SEO is a term that is thrown around.
Often it is used as a catch all term for any and all online marketing, other times it has been used to refer specifically to any marketing activities that take place on a website, and other times it has been described as the golden ticket for maxing out your online sales.
None of these statements are true.
SEO, or ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ refers to optimising the content on a website to improve the website’s position in search engine results.
Ultimately SEO is just one element of online marketing so hyper focusing on SEO is not the best decision to make if you are looking to improve your online marketing, and your general marketing, as a whole.
So just what are the other elements of online marketing? Let’s take a look!
Content Marketing
Content marketing is arguably one of the easiest elements to get your teeth into.
Content marketing is creating content for your website visitors/customers. Content that is engaging and interesting to your website visitors and ultimate customers.
This content can be in many forms, including but not limited to…
If you are looking to focus on your content marketing, take a step back and look at the current content on your website as a whole. Consider…
- the customer’s journey throughout your site
- where the gaps in the content are
- any questions that customers may have about your products/services
- and what is useful for your customers to see before, during and after their purchase.
Most of the time, the content writes itself. The problem with content marketing often appears in the…
- time needed to create the content
- the management of the content created to ensure that it is organised and easy to find
- and in maintaining the company voice and branding throughout
The best recommendation for content marketing is to create a mix of evergreen and seasonal content that is relevant for your target audience. Whilst it’s good to create some content ad hoc in response to news stories and trends, a content plan will help keep any content created manageable, on track, and targeted.
And yes, there is some overlap in content marketing and SEO, use of relevant keywords and phrases should naturally find itself in the content created.
Paid Marketing
Both SEO and paid marketing drives traffic to your website. Whilst SEO takes time to build up, paid marketing such as paid ads is an instant hit of traffic to your website.
Balancing the long term wins of SEO with the short term wins of paid ads is a worthwhile investment.
Paid ads is not limited to just Google PPC (Pay Per Click), it can also include paid ads on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Different audiences will respond better to different paid ads on different platforms so ensure that you are doing your research and selecting the right one for your ideal customer base.
The irony being that you will gain more wins with your paid ads when you have a strong content marketing and SEO strategies in place due to how many paid ads platforms adjust your bid price based on how they score your site.
Social Media Marketing
Social media is a great place to reach out to customers and potential customers.
There are millions of social media users across several social media platforms so with a little research you will very easily find the best platform for your business to use.
Social media marketing usually focuses on…
- Improving/increasing brand awareness
- Building communities
- Promoting/selling your products/services
- Sharing information to your customers and potential customers
- Driving traffic to your website (or indeed any other platform relevant to your business)
The key with any social media marketing strategy is to keep it flexible.
News stories, trends, memes and even your interactions with customers can influence your next social media story, post, or reel. Having a plan is great, but ensuring that there is leeway so you can respond quickly as and when needed is better.
Social media marketing ties in well with content marketing, after all content marketing will give you a huge bank of content that can be shared on social media.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is often a forgotten element of online marketing and an element of online marketing that businesses are most fearful of.
Most of this is due to the belief that maintaining an email list is complex due to regulations such as GDPR. But it doesn’t need to be.
Using an email platform such as MailChimp (there are many to choose from) ensures that you are keeping your mailing lists secure, allows for easier maintenance, deals with much of the GDPR regulations for you, and allows you to create your emails with relative ease.
The key to having confidence with your email marketing is to…
- Accept that you will start with a small mailing list, that doesn’t mean that it is not worth the effort as we all have to start somewhere
- Spend the time getting a firm overview of regulations such as GDPR so you know where the lines are drawn, it’s really not as bad as you may think
- Have a specific company policy around how emails are captured and stored, whether that information is obtained and sent straight to your chosen email platform (such as with a contact form integration) or whether the emails are kept in a specific secure place before being manually uploaded
Email marketing campaigns can be used to share specific information to the individuals on your mailing list, whether that information is a salesy or an indirect sales email. These types of emails are usually to those who subscribe to your mailing list.
They can also be simple (and automated) ‘you left something in your basket’ email that help to prompt a customer into completing their purchase.
A truly great email marketing campaign takes into consideration each individual person on your email list. By this we mean…
- whether they are a past, current or prospective customer/client
- any interests or demographic details that might be relevant to your interaction with them, such as their age and location
- and even where they are in the customer lifecycle
Being able to tag each email address with the relevant details will enable you to segment your mailing lists to send more personal and engaging emails. Personable and engaging emails will naturally be more interesting to the individual who receives your email and result in a better response.
As with social media marketing, email marketing also ties in well with content marketing. All the content created provides you with a huge bank of content that can be repurposed within email templates, allowing you to focus on as much detail as you wish.
Learn more about how to get the most out of your email marketing campaigns here.
Reputation
The last, but arguably the most important marketing tool, that completes your online marketing plans is your reputation.
Curating your reputation is key.
This happens at all touch points and interactions that a customer has with your business both offline and online. Including but not limited to…
- That first impression
- Any marketing material that they consume
- Their experience with your products/services
- And any communication that they receive from your business, by a person or by an AI bot as often happens nowadays
It all builds a picture of your business and allows an individual to decide whether they wish to actually do business with you. So ensure that you maintain your brand voice and focus on delivering great customer experience every single time.
The picture generated also helps the individual to decide whether they leave your business/service/product a positive or negative review.
Those positive/negative reviews may be the make or break point in whether the next customer who comes your way chooses to engage with your business or not.
From an online marketing point of view, those positive/negative reviews also impact the value that search engines place on your website. So getting positive reviews left by customers is key to a positive online marketing strategy.
Whilst encouraging reviews to be left by customers should be a part of your marketing strategy, it is also important to manage the reviews that have been left. Easy when they are positive reviews, slightly harder should you gain a negative review – make sure you check out our blog post on how to handle positive and negative reviews left here as the management of reviews is a topic in itself.
Unfortunately it is not just reviews left on platforms such as Google or Trust Pilot that can have an impact. It is also reviews left in other online areas such as within an individual’s social media post, in forum discussions, and in reviews left or shared offline.
With time it is possible to find the vast majority of online mentions of your business/service/product, offline it is almost impossible so the best thing for it is to simply do your best to give everyone who interacts with your business the best possible experience.
Sounds easy, but building this into your online marketing strategy and plans allows you to consider the full range of interactions an individual may have with your business. Looking at each touch point and considering what you want to happen, and what needs to change or be improved to ensure that what you want to happen happens every single time.
Your Focus
Your online marketing focus should take into consideration all of the elements mentioned in this blog, weaving them together to benefit your business in the best way.
The composition of these marketing elements that make up your online marketing plans can vary week to week, month to month, and even year to year. Nothing is ever fixed when it comes to online marketing so ensure that you review, plan, action, and then review again.
Should you need help or advice with any element of your online marketing strategy or plans, simply get in touch with the team here at Digital Nachos. We are always interested in the bigger picture to help you achieve your business goals.
Published: 10th Jun 2026