Digital Marketing has levelled the business landscape in ways that would have been unimaginable even a couple of decades ago. Two fields in particular, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) have opened up new avenues for business growth and made it possible for smaller firms to compete successfully with larger, more-established firms in their industry.

SEO involves unpaid, organic methods to increase traffic to a business website while SEM focuses on paid efforts to buy site traffic through techniques like pay-per-click marketing, paid search, display advertising and remarketing.

If you think that SEM is a waste of money, consider what SEM can do for you:

• Provide an excellent advertising opportunity by targeting an audience that is already interested in what you offer
• Make your firm more visible in search engine results pages
• Increase the number of visitors to your site as well as possible conversions

The bottomline is that SEM is a great technique to get your business to rank higher in search engines which can ultimately make the difference in whether someone chooses your company over your rivals.

Here are 5 tips to help you harness the power of Search Engine Marketing for your own business:

1: Understand your target audience/potential users first

Traditional marketing relies on understanding user profiles and creating user personas and so does SEM. Unfortunately, many so-called SEM ‘experts’ forget this simple time-tested truth – SEM should always start with understanding the user first. Who are they? What do they need? What are they searching for? Which keywords would they use for their search? If you implement an SEM strategy without first understanding these basics, you are doing it backwards (i.e. wrong)!

2: Research keywords and use them strategically

It is possible to increase your chances of SEM success if you research common keywords and understand how to use them properly.

Use a keyword planner tool (Google Keyword Planner is great) to better understand the keyword phrases people are searching for. Find the monthly search volume for the top 100 keywords in your industry and then rank them in order of volume and cost per click. Is there an imbalance between the two (high volume/low cost)? This gap is where you can uncover opportunities for content-based SEM (see below) success. And remember that as a smaller company, you have the flexibility to focus on lower-funnel long-tail keyword searches (specific keywords) that are expensive for larger competitors to pursue and scale.

3: Don’t forget to include Content Marketing in your SEM strategy

SEM doesn’t end at identifying and implementing great keywords. You also need to create great content that incorporates these keywords and focuses on your top products.

Try to use the 80/20 thumb rule. Use 20% of your content to directly promote your products and the remaining 80% to talk about related topics that your audience might enjoy. If you follow this strategy, you are more likely to get engaged audiences who actually pay attention to your sales pitch.

4: Produce blog content – consistency is key

Did someone tell you blogging is dead? It’s they who are dead wrong! Millions of people all over the world read business blogs for information, opinions, feedback. These blogs get good traffic and enjoy great visibility and reputation. Are you missing out?

Once you know which keywords people are searching for (see #2 above), draw up a list and create blog topics around them. Create an editorial calendar and produce content regularly. By posting weekly, you will build your authority in the industry, get more traffic to your website and give ‘teeth’ to your SEM execution strategy.

5: Build a reputation as a ‘go-to resource’ in your industry

Struggling with too much competition?

Focus on being the most knowledgeable or most competent in your industry. Build a content library that answers every question your target audience or potential customer base could possibly ask about the problems you solve and the solutions you sell. When you provide such a wealth of knowledge, you will rank higher for what people are asking on search engines and will eventually be viewed as a reputed authority by search engines (and real people!)

What did you think about these 5 strategies? Do you agree? Disagree? Start a conversation with us and let us know how we can help! Contact us.