For a business owner who has just entered the online marketing scene, the raging debate between proponents of paid online advertising and SEO experts is bound to be baffling. With both parties touting the the benefits of their chosen Internet marketing approach, a newbie will certainly have some serious questions about the techniques that he/she should follow. If you have been pondering over the efficacy of these two online marketing branches, here is a look at free online promotion techniques pitched against paid tactics and which will serve your interests.
When does free online promotion work?
Free online marketing techniques works well when you are working with a limited budget; SEO techniques such as social media marketing can help to greatly augment the page rank of your site and channel niche traffic to your business. Also, it is imperative to understand that the effects of organic strategies persist long after you stop incorporating these techniques into your PR plan. For instance, if you upload an article to an ezine, it will continue to yield benefits for years to come.
Finally, when choosing an online advertising strategy for your business, it is vital to remember that 77% of the Internet users choose sites that rank highly due to organic marketing over business that exclusively use PPC campaigns while 67% tend to shop at organically listed sites.
Tips to make your free online marketing techniques more effective
Impressive Website:
Build a user friendly and easy website which includes information about code of ethics, customer service, terms and conditions etc. Most visitors will gauge the professionalism of your business based on how well your website has been made, so a shoddy job will just not do.
The Right Keywords:
Using the right keywords can make it simpler for prospective clients to find you. However, given the cut throat competition online, you will need to put in some amount of research to find the right mix of keywords. Ideally, you should go for a combination of long and short tail keywords.
Fantastic content:
The quality of your content can make or break the chances of your site, so do not skimp on this front. If you know enough about your niche, you can create the content on your own or enlist the help of a content creation agency.
Recommend the site:
Ask your visitors to recommend your business to friends by inserting the “Recommend This Site” button in your page script. Also, join a few web rings to increase your online contacts
Search Engine Savvy Site:
The search engine crawlers look for certain things in your site, the title, heading, meta tag etc. Learn about what is accepted by various search engines; for instance, your title should not have more than 60 characters while your meta tag should contain no more than 15 to 20 keywords. This is all part of Onpage SEO.
Create a viral campaign with a free product:
Finally, go viral with your marketing campaign and also build a list while you are at it. To do so, you will need an impressive and attractive product in your niche, it can be an e-book, video, application etc. Now, offer this product free in exchange for the visitor’s email id and request them to recommend the product to their friends. If you have a good enough product on your hands, you will be surprised at the number of people who will line up for it.
Are paid tactics suitable for you?
Paid tactics can yield faster results; also you will know exactly what you are paying for. Because no cost is incurred for the display of the banner ad, businesses do get the advantage of free advertising. Also, PPC campaigns are ideal for business owners who are not keen on maintaining a website. Unlike search engine optimization, PPC campaigns are aimed at generating sales and offering product information.
Tips to make your paid online marketing tactics more effective
Create a campaign structure:
Like any other marketing initiative, to ensure that your PPC campaign is a success you need careful research and planning. Start by making a list of vital information such as the amount of money that you would like to invest, the expected ROI, the number of days for which the campaign will continue, the keywords you want to target and the precise ad banner that will be used.
Do not bid on generic terms:
To get more out of your PPC dollars, bid on branded terms and all its variations instead of generic slogans and industry terms; for instance, weight loss is a generic term which is being used by millions of sites. So, instead of spending serious coins for this keyword, try using weight loss in a week, quick weight loss, 15 day weight loss etc. You should also bid on your domain name and its variations.
Create targeted landing pages:
While its simpler to just use a single landing page for all the keywords, you can greatly accentuate the efficacy of your PPC campaign by using highly targeted landing pages
Pick the right time for your campaign:
Depending on your product, choose the best time to advertise it; for instance, if you are selling toys or perfumes which can be used as Christmas gifts, you will need to invest more time and money in your PPC campaign in autumn and winter.
Can paying Google for a PPC campaign earn you cookie points on the organic stage?
A lot of business owners make the grave mistake of assuming that just because they are making a contribution to Google’s coffers by investing in a PPC campaign, the search engine giant will be kind to them and their SEO efforts will yield sparkling results. However, Google employees who handle PPC campaigns are not even allowed to venture into the same cafeteria as the organic ranking handlers. So, even if you were to invest thousands in your PPC campaign, it will certainly not help your website to move up on the SERPs .
Are free online marketing strategies truly better than paid tactics?
Free as well as paid marketing tactics have their fair share of pros and cons, which one you choose should depend on your marketing budget, the type of results that you need and the amount of time and effort you are willing to spend on the marketing campaign. The type of your website and business will also have a bearing on the advertising campaign that will suit your requirements. For instance, bloggers should stick to SEO because they are not selling a product; on the other hand, retailers should definitely incorporate PPC in their marketing strategy.
Most experts suggest that both forms of advertising hold distinct positions in the marketing mix, so if you want impressive results, try combining both forms of online marketing. A comprehensive online advertising plan should include components of both paid as well free marketing tactics to get the best of both worlds.
John Rena, SEO and Online Marketing Consultant with 7 years experience.
My REPORTS are already FREE so you only need to sign up here if you are:
- Serious about building websites and making money.
- An action taker!
- Not a time waster.
- A positive person.
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
You made a geat point bout organic se with te ezine article. yes paid pr click does work but it also taks work to optimize it so you actualy make money. I thin everyone sould some organic seo for thier site no matter if they use paid adertsing or not. A good artcile or review on social site can drive a lot of sales to a site fast.
It depends on what you are trying to sell and how much is the budget constraint. If the paid promotion is bringing you clients and you are earning from them , then there’s no harm in going for it.
Bishwajeet recently posted..Kaspersky reports new trojan: Probably German police sponsored
I still prefer free and organic online promotions than paid ones. Paid promotions gives fast results but not last that long.
Noel Addison recently posted..Selling Ice Cubes to Eskimos
It depends on budget I would say. If you are at the beginning stage and if you are good with tweaking SEO matters, do it as comprehensive as possible and it will show you results.
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I think both ways, free or charge, require a substantial effort
I believe that the best solution is to use them together, using the PPC campaign with a more precise target
I believe that the best time to use a PPC campaign is when you are doing some promotion for your customers
Paul recently posted..By: network
For those who have been to online business for a long time, investing money for their site promotion is not a problem. So whether the promotion is paid or not, everything is easy for them. But for newbies who have limited resources, it’s very important for them to know how they can maximize their resources. All the above points will be definitely be useful to everybody.
Mark recently posted..I decided to give P90X a shot and the results I ended up with are better than anything else I have tried over the years
In the beginning my family made the mistake of starting out as newbies and pouring money into ppc without alot of knowledge. We lost alot of money on the deal and saw zero return. In hindsight It would of been so much better had we forced ourselves to go through the free route and learn all we can before tackling on the paid routes. Both avenues work and yes the paid route can get you fast results, if you know what you are doing. The same can be said about the free route and getting the results with experience. But at the end I would much rather work my way up. Start out in the free realm and work hard to get your way to the top. You will learn so much and be ready to tackle the paid route so much better.
Just my two cents…
-Jean
Jean recently posted..The importance of running correct tire pressures
Great advice thanks Jean. I have only tried PPC for a product I have. It worked well but I felt I had to monitor it too much so I opted for only free ways at the moment. I guess it comes down to experience and I was a newbie at PPC and therefore it took me more time..
I have started with free promotion and I am ending with it too… I am building authority websites so once they make it big, there is not much promotion after that.
Many research studies conducted over the last 10 years have shown consistently that search engine users feel that NON-paid results are more valuable results to click. This is because they realize the difference in how they are obtained! I have also seen this in my own SEO analytics and paid analytics results. So greed is most certainly in play here.
hehe, google anf facebook will win
) paid essentialy 
John recently posted..Vārti un vārtiņi
Free promotions i always what i go for as i feel they are more effective and people also appreciate you when you have come out an out after doing so much work. Free promotions should be used when you have toiled hard and have good rankings and when the time to take little rest has come. Super cool post, i am loving to see the comments/views of people.
well it depends on the volume of work dey get on high volumes a free online promotion can earn more through ads sense whereas on low volumes a paid one will get you a decent money ..so it all depends on the no. of clients u get
If you have just started and wanted to receive instant quality traffics the paid program such as Adword will served you best. Otherwise try to build your traffics slowly using others free options.
Amani recently posted..Make money online
Great writeup. The on-page and off-page SEO tweaking is really important
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I agree with you mitz that the PCC will help you. because i’ve encounter like this before, I have a problem then my friend told me to go in PCC and ask for need help and its true the PCC help me to solve the solution of my problem.
Brenda Macalino recently posted..Security House
Hi Hazel,
I agree with you mitz that PPC can help us, Because I’ve encounter like this before I have problem ANd I must need help someone told me that go to PPC and they will help you, and its true they help me to solve my problem.
Brenda Macalino recently posted..Most Helpful Alarm
PPC will win if one has enaugh money
Nice and informative article. I fully agree, if you can achieve your internet marketing target by just following the fundamentals of search engine optimization, why are you wasting your budget by paying for paid campaigns. Although, to some extent we should use paid ads but our focus should be on on page / off page seo tactics.
thanks for the great article.
as i understand to this post Google employees who handle PPC campaigns are not even allowed to venture into the same cafeteria as the organic ranking handlers. So, even if you were to invest thousands in your PPC campaign, it will certainly not help your website to move up on the SERPs .
Hazel recently posted..Money Saving Tips for 2011
Hi Hazel
I do not think PPC will help you rise to the top of the search engines results but it will help you get traffic and hopefully make money while you are waiting for your SEO to rank you better…
mitz recently posted..3 Tips for Expanding your Staff with Outsourcing
I would say that paid promotion techniques will work better than free imho.
Regards, Adam
Adam W. Prillis recently posted..The 7 Best Selling Ipad 2 Cases 2011
Paid advertising methods deliver much faster results. Also is it important to know which free advertising methods to use and how to use them for best results.
Best and fastest way would be to combine them! A good search engine optimization can help to make your PPC campaign less expensive!
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