Unlike MSN and Yahoo who
Unlike MSN and Yahoo who have programs that are much simpler in terms of use for small business people, Google favors a technology driven solution that relies less on customer support, and expects users of their system to become more sophisticated.
The problem with this is that it is working quite well for professional internet marketers and search engine marketing companies employed by big corporations, but many small business people who are not web-savvy are by and large left out of the mix. This is unfortunate because this is a huge segment of potential income that is left “up for grabs” and may be scooped up by MSN and Yahoo who are developing simpler, easier systems with better customer support.
All the major search engines recognize this problem, and getting those “offline” advertisers online is a high priority for all of them, but so far there has not been great success. It is a knowledge and training gap, and neither Yahoo, MSN, or Google has so far been able to address it adequately.
Google’s recent acquisition of urchin, a web analytics program illustrates the problem Google is trying to solve. Big Companies getting involved in paid search will still continue to drive big revenues, but the new internet is about verticals and niches, and Google simply isn’t making the grade in terms of training their customers well enough.
Where do small business customers go after they “churn”? Many of them go back to what they were doing successfully before; email marketing, direct marketing, and call centers according to our study.
The next growth area will be hundreds of thousands of verticals, driven by small businesses exploiting areas and needs that the fortune 500 companies can not fill efficiently.
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