There is a sociological notion that has been gaining credence in recent years called “The Long Tail”.  It is basically states that because of limitations in physical presence, only a small portion of products/media have reached consumers.  For example, there is only so much bandwidth on the radio dial so only so many songs that can be played in a given day.  But with the online world and the almost limitless bandwidth, a huge amount of music becomes available.  The same applies with products like books.  For example, no book store could offer anywhere close to the number of books that Amazon offers, but because there is no limitation on space, they can offer a huge selection.

How does that apply for online marketing?  There are several ways that it can help your business.

• If you sell products online, you can focus on the detailed specifics as apposed to the  generality.  People who search for “office desk with 3 drawers” is easier to target than just “desks”
• If you are running a SEO campaign, target keywords that are more specific.  For example, instead of targeting “accountant”, you could create pages for “restaurant accountant”, “landscaper accountant”, etc.  It will be a lot of work creating all the pages and you won’t get many visitors for each.  But the aggregate will bring significantly more traffic (and more qualified) than if you just targeted the general term.
• If you are running a PPC campaign, you can build a campaign like the SEO described above.  Instead of targeting people who are searching for an accountant, go after those who are searching for one in your industry.  Your CPC will be less expensive and you’ll get more qualified visitors.

Just like these online companies like Amazon have realized, there are no limitations to how much you can have online.  Unlike traditional media in which you have a fixed time or space to get across your message, you have as much space as you need online and you should take advantage of this to create more targeted marketing.

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