SEO as a part of Integrated Marketing Communications
Whilst traditional thoughts dictated that SEO was purely about link building, recent changes administered by Google indicate that the practice is moving more towards an integrated digital check credit score online marketing platform. With these changes in mind, Google is seemingly favouring sites that score highly in usability and user friendliness. This then ponders the question: what other facets of Integrated Digital Marketing communications can be accommodated under the SEO umbrella?
Content marketing
Content marketing and its popularity is on the rise, in fact a survey by e-marketerconcluded that content marketing was named as the ‘top priority’ amongst leading digital agencies and marketers. This marks a significant shift when compared to priorities set in previous years. So what does this mean for us as consultants and our clients? Simple, refresh your content periodically, make it more relevant and make it more targeted. Of course, this then also goes hand in hand with the usability and user-friendliness concepts as discussed above.
Video Marketing
This particular practice is also on the increase and there are a few tantalizing facts to suggest that video marketing may yet become a key cog in the SEO wheel. E-consultancy research suggests that the numbers of videos viewed online are on the increase and numbers are speculated to reach near the 200 million mark in the US alone this year. This provides an insight into the growing opportunity that marketers have in order to tailor their key messages to the relevant target audiences. Video marketing also places a lot of emphasis on the end user as it provides ample opportunity for your message to get aired and shared online. This also brings in elements of social media. Furthermore, video marketing, for more obvious reasons, offers more with respect to engagement as well as a higher click through rate. Most visitors to a site would much rather watch a 2 minute video than spend 10 minutes reading the content. Though this may sound contradictory to the above about content
marketing, creating the right balance between video and content is imperative to a company’s digital clicks and mortar offering.
Digital PR
This follows the same basic principles as your content marketing strategy but also brings in elements of video marketing. With PR one really does have a blank canvas and once again, it can also be argued that it creates more of a case for engagement and targeting your segments more effectively. PR also presents numerous opportunities which also include concepts such as viral video marketing and social media engagement. As mentioned earlier, digital PR, if used and executed effectively, can be cohesive in bringing the most effective elements of your digital endeavours together.
Application and best practices of IMC
A combination of all the above represents a seismic shift in traditional SEO practices; collectively, using IMC practices presents the opportunities for all the elements of a digital marketing campaign to thrive under the ‘joined up thinking’ umbrella. This in turn aids brand building, brand awareness, product and company tone and of course – more prominent rankings in organic searching.
