Philadelphia or Phila online marketing

I was a speaker last week at the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce for 2 1/2 hours talking about Internet marketing as an overview. Most of you know I could talk 2 1/2 hours on most anything but this was challenging to cover at least on the surface many facets of a full Internet marketing program.

During the program I took many questions that ranged from several neophytes to quite a few that had some knowledge and had thought about their online strategy. One question that provoked quite a bit of discussion from someone who had done some basic research themselves but had hit a wall – the question “If I want only sell locally what should I use for my keyword, philadelphia or Phila.”

Unfortunately I had to tell them the answer was not that easy or necessarily consistent. It depends on what you are selling and how the buyers of your product or service refer to possible suppliers in your industry.

In other words do buyers – for example – of online marketing services search under Philadelphia online marketing or do they use Phila online marketing? Only research will tell and the research will only tell which one is searched more often not necessarily which one will send more buyers to your site.

It is amazing how many times folks try to view their online strategy with the same eyes and perspective as their more traditional marketing efforts. Frustration can occur quickly as you learn just how little you are in charge of the outcome.

While doing a project for Eastern University for their nonprofit program – how do you spell nonprofit or non-profit or non profit. Once again it does not matter how you spell it it only matters how the people who are going to sign up for your program are going to spell it. Will you know from the start NO

Test, monitor, test, monitor – not really all that different from traditional in that sense most folks do not understand this yet and expect changes and results too quickly.

Be patient monitor and run with it – by the way if you would like to join me for another program I am speaking the end of February here for the Center City Proprietors Association – a good organization if you want to do business in Philadelphia.

Rick Simmons is a principal at Dinkum Interactive, a firm specializing in online marketing solutions for small and medium sized businesses around the globe. With more than 25 years of experience in advertising and marketing, Simmons has spent the last four years focused on search engine optimization, and other Internet marketing strategies. Reach him at 267-626-9094 or [email protected]