Download Top 3 Online Strategies to Reach Prospective Customers

BUSINESS FOCUS:
Top 3 Online Strategies to Reach
Prospective Customers
#1 in a 3-part series: Search Engine Marketing
by Susan O’Neil, CEO, @Website Publicity
Y
our website has been re-designed
and launched: check.
Now put it to use attracting qualified
leads to your site to increase business.
The first step? Develop a Search Engine
Marketing (SEM) strategy that includes a
variety of online tactics.
According to recent research
conducted by the Content Marketing
Institute, 55 percent of B2B marketers
and 64 percent of B2C marketers
report that SEM is their most effective
advertising method. With such a vast
array of on- and offline advertising
strategies available today, these statistics
speak volumes.
What is SEM, anyway?
While SEM is commonly thought to
be the same as SEO (search engine
optimization), SEO is only one part of
a well-designed SEM strategy. SEO is
the practice of attracting continuous
free traffic to your website; however,
display advertising, pay-per-click (PPC)
advertising, and search engine reputation
management (or SERM – I’ll cover more
about this public relations strategy in
a subsequent article) round out the
overall SEM strategy – and command
the majority of most companies’ digital
advertising budget.
Effective SEO strategies rely on
understanding the search terms your
prospective customers use to search for
products or services like yours. These are
called keywords, and using them well in
your web content helps your site garner
top search results – at no charge from the
search engines for click-throughs to your
site. With 60 percent of all organic clicks
going to the top three organic search
results, SEO is a proven investment
(source: Business2Community).
Accordingly, many businesses hire an
SEO consultant as best practices change
with some regularity.
Also central to SEM strategies are
paid search listings, or PPC. These eyecatching ads can be in text, image, and
video format, and they appear above
or next to organic search results. By
guaranteeing high ranking placement
on search engine results pages, the
opportunities to generate quality leads
and direct online sales skyrocket. The
branding power of being at the top of the
most important websites in your industry
cannot be underestimated.
PPC advertising also goes
beyond search engines like Google;
it incorporates highly targeted
opportunities in social media such as
Facebook and YouTube, as well as the
Google Display Network, a multi-million
site publishers’ network.
PPC ads can be expensive, so
advertisers set a daily budget and
maximum bid in order to control costs.
The critical elements are evaluating the
effectiveness of each ad, tracking results
to the penny, and meeting the goals of
the advertiser, whether measuring the
advertising cost per sale or per qualified
lead.
Get started today!
Ads can be placed on the major search
engines, with Google being the most
popular, and, if you’re a do-it-yourselfer,
Google AdWords is a good place to
design your PPC campaigns. It offers a
helpful series of videos and other how-to
tips and tools, including the Keywords
Tool. This tool allows you to learn what
words people use when they search for
products or services like yours. Then you
can “bid” on the best keywords to attract
qualified leads to your business. It’s
important to identify the right keywords
because your prospective customers
may be searching for your products
using terms
familiar to
consumers,
whereas you may be employing technical
terms.
To ensure the success of your
SEM campaigns, make sure your site
is mobile-friendly, as mobile search
is now more popular than computer
searches. Put your site’s URL address
into Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test URL
tool to discover how easy (or not) your
site is to view on a mobile device. If any
improvements are required, don’t wait to
make them – your SEM strategy is only
effective if your site can retain visitors
long enough to turn them into a lead
or sale. If they land on a non-mobile
optimized page when using a mobile
device, they won’t stick around.
By including SEO, PPC, and display
advertising in your SEM strategy, you
will reap the reward of always being
there when your target market is actively
searching for exactly what you sell. It’s
a win-win, and that’s always the best
scenario.
@Website Publicity is a Google Certified
Agency Partner with deep expertise in
Internet marketing since 1998, providing
clients with strategy and execution. From
SEO and Paid Search (PPC) to video
advertising and mobile marketing, clients
benefit from ongoing lead generation and
increased sales that meet their Cost-perAcquisition goals.
14 Depot Street, PO Box 755
Peterborough, NH 03458
(603) 924-8222
[email protected]
www.websitepublicity.com
March 2016 | 4