The Importance of SEO and Digital Marketing for Startups
Learning to maximize the potential of internet commerce is to your benefit, especially as a start-up company. Optimizing your website in a way that will get it noticed by your potential customers is crucial. PPC management, SEO marketing, Social Media, and email marketing are some of the digital marketing platforms that will make you a success.
Pay Per Click Management
PPC management is a way of overseeing and managing the use of your ads on sites with related content. The ads show as “sponsored links” or “sponsored ads” on other websites. It becomes a metric for showing results because it shows interest by way of the customer clicking on the ad.
The keywords or key phrases are bid on for placing your ad as a banner across the top or alongside a search result. This is the tricky part of knowing what words to use, and creating copy that gets the attention of potential customers.
Search Engine Optimization
Search results are important to you, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is how you get your website noticed organically. Climbing onto the first page of a customer’s search is imperative to getting their patronage. Search engines algorithms determine best results by searching sites for keywords that match your potential customer’s search. Peppering content with the words that get noticed by the search engines is essential. The search engines scan your site for the words that the searcher has typed in, and when there is a match your site becomes part of the result.
Pages with new and fresh content with useful links are given more prominence in the search results. If your page has had no new content since you first went on-line, then your site’s worth is falling lower in the search results. The addition of new material gives your site more prominence. If other sites are linking to your content, then that will draw more searchers to your doorstep. Old content is not going to open the door to better visibility on the internet.
Social Media Marketing
Most people are using social media, and it only makes sense to engage them there. Social Media Marketing (SMM) creates an environment where you can interact in real-time with your customers. This kind of digital marketing is accomplished through a running dialog of posts and pictures that welcomes your clients into getting involved with your business.
This takes the place of face-to-face interactions that are not possible when dealing with customers from all over the world. It is the place to get to know your customers, and get a better understanding of their needs and wants. Their positive and negative feedback can help to create a better experience for all your customers in both the short-term and long run.
How to employ the essentials of social media marketing from the Economic Times, describes how you can implement SMM strategies.
Email Marketing
According to the Direct Marketing Association’s annual response rate report, Direct mail generated the highest response rates, but email delivered the highest return on investment. Email’s ROI was 28.5% compared to 7% for direct mail. The report went on to say, “Email is more cost-effective than direct mail or telemarketing.”
With email marketing, you can target potential customers with emails for the products in which they have shown an interest.
The internet helps your customers find you and gives you the chance to have a global presence even with a start-up company. It allows you to interact with your clientele that helps to build loyalty, which translates into repeat business.
