Why you should research your online competitors before setting up a business

We get a lot of calls each week from local businesses wanting to get their internet marketing campaign off the ground for their website. Some of these businesses, we’re sure we can help, so we take them on as a client. Others, we can’t. That’s not because we don’t know what to do. It’s because we don’t want to mislead business owners with unrealistic expectations.

There are several reasons why it might be tricky to help certain types of business with their SEO campaign. The main reason we have to turn clients away is because they have an e-commerce business in an extremely competitive sector which isn’t geographically specific.  If, for example, you’re a window cleaner in Sussex, you won’t need a massive budget to see great results.

However, it gets tricky when you’re offering a product which is already extremely popular countrywide. If someone wants to buy travel insurance, they probably won’t search ‘travel insurance Sussex’. If you want to compete on a term like ‘travel insurance’, you’ll need a budget of hundreds of thousands of pounds to spend on your internet marketing. There are lots of well-established brands out there, and tapping into this market can’t be done by working on a geographical niche.

Theoretically, we can help anyone. We just need a realistic budget to be able to carry out the right level of marketing for your business and its market, which is why it’s best to know beforehand how much you will need to set aside for online marketing. Of course, we endeavour to help everyone we can, and will happily give you our honest opinion. The clients we help are all extremely satisfied with our services.

If you’re thinking of setting up a business, why not get in touch with us beforehand? Unfortunately, lots of people don’t do this, and end up fighting a losing battle with ultra-competitive terms and then wonder why their beloved business venture isn’t getting the views they expected. If you discuss your idea with Artemis, we can tell you if we think your idea will be suitable for a web audience, and if not, we can suggest solutions to help it on its way to online success.

If you’re reading this with a business idea, contact us today and we can help you figure out the best way to approach your online business to make sure it gets the attention it deserves on the web.