Remember the last time you ran a marketing campaign? What did you do once it was over? If you’re like most people, you likely didn’t get as many leads or sales as you’d hoped, you sulked for a bit and then moved on to your next most important project.

Online advertising is a tried-and-tested method of creating brand awareness, generating leads, and bringing in sales. However, there have been many changes in recent years, with the rise of ad blockers, stricter algorithms on social networks like Facebook, and an increase in privacy awareness that limits targeting.

Win with blogging? Seriously? That’s so 2003.

I get it. You’re skeptical about blogging because you’ve been let down. Maybe there was a time you spent hours at your computer, typing your masterpiece. You hit publish with giddy anticipation, and.

You’re just one keyword away. Or maybe a slight tweak in your metadata, your site structure, or H1 tags. And once you discover Google’s secret combo, then it’s game over.

You win the SEO lottery.

And suddenly the floodgates open. Traffic explodes and millions of visitors flock to your site, profits skyrocket, and you’re off lounging on the sands of some exotic beach with a cocktail in hand and clear, blue waters as far as the eye can see.

So you’re ready to grow. You have a website, and you know you can do more to maximize its potential. But there’s one tiny problem. How will you drive traffic to your site?

You’re seriously considering Google Ads (formerly known as AdWords). After all, advertising has been an effective means of generating business for centuries.

Whatever the specifics of your marketing strategy, it probably includes “Grow my organic search traffic and leads through SEO.”

And why not? Organic traffic offers super high ROI, which is excellent for small business budgets.  But, how do you do it? Well first, let’s cover the two most easily identifiable ways you can boost traffic from organic search, and why on their own, they're not always enough.

The evolution of marketing strategies from mass market campaigns such as billboards and TV commercials to personalized experiences like Facebook and Google ads has changed the way businesses promote themselves.

Any marketing adage that could survive such a foundational shift is bound to be common knowledge then.

If you’re a small business looking to invest in web-based advertising, Google AdWords is the best place to start. Some campaigns can be set up in as little as five minutes.

However, for competitive industries with high value sales such as IT consulting, we typically recommend a minimum starting budget of $1,000/month.

Let’s settle this once and for all...

You and your business must have a blog.

In an age when consumers are hungry for content but stingy with their attention spans, regularly posting concise, high-quality content comes with several tangible benefits to your business and its marketing efforts.

As a business, you want to make the most of your website. When you look at the sales funnel, there are a number of reasons why website visitors might walk away from it. This includes a desire to “just browse,” comparison shopping, or maybe just an unwillingness to take the next step at the moment.

You've done your competitor and keyword research. You've agonized over your ad and landing page copy. You've done everything possible to make sure that your PPC campaigns are optimized and ready to start attracting site visitors straight out of the gate.

Business owners who think their education stopped the moment they finished college or grad school are in for a big shock. Learning new trades is critical to staying ahead of the competition, and in today’s lesson, at the top of Google’s results page.