There are countless debates going on in ever-changing and increasingly more competitive world of digital marketing. Platforms evolve, technology improves, the law changes, and trends fluctuate. Here are some of the top digital marketing debates going on in the online advertising world.
Facebook vs Twitter
People mostly go on Twitter to see what’s currently going on and trending. It’s used for real-time content and it depends whether you are online at the time a new Tweet is posted to view it. Because of the vast number of tweets generated or depending on your number of followers, many tweets are easily buried. If you have a budget, you can boost your tweet to stay at the top. Or use a tweet scheduling platform like HootSuite for better consistent posts to stay on top of mind. Otherwise, you’d risk it getting lost in the shuffle. Because of this, most of the direct communication taking place is in Twitter Chats.
Facebook marketing meanwhile has a multitude of community pages which push users to connect with each other and interact. You’ll see a plethora of different discussions taking place in the comments sections alone of groups, business pages, events, profiles, and more. That being said, over the past several months Facebook has made big strides to promote their new Trending section of the home news feed and their new "Facebook Live" feature. Facebook is going for the jugular to compete against Twitter in nearly all areas.
Above all, it's important for publicists, advertisers, and advocates to enter social media advertising on Facebook and Twitter with an open mind, clear strategies, quantifiable goals, and be ready to modify tactics if needed.
Google AdWords vs Facebook Ads
If I had to choose one of these advertising options I'd utilize Facebook Ads for a couple main reasons. First off, you can usually get a lot more for your money with Facebook Ads. For example: $10 can actually get you a lot of impressions, engagement, video views, amplification, or website traffic on Facebook. But with Google AdWords it might get you just 1-2 clicks to your website depending on the keywords you're bidding on, with no amplification potential. Secondly, Facebook Ads have the big upside of amplification potential through shares and comments. If somebody clicks on your AdWords ad and doesn't convert, then it's over plain and simple. Overall I think that Facebook Ads are slightly under-priced in terms of value they can bring to your business while Google AdWords are overpriced for many industries.
Best B2B Influencer Marketing Tactic
An effective method for utilizing B2B influencer marketing is to simply reach out for interviews. It doesn't take long to compile the email addresses of decision-makers and send out an email blast requesting interviews on a wide range of topics. After sending out emails, LinkedIn InMail messages, and submitting requests through contact forms on their websites, I've usually found at least a 25% response rate and at least a 15% reply rate with full interview answers. It's not much different than the process of offering guest blog posts or putting together an expert roundup. It is a win-win situation for your website to get valuable unique content from a B2B influencer while they receive additional exposure and backlinks to their websites.
How To Best Grow Organic Traffic
The most effective way to continuously grow organic traffic has been accepting unique guest blog posts from a wide variety of contributors. It provides our network of websites with fresh content daily and builds backlinks organically as readers and companies alike take notice. Our guest blog posts have increased our organic search traffic by 200-300% or more over the last year alone.
You can turn down articles that don't really fit your brand, but I encourage you to keep an open mind. Some of the guest blog posts that I was unsure of and didn't expect to do very well have become top traffic generators, bringing in tens of thousands of readers and the revenue generating opportunities that come along with that traffic. Just make sure that the article being submitted has not been previously published and does not contain links to spammy websites. If you're lucky like I've been, multiple social media influencers will contribute to your blog and drive significant traffic to your website through their growing audience.
Email Marketing: Plain-Text vs HTML
On a large scale I'd certainly go with HTML because of the value you'll get from rich media. It makes your business look more professional and legitimate. It allows for greater possibilities with headers, GIFs, videos, and infographics just to name a few. Just make sure you are also offering a plain-text version along with the HTML option.
On a very small scale though plain text emails can work well. I do reach out to individuals or small groups (10-100) through plain text emails with my company Outlook email address or personal Gmail, because there is a lower chance of my content being received in their Promotional, Other, Clutter, or Spam folders. And without HTML media there are less distractions.
Google Plus Or Minus?
A lot of people roll their eyes or even laugh when I mention still using Google Plus daily for social media marketing and SEO purposes. Obviously it never materialized into the top social media platform that it hoped to be when it started out in 2011. But that doesn't mean it still isn't worth utilizing. In fact I wrote an in-depth article about why Google+ is still worth using, even if for just minor benefits.
There are countless other debates in the digital marketing world. Only time will tell which platforms and strategies will win!
Now Read: Digital Marketing = The Future Of Advertising
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