SEM and SEO Trump Social Media Marketing

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

A new study reveals that even though 66% of marketers are using social media marketing and viral video more, they are still seeing better results from traditional Internet marketing and search engine optimization strategies that have been tried and tested over time, including:

Search engine marketing (SEM) (65%)

Own website (59%)

Search engine optimization (SEO) (55%)

E-mail marketing (45%)

This should come as no surprise to those in the industry. It may surprise you if you don’t do this everyday. But search engine marketing and search engine optimization (on your own website) are the two most effective online marketing channels and always have been. E-mail marketing is a close third and it lags behind mostly because so much of it is spammy noise now. But if you get the right list, the moon’s the target.

Social media marketing has its benefits. Viral video too. But there are really no successful metrics that can tell marketers where their most effective touch points are. Until someone comes up with a way to measure ROI through social media, it will only be a phantom in a cloud. The bright side is that phantoms can close sales. But if you’re looking for best practices and best results, stick to SEM and SEO.