It is so crucial that you turn your attention online and begin thinking of your website as an extension of your rent. Better yet, it’s more important to consider your website the focus of your business, no matter what your business is or does.

Let’s play this out…

John and his wife wake up Monday morning to begin getting themselves and their kids ready for the day. John takes a shower and gets dressed for work before heading down to the kitchen where he pours a cup of coffee and reads the paper from the weekend. He begins noticing that there are several law offices that have placed ads throughout the business and sports sections over the weekend. Interested in what he has noticed and knowing that he has a civil case coming up the following month, he pulls his laptop from his work bag and pulls up Google. Looking at one particular ad in the paper he types the name of that law office into his Google search browser and hits the search button. Surprised (or not) the law office, having typed the business name in exactly as it appeared in the newspaper ad, did not show up as a result of his search. 

However, H&H Civil Law did show up and was located downtown close to where John goes to work every week.

Top advertising research firms and data collection agencies report nearly 90% of Americans, after seeing any sort of traditional advertising, take to major search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. to search for that business, product, service, etc. that had caught their attention from the traditional ad. 

While most small-market business owners may not see the importance of having a web presence, some do and those who do score big gains over those who don’t. See, I have no idea if the term “Piggyback Marketing” has ever been coined a legitimate phrase. However, it is a super legitimate idea. 

Thousands of dollars are spent each month in my local market on traditional advertising just to turn up empty in online searches. Luckily, there are a few smart marketer’s around who are capitalizing on others mistakes with a strategy I call Piggyback Marketing. 

Let me play this one out from the opposing angle.

Tom owns a law office in the same town and notices each week how many law offices run ads in the local newspaper, on local radio stations, local tv channel’s, etc. and was told by a very trustworthy friend that on average, 90% of people who see or hear those ads will take to search engines to further investigate the law offices where the majority of those folks will find nothing from searching for those very same law offices spending tons of money each month on traditional advertising. 

Tom sees this as an opportunity to Piggyback off of thousands of marketing dollars from, none other than, his direct competitors. Tom does this by creating a Pay-Per-Click, Search Engine Marketing Campaign paying to have his website show up first on major search engines anytime someone searches one of the law offices he has recorded having advertised on various traditional, local advertising mediums. 

Now Tom ensures his business shows up first whenever ANYONE in his local market types any of the law offices into their search engine. Thus essentially stealing business right out from under his competitors off the back of their marketing dollars.

Clever? Or Genius? No….strategic. Marketing is about strategy and no two strategies are alike. What is your strategy and who is helping make sure it is the right one carried out with precision and passion?

-Matthew Hill