Small business owners often and managers tend to think that Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is not a viable marketing method for them. They would instead not expand their marketing efforts onto the web as they think it’s a waste of resources. However, with the right ad placements and targeting for your business, search engine marketing can do so much for you. It’s undoubtedly a practical and useful way for small and local businesses to reach their target audience.
In a nutshell, search engine marketing is a type of internet marketing that involves the promotion of businesses’ websites by increasing their exposure to search engines through paid advertising.
Gain Exposure
One of the primary missions of advertising is to give your business exposure. Advertisements are placed on billboards on major highways, malls, public transportation – places where a lot of people will see them. On the world wide web, search engines are the heavily-trafficked places online that can give your business the exposure it needs.
Is your small business operating in a specific local area? Is that area as precise as something like a 20-mile radius around an address? SEM modules allow for business advertisements to only show up in areas that a business operates in.
Community Visibility
Like what we mentioned above, SEM platforms can let your advertisements show up in specific areas that you serve. Contrary to what most people believe, SEM is not only for a natural scale; it also works excellently for businesses wanting to reach local customers who are searching for products and services online.
No Need For Design Work
Many small business owners are not familiar with what a business search engine ad looks like. If you have limited design resources, Setting up SEM ads is not complicated – primarily if you have limited design resources; you don’t need to make use of graphics, images, or other branded design elements. All you need are words. Granted, you need creative, compelling, and attention-grabbing words to make up for not having visuals, but on the plus side, design work is not a necessity.
Save Money
Small businesses often don’t have a huge marketing budget. Utilizing SEM is a worthwhile and cost-effective investment to get your company listed across internet search pages. SEM is somewhat similar to the original Yellow Pages book. However, in Yellow Pages, you pay a fixed ad rate whether you receive calls from potential customers or not. With SEM, you only pay when a potential customer clicks on your business search engine ad and is transferred directly to your website. This concept is called Pay-Per-Click advertising, which we will further discuss in a future post.
Helpful Insights
SEM offers ad campaign tracking and monitoring so you can see what ads brought in website clicks and phone calls. This feature will help you gain useful insight into your target market so you can create more effective advertisements in the future.
Advertising Tips
A huge factor behind the success of paid search ads of SEM is targeting. Search engine ads are based off well-researched keywords, audience demographics, and niche markets. While keyword phrases and demographics get your ads visible, it’s the ad copy or the content of the advertisement itself that compels people to avail of your products and services.
Here are some tips for writing good ad copies for business search engine marketing campaigns.
Numbers and Special Characters
Eye-catching and visually compelling, numbers and special characters break up the monotony of texts. Numbers can also more effectively convey helpful information such as low prices, specific time frames, business ratings, and exclusive deals and offers that are relevant to your advertisement. “A+,” “50%,” “#1,” or “2-day turnaround” are some excellent examples of numbers and special characters expertly written in ad copies.
Features and Benefits
It will be helpful to share unique features of your business that set your business apart, and your services stand out. Perhaps you offer free shipping, free consultation, home delivery, custom packages, or extended hours. Align these features with the benefits you provide to customers, such as money-back guarantees, warranties, conveniences, and improvements in their life. Whatever they may be, make sure to include features of your business and the benefits you can provide customers in your ad copy.
Call-to-Action
The Call-to-Action tells readers exactly what they need to do to get the features, offers, and benefits you provide. Phrases such as “Call for a free consultation,” “Order today,” or “Save 20%” are useful Calls-to-Action.