SEO-Search Engine Optimization
The SEO umbrella covers a few different breakdowns that fall into this category. There is organic SEO which is unpaid and based solely on the material that is crawled by the search engines, and there is inorganic which is when you pay for a higher ranking in the returned search results. Therefore SEO is essentially the means by which you boost your page ranking in order to gain exposure to the people searching keywords related to your business or product. There are also two types of SEO known as white hat and black hat.
White hat SEO uses quality material and links to boost the rankings of a page. This provides surfers with more quality information and less of the black hat SEO style pages. Google’s Panda algorithm really brought white hat SEO to the fore front and helped pages that provide real and useful information shine through the stacks of useless sites that were heavily populating earlier search results. The idea was to identify higher quality information by ranking stuffed or short articles lower on the belief that they have less to offer–which is generally true.
Black hat SEO uses techniques such as the aforementioned word stuffing and hidden text to try and gain higher rankings. The problem is the word stuffed articles rarely make sense and are often just an article that has been reorganized and used repeatedly. Hidden text is another practice commonly used in black hat SEO. This is when the text is either colored very similarly to the background of the page or is positioned off the background in order to trick the search engines. These types of pages often fall victim to de-ranking or even banning.
Email Marketing
A very popular means of communicating with potential customers id through email marketing. The problem with mass “spam” style mailing is that spam filters have become more sophisticated on many of the popular mail programs. This could potentially mean that you just sent an ad that no one will ever see–that’s definitely not effective. A better practice is to have a periodical or newsletter that sends regularly to customers who have opted to participate by submitting their email. The newsletter becomes more attractive to customers and potential customers if it offers informative articles with pertinent information.
Postal Mailings
This one needs no introduction, everyone at some time or another has seen a mail-based marketing campaign in action via their mailbox. As was said with email marketing, periodicals and newsletters are a good investment as often they will be circulated and shared among friends and family if the information is good. Flyers and Brochures can also work if they are done correctly. By using attention getting statements, such as “free” or “bogo” (buy one, get one) for example, you can effectively get them to read what the deal is on and what the business name is. This is good because even if that particular person is not in the market for your product or service, you have armed them with the knowledge to share your “deal” with someone who is should the conversation arise.
Tele Marketing
Picture it, you sit down to eat, your dinner is piping hot…and then the phone rings…”Hi I’m ________ calling on behalf ________. Are you the homeowner?”. That’s right telemarketing, single handedly making people starve a little longer, miss some of their favorite show, or wake up early from a nap for years and years. It is no secret that telephone marketing campaigns have received a lot of ill attention from consumers and if it all possible should be avoided in favor of less annoying techniques. There are a plethora of people who will not go to a business or have formulated a negative opinion based solely on a cold call they received.
Content Marketing
Perhaps this should have been grouped in the first part alongside SEO but perhaps not. These are separate entities but need to be used hand in hand in order to get the desired results. An example of content marketing would be a business blog that has relevant and informative articles relating to their product or service. For instance a plumber blog might feature an article about how to recover an item that fell into a sink drain from the trap…now that is useful stuff! The idea is not to force your product or service down potential customers’ throats but to show them that you are knowledgeable and competent. This helps to build customers confidence in your brand sometimes before they ever need to purchase an item or service. You can bet when they do need what you’re selling your company will be the first that comes to mind.
Whether your business is a large multi-tiered corporation or a small stall in the local mall that makes money printing photos on wood, the importance of well-directed and well thought out marketing strategies is the key to success. The best part of traditional marketing techniques as part of your targeted campaign is that many of them can be initiated for little to no cost. How’s that for an effective use of marketing funds!?