Is traditional marketing enough?
The Good Ol’ Days were Nothing Compared to Online Marketing!
The ol’ marketing game ain’t what it used to be. You used to place some ads, maybe run some radio and TV, if it fit your audience, put graphics on your company’s vehicles if you had them, and send out direct mail campaigns. Done. Did your message reach anyone? Well, obviously, traditional marketing can be effective or the public wouldn’t know one brand or product from another, but today’s online marketing tools are light years ahead of traditional marketing methods, and there’s a large stable of Internet marketing tools available that include search engine optimization, social media marketing, business listings, analytics software, search engine marketing, and of course, effective website design.
Digital marketing has lots more measure-ability than traditional marketing, and a good marketing plan can target your customers much more accurately than the “old” ways, allowing you to communicate with customers and prospects in more focused fashion—and to see better performance metrics than ever before. There are several components to online marketing, and you should be utilizing all of them if you run a business in the 21st century:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is a process of tracking the criteria Google uses to decide which websites should appear highest in the search results, then adjusting your online content to fit those criteria better than your competitors do.
Social Media Marketing
This powerful tool allows you to communicate with people who follow you on Facebook, Twitter, etc., giving them a glimpse of the human beings behind your brand—an important marketing ingredient that can be too easily overlooked in our online world.
Analytics Software
There are plenty of pieces of software that can tell you what people are typing into search engines when they look for a company like yours. They can also tell you how many people are visiting your website (and your competitors’ sites), where they are clicking on your site, how they are finding you, and they can even make suggestions about adjustments you should make to your content to improve the numbers.
Search Engine Marketing
Also called SEM, this marketing method allows you to target online ads with great accuracy, and to re-target prospects who have recently searched online for your product or service. Peripheral SEM tools can help you determine which online campaigns are most effective and adjust your online content accordingly.
Where to Begin with Local Online Marketing in Wichita, KS?
There’s a lot you can—and should—do, yourself. Social networking is the digital advertising tool that anyone can use. Facebook is easy enough that over 2 billion people around the world are using it, and any kind of Facebook presence is better than none. But Facebook also has advanced marketing tools that allow laser-focused targeting of ads and online video. You may be very good at using all these tools, but if you’re too busy running your business (aren’t we all?), US Logo in Wichita, KS, can help you with many tasks. We can also provide advice on how best to use your social media presence in a do-it-yourself manner.
YouTube is an increasingly important ingredient in the social networking arena (yes, YouTube is a social network) because people are generally reading less and watching more video. This, too, can be a do-it-yourself marketing tool, but it is slightly more complicated than Facebook, and to do it well, most companies hire a marketing partner like US Logo for help. Videos attract more search traffic to your site than written content, and videos on your site dramatically increase the amount of time visitors spend there, a statistic which is also measured and rewarded by search engines.
You can do your own SEO, as well. The Google Keyword Tool and other, third party applications can carry you a long way down the search engine optimization road without requiring a deep knowledge of programing and recent changes in Google algorithms. But each of these applications has limitations, and the best optimization is usually accomplished with a mix of several of them. Just figuring out which tools to use can be a big research project in itself, and the execution of content strategies based on the information they provide can require a more complex “toolbox” than many business owners care to dig into. We can help.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is used by many organizations to place ads at the top of appropriate search results with Google AdWords, but many of them hire agencies to manage these campaigns because, again, the ins and outs of the software, as well as the decisions on which keywords and keyword groups to use are best undertaken by an expert who monitors Google’s algorithms on a daily basis.
Facebook is easy. Do that now, if you haven’t already. For other Internet branding methods there are plenty of online resources to teach you about the psychology of online shopping, and it’s a very different game than the old-school-place-an-ad-in-the-paper techniques. People tend to research products online before they buy, and there are ways to make sure your website and overall Internet presence are in line with consumer behaviors, especially as they approach a purchase decision. Think with Google is a great place to start, and there’s no better crash course in online purchase habits than their Micro-Moments Guide, which focuses heavily on mobile device usage, but applies to the overall mentality of consumers in the present marketing environment.
Google’s AdWords program makes it relatively easy do your own online advertising, and you get the side benefit of gaining access to the Google Keyword Planner, which tells you (in very general numbers) how many people are searching for specific keywords in your region and around the country each month. Other paid software applications are available to give you additional intelligence on where you should focus your content optimization efforts, but it can be difficult to choose the right ones, and subscription prices vary wildly. US Logo has already packaged a collection of powerful marketing tools, which we manage for clients at very reasonable prices.
A Strong Digital Content Arsenal Will Improve Your Marketing ROI
The biggest objection most people have to paying a skilled partner to do their Internet marketing is the cost. Like every other investment you’ve made in your business, it’s important to choose the partner and the tools that will ultimately put more money in your pocket rather than less. This is what you should expect from strategic digital content.
At US Logo, we can offer as much or as little help as you need with online marketing. Some clients are extremely good at social networking but need help with site content, video utilization or AdWords campaigns. Some run their own AdWords campaigns but don’t have the time or inclination to post regularly on Facebook. As with all our products and services, we offer an à la carte approach to online strategies.
Not sure what you need? Call us at (316) 264-1321 or email orders@uslogo.net and talk to a professional. We’ll find a way to help you climb the search engine rankings that fits your budget.
Check out our blog – Google’s 8 Major Algorithm Explain (In English, i.e. it’s easy to undersatnd…)