No man (‘SEO campaign’) is an island

Image Credit:  Â© Ahmed Amir

The holistic approach.

The whole being greater than the sum of the parts.

However you want to phrase it, it is important to understand that to have a successful SEO campaign you need to ensure that SEO is not compartmentalised into its own silo without any interaction with your other media channels.

Instead engage with all departments and in some cases other agencies to share ideas. This can make sure both your online and offline messaging tells the same story and that the customer journey is seamless.

Also by understanding what is happening within your other media channels you can spot efficiencies and opportunities to grow not just your channel but the other channels as well.

Cross-channel pollination

You can use audience data gathered from various sources to help inform the direction of a campaign – PPC data is one of the biggest forms of this type of information. But also if you find your Display banners are being clicked on within related content on other sites, maybe consider having similar content on your site. If people are interested in your brand around that topic, then get your site ranking for it in both the Natural and Paid listing.

A good example of where offline and online can complement each other is PR. By using your offline press releases in an online environment you can not only increase awareness around the topic of the press release by getting it into Google News and out into the news networks, but also the equity you will get back to your site from these authority sites will also benefit you SEO campaign.

It’s not just one way either. By understanding what language your potential customers are using online, by incorporating them into your offline message you will be communicating with your audience in their language. For example is it ‘life assurance’ of ‘life insurance’ you use in your TV ad?

Are there opportunities within your affiliate network to engage in a more detailed level with your target audience? These are just some ideas and questions that can be thrown round the room to spark discussion to help develop your marketing.

Compare the meerkat/market

Both offline and online media channels can influence your SEO campaign. Look at the ‘Compare the Meerkat’ campaign and how awareness has grown both online and offline for ‘Compare the Market.

Taken from Google Trends you can see the increase in brand mentions for both sites increase at the same time:

As well as over all traffic to the domain:

And of course awareness online tends to come in the form of links. Even if they aren’t all pointing to the main site, I’m sure that the once the campaign is over they will be redirecting the comparethemeerkat.com domain – I’m sure they will…!

This cross-channel communication needs to be reviewed whenever you are launching a new campaign, changing your branding or whenever you feel you need a brand refresh. Don’t let it be a once a year event, integrate into your marketing campaign.