So you’ve just been assigned a project that is to launch a new brand into the technological industry. The market will be very intrigued, we think, but we first to grow brand awareness. What’s the first step? We have a website but online traffic needs a boost. We need constant traffic which will, in turn, create sales leads and opportunities to make the company grow. Where do we turn next? Time to evaluate SEO vs SEM Marketing tools.
Let’s first look at SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a method to create better brand awareness and sales leads through organic marketing. This is a non-paid method to garner the short term or long results for which you seek. Let’s review different tactics one can use to increase SEO. To make it work effectively for your product or brand, the first exercise one must perform is that of patience. SEO, because of its organic nature (no pun intended), could take 4-6 months for one to really see the fruits of their labor, if not up to one year. However, some results you may see could come in the form or having fresh content on your site and better organization. These immediate results will help propel your site into the next stage of development. While this is occurring, your executives are looking for long-term results.
But with SEO how does one really capitalize? In order to do so, your content on the site must fresh and interesting – have a niche or something new and topical to it that lets it stand out from any top brand sites. Doing so allows online users to locate your site from search engines. The reason it will take longer is because search engines have to naturally peruse your content as well to find the keywords for which others can search to find you. Key words are essential in order to be found. As the marketing manager, try locating your own website through key words that would correspond to your brand. Other ways to increase awareness through SEO include having links from other sites pointing to yours, having easy navigation on site, ensuring your site is shared through links on social networks and also engaging with the visitors to your site to help drive the interaction to a sale.
The benefits to SEO are clear: its a no cost method to garner attention to your site driven from fresh content based on your brand. It’s grassroots advertising for a new brand coming into the market. The cons, as aforementioned, is that it does take time to see the long term results. Goals for SEO must be short – term gains initially. Lastly, you get what you put into it for SEO – if you’re energy and efforts are completely put into growing your site through organic marketing then you will reap the rewards.
SEM, or search engine marketing, is a type of digital marketing that includes the promotion of websites through paid advertisement. It helps boost awareness, and thus sales leads, through the use of advertising that drives customers to your site. Pretty simple concept and one that can be rewarding to your bottom line. Like SEO, there are of course obvious benefits, but also some cons to weigh for SEM.
The benefits of SEM prove to show that results from your PPCs (pay per click) ad purchases will be realized much earlier than SEO marketing methods. Your reach to a customer base via search engines will be massive. It also aids in establishing your brand and its identity by building a base of loyal customers. It’s an excellent way to get quick results and interact with customers to get the right ratio companies want to see – sales leads to actuals sales.
Let’s review some of the cons. One of the most important is that it takes time. The time SEM takes is not for the same reasons as SEO, though. In order to make SEM effective, one has to ensure they are targeting the right audience. If the goal is to purchase ad space for clicks to your site, you have to do the research before hand to capitalize on your PPC investment. Similar to SEO, the results your company realizes all come from the effort put into your tactics. My recommendation is to utilize both methods 50/50 in your marketing practices. Using both methods will enable you to grow your site through a loyal customer base that provides your executives quick results that will prove success for both you and your brand.
