Is email dead? With the rise of social media, instant messaging, and other forms of online communication, you might think so.
But the truth is that email is far from dead. In fact, McKinsey & Company reports that it is 40 times more effective at acquiring customers than Facebook and Twitter combined.“That’s because 91 percent of all US consumers still use email daily, and the rate at which emails prompt purchases is not only estimated to be at least three times that of social media, but the average order value is also 17 percent higher,” the report says. Still, writing effective marketing emails can be difficult, especially if it’s a cold email.
In this article, we’ll go over what a cold email is, the benefits and challenges of cold emailing, different types of cold emails, how to write cold emails that convert cold leads into warm leads, and more.
Let’s get started!
A cold email is an unsolicited email sent to someone you have no prior connection with (aka a cold lead). It’s basically the email equivalent of cold calling.
Cold emails are most often sent to potential customers or someone with whom you want to build a business relationship and add to your network. However, if not done correctly, they can easily end up in the spam folder, reducing their effectiveness.
It’s important to note, however, that cold emails are different from spam. Unlike spam emails that are sent indiscriminately, cold emails are sent to qualified leads only. In addition, cold emails are personalized and not just a carbon copy of an email sent to many recipients.
Some of the main benefits of cold emailing are that it’s something you can do for free, it’s completely in your control, and it’s easy to scale.
The biggest challenge of cold emailing is that it’s hard to do well. According to a study of 12 million cold emails conducted by Backlinko, the vast majority of cold emails are ignored. The average response rate for cold emails is 8.5%, which means if you sent out 100 cold emails, only 8 or 9 of them would get a reply.
That said, when done right, cold emails can have a huge ROI. Depending on what kind of product or service you are pitching, a successful cold email campaign has the potential to generate thousands of dollars in revenue.
Cold emails can serve different ends. Some common ones include:
When it comes to actually crafting an effective cold email, follow these steps:
If the subject line doesn’t grab the recipient’s attention, it won’t matter how good the rest of the email body is because they won’t see it. So, you’ve got to nail the subject line.
To do this, make it short and sweet, personal, and interesting. You might ask a question, include an emoji, or use numbers (e.g., “How I earned $9,781 in one day").
The point is to grab your recipient’s attention, so they don’t overlook your email. Just make sure that your subject line isn’t clickbait. It must actually relate to what’s inside the email.
This is an easy step to forget, but it’s an important one. You want to tell the recipient why you are reaching out to them specifically as opposed to anyone else. People are more likely to respond when they feel uniquely qualified to help. Say you’re emailing a fintech executive. By telling them upfront that you’re interested in networking with an experienced fintech executive, they may be more likely to oblige.
Give the reader a reason to listen to you. This is an excellent opportunity to list off some of your credentials, past accolades, and experience. If you can work in some social proof by mentioning past clients or partners you’ve worked with, do it. The point is to validate yourself so that the reader is more likely to take you seriously. If you don’t yet have much credibility, find something you share in common instead. For example, you could point out that you and your reader both enjoy rock climbing (this takes some research, obviously). The rarer the commonality, the better.
As humans, we work much harder to avoid pain than to gain pleasure. You can use this to your advantage. Research what’s bothering or hurting your reader and tap into that. Perhaps they’re a workaholic struggling to find a healthy work-life balance.
Acknowledge that making time for family, hobbies, and relaxation can be difficult. This will help your message resonate more with your readers and they will be more inclined to read on.
Don’t bring up your reader’s pain points without pointing them to a solution. Ideally, the solution is your product or service. This is the whole point of the cold outreach campaign, after all. So be specific about what you have to offer and how it can add value to your recipient.
For example, you might have a software scheduling tool that can eliminate the administrative burden of making appointments. Try to quantify your solution by saying how much time or money it could save your prospect.
Every cold email needs a compelling CTA. This is how you lead your readers to do whatever you want them to do, whether that’s booking a consultation, requesting a free audit, or placing an order.
You want to make it as easy as possible for them to take the next step. Leaving them confused about what to do next is missing a huge opportunity.
Your email signature consists of the information below your name. Most email providers let you create one that automatically sends with each message.
A nice email signature can reaffirm your credibility by showing your title, the company you work for, and a logo. It can also make it easier to reach out to you by including your phone number, address, and alternate email.
At the end of the day, crafting effective email outreach campaigns is an art. It takes practice and a lot of trial and error. However, there are some tried-and-true principles that can help make your cold emails stand out. Here they are:
Hopefully, you now feel more confident about sending cold emails. If you still need help, Marketer.co is here for you. Our marketing experts have years of experience in crafting powerful cold emails that generate lots of leads. Work with us to take your business’s marketing to the next level.
Feel free to contact us today for a free consultation. We look forward to learning more about your marketing needs and seeing how we can help.
While there may be many methods for generating leads organically, there are some circumstances when buying leads can be a quick and efficient alternative to scaling your marketing efforts.
Nonetheless, not all lead sellers and lead providers are created equal, and with the extensive range of options existing, it can be challenging to decide who or what to contact for support.
The LinkedIn platform is even more effective as a tool for generating leads thanks to the LinkedIn Sales Navigator service.
Given how successful LinkedIn is right now, this is a major improvement. You have a wide range of search criteria at your disposal when using Sales Navigator to look for leads. These criteria include things like the job title, the sector, the location, and other elements.
Also, you have the option to save leads and accounts so that you can keep tabs on their happenings and see how involved these accounts are with your company. You have access to this function if you decide to save leads and accounts.
If you are serious about producing sales leads for your organization, advancing in Sales Navigator will more than pay for itself despite being relatively costly.
UpLead is a platform for generating leads in the cloud with many different features. Real-time email verification, lead enrichment, and interfaces with common customer relationship management (CRM) systems are a few of these features.
With UpLead, you may look for leads based on a number of aspects, like the job title, the size of the company, and the geography.
The application also provides users with a Google Chrome add-on that enables them to look up possible leads while browsing the web. You can download this add-on from the system's website.
With the help of the website visitor tracking tool Leadfeeder, you can determine which businesses have visited your website even if they haven't submitted a form or gotten in touch with you. Because Leadfeeder is a visitor tracking system, this is possible. This is now possible thanks to Leadfeeder, which lets you identify the companies that have visited your website.
By using Leadfeeder, you can learn which pages the company viewed, how long they spent on your website, and what search terms they entered into the search field to discover you.
It is also simple to convert website visits into leads thanks to the platform's collaboration with widely used customer relationship management (CRM) solutions like Salesforce and HubSpot. This gives it an edge over rival platforms.
A business-focused database called ZoomInfo gives its users access to millions of organizations and connections that are spread out around the globe. You can use ZoomInfo to find leads by using a range of criteria, including the job title, the industry, and the location. To guarantee that the business leads you get are current and accurate, the platform also offers a wide range of services, like lead enrichment and email verification.
The business-to-business (B2B) sales and marketing intelligence platform from DiscoverOrg offers customers access to a variety of data about businesses and contacts throughout the world. You can use DiscoverOrg to look for relevant leads based on factors like job title, industry, and location. The platform provides capabilities for account-based digital marketing and lead enrichment, which can be used to locate and interact with clients that are the best fit for your business.
With the use of the website visitor monitoring application LeadForensics, you can track down companies that have visited your website even if they haven't submitted a form or gotten in touch with you. You may find out which pages on your website the business visited, how long they spent there, and what search terms they used to discover you. It is simple to turn website visits into qualified leads thanks to the platform's interaction with widely used customer relationship management (CRM) solutions like Salesforce and HubSpot.
A platform for generating leads for B2B companies called LeadGenius gives them admission to a network of more than 500,000 researchers and data scientists. You may use LeadGenius to find leads based on factors like industry, geography, and job title. Also, you can screen leads depending on the size of the business, income, and other factors. LeadGenius uses a mixture of artificial intelligence and human researchers to collect data, resulting in leads that are surely focused and well-targeted.
A platform for B2B lead development, D&B Hoovers gives users access to more than 120 million company contacts globally. Users of the portal can look for leads using a variation of criteria, including industry, business size, job title, and more. Users can also sort leads based on criteria like revenue, employee count, and others. The in-depth information on each company, including financial data, corporate history, and news stories, is one of the main advantages of using D&B Hoovers and is useful when contacting potential customers.
Data.com is a well-liked option for finding potential clients because it has a large database of company contacts. To preserve accuracy, the database is frequently updated with new information. In order to assist consumers in finding fresh leads pertinent to their target market, Data.com also offers a lead-generating service.
With over 30 million records in its contact database, Salesfully is a lead supplier. Users can utilize the website's filters to focus on certain industry sectors, job functions, and geographical regions. Email verification, corporate information, and lead commendations based on user preferences are among the other services offered by Salesfully. One benefit of Salesfully is its pay-as-you-go pricing structure, which enables users to buy business leads that they actually need for their organization.
Another lead supplier with access to a contact database with more than 10 million records is AeroLeads. The website offers a number of filters that visitors can use to focus on particular industry sectors, job functions, and geographical regions. In addition, AeroLeads delivers lead recommendations based on user preferences, company information, and email authentication. Users may find and save leads more easily when cruising the web with the help of a browser plugin.
One of the significant benefits of using Lead411 is its flexible pay-as-you-go pricing model, making it an excellent option for organizations that don't need a large number of leads. This pricing model permits businesses to control their lead generation costs and only pay for the leads they need, without any long-term commitments or contracts. Lead411 also offers a range of integrations with popular CRM and marketing automation tools, making it easy for businesses to import their leads and start using them right away. Additionally, the platform is user-friendly and intuitive, making it easy for businesses of all sizes to use and benefit from.
To sum up, generating high-quality leads might be difficult, but these top five lead-buying locations give businesses the instruments and materials they need to speed up the procedure. Every platform, from Hushly to LinkedIn Sales Navigator, has distinct advantages that are personalized to a particular business kinds. Because of the many pricing options, businesses may select a lead generation program that fits their budget while still generating high-quality leads to help them grow and expand.
There are many factors to consider while looking for a lead provider. Some of the most important factors to think about are listed below:
The most important consideration when choosing a lead supplier is the quality of the leads. Excellent leads have a higher chance of becoming clients, so it's critical to pick a source that provides accurate and current leads. When purchasing leads, look for a vendor who has a track record of delivering high-quality leads, and make sure the leads are established and authenticated.
Depending on the provider, the cost of leads can vary significantly. It's key to picking a supplier who charges fairly for high-quality leads. Be sure the cost is reasonable given the caliber of the leads you will acquire by comparing the prices of various sources.
Filters A lead generation tool would be incomplete without filters. The greater your chances are of discovering leads that fit your target demographic, the more filters a supplier offers. In order to target particular industries, job titles, regions, and more, look for a supplier who provides a wide selection of filters.
When choosing a provider to buy sales leads, customer support should be a top consideration.. No matter if it's a technical problem or a query concerning the leads, you want to be confident that you can get assistance when you need it. Choose a supplier who provides responsive customer service, including phone and email support.
Data security is essential when buying leads. Be sure the vendor you select takes general data protection regulation seriously and adheres to industry standards. Choose a supplier who is open about their data protection practices and has a solid track record of keeping client information safe.
Finally, when deciding to buy leads online, it’s critical to consider the supplier’s ratings and reputation. To learn about the supplier's advantages and disadvantages, read user reviews. Take into account the supplier's standing in the market and history of producing leads of the highest caliber.
To sum up, there are numerous locations where you may buy leads for your company, but not all vendors are created equal. It's crucial to take into account aspects like lead quality, price, filters, support, data protection, and reviews when choosing a lead supplier. You can ensure that you get leads of the highest caliber to aid in the expansion of your company by taking the time to select the ideal supplier.
In the sphere of search engine optimization (SEO), duplicate content looms as a notorious adversary that has the potential to cause grave harm to your website's rankings.
Whenever search engines come across numerous pages with indistinguishable or remarkably analogous content, it may prove to be a Herculean task for them to ascertain which page deserves to be ranked higher in the search results.
The result? Your website could be afflicted with reduced visibility, diminished traffic, and an attenuated ability to allure and retain potential customers.
In this dissertation, we shall delve into what duplicate content is, how it impacts your search engine rankings, and what you can do to obviate it from pulling down your website's visibility.
Duplicate content, in essence, refers to any content that appears in multiple places on the internet. This could encompass textual matter, images, videos, or any other type of content that is replicated across several web pages. Duplicate content can manifest on the same website or across distinct domains. Duplicate content can be categorized into two fundamental types: internal and external.
Internal duplicate content refers to pages within the same website that contain identical or very similar content. External duplicate content, on the flip side, occurs when the same content is published on different websites.
For instance, if you possess two pages on your website with indistinguishable content, that would be classified as internal duplicate content. If you publish an article on your blog and then republish it on another website, that would be categorized as external duplicate content.
Duplicate content can exert a momentous impact on your website's search engine rankings. When search engines stumble upon several pages with identical or very similar content, they may encounter considerable difficulty in determining which page merits being ranked higher in the search results.
This can culminate in a cornucopia of negative consequences for your website, including:
Preventing duplicate content is crucial to preserving a robust online presence and circumventing the negative consequences we've discussed. Here are some tips for forestalling duplicate content issues on your website:
Duplicate content can be a pernicious adversary to your website's search engine rankings, visibility, and overall online presence. To avoid these deleterious consequences, it's indispensable to create unique, top-quality content, use canonical tags, consolidate analogous pages, set up 301 redirects, use meta robots tags, dodge duplicate content on e-commerce websites, and monitor your website for duplicate content issues.
By adhering to these measures, you can help ensure that your website is well-optimized for search engines, providing a positive user experience, and drawing in potential customers to your business. Remember, high-quality content is the crux of a flourishing online presence, and expending the time and effort to craft unparalleled, valuable content will aid in guaranteeing that your website is well-regarded by search engines and users alike.
Lots of digital marketers openly proclaim that search engine optimization (SEO) is the best marketing strategy for most businesses.
But what makes a marketing strategy the best? Obviously, that question is subjective. However one of the most common ways to evaluate the quality or effectiveness of a marketing strategy is to measure SEO ROI– its return on investment.
In other words, we want to know whether a strategy makes more money for a business than it costs them to keep the strategy going. If you spend $10 on ads, do you get at least $10 back?
The higher the ROI, the more valuable a marketing strategy is – at least, by this metric.
So what is the ROI for an average SEO campaign?
How do you calculate SEO ROI?
And does this justify investing in the strategy?
ROI is important because it's one of the most effective tools for ballparking the true value of the digital marketing strategy.
We can't simply look at performance, because this doesn't take cost into consideration. For example, let's say a new marketing strategy brings you $5 million of new revenue, but it costs you $6 million to plan and execute; even though this strategy brought in lots of money, it's still technically a net loss.
If the ROI of a marketing strategy is positive, we can consider it a sound investment. We can also use relative ROI to compare different marketing strategies and determine which, among them, is most worthy of our investment dollars.
Ultimately, ROI calculation serves many purposes at once:
So what do we expect, on average, from an SEO campaign? The expected ROI of SEO is going to vary depending on what, exactly, you’re measuring and who’s doing the calculating. Marketing strategies, in general, are considered a great success if you have a 500 percent ROI – in other words, getting back $5 for every $1 you spend. ROI for an SEO campaign could be as high as 1,220 percent – or even higher – but if the campaign is mismanaged, you could come up negative. Generally, we expect the ROI for any SEO campaign to be roughly positive. In other words, you should make back all the money you spent on SEO, assuming you already have a profitable business in place. As for the degree of positive ROI you see, that depends on many variables, such as:
It’s also important to realize that SEO is a long-term strategy. Over time, you'll accumulate more on site content, you'll build more links, and you'll generate more authority and trustworthiness for your domains. The more you invest, the more powerful you'll grow, and the easier it will be for you to get new pages to rank. The early days of SEO are usually difficult because you won't see any immediate progress from your first round of SEO efforts. Because of this effect, the ROI for an SEO strategy is usually low, or even negative, in the first couple of months. By the time you've spent a few months practicing this strategy, you should be consistently positive. After a few years, you should see much better, more positive results.
To gauge the performance of your campaign, and evaluate whether your spending is “worth it,” you’ll need to calculate marketing ROI for your own efforts.
The most basic method to calculate SEO ROI is very simple. You simply need to compare the revenue this strategy has generated with the money you've spent on it.
In practice, any effort to calculate SEO ROI can get complicated fast.
Let's start by looking at what you spend on SEO. If you want your calculation to be as accurate as possible, you'll need to incorporate all your expenses.
That includes whatever you're paying for SEO agency services and SEO contractors, as well as the salaries of internal SEO personnel and the true costs of any time you spend managing your campaigns.
On-site optimization, content development, link building, and analytics all have individual costs that need to be accounted for.
Once you calculate SEO ROI for a given period, you can estimate how much of a return you're getting from your organic search.
There are a few different approaches you could take here, but it's easiest to start by looking at the behavioral patterns of your organic traffic.
Organic traffic to your website is generated exclusively by organic search engine results pages (SERPs), so it's an excellent way to look at the people coming to your website because they discovered you through search.
First, regularly monitor and check your Google Analytics dashboard.
How many organic visitors are you generating? What is your conversion rate for these visitors? And what is your customer lifetime value (CLV) among these customers?
As a simple example, let's say you generate 10,000 organic visitors per month with a conversion rate of 2 percent. That means your organic traffic is leading your business to win 200 new customers each month. If each customer has a lifetime value of $1,000, this represents $200,000 of returns. Even if you're spending $10,000 a month on SEO, this spending is clearly worth it.
There are other variables you should look at as well, including the difference between new visitors and repeat visitors and the value of each individual conversion. But these guidelines should lead you to a fairly accurate estimate when you look to calculate SEO ROI.
Now that we know how to calculate ROI, what steps can we take to maximize it for your SEO campaign? These are some of the best ways to get the greatest possible return out of your SEO investment:
It's hard to give a blanket statement about whether SEO is worth or if your SEO ROI is truly positive, since there are so many different variables to consider and so many different scenarios that could unfold.
More difficult still is even understanding how to properly measure SEO ROI in the first place! It's nebulous and much more difficult to track, especially given the flux and volatility of SEO over the last several years.
However, the average business benefits enormously from SEO, seeing a positive SEO ROI that more than justifies the initial investment and SEO efforts. If you're curious to learn more about how SEO could benefit your business, or if you're ready to start a full campaign, contact us for a free consultation today!
Over the past decade, social media has become seriously involved in the way brands engage with customers and users. Last year (2012) there was a huge shift in the general attitude towards social media: big brands began using social media much more than just as a tool to promote their products, independent business owners started using social media campaigns to engage their users, banks and product-selling companies broke the ice to use social media as a customer support system besides figuring out how to use it to collect reviews and surveys too.
Social media is a grand part of our lives. Billions of people use Facebook and Twitter (combined). The networks are so important today that even Google tries to capture social signals in ranking your webpages. As a webmaster, and an SEO ROI expert, if there’s one thing that you can’t miss in your cocktail, it’s social media marketing.
But does that mean you just post links and share interesting things on your social media platforms? Unfortunately, many websites assume just this and go about posting and sharing links to things they find interesting. Yet, there’s no “engagement,” no “likes,” no “retweets,” no “click-throughs” and basically not much of anything else either. Why?
You’ve probably heard this a million times before, but social media efforts is about three things, predominantly.
1. Content
2. Timing
3. Engagement
What you share – interesting or not, in the generic sense – is not exactly the reason why people don’t click, don’t share, don’t retweet; or in short, don’t engage. I’ve seen pages with followers in the mere hundreds engage voraciously and pages with thousands of followers remain relatively obscure. And they both share content that’s generally interesting. The reason?
The rules of content on social media are pretty much similar to the ones in a marketing copy.
Bit.ly (the URL shortening service that runs prominently on several social channels) posted about the best times to share content on social media. It’s one of the most important lessons you can apply to maximize your social media marketing efforts.
Time is relative so the sane way of interpreting this is to take into account the time zones of your followers and figure out the most common time zone. And the following doesn’t apply to “breaking news” kinds, obviously.
But it doesn’t end there. This is just a base template for you to start working on. Remember that the trends of social media tools are rapidly evolving. With mobile devices in tow, people spend more time on Twitter and Facebook in the dead zones too (after 4pm, after 8pm etc.)
Run a test on Twitter for a week. Share links every 3 hours. Figure out the results from social media analytics. Then, you’ll have an idea of what generates the highest clicks and when so you can calculate social media ROI, later on.
But of course, the hardest part of social media marketing campaigns is engagement.
Most social profiles of websites and brands that I see do very little to engage with their audiences, followers, and other social media team leaders in their niche. This is exactly the opposite of how you should use social media strategy.
Engagement is (broken down into the most basic ‘actionable’ steps you can take right away):
Like everything you do, social media marketing strategies aren't really worthwhile if you’re not tracking the progress. Is your strategy generating enough engagement? More followers? More fans? More shares/retweets? What time is your target audience engaging the most? How’s your traffic from your own social channels?
There are a ton of things you can and should test when it comes to social media campaign. After all, you’re putting a lot of time into it (or should be!).
The best way to go forward is to analyze where you are and figure out where you want to go from here. Take up one goal at a time on one specific channel (Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest etc.). And then run the tests. Find out what works best and repeat the process with refinements till you’ve perfected one particular mode that maximizes your efforts and achieve social media ROI.
When it comes to social media success, your focus should be on the content that you share, as well as social media engagement. If it’s performed in a high-quality manner and done naturally and genuinely, you’ll see quicker results. Don’t spam. Don’t overdo it.
Optimize every step by measuring social media ROI and selecting the ones that are best suited.
Tracking social media has become extremely useful, especially for those who want to build brand reputation and ROI from their social media marketing initiative. Social channels directly link to traffic, following, and engagement, so measuring them can assist your business in a variety of ways.
Social media is an important part of the equation that brings traffic and target audience following, resulting in the growth of brands. From the largest brands to the smallest startups, social media has been used and continues to be used strategically for a variety of purposes. Though I haven’t found a great social media analytics software yet, brands and startups that do social media marketing have a clear need and desire to measure their ROI meticulously.
A social media infographic that surfaced about a year ago reveals what marketers look for in social media analytic tools:
All that data comes from people who measure social media metrics. Clearly, they regard social media analytics as important. But why?
I’ll try to answer that and explain ways in which social media analytics can be simplified so it’s highly effective.
About a year ago, social media was used for marketing and ad campaigns, but it wasn’t very easy to determine ROI. One reason was that social campaigns were unlike traditional online campaigns, such as banner ads or squeeze page promotions.
In the latter, you would track every click, total the conversions, and calculate the ROI; but with the former, this isn’t possible. A user might look at your social ad/campaign and not click at all — but make a purchase directly some weeks later. Your social campaign might get shared and retweeted but it may not convert into something tangible.
Furthermore, there was no way to measure these metrics to figure out whether your social media marketing was doing any good. This was one of the reasons General Motors pulled its Facebook campaign before plunging back into conventional fan pages and traditional media engagement.
If it’s a link, you measure the clicks. If it’s an ad, you measure the impressions. If it’s a video, you measure the views. If it’s a blog post, you measure comments and traffic.
But if it’s social media, what do you measure? Likes, shares, favorites, retweets, comments, replies, mentions, subscriptions, Diggs, upvotes… perhaps the length and variety of this list stumps the average marketer or business owner who’s trying to figure out ROI from their social media platforms marketing efforts.
Let’s go back to the infographic again:
Traffic numbers, growth of followers, quantity of interaction, quality of interaction — let’s assume these are the four basic things to track (although there are many more, like demography, gender, age group, time of day, etc.).In order to get the best out of every social campaign, you need to know what to measure. To determine this, you need to understand the purpose of running the social media marketing campaign. As is the case, the end goals dictate the measurement metric.
Some brands need to measure more metrics. A brand like Dove would want to measure the number of women who have clicked through a socially shared link. A brand like Apple might want to measure the peak time of shares and the traffic it generates say, during a product launch.
It all boils down to intention: the ultimate goal you want to achieve corresponds to the metric to be measured.
It should be evident that likes, retweets, and shares don’t occupy an important metric goal because they are not of direct consequence here. For a small business, measuring the number of likes, shares, or retweets is pointless if none of it generates traffic/following/interaction/revenue or any other goal you have set for your social campaigns.
Furthermore, social is not just Facebook and Twitter; intensely passionate social media marketers know that an enormous source of traffic lies beyond these important social hubs. These include Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Delicious, and more.
Every effort you put in, especially toward marketing, should be planned and calculated.
Let’s say you take up guest blogging as a strategy to drive traffic to your website. As you go along with your guest blogging strategy, how do you identify the publishers that drive good traffic? How do you focus only on the ones that are effective?
All of that comes from analytics: you set up tools like Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools to figure out which ones are really good traffic sources and realign your marketing efforts to focus on those websites.
It’s the same with social media strategy, too.
At a time when social media marketing has become enormously important, it’s even more critical to measure the social media performance you run.
Put differently, that which we measure can be improved because we know what we are looking at!
Even if something is difficult to measure (e.g. SEO ROI), it's still worth the time and effort to try to apply a baseline measurement against it.
This is the big question: how do you measure the ROI of social media campaigns? Tracking social metrics was hard in the past, but with some really amazing tools these days, it has become easy while retaining sophistication, with a ton of features.
For instance, here’s a list of tools that help in a complete and thorough social media analytics:
Google Analytics Social (http://www.google.com/analytics/features/social.html)In most campaigns, this should be more than enough. Most of us measure traffic through multiple social media channels. Google identifies and tracks over 400 social channels, so this tool gets most of the social media data for you. With specific funnels/filters, you can track advanced metrics like conversions and the corresponding value of the traffic that funnels in through social websites.
Brandify (http://brandify.com/) This tool focuses on brand management through social channels. It’s used by some of the industry’s bigwigs. It’s all about social media analytics reports; Brandify monitors the social media activity around your brand (website) and helps you manage and enhance through recommendations. And it’s free.Awe.sm (http://totally.awe.sm/) Arguably the best tool designed to collect complete data about shares. Comes with a free trial.
RowFeeder (https://rowfeeder.com/) is Powerful social analytics that’s built for advanced users and brands that want to track a lot of things.
Engagor (http://engagor.com/) is Yet another powerful social media metric tool that brings complete control over your social media campaigns.
Crowdbooster (http://crowdbooster.com/) A more focused metric tool designed to provide recommendations based on successful social media strategies, with HootSuite-like multiple-social media management features.
Resources As usual, the web is often inundated with tons of resources.
Although I’ve not been much of a fan of Facebook Insights, it does offer some good information on the growth and reach of your Facebook fan page. Tracy Sestili’s post gives a good sense of the various metrics that can be useful.
This post is a must-read if you’re looking to make the best out of Google’s Social Analytics as it has evolved over the months. And this one takes it a step further to help you measure ROI generated by your social media campaigns.
Minilytics helps you understand the demographics of Facebook by letting you know which type of posts generate engagement, what time is optimal for posting, and how many fans you reach.
Social media campaigns are much more powerful than the usual ads run on websites. For starters, most campaigns are cost-effective, when the only costs involved are the human resource and time. Social campaigns are often more personal because they occur on a platform that’s trusted. And with metrics in hand, social campaigns can be enormously fruitful.
Agile software development methodologies have been used for decades.
It's only in more recent years that agile frameworks have been used as a means to enhance digital marketing processes and campaigns.
In today's ever-changing marketing environment, it is essential to have marketing strategies that can quickly adapt to changing market conditions.
Enter agile marketing.
Agile marketing has become a popular approach for businesses looking to become more efficient, diversify their marketing mix and ultimately increase their marketing return on investment (ROI).
This article will discuss what enterprise agile marketing transformations are and why it’s important, as well as provide tips and advice on how you can use agile marketing solutions in your own business.
We'll also discuss the "how" and "why" pivoting to an agile approach can help enhance, increase and improve the return on investment (ROI) for your business.
Let's dive in!
Agile frameworks allow for rapid response to changes in the marketplace and ensure that a company’s marketing strategy is always up-to-date.
This approach focuses on using data to measure, analyze, and adjust quickly based on ever-evolving customer needs.
It's essentially using data to react quickly to changes and feedback to ensure you're doing the things you should do to get ROI and avoid the pitfalls of insanity:
In addition, agile marketing encourages collaboration between agile marketers within the agile marketing department, with each team having different roles and responsibilities.
This should, in theory, allow for quicker decisions and solutions that work best for the organization as a whole.
Agile marketing teams thrive on the ability to pivot strategies based on the data-driven insights provided in an agile marketing report, allowing them to make informed decisions that maximize ROI.
Through streamlining agile marketing implementation across agile teams, organizations can ensure that their marketing programs remain aligned with core values and customer needs. This fosters a responsive and collaborative environment that adapts to the dynamic market landscape.
The traditional approach to marketing can be slow to respond to changes in the market, which can lead to outdated strategies and decreased ROI.
Agile methods allow companies to respond quickly and effectively to customer needs.
This means that businesses are able to stay ahead of the competition by better understanding their target audience and adapting their strategies accordingly.
Additionally, agile solutions make it easier for the agile team members within the organization to collaborate more effectively which can lead to improved efficiency overall.
In short, agile marketing is closely tied to lean, startup marketing.
It's nimble and allows for quick pivots, but true success requires discipline.
Agile marketing starts with a strong foundation in agile principles, transforming marketing teams from traditional marketing silos into dynamic, collaborative groups driven by core values and continuous improvement.
This shift from traditional to modern marketing enables agile marketing work to be more adaptable and customer-focused, which is essential for achieving agile success in today’s fast-paced market.
Agile marketing solutions are quickly becoming an essential part of many businesses' marketing strategies.
Implementing these solutions can help you better understand your customer needs, stay ahead of the competition, and increase your ROI.
Here are some tips for implementing agile marketing solutions into your business
1. Establish Goals & Objectives: Before you start planning your marketing strategy, it is important to set goals and objectives for your team. This will ensure that everyone is on the same page about what needs to be accomplished and how best to achieve those goals.
2. Create A Flexible Plan: Agile requires a flexible plan that can easily adapt to changing conditions in the market. This will help you stay up-to-date with your strategies and ensure that your team is always prepared.
3. Automate Processes: Automating processes like content creation, social media management, and email marketing can help save time and effort when implementing agile marketing solutions into your business. With automation, you can focus on the more pressing tasks while the automated systems take care of the rest. But, keep in mind, that automation can only take you so far. What you can't automate often requires the frontal cortex of some wicked-smart people on your team.
4. Hire Right: Hire the right people to handle agile marketing team requirements. Make sure you have someone on staff who understands the agile marketing process and can provide guidance and direction to other members of the team. This is one of the more critical aspects of going agile. Getting a driver who can get the whole marketing team on board, ensuring the maintenance discipline in how the team functions, and staying focused on the end goal is an essential element of success
5. Experiment & Optimize: Agile marketing encourages experimentation and iteration. Don’t be afraid to try new strategies and tactics as you learn how to best optimize your campaigns for success. As a team, we are constantly experimenting internally before we go external and share our successful findings with our clients outwardly. Be sure to make risky experiments in your journey in silos or on projects that don't matter as much to the revenue of your core business operations.
6. Leverage Technology: Utilize the latest marketing technology in order to stay up-to-date with the changing market trends and customer behaviors. In fact, technology is one of the best ways to automate and make your team as efficient as possible. This can help you quickly pivot when needed and ensure that you are always on the cutting edge. We use the latest project and task management tools and have daily and weekly in-person and virtual SCRUM team meetings, ensuring everyone is on-task and optimized.
7. Measure & Analyze: Measuring and analyzing performance data is essential to making sure your digital marketing is actually delivering results. With the right analytics tools, you can track ROI and make necessary adjustments in order to optimize your campaigns for success.
8. Report With Case Studies: You can use case studies to share your successes and failures with other teams and departments within the organization. This will help everyone understand how agile digital marketing solutions are benefiting the business as a whole.
Case studies are also great cannon fodder for selling new potential clients on why an Agile approach might be best. Case studies have proven to be one of our best marketing tools for winning marketing RFPs and telling a great story.
Implementing an agile marketing framework to your business is not likely to be all sunshine and roses.You can expect a few bumps in the road.Here we outline a few potential issues and hopefully some solutions so you can preemptively look at your plan to go agile and be properly prepared when your strategy falls a bit off the rails.
Initially, there may be a lack of alignment between different teams within the organization in terms of goals, objectives, and strategies.
Without stakeholder buy-in, including senior marketing leaders, it can be difficult to get everyone on the same page with an agile marketing approach.
One of the biggest issues we find in executing an agile approach is the nimbleness agile marketing tactics foster relative to the clunky, traditional framework to which larger organizations adhere. Agile works great and is more easily implemented in a startup marketing environment but is vastly more difficult to execute and implement for larger enterprises with an entrenched culture. And it may not be a lack of stakeholder buy-in on the part of the organization.
You may have all stakeholders and every level on board with agile marketing, but moving the Titanic is easier said than done. A full marketing implementation of agile marketing solutions will require discipline, focus, and perseverance. You may encounter some difficulties throughout the process but with the right resources and support, your business can reap the inevitable ROI rewards of an agile marketing approach.
Another potential roadblock to implementing agile marketing frameworks is the lack of resources available.
Companies may not have enough personnel to devote to developing and managing agile marketing campaigns, or they may not have the budget or technology needed to successfully implement these strategies.
And remember, resources may not all be monetary. Time and labor constraints may prove an issue. The most committed organizations will hire agile marketing mavens that can be available to provide the support and drive needed to truly execute an agile approach.
Measuring the return on investment (ROI) of agile marketing can be challenging, but with the right tools and strategies in place, it is possible to track and measure the success of your efforts. The key is to identify which metrics are most meaningful when it comes to measuring ROI and then use those metrics as a benchmark for success.
One of the most important aspects of agile marketing is measuring its return on investment (ROI). This helps organizations to understand how well their efforts are paying off and determine whether they should continue with the strategy or adjust it as needed.
A few of the ways that ROI can be measured in an agile marketing approach include:
By tracking your metric(s) of choice, you can gain insight into which campaigns are most successful and determine where adjustments need to be made in order to maximize your return on investment (ROI).
Keep in mind that the ROI of agile marketing is not always immediate, as it can take time (even years) to see the results of your efforts. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t immediately see a return on investment.
Instead, focus on understanding and tracking key metrics in order to measure success over time.
A case study can be a means of convincing internal management and external clients and customers of the benefits of using agile for the implementation of marketing best practices and customer focused collaboration.
Creating an internal case study for a successful agile project can be a great way to demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of agile methodologies.
A case study allows you to go into detail about the project, detailing the methodology and results, making it easier to share with other internal marketing teams or organizations.
When creating an internal case study for a successful agile project, it’s important to focus on both the process and results.
This will help demonstrate how effective agile methodologies can be when applied correctly.
We worked with a major e-commerce brand in creating a siloed approach toward agile, implementing agile digital marketing team frameworks into their paid and social campaigns.
In doing so, we created a proof-is-in-the-pudding case study to showcase the value of implementing agile on a broader scale across the entirety of their marketing organization.
Similar results were had across all their paid and organic SEO campaigns after full implementation with the help of marketing and agile software development teams.
Upper management wanted proof and we delivered.
Sometimes agile consulting is used to drive awareness to internal management (which is something we can assist with), but most often it's used to help drive better results for client campaigns.
External case studies are extremely valuable for businesses as they provide proof that their agile practices are working, attracting new customers, and creating a positive ROI.
External case studies should focus on the real-world application of agile methodologies and how they helped increase ROI for a business.
They can also highlight other important aspects of the process, such as collaboration, customer engagement, and innovation.
In nearly every client campaign where we achieve an outsized return on investment (ROI) using agile digital marketing techniques, we create a beautiful case study to showcase the work.
These case studies then become downloadable assets that we can use on new clients and potential customers.
Just like this one, from the keyword rankings for a client in the digital reviews niche:
Agile marketing is a great way to stay ahead of the competition and increase your return on investment (ROI).
By implementing agile marketing solutions and measuring results, you can ensure that your business is always adapting to changing conditions in both your business and the overall market.
In other words, learn to market adaptively like a startup (by finding the right digital marketing agency for your business).
Agile will help you see the results just as rapidly.
Businesses have been using email to promote their products and services since the 1990s. Since then, many new forms of marketing have come along: social media marketing, influencer marketing, YouTube ads, and more.
And yet, email is still one of the most effective marketing tools out there.
In fact, a report by McKinsey & Company shows that email marketing is 40 times more effective at gaining new customers than Facebook and Twitter combined!
If you want to leverage email marketing to grow your business, you’ve come to the right place.
Here at Marketer.co, we’ve developed some email marketing tips that you can apply to your own email marketing campaigns for better results.
Here they are:
Before you can start sending marketing emails, you need to develop an email list, which is basically a list of email addresses from interested leads.
One of the best ways to collect email addresses is to create a lead magnet. A lead magnet is a page on your business website that offers visitors a free resource in exchange for their email address and name. The free resource could be an ebook, webinar invite, white book, or newsletter sign-up. Whatever it is, it serves as an incentive for visitors to give you their email addresses.
Once submitted, the email address is saved to your email list.
One of the biggest mistakes that beginner marketers make is sending emails to their entire email list. Don’t do this.
Instead, segment your email list into different groups. You can split them by demographics (age, gender, income, etc.), their interests, and whether they are new or old customers.
Why do this? It allows you to tailor your marketing emails to different groups.
For example, say you run a real estate agent business. Instead of sending an email about the home-buying process to your entire email list, you can send it to only your first-time buyer leads. That way, you avoid annoying subscribers who may not be interested in (or may already be familiar with) the homebuying process (e.g., seller leads or past clients).
By segmenting your email list, you can create more tailored emails—emails that include only content, offers, news, and promotions that are relevant to the recipient in question. If an email isn’t relevant, a reader is more likely to ignore it, unsubscribe, or even mark it as spam.
If the personalized subject lines of your marketing emails aren’t compelling, it won’t matter how good the actual email is.
Why?
Because if your subscribers aren’t drawn by the subject line, they won’t click to open the email in the first place.
In other words, the subject line is the most important part of a marketing email. To make it stand out, there are a few things you can do:
You can create a sense of urgency with your email subject line: keep it short and sweet, pose a compelling question, tease what’s inside the email, use emojis, and make it personal. Whatever you do, don’t use all caps or multiple exclamation marks. This just makes you look desperate for attention and most recipients will shy away.
On top of personalizing the subject line, you want to make the entire email personal. This helps you connect with subscribers and earn their trust.
Start by addressing the recipient by their first name. Most marketing email software lets you automatically customize emails with different recipients’ names.
You have to make sure you collect and store people’s names alongside their email addresses.
Another way to make your emails more personal is to write in the second person. That means using words like “you,” “your,” and so on (just like this post is doing). By addressing your desired target audience directly, you help them feel more involved and pull them through the email copy.
Lastly, you can personalize your marketing emails by addressing your readers’ specific pain points, not just sending them to a generic blog post or landing page.
Think back to how you segmented your email list. What are the particular needs and wants of the segment you are writing to? For example, if you’re writing to home seller leads, you may consider acknowledging how hard it can be to sell a house in the current real estate market.
Whatever you do, make sure the email feels like it’s being written directly from you to your reader. The less corporate it sounds, the better.
As with many business processes, a lot of your email marketing success depends on how much you can automate.
Email itself is a form of automation. Think about how much more time it would take to send physical letters to your subscriber list or, worse yet, to type each letter individually.
But there’s more to email automation than that. Email marketing software lets you schedule transactional emails to send at certain times. You can even automate an entire email sequence that’s triggered every time someone signs up for your email list (aka a drip email campaign). This could be a welcome series that educates new customers on your products and services to help build trust in your brand.
The point is you can use automation through some of today's robust email marketing channel and email service providers to become more efficient as an email marketer.
The more you automate, the less time you need to spend on tedious work and the more time you can spend on more important work.
Did you know that far more people check email on mobile devices than on computers? According to statistics reported by Easysendy, nearly 1.7 billion users check email on mobile phones compared to 0.9 billion users who check it on desktops.
This means that you need to optimize your marketing emails for mobile screens.
Any images or videos contained within your emails should be easily viewed on a phone. Users should also be able to click on any links and promotions and be directed to your website on their mobile web browser.
To ensure this is the case, test opening your marketing emails on different devices. They should adapt to various screen sizes without a problem.
One of the tips for improving email marketing is to use A/B testing.
What is A/B testing? Basically, it’s creating two slightly different versions of various email templates, sending them to a sample email segment, and seeing which performs better on common marketing email metrics, such as open rate, conversion rate, unsubscribe rate, and so on.
Once you have a winner, you can send the better version of two emails to the entire email segment.
You can A/B test almost anything: subject lines, email copy, images, landing pages, font style, links, and more. The key is to keep the variation between the two email versions subtle. That way, you can better home in on what it is that’s making the difference.
Then follow what the data tells you. By regularly performing A/B tests, you can gradually improve the performance (i.e. open rate, click-through rate, and general ROI) of your marketing emails overall.
A surprising amount of your marketing email success comes down to timing. Think about it. A recipient may give an email less attention if it lands in their inbox in the middle of the night or on the weekend compared to at the start of their workday. Of course, it all depends on your recipients’ schedules and time zones. The point is that timing is a real factor.
So, use analytics software to help you determine when the best send time is for your subscribers (you can do this through the A/B testing method explained in the last point). You might find that your open rate is better when you send emails in the morning rather than in the evening or vice versa.
Whatever the case may be, double down on whatever gets you the best results. Schedule your emails to automatically send when they have the highest chance of being opened.
From there, you can try to develop a regular email cadence. That way, your subscribers will also learn when they can expect to hear from you and be more likely to look out for your emails as a result.
Getting emails, you can’t unsubscribe from is incredibly frustrating. Don’t be that company that sends marketing emails without providing a way to opt out with an unsubscribe link.
Better yet, let your subscribers customize their email preferences. For example, you could let them select how frequently to receive your emails (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) or what types of emails to receive (news, promotions, special sales, educational pieces, etc.).
The more autonomy you give email subscribers in managing their email preferences, the less likely they are to get annoyed with you. If they no longer want to get your emails, they’ll know exactly how to get off your list.
This may sound counterintuitive, but you should regularly rid your email list of any subscribers who haven’t opened your emails in a while. Why?
First, if they’re not opening your emails, they’re not doing you much good anyway.
Second, by cleaning up your email list, you avoid annoying people and giving them a negative impression of your brand. And third, updating your email list helps boost your scores on common email metrics like open rates. If you want more accurate email marketing performance data, you have to regularly scrub your email list.
Implementing an effective email marketing strategy is both an art and a science. It’s not something that you can master overnight. But if you follow the tips to improve your approach, you’ll see improvements in no time.
Don’t have the time, skills, or resources to run successful email marketing campaigns? No worries. Marketer.co can help. Our talented team of email marketers can assist you in creating segmented email campaigns and crafting personalized messages that resonate with both new and existing customers. From designing welcome emails to optimizing inbox placement, we’ll help you take your business to the next level by adhering to every email marketing best practice outlined here and other marketing strategies.
Contact us today for a free consultation. We look forward to chatting!
Your business needs marketing and advertising.
Unless your business is the recipient of some mystical blessing that allows it to naturally generate more paying customers, it's on you to build awareness, make your brand more appealing, and ultimately get more people to buy what you're selling.
The problem is, that marketing is hard to do on your own. If you don't have much experience or knowledge on the subject, it may seem intimidatingly complex. There's no guarantee that your strategies are going to be effective, and even if they are, you could end up overpaying for what you get.
That's why so many businesses turn to the help of a great digital marketing agency for all their digital marketing and advertising needs. But this has a problem associated with it as well; there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of digital marketing agencies available to serve you.
How can you choose the best digital marketing agency for your business?
Why would you consider working with a digital marketing agency? It should be self-evident that working with a professional marketing team, or at least a handful of digital marketing professionals, can help you see better results in the marketing world. You'll get better advice, better resources, and more supportive digital marketing solutions.
That said, there are a few different ways you can enjoy these benefits. You could hire a team of your own internally, you could work with freelancers, or you could even hire a temporary consultant to help you improve your digital marketing efforts.
Digital marketing agencies still have several advantages over these other methods, including:
One important thing to understand before we move further is that no two digital marketing agencies are the same, and no two clients are the same.
Some may provide social media management and search engine optimization services, but perhaps you're looking for paid marketing management. Digital marketing is broad, but most agencies don't cover the gambit or have the internal bench depth and expertise to provide end-to-end digital services.
Many of the claims we made about the advantageous nature of digital marketing agencies can't be applied to every agency on the planet; some of them aren't experienced or trustworthy enough to help you see favorable results.
Similarly, just because a digital marketing agency did a good job for one of their clients in the past doesn't mean they're going to do an identically good job for your brand. You have to consider the unique fit in addition to core competencies.
Before you start researching digital marketing agencies, it's a good idea to prepare yourself by assessing your own needs and goals. Why are you hoping to hire A digital marketing agency? Which types of marketing strategies do you want to follow? What are your biggest objectives and do you have specific numbers you're trying to hit? How much are you willing to spend and how much control do you want to retain over your tactics? I love to use a content marketing matrix (like the one below) to ensure the core competencies of the agency match our own internal needs/goals
Each company is going to look for something different. There's no such thing as a perfect digital marketing agency that works for every business. Accordingly, you may have very different priorities than the average business, and you may look for a marketing agency in a totally different way than one of your competitors. Still, this list should effectively capture some of your biggest priorities when researching and evaluating different digital marketing agencies:
Which of these factors are most important to you? Which ones are you willing to compromise on? Think through these questions carefully before proceeding.
At this point, you should be ready to start the discovery and research process. That means coming up with a long list of different digital marketing agencies you might want to work with.
It also means uncovering more details about those agencies and evaluating how good of a fit they're going to offer.
Throughout this process, you should focus on the following:
Hopefully, this guide has given you the resources, concepts, and frameworks necessary to make a better decision for hiring the right digital marketing agency for your brand.
But your responsibilities don't end there.
If you want to have the best working relationship with your digital marketing agency, there are some important ways you'll need to prepare yourself:
There are a lot of digital marketing agencies out there, but we strive to distinguish ourselves from the masses. On top of offering almost everything you need for a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, including white label SEO services, content marketing services, paid advertising services, and more, we have specialized experts from a variety of marketing niches – and account managers ready to work with you one-on-one on your next project. Contact us for a free consultation today!
Content marketing strategies demand multiple mediums and multiple outlets in order to be effective. Too many content marketers rely on a traditional, basic structure, writing blog post after blog post in the same format and syndicating them on social media. This strategy is effective, since it will gradually build your brand reputation, earn you more direct traffic, and improve your rankings in search engines, but for a full-fledged content marketing campaign, it should only serve as the foundation.
Adding a landing page, a dedicated page under your domain to house incoming traffic can be a viable strategy to improve your conversion rates and funnel your traffic. While it will take some extra work and maintenance to keep up, the return on investment (ROI) makes it all worth it.
Consider these seven reasons why landing pages can improve your campaign:
First and foremost, a landing page can improve your conversion rates. Rather than relying on customers eventually finding their way to your contact page (or anywhere else you seek to convert them), your users will be immediately confronted with the opportunity to convert. Using a landing page builder can simplify the process of creating high converting landing pages that are tailored to your audience.
There are several ways you can approach this. For example, you could set up a landing page as a kind of barrier to your content, presenting a link to a downloadable whitepaper in exchange for some information about the user. This standalone web page serves as a focused environment to achieve your target conversion. In this case, retrieving the whitepaper becomes your target conversion, and you can use your blogs and social channels to increase traffic and the likelihood of eventually converting.
If you’re more interested in selling one of your products, you can set up a specific landing page for one. Leverage landing page templates to design an effective layout quickly and professionally. Use social media or other content-based channels to attract traffic, then use the landing page as their immediate destination.
Landing pages can also be used to funnel your traffic into more specific areas. This is particularly useful for companies with a wide range of products or services. For example, if you sell bikes and rollerblades, you can segment your traffic appropriately through separate landing pages. To do this effectively, start by creating custom landing pages tailored to each category.
Rather than sending all of your traffic to your main site, or individual product pages, you can easily split your users into appropriate categories.
Let’s say you blog about bikes and rollerblades individually. People interested in buying rollerblades will respond more to posts about rollerblades, and the same is true for bikes. A good landing page for each category can help align your content with user intent.
When you’re communicating with a large pool of followers, however, it’s difficult to distinguish which followers are interested in which. Rather than resorting to general messaging, create a landing page for each specific product or service using a landing page template as a starting point. Drawing users into all your landing pages will allow you to speak more specifically to each portion of your audience and give you the chance to collect and store their information for future use.
Sometimes, it’s difficult to show off the best characteristics of your brand while working in the confines of a blog post or social media schedule. Content marketing is designed to show off your expertise passively, giving users a valuable experience while hoping they associate that experience with your brand. Calling out your brand specifically or openly bragging can actually turn people away from your content strategy.
Using landing pages gives you more freedom to show off what makes your brand great. With the best landing page builder, you can easily create landing pages that highlight your unique brand identity. You’ll be able to create a design that obviously shows off your brand elements, and you’ll have the space to show off your brand’s greatness with testimonials or other statistics. Carefully crafted landing page content ensures your message resonates with your target audience.
By using your content to funnel users into a specific landing page, you’ll get the opportunity to get your brand squarely in your users’ faces without alienating them in the process. When you build landing pages with a focus on effective landing page design, you can engage users while maintaining their trust and interest.
Content marketing programs sometimes suffer from a lack of direction. Instead of focusing in on a specific user goal, they’re designed to communicate generally with an audience, and gradually build a reputation. That might be useful for generating lots of traffic to your site, but if that traffic never converts or doesn’t know where to go, that traffic is essentially useless.
Landing pages provide a quick fix for that problem. Instead of worrying about where your users are going after they read your material, or crossing your fingers and hoping for the best, you can use your landing page to ensure your traffic gets to a worthwhile destination.
Some content marketers grow frustrated because of how difficult it is to measure the success of a campaign. Since one of the primary goals of content marketing is to increase brand familiarity and brand loyalty, two very subjective qualities, it can be hard to put a dollar amount on your content marketing results.
Landing pages make the process much more objective. By using sales metrics, you can easily determine how much value each conversion brings you, and by using goal metrics (which you can set up in Google Analytics), you can easily determine the number of conversions your content is bringing in. With those two metrics, you should be able to accurately project an objective estimate of how much value your content marketing strategy is bringing.
Landing pages are also great because they allow you to perform A/B tests. If you have two competing products and you aren’t sure which one to spend more time promoting, you can set up two individual landing pages under the same conditions and see which one generates the greatest number of conversions.
Alternatively, if you’re toying around with your branding and advertising strategy, you can easily use an “A” version and a “B” version of your landing page to gain valuable insights on your design and copy. You can then take this information and use it in your broader marketing and advertising campaign.
Like A/B testing, user behavior testing is to determine the most valuable parts of your landing pages. For example, by using heat maps, you can track exactly where your users are looking and interacting with your landing page. If they tend to congregate around the testimonials and you’re enjoying a high conversion rate, you better start using those testimonials on other applications. If your users focus on a bulleted list of product benefits and your conversion rate is low, you know you need to spend time refining how you market your product. Setting up a landing page with some kind of user behavior tracking is key to gaining insights about your audience.
Unfortunately, just setting up a landing page isn’t enough. You also need to pay close attention to the design, placement, and written copy of your landing page to maximize your chances of conversion. Landing pages demand a different set of standards than traditional web pages, so prioritize the following qualities:
If you can design a landing page with these qualities and integrate it smoothly into your content marketing campaign, you’ll start seeing the benefits as soon as it goes live.
In today's digitized epoch, establishing a content strategy is a crucial component of any business's marketing blueprint. Amid the proliferation of digital avenues and the ever-evolving consumer demeanor, businesses must concoct content that appeals to their target audience and propels business consequences.
However, executing a content strategy can prove to be a herculean task, particularly for businesses that lack a dedicated marketing team. This is where ChatGPT, an AI-powered tool trained by OpenAI, can lend a helping hand.
ChatGPT is a colossal language model that can aid businesses in executing their content strategy. With its natural language processing capabilities, it can dissect the language of a business's target audience and engender content ideas that are pertinent and captivating. Here are some steps to execute a content strategy using ChatGPT.
The first step in executing a content strategy is to delineate your target audience. ChatGPT can help you unravel the language patterns and predilections of your target audience. By scrutinizing the language employed by your audience in their online interactions, ChatGPT can furnish insights into their interests, afflictions, and motivations. This intel can facilitate you in creating content that resonates with your target audience.
Once you have identified your target audience, the subsequent step is to fashion content ideas that are germane and enthralling. ChatGPT can aid you in this process by generating content ideas based on your audience's language patterns and preferences.
By inputting a few keywords associated with your business and your target audience, ChatGPT, as a large language model trained on extensive training data, can generate a plethora of content ideas that you can leverage for your digital marketing and marketing campaigns.
These AI-driven tools also integrate well with marketing automation platforms, streamlining your content creation process and saving you time.
After you have crafted content ideas, the next step is to bring them to fruition. ChatGPT can assist you in creating top-notch content that is relevant to your target audience. By analyzing the language patterns of your target audience, ChatGPT can proffer sentence structures, grammar, and diction that are most likely to strike a chord with your target audience. This can be particularly beneficial for content marketers looking to streamline their content creation process while ensuring their messaging aligns with their audience's preferences.
Additionally, ChatGPT can lend a hand in writing headlines, introductions, and calls-to-action that are optimized for engagement. By incorporating relevant keywords, your blog post or other marketing efforts can gain better visibility for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes. For those involved in social media marketing, ChatGPT and other AI tools can help craft posts that not only generate human-like text but also convey emotional intelligence to resonate with your audience. This makes your content creation strategy remains authentic and impactful.
Lastly, it's time to publish and promote your content. ChatGPT can help you optimize your content for search engines by suggesting pertinent keywords and meta descriptions. Furthermore, ChatGPT can lend a hand in promoting your content on social media by recommending the optimal times to post and the most efficacious social media platforms for your target audience.
In conclusion, ChatGPT can be an invaluable tool for executing a content strategy. By harnessing its natural language processing capabilities, businesses can create content that resonates with their target audience and drives business consequences. However, it's imperative to note that ChatGPT is just a tool, and it should be wielded in conjunction with human proficiency to ensure that the content strategy aligns with the overall business objectives. With the right approach, ChatGPT can assist businesses in executing a successful content strategy and accomplishing their marketing goals.
Search engines are evolving in strange new ways. Mobile searches have overtaken desktop searches (at long last), and competitors like Bing and Yahoo are growing more and more like Google every day, unifying the capacity of every major search brand.
As if that weren’t enough, a wave of virtual assistants like Siri, Google Now, and Cortana have begun to emerge to redefine the search process—rather than opening a browser window, going to a search engine site, and plugging in an entry only to wade through a string of possible results, users can now use conversational commands and queries to engage with a human-like advanced computer program and be met with an almost immediate answer.
Modern virtual assistants function almost as intermediaries, with search engines themselves operating in the background. Oftentimes, traffic from searches is completely negated—users get the answers they need without browsing or navigating to individual websites—and in other cases, personal assistants take you to websites directly based on your queries. This capability is driven by machine learning and natural language processing, enabling these systems to interpret user queries with remarkable accuracy.
Also, voice recognition technology makes these interactions seamless and accessible, allowing users to speak naturally while the system processes and responds appropriately. With this new paradigm of search in place, is it even possible to optimize your site for a digital assistant?
On the surface, most digital assistants find results in a process similar to the search engines we’ve all become familiar with. There are, however, a few critical distinctions:
It’s also worth mentioning that not all digital assistants function identically, just as individual search engines never functioned identically. Their similarities can be grouped as generalizations worth noting, but idiosyncrasies and unique characteristics will still keep them differentiated.
Still, the most popular digital assistants rely on artificial intelligence-driven algorithms for certain types of queries—i.e., ones that can only be sufficiently answered by directing a user to a specific website. For example, if you ask your digital assistant about a product that’s only offered by one e-commerce platform (however unlikely that scenario might be), you’ll likely be redirected to that website. It gets a little trickier if that product is offered on multiple platforms, especially if a mobile app is one of them, but if the key is to offer something unique that can only be found on your website—and can’t be summarized with a simple informational breakdown.
Knowing this information, there are a few key takeaways you can incorporate into your current SEO strategy to account for the rise of digital assistants:
Digital assistants aren’t the most used form of search today, but they’re growing more popular and could one day replace the typical browser-based search engine entirely. When that happens, users will become reliant on immediate answers and local solutions for everything, and overall visits to websites will diminish. Already, giants like Wikipedia are feeling the effects of the Knowledge Graph and similar quick-answer programs. When the trend develops further, SEO as we know it could vanish entirely, replaced by a new means of achieving digital visibility with users and resellers.
Until that time comes, it’s worth your time and money to invest in your online presence. Hedge your bets by covering as much ground as possible with great, diverse content, and a presence on as many external platforms and apps as possible. The goal is visibility, however, you can get it.
The most important part of social media marketing is the “social” element. Your effectiveness doesn’t depend on how hard you sell products, or how often you post, or even how many interesting things you offer. What matters is that you connect with an audience, on some fundamental level, enough to increase their admiration for your brand or come to your website for more information.
To solve this perpetual problem, your first step is to identify and target the right audience. Facebook, the most popular social media platform in the world, gives you every opportunity to do this—even beyond the tools it offers for paid advertisers (which are ample). In fact, most social media platforms have the functionality and capacity for you to do this, but only a fraction of marketers end up taking advantage of it.
I want you to become a part of that fraction.
This section is more of a disclaimer than it is an actual guide, but it’s important to address before we ever start talking about how to target your key demographics. After all, how can you target your key demographics if you don’t know who they are? Imagine, for a moment, an extreme example:
(Image Source: Luvs/Adweek)
This message, by a diaper company, is targeted toward mothers—and even more than that, is targeted toward mothers of multiple children. It’s clever, concise, and original, so you can imagine it performing well when syndicated to an audience of second or third-time mothers. How would you expect it to perform if syndicated to an audience of teenage boys? Or an audience of retired, single septuagenarians? As part of effective audience optimization, this shows the importance of aligning content with specific interest tags and demographics.
As I said, this example is extreme, but it illustrates my point. This article will tell you how to create and distribute appropriate messages to your target audience, but this advice is useless unless you know who your audience is. Don’t make assumptions. Do the research, and figure out who’s going to buy your product. Use tools like geo targeting and preferred language filters to refine your audience insights.
You may have multiple target audiences, but for the purposes of this guide, I’m going to imagine you have only one. You can replicate the steps below for any of your audiences. Incorporate strategies like adding interest tags or location tagging to better define your audience in platforms like Facebook marketing or other social media management tools.
Do you have an audience in mind? Okay. Let’s start targeting.
First, I want to take a look at what kind of people actually use Facebook. This is a section I’ll include for all my platform-based guides, and you’ll find that each platform boasts a different type of audience. Some of those audiences will overlap with your target demographics; others will bear no resemblance. This will help you choose which platforms to add to your social media arsenal (hint: it shouldn’t be all of them by default).
Essentially, we’re asking: is it worth it for your brand to be on Facebook?Facebook has 1.59 billion monthly active users, worldwide, making it the biggest and furthest-reaching social media platform around today. This probably isn’t news to you; most of the people you know have, and actively use, a personal Facebook profile.
But what kinds of people are on this platform?
According to Facebook’s own breakdown page, 83.6 percent of its users are outside the U.S. and Canada, meaning about 260,760,000 users are in the United States (for reference, the U.S. population is close to 320 million). Promo Republic offers the following breakdown:
Some highlights to consider: the gender and ethnic split is negligible, with between 66-77 percent of each demographic segment participating as an active monthly user. Though increasing age does correspond with decreasing user numbers, the drop-offs are not significant until age 50. Education and salary don’t play much into the demographic makeup, nor does geographic location.
Aside from this data, it’s also important to note that almost all Facebook profiles are verified, by individual users, who are using Facebook for personal purposes (usually keeping in contact with friends and family members).
This means Facebook is pretty much open season, with a few key exceptions. Now let’s take a look at some businesses that stand to win or lose automatically based on this data.
If you don’t belong to the second category, Facebook is likely a reasonable place to start pinning your audience down. Now, let’s get to the meaty part: actively selecting your audience from the vast pool of Facebook users.
You can’t target the entire Facebook population all at once (though some of you might try, given the chance). Even if you could, this wouldn’t be a good use of your resources. For the most part, any content you publish on Facebook (assuming you’re using a business/organization page) is only inherently visible to people who have already liked your brand. It’s only shown to people outside your follower base if one of their contacts has “shared” it, or if they specifically seek you out.
To make matters harder for brands, Facebook’s organic reach has been steadily declining for some time, meaning even if someone follows you, there’s no guarantee they’ll see everything you post. Accordingly, every piece of news or content you publish has to be a home run. You can’t afford to waste time or target an indifferent audience.
There are two components to effective audience targeting: choosing the right message and making that message visible to the right people. Before you start combing through your audience, run a check to make sure your content is appropriate for your audience.
There’s no “easy” way to tell if your message is effective for your demographics. You have to know what your users want to see, which is tricky to predict unless you have reliable data. You can generate ideas for this based on market research, what your competitors are doing, or even anecdotal evidence you’ve experienced in the field. Verify this is the case by AB testing your messages (possibly on Facebook itself; don’t hesitate to use it as a testing ground). Trust the numbers.
When it comes to Facebook posts, certain factors almost always make a post inherently more valuable, so polish your message by shaping it into a format with the following qualities:
Don’t just take my word for it; take a look at data from BlitzLocal’s study on the matter:
This barely scratches the surface of what makes a “good” Facebook post (a topic for another time), but these are the most important takeaways regarding how to target your Facebook audience through messaging.
Now, you’ve got the message. You know what you want to post to your users, and it’s just a matter of doing the actual posting. How can you make sure your message is seen by the greatest number of people in your target audience while excluding those outside it?
Until recently, this was only possible through paid advertising tools. Now, every company and organization page has the ability to filter their audiences for every post.
This screenshot is doing my job for me. When you log into your company page and start typing a draft, you’ll notice a new(ish) button to the left of the Publish button that looks like a target—how appropriate. Click it, and you’ll be introduced to a variety of new demographic targeting options to ensure your message lands in the right newsfeeds.
From here, you’ll see two tabs—Preferred Audience and Audience Restrictions. You can guess what each of these is used for.
(Image Source: Social Media Examiner)
Your Preferred Audience allows you to select interests that might be popular in your target demographics. Remember my diaper ad example from earlier? Luvs’s target audience might be interested in things like “parenting” or “child care.” Again, don’t select these randomly; see what you can find about your target audience based on empirical, fact-based research.
(Image Source: MarketingLand)
Your Audience Restrictions gives you more quantitative control. There’s significantly less guesswork here, so base your restrictions on what you know to be true for your target audience. Don’t be afraid to step a little outside your niche; you can always refine your content for tighter or broader segments of your audience later. Currently, Facebook allows you to control your audience based on age, gender, location, and preferred language.Once posted, you’ll be able to tap into the performance metrics for each available post. Here, you can track engagement rates among different segments of your demographics; for example, you’ll be able to tell how well your post did for users with an interest in “monster trucks” versus users with an interest in “cotton candy.”Use this data to your advantage, and experiment with interests and quantitative identifiers that you might not instinctively prefer. You’ll find that at least some audience behaviors conflict with your preconceived notions, so make changes based on what the data tells you.
Together, these methods of audience targeting work well—but they only work for people who are already members of your audience. What about all the members of your target audience who aren’t yet following your brand? What about all the people following your brand who don’t belong to your target demographics?
Let’s address the latter question first. You’ll undoubtedly attract followers who don’t really have an interest in your brand or service; for example, they might have clicked “like” accidentally or as part of a contest unrelated to purchasing from your brand. Obviously, you want your social following to be as comprised of your target demographics as possible, but does this mean you should weed out those who don’t belong?
The simple answer is no, for two reasons:
Accordingly, don’t worry about the outsiders who trickle in.
Instead, invest your efforts in acquiring new followers who match your ideal demographics. There are powerful ways to do this:
As great as audience targeting on Facebook is, there are still some key limitations. First, the organic reach of business posts is diminishing—and will presumably continue to decline. Even though you’ll improve your visibility by selecting only your most relevant audiences, you can expect this value to decline over time.
Next, your audience segmentation strategy is only as strong as the audience you already have. It can increase the effectiveness of your messaging and strengthen brand loyalty, but it can’t inject fresh blood into your system.
Finally, no matter how well you know your audience, your tactics are still dependent on the strength of your content. I’ll be doing similar guides for how to improve your content quality, including one specifically for Facebook posts, but it exists as a separate effort.
Facebook’s paid advertising system is one of the most robust ad features of any social media platform. With it, you have access to far more sophisticated audience targeting options than your organic reach will allow, and you’ll even get to reach people who don’t currently follow you.
For example, in addition to age, gender, location, language, and interests, you can target users based on behaviors (like previous purchases) or current connections.
These are valuable, but whether it’s worth your investment is up to you, your goals, and your budget. With the right content strategy, you can achieve almost any marketing goal without investing in direct advertising, but it’s a significant option you should be aware of.
I hope this guide has helped you make sense of the audience targeting tools and strategies necessary to craft and publicize organic marketing messages on Facebook. Like with any strategy, the theory is helpful, but it’s the practice that truly matters. Put your ideas and your knowledge to the test in a live environment, dutifully learning from your mistakes and adjusting for efficient improvements. Because every brand has a unique audience and a unique product, the only way to learn effectively is to try something and see what happens.
If you liked this guide, you can look forward to my upcoming feature on audience targeting via Twitter, or read up on what it takes to launch a successful content marketing or SEO campaign.
As a website proprietor, you understand that maintaining a website can be an excellent approach to allure novel clients, provide valuable facts, and generate revenue.
But what transpires when your website's rankings begin to dwindle dramatically? Your website might become less conspicuous to budding customers, leading to an unfavorable impact on your enterprise.
In this composition, we will furnish you with some suggestions on how to address your plummeting website rankings.
The primary step in resolving your falling website rankings is to execute a website review. This assessment will assist you in pinpointing the areas that necessitate improvement. Some issues to look out for include:
Broken links Sluggish loading speed Duplicate content Missing meta descriptions Inferior quality content Inadequate user experience.
After identifying the issues, commence correcting them individually. You can avail of a website audit instrument to facilitate you in identifying these issues.
One of the most crucial elements that determine your website rankings is the eminence of your content. You should guarantee that your website contains exceptional and high-quality content that is pertinent to your target audience. The content should also be optimized for search engines. This signifies that you should incorporate pertinent keywords in your content and meta descriptions.
Furthermore, you should ensure that your website is updated recurrently. This will aid in improving your website rankings and keeping your target audience engrossed. You can accomplish this by appending blog posts, news updates, or any other kind of content that is pertinent to your audience.
Take the time to run relevant scans on your content using the latest semantic language tools, including Google Natural Language AI, Cora by SEOToolLab and SurferSEO.
Each of these tools, especially when used in tandem, can help you find what makes your page or post (and even your site overall) deficient compared to a competing post.
When you use these tools correctly, you will find what statistically relevant keywords are missing, how your site's content length may be too low (or too high) and what H1-H6 words you're not using (but which you should be).
You will also find out what others are doing that you may not be, so you can bridge the content gap with other competing sites.
Because the most relevant ranking factor online is that your site is diversified among the ranking factors, tuning your content for SEO (search engine optimization) is more important than anything else, including backlinks!
Create quality content and then tune it up with the right keywords.
Link building services are an important component of a holistic digital marketing strategy. It involves acquiring hyperlinks from other websites that point back to your website. These links are viewed as votes of confidence by search engines, indicating that other websites consider your content to be valuable and relevant. As a result, search engines tend to rank websites with a greater number of high-quality links higher in their search results.
However, it's important to note that link building should be done in a strategic and thoughtful way. Simply adding too many anchor text links indiscriminately can actually have a negative impact on your overall search engine ranking.
Search engines have become more sophisticated in recent years (from Panda 3.3 to Panda 3.4--in the early years to more recent SpamLink and content quality Google updates), and they can detect when websites are engaging in manipulative link building tactics to artificially inflate their ranking.
Mobile devices are gaining momentum as a popular medium for browsing the internet. Hence, it is crucial to optimize your website for mobile devices. This implies that your website should be user-friendly, load promptly, and be responsive to diverse screen sizes.
If your website is not optimized for mobile devices, you might encounter a decline in rankings. You can employ an instrument such as Google's Mobile-Friendly Test to verify whether your website is optimized for mobile devices.
Backlinks are a vital factor in enhancing your website rankings. Backlinks are links that other websites use to link to your website. The quality and quantity of these links can have a substantial influence on your website's search engine rankings.
To foster high-quality backlinks, you can reach out to other websites in your industry and request them to link to your website. You can also create high-quality content that other websites will want to link to. It is paramount to note that you should only foster backlinks from respectable and high-quality websites.
Social media is a first-rate approach to promote your website and improve your website rankings. By disseminating your content on social media, you can amplify your website's visibility, allure novel clients, and enhance your website's rankings.
To utilize social media effectively, you should ensure that your social media profiles are optimized for search engines. This implies that you should incorporate pertinent keywords in your profiles and descriptions. You should also ensure that your content is shareable and engaging. This will aid in increasing your social media following and improving your website rankings.
Monitoring your website performance is critical in addressing your plummeting website rankings. By monitoring your website's performance, you can pinpoint the areas that necessitate improvement and take action before it is too late.
Several instruments can help you monitor your website's performance. Google Analytics is an excellent instrument that can aid you in monitoring your website's traffic, bounce rate, and other crucial metrics. You can also avail of an instrument such as SEMrush to monitor your website's rankings and track your competitors.
Google Search Console is a free instrument that can aid you in monitoring your website's performance in Google search results. It is a valuable resource that can help you to identify any issues that may be affecting your website's SEO rankings. By using this tool, you can track your website's search performance, identify any errors or issues, and ensure that your website is optimized for search engines.
In conclusion, fixing falling website rankings in the SERPs (search engine results pages) can be a formidable task, but by following these tips and utilizing various online tools, you can augment your website's visibility to potential customers, attract more traffic, and generate more sales.
These days, when someone wants to buy a product or service from a business, they turned to Google for information.
If a business has lots of good reviews and very few neutral or bad reviews, they’ll be much more likely to move forward.
But even a single bad review can throw a wrench in things.
Obviously, as a business owner, you have good motivation to delete those bad Google reviews and improve the visibility, reputation, and sales of your brand.
So what's the best way to do it?
Google reviews are relatively short business reviews left by other people who have patronized your business, at least ostensibly. Users can find your business through a basic search, click to view your Business Profile, and write a review based on their experience. Users typically have to be signed into their Google account to leave such a review.
People have the option of rating your business on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, and they have the option to leave a more qualitative review as well. Once submitted, the review will automatically be scanned and evaluated; if it seems to be spammy, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable, it's going to be weeded out. Otherwise, the review will become publicly available.
Users have the option to delete or edit their reviews at any time. However, as a business owner, you don't have much direct control over how Google reviews get posted or what happens to them once they're up. You can always leave comments and feedback, and you'll have the option to contact users directly, but you can't easily or directly delete negative Google reviews.
Why are Google reviews so important for local businesses on Google Maps?
· First impressions. For starters, Google reviews are a solid foundation for the first impressions of most people researching your brand. Google reviews are extremely visible and highly valued by users investigating various businesses. An abundance of good reviews can make them feel more comfortable patronizing a business, while even a small number of bad reviews can make them second guess their decision. Individually, this may not seem like much, but it can accumulate to have a massive impact on your business. According to one report, even a single bad review can cost you up to 25 percent of your total business revenue.
· Due diligence. Your savviest customers are going to do their due diligence before they even consider buying from you. They're not just going to look at your star rating; they're going to read the details of each review posted about your brand. If something distasteful catches their eye in a bad review, they may float to a competitor for the sake of safety.
· SEO value. Reviews also play a role in your search engine optimization (SEO). Having more reviews and better reviews is a positive signal, supporting you in the local rankings especially. A single bad review won't be enough to tank your entire SEO strategy, but you should generally strive for as many good reviews as possible. Finding a way to limit, delete, and prevent bad reviews can help you rank higher in search engines and generate more organic traffic overall.
Now to the main point: how are you supposed to delete Google reviews?
Remember, there's no way for a business to delete bad Google reviews directly. However, businesses do have the power to flag Google Reviews for human evaluation. If a bad review violates any of Google's policies, you can flag it, and hopefully, a human evaluator will decide to remove it.
These are some of the reasons you can flag a bad Google review:
· Off topic. Google wants reviews to be focused on reviewing. They encourage reviewers to write about the direct experience they had with the brand, rather than venturing off into personal opinions, speculative territory, or slander. If you feel that a bad Google review is not fully topically focused on the experience of your business, consider flagging it for removal.
· Spam. Google is pretty good at catching spam, but every once in a while, something slips through the cracks. If a Google review seems like it's hawking another product or if it's so low quality that it could easily be mistaken as spam, flag it.
· Conflict of interest. There are also policies in place to control conflicts of interest. If you can demonstrate that this bad review was written or facilitated by a close competitor, you can probably get it removed. Anyone with a financial interest in smearing the reputation of your business you should not be posting bad reviews about it.
· Profanity. Again, Google is usually good at catching negative reviews with excessive profanity, but sometimes, things slip through. If an inappropriate review features offensive language or obscenities, you'll be in a good position to have it removed.
· Bullying or harassment. One of the more nebulous policies of Google is a firm stance against bullying and harassment. This is a somewhat subjective standard, so it can be difficult to prove. If Google is too strict with this standard, bullying and harassment can persist indefinitely, but if Google is too lax with this standard, almost every negative review would be removed under the pretense that it's harassing the business owner. The line isn't always clear here, but if you sincerely believe that this review is more focused on attacking, threatening, or otherwise damaging your business than it is spreading honest information, flag it.
· Discrimination or hate speech. You should have no trouble getting a negative review removed if it includes any language that could be interpreted as discriminatory or containing hate speech. If someone insults you or your business due to race, ethnicity, religion, or other characteristics, flag the review and get it removed.
· Personal information. Google also has a policy against sharing personal information. If you find any sensitive information in a bad review, you can probably flag it for removal.
· Not helpful. Perhaps the most ambiguous category here is describing a review as “not helpful.” Obviously, Google wants all of its publicized reviews to be helpful to the people reading them. If a review is not helpful because it's not clear, because it's too obviously subjective, or because the details are too unbelievable, it's clearly not helpful for the people reading it. Be ready to justify what you think is not helpful about this review before you flag the review for this.
Remember that Google has built-in, automatic screening systems to identify problematic and negative reviews, so it's quite rare to find a Google review that’s publicly posted and in violation of one of Google's policies. Not every bad review for your business is going to be flaggable.
Obviously, there are some problems with this approach:
· No straightforward process. Unfortunately, the process is not always straightforward. You may have an issue with a bad review that was left for your brand, but it may not fit neatly into any one category for flagging for removal. In some cases, you may not be able to flag a bad review for anything.
· A slow process. If you do flag the review, it can take some time for someone to evaluate it. In the meantime, customers and prospects will be seeing and considering the review. Even if the review does eventually get removed, it can do some damage in the meantime.
· Unreliable results. There's no guarantee that the flagged review is going to be removed, even if you have a genuinely good reason for flagging it. Unfortunately, results here are highly unreliable.
· The Streisand effect. The Streisand effect is an internet phenomenon in which a person's attempts to bury or obfuscate a piece of information end up generating more attention on that piece of information. If your business relentlessly tries to hide or bury bad reviews, you might end up bringing more attention to your business and those bad reviews. Sometimes, the best course of action is to simply respond and let the negative review stand.
Instead of simply deleting every bad Google review you find, or bending over backwards to find ways to flag Google reviews for human evaluation, consider using the following strategies as alternatives for dealing with bad Google reviews:
· Authenticate and investigate. Take some time to investigate the review and authenticate what it claims. For example, if someone complains about the quality of the spaghetti you served them on Thursday night, and your receipts show that nobody ordered spaghetti on Thursday night, you'll have a basis for flagging the review – or responding with evidence that the review is in bad faith. The more information you can gather, the better.
· Respond in good faith. Consider responding publicly to the negative review and do so in good faith. Remain polite, accommodating, and concise in your response. In some cases, it's a good idea to apologize; in others, it's a good idea to provide supplementary information to properly contextualize the claim. For example, you may apologize that the customer didn't get the experience they want but point out that they arrived at your establishment five minutes after closing.
· Reach out to the customer directly. If you feel comfortable doing so, you can reach out to the customer directly. Ask them if there's anything you can do to resolve the problem or make up for the bad experience. In many cases, customers will be willing to take down their bad reviews in exchange for a refund, or replacement, or some other incentive. This isn't bribing someone to take down a negative review; Instead, it's an attempt to fix an underlying problem or offer a resolution where there wasn't one before. Again, be polite and straightforward in your communications with them.
· Follow up. If you don't get an immediate response, or if the customer doesn't take down their bad review, consider following up with them, especially if it's an inappropriate review. In private communications, you can move the conversation forward and hopefully work out a mutually agreeable course forward. If you can't make any progress, consider posting publicly that you reached out in private and offered to make things right. Even if users encounter the bad review, they'll see that your company genuinely cares about its customers and will try to resolve issues if they arise.
· Update your business practices. Even if you don’t fully understand or agree with the person who posted the negative review, there’s probably something you can learn about your target audience from this engagement. What can you change about your business to prevent this type of bad review in the future?
· Get more positive reviews. One of the best ways to drown-out negative reviews or fake reviews is to find a way to scale-up your positive reviews. The more positive reviews you get, it will dimish the impact of a couple of negative or fake Google reviews.
No business wants to get bad Google reviews, but even the best businesses must contend with them from time to time. If any bad Google reviews violate Google's policies and best practices, you can easily flag them for manual review and removal. Otherwise, there are plenty of alternative strategies that can help you mitigate and control those bad reviews.
Google reviews are just one aspect of your digital marketing strategy and overall online presence.
Juggling them with all your other priorities, like SEO, PPC ads, and social media marketing, can be challenging – which is why so many businesses choose to work with a comprehensive digital marketing firm for consulting, execution, and overall support. If you’re ready to get started, contact us for a free consultation today!
In the wake of recent Google updates, there have been varying opinions on how you can try to recover if your site was hit.
One thing has stayed solid — something we’ve been saying for a very long time: Using social media is vital to your site’s success. Social signals are a very strong Google ranking factor.
In the past, links pointing to your site were one of the main things that would tell Google your website was important and should rank higher.
But Search Engine Optimization (SEO) seems to have been turned on its head with the release of Google’s animal farm – pandas, penguins, and such.
Sites that had enjoyed top search rankings before were now getting hammered down so far in the search engines results that no one would ever find them. Some of these sites had spent a lot of time (not to mention money) on backlinks. It made sense. That’s what had worked forever.
But times have changed and undoubtedly will continue to do so. The one thing that has remained constant is that your site should continually get mentioned in social media by other users. The SEO world calls these “social signals,” and social signals may become even more important as time goes on.
So you may think: “Well, that’s easy enough. I have seen lots of places where I can buy thousands of Facebook Likes and retweets!” Whoa, slow down. Yes, there are plenty of places where you can buy mass Facebook Likes, retweets, repins, etc., … but you should steer clear of this kind of thing.
Sometimes these services will deliver what they promise; but a few weeks later, the accounts they used to do it with are gone. They mass-produce accounts and create nothing but spam links for their clients. This often results in those accounts being banned. Even if those clients take the trouble to enact measures necessary to avoid getting banned, it isn’t worth it.
You want to get likes, retweets, and such from real users with a real interest in your product or service. It’s even better if they themselves are viewed as some sort of authority in your industry and have their own collection of followers.
The mass services might have accounts with thousands of followers, but do you think those followers are real? Do you think they ever pay attention to the spam they’re sending out on an hourly basis? No.
So to get the most out of social media, you should be dedicating time each day to reach1) others in your industry, and) your target audience doesn’t mean you have to spend three hours every day on social. Often, setting aside 30 minutes or an hour will be just fine.
The trick is to stick to it. Share your high quality content (we know you’re creating awesome, helpful and relevant content that others will WANT to share, right?), but share other content and relevant news as well. Ask questions, answer questions. The nitty gritty on the “how” would be an entire post in itself, but that should get you started.
If you truly cannot find the time to do this, assign someone in your company to do it. Just make sure they get a little training for it. You can also hire it out to a professional. Just like traditional SEO isn’t a one-time thing, social media strategy should also be long-term for the best results.
I’m sure you know about Facebook. You know about Twitter. You probably know about Google+. But the world of social media certainly doesn’t end there, and the type of business or site you run plays a big role in determining which social media platforms are the best for you to use.
If you have something that would appeal to women, then one of the hottest social media channels you should look into is Pinterest. In October of 2011, the site had about three million visitors per month. In just one year that number has skyrocketed. It now receives an average of 25 million visitors (according to Compete.com).
When it took off, social media users were mostly made up of women in their 20s and 30s. Although men have joined in, it’s still mostly women. Half of them have kids. Check out this infographic from SearchEngineJournal:
Susan, the owner of SueBdo, owns a seasonal boutique that sells accessories, jewelry, signs, and babywear. She says she has racked up more sales in a single month after she started using Pinterest than she did in an entire year. She describes her products as preppy, timeless, and classic. After having a look at her site, I can see why she does exceptionally well on Pinterest. SueBdo and Pinterest are a perfect fit!
But the possibilities are wide open here. Photographer? Showcase some of your best work and categorize it into boards for the different types of photography you do weddings, high school portraits, babies, etc.
Do you own a restaurant? Pinterest users love all things food. Take some great shots (or get a food photographer) and get to posting. Blogger? Here are a few ways you too can use Pinterest.
There’s a lot of speculation about just how Google uses social signals for your site, but everyone agrees that they DO use it. In the midst of such drastic changes in SEO, this is one of the best and safest ways to protect your business. But don’t try to game it and take shortcuts. Not only will a well-planned social media marketing strategy help you rank better, but it is also a valuable source of targeted traffic to your site.
A robust digital marketing strategy that prioritizes social media engagement can significantly boost social media visibility and increase brand awareness across social platforms. By optimizing your social media pages, you enhance your social media signals, leading to more website traffic and potential conversions on your own websites.
Social media marketing depends on content as a type of fuel to drive interactions and increase follower counts. While social-exclusive, text-based updates can be effective, especially when made regularly, the true anchors to your social media campaign are the heavy-hitting pieces of content that you circulate on your chosen platforms.
Unfortunately, it’s not enough to simply post random bits of content and hope for the best. Your content must be high-quality, it must be developed specifically for your target audience, and it must be appropriate for your chosen medium. Some types of content simply fare better than others in the social world, and these seven types of content tend to fare the best:
And, by extension, how-to or instructional types of posts. Listicles are powerful for a reason; they are always concise and typically short, and they offer practical information in a familiar and easily scannable format. The result is a piece that any reader can quickly peruse for as much or as little information as they want—and because the headline usually contains a number or another indication of its formatting, it’s an attention-grabbing title in the sea of social media posts. While listicles are sometimes frowned upon as an “inferior” type of content compared to a longer article or whitepaper, they’re essential fodder for growing a social following from the ground up.
Listicles can also serve as the foundation for creating more engaging posts by incorporating visual content or interactive elements that encourage users to explore further. Content marketers and social media marketers alike can easily adapt listicles into valuable content for blog posts, making them more accessible and appealing to target audiences who prefer concise information over more traditional forms like long form content. This type of post can also highlight your brand's personality while offering content ideas that resonate with your followers.
This type of content is typically written but is much more involved than the typical listicle. Rather than consolidating lots of general information into a digestible, easy-to-read format, this content is all about breaking new ground with new data, new metrics, or new insights. For most companies, this means digging deep with some original research and publishing the results. You’ll spend more time and more money developing these types of pieces and you won’t generate as much attention as you will with a listicle, but the attention you do generate will be far stronger, and you’ll earn a much greater reputation for it in the long run. Use both in balance throughout your campaign.
Infographics have long been a favorite in the SEO community, and for good reason. Infographics take original research and insights and condense them into an aesthetically pleasing, easily navigable graphic image. Infographics are shared more than almost any other type of content, giving your brand extra visibility.
In addition, infographics tend to attract a ton of inbound links as other external sources cite your information, so your domain authority—and your search ranks—will increase as a result. The one downside to infographics is the amount of time and/or money they take to produce, so use them sparingly.
Infographics also perform exceptionally well on social media platforms, as social media users are more likely to engage with visually appealing content. Incorporating infographics into your content marketing strategy can complement your blog content and written content, offering a dynamic way to communicate key information.
For many companies, videos seem like an intimidating challenge that requires a dedicated expert or technical equipment. In actuality, videos don’t have to be professionally produced in order to have a great impact. Something simple, like a video recording of a speaking event your CEO attended, can carry just as much weight as something more complicated you spent weeks trying to film and produce. Share these videos when you can, but try to keep them on the short side—people tend to watch and share shorter videos more often than those longer than five minutes or so.
Videos also provide an excellent opportunity to showcase your brand voice and deliver entertaining content that resonates with your audience. By sharing video content on social platforms, you can boost your social media presence and create a more engaging digital marketing approach. A successful content strategy should incorporate videos not only on social media but also on your web pages to encourage user interaction and boost visibility.
Interviews are great pieces of content for a number of reasons, but there’s one quality that makes them perfect for social sharing: the fact that there are two authorities involved. As the interviewer, you’ll be seen as an authority and you’ll be able to share the material with your own followers.
The great advantage here is that your interviewee will also be seen as an authority, and they will be highly likely to share the interview with their own network of followers, greatly increasing the cumulative impact of the share. Audio and video formats work best, but make sure to include a written transcript on your site.
News events tend to attract a lot of attention, as your followers are always hungry for new information. Industry news is a perfect opportunity for this—simply share an article (yours or someone else’s) and include your own commentary on it. Start a discussion and get the community involved. You can also do the same with any company news you might have to offer, such as the launch of a new product or the hiring of a new employee.
Social media platforms serve as a gateway into other people’s realities, and real-time event updates make great use of this functionality. While you’re attending a local event, tradeshow, or conference, post regular images and updates as the event rolls on—and include the event’s hashtag if you can. Your followers will love the first-person perspective, and if they happen to be attending the event, you’ll earn extra attention and credibility.
Incorporate all seven of these types of content updates into your social media marketing campaign, no matter which platforms you use or which industry you belong to. Of course, the actual content you choose to create within these broad categories must be based on what your audience actually wants to read or view.
Performing some initial market and competitive research should help you start with a solid direction, but remember to adjust your strategy over time as you learn more about how your content impacts your social strategy.
Running a successful Google ad campaign is hard work. It requires crafting compelling ad copy, bidding on competitive keywords, and creating engaging landing pages.
It also requires having a handle on ad Quality Score. As the name suggests, this is Google’s official metric for measuring the quality of your ads. The higher your ad’s Quality Score, the higher Google will rank the ad and the less you will be charged for it. It's part of the ad rank formula.
In this article, we’ll go over exactly what the Quality Score is, how it’s measured, how it impacts Google Ads quality score, your Google ad performance, and more. You will also learn how to optimize your Google Ads account. Let’s get started!
Google Quality Score rates the quality of your ads in terms of their relevance to the search keywords you are targeting and their usefulness to users. It does this by comparing your ads to those of other advertisers on a scale of 1 to 10.
According to Google, you can use Quality Score as a diagnostic tool to “identify where it might be beneficial to improve your ads, landing pages, or keyword selection.”
The first step to improving an ad’s low-quality score is to understand how the metric is calculated in the first place.
There are three main components of Google’s Quality Score:
Source: https://instapage.com/blog/quality-score
Each of these factors is given a rating of “above average,” “average,” or “below average” by Google’s machine learning (ML) algorithms, which use historical data from other advertisers over the last 90 days.
In other words, Quality Score is based entirely on the “wisdom of the crowds” (Google users) as opposed to that of Google employees.
While Google doesn’t disclose the relative weighting of each Quality Score component, the click-through rate (CTR) appears to be the most important.
Why? Because at the end of the day, the number of people that actually click on your ad is the strongest indicator of its relevance to users.
Plus, Google relies heavily on ad revenue, and the only way it makes money from ads is if users click on them. Then Google collects money from advertisers. That’s how the cost-per-click (CPC) ad model works.
So, Google has a strong incentive to ensure its ads are high quality.
Quality score impacts your Google Ad performance in a few important ways:
First, the Quality Score helps determine which ads are eligible to enter the ad auction for a particular keyword. If your ad’s Quality score doesn’t reach a certain threshold, it won’t be considered.
Second, Quality Score helps determine how eligible ads are ranked in search results. The better the Quality Score, the higher the ad will appear.
Lastly (and perhaps most importantly), Quality Score helps determine an ad’s cost per click (CPC). Google discounts ads that have higher Quality Scores because it knows those ads will get clicked on more, leading to more ad revenue.
Again, without clicks, Google doesn’t make any money. So, if it can get generate more clicks by offering a discount to advertisers with higher-quality ads, it will.
The opposite is also true. If your ad’s Quality Score is lower than your competition, then Google will penalize you by requiring you to pay a higher CPC.
At the end of the day, Google just wants to make as much money as possible, and discounting and penalizing CPC is how it offsets differences in ad Quality Scores.
Source: https://www.clairejarrett.com/how-to-increase-quality-score-in-google-ads/
To improve your Google Ads’ Quality Scores, there are a few things you can do:
Knowing which keywords to target with your ads is essential to gaining a high-Quality Score. Some keywords may seem relevant to your product or service but, in fact, are not. To find out which keywords your target customers are actually searching for requires thorough research.When you get your keywords right, your ad CTRs will increase and so will your Quality Score.
Another way to improve the Quality Score is to tightly group target keywords. You want to make sure the ad groups aren’t too broad or else your ad relevance will suffer. If needed, split your ad groups into smaller, more tightly themed subgroups.
You can’t expect a high ad Quality Score without writing high-quality ad copy. After all, the content of the ad is what gets users to click on it. So focus on keeping ad copy short and to the point. Don’t try to be clever. Speak directly to your target customer’s heart so that they will be more inclined to click.
Of course, even the most compelling ads won’t do you any good if they lead to a landing page that isn’t relevant or useful. So you need to make sure your landing pages connect directly to your ad groups and provide a seamless experience for users from the initial ad to conversion.
Do this by creating a visual hierarchy, using minimal text, adding high-quality photos, and having different landing pages for different keywords and products.
Lastly, add negative keywords to your Google ads campaign. This excludes certain keywords that are irrelevant to your product or business so that you don’t waste any budget on them.
While not directly related to your Google Ads quality score, the quality of your brand's perception online can also be improved by deleting bad Google reviews. It won't matter if you're driving a bunch of traffic and you have a one star average with reviews from previous customers!
Ultimately, ad Quality Score is all about making your ads more relevant to users. Now that you understand how to do that, you can expect your ads to perform better in terms of CTR (performance) and CPC (cost).
That said, if you need extra help, PPC.co is here for you. Our expert marketers have decades of experience in running successful ad campaigns, and we’re confident we can take yours to the next level, too.
Contact us today for a free proposal. We look forward to chatting!
Clients always ask, "How long does it take to rank on Google?" It's a loaded question, partly because:
We have noticed a disappointing trend, particularly as it relates to high-volume, global keywords:
The process for ranking and vesting, which used to take 6-9 months, now takes closer to 3-5 years.
In some cases, and for some keywords, it takes even longer.
That's a heart-wrenching prospect, particularly for a startup that may want to outrank a long-standing competitor.
We put together a comprehensive list of all the most highly correlated Google ranking factors.
But chief among them, which is not listed, is TIME. That includes a vesting time for:
Keep in mind that this vesting assumes all else as being equal to other high-ranking websites, including the quality of the site's content in driving organic traffic.
Let's explore some of these issues a bit further.
If you wanted to give users the best possible online experience, would you want flash-in-the-pan upstarts with a little technical system-gaming know-how to be able to unseat 50 to 100-year-old established brands?
The search engine doesn't think so.
You need to build trust, and trust takes time.
Backlinks are only one of the Google rankings factors that help determine trust.
Trust comes from search engine crawlers, working to understand your site structure and how it fits in with the rest of the web.
So, here's the good news: as your website ages past the three and 5-year mark, you will notice something, and it will suddenly become easier to rank.
Your backlinks didn't change, and your content may not have updated in a while, but suddenly, your site finally starts to rank for things that matter to you.
Consider the following two studies by Moz and Ahrefs:
The older your page is, the higher the likelihood it will have of achieving higher Google rankings in the SERPs.
Consider this: the average age of position 1 in Google is nearly 950 days old! That's the average!
If you've been blogging like a beast for two years, tuning all your pages and doing plenty of off-site promotion, and you're wondering why you can't seem to beat the "XYZ brand," who outranks you in search, just give it time.
If you've been engaging in link schemes, buying paid links, or otherwise pushing too heavily in one area but ignoring factors in another, your web page may be subject to a reshuffle.
There are also algorithm weights that change with each update in Google's algorithm, which may trigger re-shifts in your Google rankings.
A reshuffled is also known as the Google Dance and can last for a day or for months at a time until you make the necessary changes.
Here are just a few.
If you wanted to change from:
SEO.co/backlinks to SEO.co/link-building or even from BobsMarketingAgency.com to Marketer.co, you are likely to see a negative impact on your site's rankings.
While it goes without saying that, in doing so, you would also create the appropriate 301 redirects in either your .htaccess or REGEX file, you should also consider the rankings impact of such a decision.
While most of the ranking will continue to flow, your redirect may pose its own issues and even cause a drop in rankings or, worse still, a reset of your vesting for a particular phrase or term. A vesting reset can drop you back and take months or even years to resurrect fully.
While admins at Google will tell you they ignore spammy backlinks for ranking, they don't tell you that the worst backlinks can actually cause your rankings to be pushed down even more.
Negative SEO (aka, "Google bowling") typically consists of either site hacks or pointing backlinks to a competitor's site from nefarious neighborhoods on the web.
While you can disavow and request the removal of these links, they may have a negative impact that could add months to your site vesting and keep your rankings suppressed for a very long time.
If you work to scale your total indexed pages in a relatively short period with increased content velocity, you may see an overall drop in your rankings for the following reasons:
You need enough content to rank but be sure you don't garble the message by creating content just for the sake of SEO content.
You'll want to create relevant content that adds value to your target audience.
When your website is not diversified in its ranking factors, there is a higher likelihood of receiving an algorithmic adjustment downward, particularly in the next Google algorithm update.
Notice I did not title it "algorithmic penalties."
An algorithmic penalty is a misnomer.
Search engines will mete out manual penalties or manual actions, but the algorithm only adjusts based on math and weights.
What may look to be a penalty may simply be the algorithm:
Unless you have had a manual action, algorithmic blocks are typically not permanent and can be reversed, but you just have to focus on fundamental search engine optimization (SEO) strategy on-page and off-page.
When it comes to ranking more quickly, there are a few questions you will need to ask, particularly as it relates to your content marketing strategy:
We have found the best way to shorten the gap to rank is as follows:
Your content doesn't need to be longer, nor does it use the Skyscraper technique (length does not always equal higher quality), but it does need to be better.
It needs to be MORE informative, MORE engaging, and MORE entertaining.
We have an internal formula that we implement for that.
ChatGPT or other AI tools can help create structure, but they mostly regurgitate for landing pages.
They are not as good at creating content quality that hits all the buttons.
In short, your content needs to draw website visitors in and keep them on the page, following along.
Compare your content to the top-ranking pages and posts and fill the gap.
We suggest using the following SEO tools:
These tools scan your pages and add the appropriate target keywords and LSI keywords to the body, title tags, headers, and meta descriptions so you are comparable to the competition.
To dive deeper, tools like Google Search Console and Ahrefs will also show you where you are deficient relative to your competitors and show you how you can close the gap.
Deficiencies could include more than just your written content but might encompass technical SEO like loading speed of the page, keeping in mind that sometimes tunes will indicate page load times should increase (typically because the content page is exhaustive and loads more slowly).
But beware not to over-tune or overoptimize!
Content promotion and link building outreach services are critical, but if your content is epic enough, it will promote itself.
So, if you can make it viral, then others are more likely to link to it, reference it or share it on social media. Just be careful where it is you are acquiring your backlinks from. It's better to get quality than to even touch low-quality links that can drag down your search engine rankings.
While not a direct Google ranking factor, fixing negative Google reviews can help with overall brand perception, particularly if you're in a local market.
Good things come to those who wait, especially in search engine rankings.
We often suggest working less on new sites and putting more time into older, more established sites.
It can be discouraging when new sites don't receive the rankings gains you want, even after a year or two of work.
Be patient. To rank in less than a year is partially based on luck, partially based on lots of input and hard work.
But your time will come if you focus on fundamentals and white-hat SEO strategies.
Google does not index every site on the internet.
The year-over-year percentage of the web that is indexed continues to decline.
With nearly 2 billion websites on the internet, it would prove excessively costly and make little business sense to index every possible page the internet has to offer.
Especially when nearly 10% of internet sites are scams at worst and spammy at best.
For the web's most competitive search terms, most users still don't scroll past the first page on Google.
Would it even make sense to have more than 100 indexed little blue links for a single query?
Not really, especially when 90% of clicks will go to the first few results above the fold.
Hence, the latest trend in Google's arsenal is the deindexation of low-quality, low-discoverability content.
Here's what that looks like in Google Search Console (GSC) under Indexing>> Pages:
In an effort to fight spam, search engines are cracking down on:
The latest trend to scale up content using AI (without much human intervention) reminds me of a brilliant statement made by Syndrome from The Incredibles:
The latest Helpful Content Update (or the Unhelpful Content Demotion as we like to call it) and SpamBrain update are the perfect combos to help fight what Google sees as a massive garbling of internet content devoid of true quality inputs to encourage active human consumption.
In other words, they're fighting content created for search engines and not for humans.
The ranking algorithm's new regime is especially deleterious to marketers who engage in heavy link building campaigns.
As Google and other search engines continue to deindex pages they deem irrelevant or spammy, the link building efforts of even some high-profile sites are likely to see a negative downward pressure on some sites' rankings due to search results indexing issues and redirect errors.
Think about how it would look in practice:
A site with hundreds of low-quality backlinks suddenly experiences a massive deindexation of a large percentage of its link graph, pushing its rankings down.
Adding insult to injury, pages in similar neighborhoods as other deindexed pages are more likely to also experience similar deindexation issues due to dynamic page requests, server errors, and bad or empty URLs, as their content is marked as irrelevant and bumped out of the index.
The good news is that Google is also kind enough to show you where your deficiencies lie so you can adapt accordingly.
Examples from GSC include:
Most of the issues listed above are simple fixes for a knowledgeable webmaster.
The two bolded are a bit more nuanced and worth further discussion.
While the chart above might get your cortisol levels rising, there are solutions to both avoiding deindexation and reversing the tide of existing deindexation across your website.
When you submit a brand new sitemap to Google, the web crawlers may take some time before they crawl your sitemap.
When your sitemap is crawled, the search spiders will notice pages to be crawled, but they will likely only crawl a small portion of your overall sitemap with each subsequent pass.
A site can have pages that are in a sitemap (which is a clear indication a webmaster would prefer to have them crawled and indexed in search), but that doesn't necessarily mean that:
The following two graphs are from the same site listed above, just for continuity.
Even when the search engines DO crawl, they may choose not to index your pages:
GSC will show you exactly which pages have been crawled but not indexed.
Any solution always starts with the quality of your content assets.
You may need a content quality audit which could use one or more of the following tools:
While some tools are meant to be AI plagiarism checkers, others are better at finding what keywords may be missing in the body of your text that would make them comparable and uniquely created.
Cora and Surfer do a great job of providing prompts for inputting the right LSI (latent semantic Indexing) and entity keywords that will be critical for a particular page to be statistically on par with other pages in top positions.
Furthermore, these and other software tools can show you other ways in which your page may be deficient compared to higher-ranking competitors.
We outline the most statistically significant factors here.
But the most important on-site factors to consider are:
If you have been using an AI tool to help generate pages, you will need to perform some human upgrades, but not necessarily a full rewrite of the content itself.
Robots (and even people) can tell when content has been created using GPT-3 and other natural language processing or machine learning tools.
Machine learning algorithms may not be able to discover the internet's ghostwriting problems, but they can discover AI-generated content.
A good content editor or editing team can also be incredibly helpful in upgrading your content, making edits, and otherwise improving.
There is a fun manual scan tool in the Google Search Console.
When you are done upgrading and updating your content, be sure to show the precise URL as a prompt in GSC for Google to add to the priority crawl queue.
While your sitemap will post any newly updated items to the top of the list when bots come to recrawl the site, this is more likely to speed up the time to get a recrawl and reassessment of the quality of your content.
Your content needs to be discoverable to search engine crawlers.
If you're not giving them the right signals, you will continue to have pages that are not indexed or fall out of the index. Build more links using relevant anchor text to the most important pages of your site, particularly those you want to have discovered, crawled, indexed, and ranked. It's that simple.
Just because a page or post is in your sitemap doesn't mean search engines feel it's worth ranking. You need to show them what is important through the proper use of search words, redirect URLs, and an efficient indexing process.
When users search for a particular search word, you want your category pages to be prominent in the search results. Simply having a page listed in your sitemap doesn't guarantee its importance to search engines—you need to indicate clearly which pages matter most.
Get the word out to industry-specific influencers, writers, and promoters about the value of your content and your site.
Notice this heading did not say, "Go out and build links.
"While link building can be helpful, it's also a double-edged sword when it comes to promotion, and the power of links continues to wane.
Yes, link building is a subset of your promotion efforts, but you should remain very picky about where and how your inbound links are acquired.
Other reputation management techniques, like cleaning up negative Google reviews can have an ancillary benefit as well.
The question you ultimately need to ask is, "Is my content truly an asset, or is it a liability?"
In some cases, and depending on search intent, long-form skyscraper content is completely dead.
Focus on answering a specific query, solving a real-life problem for someone's online search, and doing it better than your competitors, and you will win traffic.
If you want to rank for competitive terms, you will need to work page by painstaking page.
As a concept, content marketing is a relatively straightforward strategy. You write content that people want to read, publish, and syndicate it often, and eventually, you’ll build a loyal audience who likes your content, loves your brand, and buys more products and services from you. Unfortunately, the mechanics behind this process aren’t always as simple as they seem on paper. It’s not uncommon for content marketers to hit major obstacles along the way, disrupting their workflows and leaving them with inexplicable gaps in their results analysis.
These are seven of the most common roadblocks I see in the content marketing world:
The first pain point usually comes before you’ve even written an article. A great article must start with a great topic, so if you can’t think of any great topic ideas, you can find yourself in a difficult position. The same can be said if the topics you do come up with fail to have an impact on your target audience—you can measure this based on how many clicks your headlines are getting. In either scenario, the solution is to look in new places for topic inspiration. Start with industry news sources to stay up-to-date and discover new information about your niche, then move on to the blogs and websites of your competitors. Learn from what they’re doing—what do their customers like to read about?—just don’t copy their strategy exactly.
Many content marketers underestimate the importance of brand voice consistency. Your entire company’s identity is represented by its brand, and it’s up to you to showcase that brand accurately. If you deviate from the characteristics that define your brand or publish blogs with inconsistent tones, your audience can quickly become alienated. However, diagnosing these problems can be difficult even for experienced content marketers. Address the problem by gathering all your writers together and doing collective exercises that highlight what is and what is not appropriate for the brand. Make sure everyone is on the same page by the end of the meeting, and use one focal editor to do a final review of all subsequent articles before they’re published.
Too many business owners and marketers think that content marketing is about writing articles whenever you have time and publishing them whenever you think about it. This approach almost instantly vanquishes the possibility of building a loyal audience. If you want people to keep coming back to you for more, you have to have a reliable, predictable schedule. Create an editorial calendar with clear and consistent publication dates—if you’re just getting started, one post a week may be enough for your purposes—then assign responsible parties to ensure that those deadlines are always met, no matter what. In today’s fast-paced digital world, a well-organized content schedule is essential to thriving in a digital marketing transformation. Beyond just posting regularly, maintaining quality control over each blog post ensures that your content remains relevant and delivers a superior customer experience, even as you adopt new technologies to stay ahead of the competition.
One of the most important stages of quality content marketing is distributing your material so the greatest number of new people can see it. Typically, that means shopping your content around to different offsite publishers and syndicating your content through various social media channels. If you’re having trouble getting your work published offsite, do an audit of the types of sources you’re pursuing. Start off with local and industry-specific sources to build your reputation, and make sure your topics fit in with their respective niches. Then, work your way up to more authoritative sources. If you’re having trouble syndicating your content consistently, try scheduling your posts in advance, and use the time you save to engage with your audience in one-on-one interactions. Communities can only develop through engagement.
Content marketing is a demanding strategy. Two posts a week doesn’t sound like a lot until you’re in the thick of things, scrambling to get your posts published while juggling all your other responsibilities. Hiring a staff writer is one option, and hiring a freelancer is another, but one of the most valuable solutions is hiring a content agency to handle the work for you. Because content agencies are specialists, they’ll be able to do the work faster, quicker, and more reliably than someone off the street—even if they have an impressive resume. Content agencies not only enhance your company's ability to manage competing priorities, but they also bring new ideas and technologies to the table, elevating your overall content creation process. By working with a team of strong leaders, you can ensure your content aligns with your marketing strategy and style guide, allowing for different formats and a seamless integration with your existing content, all without requiring more budget than hiring a full-time writer.
At its foundation, marketing efforts are all about gathering, analyzing, and applying data in meaningful ways. When that data shows major hiccups or other anomalies, with no apparent explanation, it can be worrisome. Let’s say each of your posts gets 100 shares, then one day, your posts start getting around 20 shares. These anomalies could be the result of any number of factors, from your search engine rankings to topics to random seasonal changes that are simply unpredictable. Instead of trying to figure out what the problem is, adjust your line of thinking and start figuring out what the problem isn’t. Eliminate possibilities one by one until you’ve exhausted your resources or have found the problem.
Stagnation is another problem that most content marketers face at one point or another. Obviously, you want your audience and your traffic to grow steadily, for months and years after your initial digital marketing strategy development. Unfortunately, you’ll likely hit a plateau at some point, generating interest but little further growth. When this happens, inject your campaign with new life by adding an additional content channel, seeking new types of publishers to host your content, or simply stepping up the quantity and quality of the articles you produce.
When you hit one of these roadblocks as a content marketer, as you invariably will, don’t panic. It’s a normal part of the ebb and flow of the strategy. All you can do is analyze the situation, respond accordingly, and continue to make adjustments to perfect your approach.
If you haven’t been putting the power of Pinterest to use for your business, now’s the time to do so. This isn’t the first time we’ve talked about it, but Pinterest is worth writing about again since it has broken into the top 50 sites. According to ComScore, Pinterest was the 50th most visited site in the U.S. in September, with about 25 million visits.
Not that this should be much of a surprise. The growth of Pinterest over the past year or two has been enormous. Image sharing is definitely in, which explains why Instagram and Tumblr took spots on the list, too.
So the question is: Are you taking advantage of it? If your site or business is of interest to women and you aren’t on Pinterest, you are definitely missing out. Big time. Almost 20% of all the females on the Internet are using Pinterest.
Pinterest is a hybrid social bookmarking site where users can post (“pin”) photos and videos of just about anything to a “pin board.” Anything pinned to these Pinterest boards becomes publicly or privately viewable, depending on settings. It gives users a simple, clean way of sharing anything that people find visually interesting.
Users are finding lots of ways to make Pinterest useful, from planning a wedding to saving a favorite recipe, to redecorating a home.
From an SEO standpoint, Pinterest is a great tool for link building; every image pinned can be hyperlinked to any destination URL.
Even though Pinterest is still in its infancy, it already has lots going on:
If you are running a business, it’s time to register a Pinterest business account. You probably don’t need a tutorial on how to create one, as signing up for one is very simple.
Learn as much as you can about how to use Pinterest, its best practices, and learn from others about how best to use the site to share interesting things.
While it’s obvious by now that Pinterest is here to stay, businesses should use the site with caution. As with any website, Pinterest was created for real people with interesting things to share. It’s fine to promote things and make online sales but make a point of providing real value that other people will appreciate.
If you’re running a small business, it’s crucial to gain access to the benefits of a Pinterest business account. With over 400 million weekly users, your Pinterest profile can effectively showcase your products or services through engaging visual content and DIY ideas that resonate with your audience.
You might think that keeping your Facebook page up to date would be a higher priority than getting involved in a newer site like Pinterest.
But we strongly urge you to reconsider your social media marketing plan. To stay competitive, you have to evolve and stay on top of emerging trends. Take a look at the graph below (courtesy of BizRate Insights) and you’ll see that Pinterest users are much more plugged into buying mode than Facebook users.
Yes, there are many more bodies on Facebook and you should continue to interact with users there. However, the number of Pinterest users and people who know what Pinterest is continues to climb steadily. In January of this year, Shareaholic announced that Pinterest was driving more traffic than YouTube, Google Plus, and LinkedIn COMBINED. See that report here.
Because Pinterest has become such an important site for brands and businesses to be involved with, there have been some interesting tools and sites developed to help you get the most from it. Here are just a few that can boost your Pinterest marketing strategy.
You can view all the pins anyone has done from your site by entering http://pinterest.com/source/ and adding your domain to the end of that.
It can be tedious, though. PinAlerts makes it easy to know when someone pins something from your site. It’s still in beta, but it looks like a nifty little tool.
Not only can you use it to find out who’s pinning your stuff (helpful to see what’s being pinned, and to go and comment or thank them), but you can monitor multiple domains. So you could also use this to see what kind of content your competitors are using successfully and getting pins for.
Want to know what kind of value you have on Pinterest? PinPuff gives you a reach score (what kind of reach you have on Pinterest), activity score (how active you are), and virality score (the likelihood of something you pin going viral). You can use this to monitor your own Pinterest account, but you could also use it to identify influential people in your industry so you can follow them or invite them to contribute to your board.
When someone becomes a contributor to your board, he or she can obviously post pins (contribute) to the board. But what’s awesome about this is that now your board will also show up on that person’s page of boards. If you can get several authorities in your industry to contribute and they happen to have a large number of followers, this can quickly expand the number of targeted followers on your board.
When a user receives a request to become a contributor, the request appears at the top of his or her board page (visible only to the page owner) like this:
Here’s an example of a board with several contributors. Notice there isn’t a ton of pins (fewer than 100), but more than 4,000 followers have linked to this board:
Pinerly gives you access to powerful analytics information for your Pinterest ads marketing campaigns. You can identify popular pins, schedule and follow your pins to see how much attention they get, find people to follow, or unfollow people.
Pinterest can be a powerful marketing tool if used correctly. The chance of something going viral is very high, since according to RJMetrics more than 80% of all pins are repins.
You’ve already got a content marketing program in place. You may have been at it for a week, a year, or even longer, but you’re not sure whether or not your content is performing effectively. You may not even be sure how to tell whether your content is performing effectively.
That’s where this article will come in handy. There are actually several ways to define the “effectiveness” of content, depending on your goals—including whether the content is effective at getting people’s attention, at building your authority, or at increasing your page ranks—and all these types of effectiveness can be objectively measured using a handful of data-based insights.
You can start by using Google Search Console to track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as keyword rankings and traffic. Additionally, analyzing content marketing metrics like engagement and conversions will help determine if your blog post resonates with your target audience and contributes to content marketing success. These insights can reveal how well your content is performing in search engine results.
The easiest line of insight you can get into the effectiveness of your content is how your followers react to it on social media. If you aren’t currently syndicating your content through social media, your first step is to get started with it.
There are several signals to look for, and each is important. Look for user comments on your pieces, user “likes” or “favorites,” and perhaps most importantly—the number of times users have shared your content. Shared content is the highest compliment you can receive, so if you aren’t receiving any shares, you may have to reevaluate your content strategy. Also take some time to look at your “social” visits in Google Analytics—how many people are visiting your site after clicking the link to your content? If the number is high, you’re doing great. If not, you’ll have to take a look at your content marketing efforts.
Onsite comments can give you fantastic clues into the effectiveness of your content. At a glance, the number of comments you receive on your blog posts can illustrate how impactful your content is. Is it stirring up conversation or sitting stagnant on your page?
The type of comments you get is also important. Do you notice other industry influencers getting involved, asking critical questions about your work? If so, you’ve managed to make yourself an authority. Are several different people engaging in conversation over your work? If so, you’ve managed to get significant attention through your choice of topic. If you have few comments or if your comments don’t show that your visitors are engaged in your material, it could be a symptom of weak or uninteresting content.
Repeat visits are a great indication of the strength of your content. If your content can attract lots of new visitors to your brand, that’s a good sign that your work is immediately appealing, but if those visitors come back for more, it means you’ve truly delivered some great work. If that recurring traffic is retained, that means you’re continuously doing a great job of satisfying your users’ needs and expectations.
Generally, your direct visitors (the ones who click directly into your site rather than searching for it) are already familiar with your brand, needing no external prompts to stumble upon your content. You can also measure your recurring traffic more accurately by counting the number of people who have subscribed to your blog or signed up for your newsletter.
To determine your content’s effectiveness in its onsite context, take a look at the Behavior section of Google Analytics. Here, you’ll be able to analyze the actions of your inbound traffic and track to see how they act after reading your material.
For example, you may find that once a visitor finds his/her way to your blog, the bounce rate goes up. If that’s the case, it means your content is ineffective at keeping users venturing deeper into your site. However, if you find that your content leads people to other blog posts and other pages of your site, you can consider your content effective at getting people to stay.
From an SEO standpoint, you can track your progress relatively easily. In Google Analytics, take a look at the Acquisition tab and look at your Organic traffic. This number reflects the total number of people who found your site through search engines, and if you’re publishing content regularly, you should see this number steadily increasing, month over month.
If you notice little to no growth in your Organic visits, it could be an indication that your content is underperforming as an element of your SEO campaign. This could be due to low or inconsistent posting frequency, poor relevance to your niche, or low quality writing.
Also, analyzing engagement metrics such as bounce rate or time spent on a particular page can give you more insight into how well your content aligns with user search intent. If one blog post or piece of content is performing poorly, content marketers might consider adjusting their marketing tactics or even creating content for other websites as part of a guest post strategy to boost website traffic and meet their business goals.
Finally, you can take a look at how well your content is at getting people to convert. If you have a conversion field on your blog pages, you can easily extract this information and determine your conversion ratio for blog traffic.
Otherwise, you can map out your users’ behavior flows and determine whether your blog readers eventually find your conversion page and convert. If you find your conversion ratios are low or nonexistent, you’ll have to tailor your content to enable more conversions.
Just because your content is underperforming doesn’t mean it’s useless. In fact, the data you gathered to determine your content’s performance is the perfect ammunition to use in remolding it. Take this information, along with your user feedback, and use it to make up for your content’s core weaknesses. Reiterate this process several times, making improvements each time, and eventually you’ll perfect your content marketing approach.
There are numerous variables that go into running a successful social media marketing strategy. Factors like quality and frequency of posts, along with proper engagement quickly come to mind. These are obviously important, but choosing the network that caters to your target audience is equally important.
Since there can be a disparity in terms of user demographics on different social media platforms, you should understand which network best fits your business before launching a full-blown campaign. Here is a rundown of the demographic of some of the most popular networks to help you choose which one to use.
Many social networking sites, such as Facebook and Instagram, boast billions of monthly active users who primarily access these platforms through mobile devices. With social media apps becoming essential communication platforms, it’s important to choose the right social networking site that aligns with your business goals and target audience.
These two heavyweights are at the top of most marketers' to-do list, and rightfully so. Facebook is the elephant among social media channels. Twitter isn’t all that far behind. Consequently, both Facebook and Twitter tend to be great places to start your campaign and test the waters.
If your business has a broad demographic, you should be able to effectively reach your audience. The same thing can be said even if you have a relatively small demographic, and you’re trying to zone in on a smaller segment of the population. Regardless of your industry, you should be able to bring exposure to your business and establish a community around it.
While creating a presence on both of these networks is applicable to nearly any business, Facebook can be even more advantageous when you’re looking to reach females between the ages of 18 and 29. According to CMS Wire, the vast majority of Facebook users are women and young adults, which makes it ideal if this is your business’s main demographic.
When it comes to Twitter, it’s also popular with a young audience between the ages of 18 and 29. A large part of its user base is comprised of African Americans and individuals living in densely populated, urban areas.
Both platforms have millions of active users, making them a great platform to promote your business and interact with your audience. While other social media platforms are also part of the social media scene, Facebook and Twitter stand out as essential channels for paid advertising and enterprise social networks.
If you’re looking to grow your business and gain B2B networking opportunities, LinkedIn is an effective way to do so. Unlike other popular social media platforms that are more casual in nature, this one is designed for educated professionals who are looking to advance their careers. According to statistics by Quantcast, the majority of users have earned either a bachelor’s degree or completed grad school. Male users outweigh females, and a large percentage of them have no children.
LinkedIn users also tend to earn considerably more money than those on other networks.
For instance, individuals earning over $150,000 annually account for the largest number of users. Not far behind are individuals earning between $100,000 and $150,000.Another factor that differentiates this network from others is the average age of its users. Unlike many that cater to a younger demographic, LinkedIn users are typically older and range between 25 to 64 years of age. If you want to connect with an audience that is well-to-do and mainly consists of business professionals, this can be the perfect resource.
This popular social media platform has really gained a lot of momentum in the past couple of years. While it pales in comparison to the user base of Facebook and Twitter, it’s seen plenty of growth since its conception and could be a major contender in the near future. The concept of Pinterest is incredibly simple, which involves “pinning” images onto boards.
This simplicity combined with its eye-appealing aesthetic probably accounts for the success it has seen. Like Google+, Pinterest also has a significant disparity in terms of gender. The difference is that it swings the other way and has a massive female user base of around 72 percent.
Most users are relatively educated and have either attended college or have at least a bachelor’s degree. Users are primarily Caucasian and between the ages of 18 and 50. Going even deeper, the top geographic location of Pinterest is the south east United States including states like Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Due to the large volume of females who use this network, some of the most widely shared content is based in the following niches.
If your business focuses on any of these areas, Pinterest can be a potential gold mine. Since this site is image-centric, it’s a great resource for displaying pictures of your products or services in action. It’s also possible to achieve a level of virality on this network because of the ease with which users can share content.
Determining whether or not TikTok is the right platform for your business first requires an understanding of the platform itself and its purpose. To begin, it is important to know that TikTok is one of those social media channels that are primarily used by teenagers and young adults for entertainment. It allows users to create short videos, share them with others, and watch content from other users. It has also become a great way for businesses to reach potential customers, increase brand awareness, and engage with their audience. As a business owner, it is important to create videos that are both entertaining and informative so that viewers will be engaged and want to watch your content.
Additionally, if you can make sure that your videos are creative and original, viewers will be more likely to remember them. TikTok, like other best social media platforms, offers collaboration tools to help you create posts that resonate with your audience and expand your personal brand. When it comes to promoting your video content on TikTok, you can use hashtags, comments, and other forms of promotion to get the word out about your business. It is also important to understand that organic reach on TikTok is limited by its algorithm; however, you can boost your reach by running ads or doing influencer marketing. At the end of the day, TikTok is one of the best modern social media sites for businesses to reach their target market and engage with their customers. With our help, you can create an effective strategy on this business platform that will get you the results you need.
Many business owners have heard of this social media site, but aren’t necessarily sure how it can fit in with their marketing campaign. In a nutshell, Tumblr is a microblogging site that allows users to share a variety of content including text, images, audio, and links. They can upload their own original content or re-blog content from other users. It has an incredibly easy-to-use interface which many people find appealing and has contributed to Tumblr’s success. While you could consider this network in its early stages, more and more legitimate brands like IBM and J Crew are taking the time to build their presence on it.
The most noticeable aspect of this site is its young audience. If you’re in a business that’s looking to reach people over the age of 35, then Tumblr isn’t for you. However, if you’re mainly looking to connect with consumers between 13 and 25, you should definitely consider this network. One of the most interesting statistics is that more young people in this age group now use Tumblr than Facebook. According to The Real Time Report, 61 percent of teens and 57 percent of young adults use Tumblr regularly, while only 55 percent of teens and 52 percent of young adults use Facebook regularly.
While it’s not completely clear why Tumblr is so popular among young people, it’s suspected that it relates to the fact that most parents aren’t using the site. Consequently, teens and young adults can use it without their parents constantly keeping tabs like they can on Facebook and other more notable networks. If your business offers a product or service that’s youth oriented, Tumblr can be an excellent choice. The best part is that competition is likely to be minimal for at least a few years.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be confusing. With dozens of acronyms, technical jargon, tools, programs, statistics, techniques, and all the talk about pandas and penguins, it’s pretty intimidating.
Let alone the fact that SEO is a field that is in constant flux! In spite of the confusion, there’s a simple way to think about SEO campaigns today and beyond: as a set of three core elements that support each other to support an SEO campaign. Leveraging a strong social media presence and social media link building, you can improve your online visibility and reach a broader audience. You can also utilize Google Analytics, if you want to track the performance of both your website and other social media pages. It ensures that your target audience is effectively engaged on every social media platform.
Let’s take a look at each of these elements, as well as how to implement each of them to increase traffic, conversions, and ROI.
Discussed in detail below, but provided here in survey form, the three core elements are as follows:
I call these the three core elements because they are necessary for any modern SEO campaign to succeed. Without each of these three core elements, your SEO campaign won’t be properly supported and will likely fail. Before launching into an explanation of the three core elements, there are a few things to understand about how they work together.
The first core element comes first logically because it involves your own website — the hub where everything happens. This element can also be called “onsite SEO” to distinguish from SEO practices that happen off your site, such as external content that garners inbound links (such as guest blog posts) and social media involvement. Here are the essentials:
Organic link building tactics include guest blogging, press release distribution, and other tactics.
How do search engines decide to bring your website up to the top of the search rankings? Top-notch onsite SEO is only the beginning. Search engines recognize that your site is important based on who is linking to it.
Take this example. Let’s say you’re a yoga instructor. You have a website, and you start publishing some sweet articles about yoga. Somehow, Whole Living picks up on your content and asks you to do a guest post on yoga. You write a piece for Whole Living, and link back to your website.
Whole Living has a domain authority of 80, which is way higher than your site. Bingo. As soon as they link to you, your website gains credibility and authority. Then, you interview a health instructor in a local private college and post the interview on your website. The yoga instructor, in turn, writes about the interview on her college blog and links to your site. Boom. You just got a link from an .edu website.
Because you’re now a recognized authority on yoga, you publish an article in Lifehacker about the positive impact of yoga on work productivity. This article, of course, links back to your website. Another power move.
All of these links to your site are driving up your website's authority. Your site has proven to the search engines its authority and recognition. Your rankings go up.
No site will succeed in SEO unless other sites are linking to it. It’s just that simple.
Here are the best ways to gain quality backlinks:
Links are crucial. Ensure you have a solid strategy in place for building links.
More than ever before, social media is an integral part of SEO. Search engines can quantify the amount of social presence that your site possesses. Merely getting a few dozen tweets can ramp up a page’s authority, and therefore its rankings, resulting in more website traffic to it. The increasing market share of Google+ is a major ranking factor in social ranking, including the power of Google authorship. Social signals matter for SEO.
Keep these two points in mind.
The power of social for SEO strategy can be subtle, but is nonetheless important. Provide sharing opportunities on every piece of content that you publish. The greater the social signals, the better your SEO.
This is the state of SEO in 2013. Online marketing success is possible, but not without each of these core elements present and properly being engaged. It’s no longer easy to game the system and jump up the search engine rankings in Google with a few slick tricks. You’ve got your work cut out for you.
But you do have a game plan — understand and design your digital marketing strategy around the three core elements of SEO. As long as you 1) ensure that your onsite SEO is rolling smoothly, 2) you possess a robust and effective link building strategy, and 3) you’re staying active and engaging within social media platforms, you’re going to succeed.
Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Google+ have become the epicenter of marketing and social media campaigns for many businesses. According to Social Media Examiner, “83% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business.” While the act of posting content and interacting with followers is important, it’s even more important to measure the performance of your overall campaign through social media analytics tools. Doing so should ultimately help fine-tune your efforts, minimize mistakes, and increase exposure. Here are some techniques and useful tools to accomplish this.
Perhaps the best way to get an overarching idea of how well or poorly each network is performing is by using some basic features of this platform. Google Analytics is free to use and is the choice of many marketers because of its extensive features. Clicking Traffic Sources > Social > Overview will provide a rundown of all social networks that are bringing traffic to your site. This includes the number of visits via social referral in comparison to total visits, the number of visits from each network, and the percentage of traffic from each network. Reviewing this data will give you a rough idea of how well each social media platform is performing in relation to other networks.
For instance, Facebook might be bringing in 40 percent of traffic, Twitter is bringing in 20 percent, Google+ is bringing in 10 percent and all others are combining for 30 percent. Clicking “Network Referrals” will provide a bit more information, like total pageviews, and the average visit duration of pages per visit. Clicking “Visitors Flow” is another feature that shows which pages on your website visitors are landing on and from which social media platforms. Understanding this data is important because it’s a clear indicator of which networks are working, which need some attention, and which ones may be worth scrapping altogether.
One of the main indicators of how big your presence is throughout the social media realm is how many mentions your business gets across social media channels. This buzz is also known as social signals, which are a rising factor in search engine algorithms.
Hootsuite is an effective way to track those mentions and streamline your social media strategy. It’s also one of the most popular platforms and currently has over 600 million users. There are several other statistics that can be monitored, such as how many people have added your business to their circles on Google+, how many followers you have across major social networks, recent user activity, and daily growth.
When it comes to Facebook, you can determine who your fan base is by analyzing their demographic according to region, language, and posting source. Hootsuite also makes it easy to absorb data by offering over 30 different modules with a variety of charts and graphs. Since it’s available on mobile devices, this can be a great platform for keeping up with data while you’re on the go.
This has become the go-to social media management tool for many businesses. SproutSocial offers a plethora of features that cover pretty much every aspect of the social media process along with high-powered analytics. From the dashboard, you can keep track of:
In terms of published content, you can easily determine how many clicks and responses each message received, as well as the number of people each message reached. This is helpful because it’s possible to identify which types of content are creating the most buzz, so you can rinse and repeat later. It’s also possible to determine how well your brand is faring against other competitors. This is done by creating social scores based on engagement and influence and measuring them against the competition. By producing presentation-ready reports, it’s easy to track the long-term progress of a campaign across various social networks.
If you’re looking for comprehensive data to spot trends, brand reputation, and where your company stands against competitors, this is a platform worth considering. According to Simplify 360, they “provide you with a much-needed tool to listen to what your customers are saying about your brand on social media and a means to act on it.
Be it Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, news sites, or online forums, you will never miss out on any conversations that are relevant to your brand. ”When it comes to features, this software provides the basics like information regarding your demographics, the volume of traffic from major social media networks, and competitor tracking. There are also numerous other sophisticated features such as:
Like Sprout Social, simplify 360 produces engagement and influence scores in order to tell how your brand stacks up against competitors. It also has a detailed analytics system with numerous reporting options.
This is another platform designed to measure performance that has caught the attention of notable media companies like Tech Crunch, BBC, and Mashable. Their slogan is “social media monitoring and analysis made easy,” and their concept revolves around searching for hashtags or search terms. The data can then be exported to a spreadsheet, charts, or graphs for convenient viewing.RowFeeder is a bit simpler than the previously mentioned platforms and can only be integrated with Facebook and Twitter. Nonetheless, it’s helpful for tracking your campaign in detail and seeing how your brand is performing against the competition. Businesses primarily use RowFeeder for:
Finally, a simple way to determine how much your content is getting shared on various social media sites is by installing social share buttons. For WordPress-based websites, there are many plugins available, which only take a few seconds to install. Once set up, you can see how many times a piece of content has been shared on different networks. More social shares translate to more exposure and can be a litmus test for determining what sort of content or topics are popular among your audience.
With access to numerous social media performance measurement platforms, businesses have the ability to unearth detailed information that simply wasn’t possible a few years ago. By utilizing the right social media metrics, you can avoid making the same mistakes and improve all areas of your social media efforts. Over time, this should put you in the position to better understand your target audience, improve engagement, and generate more leads via social networks.
If you’re ready to launch your social media marketing campaign, see my article "How to Determine Which Social Media Network Fits Your Business” for a great starting point. Do you have any other tools you prefer to use for measuring social media performance? Let us know in the comments below!
The bidet and SEO industries have a lot in common.
We’re both involved in cleaning up messes.
We’re both interested in providing better user experiences.
And we’re both interested in experimenting with the latest technological advancements (even if it’s not always comfortable at first).
Though admittedly, achieving “number 2” in SEO means something very different than it does to the hygienic folks in the bidet industry…
Still, when an emerging bidet brand came to us with lofty aspirations and a desire to reach number 1 in the SERPs, we jumped at the chance.
It was an opportunity for us to show just how much of an impact a solid SEO strategy can make.
And boy, did we deliver.
The bidet industry presents some interesting challenges.
It's a growing industry, as more people in the United States discover the many benefits of using a bidet, rather than wiping with toilet paper. That's good for business, but it also attracts a lot of competition. Breaking into the space would require us to bear down, analyze the obstructions, and push with enough force to overcome them.
On top of that, this particular client was a fairly new brand with minimal name recognition, practically no domain authority, and a single, fresh deposit in their SEO efforts.
These challenges were significant, but we could never leave a brand behind – especially a brand that supports behinds.
It would have been a dereliction of doodie to “spray and pray,” targeting general audiences with unfocused keywords and phrases.
Instead, we put our efforts into targeted precision.
That meant choosing only the most valuable potential keywords for our client to target, thus maximizing our effectiveness and minimizing costs. The keywords we selected were highly relevant to the industry, relatively minimal in competition, and yet affiliated with high search volume.
This golden ratio is ideal for any SEO strategy. You need keywords and phrases that are relevant, capable of facilitating organic traffic, and still approachable. This way, you can speak to the right audience, rank faster, and accumulate as much traffic as possible.
A few weeks later, we were on a roll.
· Strategic analysis and keyword research. Everything started with a strategic analysis, combined with keyword research. We wanted to know everything there was to know about bidets, including how they work, who uses them, who's selling them, and how we could attract the most attention to this particular brand. Once we had a good game plan in place, everything became much looser and easier to pass.
· Onsite content support. Developing good content, or as we called it, making vowel movements, is always a crucial part of an SEO strategy. That's why we spent some time analyzing and supporting onsite content efforts. This particular client already had a thriving (and punny) blog, but we helped advise and fine-tune the content for SEO purposes.
· Onsite technical optimization. We also assisted with technical onsite optimization, analyzing internal pages for technical performance, keyword support, and more. With hundreds of ranking factors considered by Google, technical onsite optimization is hard to practice without an experienced SEO provider assisting you.
· Offsite content and link building. The heart of this campaign was in offsite content and link building. Writing and publishing offsite articles with various relevant publishers helps to increase your domain authority and page authority, ultimately increasing the subjective authoritativeness of your brand and thereby increasing your rankings. After even a few months of consistent external publishing, this bidet brand began to see positive momentum in the SERPs.
· Ongoing critical analysis. We’re not party poopers, but sometimes, it’s important to acknowledge the limitations of our own efforts. SEO is as much of an art as it is a science, and it requires some analysis and tweaking to be successful. We kept a close eye on our progress, especially in the first few months, so that we could learn from our efforts and adapt. Ultimately, this allowed us to achieve much more for this bidet brand.
Like a constipated accountant who couldn’t budget, some of our clients lack the resources necessary to support a higher-level campaign. But with even a modest budget, we can offer a collection of strategies capable of helping your brand achieve sustainable SEO momentum.
It was a splash hit from the start — flushing away any lingering doubts about our SEO strategy.
· An increase in overall ranking keywords by 10x. We were able to multiply the total number of keyword rankings for this client by a factor of 10. In other words, they rank for a number of keywords in order of magnitude larger than what they started with.
· Top 10 rankings for the bidet industry’s 5 most competitive keywords. From bottom to top, we cleaned up the rankings. This brand is now on page 1, in the top 10 rankings for all 5 of the most competitive keywords in the bidet industry.
· 300x impressions. For each impression this brand had before we started, it now has more than 300. Thousands and thousands of people are seeing this brand for the first time.
· 10x leads. With the sales pipeline officially unclogged, this brand saw a tenfold increase in leads. And we expect this is only the beginning.
· 4x sales. As you might imagine, this had a very positive impact on sales. Now, this bidet brand has 4 times as many sales as it did – and it's selling more on its website than it is on Amazon.
· Massive email list growth. As an added bonus, this bidet brand has seen massive email list growth. As more people discover and visit this brand’s website, the list continues to naturally expand.
As this bidet brand’s top competitors continue to circle the drain, we’ve been redoubling our efforts.
With a broader spectrum of target keywords, more onsite refinement, and of course, more content, we can push these results even further.
Perhaps you found the humor in this article corny. Perhaps you only liked a phew of our jokes.
But when it comes to delivering some of the best SEO results in the industry, we're quite serious.
If you're interested in a free consultation, with far more details and far fewer puns, contact us today!
We recently had an opportunity to work with a leading video production company, in pursuit of higher search rankings, more organic traffic, and more leads.
And at the risk of sounding arrogant, I think we knocked it out of the park.
In this brief case study, we're going to take a look at the strategic elements that helped us allow this video production company to see better results – and show off the fruits of our tactical approach.
Running a video production company isn’t easy.
This video production company, in particular, faced two massive challenges.
First, the video production industry is extremely competitive. There are literally thousands of agencies and individuals specializing in video production competing for a finite amount of online visibility – and a finite number of clients. Getting visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) for such highly contested keywords and phrases isn't exactly a cakewalk.
Second, this video production company relied almost entirely on word of mouth for lead generation. There's nothing wrong with word-of-mouth advertising or leaning heavily on referrals from previous clients, especially when you do good work. But it's not especially consistent at generating leads, and it's definitely not very scalable.
This company knew they would need to change things if they wanted to succeed in this competitive digital marketing world.
That's where we came in.
The most important elements of our campaign included:
· Initial analysis. We started with an initial analysis, examining the structure of their website, their current target keywords and search results positions, and their current efforts with onsite content and offsite link building. We wanted to pinpoint promising areas for development and get a feel for the efforts they've already made.
· Highly targeted link building. From there, we began a highly targeted link building campaign. Rather than trying to build as many links as possible, we aimed for quality over quantity and tried to acquire only extremely high authority, very relevant links. We ended up building 47 links on referring domains with high domain authority and topical relevance to video production.
· Valuable keyword targeting. Similarly, we focused on only the most strategically valuable keywords and phrases, identifying keywords that were high in search volume, high in relevance to prospects, and relatively low in competition. This way, we could maximize the value of our efforts.
· SEO page tuning. We also practiced SEO page tuning heavily for this client. In case you aren't familiar, SEO page tuning is a strategy focused on making hundreds of little tweaks to target pages to make them more relevant and more authoritative in the eyes of Google and other search engines. Even tiny adjustments, like adjusting phrases and reorganizing page sections, can make a massive difference. Thanks to Google’s new content search ranking identifier, it’s easier than ever to analyze exactly what’s missing from your internal pages so you can tweak them to perfection.
· Internal linking. Additionally, we prioritized an overhaul of internal linking. Google loves to see websites with intricate, intuitive internal linking networks, as this facilitates a smoother user experience while simultaneously making it easier to understand the purpose and relationships of each page.
· 18 months of growth. We continued our efforts for a stretch of 18 months, gradually and iteratively adjusting our approach as we gathered more data about our client’s performance. By the end of this 18-month campaign, this video production company was in a much better digital marketing spot.
Here are the most important results we have to show as results of our efforts:
· Top rankings for “video production.” Our client now ranks in (or close to) the top position for keywords similar to “video production,” alongside major competitors who have 13 times their revenue. They can now contend with some of the biggest names in the industry.
· Dominance of valuable keywords. Our client also ranks in the top 5 positions for each of their most desired and targeted money terms. These keywords and phrases are highly relevant for leads and prospects, making top rankings even more valuable.
· A 7x increase in traffic. From the start of the campaign, our client saw a sevenfold increase in traffic to their website. That means seven times as much visibility, seven times as many potential leads, and seven times the total impact of the website.
· ~7 highly qualified corporate leads per week. This video production company had practically zero consistent leads before we got involved. Now, they get on average seven highly qualified corporate leads every week.
We helped this video production company completely revolutionize their approach to SEO, traffic generation, and lead generation.
And they’re not alone.
In fact, they’re just one of hundreds of companies and individuals we’ve guided over the years.
And you could be next.
If you’re ready to see massive increases in your search visibility, traffic, lead flow, and sales, the first step is a free consultation with us – so reach out today!
Personalized marketing has become invaluable for companies targeting consumers today. It means leveraging data and preferences to anticipate, generate, and segment content tailored specifically to individual needs.
Crafting personalized messaging can benefit consumer engagement in terms of targets who feel both connected with the company as well as valued themselves which increases loyalty and thus sales conversions in the long run.
Here we will identify key benefits of tailored customer marketing, best practices regarding effective implementation, use of the right technologies (including programmatic advertising), successful case studies that harness its power, and strategies to overcome any existing challenges across this area.
It then ends on an overall takeaway of why such Marketing is important today enabling lasting brands and tremendous growth opportunities.
Tell customers today to expect effortless, personalized experiences with direct relevance to their interests. By understanding customer wants and needs through data collection and analysis combined with specially tailored marketing processes, companies can effectively offer an improved and highly personalized customer experience.
Relevance beyond functionality is the new normal in attention-deficit digital times - tailoring offerings aids in developing a sense of trust leading to better satisfaction given customers enjoy feeling unique.Plus, by addressing any relevant issues quickly loyalty will build up immediately improving chances for further sales while efficiently managing cost factors related to retention rates over engagement returns.
Personalization brings multiple benefits to a business, particularly increased customer engagement and loyalty. By developing tailored content and offers, customers will recognize greater relevance and value.
Personalization also sparks positive emotions that reinforce relationships by equipping people to form an intimate connection with their favorite brands.
This leads to improved customer sentiment resulting in trust over repeated purchases; creating the basis for successful engagement strategies, stronger Consumer Brand Interdependence (CBI), and great opportunities for word-of-mouth advertising.
Delivering quality messages that evoke pleasant memories or elicit sympathetic responses specific to expected user details is critical in maintaining excellent rapport between businesses and their loyal consumers.
Personalization significantly improves conversion rates and sales in businesses. Due to custom messages tailored to customers’ individual interests, likes, and purchase histories, they feel more connected with the company and are more likely to invest in its products or services.
Relevant content designed especially for these customers supports brands such purchase items of greater value and even buy multiple times.
As an outcome, this generic measure such as conversion rate shoots right up paving a bright path forward for a strong business presence o larger targeting audience base leading towards higher revenue growth.
Personalized marketing allows businesses to convey the values of their brand while encouraging enhanced engagement with current and potential customers.
With personalized campaigns, companies are able to increase both brand trust and customer loyalty by giving individual recognition that builds emotional connections.
Brand perception is significantly heightened studies have shown by utilizing tailored engaging content that associates itself from data context to personalized shopping recommendations.
Personalization offerings can also allow new businesses to rely more strongly stand out in competitive market segments and differentiate themselves based on these sentiments to embrace widespread customer appeal.
Collecting and analyzing customer data is an essential component of successful personalization strategy. Data-driven insights — such as buying behaviors, interests, preferences, and online activities outline the criteria to inform targeted campaigns and tailor campaign messages for the right audience consistently.
Gathering high-quality data from various sources including your corporate website's metrics can help segment user groups accurately thus presenting further customization correlation analysis to drive engagement.
Existing customer data analyses further integration into emotion with real-time optimization capabilities offer better user experience opportunities throughout all regards along the personalized marketing journey efficiently.
Segmenting target audiences is key to successful personalized marketing. Companies should categorize their users in different cohorts based on their profiles, purchase intentions, behavior, and interests.
This deeper understanding of who you are speaking to leads to more relevant messages and advertising tailored specifically for each individual strategy segment. Doing research about your audience before creating a marketing message ensures that your specific content stays engaging no matter what grouping it touches upon.
Exploring the customer data collected and properly segmenting the target audience would lay the foundation for customizing highly relevant content and marketing messages accordingly.Such personalization in messaging can be tailored to different consumer segments(age, gender or geographic), aimed at nurturing relationships while anticipating purchase behavior—making customers feel that they are being truly heard with content delivered specifically for their needs and interests.
Highly customized online experiences allow marketers to provide products better aligned with a consumers' specific wants & needs, greatly increasing engagement and satisfaction as well as transforming closer business relationships with customers.
The utilization of advanced technologies and automation in personalization helps deliver marketing content at high speeds, scale, with precision and consistency.
AI algorithms facilitate predictive analysis of customer behavior, scanning hundreds of data points to target the right consumers at the exact right time with relevant messages.
Marketing automation tools automate complex processes so marketers can easily manage and nurture automated campaigns including email & social media marketing creating more personalized interactions than ever before.
Additionally, leveraging facial recognition adds another level to customer identification allowing brands unmatched information security components coupled with dynamic pricing solutions for improved sales outcomes.
SourcePersonalized email campaigns can be highly effective for improving customer engagement and conversions.Customizable messages and content can be tailored to individual customers or segments in order to build meaningful relationships with them, while utilizing dynamic data targeting allows businesses to deliver more relevant and contextual marketing material.
This approach has seen excellent results when optimization assessments are regularly done, especially through A/B testing techniques.Personalized emails also enable marketers to track customer behaviour such as open rates, click-throughs and sales which provide invaluable insights that enhance future campaigns.
Dynamic website content and recommendations provide customers with personalized suggestions quickly that are best aligned with what the customer is looking for in terms of products or services. This capability allows customers to access only recommended items, streamlining their browsing experience and saving time.
Customers feel more cherished as facets of them are understood better by marketers when used as central elements of digital experiences such as reviews and sharing products on social media networks with simplistic click-through processes.
It also helps to add humor to keep it entertaining for consumers, which is what we like to do with our case studies, including this marketing case study for a new bidet brand.
Tailored product recommendations and offers are becoming more and more prevalent in marketing methods. Understanding customers beyond just demographics, spending habits, on-site behavior, and past purchases drives valuable insights that inform better recommendations essential for success in offering personalized experiences and engaging customers in products or services catering to individual preferences.
Automation systems such as AI, facilitate data integration of insights from multiple sources and increased dramatically customer interest- converting designs of tailored websites and coupons directly to improved momentum around individual brand experiences.
Adaptive advertising and retargeting are some of the most powerful tools in personalized marketing. This type of strategy involves different ads being served to customers based on the past purchase behavior they show.
By re-engaging prospects that have already shown an interest in their product or service, companies can maximize relevancy; going beyond audience segmentation and turning passive viewers into those ready to buy right away.
With a high return on investment and solid conversion rates, adaptive advertising is a must for businesses wanting to stay competitive and succeed today.
Leading brands face the uphill battle of ensuring data privacy and security while utilizing customer information to gain insights for effective tailored marketing.
As such, businesses must strenuously adhere to cybersecurity best practices including encrypted sharing of data collect in reliable digital systems integrations, protecting connotation servers, and utilizing best cybersecurity breaches proactivity seals.
Businesses need to develop clear strategies towards creating various a trusted relationships with customers whilst building a committed following by monetizing collected data its adequacy.
Balancing personalization with ethical considerations is one of the key challenges businesses face while embracing personalized marketing strategies.
Companies must ensure customers are provided with content in alignment with privacy laws, regulatory guidance and industry codes.
Also, regarding sensitive subjects such as race or gender, marketers should make sure they do not cross boundaries or risk upsetting a segment of their consumer base.
When utilizing personalized marketing tactics, overcoming technological limitations can be a challenge.
Software and systems exist to automate customer segmentation for content creation, but organizations often rest on what’s known locally, and their knowledge is lagging behind with regards to automation versus manual processes.
But software isn't everything, particularly if you begin to scale your sales outside your internal organization. However, when augmented by identified experts in the relevant fields they are stepping up. This helps drive targeted outcomes that reflect new technologies that’ll boost organizational effectiveness.
When using an approach tailored to one persona and overlooking the individuality of each customer, people may be weary or resistant to any change or diversification.
Companies should highly focus personalized marketing initiatives around enrolling customers into participation by engaging them through open conversation via various platforms in order to gain support from their clientele base.
It’s shown that building strong relationships yields improvement across factors of customer value, satisfaction, and customer service impressions.
Through education, businesses introduce ideas towards getting their team onboard with changing behaviors streamlining responses normally generated by manual processes allowing more time for individual approaches.
Personalized marketing has emerged as an essential tool in engaging customers and boosting Brand experiences. By collecting and analyzing customer data, segmenting audiences and customizing messaging to suit user behavior can lead to improved sales conversion ratios, and higher loyalty rates and create a seamless interface between companies’ products/ services and buyers.
Companies need to take necessary steps towards delivering personalized marketing solutions while balancing privacy concerns with staying true to deeply held values for ethical considerations.
As such marketers must continually process consumer data, sharpen strategies for better outcomes on their digital usage models, and embrace emerging technology support advancements far beyond mere automation processes all geared at enlivening the personalized approach of marketing outlets attempts.
Marketing heads and major decision makers within Fortune 500 companies are responsible for using consumer data to make better decisions.
You need to understand who your consumers are, how they think, and how they make purchases if you want to persuade them. This much is obvious.
But currently, we live in an age of hubris. That's because we live in the age of big data and AI. This combination of technologies entitles us to more data from more sources than ever before, and it enables us to crunch those numbers at record speed.
It's only natural that CEOs, CMOs, and other executive authorities feel like they're on top of the world. Now, every decision can be based on data.
But there's a problem.
There are massive consumer data blind spots holding Fortune 500 companies back.
And if you want to maintain your market dominance, you'll need to learn how to recognize and avoid them.
What do we mean by “consumer data blind spot?”
To put it succinctly, a consumer data blind spot is any error, inaccuracy, missing piece, or misinterpretation in your data sets or your interpretation of data that leads to a meaningful disconnect. Furthermore, because these are blind spots, you aren't aware they actually exist.
As an example, let's say you're buying T-shirts for a group of 10 people. You know the sizes of 9 of those people, so you know that there’s 1 data point missing.
But what you may not realize is that 3 of those people wrote down the wrong shirt size, or that 1 of them lives in a foreign country where shirt sizes work a bit differently.
These are blind spots.
Keep in mind that blind spots aren't just related to inaccurate or incomplete data. They also exist in the context of processing, analyzing, or interpreting data. Our example doesn't work here because T-shirt sizes are unambiguous and require very little high-level consideration. But more complex data sets for more abstract decisions are ripe with opportunities for misinterpretation and botched analysis.
If you want to make better decisions for your business, you need to be able to uncover and either eliminate or account for these blind spots.
So let's look at some of the common blind spots that plague modern business leaders.
Survey creators typically understand the importance of sampling – and getting responses from a representative audience. However, there are fundamental limitations to what surveys can tell you about customers.
Most notably, not everyone likes to participate in surveys. In fact, some people absolutely refuse to do it under any circumstance, even if you bribe them. You may receive enough survey responses to feel confident that you have a representative sample, but that representative sample will always disproportionately reflect the types of people who choose to participate in surveys. Even if it's only slight, this effect can become noticeable on larger scales.
This is especially noticeable in political arenas, where people with certain political beliefs are inherently less likely to participate in surveys. This is one reason why election polls are seemingly becoming less accurate with time, despite better tools and a better understanding of statistics to help us gather and analyze the appropriate data.
Also, we need to understand that customers participating in any kind of survey or feedback mechanism may be incentivized to give responses that don't necessarily align with their true thoughts and feelings. For example, an especially nice person might be unwilling to give a poor review of their experience because they don't want to get the customer service representative who helped them into trouble – or a person having a bad day may give a disproportionately bad review because of their emotional state at the time.
This effect becomes even more exaggerated when you attract more customer feedback through the use of incentives. For example, if you offer your customers a $5 gift card as a reward for completing a survey, you'll naturally attract many people who don't want to waste their time filling out a survey but do want the $5; they're not going to think about their responses very much, as they just want to get the survey done and over with.
This doesn't mean that you can't use surveys, focus groups, or structures for collecting customer feedback. On the contrary, these can be very good sources of consumer data. However, you need to account for this uncertainty. Just because most of your customers are leaving positive feedback doesn't mean you're making the best possible impact.
Most of you reading this will already be familiar with confirmation bias, but it’s an important concept that bears repeating for a very crucial reason: many people believe themselves to be exempt from this effect. In fact, many people believe themselves to be exempt from biases in general. It's only natural, as this is, in itself a bias: the illusory superiority effect.
As a refresher, confirmation bias is the tendency for people to exaggerate the importance of pieces of evidence that align with their preconceived ideas and downplay the importance of pieces of evidence that don't align with their preconceived ideas. It's a way of using the data to validate your preexisting conclusions, rather than to challenge them or naturally guide you to a new conclusion.
In our experience, confirmation bias is an insidious and notorious effect in the higher echelons of Fortune 500 companies. Instead of starting with a neutral view, leaders often form assumptions, then look to the data to try and prove themselves right.
In some ways, this is actually a byproduct of competence, knowledge, and experience. If you've spent the last 30 years in a certain niche, perfecting your professional skill set, you can and should feel confident about your abilities. You'll also develop a kind of sixth sense for the industry, giving you a legitimate way to “feel things out” even without data.
However, this can also lead to overconfidence and arrogance, causing leaders to assume that their assumptions are correct – and unintentionally ignore pieces of data that disagree with them.
Fortunately, there's a somewhat easy fix here. Even if it's only temporary, you have to assume the opposite of what you actually believe – and try to prove your initial assumptions wrong. In other words, you need to flip confirmation bias’s effects on its head, disproportionately weighing evidence that disagrees with you. If you can't possibly prove yourself wrong, you know you're onto something.
Organizations have also developed a tendency to ignore or underplay outliers. Outliers are data points that don't conform to trends or expectations. For example, let's say that 95 percent of your orders arrive at their destination between 3 and 5 business days after shipping. However, there are some orders that arrive in only one business day, and there are a couple of examples of orders that arrive after 25 business days.
In this example, it's easy to see that the outliers need to be examined. What caused such a massive delay in the shipments that took 25 business days? Why did that happen? How can you prevent it? Even if it only happened to one person out of thousands, it's still something that warrants looking into.
At scale, and in other matters, it's easy to write off outliers. And in some cases, it may be genuinely appropriate to do so. However, generally, it's important to at least acknowledge the presence of outliers and determine why they are outliers. Doing so can help you better understand the mainstream trends even better – and possibly help consumers who are otherwise neglected or ignored.
Black Swan theory, developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, seeks to examine and explain human behaviors related to major, surprising, transformative events that seemingly emerge out of nowhere. For example, nobody saw the 2008 financial crisis coming – and yet, with the benefit of hindsight, everyone becomes an economics expert who insists that the signs were all there.
The truth is, before a major, disruptive event, even the best experts in a given field are unsuspecting. After all, the status quo is the status quo for a reason, and the longer that status quo has existed, the longer we assume it will continue into the future.
But if you want to better understand your audience and make better decisions within your organization, you need to understand that Black Swan events can and do happen – and they tend to happen when you least expect them.
These events are, by nature, unpredictable, so don't bother trying to predict them. Instead, assume that major disruptive events can occur within your target demographics, such as a sudden shift to adopting a new technology or making significant spending cuts.
The proper way to approach this is to make your business agile and ready to respond to almost any conceivable crisis. Assume that you don't know and can't predict everything, and be ready to shift on a moment’s notice.
Blind spots can also emerge as a byproduct of overrelying on data. Yes, data is objective and it's the perfect foundation for decision making. However, if you treat data as a God and you assume that decisions can be made with raw data alone, you'll set yourself up for failure.
· The limitations of quantitative data. First, you need to understand that quantitative data does have limitations. Just because the solution looks good on paper doesn't mean that it works well in real life, and at the same time, not everything can be easily quantified. If you ask a person how happy they are on a scale of 1 to 10, and they say 6, what the hell does that actually mean? Different people can mean different things with the same number, so while it's not totally useless, it's also not perfectly accurate. We simply can't rely on quantitative data for everything.
· Historical data vs. future data. Second, you need to understand that historical data doesn't necessarily predict future data. Today, we have powerful data analytics engines fueled by machine learning and AI, but these tools can only help us project existing trends into the future; predictive analytics engines can't magically predict new technologies that emerge or consumer behavioral patterns that evolve. Just because something has trended a certain way in the past doesn't mean it will continue to trend that way in the future.
· Overconfidence. For the past couple of decades, writers and analysts everywhere have been extolling the virtues of “data-driven decision making,” and for good reason. But this has sort of poisoned leadership mentalities in Fortune 500 companies in various industries; leaders have come to assume that raw data is everything, and that it can be trusted inherently on every matter. This overconfidence makes blind spots worse, since you'll have no reason to actively search them out.
So far, we've looked at general and relatively timeless factors related to consumer data blind spots. But now, we need to turn your attention to an upcoming, specific event.
Despite several delays, Google and other major tech companies are preparing for the imminent death of third party cookies. If you've been relying on third party cookies to fuel your marketing and advertising campaigns, this is going to cause major ripples in your understanding of consumer data. If you haven't already been preparing for this shift, you're behind schedule.
Already, most organizations have begun to reoptimize their internal approach to gathering and analyzing consumer data. They're relying much more on first party data as well as internal financial data to better understand campaign performance and appeal to their customers more effectively.
We'll close out this article with a brief list of tips that can help you correct consumer data blind spots generally, as we only covered a small fraction of potential blind spots in this article.
· Rely on many independent sources of data. Blind spots shrink and eventually disappear when you gather data from more diverse sources. If a combination of surveys, focus groups, statistical analysis, behavioral analysis, and competitive research all tell you the same things, you can generally trust them.
· Blend quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data is great, but you also need qualitative data if you want to truly understand your consumers. Don't just ask them to rate their satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 10; prompt them for comments to explain their reasoning for the number they selected. It takes more time and it's more abstract, but it can lead you to better conclusions.
· Zoom in on outliers. Your natural inclination is to gloss over or completely ignore outliers. But instead, you should zoom in. Oftentimes, outliers hold the most critical pieces of information for better understanding a topic.
· Predict the unpredictable. You can't predict Black Swan events. But you can operate under the assumption that there's always a Black Swan event on the horizon. Consider the types of disruptions that could significantly influence your consumers and your organization, and develop strategies to respond to these disruptions with agility. Building more resilience into your organization is a useful auxiliary approach as well.
· Always estimate certainty fairly. Finally, approach your analyses and your decisions with a conscious, deliberate estimation of your certainty. How certain is your conclusion, based on what you know? This forces you to study areas of limited knowledge and more accurately assess your own understanding.
Are you interested in tackling your consumer data blind spots?
Do you need help better understanding your audience, your competitors, and the strategies you need to get an edge in the modern era?
Marketer.co is here for you. If you’re ready to take the next step, contact us for a free consultation today!
This past year, we had a massive opportunity to help a Fortune 100 company with their SEO efforts.
We’ll call it “Company A” for the sake of discretion.
As you can imagine, Company A was no stranger to SEO.
The marketing team at Company A had been managing a robust SEO strategy for many years – and they had a lot to show for it. They had strategically important target keywords, a relatively high domain authority, and an impressive spectrum of keyword rankings worth showing off.
But they wanted more. Naturally.
So they came to us. And we helped them spearhead a new campaign that pushed their search engine dominance even higher – and set them up for even more momentum to come.
Let’s take a look at how we helped a Fortune 100 company increase their keyword rankings by 45 percent.
Our initial engagement focused on consulting and strategic analysis. We wanted to understand Company A’s current goals, philosophy in marketing, and previous SEO efforts.
After a few meetings and a deep dive into their existing strategic targets and needs, we collaboratively developed a strategy we felt would make the biggest impact.
3 Months
So far, our campaign has lasted 3 months. That's not a lot of time in the SEO world; it's ample to see meaningful results, but the best campaigns last many years.
Still, we wanted to make the most of the time we had and prove that our efforts were worth continuing.
1 Vital Page
Company A had 1 particularly important internal page in mind for development. Naturally, we also wanted to build the company’s domain authority more broadly.
6 Vital Keywords
We decided to focus our efforts on 6 vital keywords with strategic value for the client. Each of these keywords had significant search volume, a high degree of relevance, and a host of powerful competitors vying for them.
If we wanted to increase rankings for these keywords, we would need to make our efforts count.
4 Waves of Link Building
Our role in this campaign was, primarily, link building.
Our link building efforts unfolded across 4 separate waves, each with a blend of diverse offsite targets. The goal was to build links across a variety of different websites with different DA scores – and maximize relevance to readers and publishers. We also mixed up our publication schedules and timing to make sure our links would be as natural and organic as possible.
Now for the juicy part – the results.
How much did Company A benefit from our new campaign?
First, let’s talk about their most valuable target keywords.
We’ll anonymize the keywords for the sake of discretion. For each keyword, we’ll show you the original ranking, the gain in ranking (in parentheses), and the final ranking (in bold).
· Keyword 1. 13 (+11) > 2
· Keyword 2. 18 (+16) > 2
· Keyword 3. 22 (+19) > 3
· Keyword 4. 11 (+1) > 10
· Keyword 5. 100 (+93) > 7
· Keyword 6. 16 (+7) > 9
Note that these keywords are highly competitive, head keywords. All 6 of their most valuable keywords are now on page 1, despite none of them being on page 1 before our efforts – including 1 keyword that barely made it to page 10.
On top of that, we led an increase in Company A’s total number of keyword rankings. Company A went from 1,812 ranking keywords to 2,627 today – a nominal increase of 815, or 45 percent.
The page we targeted started with an authority score of 52, and by the end of our campaign, it rose to 57, an increase of nearly 10 percent.
Our results for Company A speak for themselves.
But can we replicate these results?
We’ve had hundreds of engagements with hundreds of clients who can attest to that – and you don’t have to be a Fortune 100 company to benefit from our help.
At Marketer.co, we can help you with everything related to SEO and marketing, including:
· Strategic consulting. Arguably the most important part of your campaign is the strategy and research that happens before you develop a single piece of content. We can help you evaluate your current strategic position, including your domain authority, page authority, keyword rankings, and more. From there, we can help you develop a holistic strategy to achieve your SEO and marketing goals.
· Keyword research. It's important to recognize your most strategically valuable target keywords, based on their relevance to your business and your audience, their search volume, and the level of competition contesting them. Otherwise, you may not achieve your full potential in generating organic traffic or new revenue for your business.
· Content development. Content has been at the heart of SEO for more than a decade, and it continues to be the most important component of your strategy. We can help you not only figure out what types of content you need, but also develop those pieces of content on your behalf. We specialize in both onsite and offsite content.
· Link building. When it's time for link building, we can help you tap into our massive network of publishers to find only the most relevant, highly authoritative, trustworthy referring domains. Whether you're just starting out or are competing with some of the top names in the industry, we'll help you boost your authority numbers and rise to the top of the SERPs.
· Peripheral strategies. As our name suggests, we’re about much more than just SEO (though it is one of our greatest offerings). We can also help you with practically any peripheral marketing or advertising strategy, such as PPC advertising, social media marketing, and email marketing. Many of these strategies complement each other, so it pays to have a dedicated partner who can help you with all of them.
If you liked this case study, you'll really enjoy this bidet marketing example where we took a NEW bidet brand from zero to page one on Google in 18 months.
If you’re interested in learning more about how we achieve such impressive results for our clients, or if you’re ready to get started with a free consultation, contact us today!
There is a wide range of opinions on the practicality of social media marketing. There are the social media loyalists, who insist that social media marketing is the most innovative and important new marketing medium around, there are the naysayers who insist that social marketing is a fad and no real business would use it, and there are countless gray-area business owners in between.
It’s inappropriate to view social media as an all-or-nothing platform. Simply claiming an account and doing nothing won’t help you a bit. Posting regularly and engaging with your target audience can help you build a following—but what then? What is the value of having 10,000 Twitter followers or 10,000 Facebook likes if none of those followers end up making purchases with you?
In order to capture true value from your followers, you’ll have to take further action. You’ll have to make the types of social media content ideas that encourage engagement from your followers and call them to action on your website:
The product highlight is one of the simplest types of converting posts you can take advantage of, and it’s one of the first most businesses consider. The format of your highlight is up to you, but the function of the post is to introduce a new product or service to your follower base and highlight the most important elements of it. For example, if there’s a new dress available on your e-commerce platform, you can post a flattering picture of it and briefly describe the unique benefits of the dress. It’s a way of making a direct appeal to your users and attracting those who otherwise might not see the individual products you sell.
If you have any followers who like your brand but haven’t made a purchase, a consumer review can push them over the edge. In the socially connected digital world, the highest level of trust a brand can achieve is the approval of a peer.
For example, if a follower sees one of his/her friends post a review of a given product on social media platform, he/she will be far more likely to make a purchase.
On your own social media profiles, you can use this to your advantage—cultivate real user reviews, user generated content, and post clips of them to your audience directly!
Exclusivity is a powerful tool for two reasons. First, it makes the deal seem better, simply because fewer people have access to it. Second, it makes each of your followers feel more connected to the brand, like a clique.
Your exclusive discount doesn’t have to be anything extraordinary—something like 10 percent off can be just as effective as anything else. The key is to let your users know it’s an exclusive deal, and not provide that offer through any other social media network.
This post will call your users to immediate action, and increase their loyalty to the brand simultaneously.
The special offer is similar to the exclusive discount, but there are many more options you can play with. For example, you can offer a free sample product to new fans in exchange for filling out a brief questionnaire. This is a common Facebook tactic that gets people to submit their information, ultimately resulting in a conversion (if the acquisition of information qualifies as a conversion for your company) in exchange for something small. If your conversion goals are more tied to actual purchases, you can use something like a “buy one, get one free” offer to attract more purchases.
The giveaway is another tactic that has a dual effect on your conversion rates. The setup for the giveaway is up to you, but the bottom line is that you’re going to give away something valuable for free to one or more of your social media followers.
You’ll select these winners from a pool of participants. It will cost a bit of money to front the giveaway item, but there are two critical effects for this type of post: first, you’ll get people more engaged with the brand.
By taking action in a giveaway-style scenario, they’ll feel more connected to the brand and they’ll be more likely to take action in the future. Second, seeing the giveaway item will prompt people to purchase one for themselves once they learn they haven’t won.
The social incentive can work in the context of other social media ideas—for example, it could work in conjunction with the giveaway or with the exclusive discount. But the goal here is to get your users to share one of your central posts. Hashtags are a useful tool for this, but the mechanism for social sharing is up to you.
Getting your customers to engage your brand through social sharing will make them more likely to take action in the future, and will also serve as peer validation that makes your brand more trustworthy to other followers.
Rather than doting on a specific product or leading people to a specific page, sometimes it’s more advantageous to speak to a specific customer need. Look at why your customers would want a product rather than what they would want—and you can use user surveys to uncover this information.
However you go about it, address the need specifically in your blog post. For example, if you’re selling windshield wiper blades, rather than showcasing the highlights of your new wiper blades, you can introduce them with something like “Are your wipers leaving streaks in the rain?”
Another way to prompt users to action is to call them out on an individual basis. If a follower responds to something you’ve posted, show your appreciation for it. If a follower comments on your page and shows interest in a specific product, give them more information.
Giving that level of personal attention looks great for your brand, and will go far to help drive users to finally make a purchasing decision.
The time-sensitive deal is exactly what it sounds like. When your followers feel like they’re under the pressure of the clock, they’re going to be more driven to action. Sales that last 24 hours or products that are only available for a week can immediately drive more traffic and more conversions—the trick is to post about the deal progressively, so your users can see the time actively running out.
Of course, the power of conversion doesn’t rest solely on social media networks. For many business owners, it’s easier to write engaging content that leads to a conversion onsite. If that’s the case for you, you can use your relevant content as the anchor site for your conversions, and then post a link to it through social media platforms.
With these 10 types of social media post ideas, you can convert your army of followers to an army of real, purchasing customers. In social media marketing you may find that some work better than others, but through trial and error, you should be able to find the right posts to translate your follower numbers to numbers that truly matter—bottom-line revenue.
Just remember that your followers are people, and if you want them to stick around, you’ll have to keep nurturing the community involvement organically.
Have you ever had to manage a fleet of vehicles for business?
It's hard work.
We've never done it, personally, but we're becoming increasingly familiar with the demands of such an operation.
Maintaining a fleet of vehicles effectively requires constant attention to inspections, conditions, warranties, and more – all while trying to keep costs minimal.
A good fleet maintenance software platform can help in all these respects, but it can't help you unless you know it exists.
That was part of the problem for the fleet maintenance software company that came to us with hopes of accelerating to the top rankings in relevant search engine results pages (SERPs).
It was our pleasure to get behind the wheel and take the fast track to greater organic traffic.
Today, they're one of the best and most visible fleet maintenance software companies on the market.
So how did we get there?
Digital marketing is more accessible, yet harder than ever. With so many key competitors fighting for the top spots in SERPs and so many ranking factors to keep track of, it's not straightforward for a business owner to devise or implement an effective SEO strategy.
Admittedly, it's not hard to reach rank 1 for a keyword, assuming you don't have preferences for what that keyword is. There are plenty of long-tail phrases that are unpopular and undesirable enough that even a modicum of SEO investment can put you in the top spot.
But this isn't good enough for a fleet maintenance software company that wants real leads and real sales.
If we were going to truly help this team of fleet maintenance professionals, we would need to adopt a much more strategic, targeted approach.
We had a need for speed – a genuine desire to see results as quickly as possible.
Of course, we were somewhat limited by the nature of SEO, which requires months, and sometimes years of effort to see meaningful results.
That's why we started an 18 month campaign, so we would have plenty of time to flesh out our strategy – and still prioritize relatively quick results.
· Strategy and keyword analysis. In the SEO world, everything starts with a strategic analysis. We took a look at the fleet maintenance industry, including competitors, and did a close examination of strategically viable keyword targets. For this campaign, we wanted to focus heavily on keywords that were directly relevant to the brand and its customers. There was no reason to try and achieve rankings or traffic for audiences that weren't going to be interested in buying the product.
· Technical onsite optimization. Good campaigns also rely on technical onsite optimization. We need to make sure that our clients’ websites load consistently, quickly, and across all devices and browsers. We also need to make sure to fulfill as many technical ranking factors as possible.
· Onsite content development. Strong onsite content is still an ideal foundation for any SEO campaign, as it lends itself to higher website authority, more relevant keyword optimization, and better opportunities for inbound linking.
· Offsite content and link building. Much of our work focused on establishing a more powerful superhighway leading to this client's website. We developed content featured in a wide range of different offsite publishers for this client, building links throughout the process. This offsite work supported visibility, referral traffic, and of course, higher authority that could lead to higher search engine rankings.
No SEO campaign is without its minor hiccups and deviations. In fact, this is a critical part of the process. As we closely analyzed our own methods and our client’s performance, we were able to learn more about this unique SEO niche – and eventually deploy the tactics necessary to help this fleet maintenance software company dominate their top competitors.
Some of the most impressive results of our efforts include:
· Exclusively relevant keywords. Some brands can afford to target general audiences. But most people aren't business owners, and most business owners don't have a fleet of vehicles to maintain and manage. Accordingly, we knew we needed to be as specific and highly relevant as possible in our optimization campaign. We targeted relevant keywords almost exclusively, prioritizing and highlighting only the keywords most likely to result in sales.
· 2.5x increase in organic traffic. As a result of our combined SEO tuning efforts, we were able to provide this client with a 2.5-fold increase in organic traffic. In other words, this client is now seeing two and a half times as much traffic from search engines as they were before this campaign started. And because we exclusively targeted relevant keywords, we can be reasonably assured that this traffic is chock full of qualified leads and potential buyers.
· 3x increase in total ranking keywords. We were able to multiply the number of total ranking keywords for this client by a factor of three. They're now appearing in searches for three times as many keywords and phrases. Almost any relevant search for this type of product will feature this brand.
· 4x increase in ranking keywords in positions 1-4. Visibility can be a tricky thing in SEO, as high rankings are disproportionately valuable. For this fleet maintenance software company, we were able to achieve a four-fold increase in ranking keywords in positions 1-4. Positions 1-4 represent roughly the top half of the first page – and websites in these positions receive the lion’s share of the traffic for a given query. These high rankings are largely responsible for the massive increase in organic traffic we were able to provide this client.
Are you ready to hit the road and leave your competitors in the dust?
Are you looking for only the best results for only the most relevant target keywords in your industry?
We’re ready to copilot.
If you’re ready to start the conversation or searching for a digital marketing agency, reach out for a free consultation today!
Social media marketing has been popular for years, and according to our recent “What Works in Online Marketing” survey, it’s still on an upward trajectory. Marketing professionals everywhere are looking to increase their social media marketing budgets, while marketers and entrepreneurs who haven’t yet tapped the enormous potential of the strategy are scrambling to make up for lost time.
Still, there are marketers out there apprehensive about getting involved with social media marketing, mostly concerned about its effectiveness and its long-term viability. These are legitimate concerns; on a superficial level, it’s easy to understand why one might view social media marketing as a fad, and the relative unpredictability of bottom-line results can be troublesome to the uninitiated.
If you’re concerned about the potential return of social media marketing, I encourage you to first look at the costs. Social media is extremely affordable, especially considering the level of returns you can potentially earn, and being aware of its estimated costs can help you budget your strategy efficiently.(NOTE: this article explores the organic side of social media marketing. Paid social advertising is not taken into consideration here).
First, let’s take a look at the potential cost bases for social media marketing. Claiming accounts and posting on social media is completely free for almost any platform, so what you’ll actually be paying for is the human effort it takes to manage a strategy.
There are four main options to work with here, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
(Image Source: UpWork)
It’s important to note that how much you invest and what you invest in has a direct bearing on the results you’re going to achieve. For example, if you’re only interested in setting up a basic network for social visibility, you can invest a pittance, but if you’re interested in building an audience of thousands, you’ll need to invest significantly more.
This makes it difficult to project any one “standard” cost basis for social media advertising, but I shall do my best to present the general considerations you’ll need to bear in mind when creating your overall marketing budget (including, PPC & SEO prices).
Now, let’s take a look at the individual elements of a social media marketing campaign, and approximately how much they could cost. For the most part, we’ll be looking at raw man-hours of work here, rather than a monetary value, because your mode of work will modify the final cost as a critical variable.
Don’t overlook the strategy and planning portion of social media marketing. If you go in without a formalized plan, you’ll have no goals to reach for, no direction on what to do, and your team members will end up wasting time. You should spend many hours doing competitive research, researching your demographics, learning best practices for social media, and eventually coming up with a step-by-step game plan for success, formally documented to ensure accountability. This can take days or weeks of work, depending on the depth of your strategic aims, but the good news is it only needs to be done once (future modifications aside).
Next up, you have setup costs, which include the time cost of finding and claiming your individual social media profiles. If your business already has these, you can skip this step, but if not, you’ll have to go through the motions of establishing your social presence. For the most part, this is simple; take a look at how easy Twitter’s initial signup process is:
(Image Source: Twitter)Admittedly, there are a few steps beyond this, but they still aren’t complicated. The hard part is filling in all the details, like your hours of operation, business description, and some basic images for people to find you with. Still, even if you’re claiming an account on every major social media platform, it should only take you a day or so to wrap everything up.
The bulk of your strategy is going to revolve around creating posts. These can take a number of different forms, but the bottom line goal for each one is to provide some meaningful content to your audience:
(Image Source: SkilledUp)Ultimately, your posting strategy will probably take 1-3 hours per day, possibly more if you’re pursuing an aggressive strategy.
Engagement is the other side of social media marketing, and I would argue, the more important of the two. Engagement is the truly “social” element of social media—here, you’ll be responding to inbound posts, answering questions, and otherwise interacting with your audience. Without these community engagements, your social media platforms will function more as a megaphone than a means of conversation, and your users will become disinterested.
It’s hard to estimate exactly how much your engagement will take, since at least half of it is based on how many people you have reaching out to you. Some days, you may be flooded with inquiries, and others you may get none. In either case, you’ll have to check in to look for new notifications and initiate some engagements of your own. Count on at least an hour a day here.
Also consider the fact that your social media strategy will be tied to other marketing strategies your brand utilizes. I’ve already mentioned how social media plays into your existing content marketing strategy, but your SEO strategy will also be indirectly affected; engaging with influencers can help you in both these areas. Email marketing, specific sales, and other promotional strategies may all require additional or special efforts from your social campaign, so count on some extra time expenditures for those.
(Image Source: IAG.me)
Once you get past the hurdle of building an initial social media following, you’ll start having to post more often, engage more frequently, and keep track of more complicated statistics. It’s almost impossible to do that all alone, so you’ll probably need some assistance with tracking software, post schedulers, and organizational tools to improve your efficiency. There are dozens of tools like this on the market, most of which require a paid subscription, and you’ll need at least a few of them to keep things moving. Overall, you’ll end up paying a few hundred dollars a month in these tools; it’s possible to scrape by without them, but they do add a lot of value to your campaign, especially at higher levels.
(Image Source: Sprout Social)
Finally, you’ll need to spend time measuring and analyzing your performance. You can use some of the tools you subscribe to, but you’ll still end up pouring in a few hours a month to compile and draw conclusions from the data. The hardest part here is forming actionable takeaways, which you can feasibly use to update your original social media strategy and refine your approach for your future campaign execution.
It’s hard to ballpark a “general” amount of time needed for social media marketing, but as you can see, you’ll need to count on at least several hours per week—at larger scales, you can probably justify a full-time dedicated position.
Now, let’s take a look at the two key variables that will influence how much you need to spend to be successful in your campaign:
Take a look at these key considerations for niche and scale, and how they’ll influence your overall budget.
Look at how much your competitors seem to be investing in social media marketing, and how they seem to be investing it. This is going to tell you three things:
This is mostly going to be dependent on your demographics, but your type of business may also come into play here. Think carefully about how active your users are going to be on social media; if they’re highly active, you’ll need to invest far more time into posting and engaging with them. If they’re more passive, you can let off the gas. For example, younger generations tend to be more active on social media than older generations, but you’ll also need to consider where your business fits in; will people be coming to you with complaints and questions regularly? Or are you the type of brand people only need once every few years?
Some businesses are naturally going to have more posting opportunities on social media than others; this is inherent to your industry and the types of actions your company takes on a regular basis. This is best illustrated by example.
Consider National Geographic, a brand that prides itself on photography. Instagram and National Geographic were a match made in heaven because National Geographic can use the photos it’s already taking as the fodder for its campaign.
(Image Source: National Geographic/Hubspot)This is a form of corporate multitasking; if the bulk of your posted content can come from actions your company is already doing, you’ll require substantially less investment of man-hours than a company trying to develop all its content from scratch, 100 percent of the time. The reverse of this is that to be successful in social media, you may have to go out of your way to find more opportunities to post.
This is a complicated variable, because there are no right or wrong answers, and there’s an infinite combination of approaches you can take. Eventually, you’ll have to settle on one group of different social media channels to support your brand. The types of platforms you choose will have a massive impact on how much time you’ll need to invest to keep your following growing.
For example, Twitter is a platform that’s fast-paced and generally built on in-the-moment content consumption. You’ll have to check in to Twitter more frequently than something like LinkedIn, and you’ll probably have more engagements to worry about as well. Instagram, on the other hand, is a bit slower paced, but also demands the more complex task of finding images to post. Obviously, working on more social media platforms is going to mean more costs, and sometimes those extra costs aren’t met by an equal rise in rewards. Consider your platforms carefully to maximize your efficiency.
Depending on the nature of your business, you may also consider using social media for multiple different purposes. The SaaS industry, in particular, has high enough demand and enough of a digitally active user base to qualify it for hosting multiple accounts. As an example, SalesForce uses many different social profiles to host its many different options, services, and functions, from support to careers and options for developers:
(Image Source: Twitter)All of these will take extra time and effort to manage, so bear that in mind when outlining your strategy.
Now that you know the different types of costs you’ll need to account for, let’s explore the pros and cons of each type of social media management pricing model you can use, as well as approximate costs for each option.
Full-time workers, as a model, are the hardest to gauge from the outset. Do you need one full-time staff member? If so, and you end up requiring fewer than 40 hours of work per week, you may end up wasting time and money. Can you dump your social media responsibilities onto the plate of someone who’s already a full-time staff member? Feasibly, but at what point do you need to scale?
In any case, the costs here can be prohibitive. If you’re hiring a professional (as you should), you’ll end up paying at least $40,000 a year in salary and benefits, which translates to between $3-4,000 a month. Feasibly, you can split the responsibilities here, but even if you’re only using 10 man-hours per week, that still translates to $1,000 a month. You’ll also have a hard time with the scaling process; eventually, one worker will be overwhelmed, and you’ll have to hire a second. The learning curve here is steep, and the costs only get steeper as you add more team members.
(Image Source: PayScale)
Consultants and freelancers tend to be less expensive than full-time hires for a variety of reasons:
However, freelancers are also less reliable and somewhat harder to find, and you may experience growing pains as you try to manage all your workers at once. On an hourly basis, fresh freelancers may charge as little as $20 an hour, on up to hundreds of dollars an hour for experienced consultants.
For the most part, agencies and marketing firms are an ideal investment. They carry a number of advantages over both full-time workers and freelancers:
The only downside is that agencies can be costly, depending on the scale of your campaign. Average costs range from $500 a month for starter packages to $10,000 a month or more for national brands. Chances are, you’ll only need a smaller package, but even a few hundred dollars a month can be intimidating if you’re just starting out.
Of course, the best all-around model is probably the hybrid model, because it allows you to pick and choose a plan that’s going to net you the best results within your budget. For example, you may hire a person full-time whose partial responsibility is picking and choosing freelancers to support the majority of your platforms. Or you might invest in a social media agency as part of a monthly retainer, while still using your staff members to help fill in the gaps.
If you’ve read this far, you’ve undoubtedly developed a better idea of why it’s so hard to project accurate social media marketing costs in the first place. There are too many variables to possibly narrow down the costs to any one specific figure.
Still, I’d like to try and break down the costs for a number of different campaigns and phases of development:
Now that I’ve estimated the overall costs of a social media marketing campaign for small, average, and large businesses, I’d like to leave you with a handful of final takeaways:
Ultimately, your social media marketing campaign’s costs are going to depend on your niche, your competition, and most importantly, your goals. With the right social media strategy and enough commitment, an increase in expenditures is going to correlate with an increase in eventual return, so if you want to see the best possible results, don’t skimp. Do your research, get the best deal you can, and pick the options that are going to work best for your business.
Social media marketing remains one of the most popular online marketing strategies because of its approachability, versatility, cost effectiveness, and best of all—its potential for long-term growth.
As your audience grows, all of your efforts become more effective—you'll be reaching a bigger audience, sporting more engagements, and accordingly, you'll get a higher return on investment for everything you post.
The key, therefore, is building a big enough audience to yield those returns, and that means attracting more followers.
So, how do you get more followers?
Here are 101 ways to attract and retain new social media followers.
First, I want to clear up a few misconceptions about what having lots of followers really means. The "follower" metric may change in name—"followers" on Twitter and Instagram may translate to "likes" on Facebook, "connections" on LinkedIn, and "subscribers" on YouTube—but in function, it remains relatively consistent. These are people who have noted your brand as one to stay in touch with online, and they'll receive updates from you as you post them. In theory, the bigger this number is, the better; having more people to distribute content too means your content will get more viewers, and it's an indirect measure of your brand's popularity.
However, don't get too carried away by this idea. The quality of your followers matters a great deal as well; for example, you'll see much higher engagement and effectiveness with a strong, loyal, dedicated audience of 100 than you will with a disinterested, apathetic audience of 1,000. This is why it's vital that you avoid buying cheap likes or followers directly, and instead attract them naturally with your own content and ongoing efforts.
It's okay to use each social network's paid platform to buy followers (such as buying likes through Facebook's own platform), but avoid buying likes or followers from third-party vendors, as these followers will actually do more harm than good – they're usually fake accounts or disinterested people who get paid some small amount of money to "like" or follow online brands all day.They'll almost certainly stop following you after a short amount of time, and even if they continue to follow you, they'll have no interest, and thus no engagement, in your posts. This lack of engagement will cause social network algorithms to consider your content as being lower quality than it actually is, which can cause your organic reach to fall. This, in turn, causes you to have to pay more to achieve the organic visibility you otherwise could have had.
Imagine a brand – brand A – that has 100 real followers, and averages 30 engagements per post. That's a 30% engagement rate. Now, imagine a competitor –brand B – that has 100 real followers, and 100 bought fake followers (for a total of 200 followers). Each post still gets 30 engagements, for a 15% engagement rate. Facebook and other social networks take note of your engagement rate and give priority to brands that tend to have higher engagement rates. So, by purchasing 100 fake followers, brand B reduced its engagement rate, which causes its organic reach to drop, compared to brand A.
Now, brand A has less followers than brand B, but it actually reaches more people with each post. This is why more followers can lead to more value for your brand, but only if you truly earn them.
With that being said, let's dig into how you can earn more followers for your brand. I'll start by exploring some general tactics and approaches you can use to attract more followers, then dig into a handful of strategies for each of five major social media platforms that matter most: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
These are ways to get new followers on virtually any platform:
Your first tactic for attracting new followers happens before you draft your first post, and before you even claim your social media profiles. You have to come up with a strategy for what type of followers you're going to attract and how you're going to attract them. Who are you trying to target? What types of platforms do these users rely on for communication? How do they use those platforms? What content do they need to read? The more specifically you can target a niche, the better. Plus, you'll need to consider your competition, differentiating yourself as much as possible so you stand out in the crowd.
When you move to claim your brand's profiles on various social media sites, make sure you're filling out your profiles completely. If you just have a company name with no description, people won't have any idea what to expect from you, and they probably won't end up following you. On the other hand, if you have a profile that's completely filled out, not only will users have a greater volume of more accurate information with which to make a decision, they'll also see that you take your presence seriously. This isn't a difficult or time-consuming process, so there's no excuse not to do it.
(Image Source: Facebook)
As you're filling out your profile, you'll want to spend some time optimizing it for keywords and phrases that your target audience might search for. For example, if you run a pet store, you might use phrases like "pet store in Seattle," or "best pet supply store in Seattle." Most users rely on Google and other general-form search engines to conduct their searches, and you'll get some potential ranking benefits here, but this is more targeted to users looking for brand profiles on social media sites specifically, using their respective search functions.
If you want people to follow you, you need to make it easy for them. Most people won't go out of their way to find a company on social media, but if they see a convenient link to a company's profile page, they might take that bit of extra effort. For starters, make sure you include links to your social profiles on your website, both on the homepage and on your contact page. You'll also want to include these links on as many outbound communications as you can (such as email footers), and display your social presence on any physical, tangible marketing assets you may have, such as business cards. The more exposure you give yourself, the better.
Along similar lines, it's far less likely that someone will copy and paste the link to your article on their personal social profiles than it is they'll click a button to share your article directly. Encourage more people to share your material by featuring social share icons on all your blog posts—and don't worry, it's easy to do. This won't allow a person to follow your brand directly, but it will generate much more exposure for your brand on social media channels, which should lead to the pickup of at least a few extra interested followers. Just look at any of the posts on the Marketer.co blog and you'll see our social share buttons, which include counters that show how many times each post has been shared.
If someone has willfully subscribed to your email newsletter, they're interested in your brand. If they weren't, they would have unsubscribed by now. Therefore, everyone on your email subscription should have a vested interest in following you on any social media platforms where your presence exists. Take advantage of this by promoting your strong social media presence via email; start by including links to your main profile pages, but also create calls-to-action such as "be sure to follow us on Twitter for more special offers and the latest updates," and consider embedding social content, such as your brand's latest Instagram photos.
This isn't a glorious tactic, but it is an effective one, especially when you're just starting out. There's something of a "popularity of popularity" effect in social media; people will be more likely to follow you if you already have lots of followers. Accordingly, in the early stages, when you have almost no following to speak of, it will be hard to generate initial momentum. Instead of trying to recruit strangers, simply ask your employees, friends, family members, and other people you know personally to help you out. Most people will be willing to spare the time it takes to click your "follow" button that you set up on your website.
In this same vein, you can make a callout to people with a vested interest in your business, such as clients, partners, and vendors. Depending on the nature of your business, this may be essential to your collaborative operations; for example, clients can get updates about when your app is undergoing maintenance, or your partners can stay in the loop with your latest marketing promotions. Hopefully, you'll be able to pick up at least a few dozen extra followers here, especially if you pledge to follow them all back.
Your brand voice may not seem like it's an important feature of your presentation on social media, but it can have a massive impact on how people interpret your messages. For starters, you'll need to develop a brand voice that's both appealing and distinct from your competition; what makes you unique? What makes you valuable? This could be anything from a wicked sense of humor to an air of almost-overconfident grandeur. Once you settle on a brand voice, keep it consistent across all your platforms and everything you post—any deviations here could make people unfollow you.
Consistency is what's going to make people stick with you for the long haul, so in addition to applying consistency to your brand voice, you'll also need to apply it to the way you post. For example, if you want to become known for producing stellar infographics, you can't post them erratically or unpredictably; try posting a new one once a week, or every other week. Instead of posting updates randomly as you think of them, try to post at the same frequency every day and every week, so people can get used to the rhythm at which you post.
Your on-site content contains some of the most valuable marketing assets your brand has. Promoting them via links on your social media platforms has a two-pronged effect; first, you'll fill your social feeds with more valuable material that your followers will appreciate, and second, you'll promote your content so it becomes more visible and more effective. When you do this, make sure you pair your article with a catchy, compelling headline or lead-in; your original headline may be suitable, but be sure to adjust it if it needs some extra flair.
As a general rule, you'll want to post at least once every day (with possible exceptions for the weekends). First, this gives your users a degree of consistency; people will be more likely to continue following you if you're providing them with a consistent flow of content. Second, this shows your commitment to being active. New prospective followers who browse through your older posts will see how consistent you are in posting every day, and will be more likely to follow you. Just keep in mind that some platforms—like Twitter and other fast-paced feeds—typically favor multiple posts per day.
Live streaming video is one of the more recent fads taking over social media. Because Internet speeds are faster and more available, users are equipped with mobile devices, and they're demanding more in-the-moment content, live video has become a majorly popular form of engagement. Consider doing a live feed on your Facebook profile (or through Periscope on Twitter). As for the topic or situation, that's up to you. You could live-stream your attendance of a speaking event, give a monologue, or even host a Q&A session that keeps your users engaged. Just make sure it's in-the-moment and valuable for your followers.
Don't underestimate the power of a good joke in attracting new followers—even if your brand voice is traditionally more serious. People love jokes because we enjoy the feeling of pleasure we get from laughing; this feeling draws us closer to the brands and people that made us laugh in the first place, and also compels us to share that feeling with others. This is why especially clever or humorous jokes have a tendency to get shared and liked thousands of times. It may take you some time to think up something good and original, but when you do, don't hold back.
(Image Source: Twitter)
Hashtags are the social media world's way of categorizing and organizing information; they were originally developed as a way to make it easier for users to search for certain subjects (not to mention introducing their own contributions to search). If you learn to harness them properly, you can optimize your own posts for social searches. For example, if I were to distribute this article on social media I might use categorical tags like #socialmedia or #morefollowers. Just be careful here; if you stuff your posts full of too many hashtags, or if you use hashtags inappropriately, you could end up appearing foolish or amateurish. I have a quick reference guide to proper hashtag use that I published on Forbes.
Don't forget that social media is a two-way street. As much as you want to post and have users comment on your material, other users are making posts and hoping for comments and interaction as well. If you give them those comments, they'll take notice, and they'll be more likely to follow you as a result. Find individual profiles or posts with hashtag searches or with social listening software, and comment on ones you think are interesting. Even something simple like "awesome post! I loved the section about wildebeests" can get you noticed and hopefully, earn you a new follower. Just make sure you're being sincere.
You can also use social listening software and other modes of content discovery on social apps to find discussions that are already in progress. Try to find topics that are in the process of being hotly debated, questions that are in the process of being answered, or other threads of discussion with high levels of user interest. Present yourself as an authority, offering your own perspective and advice (preferably with data or anecdotes to back you up). This will demonstrate your expertise and introduce you to new followers simultaneously, giving you the chance to earn many new followers.
When you first start out, you probably won't see much engagement, but as you start to grow, you'll notice more and more users actively commenting on your posts and engaging with material you publish. When you notice one of these comments, respond to it—you can thank a user for reading your piece, agree or disagree with a point they've made, or ask them for more details about what they think. Anything you do will make you seem more appealing to the user in question, and will make you seem more invested and engaging to other prospective followers.
(Image Source: Twitter)
You should also take some time to follow accounts that are relevant to your brand. You can start with "who to follow" and similar suggestions on each platform, and use search features to find more. This will have a number of different effects. First, your newsfeed will start filling with more diverse forms of content (and therefore more opportunities to share and engage). Second, your activity will be noticed by those accounts, and many of them will reciprocate by following you back. Finally, you'll be introduced to more users who might be interested in your brand. A good place to start is by identifying your competitors' social media profiles, then finding a list of their followers (which is typically easy to do). Simply follow your competitors' followers and you'll target people who have already expressed an interest in your competitors' products or services.
Sharing is a powerful tool in the social media world, and it's not one you should neglect. Take the time to peruse content that's being posted by other people in your industry, influencers, as well as some of your individual followers. When you find something your audience would find interesting, share it. You'll help fill your daily "valuable content" quota, and you'll simultaneously make someone's day. If you share a user's content, they'll be far more likely to share some of yours in the future.
Influencers are social media users who already have access to lots of followers and command a ton of admiration in their respective fields. Even getting mentioned by an influencer could potentially expose you to hundreds of thousands of new users, so it's in your best interest to find out who these people are and keep track of them. Keep an eye on how and when they post and jump on any opportunities you see to engage with them directly. For example, if they involve themselves in a discussion, you can debate them or back up their points with your own data. Or you could go the direct route and ask them a question of your own. The key is to get yourself noticed, and hopefully mentioned. You can use BuzzSumo to find influencers quickly and easily in any niche.
If you want to go a step beyond just engaging with influencers, you can go out of your way to promote their material. This might involve sharing one of their posts with your audience, or something more involved like writing a follow-up or response to their original pieces. Either way, this is a fast way to get noticed, and if you continue scratching their backs, they'll be more likely to scratch yours. They may share some of your content once they notice how active you are, or you might open the opportunity to ask for a favor directly.
Speaking of asking for favors, as you build up your relationship with a given influencer, you may eventually ask for an opportunity to collaborate on a piece of joint content. There are many ways to collaborate in content marketing, and any of them can be valuable; for example, you could engage in an interview, each write a different section of a cumulative piece, or each contribute a bit of research to a bigger whole. The advantage here is that you'll be able to cross-promote your piece, giving you access to a huge new breadth of new followers.
Contests are somewhat gimmicky ways to attract new followers, but you can't argue with results. The idea here is that you'll offer the general public an incentive for engaging with your brand. You might ask them to "like" your Facebook page, follow you on a given platform, share a piece of your content, or use a specific hashtag strategy. If they do so, you'll give them a chance to win a prize (either randomly or determined by some round of evaluation, as decided by you). Contests give users a reason to engage with your brand, and are highly shareable, making them prime opportunities to attract new followers. The only downside is that these users might be more interested in your prize than your actual brand. You can use a tool like Rafflecopter to hold your contests & giveaways.
(Image Source: Social Media Week/STAR Fine Foods)
There's never a bad reason to post visual content on social media. People are far more likely to engage with visual content than they are with written content, and photos are one of the easiest ways to produce it. You don't need to be a professional photographer; in fact, you probably have a pretty decent camera on your phone already. All you have to do is take a picture of something marginally interesting or couple an appropriate image with an interesting caption. There are no rules here; more photos will help you stand out in searches and newsfeeds, giving you more opportunities to attract more followers.
Visual content isn't limited to photography or real-time video, either. You can spend time creating your own visuals and potentially earn even higher follower attraction and engagement rates. If you have access to a professional graphic designer, you can design your own infographics, charts, and graphs to make a huge impression with your followers. But even if you don't, you can create your own illustrations and doodles for a similar effect. Sometimes, the amateurishness of your work can endear you to your users more than sleek professionalism ever could. Don't be afraid to bust out the stick figures.
I already covered the potential of live-streaming video, as well as video as a form of photography, but you can also create graphics-based videos, like the video versions of infographics. These can be used to graphically illustrate abstract concepts, accompany another piece of content like a written article, or simply entertain your audience. These generally take some time to develop, and require the hand of an experienced designer, but their engagement rates tend to be high.
Social media is also a valuable place to sneak preview any new features, new products, or other company developments before they officially go live. This is a way to reward your existing followers for following you, which will increase your retention rates, but it's also a way to seem more appealing to fans of your brand who aren't following you yet. If your concepts are interesting, they'll be shared often, introducing you to extended sections of your target audience. Plus, you'll be able to gather some initial feedback before you finalize your concepts.
Trending topics are ones that are seeing exceptionally high posting volume. They tend to last only a few days or weeks, but at their peak, millions of users will be posting about and looking for content about the trend. Generally, these are categorized with hashtags, enabling you to research the latest trends manually by monitoring posting rates. However, you can also use social listening software, or specific content research software like BuzzSumo or Google Trends to find out what new topics are trending. Just make sure you have something valuable to say about the topic and aren't just brandishing it as a tool to boost your own popularity.
(Image Source: Hashtagify)
times are more valuable than others when it comes to social media posts. For example, most platforms see a spike in activity around the noon hour, but each platform has its quirks. For example, Pinterest sees far higher rates on weekends, while Twitter declines sharply after about 3 pm on weekdays. You can aim to post at the most popular usage times to get in front of more people, but keep in mind that others are pursuing this strategy as well—it may be worth testing your posts during off times, when your content is less likely to be lost amidst the noise.
Social shares are a powerful way to get new followers; when a user shares a piece of your content, it's instantly exposed to a new audience you previously had no access to. Moreover, this kind of share functions as a kind of personal recommendation—if your friend shared a piece of content, you'll be more likely to read it than if a stranger offered it. Try to make your content more shareable to achieve this. You can do this by making it more entertaining, more surprising, more practical, or by appealing to some specific emotion. For further help on making content shareable, see What Makes Content Shareable & Why It Matters for SEO.
As your brand grows in prominence, you'll start getting questions from social media users looking for advice on topics in your niche. When you encounter this, answer those questions—give a good answer, and you'll almost certainly win a new follower, while also getting more visibility for other prospective followers. If users aren't asking you questions directly, you can use social media search functions to seek those questions out and answer them the best you can.
Consider hosting live events at your office or in the general vicinity, and live update those events as they unfold. For example, you could host a lineup of local speakers to talk about their journeys in entrepreneurship to a local business audience. Use social media to announce and promote the event, getting as many signups as possible, then use those platforms to soft broadcast the event to your followers from all around the country. Take photos and video, and keep your users updated as the event rolls on with quotes and key takeaways.
If you're looking for an alternative way to gain more followers and please your existing customers are the same time, consider adopting social media as a branch of your customer service department. This is especially useful if you offer a tech product, like Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). You can use your social profiles to keep users abreast of new updates, downtime, how-to guides, and tips, and answer any user queries that come in. Some brands even create specific "help" channels on social media for this purpose—but that designation is up to you.
One of the most important elements of a modern content marketing strategy is getting featured on external publications. The idea is to write guest posts for other blogs and include links back to your own site; doing this helps you increase your brand visibility, reputation, and earns you referral traffic (not to mention higher organic search rankings). But don't underestimate the social media potential here; as long as your author profile features links to your social profiles (as it should), this representation will give you yet another outlet to earn new followers. You'll get even more exposure if those external publications then share your content on their own social media channels while tagging you in the posts (which they usually do).
Take a look at when and how your competitors are posting and find a way to complement it. This will help you stand out in users' social media feeds, and may help you target a differentiated segment of your shared audience. For example, if you notice that your competitors frequently post around midday on weekdays, consider targeting the early-morning or evening crowd instead. Just make sure you measure your effectiveness here and make adjustments as necessary.
Notice how prominent the differentiation theme is here—it's critical if you want to attract and retain a following of your own. Take note of the types of things your competitors are posting and try to offer something different. Do they tend to focus on written content updates, in short bursts? Opt for longer-form material or visual assets to complement them. Do they tend to focus on how-to and tutorial content? Try more advanced troubleshooting, buyer's guide, or alternative forms of helpful content.
This is where your analytics platform of choice is going to come in handy. I highly recommend using Google Analytics to analyze your incoming traffic. When you get all set up, take the time to analyze how your posts are performing. Posts that attract the most likes, shares, comments, and click-throughs should be regarded as "successful." What is it that these posts share in common? Try to pin it down to a handful of key features and replicate those features in your campaign's future.
Conversely, you should also look at some of your worst-performing posts. Are there any posts that received significantly less interaction? Are there some that users tended to respond to negatively? What was it about these posts that made them fail? This happens to everyone; you just have to learn from the experience and move on.
Sometimes, the best way to get shares is to simply ask for them directly. If you have a breakout piece of content you think is worthy of being shared, ask your followers to help you by spreading it outward. For example, you can frame your post by saying, "we spent a lot of time researching the topic and want this information in public hands, so help us out by sharing with your friends and followers." Don't do this for every post, or even most of your posts; instead, reserve your requests for only the content that you feel most confident in.
Most brands try to play it as safe as possible, sticking to familiar subjects and familiar themes they know their audiences will like. And it's true that sticking to objectively valuable, appreciated topics is a sure bet to see a positive return. However, occasionally it's worth the risk to stir up some controversy. Posting a strong opinion, going against the norm, or doing something that's shocking or unexpected can have a dramatic effect on how you attract new followers. You'll generate discussion, gain more visibility, and polarize your audience, leading to more (and more loyal) followers in the process.
Let your social media followers know when you have something big in the works. For example, you can announce that your company is launching a new product, reveal that you've reached a major milestone, or unveil your plans to move the company. Doing this shows that you value your readers, and just as importantly, you'll stir up lots of likes and comments. In turn, this will increase your visibility to prospective followers and increase the size of your audience.
(Image Source: Facebook)
People want to be rewarded for following you. Providing content and entertaining, informative posts is a good start, but you can go a step further by offering your audience exclusive deals, specials, and promotions. For example, you might post a coupon code for your social media audience only. Of course, "exclusive" here is relative—your followers could easily share this information with others. The point is, there's an appeal to following a brand with a history of rewarding its social media following.
Why are social media followers important? It's because the more engaged your users are with your brand, the more visible your brand will be. For starters, any posts that receive attention—in the form of likes, shares, or comments—will instantly be ranked higher in other users' newsfeeds, as Facebook determines them to be more valuable. Also, the thread may appear in the newsfeeds of friends and followers of the engagers as well, furthering your prospective reach. Get your followers to engage more by calling them specifically to take action—ask them to "like" or comment on a post in a creative way, such as stating a strong opinion and asking them to "like" it if they agree with you.
Most social media platforms will automatically generate a list of relevant accounts it recommends for you to follow, cultivated from accounts you already follow, your type of industry, and your posting history. Though you don't want to go crazy and follow every social media account that's suggested to you, this section is worth your perusal. Look for valuable accounts to add to your newsfeed, or potential sources of new followers you can poach. It's a great discovery engine, and it does all the work for you in advance.
Another way to get your followers engaged is to simply ask them a question. This is especially effective when paired with a link to a blog, or another source of information. For example, if you post about the "top strategies for improving sales," you could ask your audience what strategies they've found to be successful in the past. Brittney Brombacher, a Youtuber in the video game industry, has a mini-series on her channel called "Whatcha Playin'?" in which she discusses games she's currently playing, and asks viewers to share what games they're currently playing too.
Facebook and some other social media platform allows you to create polls for your users to take, which you can harness for almost any application you can think of, from gathering opinions on a piece of news to brainstorming new content ideas. This is very similar to asking questions of your audience, with one key difference; in a poll, users can see what other users have said quantitatively analyzed, which fuels another level of discussion.
Unless you're running a minimalistic campaign, chances are good you'll be managing multiple social media platforms simultaneously. If this is the case, you'll likely encounter new followers at different rates and from different areas with each of your platforms. If you cross-pollinate your accounts, by referring your followers to your other profiles, you could build all of them up more quickly.
Though most of your social media interaction will start and end online, don't forget that you find new customers and meet new people in real life as well. Make an effort to promote the existence of your social media profiles in real life, and you'll definitely see an uptick in your following. This can be something as simple as a "follow us on Facebook" sticker on your door or something more personal, like personally asking each of your clients to follow you on social media before they leave your office.
There are dozens of apps available to help you schedule and manage your social media posts. Though there is some danger in automating your strategy too much—making your brand seem impersonal or uncaring—there's also a value in scheduling some of your posts in advance. Not only will it save some time for you and your team, it will help you ensure a more consistent, frequent mode of posting. Just make sure you keep it in careful balance with your in-the-moment updates and responses.
Don't underestimate the power of storytelling, even in a social media format. People love to hear anecdotes, and they have an easier job of interpreting and retaining information if it's told in a format with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Take to social media to share an anecdote about your professional experience, or tell the story of a client you've helped, or to illustrate a complex topic in the course of a narrative. Even if it takes you a few posts to get through, your engaged audience just might love it.
Personal brands function like mini versions of your corporate brand, except they're tied to individuals within your company, rather than your company brand itself. These personal brands, carried by team members like your CEO or team leaders, will work almost like brand ambassadors, promoting your core content, getting guest posting opportunities on external publishers, and of course building up their own social media followings. You can cross-pollinate these followings, earning more visibility and followers for your corporate brand while reaping the benefits of the personal touch your personal brands will offer.
Try to include more verbal commands in your posts that instruct your users what to do. For example, if you post a link to your article, you can ask them to "read about the latest _____" (though you should avoid the word "click" specifically), or you can ask them to "comment with your thoughts on the matter." The simple presence of these words will spark more interaction, which will lead to more visibility and of course, more followers. Just be careful not to go too heavy-handed with this strategy, or you'll turn people away.
For the most part, hashtags are best used in their natural environment. You can use them to succinctly describe whatever's happening in your post, or leverage a hashtag that's already become popular to get some extra visibility for your brand. But if you want to encourage more people to post about your business, you can consider creating your own, branded hashtag. Generally, these are best reserved for contests and special events, as people will need a strong motivation to use a new hashtag. Just be aware that it takes a lot of effort and damn good timing (or a massive existing audience) to get a branded hashtag trending.
Other brands on social media aren't your enemies—not even your competitors. If you learn to see them as friends, or in a more exploitative context, as opportunities, you can earn tons of new followers. Collaborate with the other brands you see on social media, working together on a mutual piece of content or just conversing with each other. When you cross-promote this way, you'll exchange some followers, both gaining visibility and reputation in the process. Everybody wins when people use social media to be social.
No matter how much you wrack your brain or how long you spend brainstorming, there are only so many new content topics you can come up with on your own. When you're fresh out, or when you want a more precise, numbers-driven way to find new content, rely on an external tool like BuzzSumo or Feedly to help you generate ideas. Here, you'll be able to find new ideas for posts, zeroing in on top-performing content in your industry to help you figure out what your audience might like to see and what has been working for your competitors.
(Image Source: BuzzSumo)
Try to expand your horizons by experimenting with different mediums in your social media campaign. For example, if you're used to posting short written updates, try longer posts with an accompanying image. If you're used to taking still photos of your environment, try switching it up with a video. Consistency in tone, frequency, and subject matter is important, but you'll also need to change things up if you want to increase your visibility and explore new ways to reach your audience even more effectively.
Whenever you get the chance, add some personal touches to your social media feeds. Relying on personal brands as extensions of your corporate brand can help here, but don't be afraid to post images of your employees and clients and show off your personality in your posts. Taking a selfie with a cat may be a break from your usual, professional posting regimen, but it will remind your followers you're human, helping you attract an even wider, more interested audience.
(Image Source: Telegraph/Taylor Swift)
This goes along with the last tip about writing more personal posts. People love to see other people, whether they want to admit it or not. We're social creatures, and our gaze is naturally drawn to other human faces. Make sure you're taking pictures and video of other people whenever you get the chance, whether it's one random person using your product, or a group of people congregated at your office party.
It's incredibly tempting, especially for new social media marketers, to use social media tools as advertising platform, posting about your products on a regular basis and essentially making a pitch to your following. Though it might seem like this is a good way to drum up more sales, the reality is it will turn your followers away. Prospective followers who see your profile and timeline filled with advertise-y language will turn tail, and you'll likely lose some existing followers in the process.
This is a tactic you'll want to use if you're working with influencers or other collaborators, or if you have a special relationship with any individual followers in your lineup. Tagging a user in a post will instantly bring it to their attention, and they'll sometimes respond to it in some way—whether that's a like, a comment, a retweet, or a share. Make sure your content is relevant to them and have at it; it's a great way to guarantee a minimum level of engagement and earn some more visibility for your brand.
Social listening software is a way to "tune in" to the conversations of your followers and target audience on social media. On the surface, you can use it to figure out what people are talking about and what topics are popular, so you can create more focused, relevant content for your audience. However, you can also use it to see what users are saying about your brand by plugging in your company or product names and monitoring social mentions. It's a great way to find new people interested in your company (and gather some stealthy feedback while you're at it). Personally, I use Google Alerts and Buzzsumo Alerts for this purpose.
Every once in a while, you'll have an unfortunate misstep in your social media marketing campaign; you might offend your audience, post something untrue, or otherwise unintentionally make your brand look foolish, the way DiGiorno Pizza did simply by misunderstanding a hashtag. However, if you're careful, these missteps can be opportunities; acknowledge your mistake, offer an apology, and make it up to anybody who you offended, and you could spin it into an opportunity for greater visibility and a better overall reputation.
(Image Source: Adweek)
People love free things, and rogue followers are always looking for valuable brands to latch onto. Give away free things—even if it's just premium content—and you'll naturally attract more people to your brand. This effect will obviously amplify with the quality of the free "thing" you offer. Just be aware that the audience you attract with free giveaways may not be the audience most invested in your brand.
News is unfolding all around us, all the time, both in the context of your specific industry and on a national level. Stay tuned into these major news sources throughout the day, and when a news story hits that's especially relevant to your business, your industry, or your customers, comment on it. Even recapping the story briefly with a summary of your thoughts can help you ride the trending topic and get in front of new potential followers.
Social media is a great place to post your opinions—that is, beliefs that are open to debate. This can be mild, such as stating your opinion about the best way to drive downtown, or more intense, such as your judgment on a new technology that's taken your industry by storm. Strong opinions elicit strong reactions, which means you'll generate more discussion, and attract more followers as a result.
Even though you'll be posting on behalf of your corporate brand or organization, it's still a good idea to frame all of your status updates in a first-person perspective. Social media rose into existence as a way for individual people to connect with one another, and that's still the primary way people want to use it. Making your brand seem more personal with this simple first-person perspective should make it more appealing to anyone even marginally interested in following you.
Even though I've spent half these items preaching about the importance of consistency, it's also important to change things up from time to time. Try some content topics you've never considered before. Ask someone else in the office to draft some posts. Tinker with your posting frequency and scheduling. If nothing else, these changes will help you understand what is and what's not effective in your campaign. Plus, the changeup will likely appear favorable to anyone following you for the long term.
If you generate content and post ideas for long enough, eventually, you're going to run out—and if you don't run out, you might end up on a deviated path that starts diverging from what your users actually want. Get back in touch with your users by starting a social media discussion about what they most want to see, or even what kind of content you post that they would like to see more of. Collect their recommendations, analyze the results, and most importantly—give them what they're looking for.
Just because your content is a few weeks old doesn't mean it's not valuable anymore—especially if it's a piece of evergreen content. Keep a running list of all your old articles and on-site posts, and regularly work them back into your social media posting schedule. As long as you don't post the same articles or topics too frequently, you can generate renewed interest in your older material and fill up your posting queues with new content. Just change up the headlines from time to time to keep your newsfeeds fresh.
I can't think of any subject, industry, or topic that couldn't be facilitated with helpful tips and tricks for users. If you're used to posting how-to articles and similar forms of instructional content, you can pull tidbits and key takeaways from these pieces to form standalone posts. Otherwise, you can develop these on their own to give users throwaway tips and techniques throughout the days and weeks. For example, you might offer advice on how to make a purchasing decision in your industry, or a "life hack" on how to complete a certain task more efficiently. Show off your authority and aim for lots of likes and shares.
AB tests are usually reserved for the paid advertising space, but they can be just as valuable in the social media world. The general idea behind an AB test is to host two variations of a given strategy, an "A" version and a "B" version, then compare them to see which one is more effective. In the social media world, this might mean making the same post at different times of day, or linking to the same article with a different headline to see which post tends to attract more followers. With these tests, you can easily learn what does and doesn't attract new followers and adjust your overall campaign accordingly.
Social media platforms know they need to keep changing if they're going to survive. Not only do they have to keep up with the changing landscape of hardware, they have to keep user trends in mind and fend off competition from other platforms. That's why it's common for social media platforms to constantly roll out new features and functionality for their users. When you see these features emerge, try using them as soon as possible; doing so will attract lots of attention from new and old users alike (and will put you ahead of the competition). For example, when How-to pins recently emerged on Pinterest, the first line of users taking advantage of them saw crazy high engagement rates.
(Image Source: Social Media Examiner/Pinterest)
Your business doesn't exist in a vacuum, and it won't remain the same indefinitely. You'll offer new products and new services to new audiences, you'll grow, you'll hire, you'll move, and you might even change your strategic direction. When you do, you'll need to adjust your social media profiles to accurately reflect your new positions. Not only will this help your brand remain "fresh," it will also expose you to newer, more relevant audiences who might be interested in following you in the future.
This is a hard one to define, since viral content is so hard to achieve on its own. Only a small percentage of content posts attract any attention at all (in the form of shares and links), and an even smaller percentage than that "goes viral," attracting hundreds to thousands of shares and links. This content is the best of the best in terms of quality and value, but also must surprise the audience or appeal to their emotions in some powerful way. Getting a piece to go viral is a shortcut to earning thousands of new followers, but even your pursuits should do a good job of attracting more people to your brand.
If you're desperate to start building momentum, or if you've tried some of the strategies above but aren't growing as fast as you'd like, you can consider going the paid advertising route. Choose the right social media platforms that allow you to promote your main profile or a specific post from your profile for a relatively small amount of money. Generally, you can count on earning some new followers easily this way—but they may not be as relevant or as interested in your brand as followers you attract naturally.
Facebook offers a handy feature for some brands that allows you to selectively target the people who see your post. This may seem like a strange feature for organic social media strategy, as on the surface, it seems like it should be a paid advertising option, but there's a clear incentive for Facebook to do this; with more brands selectively targeting their audiences, more users will see content that is specifically relevant to them. Using the target icon on the lower-left of your status update box, you can filter out certain members of your audience you don't want to see your post; this will allow you to post better-focused content and attract more followers who are genuinely interested in your brand.
(Image Source: Social Media Examiner)
Facebook has made a number of recent algorithm changes designed to decrease the prevalence of content from brands and organizations in user newsfeeds, in favor of posts from other individuals. For many publishers and brands, this was a serious blow; however, it's possible to overcome this obstacle. If you want to maximize your visibility for new audiences, adjust your focus to quality over quantity. When it comes to organic visibility in newsfeeds, like potential, and share potential, it's far better to have one truly remarkable piece of content than dozens of filler posts. Find a way to stand out.
People tend to favor organizations and brands in their own area, so using the location-tagging feature for your status updates can be a major advantage. It's also going to make you easier to search for if people are looking for a local solution. This is especially useful when you're posting images or updates from a certain event, such as a tradeshow or industry gathering in a specific city.
There are many features that differentiate Facebook from its contemporaries, but one of the newest is the addition of emoji reactions, which allow users to respond to posts in more emotionally expressive ways than simply "liking" it. Attracting a specific type of emoji reaction, or a variety of them, is a good way to make your post more visible—and it can also help you gather information about your current following. Try to elicit a "wow" reaction with surprising content, or post something outrageous that encourages "angry." Even better, spark a discussion with a controversial post and let your users post all kinds of emoji reactions.
Events have long been a staple feature of the Facebook platform, and they continue to be a main reason why people use it. Creating public events for things happening in or around your office can help you attract the attention of people who have never heard of your brand before (especially if the event is interesting). Invite all the fans and followers you can think of, and ask them to invite other people they know. Even if they don't show up for the event, they'll be more likely to follow you after seeing your event listed.
Take a look at some of your competitors on Twitter. Chances are, some of them already have hundreds or thousands of followers. You can close this gap eventually by going your own route, but why not take advantage of the audience that's already there? Obviously, their followers have expressed an interest in your industry, so it stands to reason they'd also be interested in following your brand. Follow the people who follow your competitors, and many of them will likely follow you back. ManageFlitter is a fantastic tool that can help with this process.
Twitter got popular because it offers a slightly different approach than its biggest contemporary, Facebook. Users are forced to restrict their updates into bite-sized snippets of only 140 characters. Because of this, users tend to post updates in greater frequency, which tends to clog up newsfeeds. Cumulatively, these signature features have turned Twitter into a fast-paced, in-the-moment platform where people turn to get up-to-the-minute updates. If you want to attract more Twitter followers, you need to indulge them in these fast-paced conditions by posting live updates of what's going on around you when you're at an industry-related event.
You already have links to your Twitter profile on your website, but that will only get you so far in enticing your website visitors to become Twitter followers. If you want to engage them further, use Twitter's API calls to embed tweets on your website directly. Depending on how you set it up, this could feature a rotation of some of your brand's most recently posted tweets, giving users a sneak preview of what they'll get by following you. Giving users a preview of your tweets without them having to do anything is a good way to win new followers, but only if your tweets are engaging and/or interesting.
Twitter features a "pinning" option, which allows you to select one tweet that stays at the top of your profile page. When a prospective follower judges whether or not to follow you, they usually scope out your profile and your most recent tweets. Showcasing one of your best tweets at the top will help persuade them that following you is a good choice. If you have a tweet that's generated lots of likes and shares, that's the one to pin.
People love to use Twitter at events like conferences or tradeshows. Most events, even small, locally organized ones, have signature hashtags that promoters encourage participants to use in their social posts, which has a few critical advantages for you if you attend the events. First, you can post about your attendance and have an easy way to get found by other participants. Second, you can set up a search filter for these hashtags to find other people who are attending the event—and you can then network with them in-person. An in-person relationship is the single easiest way to get a new follower, and someone you meet at a tradeshow or other event is just about the highest-quality type of follower you can have.
Instagram is all about images, and your images need to make an impact on users if they're going to follow you. One of Instagram's biggest claims to fame is its provision of specialty filters, which help you edit your images and make them more appealing. If you want to show that you know what you're doing, stand out in users' newsfeeds, and generally attract a bigger audience, you need to know how to use these filters effectively. Generally, the filters Clarendon, Gingham, Juno, and Lark tend to attract the most likes.
Instagram newsfeeds quickly get filled with photos from other users, so if you want any hope of standing out in a newsfeed or search results page, you need images that stand out. One of the best ways to do this is to dominate the space of your image with a single, bold color. For starters, choose an image—or create one—that features many shades of a single "general" color like blue or red. Then, make sure your subject occupies the full space of the photo (you can edit this after taking the picture). This will make your image "pop" out and probably get you some extra likes, too.
(Image Source: Fast Company)
Instagram users tend to be especially active on Sundays. Since Instagram is often a place to show off your adventures, it's rarely used on weekdays, when most people are at work. On Fridays and Saturdays, people are busy out doing things, so on Sunday, they get to catch up on everything they might have missed and post the images they may have delayed when experiencing something in the moment. Long story short, it's the best day to post if you're interested in attracting more attention and followers.
Instagram, like Twitter, is an in-the-moment platform. People appreciate seeing photos and video of events as they're currently unfolding. They'll also be more likely to follow a brand that visits their location or is active in the area, as its content will likely be more relevant to them. To take advantage of these realities, use Instagram's geotagging feature as often as you can. All you have to do is click the "location" button when uploading a photo, and Instagram will show where you are. If you want to use the geotagging feature even after you've left a given area, make sure your mobile device is tracking your location so your photos are tagged with where they were taken.
People want to follow Instagram accounts that feature the best images, so if you want people to follow you, you need to give them an idea of what they can expect. For this, I recommend including some embedded Instagram posts on your website, perhaps on your home page or in a dedicated gallery of its own. Since all the images you post will be relevant to your business, this should also improve the engagement rates of your website, possibly even influencing conversions.
On LinkedIn, it's easy to create a page for your company, and you should do so. You should flesh it out entirely, filling in all the details of your profile and posting semi-regularly. However, when it comes to growing an audience of followers, it's better if you focus on your individual social media accounts (the personal brands that will support your Company page). Individual accounts have access to more features, such as Groups, and are more likely to earn new connections on what is, essentially, a professional networking platform. You can then use your LinkedIn connections as a conduit to promote your corporate brand or other social accounts.
Though many people use LinkedIn as a way to find and engage with people digitally from all around the country, it's good if you also use LinkedIn as a way to cement your connections with people in real life. When you attend professional networking events or meet new people in the workplace, ask to connect with them on LinkedIn—most people will be open to it if they have an account, and it's an easy way to quickly build your number of connections. Plus, any new connections you make this way will already be somewhat familiar with who you are.
LinkedIn Groups are one of the most powerful sections of LinkedIn, which is part of the reason you should rely on your individual accounts more than your company account in the first place. Join a number of Groups that are relevant to your industry and brand, including locally-based Groups, and peruse them regularly for conversations you can participate in. For example, you could offer your insights on a recently posted blog, or voice your opinion on a piece of news that just came out. Making your presence known—and participating intelligently in conversation—will make people reach out to you as a new contact. For a deeper dive into how to use LinkedIn Groups for marketing, see The Definitive Guide to LinkedIn Groups for Marketing.
Groups are also a common place for people to ask questions, which is the perfect chance to show off your knowledge and authority in your industry. If someone's asking for advice, give it to them. If they're dealing with a problem, give them a potential solution. If you need to do a bit of extra research to back up your opinions, go ahead and do it, and cite your sources. It will show that you're committed to actually helping people. The person whose question you answer will almost invariably want to connect with you, and you'll also set the stage to connect with anyone impressed with your answer.
Whenever you "encounter" someone significant on LinkedIn, go ahead and connect with them. By "encountering," I'm referring to practically any kind of meaningful engagement you make, such as conversing in a Group or commenting on the same piece of content. In your request, mention the circumstances and your reasoning behind connecting—most people don't like cold connections, but as long as you have some justifiable point of entry, you'll be fine.
On YouTube, the key way to get "followers" is to earn subscribers for your channel. If you haven't yet created a channel for your brand, that's the first step—it's like creating a profile for your brand. However, it's not enough to simply fill in the details and let your channel exist on its own. If you want to attract more subscribers to your YouTube channel, you'll need to set up your brand channel to be as unique and appealing as possible. Customize your layout, choose your headlines and background images carefully, and pick a color scheme that fits your brand. You want people to have a differentiated and memorable experience when they first encounter your channel.
YouTube now gives you the option to make a "trailer" for your channel, which is exactly what it sounds like—a short video that pitches the types of videos and content your channel will be producing. For many users, this will be all they need to see to decide whether or not to subscribe to your channel, so you need to make it compelling. Generally, the more straightforward you are here, the better. In fact, you can use a brand representative to engage with your audience directly, speaking into the camera and bluntly explaining what types of videos you produce. Just be sure to include your unique value proposition.
Just like with the other social media platforms, people won't subscribe to you without some kind of incentive. It's not something most people seek out, so if you want people to subscribe to you, you need to ask them to. Feature calls to action throughout your YouTube videos, channel page, and even on your website and other marketing materials. For example, you can create annotations for your YouTube videos that encourage users to subscribe to your main channel or check out your other videos.
Search optimization isn't just about Google. You can optimize your videos for both Google and YouTube search by paying careful attention to how you name, tag, and describe them. First, title your video with a catchy, compelling headline that not only attracts attention, but features a handful of keyword phrases that users might search for when looking for content like yours. Then, write a concise, detailed description void of filler words that accurately describes your content. Finally, choose key tags that best represent your video—these are what help YouTube categorize and display your video for users to find, and the more users there are finding your videos, the more subscribers you'll earn.
If you want to attract more subscribers and keep them around, you'll need to produce videos regularly—probably not every day, like some social media platforms demand, but aim for at least once a week if you're serious about your presence here. Because most people who subscribe to YouTube channels do so immediately after viewing one of the channel's videos, you'll want to make sure all of your videos end on a high note—a punchline, a key takeaway, or an inspiring thought that ties everything together. This will leave your users wanting more and serves as a perfect opportunity to ask them to subscribe.
There you have it. At this point, you should have all the knowledge and ideas you need to grow a larger audience of social media followers. You don't have to use every strategy on this list for every profile you've claimed, but even a handful of successful, consistent executions here should put you in a universally better position. If you're just starting out, this might seem intimidating, especially since your early growth rates will be marginal at best, but stick with it, and eventually your social media presence will flourish.
You know that social media marketing is important, but do you know what it takes to make a campaign measurably successful?
The Definitive Guide to Social Media Marketing will show you, in great detail, exactly what it takes to build a social media campaign that attracts new customers, builds loyalty, and increases conversions. Exploring tactics related to specific individual platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, this eBook contains all the information you need to establish or improve your social media campaign.
Written by Jayson DeMers, contributor at Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc., Search Engine Journal, and other online publications, this eBook is a one-volume piece that will guide you through the trials of social media marketing, from beginning to end.
The eBook kicks off with an all-around summary of what social media marketing strategy is (and isn’t), and why it’s important for modern businesses. You’ll learn the tangible benefits of social media marketing, and the characteristics of brands that can achieve them. The chapter also debunks a popular myth: that social media strategy can only work for some companies.
Facebook is the most popular social network in the world, but it shouldn’t be your only presence—nor is Facebook right for everybody. In this chapter, you’ll learn about what social media profiles are effective for what businesses, and how to select the most valuable platforms for your increase brand awareness.
Most social media strategies fail because their benefits are not measured or interpreted. This chapter covers the objective side of social media advertising, including how to measure data related to your campaign and how to calculate your return on investment (ROI).
Blogging is a core content strategy that complements and supports your social media marketing efforts. In this chapter, you’ll learn why blogging is so crucial to the success of your social media campaign, and how to make the most of your efforts, including:
After reading this chapter, you’ll never be tapped for content ideas again.
Posting on social media isn’t just a matter of typing up whatever’s on your mind and hitting “submit.” In this chapter, you’ll learn which types of posts generate leads and the best results, and how to incorporate your branding into your messaging. You’ll learn why it’s important to humanize your brand, as well as the visual power of images, and at the end of the chapter you’ll gain killer insight into the world of social content with 100 great ideas.
Establishing a presence is only the first step. Chapter 6 introduces you to the world of growing a social following and building loyalty in your audience. You’ll learn:
There are a lot of options out there, and it seems like multiple social media platforms pop up every day. Each is unique in terms of utility, demographics, and ease of use, so it pays to know how to use each one effectively. This chapter covers popular social media marketing platforms including:
Once you’ve built a successful following, it’s time to turn that audience into revenue. The trick to making social media presence a profitable effort is converting your followers into clients. This chapter covers the most successful strategies in turning your target audience into a customer base with:
Your campaign might drag when you first start it, or you could start off strong only to hit a roadblock a few months in. Understanding the factors holding your campaign back is the only way to make a full recovery. This chapter will teach you the most common reasons your campaign could be suffering including:
Finally, this eBook will walk you through the best long-term practices to ensure your continued success in social media. Social media marketing plan is a long-term strategy that only starts rewarding you after months of consistent dedicated effort. In addition to best practices, you’ll learn about:
Are you ready to sink your teeth in? Download the full eBook now for free – a $300 value! All you need to do is enter your email address and first name in the form below:
Social media marketing strategy is the process of building your brand equity and awareness via social media channels, including:
Social media marketing efforts has several significant benefits:
Let’s explore each benefit in detail.
When you enter social media platforms, your brand will appear in search results across the Web; not just in search engines. Many social media channels, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, feature “group” functionality which allows users to search for topics in which they are interested and opt-in to updates for those topics. Furthermore, social media channels facilitate the process of instantly sharing information with a large number of contacts. So if a reader finds your content useful or interesting, they can share it with their contacts quickly and easily, creating organic exposure for your brand.
Participating in social media channels brings your brand closer to your customers and potential customers. Your social media “voice” defines your brand image and separates it from a distant entity to a hip, trendy, “in-the-know” brand. Think about what Apple did with its famous “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” commercials.
You may not know it, but your customers are saying lots of things about your brand. But do you know what they’re saying? Social media marketing platforms like Twitter and Facebook make that sort of “brand buzz” readily available. If you’re not tuned in, you could be missing out on crucial information about your target audience.
There’s no stronger marketing message than an endorsement from a friend. Effective social media strategy facilitates word-of-mouth digital marketing by making it quick and easy to tell your friends about your positive experience with a brand. But social media marketing plan doesn’t just make it easy to tell a single friend; it’s just as easy to tell all your friends what’s on your mind.
Twitter and Facebook have become the default customer-service media for many companies, and more companies are hopping on the bandwagon each day. By using these channels to communicate with your customers, you project a transparent, trustworthy image which also shows that not only do you listen, but you care.
One independent study, which appeared in the March 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review found that Facebook pages can increase customer loyalty by 36%. The study also found that customers connected with the brand’s Facebook page had higher emotional attachment and greater psychological loyalty toward the brand.
The transparency inherent in social media advertising builds trust with potential consumers.
I recently re-read Malcolm Gladwell's book, "The Tipping Point," as an audiobook, and the marketing principles contained in it are timeless.
The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts.
The premise of the book relies heavily on three types of personalities whose input and influence on a movement create a true social tipping point:
The influence of each of these three groups is critical to the successful "tip" of any venture.
Some tipping points happen organically, and the results typically surprise everyone.
The most recent non-marketing tipping point was the global pandemic.
Information and ideas can, like a virus, spread epidemically.
But in our case, we want the antonym of "flattening the curve."
Balloon pop: unless you have virality or a nearly unlimited marketing budget, it's likely going to take years to "tip" the scales in your favor.
The organic tipping point in digital marketing occurs when organic reference, share and backlink influx becomes greater than the results of internal outreach efforts.
In digital marketing, the tipping point is the moment the community does more to promote your message than you could ever do.
It's a glorious thing, and it's possible for nearly any brand, but it takes time, effort, patience, and consistency.
Here's my personal tipping point formula for marketing your business online.
A critical principle of your own tipping point when it comes to digital marketing is the stickiness factor.
Not only should your content be quality, but it should also be evergreen and timeless.
In other words, it should stick. Flash-in-the-pan is the antithesis of a true tipping point for your marketing efforts.
This is just one of the reasons Google and other search engines have greatly extended the amount of time it takes to rank for competitive terms online.
Content production that is truly evergreen should withstand the test of time (and even search engine algorithm updates).
But often, content is only as sticky as the product or service it promulgates.
At the outset, your message needs to be tailored to your audience. Your greatest blunder will be creating content assets that are off-brand and do not meet consumer expectations.
Furthermore, not all campaigns, assets, or targeted copy are suited to the long-form skyscraper technique.
Have you dug deep into your customer persona?
Do you know that your ideal client is a Caucasian female between the ages of 33 and 43 with two children and an annual household income of $120K or more?
First, know your audience. Tailor your messages to their pain points, frustrations, and problems.
#2, which involves a major shift to going broadly outside your intended audience, I hate the phrase "riches are in the niches.
"While true, it negates the possibility of reaching that eventual tipping point to a broader segment.
Stay focused, but when the tip starts to occur, be prepared to engage wholly different groups.
As Gladwell puts it:
Epidemics are sensitive to the conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur.
In other words, a tipping point might work well in one time and place and have little to no impact in another.
Timing and location are everything.
But how do you frame your own context?
While there are a number of features out of your control, you can focus on what is in your immediate control:
Most marketers control more than they think.
Our marketing framework holistically encompasses the "times and places" and "conditions and circumstances" to ensure maximum impact and ROI.
If you want to follow the formula of organic growth by hitting your own tipping point, wouldn't it make sense to meaningfully engage with the mavens, connectors, and salespeople?
Remember, connecting with mavens, connectors, and salespeople is what "outreach campaigns" are all about.
Gladwell discusses the connectors with "real" social connections and the "rule of 150."That is, any single connector maxes out their true social ties by about 150 people.
Beyond that, it's tough to maintain true influence over a relationship.
At the time of Gladwell's original writing, "social media influencers" were not a thing.
In his original definition of a connector, a true connector would max out their connections at the rule of 150.
Even influential movie stars, sports icons, and other celebrities were unlikely to have a way to meaningfully engage with their followers and fans when Gladwell's book was first published in 2000.
Today, these individuals wield an almost outlandish and outsized role in driving an epidemic, as Gladwell calls it.
In fact, it was the social media marketing elites who helped drive the growth of social media sites like Twitter and Instagram.
Gladwell deems mavens as "information specialists" and "information brokers.
"In the context of a "clinically proven pill that helps you lose weight," they're the gaggle of medical doctors willing to give peer-review and glowing testimonials of your product.
Mavens are the right people to effectively show (often with data) rather than tell.
These are my kind of people.
The principle that "facts don't lie, people do" is actually part of our mission statement.
When there's a budget for it, salespeople can and should be hired.
When there's not, you can rely on the good graces of persuaders among the mavens and connectors. Sometimes, small actions at the right time can make a big difference.
The very best internal salespeople will be expensive. If your product or service is unique, uncontested (either naturally or by IP), or unparalleled in its offering, you may find the luxury of natural persuaders and salespeople who'll promote your wares to infinity.
In a simple way, leveraging these connections can be highly effective.
Or, if you're lucky enough to have organically established numerous software resellers, then your rapid scale can be more assured.
Some would call that lucky, but the work and effort were likely front-loaded in the offer, not in connecting with some external persuader.
Did you know that famous home run hitter Babe Ruth not only held the record for home runs, he also held the record for career strikeouts (at 1,330) for 29 years until he was bested by Micky Mantle?
If you're looking to swing for the fences, be prepared to strike out. This is particularly true for those looking to create viral content and powerful stories.
Unfortunately, not all the most powerful stories can have their own Dollar Shave Club moment, but that doesn't mean you can't continue working for it.
But business is not as binary as baseball.
Swinging for the fence as you strive to move up-market in your niche doesn't necessarily mean the business strikes out. It just means we need to try again.
Remember, we're playing an infinite game.
The tipping point is about finding new clients, customers, mavens, and connectors to blast your message to new markets.
It's not about digging through your CRM and dredging up dead leads.
It's never stale. No, tipping point marketing is always fresh and adventurous, with a focus on the next big thing.
If you want to scale your digital marketing agency, there's more to it than simply creating great online content and executing on existing client accounts.
True scale requires access to numerous enterprise-level contracts.
It means harpooning whales en masse instead of fishing for minnows with a rickety pole.
The occasional $1,000/mo client retainer just won't do.
Wouldn't you rather report to a team of 3 or 4 whose corporate entity was paying $20K to $50K monthly than have to report to the CEO of 20 companies paying $1K each?
Enter the digital marketing RFP.
By gaining access to large corporate buyers for your digital marketing services, your marketing agency will be able to achieve remarkable growth.
Here, we'll discuss the pros and cons of using the RFP process, where to find RFPs, how to draft and submit your RFP, and a bunch of other tips and tricks.
I've personally responded to hundreds of RFPs over the years.
The process can be tedious and time-consuming.
Worse, it can be a waste of time if you're not extremely careful.
An RFP, or Request for Proposal, is a document that is used to solicit bids from vendors in order to obtain goods and services.
The purpose of an RFP is to provide potential vendors with the information they need to submit a bid on a project or service.
This document typically contains information about the scope of work (project scope), project overview, project deliverables, project timeline, evaluation criteria, and desired project budget.
Including crucial data points in the RFP makes the proposal easy for vendors to understand and respond to accurately. A proposal manager often oversees this process to ensure clarity and completeness.
Contract terms are also detailed within the RFP to outline expectations and requirements for the prospective client. By providing comprehensive information, the RFP helps vendors craft a final proposal that meets the project's needs and aligns with the client's objectives.
Getting on the RFP shortlist is 90% of the battle.
But how, among thousands of digital marketing agencies, do you catch the eye of corporate buyers so as to get included on their shortlist?
Answer: do something great, notable, and amazing, and you'll become a known entity worthy of receipt for large RFP invites.
Because reviewing RFPs takes time, most corporate buyers issuing them prefer to keep the shortlist for potential vendors small.
If their RFP list is too large, it creates even more work for them. But if you aren't regularly receiving access to quality RFPs from government and corporate buyers, where else can you go?
Here are a host of online platforms exist where RFPs are listed for free or for a small monthly fee:
Numerous others exist.
We tend to avoid government bids as more of those are cooked. And while we have used these solutions to submit large numbers of RFPs, we have found direct relationships are always best.
Your biggest downside risk of responding to and engaging with entities submitting a project out to bid will be the "cooked" RFP.
The vast majority of RFPs, particularly those that come from public governmental entities, are "cooked.
"What is a cooked RFP?
A cooked request for proposal is one that is created out of a requirement to issue one publicly but whose recipient is already internally known.
Cooked RFPs have the following characteristics:
If not 100% cooked for a particular purpose or vendor, many RFPs will preclude your business, particularly if you don't fall into categories like:
In scenarios where RFPs have the aforementioned requirements, you may be SOL when it comes to winning the bid.
This is THE biggest downside risk in the RFP process as it creates a time-suck if you complete the RFP only to be disqualified before the process starts.
Even if I told you to read the RFP carefully, that would not necessarily solve the potential impediment because RFPs can be extensive in their requirements and requests, and the details you need may be buried in a quagmire of words.
This can be a further waste of your time.
If you're obtaining your RFPs from an online source and not being solicited directly, be more cautious and exercise more discernment when you read, as there will be a higher likelihood you're wasting your time.
Like any sales initiative, the RFP process is a numbers game.
You need to execute at scale to be successful, and responding at scale requires SOPs and the right team.
Your process also requires the right team.
Without the right team, it can be difficult to develop a comprehensive digital strategy and timeline for meeting the client's needs.
Without experienced professionals on board, you may not be able to provide accurate pricing models or deliver quality work within the desired timeframe.
The key to success is assembling a process around a well-rounded team for both submitting the RFP and delivery of the services, including digital marketing, project management, budgeting and more.
With this type of team in place, you will have the knowledge and resources needed to craft a compelling response that meets all of your client's digital marketing objectives.
We typically design our response with our PPTX/slidedeck response team.
They have created beautiful templates for our RFPs that we can then use on repeat.
We'll keep our RFP response process template (which is some 50 pages long) a bit closer to the chest, but here is an example of the caliber of product our design team produces for our RFP responses:
If you want to stand out as a great marketing agency, a proper design of your response will be paramount.
Don't just send a Word Doc that you have saved as a PDF.
You need something that makes you stand out.
If your team has the ability to produce custom video or interactivity to your response, it may be in your best interest. After all, you're submitting an RFP response as a marketing agency.
Quality RFPs are not only visually appealing, but they also do a better job of showing (in graphs & charts) versus telling (long-form paragraphs). When it comes to design, always opt to show and avoid telling, where possible.
The length of your response to the RFP will vary depending on the specific requirements of the request. Generally speaking, a good rule of thumb is to make it as long as necessary to thoroughly and accurately answer all questions, but not so long that it becomes overwhelming for the recipient.' It is important to keep in mind that you should only provide information relevant to the request and avoid any unnecessary details or information. As such, try to be concise and succinct when presenting your response.
It is important to keep in mind that you should only provide information relevant to the request and avoid any unnecessary details or information. As such, try to be concise and succinct when presenting your response.
For a winning RFP response, consider including an executive summary to provide a high-level overview of your proposal. Utilizing an RFP response template can help ensure that all crucial sections are covered and that your document is well-organized.
Reviewing RFP response examples can provide insights into best practices and successful strategies. Additionally, a compelling RFP cover letter can set the tone and highlight the key aspects of your proposal.
In conclusion, your proposal response length should be like a miniskirt: long enough to cover the essentials but short enough to keep things interesting.
Understanding and outlining the client's needs is a critical step in responding to an RFP.
Before you begin crafting your response, you must first understand the client's objectives, their target audience, and their desired outcomes.
This typically requires a detailed read of the request for proposal doc, which will outline all the necessary requirements for a response process.
RFPs can be long, so being detailed could take some time.
But, it is important to take the time to listen carefully to what the client is asking for and make sure that you understand the scope of the project.
This will ensure that your response includes all of the necessary information and details requested by the client.
Creating a strategy and timeline for the response to an enterprise digital marketing RFP is essential to meeting the client’s needs.
A well-crafted strategy should include clear business goals, measurable metrics, and actionable steps to maximize success. It should also define the timeline for completing each task as well as any potential obstacles or risks.
The only thing that works better than social proof is actual proof.
Start with social proof in testimonials. The rest of the proof is in the ROI pudding.
Your case studies should show visually how you helped execute on past client digital marketing campaigns, delivering on key performance indicators (KPIs).
Here is one example we have used, but we typically include several in all our responses:
If you have an idea of the client's budget, then you may have the leeway to create a specific budget.
But most scenarios will be nebulous, like this:
To avoid this scenario, we always like to provide our clients with options.
Unless they want a specific quote for a specific level of engagement, give them a "choose your own adventure" novel when it comes to their pricing.
In doing so, be sure to explain what services are included in each package or plan.If you can (literally or legally) estimate a return on investment (ROI).
Avoid outlining different payment options. That will come later with a signed MSA (master services agreement). It's bad form to include it too early.
When crafting a response to an RFP, it is important to ensure that you meet all of the customer's requirements.
This means that you should be sure to read the entire RFP document carefully and pay attention to any specific instructions or requests.
In addition, use language that is clear and understandable so that the customer understands exactly what services you will provide and to what extent.
Be sure to address any questions or concerns that may arise, and make sure your response is tailored to the needs of the client.
A successful RFP response requires more than just meeting expectations and requirements. In order to stand out from the competition, your proposal must also be engaging and informative and clearly demonstrate your ability to meet the needs of your customers. Here are some tips for making your proposal stand out from the crowd:
By following these tips, you will be able to craft a successful response that meets all of the customer's needs and stands out from the competition.
Once you have crafted your perfect response to the RFP, it's time to submit it. It is important to ensure that your response is submitted in a timely manner according to the deadline specified in the request for proposal. Here are some tips for submitting your response:
Once you've written your response to the RFP, it is important to ensure that all documents are properly formatted and organized.
This will help ensure that the customer can quickly and easily find the information they need. Make sure all documents are clearly labeled with appropriate headings and subheadings, as this will make it easier for the customer to understand the information you're presenting.
Following up is an important part of the process once you have submitted your response to an enterprise digital marketing RFP. Following up demonstrates that you are organized, attentive, and committed to meeting the client's needs. Here are some best practices for following up after submitting your RFP:
The RFP process is different for every company and/or government entity.
How and when you hear back can vary widely.
Responding to a request for proposal (RFP) from an enterprise can be a daunting task.
Whether you're looking to provide digital marketing services or any other type of business offering, it's important that your response is well-crafted and tailored to the client's needs.
Hopefully, we've provided some helpful tips on how to craft the perfect response for your enterprise digital marketing RFP, one that meets all of your customers' expectations and wins you more business.
Nailing the first RFP is often the most difficult, but once you get a system and process in place for responding to more, you'll find yourself getting into a groove.
We work with our white label digital marketing agency partners through our white label SEO services to submit RFP responses as a contributing agency partner to an overall team.
Let us know how we can help you submit your next RFP response!
It is essential for businesses today to prioritize customer experience (CX) if they wish to remain competitive and achieve long-term organizational goals. Thanks to its wide range of efficient features, Zendesk has been a standout in modern customer service platforms that can help towards this goal.
Through sophisticated ticketing management systems, omnichannel support, knowledge bases for self-service, advanced analytics, and reporting capabilities among other benefits – organizations have seen its value in helping them improve their overall CX.
In this blog, we will delve into these advantages and explore real-life case studies featuring companies that successfully leveraged Zendesk’s abilities as part of their integrated CX strategy. We want to be the source by which businesses understand how modern customer service is done and unlock the many benefits that Zendesk can provide for them.
Zendesk is a cloud-based customer service platform that streamlines ticket management and provides omnichannel support. It offers numerous features, capabilities, and integrations that cater to organizations of all shapes and sizes.
Users can forego legacy on-premise systems and benefit from improved scalability at affordable costs. Zendesk also makes it easy for businesses to customize settings so vendors can tailor the system according to specific requisites or software integration solutions with other app companies.
Its key features include multi-channel ticketing so customers can review previous tickets, automation tools such as advanced filters, rules, macros & triggers to help streamline response times; an integrated knowledge base; preconfigured workspaces suited for different job roles; plus AI-supported conversations and advanced analytics for tracking trends.
Add-ons like portals, integrations, and API are also included in the package that enables customization of workflows and provides tailor-fit experiences for superior satisfaction.
Zendesk allows businesses the opportunity to access top-notch features regardless if they’re just starting out or looking to go global.
User permissions make it possible for company administrators to manage employee roles, while powerful automation options enable complex workflows with minimal manual involvement. Overall, Zendesk provides unparalleled flexibility that serves both large enterprises and small businesses alike.
The ticketing system organizes customer queries into an efficient structure in order to prioritize tasks and increase team efficiency quickly and reliably. It automatically sorts customer tickets according to their content, severity, closeness to resolution, SLA timeframes, or other factors.It also offers cross-domain integration support for multiple products related. Furthermore, Zendesk provides customized queues which allow teams to organize customer queries using predefined policies -taking another burden off team members’ shoulders while ensuring purposeful responses every single time.
Personalizing customer experiences has proven to be an effective way of creating relationships between brands and customers, which is why it is essential for businesses to use data and insights about their customers.
With Zendesk, businesses can maximize user engagement through segmented communication, tailored advertisements, and targeted conversational techniques –all enabled by containing customer data points from consumption habit to previous communications.
By using these insights on comportment across the customer journey, personalized interactions can effectively build better trust with customers that result in strong loyalty over the long run.
Using Zendesk's customer insights allows companies to use customers' personal data and interactions history to deliver more tailored experiences that exceed expectations. Additionally, Zendesk proactively encourages deeper engagement through personalized messages based on contact preferences.
By prioritizing the unique needs of each individual customer, tangible results can be seen through improved relations with more satisfied patrons helping your business succeed.
By leveraging customer data and insights within Zendesk, businesses are able to provide personalized experiences that strengthen relationships with customers. With this enhanced level of customer engagement, businesses can drive more repeat business while achieving greater success with their CX strategy.
For example, powerful features like real-time list imports enable companies to pull unique data in order to develop personal product recommendations for each individual customer. These personalized interactions eliminate waste and improve the relevance of support for every party involved, fostering greater trust and loyalty on both ends.
Data collected from customer interactions can be incredibly valuable in helping businesses make data-driven decisions in their CX strategy. With Zendesk’s advanced analytics for reporting, businesses are able to collect a wealth of customer insights they might need to devise the optimal CX programs.
Through its insightful reports, detailed stats, surveys reviews, and even heatmaps many complex interaction patterns can be identified efficiently which helps focus organizational resources on areas that need it most.
Advanced Reporting and Analytics Using Zendesk's reporting and analytics capabilities, businesses can gain vital insights into customer behavior. This data is useful for identifying trends, recognizing gaps in service offerings, gaining efficiency, and uncovering patterns that help identify areas where improvements need to be made.
Armed with relevant information around KPIs such as the number of tickets logged or time to resolution, businesses are empowered to make informed decisions associated with their CX strategy.
Zendesk integrates with many popular business tools to streamline customer service processes and automate support operations. Thanks to open APIs, Zendesk can easily be used in conjunction with more than a dozen live chat channels as well as other software modules like web analytics and marketing automation.
Combined with its omnichannel capabilities and customizable design functions, customers have great flexibility in customizing their Zendesk settings however they need them for ultimate efficiency.
Zendesk is also compatible with various CRMs and enterprise-level databases, so larger business teams benefit from superior data handling capabilities that maximize CX strategy impacts.
Tailoring services to suit specific business needs is critical in delivering exceptional customer experiences. Zendesk offers various customization options and integrations so businesses can precisely align their CX strategy with objectives at all times.
These features empower companies to build a service platform designed specifically according to their own preferences, ensuring every customer request or query is handled smoothly and efficiently.
Integrations and customizations are great ways to maximize scalability and efficiency. Zendesk is compatible with many third-party tools, making it easy for businesses to connect their platforms together seamlessly while guaranteeing optimal user experience.
Businesses can also tailor Zendesk according to specific needs so processes like customer data management and support services become more streamlined.
Zendesk has an advanced set of feedback and survey tools, this service enables companies to create custom surveys tailored to meet their unique requirements.
Through reporting and analytics, customers can evaluate the response data quickly in order to detect pain points, improve the customer experience, and strengthen relationships with existing customers.
Surveys are an essential tool for understanding customer satisfaction and measuring experiences against customer expectations. With the help of Zendesk, businesses have access to automated surveys which allow customers to provide feedback and insights efficiently.
Companies can use this data to identify pain points, measure success and make further improvements in their CX strategy.By using these beneficial features, companies gain deep insight into their customers' needs – allowing them to be aware of any areas that require attention quickly and easily so they can consistently meet or exceed customer expectations.
Continuous improvement of customer experiences is critical for a successful business. By leveraging data from customer feedback and surveys provided by Zendesk, companies can identify areas where customers are encountering difficulties or dissatisfaction.
With this valuable insight, businesses can then develop and implement changes to continuously optimize CX, resulting in higher customer satisfaction rates and long-term loyalty for the brand.
Zendesk offers a great platform for businesses to implement an innovative and efficient customer experience strategy. It helps organizations with omnichannel support, tailored experiences, personalized engagements as well as knowledge base resources which will empower customers and drive loyalty.
Additionally, it gives companies the ability to track their customer support performance via analytics and feedback tools in order to continuously improve their CX. Thus, by using Zendesk, businesses have the potential of transforming customer interactions while redefining excellence in CX management.
If you want to be seen online, you need your website at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs).And if you want to be at the top of the SERPs, you need backlinks.Unfortunately, backlinks are hard to build on your own.You need to develop content. You need to build publisher relationships. You need to practice outreach. And you need to follow up.
It's a lot of time and effort that isn't guaranteed to make you successful.
That's why link building agencies and link building services exist.
Competent SEO experts have the knowledge, experience, and resources necessary to help you build all the links you need to dominate the competition.
The big problem is that there are too many link building services to choose from. Darn.
Now obviously, not all of these link building services are worth using.
So, we saved you a couple of steps.
We've done the research, so you don't have to, and we've compiled a list of the 20 best link building services that are currently available.
It's hard to overstate just how valuable links are in the SEO industry.Backlinks pass “authority,” a measure of trustworthiness, to your site. The more links you have, and the better those links are, the higher the authority of your site is going to grow. And the more authority your site has, the higher it's going to rank.
On top of that, link building can provide you with greater brand visibility, referral traffic, and even new partnerships and connections.
Taking advantage of link building services enables you to get all of these benefits without spending hundreds of hours of your own time tuning for SEO or working tirelessly to hire the perfect internal team.
The only downside is that some link building services use unscrupulous or predatory tactics, ultimately harming your site more than helping it.
Since Google has really stepped up its efforts in cracking down on low-quality content and links, these types of services are getting rarer and rarer.
But it's still important to do your research and find the best link building services you can afford.
What criteria are we using to declare the best link building services available?
We haven’t personally used all of the link building services that we’re about to list. Instead, we’re basing our assessments on publicly available information about each organization.
These are some of the best link building services that money can buy:
Yes, we put ourselves at the top of the list – why wouldn’t we? SEO.co and Link.Build are based in Seattle (with satellite offices across the country) and is a full-service SEO agency, offering consulting, link building, content development, onsite SEO, and other SEO services.
We’ve been serving everything from local startups to Fortune 500 enterprises since 2010 and we have an undying commitment to ethical, value-centric link building. If you’re ready to outwrite and outrank the competition, contact us for pricing and more details today!
LinkDoctor.io, in Sheridan, WY, currently has more than 138,000 keywords on page one. With decades of combined industry experience on the team and a deep knowledge of best SEO practices, LinkDoctor.io can help almost any site with natural link building services, across a wide range of niches. Pricing is available upon request.
Rhino Rank, located in Shrewsbury, UK, popularized the concept of “curated links.” With an uncompromising focus on quality and clients all over the world, Rhino Rank has been helping clients achieve global reach since its founding in 2017. Prices are highly competitive for the industry, with average price per link ranging from $42-200, depending on DA.
Siege Media is a fully remote marketing and PR agency that offers both passive and active link building services. It handles everything from initial research and outreach to link placement and quality assurance. Areas of specialty include fintech, e-commerce, and SaaS. Link building strategies are developed for individual clients, and pricing is custom.
BlueTree, located in Chicago, IL, is a digital PR agency that focuses primarily on SaaS and tech companies – but offers link building plans for a variety of businesses. Utilizing existing relationships with tech publications and a robust editorial approach, BlueTree is dedicated to building domain authority and organic traffic. Plans start at $2,500 per month.
uSERP, located in Denver, CO, is a full-service link building agency that relies on white hat, ethical outreach strategies and “quality over quantity.” With strategic direction stemming from content gap analysis, URL analysis, and other data-centric approaches, uSERP works with lean startups, major corporations, and everything in between. Plans start at $10,000 per month.
SureOak, based in Brooklyn, NY, serves industries including B2B services, SaaS, fintech, education, e-commerce, insurance, and healthcare. It offers a variety of link building services like editorial link insertions, link analysis, link reclamation, toxic link management, and even white label link building. Plans start at $2,000 per month.
Page One Power, headquartered in Boise, ID, is primarily focused on B2C clients – and has more than 12 years of experience serving them. With full SEO services, Page One Power can help you with onsite optimization, content development, and, of course, link building. It also offers white label services to other agencies. Pricing is custom.
Neil Patel is both an individual and the functional name for his marketing agency. Located in San Diego, CA, Neil Patel serves almost every imaginable business with high-quality content, onsite optimization, and link building.
Patel’s blog currently has more than 4 million links pointing to it – a powerful demonstration of what good content can do. Pricing is custom.
Green Flag Digital, also located in San Diego, CA, typically serves clients in SaaS, medical, real estate, and e-commerce, and exclusively practices ethical link building. They believe in trustworthy, genuinely helpful content – and they have a proven, 10-step process to ensure their clients get the best evergreen links possible. Campaigns start at $3,000.
FATJOE, in Cannok, UK, serves clients in fields like retail, manufacturing, tech, and advertising. It relies on organic, ethical outreach and specializes in content syndication. Clients get access to a dashboard where they can view and analyze results in real-time – and white label link building services are also available. Pricing is a la carte, based on the services you need.
The HOTH, based in St. Petersburg, FL, gets its name from the acronym “hittem over the head,” and strives to build natural, traffic-generating links for their clients. Using both offsite content and social media, the HOTH has a signature link building method that’s especially powerful for social media content. Pricing is custom.
LinksThatRank follows a 23-step process for quality control and maintains a blacklist that filters out the types of sites that Google typically frowns upon.
Every link placement is designed to meaningfully improve your chances of ranking – and you’ll receive a report when the work is done. White label services are available. Pricing ranges from $177 to $327 per link.
eCommerce Link Builders, in New York, NY, practices link building with a focus on return on investment (ROI) and quality over quantity. Through their plans, you’ll get access to blogs relevant to your niche, premium content creation, and exhaustive quality control. Link packages start at $1497 per month, but custom plans are also available.
Authority Builders, located in St. Pete Beach, FL, offers a robust dashboard where you can place orders, monitor progress, and generate reports to view your results. You can choose the websites where you want to build links – and they even offer a 365-day money-back guarantee. Pricing is custom.
Get Me Links, founded in 2019, offers services that include guest posting, niche edits, link packs, tiered links, and local links, so you can customize a full campaign that covers all of your needs. All you have to provide is a target URL and desired anchor text; Get Me Links handles the rest. Guest post links start at $160 per link.
Loganix, with locations in Vancouver, Seattle, and Honolulu, has access to a diversity of different publishing websites, including Forbes, Mashable, and Backlinko. Their guest posting services are the main draw, but they have a wide range of other SEO services that can help your business rank. Pricing starts at $200 per guest post.
Love to Link is an exclusively white hat link building agency that primarily uses guest posting as a link building tactic. They have a full team of in-house writers and their links are vetted to ensure they bring SEO value to your brand. Pricing starts at $139 per guest post, and services are available as packages or a la carte.
Samurai Marketers, in New York, NY, uses real-world data to acquire links from Google-approved websites across a wide range of different industries and niches. Each link is thoroughly vetted – and clients get access to a totally hands-off experience, with no requirements for developing new onsite content. Pricing is a la carte, and varies based on DA.
Outreach Labs is a fresh-faced agency that offers a mixture of digital PR and blogger outreach to acquire links.
It’s a tech savvy agency run by Ajay Paghdal, a seasoned link building veteran with over 10 years of experience.
They offer their clients full transparency through live dashboards, weekly reports, website approval and pricing based on website quality. Pricing is tier-based, depending on the website quality.
Link building is an investment.And as long as you choose the right partner, it's an investment that will almost certainly pay off.Here are some reasons to consider investing in or hiring a link building service:
However, it's important to note that not every link building company is created equal.Quality matters more than quantity when it comes to backlinks and off-page SEO.
Black-hat or spammy link building practices can actually harm your website's reputation and rankings. When considering link building strategies, prioritize those that focus on ethical (e.g. broken link building), white-hat practices and emphasize the importance of relevant, high-quality backlinks.
Everything begins with a conversation.So, if you're ready to talk about your current link building strategy, or if you just want to know more about how we can bring the best links to your website, contact us today!
At Marketer, we know from experience how important it is to stay on top of the latest developments in the marketing industry. New trends, new technologies, and new techniques are always emerging – and it’s often difficult to fully grasp and utilize them ahead of the competition.
We have a great team here who helps us do it. But we’ve decided to make that team even bigger.
We’re therefore thrilled to announce our strategic partnership with Marion, a distinguished marketing and design agency with a storied 40-year history in Texas. We see this alliance as a fusion of Marketer.co's innovative digital marketing strategies with Marion's extensive experience and creative prowess, setting a new standard for comprehensive digital marketing services.
Hopefully, you know us already. We’re Marketer – a dynamic marketing agency dedicated to creating human connections through strategic, data-focused digital design.
In other words, we provide excellent marketing and advertising services to businesses like yours. Our ultimate goal is to deliver consistent, predictable growth via digital strategy workshops, brand architecture, user interface design, lead generation, SEO analysis, and more.
Marion is an award-winning, full-service marketing and design agency headquartered in Houston, Texas, with additional offices in Austin and Dallas/Fort Worth. They partner with clients to either supplement their in-house marketing department or serve as their fully outsourced marketing department.
Already, you can see why we get along so well.
So what exactly are we trying to accomplish here?
· New service offerings. For starters, each of our agencies has different areas of expertise and different services in which we specialize. By supporting each other with our own greatest strengths, we can offer our clients a wider range of versatile marketing and advertising services. Together, we may even be able to explore entirely new territory.
· Truly omnichannel marketing. A downstream effect of this is that our clients will have access to marketing strategies that are truly omnichannel. Modern marketing strategies do best when they aren't artificially tethered to a narrow range of communication mediums.
· Creative collaboration. Marketer and Marion both have impressive teams that include experienced leaders, niche experts, and creative masterminds. When we start putting our heads together in more collaborative endeavors, our creative ceilings are going to grow much higher.
· Successful customers. Ultimately, we hope that our strategic partnership is going to help more of our customers find success. Clients of both Marketer and Marion should find themselves with better services, more options, more creative output, and ultimately more visibility, more brand trust, and more generated revenue.
Tim Carter, our own Chief Revenue Officer, shared his vision for the partnership: "Our collaboration with Marion is a strategic endeavor to bring together our digital expertise with their rich history and creative success. We really believe that this partnership is going to change the way businesses perceive and engage with digital marketing."
"Joining forces with Marion not only expands our capabilities but also deepens our commitment to delivering excellence and innovation in every digital marketing campaign,” said Samuel Quincy Edwards, Chief Marketing Officer here at Marketer. “We are setting a new benchmark for what clients can expect from their marketing partners."
This partnership is possible because Marketer and Marion each have such powerful respective strengths – without significantly overlapping each other.
Nate Nead, CEO of Marketer, highlighted the synergy between the two firms: "This partnership with Marion aligns perfectly with our mission to provide end-to-end marketing solutions that are both innovative and effective. Together, we will redefine industry standards and drive unparalleled success for our clients.”
We may not be able to dictate the future of marketing, but we might be able to help lead it.
And we can definitely use our new partnership to help our customers see better results along the way.
If you’d like to learn more about our partnership, or if you’re just interested in seeing how Marketer and Marion can help you see better campaign results, contact us today!
You want prospective clients to find your law firm.
There are many ways to facilitate this, but the best is to optimize your presence in search engines.
After all, most of your clients and prospects are primarily using search engines for researching lawyers and law firms for their needs.
But here's the thing.
Chances are, most of your competitors are already outranking you in search engine results pages (SERPs) for queries relevant to your niche.
And as you might imagine, higher rankings get not only more visibility, but more traffic and more prestige as well.
If you want to earn that visibility and traffic for your own law firm, you'll need to find a way to outrank your competitors. Search engine optimization (SEO) can help you do this. But an SEO strategy without keyword research is like a boat without a rudder; it may be powerful, but it lacks direction.
Accordingly, keyword research is typically the first step of any SEO strategy, and it's certainly the best place to start as a law firm.
So what exactly is SEO keyword research? And how do you practice it?
In SEO, keywords (and by extension, keyword phrases) are words and phrases that people enter into search engines like Google as a search query.
For example, “lawyers” is technically a keyword, though most people don't search this broadly. “Personal injury lawyers near me” is a much more common keyword phrase, as is “How to choose the best personal injury lawyer.”
If you can optimize your web presence for phrases like these, you'll increase your chances of ranking in the SERPs produced for these queries.
SEO keyword research is the process of analyzing various keywords and phrases for the sake of finding the best possible targets. Some SEO keywords are more valuable for your law firm than others, and for a few different reasons; some keywords are more relevant to your organization, some are more popular search terms, and some are easier to optimize for.
The process usually begins with some simple brainstorming, which you can do even if you don't have much SEO experience. Think about what your law firm represents, what types of customers you serve, and what those customers might search for if they're looking for a business like yours.
Most people start producing a list based on their brainstorming efforts, then they turn to the power of specific keyword research tools that allow them to gather more data and come up with new ideas.
You can figure out the best keywords for your law firm to target by studying the following metrics:
· Relevance. Relevance is largely a subjective matter. You need to choose SEO keywords that are relevant to your organization as well as the clients and prospects searching for it. Otherwise, there isn't much of a point in receiving the traffic.
· Search volume. Within the realm of relevant keywords, you should also choose keywords and phrases with relatively high search volume. Search volume tells you how many people search for this keyword or phrase within a given time period, usually one month. The higher the search volume, the more people are searching for it, and the more traffic you'll receive if you can rank at the top for that keyword or phrase.
· Competition. That said, choosing only the keywords with the highest search volume is a surefire recipe for failure. That's because you also need to consider the competition; keywords with high search volume often have high competition, making them difficult or even impossible to rank for. Keywords with lower search volume may not get as much visibility or traffic, but you can reach rank one for those terms quite easily.
Ideally, you'll select a host of keywords and phrases that are highly relevant to your organization, with high search volume, and minimal competition. These perfect keywords are unicorns, however, so you may have to make some compromises.
Your strategic keyword targets are going to inform every element of your SEO strategy, including your onsite optimization, your content creation, and even your link building. You'll use them to create new pages of your website, inform the topics for your blog posts, serve as anchor text for your links, and more.
You can start the keyword research process by simply getting into the mind of your ideal target client or prospect. What is this person looking for? What has this person recently experienced? What types of things would they enter into a search engine if they were either A) interested in services like yours or B) could benefit from services like yours?
Already, you can likely come up with various ideas directly related to your area of expertise. For example, people might search for things like “family lawyer,” “divorce attorney,” or “custody agreement lawyers near me.”
But if you want to go a step further, you should also consider the types of questions that people ask search engines related to legal matters. Think of things like “what should I do if someone is suing me?” or “how do I create a last will and testament?” Consider all the things that your prospects and clients ask you when first meeting you.
If you're struggling to come up with ideas, or if you just want to flesh out your list even further, look to online resources that specifically support questions and answers related to legal matters. Avvo, Justia, and Lawyers.com are fantastic resources for this.
Keep a list of all the keywords and phrases you've generated. Most experienced SEO professionals do this in a spreadsheet, making it easier to manage SEO keywords both now and in the future.
As your list expands, you can consult other tools designed for keyword brainstorming. SEMRush, Ahrefs, Google Trends, and Google Keyword Planner are good places to start. All you have to do is enter a handful of keywords and phrases, and these tools will help you generate even more ideas.
In the course of your brainstorming and development, be sure to highlight keyword variations and related searches. For example, if you came up with the keyword idea “divorce lawyer,” you should understand that “divorce attorney,” “divorce law firm,” and “divorce legal help” are all functional variations of that query.
Each variation and related search can function somewhat on its own in your SEO strategy, though it is worth noting that due to semantic search, Google often blends semantically similar keywords and phrases together.
Don't worry about anything else at this point; just focus on cultivating a large list of potential keywords and phrases that are relevant to both your organization and the clients and prospects it serves.
At this point, you should have a long, borderline comprehensive list of keywords and phrases that are highly relevant to your law firm.
Now, your job becomes whittling that bulky tome down to a more manageable list. Many law firms and lawyers start with a list of about 20 keywords and phrases, but feel free to increase or decrease this according to your budget and your goals.
The two primary factors you'll need to consider beyond relevance are search volume and competition. The best targets are ones with high search volume and low competition, but these are understandably rare, due to the attractiveness of high search volume keyword terms in such a competitive industry. You'll need to decide for yourself how to balance these; most lawyers and law firms choose a diverse mix of “low hanging fruit targets” with low search volume and low competition along with “long-term goal” targets with high search volume and high competition.
Head keywords, or relatively short keywords and phrases, like “DUI lawyer,” typically offer very high search volume, but also high competition. Long-tail keywords, or longer search queries, like “How do I get out of a DUI?” typically offer very low search volume, but also low competition. The best SEO campaigns include a mix of both in their keyword targets.
Local keywords, as you might expect, are keywords and phrases that also include some geographic element. For example, these are search queries like “real estate lawyer Ohio,” “real estate lawyer Cleveland,” or even “real estate lawyer near me.”
These keywords and phrases are especially valuable for local SEO – the practice of optimizing your law firm for local searches. Local SEO is very similar to national SEO, but with some extra considerations for local search results.
Optimizing for your geographic location can be an easy way to avoid big competition and maximize visibility for the people geographically closest to you. Just keep in mind that in addition to optimizing for local keywords, you also need to optimize your local presence, such as by cleaning up your local citations and maximizing the quality and number of local reviews for your law firm.
Local SEO is a complex topic that requires its own article, but suffice it to say that most law firms do benefit from having at least a handful of local keywords among their strategic targets.
If you're hoping to get more out of SEO keyword research for your law firm, these tips should give you a good start:
· Work with the pros. We've tried to make this guide thorough, yet accessible. It should help you understand the basics of keyword research, but as you probably understand, SEO keyword research is better performed in the hands of an experienced professional who knows what types of keyword targets work best. If you have the budget for it, we advise you to work with SEO professionals for your keyword research needs.
· Consider budget and scope before beginning. There is no such thing as universally applicable keyword research. That's because each business has a unique budget and a unique scope. What works for a small, local, boutique law firm simply isn't going to work for a large, more generalized law firm. Make a plan for your budget and the scope of your SEO campaign from the beginning so you can choose better strategic targets.
· Triangulate the truth with multiple tools. Unfortunately, keyword data isn't perfect. It's constantly in flux, and different tools use different methodologies for providing you with data. Accordingly, it's good to triangulate the truth by using multiple tools to cross-reference each other.
· Understand search intent (and cater to it). Google is all about serving user intent. When someone asks a question, Google tries to find them an answer. When someone is obviously searching for a certain type of business, Google tries to find businesses that match those defined criteria. Accordingly, the better you understand search intent, and the better you cater to that intent, the better results you'll see.
· When in doubt, go narrow. A small number of very focused keywords is possibly the best way to start any SEO strategy. This way, you can use your budget on keywords that are extremely relevant with low competition; even if these searches don't generate much volume, you can at least get some early results to fuel the rest of your campaign. This is also a great way to stress test your SEO strategy; if you can't increase your rankings with very niche keywords with limited competition, you'll need to make some changes before you increase your budget and scope.
· Study your competition carefully. It's also a good idea to understand your competition. Go beyond simply looking at the competitive rating of various curative phrases and try to understand the tactics your competitors are using to optimize for them. What types of articles are they writing? Where are they building links?
· Optimize with caution. Keyword stuffing is the practice of deliberately including keywords in your content for the explicit purpose of manipulating your rankings. If done excessively, it leads to a much poorer user experience and can actually work against you, earning you a penalty that precludes you from advancing your SERP rankings. When optimizing for your strategically valuable keywords, do so with caution.
· Measure your results. Finally, be prepared to measure your results. You won't know how effective your keyword targets are until you put them to use and objectively observe their impact.
Keyword research is never easy.
It’s even harder in a competitive market like legal services.
That’s why it’s valuable to trust your keyword research – the foundation of your SEO strategy – to competent professionals with expertise in your niche.
We’re waiting for you. So don’t hesitate to reach out today – and find out how we can help your law firm dominate the SERPs!
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The broad strokes of search engine optimization (SEO) are relatively easy to understand, even for lay people.
Google and other search engines want to reward good content, and they want to provide users with relevant content for their needs.
Accordingly, good, relevant content makes it to the top of search engines.
If you want to achieve the highest rankings possible within your domain, you'll need to write lots of relevant, useful content for your target audience. You'll also need to support that content with a host of different SEO strategies, including technical optimization and link building.
But in today's hypercompetitive online marketing environment, the fundamentals alone aren't enough to guarantee you success. Instead, if you want any page of your website to dominate the competition and rise to the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs), you'll need to incorporate SEO tuning.
But what exactly is SEO tuning, how is it so reliable, and how do you practice it for your internal pages?
We hope to answer all your questions and more in this guide.
SEO tuning is a specific set of strategies in the umbrella of search engine optimization.
These strategies are designed to help you fine-tune and polish an existing page, ultimately supporting it in terms of its ranking potential and relevance to your audience.
Chances are, if you've been operating a website for some time, you have lots of strong pieces of content that need just a little bit of extra help to reach the upper echelons of the SERPs.
The strategies in SEO tuning include things like cutting ineffective content, including more relevant keywords, minimizing keyword cannibalization, and fixing small technical issues.
Additionally, SEO tuning calls your attention to specific ranking factors and qualities of your page, so that you can maximize its likelihood of ranking highly for relevant queries. These include things like:
Note that SEO tuning isn't about creating new pages, nor is it about completely overhauling existing pages. Instead, it's about taking solid, reliable pages on your website and fixing the little issues that might be holding them back.
You can think about it as taking a page that ranks as a B or B+ and moving it to an A or A+.
Why does SEO tuning work?
For starters, SEO tuning can help you with the following:
It's also important to recognize the current landscape of SEO.
These days, the SEO field is incredibly competitive, even for relatively obscure fields and niches. Even if you have a piece of great content on your website, there are probably a dozen other websites that offer content of similar relevance and quality. If you want to reach page one, or even rank one for a given keyword phrase or query, it's imperative that your page is as polished as possible.
At the highest competitive levels, even the smallest changes can make a big difference.
On top of that, companies that heavily invest in SEO often suffer from redundancy and pages that overlap in their pursuit of goals. SEO tuning provides you with an opportunity to separate your strategic targets and remain focused on your most important objectives.
How do you tune a page for SEO?
The easy answer is to work with the team of SEO experts, like those of us here at Marketer.co. We can help you identify the most valuable pages of your website, brainstorm about strategically valuable keyword targets, and ultimately conduct analyses that lead us to the best SEO tuning strategies for each page.
But if you choose to do the work on your own, you need to keep the following concepts in mind:
Everything starts with an SEO tuning audit. Essentially, this phase is about identifying potential page targets of your website and evaluating them in terms of SEO performance. There are SEO tuning software tools available to help you do this; these will often provide you with specific recommendations, based on the content of your website.
However, it's also possible to conduct this audit on your own.
When evaluating pages of your website, look at:
Once you have a list of valuable page targets, take a look at the following:
Once you have a full analysis in place for a given page, you'll be able to devise a plan for how to make changes to it. If you're working with SEO consultants, or if you've used an SEO tuning tool, you'll likely have specific recommendations to work with. Otherwise, you'll need to brainstorm solutions on your own. Depending on the current status and position of your page, there are probably many things you can do.
The process of applying these changes can be somewhat tedious and repetitive, but remember that every tweak inches you closer to SEO ranking perfection.
Many people think SEO tuning is all about adding new, better content. But in many cases, the stronger move is to surgically remove things that aren't working.
For example:
Once you remove everything compromising your SEO ranking potential, you can focus on tweaking what already exists and adding more.
Pay especially close attention to the following:
The final step is to measure and analyze your results. Keep in mind that Google’s index updates only periodically, and it may take several weeks or months before your changes take full effect. Schedule an analysis in the future to see if your changes have increased your pages’ rankings, traffic, conversions, and other dimensions of performance; if they haven't, analyze why and consider starting from scratch.
So the solution is to tune your pages for SEO as much as humanly possible, right?
Not necessarily. There's such a thing as “too much of a good thing” in most areas of life, and SEO tuning is no different.
Google doesn't want pages that are tuned to technical perfection, necessarily; it also wants authentic, user-centric content. If it becomes clear that you're artificially manipulating your rankings, or if your content becomes so tuned that it reads as robotic or mechanical, it could end up hurting you more than helping you.
These are just some examples of how:
These tips and strategies can prevent you from overtuning your articles for SEO:
We’ve helped a wide range of clients achieve next-level SEO results, and one of the best tools in our arsenal is SEO tuning.
Here are a few of the best success stories we have to offer:
SEO tuning is hard. If you have hundreds of pages to optimize for, it’s even harder. That’s why we make every effort to help our clients navigate this space – and tune their pages for ranking perfection. If you’re interested in a free SEO tuning audit, or if you need help executing the finer directives of your SEO strategy as a white label SEO reseller, contact us for a free consultation today!
SEO has always been a game that pits the marketer in direct conflict with the search engine guidelines.
Search engines funded by an advertising model will always have a conflict of interest in serving up organic results that directly benefit its own self-interest, often at the expense of the "free-riders" who game the search platform for their own benefit or for that of their clients.
This manipulation is commonly done through understanding and exploiting search engine algorithms, which directly influence one's position on the platform's search rankings.
It falls in line with the very definition:
In the scenario where rules are both created and oft-changed by a publicly-traded, profit-maximizing search engine, white hat search engine optimization ceases to exist.
And when compliance with the platform's rules means following a moving set of goalposts, course corrections in SEO and digital marketing strategies will be required to bring a website back into full "white hat" compliance.
The alternative is a slow, painful slide into irrelevance through full content deindexation from search engines.
While webmasters attempt to comply by engaging in today's version of white hat SEO techniques, the shifting sands are likely to land them in scenarios that do not bode well for long-term, sustainable keyword ranking and growth.
The introduction of new SEO metrics and the decline in value of others are routine realities webmasters have to contend with.
The days when 'keyword stuffing' was a viable strategy for improving search engine ranking are long gone. Now, not only is it frowned upon but can lead to penalties due to non-compliance with algorithm updates or rule changes enacted by major search engines like Google.
Instead, mastering relevant keywords while creating quality content becomes crucial in ensuring that your website remains visible amidst exponentially increasing internet organic traffic.
It's important also to remember that excellent user experience should never be sacrificed at the altar of optimizing 'search results.'
Building trust among users through authentic practices contributes significantly towards sustainable growth regardless of “white hat” parameters.
Most full-service digital marketing agencies are on the same team as the search engines.
They're very likely certified and partnered for all best practices related to paid search engine marketing.
They help drive revenue to the search engine by operating as agents for many paying brands that utilize the system for better results.
You can think of executing white hat SEO campaigns as the ultimate Prisoner's Dilemma.
The following graphic should prove helpful:
Only there is one caveat: there is information asymmetry and an imbalance of power. It's very different than the scenario of the Chargers and the Raiders, where a tie would benefit both, but the double-edged sword of a loss would be devastating to one but zero-sum on the other.
In our scenario, let's call the search engine Player 2.
If Player 2 defects in our scenario, there is no true dilemma or downside for Player 2 other than a few angry webmasters.
However, if collusive strategies could be instituted, it is almost 100% unlikely.
As Player 1, SEOs and marketers are typically forced into playing and cooperating with the game rules, motivated partly by fear and partly by reward.
But it's not search engines alone that mask an incentive to cheat.
In the absence of a completely open and mutually agreeable set of rules that only changes by mutual confirmation and acceptance, the party with the greatest access to the right data wins.
In our scenario, search engines provide just enough information to keep the users at bay but not enough for them to fully know all the secret sauce.
Enter third-party marketing tools.
In the absence of all the right information, third-party martech software solutions have helped to fill the void by reverse-engineering ranking factors, providing more detail on things like backlinks and specific keyword rankings in search engines.
Such solutions have helped to fill the gap, but information asymmetry will always persist.
For instance, we'll likely never fully know organic click-through rates for target keywords.
This asymmetry creates an imbalance of power in spite of Martech's attempt to even the playing field.
On the side of the marketers, the last holdout for at least some asymmetry is link building, where search engines may not fully know if a site is legit or if its link graph is poisoned through purchasing links from PBNs.
The relationship between site owners, digital marketing agencies, and search engines is simultaneously symbiotic (sometimes mutualistic) and parasitic.
Both are prone to benefit overall, but agencies often leech off the search engine host.
And the search engines don't necessarily like this relationship.
There is a lot of value left on the table that agencies are gobbling.
This creates incentives for both parties to step into moral gray space.
"I have a dream" where both parties could play together with aligned incentives, but the outline for that business plan wouldn't be worth the breath or dreamful supposition.
At its best, all SEO tuning is truly a game that pits marketers (whether direct or agency) against a platform that owns the user experience.
In such a scenario, white-hat SEO tactics do not exist.
At its best, SEO is a gray hat, while black hat SEO tactics are the worst.
But that doesn't mean you get out of the game.
So much of winning in internet marketing is gifted to those who are able to survive those proverbial "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune".
I greatly applaud those who simply do their best to stay inside the guise of the rules of white hat SEO strategies, even if those rules are somewhat nebulous and shift with frequency.
In reality, marketers truly interested in the long-term viability and sustainability of their clients' SEO campaigns should always seek to be on the cutting edge of white hat SEO practices.
But can you blame the marketers if they never dip their toes into darker waters?
By now, most businesses have some sort of social media presence. Some have just claimed their profiles and hoped for the best, while others have gone all-out in an effort to generate more brand awareness, more site traffic, and more potential revenue. But social media is useful as far more than a simple funnel for your web traffic—it’s a platform with great potential to build your brand’s reputation and increase loyalty amongst your followers.
One of the best ways to take advantage of this is somewhat unconventional. In addition to using social media as a straightforward communication and syndication platform, you can—and should—turn it into a full-fledged customer service platform.
There are some vulnerabilities in using social media for such an application, or at least perceived vulnerabilities. Social media is sometimes viewed as a fad or an arbitrary medium because of its rapid growth and the rise and fall of multiple individual social channels. However, digital social media platforms are going to be around for the long haul, and there are far more advantages to using it as a customer service platform than there are disadvantages.
Meeting customer expectations is crucial, and social media allows for real-time responses to customer issues, enhancing overall satisfaction. By promptly addressing customer messages, companies can build stronger relationships and foster loyalty.
Forward Thinking
It’s a fresh idea and one that not many companies are taking advantage of. Simply implementing a social media customer service strategy is going to differentiate you from your competitors, and mark you as a thought leader in your industry. The idea is still new, but as it starts catching on, some customers may opt in as followers simply because of your customer service options. Of course, this is partially dependent on your industry as well as which social profiles you choose to make the focal points of your strategy.
Instant Gratification
Using social media as a customer service platform can facilitate instantaneous responses. Instead of getting trapped in a series of phone transfers or held up in a pool of email requests, your users can pose a question and see it immediately posted. If you can answer that question immediately, you’ll give your users instant gratification, and they’ll love you for it.
A Chance to Demonstrate Brand Personality
Social media platforms lend themselves to a more interactive, personal experience. Rather than getting a formulaic email or listening to someone read through a phone script in the customer service call center, they’ll get to see a personalized message on a social media platform. You’ll have to ensure that all your social media managers are working from the same brand voice (to ensure a consistent brand experience), but the extra points for personality will be worth it.
Transparency
Using social media channels for such a purpose demonstrates a willingness for transparency. Today’s consumers are skeptical and untrusting of brands, so the more internal workings you can show them, the better. Every bad situation you can turn into a good situation is going to do wonders for your reputation, and it’s going to prove that you aren’t trying to hide anything from your customers. Potential, not-yet-convinced customers will see these types of customer service interactions, and as long as you’re handling each situation appropriately, you’re going to move them one step closer to a commitment.
A Chance for Follow-up
Social media also grants you the opportunity for immediate follow-up with your customers. If you respond to a question of theirs, you can immediately ask if your answer was satisfactory, and if there’s anything else they need. You can also follow up with your users a few days later in the same thread, ensuring customer satisfaction with everything.
Social Exposure
When a user has a good customer service experience with your brand on social media, they’ll be far more likely to share that experience with their own friends and followers. Repeat this a few dozen times, and you’ll gain instant visibility and credibility with an extended network of hundreds or thousands of new potential customers. In the modern era of social marketing, individuals carry more credibility than corporate brands—so use this to your advantage!
Your first step is to build a strong, loyal following that will serve as your introductory customer base. If you already have a following, you’re all set—you can move on to step two. However, if you have a strong social media strategy and you’d prefer not to interrupt it with additional customer service messaging, you can create an entirely separate presence dedicated exclusively to answering customer questions, such as “_____ Support. ”
Claim Your Profiles
Your first step is the easiest one. All you have to do is lay claim to your social media profiles. For most businesses, Facebook will work best as a customer service platform due to its widespread popularity and easy management interface. However, you may wish to claim a Twitter account or other profiles as well, depending on your customer demographics and personal preferences.
Post Often
In order to gain attention and build a reputation, you’ll have to start posting often. That means several times a day, every day. Post useful content or helpful links if you aren’t receiving any initial inquiries from your customers.
Engage with Your Users
Make it a point to respond to every point of interaction your customers give you, especially in the early stages of building your following. If a customer leaves a comment or sends a message, respond personally and publicly (when possible). Over time, you’ll build a community, and new followers will be more likely to join your platform.
Prioritizing customer engagement through thoughtful responses to customer interactions sets a standard for outstanding customer service. This approach not only addresses individual concerns but also demonstrates your commitment to fostering a supportive and responsive community.
Next, you’ll want to take steps to publicize the fact that your social media presence is doubling as your customer service portal. Make sure your profiles call attention to this fact, and use your main website (preferably a Contact or Help page) to announce and link to your social presence. You can also make a formal announcement using advertising mediums like email blasts, PPC ads, or banner ads.
If you sell products, one of the best ways to introduce your new platform is to include a message with every order, such as an index card that instructs customers to bring any issues or questions to their social account of choice.
You might be nervous to start things off, but the best way to learn social media customer service is to hit the ground running. Start handling your customer service requests individually, remaining personal and in brand voice with every interaction, and if you make any mistakes, try to learn from them and move past them.
Chances are, even with a strong following, you’ll start off with a small number of inbound requests. Over time, as you increase your social reputation, you’ll see those numbers start to grow, and you’ll earn more respect and more customers as a result.
Setting up your social media profiles as an additional customer service platform won’t take you much time, and it will take some getting used to if you’re unfamiliar with the medium, but the long-term benefits for your brand visibility and reputation make it all worthwhile. It’s still a good idea to maintain outside lines of customer service communication, especially a working phone number, but keeping social media at the crux of your customer service strategy is a sound move.
No matter how careful you are, there’s always the chance that you’ll run into a major social media catastrophe. Maybe you posted something in jest that offended the wrong crowd. Or, maybe you accidentally sent a reply that was meant to be a direct message. Maybe something happened with your product or software, and your social feeds are blowing up with angry responses from other online users. In any case, your social reputation is in serious jeopardy and you have a limited amount of time to try and mitigate those losses.
If you find yourself in the midst of a social media crisis, don’t panic. Instead, focus on completing these five steps:
Your first course of action should be to stop the bleeding—that is to stay, and prevent any further damage from being done. There’s nothing you can do to reverse what’s already happened, but you can take action to prevent anything else from stacking on top of it. For example, if you’ve posted something borderline offensive that seems to be riling people up, take the post down. If there’s an issue with your software causing people to angrily post on your timeline, connect with your developers and try to start fixing the issue.
The goal here isn’t to pretend like the incident didn’t happen (see the next step), but rather to prevent any further spread that you have the power to prevent. Most of the time, this simply means taking down the material in question, but there’s a limit to how much you can do.
One of the worst things you can do is try to cover the incident up. The social media world is public, observant, and fast, and if you try to stop information from spreading, that’s only going to make people want to spread it more. For example, if you posted something that wasn’t meant for the public eye and you try to delete posts that recognize this mistake, you’ll only encourage those users to post more aggressively.
Instead, address the situation directly. If you’ve made a mistake or have in some way damaged your reputation in the eyes of your users, you can start out with a sincere apology. If there’s a situation still underway, such as a software outage, you can post all the details you currently have on the subject and assure your followers that you’re working hard to correct it. The more open and transparent you are, the less backlash you’re liable to face (and the less interest people will have in rubbing your nose in it).
In today's digital age, having a solid Social Media Crisis Management plan is crucial. By implementing a well-thought-out crisis response and communication strategy, you can effectively manage public sentiment and mitigate the impact of a social crisis on your brand. Learning from the incident can also help shape future campaigns to prevent similar issues from arising.
Every follower’s voice matters. Every response counts. It’s your job to get on social media channels and respond to as many individuals as possible. If you’re a major national brand and this incident has gone viral, there’s little hope for you to respond to every single individual. If that’s the case, just do your best. A little individual acknowledgment is usually enough to make even the most vocal dissenters quiet down (at least for the moment).In your responses, be sincere, and show that you’re actually listening. Don’t post a canned response over and over again or you’ll look like a robot and open yourself to more criticism. Instead, acknowledge your followers’ complaints and concerns specifically and offer your sincere thoughts on the matter (apologizing again, if necessary).
An effective social media crisis management approach includes personal, heartfelt responses to build back trust. By integrating this into your overall crisis management strategy, you can mitigate damage and start the process of rebuilding your brand's reputation.
Once the first wave of responders has been addressed and a calm begins to set in, you can take the next step—offering penance. Most crises arise from some kind of mistake or mishap by a brand that negatively affects its followers in some way. If this is the case, it’s your job to try and make it up to them.
How you make it up to them is completely up to you. A little bribery is usually welcome here, such as offering free products or discounts to anyone who was personally affected by the incident. You could also simply explain the situation and acknowledge what you’re going to do to make sure it never happens again. It’s also a good idea to give people a piece of contact information they can use to contact your company directly if they have further concerns—it shows you want to go out of your way to make things right.
A well-crafted crisis communication plan is essential to navigate a brand crisis effectively. Utilizing your crisis management strategy across all social media platforms ensures a cohesive and timely crisis response. Consistent and transparent crisis communications can help restore trust and maintain your brand's reputation.
This may be the most important step since it’s going to help you prevent problems like this from arising in the future. Do a thorough review of all the steps that eventually led to this catastrophe, including who’s in charge of posting on social media, what steps were or were not followed, and any influencing factors that could have been addressed before the problem began to escalate. Determine if there’s any corrective action you can take to prevent a similar incident arising and if there is, take it.
Additionally, consistently monitor social media to quickly identify potential PR crises before they escalate. By understanding your target audiences and maintaining a consistent brand voice, you can respond effectively and implement proactive measures to mitigate future risks.
These five steps should be enough to get you out of even the most threatening social media crises. There’s no way to prevent all the damage, especially for larger blowups, but you can at least decrease it to a minimum and set yourself up for a speedy, graceful recovery. Even the best-prepared, most careful brands can encounter unfortunate situations. All you can do is manage their effects and prevent them from happening as much as possible in the future.
If you have a quality CRM software system, you can use your CRM for crisis management.
Need help managing your social media? We can help!
You're in a startup. Your idea is solid. You've got products or services ready to go. You have a feeling that if people only knew what you were offering, they'd be all over your company.
Now, the only question is, how am I going to make this thing visible? Your biggest marketing problem for startups is visibility and exposure.
More specifically, startups need a cost-effective solution to drive awareness quickly.
Here's your ultimate, step-by-step guide to getting media exposure for your startup.
Ready? Here we go!
Before you go off trying to get media exposure for your company, you need to build a solid foundation—meaning you have to develop your brand and your online presence to a sufficient degree in order to support your media efforts. Why? For starters, media outlets need a reason to feature you. If you don't even have a website or a fleshed-out brand, they'll be unlikely to cover your story. Even if they did, where would all your newfound visitors and brand enthusiasts go?
There would be no website or base of operations to which you could funnel them. Building brand awareness is essential for securing media coverage and aligning with industry trends. The strength of your foundation will dictate your ease of entry into the media world and help you realize the benefits of your efforts, including free media coverage from your preferred media outlets.
First, you need to have a grasp of your brand story, which many media sources will use to judge the strength of your potential coverage. Journalists are incentivized to write stories that people want to read—so is your brand exciting? Is it relevant? Is it different?
These are the qualities that will let them know:
(Image Source: Nestle)
(Image Source: Wall Street Journal)
Once your brand "story" is developed, your next biggest concern should be where your readers are going to go once, they've read about you in a media piece. Surely, you'll receive some referral traffic, but how you handle that referral traffic can make or break its value. For most startups, this will be your main website, but you might also create specific landing pages as destinations (or target specific internal pages).In any case, your design and copy need to be tight. They need to accurately portray your brand for an unfamiliar public, and appeal to them with new angles and extended descriptions. Remember that your media coverage will likely only skim the surface of who you are and what you do. You'll also need to focus on a PR strategy geared toward conversions, which is going to help you turn these barely familiar web visitors into leads or customers.
For this, you'll either need to point your visitors in the direction of your products or services pages through the use of your web design, or else present them with signup opportunities throughout the site. Run some AB tests to optimize your conversion efforts before you start seeking media coverage; otherwise, that traffic could go to waste.
It's also worth noting that a dedicated website isn't the only place you can funnel media traffic, especially as a new startup. For example, let's say SMB Sam is working on a new type of beverage to bring his usual coffee drinkers, but he needs capital to be able to fund it. He creates a page on Kickstarter to attract donations. Clearly, there's an incentive to get people to his website, but for the moment, what he really needs is more donors; this makes his crowdfunding campaign page a higher priority.
Crowdfunding pages aren't the only alternative destinations you can consider. For example, you might also funnel people from your media outlets to your social media profiles, or an example of your work somewhere else.
Before you get involved in any media interactions, you should have a blog in place on your website, complete with many posts that show off your thought leadership and expertise. There are three main reasons for this:
You'll also want to consider creating or utilizing a personal brand, rather than just a corporate brand when trying to promote your business. Essentially, a personal brand works just like a corporate brand, except for you as an entrepreneur; you'll create an identity standard for yourself, build recognition and popularity, then reap the benefits by using your personal brand to also promote your company.
There are a handful of advantages here for media relations. First, people tend to like stories about other people more than stories about brands or companies. As the leader of your startup, you'll serve as a figurehead for your company, representing both the business and the personal side of things. You'll have an easier time working with journalists since you'll be able to form a more personal connection, and you'll seem less self-promotional since the corporate branding takes on a secondary role.
It's also worth noting that any media exposure you get as a personal brand will last longer than your startup, extending beyond the context of any one business. If you plan on starting multiple businesses, this is crucial.
Take a look at how Elon Musk has developed his own personal brand—he has his own section on Popular Mechanics as well as Entrepreneur.com, and his name is recognized more than any of his individual companies.
(Image Source: Popular Mechanics)
You probably won't achieve this level of fame, but your benefits will be similar.
For both your corporate brand and your personal brand, you'll want to start building a bigger social media following. You can do this by promoting your on-site content, sharing the work of others, engaging in conversations relevant to your industry, and reaching out to individuals who might be interested in your work.
A bigger, more relevant social following will help you in the following ways:
Here's a perfect example of how a strong social media campaign generated media exposure on its own:
(Image Source: ABC News)
For help growing your social media following, see 101 Ways to Get More Social Media Followers.
Early on, while you're still building your foundation, it's a good idea to strike up relationships with journalists you feel might be relevant to your brand. A major factor for success in the media exposure world is the strength and reach of your connections, so the sooner you initiate these connections, the better.
There are many places to look for journalists, some of which are more obvious than others. You can generally find their contact information on their respective publishers' sites, but a better way to find them is to meet them through social networking sites or in-person networking events. You can even find them in journalist-specific meetups. They likely receive an overwhelming number of queries through their professional emails, so you'll stand out more if you meet them in person.
You don't have to do anything special when starting a connection. Simply introduce yourself, ask them about their position and about their work, and leave the door open for future interactions. If you really want to stick in their memory, help them out in some way or take them out for lunch or coffee in the near future.
In addition to hunting down some journalists, you'll also want to create a kind of "watch list" for news sources and publishers who may wish to publish content related to your brand in the future. This will make things much easier when it comes time to shop around a potential story.
You don't need anything fancy here; a simple spreadsheet will do. There are four things you'll want to record, in addition to any special notes you might have.
(Image Source: Adam Sherk)
Finally, you'll want to start tapping into the power of influencers, if you can. Influencer marketing is the process of engaging with noteworthy, high-authority individuals (usually strong personal brands or other thought leaders in your industry) to gain exposure or authority for your brand. The best way to do this is through ongoing relationships with key influencers, such as regular conversations, content collaborations, or other exchanges of value. The earlier you scout for and build these relationships, the more power you'll be able to tap, especially later on.
Influencers will help your content and social media campaigns grow, multiplying the benefits of these foundational elements (which I've already covered above). They may also be able to help you find new journalists and new publishers, as they tend to be well-connected in their respective industries.
With all these aspects in place, your foundation will be more or less complete. From there, you'll be able to start doing the work of attracting and creating media exposure opportunities.
Once you've got your foundation in place, you're ready to start communicating with journalists and publishers.
Start by identifying which publishers to target. I covered seven essential quality metrics for evaluating publishers in my article at Search Engine Land. One of those, Google PageRank, has since been discontinued. Here are the other six:
There are many different types of news outlets, and many different ways you can approach your delivery of news content related to your company. These include writing and submitting your own press release, pitching a story, and collaborating with others for a joint project. I'll be exploring each of these in turn.
Your first option is the easiest (and the most approachable for entrepreneurs unfamiliar with garnering media exposure). In this process, you'll use a newsworthy event related to your company and distribute it to a host of potential news sources using a service like PRWeb, Cision, or just about any PR firm. Those sources may reject, edit, or publish your piece directly on their sites, giving you potential exposure across the web.
If this process seems easy, it's because it is. Just don't count on every publisher you encounter to run with your piece.
Collaborations and exclusives are different types of news stories, and they don't rely on the manual submission of articles to be published. Oftentimes, this is the joint work of a journalist and a personal brand/entrepreneur/individual, so you'll need either a pre-existing relationship with a journalist, or a strong enough reputation to earn these pieces on your own.
You'll get varying degrees of exposure and reputation boosts depending on the type of collaboration you choose. These are just a few:
One fantastic way to do so is to sign up for HARO (Help a Reporter Out), which will put you on an email list that will send you opportunities that may be of interest to you. Basically, reporters who need sources for their stories can solicit them via HARO, and if you find a story for which you think you could be a good source, you can contact the journalist and offer your assistance. It's free, and it's a great way to connect with journalists who write about your industry.
(Image Source: HARO)
Press release submission demands that you create your own material. Collaborations require that you have either something important, valuable, or knowledgeable to say, or have a pre-existing reputation.
Pitching, on the other hand, mandates neither of these requirements; you don't have to do the writing (unless you want to), you don't have to have a newsworthy event in mind, and you don't need to have a pre-existing reputation.
The idea here is to come up with a story that news readers would want to see. It could be an industry profile, a review of local businesses, or (depending on the source) something more niche along content marketing lines, like business strategies or economic tips. Then, contact a journalist and pitch your story. It could either be a story idea or the full written story itself. If the journalist likes what you pitched, they'll reply.
As always, the stronger your relationship with the journalist you're pitching to, the better chances you'll have of seeing your story written and/or published. And no matter who you're pitching to or what you're pitching, there are a handful of strategies that will help you be successful:
My favorite way to get media coverage is simple in theory but difficult in practice – become the journalist. You can do so by becoming a guest contributor, or even a regular columnist at your publication(s) of choice.
The general idea of guest blogging is to use your personal brand as a way to post your content on external publications, build exposure, reach new audiences, earn links, and earn a more authoritative reputation in the process.
Guest blogging is how I became a contributor at dozens of online media publications, including Forbes, Inc, Entrepreneur, The Huffington Post, Search Engine Land, and more. It's a phenomenal tool for markers and shouldn't be ignored.
However, it's a subject that requires a guide of its own (trying to distill it into anything of value in this little section wouldn't do it any justice), so you can read my guide on guest blogging here: The Ultimate, Step-by-Step Guide to Building Your Business by Guest Blogging.
Most of my tips in this section have been focused on online publishers, which are the most prominent, and generally the easiest to access. However, be aware that most of the strategies here—including pitching ideas and helping reporters with one-off contributions—can be applied to television and radio as well.
These mediums are more appropriate for some brands (such as retail and traditional industries) than others (like a tech startups).
Once you've started building a foundational reputation through media collaboration, and you've established a reputation for yourself online, you'll start receiving press inquiries from journalists.
That's when a media kit comes in handy. A media kit doesn't have any formal requirements. Instead, it serves a simple purpose; giving potential journalists and publishers all the information and assets they need in order to represent your brand appropriately in their material.
Some brands have a .zip file of this information, while others simply consolidate it onto a single page of their website.
Your first job will be to introduce your media kit to prospective users. Again, you have a number of choices when it comes to presentation. In your early stages, a simple standalone page of your website will do fine; include it in your footer and design it to show off the key elements of your brand in an engaging way. Eventually, media demand or your brand reputation may be such that it demands a more formal distribution system.
When making pitches or engaging in collaborations, it's also useful to send your media kit along as an attachment or a referendum. In some cases, it may serve as a type of resume to show off your brand authority. The mere fact that you have a media kit shows that you've had exposure in the past, plan on exposure in the future, and are prepared enough to address these situations professionally. It sets a good tone for the future of your journalistic relationship.
Your media kit needs to tell your "brand story," which I touched on a bit earlier. Here, you'll need to present this information with a bit more formality, so it's clear to the average user where you stand.
Journalists love to cite facts and figures, so the more objective data points you can include about your brand, the better. This also further incentivizes them to link back to your site, as they'll need a citation for the statistical data, which can help your SEO campaign.
To give you some ideas for what types of data to post, here are some suggestions:
It wouldn't be a media kit without media, right? But the media I'm referring to here is different from the "media" as it describes news sources and publications. This is the visual sense of the word "media," referring to tangible elements that a publisher may use to enhance or supplement their coverage of your brand:
If you have other brand assets, such as a specific typeface, a mascot, or other signature elements of your identity, these might be good to include as well.
It's also a good idea to include instructions and policies about how, exactly, people are allowed to use this information. You could hire a lawyer and draft up a formal agreement that digs into detail about how your assets and statistics are to be used, but this is generally more trouble than it's worth. For most brands, an informal, even conversational request is more than enough to make sure your information is used appropriately. Besides, all your brand assets are protected under general intellectual property laws, so you don't need to worry about plagiarism or theft. As a great example, check out MailChimp's brand assets page.
They take some time to show exactly how not to use their brand, clarify some common misconceptions, and then make a few simple statements about when you can and can't use their information. It's simple, to the point, easy to follow, and doesn't demand that your external publishers get legal representation before giving you free media exposure.
There are some ongoing considerations you'll need to bear in mind as your reputation grows, and you start striving for higher goals. Media relations aren't something that can be initiated or executed as one-time events; they demand management and refinement over time.
You'll need to manage your relationships with journalists, influencers, editors, and publishers on a regular basis. If you lose contact for too long, you could lose them from your network entirely; here's how to keep your contacts happy and engaged:
You'll also want to take advantage of any cross-promotional opportunities you can find. Usually, this involves supporting a press release or coverage article on an external publisher by using your own marketing campaigns.For example, you might share a positive press piece on your personal brand's social media channel, or email it out to your subscribers. Refer to my introductory section on media coverage's "relationship to other marketing strategies" for more ideas.
Finally, don't forget to take ownership of your latest publication opportunities by showcasing your affiliation with major publication brands. On your website, you should have a rotating list of publishers, or a collage of different logos of those publishers, to demonstrate social proof and make your reputation known.Similarly, you'll want to reference your partnerships and previous coverage in every new pitch or every new relationship you create; this will help you land even bigger and better opportunities in the future.
Media exposure manifests in so many different forms, it almost can't be categorized in a coherent, singular way. Press releases and guest posts are very different strategies, but they can be leveraged together as part of the same path to greater brand exposure.For a startup in the early stages of development, with few customers and not much to build on other than a central idea, the approachability, cost effectiveness, and scalability of media relations makes it one of the most effective marketing strategies you can pursue.Its power is multiplied even further when you use it in conjunction with other powerful online marketing strategies, provided you're following best practices throughout.There's no single list of takeaways I can leave you with here, other than to keep in mind that everything in brand exposure and external publications boils down to your relationships. The better you build and maintain relationships with your customers, journalists, editors, and even the general public, the better you're going to fare.Media exposure is very much connected in a self-perpetuating feedback loop, so the more visibility you earn, the easier it will be to obtain future visibility—but the only way to gain that initial visibility is by instilling trust in your earliest relationships. Maintain a brand and a strategy with integrity, remain passionate, and stay committed; the rest will come in time.If you don't have time to manage your PR strategy yourself, find the best digital marketing agency to help you with the process! Contact us today!
Understanding your target market through thorough market research is crucial for your startup's success. Additionally, developing a solid business model and continuously gathering customer feedback can significantly increase the chances of your startup becoming one of the successful startups.
Incorporating user feedback is essential for refining your startup business and ensuring it meets the needs of potential customers. Additionally, implementing search engine optimization strategies can boost your startup's visibility and contribute to long term success.
Understanding your target audience is crucial for a business owner when crafting a business plan that ensures startup success. Additionally, maintaining the financial health of your business is essential for sustaining growth and stability in the long run.
For early stage companies, it's crucial to differentiate your startup idea from existing solutions in the market. A successful entrepreneur understands the importance of aligning marketing efforts with the needs of target customers to attract venture capital and ensure the business's growth.
LinkedIn is one of the fastest-growing social networking sites for professionals and businesses – and perhaps the most useful. It has grown to become the social media site of choice for small business owners, professionals, and executives who are looking to create gainful business relationships.
And with its recent redesign, LinkedIn is gradually transforming itself into the only social networking site that business-minded individuals need to network and consume information that matters to them most.
If you’re looking to create value and establish relationships with people that matter to your professional and entrepreneurial growth, here are some great tips for you to get the most out of LinkedIn.
By developing a solid LinkedIn marketing strategy, you can effectively reach your LinkedIn audience and share LinkedIn content that resonates with them. Leveraging LinkedIn for social media marketing allows you to gain industry insights and provide valuable insights to LinkedIn users, enhancing your professional network.
Entrepreneurs and employers you wish to reach out to may not know you very well. That’s why many prefer to get comfortable dealing with you initially by learning more about you through your LinkedIn profile.
The most important thing to do if you are to build trust with your target audience is to complete your LinkedIn profile. It enriches your personal or professional brand.
Remember that your LinkedIn profile is essentially your online resume, which can be made publicly available.
Your photo should present the natural you. If you feel like presenting yourself as someone people can trust, a little smile can help.
But don’t force your smile! Smile as though you are very happy to meet someone. Think of a time when you were introduced to someone you found yourself very pleased to meet for the first time.
If you’re uncomfortable smiling while posing for a headshot, just be yourself. But whatever you do, make sure you don’t get caught with that deer-in-the-headlights expression.
As for what to wear for your photo, select formal to semi-formal attire that you’re comfortable wearing. Remember, you’re not putting a photo on your Facebook profile. You’re putting your mug in a professional “place.”
You want prospects to know what you have to offer, upon seeing your profile. The best way to catch their attention is to create a relevant headline. The profile headline is located right below your name on your LinkedIn profile.
You can add a headline to your profile by editing the name field on the Edit Profile section of your account.
Tip: Be creative when writing a professional headline for your profile. Devise an inviting headline such as “Helping your company get found with the best ad copy” or something like that. BE CREATIVE!
Put in as much related experience or employment details as you can that add substance and weight to your prospects. If you are gunning for a freelance job as a content writer, for example, include as much relevant experience as possible on your profile to showcase your writing experience.
Be very specific when putting the name of the employer, the job, and a description of the previous jobs you’ve held. Make your job history as descriptive as possible.
Contact details. With a great-looking profile and a tempting professional headline, recruiters and businesses will be more likely to get in touch with you. Your LinkedIn marketing efforts will surely bear positive results.
Keep in mind, however, that only your 1st-degree contacts are shown your contact details. However, many folks actually include their email address in their professional headline so others can see that they welcome outreach.
You can have your professional headline read “SEO Expert – Helping You Get to Google’s No. 1 Spot – For more details, email xxx@abc.com”
First, a note on adding contacts on LinkedIn. You can add contacts on LinkedIn right after signing up by utilizing their invite forms which mine your existing email address lists.
Be careful not to add people you don’t know or who don’t know you. If you attract too many “I don’t know’s” from people you’ve invited, that can get your account manually reviewed for spam.
There is a way, however, to invite people to connect with you, even if you don’t know their email addresses and they don’t know you – by way of LinkedIn Groups.
As soon as you’re done sprucing up your LinkedIn profile, join LinkedIn groups that are related to your business or where you think you can find prospects. If you’re an online content writer, for example, and you want to find people who work in the SEO industry; the best groups to find them in are those that relate to marketing, SEO, social media marketing, etc.
Take note that you may only join up to 50 LinkedIn Groups, so choose the ones with which you want to be associated carefully. Also, take note that you may not be allowed to immediately join every group you apply for, but don’t fret. There are plenty of groups to go around.
To target the groups related to your target audience, you can do a quick Group search using the search box shown below.
Say you want to join groups relating to “retailers.” All you need to do is type in “retailers” in the search box above. There are currently 1,263 groups related to “retailers” on LinkedIn page. See below.
Now you want to target your prospects with absolute accuracy, but remember: you can’t invite people to connect with you unless you’ve already established some form of connection such as being in the same groups or working with them at a company previously.
To find exactly who you want to connect with on LinkedIn – who you think would find your service to be valuable – take advantage of LinkedIn’s Advanced Search.
Advanced Search allows you to filter your searches so you can find the people with whom you wish to connect.
Looking at the image above, let’s say you’d like to target the “owner” of retail stores. You can simply key in “owner” in the Title field and “retail” in the Keywords field.
Assuming you don’t have anyone on your contacts list yet, but you’re already a member of several groups related to the business of your target audience, click on Group Members under the Relationship field.
The search results will show all LinkedIn members who are owners of businesses connected with the retail industry. However, you can’t get to them or even send them messages unless you’re connected in some way within LinkedIn. But remember, we filtered our search to include only those who are fellow members of a group you’re a member of.
Look at the sample profile below:
As you can see from the example above, I’ve got two shared connections with the person who owns the profile. If I wanted to get in touch with him by sending him a message, all I’ve got to do is click on either of the groups above and find the person using the Members tab on the group’s page.
When you click on the Members tab, you’ll be taken to another page where you can find a search box on the left side where you can enter the person’s name and company.
After hitting search, you’ll then be taken to a search page result. As you hover over the person’s profile, options will come up on the far right side of the profile such as below:
Click Send message to reach out to the person. Remember, this is the only way you can message someone on LinkedIn when you’re not directly connected with each other.
I find that messages that are highly personalized, short, direct, and to the point get your prospect’s attention because:
• It doesn’t sound spammy
• It allow your prospect to feel that you respect their time
• It engages them by creating a specific point of interest keep my messages as short, direct, and to the point as possible.
Most of the time, I hear back from prospects asking me for more information, and some have ended up being my clients.
When I get inquiries, I always thank the prospects for their response and then proceed to show them how we can work together.
Conclusion
To generate leads and bolster your online marketing efforts, having a successful LinkedIn marketing strategy is crucial. You can also utilize LinkedIn analytics to refine your LinkedIn strategy. Make sure it complements other digital channels such as email marketing, creating a well-rounded online marketing strategy to attract potential customers.
A few take-aways here as we wrap up:
• Remember to keep your LinkedIn profile as descriptive and complete as possible.
• Target only prospects that are qualified for your types of products or services.
• Don’t spam! Always personalize your messages and keep them short.
• Use LinkedIn to its full potential to grow your business online.
For more information on our social media marketing services, drop us a line, and we will be happy to discuss a tailor-fitted digital marketing strategy for you.
As a marketer, have you ever wondered:
Of course, you have. We all have. The answers to these questions can help you understand your place in the marketing world, come up with better strategies, and prepare for the uncertain future of online marketing in dozens of specific areas.
Unfortunately, these answers aren’t clear; even if you talk to every marketer you meet in person, you’re still only getting a narrow perspective of the marketing landscape.
To gain a broader understanding, it's essential to explore various digital marketing channels, from social media marketing to search engine optimization. Balancing traditional marketing methods with innovative online advertising and content marketing can enhance your overall marketing strategy and ensure a successful campaign across different search engines.
At AudienceBloom, we’ve attempted to go a step further by creating, executing, and analyzing a survey to uncover the answers to these questions, and then some. Sprawling over 50 questions, we collected information from 357 of the nation’s online marketers, and the results spell an interesting and dynamic future for some of the most popular marketing strategies of our era. As a general trend, marketing budgets are on the rise, but that only scratches the surface of what we found.
Our findings indicate that an effective online marketing strategy must incorporate various digital channels, such as email marketing and Google Ads, to reach potential customers. By refining their social media marketing strategy and search engine marketing campaign, digital marketers can maximize their online marketing efforts and drive traffic to their web pages.
Find out:
If you’re ready to learn the answers to these questions (and more), or if you’re just curious how much we were able to learn, click here to download the full report – 100% free!
We are a Seattle-based content marketing agency. We specialize in link building, a form of off-site content marketing, which we'll cover here shortly, and we work with companies of all sizes to plan and execute link building and content marketing strategies.
Alright, let's dig into the good stuff.
So, this is content marketing 101, and the first thing I want to do is talk about the concept of content marketing because it might be a little bit different than what you're used to, or what you thought content marketing was.
Obviously, content marketing is all about content.
"Content" can mean creating content, visual content, video content, audio content— really, anything that communicates with your customers and holds some sort of value. We'll dig a little deeper into what constitutes that "value" later on, but for now, this is a good working definition.
The goals of content marketing are to make your brand more powerful and visible, resulting in higher conversion rates, more traffic, more leads, and more sales. In essence, we're just talking about higher traffic and higher conversion rates, which are the two elements of the online revenue formula.
But there are a few misconceptions that lead people astray when it comes to content marketing.
The first is that there's a formula for content marketing that works for everyone.
Some people have been pitched the idea as a fad, or a kind of gimmick, where some agency or expert has told them content marketing is a guaranteed path to success for any business. There are a lot of objective benefits that almost any company can take advantage of, but this line of thinking implies that content is a straightforward, plug-and-play type concept, and it's not.
It demands a lot of hard work and adjustment over time—and because every company is different, there really is no set formula that works 100 percent of the time. There are some major considerations and useful strategies that any business can implement, but there really is a trial-and-error component to a lot of this.
Another major misconception is that content marketing is a standalone or isolated strategy, and again, this isn't really the case. Technically, you could stand to benefit with just a blog, or just a whitepaper series, but the true power of successful content marketing marketing is better unlocked when it's made an integral component of a much wider web of interrelated strategies.
For example, content marketing can work closely in conjunction with an SEO strategy; if you know how to optimize content for search engines, you'll end up ranking higher for more keywords and appearing in search results for more keywords overall, which will increase the visibility of your content. Knowing the ins and outs of social media marketing gives your content more reach, increasing its value even further. Email marketing, even paid ads —there are a lot of options here to expand the reach of your content.
With that in mind, let's take a look at some of the benefits that content marketing has to offer the average business.
The benefits of content marketing are more than just giving your potential customers more value; it can actually improve your business in several different areas. Obviously, the bottom line is getting more money and more customers, but there are both direct and indirect paths to those goals.
For example:
Brand visibility is about how much exposure your brand is getting. Just having your name in front of more people and being top-of-mind with a wider portion of your target demographics is valuable. It means people will be more likely to buy from you when it comes time to make a decision, and it may even help you get some word-of-mouth attention. You'll get this by publishing more content in more places and getting it shared in bigger and bigger circles.
Brand reputation is similar but distinct from brand visibility. Rather than the sheer volume of attention your brand is getting, reputation is about what people think of you. So, with good, informative content, people are going to see you as more authoritative in your industry. You have this kind of subtle way of bragging through content—look at how much of an authority we are on this subject! Look at how much we love our customers! And since it's indirect, not an advertisement, people trust it more.
Publishing more high quality content for your website makes it bigger, with more indexed pages in search engines. And as long as you keep your readers interested, more is better. It means the average user's going to spend more time hopping between your pages and learning more about your brand, and you'll have more opportunities to eventually nail down a conversion. Speaking of which…
Conversions are where you make your money, so obviously, the more you get, the better. You might have a landing page, contact page, or product pages doing a lot of the work for you here, but don't underestimate the power of a call-to-action in a well-written blog article, YouTube video, or podcast radio show.
Do this consistently, and your conversions will go way up. But successful content marketing strategy doesn't just give you more opportunities for conversions, it actually increases the rate at which visitors convert, because it strengthens the credibility, authority, and trustworthiness of your brand.
So, there are a couple of search effects that come with a good content marketing strategy. First, as you publish more content, you'll have more pages on your website, which is going to make your site more relevant for a wider range of search queries.
I like to think of every newly published page of content as dropping another hook in the water. The more you have, the more opportunities for "bites" you have from search engines! But if the page is the hook, then the bait is the quality of the content itself, and without good bait, you won't catch any keepers. So don't try to publish content with the mindset of only getting as many hooks in the water as you can – the better the bait or quality of that content, the better the catch will be.
The other main SEO benefits are the inbound links and brand mentions, which can be linked or unlinked, that result from content marketing. Much of your content marketing is going to happen off-site, which I call off-site content marketing, so that presents this opportunity for you to link back to your own domain. Even unlinked mentions of your brand name are thought to have an impact on SEO.
Those same links and mentions can result in really good referral traffic over time. I've found that providing links to relevant articles or eBooks on AudienceBloom.com within the context of other articles I've written is a great way to drive referral traffic.
Social traffic works very much the same way. As people read and share your content, you'll see traffic from those social media channels.
In particular, industries like software-as-a-service (SaaS) require customers to stay engaged with up-to-date strategies and troubleshooting guides for their ultimate success. This is why it's essential that SaaS businesses not only provide such information but also ensure they are constantly updated in order to retain customer loyalty.
Satisfy the desires and needs of your website users, including providing them with user-generated content options. This will ensure their loyalty over time - a key factor in driving long-term growth!
Okay, so here we have the principle of compounding interest as it applies to content marketing. In my opinion, this is what really separates content marketing from the pack in terms of different marketing strategies.
Now, in the financial world, you have this principle of "compound interest," where you earn interest on an investment, let's say, at a consistent rate, but every time you earn interest, you're actually earning interest both on your principal investment and the other interest you've already earned. This creates an exponential growth curve rather than a linear one, which results in tremendously better long-term benefits.
Collectively, these factors make it so content marketing pays off in a non-linear growth pattern, which means its long-term returns are just amazing.
Your sense of scale and ballooning authority are valuable at the later stages of growth, but when you first start out, you're going to feel like you're on an island.
You're going to have very few (if any) readers and a very (very) small audience. There's no getting around this. Content marketing is the best strategy for long-term payoffs, but in the short term, it's unlikely to give you instant results. You've got to be committed and patient for this to work.
As you continue your campaign and your content catches the interest of readers through paid or organic channels, you'll grow your audience steadily. Think of it as building roads and bridges to the island you started on.
Alright, now let's take a look at how you can actually build a strategy like this. I'm going to be breaking this down into a few main sections, but the two most prominent are 'on-site' and 'off-site' content.
So, your on-site content is everything that you have on your website itself. Now, there are a few main considerations you'll have for the type of content you'll want to provide here:
You want to make sure that nobody else has done this before. If you publish something that someone else has already covered, people aren't going to have any reason to read it. So, how can you make it original? That's up to you. Do some original research, come up with a unique idea, and experiment with something new—just make it stand out by making it different.
I could write about how much I love ice cream, but nobody needs to know that. However, people do need to know about content marketing efforts and how to start up their own content campaigns. On some level, your content should be practical for your audience—give them advice, tools, or information that's useful to them.
Nobody wants that fluffy content where there are a lot of words on the page, maybe, but it's not really saying anything useful. Give your readers concrete examples, creative illustrations, and specific data points. The more detailed you are, the better.
You can have good content that still isn't engaging—you need to grab your readers' attentions and get them really invested in your content. You can do this by making it more visual, or making it more entertaining. The real key here is to make your content more approachable overall.
I don't mean writing the same thing every week, because obviously you still need to be original, but there has to be some kind of similar thread between your content—the same voice, the same style, the same realm of expertise—give your readers something they can grow familiar and become comfortable with. That will keep them coming back for more.
These are the five main areas you'll really want to zero in on, and they apply to your off-site content, too.
Your on-site content is where you've got to start. Nobody's going to start accepting guest posts and submissions from you or your brand until you have some published proof of your content's quality and your brand's expertise. You can't just show up claiming you're an expert; you have to show people that you know what you're talking about, and usually, that means building up a cache of on-site content, sort of like a resume.
On-site content also gives you more creative liberties than external publishers will. There are no requirements to follow (other than the ones you set), and you won't be limited in terms of how often you want to publish, word counts, things you can and can't say, etc.
Beyond that, on-site content gives you all kinds of opportunities for customer acquisition and retention—you'll be able to include more calls to action, give your customers more value for their money, and really just strengthen your current customers' perceptions of who your brand is and how good your products and services are.
The best way to publish on-site content is with a blog on your website, and that's why I've pictured the AudienceBloom blog here. Make your blog your content hub. I recommend using WordPress because it's very user-friendly and can be augmented with a ton of useful plugins.
Off-site content, on the other hand, is a different animal in terms of the steps you need to take to execute it. The basic idea of off-site content is to publish content on behalf of your brand (usually a personal brand) on other publications. These publishers should be related to your industry or somehow reach your target audience. It's a long, slow, methodical process to guest post on some publications, but there are a ton of benefits to doing so.
What you see here is my author profile and archive at Inc.com, one of the places I contribute occasional columns. The visibility you can get for your personal brand and your company brand when you're represented in national publications like this is well worth the effort. Off-site content is where you'll get real brand visibility and reputation boosts; getting your brand's content featured in reputable publications within your industry will improve your brand awareness, trust, credibility, conversion rates, and all the other benefits we covered previously as well.
Off-site content is also a perfect opportunity to build links that point back to your website. These pass trust and authority to your site, which makes your site rank higher in search engines for relevant queries.
Now, obviously, there are a few challenges to off-site content that on-site content just doesn't have. You can write good content, sure, but meeting the quality, tone, formatting, and other requirements of external publishers can be a headache. But if you keep at it consistently and build your reputation as a great content producer, you'll easily be able to overcome those challenges.
Okay, so we've talked about on-site content and off-site content, and I've mentioned that one of the most important factors for content of any type is visibility.
Your job, with any content you produce, should be to maximize its readership in whatever way you can. Over time, that's gonna mean building up an audience of loyal followers or readers, so that every new follower you earn is another new reader for every piece of content you publish and syndicate thereafter.
There are a few keys to doing this successfully: Post regularly, respond, engage, and incorporate feedback. Let's discuss each of these briefly.
For now, I want to address this idea of getting started from scratch, which I'll admit, definitely isn't easy. When you're launching a new campaign, you'll have no followers, no external publications, no blog, and heavy investment before you start seeing any meaningful results.
So, where and how do you actually get started? I recommend starting with your on-site blog. Let's say you reach out to a new publisher to get some of your material featured. Where do you think they'll look first to see if you're the real deal? Probably your company blog. Let's say you reach out to an influencer in your industry on Twitter. After they check out your tweets, where are they going to look next? Probably your blog. So, as soon as possible, fill that blog up with the best content you can muster—think of it as a kind of resume you'll use to get your foot in the door for all the off-site content marketing you're going to do.
From there, start with relationships you might already have, even if they're not that strong or relevant. For example, you might have a connection on LinkedIn with an editor who works for the trade magazine you wish you could get featured in. Work your network to get an introduction, or introduce yourself through LinkedIn or email. Start small, and work your way up to bigger and better publishers and connections. It takes time and persistence, so don't expect it to come all at once, and don't give up when your outreach goes unanswered. Use Boomerang for Gmail to remind you when someone hasn't replied to your email after a few days so you can reach back out to check-in. Be persistent and don't give up until you get an answer, whether it's "yes" or "no."
In the same way, you can leverage the people you already know to give your social media profiles a leg to stand on. I'm talking about your friends, your family members, your employees—whoever you can get to follow your social media profiles.
Now, social media platforms aren't a numbers game—you don't just want any followers; you want good followers with the potential to actually become customers. But when you're first starting out, people may judge you based on those numbers, so give yourself a starting platform here with some initial followers or likes.
Also, when you publish and syndicate new material, have these people share it with their own friends and followers—it's the fastest way to start picking up some new connections. Don't be afraid to ask for followers and likes! There's one final but super important point I want to make. Your readership isn't just a mass of people to broadcast your content to—they're independent thinkers with thoughts and feelings on your material, and you'd do well to listen to them.
You have to nurture your relationship with your audience if you want your readers to stay loyal. That means giving them the best possible content you can and readily addressing their needs, concerns, and questions.
There should also be a degree of escalation in all your relationships, not just with your audience. Your publishers, your influencers, your readers, all of it—if you want to keep your momentum moving forward, you have to steadily increase your overall investments.
I still feel like I've only scratched the surface about what content marketing is and how to do it effectively. I've touched on the basics about what makes a good post, or about how content marketing affects SEO, or how to syndicate your content to best serve your audience. These are all topics that merit their own webinars, but I'm hoping this introductory lesson was more than enough to cover the kind of "start to finish" or "10,000-foot view" I wanted to achieve.
That being said, I've covered pretty much everything I had, and I'd like to open the floor to questions.
Broad terms are great for buzzy platitudes but not for a targeted digital strategy.
"Digital marketing" is thrown around with broad strokes, but doing so does nothing to the furtherance of company growth. Today's marketing mediums are so diversified and disparate that grouping them under a common banner is less than ill-advised. It's reckless.
The companies who get the most out of their marketing budgets do so because they begin with the end in mind. They know exactly who their target demographic and customer persona is and what they want that person or group to do.
Then, they reach for the mediums that matter, crafting the messaging that will resonate with their end users.
What follows is a list of the 13 most common types of digital marketing campaigns, how they are used, and discussions on using them to achieve specific ROI.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps your website appear higher in search results and get more visitors.
SEO should indeed be part of a bigger digital marketing plan to help you reach your goals, but it should never be the end-all of your digital marketing strategy.
Google hates SEO (mostly) and actually likes to be in control of the content that is fed to users.
SEO creates a juxtaposition between the user, Google, and the marketer.
Content Marketing strategy relates to SEO when it comes to building visibility online and increasing website traffic which is definitely an essential components when developing successful digital marketing techniques!
Social media advertising is a powerful tool for connecting with customers, it creates brand awareness and engage potential buyers in whatever you are selling- may it be a product or a service.
Just like content marketing, it provides businesses with the ability to reach their target audience quickly and efficiently, as everyone and anything can already be found on social media.
Social media marketing can be used to promote products, services, or content in an effective way that resonates with consumers because most people spend their time scrolling wherever they are.
However, as part of a broader marketing strategy, it should be used as one piece of the puzzle when it comes to reaching your goals, as well as complementing other forms such as SEO or content marketing to make it really effective.
Paid search ads or pay-per-click (PPC) are a form of digital marketing where advertisers or marketers bid on targeted keywords to appear in search engine results pages (SERPs)- it's what you first see whenever you search on Google.
PPC campaigns can be used to drive traffic and visibility to a website, especially if the website appears on the first page of SERPs, and generate leads and conversions.
Display ads and banner ads differ from paid search ads in that they are more visually appealing- they're the real eye-catcher and capture the attention of potential clients.
These types of ads typically appear on websites, social media platforms, or other online properties. They are designed to capture the attention of potential customers quickly and effectively with high-quality visuals and creativity.
Also, display ads often have a call-to-action (CTA) button or link which encourages viewers to click through to the advertiser's website or relevant landing page. Such as, "Click here" or "Get started!".
Unlike PPC campaigns or Google ads, display ad campaigns do not require advertisers to bid on keywords or pay per-click; instead, they simply pay for impressions or more commonly, views.
Affiliate marketing is also an important part of any effective digital marketing strategy. The only difference among those that were already mentioned is that it is a performance-based form of marketing, and affiliates are rewarded when they successfully drive traffic and conversions to a business's website or products. By this, it can be a great way to increase website visibility and acquire new customers.
Affiliate programs are typically administered through a network that connects advertisers with affiliate partners.
When an affiliate partner is successful in driving traffic and sales, the advertiser pays them a commission for their digital marketing efforts. So, it is very important that metrics and analytics are properly laid out so advertisers and firms can assess whether the partnership is working.
Native advertising is a type of digital marketing that involves embedding advertisements within content, like newspapers, vlogs, blogs, or just a simple post. People like it when an advertisement is not an advertisement, it's like a genuine encouragement, not forceful and just subtle.
This form of advertising is mostly designed to look like editorial content, allowing businesses to reach their target audience in a subtle yet effective way.
Email campaigns are one way to help with digital marketing channels. They let businesses send messages about their products or services to people who have given their email address- you can barely see any websites that doesn't ask about your email ; because aside from using it as a credentials to their website, it is also a way for them to send you an email advertisements and updates.
This really helps businesses reach people who may be interested and helps them grow; it's already normalized.
The term "Marketing automation" refers to the usage of technology and software in order to automate the different marketing process the company could be carrying out.
It is used to simplify, streamline, and optimize processes such as customer segmentation, lead management, email communications, content delivery, and many more- by automating these activities; digital marketers can save time while still achieving their goals.
Because human labor is already eliminated thanks to automation, e-commerce marketing can be quickly, easily, and cost-effectively managed by firms- which was actually impossible before.
It enables companies to send custom emails, develop segmented marketing campaigns, monitor customer activity, and do a number of other actions, which helps businesses better understand the demands of their clients thus improving conversion rates and more revenue.
Influencer marketing is an effective way to reach your target audience and boost the brand awareness. This is more common nowadays as the so called "Influencers" came to rise at the start of 2020.
You don't need to pay celebrities anymore who are by the way expensive; influencers are now everywhere, and by partnering with them who are already established in their own niches, you can tap into their network of followers and build trust among potential customers.
When engaging in influencer marketing, it's important to clearly define what type of content you want them to create, like what I've said influencers have different niches or industry where they are known.
It's also beneficial to set clear goals and objectives so that both parties understand the end goal because aside from niches they also have different content ideas, some of them are comedic while others focus on how-tos. It's essential to track performance metrics such as clicks, impressions, conversions, etc., which will help determine if the digital marketing campaign was successful or not.
Video and YouTube marketing is a type of digital marketing that involves creating and publishing videos to promote products, services, or other content. These videos are more commonly known as "Vlogs," and the people who create most videos on YouTube are known as "vloggers."
These videos being created by them is like the videos you usually on other social media channels, however, it is longer and mostly detailed. These long-form videos can be used to reach potential customers with compelling visuals, including animations, product demos, interviews, tutorials, and more.
Mobile marketing is an integral part of the larger online marketing landscape because who doesn't have mobile phones nowadays? It leverages the ubiquity of mobile devices to reach consumers wherever they are, which allows businesses to engage with their target audience in a highly personalized and tailored way.
Just like email marketing when potential customers are asked with their mobile numbers, most companies use this information for their ads without violating their privacy as they, of course, ask for consent.
Aside from SMS being sent to potential customers, mobile marketing can also involve activities such as creating ads for mobile search, display, in-app or social media platforms; creating mobile-friendly websites.
Digital signage or digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising is a form of digital marketing that utilizes strategically placed electronic displays to deliver targeted messages, announcements, and advertisements in public spaces.
If you are familiar with billboards and posters, you can understand that those were just digitalized thus the "Digital signage". It can be found in places such as airports, shopping malls, stadiums and other public venues- basically where a lot of people can see it.
It allows businesses to display engaging content such as videos, animations, images, and other visuals to capture the attention of potential customers- whether they are waiting in lines or just passing by.
Digital marketing has indeed become an increasingly important part of businesses' overall marketing strategies. With the right digital marketing efforts, companies can find more ways to reach potential customers and generate leads and sales conversions. From content creation to mobile advertising, having a strategy in place is essential for competing with bigger players on larger platforms.
By taking advantage of all 13 types of digital marketing available today, from social media campaigns to influencer outreach as well as using analytics to measure effectiveness and ROI – you can ensure that your business keeps up with consumer spending trends and makes calculated decisions about its digital presence going forward.
When you first get started in the content marketing game, you only need to know the basics: how to write a decent piece of content (or source one), how to publish it on your blog, and how to distribute it through your social media channels. It's possible to build a foundation for any successful content campaign this way, but if you want to scale up your reach or start seeing a significant return on your investment, you'll need to step up your game.
For the adept or intermediate content marketer, there are seven essential skills that will help you create better material, improve your distribution, and ultimately see better results for your campaign:
The ability to research manifests itself in two applications, both of which are important to the quality of your content: primary and secondary research. Secondary research is easier, less intensive, and applicable to more kinds of content. It involves scouring the web for outside sources that confirm, deny, or otherwise complement the claims you're trying to make.
Finding more of these sources (and higher authority ones at that) makes your content better-rounded, more thoroughly documented, and, of course, more trustworthy for the reader. Primary research is all firsthand audience research you've done yourself, such as a survey you've conducted or an experiment you've run. This type of original research takes time and money, but it's important to incorporate it in creating content, as it tends to produce highly original, highly valuable content.
Flexibility isn't a critical skill like research because you can't practice it or learn more about it unless you're confronted with a situation that demands it. Flexibility comes in a variety of forms; for example, you might see a handful of user comments in a short period of time asking your brand for coverage of a particular event or subject you'd otherwise avoid.
Responding positively may be a deviation from your core strategy, but it will give your users more of what they want. You may also find a new type of content or new platform surging in popularity; flexible content marketers adopt these new opportunities seamlessly.
For instance, if a blog post suddenly becomes popular, it might be wise to integrate similar topics into your overall marketing strategy. Flexibility in your marketing campaigns can also mean quickly adapting to trends to create high-quality content that resonates with your audience.
As your content promotion gets bigger and starts to cover more ground, the need for a high organization skill increases. You'll need to organize your schedule and pattern of publication, your research leading up to your drafts, your drafts leading up to your final version, and even all your past posts for future updates and syndication needs. Without that organization, you may post inconsistently or fail to follow up on key opportunities that could lead to more organic traffic and a more loyal audience.
Additionally, honing your editing skills is crucial for ensuring that your content is clear, concise, and error-free. Effective editing can elevate the quality of your content, making it more engaging and professional, which in turn enhances the overall impact of your content marketing efforts.
Persuasion becomes more important as your audience becomes larger and your content strategy campaign demands a higher return. On a pure content level, persuasion is especially important for opinion posts or ones that share insights.
You'll need to use your words carefully, demonstrating personal experience and authority, emotional appeals, and raw logic to convince your target audience that your views are correct (or at least worth considering). On another level, you'll need to be persuasive in the calls to action you'll periodically embed in the body of your content. Leading users to conversion, or another part of your site, is essential if you want to start cashing in on your efforts.
Good content marketers are able to respond to new trends with new strategies and a new frame of mind. Successful content marketers are able to predict those trends and make changes before they ever get established. Because the content marketing game changes often and without warning, these changes are hard to predict, but if you look at historical patterns and pay close attention to marketing news, you should gradually build your ability to identify upcoming changes. Connect and engage with other influencers, and try to stay at least on their level—if not a little ahead of them.
Content marketing strategy can't be pigeonholed into serving only one function. It's important and necessary for sales, Search Engine Optimization, social media marketing, general digital marketing, user experience improvement, and a dozen other applications. Knowing all these individual applications is overwhelming (if not impossible) for new content marketing specialists, but as you become more adept, it's reasonable and expected for you to be at least somewhat familiar with them. Start talking to other experts in these areas and immerse yourself in all the different functions that content creation can serve.
Staying updated on industry trends will give you a deeper understanding of the evolving landscape, allowing you to generate leads more effectively. Broadening your knowledge and key skills across these areas, you'll be better equipped to create content that aligns with your business objectives and resonates with your target audience.
It's one thing to take elementary measures, like how many people visited your site compared to the previous period, but it's another thing entirely to run a specific data analysis for why a metric like that would have changed.
You're getting more people, but why? Did you rise in search engine ranks? Why? Did they come from social media platforms? Why? Answering these questions isn't easy, and it's rarely straightforward, but you'll have to answer them if you want to continue honing your craft. To guide yourself, start setting up your efforts in easily comparable experiments—at least until you get better at reading and interpreting the raw data.
If you're looking to move from the level of a beginner to that of an intermediate content marketer, or if you're just looking to brush up on some of your most important content marketing skills, these seven should be your priority. Like any key skill, they improve with practice, so start using them as you produce and syndicate more content and look for any opportunities to improve your approach.
Email marketing is alive and well. In fact, 59 percent of B2B marketers assert that email marketing is the most effective medium for generating revenue available. Despite critics insisting that the rise of mobile devices and social media are stifling the potential reach of email campaigns, a creatively and thoughtfully structured email blast can still reach thousands of people and generate tons of new leads for your business.
The biggest problem facing email marketing today is not in new technologies or new formats (though a responsive email design is a necessity). Instead, the biggest challenge today is the same biggest challenge it faced a decade ago: getting people to open the email. And in order to get people to open your email, you need a great subject line.
These ingredients combine to make a good email subject line your email recipients can’t help but want to open:
Subject lines aren’t the place to get long-winded. You might be tempted to talk about the benefits your brand has to offer or the special deals that await your users inside, but you only have about ten words, so you can’t afford to do anything but convince your reader to open the email. Buzzwords and fluff content have no place here; instead, use simple, meaningful words to convey a single idea. If you’re struggling, go ahead and draft out a long version of your subject line, then cut it down word by word, focusing on eliminating anything that isn’t absolutely necessary for your message. Good email subject lines can be created by cutting down to just the essentials.
If you're looking for the best email subject lines, remember that the key to good email subject lines is simplicity.
Nobody wants to open an email that was obviously sent to everyone under the sun. If there’s no personalization factor, there’s no individual incentive to open the email. Some companies use personalized and catchy email subject lines to feature each recipient’s name. Other companies work to become familiar with their demographics and include something that’s very important to that portion of the population. Whatever you do, don’t make your subject line generic. Make it as personal as you can.
The best subject lines capture attention instantly and create a sense of curiosity. Effective email marketing campaigns rely on crafting a good subject line that resonates with the recipient.
Don’t give everything away up front. If users can get everything they need out of a subject line, they have no reason to open the email. Use a tease to draw users into your material, along the lines of “discover the long-held secret…” This implies that there’s something very significant on the other side of the email without telling your reader exactly what it is. A great subject line is a powerful tool that leads to many more opens.
Emails also tend to receive more opens when the subject line indicates some level of urgency. Don’t overly pressure your readers, but do subtly imply that your deal or offer is time-sensitive. For example, you could use the phrase “today only” or “24-hour sale” to make users react quickly and open your email. Otherwise, they could postpone opening the email and never get to it.
Though email subject lines don’t allow you much space to accomplish the feat, it’s important to distinguish your brand as an authority in the space. For some businesses, that means unveiling unique information by using words like “the latest data.” For other businesses, that means outpacing the competition by using phrases like “prices you’ll never see elsewhere.” The key is to make your brand (and therefore your email) stand out.
A little bit of humor goes a long way. Giving your readers something unexpected will make your subject line pop out in an oversaturated email inbox, and making them laugh will endear them to your brand. Take, for example, Groupon’s now-famous email subject line: “Best of Groupon: The Deals That Make Us Proud (Unlike Our Nephew, Steve).” It was original, unexpected, and funny, and it got Groupon a lot of email opens and clicks.
Crafting funny email subject lines can be an effective strategy, but don’t forget to test your subject lines to see what resonates best with your audience. Remember, personalized email subject lines also tend to perform better, adding a unique touch that can boost your open rates even further.
People get dozens, if not hundreds of emails every day. If you want to get past the clutter, your subject line really needs to stand out. No more “try now” messages, or clichéd phrases that readers are sick of seeing piling up in their inboxes. Write something you know you’ve never seen in your own inbox before.
Questions tend to lead to more opens, especially if the question is one the user has had before. Recently, real estate platform Zillow distributed an email with the simple subject line “What Can You Afford?” A good email subject line conjures plenty of emotions and thoughts without bogging the user down with special offers or special values. Instead, it simply invites the user in to find out more.
People tend to remain idle unless prompted to do something. Using action words in your subject line is a perfect strategy to get people to take action and open your email. Of course, you don’t have to rely on straightforward action words like “open” or “read;” you can use almost any command verb as long as it is somehow related to your purpose or your brand.
Finally, your email subject line should convey some kind of value to the user. In the simplest sense, you can mention a freebie coming out for your subscribers, but try to go beyond the conventional. Use concise words to effectively demonstrate how users will feel or how their lives will improve after opening the email—even if you only imply it.
You don’t necessarily need to include all of these ingredients in your subject line, but it is important to include at least a few. You only have a few words to capture your audience’s attention, so make them count! Spend at least as much time writing your subject line as you do the rest of your email’s body.
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Good marketing campaigns are built on a foundation of research. The more you understand about your business, your industry, your target demographics, and the resources available to you, the more effective your messaging will become. Unfortunately, “research” is an ambiguous, general term. Telling someone to “research” to make their marketing strategy better will rarely point them in any meaningful direction unless they already have an idea of what they need to do to be effective.
The truth is, there are many different kinds of research, most of which are helpful, and some of which demand more investment and intensity than others. If you’re trying to make your marketing campaign as successful as possible, you’ll need to apply these five types of research, at a minimum:
I’ll start with one of the more obvious routes of research—your demographics. Market research is a well-known type of research, and is practiced, at least to some degree, by most businesses. Your original business plan and business model should be based on market research methods, but you’ll need to continue pressing for more information as your business develops to refine your expectations and respond to any trends and interest changes as they arise.
There are a few ways to conduct market research. One of the easiest is partnering with a market research firm, or relying on preexisting outside data (like census information) to inform your conclusions. You could also conduct primary research here, using surveys and other qualitative research assessments to learn more about your target audience. The main goal is to simply learn more about who’s buying your products and services—who they are, what’s important to them, and what they mean to your business.
Competitive research is all about knowing who you’re up against. No matter how original your idea is, you won’t be the only offer in town—at least not for long. Competitive analysis type of research allows you to see what strategies your competitors are using, and how effective those strategies are at attracting your shared target market. For example, are they producing more or less content than you are? How is it different?
There are two big things to watch for here: what are they offering that you aren’t, and what aren’t they offering that you can? The former will allow you to close a potential gap between the two of you, outperforming them in a new area with a new direction. The latter is a critical opportunity for your business to break away.
As the name suggests, channel-specific research is intended to help you better understand specific marketing channels that you could use in a campaign (or new tactics that improve your results and/or efficiency). Here, you’ll mostly rely on preexisting research conducted by other parties, unless you’re willing to pay for an experimental venture into a new kind of marketing.
Online research is your friend here; rely on marketing agencies and independent case studies of marketing success to inform your decisions. Look for any new outlets that you might not have considered, as well as older outlets that you could be using more effectively. Remain open to any new strategies, and always be willing to conduct more research—in this digital age, new outlets emerge all the time.
Original research takes a lot of different forms, depending on your industry and the needs of your target audience. Its primary goal is to give your audience valuable information as an objective offer in exchange for something else. For example, you could use your original research to write and post an article designed to attract new people to your site or develop your original research into an eBook that you give away in exchange for a few bits of personal information of individuals.
The key to original quantitative research is that it must be original, so you can’t rely on secondary market research for this one. You can conduct online surveys, collect quantitative data based on objective facts, or even rely on your own observations. The more valuable your information is to your users, the better.
Also, original quantitative research can be enhanced by conducting focus groups to gather in-depth insights about customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Unlike secondary research, this approach allows for precise data collection tailored to your brand research and marketing research needs, ultimately helping you better understand your target customers.
Finally, you’ll have to research how you’re performing in comparison to your competitors and in a way that highlights potential areas for improvement. In a sense, you’ll be researching yourself, which sounds easy—but drawing new conclusions when you’re so close to your business can be difficult.
Rely on a series of tools and/or agencies to help you understand key points of information on your performance, such as inbound traffic, user engagement, or online conversions. With each improvement or change, you’ll monitor these metrics closely, and ideally, they’ll grow over time. Performance research is hard to penetrate at first, as you’ll be drawing somewhat subjective conclusions about objective data, but you’ll get better at it the more you do it.
The great thing about these types of market research is their sheer utility—they can be applied to almost any marketing campaign you can imagine. Online, traditional, and alternative marketing directives all benefit from this additional information, leading to better messaging, and of course, better results. Like with any new skill, you may struggle when you first attempt more in-depth research, but the more you practice it, and the more you learn best practices for success, the more efficient you’ll become, and the more meaningful data you’ll be able to extract. It all starts with a commitment to learning more about your business environment.
There are many platforms for taking your content and publishing it to increase its visibility and potential impact.
In addition to marketing your content through email newsletters, guest posts on external blogs, and submissions via social bookmarking sites, the most popular option seems to be syndicating your articles through social media.
The variety and sheer scope of social media platforms today make it, as a whole, the most potentially impactful avenue for content promotion and syndication. Unfortunately, many content marketers have resorted to using it only for the simplest purposes: posting a link to a new post when it goes up, and nothing else.
While some platforms lend themselves to this style of promotion, you’re doing yourself a disservice if this is the only way you leverage social media. Too many platforms offer too many benefits to be ignored, and some platforms, like LinkedIn, are shockingly underutilized in the content marketing strategy game. Because of this, there is a critical competitive opening, and if you use it efficiently, LinkedIn marketing can be your secret weapon in your content marketing campaign.
To truly enhance your LinkedIn content marketing strategy, focus on creating and sharing relevant content that resonates with your target audience. By aligning your LinkedIn content strategy with your broader marketing strategy, you can maximize the impact of your LinkedIn posts and strengthen your content marketing efforts. Also, consistently producing valuable content on LinkedIn can significantly boost your visibility and engagement, setting you apart from competitors who overlook this powerful platform.
The greatest power of LinkedIn is its ability to offer multiple connection mediums within one collective umbrella. By comparison, Twitter only offers two types of posts: tweets and direct messages, while Facebook offers three: timeline posts, posts on a friend’s or brand’s timeline, and messages to a friend or brand.
LinkedIn offers far more options for sharing and submitting content. You can share pieces on your own profile, similar to Facebook’s individual timeline, post on behalf of a company, share articles with another individual in the form of a message, post articles in the context of a Group, or post more salesy or advertising opportunities under the Promotions section.
This diversified landscape of opportunities allows you to better hone your approach to circulating content. If you have a new sales sheet, you can post it appropriately in the Promotions section. If you have a niche piece related to a Group, you can share it there. If you have a piece of particular interest to you, you can share it on your own.
Having the power to adjust a piece’s visibility based on its context allows you to maximize its potential impact. This immediately makes your content more powerful than if it was simply shared out in one place no matter what type of content it is.
When you create content on LinkedIn, you can leverage the platform's diverse sharing options to boost brand awareness and drive website traffic. Effective content creation on LinkedIn not only engages your target audience but also improves your visibility on search engines. In strategically posting a blog post or article, you can enhance your LinkedIn marketing efforts, ensuring your content reaches the most relevant and impactful channels.
LinkedIn is also the perfect place to build and leverage a personal brand. While LinkedIn does offer the ability to create a page for your company or organization, it’s a better idea to share as an individual. People tend to trust and engage with other individuals far more than corporate brands, and because your professional and personal profiles blend into one on LinkedIn, it’s almost tailor-made for building and showcasing a personal brand.
You can do this by posting regularly in specific communities, building a reputation, and sharing your own individual opinions on news events and others’ articles.
Groups are one of LinkedIn’s greatest strengths. Organized by individual LinkedIn members, these sub-groups range from general to highly specific, with different sized audiences accordingly. For example, there’s a “social media marketing” group with more than one million members, but a much more specific “electrical and lighting product marketing” group with just over 20,000 members.
Chances are, there’s at least one LinkedIn Group highly relevant to your industry and your target audience at once, and several hundred other related groups to various other aspects of your business. Selectively involving yourself in all these groups will allow you to further maximize your impact.
Participating in LinkedIn Groups can significantly boost your content marketing efforts by connecting you with a highly targeted LinkedIn audience. By engaging in discussions and sharing valuable insights, you can drive more traffic to your LinkedIn company page and strengthen your brand presence. Effective LinkedIn content marketing within these groups can lead to increased visibility and credibility within your industry.
Influencers are abundant on LinkedIn. You can pick these individuals out because they’re constantly getting involved in discussions, they’re often being asked for their opinions on specific matters, and they have large numbers of connections. These members tend to be involved in other social media platforms as well, and they tend to command a large social audience.
Because Groups are open, it’s easy to find and engage with influencers on LinkedIn. Simply reach out and have a conversation with them, and if they’re open to engagement, you can reach out as a connection. If you’re involved often enough, eventually you’ll catch their attention, and they’ll probably call you out or share a piece of your content, giving you an instant boost in visibility and credibility across the web.
By making new individual LinkedIn connections and witnessing ongoing discussions in Groups and forums, you’ll have a critical opportunity to learn how your target audience operates. You’ll easily find new ideas for content topics, evaluate how people react to your currently syndicated content, and learn how to better write in a voice that appeals to your readers.
Like with any social media or content-focused campaign, you might not be successful right away. It’s going to take time to build an influence and iron out all the little flaws with your approach as you learn more about the environment. Each brand will require a slightly different strategy, and each industry will have a different number and size of LinkedIn Groups available, but almost any type of business that employs people should have a landmark presence under the platform’s umbrella. Give your strategy time to develop, and eventually you’ll reap the rewards.
Content marketing is about more than just writing content. In order to be effective, your content needs to start with a strong foundation, be executed with a degree of expertise, be syndicated correctly and to the widest possible audience, and then be analyzed and revised for effectiveness. Content marketing strategy is easy to pick up but is difficult to master, as there are many different skills that must be honed for different stages of the content marketing process.
Whether you have a team of content marketers working for your company, or you’re a one-man operation trying to cover everything yourself, there are seven distinct roles your content marketing team will need to perform in order to be successful:
The visionary is going to perform the first step of your content creation process: creating the tone and overarching themes of the campaign. Working closely with the researcher, the visionary is going to take inventory of previous company knowledge and set goals and direction for the campaign. This includes identifying buyer personas, setting the tone and brand voice for the content, establishing key content ideas and topics for the blog, and determining which types and formats of content to use throughout the campaign. The visionary will also be responsible for overseeing each additional step of the content marketing efforts, making sure each step aligns with this initial vision.
The visionary ensures that content marketing teams are aligned with the goals of the campaign, reflecting best practices in the content marketing industry. By focusing on content marketing initiatives that generate compelling content, they aim to improve search engine results pages and attract the right buyer personas.
The researcher’s job is to find and harness information that can be used for the betterment of the campaign. In the earliest stages of development, the researcher will feed data to the visionary, working together to form conclusions about the future direction of the company’s content production. In later stages, the researcher will find facts, gather statistics, and ultimately provide fuel for the production of individual pieces. As the campaign develops, the researcher may also be responsible for uncovering other types of information along the way.
The researcher will conduct market research and keyword research to identify trends and opportunities that will guide the campaign's strategy. By providing content writers with relevant data and insights from their market research, they ensure that each piece of content is well-informed and targeted.
The producer is the role most closely associated with today’s typical content “writer.” For the most part, the producer will spend his time coming up with titles and materials in line with the visionary’s initial plan, then writing up pieces of content that can then be put on the web. However, today’s producer is typically responsible for much more than just writing content. With a target audience that demands multiple mediums of content including pictures, videos, and presentations, the producer is also responsible for developing alternate forms of visual content. In many cases, this means including multiple different producers, each an expert in a different realm, or outsourcing some of the work.
The optimizer serves as a revisionist and a front-line editor, ensuring that each piece of produced content fits in well with the overall themes of the campaign. For example, the optimizer could tweak the titles of the produced work to fit previously targeted keyword phrases or make design edits to an infographic to make sure the brand is more prominently displayed. The optimizer can also enhance different pieces of valuable content by adding new features—for example, he could be responsible for sourcing and including relevant images for the body of written content.
The editor’s role has two main functions. First, the editor is responsible for ensuring that there are no mistakes in the written work—including spelling grammar, syntax, and even fact-checking to ensure accuracy.
Second, the managing editor is responsible for publishing the material. Once the work is completed and the editor has signed off, it is his responsibility to post the material online or in social media platforms. In most cases, this only requires familiarity with a CMS, so that the content can be published quickly to the web pages.
The syndicator is responsible for ensuring the visibility of the published piece, which is one of the most important parts of the process. Once published, the syndicator will prepare the visionary’s selected channels, and schedule the post for distribution. This may include writing more concise headlines or teasing introductions, or it may include simply posting a link to the relevant content. It could also include purchasing ad space or submitting published pieces to external sources for guest post consideration. Whatever the case, the syndicator’s core job in content marketing operations is to maximize the visibility and accessibility of the piece.
The analyst has virtually no impact on the current campaign; instead, the analyst’s job is to measure the impact of the current campaign and use that information to make recommendations for subsequent marketing campaigns. The analyst will determine the success of the content strategy at every level, measuring impact in terms of inbound traffic, post popularity, social signals, and other dimensions.
Also, the analyst will then make firm conclusions about the strengths and weaknesses of the campaign, as well as how each role performed in the team context. Once complete, the analyst will work with the visionary to convey this information and plan for the future, and the cycle will continue again.
These seven roles are critically important, but the best person for one role may not necessarily be the best for another. Do not make the mistake of assuming that one person can handle the overall content marketing strategy; while it is possible for one person to develop all these skills over time, if you want the best possible results, you might want to consider partnering with an outside expert. If you can fulfill these roles with individual, niche experts, you’ll set yourself up for a meaningful, long-term campaign.
The success of a content promotion campaign is dependent on two factors: one, how good your content is, and two, how far your content is able to reach. With self-discipline, practice, and the understanding that constant adjustment and improvement are necessary, almost anyone can develop themselves into a great content producer. So, what happens if you’re writing valuable content on a regular basis, but nobody seems to be reading it?
A scenario like this means you have a reach problem. Theoretically, if you start with a decent number of readers, good content creation should carry itself to a much wider target audience through social shares, links, and word of mouth. But what if you don’t have a decent number of readers to start with?
Fortunately, there’s more than one solution—10 of them, by my count. Try using 1 or more of these 10 ways to increase the reach of your written content for free:
This should be an obvious step, but you’d be surprised how many new content marketers overlook it. Your social media platforms are made to get the message out, and everyone who’s liked or followed your brand so far will get to see it. Syndicate your content with a snappy title and lead-in, and be sure to hit every social media promotion you have. You can even syndicate older posts to give them a new boost of visibility.
Social bookmarking sites are an underrated tool in the content marketer’s arsenal. Submitting to platforms like Reddit and StumbleUpon is easy, free, and best of all, gives you the potential for thousands of new views. Just remember the catch—you’re only going to get seen by a handful of users at first. It takes the support of the community to escalate your post to meaningful levels of visibility, but if you have quality content, you’ll be able to get there.
The reach of your brand on social media advertising can only take you so far. The more people you have pushing your content out, the more new eyes you’ll get. In the early stages of your campaign, don’t be afraid to ask your coworkers, friends, and family members to support you with a little extra boost. It could get you dozens, or even hundreds of new eyes.
Use your content as a platform to request guest spots on outside publishers. If you’re accepted, you’ll have a chance to post some of your greatest material there, getting in front of all their traffic (and pointing it back to your site when you can). The bigger and better known your target source is for your blog post, the greater effects you’ll see.
Internal linking is a simple process of including links to other posts you’ve written on every new post you submit. It only takes extra few minutes to link relevant content within each post, and it has the tremendous benefit of keeping people browsing your site for content for longer. Plus, thoroughly interlinked sites get a boost to domain authority, helping you rank higher in search engines.
Manual link building is starting to fade as a cost-efficient strategy, but if you’re in the early stages of development and you’re desperate for some more visibility, it’s a viable option. Find relevant ways to mention your content on outside blogs and forums—just be confident you’re adding real value to the conversation by doing so.
Influencers are gateways to thousands of social media accounts or users. If you can convince one to share your material, you could instantly gain access to all those potential new readers. Sometimes, all you have to do is ask.
Get all your content readers, site visitors, and clients to subscribe to an email newsletter, and use that as a platform to send out your latest, greatest content. As long as you get a few interested users, it will be worth the effort for you content promotion tactic. As your email list grows, so will the benefits.
Content promotion strategies perform fine given enough time, effort, and quality; every content marketing strategy can become successful organically. However, if you need a little extra boost early on, you can consider a paid promotion option to complement your efforts. For example, you could use a Facebook ad or an affiliate link to generate some extra search traffic for your best posts.
This is an underrated strategy because it’s time consuming and outside the digital realm, but it has a real impact on your total numbers. Get to know the other professionals in your area, speak at events, and get your brand known in your local area—you’ll get tons of new traffic to your site.
Put some of these strategies to the test, and you’ll see results almost immediately. The wider your circles become and the more initial readers you can capture upon publication, the faster your content will be able to spread—that’s why content promotion strategy has such potential for exponential growth. Keep your focus on writing great content, syndicate as often and as thoroughly as you can, and the rest should take care of itself.
Want more information on content marketing? Head over to our comprehensive guide on content marketing here: The All-in-One Guide to Planning and Launching a Content Marketing Strategy.
The mantra "Don't put all your eggs in one basket" can be appropriately applied to digital marketing.
But sadly, a B2B brand message that works well on LinkedIn or Google may fall completely flat on Facebook or TikTok.
As such, some brands may feel pigeonholed into a tighter group of platforms on which they can engage with clients and customers.
Furthermore, diversity in ad spend and customer messaging is nearly as important as diversity in the platform for distribution.
Consequently, complete diversification in digital marketing can differ widely from company to company.
The true definition and mix for diversification that works for your business is likely nebulous.
With any successful marketing mix, the best distribution will require a healthy budget with ample live market testing.
Diversity in digital marketing can be defined in one of several ways:
Diversification is typically driven by your appetite for risk.
The greater the risk, the greater the propensity to achieve higher returns.
If you're not diversified and all efforts are focused in one area, then you likely have no back-up plan if something goes wrong or isn't successful in your digital marketing.
Lack of diversification means you are more likely to be negatively impacted by:
Most executives know that not marketing at all when your competitors are is the ultimate sin of omission.
Are you looking to diversify your digital marketing channels? With so many options available, it can be hard to know where to start. Here are some tips for identifying the best digital channels for your business
1. Analyze Your Target Audiences: Research who your target audience is and which platforms they use most often. This will help you determine which digital networks are likely to produce the best results for your campaign.
2. Consider Your Budget and Goals: Think about how much money you have available for advertising campaigns and what type of ROI-first strategy will work best for achieving your goals.
3. Test Different Channels & Messages: Once you've identified a few potential channels, take some time to test different messages across those multiple platforms using A/B testing or other techniques in order to find out which ones resonates with customers the most effectively.
4. Monitor Your Campaigns Closely: Monitor each of your campaigns closely in order to identify any issues that may arise, as well as opportunities that present themselves over time.
Organic search marketing and paid search marketing are two distinct and important components of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.
While organic search marketing allows brands to organically reach users through natural search results, paid search marketing requires allocating a budget to target audiences using ads or sponsored content.
Having a well-rounded and diversified approach to digital marketing means utilizing both of these channels in tandem.
Some spurn paid social channels, but they're absolutely an important component of a diversified strategy.
It's important for brands to diversify their social media presence so that they can reach as many potential customers as possible. This means not just having a presence on major platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn but also exploring niche social networks that are tailored to a specific audience.
For example, if your target customer is a younger demographic, you may want to explore platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, or Twitch in order to reach them. If you're targeting business professionals, LinkedIn should be part of your strategy.
Don't forget that your sales factor is heavily incorporated into your marketing.
Depending on how your sales and clients are acquired, you will want to ensure your marketing gives your website or sales teams the lead fodder they need to succeed.
Your sales teams may desire diversity of inbound vs. outbound lead flow.
Striking that balance could be critical.
For instance, perhaps your organization is focused on enterprise accounts, but you have found your sales teams are better able to focus when they can shoot rabbits along with the target bear or even whales they're hunting.
Diversity of marketing strategies can ensure you don't fail your sales teams just to diversify your marketing mix.
Remember, the overall goal is higher revenue and better profitability, not just diversity for diversity's sake.
The key to success in marketing diversification lies in understanding the needs of your target audience, setting clear goals and objectives, and testing different platforms to see what works best.
To choose the right channels for your business, start by researching which platforms are most popular among your target demographics.
Then, consider how much money you have available for advertising campaigns and which ROI-first strategy will produce the best results.
Once you've identified a few potential channels, take some time to test different messages across those platforms using A/B testing or other techniques.
Finally, make sure to monitor each of your campaigns closely so that any issues can be addressed quickly and opportunities can be taken advantage of over time. With these steps in mind, finding success with a diversified marketing strategy shouldn't be too difficult!
When it comes to optimizing each channel within your marketing mix, there is always a balance between hiring the agency vs. hiring an in-house marketing professionals.
There are pros and cons to both options, which we will outline later, but your best means of optimizing each channel is to avoid the generalists and use specialists who are experts in each avenue.
Optimizing each channel is typically performed by a channel expert. Someone with credentials like.
Tracking and analyzing the results of multi-channel marketing campaigns can be a challenge.
To ensure that you're getting the most from your efforts, it's important to understand which channels are performing best and then use those insights to inform future campaigns.
One of the most effective ways to track and analyze results from multiple channels is to use a marketing analytics platform.
These platforms allow you to track and analyze your campaigns on multiple channels all in one place, giving you an overview of which strategies are delivering the best results.
By taking the time to understand how each channel is contributing to your overall performance, you can make more informed decisions about where to invest your resources in the areas that matter most.
If your business is fully diversified across multiple marketing channels, you will absolutely need multiple digital marketing tools to track key performance indicators (KPIs) across the various methods of marketing distribution.
When you already know your customer lifetime value (CTV), you can better know what you are willing to spend on customer acquisition.
While we've been talking heavily about diversification, it is important to understand that the best return on your marketing dollars is going to come from concentration on what works, not on diversification.
The following quote applies:
In today's digital age, having a strong online presence is essential for any business looking to reach its intended audience. With the right mix of digital marketing channels, businesses can effectively target new customers and promote their products or services.
However, it can be challenging to decide which channels to use and how best to diversify your channel mix for maximum success.
Your digital marketing strategy success will likely be best accomplished by choosing the best digital marketing agency. Contact us to learn more.
Corporates and agencies alike are up in arms about the predictions and prognostications for 2023's inevitable marketing malaise.
Marketing budget backpedaling is nearly inevitable in light of inflation spikes and the Fed's rising interest rates.
But let's let the data do the talking.
Here are a few stats courtesy of Axios:
Large-scale layoffs are occurring in some over-hired areas in the tech sector.
Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft & Google, and a number of private unicorns have experienced large-scale layoffs in the last few weeks. Jeff Bezos' Twitter comment gives valuable insight into the overall sentiment well:
Furthermore, tech-heavy NASDAQ has seen heavy losses as growth companies tighten their belts.
Unfortunately, many such layoffs often occur in what are viewed as non-critical areas, including marketing.
Regardless of where you think things are headed, where there is pain, there is even greater opportunity.
Because we try to adhere to a growth mindset, we actively seek opportunities rather than crawl into a hole.
Let's innumerate just a few.
Layoffs almost always coincide with a rise in startup formation.
Marketing agency startups are one such sector that is likely to grow in the coming months.
As such, marketing agencies are also likely to experience a peak in demand for outsourced work, including white label digital marketing efforts from partner agency clients.
This presents a unique opportunity for both new and existing agencies that can partner on exciting digital marketing projects.
The effective internal marketing strategy and function do not evaporate with layoffs.
While layoffs may cut immediate costs inside larger organizations, there are still functions and tasks (at least minimally) that need to occur in order for the business to function at least at a status quo level.
Said tasks either require the existing marketing headcount to work harder and longer (a phenomenon we saw in the layoffs of 2008), or corporations may be prone to look for outside help from an agency.
Here are some arguments as to why the agency model is of benefit in such a scenario:
An outside perspective is almost always helpful in seeing the opportunities in spite of the challenges, all within a budget that is likely smaller than hiring an internal team to assist.
In the competition for limited or smaller budgets, incumbents have a greater chance to make waves and land new business.
They have the experience and work portfolio that showcase their ability.
An established marketing team leads with sturdy internal marketing efforts, systems, and processes, too.
Tighter budgets typically equate to greater ebb and flow based on real-time internal revenue adjustments.
Agencies like recurring revenue too, but the reality is they're contractors whose services can be purchased a-la-carte and when needed.
Such a relationship means marketing budgets can be flexible without having to fire and hire internal staff, which can tank morale and cause legal employment issues.
Outside contractors solve this in-house issue with on-demand assistance.
In such scenarios, hiring a marketing agency may trump the hiring of full-time, in-house marketers.
Finally, a tighter labor market favors the agency model, especially when hiring freezes are present:
It is also interesting to note that even with larger layoffs on the horizon, some 50% of workers are still looking to quit.
Not all is gloom and doom. Some silver lining exists. According to GroupM, we are likely to expect:
CEOs and investors at various levels are split on how they feel the next 6 to 12 months will shake out. However, there are some inelastic industry sectors that are more likely to thrive and that marketing agencies tend to target during recessions.
To name just a few:
There will be pockets elsewhere that are also likely to weather the storm over the months ahead.
Whether you're a corporation or one of the marketing teams that serve them, adaptation is paramount heading into this coming year.
The best marketer is a chameleon, able to adapt to its changing surroundings, all while providing incremental value to the company's brand, preferably above the cost.
We'll continue to work to nail that internal benchmark for each of our white label SEO clients as we head into 2023.
In a world where digital marketing reigns supreme, you might be wondering if there’s still room for print ads. The answer is yes – there’s always room for print ads because people still largely consume physical media. What you need to be concerned with is how to run successful print ads, and this article will help you sort that out.
The first thing to know is that effective print ads operate by the same principles as digital marketing messages. You still need to know your target demographic, reach your audience with convincing copy, and include an enticing call to action. The difference is that digital marketing can reach a larger number of people. However, that doesn’t mean the conversion rate is higher. In fact, many companies generate a higher conversion rate from print ads.
The conversion rate for print ads will vary based on each organization’s strategy and industry but consider this example from Print Observer. Their average conversion rate for a print campaign is 42%. The reason their ads are so successful is that they have identified a very specific market for their products, that market has specific needs, and their ads are convincing.
Whether you’re already running creative print ads or you’re just starting to think about launching a print advertising campaign, here are seven strategies that will help make your print ad campaign a success.
Always hire a professional designer if you want successful and the best print ads. The aesthetics of your print designs matter just as much as your copy and call to action. Stunning graphics will get you more conversions than stock photos ever will. If your design elements are flawed, low-quality, or off-center, the perception will be that your company is also low-quality.
Print ads are not a good DIY project. While templates are available, they’re harder to work with than digital ad templates. For instance, if you’re not a designer, you can still open up a template in Photoshop, make some changes, save your file, and make it work. It doesn’t even have to be high-resolution sometimes. Print is a different story.
Working with print templates is harder if you don’t have design experience. Most of the time, print ad templates will be created for use in programs you don’t have, like Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Spark. While you can buy a subscription to these applications, there will be a huge learning curve just to learn how to use the basic tools. The same goes for Photoshop. No matter how many times you’ve used Photoshop, preparing images for print media is a whole other story.
Even if you make it past that learning curve, it’s easy to mess up a print-ready file if you don’t have experience. For example, say you create a design from scratch in Photoshop but fail to set the right resolution. A design created in the standard 72 dpi will need to be recreated in 300 dpi in order to be print-ready. In other words, you’ll have to do your work over if you want it to print well.
You also have to set up your templates with the right margins and bleeds, and you need to know how to make your text print flawlessly. This is easier said than done. You’ll also need to take your file(s) to a professional printer because printing your files at Walmart or a local mail center won’t produce high-quality results.
If you don’t have professional design experience, hire someone to create and print your ads to ensure you get the best possible results.
When it comes to print ads, white space is your best friend, and simplicity is king. However, “white space” doesn’t need to be white – it can be any color. The point is to have space on your ad that isn’t stuffed with content.
You want generous margins and plenty of space in your ads. Resist the temptation to fill the entire space with images and text. You don’t even need a background image most of the time. You may want to use a solid-colored background with a light texture, but it doesn’t need to be busy to capture attention. That’s what your main imagery is for.
Print ads with generous white space are easier to read and actually stand out more than cluttered ads. Spacious designs can make your business look higher-end as well, and with the right color scheme, you can convey some very specific feelings about your brand.
Typography is crucial for print ads, just like it is for digital ads. When you craft your typography for your print ads, you’ll want to spend time getting it perfect because even just the typeface you use will influence visitors in specific ways.
Choose the wrong typeface, and you’ll convey the wrong idea. For example, if you use a font that has been branded by a well-known company, you’re going to send subconscious signals to people related to that brand. It doesn’t matter if that isn’t your intention because once people associate imagery with a brand, it’s impossible to counter that brand recognition.
To avoid sending the wrong message to your audience, run your ads by several different people to make sure they don’t make them think of other brands, especially if they’re your competitors.
To ensure you convey the core message you intend, stick with easy-to-read typefaces and don’t use too many different fonts on the same page. It’s okay to use a couple of different fonts, but don’t use them in a way that distracts the reader.
Whenever you run ads, adjust them for the season or upcoming holiday. For instance, if you’re running ads in December, use a Christmas themed visual element and advertise the value proposition of your products and services as holiday specials.
People are going to have the next upcoming holiday in mind, and by running ads that connect to that holiday, you’ll capture more attention. It’s easy to do this even if you don’t actually have any upcoming specials for each holiday. You can rebrand your existing deals as a holiday deal or create a new deal.
Or you can just run a basic ad for your company with imagery and copy that highlights the holiday. For example, for Veteran’s Day, the top ¾ of your ad can depict a patriotic image with a copy that honors all veterans. The bottom ¼ of your ad can be a general ad for your business. Around Veteran’s Day, your ad will catch people’s attention because the holiday will be on their minds.
Some of the best holidays to craft your ads around include:
These are the main holidays that most people celebrate in some way and are used to seeing ads with special deals for these holidays.
Both clever and direct copy will sell, but the secret is to know when to apply each of these techniques to your ads. It really depends on your industry because some industries don’t do well with cleverness or sarcasm. For instance, if you’re a firearms dealer, sarcasm won’t sell your products. However, if you sell cleaning supplies, sarcasm is on the table.
If you can’t make cleverness or sarcasm work to perfection, stick with direct messages. You can’t go wrong with a direct copy. However, misplaced sarcasm and cleverness can hurt your brand image. The best way to figure out how to use sarcasm and a clever copy is to look at past ads in your industry and see when or if it’s been used before. If popular companies have run successful ads of that nature in the past, it will probably work for you, too.
Having a clear call to action (CTA) is paramount in any print advertisement campaign, but it’s even more important in a print ad. Say you have multiple CTAs directing readers to do different things. Online, your audience can just hit the back button if they choose the wrong CTA, but in print, it doesn’t work like that.
Define the action you want your audience to take after reading your ad, and make sure it’s made clear to the reader. Tell people exactly what you want them to do. For instance, be direct and say:
These are just basic examples of CTAs you might use in your print ads. Whatever your desired action, just make sure it’s clearly stated and that you only have one CTA per ad.
Amazing print ads aren’t going to be effective on their own – you’ve got to get them in front of the right people. Do you know your target market well? If not, it’s time to get acquainted with your market on a detailed level. Do some in-depth market research to find out who your ideal market is and learn about them. The narrower you can define your market, the more successful your ads will be at generating conversions.
Once you have narrowed down your target audience, you’ll need to get addresses to direct mail your print ads. If you already have a list, you’re ahead of the game. However, if you’re new to print advertising, you’ll need to source a mailing list. The easiest way to do this is to go through a mailing list broker. If you just buy mailing lists related to your industry, you won’t get the narrow target you’re after. There are far too many lists out there that may not be specific to your market. A list broker will talk with you to find out more about what you need and will curate a set of lists that meet your specific requirements.
Many companies choose to run fully digital marketing campaigns, ignoring physical ads altogether. If this is the route you choose, you’re missing out on the opportunity to generate a large number of conversions through print ads.
Yes, digital has quickly eclipsed print in terms of advertising market share, but using print ads in your campaign is a holistic marketing strategy for your business.
For the best possible results from your marketing efforts, combine both digital and print advertisements; both are perfectly viable methods for generating revenue. If you’ve been avoiding print advertising and print marketing, try it – print ads just might turn out to be more effective than you thought.
Offering search engine optimization (SEO) services to your clients could be lucrative.
You help them rank higher in search engines, so they attract tons of organic traffic.
They pay you a few thousand dollars per month.
Sounds like a win-win, no? Well, as many ambitious content marketing agency owners can attest, executing the necessary work to make an SEO campaign successful can be challenging.
You need the right resources. You need the right tools. You need knowledge and experience. You need dozens of different specialists in fields like link building, mobile optimization, keyword research, and even data or Google analytics.
If you offer all these things yourself, you'll need to hire a full team, which can greatly increase your costs and jeopardize your profitability.
But there's another option – using a white-label SEO service.
What exactly is white label SEO? How does white label SEO strategy differ from white label marketing? And is it really as good as it seems?
A white label product is one that is figuratively "white labeled," meaning it's not branded by the company that produces it. Instead, it's branded and marketed by a second company, which typically masquerades as the product's originator.
In the specific case of white label SEO, this means another agency is going to do all the search optimization work on behalf of your clients. Depending on the arrangement, that could include keyword research, strategic consulting, content generation, link building, and even reporting and analytics.
Your client will never meet with the white label SEO reseller, nor will they see their brand or know they exist. Instead, they'll see all the work branded with your identity. You get to claim this work as your own.
White label SEO reseller services will charge you a fee (usually a retainer or a per-project fee) for their work. You can mark this up and charge your client whatever you think is appropriate. In exchange for simply passing information back and forth and monitoring the campaign to make sure it's being executed properly, you can make a handsome profit.
These are some of the best advantages of using white label SEO services:
Regardless of how much experience you personally have in search optimization, working with a white label agency gives you access to true experts. You don't need to have an encyclopedic knowledge of Google algorithm updates, nor do you need to offer sage-like wisdom about which keywords to target; instead, you can lean on people who have decades of combined experience and rest assured that your campaigns are going to be managed well. Additionally, because you'll be working with some of the best people in the industry, your clients will likely see better results than they would otherwise.
Whether you're interested in diversifying your overall digital marketing offerings or focusing exclusively on SEO services, you'll be pleased to know that working with a white label provider typically gives you significant flexibility. You can hire this agency for a couple of pieces of content, years' worth of ongoing efforts, or anything in between. If you lose a client, you can terminate your arrangement with the white label services agency. If you gain a client, you can expand your arrangement.
One of the downsides of building your in-house team is that you're fundamentally limiting the resources you can expend on SEO campaign services for your clients. If you only have a few people on your team, you'll have an upper limit of clients you can take on; once you reach that threshold, you'll be forced to either hire more people or stop growing. But with a white label agency, this isn't the case, as white label SEO providers are designed to be scalable. These institutions have access to tons of experts and resources, so they can easily grow with you. There's practically no limit to the work you can send their way.
Speaking of hiring, if you're working exclusively with a white label SEO agency, you won't have to worry about hiring at all. You don't have to worry about creating job descriptions, interviewing new candidates, or training people for a role that they're going to leave in just a few years. All that work is done for you, so you can just sit back and let those experts do what they do best.
Partnering with a white label SEO reseller could mean increased revenue opportunities for your company. If you're currently offering a suite of digital marketing services, but SEO is a weak point, you can now upsell all your existing clients on SEO tools and services – and appeal to new clients as well. And as previously stated, there's no upper limit to how much you can use your white label agency, so as long as you keep finding new SEO clients, you can keep growing.
Do you know the best tools to do research on your competitors? If you had to calculate your domain authority right now, would you be able to do it? Could you figure out where you're ranking for a variety of target keywords and use that information to devise SEO strategies for your campaign? Your white label agency can answer these questions confidently because they have the specialized tools and resources necessary to make their campaigns successful. These are highly specialized, highly experienced groups of people, so they have access to some of the best technologies and resources in the industry.
Salespeople spend a meager 30 percent of their time on selling SEO services. They spend the rest of their time answering emails, attending meetings, and tackling other administrative jobs that aren't relevant to their main responsibilities. If you take on new SEO clients, doing the work yourself, you and your employees are going to be forced to dedicate time to those SEO campaigns. But if you have a white label agency take care of everything on your behalf, suddenly, all that time becomes freed up. You can spend that time on much more important responsibilities, like investing in the business, making critical decisions, tackling core responsibilities, or even just taking a break if your schedule is already overloaded.
Some companies appreciate white label SEO packages because it makes them look amazing. When you report to your clients that you've helped them achieve rank one for some of their most lucrative target keywords, and when you let them know that you've doubled their domain authority in a relatively short amount of time, they're going to be ecstatic. They're going to see your own brand as a bigger, more impressive authority in the digital marketing space, and as a result, they're probably going to spend more with you. Whether you're interested in scaling up your SEO efforts, upselling your clients on different marketing services, or generating more referrals from your existing clientele, this is a net benefit.
If you were going to do all the SEO work yourself, would you be able to prove the value that your organization is adding? One of the perks of working with a white label SEO firm is that they take care of the reporting, analytics, and strategic decisions for you.
They'll give you a breakdown of all the work they did and the results they were able to achieve; they'll also make suggestions for how you can improve these campaigns in the future. It's up to you how you want to use this information.
So far, white label SEO solutions sound like a great deal.
But there are some disadvantages you'll need to consider.
The results of your campaigns are going to be heavily dependent on the quality of the white label agency you hire. While you may be able to do some of the SEO work yourself, the whole point of hiring a white label agency is to support a hands-off approach. If your agency isn't competent, if they don't have available resources, or if they simply misunderstand the goals of the campaign, it can work against you. However, this isn't necessarily an indictment of white label SEO in general; instead, it's a warning that you need to do your diligence before bringing on a white label SEO partner.
Some digital marketing leaders hate the idea of using white label services because they have less direct control. You'll be communicating with your clients constantly throughout this process, so if they ask you a tough question or if they criticize some of the techniques used in their campaign, you might not be able to answer directly. Additionally, depending on the partner you choose, you may not have much control or say in how the agency runs a particular campaign (e.g., link building or local SEO). If you want to see a different style of content marketing or if you have a different strategic philosophy altogether, you may need to find a different white label SEO partner or cope with the fact that this isn't your preference.
Most excellent white label SEO companies make transparency a priority. They openly communicate about their SEO philosophies, tactics, and approaches. They also openly report on their results, acknowledge their failures, and boast about their biggest successes. Even so, by its very nature, this relationship is never fully transparent. You probably won't be seeing or communicating with all the people behind your campaign, and you won't be able to granularly analyze every minor change to your client's web presence.
Working with a white label partner can also introduce some communication issues, especially if you don't have a clear line of contact with an account manager at that agency. If you accidentally misrepresent your client's goals or if your white-label agency misinterprets something you said, it could lead to problematic developments. Still, if both parties are committed to effective communication and some redundant measures to prevent these types of disasters, it shouldn't be a major concern.
You can technically charge whatever you'd like for the SEO services you offer your clients, but if you charge too much, your clients aren't going to pay it. Accordingly, most digital marketing agencies only charge a small markup on top of the core price of white label SEO services. If you compare this to what you could make if you offered all your services in-house, you might be disappointed.
There's no question that reselling SEO services, rather than doing the work internally, is going to lead to reduced profitability on a per-client basis – at least, if you're accounting for a perfect in-house scenario. The math works out very differently if you're forced to hire tons of new people, if you struggle with scaling, or if you aren't able to give your clients results that motivate them to stay with you.
Is a white label SEO provider the right move for your digital marketing agency?
That all depends. If you don't have the SEO experts to do the work in-house, if you're trying to maximize profitability while minimizing effort, or if you just want your clients to have access to the best experts in the industry, white label SEO is a no-brainer.
If you're concerned about transparency or if you want to maintain direct control over your clients' campaigns, white label SEO may not be a good fit.
For everyone else, you're probably somewhere in the middle. If you're feeling uncertain, or if you just want to be sure your white label partner is going to operate effectively, your best bet is to talk directly to a white label SEO company so you can get a better feel for what they do.
Ready to get started with a white label SEO plan? Or do you have a few questions before you're ready to jump in?
It's a business owner's dream: high-end clients willing to pay a premium for your product or service.
But, as the proverbial Pareto Principle would tell us, there is only a small contingency of companies on the margin who are able to maintain high-growth, high-margin, and high-profile, mid-market business.
Experience and data inform us that small changes in direction can create large swings in both revenue and profitability as you land larger enterprise deals.
Here are some tips on how business owners can move up market in a way that works best for their company's goals.
There is a temptation, especially for startups, to chase revenue from nearly any source, including smaller customers.
It's not desperation but more a situation of convenience and practicality.
If someone's willing to pay for something and revenue is tight, you might be tempted to cave.
But for a firm looking to move up-market, the discipline of knowing when to say no can be critical for both your time and your brand.
There is a measurable opportunity cost of your time and resources.
And, if you want to be a premium brand that serves higher-end clients, you'll likely want to steer clear of the riff-raff.
Having the discipline to say no to revenue can be difficult, especially when you might be desperate for more business.
Firms that start with a niche-focused strategy face this challenge with regularity.
And while the Gaussian Curve shown above tells us the curve has a tail and that we can charge more to more people, there will still be situations where discipline will be required.
When it comes to moving up-market for a unique service offering, it will be more about saying no to negotiating down for your offering than it will be about saying no to a particular niche.
Up-market movers don't JUST target specific niches; they target enterprise customers by their ability to pay and then offer a premium white-glove solution that solves a real-world problem.
Offering higher-end products or services isn't about just raising your prices.
It's about adjusting your offering to match the level of value you provide to clients. In some cases, adding more or better features can help to create a viral tipping point for your brand.
When this happens, it has a multiplier effect in that you can raise prices at the very moment demand spikes. A sales manager should be attuned to these market shifts and guide the sales team accordingly.
But, keep in mind, if your services are far superior to the competition (and even your upmarket customers know it), you may already have a premium offering.
In such a case, just raise prices. This approach can significantly increase your average contract value and refine your sales model to better target high-value clients.
High-end customers respond well to custom and flexible pricing options as they understand the value of what you're offering.
Consider creating different packages or tiers of products, services, or price points that cater to higher-end enterprise buyers without sacrificing profits.
One of the best business models where this can be implemented is in successful SaaS companies where customers can be both enterprise and entry-level.
Enterprise buyers typically have longer sales cycles but often result in higher revenue per customer, making it worthwhile to focus on fewer customers with higher spending potential.
If people can charge stupid amounts for bottled water, you should be able to eek-out a bit more margin for your offering.
By creating more sophisticated and visually appealing materials, you can demonstrate that your brand is one of quality and professionalism.
This, in turn, will help attract higher-end customers who are looking for reliable and trustworthy products and professional services.
If you are intent on charging more or getting in front of the right customer or client, you will need to invest in a marketing and sales process in the following ways:
Create customer segments that legally allow you to charge more for similar products or services based on the target demographic.
This could mean bifurcating and rebranding. In some cases, market segmentation could mean even higher margins for a larger bulk of the lower-end customers who pay less.
It really depends on both your target market and your product or service offering. When it comes to strategy, however, the following graph shows better than I could tell:
Networking with more affluent connections is an essential step for any business looking to move up the market. To do so effectively, it's important to have a plan in place that will ensure success.
First, identify the type of people you need to connect with to reach your target demographic. This could include industry leaders, key influencers, or other high-end connections in your niche.
Once you have identified these people, find ways to build relationships with them that will help you establish trust and credibility. For example, attending exclusive events and having meaningful conversations can be a great way to network with more affluent connections and get your brand name out there.
It's not enough to just offer high-end products or services – you need to make sure that customers are aware of the value they will be getting from them.
Make sure that you communicate this value clearly as part of your enhanced marketing efforts.
The sales team plays a crucial role in this process, ensuring that the benefits are effectively conveyed to potential clients. Also, your product roadmap should reflect features and improvements that support your value proposition, reinforcing your product market fit.
Prioritizing this alignment across the company can drive the company's growth, even amidst competing priorities.
Developing exclusive partnerships is an effective way to move up the market by charging more for products or services.
By partnering with other brands or businesses in the same industry, truly enterprise companies can leverage their connections and resources to create unique offerings that are tailored to higher-end customers.
In today's connected world, social media is a great place to start.
Differentiate yourself from the competition by providing a unique value-add.
If you have a product offering, that product should have something that makes it different, unique, and better than comparable offerings.
In some cases, your brand equity and innovation can be unique enough that you occupy a higher-margin value in the minds of consumers.
Achieving that realm is all about the offering and perception.
Either way, you should always be seeking to innovate, iterate and improve. If you don't, you not only won't be able to charge a higher margin, but your competitors will eat your lunch.
Not only do these programs help to increase customer loyalty, but they also serve as a way to incentivize large customers to keep coming back and buying from you.
First, solve a real problem, and then give them a reason and incentive to return.
Take input from your customers about how to improve everything from design to product features to post-purchase service.
Implement changes that provide the added value customers expect, and they are more likely to pay more.
Include changes and inputs into your CRM and marketing automation chains with your enterprise sales reps.
And, as we've stated previously, so much of what is given as "value" is often in the perception.
Customers and enterprise clients that can both have input and ownership in the process of design and feature sets are more likely to feel a sense of input and be willing to pay more.
Target higher-end customers by providing personalized, tailored services and solutions.
This means going above and beyond the usual customer service approach of simply responding to queries and resolving issues.
Instead, companies should strive to offer a more personalized experience that takes into account the individual needs of their customers.
Microsoft has almost always played catch-up with Apple in many areas, but one of the biggest areas was customer service.
Superior service and ownership of the entire value chain are the reasons Apple holds such impressive profit margins.
Because of their higher margin offering, Apple continues to best nearly every retail statistic with the Apple retail concept.
But Apple is only one high-profile example of how to provide value-added service as part of a premium offering.
You are justified in simply increasing prices if:
Adding more value via better service or improved features (and subsequently increasing prices) will, in most cases, increase your margins far above where they were previously. It has a multiplier effect.
Amazon has a mantra coined by CEO Jeff Bezos:
The idea of moving up-market with your product or service can be intimidating, but it doesn't have to be.
It is possible to increase the value you offer customers and charge more for your products or services without sacrificing quality or customer satisfaction.
In short, it's about improving customer success to make more money and improve your own profit margin.
Moving upmarket involves understanding what makes your customers tick and how they perceive value in the products and services you provide.
Moving "up market" means more than just charging more.
It often means improvement and then crafting the right marketing message targeting your ideal customer persona for your brand.
That's where we come in. We service numerous locations around the country.
Let us help you with your next marketing campaign.
So, you want to get your business’s name out there. More importantly, you want to get it in front of key decision-makers in your industry.
But what if your business is relatively small and you’re on a tight marketing budget? How do you make the right connections and get good brand mentions?
The answer is public relations (PR). Though PR may seem like something only for big brands, this isn’t true. Even small businesses can take advantage of PR strategies, and fortunately, they don’t require big marketing budgets.
In this article, we’ll go over what PR means and our top tips for improving your PR outreach at a minimal cost. Let’s get started!
PR refers to managing and maintaining a positive public image of your brand. Typically, this is done by seeking out positive exposure on media platforms that your target audience follows.
For example, PR could involve reaching out to a news outlet to do a story about your business, publishing a press release for a new product launch, pitching a story to an industry magazine, or featuring as a guest on an industry-relevant podcast. There are many ways to approach PR.
That said, PR is not to be confused with marketing. Both are concerned with building your business, but marketing is ultimately focused on boosting your bottom line by increasing revenue, whereas PR is primarily concerned with cultivating a good business reputation.
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Now that you know what PR is, here are some tips to improve your PR outreach:
Before you start reaching out to media outlets, make sure your business has a good online presence. This means going over your business website, social media profiles, and other online accounts to make sure they look clean and professional.
Get rid of any broken pages or links on your website and make sure you have a professional photo on your social media accounts and that you actively use them. There’s nothing that says your business is out of touch more than an outdated website or an unused social media account.
Another way to improve your online presence is to create a professional media kit. This is a small document that includes information about you and your company such as a bio and a professional photo. By including your media kit every time, you pitch a media outlet, you make it easy for journalists to cite and feature you.
Next, determine who you want your PR efforts to reach. In other words, who is your target audience and what media outlets do they follow most?
For example, if you own a fintech company, you may want to target business owners by pitching a news outlet like Forbes or Fast Company. Or if you own a real estate business, you might aim for a feature in Inman or Housingwire.
The goal is to find out where your target market hangs out and get your company name talked about in those circles. If you’re not sure where your target market is, consider surveying your existing customers to find out.
Also, keep in mind that the definition of media is expanding. In addition to getting featured in traditional publications like the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or the New York Times (NYT), you may want to target various social media platforms, blogs, and independent publications.
Whatever you do, make sure the outlets you reach out to serve your target market and cover what your business is about.
If some of the news outlets mentioned so far sound out of reach, that’s okay. You don’t have to start by pitching top newspapers. In fact, you probably shouldn’t. It takes time to cultivate good PR.
Instead, set realistic and manageable PR goals. Start by pitching smaller publications and then gradually work your way up to pitching bigger ones. You’re more likely to get in with bigger outlets if you already have some smaller media mentions.
Once you’ve established some realistic PR goals, you can work them into a long-term PR strategy.
Another way to get your company name out there is to share your expertise online. This could mean publishing free content on your business’s blog or on social media.
For example, if you run a wealth management firm, you could post your top tips on how millennials can save for retirement. Or if you own a personal injury law firm, you might post about ways to win a car accident lawsuit.
The idea is to become a thought leader in your industry niche. That way, media outlets will be more inclined to feature you (because you already have a following), and in some cases, they may even reach out to you.
When it comes to actually pitching media outlets, make sure you have a newsworthy story to tell with a unique angle. Media companies get pitched stories all the time, so yours needs to stand out to get their attention.
Focus on what makes your company unique but don’t forget to pitch a story that will be useful to the publication. Research their audience and what types of content they have published in the past. This will give you a clue as to what they’re looking for.
That said, almost everything is a potential story, so dig deep. Company milestones, corporate events, or industry insights can all make for good stories if you know how to tell them right.
If you’re having trouble finding media outlets to reach out to, there are many PR resources out there that can help. Here are just a few:
On top of using social media to connect with journalists, you can use it to identify and build relationships with industry leaders. For example, you can use it to connect with influencers who may agree to advocate for your brand or sponsor one of your products.
The beauty of using social media for PR is that it’s free. You don’t have to spend any money to get into the right circles. However, you will need to dedicate time and effort to being active on the platform. That’s true whether you’re using Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
Whenever you do get featured in the media, it’s important to share it. For example, if you’re a guest on a podcast, share the link to the episode across social media. Or if your brand is featured in a news article, share it online and tag the outlet and journalist.
This not only helps spread your brand name online but helps strengthens your relationships with media outlets and journalists, who may then tap your shoulder for future features.
If you haven’t been able to tell already, relationships are the foundation of good PR. Without them, getting good press will be extremely difficult.
One way to improve your media relationships is to start building them early. Don’t wait until you get a feature in an article or podcast. Begin getting to know the right people now by offering your help and expertise. Take a value-first approach, where you give, give, give, and only ask once you have a reason to expect something in return. That way, you’re more likely to get the media features you’re after.
Another way to build good relationships is to get involved in community events and charities. This helps you get to know different people you may not otherwise meet and can lead to good PR opportunities.
Lastly, there’s no point in investing in PR if you don’t track your results. As the late Peter Drucker said, “You can’t improve what you don’t measure.”How do you measure PR results? Start by following the news and social media to see when your company name gets mentioned. Many platforms like Twitter allow you to track different keywords or hashtags, for example.
Another easy way to do this is to set up a Google Alert. This lets you collect online mentions of different keywords, such as your company name or industry, via daily or weekly emails.
The point is to track how often your brand is mentioned so you can see what is working in your PR strategy and what isn’t and then adapt.
If this all sounds overwhelming, don’t worry. PR outreach can be challenging, especially when you’re just starting out. What you don’t want to do is blast as many pitches to as many outlets as you can think of. There are better ways.
To take your brand recognition to the next level, consider partnering with Marketer.co. We have established relationships with some of the internet’s top publications, and we can help get your company’s name featured in them in no time. Contact us today to learn more! We look forward to learning more about you and all your PR needs.
Accurately predicting sales revenue is now evidently more critical than ever in today's competitive marketplace.
An effective sales outlook empowers organizations to develop their tactics, set prudent objectives, and maximize their selling functions.
To aid them in this process, businesses are now relying on one eminent tool - Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. This composition will delve into the benefits of CRM for guesstimating sales and how it rewards businesses financially.
CRM, an acronym that stands for Customer Relationship Management, is a collection of tech tools and software that help businesses efficiently maintain customer records and manage sales strategies.
These products have become crucial to the progress in sales forecasting. The system also supervises underlying marketing activities necessary for companies who wish to develop long-standing relationships with their target customers.
Predictions of future sales volumes, revenues, and trends have undergone a revolution due to the arrival of CRM systems. Previously done manually based on underlying data and market studies this led to estimation mistakes or time lags.
But through them, a focal point was given which is hoard customer intelligence, market research as well as marketing information making accuracy in forecasts easily achievable.
CRM systems provide businesses with improved data management by consolidating customer information into one database.
This gives sales teams quick and convenient access to shopper interactions such as purchases, inquiries, and support requests. By analyzing these findings, more reliable decisions and predictions can be obtainable for business operation objectives.
The use of CRM systems for sales forecasting can prove to be highly beneficial by allowing the centralization of stored customer data. Instead of having such information spread across multiple spreadsheets, and documents, or even stored with individual sales representatives as is typical in a traditional system, a CRM offers businesses reliable and accessible storage for their client records. This creates fewer chances for inconsistent or duplicate data while supplying timely access when needed.
Sales teams can leverage the power of a single source of truth for customer information, from which records can be accessed and updated in real-time. This enables them to gain a holistic view of every customer's background, likes, and activities with the business.
When necessary, salespeople are able to quickly access vital data about the customer includes their purchase histories, conversations they had with them before, and any current opportunities or problems they may have. Acting on this knowledge helps create personalized strategies for selling to customers and engaging them proficiently.
A CRM system not only enables centralized customer data but grants fast access to the history of sales.
This means that with some simple clicks, managers and representatives can utilize reports exhibiting commerce behavior in total time frames as well as Revenue, product expressiveness, and variant tendencies from selling.
Exploiting past sales figures makes it possible for companies to view seasonally relevant info, and market movement outlines, and assess how varied phenomena exercise consequences on average deal volume. In receiving this intelligence CEOs and their corporates are inclined to optimize accurate forecasts leading them towards organizing more prosperous sales practices sooner rather than later.
The myriad benefits of a CRM system for sales forecasting are evidenced in its ability to track every customer interaction.
Seamless logging with the system means that all customer contact is not overlooked, thus allowing sales representatives to go deeper into critical analytical information related to captured leads and orders placed.
Through monitoring each connection, they can optimize interactions with customers and strengthen their relationships - elevating conversions much more effectively than ever before.
By leveraging the capabilities of a CRM system, businesses can precisely forecast and track their sales. All necessary information—sales data and customer profiles—can be connected within one hub, enabling detailed assessment of customers’ attitudes and behaviors that could influence how they respond to different marketing strategies or promotions.
With this insight at hand, firms can optimize their efforts in terms of both product offerings and marketing campaigns according to what could be most appealing to respective consumers for higher conversion rates and successful sales outcomes.
Leveraging the historical sales data stored in their CRM, businesses can utilize past sales patterns and trends to inform future projections for sales.
Knowing the impact of recurring seasonality, buying cycles, or external factors on historical success provides actionable insights which lead to optimized marketing strategies and greater revenue potential.
Companies can plan around active periods, identify growth opportunities in new segments, and preemptively recognize when existing market share is decreasing.
Altogether this helps businesses redirect operations accordingly so that they may most effectively spend buyers' resources and maximize their overall accuracy with forecasting abilities.
CRM systems can help companies to identify leads and potential sales opportunities with better accuracy in prediction.
The evaluation of customer data such as interactions, buying behaviors, and engagement insights across channels contribute to CRM's ability to determine more prospects with higher conversion and repeat purchase rate chances.
This allows sales teams to focus their resources on those expected to have the highest worthiness instead, of optimizing projected incomes along with conversion rates.
Using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system for sales forecasting offers a significant benefit, as it simplifies data sharing among team members.
If done manually, exchanging of spreadsheets or reports usually caused control problems, and discrepancies in the figures and had no easy way to anticipate further developments.
With CRM, the transport of information is centralized and obtaining made accessible to those who were permitted, while stimulating teamwork and ensuring everybody receives only updated selections of sales values.
CRM systems provide valuable real-time visibility of sales progress, providing teams with an invaluable resource to manage and monitor their performance, as well as adjust accordingly in a timely fashion.
Basically, this means sales representatives can log their activities--such as updates on opportunities and tracking the progress of leads within the system--and instantly share the results with managers and other staff members from different departments.
This data creates further unrestricted transparency of vital components such as customer journey analytics and revenue tracking for management; it is a clear indication that CRM software aids organizations in increasing collaboration efforts too.
As a whole, having increased automation backed by improved accuracy significantly bolsters team productivity with minimal effort involved.
The combination of a CRM system with effective coordination between sales and marketing teams can lead to successful sales forecasting.
Sharing information through the CRM provides insights from both sides that help them align their efforts to reach business goals—marketing departments benefit from impressions about many aspects, such as campaign effectiveness and customer wishes; and sales departments have input on lead/customer quality, preferences, and trends.
The unified nature of this collaboration brings increased accuracy in predicting sales driven by marketing strategies.
SourceThrough the utilization of comprehensive sales estimates administered by the CRM solution, companies can generate educated decisions in terms of resource delegation. This incorporates assigning representatives, forecasting marketing costs, and designing inventory levels - all based upon highly precise sales projections dedicated to intensifying productivity.
The forecasts presented from using a CRM system efficiently allow businesses to assign their personnel to where they are needed most; for example, if hefty expansion was anticipated among a certain division, additional employees could be placed there in order to capitalize on any emerging opportunities.
Being able particular market segments and delegate resources accordingly allows one to circumvent spending needlessly while also increasing efficiency within operations simultaneously.
Businesses leveraging CRM-based sales forecasting benefit from improved accuracy and the ability to identify underperforming sales territories. Instead of relying on manual processes, CRMs generate automated reports that accurately reflect marketing efforts and correctly forecast future sales.
Through visualizations and reports highlighting geographical differences, businesses use this data to refine strategic plans to ensure successful performance in all territories.
Companies can easily identify areas where additional investments or changes must be made; such as adjusting marketing campaigns, enhancing training materials, or redistributing resources.
By proactively addressing deficient sales regions in areas in a timely manner, firms develop efficient strategies to drive better results across the board while also exploring lucrative new avenues for growth.
A CRM system can be leveraged to significantly streamline sales workflows through the automation of repeated activities such as scoring leads, data input, and friendly reminder implementation.
Subsequently, there's much less burden on manually completing tedious manual tasks and much more on contributing tangible value to conversations with potential buyers for increased closure ratios which ultimately results in improved sale estimate accuracy.
Thanks to this increased efficiency from automated features, staff may dedicate nearly all their time into higher-value operational areas used for winning and retaining clients continually.
A CRM system can track comprehensive performance data to show the efficacy of sales strategies. KPIs such as conversion rate, deal size, and sales cycle are all displayed in real-time.
This allows employers and teams to know where improvement is necessary. For instance, if there’s a lack of success concerning one product or service - more investigation behind root causes can then be applied to improve its overall performance rates.
With metrics in hand made readily available this way too, businesses may also well adjust forecasts beforehand according to need.
A streamlined lead tracking process afforded by CRMs gives more historical precision to determine if campaign promotions are a revenue-making tactic. Using this program, entrants procured through promotional blitz courses or processes external can be attributed into a centralized system easily.
All parties involved can qualify these prospects, and define within time acceptances with continuity consistently; resulting in sure prospects becoming mere paying customers directly long term.
Using a CRM system instantly raises sales forecasting accuracy and efficiency. Dynamics of tracking customer info, anticipating goal-attaining trends, and squeezing down lead management all legitimize businesses' outlooks for understanding today’s agile markets when sticking with an efficient platform instead of attempting on-your-own abstract judgment.
Traits including enhanced data organization, automated sales support, and complete visibility equip collectors with gold standards within collective analytic dynamics and resource prioritization ability fostered from advancing systems algorithms ultimately ensuring successful options manifold occurrences by end performance deep dives.
The key to a successful brand is visibility. In today's highly competitive digital-driven marketplace, gaining traction and recognition as a business requires more than traditional advertising tactics.
There are effective strategies available for even the smallest of start-ups to increase their reach and become visible and familiar on an array of platforms.
In this article, we will explore 5 proven methods to elevate your brand’s visibility with advice from industry experts such as customer advocate programs, content creation, thought leadership techniques, partnerships development and influencer marketing campaigns.
The power of customer advocacy has been the secret to success for many organizations. Consumers trust third-party recommendations more than pointed marketing messages, so elevating your brand through loyal advocates is an effective way to increase visibility and credibility.
By delivering extraordinary experiences for customers at every point in their journey, networks of supporters will develop around your products and services, resulting in improved loyalty and sales growth for your business.
Deliver exceptional customer experiences to generate more customer advocacy for your brand. Increase their loyalty towards you by creating enjoyable and satisfying experiences that stand out from the crowd.
Use incentives such as discounts, promotions, and reward systems for returning customers in order to encourage them to come back and share their positive reviews with family, friends, or on social media.
Doing so will help increase brand visibility through word-of-mouth referrals which amplifies reach far beyond branded marketing efforts.
Loyalty programs allow organizations to reward customers for their loyalty and advocacy for a product or service. Such programs encourage more customers to return and purchase again. This type of program ignites conversation which increases brand visibility and frequently deepens customers' engagement with the organization.
Additionally, these types of strategies can motivate upsells, help strengthen customer relationships, develop referrals, and cultivate loyal brand advocates over time. Implement compelling rewards that drive your bottom line metrics while motivating consistent advocacy for your business objectives.
Shareable content not only helps spread the word about your product or service but also drives profile visits, followers, conversions, and web traffic. Shareable content should be of value to the consumer and capture their attention while retaining its originality.
When crafted wisely it creates resonating engagements through social media shares that increase reach exponentially, resulting in more eyeballs on the product and educating consumers in an exciting way.
A key step in crafting shareable content is to identify your target audience. This involves research into defining what type of people would be interested in what you have to offer and which digital channels they use as well as understanding the themes, ideas, and values that resonate most with them.
You can also create buyer personas to further segment by demographics, interests, etc. Doing this gives you a better picture of who your content reaches so you can continue catering it to those individuals for maximum visibility benefits.
Content should then be developed with an understanding of the purpose behind the piece, such as informing or entertaining consumers. Visual elements, like high-definition images and videos, also help contribute to content that people enjoy engaging with and feel compelled to share.
By incorporating these elements into creating compelling stories for readers, brands can start widening their audience reach across platforms regardless of whether organic or paid tactics were used.
Social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are invaluable avenues for boosting the visibility of your brand. Leveraging hashtags related to your niche is key in being up-to-date with industry trends but also making sure that you’re quickly showing up on searches within networks.
In addition, running contests and actively responding to comments can strengthen meaningful connections between prospects and current customers alike without even spending any money.
Creating thought leadership content can help establish your brand as a knowledgeable and reliable authority on important topics within your industry. Identify relevant topics that are trending or provocatively highlight hot industry issues in order to draw attention from readers and position yourself as an expert.
Create valuable and insightful original content with resources such as infographics, videos, or articles which will engage with your target audience. Utilizing guest posting on other websites, along with partnering with key influencers or experts within the field, can also help strengthen the established trust of your brand.
Identifying relevant industry topics for creating thought leadership content is essential for brands looking to raise their profile and establish themselves as go-to references within the landscape.
Through research, constant conversations with leading players in the field, and staying up-to-date on trends, you’ll be able to identify areas of opportunity where your expertise can fill a gap.Public relations, having an angle when developing content, and connecting what is already popular to shareable trends are important considerations bottom lines when identifying relevant industry topics.
Crafting valuable and insightful content is an essential component of earning attention for your brand. Generating thoughtful insight or research on industry trends and topics related to your company helps demonstrate expertise, serves up fresh perspective, and adds life to your marketing mix.
It also helps you build trust with both customers and search engine algorithms. In order to create valuable content that will help elevate your visibility it’s important to understand what information would be helpful or interesting - then aim to answer those questions in a collaborative way.
Utilizing guest posting and influencer collaborations is an effective way to elevate brand awareness. When you create blog posts for other publishing platforms, it can help expand your reach far beyond your existing network. It also provides you with the ability to tap into the audiences of like-minded sites.
Collaborating with well-respected influencers on various campaigns gives brands access to a wider engaged audience that may be interested in different types of content than their own followers. Approaching key influencers whose specialty aligns closely with your brand’s message helps increase the likelihood of having strategic partnerships that reap impressive results for both parties.
Building strong connections can help boost one another’s visibility and potentially elevate reach, creating a profitable alliance regarding scalability efforts.
Partnering with complementary brands allows access to additional segments of the industry and thrust recognition from different demographic audiences; all in sustainable agreement terms that create harmony between brand integrity while standing out in the market through joint ventures.
When working together, each team puts their individual resources to good use for a bigger cause - meaning greater collective success given by leveraging collective strengths between the partners.
Partnering with complementary brands and businesses is an effective way to extend your brand reach to new audiences. Start by identifying key demographics, competitive landscape, and influencers’ preferences in the same industry. This will help you source high-relevancy synergies between peers or even major companies.
From there critically evaluate passion levels from each side to ensure that gaining access to the other party’s customers is reciprocal. Meanwhile, possible avenues of collaboration demeanors such as promotional deals for one another's customer base or logistical crossovers can bring both brand visibility and increase potential sales returns.
Collaborative marketing campaigns offer opportunities for brands to work with complementary businesses, leveraging each other's audiences to reach a broader and more targeted audience. This often involves aspects of product promotion or cross-channel advertising which both businesses benefit.
For example, partnering with a local restaurant when promoting a clothing line may gain additional exposure from the restaurant's network of loyal customers. Additionally, using contests and giveaway campaigns can be an effective way to jointly drive traffic and create buzz around both companies’ products or services.
Co-Creating Products or Services can be a great way to elevate your brand's visibility. It offers the unique opportunity to combine resources and ideas from two different organizations towards creating something innovative.
It allows for amplified reach since you are partnering with an established brand that has an existing customer base who are likely interested in what new product you present together.Working together helps generate more credibility as customers view this collaboration as a sign of trustworthiness in each respective business. Also, new collaborations create newsworthy announcements which help attract press coverage that increases exposure further boosting visibility for both brands.
The power of influencers cannot be underestimated when it comes to increasing brand visibility. Influencers have established relationships with their audiences and have the potential to create a wave of publicity for brands when they promote products or services.
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