Should I Invest in SEO, PPC, Social, Email or Something Else?

For some small businesses that are working on a small business marketing plan, digital marketing may still feel like new territory. Although we’ve had the internet around for some time now, digital media has changed and grown drastically over the last few years.

Many marketing plans hardly include traditional advertising and instead invest more in digital marketing. Even just a few years ago, a simple email campaign may have been enough for your digital marketing plan, but now internet marketing companies know how important it is to include website SEO (Search Engine Optimization), PPC (Pay Per Click), Social, and Email marketing for any small business.

In order to determine which avenues are best for your business, consider the ROI (Return on Investment) for each.

SEO: Search Engine Optimization

SEO is made up of three parts:

• Publishing original content on your website.
• Good links from across the internet that lead users back to your website (for example, Google Maps)
• Use relevant and valuable keywords on your website. Include your keywords in your web page URL, title, and the first paragraph of text on the page.

Your ROI for SEO is very good, but often slow. For every $1 you spend on SEO marketing, you can expect to generate $4 in sales.

PPC: Pay Per Click advertising

• PPC is a great option for quick results and easy tracking.
• Most of your competitors will also be using PPC, which tends to drive up costs.
• If your company is interested in showing off new products, PPC is a great tool for you.

As far as ROI, you can assume that for every $1 you spend on PPC, you will generate $3 in sales.

Social: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

• Social media is still a relatively new area for digital marketing and has yet to prove itself as a viable candidate. It can be a great way to reproduce existing content from SEO.
• Social media is also a great way to connect with your customer base and improve customer service.

Your ROI using social media is $1 for $1.

Email: Newsletters, promotions, etc.

• The cost paid by your small business in order to message your customers with offers and content is minimal. Email is a very cost effective way to keep in touch with your customers.
• Of all the digital marketing tools, Email is the most necessary to your marketing strategy.
• Over the years, Email marketing has become more targeted to your audience. Certain offers and content can be sent to specific audiences in your customer base, making emails more relevant for your customers.

ROI for Email is certainly the highest. For each $1 spent you can expect to generate $10 in sales.

Something Else: Video

• Producing video for your small business can be costly, but it can be helpful to all the other digital outlets.
• Original video can be used for SEO, Social Media, and Email.

As for as ROI, the research is still pending for video. But there are statistics that say a customer who watches a product video is 64-85% more likely to buy that product after viewing the video.

No matter what your budget is for your small business marketing plan, there are plenty of areas in digital media in which you should certainly consider investing.