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What areas do digital advertisers use for their marketing strategies. The latest data reveals that in 2019 some 79% of digital advertisers use SEO as part of their marketing strategy. This information comes from the Wordstream Report on the landscape of online advertising. This shows how important SEO is even to those who prioritise paid marketing channels over all else. The following list details the responses received;
Q: Outside of paid advertising, what other marketing channels are you using to grow your business in 2019?
SEO – 79%
Email marketing – 66%
Content marketing – 60%
Word of mouth marketing – 47%
Direct mail – 32%
Event marketing – 26%
Guerrilla marketing – 9%
Affinity marketing – 6%
Telemarketing – 4%
Other – 1%
Many advertisers prioritise paid search over organic search because of the potential for immediate returns however, it’s clear that advertisers also realise the long-term benefits of investing in SEO especially when you consider the cost of paid advertising.
This shows that many small business owners know that digital marketing is no longer secondary to traditional marketing methods and that online advertising is a great way for them to gain an increased ROI and therefore the best results. It is therefore important to understand digital marketing and keep up with current trends.
The question is often asked, what is digital marketing? Well it goes far beyond simply internet marketing and refers to any marketing that uses digital channels to reach prospective customers. This includes email marketing, social media marketing, display advertising, search engine marketing and apps through both organic SEO (earned advertising) and PPC (paid for advertising).
The following list looks at 8 areas that should be considered in order to maximise your online exposure.
1. Your business website
No matter how active you are on social media, it can’t replace a business website. Your website is the digital “home” of your business and it’s the one place online where you are completely in control of your message. Your website doesn’t have to be fancy, but it does need to be mobile-friendly. that’s non-negotiable in 2019. It is also really important to make sure it is highly targeted towards the audience you are going after.
2. Search engine optimisation
Search engine optimisation (SEO) refers to the process of increasing website traffic using the organic (non-paid) search results on search engines. There are many moving parts to SEO, including using the right keywords in your website, your social media presence, references to your website from external sites and much more. The complexity of SEO is one reason many businesses are currently investing in this area of marketing as they cannot do it themselves.
3. Local search engine optimisation
According to Google, there are many more searches completed on mobile now than there are on desk tops. This would therefore show that more people search ‘on the move’ looking for local businesses and therefore the Google search results will favour websites that are optimised for local search by including location information and location-related keywords.
4. Email marketing
Many businesses use email marketing in order to generate visibility for their main service offering. In fact, it is thought that this mode of finding traffic is now the third most popular digital marketing method. Almost half (47%) of people across all demographics check their emails on a mobile device and in fact 81% of those use their smartphones as opposed to tablets. The majority of email opens occur on mobile devices.
5. Social media marketing
Social media is the number-one marketing channel used by businesses, in fact some 83% of companies use it. There’s good reason for this as some 77% of adults use social media. It is so important to use your companies’ social platforms to support your push for digital visibility.
6. Content marketing
This practice refers to creating content that you then share digitally in order to support your companies push for visibility. Items of content can be blog posts, ebooks, white papers, infographics, videos, etc. and the goal is to attract users to view your content and take the desired action. This is an extremely important part of any online marketing service.
7. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
Pay-per-click digital ads appear when users do an internet search for the terms that have been used in the ad. The name comes from the fact that you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. The most common place for PPC ads is on Google (using the Google AdWords system) but ads on Facebook and other social media channels are also considered PPC. This is the process of guaranteeing search positions however, it can be expensive to implement and maintain.
8. Marketing automation
Marketing automation software can automate many repetitive aspects of your marketing campaigns therefore making things far more regimented.
We know that many smaller businesses try and cut costs where ever they can to compete and this is of course a necessity however, simply being charged a small amount doesn’t always deliver the associated work needed. In order to provide the exposure your business needs then you are really looking for value for money rather than simply cheap.
Don’t forget, you are truly paying for a developer’s time with regard online marketing services and therefore would you work for a few pounds a month? Of course, you do not have to pay thousands to generate online exposure but you do need to deliver work in an authoritative way that highlights the targeted nature needed to deliver this traffic.
Its this traffic that will then make your website return on the investment you have made!
