Society changes every day. His mentality, outlook on life, needs and aspirations are evolving. The result of these constant changes is also the constant modification of shopping habits and the use of services. Moreover, the emergence and flourishing of the global network has greatly intensified social changes, making them progress faster and faster. For this reason, standing still is the worst thing a marketing specialist can do. Ways to promote a brand are constantly outdated – their effectiveness fades, and they give way to new marketing strategies. They keep disappearing and new marketing channels emerge. We will deal with the most interesting ones in this post!
Internet Marketing allows you to advertise on the web through multiple channels. The key to achieving goals is combining them skillfully, but before that happens, at least basic knowledge about each of them is necessary. What are the most popular ways of reaching the customer?
Google Ads is one of the most popular advertising channels on the Internet. Its potential is used by thousands of companies from hundreds of different industries and allows you to increase profits and improve brand exposure on the Web.
The most common option advertisers use is text ads on the search network. Thanks to them, the advertisement can be placed above the results, ahead of “normal” pages on Google – placing a link in such a place is characterized by a high likelihood of a click, and thus redirecting the user to the advertiser’s website.
Although Google Ads ads are often identified only with the above-described display of sponsored links in the search results, this system offers much more possibilities. In addition to text ads, Google allows you to advertise your company on YouTube and – thanks to the Google Display Network (GDN) – on millions of different pages. GDN is one of the components that make up Google Ads. It includes micro websites and personal blogs, as well as big websites with a multi-million audience. These are both expert websites, comprehensively describing specialist topics, as well as websites with show business gossip or sports news. Advertising on YouTube can also be extremely profitable – YT is after all the second largest search engine in terms of traffic. Another interesting option may be to use the Display & Video 360 service, which allows, among others, finding and renting space in the largest VOD (Video on Demand) streaming services.
For online stores, the Google Shopping system is also important, thanks to which, after entering a specific phrase – for example “adidas predator sports shoes” above the search results (as well as over “classic” sponsored links), product suggestions will appear. Such a panel contains a photo of the item, the name of the store, price and a link redirecting to the product page in a given store.
Ads in Google Ads are billed in the CPC (cost per click) system. This means that we only pay when the user clicks on the ad and goes to the page being promoted. The mere display of an ad is completely free. There are no lower or upper spending limits in Google Ads – it all depends on the industry, business competition, and even the time of day.
SEO
In a nutshell, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), also known as page positioning (wrongly because SEO is one of the elements of positioning), deals with increasing the visibility of the website in search engines. After entering a specific phrase into the search engine, the engine usually returns to us an ordered list of several thousand pages. The essence of positioning is to get a specific page at the top of the ranking – and if not, at least high enough to successfully generate entries and attract potential customers. The vast majority of users do not look at the second page of the search results, or even the items at the bottom of the first page. For this reason, the presence in the “top” of the results is of enormous importance and the thought about which marketing channels to choose usually starts with the positioning of the pages.
The position of the page is determined by the search engine’s algorithm on the basis of over 200 factors of different “strength”. Web bots analyze the content on the website, the technical aspects of building the website, as well as the links leading to the website. Due to the constant updates of the algorithm and the fact that a large part of the aforementioned factors has never been officially disclosed by Google, effective positioning requires a lot of experience and constant experiments at the same time.
We divide SEO activities into:
A. On-site SEO
This term defines the actions that we can perform on the website – often increase the amount of content and refine its quality, adjust the content to keywords, and also take care of reducing the loading time of the site, compression of graphics, implementation of the SSL certificate or correct display on various resolutions and devices ( this is very important – most of the traffic today is via smartphones).
B. Off-site SEO
This SEO department gathers links that lead to a positioned page. Google assumes that users share links to websites they consider valuable – regardless of whether it is an online store with interesting promotions or a website with study aids for students. Therefore, an important factor in determining the ranking of pages after entering a given phrase is the profile of links from external websites leading to the website. Of course, each link has a different value – some do not affect the “strength” of the site, while others will be important. The goal is to collect links that have a real impact on the position of the site – moreover, it must be done as naturally as possible, according to Google’s “social proof of rightness”.
What else should you know about SEO at the beginning? First of all, it’s important to remember that positioning takes time. In the case of campaigns implemented with the use of the Google Ads or Facebook Ads system, the increase in traffic occurs almost immediately. SEO usually brings results only after a few months – PPC campaigns are often compared to a sprint, and positioning activities to a marathon. On the other hand, SEO as a long-term activity is, in the end, the cheapest way to increase website traffic and attract new customers.
It is worth remembering that positioning works not only for companies operating on a national scale. On the Web, we also look for facilities, services or products in our immediate vicinity, and due to the increasing popularity of smartphones and services based on GPS technology, many companies can change their Internet presence thanks to local positioning.
Social Media
Over the years, social media has become an inseparable part of life, and thus also of business. In most industries, running profiles on various websites – for example Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and increasingly also TikTok and others – has become a necessity. With the help of such profiles, we can attract customers, make contact with those already present, get feedback and present not only our products, but also the company as such – its approach to business, values or a team of employees.
Advertising in social media has come a long way. While just a few years ago it was enough to have a profile and run it “smartly”, today Facebook and other portals often limit the organic reach, so that the published post will be shown in extreme cases to only a fraction of subscribers. PPC ads come in handy, as they operate in a similar way as Google Ads, they reach a large number of users and help in acquiring customers or increasing brand awareness. In the vast majority of cases, in 2021 it is no longer possible to promote in social media without investing in advertising.
The key to efficient communication in social media is to adjust the communication code to the customs and users prevailing on a given platform. On Instagram, the main medium is graphics, and text – especially content longer than 2-3 sentences – is of little importance. LinkedIn brings together professionals and although it has long been more than just an “online CV”, work-related content is still the most important there (which means that it is worth looking for B2B clients there). Teens and young adults are the dominant group on TikTok, but due to the dynamic growth, more and more older users can also be found there. Facebook, on the other hand, is still the largest social platform with great potential for brand owners, but has long since lost the sympathy of the youngest users. This does not mean that they cannot be found there, but in the collective consciousness Facebook is slowly becoming “booming”.
This shows how vigorous social media changes are, and nothing is given forever. Due to the number of users, companies and brands present on various portals, building recognition based on adjusting to trends becomes the key. Therefore, marketing channels require constant tracking and adapting messages to the current social situation.
