These days, almost every marketing campaign will have an online component to it. For many companies, the Internet may be the only place they market. Compared to traditional forms of advertising, online marketing offers several distinct advantages. Hyper-targeting, conversion tracking, A/B split testing, ROI management, and access to broad markets are all reasons that online marketing has been one of the fastest growing segments of advertising.
However, not every online marketing platform is appropriate for every business. Some companies are interested in branding, which helps drive offline sales. Other companies are interested in direct sales, in which a call to action is presented on the sales page. This column will rate some of the most popular forms of online marketing for these two types of business models.
We will score suitability for branding and direct sales as either Low/Medium/High. We will also score price from $ to $$, indicating the sort of monetary investment needed for each form of marketing.
Search Engine Optimization
Suitable for branding: High
Suitable for direct sales: High
Price: $$
Suitable for direct sales: High
Price: $$
SEO is potentially one of the most lucrative ways to drive traffic. Although a highly positioned keyword in the SERPS (search engine result pages) can drive free traffic, it typically costs a lot of money to hire an SEO consultant and to put in the work to get ranked at the top of Google for competitive keywords. However, once you are there, you will be in a very strong position to drive traffic for both the purposes of direct sales as well as branding.
Google Adwords - Search
Suitable for branding: Medium
Suitable for direct sales: High
Price: $ - $$
Suitable for direct sales: High
Price: $ - $$
Google Adwords is one of the most effective tool for direct sales. Most ecommerce sites will utilize Adwords by targeting keywords that relate to the product they are selling. An electronics retailer may purchase keywords such as "buy iphone" or "purchase phone case". Searchers for these keywords are already in the market to purchase, hence conversion rates will tend to be higher than from other types of advertising. Adwords also allows you to track ROI to determine if your profit margins are higher than your ad spend. Established brands will also oftentimes buy keywords related to their brands to help users find the appropriate website, but these brands will typically already rank highly in the search engines, so branding from Adwords has somewhat of a marginal benefit.
Google Adwords-Partner Network
Suitable for branding: High
Suitable for direct sales: Medium
Price: $ - $$
Suitable for direct sales: Medium
Price: $ - $$
Google ads are shown on websites throughout the Internet via a paid ad network product called Google Adsense. When using Google Adwords, you have the option of placing advertising on the Adsense ad network. The traffic that reaches these pages are not as highly motivated to purchase as search users, but via re-targeting and contextual advertising, it is possible to reach an audience who are interested in purchasing your product or service. This is very effective for brand advertising however, as you will be able to get your company in front of large audiences who are engaged in your industry.
Facebook/Twitter Social Marketing
Suitable for branding: High
Suitable for direct sales: Low
Price: $ - $
Suitable for direct sales: Low
Price: $ - $
Facebook and twitter social media marketing are difficult to master, but can be highly beneficial if leveraged properly. Facebook and Twitter are able to reach a huge portion of the people on the Internet, however, it is difficult to target those users who are currently in the market for the product that you sell. By building up a fan base for your company/brand, it is possible to create a viral marketing effect where new announcements are passed on from one consumer to another. However, it takes a lot of time to build up this user base, all the while creating meaningful content. But if done well, there are some companies that can generate significant sales directly from their social media pages. Advertising costs on social media platforms is not very expensive - the larger portion of costs will come from hiring a social marketing manager.
Other PPC Networks (Amazon, Nextag, Shopping.com, Pricegrabber, Shopzilla, etc)
Suitable for branding: Low
Suitable for direct sales: High
Price: $ - $$
Suitable for direct sales: High
Price: $ - $$
There are a number of PPC networks where you can upload inventory lists and pay on a pay-per-click basis when visitors are sent to your website. These websites are typically shopping engines and aggregators, combining product feeds from various vendors, and allowing buyers to search for products. This is typically only useful for product-based eCommerce companies, but the ROI can be very high, since the visitors that reach your page will be fairly motivated.
Amazon / Ebay sales platforms
Suitable for branding: Low
Suitable for direct sales: High
Price: $ - $$
Suitable for direct sales: High
Price: $ - $$
If you are an ecommerce business dealing in physical goods, Amazon and Ebay are leading online marketplaces that have a lot of customers. By listing on these sites, you can start with relatively low listing fees, and pay commissions once sales are actually generated. Unless your physical goods violate the TOS for these sites, you probably will want to list on Amazon and Ebay in order to grow your user base and your sales. The price is variable here: the more you sell, the higher your total commissions will be.
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