Daniel Coleiro Kingswell

 If effectively executed, a well-developed internet marketing strategy can offer powerful opportunities to reach potential customers and measurable results - enabling companies to calculate the return on their marketing investment.

Many businesses unfortunately tend to look at different channels separately, for example opting for a Facebook page, or for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), without taking into consideration the importance of designing a holistic marketing strategy.

In order to maximise ROI it is vital for the marketing team to look at the bigger picture and develop an internet marketing strategy where one make use of all online marketing channels that are relevant for the business i.e.; SEO, Content Marketing, Social Media, and PPC.

SEO - The most important thing to keep in mind about SEO is that it takes time. Obviously this depends on the number of competitors, what competitors are doing in terms of SEO, and how vast the market is. These, together with other factors, will determine how long it will take to start ranking in the top positions.

Content Marketing - content marketing is not a new concept, however it has expanded the field to include blogs on websites, videos, and also games. Content marketing does not need to be sales focused, for example if one sells clothes there is no need to write an article about how high quality the products are, instead one can write an article about how to dress for a morning wedding or what is going to be in fashion next summer. This will provide information to customers which will make them feel better about your company. Another reason why one should invest time in content marketing is because an article or a video that was just published will be the first impression a prospective client gets of the company.

The Social Media Platforms - Facebook, Twitter, Google , LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube and much more. Yes Social Media is much more than Facebook. Although in Malta Facebook is considered to be the most successful social media platform, one must still explore the other platforms as there might be potential clients waiting for you there while you are waiting for them on Facebook. Unlike SEO, Social Media can reap a more rapid ROI. However there are no shortcuts, one still need to invest resources in planning.

Another common mistake that marketing often make when assessing their Facebook campaign is that they monitor the success of a page by counting the likes. Although it is desirable to have a good number of likes, the quality of the likes is more important. In other words try to get relevant people to like your page since this will make engagement much easier.

If your business is B2B one might consider LinkedIn since this is where professionals and executives "hang out" online, looking for people and other businesses to work with.

Pay Per Click (PPC) - Pay Per click is probably the most immediate strategy that will generate results quickly. After some optimisation one can be on top of Google via ads in a matter of hours.

Now that we looked at these various types of internet marketing strategies, it is time to sit down and think where your business fits best. The most important thing is that although you can study the market and get to know which platforms will work best for your business, the name of the game in internet marketing is testing and tweaking. You never know what work best unless you try it, so implement, monitor, and adjust. The best thing about internet marketing strategies is that you can monitor everything, literally. You can monitor your competitors, your spending, your reach, your ROI over any period of time and anything else that one would want to know to improve results.

Daniel Coleiro Kingswell is a Search Engine Marketing Specialist at Alert eBusiness Internet Marketing Division. www.alertemarketing.com

Tech update

The battle is on for wearable technology with the South Korean electronics company Samsung launching the Samsung Gear S smartwatch, which comes equipped with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, as well as 2G and 3G cellular connectivity.

The smartwatch can take a SIM card, enabling the owner to get a playlist from Samsung's Milk streaming music service. Pair the device to a set of wireless headphones and you are ready to go. In addition the Samsung Gear S has an inbuilt maps application, tracks steps and exercise taken throughout the day and also monitors heart rate.

 

 eMarketing Update

Youtube launched a subscription music service last week - YouTube Music Key. This move is bound to be important in the industry - after all it is Youtube that brought us Justin Bieber and viral hits such as Gangnam Style.

The important issue here will be what is considered music.

"Overall, we rely on the information that we get from our partners, or from the video uploader," explained YouTube spokesperson Matt McLernon in an interview. "So there are very specific cases like members of the music community, say a label or a publisher, where it's very clear that it's music, but the thing that makes YouTube so unique in the music space is, not only is there the traditional music side that everyone knows and loves, but with 300 hours of music and video coming to YouTube every minute, and much of that being music, there's this whole spectrum of what people call music, or consider music, or share as music."

For more eMarketing news go to www.alertemarketing.com