It’s a fair question. And something I am often asked by prospective clients wanting to know the return on investment (ROI) from outsourcing their digital marketing to ZumoSEO.
In this post I’ll be sharing some of my own experiences, having worked with clients on web strategy, SEO, digital marketing and web video as an effective tool of communication over the last 10 years.
Most of ZumoSEOs prospective clients already have online businesses in operation when they contact me for help with SEO or digital marketing. Having tried doing their own SEO, digital marketing and social media in house to save money, over time they find the strategy isn’t working. They are always curious to know why my approach and strategy will deliver results and theirs did not.
Digital marketing, SEO, web development and video production are just like any other trade. The more experience someone has working in that trade, the more knowledge they accumulate and the more specialist they become. Therefore resulting in a much higher chance of success when they set to work.
If your car or motorbike broke down, would you look on the internet for advice on how to fix it? Or would you take it to an experienced mechanic?
I always advise any business online that it’s crucial to get some SEO and digital marketing expertise, to setup and manage a cohesive digital marketing strategy that will help increase sales and revenue for them. A strategy that will run consistently on various channels (a main website, blog, social media accounts, networks, video, etc) and long term will help make them more money.
As with any form of marketing, the goals for a successful campaign are increased business revenue and profit. That all sounds great, but where do you start?
Common mistakes with digital marketing and social media
Many of my clients had already opened social media accounts themselves with every social channel they could find. They had been randomly posting the odd link on these social media accounts whenever they had a spare 5 minutes. But without any clear strategy and with no one taking charge of what was being posted, this plan rarely leads anywhere, apart from confusing your users and customers.
This is a common mistake in digital marketing, because if businesses have accounts open on every digital channel and social media website available, they spread themselves to thinly and rarely target their key audience who will bring them sales.
Clients often think that 1000 hits to their website from a scattergun approach to digital marketing is great. However these hits from various sources around the web are usually low quality and lead to few, if any sales. Getting loads of hits might look great on a digital marketing report, but the truth is that getting 1000s of low quality hits isn’t that hard.
Aim for a lower quantity of high quality hits from your target audience, and focus on converting those hits into sales, if you want to succeed online.
Finding a source of your key target audience will take a little work and research, but once you’ve found them, you can start building relationships with them and create content directly for them, because the chance of conversion from your key target audience is much, much higher.
I’ve worked with businesses who were paying 100s a month to Google Adwords for 1000s of low quality hits that delivered very few, if any sales. Please don’t fall into this trap.
It’s a very common and easy way for businesses to lose money from their marketing budget, especially new businesses who are naturally keen to drive as much traffic to their website as possible.
Always focus on your key target audience and your long term marketing strategy to have the best chance of success online.
In the past, when I have changed clients existing digital marketing plans to a ‘less quantity / higher quality’ hits strategy, sales always increase over time and the clients business will start to build a loyal following amongst their key target audience. The people who matter.
Some of the things I’ve done to help businesses increase their online sales and revenue
Whenever clients ask for help with their online business, the first thing to do is fully research their business and to analyse their competition online, locally, nationally or worldwide.
Some businesses want to compete for attention with the big players online, who have endless marketing budgets, making life for smaller businesses very difficult.
Using an intelligent marketing strategy can help you immensely and help keep costs at a minimum. As an example, if you wanted your website to appear on Google page #1 for a highly competitive keyword such as ‘Barcelona Hotel’ then it would be very difficult on a small budget.
Instead you should focus on a long tail search keyword strategy, so you can achieve a much higher chance of getting your website on Google page #1 for keywords like ‘’Sunny hotel in Barcelona’ or ‘Quiet hotel in Barcelona’. Using long tail keywords can deliver very effective results.
Long tail search terms also deliver a much higher conversion rate in terms of sales, rather than a head search term eg ‘Barcelona Hotel’. Research shows that people searching with long tail keywords are much nearer a decision to making a purchase online.
Using a long tail keyword approach as part of your digital marketing strategy, can really help your business stand out against the competition.
Matt Wright (07/02/2012)
