One of the most important aspects for a company is its positioning on the Internet. We live in a time when people are more connected to the Internet than to any other means of communication. For this reason, online marketing is one of the best options when it comes to betting on a wider audience.
In most cases, when a person has a need, either for information, a service or a product you want to acquire, his habit is to go to his favorite search engine on the Internet and write the keywords that can solve your question. Another option may be to check through a social network (either Twitter or Facebook) if someone knows who can solve your problem. In either case, the fastest solution will always be online.
The principle: What is digital marketing?
It was in one of the editions of TagMe, a meeting for entrepreneurs, that Rodrigo Stockebrand, a Chilean expert in digital marketing, talked to participants about the importance of online marketing.
In it, Stockebrand explained to the public that digital marketing is not a bombardment to the public with different messages in different formats at any time of their Internet navigation, as the Cultura Medellín site points out: “Digital marketing is a matter of extreme precision whose objectives are fully achieved after much patience and, above all, much observation.
Among the tips that Rodrigo shared in that talk and that were transcribed by the Cultura Medellín site, there are three key steps for the success of a company that enters the universe of online marketing. The first is measurement, a key tool to really know if the strategies implemented are being effective. Currently there are many tools that facilitate the administration of this type of statistics, such as Google Analytics.
The second is the management of SEM traffic (Search Engine Marketing) based on the positioning of a site in the searches that a common person performs surfing the Internet using various techniques such as sponsored links and contextual advertising. And third, the importance of managing SEO traffic (Search Engine Optimization) which refers to the positioning of a site in search engines by appealing to a series of strategies without paying for it.
In Rodrigo’s words: “Now a lot of things are concentrated on the web. Even the simplest and seemingly unprofitable idea can become a worldwide success because of the way it is made known. That’s why it’s important for entrepreneurs to understand that it’s necessary to listen to the customer first when launching a strategy. Finally, observation is the key to marketing”.
When an entrepreneur launches a digital marketing campaign it is really important to take into account their target audience. If the businessman knows his audience, his interests, what kind of trends interest him, what kind of sites he visits, he will be able to design a campaign with more effective strategies and with greater reception and reception.
The Google Advertising Program
Google’s online marketing and advertising model is one of the most effective on the Internet. This model is crucial for all people who are interested in making their business visible in the virtual universe. We spoke with Susana Pabón, Google’s Corporate Communications Manager in Colombia, and she explained in detail what this program is about.
When a person goes to the search engine and writes: ‘pizzería en Usaquén’, Google will show two types of results, one central, also known as the natural result that responds to the so-called SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of which we spoke earlier. And others that are usually just below the search bar or in the upper right curuba color, which are known as ‘Adwords‘, and correspond to paid ads.
Google recommends two things to make sure you can be a potential candidate on the first page:
- Verify that the domains or urls of the website appear on Google. To do this, the user should go to www.google.com.com/addurl and add their new website in case it is not there.
- Optimize the content of your website to make it easier to search. The page is expected to have text, images, and any other content that relates to the words people use to search for products and services. Google will match your website’s content to people’s searches.
Adwords
Another way to enter the universe of digital marketing is to create a paid advertising campaign on Google known as ‘Adwords’. With this strategy, each person is the owner of creating the ads they want for their company, selects the keywords with which they expect future customers to find them and also has the ability to decide when and where they want their ads to be published.
Google analyzes billions of pages to find the most relevant results, with this strategy your company will have greater visibility on the Internet. How is the payment system? When creating a campaign, there is a space called ‘offers and budget’. There, the user will be in charge of deciding how much he is willing to pay not for his ad, but for the times that someone clicks on it.
As the platform explains: “There is no minimum investment requirement: you decide how much you want to invest. For example, you can set a maximum daily budget of 5 dollars and a maximum cost of 10 cents each time your ad receives a click.”.
This is one of the most valuable differences between online marketing and traditional advertising. Google does not charge to publish an ad, if the campaign is not successful, the user will not have lost his investment money (as if he would have lost it in a printed press campaign or in some commercial for television). This is charged to the extent that the ad has actually reached a person on the Internet.
Setting the digital marketing budget
It is important to know how much to invest without over-investment. Before making a budget, it is key to consider a marketing plan, what your goals are this year and how online advertising will help increase sales. According to Google, when selecting the budget in Adwords, the entrepreneur must take into account two aspects: what value a click from a potential customer has for him and what is the maximum amount I want to invest per day.
As Susana Pabón explained to us, it’s not about who pays more per ad, but it also has to be related to something that Google calls ‘relevance’. The website shown should really answer my question, not because I invest a lot of money, Google is going to show my ad.
The company also performs a qualitative analysis of my website, looking at factors such as how much it is visited, what the quality of its content is, how much it is shared on social networks, to determine its relevance.
Success Stories In The Country
Documents shared by Google gave us examples of cases where online marketing has been the best strategy for commercial success. This is the case of a Colombian company in the agricultural sector of the country, which began as a micro family business, ended up being one of the leading sites in its field on the Internet, receiving more than one million visits according to Google Analytics and orders from countries such as Spain, United States, Canada and Mexico.
The business model of this company was always linked to the virtual world, never had a physical store and its catalog and order process has always been completely online, so online advertising has been an essential part in the growth of its business. Today, the company has 50,000 customers and a steady sales growth of more than 70% annually to cover orders in more than 35 cities and municipalities in the country.
Another case is that of a company belonging to the retail sector, one of the fields that most moves the economy of the country. As Google points out, a constant challenge for these stores is to convert their online platforms into a sales channel for which they must generate customer traffic, but also effective business. This company is already among the top 10 in the country and has as its main advertising tool on the Internet, the ‘Adwords’ of Google.
The Essential
In conclusion, online marketing is an essential tool if you want your business to be successful. Today, digital advertising is available to most consumers. As Susana commented: “An SME can become a multinational on the Internet”.
In the constant search of Internet users for solutions to daily needs (services, information or products), the route to business success is not to lose in those millions of searches business opportunities.
In addition, another reason why it is worth entering the universe of the online marketplace is to have the ability to measure your own reach. Thanks to Google Analytics, the entrepreneur can really know the return on his investment in statistics and figures. It is clear then that the Internet is a window of direct visibility for people to know what I want to do.
