Content marketing, in general, is about “relationship marketing” post-acquisition. It’s about keeping your audience engaged. The big question for many start-ups, though, is not how to retain prospects but how to get them in the first place. It’s a question of how to start relationships.
I want to argue here that of all the forms of marketing available to an online business, none comes close to the success of Search Engine Optimization. I am talking about SEO that produces high-ranking organic search results.
Whether it be Google, Bing or Social Media, those who can lift their content to the top of the queue – and keep it there – will always be moving forward.
People trust the organic results generated by good SEO way more than paid advertising.
Instant Results vs. Long Term Success
Facebook and Twitter ads, along with other forms of native advertising sources are instant-traffic, to be sure. But it’s also interruption-inbound. You have created an interruption they didn’t ask for and effectively stopped their progress toward whatever goal they had in mind while visiting your site.
The upside is that it’s easy to scale (lots of traffic), and it’s instant.
The downside is that it’s more work to convert that traffic (you need more of it), it’s typically longer-cycle to revenue (requires more education & follow-up), and ultimately the ROI can sometimes be thin.
It’s also an annoying experience and no way to build trust in a trustworthy relationship.
If you want to measure and compare the ROI of Organic Search Results with Google Adwords or compare PPC with an SEO Campaign, jump over to our Free SEO and PPC Calculator which will help you work out your likely Return on Investment for various kinds of marketing tactics.
SEO and PPC Return on Investment Calculator
Use this Free SEO and Google Adwords Calculator to estimate the likely return on investment between paid media and organic search engine results.
SEO Beats Paid Media by Orders of Magnitude
Now – I’m not shooting paid ads down. Many of our clients have found initial success from those little Facebook adverts, I’m sure!
But I can also tell you that not all “clicks” are born equal. A visitor who finds you in Google while searching for a solution is an entirely different animal. Your EPC’s (earnings per click) on average from an organic search referral will be orders of magnitude higher than from your media buys like Facebook or Outbrain, etc.
With our marketing, for example, a search visitor is typically worth about 3-4 times more than an “interruption” click. Sure, results will vary, but generally, you’ll find something similar with most business models.
What am I trying to say here?
In a nutshell, even if search traffic is a “slower” strategy that takes a while to build up, and even if it doesn’t “massively increase visits” as readily as, say, a paid media buy like Outbrain.
What it does create is a connection between you and a qualified prospect with high purchase or high action intent. It connects you with someone who is in-market, right now.
Organic, SEO generated Search Traffic connects you with someone who is holding their credit card in one hand and their phone in the other. They are “in market” right now.
These are visitors that convert, and who are pretty much typing in keywords with their left hand while holding a credit card in their right hand.
Those are the kinds of visitors that Mallee Blue Media helps you secure for the long-term with your content, by gaining visibility in Google’s organic search results.
And they represent a nearly-guaranteed sales channel, even if your funnel sucks. (This is not the case with media buys).
Last thing. Did you realize that a huge percentage of your “media buy” prospects will immediately research your company in Google after their first exposure to you via Facebook, Twitter, and other media mentions?
It’s true. Pay close attention to your analytics when you’re running media buys. You’ll notice that as soon as you start gaining traffic, your Organic Search will also increase.
For us, up to 20% of our paid traffic clicks will cycle back, research us in Google, and then come back organically.
And those visitors – who are researching you – are obviously on the fence, and making a decision. If they can’t find your content on Google’s first page you probably just lost them.
So not only is SEO your surest sales channel with content marketing – but it’s also a massive sales booster in tandem with media buying.
Bottom line: What do you need in order to succeed, traffic,
visitors or revenue?
If traffic or want visits, head on over to the cheapest PPV network you can find and fire away (but be sure to invoice them in advance, since they don’t have a real business, and you’ll be the first on the chopping block as their “business” inevitably implodes).
But if you want to see results – then make sure that SEO is a part of your content marketing and approach to relationship marketing, since it will absolutely drive measurable ROI for virtually every kind of online business.
See a subject we haven’t covered? Contact Us and let us know what you would like us to write about.
Hey, maybe you could write it for us!
Hi David,
I have the same opinion, SEO is an amazing channel on the long run. I would more nuanced however when it comes to the description of visitors. I would say that ads bring visitors with higher buying-intent. Seo brings a mix of everything: curious people as well as ready to buy people.