In our previous blogposts about search engine marketing and search engine optimization, we went over the principles of each of these marketing strategies and their benefits. But here is a quick refresher for those wanting to know the fundamentals. First, SEO is an approach that uses organic methods to appear in search results. In contrast, SEM is an approach that uses paid methods to appear in search results. Both are highly beneficial to the outreach your brand can have if you use them effectively.
Businesses need both organic methods to build long-term and paid strategies to help drive immediate results, in addition to the ability to reach more people than even possible with organic.
As a business, posting organic content onto your page will lead to the following reach:
- A percentage of your followers (or ‘organic reach’)
- Your follower’ community (if people choose to share your post)
- People following all hashtags you use
Organic social media is the foundation of every digital marketing strategy today because it’s the best way to nurture a connection with your customers at scale.
SEM Can Drive Almost Immediate Results. SEO Can’t.
As a business, posting paid content onto your page will lead to the following reach:
- Directly reach the consumers looking for a product/service you offer
- Reach the top of the search results over thousands of websites marketing the same product
- Drive significant clicks and conversions in a brief period.
- Target The Right Audience Through Optimized Ads
The foundation of most integrated social media strategies is using organic to serve your existing customers while attracting new eyes with paid ads. A successful search strategy should see you integrating both tactics.
Both SEO and SEM:
- Improve the visibility of your website
- Drive a higher amount of relevant traffic
- Ensures you gain a deeper understanding of your audience.
- Use keyword research to discover and target relevant keywords.
- Require ongoing testings and optimization.
SEO and SEM are powerful marketing channels that open up many opportunities to drive growth from potential customers searching for businesses like yours. SEO and SEM are often seen as totally different channels that can’t be used together or confused as being the same.You must understand the purpose of each of these as part of your broader marketing strategy and figure out how to use them together to drive success and gain a competitive advantage.
