Hello and welcome to episode of Golpik Talks. In today’s episode, we are going to interview a really special guest and a person who has been in the industry for more than 15 years. He has served top companies, and is currently CEO of Noup Corporation. A proud Digital Marketer with profound success stories. With immense pleasure and gratitude, we would like to welcome David Williams to our Blog.
Golpik: David, thank you for taking out time for Golpik. Is my digital strategy aligned with my overall marketing strategy?
DAVID: Aligning your digital strategy with your overall marketing strategy may seem obvious but what this alignment might deliver is clearly underrated. We consider this merge as a crucial factor for driving growth. That’s why we always execute our digital strategy with its corresponding equivalent.
Golpik: How long does SEO take?
DAVID: This is actually the first question that comes to mind when we think of SEO. It’s no surprise that almost all of our clients want to get some kind of guarantee. However, the concept of a guarantee is not that simple when it comes to SEO. In fact, I recommend staying away from so-called SEO experts who promise you spectacular results in a very short span of time. Most probably they’re going to try ranking your website higher with very questionable spammy work which cannot be undone and might cause irreversible penalties. Even so, once it actually happens even the best quality SEO work might not be enough to recover your rankings.
Obviously, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. I can definitely say that SEO requires lots of hard work, persistence, and consistency. Results depend on a lot of factors, like who your target audience is, how competitive your market is, how long your website has been around, how much budget you have, your target keywords, how much content you have and most importantly your expectations. That being said it’s not likely that you’re going to see the results right away.
If I have to give a rough estimate, I think it’s safe to say that you shouldn’t be expecting to see significant progress in the first six months if your website is a new one. However, if the website you’re dealing with is up for a while with no previous penalties and especially if no prior SEO work is done, it’s very likely that you’ll notice an improvement in your rankings and search traffic.
Golpik: How should I start a social media campaign for my business?
DAVID: Hate to break it to you but start with a plan, define your business motives and align your social media strategy with your goals. Of course, this is followed by defining your target audience and creating personas for your business. Relying on data collection is very important at this phase. You should always execute your strategy based on your research to understand the key elements and building your case. I strongly suggest building your strategy around the platforms that best suit your business. You might be eager to try everything at once but if this is not going to be consistent and sustainable, you might want to hold off for starters. Try one or two platforms at first and scale your strategy after a couple of months. Once you set a stable schedule and engagement rate for your preferred platforms, feel free to jump into new platforms to test the waters.
If you don’t know where to start, try stalking your competitors for a while 🙂 That’s right. It’s not cheating. It is just something that will definitely give you a better idea of possible actions you can take. I know you might be thinking “Oh I have to be unique and do something my competitors have never done before” but honestly you don’t have to. This doesn’t mean that you should copy everything that your competitors are doing without trying anything new. So what I mean to say is, start small at the beginning. As long as you’re committed and willing to add value you should be just fine. Last but not least, don’t ever assume that your audience is going to be on let’s say Instagram or on another platform. Do your research and act accordingly.
Golpik: What’s the difference between organic rankings and AdWords?
DAVID: The main difference is with Adwords there is some kind of certainty that your ad is going to show up in the sponsored search results. Basically, with SEO you can’t be sure of when your website is going to be displayed in the search results. Another way of saying it is you have a switch in your hands when you’re using AdWords, that is not the case for SEO.
Relevancy also stands out when we consider the differences between organic results and paid ones. Google strives to provide the most relevant results with SEO. That being said you need long term commitment with SEO to transform your website into something worthy of ranking higher, yet with AdWords basically you need a budget and that is all it takes alongside basic keyword and Adwords knowledge.
Golpik: Lastly, how much time will need to be invested each month to help my digital marketing efforts or improve my Google rankings?
DAVID: The answer is as always: depends 🙂 It depends on the size of your business, whether you’re a B2B or B2C, your marketing goals in the long run, which digital marketing channels you’re using, etc. This isn’t the question we should be worrying about anyway. You could spend hours on your digital marketing and still get nowhere. The important thing here is to have a solid strategy. Once you have that you can figure out how much time to spend and how to use that time effectively.
First things first, be realistic and make sure you have attainable goals. Ultimately you want to see results and get to the point of achieving your end goals. Remember that the number of hours spent isn’t the only factor that defines your success. As you gain more experience, you’ll be able to set the exact amount of time you need to spend on your digital marketing efforts.
Obviously, how much time you should be spending also aligns with your marketing budget. You should be testing and measuring the results within your allocated budget and determine if your efforts are paying off. That’s how you’ll know how much time you need to invest to improve your online presence.
