Incorporating SEM and SMM into Your Marketing Campaign

Webmasters are increasingly integrating SMM (social media marketing) right alongside their SEM campaigns.  This has become a very feasible practice due to the prevalence of next generation web technologies and social networking.  Let’s take a closer look to find out how an SMM campaign can be effectively incorporated into your search engine marketing strategy.

SEO Outside of the Box

Search engine optimization has long been viewed as the most affordable way to boost rankings, increase traffic and sales.  However, this crucial SEM technique has been heavily underrated in its ability to aid in traditional public relations efforts.  This method can be used to harness the power of press releases, online news rooms and article syndication to encourage organic search engine rankings.  For example, by incorporating URLs or tracking codes into a press release, an SEO campaign can be easily transferred into a vehicle that prompts direct responses while optimizing at the same time.

SMM Avenues

Though SMM is still coming into its own, it is quickly evolving into a popular method and effective component worthy of SEM.  With MySpace and Facebook pages now showing up frequently in search engine results, SEM experts can no longer deny the impact of social media and social networking platforms.  SMM can deliver a wealth of benefits when integrated correctly, including branding.  In addition, popular content syndication sites such as YouTube and Flickr provide opportunities for distributing an organization’s media assets to a larger and much more diverse audience.  The same can be done with traditional content through blog and micro-blogging platforms such as Plurk and Twitter. SMM extends its benefits in so many ways as social networking sites are quite effective for ORM (online reputation management) at the very least.

A Measure of Success

Choosing the right metrics tool is key for measuring the overall efficiency of integrating SMM into your marketing scheme.  The vehicle you choose will help you more precisely gauge your audience and set benchmarks as well.  Traditional media often depends on surveys and focus groups to gather insight on the effectiveness of an add or campaign.  For online marketing, web analytics tools and services have proven to be far more accurate and affordable.  The market for online measurement solutions is growing rapidly, now offering common services that include comprehensive details of search engine visibility, PPC impressions, and most importantly, conversions.  In this model, conversions may consist of sign ups, downloads, lead generation and sales.  It may also include offline activities such as leads tracked via toll-free phone, website address or promotional code.

Marketing Wrap-up

1. In the end, this could be the one merger your business needs to climb to the top of the pile and stay there.