Social media, SEO, or pay-per-click advertising (PPC)

 

Social media, SEO, or pay-per-click advertising (PPC)

There are many benefits to having a good social media strategy (SMO) and solid Search Engine Optimization (SEO) performance, as well as a great return on your Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign. I mean, one tweet on Twitter can get tens, hundreds, or even thousands of interested people to click through to your site. But how long does it take to get that kind of interested audience? When people search for a certain keyword, a well-optimized page can get a lot of clicks to your site and make them want to buy your service or product. But how much work did it take to improve your site? And with PPC, you could be making sales with paid clicks within a few hours. These leads are expensive, and maybe not all of them will turn into sales, but some of them will. So, is SMO, SEO, or PPC more important? Call us for Digital Marketing Course in Gurgaon.

Well, I don't think that's the right place to start. Because it varies from organisation to organisation. You need to know where your business is in its life cycle and why you are using SEO, SMO, or PPC. Too often, when I'm working with businesses, big or small, I find that they've been given trite "one size fits all" advice and feel pressured to have a certain level of online activity from the start. Before they even start, they are already defeated and out of the fight. My job is, of course, to help them see the forest for the trees, make their priorities clear, and set them on the right path to help them reach their goals and get a better return on investment for their business. Call us for Digital Marketing Course in Gurgaon.

When we meet, one of the first things I ask is, "What are you doing online each month?" (After asking for milk without sugar, of course.) Then I pay close attention to what they say, because their answer tells me almost everything I need to know. A while ago, when a business didn't want to move forwards with some consulting work they had hired me to do, it came as a bit of a surprise to me. I don't say this to make myself sound important. I say it because it was clear that they had a need that could be met, and I was in a good position to meet that need. I gave my ideas and would usually enjoy our conversation as I watched the light go on. Their answer made me think about something that was clear to me now that I look back on it. I was trying to help them swim by giving them a good SMO and SEO plan, but what they really needed was the confidence to just paddle and get some quick wins through PPC. PPC isn't my favourite because I think it's too expensive, people don't trust paid links as much, and trust currency is important for brands. But they had always put an ad in the yellow pages because they liked them. They could justify the cost because it was something they had used for years and 'thought' hadn't let them down. But that changed this year. They got a specific phone number from the Yellow Pages for their ad. This gave them information about how many people called their number because of their ad. And, funny enough, they saw that it wasn't working and admitted it (perhaps the number of pages in the Yellow Pages reducing and the shrinking of the format to A5 from A4 should have been a clue). They got less than 10 calls to that number over the course of a year, and none of them led to a sale.

They needed to take action and make more sales, so they were told about the work and approach of FGW, the company where I work. They wanted to start marketing online right away. But they still had a problem at heart. They weren't thinking in a new way; they were just thinking in a new way. If they were being completely honest, they wanted to do something to make themselves feel better and know that they had "marketed" for that year. So, PPC was the most like the Yellow Pages for them, even though it was expensive and didn't get people as interested.

Even though I could have easily argued that putting time into SEO (their site had the potential to have a lot of content) or SMO (they were ahead of the curve when it came to their industry joining social media) would have been a better long-term investment, PPC was the right choice for them. Why? Because they were where they were and could see it. Everything else seemed strange and out of place, and at first, they didn't know how the online world worked. They needed to be sure that the simple results of paying a set amount of money for a set number of enquiries would be easy to understand. Simple.

It made me think that sometimes the worst option is the best option, and that people shouldn't feel like they have to choose the best option. Instead, they should be able to choose what they can understand. They don't have to be everywhere on social media to build a loyal, engaged following and raise their Klout score. They don't have to optimise their whole site and build up their online links. In fact, they need room to start where they are and not be asked to do everything at once.

Move people forwards in small steps; don't push them too far out of their comfort zone. And when they start to see the fruit, help them take a few more steps. Social media, SEO, and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) are all important, but they are all at different stages. Call us for Digital Marketing Course in Gurgaon.