In my metapost on 18 Online Marketing Techniques, I reprinted Anita Campbell’s graphic on online marketing ROI to show her recommended primary and secondary priorities. Many people left comments on this post that Facebook and Twitter have gained prominence since she created the graphic. She showed both of these social media techniques as secondary.
This week I came across another post concerning online marketing priorities, this one from Rand Fishkin over at SEOmoz.org. The table below is from A Checklist to Choose Which Online Marketing Channel Is Right For Your Business.
Online Marketing Techniques Referenced
Fishkin sorts techniques by four marketing objectives and five budget levels. He then recommends the top three techniques (listed below) for each category. I have added explanatory links to this blog and his.
- Display Advertising
- Email Marketing
- Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)
- Online Public Relations
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Social Media Marketing (SMM)
- Viral Content Campaigns
- Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
To see precisely what he means by these terms, also please read his post.
According to the table, those who want to convert website visitors to buyers should focus on the techniques of conversion rate optimization, search engine optimization and email marketing.
Fishkin does not pretend that the table presents scientific results. Rather he states upfront they are his opinions, based on his experience and feedback from colleagues.
The right column is roughly consistent with eMarketer data on online marketing ROI, which concludes that those who want online sales should focus on SEO and email marketing.
What Do You Think of Fishkin’s Table?
How do his recommendations for different marketing objectives fit with your experience? Are social media like Facebook and Twitter primary or secondary? Please leave a comment.
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Hi – interesting post (I love analysis). For me and other small business owners, social media is unrivalled in terms of getting your brand out there. There’s simply no other method which comes close in terms of ROI – but brand awareness is very difficult to measure. That said, if you relied solely on social media to drive sales, you’d be poor for some time. It seems that the sheer volume of social media users is directly disproportional to the volume of sales generated using this media. When it comes to sales, the hard facts are that you need a combination of paid and free online and offline marketing strategies to succeed, and the mix will depend on the type of business you run, and the product or service you sell.
As always, there aren’t any obvious answers!
Susie
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