Let’s take an example of a small company that has a marketing budget of let’s say $5000 to $10,000. They are planning to do direct mail marketing, advertisements in trade journals, and online marketing (pay-per-click, e-newsletters, etc). How much of the marketing budget should I allocate for online marketing?

The thing about online marketing that is very cool is… it is becoming the most measurable. And, results are immediate – you can change on the fly and can make or break $1000s at the end of the day. That’s one downside of one-time ads, once they’re out, it’s a game of wait and see.

You can research and validate your marketplace very easily – just to see if it makes sense even to spend money for online advertising. You can test how well PPC, CPA, etc. works for you with a very short test, $100-$200.

There are resources like google adwords, yahoo,search marketing, Microsoft adcenter (bing), etc.. You can create your most compelling ad copy and target popular keywords in your space. Implement the conversion tracking code provided by Google / Yahoo. You’ll be able to determine the ROI within a short time, and short spend.

It is also great for determining COST PER LEAD.  We love to know how much a lead costs us per marketing campaign/promotion.  The lower we can get the cost the better we can determine the traffic source

Ever wonder what the difference between Traditional Marketing and Modern Marketing?

Marketing in a nutshell is creating awareness and demand for products/services.   The Traditional marketing in a quick overview was a manufacturer with a product or service – a bunch of middleman including traditional advertising (print, radio, tv) and customers. Roughly 65% of all the money in the product mark up was spent within all those middlemen.

Modern marketing has a manufacturer and consumers.  There is the direct to consumer route.  The middlemen are still there but have been simplified and have undergone lots of changes.  Publicity through modern communication tools (print, tv, radio, cell mobile, internet) are providing the end consumers convenience and ease of getting information about a product or service.  The mark up costs to consumer has decreased because of the consumer’s ease of getting access to the product without all the middlemen.