Posts Tagged ‘Social Media Marketing’

We are loving the Social Media explosion here at Ignition! It’s a really interesting and quickly developing area and it’s providing some of our clients with some excellent results.

We’ve already written about one client who suffered from a lack of search within the search engines, but whose project raced away when we ran some ads on a few social media sites; and this trend has snowballed somewhat to the point where we are almost offering a Social Media Marketing service as standard, and often in tandem to an SEO service.

And this is the bit that we are enthusiastic about, this correlation between Social Media and Search. The services are complimentary as oppose to an either/or approach. Just about every service or product has a target market, and this can usually be defined by demographic information eg gender, age, location, etc, particularly in a business to consumer scenario. So any potential visitor that is missed through the search engines can be picked up through social media. All it takes is a bit of thought and a bit of research to find out where they ‘hang out’.

Once we’ve found your audience it’s a case of experimenting with advert appearance or copy, much as you would do with an SEO project or a PPC campaign. Split testing still applies until you start hitting the right notes and attracting the right kind of converting traffic. Then we roll it out and it’s onwards and upwards!

It doesn’t just apply to consumer services and products either. Business people visit and use Social Media sites and many are becoming prolific bloggers and visiting sites 2 or 3 times daily. The enormity of this emerging and exciting medium cannot be ignored.

Social Media and Search? Together? I think so.

A lot of businesses that we have been in touch with over the last 2 years or so that have struggled to get their heads around the concept and principles of Internet Marketing are now looking at it with a fresh perspective.

The credit crunch is hitting everyone hard and bosses are looking at all costs and seeking to strip out any unnecessary expenditure. Marketing budgets can be the first to go (much to the lament of Marketing Managers everywhere!) as the cost culls begin.

But marketing spend doesn’t have to be decreased. If it can be justified and measured by examining return then why not spend the same? Or more? This is exactly why more and more people are now looking at search engine optimisation, pay per click and social media marketing to throw their company a lifeline.

Firms who might have happily spent 5 figure sums with a popular hard copy directory are now questioning the return on investment they are getting. They are less nervous about exploring a less traditional and less familiar form of marketing. “Hang on a minute”, one such prospect said to me last week, “are you telling me I could spend an eighth of last years budget with you, but know exactly how many visitors your work generates and exactly how many sales I make as a result?” I told him that’s exactly what I was telling him. Job done.

So, the mood about search is changing. The bigwigs are starting to explore unfamiliar methods because they are being forced to by the economic climate. People are still shopping, but they are increasingly doing it online. Firms are still looking for commercial services, and it’s easier to go straight onto a search engine and browse with no pressure and choose from one of 10 you might find on the first page, as oppose to ploughing through a directory with hundreds of similar looking options.

All businesses need to look at value, now more than ever. That’s why Internet Marketing is growing and that’s why people are coming back to us to discuss their needs with an open mind.