The Power of Contextual Marketing

When ever someone mentions the term Search Engine Marketing (SEM) two words automatically come to mind - Volume and Exposure. These are things that all businesses need to create an ongoing stream of income.

Search Engine Marketing allows your business to expose itself to hundreds, even thousands of potential customers for less than it would cost to do so via traditional print media like newspapers or and direct mail letters. This is great for smaller business owners who have much smaller marketing budgets than the bigger companies.

The basics of SEM remain simple. Build a site. Optimize it around the topic keywords and phrases people use to search for your information. The better the optimization, the higher your placement results. The internet works 24-7 advertising your products and services. You can wait weeks even months for the search engine to index your site. Plus there is no guarantee your site will show in a top 30 spot. A position needed if you want ongoing sales from your site.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Search Engine Marketing eliminates the long indexing wait and secures your placement in the top positions. You simply bid on topic keywords. The higher the bid... the higher your placement in the results. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad link. Your site appears in the results within minutes (not weeks or months) once your ad campaign starts.

You can build your opt-in list quicker, test product ideas and marketing campaigns, and reach potential customers faster. Of course to remain competitive, you must increase your bid to stay in the top results and for some keywords that can translate up to $5 or more per click.

Both SEM and PPC have commonalities. They both drive targeted visitors to your site and there is a learning period where you can pay little money to test the system and then build up your bids as you learn which keywords are more effective. Ongoing tweaking is very important.

Contextual marketing, is the latest method of marketing. It has the same effect as SEM and PPC but is much simpler to use, especially for business owners new to internet marketing.

The potential of contextual marketing is staggering and takes the best of both SEM and PPC to greater levels. Your ad appears within the web page content instead of appearing on the side or top sections of search engines.

People reading your advertisement in the search results have already pre-qualified themselves because they are searching for what you have to offer. This way you receive a more targeted visitor who can translate into a sale.

If you're looking for a good cost effective way to reach new customers, contextual marketing maybe an excellent option for you. Try it and compare it. You might find yourself surprised at the results.

Tina Valiedi is a Chief Editor for MPStrategies Firm, a company whose breakthrough service unleashes the power of the internet to drive hidden potential clients to your site. Find out how at: http://www.mpstrategiesfirm.com