Lots of people are wondering when it comes to SEO vs SEM, what’s the difference and what is better? The main difference between Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is that SEO deals with organic listings on search engines, and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) deals with paid listings on search engines.

SEO is optimizing a website’s content and link structure so that it will gain higher rankings in search results pages for desired keywords. SEM focuses on bidding on keywords using Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising / Search Engine Advertising.

SEO and SEM are often used together, making things confusing for newcomers to search marketing. It’s important to learn about each of these tactics. Learn the differences between SEO vs SEM, and how different they actually are.

Both SEO and SEM important processes to increase the visibility of a website in search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo.

What Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Search Engine Optimization is often referred to as “SEO.” It is a complex process which focuses on maximizing the number of visitors to your website. You can take actions that boost the website’s appearance on the list of results returned by search engines like Google and Bing.

If your website’s content is SEO friendly, it will be indexed higher when the search engine’s web crawlers start visiting the site. This will increase the odds of the website ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERPS). People also refer to SEO as organic or natural search engine listings.

What’s the difference between On-Site and Off-Site SEO?

There are two primary areas of focus when it comes to doing SEO. Some activities centred around on-site SEO. Other activities are off-site SEO.

On-Site SEO means applying specific changes to your website or blog so that it is more “search engine friendly.” Off-Site SEO is the process of getting backlinks and shares from other websites to increase your website’s value. You can achieve this using certain keywords or terms for when viewed by search engines based on content and context.

On-Page SEO activities include

• Writing high quality and valuable SEO content to your readers (this is the most important)
• Incorporating keyword terms within titles, meta descriptions, headings, alt texts, and other areas
• Website blog posts and web page copy written and optimized for desired keywords
• Cleaning and formatting web page URLs to match keyword values
• Optimizing page load speed times for a better viewing experience
• Organized Internal Link Structures
• Authorship details incorporated to share with search engines
• Integrating social sharing elements within your web page content
•  

 

Off-Page SEO activities include:

• Reaching out and gaining high quality, natural backlinks from other relevant websites
• Posting helpful website pages to social bookmarking sites like Stumbleupon and Reddit
• Creating content that’s worth sharing, to receive more social media signals
• Building up local business citations for Name Address and Phone Number (NAP)
• Writing guest posts on other websites that link back to the target site
• Having other websites reference and link to your content

A ranking system puts the highest voted websites near the top, based on a relevance score calculated by search engines. The more similar websites that link to your page as a reference with high topical content value, the higher your web page will rank for associated keywords. Sometimes, you might even hear of Off-Page SEO referred to as link building, because of its high importance in search engine optimization. You should also take a look at the SEO guide Neil Patel put together, or the Backlink Guide that Brian Dean built.

What Is Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a process within digital marketing to promote your website. Gain traffic with more visibility on search engine results pages (SERPS) by advertising on Google Search Ads or Bing Search Ads.

 By using paid search advertising, you can buy advertising space on search engines if your website is unlikely to reach the first page of results. Compare with other websites that have stronger backlink profiles and more relevant content than you’re able to produce. Instead of having to rank higher to get website traffic, you can pay per click to appear at the top of the searches of specific keywords.

The most well-known platform for delivering paid search campaigns is Google Ads. Microsoft’s Bing Ads platform is at a distant second. It still offers many of the same features for advertising on the search engine and other Microsoft properties like Xbox and Skype. By using Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords), you can get ads to appear at the top of Google search results for specific keywords you select. You’ll only pay for the clicks that you receive on your ads.

Most of the time, digital marketers will use the term SEM when talking about their PPC campaigns or other paid search activities.

How important is SEM traffic?

SEM traffic is one of the most important sources of web traffic for your business. It can target specific keywords that are likely to generate leads on your website.

Search engines are the most common tools for finding a known solution to a problem. They’re also used to answer a specific question, or when learning how to do something.

If someone clicks on your website from the search results for their question, they are more likely to take the desired action when browsing your relevant web pages. Depending on the relevancy of the displayed web pages, SEM traffic is likely to be more valuable than other sources. This is because it connects searchers with the products, services, or information they are already looking for.

What is the difference between SEO vs SEM?

SEO is a specific set of actions that primarily focus on optimizing your web pages. This can increase the number of website visitors from search results pages, and improve the visitor experience on your site. SEM includes only paid search engine listings.

It is important to know why you shouldn’t confuse these terms. Even though they often work together, they are not referring to the same activities. There are also specialists that perform each of these roles within a marketing team.

Which is better SEO or SEM?

Some digital marketers debate with each other about which tactic is better for bringing in sales: SEO vs SEM. Good long-term SEO is the best approach. Even though quality SEO is worth it, the long-term value of the traffic compounds over time, do the math on what the clicks would cost if you were buying that traffic instead of getting it for free.

You can either do SEO yourself, or you can hire an SEO Agency. If you decide to hire an SEO Agency for SEO services, then make sure to check out reviews first. Also, have them show you “before and after” metrics from current and former clients. We start you off with a list of questions to ask!

If you are launching a new website and want to have immediate search engine visibility, then it would be a good idea to create a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) or search engine advertising campaign. You want to reach the first page of search results since it takes far less time than ranking with SEO. It would be unwise to only use PPC campaigns without also doing search engine optimization as part of a long-term strategy.

Even though SEO can take longer to show results, in the long term it will be a far less expensive strategy. Establish credibility that you may not be able to generate using paid search campaigns alone.

Is Google Ad Words SEO or SEM?

Google Ad Words, now known as Google Ads, is SEM.

Where should I start with SEO?

Start with web design best practices. 

Then think about the questions that your potential clients ask. Write a list of the top 20 clients your potential clients are asking, and then you’ll have a list of 20 blog topics.

Search engines are very intent driven, meaning that people ask the questions and you should answer them with your content.

A potential client approached us the other day. They asked us to break down the differences and tradeoffs between Google’s paid and natural search results. Which should they invest more in and why?

So, we decided to put out a blog post that explains the differences and tradeoffs between SEM and SEO. As a result, we could explain when it makes sense to focus on one over the other or on both.

The question and follow-up conversation prompted us to revisit some of the touchstones of digital marketing and SEO. We felt it made sense to share widely with our blog followers.

The conversation pivoted around the differences between Google Natural search and Google Paid search. To explain the difference, it makes sense to start with the fact that Google Natural and Google Paid search are completely different programs. And they are driven by different, unconnected, algorithms.

SEO, or organic search, is the art of driving up a website’s rank in the results directly below the Google search bar. Organic does not include those marked as ads. These results are called “natural,” “organic,” or “unpaid” because Google does not charge for referrals to your web property when it is found in this section of the results page.

SEM (search engine marketing) however, refers to helping businesses perform optimally in the “non-natural” Ad Rank. Ads are found with the highlighted results under the search bar and running down the right-hand sidebar of the Google results page. There is a very different science driving the ranks and there is no direct connection.

Is There a Connection Between SEO and SEM?

We must stress this last point – there is no direct link between Google’s paid and unpaid algorithms. At first glance, the amount you spend on Google AdWords has no bearing on your natural rank. SEO and SEM are decoupled in this respect. However, an indirect benefit may exist. The increase in traffic generated from paid ads can translate into improved natural rank via an increased click-through-rate (CTR) within the natural section of the rankings.

SEM drives natural traffic to your site, increasing your SEO in that respect, in all other material respects the two ranks are disconnected. In this important sense, SEO and SEM are only lightly connected at best. And it is in your interest to work with a digital marketing team that comprehensively understands both or work with different groups – one specializing in SEO and the other in SEM.

Tradeoffs Between SEM and SEO?

The process for optimizing natural search (i.e. getting your site higher in the unpaid rank) can take time. Google’s natural algorithm looks at a plethora of factors to ranking your website on a given query and awards points that leapfrog you over your competitors.

On the other hand, SEM sends your site to the top right away (assuming you have setup your AdWords account optimally). In the SEM world, there is no waiting for Google to take notice of your efforts and to then re-index your website. In this sense, SEM is akin to the “expedited shipping” option you have to pay a bit more but you move to the top quicker.

In the SEM world, there is no waiting for Google to take notice of your efforts and re-index your website. In this sense, SEM is akin to the “expedited shipping” option, you pay a bit more but you move to the top quicker. And, if a SEM professional has optimally setup your account you should only have to pay a small price per visitor. It is only when the account isn’t optimized that you can pay a lot per click.

The Path Off Paid – Hybridizing SEO and SEM

One of the practices that we have seen significant success with is what we call the “Path off Paid.” In this scenario, we recommend clients deploy paid campaigns so that we can discover what keywords perform best. Another benefit here is that our clients’ websites are occupying coveted top real estate on Google searches that matter.

Time to Reap the Benefits of SEO

At the same time, we optimize naturally for keywords that clients request. And, we adjust our SEO campaign based on the feedback we get from AdWords. Once our SEO efforts gain traction, we recommend clients wean off paid results and start reaping the benefits of SEO.

There is no better bargain in digital marketing than being found for free, but it takes time to achieve. In the interim, it’s okay to pay a bit for traffic and knowledge. In time, the lessons learned from these efforts will translate into natural traffic. Traffic that flows freely on the most important keywords for your business. As an additional benefit, enjoy being right at the top.

In time, the lessons learned from these efforts will translate into natural traffic. Traffic that flows freely on the most important keywords for your business. Additionally, you get to rank on the terms that matter most, while learning about what keywords to pivot around naturally.

SEO copywriters create content with two objectives in mind:

• Content should be valuable, compelling and useful in some way to the reader
• Content should build the credibility and ‘domain authority’ of the underlying domain for specific phrases, which is achieved by seeding the content with carefully researched search terms

Search Engine Optimization copywriter creates content which is valuable, compelling & useful by seeding the content with specific keywords which help to improve the content’s ranking in Google for selected keywords.

Copywriting for promotions, advertisements & articles, while balancing the two above objectives, a skilled copywriter incorporates some of the best SEO practices to tailor the content to meet the audience’s search behavior & carefully embeds words in the content that will appeal to them. The important thing to stress here is the relevance of the content. The content shouldn’t read like it’s been written for the sole purpose of SEO by maximizing the use of keyphrases – a ‘black hat’ practice known as keyword stuffing.

Importance of SEO friendly content

SEO’s purpose is to increase the quantity and quality of inbound traffic to your website. Content quality has been found to be one of the most important ranking factors in Google’s ‘search algorithm’. Google and other search engines are continuously striving to make their algorithms ‘non-gameable’ – which means they try to dissuade websites from manipulating search results to the extent that a more relevant competitor website might lose out. To that end, search engines stress the importance of creating natural content, the focus of which should be readability by users and NOT search engines.

While we strongly encourage content creators and SEOs to generate content with that guidance in mind, it’s pointless to ignore the necessity of having relevant keywords seeded in your content. Even though your webpage might be the most detailed, informative authority on a given subject, if people are searching for term ‘Xerox services’ – a trademark that’s been genericized – and you make no mention of Xerox and instead solely use the phrase ‘photocopy services’, as smart as the algorithm is to consider both words interchangeable, there is a good chance you’ll still lose out on SERPs. This is a simplified example, but the underlying idea is the same when it comes to the importance of optimizing content from an SEO perspective.

Elements of SEO copywriting

The key elements to consider when optimizing your content from an SEO point of view are:

·         Title or headline:

Give your article a crisp, catchy title or headline, while trying to ensure the keyword you’re trying to optimize for is part of this H1 title. H1 titles tell crawlers the primary purpose of the page.

·         Content:

Prioritize generating content that truly benefits the user in some way, the objective should be to meet a need, to solve a problem. Also, try to mix in long and short tail keyphrases into the content.

·         Meta-description:

When users search for keywords relevant to your page, search engines look for meta-descriptions to understand the content topic. These meta-descriptions are usually placed (as concise explanation) in the <meta> tags in the HTML code of your page.Keep the description very relevant & up to 160 character long, with keywords placed tactically in it.

·         Keyword frequency:

When users search for keywords relevant to your page, search engines look for meta-descriptions to understand the content topic. These meta-descriptions are usually placed (as concise explanation) in the tags in the HTML code of your page.
Keep the description very relevant & up to 160 character long, with keywords placed tactically in it. These meta descriptions also appear as the descriptions you see below the links in search results. So ensuring they immediately convey relevance to a searcher is essential to maximizing click throughs.

·         Page links:

Page linking tells search engines that your content is sufficiently connected to other relevant pages and content, whether on your own domain or on external ones.Internal and outbound links – especially the latter – tell search engines you’re not afraid to redirect users to other places where they may find other relevant information and resources.

7 Best practices for SEO content writing

1.     Add bucket brigades:

These are words that impart conversational value to your content, making it easier to read and relate to. For instance, writing ‘here is the deal’ in a content meant to go live for flash sale of particular brand of clothes, adds urgency to the experience of user and nudges it closer to make a purchase.

2.     Use longform content:

A very direct correlation has been observed between the length of an article and its ranking position. Given two articles on the same topic, the one that is ‘feature length’, or simply put, longer, will almost always rank better.

3.     Some interesting sub-headings:

So we know long-form content is essential. Obviously, people would spend more time reading a bigger article if it was broken up into sections and not just one big wall of text. Breaking up your article well into subsections with clear, descriptive H2 & H3 headings is very useful.

4.     Call to action buttons:

Adding CTA buttons like ‘click to share’ at the end of the content, prompts the user to share your content with somebody else that might it relevant quickly and seamlessly. The bigger your potential audience for a particular piece of content, the wider reach simple CTA buttons will enable.

5.     Copywriting:

Use lists whenever you can! Write with a target audience in mind – consumers are different from professionals, b2c content writing is different from b2b. Use a combination of short and long sentences, space out your content, readers shouldn’t be overwhelmed visually. Use simple, easy to read fonts like Roboto and Open Sans instead of flowery ones that just ‘look nice’.

6.     ‘Here’ & ‘Now’:

’10 Crazy Steps To Boost Your Conversion Rate Right Now’,‘Learn to Improve Your Page Rank in 5 Minutes HERE!’ – these kinds of headings immediately draw audiences in. We hate clickbait as much as you do, so we really don’t advocate making it seem like you have a magical answer for something from the outside while in reality the base content is but a shadow of that magic. Use catchy headings, but back them up with substance.

7.     Keep tabs on keywords used by users:

You can use Google Keyword Planner to know what keywords are being searched for in your industry.

Also spend some time researching how people talk about topics related to you on social channels, on forums and message board like Reddit, etc.

For instance, before publishing a content on ‘best home redecorating tips’, look up this topic on Google and glance through the first few search results to get an idea about keywords.

If you found this information useful and would like to learn more about our SEO services, and how we can help increase the visibility of your brand online, do get in touch with us. We’ll love to learn about your objectives and create a customized, free SEO audit report for you.

Businesses globally are adjusting with the impact of coronavirus, weathering the onslaught of pandemic induced lockdown in one form or the other. Brands are reallocating marketing budgets for the remaining year and email marketing companies & experts are busy reevaluating and reconfiguring new marketing strategies.

With a surge like 44% more emails being sent as compared to the circumstances before pandemic’s outbreak, getting an email strategy right is now more vital for email marketing agencies. Vying desperately for consumers’ attention by sending a barrage of emails is often counter productive. It needs a more empathetic approach now, for starters, given how Covid-19 has affected lives globally.

What is Email Marketing?

Broadly speaking, email marketing is using emails to send advertisements, pitch business propositions and solicit sales to prospective or current customers. An effective email marketing strategy helps to convert prospects into customers.

Some of the best email marketing services implement such strategies which turn their customers into patrons! That should be the ultimate goal, if one pauses to reflect.

For instance, BookMyShow in India is quite actively sending emails to its customers these days, promoting various offers on booking tickets for movies awaiting releases in upcoming months.

6 Reasons To Value Email Marketing

Email marketing is a means not only to bring services to your prospects but it also sustains your presence among customers, although that has to be done sensitively now-a-days.

While the world endures lockdown, emails ensure global outreach & connection which increases the utility of email marketing. Here are 6 reasons to value email marketing:

·         Cost-effectiveness:

It is the perfect marketing tactic for businesses due to its relatively inexpensive starting off and maintaining a marketing campaign. You can create customized campaigns at small costs for different target segments keeping in mind the buying patterns of customers now-a-days.

Buying ad spaces in print media and time slots on TV to run your ads has greater costs, not to mention its inflexibility to accommodate tailoring in ads apropos different sets of target consumers.

·         Outreach irrespective of the pandemic:

Email marketing services ensure your products/services are always visible & available to customers.

·         Provision of automation:

Pandemic or no pandemic, email marketing lends well to automation. Triggers and workflows can be used to automatically send emails to consumers after they take a specific action, thereby improving the relevancy & timeliness of your campaigns. From customers’ perspective, they still get curated offers from time to time as they were getting them before Covid-19.

Even if a customer visits your website, adds items to the cart and leaves website without making a purchase for some reasons, email automation ensures that the customer will get an email prompt to finish purchasing process or suggest help to them with respect to the purchase they abandoned.

It helps build stronger & credible relationships.

·         Effective personalization of content amid lockdown:

While people are engaging more with their smartphones and other gadgets for browsing products & making purchases, email marketing makes it easy to personalize the content delivered to subscribers.

Using data collected from subscribers and leads, you can provide more personalized, relevant & actionable content. This can improve both click-through rate as well as your overall conversion rate.

As population is segmented into containment zones in the country, you can improvise the existing, & invent new, campaigns which address the customers accordingly in their zones.

·         Easy tracking of marketing efforts:

Email marketing metrics are easy to track and measure over time. Now that physical outlets are only open in few areas of the country, targeted email marketing will enable your business to see how many users opened your emails, how many of them clicked links in them, how many users got converted etc.This will help in course correction for business continuity as and when needed with the Covid-19 transitions.

·         Stay connected with the users:

Email marketing services keep the users in loop about how their service providers are dealing with the pandemic, what steps they have taken to ensure their products won’t pose any threat (of infection) to consumers, what new offers they are rolling out in upcoming weeks and whether they are providing any complementary items with the purchases now (e.g. giving Covid-19 masks/hand-sanitizers free of cost with products bought).

Why Are People Opening Emails More Often Now?

As people are confined to their spaces to follow guidelines of lockdown, their interaction with gadgets has increased. Internet connected devices are the only means by which they are able to keep track of what is going on in their locality and the world.

Updates, news bulletins, reminders, official instructions etc. on websites & apps are keeping them updated of new array of services & products being offered by the businesses.
Companies are sending emails on regular intervals to users, informing them about new developments in their choice of services they used to purchase, new promotional offers that are tailored for their zones & introduction of new pricings in near future in the light of Covid-19.

General Data provides email-marketing solutions for all types of companies and objectives. With over a decade of experience, we know how to build marketing campaigns that produce results.

We offer a wide-range of tools for planning, targeting and implementing high-volume email marketing campaigns. Our team can help you design your mailer & content keeping in mind the ramifications with respect to Covid-19.

We can ready the database as required and send it out in a correct non-spammy manner so that it isn’t obtrusive like junk mail and instead is more likely to be clicked-on due to its being helpful, valuable and often tangible.

For a detailed overview of how we drive business relationships to consumers through our marketing expertise, reach out to us here.

Searchers reach your landing page after clicking your Ad on Google. This landing page is where you have control over what your users see and experience, and so, this is where you must incite a Call-to-action from your visitor – whether an enquiry form submission, a newsletter signup, a phone number to call on, or an e-commerce conversion.

When you next reach a landing page, take a look at how it’s put together. Is the landing page optimized? How can it be improved to elicit a user-action. As a Digital Marketing Agency, we take into consideration many factors when designing and developing landing pages, here are some of the important things to keep in mind:

End Goal

Always chalk out your end goal before structuring the landing page. Do you want to capture an email address or some other information or do you want the visitor to perform a different action? Some products and services require a two-way dialog with your sales team, in which case highlighting your phone number in multiple places becomes important. Enquiry forms are probably the best call-to-actions since they’re quick and easy for visitors to fill out and minimizes the effort required by them.

Target Audience

Your landing page needs to speak to your target customers. The most straight forward way of doing this is to gauge and outline personas of your target customers and then plan the individual elements of your landing page around them. This is imperative when deciding the theme & color scheme of the page, writing copy, including a call to action and balancing the amount of content and vertical length of your landing page.

Also Read: 9 Tips to Optimize Your SEM Campaign

Powerful Call to Action

The call-to-action is where you ask the visitor or reader to initiate an engagement with you. How you word and graphically represent your call-to-action(s) affects your conversions the most. Remember that your audience has a short attention span and will be evaluating your competitors before initiating a dialog with you. You need to convince them that your offering matches their need.

No Distractions

The aesthetic value of a landing page must never take away from its essential purpose. There’s no reason why your landing page shouldn’t be visually appealing but be careful that you don’t distract visitors away from your call to action.

Also, do not overwhelm your visitor with content. A landing page should be short and succinct. While you may feel the need to inform your visitor with as much information as possible, this usually works against you when inciting a call-to-action. Bullet points, short sentences and visual representations of information all help in keeping your landing page to the point.

Write to Sell

If your landing page is eventually not converting potential customers into sales, there is something wrong with the way your content is written. This is where knowing how your audience behaves matters because you can tailor the entire landing page around how they purchase products and services. Appeal to the needs, wants and desires of your target customers.

Think Colours

Colours are the dimensions that lend beauty to vision. There is a deep level of psychology behind the use of colour and it can be an extremely valuable tool when utilized properly in your landing page. The correct colour combinations in harmony with the brand make the visitor feel welcome and confident of the brand.

By and large, web services use soft color palettes, b2b landing pages are more direct and less fussy, and when selling consumer products, the product images speak for themselves.

Test, Test and Test Some More

Even if you create your landing page using all the best practices and guides available, its still not guaranteed that your page is perfectly optimized. While you may be getting conversions, without A/B & multivariate testing – serving multiple pages to different visitors for the same ads – you don’t know whether another version of your landing page will generate a higher conversion rate. You could create and pit radically different landing pages against each other or just modify individual elements and launch multiple versions of the same page with minimal change.

Properly tracking your conversion data as a result of A/B and multivariate testing will help you improve your landing pages using actionable insights.

Keeping the above points in mind when designing landing pages will undoubtedly help you optimize your paid Google Adwords & Display Network campaigns, and any other paid campaigns like those on Facebook & Twitter. We’ve used the above pointers to great effect for ourselves and our clients. If you’re interested in running a paid ad campaign, do get in touch with us to see how we can help.

There’s no better way to understand your site visitors and how they’re interacting with your content than than by using cold, hard data.

That being said, it’s easy to get swept up in what the marketing world calls “vanity metrics.” They can be misleading and ultimately not indicative of how your brand is performing in the digital sphere.

Be wary of these vanity metrics, and try not to get too wrapped up in or spend money on boosting them.

Twitter Followers

On Twitter, sometimes “following” people is totally random. Plenty of users use Twitter to keep tabs on a variety of interests, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are interested in making a purchase.

In fact, they may just want a “follow back” in order to boost their own numbers.

Do This Instead:

Look at the number of followers of your direct competitors.

Are they more or less?

This basis of comparison can help you understand if you can improve your content strategy and where you’re already hitting the mark.

Facebook Fans

Same principle applies, as with Twitter followers. Many users will click “Like” on a page, but never or seldom return back.

Do This Instead:

A better metric to look at is engagements; who is commenting, sharing and liking your posts, versus just liking your page.

Facebook has a free analytics tool called Facebook Insights where you can monitor your engagement levels.

Blog Views

You’re getting a lot of views to your blog — that’s great! But blog views don’t indicate where your reader came from or where they’re headed on your site.

Do This Instead:

Monitor bounce rates. Bounce rate is when a visitor visits one page, then does not click further into your site. A high bounce rate is bad because it means visitors leave your site after visiting just one page.

Also, look at shares on social sites, as search engines consider shares and tweets in their results.

If you want to know which metrics you SHOULD look at, check out our post: 5 Key Performance Metrics to Track Using Google Analytics.

Ready to see your business grow? Schedule an appointment with us.

There are countless ways to promote a product, service and brand. Basic word-of-mouth, social media, pay-per-click (PPC) and mail advertisements are all great ways to promote your product.

While some of these techniques may work, others could prove to be nothing more than a financial black hole, draining your resources while leaving you nothing to show for it. You can increase your marketing ROI, by focusing less on outbound techniques and more on inbound.

What is Inbound Marketing?

If you asked ten different marketing professionals what is the definition of inbound marketing, you would probably get ten different answers. Generally speaking, inbound marketing refers to marketing practices that attract customers and clients. In outbound practices, the business or marketer must go out of their way to get the attention of prospects.

Wikipedia summed up the definition of inbound marketing nicely, saying the following:

“Inbound marketing refers to marketing activities that bring visitors in, rather than marketers having to go out to get prospects’ attention. Inbound marketing earns the attention of customers.“

In the old days, businesses focused almost strictly on outbound marketing techniques, such as mail advertisements for instance. An apparel retail store may have sent its subscribers a product catalog in which it advertised its clothing and accessories.

But the times have changed, and now businesses are shifting their efforts to inbound marketing techniques. It’s a cheaper and more effective way to connect with customers and generate sales when compared to outbound techniques. However, there are other reasons to embrace inbound marketing, such as those listed below.

Benefits of Inbound Marketing

According to a 2013 State of Inbound Marketing report, businesses that embrace inbound marketing spend 50% less money to generate leads. If you spend $10 to generate a qualified lead, you can cut costs to just $5 per lead by using inbound marketing tactics.

A 50% cost-savings on lead generation is enormous. You can use the money you saved from inbound marketing for growing your business.

A 2014 follow-up of the same State of Inbound Marketing study found that more than half of all marketers ranked inbound marketing as their primary source of leads. Of course, statistics such as this shouldn’t come as a surprise given the overwhelming response that consumers have to inbound marketing practices.

Consumers today have grown weary of seeing unsolicited advertisements. We are bombarded by advertisements in our email accounts, on television, on the radio and even in our mailboxes. Granted, some people may read these advertisements, but the vast majority ignores them altogether, resulting in no tangible benefit for the respective business.

Using inbound marketing gives consumers the option to reach out to the business if they are interested in its products or services. If a potential customer isn’t interested in the business, they will simply ignore it, without feeling pressured to take action.

Outbound marketing, on the other hand, is a more aggressive approach to advertising, often disrupting potential customers’ normal daily lives and negatively affecting their perspective on the business. Perhaps this is why more than two in three business-to-consumer companies have acquired customers on Facebook. Facebook offers a platform for inbound marketing, as it’s not intrusive and users can control the content they want to see.

Inbound Marketing Tips

Take a look at these tips to ensure your marketing efforts are effective.

Diversify Your Efforts

When promoting your business on social media diversify your efforts across a variety of social media sites. Thinking beyond Facebook will increase brand exposure while allowing you to reach a larger audience. While Facebook remains the King of social media, there are other networks worth noting as well, such as Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest and even LinkedIn.

Create a Clear Content Generation Strategy

Arguably, one of the most important elements of inbound marketing is content. Content is the driving force that encourages visitors to seek out more information about a business, which is why it’s important to publish high-quality, relevant content on a regular basis.

Businesses should create and follow a content generation strategy for their website, blog, social media and other platforms. Even Google has said that publishing high-quality content is the “single most important” thing that webmasters can do. And when Google makes such a bold statement, it’s best to heed its advice.

Embrace the Mobile Revolution

You can leverage the power of inbound marketing by developing companion mobile apps for your business. Even if the apps serve minimal functionality, they can still be used to connect with your target audience and drive sales. Some of the country’s biggest retailers like Amazon, Walmart and Target have their own apps, attesting to its benefits.

Additional Tips

• Optimize your website for higher search rankings. 
• Use software like Infusionsoft to automate some of the steps required for inbound marketing.
• Optimize your website using on-page and off-page SEO tactics.
  Did you know that Google processes more than 100 billion global searches every month? If your business website ranks high in Google, it will naturally receive more traffic — traffic that could convert into paying customers.
• Measure the effectiveness of your inbound marketing channels. Regardless of which channels you use to promote your business, use analytics software to determine which ones are generating sales and which ones are not.
• When a potential customer leaves a message, respond. Inbound marketing encourages businesses to communicate with their prospects.

Have anything else you want to add? Let us know in the comments section below!

Social media can seem sometimes like it’s all fun and games, and visited mostly by the younger generations. Is it just a distraction for business owners trying to build their brands and increase their sales? As it turns out, this is not the case at all. Social media is a critical part of your overall digital marketing strategy – as long as you incorporate it thoughtfully into your plan.

In today’s blog post, we’ll discuss how to harness the power of social media marketing for your business.

Why Is Social Media Marketing so Important?

In this day and age, most of us have at least one personal social media account. Whether we use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, or another site, it’s part of our daily lives in 2020. It might seem like it’s all about fun and connections, and business owners often struggle to use it effectively for marketing because of this.

But that’s exactly why using social media platforms for your business can be so valuable. Because it’s where your target audience is spending part of their day, every day. Hence, because they have a strong connection to the platform and to the content on it, you can easily move the needle on your business priorities.

And in today’s world, where consumers are constantly bombarded with ads, building a real connection with your audience can be the difference between success and failure.

Social media allows for real, two-way conversations and authentic engagement. You can speak directly to customers, ask them questions, listen to their concerns, and get real-time feedback. That kind of connection isn’t possible anywhere but social media – especially now, when face-to-face events are limited.

What is Social Media Marketing Used For?

Social media for businesses is used mainly in three ways. You can use it to bring your company to a wider audience, to sell them products, or to get leads into your sales funnel. The approach, or approaches, you take will depend on what’s right for your industry and your business.

1. Brand Awareness

In the crowded marketplace for most industries, it’s not enough to simply offer the best products and services. You also need to ensure your target audience is aware of your brand, at the least. And ideally you would begin to build a positive relationship with them as well.

That’s exactly what social media allows you to do. Either with organic or paid content, you can create content and an online persona that speaks to the desires and needs of your prospects.

For example, if your ideal customer for your boutique healthcare practice is women in their 30s and 40s who are interested in wellness and holistic medicine, then you can create social media content around those topics. You can use lots of beautiful images of before-and-after transformations on Instagram, or a combo of written and visual content on Facebook.

Seeing your content regularly on the social media sites where they’re already spending time means your audience becomes more aware of your brand. If your content is done thoughtfully and in a voice that’s true to who you are, they can start to build a connection to you before ever making a purchase.

And that connection and trust is paramount in a world where consumers have more options and less trust in marketing than ever. Social media can help you build a brand your prospects see as trustworthy and authentic.

2. Making Sales

Of course, turning that engaged audience into paying customers is the true goal of your marketing efforts. And you can also use your social media channels to make that happen.

In fact, more and more social media platforms are building in marketing and purchasing features for businesses to use.

Facebook and Instagram have visually appealing interfaces for marketers where you can showcase your products right in the platform and link to your e-commerce site. This means making a purchase is nearly seamless for your customers.

3. Generating Leads

If you sell a service or a complex product however, then social media e-commerce isn’t quite right for your business. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use it to bring in customers. You just have a slightly longer process.

Social media can be useful for generating leads, who you can nurture into customers. You can drive traffic to your website or email list via your social media channels and begin the process of getting those prospects through your sales funnel. (We’ll talk more about this below, so read on for details.)

Tying Social Media into Your Digital Marketing Plan

While it can be powerful, social media isn’t enough to grow your business on its own, with very few exceptions. It’s most effective when it’s tied into a larger digital marketing strategy. That’s because when you have several marketing elements working together in sync, each piece is more effective.

Let’s take the example of the boutique healthcare practice we talked about earlier, their social media might tie into their digital marketing campaign in several ways.

• Using their Instagram Stories to push signups to their weekly newsletter with wellness and beauty tips. These signups all go into their latest email marketing campaigns, bringing in new leads and customers.
• Using the blog posts they write as part of their content marketing strategyas new social media content too. That’s double the impact for content they only need to create once.
• Creating compelling landing pages on their website for promotions they run through social media.

Creating a Consistent Voice

Every piece of your digital marketing plan should work together seamlessly. It should have the same look, feel, and voice. After all, it would be a bit jarring to a new prospect to go from your light, friendly Twitter feed to a website with a totally different color palette and a stern professional tone.

Those disconnects aren’t just aesthetically displeasing – they reduce the trust your audience has in your brand. With many less-than-honest companies operating online right now, customers are wary of any signs that you might not be trustworthy.

Protect Yourself from Changing Platforms

This larger digital marketing strategy also protects your marketing efforts from being reliant on a platform you don’t own. Social media companies change their algorithm frequently – sometimes to the detriment of organic content, and sometimes to the detriment of ads. They can even disappear altogether (remember Vine?).

If all of your sales and leads are generated through a social media platform, then you’re out of luck when something happens. But if you’re using those platforms wisely, to build your own email or drive to your own blog, then you are in a position to make a quick pivot as things change.

How Can Social Media Marketing Companies Help?

Social media is an effective way to grow your business for most companies. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

For maximum ROI, you need to:

• Know which platforms to use, and what types of content perform best on each
• Consistently create fresh, compelling content
• Monitor your channels constantly for comments, questions, engagement, and reviews
• Look at analytics to see what’s working and what needs improvement

This is a lot for small businesses to handle alone.

It’s easy enough to set up Facebook ads on your own, but how can you be sure you’re using the right keywords, targeting the right groups, and setting the right daily spend? Without the right expertise, you might be missing out on big growth and wasting your marketing spend.

That’s where social media marketing companies come in. You can get a social media manager (or a whole team of them) helping to set up and manage your social media advertising and organic content in the most effective way possible. This comes with added costs, of course, but the added ROI can make the investment more than worth it.

Or you can hire a full-service digital marketing firm who will handle your social media strategy, posting, and management as part of your online marketing. This approach can be useful if you want every part to work together seamlessly, each part building on another for maximum effectiveness.

What works for your company and business size

If you’re a very small business with a very small budget and you’re just getting started in digital marketing, you may well be able to tackle the basics of social media yourself. After all, since most of us use social media regularly, we already have a base of knowledge about at least a few of the platforms. This approach can be very budget friendly as you build your business.

But if you’re looking to take your business to the next level and your social media efforts just aren’t getting you there, it might be time to call in outside experts. You can get the benefit of their experience on your budget, and watch your business grow and thrive.

Get Help with Social Media and Digital Marketing

Looking for an agency that gets you real, measurable results with attractive functional websites, great writing and a strong digital marketing strategy? We can help with social media and other types of content marketing.

Schedule a free business review here to find out how we help businesses grow. You can use these insights for inspiration, and let us do the marketing for you.

The domain name is the heart and soul of your website. As such, it’s essential that you register your own domain name and not allow a third-party to register it for you. Unfortunately, many newcomers assume that it’s okay for their web host, web design company, or some other third-party to do it for them.

In some cases, no conflicts will arise, but other instances can result in some serious heartache.

Registering a Domain Name

The process for registering a domain name is relatively simple and straightforward. You create an account on an ICANN-certified registrar such as GoDaddy or NameCheap, find a domain name that’s currently not registered, add it to your shopping cart and checkout. You’ll be asked to enter your contact information, including your name, phone number, and street address. Once you are finished, the domain will be under your control.

Beware of Allowing Others to Register Your Domain Name!

Unless you’ve registered a domain name in the past, you may believe that it’s easier to have another person register it for you. This is a common practice involving web design and SEO firms, many of whom will gladly register domain names for their clients. But this creates several critical problems that can come back to haunt you in the long run.

• The biggest problem with allowing another person or entity to register your domain is the fact that you don’t legally own the domain. Unless you create a contract that explicitly states YOU are the owner of the domain, the person or entity whom registered the domain will retail legal ownership of it.
• You may allow your web designer to register your domain name, for instance, at which point he or she retains legal ownership of it. Nine out of ten times, nothing bad will happen, but there’s always the possibility of a disgruntled firm or worker trying to steal your domain name and use it for their own personal gain.
• If your web designer wishes to do so, he or she could change the nameservers associated with your domain name, pointing them to their own web host. This would essentially erase your website, replacing it with their own.

Of course, you can always attempt to retake a lost domain by filing a whois inaccuracy form with ICANN at http://www.icann.org/en/resources/compliance/complaints/whois/inaccuracy-form. Given the slow response time, however, it’s best to avoid situations like this in the first place by registering your own domain names.

How to Prevent Domain Name Ownership Problems

The easiest way to prevent domain name ownership discrepancies is to register domains under your own name. As long as you are listed at the registrant — and your contact information is correct and up to date – you will retail legal ownership of the domain name.Have you encountered problems when registering your domain name(s)? Let us know in the comments section below

Today’s digital era has caused the medical profession to evolve by leaps and bounds. As a result, most health care systems adopt technology and innovation to enhance patient healthcare, safety, and experience. But what about adapting to the changes that the digital era has brought for patient relationships?

Let’s explore this today.

The Digital Age and Medical Practices

The American Medical Association (AMA) helps doctors adapt to the use of augmented intelligence (AI) through various initiatives:

• The AMA launched the Healthier Nation Innovation Challenges (2016)
• Doctors, residents-in-training, and medical students submitted innovative ideas on how to use technology in medical schools and how to advance digital health technology and digital medicine.
• It challenged 400 innovators in a national conference (2017)
• Pushed for modernization of the medical school curricula and training the students in the use of electronic health records and other modern approaches in the health systems.
• AMA launched the Physician Innovation Network (2017)
• Enabled physicians to connect with venture capitalists in public health and digital health companies
• Gave the doctors the chance to recommend innovations that will cater to patients’ welfare, medical care, and unique needs.

Amazing technologies improved both short term and long term care. The use of remote sensing and monitoring devices make it easy for doctors to know their patients’ status in real-time. For example, one device reads and transmits the blood sugar level of a child to his pediatrician. An insulin pump corrects the blood sugar as needed.

Telehealth and telemedicine, on the other hand, make it easy for patients to gain access to their providers. Patients can ask their provider many health-related questions using email, rather than long periods of time in a waiting room to be seen.

But now, largely due to patient online reviews and social media sharing, doctors have to be their own advocates for marketing.

The Digital Age and Patient Relationships

Besides their bedside manner in person, doctors have to practice social media/electronic manners as well to protect their online reputation. These new ways of giving care also give rise to physician ethical issues and new challenges not known in the past.

Patients used to rely solely on their doctors for disease diagnosis. But now, a few mouse clicks can reveal a number of possible causes of the patient’s symptoms.

William Osler, Father of Modern Medicine, once said, “Listen to your patient. He is telling you the diagnosis.” However, some patients have taken this in the literal and skewed way with the advent of the internet.

Many have access to health information anytime and anywhere using their mobile devices.

Consider these survey findings of the Pew Research Center in the last decade:

•  81% of Americans own smartphones
•  59% of adults get their health information online
• 17% of adults with chronic diseases received conflicting information online

This trend can sometimes give rise to an artificial patient relationship that’s one-sided. Because of this, the doctor-patient relationship may appear to have started even before the patient walks into the doctor’s consultation room.

When patients read the provider’s website, they may feel an instant connection with the doctor upon reading his profile. They may have graduated from the same college or share the same hobby or interest. If the doctor has an engaging blog and vlog, the patient may immediately trust the doctor’s authority based on the information he provides.

And yet, all these remain to be a one-way patient experience until the patient walks in and shakes the doctor’s hand.

How can you, as a provider, jump into this trending digital healthcare boat without falling into the deep sea of ethical issues and challenges?

Make Sure Ethics Are at the Forefront of Your Patient Relationships

Make sure to review the AMA Code of Medical Ethics on Patient and Physician Relationships.

It is every physician’s ethical responsibility to abide by the following principles even when going digital:

• The relationship between patient and physician is based on trust.
• Have a trusted website with reliable and relevant online content, with material that has references and credible sources
• Use plain language easily understood by a layman,
• Never commit false claims, nor disclose any conflict of interest
• Always have the patient’s interest above everything else.
• Use marketing strategies that add value to your patient’s healthcare
• Educate patients based on your expertise and best clinical judgment
• Be a patient advocate in whatever platform you use
• Email to inform and not spam your patients’ inboxes

According to AMA, doctors can uphold physicians’ ethical responsibility in giving telehealth service by:

• Putting patient welfare first
• Providing competent care
• Sharing objective and accurate information that the patient needs to make an informed decision (including those that appear on their websites)
• Upholding patient privacy and confidentiality using appropriate electronic protocol
• Ensuring continuity of care
• Telling patients the extent and limitations of the service.
• Directing patients to their primary care physicians or other specialists for follow-up care

Google and the Self-Diagnosis

Here are some things to keep in mind when dealing with patients who had consulted “Dr. Google” before they sought your “second” opinion:

According to a study, online pre-consulting resulted in the following outcomes on the doctor-patient relationship:

• 40% of the patients remained unaffected
• 24% of the patients deem that it improved
• 8% felt that online research resulted in a negative impact

When did the health information seeking behavior improve the doctor-physician relationship? It was only when the:

• information confirmed the doctor’s findings and supported the doctor’s advice
• doctor was able to explain the online information better and added to patient understanding
• patient felt more in control because of prior knowledge
• online information gave more clarity to the options presented by the doctor
• online information engaged the patient with their self-care

The negative impact occurred when conflict arose between the patient and the doctor due to the:

• Contradicting interpretation of the healthcare information
• Patient putting more value on the online information than his doctor’s prescription
• doctor feeling threatened or challenged
• doctor not being receptive and resisting discussion on the online information

Today’s doctor-patient relationship relies on trust, which gives rise to compliance and adherence to the doctor’s medical intervention, just as before. But unlike before, the nurturing of such trust can extend beyond the clinic through the digital world wide web.

If you have not gone with the latest digital trend in your practice, now is the time to innovate. Maximize the use of technology to acquire new patients and to nurture lasting doctor-patient relationships.

What about digital marketing? We can help your practice find more qualified patients! Schedule a call with us here to find out how.