“Internet Marketing is a fad.”

Believe it or not, there are still people that think this. Worst of all, many of these people are managers and decision-makers in positions that can make or break a marketing campaign. If you’re in an organization or consulting for a company that has a few dinosaurs, how do you convince them of the value of SEO and SEM?

It’s not easy. I have dealt with countless clients who are very old-fashioned and find anything close to technical to be intimidating. These clients usually fit into 2 classifications:

1. The helpless: They are relying on you as an “internet expert” to show them the right path for search engine optimization and marketing.
2. The traditionalists: They know they need help, but don’t really care to admit it or are too stubborn to adapt.

The helpless dinosaurs are usually:

• The easiest to work with
• Open-minded on recommendations and consultations.
• Afraid of the technology
• Too eager to turn the entire project over to you or “wash their hands” of it
• Require more consultation time for more detailed explanations “on their level”
• Not who we’re concerned about in this article

The traditionalists are the difficult ones. Quite often they are:

• Of the ”if it ain’t broke…” mindset. I’ll discuss this in-depth later.
• Afraid and threatened by the technology. They think their lack of knowledge could undermine their position as manager/director
• Skeptical about the internet, search engine marketing and the value of your work
• Completely unaware of the difference between SEO and the “IT department” or the relationship of SEM and the “Marketing department”
• Talking to you because a younger family member, colleague or “IT guy” has suggested getting on “the web”

So how do you approach these folks without intimidating or overwhelming them and at the same time convincing them that internet marketing is something that they need to embrace?

First, figure out exactly where they stand. Ask a lot of questions and determine as much as you can from your first consultation. Why are they talking to you? What negative or positive experiences have they had with the web? What are their competitors doing? Bring as much as you can to their level of understanding without appearing condescending or patronizing.

Find the nugget of information that you can use to peak their interest and bring them into your camp. Maybe they have a unique niche that has very few results in the search engines; explain how they can “own” that space. Show them what their competitors are doing right and more importantly, what their competitors are doing wrong and how you can take advantage of it.

Second, show a track record of results. If you have a portfolio of work, get as “Ross Perot” as you can and break out the charts and graphs and other tangibles. Provide evidence of results that they can understand.

The beauty of online advertising is that the results are completely tangible. We have exact details on conversions that traditional advertising channels will never have. The best you can get with TV/radio and most publication advertising is a “swell” of performance:

“Well, we got a bunch more phone calls after our ad was shown in the XY Gazette.”

How many phone calls? How many phone calls did you get in the XY Gazette compared to the YZ Times? How many of those phone calls converted to actual sales? etc. You have an arsenal of counterpoints to traditional advertising arguments.

With that said, many traditionalists have a common argument that is tough to speak to:

“We’ve been doing this the same way for 86452491364 years and have billions in sales every quarter. Why should we mess with success?”

In other words, if it ain’t broke, why fix it?

As a consultant - or if you’re acting as one within your organization - you will have to determine what the right answer is for this particular dinosaur. Hopefully, in your bag of charts/graphs, youll have some hard research data on customer trends in this particular industry. For example, how many keyword searches were there for their industry last month? Find an analogy that they can relate to to explain that the internet is a whole new paradigm [cliche, I know, but apt] in marketing, sales and information. Maybe a monumental change happened in their industry that they had to adapt to in order to survive.

Be sure to let them know that they don’t have to jump in head first. Give them hypotheticals of small campaigns to “test the waters”.

I should also point out that depending on the situation, search engine marketing may not be the ideal method of converting sales. SEO/SEM is very powerful, but it is not always the perfect solution for every scenario. You may discover that traditional forms of advertising are actually more effective than online marketing because of the nature of their industry. A traditionalist will appreciate sincerity if you try to find the right balance with their current marketing initiatives.

There are definitely some dinosaurs that may never “get it”. Hopefully this article has given you some tips and ideas to bring a few of them out of the stone age.  Good luck!

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