How to Prioritise Your Online Marketing
To be able to market your business, you really need to identify what products or services are you selling and with those products or services what problems do they solve. Once you can answer that, you are in a much better position to be able to identify who you need to market your products and services and how to prioritise your online marketing.
Which Online Marketing Approach is best for You and How to Prioritise your Online Marketing?
There are many approaches to being able to market your business online, but they all come down to 4 different approaches: organic website traffic, paid website traffic, referral traffic and social media. So the big question is what do they all really mean?
Organic Website Traffic
Now, organic website traffic can be website traffic from search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing.
Regarding the Search engine traffic you need to be on the first page of Google to get a decent amount of organic traffic. Remember it’s a numbers game and those who are at the top of the page of Google get the lion share of the traffic and if you’re on the second page for a keyword, then honestly you're getting the scraps.
Now there is also the local search component which is generally easier to rank for than organic search listing and people who sell highly targeted local services can have their business listed within Google map within Google Search.
You may not be aware but Google ranks webpages not websites.
Here is a summary of some of the factors Google uses to rank your website pages:
- Keyword Optimised
- Mobile friendly
- Speed of website
- Links from related websites
- Duplicate content
- Image Optimisation
- Recent Content
- Broken Links on the website
- Contact Us information matching the Whois details
- Having a Sitemap
- No malware or such problems on the website
- No DMCA Complaints
- No Doorway pages
- Keywords in the URL
Now not everyone will agree with these and some will say many have been left out – yes it’s a summary.
Paid Website Traffic
Now there are all sorts of paid traffic and some sources of traffic have a higher level of conversion, then on top of this they will all have different costs. As a business you need to consider the cost of acquisition of customers. So you may have a low conversion rate, but if the cost to acquire a new customer is low then that is great.
I read all the time about high conversion rates, but rarely do I hear about cost of acquisition. If you have the opportunity to customize a specific page for the referral traffic you can increase the conversion rate. Some sources of traffic have low traffic volumes and have great conversion rates. Bing has low traffic volumes but the conversion rate can be high and the cost of acquisition low. This varies depending on the products and services you are selling. So Bing can be a very cost effective traffic source for paid traffic. The problem is the volumes are very low. Eg 10% of Google or there abouts.
Then there are banner ads. There are main ways to use banner ads. One way is to have your ads shown on other websites – where you have some ability to determine where they are located. The second being retargeting or as Google calls it remarketing.
Referral Traffic
So referral traffic is you have a listing on an associated website that refers traffic to you. An example of this would be if you’re an accounting business and you provide Xero accounting services and your business is listed on the Xero website as an approved supplier of those services.
Now if you are on a referring website like Xero you are really prequalified in the eyes of those who are visiting your website as you had to be qualified to be listed on the referring website like Xero. So we couldn’t be listed on the Xero website, as we are not accountants who provide Xero accounting services.
Banner Ads on Websites
Now within in Google and other display networks like AdRoll and SiteScout you are able to undertake real time bidding to place your banner ad on other websites.
Within Google AdWords you are able to specify these specific websites or pages discussing specific topics to place you ads on. Then on top of this you are able to specify the geographic location and the time your ad is displayed. These can be text or banner ads. The cost of this is based on per click – so you only pay when someone clicks on your Ad.
Within Facebook you are able to place ads and target specific details which have been collected from Facebook users to target them. We created an infographic on this, so check it out to get a better understanding on the targeting options.
There are plenty of other platforms from where you are able to purchase website traffic from. From banner ads placed in emails through to purchasing ad placement in a business social stream.
Social Media
Social Media is a pretty broad area covering Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, G+ though to Instagram to name a few. Social Media marketing is very much about continual activity and engagement with relevant and engaging content.
As you share interesting information on to the various social media platforms you will increase your brand awareness. The more relevant your information is, the more people will associate your knowledge and brand to that topic.
Interaction is extremely important with social media. Don’t be afraid to identify other groups or pages to interact with people as this is how you can expand your audience and influence.
But at the end of the day you don’t own the social media platform and you have to play by the rules of the social media platform. So this is where you need to entice people over to your website and this is where a content marketing calendar is vital.
So What did Nielsen find?
Nielsen undertook a global survey on “Looking to Achieve New Products Success?” In the report they look at what drives consumers to try new products with consideration on price and the brand. And yes Australia was surveyed as part of the report.
It's certainly interesting to see that 56% of people in 2015 use the friends and family network to get recommendation. When you combine this with social media there is certainly a lot of influence you can have from a marketing perspective in people's social media streams.
In 2016 it is expected that Google will expand Google AdWords to include the ability to target people via email addresses. Other information they collect also allows more targeting options inline with Facebook Advertising. So understanding your demographics of your ideal customer and online advertising can truly help you grow your business.
With the power of understanding your audience you are able to target them with specific information via platforms like Facebook and Google.
So Where to From Here?
All forms or marketing are helpful, but some are better for you and your goals. Understanding your goals for your business and who is you ideal customer online will certainly be a good step in the right direction.
Have you ever considered making a content marketing calendar? Need to know more about making a content marketing calendar - get in contact with us and we can set up a planning session specific for you requirements. Regularly blogging allows you to provide informative information to your target audience and in turn grow your organic traffic to your website.