Amidst the current downturn in the global economy visionary entrepreneurs are scrambling for position to capitalize on growth markets. We understand as we look to the future that green industries represent a key area of growth. Timing is now great for small business start-ups to become major players that shape the landscape of this industry. Does your company focus on wind, water, fuel cells, efficiency, pollution controls, waste management, organics, or being environmentally best in class?

Understanding your market and targeting your small business marketing will position you to become a major player in the green industry. Have you heard Realtors say the three most important keys to business are “location, location, location?” For green industry entrepreneurs, this is also true. However, it’s internet location which is important. Why is that? Inherent to the green industry your target is not locally confined. It is national or global. This is integral in determining the methods of marketing you employ. This is why it is important you utilize search engine optimization [SEO] as a key area of your marketing focus.

According to a recent Penn State survey 10% of your target audience will be searching to make a purchase or searching for your company. Conversely, there is an 80% chance your target market will be searching the internet for facts or information about your product or service. So, in order to capitalize on the majority of searches you need a website that provides relevant content about your green specific product or service.

Essentially, there are two ways that internet searchers will arrive at your site following a search. You either have to appear high in the organic rankings or be in the top few sponsored search results. To clarify, the sponsored search results are paid ads that will appear at the right side of the page or in a different color at the top of the search results. Interestingly enough, according to another study at Penn State, people are very suspicious of the sponsored ads. In fact, according to their research, about 80% of internet users will click the organic links rather than the sponsored links.

The first lesson to learn from this—in contrast to what Search Engine Placement [SEP] companies will tell you—investing the time to create a website with several highly optimized pages targeted for specific topics and keyword phrases will provide you with a much higher return on investment [ROI] than spending money on sponsored links. In future articles we will continue to explain the differences in SEO and SEP, so that you can have a clearer understanding of how search engine marketing [SEM] can be employed to provide the most value—both short term and long term—for your small business start-up. In the next article we will discuss how using narrow keyword phrases versus broad based keywords will impact your business. Make sure to subscribe so you do not miss out.

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