It always amazes me.
So many social enterprises, ‘green’ businesses and more-than-profit companies with little or next to nothing in the way of marketing budget.
Yet they expect to be on Google’s Page #1.
They simply don’t understand the problem they’re facing.
There’s no doubt we are living in amazing times. The Internet has significantly lowered the cost of starting and maintaining a social enterprise. And, of course, social media has made it relatively easy to connect with people all over the world.
But ~ with everyone and his brother out there telling his story and selling their stuff, it’s harder now than ever to market your Cause ~ especially if you’re a small social enterprise with no money for marketing.
Two important changes have to happen, if you want to be successful online.
Tight budgets no longer work
The signal-to-noise ratio makes it very difficult to stand out, even for uniquely talented individuals. And that’s just as true for a major corporate brand with a £5,000 a day keyword habit.
Marketing today is confusing, chaotic, and constantly changing. And what worked yesterday may not work today. Google, for example, now changes the way its algorithm works over 500 times a year.
For more years than I care to remember, I’ve prided myself on getting results despite having to work with tight budgets. I’m a small business owner, too. I know what it takes to make the decision to spend money on a custom-built website versus putting that money back into your family, your house or other endeavours. I’ve always had fair pricing ~ I’m not out to gouge anyone.
But first thing to learn is ~ tight budgets no longer work.
Effective marketing takes time, it takes consistency, and it takes money. Winning strategies and talented individuals don’t come cheap.
So what’s the answer?
Well, for a small social enterprise to succeed today, a couple of mind-shifts have to occur.
First, it begins with realising the game has changed. I’m sorry to say this, but you’re not going to get on page one of Google with a monthly marketing spend of £500 or even £1,500 a month. Just as sure as you won’t generate leads by letting your site sit neglected month after month.
The second shift is this very important realisation.
Marketing is an asset ~ not an expense.
Effective marketing is an asset ~ not an expense.
It’s an asset because marketing is all about investment in building relationships, which happens way before a sales conversation is even considered.
And you need to protect, nurture and grow that investment over time.
When I look at my own personal budget: far more money goes into my biggest asset ~ my house ~ than anything else. This is because my house sustains me and my partner.
It’s the same for marketing. Inbound Marketing, which used to be the poor relation to Sales, now does the lion’s share of building those relationships that pave the way to endless supporters, donors and paying customers.
So once you understand that ~ and you begin to see marketing as an asset ~ next thing is, you’ll realise your budget has to grow. You’ll realise you have to invest more if you want it to be worth more. Then, the more you invest the more you can expect to your asset to increase, until it’s actually producing the return on investment you need.
Now you’ll understand why you can’t put the minimum into a ‘bargain basement’ website ~ then expect stellar results. Well you can, but you’ll be disappointed. You’ll begin to understand why you need compete with an amazing website design and content that fascinates and attracts your audience.
To be constantly creating remarkable, actionable web content is a crucial part of successful online marketing. For most people, website content writing means hiring professional writers who can create content for you, because ~ let’s face it ~ you don’t have the time or the specialised expertise to do it yourself.
And when you finally do call someone who has effective marketing know-how and a solid track record, it will mean you won’t be surprised when that person has to charge money, to help you develop your asset and get you the results you want.
Its either that, or you don’t succeed.
And from where I sit ~ observing what dozens of organisations do online, every day ~ it really is that cut and dried.
But what are your thoughts on marketing budgets? How do you decide what’s enough and what is too much to pay? I would like to hear how you decide how you allocate money to generating effective marketing in your organisation.
![Inbound Marketing Process, From Start to Finish [Infographic]](http://www.socialstrategy.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/hubspot-spokes-330.jpg)
I have about 2,000 subscribers for my youtube videos, and someone I know mentioned something about using Google Adsense on youtube, how does this all work and what do I have to do to get started?
From a technical point of view how Google in different ways can (or could) gather information about users and use it to customize advertisements, both at their own and others’ sites. What kinds of information can be gathered?
If you’re amazed ~ and maybe even a little alarmed ~ about how much Google seems to know about you, brace yourself. Beginning in March (2012), Google now operates under a streamlined privacy policy that enables the Internet’s most powerful company to dig even deeper into the lives of its more than 1 billion users.
Google says the changes will make it easier for consumers to understand how it collects personal information, and allow the company to create more helpful and compelling services. Critics, including most of the country’s state attorneys general and a top regulator in Europe, argue that Google is trampling on people’s privacy rights in its relentless drive to sell more ads.
Compared to what Google knows about us, many intelligence agencies look like child protection services. Theoretically, Google could record a query for pregnancy tests, then nine months later provide advertisements for diapers. Or ~ six years later ~ it could show offers for after-school homework help.
And no wonder. The more data Google collects from its users, the higher the price it can ask for advertisements.
how do i post or can i post something on google i want to post a pic
Google is a search engine. You can’t post on Google. If you have a website Google will likely crawl it and find the pictures if you learn about how to set up your website correctly and also learn about SEO.
How does Google, with it’s innovative culture (personal 20% time) and creative employees, make sure it’s employees remain loyal and do not run off with a great idea and embark on their own entrepreneurial start-up? If an employee has a great proprietary idea, is the idea his or Google’s? I don’t think confidentiality agreements and non-complete contracts are enough to prevent this from happeing. Anyone have an idea?
I have created a youtube account and apparently before I make any comments, or send any messages I need to verify my google account. In order to verify my google account I must give them my phone number, which I don’t want to do. How can I bypass this?
I never heard of them requiring a phone number. Suppose you didn’t have a phone. Then what?
I am abroad and far away from my home country but the ads that I get on Google or Facebook are in my language. How do Google or other websites know where I am from and what language I speak? I have even registered my Facebook account with my new location in a different country!
Cookies in your browser tell them all about you, what sites you visit and a whole bunch of other stuff. Funnily enough I just wrote an article on cookies and the EU Cookie Law and how it is implemented here in the UK, which might help you understand them a little better.
Recently i added my blog with google analytics, after that my revenue has reduced drastically very low. I do not know the reason. I would like to the differences between the two.
The reason you use analytics is so that you can be analytical. What are the analytics telling you? Also, I just read an article which might be of help ~ Using The Wrong Tracking Code Can Cost You $500k a Year.
I read that the people at Google can use a part of their working time not for their normal work but to be creative and to invent new ideas during that time. How does the leadership of Google then gets to know this ideas?
Do the people put these ideas into the intranet, where it can be judged by the colleagues. Or is their a committee of some people, which collects the ideas and evaluates them. Or is it quite different?
Google’s Page #1 with little or next to nothing in the way of marketing budget.
Or do you think Google has good intentions or a bit of both?
Keep in mind, Google does not make much money in China and this kind of publicity will probably increase revenue better than regular Chinese annual revenues for the company.
Do you mean by being honest I am doing Google a favour? Well, maybe. But I would rather be honest and do them a favour, than peddle a whole bunch of feel good nonsense and do hard-working social ventures no favour at all.
Please help me how to solve this problem. I find that when using Google with many users in an office, google blocks us. I can’t use Google search anything now. Does anyone know how to fix this problem?
John,
Google blocks you? How do you know that? Or are you just making the assumption that, because your bandwidth is overloaded and nothing works, its Google blocking you? I can’t imagine why you would even think that. Their whole business model depends on getting ever increasing numbers of people to use their search engine.
I have a list of 100 keywords in Google Adwords. I want to know if there is a program that I can use that will tell me what page in Google each of those 100 appears (or does not appear). So for example if I have keywords: dog, dog collar, and dog food, I want to know what pages in google they appear: ie pages 3, 15, and 99.
Thanks!
Callum, I don’t think you’ve quite understood how search engines work. They don’t rank keywords by themselves, they rank how the websites and the pages they contain rank for specific keywords. Take a look at Market Samurai (free version) ~ it will show you which sites and pages rank for each keyword.
Is it just me or when you go to http://www.google.com, the page is black?
Its just you Mollie.
Hi,
I have recently launched a new website. I just want to know how long does it take for Google to recognize backlinks to my site. I am currently generating backlinks by posting on different forums, blog commenting and directory submission. It has been a week now but still there are 0 backlinks to my site according to Google.
Yahoo is relatively quicker than Google in recognizing backlinks. Does anyone have any idea how long does it take for Google to recognize backlinks to my website?
Not only is Yahoo quicker, it also reports more of what it finds. This organic SEO we’re talking about, and you have to remember, most things don’t move too quickly, and also Google doesn’t report a lot of what it finds, even though it might return it on the SERPs.
How can I cancel my google adsense account and start all over with different name but the same web site? It’s all because I’ve had this google adsense account for more than 2 years and the traffic to my website is quite good, but I only earn US$0.00!! I suspect I’ve missed something at the registration process therefore I’d like to cancel it and start all over again. But how could I do that?
I know how to use google for searching any keyword but when we search any keyword, search engines consider so many factors for SERPs such as back links, urls and titles of the pages. But I need to know how to search in google for the web pages which contain a specific phrase in the body of the page and not in the url or title.
I just got through answering that question here… http://www.socialstrategy.co.uk/my-top-20-seo-tips-tricks.html#comment-516
How does a minor make a Google adsense legally? Does Google adsense take tax out of your check or do they take it out of the payee’s bank account?
Legally? Easy, ask Mum or Dad to sign up for you.
I know that google changed its logo on .com for american veterens day. Why didn’t they change it for ENGLISH Remembrance Day?
Maybe they forgot?