Steps to setup your Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

            In my previous post I talked about the various channels of Digital Marketing, in this post we are going to talk about SEM. What is SEM ? There are various definitions , in simple terms this is an online marketing mechanism with the objective of making your website more visible among SERP(Search Engine Result Page) by promoting your website through optimization and advertising. SEO(Search Engine Optimization) is a subset of SEM where the focus is more on Optimization (we will cover in detail about this in future post). The other part of SEM is advertising , this can be through unpaid and paid mechansism like PPC (Pay per click) and Paid Search Marketing. There are various steps to structure your SEM , below is the common steps :

1. Goal Setting : The first stage is setting goals and be clear on the objectives : Do you want to increase the Sales , or increase the traffic , or generate more leads ? No doubt  every marketer's main focus is increasing the Sales, traditionally the focus is more on increasing traffic, today the focus is shifting more towards building the brand reputation. So sit with your team and decide on the goals.

2. Selecting a bidding model : Next is selecting a bidding model , usually Google Adwords is used , two of the popular models are as follows - Portfolio theory -to setup to maximise volume of conversion within a the pre-defined budget or Margin maximization - to maximise your margin on a keyword, decide on which one is more suitable for you. If you are not sure you can A/B test and split your budget in both.

3. Deciding PPC (eg. Adwords) account structure : Various PPC models can be setup based on your search engine, Adwords from Google is the most popular one, to setup an account, there are various ways to do this but some common tips for doing this are: tightly controlling keywords and ads, designing the segments as much as possible, and controlling performance seamlessly so that the account is easy to manage.

4. Keyword planner and Key word research : Google's Keyword planner is mostly used, this allows to find various related products, brands , key search terms by phrases, also it provides statistical search volumes, so that it is easy to check the popularity of a keyword. You need to customize and decide on your needs suiting your product or service.

5. Campaign Setup : Here you configure your campaign by setting up your target geography, target language etc. You can split your campaign in multiple Ad Groups and configure CPC for Adgroups.

6. Adcopy creation : Adcopy are the letters in your advertisement created to attract the attention of the buyers. This is usually the second or third line from the advt. displayed.The goal of the adcopy to to get some action out of the visitor. Advertisers use various versions of adcopy they intend on using so that they can test which one has the highest conversion rate.

7. Iteration and analysis : Finally as we know this a continious process, we need to keep analysing and improving. Analysing SEM involves review and iteration using the following components:Analysis tools  like Google Analytics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) - The effectiveness measures, which companies often focus on, include CTR(Click Through Ratio), conversion rate and average cost per click. The value of interpreting CTR for your campaign is an indicator of overall account performance. Conversion rate is an indicator of the effectiveness of your website; and the value of average cost per click is as an indicator of the competitive context.

Primary Digital Marketing Channels

In the previous post we came across the Digital Marketing key principles, Initiate, Iterate, Integrate, In this post I am going to talk about the key the Digital Marketing channels. At a highlevel this can be split into 11 main areas they are as follows :

1. SEO or Search Engine Optimization - The primary focus of this is to implement tools and techniques to optimize your website so that it is found on all search engines dynamically.
2. Search Engine Marketing(SEM) and Pay PerClick(PPC) - This is an ongoing process to setup paid advertisement with goals, setup management review and iteration
3. Email Marketing - In order to send timely email communication to customers we use this platform 
4. Digital Display Advertisement -  By this medium our intention is to placing graphically rich advertisement in internet to relevant customers.
5. Social Media Marketing - Engagement of target audience through social media and online interaction forums
6. Mobile Marketing -  The aim of mobile marketing is to use range of digital marketing activities through mobile devices irrespective of their locations through sms,camera,music,phone browser,GPS, mail,gaming etc.
7. Analytics - By analytics we are measuring and monitoring customer activity and taking key marketing decisions with the huge volume of data that is captured from each customer's online behaviour.
8. Video Marketing - Using video channels like Youtube, vimeo, vine etc to market your products and services and to create viral videos is the key objective of Video Marketing.
9. Affiliate Marketing - Earning revenue by promoting other marketers products. This is a performance-based marketing in which  reward is given to one or more affiliates based on the new visitors or customers brought by the affiliate's marketing effort.
10. Shopping channel management - Today there are various marketplaces for similar products and it is important o identify the correct marketplace for your products and services so that you can constantly manage the ratings, reviews, descriptions etc. of your online products against marketers and provide suitable daily deals, coupons, and other offers to attract new customers.
11. Online PR and Article Management - There are various free and paid PR distribution sites, it is important that we leverage all channels and reach out to the various bloggers, journalists, investors out there to generate a positive online feedback of your product and thus promote your product or service.