What do you do when you need information about something – you search for it online. Now, would you go to the link on the 5th page of the search results or to one of those on the first page? The latter right… This is a very important thing to keep in mind when you are promoting a brand. Getting your brand to feature on the first page of a search is essential. This is possible with SEO or Search Engine Optimization. However, SEO is only part of the game. What’s more important is SEM or Search Engine Marketing. SEO is a part of SEM that strives to make your website visible to more people. Here are 4 ways Search Engine Marketing or SEM can boost your sales.
Higher ROI
Any form of marketing involves certain costs. This is true with SEM as well. However, SEM offers much higher returns on your investment as compared to traditional methods of marketing. You will need to invest in good SEO plan. Ideally you should look for someone who will research the keywords best suited to your brand, put up links to your website and create original SEO friendly content. In addition to this, you may also want to invest in PPC or Pay Per Click services such a Google Adwords. This increases your search ranking and will bring more traffic to your website.
Quick and Flexible
When it comes to print advertisements or televised ads, there is nothing you can do once the ad has been published. However, with SEM, you can tweak your campaign while it is running. It is easy to measure the audience’s response to an SEM campaign. This allows you to change SEO keywords, cut off unsuccessful phrases or boost campaigns that are performing well quickly and easily.
Gives You More Control
When you put out a flyer in the newspaper, you have very little control over who will be reading it. However, SEM allows you to approach targeted audiences. If you want to promote your brand only to people in your state you could do that. If you want to further narrow your audience to people in your city you could do that as well. You can also create a target audience on the basis on age, lifestyle, device type used, time of the day, seasons etc.
Can be Measured
When it comes to television or print ads, you can also estimate the response. It is hard to say which advertisement worked better than others. However, with SEM, you can instantly get an idea of how well a campaign is performing. In depth analysis of your campaign allows you to understand which keywords are driving more traffic than others and how your customers are reacting to your campaign. This helps you make educated decisions about future campaigns.