Who knew there was SO much to know about inbound marketing? There is so much information about this type of marketing, and it’s all relevant, we felt the need to split it in to three different blogs. Did you miss the first two? Read them here before reading this post: In part 3, the final installment, we will cover the digital marketing portion of inbound marketing. These platforms include pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization, call tracking, email marketing and client recall management systems. All of the platforms are not right for everyone, but everyone could benefit from one or more of these in some way. Pay-Per-Click Advertising The most popular form of these types of ads are Google Adwords. Simple to set up, use, track results but tricky to know the best specifics to base your ad on. Wording, location and radius among a few other things is where Simpatico’s strategic planning comes in handy with these ads. You can spend all the money in the world and not produce results if you are running your ads at the wrong time, in the wrong area, etc. What you need to know:
  • PPC ads are easy to use but also need a marketing professional to plan them to assure you are receiving the best exposure for your money
  • PPC are a great way to stick to a budget. You set a daily/monthly budget and you only pay when someone engages with your Ad.
  • Results are easy to track. Google Adwords offers up information on most searched keywords, impressions, clicks, calls and so much more to make it easy to determine if your ads are working.
  • With PPC ads, its guaranteed exposure. Unlike organic searches, where you cannot reliably control when your website/name will pop up in searches, PPC are paid ads so you know your ad, name or website will come up in relevant searches at the top of the page.
Search Engine Optimization Search engine optimization has the goal of gaining traffic/search standings organically, or unpaid. A lot more planning, time and effort goes in to search engine optimization and it is a lot more strategic than PPC ads. Understanding how search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo pull their results is key. Things such as content relevancy, quality of content, cross device (mobile, desktop, tablet) compatibility, internal linking (done when your site is being built), meta tags (on images, articles and anything uploaded to your website) and how active you are online (social media, blogging) are all things search engines take in to consideration when producing their results. This is why it requires a professional with experience in SEO to increase your organic search result rankings. What you need to know:
  • SEO is not an exact science-it takes trial, error and a lot of time and effort for it to work successfully
  • Although it is a lot of effort, it is one of the BEST things you can focus on for your business and digital marketing. If you are not coming up in searches, potential and current clients will not be able to find you which could mean a loss in business and sales.
  • Having relevant and good content is just as important as having a well built website.
  • Ever heard of quality over quantity? Again, relevant content is key. Relevance is more important than quantity.
Email Marketing + Client Recall Systems These two things aren’t for everyone, but if you have a large client base that you need to stay in contact with, want to share information and encourage to use your services over and over again, email marketing and client recall systems can work wonders for you without much effort. What you need to know:
  • Client recall systems can increase communication between you and your client by providing automatic appointment reminders and confirmations.
  • Client recall systems can also increase sales by reminding clients they need appointments are encouraging them to reschedule.
  • Email marketing can keep your name in clients minds constantly increasing your odds of them using your services again
  • Email marketing is also great to keep clients in the know about what’s going on with your company, announcements, specials and reminders.
  • Use email marketing to increase SEO efforts by requesting reviews, social media followings, etc.
While we have provided tons of information about inbound marketing over the course of three posts, this is just the tip of the ice burg. A lot of strategic planning, market research and data based research should be completed before plunging in to any marketing services. Simpatico has the resources and ability to create you a dynamic marketing plan that will be successful for your individual situation. Check out our full list of marketing services here. Contact us today, or message below, for more information!