will give you free advice on how to make your site more consumer-driven. Sometimes it's as simple as changing the wording or adding more text. Small intiiatives that sometimes cost little or nothing to implement can make a significant difference in your Web site's popularity/sales leads generated.

Is your Web site information -intensive? The day of barking dogs, waving flags, and animated intro pages is over. Now Internet savvy consumers are interested in one thing; up-to-date, useful, free information. If you give them the content they want they will reward you with sales leads and referrals.

Does your site offer the right kind of information (information your clients and prospects are most interested in)? Note: The right kind of information is not necessarily detailed information about your specific industry or what you are trying to sell. Example: Even though NuRelm is primarily a Web site software and services firm our clients and prospects are extremely interested in not just how to launch an attractive interactive Web site,,but in how to market it once it is out there. Once we understood what most interested our clients/prospects we began offering a monthly online newsletter with detailed, timely information on online marketing. We also launched our online marketing workshops.

NuRelm's newsletters and workshops are designed to better address our clients' online marketing questions and to help them get the most bang for the buck for their Internet dollar. Even though online marketing is not NuRelm's core profit center we have extensive knowldege in this area. In order to build effective, high-traffic Web sites, NuRelm staff members must keep up-to-date on the latest Internet marketing trends and technologies. You must KNOW YOUR CLIENTS and prospects and understand what is it they want want, even if it means offering information in a complimentary area that is not your core profit center.

Focus in on the area that most interests your target market. Do a telephone survey if you're not sure, or ask your clients when you go out on service calls, or send a mass email (although email blasts may get low response rates if they're not done right - like offering to be entered in to some sort of drawing if they fill out the survey).

To summarize, your small traditional business will thrive on the Web if you take the right steps. Bottom line: Know your target market well, give them the information they want, and present it in a friendly, nonthreatening, easy-to find manner. Learning to market online in the most effective way is always a challenge, but one well worth researching. If you consider the above points and you had positive answers to most or all of the above questions, then you should go to Google and learn more about Google Adwords.