There can be no mistaking the buzz and excitement when you see your business website go live. It represents the fusion of creativity, ideas, business messaging, branding, and hard work to make your site a valuable business tool. You have every right to be proud.
After you crack open the champagne and enjoy a well-earned glass there is something, however, you need to know. Marketing and promoting the site is the next phase and this phase lasts for as long as you have a business.
With this in mind let’s look at the four core online marketing areas.
Pay per Click
The idea behind pay per click is that every time someone clicks on one of your online ads you pay a fee. This enables you to have thousands of impressions gaining plenty of online exposure on search engines, social media, and high traffic websites. There are caveats involved which are important to understand.
Google Ads are displayed on search engines and Google partner websites (not owned by google) as part of what is called the display network. Google’s model works on relevant keywords to your business and a bidding system. The higher your bid the better your positioning and the more times your ad will be displayed.
This drives up the cost of online advertising but as the visitors have search intent the chances are you should see more traffic to your site. Providing you have good context between ad and landing page you should also see a high conversion rate and a good ROI.
Facebook PPC works on the same model but ads are shown by interest and acquaintances of your page followers rather than keywords. They tend to have fewer conversions but are considerably cheaper. This is due to a visitor seeing an ad by chance rather than having an interest in your offering and searching for it. Again, it works on a bid system so the more competitive your industry the higher price of clicks.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Up until a few years ago, search engine positioning was everything, as the top three organic search results received the most traffic. Several algorithm updates later, the need for SEO is still there but other forms of online marketing such as email marketing and PPC have risen to compete with the once almighty marketing giant called search engine optimisation.
SEO is a two part operation: Onsite technicalities such as having a mobile responsive, fast loading website, and keyword specific copy in all the right places. The second part of the game is building external links and getting mentions from authority sites to push your website ranking higher.
SEO is a long game and often an expensive one. Being in the top 3 results no longer necessarily means you are capturing the most traffic. Google tends to promote brands over small businesses and also paid ads, and google maps listings, and as such users are starting to search a few pages to find what they are after. Nonetheless, good search engine positioning for your chosen keywords will drive lots and lots of traffic to your site.
SEO and content marketing are often used to build links. This is where you create a good piece of content say a blog post or video and promote it. Good use of content marketing can drive results both in terms of SEO and in their own right.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the most effective forms of online marketing there is. Once a visitor gives you their email contact details and consent to do so, you can put your sales message in their inbox where they are most likely to see it.
Many marketers see this as an essential form of marketing. If you have the right message and landing page you can drive sales and conversions, despite regulations such as GDPR.
Social Media
Social media is another way of driving visitors to your site and arguably it is more suited to B2C rather than a business to business entities with the possible exception of LinkedIn. There are two basic tricks to success on social media. One is to build followers who are in the market for your offerings and the second is to publish a mixture of conversational posts and product and service offering to your audience.
Again content marketing is invaluable here and many in the SEO community believes that a social media presence is a ranking factor for Google.
No business can be without social media even if you are not fond of the available platforms. Embrace it do not shun it.
Online marketing is best when it works as a whole rather than separate facets although you may have consultants, agencies, and teams working on different aspects.
Do you need help to promote your website? Get in touch with us.
To make sense of all this, and discuss how we can work together to help your website reach the visibility it deserves, get in touch with us today and we can help you promote your site in all relevant fields.