If you haven’t already noticed, the marketing game has changed dramatically over the last few years. What used to be print ads and commercials on the radio/ television, has now shifted to developing a strong online presence for your business. However, online marketing is not “one size fits all”. There are many different strategies to consider when marketing your business online and the right strategy can depend on which industry you are in. Here are three of the most popular/ effective types of online marketing and how different industries are successfully implementing them.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

As digital marketers, we would like to think that just about everyone has heard of SEO. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. Informed business owners often know it is important and many times pay marketers to help them with it, but not all of them know what it means. SEO involves using different tactics (link building, content optimization, etc.) to increase the chance of your site being found when a user using search engines like Google or Bing.

The vast majority of consumers are searching for products, services, and companies online long before doing business with them. If your website doesn’t show on the first page of the search engine results, there is a good chance that no one is going to find you.  Most people will search a different phrase to find what they are looking for before they will look on page 2. Why is that? Historically, Google has done a great job of providing their user with the desired information on the first page. Therefore, formulating the belief amongst users that if they don’t find what they are looking for on the first page, they may be searching for the wrong thing. Just think about the process you go through when searching online. Do you scan through multiple pages?

For industries such as brick and mortar video production and photo studio rental spaces, SEO is generally the go-to tactic given search location or queries continuing location identifiers play a big role. Companies like Impact Creative work hard to target the specific keywords they want to rank for and be found for. In the example below, you can see how Impact Creative is optimizing its production studio page for “Video Studio Rental in Santa Cruz.”

Impact Creative uses the target keyword phrases in H1 tags and also repeats a variation of the phrase throughout the page. They used a variation of the core phrase “video studio rental” over 10 times on their page and also made great use of semantic keywords,  keywords that hold similar meaning to the phrase you are targeting.

Paid Search (PPC)

Another popular and effective form of marketing is paid search, also called pay-per-click, or PPC. This is a form of advertising where you bid for your ad to be placed on the search engines results page, then you pay every time it is clicked on. Your ad listing is displayed on Google’s first page above the organic search results, allowing you to be found almost instantly.

Have you ever visited a website and then later noticed that the company keeps showing up in ads on other sites that you visit? This is a result of paid search marketing. This form of marketing allows you to target specific areas, terms, and user habits. All this data is also trackable, allowing you to know what is working and what is not so that you can adjust your strategy accordingly.

For example, the company Smart Move has a very specific target audience – smaller landlords in need of a tenant screening system. They use AdWords to target the exact keywords that they want their ad to populate for. In the example below, Smart Move is targeting the phrase “tenant credit report”. When this phrase is searched in search engines, their ad is populated as seen in the image.

Social Media Marketing/Management(SMM)

Over the last decade or so, social media has become incredibly popular. This makes it a great platform for marketing. With social media, you’re able to reach countless people through Lookalike audiences and target specific interest-baed audiences.  Social media is also often thought of as a more affordable marketing investment that has a quicker return on investment. It also allows you to interact and communicate with your target market, which most other forms of marketing do not provide an opportunity for. With social media, you can actually see the exact people that are interacting (liking, commenting, etc.) with your company’s ad.

As mentioned above, Facebook allows you to target people by many different interests. In the example below, Hair Craft Co. is using a sponsored Facebook video to tap into the personal feeds of Facebook users that have previously claimed or have expressed interest in hair/beauty products.

Email Marketing

Many people are already familiar with email marketing, and the benefits of leveraging this tactic as part of an overall marketing campaign. But while email marketing is nothing new to digital marketers, it is still agreed upon as a cheap and effective way to increase brand awareness and add additional revenue to the bottom line.

Email marketing can be extremely effective for retail companies, especially if they derive sales via e-commerce, as you will want consumers to be aware of any important online sales events and discounts.

In order to launch a successful email campaign, it’s important that companies have a good means of acquiring email lists and should avoid the temptation of purchasing their lists through third-party suppliers. This Orlando Audi Dealership site shows a perfect example of using a signup portal to curate email lists:

Don’t forget to segment out your audience depending on their stage in the sales funnel! Someone looking for a second purchase, for example, does not want to receive emails introducing your product or service.

While each form of marketing is valuable, knowing your industry will help you determine which strategy is best for your company. If you can develop an ad that plays to a consumer’s emotions, you are linky to find great success on social media. Create a strong ad that your audience can connect with. If your business lacks an emotional appeal turn your focus toward something like SEO or PPC. Conversely, if you want faster results, turn your marketing efforts to paid search. With trial and error, you can find the perfect combination of marketing strategies to reach your target audience, improve your conversion rate, and increase overall visibility and revenue.

If you’re interested in learning more about what marketing strategy best fits your business contact us today. We’re always happy to work with new clients to help them meet their marketing goals.