Online Marketing

With the level of online presence what it is, any business that doesn’t carry out some form of marketing online is missing a key opportunity; currently 89% of consumers research products online before committing to a purchase. This behaviour translates to services as well as consumer products; potential customers will most likely attempt to find a business online before contacting them.

Therefore, it is important for any business to drive their presence online and utilise this medium to acquire leads and encourage conversions.

However, “Online Marketing” is not a single channel unto itself, it contains within it a multitude of disciplines that can be utilised.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
Increasing visibility on search engines such as Google is a large chunk of the online marketing pie, and there are a great many factors that come into play when trying to move up the ranks. Be it the technical side of your website (title tags, semantic mark up, hierarchical tagging, quality backlinks from niche sites, loading times, Authorship etc. ) or the front-end side (relevant & high quality content, intuitive user experience, social signals etc.). As a discipline SEO has shifted and changed over the last few years, owing largely to the menagerie of algorithm updates released by Google, but also the evolution in the way we as users search for things online.

You may find the following SEO-related articles useful:

• SEO glossary
• Analogy of how SEO works as a process
• Understanding Pageviews vs. Visits
• Understanding Bounce Rates

PPC
Pay Per Click is a highly useful tool that allows brands to be seen in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). It works on a bidding system, the more you are willing to pay for each click, the more likely you are to be seen against your chosen keywords. As a channel it is highly customisable, and the wealth of options is available to brands to control when, where and how often their adverts appear in results, as well as limiting daily spend.

Display Advertising
Similar to Print Advertising in that in involves placing an advertisement for your business on another website. This can be anything from a simple text ad, to an animated banner ad or even a video. Websites will charge different amounts depending on the size and location of your advert.

Remarketing
In some ways an amalgamation of PPC and Display Advertising, but with a twist. Remarketing reminds previous visitors to your site that perhaps didn’t convert, about you. Your advertising appears on other websites to serve as a gentle reminder to that user and keep your brand front of mind. Costing wise, it works in a similar way to PPC, you only get charged when a user clicks on the ad, and has proven to be a highly successful device with strong conversion rates.

Email Marketing
Most businesses will have a list of the email addresses of existing clients and potential leads. By sending an email to these individuals you can draw attention to your current offers, company updates and other useful information; directly contacting a large number of people in one go. While potentially extremely effective, this medium is difficult to perfect. Unsolicited mail is often filtered by email clients, or deleted before being read. It is very much a trial-and-error process, but we can help by applying what we have learned to your campaigns, thus minimising risk and increasing ROI.

Social Media Marketing
The use of Social Networks in marketing comes in two dominant forms: paid advertising and content. Owing to the wealth of demographic information afforded to advertisers, campaigns can be targeted to a level never seen before, ensuring that adverts are seen by people most likely to convert. But they are not only a source of big data that advertisers have dreamt of, they are also a platform from which to reach your target audience organically, as well as communicate directly with them. This allows for a more personal relationship with your audience, and offers the chance to demonstrate your brand personality. This falls under the content category, Social Networks can be a medium to showcase your content and drive traffic through to your website, nurture leads and increase brand awareness.

A huge benefit of any online marketing campaign is the high degree of measurability it provides. Thanks to tools such as Google Analytics businesses are able to monitor the results of any campaign, and calculate accurate ROI. You are able to objectively view your consumers’ journeys and experiences with your brand; how they arrived, where they landed, how long they spent there, how far they got through the ordering process, where they eventually decided to leave, and so on. From this information you can tweak and alter your website, and campaigns, not only to increase conversion rates and reduce spend, but ultimately to provide a more positive experience of your brand for your customers.

We offer a bespoke service for online marketing, so please get in touch to discuss options.