Tag Archive for: SEM

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SEO and SEM

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This week in ‘words of the week’, we are going to dive into SEO and SEM, explaining what these mean and how to use them in marketing strategies. Other acronyms associated with SEO and SEM include SERPs, PPC and ROI.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. To explain it simply, it is a strategy where you include keywords on your website with key search words that your customers are using when they search on engines such as Google and Bing. By doing this, it helps your website rank higher on SERPs or Search Engine Result Pages, increasing the possibility on a prospective customer visiting your website.

This type of search result is referred to as ‘organic search’, where there is no advertising fee to appear in the search.

Choosing the right SEO keywords

Consider the buying phase that your target market are in when determining the keywords they might use when they search. Customers seeking general information may use broad search terms. If customers are in a consideration phase, they may include a specific location, or a more specific feature that they are looking for. Those customers that are ready to purchase a product or service may know a specific company name.

How to use SEO keywords

Website optimisation has two key components. The first involves keywords written in website content. The second is how keywords are used in coding the website. Having savvy, regularly updated content and an experienced website developer coding the site are key to ensuring optimal performance on SERPs.

Keyword performance can be monitored through Google Search Console https://search.google.com/search-console/about and Bing Webmaster Tools www.bing.com/webmasters/about

What is SEM?

SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing. This is a form of online advertising where you pay to increase your visibility in SERPs such as Google Ads.

How to use SEM

The main paid form of SEM advertising is PPC or Pay-Per-Click. PPC is advertising specifically designed to drive traffic to a website. It is where companies bid for an ad spot and then pay the advertising platform such as Google, Bing, Facebook or LinkedIn whenever someone clicks on an ad that takes them to the website.

Calculating ROI

ROI stands for Return on Investment. To determine this you need to know how much you have spent on SEM versus the profit made from a result of it. Google Ads help has an example of this.

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/14090?hl=en

Is your website performing in search results? Do you want to drive more traffic to your website? Word out can help you craft a search engine strategy by helping you to say things differently and create connections.

Reach out today

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Marketing resilience

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How do we build resilience into our marketing and communication plans?

If you google the word ‘resilience’ you will be told “it’s the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness”.

In business we have to have a retrospective and a forward-looking view of where we’ve been and where we’re going. In terms of being resilient we have to be both accepting of what’s specifically happened and how we move on from it as well as acknowledging we are at a different point to where we need to be.

So how do we build resilience into our marketing plans?

1. Gain insider knowledge – understand your market and competitors. Know your strengths and weaknesses, the factors that you can control and the factors you can’t. Undertake a market insight research report, have a SWOT summary and write a risk management contingency plan that identifies potential threats and address what you can do if they happen.  

2. Build a strong and resilient brand identity. What are your brand values, specific beliefs, personality; in terms of tone and voice, and your visual identity? Develop cohesive visual and content guidelines that you and your team can work with to ensure a consistent brand is represented across all your marketing activities, including social media accounts and associated posts and paid ads.

3. See the big picture – add  ‘what if’ branches into our marketing and communication tree – plan your year out, input key events, marketing activities and external events into a communication plan and create a content calendar to plan your messaging around it. Create a flowchart of plan B and even plan C if plan A doesn’t go how you thought it would. Through doing this, you can then have the flexibility to change and evolve plans as you go without an interrupting the ‘conversation’ you are having to your customers.

4. Data is your weapon. Use it. Have analytical checkpoints in your key marketing activities including and not limited to SEO, SEM, social media and advertising. See what is working and what isn’t working and change marketing activities whilst they are ‘in motion’ rather than just an evaluation at the end of the campaign. If online advertising isn’t gaining traction, change it. If your key words aren’t achieving higher search results, change them.

5. Hear the people. Listen and adapt to customers’ changing needs to help them be resilient too. Have active engagement with your followers on social platforms such as Instagram where you can gain insights into what your customers are saying, liking, reading, watching and doing and then use those insights to attract new followers and deepen existing relationships. You can use tools on Instagram such as close friends for loyalty programs and to target special offers that are relevant to specific customers.

Find out more about building resilience into your marketing plans

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