A message from Managing Director - Garry Pickles

Why Online Media Direct?

An insight into the industry from our Managing Director...

You have probably found our site via the natural search listings or paid advertisement on Google, browsed through several other Internet Marketing Companies, all of which promise the earth, and are now thinking that this is a bit of a minefield. 

If you are thinking that then you are right. The Internet Marketing business is a sales driven industry which brings a wide range of problems from the point of view of the customer.

We felt it was important to give you an idea of who we are and what our company’s principles are when dealing with Internet marketing campaigns. 

Online Media Direct have gradually built their presence online over the past 5 years to a stage where our site ranks naturally within the Top 3 companies on Google for Internet Marketing.

To rank in the top 3 on Google is quite an achievement, especially when every marketing company is aiming to do the same. ‘Internet marketing’ is a very competitive keyword and industry, so logic suggests that if we can achieve that for our site, just think what can we achieve for your business? 

Before we begin listing our professional achievements and showing off I want to give you an idea of where I am coming from as the Managing Director and how I direct the company to follow certain key values that have stood me and our clients in good stead over the previous 10 or so years.

I began in the Internet Marketing industry as a humble young salesman just out of University looking to make a living. It’s amazing when I look back and realise just how naive I was back then when it came to sales and marketing as a whole. My sales career began selling fixed placed advertising positions on search engines such as Lycos.co.uk and excite.co.uk. These search engines were and still remain very small players in the whole scheme of things online and after slogging my guts out in telephone sales for 2 years I soon realised the same pattern was beginning to emerge. We would generate a sale for a customer and that customer would never renew their advertising.

So why do people not renew their advertising online ?

The answer is quite simple - the advertising doesnt work! Banner advertisements on a smaller search engine appearing on just one word didn't deliver the traffic in terms of views or clicks. I began to look enviously over the office to the members of staff who were managing Google Adwords campaigns. Google Adwords advertising worked and customers regularly renewed, making the salesman’s jobs a lot easier as the Adwords department wasn't chasing its tail looking for new clients. Plus they were helping companies businesses grow with a marketing product that actually worked.

I should probably make it clear, banner advertisements can work under the right circumstances, such as being sold per impression or when targeted closely to  user behaviour.

So one of my key principles when doing promotions on behalf of a client was to make sure the marketing could provide a good return on investment. Everyone’s a winner right? It’s a Win-Win situation.

Key Principle 1 - We only provide marketing that is proven to work and deliver a good return on investment.

I eventually gained a promotion and began working full-time on Google Adwords management. In fact I still manage clients’ campaigns to this day that were started –8 to 10 years ago, proof alone of the benefits of providing a good product to customers.

After managing a successful bunch of campaigns on Adwords I was head hunted by a local start-up company who wanted me to head a team of 5 sales staff to sell advertising on another new online shopping platform.

During this time I learned another valuable lesson about online marketing and traffic. The site provided massive volumes of traffic and was great for clients in certain industries covering finance and many more areas. 

However, I then began to ask the question “where was this traffic coming from?” as the site didn't have any major listings on Google.co.uk. When I investigated I found that it was generated via other smaller search engines, which meant that the traffic arriving on the shopping site was in-effect third party traffic.

The user would search on a search engine then click on the site and have to go through the process of clicking on another link to visit a site to find what they actually wanted. What this does is make the traffic very low converting and generates massive bounce rates as a result. The browsers were going in a constant loop trying to find something and eventually a percentage would switch off. I was finding myself getting the same problems as I had faced in selling the banner space in my old job. The marketing was not working and customers were not renewing their advertising as a result.

Key Principle 2 - Why advertise on a third party source when you can go direct to the source yourself?

We eventually took the bull by the horns and started working full-time, initially starting as a sole trader and becoming Ltd in 2007. Running my own company has given me the ability to control the products we can sell to customers, which has helped us grow a base of regular customers.

During the period of self-employment I started to see a trend which was happening more and more in many industries. Google Adwords or Paid advertising was reaching a sort of saturation point for the higher generic phrases. On starting in Adwords companies were pumping literally thousands a month in to it (they still do) and getting good returns and conversions but this gradually reduced. Incidentally this doesn't mean there is not a place for Adwords today and it is still vital if you are to gain a full market share of your traffic online. But the golden age of Adwords generating massive levels of conversions on generic phrases is nowhere near the level it was back in 2000 - 2005. If you are to create a successful campaign now you have to be very inventive and imaginative in your selection of keywords and Ad groups. A lot more thought has to go into making a campaign successful and being creative is essential.

SEO and Search Engine optimisation via the natural listings was needed to complete a full package and gain that full percentage of traffic online. I have personally spent the past 5 years studying SEO and have achieved hundreds of first page listings for our clients as a result of this extensive studying.

Here are some excellent SEO examples -

Bodybuilding Warehouse -

No1 Google for Bodybuilding Supplements,

3rd for Bodybuilding,

5th Whey protein and many more phrases have generated first page listings.

Online Media Direct.co.uk -

Top 3 for Internet Marketing on Google

Floraselect -

First Page Google.co.uk - Garden Plants , Perennial Plants, Bamboo plants and hundreds of specific keywords.

Baby Shower Host -

No1 on Google.co.uk for Baby Showers and Baby Shower.

T Shirt Subway -

3rd on Google for Music T shirts

Select Military Vehicles -

3rd for Ex military vehicles

Chillout Spa -

No1 - Spa Liverpool

We have literally thousands of other examples we can show you where our service has worked every time.

Our services currently focus on - 

1. SEO Search Engine Optimisation – Monthly, including on-page and-off page.
2. Google Adwords Management - Monthly management and setup of campaigns
3. Social Media - Facebook Fan Page setup and design plus on-going marketing via paid advertising campaigns.

We are not a company that just takes a monthly fee and hopes for the best. We genuinely care about your company’s fortunes and performance online and will work tirelessly to achieve a successful outcome for your business. We have a genuine passion for marketing online and enjoy the challenge of working in new areas and reaching new goals with rankings. We thrive on a challenge no matter how difficult a keyword or ranking may seem, if it is logically possible we have the knowledge and experience to be that final piece in the Internet Marketing equation of success.

As the Managing Director another one of our key principles is...

Key Principle 3 - It’s not just a normal 9-5 job,

We don't treat our job as a normal 9-5 job. When we employ people, during the recruitment process one of the first questions we ask is, “what are you looking to achieve?” 

What are your long-term goals?

We always look for people that are looking for more than a straightforward 9 to 5.  The empowerment of individuals, by allowing them the creative freedom to make new suggestions, is high on our list of priorities. The right mind-set is a crucial factor for someone that provides a Marketing campaign for your business in a highly competitive online arena. 

If you are looking for assistance on a Friday evening at 8:30pm, then you can get in touch with us and we will normally reply within the hour.

We work in Internet marketing not as a means of making a quick buck but as a means of building a long-term business realtionship that in turn can help your business to build and maintain a succesful online presence.

Key Principle 4 - There are no short cuts or secrets to success online, you have to be in it for the long haul. The secret is there are no secrets.