The days of the Yellow Pages and billboard advertising are long gone. Sure, you can still purchase those ads – but is that really the best way to spend your limited resources?

The simple answer is no.

With traditional marketing, it’s nearly impossible to track your investment. Instead, 21st-century organizations should focus their marketing budget on digital marketing and concentrate their efforts on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing).

Before we dive into which one is best for your organization, let’s talk about what these terms actually mean.

SEO is a long-term marketing strategy that involves optimizing your website through backlinks and keywords (i.e. words birth mothers use to search) with the goal of rising to the top of a Google Search. While achieving SEO success will not happen overnight, it is a powerful tool that will help drive relevant visitors to your site.

SEM, on the other hand, is a short-term marketing strategy involving a PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaign. It works quickly, brings in a substantial amount of traffic and your investment is completely trackable. It also gives you the liberty of tailoring your ad to reach a highly specific demographic, like expectant birth moms.

One thing to consider about SEM is that it needs to be managed weekly in order to achieve the best results. When running a PPC campaign, it’s important to:

• Know your competition in your targeted area.
• Know their monthly budget
• Know the words they are using.

So where should your digital marketing investment go? Organic SEO or paid SEM?

The answer is – BOTH! SEO and SEM are two sides of the same coin. One side requires time and effort, the other requires money, dedication, and digit marketing savvy. To achieve maximum visibility among your target audience, you’ll need to create a digital marketing strategy that incorporates both.