The big search engines continue to change their algorithms to include more social media indicators like reviews and comments. Increasingly businesses are becoming more sophisticated in their on-line marketing approach. The big question remains, how to integrate the various on-line modalities. How do you develop a strategy to deliver a cogent and consistent marketing message using email, social media and SEO?
It’s obvious that these channels are converging rapidly. Just look at emails that now have social media buttons and calls to action and a fundamental goal of delivering higher traffic to your website. We already know, based on the know-like-trust concept, that visitors who click on a link in an email and end up on your site through a social media channel will visit more pages and spend more time on your site with a lower bounce rate. By asking these same email visitors to refer friends you can increase website traffic exponentially. Referrals like this will have a much higher conversion rate than traditional references.
So, email your customers, invite them to your social media channels, ask them to refer friends through social media posts. Remember to ask email recipients to follow, like or +1 your company. This is becoming critical to your SEO efforts. It’s one more thing the search engines are watching. Try rewarding your customers for referring friends. We had to change our thinking and start looking at our marketing plan as one fluid process that involves email, social media and our website. At the end of the day, we are trying to drive leads so the call-to-action at all levels of the process is critical. It doesn’t matter if it’s on FaceBook or our website as long as we get the information. If you have some additional ideas, or if something is working, we would love to hear from you.