Social media marketing

Some experts argue that social media marketing is a branch of content marketing, while others maintain it’s a world of its own. Whichever category you place it in, social media marketing is one of the most crucial types of marketing. In fact, 50% of consumers are more interested in a brand when they see Instagram ads for it.

This valuable marketing strategy involves promoting your brand via social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn or YouTube.

Many companies use a combination of these different platforms as part of their social media marketing strategy. Your choice of platforms largely depends on where your target audience is most active and how you want to represent your business. For example, restaurant social media marketing is particularly effective on Instagram because the platform is based on visuals. Posting pictures and videos of tasty-looking food is an extremely effective way for restaurants to market their products.

06. Search engine marketing

Search engine marketing, also known as SEM, includes all marketing that uses Google and other search engines as the primary tool for displaying promotional material. The goal of SEM your business pages appearing on search engine results pages (SERPs). When a page from your website—let’s say, a landing page or blog post—shows up in search engine results in response to a user’s search query, the user is exposed to your business. Ideally, they’ll click the result and navigate to your site.

Search engine marketing can be divided into two main types: search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click advertising (PPC). The main difference between the two is that SEO is organic (not paid), while PPC involves purchasing ads.

To start doing SEO, you’ll need to learn about the different ingredients that make websites rank in search engines. This includes technical aspects, like the structure and page speed of your website, as well as the implementation of keywords. Content marketing and SEO are deeply intertwined, since the more keyword-rich your blog and website content, the better your chances of ranking on the SERP.

The other type of search engine marketing, PPC, can be done in parallel with your SEO efforts. PPC ads are the sponsored content you see at the top of search results pages. If you’re interested in paying for sponsored results on Google, try Google Ads. This is one of the most popular, reliable choices for PPC marketers.

07. Organic marketing

You’ve already seen this term mentioned in our discussion of search engine optimization. This, together with content and social media marketing, comprises a powerful type of marketing known as organic marketing.

Organic marketing is any non-paid marketing that aims to naturally (organically) attract people to your business. It involves implementing the best practices to get search engines and social media platforms to display your posts in a prominent position. This contrasts from promoting your business “artificially” via paid links or boosted posts.

This method is the cornerstone of inbound marketing since it’s based on the principle that creating engaging social media content and strong, SEO-driven website copy will bring exposure to your business and magnetically drive customers toward your brand.

In general, audiences consider organic marketing less intrusive than advertising, since it focuses on nurturing prospective customers and drawing them to your business over time.

08. Advertising

That brings us to the next type of promotional strategy: advertising. Advertising is a branch of marketing that uses ad campaigns to present your brand, product, service or idea to the world.

There are many ways to advertise, including online methods, such as PPC ads and social media ads, as well as more traditional methods like TV, radio, billboard ads and QR codes.

As with social media marketing, choosing the right advertising platforms means accounting for your target audience’s demographics and interests, as well as how to present your messaging. Instagram ads, for example, tend to reach younger users but will be largely unseen by older audiences who are less engaged with the platform.

Facebook Ads by Wix allows you to run AI driven campaigns directly from your website dashboard to reach the most likely to convert audiences.