09 Sep The ROI of Digital Marketing: SEO and Email Marketing
There’s a quote that reads, “If you’re not going to invest in your business, what makes you think your customer is going to invest in your business?”. As a business owner, this is an important lesson — investing in your business is no easy feat, but it’s a necessary one. Ultimately, the question shouldn’t be whether to invest; rather, it’s how to invest. What tools and services will reap tangible, meaningful results? How as a business owner, can you advertise your brand in a way that is equal parts disruptive and effective, while cognizant to your bottom line and ROI?
This is where digital marketing comes in. According to Forrester, by 2021, an estimated $146 million will be spent on digital marketing. After all, developing a great product or service is only half the battle — the next step is bringing it to market. To do that, you not only need to understand the wants and needs of your target customer, you also need to speak their language. More importantly, you need to meet them where they are which, in a world dominated by digital experiences, is often online. In other words, you need to populate the digital channels they frequent most; email, social media, search engines, and websites.
From a marketing perspective, this entails SEO and ad spend, lead generation material, email marketing, organic social growth, paid social campaigns, and website optimization. But, you might wonder, what is the suspected ROI of these efforts? Which services yield the best results?
Search Engine Optimization: SEO Explained
Search engine optimization (aka SEO) is an important tool in any business owner’s arsenal. Why? Because it allows you to understand how your target market is searching for (and finding) information about your market, brand, and competitors. Armed with this knowledge, brands are able to develop a strategic SEO strategy that ensures their content ranks favourably across search engines and, as such, garners critical visibility. Unlike paid strategies, SEO optimization helps to generate organic traffic to websites and allows your brand to cover more digital real estate.
What is Google Algorithm in SEO
Google, for example, relies on an algorithm that applies more than 200 factors to rank websites, including high-quality content and link building. Strategies to improve SEO and organic ranking include SEO audits, keyword optimization, title tags, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, technical SEO, search intent optimization, and more.
Now, let’s get to the good stuff. What’s the expected ROI? Well, let’s consider the following:
The Benefits of SEO
– The majority of online traffic is driven by search engines
– A 2018 study conducted by SparkToro revealed that Google is the single-largest traffic driver to websites
– Google processes 3.5 billion searches per day
– Organic search results typically appear ‘more credible’ to prospective consumers (in fact, of all US searches, only ~2.8% of people click on paid advertisements)
– 75% of internet users never scroll past the first page of search engines
– SEO has ~20X more traffic opportunities than PPC on both mobile and desktop
– On the first page of a search engine, the first five organic results account for 67.60% of all the clicks
– 57% of marketing executives say on-page content development was the most effective SEO tactic- 61% of marketers say improving SEO and growing their organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority
The writing is on the wall — if clicks are the consumers’ gateway to purchase, SEO is the gatekeeper.
Email Marketing Strategy
Chances are, almost everyone you know has an email address. In fact, a Hubspot survey states that 91% of consumers use email. This should come as no surprise; email is, after all, a big part of our life — from professional to personal endeavors, the ‘ping’ of an incoming email is an all-too-familiar cue and, for many, a preferred method of communication. Although we frequently speak to the disruptive potential of social media marketing, it’s important to remember that email marketing is still one of the most effective and consistent ways to reach and engage your audience.
Creating an Email Marketing Strategy
Creating a strong and well-informed email marketing strategy allows brands to forge personalized connections with their audience in real-time, increase website traffic, nurture leads and drive purchase decisions, increase brand awareness, and run targeted messaging campaigns. So, again, we arrive at the question — what is the ROI of email marketing? Is it worth the investment?
Benefits of Using Email Marketing
– There are 3.9 billion daily email users
– 73% of millennials prefer communications from businesses to come via email
– McKinsey finds that email is 40x more effective at acquiring new customers than either Facebook or Twitter
– Email marketing has the highest conversion rate at 66% when compared to social media marketing, direct mail, and others
– Based on an eMarketer study, investing in email marketing has one of the best yields with an ROI of 122% (4x times higher than the return rate from other digital marketing platforms)
– The ROI for email marketing can be as high as 4400% (which translates to $44 for every dollar spent on an email marketing campaign)
– In general, research shows that email marketing generates $38 for every $1 spent
– Marketers who use segmented campaigns indicate as much as a 760% increase in revenue
– 59% of respondents say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions
The ROI of email marketing is undeniable and, beyond the conversion appeal, it’s important to note that email is the perfect tool to tie all your marketing efforts together. Using this digital channel, brands can easily prompt every other marketing effort they make, including blog content, social media contests, product information, and so much more. In this regard, email marketing should exist at the center of your marketing strategy.
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