There are multiple optimization paradigms we talk about in the SEO arena. Search engine optimization is at the top of the list. We also talk about conversion optimization. Have you ever heard of marketing optimization? If not, don’t worry. Marketing optimization is a more recent concept just beginning to take hold.
This post will discuss exactly what it is. It will also relate marketing optimization to user experience (UX). By the time you finish reading, you should understand why the two are so important to winning the digital marketing game. Suffice it to say that digital marketing has long since eclipsed mere SEO. Now, you can get more IG video views.
SEO Is Still Important
Before getting into marketing optimization it is imperative to understand that it is not a substitute for SEO. Furthermore, SEO is still important. SEO’s underlying principle is to work with a given set of tools in order to improve a website’s search engine ranking. The better a site ranks, the more traffic it tends to get. And traffic equals opportunities to convert.
The truth of SEO demonstrates why marketing optimization is so important. A company like Salt Lake City’s WebTek Interactive can do all the right things and push all the right buttons to get customers to your website. They can work their magic to ensure that your website always ranks on the first page of SERPs for the most valuable keywords in your industry. But what happens when visitors click on a link and actually end up on your website? Click here for more information.
Suddenly, conversion optimization is in play. The more you know about conversion optimization, the more you understand how much it relies on visitors having a positive experience. What we know as user experience (UX) is the single biggest factor in bridging the gap between a casual visit and a successful conversion.
Marketing Optimization to the Rescue
Digital marketers deploy proven marketing tactics to convert casual visitors to buyers. This selection of tactics, combined with a variety of marketing tools, constitutes marketing optimization. Like SEO, the goal of marketing optimization is to generate more. In this case, it is more buyers rather than more visitors.
Smart Insights Gabrielle Wright put together an excellent piece on marketing optimization in early September 2020. She cited numerous studies that outline how U.S. businesses typically approach online marketing. At the core of her article is the fundamental fact that successful digital marketing is ongoing. Wright referred to “always on” marketing activities that were continuously employed to increase conversions.
Her piece was filled with lots of helpful data, including a few suggestions for optimizing marketing strategies to account for UX. Let us look at two of them.
1. Tracking with Google Analytics
Google analytics is arguably the digital marketer’s best friend. Its built-in tools give digital marketers insights into four key areas:
- Audience – The actual people visiting a website
- Acquisition – How those people got to the website
- Behavior – What they did while on the site
- Conversion – How many of them were converted from visitor to buyer.
Google analytics can be particularly helpful to marketing optimization when you pay attention to the behavior and conversion metrics. Behavior is the more important of the two because it explains the customer journey. In other words, how did a user get from being a casual visitor to a paying customer?
2. Mapping the Customer Journey
Google Analytics offers something else digital marketers should find useful: seven different models of attribution. What is attribution? It is nothing more than attributing a variety of factors to various steps in the customer journey.
You can learn about Google’s seven attribution models by brushing up on your Google Analytics skills. The point is this: attribution helps marketers better understand the user experience by tracking what users do on a site. The better the experience, the more attribution will demonstrate it. Ultimately, a better experience leads to better conversion. Check merphal.com.
In Summary
The main points to remember about marketing optimization begin with the understanding that it is the key to higher conversion rates. Marketing optimization utilizes various strategies and tools in order to get more visitors to buy. It is intrinsically connected to user experience inasmuch as positive experiences lend themselves well to conversion optimization.
If you are into SEO, understand that it is only half the equation. SEO drives traffic. That’s great. But marketing optimization turns that traffic into paying customers.
