SEO is a set of technical tasks that help organisations to secure relatively top positions in search engine result listings (Sungin et al, 2016). Furthermore, SEO can be described as being “highly effective in delighting and retaining customers in the post-sale enablement, adoption, and retention phases of customer marketing”. Nowadays, it is a common method for any company wishing to expand their digital marketing strategies.

According to Gupta et al (2013), the key benefits from SEO are wide such as tracking ranking, to track a page or a website, to estimate the total traffic, to increase brand awareness etc.

There is a list of initiatives to undertake if you wish to improve your SEO strategy effectively. In order to understand better your audience, your business should be using SEO through multiple ways, but keywords and links remaining the most important.

• Keyword Research

The first approach for an effective SEO is to focus on keywords. Hill (2017) describes them as being influential but not unique as you first need to know your exact target market in order to find the right keywords. On the other hand, DeMers (2014) puts more importance on keyword research, by saying “without a proper keyword research, any SEO campaign is doomed to failure”. This statement is supported many times as it is a crucial step of the optimization process. If you want to get the best from this process: take a long-tail approach to keywords as customers are getting more precise when researching something specific.

Indeed, once you focus on your long-tail keyword research, you can think about originality by duplicating your content, and try to keep in mind that to be the best you need to be unique.

• Link Building

SEO website (2018) describes “an intricate process” to develop the right relevant links and opportunities to improve your competitive position on the Internet. Furthermore, Hill (2017) also mentions that you can build up links not only with other websites, but as well with blogs or influencers in order to help increase your business’ popularity.

(If you need more information regarding how to strengthen your link building, visit DeMers’ blog as he provides more detailed tips on the process).

Furthermore, SEO is not just an investment in better visibility and higher rankings; it is the primary way to protect your internet assets (Spencer, 2015). So don’t wait until something bad happens in order to react. Link risk management is one of the ways you can protect your traffic. and the income that results from it.

• Mobile SEO

As most of us grew up in a digital era which keeps evolving through a range of different aspects, it is important that your business think of mobile SEO too. As Toonen (2017) stated “mobile traffic has now eclipsed desktop traffic”. Mobile SEO is focusing on a specific range of customers, and according to the author, smartphone users have a higher buyer intent than desktop users which is beneficial for brands or companies selling online products. Also, keep in mind that with smartphones developed services, people have been more reluctant in researching by typing it down on screens and would prioritize researching through vocal research… Not many businesses are up-to-date regarding some recent innovative features of mobile phones such as Siri for Iphones.

• SEO Plan

However keep in mind that for any strategy you may have, you need to develop a plan to be able to keep a timeframe and a range of key steps to follow adequately. Once you’ve fixed all your activities into a plan, keep in mind that the world is an evolving place, so focus on a continuous and updated plan in order to keep your business into the competitive world (Ledford, 2016).

Brown (2103) supports the ongoing approach of SEO by stating “any time a new page or new content is added to your site, it needs to be properly researched against your marketing goals, and tagged properly”.

Risks are everywhere when not prepared properly and carefully. Here is a list of some negative aspects of using SEO:

• Long-time results from it (patience is the key…)
• When using SEO, it doesn’t give you a guaranteed place on 1^st page searching platforms (digitalmaerketingphilippines.com)
• SEO is a continuous process and a continuous improvement. (just remember, any change will be successful if you start from little rearrangements, check the results and then do bigger.)
• Stay away from black hats and focus on white hats. Some companies employ a black hat tactic to gain search rank in order to counter the search engines as Google. So in order to avoid a possible banishment from the search engines, prioritize an SEO friendly White hat approach .
• Control spamming blog comments as you may loose credibility to the research platform as Google and to your customers as well.

So, it has been quite clear on how to benefit from SEO techniques and the risks according to them. However, remember that a risk is not always negative and can be beneficial for your business if you have been prepared for it, so have a look at this article for further information. Each individual or business has different point of views on SEO methods, but even if the overall points are slightly different sometimes, they all are mostly similar in the way of being original and innovative. It is agreed that an effective SEO must be a continuous process that might be time consuming, but it remains crucial for keeping your business at the top.

References

Brown M. (2013) 5 SEO Fails: What you risk by managing SEO internally [online] Available at: https://www.business2community.com/seo/5-seo-fails-risk-managing-seo-internally-0630574 [Accessed on February 20th, 2018]

Dame N. (2018) SEO and Customer Base Marketing: Deepend relationships for more repeat sales. [online] Available at: https://blog.marketo.com/2017/05/seo-customer-base-marketing-deepen-relationships-repeat-sales.html [Accessed on February 20th, 2018]

DeMers J. (2014) 7 Advanced Ways to Improve your site’s SEO [online] Available at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237819 [Accessed on February 20th, 2018]

Digitalmarketingphilippines (2017) The Pros and Cons of Using SEO for your Business [online] Available at: http://digitalmarketingphilippines.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-using-seo-for-your-business/[Accessed on February 20th, 2018]

DiSilvestro A. (2013) Common SEO Risks: To take or not to take [online] Available at: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/common-seo-risks-to-take-or-not-to-take/62638/[Accessed on February 20th, 2018]

Gupta S., Miglani S., Sundriyal V. (2013) Search Engine Optimization Techniques. Vol.2, Issue 9, Published: International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology

Hill, C. (2017) How to use SEO to get more customers [online] Available at: https://creativeresources.threadless.com/how-to-use-seo/[Accessed on February 20th, 2018]

Ledford J.L. (2016) Search Engine Optimization Bible, Chap. 3, vol. 3, 2^nd Edition, Published: Wiley Publishing Inc.

SEO (2018) Increase Search Rankings [online] Available at: https://www.seo.com/seo#kr[Accessed on February 20th, 2018]

Spencer S. (2015) Link Risk Management: Are you using this critical SEO tactic? [online] Available at: https://searchengineland.com/link-risk-management-using-critical-seo-tactic-217701[Accessed on February 20th, 2018]

Sungin L., Wonhong J. et al. (2016) Search engine optimization. Vol. 34, Issue 2.

Toonen E. (2017) Mobile SEO: The ultimate guide [online] Available at: https://yoast.com/mobile-seo-ultimate-guide/[Accessed on February 20th, 2018]

WhyPeopleClick (2018) What are the risks of search engine optimization? [online] Available at: http://whypeopleclick.com/services/search-engine-optimization/risks-search-engine-optimization/[Accessed on February 20th, 2018]

Blogs.ubc.ca, 2017

Today, let’s talk about the advantages for a cosmetic company which is choosing to use social media marketing as a key strategy to promote products. If you are a brand manager, a marketing student or you have just started your own business and yet not sure if you should  focus on social media marketing rather than traditional marketing, then this blog may help you. Indeed, the authors Coursaris and Van Osch (2016) mentioned that brands started using social media in order to build a better relationship with customers, improve brand experience, and therefore, increase profit. Social media can be described as “sharing and aiming at a collective vision […] online communities of people […] providing a variety of ways for users to interact”, and therefore social media marketing “focuses on people, not products” (Acra, 2012). Customers have been increasingly recognising their power and importance over brands (Matt, 2010).

Pinterest.com, 2017

Social media represents many advantages for most organisations and brands wishing to increase their marketing strategies. The most important benefit is to increase brand awareness at an effective cost, allowing you to get one step closer to a wider group of customers (Blue Fountain Media, 2016). By doing so, the brand or company will get in touch with its customers and increase its audience (Jackson, 2017). “There are many different social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram which allow brands to build trust and give a sense of community online, which leads to loyal followers and brand advocates” (Young, 2014).

Digitalmarket.asia

According to Carbone (2015), social media marketing helps your customer service to be more efficient and increase your level of transparency to your business which is a great from a customer perspective. Indeed, customers tend to prefer a direct communication on social platforms such as Facebook, helping you to provide them a quick publicly posted answer which will benefit other customers as well.

Furthermore, by running specific social ads, you may reach the desired audience and promote your business as a whole (Copp, 2016). Social media marketing also allows you to share content faster and easier with the public than ever before.

New media business Blogs, 2017

When the brand develops an easy distribution plan to get its content seen, most popular channels will  contribute in spreading it to the right people (Jackson, 2017). The company should also focus on user-gernerated content. It is crafted by a consumer, influencer or social media follower that supports your brand, therefore most businesses use this content on their website to promote their brand. “Since 2002, revenue of the cosmetic industry has had its ups and downs, but as of 2016, is at an all time high, with an annual revenue of 62.46 bilion dollars” (Hoffman). Indeed, you may have a few consumers or influencers posting videos or pictures showing off many cosmetics products, mainly on Instagram or Youtube. Those online posts give a closer perspective and access to the product, so that the audience can see how the product is intended to be used and which results it provides.

Immediatefuture.co.uk, 2017

Go and read Hoffman’s article which gives great information on how important social media marketing is for the cosmetic industry. Another good article can be found here where Nikki Gilliland gives seven ways social media is shaping the beauty industry. For further information also go and watch this BECCA video on youtube, promoting the benefits of social media marketing for a makeup industry. And finally, have a look at Bobbi Brown’s interview on CNBC, explaining how her beauty business was successfull.

References:

BFM Blue Fountain Media (2016) 10 Advantages of Social Media Marketing for your Business [online] Available at: https://www.bluefountainmedia.com/blog/advantages-of-social-media-marketing/ [Accessed on 16 December 2017]

Jackson D. (2017) 38 Benefits of Social Media Marketing every Business needs to know [online] Available at: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/benefits-of-social-media/ [Accessed on 16 December 2017]

Copp E. (2016) 10 benefits of Social Media for Business [online] Available at: https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-for-business/ [Accessed on 16 December 2017]

Arca C. (2012) Social Media Marketing benefits for businesses – Why and how should every business create and develop its Social Media Sites? [online] Available at: http://vbn.aau.dk/ws/files/63562608/CelineArca_MScInternationalMarketing_MasterThesis2012.pdf [Accessed on 16 December 2017]

Carbone L. (2015) What are the benefits of Social Media Marketing? [online] Available at: https://www.business2community.com/social-media/benefits-social-media-marketing-01140985 [Accessed on 16 December 2017]

Matt R. (2010) Social Media Etiquette: a guide and checklist to the benefits and perils of social marketing, [online] Vol. 17, Issue 3-4, Page 257-261,  Publisher: Journal of database marketing and customer strategy management

Coursaris C.K. & Van Osch W. (2016) Disentangling the driver of brand benefits – Evidence from social media marketing of two cosmetics companies [online] Available at: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=7551939 Publisher: IEEE, Telecommunications and multimedia (TEMU)

Hoffman (2016) How the makeup and cosmetic industry is ruling social media [online] Available at: https://www.likeable.com/blog/2016/6/how-the-makeup-and-cosmetic-industry-is-ruling-social-media [Accessed on 4 January 2018]

Young (2014) The role of Social Media in the cosmetic industry [online] Available at: https://socialnomics.net/2014/03/20/the-role-of-social-media-in-the-cosmetic-industry/ [Accessed on 5 January 2018]

Mi-Anne Chan (2016) How social media has changed the Beauty Industry [online] Available at: http://www.refinery29.com/2015/12/99728/beauty-industry-social-media-effect [Accessed on 5 January 2018]

Nowadays, most industries have been using social media platforms in order to improve their marketing strategies. However, it is not always clear on what is doing great and what could be improved. Therefore, the question remains on: How to do a social media audit?

“Maintaining a social media presence can be a full-time job” according to Lee (2016). The author is reminding us that creating a social media profile is good, but a bad management can destroy your profiles quickly. Therefore, it is crucial to initiate a social media audit by doing a regular examination of the social channels you are interested in (Cisnero, 2017).

Namechk, 2017

The first step for undertaking an organized audit is to create a template (Jackson, 2017). The template will allow you to track and compare the evolution of the audit. The author reminds us that digital marketing has a part of imagination and creativeness, so instead of doing an ordinary template you could use your creative skills to make it look more attractive.

Furthermore, once the template or spreadsheet are created, you would need to go on track for your social presence. By entering the name of your company on Google, you will see which social media profiles appear (Cisnero, 2017). It will allow you to detect imposters and the incorrect profiles. On the other hand, Lee (2016) mentions the use of other spots than the common Big Four (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google). You could locate your social media profiles on Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube etc. Moreover, you have the possibility of using alternative tools like Namechk or Knowem (Jackson, 2017).

Once you found the required profiles, update your template/spreadsheet with the collected information such as social media network, the URL, the description, the number of followers and the date of the latest activity (Lee, 2016).

Namechk, 2017

Then the most important step is to evaluate your social profiles by evaluating the collected data and its performance (Jackson, 2017). It will show you the detailed performance of each of the profiles collected. It is advised to create a mission statement for each profile, allowing you to decide whether your contribution is useful and helpful for the overall objective (Cisnero, 2017).

Lee, 2016

Once you know which social media profiles you are going to keep, you should make sure they meet your brand strategy (Cisnero, 2017). Lee (2016) states that by opening the customize settings on each profile, you have less chance to miss a spot. Then, once your profiles are correctly filled out, you should focus on differentiation. Indeed, the use of similar images, logos and other content is good to relate to each profile, but it would be better to use specific aspects of the platform in order to attract more consumers. Bigcommerce (2017) suggests that having a unique characteristic of the social media is more attractive for consumers, for example you could put “longer videos to YouTube and shorter ones on Facebook”.

Furthermore, identifying the best performing social media posts will improve the strategy of the company (Jackson, 2017). It will allow you to review the information contained in the audit in order to determine which are the top performing posts. The authors suggests the use of Sprout Social for popular platforms such as Facebook or Instagram, and alternative options for smaller platforms such as Snapchat.

Jackson, 2017

In the meantime, you might as well detect your brand’s influencers, and find out where they locate their social accounts (Lee, 2016). Then you might as well have a look at your customer service by looking at their comments (Bigcommerce, 2017). It will allow you to get a step closer to your consumers, by taking into consideration what issues they may have, and what solution you could find in order to satisfy their need.

Finally, once you have done your social media audit, you should create an internal process by setting future goals. Cisnero (2017) suggests to “use the information you’ve discovered through your social media marketing audit to build a more robust social media strategy”. Once you have completed all those steps, make sure to save your social media audit for future references (Bigcommerce, 2017).

Okay, this might seem a bit complex, but I promise that once you will give it a try, you will realise how interesting and exciting it is to find more opportunities to make your brand or company unique!

References:

BigCommerce (2017) What is a social media audit? Optimize your media for ecommerce success [online] Available at: https://www.bigcommerce.com/ecommerce-answers/what-is-a-social-media-audit-how-to-do-it/ [Accessed on 27 November 2017]

Cisnero K. (2017) A social media audit template and guide for marketers [online] Available at: https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-audit-template/ [Accessed on 27 November 2017]

Jackson D. (2017) How to perform a social media audit: Our free template included [online] Available at: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-audit/ [Accessed on 27 November 2017]

Lee K. (2016) The 15 minutes social media audit everyone can do [online] Available at: https://blog.bufferapp.com/social-media-audit [Accessed on 27 November 2017]

Namechk (2017) Namech_k [online] Available at: https://namechk.com/ [Accessed on 27 November 2017]

Quesenberry K.A. (2015) Conducting a social media audit [online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2015/11/conducting-a-social-media-audit [Accessed on 27 November 2017]