Digital Marketing is becoming more complex with the multitude of channels to reach target audiences. Gone are the days of owning a website and creating an underutilized business page on Facebook. The digital space is like a battlefield, with each brand competing to get noticed. To win this war, you not only need to establish a strong presence online but to understand which tools and platforms favour your brand. In this article, we narrow down to Search Engine Marketing and Social media Marketing and break it down to help you understand which digital marketing platforms work for your brand.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Have you Googled your business? What are the results?
SEM entails marketing a brand’s digital assets in a bid to increase its visibility when customers search for words and phrases related to the business. SEM is compulsory for every business. Statistics show that Google receives and processes close to 4 billion searches in a day. This figure is more than half of the world’s population which means that taking your SEM seriously could attract serious business opportunities. Search Engine Marketing often refers to paid search and organic search results.
Paid Search
It’s as simple as paying an advertising company to put up a billboard on a highway. The more you pay the larger the billboard and the more strategic its location. This translates to bidding in Google Ads where advertisers compete for the available advertising places. The more money you pay, the higher your chances of appearing at the top of a Google page. If your competitors bid higher, then your advert only appears on the lower part of a Google page.
Paid Search is definitely good for all brands including yours, but you have to compete effectively. If you cannot afford to match your competitors’ bids then simply focus on attracting organic traffic through unpaid SEO tactics.
Organic Search/SEO
Search Engines index and rank your website according to many different factors, content and user experience included. Your content needs to be unique, of high quality and fresh, and your users having seamless experience browsing your website. Look at it this way; would you visit a shop that barely restocks its products or offer poor customer service?
Organic SEO focuses on what your potential customers really want, rather than making assumptions about what they might want to buy. Different brands apply different SEO strategies and one of them is hiring a digital marketing and SEO company. If you choose to take this route, it’s always advisable to hire an agency within your location since local SEO is more significant to your business.
If you’re in Sydney, our agency is definitely right for you as we understand the business landscape in the region.
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Social Media took over the marketing industry in a tide. It all started with Facebook and then other platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram caught up. SMM is essential for any brand that wants to connect and engage with consumers but the question is; which social media platform is right for your brand?
A lot of businesses rush to create a Facebook page or twitter account without establishing whether the platform is structured to cater for their type of business. LinkedIn, for instance, is recognized as the leading B2B social media platform. Therefore, if you’re targeting other businesses, then LinkedIn is the place to be. However, if you’re selling products that are meant to appeal to the eye such as clothes, interior décor accessories, makeup, furniture or shoes, Instagram will definitely work for your brand. Twitter, on the other hand, is structured in a way that supports conversations and engagements. It is often used by radio presenters, celebrities and TV presenters. If you need people to talk about your brand in order to grow, Twitter will work magic.
Unlike SEO where your target audience actively search for your products or services, marketing in Social Media is passive marketing with the aim to build trust and positive brand awareness that could influence potential customers future buying decisions.
In a nutshell, SEM and SMM require an in-depth analysis of what each platform offers in terms of features and conversion rates. Each tool has a set of benefits that might work for some brands but not for others. Unfortunately, a lot of brands invest in platforms that barely lead to successful sales because they are clinging onto vanity metrics such as the number of likes, views or comments. Such investments can be demoralizing when you, as a business owner realize that the money poured into SEM or SMM has not yielded monetary returns. This is why you need an expert to guide you through the process.
