How Enterprise SEO Can Maximize Traditional Marketing ROI

Today’s marketing strategies center on digital content, and because audiences across demographics rely so heavily on online engagement, that focus has merit.

However, enterprise brands and organizations that really want to stand apart from the rest must also recognize the important role that traditional marketing still plays.

With that in mind, one of the most important questions an enterprise company can ask is, “where do digital and traditional marketing meet, and how can one boost the other?”

We Live in a Multi-Device, Multi-Screen World

The answer lies in how consumers interact with traditional media such as television commercials or radio ads.

Today, 71% of people who are watching TV use a second screen, such as a phone or tablet, to look up information about what they are watching on TV.

That connection shows a real relationship between the consumer, traditional media, and online marketing potential, especially as it relates to search engine optimization (SEO).

Traditional marketing efforts are often one-sided – typically audience members can’t interact directly with a billboard or a television show.

They can, however, use the information they’ve gained from that interaction and use it to drive a search online.

When traditional marketing and SEO strategies are intertwined, the customer’s journey becomes a robust experience that carries your brand from one part of the funnel to the next.

Enterprise organizations can leverage this journey to bolster traditional and digital marketing efforts, improve brand recognition, connect and strengthen the consumer experience, and ultimately drive ROI.

Why Does Traditional Marketing Still Matter for Enterprise?

Digital platforms and our dependence on them have moved traditional marketing – radio, TV, billboard, and print – out of the spotlight, but that does not mean those channels lack potential.

Instead, traditional marketing channels can add significant value on their own or combined with other marketing initiatives.

Here are a few reasons why:

Content Commands Attention

Few engagement opportunities cultivate undivided attention. Though traditional channels may not consistently win in the battle for focus, they do create an environment where the audience is less likely to become just another bounce metric.

Today, 41% of adults regularly read one or two magazines, and 120.6 million homes have TVs.

These formats, along with billboards and radio, command attention. You can change the channel, but that isn’t as simple as scrolling past a paid search result on social media or in Google search results.

Further, today’s marketing experts work to create ad spots that seamlessly bleed right into radio, TV, or print content.

A pasta brand ad in a cooking or home magazine, for instance, may take on the appearance of engaging content rather than an intrusive ad.

Similarly, a radio ad script may seem like an organic review from a trusted host.

Either way, today’s traditional media efforts can often maintain audience focus while giving the brand uninterrupted attention.

Traditional Marketing Leads to Familiarization

Brand awareness plays a significant role in the success of any marketing effort, and traditional marketing provides enterprise organizations the opportunity to make direct and indirect impressions on an audience.

Brand familiarity can take place at different speeds.

In some cases, a truly memorable commercial will lead to instant brand awareness that may even carry out into social streams or video-sharing platforms.

In other cases, ongoing exposure to a particular ad spot or series of ad spots can also lead to brand awareness, even if the audience member isn’t fully engaged.

Familiarity can and frequently does impact our buying decisions, whether it’s early in the funnel or at the very moment we’re deciding which product to purchase or service provider to choose.

Staying Power

Many of us spend a significant amount of time wrapped up in digital communications. But that doesn’t mean we don’t occasionally put the phone down and turn to less pervasive means of entertainment.

Though statistics can change based on demographics, many of us still spend time watching TV, listening to radio shows or podcasts, and flipping through a newspaper or magazine.

And though dependence on those traditional channels may ebb and flow, it is unlikely those channels will become obsolete any time soon.

Traditional SEO Is Only One Part of a Comprehensive Enterprise SEO Strategy

The term “enterprise” can carry several meanings or connotations, particularly when discussed within a marketing and SEO strategy.

For our purposes, enterprise often refers to the size or scale of a website or business.

Enterprise websites may have complex site structures with hundreds and hundreds (if not thousands) of pages.

An enterprise website may also refer to a website that may be rather small but still manages millions of visits each day.

Finally, the term “enterprise” may also be used to refer to large businesses or organizations.

As you may imagine, each of those enterprise scenarios creates a unique set of marketing needs.

A basic SEO approach may be enough to help a small business grow, but those same strategies may not be as beneficial for enterprise websites and organizations that have more complex needs.

Enterprise SEO goes beyond common strategies to create a holistic approach that includes and influences cross-departmental decisions encompassing sales, branding, digital marketing, print marketing, web development, and user experience.

Few one-size-fits-all business strategies consistently breed success, and that’s true of your SEO and marketing efforts.

Larger companies or businesses that maintain high-traffic websites face unique challenges that simply cannot be addressed using a basic, single-vision approach to SEO.

Enterprise SEO experts recognize these challenges and can help companies deal with issues and concerns or, in some cases, avoid them altogether.

This is particularly true as it relates to the following concerns:

• Legacy issues: Complex legacy tech stacks, inconsistent platform alterations, CMS changes, URL restructuring, and poorly maintained content can decrease the effectiveness of new and existing SEO initiatives.
• Poor content quality: Gone are the days when any keyword-driven content would suffice. Outdated, thin, or duplicate content can cause ongoing site reputation damage in the eyes of site visitors as well as search engines.
• Crawlability and indexability: Search engines determine credibility and quality in several ways, including crawling and indexing. When a website has thousands of pages that aren’t optimized and aligned with marketing goals, new, valuable content can get lost, ranking can slip, and it can even increase business server costs.
• Conflicting corporate environments: Every enterprise company wants to make money, but not all departments and decision-makers agree on how to get there. Any marketing expert will tell you that SEO is frequently the backbone to success, but metrics aren’t always cut and dry. Without the support of Enterprise SEO, it can be challenging to create bring together various organizational arms to create a unified approach.
• Scalability: Smaller companies enjoy the freedom to make page-by-page updates, carry out testing, or tweak their SEO strategy as they see fit. That isn’t always the same for larger companies. Creating a scalable enterprise SEO strategy can make it easier to accommodate changing demands without causing irreparable damage.

Why Enterprise SEO Must Play a Leading Role in Traditional Marketing

Marketing can occasionally breed uncertainty, but two things are consistently true:

1. Traditional marketing channels are not going away.
2. SEO remains a driving force across multiple marketing channels.

If you want to maximize your traditional marketing ROI, you need to bolster it with a strong enterprise SEO presence. Doing so can help consumers move through the funnel without unnecessary interruptions.

When you combine traditional marketing with enterprise SEO, you can expect the following.