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We are going to look at some basic tips and strategies for Digital Marketing. Every business is different and requires different techniques in order to be successful. However, every business can benefit even slightly from using basic techniques for digital marketing. We are going to look at Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimization, and Social Media marketing strategies. Each has their own positives and negatives, and each require different approaches in order to be successful. Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the organic rankings within a search engine, like Google. When someone types in a search query, the search engine will scour the internet to find the most relevant information and web pages that they feel match your search query and ranks them accordingly. Pay Per Click or PPC, is the paid advertisement that shows up during a search query. When the user clicks on the ad to read more, then that business pays the search engine a specified amount, Cost Per Click or CPC. Social Media encompasses several different platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. These platforms have Feeds that people post into that their followers see. These platforms also have a way to monetize them by selling ads. I will go into more detail about these below as well as provide some basic tips.
Rankings
When it comes to organic rankings and site content you have to remember one very important thing: You are writing for TWO different audiences. One being your customers or clients that you need to entice in order to get them to buy. The second, and I feel most important, is Google or any other search engine! You need to have content directed towards Google in order for them to rank you higher so that your customers will find you in the first place. No reason to have great calls to action, specials, and enticing content if you don’t have anyone going to your site in the first place. Content is king when it comes to SEO or Search Engine Optimization, but it needs to be targeted and directed. Google or Yahoo does not ‘see’ the nice big pictures, slideshows, illustrations, or even your fancy website layout. What they do see is that there is an imbedded image and that image is about ‘whatever your alt tag says it is’. They see the coding for the layout, the H1 and H2 tags, the meta descriptions, and they see the content or words you have on the site. That is the information they use to figure out what that page is about so that they can ‘rank’ it according to what they see it is about. As a result, that information needs to clear, concise, yet robust to what you want them to think your page is about. Then Google will tie in that page with your other pages to help figure out how to rank your entire site for search queries. However, there are so many variables that go into making a website successful especially in a highly competitive industry or market. Search Engine Optimization is an art and learned skill. The basic steps to SEO will only get you so far unless you are in an obscure keyword space, but it is a great place to start. Advanced techniques are needed to put you over the top and get you better rankings and more market share over your competition.
PPC & Paid Traffic
If you want immediate results then those are going to come from PPC and paid traffic, whether through Google, Facebook, or another platform. However, your Google Ads account needs to be set up correctly in order to see an ROI, otherwise you will just be wasting your marketing budget. There is more to paid ads than selecting keywords, creating ads, and sending them to your site. For instance, don’t just default all of your ads to go to the Home Page. The page you send them to is a big factor on how much they are charged per click. That is why people create landing pages for PPC. For example, if a dental ad is saying, ‘Dentist open on Saturday,’ but the page they send customers to barely talks about them being open on Saturdays. Google sees that and knows that if someone is looking for a “Saturday” search query, and the page this ad is bringing them too is not really about that, then they will charge them more for that click. The page needs to correlate with the keyword the business is advertising for and what the ad is stating. That is just one of many metrics that plays a vital role in getting better ROI doing paid ads. Doing PPC works. It really does, if done correctly. This is why there is so much competition, because it is very effective.
Facebook is a different kind of paid advertising as it requires a different technique. You need a target audience to go after versus using targeted keywords or search queries like Google. You have to target a group or groups of people to send ads to. Facebook can also be very effective for remarketing to current clients to get them to return and purchase more. Also, if they have a list of emails from their current clients, then that opens up more options besides just remarketing. You can use an email list to target an audience very similar to their current clients . Use the power of Facebook as well as Google’s big data machine, that collects an immense amount of social and behavioral data on everyone, to assist in targeting an audience that reflects your current clients. This works very well if you have a good email list. Like most things you get out what you put into it.
Organic Social Media
Using organic Social Media as an outreach requires a much more complex approach. Typically, organic Social Media is used to stay in front of current clients or people that already know you and follow you in those platforms. Staying in front of them helps to keep them informed of any new products or services you may offer. It’s basically a good remarketing strategy. Now if you are trying to do outreach and get new clients then you need to get your current followers to share whatever information you post with their own inner circle. That is trickier than it sounds. Think of the last time you shared a post on a social media platform that came from a place that you do business with or buy from…. Still thinking? It is not common for that to happen and requires unique insight in to how you make that successful by using advanced techniques.
Basic Digital Marketing strategies are a good place to start for anyone, and some can do quite well in their market by doing just the basics. If you truly want to succeed or are in a more competitive market, then stepping up to more advanced techniques is a must. Technology has come a long way in a short amount of time to make things easier, but that also means it is easier for your competitors as well. Most of the great tools that professionals use are available to the general public but can be expensive for a single user with a single business. The way the markets have grown, changed, and continue to change has led many companies to get away from in-house marketing and basic principles, and over to professional firms that have the great tools and knowledge and stay up to date on the current trends and changes that happen on a frequent basis. Most companies today need to have advanced techniques, tools, and software to stay ahead of the competition and to remain a leader within their own markets.
Written by: Marty Clemence
