Digital Marketing Strategies: SEO, PPC, Email & More

Posted on Feb 23, 2025 in Business Management and Marketing

Digital Marketing Strategies

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Various techniques to improve a website’s ranking on search engines through organic means, to attract more visitors.

On-Site vs. Off-Site SEO

On-Site

  • Make it easy for bots and search engines to find, index, and navigate a website.
  • Allow users to find a website (you!) and the content they seek.

Off-Site

  • Content development
  • Relationship building
  • Content exposure opportunities
  • Drive traffic

SEO Advantages and Disadvantages

SEO Advantages:

  • Low cost
  • Permanence
  • Cross-channel impact
  • High customer values
  • Long-standing return

SEO Disadvantages:

  • Needs ongoing maintenance
  • Time-consuming
  • Special skills needed
  • Vulnerability to changes in search engine algorithms
  • Can be the tactic that needs the most time to see results

PPC (Pay Per Click)

PPC (Pay Per Click): An advertising model, or online campaign, where a website owner pays a set amount whenever someone clicks on their ad.

PPC Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages:

  • Speed to change
  • Reach
  • High customer values
  • ‘Cancels’ SEO vulnerability

Disadvantages:

  • Temporary benefit
  • Can be costly

PPC Process:

  1. Keyword research
  2. Ad creation
  3. Landing page development
  4. Account set up
  5. Tracking installation and testing
  6. Campaign launch
  7. Monitor performance
  8. Campaign assessment
  9. Analysis and feedback

Media Buys

Media Buys: The purchase of digital advertising space. (Traditionally, media buying is the purchase of advertising space across newspaper, TV, billboard, radio, etc.)

Media Buys Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages:

  • Targeting
  • High volume traffic
  • Brand building

Disadvantages:

  • Lack of transparency on media placement
  • Risk of low-value traffic
  • Ad blocking

E-mail Marketing

E-mail Marketing: Sending a direct personalized e-mail with recipients’ specific needs in mind. E-mails can be sent to owned or outsourced (paid for) databases. Opt-in.

E-mail Marketing Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages:

  • Simple
  • Quick results
  • Low cost

Disadvantages:

  • May be seen as SPAM à blacklisting
  • Risk of 3rd party databases

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing: Working with third-party marketers (affiliates) on a performance-based model for referred traffic.

Affiliate Marketing Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages:

  • Shares the risk and cost of acquiring customers
  • Helps fill in gaps and blind spots
  • Access to large, ideally relevant traffic
  • Creates “buzz” through impressions
  • Acts as a third-party endorsement

Disadvantages:

  • Long-term tactic that requires time and effort to grow results
  • Affiliate management requires ongoing support
  • Requires the provision of transparency to partners
  • Requires reliable tracking and reporting

Social Media

Advantages:

  • Global reach to 1 billion people +
  • Access to peer groups through sharing and can result in referral marketing
  • Highly effective at communicating a brand story and creating a positive brand experience
  • Contributes to improved customer retention and brand loyalty through increased accessibility to a brand
  • Encourages engaging UGC and contributes positively to SEO ranking
  • Social media consumption means you’re reaching users when and where they choose to engage with content
  • Very conducive to a mobile user experience
  • Improved customer insight through social “listening”

Disadvantages:

  • Brand reputation vulnerability
  • Demands on time investment
  • A poor social media brand presence can impact more negatively than none at all – there are arguably more brands that do social media poorly than those who do it well