Free tools abound on the internet for marketers. It’s great that pretty much anyone with a will to learn and an internet connection can bootstrap their way to higher income by using free tools.  It really levels the playing field in a lot of ways.

But there is a risk involved. Free tools mean you have no rights other than what a company is saying you have. If you violate their terms (and even if you don’t), any social media presence you’ve “created” online can be taken away from you at any time.  Because of this, I have been searching for a solution that was both easy to use, and provided a majority of “ownership” for the user. This isn’t a solution for the faint of heart.  It’s real enterprise social media at its best. We call it Topic Optimized Marketing.

Topic-Optimized Marketing software is an easy to execute platform for targeting large numbers of keywords and ranking them on organic search results. It allows a company to do the following:

• Target keywords for a business in organic search to win more traffic
• Decrease cost per lead, and increase the efficiency and productivity of content creation
• Drive qualified traffic which in turn increases website traffic
• Frees up as many people as possible to create content (or we can create it for you)
• Leverages content across a network of keyword-based blogs, not just one blog

It also provides the following benefits :  

• Unlimited use of keywords (represent as many as needed)
• Search engines put high value on pages that are frequently updated SEO right out of the box, no expert knowledge of SEO necessary.
• Conversions of 3%-18% (websites are 1.5%-3% if they are really good)
• Admin security allows multiple authors to create content while keeping brand messaging consistent
• Metrics on a weekly basis to track success and ROI
• Scalable, able to target as many keywords as you want
• No software to maintain or update
• Workflow built for busy professionals

Of course, don’t just dump your Pay Per Click campaign.  If it’s working, keep it unless you can produce more leads for less money with something like the above. Keep in mind that any marketing campaign that “doesn’t work” might be suffering from a lack of some kind of consumer analysis. There is no replacement for really understanding and speaking to your customers.

Topic Optimized Marketing might not be the right solution for your company right now, in which case feel free to use whatever free tools are available. Just be aware of the risks, and as soon as you can, work in some online real estate you can “own.”