For the average business owner, just getting a website can be hard enough without having to understand all the various ways to market on the internet. To make things simple, we’re going to break internet marketing down into three parts: Search Engine Marketing, Social Media, and Touchpoint Marketing. Choosing which marketing channels are right for your business depends on your budget, your time, and the immediacy of your need for results.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
SEM is comprised of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
PPC is auction-type paid advertising. Your ad displays when people are searching for the terms you’ve chosen. You tell the search engine how much you’re willing to pay them each time your link is clicked. Where you show in the results depends on your budget per click, and that of your competitors. PPC’s main benefit is that it’s instant – you start showing up in search results as soon as you start the campaign.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a set of methods aimed at getting your site to show up in the organic listings. Internet users click on organic listings more often than paid listings, which makes them very powerful. SEO is not instant like PPC – it takes 2-6 months to start getting any first page rankings. But the organic listings are so lucrative that SEO is typically the best internet marketing tool for small businesses.
Social Media
This group includes sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, YouTube and hundreds of others. When you join as a member of one of these sites you can engage in conversation with other people. The advantage of these sites is the ability to become a trusted resource in your community and reach thousands of potential customers.
Touchpoint Marketing
Touchpoints are all the ways that you maintain contact with your prospects and existing customers. This group includes: Email marketing (newsletters), blogs and RSS Feeds. Touchpoint marketing helps to build relationships, and foster new ones.
Let us help you turn your website into a revenue generating machine!
future-ink has been building and marketing successful websites for more than a decade. If you’re still not sure what marketing channel is right for you, email us or call us at 619.546.0253.
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