No one reads e-mails anymore, SEO is dead, Facebook is just a way to kill time.
Nothing could be further from the truth! If used wisely, all online channels can be enormously beneficial to a company.
But how does one recognize the advertising channels that are most useful for one’s business? It depends on the business!
Each product and service has unique characteristics which online advertising can focus on in order to reach a target group. The specificity of the message being conveyed, the target group, and the kind of result one wishes to achieve all determine which channel will most successfully drive one’s campaign. That’s why, in order to work, web marketing requires meticulous planning, with every project having a specially created and customised strategy.
When planning a web marketing strategy, a basic prerequisite is the integration between various channels, something which is often fundamental to attracting clients and sales volume.
Let’s take a look at what the primary channels are and what benefits they offer to the end client.
Direct Email Marketing and Affiliation
Acquiring new contacts and gaining customer loyalty, publicising promotional offers and launching new products, strengthening brand identity and awareness. Advertising via e-mail is an immediate, measurable, and direct solution for achieving various objectives, but above all for guaranteeing that clients acquire new lists of contacts that are interested in their business. Direct Email Marketing managed in affiliation, with exclusive programs and lists that are constantly pruned and updated, makes it possible to expand the scope of the EDM campaign, with rapid and far reaching results.
Native Advertising
“Content is King”: a web project’s value is derived, first of all, from the high-value content that becomes a primary vector for increasing the quality of online traffic.
Content marketing is at the foundation of native solutions, primarily making use of “storytelling” in order to attract potential prospects through a less direct, but more incisive promotion which engages only the specific target that’s actually interested. But remember that if on the one hand “content is king”, on the other “a book is judged by its cover”. Good content with a bad layout will be more easily overlooked than a high-impact graphic.
Display Advertising
Among the more traditional forms of online advertising, “display advertising” remains the form that adapts best to the needs of the advertiser. Display advertising makes it possible to reach a broader audience, guaranteeing that the products and services which the client offers receive maximum visibility in the primary online portals and magazines. The objective is to channel the target group’s attention using banners with high-impact graphics.
SEO and SEM
Two famous acronyms of digital marketing and two distinct, but complementary activities which are fundamental to ensuring that the intended target group finds you on Google.
With an efficient SEO strategy, it’s not the company that looks for the client, but rather the exact opposite. A website that’s optimised for search engines generates constant traffic and attracts new contacts, potential clients, and conversions. The objective is to be top ranked on the SERP, after all “the best hiding place for a dead body is really on the 2nd page of Google” [quote].
SEM also requires the search and use of the best keywords, but aimed at the insertion of sponsored advertising campaigns in search engines. Ideal for generating qualified traffic towards an advertisers website, SEM is often crucial in marketing-mix internet strategies.
Co-Registration
Excellent results can also be obtained from co-registration, an alternative marketing strategy aimed at generating quality leads. This is a channel that uses a specifically designed question during online contests that offer prizes or during opinion surveys and quizzes, for the purpose of profiling prospects that are suitable for the end client.
Social Media
Currently one must have a well-curated presence on social networks in order to increase brand awareness and create new opportunities with engaging and original content. But that’s not all. On social platforms, like Facebook Ads, it’s possible to plan proper campaigns whose final objective is a conversion.
For an all-round, complete, and efficient web marketing strategy, rely on sector professionals, just like us at Across. Together we’ll define your final objectives, designing a winning strategy for your business.