Digital Marketing Tactics: SEO, Programmatic Ads & CRO
SEO On-Page vs Off-Page
SEO on-page and SEO off-page. SEO on-page refers to all the optimizations that are done inside a website to improve its position in search engine results. This includes creating high-quality and relevant content, using keywords properly in titles, headings, URLs, and meta descriptions, optimizing images, improving page speed, ensuring mobile friendliness, and maintaining good internal linking and site structure. The objective of SEO on-page is to help search engines understand the content of the page and to provide a better user experience.
SEO off-page refers to all the actions taken outside the website to improve its authority and credibility. The most important factor in SEO off-page is backlinks, which are links from other websites pointing to your site. Search engines consider these links as votes of trust. Off-page SEO focuses on link building, brand mentions, and external signals that increase domain authority and trust.
Programmatic Advertising
Programmatic advertising. Is a method of buying and selling digital advertising space automatically using software and algorithms instead of manual negotiations. It allows advertisers to purchase ad impressions in real time, often through real-time bidding (RTB). When a user visits a website, an auction takes place in milliseconds where advertisers bid to show their ad to that specific user, based on data such as demographics, interests, behavior, or location. The winning ad is displayed instantly.
Programmatic advertising improves efficiency, precision, and scalability, allowing highly targeted campaigns and better use of budgets. However, it also requires careful control to avoid brand safety issues or low-quality placements.
Paid Search Advertising — Pros and Cons
Advantages and disadvantages of paid search advertising. Paid search advertising consists of showing ads in search engine results based on specific keywords, such as Google Ads.
Advantages
- Paid search provides immediate visibility and traffic, which is especially useful at the beginning of a project or during high-demand periods.
- It aligns closely with user intent, since ads appear when users actively search for a solution, leading to higher conversion rates.
- Paid search is highly measurable, controllable, and scalable.
Disadvantages
- Traffic stops as soon as investment stops, making it dependent on budget.
- Competition can increase costs per click, especially in saturated markets.
- Long-term reliance on paid search without organic strategies can limit sustainable growth.
Inbound and Outbound Marketing
Inbound marketing and outbound marketing. Inbound marketing is a customer-centric and pull-based approach. It attracts users by creating valuable and relevant content that they actively search for or choose to consume, such as blog posts, ebooks, SEO content, or email nurturing. Inbound marketing focuses on long-term results, personalization, and relationship building by helping users throughout their decision-making process.
Outbound marketing is a brand-centric and push-based approach. It delivers messages to users who did not explicitly request them, using channels such as display advertising, TV commercials, cold calls, or paid social ads.
Outbound marketing usually generates faster visibility and short-term results, but with lower personalization and a more interruptive nature. For a property marketing campaign, both approaches should be combined. Inbound marketing is ideal for nurturing leads who are researching properties by providing guides, market insights, and virtual tours. Outbound marketing is useful to increase visibility quickly, promote specific properties, or support launches through paid ads targeting location and intent.
Inbound Flywheel and KPIs
Inbound Flywheel and its phases. The Inbound Flywheel is a model that represents growth as a continuous loop rather than a linear funnel. It is based on the idea that satisfied customers can drive new growth by promoting the brand. The three phases are Attract, Engage, and Delight.
In the Attract phase, companies bring the right audience by offering valuable content and solutions to their problems. In the Engage phase, they build relationships through personalized communication and conversion tools. In the Delight phase, the focus is on customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy. The flywheel emphasizes that customers are not the end of the process but the engine of growth.
KPI and why it is important. KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is a metric that shows how effectively a company is achieving its objectives. A good KPI helps decision-making and drives action. KPIs are important because not all metrics are useful. Tracking irrelevant numbers can lead to confusion or “ego-data.” KPIs focus attention on what really matters for business performance. For example, conversion rate is more valuable than page views for an e-commerce business because it directly reflects effectiveness in turning visitors into customers.
Sales Funnel vs Buyer Journey
Difference between the sales funnel and the buyer journey. The sales funnel is a company-centric, collective representation of how users move from awareness to conversion and loyalty. It focuses on stages such as traffic acquisition, lead nurturing, conversion, and retention, and is measured using conversion rates. The buyer journey is user-centric and individual. It describes the active research process a person goes through before making a purchase decision. It includes three stages: Awareness, Consideration, and Decision.
While the funnel focuses on business performance, the buyer journey focuses on understanding user needs, questions, and motivations at each stage.
Content Marketing: Benefits and Limits
Content marketing: focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a clearly defined audience with the objective of driving profitable customer action.
Advantages
- Supports long-term and sustainable growth: well-created content can continue generating traffic, leads, and brand awareness over time, especially when combined with SEO.
- Builds trust and credibility by educating users instead of interrupting them with advertising.
- Improves brand authority and customer relationships while often reducing acquisition costs in the long run.
Disadvantages
- Results are not immediate. It requires time, consistency, and planning before delivering visible outcomes.
- Demands ongoing effort and resources, including content creation, optimization, and distribution.
- Without a clear strategy and measurement, content may fail to generate conversions or business impact.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) is the process of improving a website or digital experience to increase the percentage of users who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase, adding a product to the cart, or signing up for a newsletter. CRO is especially important for an e-commerce website because acquiring traffic through paid media, SEO, or social networks can be costly. By optimizing conversion, companies maximize the value of existing visitors without increasing acquisition costs. Small improvements in conversion rate can generate significant increases in revenue.
CRO relies on data analysis, hypothesis formulation, and experimentation, such as A/B testing, to identify and validate improvements. This makes CRO a systematic, data-driven approach that reduces risk and improves user experience while increasing sales and profitability.
Programmatic Advertising (Additional Notes)
Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of digital advertising space using software and algorithms instead of manual negotiations. It often operates through real-time bidding (RTB), where advertisers bid on ad impressions in milliseconds when a user visits a website. Programmatic advertising is useful for brands because it allows precise audience targeting, efficiency, and scalability. Brands can show ads to the right user at the right moment, based on data such as behavior, interests, or location.
It also optimizes budgets by purchasing impressions automatically and measuring performance in real time. However, it requires proper control to avoid brand safety and transparency issues.
SEO Keywords: Short-Tail vs Long-Tail
SEO short-tail vs long-tail keywords and when to use each one. Short-tail keywords are broad and generic search terms, usually composed of one or two words, such as “skincare” or “running shoes.” They typically have high search volume but strong competition and unclear user intent. Short-tail keywords are mainly used to increase visibility and brand awareness.
Long-tail keywords are more specific and longer search queries, usually three words or more, such as “post-workout skincare for men” or “best running shoes for flat feet.” They have lower search volume but higher conversion rates because they reflect clearer user intent. An effective SEO strategy uses both. Short-tail keywords are useful at the top of the funnel to generate traffic, while long-tail keywords are better for capturing qualified users closer to conversion.
Paid Social Media Advertising
Paid social media advertising. Allows brands to promote content and products through platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok using advanced targeting options.
Advantages
- Precise audience targeting based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and location.
- Highly scalable, flexible, and effective for brand awareness, engagement, and retargeting.
- Allows creative formats such as video, stories, and carousels.
Disadvantages
- Can have lower purchase intent compared to paid search, as users are not actively searching for a product.
- Ad fatigue and increasing competition can reduce performance over time.
- Results depend strongly on creative quality and continuous optimization.
CRM and Workflows
A CRM (Customer Relationship Management system). is a tool used to store, manage, and analyze customer and lead data in a centralized way. It contains information such as contact details, interactions, purchase history, and lifecycle stages. A CRM helps align marketing and sales by creating a shared view of the customer. Marketing can qualify and nurture leads, while sales can focus on those that are sales-ready. By defining common criteria such as lead status and handoff rules, both teams work toward the same goals, improving efficiency, communication, and conversion rates.
A workflow. is an automated sequence of marketing actions triggered by specific user behaviors or characteristics. It allows companies to send the right message at the right time without manual intervention. Workflows typically include triggers, actions, delays, and conditional branches. For example, a cart abandonment workflow is triggered when a user adds products to the cart but does not complete the purchase. The system automatically sends a reminder email after a delay, followed by a discount email if no purchase occurs. This improves conversion while saving time and resources.
Lead Magnets
A lead magnet. Is a valuable piece of content offered in exchange for user data, usually an email address. Common lead magnets include guides, ebooks, checklists, or webinars. In inbound marketing, lead magnets are used to attract and qualify leads by offering helpful content that solves a user’s problem. Once the user provides their data, the brand can nurture the lead through personalized email campaigns and guide them through the buyer journey. Lead magnets are typically used in the TOFU or MOFU stages to build databases and support long-term relationships.
Transactional vs Informational Keywords
Difference between transactional and informational keywords. Informational keywords reflect learning intent. Users search for these keywords when they want to understand a topic or solve a problem, such as “how to reduce skin redness after exercise.” These keywords are usually used in early stages of the buyer journey.
Transactional keywords reflect buying intent. Users searching for terms like “buy skincare for men” or “best price running shoes” are closer to making a purchase. Transactional keywords typically have lower search volume but higher conversion rates. An effective SEO strategy uses both types to match user intent across the funnel.