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I decided to write this post because at least  twice a week, I am asked this question by companies with a national focus.  What does it cost to dominate a national market online?

Believe it or not I have a relatively accurate answer on how much it would cost to dominate any national market online.  Sounds fantastic, but it’s really rather simple, sorta…

Before I give you the answer I will give you my definition of what I consider dominating a national market online actually is.  Very simply, I would want to be in a position where I attract more leads or prospects than my competition, have a higher close rate than my competition, and have a lower cost per lead acquisition than they do. There are many other variables but with those in place you are in a good position to out spend them and out price them.

The businesses that can do best on the Internet are the ones that have products or services that are actively searched for by Internet users.  Since clicks from natural search results do not cost you anything and have a higher conversion rate than paid or sponsored advertising, the advantages to constantly being found by your target audience in the natural search results is an obvious vehicle to domination.

This alone of course would not be enough.  You would still need a Web presence that converts those visitors to clients, and you would need to engage in online brand management to enjoy continued success etc… but we will assume this is in place.

Ok, so enough definition!
How much would it cost to dominate a national market online?

Let me give you both ends of the spectrum, and then the realistic middle.

At one end of the spectrum, I get business owners that are fully intoxicated by the Internet marketing hype they read on the web and just when they are in their most excited state, they contact me and offer up an entire thousand dollars a month to dominate their national market.

As I begin to sober them up during our conversation, they wonder out loud, “how about just eight or ten of the biggest cities in the USA, could we do that?”
My answer is “would your competitors be willing to pay $1000,$2,000 etc.. per month to dominate in that many major cities?”  If the answer is yes, then they probably are spending that and more, so all things being equal, your chance  of success is about zero.

At the other end of the spectrum are the Internet marketing miracles that we read about.
This is really what my callers are looking for.  The discount miracle, and sadly they could buy a reasonably priced miracle that I will explain below

They hear about  Start ups with almost no cash crushing their competition.  It is these stories that intoxicate business owners into thinking with a $1,000 a month they can own it all if they use the Internet.
They are almost correct.

A highly skilled Internet Marketer working passionate long hours, week after week could do it.
But the guys  that knock it out of the park with no money are have the seeds of a great marketer in them!
They are the exception.

If you are not one of those guys and cannot find one for $1,000/month, your out of luck on the daydream side of this equation, but as I said, a reasonably priced smash success is attainable.

SO, The exact cost of dominating a national market online is:

1  full time great online marketer + a reasonable outsource budget (for his tools) + a good business

I know, you look at my formula and say what’s “reasonable” and define “great”?

A great Internet Marketer is more than paying for himself and growing your company in 3-4 months provided all your other elements where in place and you have a decent offer that is in demand.  If your offer sucks nobody can help you.

A great Internet Marketer is just like a direct marketer but uses the web.  Good at tracking, testing, copy, seo, social media, list management, auto-responder management, affiliate management, JV management and more.  Look for a persuasive individual that could sell ice at the North Pole.  Many of these guys are total do it yourself kinda folk but if you can find one with project management and outsourcing experience they can leverage that and move you along faster. 

As an example, they don’t have to write all the good copy but they must be able to recognize it!  I would also prefer someone that is not so married to their opinion, that they neglect split testing and tracking.  Marketing is a numbers game and that is one of the reasons finding the right person is hard.  You are looking for a creative numbers guy, that is rare.

Reasonable is compared to what others are doing.  You can do more with less based on how good your Internet Marketer is, but a budget is still required.  For example if many of your competitors are engaging in article marketing and releasing one hundred articles per month you will likely need some budget to outsource some good articles.  At the same time a good Internet Marketer will get you more attention with five articles then your competitors get with one hundred by crafting the right headline and going after the best keywords and then ensuring your articles rank high with advanced SEO methods.

Good news is most companies could not find a good Internet Marketer if he fell through their roof and generally they hire overpriced fakers.

Your Internet Marketer is your quarterback, he should know how to find the right mix of cheap article writers, bloggers, software, graphic design etc… that is good enough to accomplish what?  National domination.

So to fully clarify my formula above,
the minimum cost of entry for dominating a national market is acquiring an  individual that has the skill set to do so.

This is no different than needing the right goal tender if you want to win the Stanley Cup or finding the right CEO to turn a company around.

In my experience the people that are capable of achieving this will not take a “job” under
$60,000 and $100,00/yearly plus a very interesting percentage of success.  I expand on their common personality type later in this article.

BEWARE I have seen many get paid this much, that couldn’t sell water in the desert.  They usually learned marketing in a school setting and have never actually made significant sums of money for themselves or anyone from the Internet.  These are the fakers.  Lots of theory, no profits.

So is this good news or bad news?

The real tragedy is an even having to answer that question.

Any business that thinks twice about achieving a dominant national position with a 100k/yearly budget is either in a very unprofitable business or is completely out on cloud nine when it comes to the Internet.

In my opinion most companies that have over 15 employees, have products or services that are aggressively searched for online nationally, and have a scalable operation that can serve those consumers and  DO NOT hire a full time skilled Internet Marketer, are robbing themselves of the greatest growth opportunity avaiable today!

If you don’t have the money that’s a different story but I hear companies say:
“We don’t have the money to hire a full time Internet Marketer.”
yet they hire an extra salesman at 60k a year hoping his cold calling will help the bottom line and finally help them hit the big time.  ????

Now, this may sound like a rant from someone with a vested interest
as I am an Internet Marketer for hire, but I can tell you that my passion on this subject is based on observation.
The companies doing this properly are crushing their competitors.

I have been around every kind of advertising and the Internet is still in the day of the wild wild west.  Opportunities abound because 99% of companies are doing such a poor job.

There is a killing to be made online but it requires the right person, full time, being paid a reasonable amount and provided a reasonable expense budget for his tools.

What can you expect trying to hire a good Internet Marketer?

Well, its going to be different than what you are used to.

These are generalizations but they are based on extensive observation.  The ones I know have varying formal education but almost all of them had to self teach themselves succesful Internet Marketing strategies through extensive trial and error and generally they are entrepreneurial and got into the game because they like to set their own schedules.

You can expect that most will be really hard workers, up on Sunday at midnight plugging away.  You can also expect they will sleep in until 10 am on Monday and will not be keen on being told when and where they have to work.

This personality type  is driven by results and not keen on conformity 
They believe that if they increase your sales by 40% they should be allow to do it from any location they want.  Personally I think it’s a fair trade off.

How can you cover your risk?

  Give your new Internet Marketer three or four months at most depending on your current situation, if your not getting significant measurable results that far exceed your costs for staffing the position, find someone else.  If the fault is with your business model or offer and not the marketer they should have been able to tell you that very quickly, so I would still fire them.  Testing offers on the Internet and tracking results is NOT that difficult and I have seen some Internet Marketers turn a company around in 30 days.

Want to discuss this with me further?  Contact me at 888-298-2237 or email me at peter at peterlessard.com

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