Digital Marketing: SEO VS Social Media Marketing in 2019
2019-10-8
More and more up and coming brands are trying to take over the market as we speak. Tons of them are maximizing the use of the internet. Digital marketing is one of the ways that businesses choose to connect to more customers and generate more leads. And leads can lead to conversions, thus increasing their sales. But digital marketing has more to it than meets the eye. Digital marketing, like any other strategy, has major players under its wings that you have the option to choose from.
Social Media and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) are the two most prevalent forms of digital marketing. These two have so much in common yet are entirely different. They are both designed to popularize brands and increase their audience. And both later turn into high ROI machines due to the potential conversions they can bring to an organization. Since e-commerce took over the internet, many business owners that sell their products online are torn with one question in mind. Which is a better tool or digital marketing: SEO VS Social Media Marketing (SMM)?
The Power of Social Media
Social media has connected us closer each day, with every post, video, and picture. It’s no secret that these platforms are getting more and more popular each day. And businesses found a way to wiggle in and promote their products on social media platforms.
Small-to-medium businesses have found clever ways to endorse and make their products and services available to customers online. These businesses and organizations have exploited the way that social media is being used by millions of people around the world. They have created pages, accounts, and profiles for their businesses to reach new audiences.
And aside from organic posting, organizations launch ads on social media platforms to leverage on the fact that millions of users use popular social media platforms daily. And most of these businesses are generating more conversions on social media compared to television ads, newspaper listings, and radio shout outs.
Because advertising has never been so interactive, social media marketing is reigning over the digital marketing department. In fact, using social media marketing, you can target users based on their app behaviors, job titles, page likes, or recent post interactions. Social media has always been fun and games. But ever since its revamp back in 2011, social media is acquiring more of the serious players within every industry to invest in its capabilities to distribute effective advertising. But is it enough to settle the SEO VS Social Media Marketing debacle? Let’s take a look at the power of SEO.
The Power of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
If social media is used to target people according to their interests and behavior, SEO is used to target people according to what they need and are looking for. The people you target using SEO are people who use keywords related to the services and products you offer. These are people who can be easily converted into paying customers given the fact that they need what you have.
With a good landing page or sales page, it’s easy to tell a buyer that, “Hey! We’re here for you. This is what we can do for you. You need to buy this right here, right now!” That is of course if they ever reach your landing page.
SEO is an extremely competitive market. You will be competing with giants who want to rank first on search pages. You will be outbid by competitors by a mile. If you have the budget to produce a competitive bid or cost per click on your ad, then I highly suggest you go for SEO. This is because you have a higher chance of converting people who are looking for your product.
SEO takes advantage of keywords that are being searched by your target audience. It might be hard to believe, but every article online has keywords. Even this one. This is how search engines designed a competitive market for businesses using content generation. While SEO is a more costly choice, it doesn’t take your customers to the long customer journey they’re usually on with social media marketing. SEO is more of a snap, crackle, and bang kind of scenario where you just have to put out the right ad and a great landing page. With SMM (Social Media Marketing) you have to make sure you can convince the user or viewer with several ads before they finally click on your page. And even then they still have to decide if they really need your product or not.
Every brand needs to identify the best way to sell their products. And even now, a lot of digital marketers are stuck on the SEO VS Social Media Marketing debate. Of course, both platforms can be used if you have the budget for it. It takes different approaches, but all end up with the same goal - to generate leads and increase conversions.