According to a report from Ofcom, the average Briton spends more than 24 hours per week online. This staggering number shows just how important it is to develop a strong digital marketing strategy for your business, making the most of the major digital marketing techniques such as: search engine optimisation, pay per click and social media marketing.
Getting to know all of the different methods of digital marketing may seem daunting at first, but this guide will help give you a good understanding of how each technique works and how it could help you reach new customers and make more sales.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Search engine optimisation is the process of maximising the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic (unpaid) search results. This is achieved by ensuring that every page on your website is formatted correctly with the appropriate title tags, meta descriptions and keyword density. These technical signals help search engines, such as Google, understand what your website is about in order to display your page when users submit an appropriate query.
To successfully optimise your website for search engines, it is necessary to conduct research into which search terms your typical customers are using when seeking the information or services that your business offers. This way you can make sure that the content on your website is perfectly matched to the search behaviours of new and existing customers.
Link building is another key part of search engine optimisation. It involves building relationships with other businesses and bloggers in order to get links published on their websites. This is because search engines consider inbound links as a positive signal that the content on your site is valuable.
Paid Search & Pay Per Click (PPC)
Paid search is a method of digital marketing where you place an advert in a search engine’s sponsored section and are charged each time a user clicks through to your website. This is a brilliant way of getting your website seen by lots of people, as the paid search placements are usually positioned right at the top of the results page. Pay per click (PPC) marketing campaigns are also important because they give you more control over who will see your content than with organic search engine optimisation.
The aim is to create a paid search campaign that results in lots of relevant traffic at the lowest possible cost. A lot of research and expertise is needed to create and manage a successful pay per click campaign, so it is a good idea to seek the help of an experienced agency like clickintelligence.co.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing, via platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, is a great way to get your brand in front of new potential customers. It allows you to communicate directly with users, which can help create brand loyalty, and gives you the chance to understand the needs of your client base. There are two types of social media marketing:
- Organic – this consists of posts that only appear to people who have followed your account or in search results
- Paid – this consists of sponsored posts that are shown to a targeted audience for a price
It is a good idea to make use of paid social media posts to reach out to new users and drive conversations, while organic posts are great for building communities and fostering brand loyalty.