14. SEM and Other Types of Marketing
Since we have established that SEM is an important part of any successful marketing strategy nowadays, as an effective tool to promote and hence improve the business, we should also analyze the correlation between search engine marketing and other types of marketing.
SEM is only one segment of online promotion and as such, it is dependant and conditioned by other forms of marketing, such as social media marketing or email marketing. If you want to develop a strategy that will maximize the effect of your online efforts, you need to think about the approach that combines several forms of internet marketing, as this is the formula that can bring you most success. Usage of various tools and platforms in the purpose of promotion is recommended in order to target different parts of online market. Obviously, you should monitor the strategy and optimize it according to the situation on the market and your company’s needs.
Having a website is essential as this is your online presentation and a place where those interested in your business can reach you. It all starts with your own website, because this is the image of your company and it is useful for sending the message about your philosophy. It is also the best way for online consumers to reach you, so you have to provide an easy way for them to do so, by creating an easy-to-navigate website and a contact page.
You should also add a page about your company and your products or services, as this will help you inform the visitors about what you have to offer. Additionally, the text you provide on your website will help with search engines as well, as they have to be able to understand what your website is about in order to be able to properly index it and show when the related keywords are used in the search query.
The website is the foundation from which you will employ different marketing strategies to promote your business, using other forms of online marketing besides search engine marketing.
Search engine marketing and social media marketing
One of the goals of search engine marketing is to have a website that is properly optimized, so that it allows both search engine crawlers and online visitors to understand what the website is about and to find the information they are looking for. In order to provide information to the readers and search engines, you have to publish some content on your website that will feature the information in question. Written content is most commonly used to display necessary information, but other types of content can also be used, such as videos and photos. It is important that regardless of the type of content you choose to display on your website, you optimize it according to the SEO guidelines, so that you maximize the chances of the content being found organically.
Needless to say, the content has to be original and of high quality in order to appeal to your audience. Quality content is valued by the online visitors, which will most likely choose to return and decide to sign up in order to stay connected.
The goal of social media marketing is to use social media in order to promote your business, to reach the potential costumers, to establish relationship with your audience and to ultimately convert potential customers into your loyal customers. Social media marketing involves a series of actions, which are part of a strategy that will help you establish this bond. In order to do so, you need content. You need something valuable you can share to your audience in order to gain trust and reputation. While you could share content from external sources, which is a good strategy for occasional use, it will be much more effective if you have your own content to share.
Sharing your own content is better as you actually direct social media visitors to your website, a place where you have a great chance of converting the visitors into customers or subscribers. Hence the importance of a nice looking, well-optimized websites, which is eye-catching, and which provides sufficient information to the visitors.
Besides written content, social media is also great medium for sharing images and videos, if those are created as a part of your content marketing strategy. In fact, images and videos are quite effective form of content when it comes to social media, so you should consider employing those in your social media marketing.
Therefore, SEM provides website content that could be shared on social media as a part of SMM strategy, while SMM generates a significant amount of traffic, and conversions, which will have a positive influence on SEM efforts.
Search engine marketing and email marketing
The correlation between these two types of marketing is also mutual. First of all, while having a website and quality content published regularly, you will provide a reason for people to want to connect with you. You will allow this through the possibility to sign up for a newsletter or you could provide a gift, such as a free e-book or an online membership in exchange for the user’s email address. Have in mind that it is unlikely that someone will provide the email address without any reason, because why would they? However, if you make providing email address mandatory in order for the visitor to obtain something, this will increase the chances of users willingly giving you their email address.
On the other hand, email marketing can also benefit from having quality content on your website, as this could be used as a reference when addressing certain issues in your emails. This way, you provide links of your website, which can redirect traffic to your website where you could convert the visitors into customers.
Obviously, search engine marketing is a very important aspect of internet marketing in general, and it is a starting point when creating an online strategy, regardless of the type of business you run, and regardless of the goals you want to achieve with internet marketing.