Short Term vs Long Term Marketing Efforts
by Sharon Housley
Published on this site: August 10th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month
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.
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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