With the rising cost of mailing, its not as feasible to use direct mail marketing as it used to be. There is a new focus on green marketing practices, and big companies are relying on other methods to stay in front of their customers. In the past ad agencies turned to direct mail marketing because they could focus on specific demographics and tracking techniques to reach their marketing goals and even David Ogilvy talks about starting his advertising career with direct mail marketing.

Search Engine Optimization and Search engine marketing has been looked to as a very viable alternative to Direct Mail Marketing. An search engine optimized website can bring you just as many clients as direct mail for a fraction of the cost, and even more insights into the behaviors and demographics of your customers.

Of course, the massive potential of SEO has brought an onslaught of SEO spammers who have flooded the internet with marketing copy designed for Search Engine Optimization that isn’t really bringing a lot of value to the person that finds it, but provides value to the marketer. There is a balance that needs to be achieved if you want your website to be effective when people arrive at it.

One area where a lot of businesses are still spending money that could be shifted to SEO is local yellow pages ads. Many companies could benefit from re-allocating the monthly amount spent on yellow page advertising over to search engine optimization and see a greater return on investment

We like to promote a balance between good SEO practices and quality content. It’s a sure way to make sure that the people that do find your company get something of value from visiting your website.