10 Jun 2009

What makes a good online marketing strategy

Web marketing is a constantly evolving discipline and never has this been more obvious than now with the rise of social media and user generated content. I've worked in the online marketing/SEO industry for more than 7 years now and I still learn something new every day.
I worked on the online marketing strategy for my company the other day and thought I'd share what I think are fundamentals in any good strategy:

Search engine marketing
  • Search engine optimisation:
    - on the page (metadata, content, alt tags, H tags, internal linking, keyword density, technical analysis) never forget that content is king!
    - off the page (link building, link baiting)
  • Social media strategy:
    - Blogs/ forums
    - RSS feeds, social bookmarks, content aggregation sites
    - Social networking / microblogging (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn....)
    - Online reputation management
  • Paid search:
    - Pay per click campaigns (Adwords, Yahoo search marketing, MSN)
Email marketing / Advertising
  • internal campaigns for retention (existing customers, prospects/leads, lifecycle emails)
  • Display advertising for acquisition (banners, sponsored emails, solus emails/3rd party emails)
  • List rental for acquisition (targeted emails to key decision makers/ key sectors)
Web development
  • Usability / User experience
  • Copywriting
  • Regular design review
  • other business relevant projects (product launches, special offers....)
  • Technical infrastructure
All of the above elements will only be effective if used in an integrated manner and as part of an overall marketing strategy.
And of course, I cannot finish this post without mentioning web analytics, the key to success for any marketeer! The strategy has to be implemented based on measurable business objectives and targets.
Well, that was a long post so hopefully somebody will read it and maybe benefit from it. Contact me if you would like to know more, I'm always happy to help.

1 comment:

Rochelle Dancel said...

I think you missed the most important element of all - imagination! If you have that, everything else just falls into place... ;)