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The Ultimate Guide To SCO In Digital Marketing

SCO discipline in digital marketing has three meanings: search channel optimisation, social channel optimisation, and sale cycle optimisation. Each meaning has different roles and impacts on your digital marketing strategies. The social search channel is focused on optimising digital channels. It can be utilised for keyword optimisation, content optimisation, and off-page and on-page SEO. Social channel optimisation is more on social media platforms and can be utilised through social media profiles, keywords and hashtags, and infographics. The sale cycle optimisation focuses on optimised content that secures deals and can be utilised by referencing the buyer’s journey, identifying sales cycle bottlenecks, and equipping the sales team.

Clients and digital marketers are more familiar with SEO or search engine optimisation, but only a few are aware of the SCO. SCO has three different meanings: search channel optimisation, social channel optimisation, and sale cycle optimisation. Each definition has unique functions and applications, but all of them are valuable in digital marketing. Similar to SEO, SCO helps boost ranking and generate leads.

 

This article will further dissect the applications and benefits of each SCO definition.


What Is SCO in Digital Marketing?

Like SEO, SCO specialises in the optimisation of your content on the internet using keywords. There are three types of SCO: search channel optimisation, social channel optimisation, and sale cycle optimisation.

 

Search channel optimisation optimises the search channels to improve website visibility.

 

On the other hand, social channel optimisation optimises social media content.

 

Sale cycle optimisation provides unique and relevant website content to reach each customer in different areas of the sales funnel .

 

The following section will further discuss the differences between the three in digital marketing.

 

The 3 Types Of SCO

The Three Types Of SCO

 

1. Search Channel Optimisation

Top Search Engine In The Desktop Market July 2022

 

Digital marketers use multiple channels, such as social media, organic searchers, paid searches, and search engines for digital marketing. You can categorise these channels into two: paid and organic.

 

SEO services in Singapore focus on boosting ranks and generating traffic in organic searches, whereas SCO improves the website visibility using all these digital channels. Clients post their organic and paid content on leading search engines, including Google, Bing, and Yahoo!.

 

  • Paid channels

 

These are online channels clients pay to promote their content to help reach more people and garner more attention. Clients are charged per click when users click onto the ad. Hence the name pay-per-click (PPC) marketing. Usually, paid content indicates that they are inorganic by having the ‘Ad’ icon. The picture below shows paid content, which might have been utilised by SCO on the Google platform.

 

An Ad icon appears before the paid content link

  • Organic channels

 

Organic channels are free channels where the client can post high-quality content to reach the audience and generate leads by paying. However, the challenge with organic channels is making the content rank high on search engine results pages (SERPs). Unlike paid content which automatically tops the search SERPs when bid pricing is optimised, organic content takes a long time to achieve higher rankings. 

 

In addition, search engines read and analyse the credibility, reliability, relevance, and originality of the content. High-quality content ranks higher than low-quality content. An SEO agency in Singapore can help optimise web content for SEO effectively.

 

The picture below shows the organic content with the highest ranking at featured snippet (position zero) on SERP.

 

A featured snippet at the position zero on SERP

 

Strategies For Search Channel Optimisation

 

The strategies for search channel optimisation or SCO in digital marketing are almost similar to SEO. The strategies include:

 

  • Keyword optimisation

 

The SCO and SEO consultant in Singapore conduct keyword research to identify targeted keywords that will drive traffic to the website and increase the site’s visibility. Targeted keywords with high search volume and low competition are one of the key strategies in keyword optimisation.

 

Check out the article If you are interested to learn about the detailed strategy for the Keyword Research Guide, and to Identify The Right Keywords To Optimise Your Digital Marketing Campaigns.

 

  • Content marketing

 

Content marketing is a marketing strategy that focuses on the consistent creation of high-quality, relevant, and attractive content in different mediums for multiple channels. 

 

  • On-page SEO

 

On-page SEO refers to the optimisation of website elements you can control, such as content keyword density, alt texts, meta descriptions, speed, images, and so on.

 

  • Off-page SEO

 

As opposed to on-page, off-page refers to the optimisation elements outside your website, including link building or garnering hyperlinks that generate leads from other websites to yours. Anchor text is the clickable text in content that will direct online traffic from another website to yours.

 

You can use these SCO techniques in digital marketing.

 

ALSO READ: The Difference Between On-Page And Off-Page SEO: An In-Depth Guide

 

Benefits of Search Channel Optimisation

 

  • Increased visibility

 

If SEO mostly relies on organic search results, SCO benefits from both paid and organic searches to boost the SERP rankings. Combining the benefits of SCO and SEO will result in online presence dominance.

 

  • Increased credibility

 

Due to the increase in traffic and interaction with the audience and high-quality content published on the website, search engines identify the websites as credible. A credible website has more competitive advantages than ordinary websites in terms of rankings.

 

  • Increased conversion rates

 

When the website is user-friendly due to on-page optimisation, it is likely to skyrocket customer experience. Excellent shopping experience encourages clients to make a purchase, ergo increasing the conversion rates.

 

In addition to the increased conversion rates, on-page SEO tactics also reduce bounce rates or the number of people abandoning the website. Interlinked pages in the content encourage the audience to check out the website’s other pages, making them stay longer and eventually could influence the website visitor to purchase a product or service.

 

2. Social Channel Optimisation

 

Social channel optimisation streamlines website content for social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, making the website more visible on these platforms, connecting to the audience, and generating more traffic.

 

LEARN MORE: SEO vs SCO: What Are The Differences?

 

Strategies For Social Channel Optimisation

 

  • Completing social media profile

The About page of the Facebook profile of OOm Pte Ltd

 

Social media platforms have a profile where the account admin can fill in crucial information, such as the nature of service or product, contact information, and other social media handles as well as your website to drive social traffic to your page.

 

People find social media accounts with complete profiles credible. They can also contact the business immediately.

 

  • Use keywords, hashtags, and high-quality infographics

 

Twitter Topic

 

An SEO company in Singapore also utilises keywords and hashtags to increase the visibility of the social media content or post. For example, this Twitter post made it to the Twitter topic Books for tweeting relevant content to the topic and including relevant  keywords that were recognised by Twitter’s algorithm.

 

Hashtags, on the other hand, help the content gain more exposure.

 

High-quality infographics are more attractive, shareable, and easier to understand than plain texts. Infographics influence the audience’s decision-making better. Complex topics broken down and converted into easy-to-digest visual elements make it more understandable for the audience. Therefore, the business can communicate with its target people more effectively. 

 

  • Drive traffic to the website

 

With the exposure to the audience courtesy of utilising keywords and hashtags, resharing website content on social media is an effective way to drive traffic to the website.

 

Social media users can click on the posted links and blog articles that will direct them to the website, thus driving the traffic.

 

ALSO READ: A Guide To Making Creative Infographics For Your Blog

 

Benefits of Social Channel Optimisation

 

  • Social Media Engagement

 

Many people respond on social media platforms more than on other channels. They can comment, share, and react to the content and the business can respond as well. These interactions increase brand awareness, loyalty and subscription, and help build brand communities among the followers and social media users.

 

  • Visibility

 

There are millions of social media platform users globally which all belong to different niches or communities. For example, social media niches and communities related to sports are followed by millions of sports fans. Targeting these specific niches and communities, whether groups for pet lovers or backpackers, will help increase social media visibility.

 

  • Market insight

 

Businesses can easily see the trends, behaviour, or things people are looking for or fond of on social media. They can apply these insights to their business strategies and marketing plans to improve their conversion rates, engagement with the followers, and so on.

 

3. Sale Cycle Optimisation

 

Sale cycle optimisation helps the brand communicate with the audience effectively by increasing the touch points in the sales funnel. These touch points influence the decision-making of each customer in many different areas of the sales funnel. The content may aim to boost brand retention and awareness, address concerns, and eventually persuade people to make a purchase.

 

The sale cycle optimisation is optimising unique content inside and outside your website relevant to the buyer’s journey, from awareness to inquiry down to purchase, similar to street signages. Each content will lead them down to the sale.

 

Strategies for Sale Cycle Optimisation

 

  • Understanding the buyer’s journey

 

Customers go through several stages before making a purchase. The business must determine the factors that impact the customer’s decision-making in each stage.

 

  • Identifying the bottlenecks

 

Now that you have gone through the buyer’s journey, it is time to identify the bottlenecks or the point where there is downtime in closing a deal in the sale cycle.

 

  • Identify the persona

 

The persona is the brand’s online personality that speaks with the customer. Businesses should identify their persona by understanding the perspective and behaviour of their prospective buyers. The brand then will create a persona aligned with the general group of buyer’s personality to improve their interaction with the buyer, enhance customer experience, gain customer loyalty, and eventually build brand community.

 

Benefits of Sales Channel Optimisation

 

  • Increased conversion rates

 

Businesses are likely to close more deals when the sale cycle is optimised. 

 

Firstly, the brand can reach the customer at different points and platforms. It results in better brand retention.

 

Secondly, the brand has the chance to convert the customer at any different points of the sales funnel at any digital channel.

 

Lastly, it maintains a connection and relationship with the customer through content on any digital platforms, such as blogs, social media postings, email newsletters, and so on.

 

  • Efficiency

 

Having a guide to the buyer’s journey makes it easier for the sales team to determine which prospects should be prioritised. Customer segmentation is a process of separating customers according to their behaviour, purchasing power, demographics, and more.

 

Through this process, the brand can identify which people are in different sales funnel stages. Generally, the brand will prioritise those at the conversion stage whilst ramping up the marketing campaign for people in the consideration stage.

 

  • Gain insights of your leads

 

By determining the bottlenecks in the sale cycle, you can understand why prospects abandon their deals, such as security concerns or complicated checkout processes.

 

Removing these bottlenecks improves customer service and experience, and eventually increases conversion rates.

 

These are only a few of many sale cycle optimisation SCO benefits.


Conclusion

 

What is the SCO that works the best for you? SCO in full form is extremely helpful in digital marketing. Each SCO has a unique function, application, and benefits in different aspects of digital marketing. But it is never a waste to invest in all three.

 

To know which SCO works best for your business, check out this list of benefits that the three types of SCO can give you:

 

  • Search channel optimisation – helps improve the visibility of the website on search engines through organic and paid searches.

 

  • Social channel optimisation – ramps up brand visibility on social media and drives social media traffic to the website.

 

  • Sales channel optimisation – boosts all kinds of marketing campaigns on any platform at any point of the sales funnel.

 

OOm Singapore is a leading SEO company in Singapore. To learn more about SEO and SCO, visit OOm Singapore.