When businesses hire a marketing consultant to improve their online presence, they should retain someone with experience. Effective online marketing consulting strategies involve a combination of strategies and one firm should blend these earned, owned, and paid media efforts. Otherwise, the client will not know which approaches are working.
Viral marketing is a major component of earned media, something most companies strive to achieve. Improved content and press releases can drive online traffic at no charge. Owned media pertains to the company blog, social network accounts, and website. Consultants help businesses create a presence on Google+, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Wikipedia, and more to claim owned assets. Paid media encompasses social network advertising, display and banner ads, and paid search efforts through Google AdWords and other channels.
Buyers go on a journey from shopping to purchasing and companies must identify their intent. This makes it important to track results from the three types of media and make decisions based on this information. Organic and paid search efforts get online consumers into the purchasing funnel. Once consumers have expressed their interest in the product, SEO efforts increase their engagement and remarketing efforts cause them to complete the transaction. These customers soon begin spreading the word through online social channels.
During an online search, a consumer pulls information so companies can use search and social media to drive sales. Research shows that 20 percent of Google queries are new, offering additional opportunities to apply earned and paid media strategies. Most companies use broad-match keyword strategies so a business that wants to stand out should keywords with exact matching in mind. The majority of U.S. queries feature at least three words and this trend is increasing. Marketers should chase the search long tail by combining exact match keywords with good content strategies.
Analytics serve as the foundation for all marketing efforts but a startling number of businesses rely on analytics that are not tracking correctly. Once accurate data is available, marketers must analyze it to determine how earned and paid marketing efforts are performing. URL tagging makes it easier to track existing campaigns.
When shoppers drop out of the purchasing funnel prematurely, reviewing analytics can identify what these consumers are looking for and what parts of the site they are visiting. Marketers can use this information to develop messages that retarget these consumers, offering special incentives to complete purchases. Effective online marketing consulting firms focus on these aspects to improve client results.
