Twenty or thirty years ago, there was no such thing as online marketing. Even as recently as 15 years ago, the idea of actually promoting or using a website to drive sales was just a crazy notion. Nowadays, the game has changed as traditional marketing is losing ground to the latest form of online marketing, Search Engine Marketing.

Let me make a distinction, before the article goes on any further, Search Engine Marketing is different than Search Engine Optimization. Your Search Engine Optimization should be an ongoing event, with a distinct focus. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a much more flexible form of marketing your website on the internet. With SEM, you can create or edit ads on the fly, create landing pages with special discounts or promotions, and boost your budget for more visibility with the click of a mouse. But the question remains, does your traditional marketing line up with your search engine marketing?

Every time we check the mail, we receive coupons, announcements and advertisements from local or even national businesses. Most of this gets thrown away somewhere between the mailbox and the front door without as much as an interested glance. The reason that these mailings aren’t as effective is because in most cases, a person checking the mail in their bathrobe is not ready to make a decision with the information you just put in front of them. With search engine marketing, it is completely different. You have the ability to put your ads, discounts and special offers in front of a user who is specifically looking for the product or service your company offers.

Many times, companies either do not take advantage of this online audience, either because they do not utilize SEM, or because they do not update their ads to reflect the latest happenings in the business. Ad groups can be turned on and off without having to delete them. Does your company advertise a semiannual sale with 50% discounts twice a year? You had better have a PPC ad campaign to support that. You can easily set a run date for the campaign, to assure that the ads do not run once the sale has ended. Instead of losing a customer as soon as they shuffle through the mail and save only the important items, you can capture your audience at the very moment that they are ready to buy.

If you send out postcards announcing the arrival of a new product, you have done a good job of getting your new product in front of the customer’s eyes, but most of the time the reader isn’t necessarily interested and you might as well have just thrown a truckload of money into the nearest landfill.

In short, most times, direct mail is great at growing brand awareness, but not great at motivating customers to make buying decisions. When used in conjunction with a search engine marketing campaign, however, they can become a formidable force that can grow your brand and sales to levels you never dreamed possible.