MARKETING STRATEGY : Achieving your marketing goals in 2010

Advertising online offers a flexible structure and is far more cost effective and measurable than traditional media. Depending on the marketing goals and objectives of each business, different online marketing elements will be used. While online fundamentals like email marketing and banner placements are very effective when executed correctly, there are a few other elements to consider while planning your online strategy for next year.

Marketing Goals #1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO drives web traffic to your website via search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. The purpose of SEO is to increase a website’s ranking on search engine result pages for relevant search terms. This is achieved by optimizing the website for key phrases related to the business products and services in order to provide searchers with relevant and highquality content.

Why should you include SEO in your marketing plan?

Even though SEO is a long-term commitment results from such a campaign are sustainable and provide proven ROI. When implementing a search engine optimization campaign your online marketing agency will tweak existing content, create new web pages and possibly recommend usability changes. Better usability makes it easier for visitors to access your website and increases conversions or desired actions.

Marketing Goals #2. Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)
PPC is a complementary marketing element to SEO. These are the ads seen on the top and right hand side of search engine results pages. These ads are paid for (also called sponsored links or adverts) and work on a bidding system. PPC campaigns should be conversion driven. As you are paying for visits to your website, you should aim to maximize certain actions based on your website goals. Successful completion of these actions is known as a conversion. For instance, if one of the goals is to increase leads and sales through the website the conversion action could involve a visitor filling in a contact form, inquiring about a product, or downloading a product brochure.

Why should you include PPC in your marketing plan?

PPC is an excellent short term solution to drive visitors to your website. Your online marketing agency will create targeted landing pages with the necessary calls to action elements in order to increase conversions. Another advantage of PPC is that it provides opportunity for increased brand awareness through its content network. A network whereby either text or banner advertising is displayed contextually on other relevant websites, and you still only pay-per-click. PPC is budget-based, completely measurable and provides ROI quicker than SEO.

Marketing Goals #3. Social Media Marketing (SMM)
By correctly leveraging platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Zoopy social media can create brand awareness and build relationships with new and existing customers. Social media marketing has been likened to word-of-mouth, it’s about conversations. These conversations occur amongst and between your customers and yourself. Social media marketing is not push-marketing – if you use social media platforms to broadcast overt commercial and marketingmessages your social media campaign is guaranteed to fail.

An integrated strategy comprising a mix of the elements above plus traditional elements will ensure maximum return on your marketing investment. When creating an online strategy the AlterSage team considers the offline channels utilised by the client and aims to create a strategy that will amplify traditional elements. It is important that online not be included as an after-thought. If you want to achieve great results, involve your online agency from the conception phase as they will be able to advise which elements will work best to achieve the specific goals of the campaign.

Source: http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/23/42474.html

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