As a local Surrey digital agency with a wide array of clients, the team at Thunderbolt Digital is no stranger to search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimisation (SEO) or social media marketing (SMM); in fact, you could even argue that we’re something of an expert in these fields! For many local startups and SMEs, using online tools and techniques to increase visibility can seem daunting at first (or alternatively, deceptively easy!) leading to marketing departments floundering in the dark without a proper online marketing strategy and subsequently losing out on a large amount of potential views, engagement and custom! Allow our search engine marketing Surrey team to explain.
Our search engine marketing Surrey team know that SEM is considered a highly important form of marketing due to the fact that it’s targeted; the use of keywords and key terms in search engines allow for companies to target their exact audience, and this can be extended to social media marketing, especially the use of sponsored or boosted posts.
A key thing to remember when tackling SEM is balance; make sure that your website is tailored to be properly indexed by search engines (by implementing good SEO techniques) but also ensure that your site is engaging for actual users, too! After all, good SEO and ranking well in search results can become meaningless if potential customers dislike your site and don’t actually stick around to engage with your brand! The further up the search list your website appears, the greater your advantage is over your competitors below you, but in order to maintain this advantage you need to make sure that users stick around on your page, and don’t defect to one of your competitors (see some of our tips to improve web design and decrease bounce rate here and here respectively).
Similarly, if your SEM leads to your social media pages becoming highly ranked, you need to make sure that your attitude to engagement extends to your social media, too! In the same way that you want potential customers to stay on your website, you also want any of them who find your Facebook, Twitter etc to decide that your brand is something worth following! A customer who chooses to follow you on social media is exposed to your company more, which (provided your SMM is effective) can lead to the building of a brand relationship, as well as repeat custom – just what we want!