In the changing world of online marketing, to keep your brand above the competition, a sophisticated game plan is a must. To stay on the cutting edge, your brand must fine tune online marketing techniques to form a comprehensive SEM strategy. If done correctly, a well-executed SEM strategy will drive traffic to your website and result in increased brand awareness that translates into sales.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Whether through advertising or through optimization, SEM is essentially any marketing on search engines. The ultimate goal of SEM is to funnel traffic to your brands website that translate into lead generation or sales. In order to increase your web traffic and online presence, several key elements must be employed in conjunction with each other; SEO, PPC, and Social Media. Measurement is also a key factor and SEM strategies should be fluid and ready to change quickly based on these findings.
SEO
One thing that you can count on (especially from Google) is that the algorithms from search engines are ever-changing. How websites are being evaluated, from useful content to download speeds, is definitely a moving target. Nowadays, to be an effective online business marketer SEO professionals must try to identify upcoming changes and be prepared. SEO for any company starts in the very early stages of website development and is continuously monitored for results. Beginning with an extensive competitor analysis, SEO pros move through all aspects of development taking advantage of all organic opportunities. Content development and SEO go hand in hand and these teams should work together during development. From writing the code (responsive or adaptive) to external link building, SEO should play a large role in your overall web strategy.
PPC
Online advertising has become more competitive over the past few years, as businesses realize the importance of top search engine positions. Putting together a PPC strategy consists of detailed competitor analysis and applying key principles for advertising success. These principles involve, among other things, specific long tail keyword bidding and detailed ROI measurement in order to optimize campaigns. Inbound marketing techniques are proven to increase lead generation and is usually much less than traditional marketing methods. Understanding the differences, and when to use the three-keyword match types is a must as each comes with its' own set of costs and benefits. Your goal is to always be working toward exact match conversions as these will produce the highest ROI.
Social Media
In order to run an effective SEM strategy, businesses need to have an active presence on social media. As a matter of fact, it should be incorporated on your website with engagement components. If you leverage your content in the different social media outlets properly, most companies will see a large increase in referral traffic. More and more, consumers reach out to a brands social medias for interaction and it's important to have a positive and active presence. These efforts ultimately develop into customer leads and buyers, as well as, improving your brands online profile. Social media strategies are well spent efforts in many ways and having someone dedicated these objectives will help ensure success.
