When I speak to people about getting found I talk about using a blended strategy with their online marketing efforts. There are no silver bullets I like to say. Inbound Marketing needs to work with Search, both paid and organic, Email marketing [are you building your in-house list?] and Social Media outreach.
Social Media
Media are based on social interaction (I am a Marshall McLuhan fan), they respond to human need to interact with others. They use web and mobile technologies to transform the media dissemination of monologues – one to many – in social conversations-many to many -Promote the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into producers of content, regarded as Web 2.0. Social Media moves the control of communication of brands and companies to consumers.
Direct and indirect benefits of Social Media:
Increase awareness of the brand and your products
Create a community akin to the company or brand
Amplify mouth-to-mouth (word of mouth and buzz marketing)
Immediate knowledge of the views of people (real time feedback)
Stronger means of Public Relations (PR)
More than a revolution, what we are experiencing is an evolution, driven by two main causes: The consumer is tired of the traditional advertising and the normal channels such as call centers. And the dizzying adoption of web and mobile technologies by ordinary people.
Search Marketing
Ever heard of Google? Many prospects use Google (65% from the last comscore research) in the ‘hunt’ phase for a product. There is a variety of stats demonstrating success of natural vs paid results, however the ROI is usually positive. It’s likely your competitor is also present on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP’s). Search Engine Optimization (SEO) makes sure your web content is easily found, indexed, managed and correctly served in search results. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Purchase specialized search keywords that will help drive contextual links and display advertising in search results, generate click thrus generate results.
Email Marketing
While certainly not completely native to the web, they certainly are tied. Modern email campaigns (sometimes even direct marketing) involved barely personal emails blasted out to individuals on a mailing list. These modern versions typically have the option to be HTML based, and have hyperlinks bringing users back to the corporate site or micro-site. The conversion rate for email ranges 2-15%, and typically deploy a positive ROI.
Putting It All Together
That’s the major online marketing initiative trinity, but remember for many companies, these elements will not be successful in a vacuum, the opportunity for momentum happens when they are combined and used strategically. At least one person or group should have full knowledge of how your brand is being used online and in other mediums.