Content Trends 2018: BuzzSumo Research Report
A new report for BuzzSumo shows that social sharing is down 50% year-over-year, LinkedIn is becoming a leader in social engagement and more. BuzzSumo
YouTube Adds New Live-Streaming Tools, Including Monetization Options. Social Media Today
YouTube recently added automatic english language subtitles for live-streaming videos, along with the ability to replay live-streamed videos and chat simultaneously and more. Social Media Today
Google Releases Mobile Scorecard & Impact Calculator Tools To Illustrate Importance Of Mobile Page Speed
Google continues to reinforce the importance of mobile page speed. The search engine recently released tools to help website admins and marketers alike better understand why speed matters on mobile. Search Engine Land
We Regret to Inform You That Vero Is Bad [Updated]
Although Vero was supposed to be the better Instagram, but that doesn’t seem to be the case in light of functionality issues that have come to the surface. Gizmodo
Making your first AMP Story: Google’s answer to Snapchat and Instagram
Google recently announced AMP Stories, a new format similar to Snapchat and Instagram Stories, implemented via a new accelerated mobile pages (AMP) component. Search Engine Land
Marketing and IT Departments Need to Get In Sync to Best Capitalize on Mobile Technology
According to recent research from Adobe, technologies like augmented reality , virtual reality and artificial intelligence are poised to help accelerate the mobile evolution. AdWeek
Google Confirms “Edge Cases” When Content Theft Can Cause Negative Effects
Search Engine Journal reports: “Google has updated the search results pages by adding breadcrumbs to the top of the page. The breadcrumbs are triggered by informational search queries and are accompanied by images.” Search Engine Journal
Media Buyers: Snapchat Is Focused On Enabling Commerce In Ads
Look out Pinterest in Instagram -- Snapchat is making a play for eCommerce advertisers. According to Digiday: “Snapchat is working on developing new commerce units to bolster its e-commerce offering.” Digiday
Twitter's Rolling Out its New 'Bookmarks' Feature to All Users
Twitter announced that it’s rolling out its new ‘Bookmarks’ feature, which serve as an alternative to liking a Tweet you want to view later. Social Media Today
Facebook Rolls Out Job Posts To Become The Blue-collar Linkedin
Facebook is trying to compete with LinkedIn in the job market, and they’re starting with skilled workers. TechCrunch
GDPR Study Shows 65% Of Companies Unable To Comply
MediaPost reports: “Data Applications provider Solix Technologies released the results Tuesday of a survey outlining the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) readiness assessment, revealing that the majority of organizations are not prepared for May 2018 GDPR enforcement.” MediaPost
On the Lighter Side:
Skippy Goes Smooth With Mark Ronson Soundtrack To Promote Its Creamy Peanut Butter - The Drum
Lacoste’s Iconic Crocodile Makes Room for 10 Endangered Species on Brand’s Polo Shirts - AdWeek
TopRank Marketing (And Clients) In the News:
TopRank Marketing Blog - The 50 Best Business & Marketing Blogs - Detailed
Steve Slater - Word of Mouth Marketing: How to Create a Strategy for Social Media Buzz & Skyrocket Referral Sales - BigCommerce
Rachel Miller and Lee Odden - Top Influencers to engage with ahead of the #SMMW18 conference - Onalytica
Lee Odden - Top 100 Digital Marketers 2018 - Brand24
Alex Rynne (LinkedIn) and Lee Odden - 7 Things Learned from Attending B2BMX - Cassie Ciopryna
Lee Odden - Humanizing Marketing —Takeaways from #B2BMX 2018 - Tabitha Adams
Cherwell Software - Cherwell Software wins the 2018 Killer Content Award! - Alison Munn
We'll be back next week with more digital marketing news! If you need more in the meantime, follow @TopRank on Twitter or subscribe to our YouTube channel.
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]]>The post 7 Down & Dirty Ways Brands Can Collaborate with Fans to Create Amazing Content #SMMW18 appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>“So much time and so little content to create.” – Said no one ever
Let’s face it marketers, creating a quantity of quality content isn’t easy. Even more so, creating a quantity of quality content that your audience cares about is even more difficult.
So, when you don’t have an unlimited budget or execution resources, what can you do?
One way to create more impactful content, is to encourage and support the creation of user generated content (UGC).
But does it really work? According to TapInfluence, 92% of consumers turn to people they know for referrals above any other source. Additionally, 88% of consumers trust online reviews written by other consumers as much as they trust recommendations from their personal contacts.
To help determine how UGC can work for your brand, the Delightful Duo which consists of MGM Resorts International’s Beverly Jackson and Microsoft’s Karianne Stinson took stage at Social Media Marketing World to share some real-world, down and dirty tips for collaborating with fans. Here are the top takeaways:
Both members of the Delightful Duo unanimously voted nay on using stock photography. But why? Authenticity is a key factor in great UGC which means if your brand is creating and sharing original images, it will inspire and encourage your audience to follow suit.
The whole point of UGC is that it drives greater engagement and makes the content more authentic. @bevjack #SMMW18
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Truth be told, most brands do not have a defined budget allocated for UGC. However, there is a big opportunity to invest in your UGC strategy. That means, taking the time to be thoughtful about how you will approach UGC and what you’d like to achieve.
If your brand is just starting out, there may be an investment needed to encourage UGC. @karianne #SMMW18
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Engaging influencers to create content is a fantastic way to show a good example of the type of UGC content you’d like to see your audience creating. Working with professionals will help show your audience the power of what is possible.
Using UGC in a brand narrative alongside influencers, allows you to empower your audience to see what is possible with the product/service. @karianne #SMMW18
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According to Beverly, her team has taken photos of every possible angle of the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas. So, photos of the fountain may not be the best solution for UGC. Instead, find unique and special content that truly reflects what the brand believes and share that with your audience (which will inspire them to do the same).
Get past the thing that is the obvious and find the thing that truly makes the experience special. @bevjack #SMMW18
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Brands, take a note from UGC. Your content should feel more like UGC because let’s face it; it’s the content they want. Learn to speak your fan’s language through your branded content. The two content types should be complimentary to each other.
If UGC content is more interesting than what your brand is creating, your brand is doing it wrong. @karianne #SMMW18
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In the end, if your content isn’t authentic, the audience experience will not be a great one. Make sure that you are real and honest with your content in a way that your audience won’t walk away disappointed.
Focus on great experiences. What does the content mean for real people? @bevjack #SMMW18
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Ultimately, brands need to ensure that UGC is used with permission and that creators are compensated in some way (if it makes sense). If necessary, get permission to use UGC in writing to avoid any legal issues.
You can’t just take someone else’s content for free. @bevjack #SMMW18
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If you’re considering UGC but haven’t started, what are your biggest questions? If you’ve incorporated UGC into your content strategy, what has worked?
For more on influencer marketing be sure to join us at 4:10PST this afternoon for TopRank Marketing’s Lee Odden’s presentation on How Content Plus Influence Equals Results: The Confluence Equation.
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© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2018. | 7 Down & Dirty Ways Brands Can Collaborate with Fans to Create Amazing Content #SMMW18 | http://www.toprankblog.com
The post 7 Down & Dirty Ways Brands Can Collaborate with Fans to Create Amazing Content #SMMW18 appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>If Facebook is the main source of traffic for your business, then it makes sense to optimize your marketing efforts with the right advertising tools. According to eMarketer, Facebook is considered the most effective social media advertising outlet by 96 percent of social media marketers. In fact, there are many stories that show results of […]
The post 12 Facebook Advertising Tools to Improve Sales and ROI in 2018 appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>If Facebook is the main source of traffic for your business, then it makes sense to optimize your marketing efforts with the right advertising tools. According to eMarketer, Facebook is considered the most effective social media advertising outlet by 96 percent of social media marketers.
In fact, there are many stories that show results of five times more traffic for both B2B and B2C companies. It’s never too late to learn more about the right Facebook advertising tools to improve your sales and ROI in 2018.
In addition, spending thousands of dollars on advertising only works if you know what you are doing. The good news is there are many effective tools available, and some start for as little as $5.
While anyone can create a Facebook business page, and attain a following, it’s important to do it right. So, you must learn how to use several tools to ensure you get the best bang for your buck. You’ll also need to manage your campaigns, know what content to publish and when, as well as track your analytics.
Are you ready to give your sales and ROI a boost this year? Keep reading to learn more.
Why you should advertise on Facebook in 2018
Since Facebook is one of the biggest social media platforms in the world, you can’t afford to disregard its potential. Since Facebook attracts billions of monthly users, it is the perfect space for marketing and selling your products and services.
If you’re one of the 27 million small businesses in the U.S., you probably don’t have an arsenal of cash lying around to spend on advertising–this means you have to make every dollar count.
How can you effectively market your business when you’re already tight on funds? This is just one question businesses ask on a daily basis. Of course, you’re probably already aware of the advantages of connecting with your audience on social media.
Nonetheless, it costs money to get views. And, with Facebook, you can get insanely detailed with your targeting with demographics such as:
To illustrate, if you wanted to market to 35-year-old single women, who live in Nashville, graduated from UNC, work at a production company, vote Independent and love the Star Wars movies, you can. The best part is it takes less than $10 to start.
You can then use one, or several, of the tools below to measure Social ROI metrics including:
Facebook wants to ensure their users only view relevant content and ads. Yet, this is used to your advantage. For example, someone might be searching for real estate in Nashville and be served an ad for properties within that area.
But, later, the person changes his or her mind and starts searching for trips to Knoxville. Facebook will respond to that change of inquiry and respond with an ad for a hotel in Knoxville. So, Facebook enables advertisers to reach people with the right message, at the right time.
With real-time analytics, you can see exactly how well your Facebook ads are performing. And, if they aren’t performing as well as you would like, you can use insights to adjust your ads as you see fit. With over half of professional marketers hailing Facebook as the most important social network they use, it’s truly time to start advertising on the multi-faceted platform.
Cost: Free
When 40 million businesses have pages on Facebook, you know that something must be working. Consider the fact that every minute, Facebook users like over 4.1 million posts–one of those posts could be yours.
With over a billion users logged onto Facebook every day, your business can’t stand to lose out on all these potential customers. You need to connect with these users. This is where the easy-to-use Facebook Ads Manager tool can help. If you’re a novice, then it’s really easy to get started on ads.
For some businesses, this is all they need and use. For starters, it is free of charge. Here are the steps for use:
Another option is to collect users’ information. If you want your ads to become highly relevant, then it is important to personalize them based on segments of your target audience. To do this, you can create lead ads with a call-to-action button such as “sign up” or “subscribe.”
When your prospects have clicked on either of these buttons, they are redirected to a form that with instantly fill the data they have furnished to Facebook. Imagine what you can do with this information.
Also, your prospects don’t have to take any time out of their busy schedules to fill out forms. Plus, you get actionable and accurate information to help create ads that are hyper-personalized.
To improve your reach, it is important to drill down your details by location, age, gender, language and more. What’s nice is Facebook offers a barometer to let you know if your audience is too specific or too broad. Facebook will also share your estimated daily results reach.
Getting started is a no brainer. And, you’ll see detailed graphics of your results. So, you can tweak your campaigns to ensure optimized outreach and social media marketing potential.
Cost: $49/month for the Base plan; $149/month for the Premium plan; $299/month for the Elite plan; $499/month for the Diamond plan
If you would prefer not to have a learning curve, then AdEspresso would be the choice for you. Advertising on Facebook can be as easy, or as complicated, as you want it to be. The good news is you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to make money.
With Facebook, organic advertising is pretty much dead. For years, Facebook has been reducing the visibility of company pages in people’s news feeds. So, the only way to reach your target audience is through advertising.
And, you can be quite selective with who you target. If you work with AdEspresso, you’ll notice how straightforward it is. You can get started in minutes. Plus, the visual analytics tools are quite powerful and easy to understand.
Not to mention, you can customize your dashboards for a detailed view of your best-performing ads. If you want to go even further, you can get detailed metrics too. This is how AdEspresso describes its methodology:
Information is displayed in a clear, actionable way, making it simple to understand how your campaign is being optimized.
AdEspresso can also:
If you want to go in-depth, you can still access every metric available on Facebook and many more available only in AdEspresso.
Cost: Free trial; $59/month for a 12-month contract; $79/month on a monthly basis; Pre-pay $589 annually
To improve the functionality of Facebook Ads Manager, use WordStream Social Ads. You can use this platform by itself or as one facet of the WordStream Advisor platform.
With the 20-mminute Work Week feature, you can access individualized recommendations with suggestions such as:
As you can see, the dashboard is also quite user friendly. What’s more is your ads are scalable. Once you get them in front of the right influencers, they will share your ads. As that happens, you get exposure to an even larger audience. This type of snowball effect is akin to winning a jackpot.
Cost: Premium, Business and Agency plans start at $149, $249 and $349 per month.
With over three million advertisers on Facebook, you need a tool to help you cut through the noise. Qwaya is one of the most popular platforms for optimizing Facebook advertisements. What makes Qwaya a true standout is the fact that it offers the ability to A/B test your ads. It is crucial to test every single option and idea you have in terms of promoting your products and services. This includes:
With Qwaya, you can A/B test your Facebook ads to gain a true understanding of which ads are performing the best, and at what times. In addition, Qwaya can schedule your ads and campaigns to optimize for ROI.
So, you get to run your ads when your target audience is online and, in the mood to make purchases. As a result, you don’t waste any of your ad spend. With Qwaya, there is a bit of a learning curve. But, it is seriously worth it.
Other Qwaya features include:
Facebook offers endless possibilities in terms of customizing your ads. It’s nice to have a lot of variety. Don’t be afraid to try these popular types of ads:
Cost: Starts at a Self-Starter package at $299 per month up to $700 per month, depending on your needs.
If you want to extend the capabilities of your Facebook marketing campaigns, then it might be worth giving KISSmetrics a try.
While KISSmetrics does not provide a specific Facebook advertising tool, it does take data from your ads and uses that to help you visualize larger data points and trends about your campaigns. For instance, you can break down traffic type by:
You can also view other metrics such as:
So, you get a deeper understanding of how people are interacting with your campaigns and where they are coming from. With these types of insights, your campaigns become more fruitful. Now, you can make more informed decisions about how much you need to spend on advertising.
Cost: $79/month for a Pro plan; $139/month for a Plus plan; $239/month for a Large plan; $499+/month for an Enterprise plan
If you want to know what’s trending in your industry, then you need to use Buzzsumo. It seems pretty obvious why you would need to know what content performs best for your competitors. Even when you create an ad, you are still competing for your prospects’ time and attention.
So, it pays to create content that is what they are looking for and fits in easily to their particular news feeds. You can even find the right influencers on Buzzsumo so, they can reach a bigger audience by sharing your ads. For instance, you can get information on influencers such as:
You can also see which topics get the most shares and how users are sharing the content. Moreover, you can see how many articles have been posted on any topic and how many shares they have received.
With this information in hand, you can come up with relevant ideas for videos, blog posts, ads and more. You don’t have to figure out the right content on your own. Then, pick an influencer to help promote your ads and content.
Think of how this might impact your mobile audience. Recently, Facebook shared that $5.2 billion of its ad revenues came from mobile devices. Since most people use their smartphones to log onto Facebook, you won’t have any issues reaching a massive mobile audience.
Cost: Starts at $159/month per user
AdStage is a powerful tool that offers automation and closed-loop reporting. If you want to advertise on other platforms, AdStage makes it easy. Take a look at their tagline:
Create, Optimize and Report across your search and social ads in one place.
So, you don’t have to manage individual and separate ads. AdStage provides one dashboard to manage all of them. You can also take your preferred metrics to create advanced rules and alerts.
Through intelligence technology and usability, AdStage helps users make sense of their ad campaigns.
Cost: $9.99/month, prepaid annually; $14.99/month on a rolling basis; Team, Business and Enterprise plans are also available.
To bring in the traffic, and sales, your business needs leads. And, you need marketing tools to attract those leads to your site. Consider Hootsuite Ads.
You might have already tested out Hootsuite for their free social media scheduling option–you can schedule up to five accounts for free. Their platform, and features, have made it one of the most popular social media scheduling tools on the market. Yet, Hootsuite also offers features to optimize Facebook advertising.
If you’re new to Facebook advertising, consider using Hootsuite Ads. It’s quite easy to use since you can fully automate the workflow of your ads. Hootsuite will then evaluate which ads are performing the best.
From there, it helps you to create new ads based on the software’s findings. So, you will always get the right ad out, to the right audience, at the right time. That is so much better than playing the guessing game. It also helps to note that the best times to post on Facebook are between 1 and 3 p.m.
Here are other Hootsuite features:
Cost: $79/month for the Essential plan; $159/month for the Premium plan; $399+/month for the Enterprise plan
Now that you are getting a better understanding of Facebook advertising, you also want to ensure that your prospects stay on your site. If they leave, your ad spend would be wasted. Enter Unbounce.
This tool helps you to test, publish and create landing pages. If you’re not a designer, Unbounce comes with a wide variety of outstanding templates you can use.
They are all designed for multiple industries and genres–you can then customize the templates for a perfect fit. Even after your landing pages are published, you can make quick and easy changes with just a few clicks. Furthermore, you can use Unbounce Convertibles to add customized CTAs that populate when a prospect visits your page.
These CTAs, also known as overlays, can be targeted based on audience type. Additionally, you can integrate Unbounce with WordPress, HubSpot and Google Analytics.
It’s hard to beat the power of targeting based on demographics, interests, connections, location and more. You might even get creative with holiday targeting, life-event targeting and more. The possibilities are endless.
Cost: AdRoll offers dynamic CPM pricing where you pay for ad space, and they keep a small percentage of the spend.
If you’re ready to advertise, then you probably already have dreams of building a massive online presence. Yet, that is only half of the battle. The other half can be accomplished through retargeting your Facebook ads–this lets you show relevant ads to your target audience once they have entered your website.
This is especially helpful for prospects who don’t convert right away. Of course, your ads must be tailored to fit the needs of your target audience. Since people are so busy, your ads may not get as many clicks as you would like.
They might open your ad, go to your site, then go back to Facebook. Instead, retargeting helps to remind them of your promotions while they are browsing through their newsfeed.
Plus, you really need to show your marketing messages multiple times before a prospect is ready to convert. There must be a frequency to your Facebook ads.
Moreover, retargeting can help make your business look larger than it really is. When your ads are everywhere, consumers start to think that you must have a huge company. Retargeting also helps to build trust since your company will never be forgotten.
Retargeting lets you market to an audience who have already interacted with your brand such as those who have:
Just by “being there,” your prospects will start to familiarize themselves and trust your brand. They see your ads on their newsfeed daily so, you start to become like a familiar friend. This is what AdRoll can do for your Facebook ads.
AdRoll offers built-in contextual, behavioral and site retargeting. Their interface is user friendly with visual conversion tracking. You get true transparency of all your campaigns. And, AdRoll offers cross-device reach. AdRoll’s targeted remarketing can also help to improve brand awareness.
Cost: $399/month for a corporate plan; $699/month for an Agency plan
If budget is a major concern, and it is for most companies, then AdSpringr can help to lower your overall costs. AdSpringr claims to make your ad spend much more efficient. With an easy and clean interface, AdSpringr is easy to use.
You can view all your campaigns through AdSpringr’s designated portal–this is true whether they are paused, pending, active or completed. AdSpringr also conveys useful charts and graphs so that it is much easier to glean for useful insights–you don’t have to pore through mounds of text.
According to AdSpringr, you can:
Increase the scale, performance and ROI of your Facebook ad marketing campaigns through our advanced product and services.
Another feature is the ability to create custom campaign rules based on frequency and conditions such as wanting 80 percent of ad clicks to become “likes.”
So, you ensure you aren’t draining money on clicks that don’t convert to likes. If your campaign does not reach your conditions, then the campaign will be paused.
So, this is a bit different from other Facebook ad tools and it can work to tweak your campaigns.
Cost: N/A
We’ve included Social Ads on this list since this is a Facebook Marketing Partner for business owners. You can use Social Ads to convert massive amounts of data into usable business insights. So, you save time and money.
Plus, Social Ads comes with an agile dashboard you can customize based on your needs. It also offers a multi-language user interface, and you can create a new campaign in minutes. Other features include:
In conclusion
If you’re wondering whether you should advertise, think of starting with Facebook. Becoming an expert in Facebook marketing is not the easiest endeavor, but the potential rewards are incomparable.
Plus, you can create your own budget. With $50, you can reach up to 10,000 Facebook users. You can also choose how long you want your ad to remain active.
The more people you reach, the higher your probability for conversions. And, if you pick the right advertising tools, you can make a serious impact on your sales and ROI in 2018.
The post 12 Facebook Advertising Tools to Improve Sales and ROI in 2018 appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>Ask any B2B marketer about their top digital marketing challenges and one of the first answers you’ll likely receive is: Getting in front of the right audience at the right time. In fact, Ytel’s 2018 State of B2B Marketing Communications survey revealed that 55% of respondents agreed that they have a hard time getting their message and content in front of their target audience.
Why is that? Well, there’s more content at buyers’ fingertips than ever before, search engines are getting in touch with their human sides, and organic visibility on social media is effectively extinct. But, let’s real talk for a minute, marketers—this is all old news. In today’s digital marketing landscape, creating meaningful connections with your audience on any channel really comes down to trust and credibility.
Consumers are increasingly numb to advertising and marketing messages—and they’re actively trying to avoid it all. Last year, PageFair reported that adblocking usage had grown by 30% globally. In addition, Facebook’s recent decision to de-emphasize brand content was in response to users saying that posts from businesses, brands and media were crowding their News Feeds.
However, buyers are increasingly looking to those they know and those they think they know for insights, answers and recommendations. Multiple reports have shown that somewhere around 90% of consumers trust influencers or individuals over straight branded content. In addition, according to a recent report from CMI and SmartBrief, 40% of B2B decision-makers say that credibility trumps the source of the information.
This means B2B brands and marketers need to double-down on creating quality, credible content to drive marketing objectives and wins. But how? By infusing credible voices, perspectives and insights from influential sources—namely industry experts and thought leaders—into the content marketing game plan.
[bctt tweet="#B2B brands & marketers need to double-down on creating quality, #crediblecontent to drive #marketing objectives & wins." username="toprank"]
To highlight how creating more credible content with influencers can help your B2B brand get in front of interested buyers, create an engaging experience, and inspire action, take a look at these three examples from the TopRank Marketing playbook of successful client influencer content marketing programs.
Introhive is a leading customer relationship management (CRM) solutions provider. Working across a variety of industries, Introhive aims to help their clients gain and effectively leverage customer intelligence in a way that can grow their business.
The Situation: The legal sector is one of Introhive’s focus industries. However, it’s an industry that’s been reluctant to adopt CRM technologies. Why? Oftentimes business development isn’t an established department within law practices, making it hard to justify investments in a “sales” technology. But law firms large and small have growth aspirations—and Introhive wanted to empower them to realize those opportunities.
Another challenge with attorneys and other legal professionals is that they often build their careers on evidence and witness testimony. Essentially, this industry is by nature hard to reach without offering credibility, authority and proof.
The Solution: With two unique challenges to overcome, our team knew that engaging other legal professionals to share their expertise and insights on business development, we could not only showcase the Introhive brand, but also needed to provide their audience with unique, relevant and trustworthy insights.
TopRank Marketing worked with the team at Introhive to develop an integrated influencer content program that began with a survey of legal community members. Conducting the survey helped facilitate building influencer relationships, while also collecting valuable data that could be used to further bolster campaign content. Other pieces of the integrated content marketing mix included an eBook—our anchor asset—blog posts, organic social amplification, paid social, and email.
The Results: For starters, we saw 15% more eBook downloads in the first month than the benchmark asset had in its lifetime. During the same time period, the accompanying blog content garnered over 600% more views compared to benchmarks for average blog content. Finally and without specifics available, the Introhive team reports that the program has delivered “medium to huge” marketing qualified leads (MQLs). Suffice it to say, this program leveraged credible content within influencers and research to generate substantial results.
Read the full Introhive integrated influencer campaign case study.
Cherwell Software is a leading IT service management (ITSM) company with a mission to help their customers leverage intuitive technology to enable better, faster and more affordable innovation.
The Situation: Since its inception a little over a decade ago, Cherwell has been rapidly gaining traction in the competitive ITSM space—but they’re still one of the newer kids on the block with other new competitors emerging rapidly. To continue their growth and fend off competition, Cherwell wanted to expand its marketing channels, increase brand awareness, engage industry thought leaders and—of course—eventually drive leads.
The Solution: Given Cherwell’s position in the competitive ITSM space, the team at TopRank Marketing worked to design an influencer content campaign that was highly-targeted to key the decision-makers they wanted to reach. How? We knew in order to stand out in news feeds and build near-instant credibility with our content, we needed to understand what influences the target audience the most.
To uncover the people, publications, and content topics and types that “moved” our audience the most, as well as where they spent time on social media, we designed a new research tool—the RITHM report.
Using insights from the RITHM report to inform the content marketing approach, the resulting campaign included an eBook anchor asset, blog posts, an SEO-driven landing page, paid and organic social media.
The Results: According to Alison Munn, Social Media and Digital Marketing Lead at Cherwell: “Not only did this program meet the defined goals and objectives, but the results and process exceeded my expectations!”
With this campaign responsible for 22% of new revenue for Cherwell in 2017, it was a recent winner of the B2B Marketing Exchange "Killer Content Award".
You can learn more about this program in the case study video below:
[embed]https://youtu.be/cUf_a7RL9NY[/embed]
SAP SuccessFactors is a leading human capital management (HCM) suite that helps human resources (HR) professionals unleash the full potential of their workforce through transformation and engagement, and ultimately drive results across the business.
The Situation: For this niche human resources audience, employee wellness programs are part of the strategy to unleash the potential of their employees. However, the pain point for many organizations is finding a holistic solution in one place that also provides understanding of the true impact their efforts can have on the workplace. SAP wanted to drive awareness around their holistic solution, while also educating and engaging their audience.
The Solution: TopRank Marketing partnered with SAP SuccessFactors to craft an multi-pronged, influencer-driven content campaign that would not only raise awareness around their solution, but also provide their audience with credible, relevant, and actionable insights.
This campaign was anchored with an influencer eBook that featured insights from 10 top workplace culture, wellness, and technology experts, as well as internal experts from SAP SuccessFactors. In addition, other tactics such as a well-optimized landing page, social media promotion, and customized motion graphics were part of the mix.
The Results: For downloads, we saw a 272% increase over SAP’s established benchmark. In addition, the accompanying landing page boasted a 68% conversion rate. Lastly, organic social promotion of the content—from the brand and influencers—drove 86% of overall views and 69% of overall conversions.
Read the full SAP SuccessFactors influencer-driven content campaign case study.
We’re in an era of a distrust and indifference to B2B marketing messages—which means if buyers don’t find your content credible and trustworthy, they’ll move on.
From skepticism to standing out in a crowded and more seasoned field, each of the aforementioned brands were living the trends and looking for a way to capture the attention of their audiences.
By cleverly leveraging influencers to create more credible and authoritative content and more trusted amplification, these brands were able to deliver their audiences with thoughtful opinions and diverse insights, bolster brand authority and make more meaningful connections with their audiences. But perhaps the most exciting campaign result was that building credibility led to audience activation—or conversions in other words.
To put it simply, with the right strategy, insights and influencer infusion, credible content can help brands win over your audience at every stage of the buyer journey.
[bctt tweet="With the right strategy, insights & influencer infusion, #crediblecontent can absolutely help brands win over your audience at every stage of the buyer journey. @CaitlinMBurgess" username="toprank"]
Want to learn more creating more credible content? Check out our post on building credibility and authority with content marketing.
The post How to Succeed at B2B Content Marketing with More Credible Content appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>The post How to Succeed at B2B Content Marketing with More Credible Content appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>The post 50 Social Media Marketing Influencers to Learn From in 2018 appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>It’s that time of year again for the conference extravaganza known as Social Media Marketing World. Each year I pull together a list of influential voices that are engaging on social networks around the topic social media marketing. My goal? To help showcase speakers for people in the industry to learn from and follow.
Why are these people influential? That’s a great question. I would answer with, “Why is anyone influential?”. Because they have specific expertise that they share publicly, consistently and in a way that improves the knowledge, skills and perspectives of those who follow them.
Influence is not only popularity. Influence is the ability to affect action.
When I started out in my digital marketing career, it was thanks to connecting with some generous people that had a lot more experience than me that I was able to overcome introversion and reluctance to write and become an international keynote speaker, author and blogger with over 1.4 million words written so far. What I have learned about influence is that it is not self-assigned.
Influence is earned by being helpful, effective and relevant as well as having reach. Influence is also earned by mentoring those who are coming up in the industry. While working with influencers transfers influence by association, helping others become influential is when earned influence really skyrockets.
In this year’s list of Social Media Marketing Influencers there are many people who demonstrate this kind of helpfulness and I am encouraging those influencers as well as our community of readers to nominate up and coming social media marketing leaders. You can find more details on that at the end of the post.
About the Methodology for this List:
Specific Scope: Rather than scan the entire social web, the starting data set for this list is having been named as a speaker for the SMMW18 conference. Mike Stelzner and Phil Mershon of Social Media Examiner do an amazing job of hand picking speakers for this conference and this list is an extension of their research and expertise into finding, qualifying and recruiting over 180 social media marketing speakers.
IRM Platform Assisted: Ranking of the people in this list leverages data and algorithms from Traackr, an influencer relationship marketing platform. Unlike the vast majority of lists like this that are published online, this list considers many more data sources than just Twitter. To provide a better sample across the web, Traackr ranking can include citations and links from data sources such as blogs, publications, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and Google+.
Ranking data sources and scoring: For the ranking, this list leverages a combination of data points including:
Each of these signal sources are factored into the algorithmic ranking for identified influencers with a focus on topical relevance, resonance of message with the audience and then audience reach. The result is a combination of broad based influencers as well as individuals with a very specific focus and very high resonance and relevance scores. What I like about pulling this list together is seeing a number of new faces as well as as a variety of disciplines and specialties represented.
This list of 50 industry experts speaking at Social Media Marketing World is worth checking out as you plan which presentations to see, who to follow online and who to meet.
Kim Garst @kimgarst
Live Streaming Strategist, Social Selling Pro, Keynote Speaker at Boom! Social
Presenting: How to Make Money With Live Video
Donna Moritz @sociallysorted
Digital Content Strategist, International Speaker, Visual Content Strategist at Socially Sorted
Presenting: Tips and Tools for Visual Storytelling on Instagram
Brian Fanzo @isocialfanz
Founder and CEO at iSocialFanz
Presenting: Facebook Strategy in Light of the Facebook Apocalypse
Koka Sexton @kokasexton
Advisor, SenderGen
Presenting: How to Turn LinkedIn Into a Funnel for New Leads
Madalyn Sklar @madalynsklar
Social Media and Digital Marketing Strategist, Blogger, Podcaster
Presenting: How to Up Your Twitter Game With Smart Tools
Dan Gingiss @dgingiss
Vice President, Strategic Group at Persado
Presenting: Why Social Media is Key to the Customer Experience
Ian Anderson Gray @iagdotme
Co-founder at Select Performers Internet Solutions
Presenting: How to Create Your Killer Live Video Show: Tools and Tips
Jeff Sieh @jeffsieh
Pinterest Manager at Social Media Examiner
Presenting: Visual Marketing for Non-Designers: Tips, Tricks, and Hacks
Viveka Von Rosen @linkedinexpert
LinkedIn and Personal Branding Expert, Co-founder and Chief Visibility Officer at Vengreso
Presenting: How to Best Use LinkedIn Native Video in Your Marketing
Neal Schaffer @NealSchaffer
CEO at Maximize Your Social
Presenting: How Brands are Breaking Through to Generate Results on LinkedIn
Josh Elledge @joshelledge
Founder at upendPR
Presenting: How to Get Traditional Media Exposure Using Social Media
Robert Rose @robert_rose
Founder at The Content Advisory & Chief Strategy Advisor at Content Marketing Institute
Presenting: Becoming an Audience First Company: How to Understand and Measure the Most Valuable Asset in Your Business
Gini Dietrich @ginidietrich
Chief Executive Officer at Arment Dietrich
Presenting: Crisis Communications: Tips From the Trenches
Carlos Gil @CarlosGil83
Founder, Gil Media Co.
Presenting: Snapchat Ads: How-to Use Snapchat’s Full Service Ad Platform
Darren Rowse @problogger
Founder and Keynote Speaker at ProBlogger
Presenting: 10 Things I Wish I’d Known about Blogging That Will Shortcut the Growth of Your Blog
Mark Schaefer @markwschaefer
Executive Director at Schaefer Marketing Solutions
Presenting: 10 Mind-Bending New Ideas for Our Social Media Marketing Future
Tamara McCleary @tamaramccleary
CEO at Thulium.co
Presenting: Innovating Your Way to Strong Social Media ROI
Mark Mason @masonworld
Quality Manager, Interface Products at Texas Instruments
Presenting: How to Make Your Podcast Stand Out: Tips from the Trenches
Rebekah Radice @rebekahradice
Founder at RadiantLA
Presenting: How to Make Visual Content Your Social Media Secret Weapon
Brooke B. Sellas @madsmscientist
Founder & Chief Executive Officer at B Squared Media
Presenting: Organizing for Social Success: Insource? Outsource? No Source?
Tyler Anderson @tylerjanderson
CEO / Founder at Casual Fridays
Presenting: Winning With Influencer Marketing: What Top Brands are Doing Now
Samantha Kelly @tweetinggoddess
Owner of Women’s Inspire Network
Presenting: How to Convert Twitter Conversations Into Customers
Ian Cleary @iancleary
Founder at RazorSocial
Presenting: 9 Content Marketing Tools to Drive More Traffic to Your Website
Mari Smith @marismith
Keynote Speaker, Brand Evangelist, Bestselling Author
Presenting: The Future of Facebook: What Marketers Need to Know for 2018 and Beyond
Mike Stelzner @mike_stelzner
CEO and Founder at Social Media Examiner
Presenting: Social Media Marketing in 2018: What the Newest Research Reveals
Andy Crestodina @crestodina
Strategic Director at Orbit Media Studios
Presenting: Building Better Mousetraps: A Content-Driven Approach to Conversion Optimization
Bernie Borges @bernieborges
Advisory Board Member at OneMob and Co-founder and CMO at Vengreso.
Presenting: The Secrets to Getting Employees to Engage on Behalf of Your Brand
Alex Khan @1alexkhan
CEO at Attractive Media GmbH
Presenting: Mass Seduction: Proven Techniques to Engage and Build Your Audience
Peg Fitzpatrick @PegFitzpatrick
Director of Social Media + Marketing at Kreussler
Presenting: How to Use Pinterest to Drive Long Term Traffic
Chris Penn @cspenn
Vice President of Marketing Technology at SHIFT Communications
Presenting: Seeing Into the Future: Predictive Analytics for Social Marketers
Michael O’Neal @inmikeswords
Host of The Solopreneur Hour Podcast
Presenting: Becoming an Interview Master and How it Can Massively Grow Your Podcast or Livestream
Brian Solis @briansolis
Principal Analyst at Altimeter Group
Presenting: The Past, Present and Future of Social Media
Park Howell @parkhowell
Founder and President at Business of Story
Presenting: How to Invest in Brand Storytelling to Earn the Greatest Return
Nicky Kriel @nickykriel
Social Media Consultant & Social Media Strategist at Nicky Kriel Social Media
Presenting: How to Use Twitter Data to Improve Your Content Marketing
Melanie Deziel @mdeziel
Brand Strategy Consultant and Speaker at Mdeziel Media
Presenting: 5 Branded Content Best Practices From the World of Journalism
Andrea Vahl @andreavahl
Social Media Consultant at Andrea Vahl
Presenting: Facebook Ads Strategy for Small Businesses
Jay Baer @jaybaer
Founder at Convince & Convert
Presenting: How to Prove Social Media Works to Skeptical Managers
Steve Dotto @dottotech
President at Galileo Consulting and Producer of Dotto Tech
Presenting: YouMake YouFortune on YouTube: Making Money on YouTube
Ann Handley @marketingprofs
Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs
Presenting: Creating Better Content in Less Time: 5 Real-World Writer Secrets
Lee Odden @leeodden
CEO at TopRank Marketing
Presenting: How Content Plus Influence Equals Results: The Confluence Equation
Guy Kawasaki @GuyKawasaki
Chief Evangelist at Canva
Presenting: Achieving Social Media Success by Defying Conventional Wisdom
Shaun McBride @Shonduras
Owner Esports/Shonduras Inc
Presenting: How to Influence Influencers: The Creative Process
John Jantsch @ducttape
President at Duct Tape Marketing
Presenting: How to Grow a Highly Profitable Consulting Practice Without Adding Overhead
Jessika Phillips @jessikaphillips
Relationship Marketing Evangelist, President at NOW Marketing Group
Presenting: Relationship ROI: How to Grow Your Business by Focusing on Repeat and Referral Relationships
John Lee Dumas @johnleedumas
Host of the EOFire Podcast
Presenting: How to Grow Your Podcast Audience and Fuel Your Business
Roberto Blake @robertoblake
Owner at Create Awesome Media
Presenting: Mastering and Measuring YouTube Analytics for Video Marketing
Shep Hyken @Hyken
Chief Amazement Officer and Owner, Customer Service Speaker and Expert at Shepard Presentations
Presenting: How to Turn Social Customer Service Into a Marketing Strategy
Jasmine Star @jasminestar
Owner at Jasmine Star Photography
Presenting: How to Create 30 Days of Instagram Content in a Single Day
Bryan Kramer @bryankramer
Keynote Speaker, Emcee and Event Host at PureMatter
Presenting: How to Humanize Your Social Brand for Better Conversions
Brian Peters @brian_g_peters
Digital Marketing Manager at Buffer
Presenting: How to Build and Maintain an Authentic Community on Instagram
If you want to follow all 50 of these fine folks, then check out the speaker list on the SMMW18 conference schedule page.
What about non-digital influence?
I think this is a great question because not everyone that is influential (especially in the B2B world) spends as much time tweeting, blogging and posting Instagram photos as many of the influencers listed above do. And yet they are highly influential.
For example, here are several more speakers that are pretty influential to me, even though they are not on the list above: Amisha Gandhi (client), Beverly Jackson, Brian Clark, Chris Brogan, Konnie Alex (client), LaSandra Brill, Shannon Paul, Tim Washer, and Ursula Ringham to name a few.
Suffice it to say, I think when you are deciding on which influencers to work with, it’s important to get out of the digital bubble and consider offline-specific influencers as well – especially in B2B.
These are some of the most common topics that come up through my agency’s influencer content marketing consulting with brands like Dell, SAP, LinkedIn, 3M and even mid-market companies like DivvyHQ or Cherwell Software. I’ll be tackling these questions and more in my presentation at Social Media Marketing World 2018. Here are the details:
How Content Plus Influence Equals Results: The Confluence Equation
Thursday, March 1st at 4:10pm Room: 32AB
Content marketing and influencer marketing are hot topics for marketers all over the world as two of the most promising strategies for attracting, engaging and converting ideal customers. But how do you find the right influencers? What kind of content should you collaborate on? How do you best measure influencer and content success? Join Lee Odden to learn from his experience working with brands big and small to develop efficient and effective formulas for influencer content success.
I hope to see you there!
I know some folks are feeling left out and others would have added other social media marketing speakers to this list. Lists are exclusive by nature, but I think it would be amazing for the experts on this list as well as our readers would nominate up and coming industry social media marketing pros that are consistently providing useful expertise, leadership and engaging with their communities.
Please leave full name, title, company and Twitter handle (or other social profile) of your nominee in the comments. I will follow this list up with a People’s Choice style list of Rising Social Media Stars after the conference.
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© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2018. | 50 Social Media Marketing Influencers to Learn From in 2018 | http://www.toprankblog.com
The post 50 Social Media Marketing Influencers to Learn From in 2018 appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>Six Essential Email Marketing Tips [Infographic]
Looking for email marketing success? This six tips can help you — and your emails — reach the right target. MarketingProfs
Google Brings the Popular Stories Format to AMP: Is It Worth Using?
Google announced a new story format for AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) this week. Google describes the new shiny thing as "a visual driven format for evolving news consumption on mobile." Econsultancy
Internet Rages After Google Removes 'View Image' Button, Bowing to Getty
Google removed the "view image" button this week in response to a recent lawsuit from Getty. This move has enraged the internet, but was done with hopes to encourage clicks through to the image's hosting website. Ars Technica
45% Of Marketers Cite Content & Experience Management As Top Priority In 2018
Econsultancy's Digital Trends 2018 report found that 45% of professionals surveyed cite content and experience management as their top priorities for this year, followed by the 32% that cited analytics. Econsultancy
Top Digital Advertising Trends
MediaPost compiled a research brief to show top digital advertising trends, including evidence that Google and Facebook owned 63% US digital market in 2017. Microsoft made strides, but remains a distant third place with just 4%. MediaPost
Google Announces Two Major Changes to Image Search
Google has announced two major changes to image search — including the previously reported removal of the "view image" button and the removal of the "search by image" button. Publishers are happy about these changes, Google search users aren't so thrilled. Search Engine Journal
Pandora Takes Aim At Spotify And IHeartRadio With Programmatic Audio Ads
AdAge reports: "Pandora said Tuesday that it will now offer its audio inventory programmatically through popular demand-side platforms such as MediaMath, The Trade Desk and AdsWizz." AdAge
Snapchat Gives Creators Access to Audience Analytics
Some select content creators on Snapchat are being given access to analytics and data about their audience, such as story views, engagement and demographics. This is only available to those who are part of Snapchat's Official Stories program. Search Engine Journal
B2B Demand Generation: Marketers' Favorite Tactics
Recent research from Demand Gen Report shows that email remains a top demand generation channel for both top and bottom funnel prospects. MarketingProfs
Facebook Is Testing A 'Downvote' Button
CNBC Reports: "Facebook is testing a 'downvote' button that lets users flag and hide comments they deem inappropriate. The social network clarified that it is not a 'dislike' button and the test is running for a small set of people in the U.S. only." CNBC
Google To Move More Sites To Mobile-First Index In Coming Weeks
Google plans on rolling more sites into the mobile-first index in the next several weeks. It's time to make sure your site is optimized for mobile if you haven't already — the time has finally come. Search Engine Land
On the Lighter Side
Red Stripe Says That, Whatever the Cost, It Will Buy a New Bobsled for Jamaica - AdWeek
TopRank Marketing (And Clients) In the News:
Steve Slater - Your M-Commerce Deep Dive: Data, Trends and What’s Next in the Mobile Retail Revenue World - Big Commerce
Lee Odden - Better Than Bonuses: 4 Motivators That Matter More Than Money - Workfront
We'll be back next week with more top digital marketing news! If you need more in the meantime, follow @toprank on Twitter or subscribe to our YouTube channel.
The post Top Marketing News: Facebook Tests ‘Downvotes,’ Internet Rages at Google, Pandora Takes Aim appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>The post Top Marketing News: Facebook Tests ‘Downvotes,’ Internet Rages at Google, Pandora Takes Aim appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>Six Essential Email Marketing Tips [Infographic]
Looking for email marketing success? This six tips can help you — and your emails — reach the right target. MarketingProfs
Google Brings the Popular Stories Format to AMP: Is It Worth Using?
Google announced a new story format for AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) this week. Google describes the new shiny thing as "a visual driven format for evolving news consumption on mobile." Econsultancy
Internet Rages After Google Removes 'View Image' Button, Bowing to Getty
Google removed the "view image" button this week in response to a recent lawsuit from Getty. This move has enraged the internet, but was done with hopes to encourage clicks through to the image's hosting website. Ars Technica
45% Of Marketers Cite Content & Experience Management As Top Priority In 2018
Econsultancy's Digital Trends 2018 report found that 45% of professionals surveyed cite content and experience management as their top priorities for this year, followed by the 32% that cited analytics. Econsultancy
Top Digital Advertising Trends
MediaPost compiled a research brief to show top digital advertising trends, including evidence that Google and Facebook owned 63% US digital market in 2017. Microsoft made strides, but remains a distant third place with just 4%. MediaPost
Google Announces Two Major Changes to Image Search
Google has announced two major changes to image search — including the previously reported removal of the "view image" button and the removal of the "search by image" button. Publishers are happy about these changes, Google search users aren't so thrilled. Search Engine Journal
Pandora Takes Aim At Spotify And IHeartRadio With Programmatic Audio Ads
AdAge reports: "Pandora said Tuesday that it will now offer its audio inventory programmatically through popular demand-side platforms such as MediaMath, The Trade Desk and AdsWizz." AdAge
Snapchat Gives Creators Access to Audience Analytics
Some select content creators on Snapchat are being given access to analytics and data about their audience, such as story views, engagement and demographics. This is only available to those who are part of Snapchat's Official Stories program. Search Engine Journal
B2B Demand Generation: Marketers' Favorite Tactics
Recent research from Demand Gen Report shows that email remains a top demand generation channel for both top and bottom funnel prospects. MarketingProfs
Facebook Is Testing A 'Downvote' Button
CNBC Reports: "Facebook is testing a 'downvote' button that lets users flag and hide comments they deem inappropriate. The social network clarified that it is not a 'dislike' button and the test is running for a small set of people in the U.S. only." CNBC
Google To Move More Sites To Mobile-First Index In Coming Weeks
Google plans on rolling more sites into the mobile-first index in the next several weeks. It's time to make sure your site is optimized for mobile if you haven't already — the time has finally come. Search Engine Land
On the Lighter Side
Red Stripe Says That, Whatever the Cost, It Will Buy a New Bobsled for Jamaica - AdWeek
TopRank Marketing (And Clients) In the News:
Steve Slater - Your M-Commerce Deep Dive: Data, Trends and What’s Next in the Mobile Retail Revenue World - Big Commerce
Lee Odden - Better Than Bonuses: 4 Motivators That Matter More Than Money - Workfront
We'll be back next week with more top digital marketing news! If you need more in the meantime, follow @toprank on Twitter or subscribe to our YouTube channel.
The post Top Marketing News: Facebook Tests ‘Downvotes,’ Internet Rages at Google, Pandora Takes Aim appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>All online marketing plans are created with the objective of growing your business, improving customer loyalty and enhancing brand awareness. With the right strategy, you should have the ability to generate more traffic–which, can then boost your client numbers. It certainly makes sense to create a marketing plan built for the digital environment–consumers are online […]
The post How to Create an Online Marketing Plan to Grow Your Business in 2018 appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>All online marketing plans are created with the objective of growing your business, improving customer loyalty and enhancing brand awareness. With the right strategy, you should have the ability to generate more traffic–which, can then boost your client numbers.
It certainly makes sense to create a marketing plan built for the digital environment–consumers are online so, it’s where you need to be. That is all well and good, but what if you don’t know where to start?
You’ve read as much content as you can digest on SEO, social media tips, content marketing strategy and business marketing. And, you are probably burnt out—confused about where to start.
Not to worry. We’ve curated a list of digital marketing strategies to help you achieve your online marketing goals. In addition, we provide options that are flexible enough to modify as needed. So, let’s get started.
While there is a universal challenge of figuring out where to start and how to draw up your online marketing strategy, it helps to know that this doesn’t have to turn into a massive report. In this piece, we emphasize the need to begin your focus with only one marketing channel. This helps to ease that overwhelming feeling of needing to master multiple marketing avenues at once.
Each technique must be evaluated, analyzed, prioritized and then put into action. Nonetheless, a marketing plan gives direction to the directionless. If you don’t have goals, you then will not put resources into any goals and you won’t achieve those goals. With an online marketing plan, you get a step-by-step guide towards success.
Another reason why you need a digital marketing plan is to help you better understand your online marketplace using digital tools and feedback. Furthermore, if you don’t have an online marketing strategy this year, you can be sure that your competitors will eat up your market share.
While you’re still trying to figure things out, your competitors are eating your digital lunch.
According to Coschedule, marketers who document their strategy are 538 percent more likely to report successes.
As you begin the process of creating your online marketing plan, it is crucial to keep in mind the difference between goals, strategies and execution. Once you grasp the differences, you can improve your content marketing plan.
Plus, you’ll have a better idea of how to tie each function together for optimized results. To start, the goal is the umbrella of what you want to achieve this year. This is the first thing you want to focus on before any other details are produced. Your goal might be to generate $200 each day in revenue using your landing page and content.
As a result, the strategy is how you can achieve your objective of attaining $200 per day in revenue. So, your online marketing strategy would be to attract more business through a customized conversion funnel. Now, the execution might be to update your website so that it is more relevant to your target audience and to produce more personalized content with links to your products and a call-to-action at the end of every piece.
Many online marketing plans go awry when they fail to focus on just the execution and forget about the strategies and goals.
When setting up your execution, it’s important to have the bigger picture in mind and how your strategy helps to achieve your objective. If you can separate goals from strategies and executions, then you can immediately work on the steps you need to take to achieve your business goals.
And, you might keep the same goal, but you can always modify your strategies and executions depending on their results. If your website isn’t generating enough business as you would like, then continue tweaking and modifying. With this plan, you are better prepared to reach your goals and your target audience.
It’s a no brainer that you need to know more about the recipients of your online marketing plan. To create the best marketing plan for your business, you need to create detailed buyer personas. These are representations of your target and ideal customer(s).
You get the specifics for your personas by researching, polling and interviewing members of your target audience. In addition, it is better to base your persona on real data instead of assumptions. You’ll be happy to note that buyer personas are not difficult to create.
Think of it as creating a character for a fiction book, except this character is as close real life as it gets. If you’re still wondering why buyer personas are so critical, consider this: buyer personas make it easier to customize your messaging, branding, product development, services and content specifically to their needs, behaviors and expectations.
Depending on the size of your business, you might have between one and 20 buyer personas. If this is your first experience with creating a buyer persona, start with just one. As you get better at the process, you can always create more personas at a later date.
Once you have at least one buyer persona, you can personalize your marketing efforts for varying sectors of your target audience. As a result, you’re not creating messaging in the dark. So, let’s delve a bit deeper into the steps for setting up your first buyer persona:
Here is an example of a buyer persona:
James Cordova
Age: 33-42
Gender: Male
Race: Hispanic
Marital Status: Married
Education: Masters
Readability Level: Grade 10 – 12
Family Status: Young children 1yr – 7yr
Career Type: Full Time
Career Stage: Middle Management
Location: Southeast
Income Range: $65k – $80k
Homeownership: Own
Urbanicity: Suburban
Time Spent Online: 7 – 10 hrs
Interests: Business & Finance
General Notes: “I work closely with finance and business operations. My primary focus is managing financials from accounting to forecasting.” I want to… reduce spending while improving productivity, not deal with repeatable manual processes I like… finding answers (i.e., solving problems/puzzles) I like… being organized I like… being an enabler I don’t like… being inefficient…wasting time.
Isn’t it easier to now tailor your online marketing efforts when you have a descriptive buyer persona.
It’s important to have the right tools in place to measure your progress against your online marketing goals this year. For instance, if your goal is to generate 15 percent more online revenue, then you may have to figure out a way to produce 30 percent more leads through your website.
Regardless of your objective, you need to measure it with the appropriate digital tools. How you measure your results will vary depending on your needs and goals.
To illustrate, you might use a website tool such as Unbounce to test your landing pages. In terms of visuals for your content marketing, you could use the web-based design tool Canva to create unique pieces.
While working on your online marketing plan that grows your business, it’s also important to audit your current marketing efforts and content. In terms of content, the media you own can include:
You may also have earned media, which is recognition you have received through the press, interviews, company reviews and people who share your content. Another piece to audit is your paid media, such as your online advertising and anything else you paid for to improve brand awareness, exposure and to increase leads.
The goal is how you can get owned, earned and paid media to work together cohesively to meet your online marketing goals.
It also helps to understand how your marketing executions have worked so far. Yet, the most significant piece is your owned media. Any message you share about your brand is content–these can be articles, white papers, social media posts, product descriptions and more. When your content is optimized for your buyer persona(s), it brings more leads and traffic.
Whatever your objective, you will need to decide how your owned content can help reach your goals. Perhaps a new, and relevant, white paper will generate more leads through your site than what you accomplished last year. Or, maybe an eBook you shared last year was successful in driving more leads–if so, then you’ll want to build on that momentum and promote more eBooks this year.
So, with this audit, review all the pieces of owned content that performed best for your brand in the previous year–which pieces of content brought in the most leads? Then, look at your buyer personas and how you can revise some of your older content pieces to appeal to your newly-created buyer persona.
As you can see, the purpose of this audit is to figure out what works–do more of that this year–and to make revisions for media that could be improved. Click here some very interesting statistics on content marketing trends.
To really jumpstart your online marketing momentum, it helps to first concentrate on paid search. You might have heard of paid search but are still unclear as to how it works. There are many definitions for paid search.
At its core, paid search marketing means you pay to become a sponsored listing on a search engine, and you pay when your ad is clicked (pay-per-click–PPC) or by the number of impressions (cost-per-impression — CPM). For instance, if you own a pet store and someone searches for “cat snacks” your ad would be listed on top of the search engine results page (SERP).
If you’re wondering why we’re directing your initial efforts towards paid search, the reason is simple: you want to get your company listed at the top of the SERPs. More than that, when your company is one of the top four results, it increases the opportunity for clicks and traffic.
And, paid search is the fastest and most efficient way to get to the top–especially if you still don’t fully understand how to optimize your content for SEO, which should be your next target. For now, paid search will produce the best results in the shortest amount of time.
In fact, the top three spots on Google get 58 percent of the clicks.
Additionally, tracking paid search is quite easy and straightforward. Every keyword and investment you make can be tracked.
More than any other media, paid search offers a lot of transparency–in real time too. You can see which keyword combinations and ads work best compared to ads that could use improvement.
What’s the result? You get a truly accurate ROI. To illustrate, if you invest $300/month and receive 50 conversions for every $100, then even a 10 percent return can equate to $5,000 in sales. It’s difficult to replicate these types of results through any other marketing channel when you are just starting out. Not to mention, paid search can give you immediate global reach–try doing that on your own.
Regardless of the size of your business, paid search can be tailored to your budget and needs.
Once your campaign is set up, you can get traffic in a matter of minutes. Still, it’s not just about the initial flow of traffic, this is about investing in paid search to receive consistent traffic every day.
Consistency is the key to success. Massive spikes and equally massive lulls can destroy a website. Another reason to invest in paid search is you can test and optimize your ads to ensure they are hyper-targeted.
This is relevant traffic because they saw your ad based on their search query. They did not bounce onto your site. This traffic wants to see what you have to offer.
If you wanted to build upon your current client base, you can do that as well. For example, you want to expand your business outside of your town or city. With paid search, you can target your prospects by zip code, radius, location and even household demographics. Without paid search, it would be difficult to compete with similar businesses in the cities you want to target.
One of the hidden advantages of paid search is the ability to see what your competitors are doing. Through your paid search campaign, you can see local and national businesses who are competing with you in your targeted markets. You might then hop on to their site to get a few ideas.
Also, think about how you might advertise a new location or perhaps you are moving to another address. It would take time to announce the news efficiently through organic methods.
Not having enough traffic at your new site or losing customers because they keep going to your old location can destroy your business. Instead, paid search gives you immediate presence which can be targeted to the areas around your new city or address.
You’ve created a buyer persona, you’ve done the research, you’ve audited your content and are learning about paid search. You now have the components you need to build your online marketing plan.
It’s time to tie everything together to compose a comprehensive, cohesive and robust strategy. You want to ensure your plan maps out the executions you will make to achieve your business objectives. Set up your plan as a guide you can use for the next 12 months. For instance:
With this format, you not only have a guide, but you also have a timeline to follow.
The basis of a successful online marketing strategy boils down to a thoughtful plan.
Your outcome should be tailored to your business. This isn’t about a one-size-fits-all strategy–but, you can use the tips above to create some unique for your organization.
Keep in mind the reason for your plan is to direct the executions you will take to achieve your business objectives throughout the course of this year. Since you now understand the difference between goals, strategy and executions, you won’t have to worry about going around in circles. So, grow your business this year by working on your plan right now.
The post How to Create an Online Marketing Plan to Grow Your Business in 2018 appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>My first encounter with marketing data malpractice came at a young age. I wasn't old enough to understand what was going on at the time, but my dad loves to tell the story. As I've gotten older, the humor and timeless relevance of this anecdote have struck me more and more.
It was the mid-90s. We received a piece of mail at our house addressed to Lucy Nelson. It was a credit card offer from one of the industry's heavy hitters. Nothing out of the norm so far, right?
Here's the problem: Lucy was no longer alive.
And the bigger problem: Lucy was not a human. She was our dog.
As it turns out, my older brother had been cited by an officer at a nearby park many years earlier for walking Lucy without a leash. When asked to give a name, he stuttered out the Golden Retriever's, along with our family surname. Somehow "Lucy Nelson" ended up in a city database and the credit card company had plucked it out to add to its mailing list. Ultimately, this resulted in our dearly departed dog being pitched a deluxe platinum card.
Woof.
Flash-forward 20-some years. It's a different world now. The rudimentary practice of collecting names and addresses from public databases seems so quaint in the Age of Big Data. Businesses and institutions now have the ability to gather comprehensive insights about people, both in aggregate and at an individual level.
For the general populace, this can feel unnerving. And unfortunately, almost everyone reading this has experienced some breach of trust when it comes to corporations or government and personal data.
But for marketers, the sheer volume of information now readily available presents a significant opportunity to take our profession to all new heights. By getting it right, we can help stem the tide of rising consumer wariness.
In 2017, for the first time since being introduced almost two decades ago, the Edelman Trust Barometer found a decline in consumer trust toward business, media, government, and NGOs to "do what is right." That's bad. And even worse: the organization's Trust Index didn't rebound in the 2018 study, released in January.
"A World of Distrust," Edelman has dubbed it in 2018. And who can blame folks for losing faith? These days it can feel like the only major news story that isn't shrouded in doubt is when Equifax leaks the personal information of 150 million people.
In such an environment, it's hard to not to squirm when learning that your Amazon Alexa, and even your smartphone, is listening to you pretty much at all times.
While apprehension is understandable, these aren't people spying on us; they are robotic algorithms collecting data in efforts to understand us and better serve us.
As marketers, we can play a major role in showing people the benefits of a data-focused marketplace. Customers rightfully have high expectations of our ability to offer high-quality tailored experiences, and we need to follow through. It's an historic opportunity.
[bctt tweet="As marketers, we can play a major role in showing people the benefits of a data-focused marketplace. - @NickNelsonMN #CX #DataDrivenMarketing" username="toprank"]
Our CEO Lee Odden recently wrote this in a blog about data creating better customer experiences: “One of the universal truths that we’ve operated under at TopRank Marketing,” he explained. “Is about the power of information specific to customers that are actively searching for solutions."
In that post, Lee wrote about his experience searching online for a portable battery charger and then being served ads for purple mattresses. That's the kind of thing that drives me crazy. As Lee notes: "The data is there. Customers are telling you what they want. The question is, how to connect those dots of data to understand and optimize customer experiences?"
The consequences of missing the mark are very real. A few years ago LoyaltyOne conducted a survey of 2,000 U.S. and Canadian customers on the subjects of data collection and privacy. Among the findings: only 35% were accepting of retailers using cookies to track their online behavior and just 27% were cool with location-based offers.
How much less widespread resistance might we be seeing against these tactics if they were being utilized more effectively?
[bctt tweet="The data is there. Customers are telling you what they want. The question is, how to connect those dots of data to understand & optimize customer experiences? - @leeodden #CX #DataDrivenMarketing" username="toprank"]
The stakes are high. We need to piece the puzzle together correctly. If marketers and advertisers can start consistently delivering the sort of customized content and recommendations that data empower us to provide, it'll go a long way toward restoring customer faith.
We should be using this information to optimize, not traumatize!
Among the biggest areas for improvement I can see, from the perspective of both a marketer and customer:
Data has come a long way since the days of sending credit card offers to dead dogs. Marketers, let's make sure every campaign we create is reflecting this progress.
[bctt tweet="We should be using the data & information we have to optimize, not traumatize. - @NickNelsonMN #DataDrivenMarketing #CX" username="toprank"]
How can you build more trust with your audience? A more thoughtful approach to content marketing can help. Learn several ways to build credibility and trust with content.
The post In a World of Diminishing Trust, Data-Driven Marketers Can Turn the Tide appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>The post In a World of Diminishing Trust, Data-Driven Marketers Can Turn the Tide appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>Will artificial intelligence (AI) put marketers out of work?
It’s a question I’m seeing a lot lately, and to me, it’s a strange one. It’s like if everyone 150 years ago was asking: “Will the tractor put farmers out of work?” Of course, John Deere didn’t put farmers out of business; better tools just made them more efficient and better able to scale.
Granted, the tractor did reduce the demand for horses and farmhands. So, no, AI will not put you out of work…as long as your work is creative, innovative and intelligent. If all of your daily work can be done by a machine, eventually it will be.
To be the farmer rather than the horse, you need to understand what AI can do to augment and scale your efforts, not replace them. Here’s what AI can do to improve your digital marketing efforts right now.
If there’s one area of digital marketing that is most affected by AI right now, it’s SEO. Machine learning is directly affecting site visibility right now, and its influence will only increase in the future.
A machine learning algorithm called RankBrain (link to Backlinko’s incredibly useful guide) is currently Google’s third most important ranking signal. In the past, Google’s developers monitored search results and tweaked algorithms to better suit search needs. SEO experts then tried to reverse-engineer each algorithm change to better position their content.
With RankBrain in the driver’s seat, though, no human being will know why content is ranked up or down. The algorithm will continuously be testing and refining settings based on user behavior.
This switch means some traditional SEO activities, like keyword lists and backlinks, will decline in importance. The ranking signals that will matter most will be those related to user activity:
Any indicator that shows how a user found your content valuable is now an SEO indicator. SEO experts and content creators will need to work more closely together to ensure content meets a specific search need, addresses a specific audience, and is compelling to read.
That’s not to say technical SEO is dead, but it is evolving. SEO experts should focus on structuring data, applying schema, implementing AMP, and optimizing for voice search. What do these tasks have in common? They’re all candidates for automation. SEO experts of the future will be feeding data into their own AI and using it to apply these ranking factors to content at scale.
[bctt tweet="#SEO experts of the future will be feeding data into their own #AI & using it to apply ranking factors to content at scale. - @NiteWrites" username="toprank"]
Chatbots are AI-driven programs that interact with users in a natural-language environment. These programs are rapidly becoming a major area of interest for marketers, as an increasing amount of social media traffic takes place on private messaging services like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Buffer’s annual social media report found that there are more people on the top four messaging apps than on the top four social media apps (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn). That’s an engagement opportunity that’s hard to ignore. And, of course, chatbots can live on your brand’s homepage, answering questions and providing support.
Most digital marketers see chatbots as a way to provide personalized customer service at scale – which is tangentially related to marketing, but not directly a marketing function. However, chatbots can also help guide users through a customer journey to a sale.
A lot of the chatter (no pun intended) around chatbots is how to make them indistinguishable from interacting with a human. Marketers seem to care a great deal about this issue, but I would argue customers don’t. Customers want their questions to be understood and quickly answered; it doesn’t matter if it’s Robby the Robot or Robby the Call Center Rep who has the answers.
Marketers can make use of chatbots themselves, too. There are a growing number of smart assistants available that can aggregate and report on data in real-time, through Slack and other private messaging services.
[bctt tweet="Customers want their questions to be understood and quickly answered; it doesn’t matter if it’s Robby the Robot or Robby the Call Center Rep who has the answers. - @NiteWrites on #AI in #DigitalMarketing" username="toprank"]
If you’re a content creator, talking about AI and content marketing likely makes you feel the cold fingers of obsolescence tighten around your throat. Gartner says by the end of the year, 20% of business content will be authored by machines. AI is already being used for everything from white papers to earning reports. It’s enough to make you feel like a horse watching the farmer start up his tractor.
Should you be worried about your job? Neigh. For one, AI right now isn’t quite ready to draft content with personality and a strong hook for the reader. Since SEO is increasingly about the reader’s experience, that means human-crafted content will win out for the foreseeable future. And even when AI can write convincingly like a human, it will still need creative input from humans.
So think like a farmer: Use AI to take care of repetitive, mindless tasks like metadata tagging and adding recommended content to blog posts. And use it to deliver personalized content at scale. AI can use data from your site’s visitors to dynamically customize and display the content you create.
As the content creator, part of your new AI-enhanced job will be to look at how your audience can be segmented by behavior, and draft modular content that the AI can put together based on user behavior.
[bctt tweet="Marketers, think like a farmer: Use #AI to take care of repetitive, mindless tasks like metadata tagging & adding recommended content to blog posts. And use it to deliver personalized #content at scale. - @NiteWrites" username="toprank"]
Email marketing remains one of the most effective forms of marketing out there. Sixty-one percent of consumers enjoy receiving weekly promotional emails. Which may explain why email marketing has higher conversion rates than social media and search combined.
AI is making email marketing even better, both for you and your customer. Personalization at scale is every marketer’s dream – and AI makes it possible. AI can use data to create personalized emails to every one of your subscribers, based on their previous interactions with the brand. It can customize based on what content they’ve consumed, what’s on their wish list, what pages they have spent the most time on, and more. For example, if one user always visits links to product pages in your email, but another skips those links and goes straight for content, the AI can send different messaging with the most relevant links for each user.
AI is also making drip campaigns more sophisticated. Instead of one or two triggers and a few customized emails, you can use “If/Then” statements to customize emails for dozens of different triggers. Rather than, “send an email in two weeks,” or “send another if they opened the last one,” you could say, “if they visited three product pages, send an email with a link to a related blog post and recommended products other people have purchased.”
[bctt tweet="When it comes to #EmailMarketing, personalization at scale is every marketer’s dream & #AI makes it possible. - @NiteWrites" username="toprank"]
As AI continues to evolve, one thing’s for sure: None of us know as much about it as we should (myself included). These four influencers are among the select few who really have a handle on AI’s potential to transform marketing.
1. Chris Penn, VP of Marketing Technology, SHIFT Communications
Chris is a futurist, a keynote speaker, and AI visionary. His presentation at Content Marketing World last year alternately energized and scared the pants off me.
2. Paul Roetzer, Founder, Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute (MAII)
Through the MAII, Paul aims to do for AI what Joe Pulizzi did for content marketing: Provide resources to educate people on how to use AI in marketing, and develop the standards to make AI a useful strategic tool.
3. Magnus Unemyr, Marketing Automation & AI Consultant
Magnus has turned out a ton of high-quality content on marketing automation and AI in the past few years. He publishes daily newsletters available through his blog and Twitter feed, and has written a series of books on e-commerce and online marketing.
Will AI put marketers out of a job? Not if you think like a farmer with a shiny new tractor. It’s a tool, not a replacement – a multi-use tool that will eliminate drudgework and help you reach your audience more easily and with more compelling, personalized content.
The rise of AI in marketing is one of the top trends in 2018. Find out what other digital marketing trends deserve your attention in 2018 and into the future.
The post This Changes Everything: How AI Is Transforming Digital Marketing appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>The post This Changes Everything: How AI Is Transforming Digital Marketing appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>The more relevant sites linking to your domain, the better it is for your rankings, correct? But, what happens to your site when non-relevant (or worse, spam) ones decide to start linking to you instead? These irrelevant sites linking to you could end up pulling down your ranking, and you can get penalized by Google […]
The post To Disavow Links Or Not: Is It Necessary in a Post Real-Time Penguin World? appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>The more relevant sites linking to your domain, the better it is for your rankings, correct? But, what happens to your site when non-relevant (or worse, spam) ones decide to start linking to you instead? These irrelevant sites linking to you could end up pulling down your ranking, and you can get penalized by Google for it. To avoid this, Google gave an amazing solution to this problem via the Disavow Tool in October of 2012. With this, one could separate the good from the bad backlinks.
This is also one of the reasons the launch of Penguin 4.0 on September 23, 2016, was a welcome change among site owners everywhere. While it took quite some time for Google to finally release the update, many would agree that the wait was worth it. In a nutshell, Google released the Penguin update to detect spam automatically. More impressively, the Penguin 4.0 update runs in real time when it comes to recognizing your site cleanup efforts, thereby eliminating the effect of your site being suppressed up until the next time they run the algorithm. That is, Penguin 4.0 stops your site from getting demoted when a spam is detected. Instead, it will just devalue that link and allow you to move on without benefiting (or suffering) from its presence.
While this update is definitely impressive, a crucial question now comes up among site owners: Is it still necessary to disavow links now that we are in a post real-time Penguin era?
The Disavow Tool has long been regarded as a necessary precaution for every site owner. Basically, it gives publishers a voice to tell Google that there are external sites they do not wish to be associated with. This is especially crucial whenever the search engine giant is ranking websites since number and quality of backlinks are two of the factors considered.
What happens is that a site owner creates a file that indicates the URLs or domains they do not approve of backlinking to them, and this is then uploaded to Google. When Google starts to crawl the web and stumbles upon the specific URL or domain included in the disavow file you gave them, these will no longer be included in the calculations when ranking your website. Apart from that, the Penguin algorithm will also disregard the links when it evaluates whether or not you’ve been web spamming.
Google launched Penguin as a webspam algorithm. It does not just specialize in links or domains but evaluates your site’s participation in any web spamming activity. It is essentially a filter exhaustive enough to isolate sites that are engaged in spamming the search results using measures that are against Google’s policies. Penguin is more powerful than the regular spamming methods used by the search engine.
Consequently, sites deemed as “spammy” would be punished regardless of their remedies after their violations. It would only be until the next instance that the algorithm is run that Google would note the changes – a process that could have months in intervals.
The release of Penguin 4.0 completely changed this system.
With the latest update, the corrections and changes from “spammy” sites could be noted in real time. This means that sites tagged with faulty or bad backlinks or domains no longer have to suffer for months until the next time the algorithm is run. So during the regular recrawling and reindexing of pages by Google, the sites could easily and quickly be added or removed from the spam list because Penguin 4.0 provides real-time updates.
Whole websites would no longer be demoted when web spamming activities are detected. Instead of doing this, Google would simply disregard or devalue the spammy links and exclude them in the calculations for site rankings. Ultimately, this latest update eliminated the punitive aspect of the algorithm.
With the release of the Penguin 4.0 update, many publishers feel that the Disavow Tool has become redundant. In the beginning, this tool was provided by Google to supplement Penguin. However, the devaluation abilities coupled with the non-demotion of sites caught web spamming push site owners to question the purpose of disavowing.
Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller says that site owners should disavow links when these are incredibly problematic. However, you can simply just not disavow links that are no longer relevant to your site. Mueller basically says that if you are conducting site maintenance or applying some changes to your site, then you no longer need to include disavowing links in your list of things to do. With the launch of Penguin 4.0, site owners would only need to use the Disavow Tool for pressing matters like spotting an alarming link or domain associating with your site.
You also no longer need to disavow for links associated with items or services you no longer offer. Mueller notes that it’s normal to accumulate backlinks from various sites that you may no longer deem relevant right now, but was appropriate to your company’s needs at the time. In short, site owners would only need to focus their disavowing efforts to problematic links and keep the status quo when it comes to previously relevant links.
In the past years, the SEO landscape has changed considerably. With the release of the Penguin 4.0, disavowing links may have just turned into a thing of the past. However, it never hurts to be absolutely certain that nothing is hurting your rankings. So, disavow when needed, but trust that Penguin 4.0 has your back.
The post To Disavow Links Or Not: Is It Necessary in a Post Real-Time Penguin World? appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>The Top Three Reasons Sales and Marketing Alignment Is Off [Infographic]
Communication, broken processes and disconnected metrics are the top three reasons that sales and marketing alignment is off. Is it an issue of focus, priorities, or something else? MarketingProfs
Instagram Gives Brands New Way to Sell In 'Collection' Ads
Instagram launched "collection" ads, which allow users to shop and purchase directly through the Instagram platform. AdAge
Google Announces Amp For Email – Delivering Accelerated Mobile Pages Experiences To Your Inbox
The new spec is available today through the Gmail Developer Preview, with support in Gmail slated for later this year. MarketingLand
Instagram Tests Its Version Of The Retweet But Thru Stories
Instagram has begun testing a new feature that would allow users to share public posts from other profiles to their own followers through the Stories feature. MarketingLand
Nielsen Creates New Metric to Measure the Effectiveness of Product Integrations
Nielsen is launching a new metric that may help marketers and publishers standardize brand mentions across platforms, like TV, short-form video and subscription-video-on-demand services. AdWeek
Google Launches New Look For ‘People Also Search For’ Search Refinements
Go to a search result, click on a listing, and then click back to the search results page on Google to trigger this on Google desktop search. Search Engine Land
Breaking Up With Facebook: Users Confess They're Spending Less Time
Mark Zuckerberg says recent changes have reduced the amount of time users spend on Facebook by 50 million hours each day, but those changes aren't the only reasons, according to users. USA Today
How Facebook Is Changing the Way It Reports Organic Reach for Page Posts
A redesign of Page Insights began rolling out this week for iOS and Android, along with a more accurate way for page admins to determine the effectiveness of their organic posts. AdWeek
New Research: Account-Based Marketing Trends: Top Channels, Priorities, and Challenges
New research indicates that the top challenges and priorities for account based marketing are the same – aligning sales and marketing, attributing marketing efforts to revenue and scoring and targeting ideal accounts. MarketingProfs
Snapchat Is Opening Up Its Marketing Platform to All Ad-Tech Players and Agencies
Snapchat is opening up their API to allow companies more access to their ad buying platform, and potentially more data. AdWeek
Google Sets Deadline for HTTPS and Warns Publishers to Upgrade Soon
If you haven’t made the switch on your site from http to https, it’s time to get started. Google has set a deadline of July 2018, after which Chrome will begin warning users explicitly if a site is insecure. Search Engine Journal
On the Lighter Side:
Google Launches 2018 Winter Olympics Features Across Search Results - Search Engine Journal
McDonald’s Absurdly Lavish ‘Bling Mac’ Ring Could Be Yours, If You Love It Enough - AdWeek
Over 150 New Emojis to Be Released on iPhone and Android This Year - Independent
TopRank Marketing (And Clients) In the News:
Rachel Miller & Lee Odden - Top 100 Social Media and Marketing Influencers - Digital Scouting
Lee Odden - 37 Digital Marketing Conference Speakers Who Will Inspire Your Marketing Programs - Outbrain
Lee Odden - Who Were The Top CMO Influencers Of 2017? - Forbes
Lee Odden - 16 Digital Rockstars you Need to Follow - neilmchugh
We'll be back next week with more digital marketing news! In the meantime, quench your digital marketing thirst by checking out TopRank Marketing on YouTube and Twitter!
The post Digital Marketing News: Alignment Challenges, Instagram’s ‘Collection’ & Amp for Email appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>The post Digital Marketing News: Alignment Challenges, Instagram’s ‘Collection’ & Amp for Email appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>In today’s episode of Marketers Talking Marketing Over Coffee, we have Robert Lachky, former Chief Creative at Anheuser-Busch. Robert is one of the most well respected creatives in the marketing world and was the man behind some of the most iconic marketing campaigns over the past 30 years. Video Transcription Adam Heitzman: Today, I’m excited to […]
The post Marketing Insights from Bob Lachky: Behind the Curtains of the Iconic Anheuser-Busch Campaigns appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>In today’s episode of Marketers Talking Marketing Over Coffee, we have Robert Lachky, former Chief Creative at Anheuser-Busch. Robert is one of the most well respected creatives in the marketing world and was the man behind some of the most iconic marketing campaigns over the past 30 years.
Adam Heitzman: Today, I’m excited to have the man behind some of the most recognizable and iconic marketing campaigns over the past 30 years. From Budweiser Frogs, to ‘Whassup?’, ‘I love you, man.’, and the Real Men of Genius, former chief creative officer at Anheuser Busch, Mr.Bob Lachky. Bob, thanks for being here.
Robert Lachky: Adam, my pleasure. Looking forward to talking to you.
Adam Heitzman: Thank you. Would you mind starting off and telling me a little about your background, how you got started in the marketing and advertising world?
Robert Lachky: Sure. In college, I went to University of Illinois. And I also went to grad school there. I was pretty focused at that time, on a career in advertising. They had a good advertising program. It was kind of unique in the country at the time. I think Michigan State, and there were a couple others schools at that time that had programs like that. That’s what I pursued. When I got out, I started right away at an old line big agency on Michigan Avenue in Chicago called Foote Cone and Belding. They no longer exist. They’ve evolved through all the mergers that happened in the 90’s. But I started there. And I moved over to the original Needham, Harper, and Steers, which slowly but surely became DDP Needham, and etc, all these iterations and new agencies.
I learned the business from the agency side. One of my clients, when I was in my young career as an account executive, I was not a creative person. I knew I had some skill in that area. But I wasn’t as good as a real good writer or an art director would be in the old traditional agency structure. I always wanted to be an account management person. My career took a big change when I actively campaigned for a job at Needham, Harper, and Steers, because they had the McDonald’s account. That’s a business that I really respected. I always followed campaigns. Ever since I was a kid I just was into that. I guess I was a TV person. I watched TV all the time. When I got in McDonald’s, it was a great experience. To me, that was like big time, big time advertiser, great client, being based in Chicago. I was born and raised in Chicago. It was great to work at a company that was based there as well.
But that was pretty short lived. It lasted a year. And we lost the business to Leo Burnett. And it was a whole other story you could write a book about. That’s when I got on to Needham, Harper, and Steers the previous year. But I really didn’t have a place to go. I thought I was going to get let go. Needham, Harper, and Steers, under the tutelage of Keith Reinhard, who is a legend in the advertising business, a creative guy. He actually saved everybody’s jobs that worked on the McDonald’s business and put us to work on pitching a piece of business from Anheuser Busch. Needham, Harper, and Steers at that time did have a small piece of business called Busch Beer. But they were pitching for the new light beer called Budweiser Light. And I worked on that pitch team. And I was young. I was certainly not instrumental in winning the business, which we did. But when we won the business, my job was saved. And I started working on Anheuser Busch, Bud Light.
Adam Heitzman: From an account management?
Robert Lachky: I did that for years. Long story short, coming to an end, finally, we ended up winning the business, changing some campaigns to finally get it into the mainstream. And about that time, Anheuser Busch had a fairly major transition in the late 80’s in their own ranks. They had a bit of a scandal that occurred where some executives were taking kickbacks from [inaudible 00:03:55] And Mr.Busch kind of cleaned house and was very reticent to get marketing people from the inside. He wanted people from the outside. I was about as far outside as you could be and still be in. So the hired me to be the Bud Light brand manager. And the rest is history. I started there in 19, late 88. Fortunately for me, I worked underneath August Busch the 4th from the very beginning. He was my Boss. We worked alongside actually, for the first year or two as he was coming into the company. That was really the greatest lucky I could have had, is to work alongside him first, get to know him. And then as he progressed ahead of me, he brought me along with him.
That’s how I got there. And that’s how I ended up at AB.
Adam Heitzman: Sure. Do you feel like the fact that you were on the agency side first actually benefited you somewhat, starting to work for the brand?
Robert Lachky: Absolutely. That was, to me, the lucky break of all time. My feelings about advertising were just about the creative development process. Although I was an account manager, on the account management side, even today, I would venture in agencies, you’re not really a business manager. You’re really a client liaison. When they recruited me, when they wanted me to come to their company, Anheuser Busch, I was very nervous, very reticent to do it. I really didn’t have the PNL, traditional MBA training that all my counterparts would have. I didn’t know a confidence in myself. They didn’t really care about that. They wanted my advertising skill. That’s what Mr.Busch said when he interviewed me. He said, “I want you to come here. We need help.”
They were having a problem with the Budweiser Light roll out. The brand was not getting traction. Miller Lite was kicking their fanny. I was charged with bringing Bud Light back from an advertising perspective. I was very lucky that was the skill set they wanted as nervous as I was, “Can I handle the business side, and the pricing, and all the things that go along with truly managing a brand?”
Adam Heitzman: Correct me if I’m wrong. You just somewhat mentioned it. Anheuser Busch was not the leader it is today back when you originally started. A lot of that growth happened with a lot of the marketing that was done over the last 20 to 30 years.
Robert Lachky: Actually, yes and no. Yes, in the light category, we were in our infancy, because Miller Lite had a 10 year had start on us. And Coors Light was already on the market as well. As an overall company, yes, AB was still the master, the giant of the industry. But I’ll tell you, they were stagnant in circa 1988, 89. Budweiser was starting to get eaten into by the light beers of which AB did not have. They had Natural Light, which was kind of a college beer at the time. It still is. Natty Light, right?
Adam Heitzman: That’s right. Everybody loved Natty Light.
Robert Lachky: They ended up not having enough volume, and certainly not heading where the business was heading. Budweiser was starting to get knocked around. This is in the late 80’s. Yes, they were still the largest American brewer. There was not really any craft business at all in the country at that time. There were imports, the Heineken of the world, Stella, and all those guys were coming in. But AB’s real problem was not having an established light beer. That was where the problem was at that period in time.
Adam Heitzman: Sure. Shifting focus slightly, you kind of mentioned his name earlier. I don’t know if this would be that person. Who would you consider to be your single biggest influencer as a marketer?
Robert Lachky: It’s really August Busch the 3rd. August Busch the 3rd was the chairman at that time in the succession. It was like a monarchy. For a public company to have that much family influence is kind of remarkable. Many books have been written about it. August Busch the 3rd was really the guy that was instrumental in me coming to Anheuser Busch. He really didn’t know me. I was just an agency guy. I was so far down the chain of his awareness when I was working on his business, servicing his company. When he knew who I was and my skill set, we became good friends, as far as you can be a friend with him. Let’s put it that way. He’s a great guy. But I still see him today.
His son was the next most important influence. Although he’s a little younger, he and I are very good friends. We still are. We learned a lot together. The experience I had over him, in terms of being in business, I helped mentor him a little bit. He taught me a lot. The Busch, as much as there’s been written, or said, or whatever, the good, the bad, have been absolutely influential in my career. Taught me a ton. If it wasn’t for Mr.Busch hiring me, I would have never experienced the things I’ve experienced. I dare not say we would have never done this or that. I don’t know that. I do say the man knew what he wanted. He wanted good marketing. Yeah, I had a lot of battles with him. Yes, he was tough to deal with. But with August the 4th’s help of running air cover for me for 15 years, we were able to get remarkable work produced, and make a great impact for the company.
Adam Heitzman: That brings me to a good question. You just touched on it, about having some of those battles. One of the things that happens, especially in marketing, one of the difficulties is getting by in from superiors on a thought or particular campaign, whatever that marketing campaign is.
Robert Lachky: That’s a great question. It was really a day and night story. The night I’ll give you first, is when I first came in, the advertising process was largely still being approved all the way up to the top level of the company. In other words, you’d be bringing a 12 or 24 frame storyboard from the agency, or the agency would help present it for you. A lot of times you’d be carrying the boards up yourself to the board room. You’d be showing it to a bunch of 60 year old guys. Careful making fun of 60 year old guys. It was like a comedy to be presenting ideas that were intended for a 25 year old target audience to guys that are all sitting in country clubs, and aren’t even drinking beer anymore. You think, “Oh my God. How are we going to get anything approved?”
That was the night. When August the 4th came in, it helped immensely, because his father is going to give his son some leeway. As he was getting coached by me on what we need to do, and himself. He had great instincts. We were able to break the pattern of not having to go upstairs to show ideas. The great first ideas we did together, August the 4th and myself were for Bud Light, right when we were struggling. We’re trying to find our identity again. We had had “Gimme a Light. No, Bud Light.”
As a campaign, you may or may not remember, but it was the positioning of Bud Light that finally got a toe hold against Miller Lite. But that ran out of gas. We were struggling. We knew we had to get back to comedy. When we started doing some work together, August the 4th and I, because he was my boss’s head of Bud family, and I was still the Bud Light brand manager, we started doing stuff without anybody’s approval. Some of it was pretty risky. His dad would forgive us, but he’d beat us over the head for not having approved stuff. We even had problems with the agency, because we had a renegade creative team at DDB Needham by that time. I think they were DDP, who was giving us ideas off the beaten path. And we were going and producing them on our heels of an approved shoot. So August and I would be out in LA and say, “Hey, we got this new director. We got this idea.”
And he goes, “Go. Go get it! Go get it!”
I’m going, “Man, we’re going to get shot if get it, get it.”
So we’re in LA for two more days. We’re shooting commercials without anybody’s authority. Even the agency doesn’t know about it, except my little creative team. That kind of approach is exactly what we needed. We needed to go and do ideas, and get out there. Some of the greatest early work we did was done that way. Granted, we eventually got ourselves into a little bit more of, I wouldn’t say professional, but we kept their management in line, and said, “Look. Here’s what we’re out trying to get.”
We followed this formula of going to get it if our gut was right on a lot of things like the ‘Yes I am.’ Campaign, the ‘Wassup?’ We kind of kept going with that approach, because look, we don’t need anymore interference. The last thing you need in a big company is a committee. You even saw it in the big agencies. They’d have a committee before ideas would spit out of the agency. You can’t believe how much stuff would get killed or modified. Lines that were just right would get changed because some old guy is sticking his nose in the business. Come on, man. You’ve got to cut through it and have stuff that’s edgy, and entertaining, and cutting through. Great question. There was a day and a night, night first. And then daylight hit when we realized we’ve gotta do this on our own. We don’t need anymore interference internally.
Adam Heitzman: And you’ve gotta make sure that you’re communicating. Like you said, if that audience that you’re bringing those ideas to is not your core demographic audience, obviously, there’s a disconnect there.
Robert Lachky: You can see, Adam on … I was watching the Super Bowl this last week. Honest to goodness, I would love to just predict most of the stuff I saw, most of the work I saw, was somebody with a particular point of view, jamming it down somebody else’s throat. Whether it was the choice of a certain celebrity, “You know, I always wanna work with Steven Tyler from Aerosmith.”
It’s like, “What? For Kia? What are you doing?”
“Danny Devito. He’s great. I loved him on Taxi.”
What? Who’s Danny Devito? I know who he is. I know who Steven Tyler is. But when you try to marry stuff like that up … Or, “I really think we need a politically correct message for this and that.”
Yeah, but you’re T-Mobile. What are you doing? This has nothing to do with advancing your … You see the landscape littered with these bizarre, unbelievably twisted messages with no strategy on the biggest stage you could possibly have as an advertiser. And all you’re doing is wasting money, and leaving people scratching their head, or angering people. I see that as an offshoot of not clarity as to what you’re trying to do. Are you really on a strategy? Sometimes people get in this play room called doing the creative. Man, they gotta touch it. That’s the danger.
Adam Heitzman: In terms of strategy, what did your ideation process look like? How did you know when you had a winning idea?
Robert Lachky: That’s a great question. We were in such desperate straights in the late 80’s. When I got in there, I was actually hired to get rid of Spuds Mackenzie too. Spuds Mackenzie was an idea that Bud Light had that was … It’s a long story on the evolution of where it came from. But it was a really genius idea, and it ran out of gas pretty quickly, about a year once the government stepped in and said, “Hey, you’re trying to appeal to children.”
That was never the idea. But the fact that the brewery started producing stuffed dolls of Spuds Mackenzie, not a good idea. That does look like you’re advertising to children. Not even on anybody’s radar screen. When I got in there, I knew that Spuds Mackenzie was dead as well. I had been at the agency prior to that producing Spuds Mackenzie commercials. It was a high ride for us. It was like, “Wow, People Magazine is following us on shoots with Spuds. And it’s such a novelty.”
But we got chopped off at the knees pretty quick. You start to realize that you’ve got to have a plan. And our problem on Bud Light was very simple. We’ve got to get back to a personality that’s different than Budweiser. We can no longer be seen as just a flanker with a one off idea like the dog. What is our idea? And the idea was really nurtured out of Spuds and from the original ‘Gimme a Light’ campaign. It’s like, “Look, we have to have preference strategy. We have to have a strategy about people want a Bud Light for no reason other than that’s the best one there is.”
This was the backdrop of Miller Lite being the dominant presence in the market. We had to tell people that they had a choice. You could go into bars across America at that time, and you’d ask for Light. They owned the bar call, and it was on their label. Any bartender in his right mind, “You mean Miller Lite.”
We had to get people asking for Bud Light, and to make it distinctive from Miller Lite. They had a brilliant campaign at the time, which featured retired athletes and pseudo celebrities. It was brilliant. They walked away from it. I don’t know why they did it. They probably just got tired of it. That’s when our opportunity to get back and return to humor opened up. It not only was a strategy of people going to great lengths, a preference strategy, but it was an executional strategy as well that had to be adhered to. It was, “Whatever you do, you’re going for Bud Light, and it’s gotta be surprising, and fun, and hilarious. You gotta create a Bud Light world that nobody else can create. It’s gotta be so preposterous, yet semi believable. You’re always winking at the customer with this.”
That was the well thought out strategy. It was only validated by doing some work, testing it, seeing what took. We realized there were certain mistakes we were making at times, where it was really too stupid, or it was too sophomoric. You’d always run that line. Some people like ‘The Three Stooges.’ Some think they’re repulsive. Comedy is very hard. It can’t be foul. You want it to be funny mainstream. That’s the battle that was the Odyssey. 15 years, that’s what I protected with my heart. Every new brand manager I had always wanted to come in and play around with it. It’s like, “No. You’re a shepard. You just keep shepherding the sheep along. Nobody needs to change the main deal here.”
That’s the battle you have. Now Bud on the other hand, the thing we had to do is, we had a lot of ‘your dad’s beer’ type of things going on. That’s why we had to take the Clydesdales off the hitch, and start giving them more human personalities. Although the Clydesdales was not your own campaign, the only thing you did for Budweiser. It was a corporate campaign as well. But that was a critical eye opener for us, that we could play with the hitch. We could take the horses off. They could develop personalities. Today, I’m proud to say, that’s at least something that’s continued on. The shocking thing to me is how the current owners of the company don’t even put the Clydesdales in the Super Bowl anymore. Blows me away. To me, the Clydesdales was always the umbrella for the entire company. It helped sell Budweiser. It helped sell Bud Light. It helped the wholesalers, the local distributes. It was America. Blows me away that these guys lost that thing. That’s their deal, not mine.
That’s kind of it. It’s not twelve pieces of paper. I saw creative briefs from people. We’d get a brand manager from some other company package goods train. They’d be in there pontificating with a binder. They’d give the creative team a binder. It’s like, “Get rid of that thing. Throw that away.”
If this thing isn’t stated in a page, you’re not going to get any ideas. You’re never going to get the ‘Was sup?’ You’re never going to get ‘Real Men of Genius,’ if you think that way. The key here is, you get an idea. It’s not change it every year. That’s what drives me nuts is, I see great campaigns that are brilliant. And they suddenly change. I know exactly why it changed. Some new knucklehead got in there. He’s changed it, or she’s changed it. Change for change’s sake in marketing is death. You can evolve it. Most of the time, you can evolve it.
Adam Heitzman: One of my favorite campaigns of all time is the ‘Real Men of Genius.’ But I know, probably from a general audience stand point, correct me if I’m wrong, what won the Gold Lion award was the ‘Wassup?’ How did that idea come about?
Robert Lachky: That’s a great question. ‘Real Men of Genius,’ we were starting to hit our stride again. This is circa late 1999 or so. We were doing well with the television advertising on Bud Light. But radio was always a battle for us. How can you create more of a theater of the mind? The guys actually came up with a precursor to this that ran for maybe half a year, with Charlton Heston. We had done an ‘I love you, man’ commercial with Charlton Heston of all things. Why, I don’t know to this day. He was funny. And they put him in radio as the voice over. It was a very funny idea. A guy, kind of a drone like voice, “Well, I was standing in the line at the theater.”
And then you’d hear Charlton Heston’s voice, “He was standing in the line at the theater!”
And the guy goes, “Uh, yeah. And then I was … “
So you’re getting this dialogue between this slacker and Charlton Heston pontificating. And somehow, Bud Light gets into the story. And it was very funny. It was kind of, we saw it as cenergy to the fact that we were running Charlton Heston on TV in a couple of these, ‘I love you, man.’ Commercials. We realized that he starting to have issues. I don’t think he got the campaign. He was a nice man. We had him to our convention. He’s obviously a legend. With all due respect, he’s just the best. He was wonderful for us, and funny. It was good. We just started thinking, “Is there something else we can do?”
That forced us. The guys came up with an idea that was originally termed, ‘Real American Heroes.’ That was the name of the campaign. And it was done exactly in this format. The sung voice from the guy from Foreigner. That’s the band. I can’t remember his name. He was the lead singer. He’s a great guy. And the voice that you hear very often, is the main delivery voice. It was very good counterpoint, just parodying people in life. It worked. The problem was, when the campaign had just launched, that’s when 9/11 hit. We knew, “Oh my goodness. These are not real American heroes. We’ve got to change this.”
We thought we were gonna have to change the whole thing. We thought, “Oh my goodness. This is so disrespectful to use a line at this terrible time in our country.”
The guys made a real simple fix. It seems like, “Wow. It must have been there all the time.”
We just called it ‘Real Men of Genius.’ Grammatically, it didn’t sound right. It was kind of like, “What? What?”
We just went with it because we loved the format of the singing and the very deep voiced announcer that we thought, “Well, let’s just go with it.”
The rest is history. I think we did over 450 of these things. It ran for how many years until, again, new owners in all their genius just decided to the campaign was no good anymore, that it wasn’t selling beer. It’s like, “Alright, idiots.”
It was something that was so good. We ran it forever. We also adapted it for television, which was kind of an ill fated venture, because when you start showing people, the bald guy or whatever, the nudist colony man, it’s like, “What? We can’t do that, because you know everything is going to go to slow motion. Fat people jiggling. No. We don’t need to do that.”
But I was told, “You have to do it.”
By my senior guy, the chairman of the board, because he heard from somebody that’d be good on TV. You do it on TV and it doesn’t make it as funny, because the theater of the mind goes away. We ran a couple of those for a month and realized, this isn’t funny. It’s hurting the radio campaign, because you’re revealing too much. You’re pulling too much of the curtain back. Long winded, but that’s the story of ‘Real Men of Genius.’
Adam Heitzman: You talked a little about this as well. It seemed like you all had hit after hit with campaign. How did you know when it was time to cut that campaign off, and sunset it, and move on to the next version?
Robert Lachky: That’s a kind complement. It was always with anxiety. I knew this stuff would burn out pretty fast. It always made you worry that, where do we go next? On Bud Light, I wasn’t as worried, because I knew the strategy was right. I knew we were going to be okay as long as we got funny spots. The way we managed that was, we made sure that we were hitting topical things as we went through time. Any creative team could come in and pick up and put their signature on it.
We created our own celebrities. For example, the guys wanted to come up with an idea with Kings of Comedy. Kings of Comedy was not a real well known cable thing that was going on at the beginning. But Cedric the Entertainer was starting to emerge as a key piece of Kings of Comedy. We ended up getting Cedric to do a spot that launched a four or five spot pool with Cedric that ran for two years. That was a great discovery. Not a celebrity for celebrity sake. But a celebrity that could be helped by this. Catapult his fame, because he started doing movies after the Bud Light gig. The fact that he brought so much, but it was always about Bud Light. And another guy we found that could deliver our Bud Light message was Carlos Mencia from ‘Mind of Mencia.’ It was a Cable thing that was starting to become popular. Those are some examples there.
But also doing things like, we had a spot called ‘Robo Bash.’ When these electronic robot battle reality TV things were starting to occur, we did our version of it. We did one spot. We moved on. We were always trying to tap into popular culture with Bud Light. What’s hot now? Let’s try that. What’s fashionable? What programs are people out there talking about? On the Bud Light side, for me it was easier to do. It was much easier to figure out how to stay on the tracks. Bud was a little different. It was difficult because we were starting to his some home runs with some of the things we discovered through other means. ‘Was sup’ is a great example. ‘Wuss up’ is great because the guys found it on an independent film festival. They saw this thing called ‘Wuss up.’ Exactly the way it’s produced was exactly the way it was filmed without Bud by the original director, Charles Stone the 3rd. They showed me the tape. I’ll never forget this. They said, “Well, you gotta see this.”
It was funny. It was cool. I said, “Okay, what do you want to do with it?”
“We want to insert Bud into it.”
I go, “How are you gonna do that?”
They said, “Well just ‘Hey B, what are you doing?’ ‘Nothing. Just watching. Was sup?!'”
That was the way it was. And said, “Just having a Bud and watching TV.”
And they always had a Bud. I said, “Well yeah. That’s cool. So you’re going to call this guy that did it?”
“Oh no. We’re going to rip it off.”
I go, “No you’re not gonna rip it off. You can’t rip it off. You can’t do that. This is this guy’s property. And it’s not going to be as funny if this guy didn’t do it. Plus, those people are perfect. Why don’t we just get those guys to work with us?”
The agency was not really wanting to do that. They swallowed their pride, went and contacted Charles. Charles agreed to do it. As we were going through the process creatively, it was funny how the guys kept trying to put in new people. We said, “No! What are you doing?”
One good time, I can honestly say myself, and August, and the brand team blocked these guys from making mistakes just so they could have creative, … It’s not their idea. It’s his idea. The company will benefit more and more from the good positive PR, if nothing else that we let this guy do his idea for Budweiser. I don’t care what the creative awards program say about you ripping something off. This is a great idea. As a result, we were vindicated by that. The guys even wanted to change. My guys wanted to change the line from, true to right on. I go, “Right on? That’s like a 1970’s Billy Dee Williams move. Are you out of your mind? It’s true.”
“Well, we didn’t think you knew what it meant.”
“Give me a break. I know what it means. I get it. I get it. It means right on. But we’re not saying right on, okay?”
And then poor Charles, he’s sitting in the middle wondering, “Why am I getting into this with these guys?”
He was very grateful to us at the brewery for protecting the idea. They kept trying to change it. My guys are brilliant and did so much great work at DDP. This was one time I was shocked at how they didn’t get it. It was more about, “We want to get credit for this.”
No. You take credit with this man. You brought it to life for him. That was a tough one. A different one is ‘Frogs’ where you see a one off idea, and you just go get it. You know the thing’s not going to run for more than a year or two. The brilliance of what we did there, I think, was we said, “Okay, we know we can’t keep having frogs say, ‘Bud-wise-er.’ You’ve got them talking to each other. They’re riding an alligator. How many more things can we have ‘Bud-wise-er’ do? Not much.”
We’re fortunate by the way we structured our agencies at that time. We had more than one agency. The primary agency didn’t like it, but it saved us. Goodby Silverstein was the secondary agency. They came up with an idea. We asked, “Is there a way you guys can evolve ‘Frogs?'”
And Goodby’s idea was, “Yeah. Let’s have other jealous swamp creatures try to get in the Bud commercial.”
I go, “What? What do you mean, jealous swamp creatures?”
He goes, “Well, you know, like weasels, or lizards, or whatever.”
And honest to goodness, that’s how we came up with ‘Louie the Lizard.’ And the whole idea of their intro to it, that almost got me fired, was to assassinate the frogs on the Super Bowl. The electrocute them in their frog bar. When you still think back to the story boards, you go, “Are you, are you kidding me? We can’t do assassinations.”
“Oh, it’s just a commercial, man.”
And it’s like, “Okay.”
You’re buying into this, and you realize, “I’m going to get killed here.”
We went through it. We did it. They unsuccessfully didn’t electrocute the frogs on national television on the Super Bowl. But it did launch ‘Louie the Lizard,’ which was brilliant. And it got us at least three more years of ‘Louie the Lizard.’ TV spots for sure. But the other brilliant thing about ‘Louie the Lizard’, it worked on radio, because the voices of Louie and Frank, which at the time, ‘Sopranos’ was so big. Again, borrowing from the influence of what’s going on. We got two guys out of Queens who were stage actors that talked like thugs, hilarious. And on radio, they were even better than TV, because they were like, “Aye, Frankie.”
It was just like, “Oh my God. This is exactly what we tried to do on Bud Light. And now we’re doing it on Bud.”
If you can evolve and idea and be open minded enough to say, “Maybe this thing can leapfrog.”
I think you start saying, “Look, I’ve got about a year, year and a half. As soon as I get tired of it, it may be too late, because you’ve got to get out before the customer gets tired of it.”
So maybe we jumped early on some things. But I always felt we made good calls on evolving it. Even when ‘Was sup’ ran out of gas, and it was only a year, it was more driven by the fact that Charles Stone didn’t really want to do this anymore. That was okay. He’s a good guy. We started producing ‘Was sup’ spots ourselves. We decided, “Well, is there another way to say, ‘Was sup’?”
And then we started doing parodies of ‘Wassup’. How do gangsters say ‘Was sup’? They go “How you doin’?”
“How you doin’? How you doin’? How you doin’?”
We started doing evolutions of ‘Wassup’. And the consumer followed us. We got through that. We probably extended the idea another couple years because of that. That’s how you do it, I think. If something is so wickedly popular, and you can slowly get the customer to the next place by an evolution that they understand, then why wouldn’t you do it? A company is doing great right now, a couple companies, is the insurance sector. When you look at Progressive, whether you like Flow or hate her. Farmer’s insurance. These guys are evolving. Geico, my God. It’s the greatest. Geico is doing what we done. I always admired Geico when I was working at the brewery. They’ve been doing it forever. They do have the 15 minutes. “You give me 15 minutes, we’ll give you 15%.”
I get it. I get it. I get it. But I’m always entertained, and I get a good feeling out of their marketing. I think that’s the plan. Evolve. Don’t blow it up. If you have to blow it up, it’s going to be hard to get back on those tracks.
Adam Heitzman: Since you date back to even the mid 80’s ish. Obviously, a lot of digital components and digital campaigns, that’s where everything’s at nowadays for the most part.
Robert Lachky: I agree.
Adam Heitzman: There’s a lot in TV and radio for sure. Is a good campaign a good campaign no matter what platform it’s on?
Robert Lachky: Yeah. I think. I experienced that with ‘Wassup.’ When ‘Was sup’ came out, we originally debuted it on Christmas day. NBA always has a Christmas day basketball game. We had a 60. And the 60 seconds of “Wassup? Wassup? Wassup?” Was like whoa. You have to be a real fan to like that much ‘Was sup.’ And I loved it. August the 4th loved it. His dad was like, “Oh, I don’t know, man. You guys are running out of, … Four African American guys like, all over your, …”
And it was awesome. They’re the coolest looking guys, guys you want to be buddies with. That’s the way we looked at it. But when you’re talking to old wholesalers at Anheuser Busch, all over the country, black and white going, “What are you guys? Are you guys nuts?”
They found it repulsive and we were in trouble. When we launched that, within a week, we were getting crushed. We had just put a call center phone number on our can, packages. And our call center was getting inundated by people who hated the idea. We very quickly, and thank goodness for Mr.Busch as our leader, the 3rd, he allowed us to do some quick fixing. I took the 60 of the air right away. We moved it to 30’s. We had 30’s cut. We had a couple other renditions of it cut where we focused on a single character. And it nullified a little bit of the outrage of that 60 seconds in your face. Within two weeks, because we ran ‘Was sup’ on the Super Bowl three weeks, four weeks later. Within a couple weeks already, you were getting Katie Couric on ‘Today Show’ and Howard Stern, two totally opposite people saying, “Hey, did you see that thing for Budweiser? The guy’s going ‘Wassup’. Isn’t that cool?”
And you’re like, “Oh my God. This is what we need.”
And you started getting people now, and this was the beginning of video content sharing to your original question. We were getting parodies within two and a half weeks of ‘Wassup.’ And we tracked one Iceland. We got one out of Israel. We had this worldwide thing where we had rabbis doing it. We had ladies planting tulips in a garden doing. And they were mocking it, and aping the idea, and sending it. We were getting these videos. We were like, “Oh my God. This thing is taking on.”
And all the negative criticism from our own system, we got thrown out of a few accounts across the country. But the wholesalers backed us, because they started to realize this was a very cool young idea. And it’s about, it doesn’t matter what race you are. This is about friends. We stuck to our guns. Video content, and the sharing of it on the internet, even this was year 2000 I believe. That’s when it was really hitting a zenith. People were ripping the thing. And it was awesome. And that saved us for sure. This is in the space of a month.
Adam Heitzman: Right. That’s crazy. What are you up to now days?
Robert Lachky: I’ve been consulting a little bit in talking to smaller, more privately held companies. It makes it a little easier. I do a lot of speaking engagements and things. People like to hear about what we used to do. You start to feel a little old doing that. I think there’s some really tried and true strategies that we followed, and other great companies have followed. You see many doing it now, like in the insurance category, following, being true to their brands. Not getting mesmerized by hiring a celebrity or doing whatever you think is cool, or following too much of a current production technique. For us, at our era, I’d say early 90’s, it was, we called it the cinema verite. The camera is moving around, trying to find the right- It’s like, “Give me a break. Let’s focus on a certain style that benefits us. And let’s not chase technique. Let’s chase our strategy.”
That’s kind of what I advise when I go. I got to be honest. A lot of people call and say, “Wow. You can help us because of Budweiser.”
It’s like, “Look, you don’t need Bud. You need a good digital strategy. You need a good online thing.”
I have a group of guys that I work with. We do more rebuilding websites, making sure they have suitable video content. Basically front end. That they have a strategy. I guess they think since I just did funny commercials, I never thought about it. It’s always about doing a spot analysis to me, at the front. You absolutely have to know, what are you trying to do? What are your strengths, weakness, and opportunities? What are your threats? You’ve got to understand that. I can’t believe how many small or mid sized companies that I’ve worked with who really are kind of making money and don’t know how, or why, or how they can sustain it. That to me, is the shocking thing. Believe me, nothing that’s too taxing. I had enough of that in one lifetime. That’s about where I’m at these days.
Adam Heitzman: Well, that’s great to hear. Bob, I really enjoyed speaking with you today. It’s been very enlightening. Your stories are awesome. Thank you again, for your time. Like I said, thanks. It’s just been an absolute pleasure.
Robert Lachky: Thanks, Adam. I appreciate it. I really enjoyed it. And good luck to you.
Adam Heitzman: Thank you.
Robert Lachky: Take care.
Adam Heitzman: Bye.
The post Marketing Insights from Bob Lachky: Behind the Curtains of the Iconic Anheuser-Busch Campaigns appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>Let’s just get this out of the way: I don’t know anything about hacking. I’ve never hacked anything in my life, unless you’re describing my golf swing, or you count using a Game Genie to cheat at Sega Genesis back in the early ‘90s.
In general, I find terms like “life hacks” and “growth hacking” to be… well, hackneyed.
But you know what? Blog titles that include “hacks” — or other strong and compelling descriptors such as “surprising” or “critical” — have a greater tendency to gain viral traction. Sometimes a simple data point like that can be the springboard you need to uncover inspiration.
Which brings us to the purpose of today’s post.
Here at TopRank Marketing, we have an insanely talented Content Team. Legitimately some of the best writers and strategic thinkers I’ve ever had the pleasure of working alongside. But even these awesome pros are not immune to the occasional creative rut or swoon in productivity. It comes with the territory.
Recently the team came together to discuss some of our personal methods for overcoming content creation slumps and getting back on track when we’re dragging. I figured I would share some of the most salient pointers to come out of that meeting here, so other marketers can benefit and maybe adopt a few of them during their own periods of stagnation.
Hacks, insider tips, pearls of eternal wisdom — whatever attention-grabbing name you’d like to apply, I just hope you find these practical tips helpful in enhancing your productivity and elevating your content marketing success. (And feel free to comment with your own if you have tricks that work for you.)
Last year, Mel Robbins published a book called “The 5 Second Rule: Transform your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage.” The premise behind this guide to conquering self-doubt and procrastination is rooted in psychology.
Basically, the crux is that because our brains are wired to avoid risk, we are innately predisposed to abandon many ideas and plans almost as quickly as they arrive.
Robbins challenges us to overcome this inclination by forcing ourselves to take some sort of action to move an idea forward within five seconds of the thought crossing our consciousness. It can be small and it doesn’t always have to lead anywhere. But it’s all about getting past your initial misgivings and, in some way, turning an idea from concept into reality.
So, next time the notion of a blog angle passes through your head, take the step to jot down a note, or even a loose outline. When you’re struck with the spark for a content campaign, but not quite sure about it, discuss it with a colleague or at least record a quick voice memo on your phone.
Basically, stop saying “later” and start saying “now.” By following this approach, you’ll find yourself with a whole lot more to work with, and it might just be that a passing fancy you’d have otherwise pushed out of mind turns into something great.
[bctt tweet="Stop saying “later” and start saying “now” when an idea crosses your mind. - @NickNelsonMN #ContentCreation #ContentMarketing" username="toprank"]
A classic writing tip from fledgling novelists is to draft the ending of a story first, and then work your way up to it. This same advice can be aptly applied to any content writer who is struggling to get a piece off the ground.
When I’m sitting down to write something new, I frequently find that getting started is the toughest part. You need a strong, compelling introduction, and in many cases can’t proceed until you’ve got one worked out. Another issue can be that once you’ve surpassed that initial hurdle, you start wandering and get sidetracked from the main points you’re trying to make.
Writing your conclusion before anything else can remedy both of these issues. Since it’s always smart to have the beginning and ending of a post tie together, you might find the pathway to your intro by taking this approach. And as you progress through the drafting process, you’ll always know exactly what the end destination is.
Sometimes, statistics can provide the backing we need to substantiate a point. But finding the right one isn’t always a quick or easy task. Getting bogged down in research is often one of the primary culprits in waning productivity.
If you have a team of writers on hand — particularly ones who cover similar topics or niches — it can be helpful to create a central doc with up-to-date stats from trusted sources, such as respected media publications or verified research organizations. Trim off older items as they lose relevance, and continually add in new ones. You’ll want to be careful to avoid the trap where everyone on your staff starts using the same numbers and sources over and over again, but in general I find this practice to be a strong productivity-booster and time-saver.
Stats are not only able to contextualize and reinforce a case we’re trying to make, but they can also illuminate a case worth making in the first place, or provide direction on how to proceed. For example, the insight I mentioned earlier about “hacks” being a clickable blog post title made me wonder: “What ‘hacks’ do I actually know? What kinds of hidden pointers could I surface that might actually be useful to our audience of smart marketers?”
Revelations can be found in insights about particular types of content that resonate within your industry (articles and studies about trends are good sources), or a conclusion drawn from your own Google Analytics (“Wow, look at how well posts about Topic X have performed!”).
Data points are stories waiting to be told, and they are almost infinitely abundant in every industry and vertical.
[bctt tweet="Data points are stories waiting to be told. Dig into them to find inspiration & overcome #ContentCreation slumps. - @NickNelsonMN" username="toprank"]
It can be tough to get unstuck when you hit a wall in content creation. There’ve been countless instances where I’ve spent more time than I’d like to admit wordsmithing one particular sentence, or figuring the best way to transition from one idea to the next.
In these cases, it never hurts to move on to something else for a while and then circle back later. You can leave yourself a placeholder, as simple as [XXXXX] or more referential like [something about hacking and Game Genie]. This enables you to accomplish other stuff and return with a fresh mind.
Painful as it may be, you should even consider simply getting something down on the page in these moments, even if you don’t think it’s good. A 2012 article in Psychology Today on the subject of overcoming writer’s block argued that this can be necessary to achieve that frequently elusive “flow.”
“Here’s the truth about writing (or any other form of self-expression): If you can’t accept the bad, you can’t get to the good,” wrote Barry Michels. “It’s as if the flow is pure, clean water trapped behind dirty, disgusting sewage. If you can’t welcome the sewage and let it flow through you, you’ll never be able to get to the pure stuff.”
Such a lovely metaphor, isn’t it?
Ready to see how high your content can fly? Try incorporating these tips into your routine and see if they can help give your productivity a lift:
Otherwise, if you’re interested in learning more about how we do content marketing at TopRank Marketing, check out our services page or reach out and give us a shout. We’re all about driving growth, without any hacking required.
The post 5 Productivity Hacks to Bring Content Creation From Failing to Flying High appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
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]]>The post 9 Upcoming Events to Learn All About Content and Influencer Marketing appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>According to a new study from eMarketer, in 2018 nearly nine in 10 business-to-business (B2B) companies in the US will use digital content marketing. At the same time, influencer marketing has become one of the hottest topics in the marketing world: The L2 from Gartner reports that over 70% of brands used influencers in their 2017 marketing plans and 95% found them to be effective.
We know how this goes in marketing: a strategy or tactic becomes popular with every opportunist repeating the echo chamber of best practices until it’s unclear what’s really relevant for your business.
We’re seeing firsthand, the impact content and influence is having on marketing and have been working with many of the top B2B brands in the world to plan, implement and optimize content marketing programs with highly credible and connected influencers.
That expertise didn’t happen overnight. We’ve been working hard on B2B influencer marketing strategies, process and workflow, measurement and reporting for the past 6 years. In addition to helping clients develop and implement influencer content programs, we’re also teaching our community about this impactful intersection of disciplines.
In fact, over the next 2 1/2 months there are 9 events happening online and in cities including Scottsdale, Boston, San Francisco, Ft Lauderdale, San Diego and Minneapolis where you can learn the strategies and tactics of influencer and content marketing, presented by team members from TopRank Marketing. Find one that works with your schedule.
Feb 19-21: B2B Marketing Exchange – Scottsdale, AZ #B2BMX
Millennials & Influencer Marketing: How to Organize & Optimize for B2B
Not only are Millennial aged professionals more trusting of social influencers when making purchase decisions, they’re also more likely to participate as influential content creators. B2B brands that can master working with internal and external Millennial talent to co-create content and engage on social channels will reap rewards now and into the future.
This presentation by Lee Odden of TopRank Marketing and Alexandra Rynne of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions will help B2B marketers understand the influencer marketing opportunity with Millennials in multiple ways:
– Understand influencer engagement models from seasoned brandividuals to rising star Millennials
– Bust myths about working with Millennials and how B2B brands can create win/win relationships
– Learn from examples of B2B influencer content in action
Feb 22: Demand Generation Strategies Summit (BrightTalk) – Online
The Confluence Equation: How Content & Influencers Drive B2B Marketing Success
Content and influencer marketing are hot topics for B2B marketers all over the world as two of the most promising strategies for attracting, engaging and converting ideal customers. What many marketers don’t realize is how collaborating with influencers can create even more credible, relevant, and optimized experiences for target accounts. Join Lee Odden to learn how working with influencers and their communities can help scale quality B2B content that gets results.
Feb 22: Digital Transformation Day (SEMRush) – Online #DTDconf
Barry Schwartz and Lee Odden interview each other
Barry Schwartz, President of Rusty Brick, News Editor of Search Engine Land and Executive Editor of Search Engine Roundtable will interview Lee Odden and Lee will interview Barry about trends in the search and digital marketing world.
Feb 28 – Mar 2: Social Media Marketing World – San Diego, CA #SMMW18
How Content Plus Influence Equals Results: The Confluence Equation
Content marketing and influencer marketing are hot topics for marketers all over the world as two of the most promising strategies for attracting, engaging and converting ideal customers. But how do you find the right influencers? What kind of content should you collaborate on? How do you best measure influencer and content success? Join Lee Odden to learn from his experience working with brands big and small to develop efficient and effective formulas for influencer content success.
Mar 22: Everything: Content – Minneapolis, MN
Converging Content & Influencers to Stimulate Marketing Impact
For years we’ve seen celebrities plastered on magazine covers, perform in television ads and pimp out their social media networks for pay. But is that really influencer marketing?
What if instead, there a way for B2B and B2C brands alike to develop a structured influencer driven content program that is less about paying a famous face and more about helping your audience see themselves in the content that you create?
This presentation from Ashley Zeckman will cut below the surface to uncover top ways to work with influencers in order to create a memorable content experience for your customers, build brand authority and generate marketing ROI.
Three key things the audience will be able to do after attending this session:
– 3 stories of content + influencer marketing success
– Key steps for creating a stellar experience for influencers and customers alike
– Scrappy ideas for co-creating with influencers
Apr 4: American Marketing Association Iowa Event – Des Moines, IA
Influencer Marketing is only for B2C Brands (And Other Lies Your Parents Told You)
For years celebrities have been gracing the covers of magazines, acting in commercials and pimping out their social media profiles for pay. But should that really be considered influencer marketing?
While it may seem like B2C brands have influencer marketing all figured out, there is even more opportunity for B2B brands to begin building meaningful influencer relationships.
One way to do that is by developing influencer driven content programs. These programs provide a unique opportunity reach and build credibility your audience by working with experts that they can relate to and trust. In this presentation, Ashley Zeckman will share:
– A dive into 3 stories of successful content and influencer marketing in action.
– Steps for creating a stellar experience for your audience and your influencers.
– Scrappy ideas for collaborating with influencers when you have limited time and resources.
– Bonus: Formulas for determining content and influencer marketing ROI.
Apr 11-12: Pubcon Florida – Ft Laudedrale, FL #Pubcon
Participation Marketing: The New World of Content Co-Creation, Influencers and Integration for PR
The converging roles of PR and communications with content and marketing is creating rapid demand for new strategies, skills and expectations. As earned and owned media intertwine, communications professionals who fast track their ability to adapt and evolve will gain a competitive advantage in their roles in the new world of PR.
In this session, you’ll learn tested and proven models, strategies and tactics for content marketing based on an integrated and cooperative approach. Some of the key learnings include:
– Content marketing and what it really means for earned, owned and shared media.
– How content co-creation enables content quality at scale.
– Redefining what influence and working with influencers mean for content.
– Key opportunities to integrate the best of PR and marketing for meaningful digital communications that deliver an impact
Apr 29-30: Marketo Marketing Nation Summit – San Francisco, CA #MKTGNATION
Content Marketing Integration
Without content, there wouldn’t be any search engines and yet most marketers treat content as if it were simply a tactic for SEO. Content is the fuel that powers all forms of media on all digital channels where customers engage. The most successful marketers approach digital marketing with a customer and content-centric approach that integrates with SEO, social media, influencers and advertising in a way that helps the brand become “the best answer” wherever customers are looking. This presentation from Lee Odden focuses on how to plan, produce, promote and optimize content as a marketing approach that works with or without search engines. But definitely better with search engines.
May 2-4: Content Marketing Conference – Boston, MA #CMC18
The Keys to Successful B2B Content and Influence Programs
While only 11% of B2B companies are implementing ongoing influencer marketing programs, 55% of marketers plan to spend more on influencer marketing in the coming year. Even with growing budget commitments, many B2B brands are not entirely sure about how to execute influencer marketing. Fortunately, brands with mature influencer marketing programs like SAP are elevating the practice. In this presentation with Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Marketing and Amisha Gandhi, Head of Influencer Marketing at SAP, you will learn through several examples about the strategies and best practices that can unlock success for an Enterprise B2B content and influencer marketing program.
Whether you would like to learn most about Millennials and B2B influencer marketing or content integrated with influence, SEO and social media, there’s a topic for you in the schedule above. Not only can you learn from Ashley Zeckman and myself, but our clients from LinkedIn Marketing Solutions (Alex Rynne) and SAP (Amisha Gandhi) are presenting as well.
If you are already attending one of the events above, please do be sure to let us know!
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The post 9 Upcoming Events to Learn All About Content and Influencer Marketing appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>While content marketing can evoke various meanings, depending on the context, it is defined as gently marketing products and services with content shared through blog posts, videos, social media and more. Since there are an increasing number of online publishers, the competition is fierce in terms of attracting consumers’ short attention spans. In addition, publishers […]
The post 30 Content Marketing Statistics, Trends & Data for Your 2018 Strategy appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>While content marketing can evoke various meanings, depending on the context, it is defined as gently marketing products and services with content shared through blog posts, videos, social media and more.
Since there are an increasing number of online publishers, the competition is fierce in terms of attracting consumers’ short attention spans. In addition, publishers are driving innovation as they seek fresh methods for bringing in their target audiences.
As a result, it is critical for publishers to have a deep understanding of where the industry is moving and why. The objective is to monitor your competition and the industry. If you don’t know where or how the content marketing industry is moving, you won’t grasp how and when to change your own content marketing strategy.
To get you started in the right direction, we have curated 30 marketing stats to help guide your new strategy and to use when presenting a case to CFOs, CMOs and CEOs for an updated budget. Continue reading to learn more.
While content marketers want to understand their ROI, many don’t have the right tools to accurately do so. In fact, 52% of B2B content marketers find ROI measurements one of their biggest challenges. This eMarketer study shows that 6 out 10 small businesses can’t track ROI from their social media efforts.
Yet, accurate measurement leads to successful content marketing. You also want to gain an understanding of the proper keyword density for SEO.
Nonetheless, many businesses don’t even have basic analytics tools. Here are a few thoughts from experts on the topic:
“Exposure and engagement is key when it comes to measuring content marketing ROI. Simply publishing a blog post isn’t enough of a success. You have to go deeper and pay attention to things like social share metrics, engagement metrics, and actual conversions that can be tied to the content you’re producing.” — Colin Mathews, Co-founder, Content Marketer
“Metrics never tell the whole story, which is why we ask every new blog subscriber and customer how they found us. The data is anecdotal but it gives us a deeper understanding of the customer journey. Two customers rarely follow identical paths so it’s always worth asking.” — Jimmy Daly, Head of Content, Vero
Basic analytics tools include:
Content marketing is a universal tactic, with a wide variety of platforms, for offering relevant outreach to target audiences. Of course, you can’t appeal to your C-suite executives without a documented strategy or statistics to support your request for a budget increase.
Since 2009, marketing budgets have either remained consistent or have gone up relative to previous years. Educational content can be expensive, but brands must continue to act as data portals to keep their customers informed and to become trusted advisors.
These are articles longer than 2,000 words. Since long-form posts are more in-depth, the target reader perceives them as more valuable and worth their time.
In addition, search engines worship long-form content–pieces with over 20,000 keywords. Moreover, if you can hold a reader’s attention for more than three minutes, then you have a higher chance of that visitor returning to your website. The last thing you want is to get devalued by Google.
The consumer attention span is getting increasingly shorter. So, content needs to be easily digestible and relevant to the target persona. Structuring should include italics, bolding and bullet points to highlight the most important sections.
Remember, you’re dealing with attention spans shorter than even a goldfish.
This is mainly due to the trend towards mobile content viewing. Consumers grab their smartphones to look something up, buy products and more–then, the ease and convenience starts to become a priority.
Still, it’s not impossible to achieve content marketing success under these types of conditions. The trick is to instantly provide relevance and capture the attention of your target audience–give them what they want immediately.
To increase customer satisfaction, and loyalty, online publishers must be consistent–always. McKinsey & Company states it succinctly:
“the 3 Cs of customer satisfaction” are “consistency, consistency, and consistency.”
To reap the rewards, you must put in the effort. The leads will start to pour in, but only if you are consistent.
Putting more resources and effort into content marketing will increase leads while also decreasing costs. Audiences are gravitating away from celebrity endorsements and aggressive sales tactics. Instead, the modern consumer wants more transparency and friendlier branding tactics.
In a consumer-led market, audiences know they can easily click away from an ad. So, content marketing was created to focus on the intended reader
Even with an increased focus on visuals, most marketers have found original written content to product the best results. This is great news because if you don’t have time to create media, you can still generate traffic with original content.
And, flashy visuals can be expensive. So, just continue creating relevant and original content, and the traffic will come.
With fewer consumers reading traditional magazines and newspapers, more focus is being placed on web content. While branded content is not a new concept, it is certainly trending. Customers enjoy the informative and interactive aspect.
Branded content puts people first and the product second. Not to mention, branded content is shareable, which equates to the potential for more traffic.
To reach the next level of content marketing productivity, help is required in the form of skilled and proficient writers. If you plan to reach thousands of readers, or more, you should not try to write the content all by yourself.
Since you already understand that consistent, original and relevant content increases traffic, then you can easily double that just by hiring several skilled writers.
There is no reason to try to spend 16 hours a day writing when you can focus on other aspects of your content marketing strategy. Let your writers handle this facet of it for you.
It is imperative to write with your buyer persona in mind. Each piece of content must be relevant and with an end goal. Start with figuring out who your target consumers are. These are general representations of your target audience.
With buyer personas, you can tailor your content to topics they would love to learn more about. Furthermore, your content should address customer pain points throughout their purchase journey.
A buyer persona looks at what your ideal customer’s goals are and what they are trying to achieve. It also defines how they might behave throughout the sales process. You can create your specific buyer persona by utilizing both market and independent research to reveal trends in your market. Details you should describe include:
Voice searches are on the rise. So, content marketers must consider the types of headlines and titles that might be included in a voice search.
There isn’t any question that voice search will affect content marketing. The use of voice search tools, such as Siri and Alexa, are on the rise. Most smartphone’s also have a voice assistant. It’s not something to worry about, but you should think of how people use their voice to search for something and what they expect to find.
For instance, a voice query might ask: “How many times have the Eagles won the Super Bowl.” If the same person were to type that query, they might type this instead: “Times the Eagles won the Super Bowl.” As you can see, voice queries are a bit more detailed–it is just like talking versus texting.
Content marketers must direct more company spend and efforts towards the mobile medium as this is where their audiences are. Mobile ad spend must also go up.
According to Google research, over 50 percent of all global web traffic comes from mobile devices. And, these types of numbers will continue to increase. So, now is the time to focus on mobile content marketing.
In fact, mobile device content reading went up 10 percent in 2014. The limits have been removed; anything can be read and viewed on a mobile device.
Social media platforms like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook have changed the content marketing industry forever. The way we communicate with customers is a lot different from how we interacted even a decade ago.
Social media networks are popular because they are free to join, and you can reach millions of people with your content. So, mix things up. Consider how to target different generations on social media.
Make sure your content meets the needs of your target audience. And, engage with your customers directly through social media.
It is 2018, and you need an integrated marketing strategy right now. Content marketing works, and 80 percent of decision makers prefer to get their brand information through written articles as opposed to advertising. You can start by learning how to be a better content writer.
You just won’t want to jump into content marketing without a documented strategy. When you think about how you distribute your content–through social media, blog posts, guides and more– then, you must remember the importance of having similarities with your content.
You don’t want to confuse your audience.
And, it’s easy to be all over the place when you don’t have a strategy to direct your efforts. Also, a documented content marketing strategy is conducive towards achieving a strong brand identity.
Consumers are saturated with content. To stand out from the masses, you need a strategy to set your brand apart.
As mentioned earlier, measuring ROI can lead to content marketing success. With a strategy, you encourage productivity and efficiency. Plus, it can help to ensure a better ROI.
Before a purchase, consumers often go through a sales funnel. These are stages that the prospect goes through before making their final purchase. To illustrate, the first step might be checking out your site for the first time.
The next step might be subscribing to your newsletter. The third step might be talking to one of your sales reps and so on. The term “sales funnel,” and its accompanying definition, has been around for decades. All your prospects will be at different points in the funnel.
In terms of content marketing, it is your job to motivate them to move along the funnel to finally make a purchase. So, you should create a content marketing strategy around that funnel. Here are questions to answer:
Depending on your products and services, the sales funnel process could move either very quickly or relatively slowly. With a B2C customer, the process might be quick. With a B2B customer, they might require more nurturing in the form of articles, guides, whitepapers and more.
Take a look at this review of the top seven toolbars. Organic marketing is about getting customers to your site naturally. This can be a long process, but it also leads to better customer engagement, loyalty and traffic.
Consumers are much more savvy and rarely pay attention to paid ads. While you won’t be spending on paid ads, organic marketing still requires effort as it is a form of marketing from the ground up. It requires careful attention to your content and social media channels.
Furthermore, you must incorporate more accurate SEO. Instead of paying for sponsored results, organic marketing depends on SEO. When it comes to search ads, the average click-through-rate is lower than 5 percent. On the other hand, the average CTR for organic marketing results can vary between 22 and 30 percent.
Humans are visually wired. As a result, we demand infographics. This can be especially true in an age of information overload. Today, we receive five times more information than we did in 1986. And, the brain needs time to digest every bit of information we consume.
With an infographic, your business can present data in a way that is visually stimulating and easy to digest. Infographics also induce a lot of social sharing–especially if it is a beautiful infographic with a great design.
You can use infographics to convey specific types of information. They can also drive targeted traffic to your site. So, if you don’t have a contract with a graphic designer, now is the time to start one.
Gamification is the use of games, surveys, puzzles, quizzes and more to encourage user interaction. When you incorporate interactive content, you can increase time spent on your site.
Also, it helps to break up your content marketing strategy from having strictly content. Consumers want a variety of choices for how they consume their content.
Yet, only 10 percent of marketers incorporate gamification. The reason for a limited number of marketers using gamification might be due to the cost and resources required.
If you have the ability, it can improve traffic when you invest in gamification. This isn’t just about running contests periodically. The objective should be to foster motivational campaigns that takes your target buyer on an interactive journey. And, this starts by having a pre-determined goal in mind.
If you are interested in maximizing revenue, then how can a customized game contribute toward achieving that goal? Consumers are already busy, so you want a strategic method that they will find worthy of their time.
Then, you must consider your metrics. How can you tell if your games are working? You must set up metrics to determine gamification success.
Customers enjoy the instant gratification aspect of gamified elements such as badges, leaderboards, points and even rewards they can use for real products and services. People are also motivated by a need to accomplish goals. So, your games can set specific and achievable targets to build on that momentum.
“Games are the only force in the known universe that can get people to take actions against their self-interest, in a predictable way, without using force.” ― Gabe Zichermann
Also, since consumers are now more involved in the process, they are also more likely to remember the content. For instance, say they can accumulate points through your game that they can use for discounts and special offers.
So, perhaps one of your “goals” would be to have them read content and answer a short quiz. Once they have completed that successfully, they get more points.
As opposed to direct advertising, content marketing can truly build trust with your target audience–and, once you have achieved that, you have struck gold. You are conveying the story of your brand in a way that is non-salesly.
Since hundreds of posts are created every minute, it is critical to remember how you can stand out. It really boils down to creating content that builds trust with your buyer persona. When a consumer trusts your company, they are more likely to continue visiting your site and engaging with your content.
You have something unique to share with the world, but audiences must believe your content is authentic. There are several ways to do this including:
If you follow the above suggestions, your site will earn trust and a loyal following too.
There isn’t anything wrong with increasing your company’s brand awareness through sending out direct mail pieces and PR kits. Yet, for a long-term marketing strategy, content marketing is your best bet. With a direct mail piece, you might convert a few prospects. Consequently, once your direct mail piece is sent out–it often gets thrown away.
In addition, you’ll have to change the design frequently just to garner a bit of excitement. If you are getting a good ROI, then there isn’t anything particularly wrong with this marketing approach. The same is true of PR kits.
But, in the long-term, content marketing is a powerhouse. With consistent content marketing, you increase your domain authority (DA) and online real estate. The more articles you have, the better your chances are of being found online.
Plus, it builds trust when you have a long-standing blog. Also, by linking your pieces to other blog posts on your site, you can continually attract new traffic.
If you have high-quality content, then it can improve conversions–especially with the right CTAs. And, you can increase revenue by selling eBooks. With content marketing, you compound on returns.
In terms of content distribution, LinkedIn is the place to be. It really does pay to produce relevant content on LinkedIn.
Taking the time and commitment to post content on LinkedIn does pay off–whether they be trends, quick tips or guides based on your field of expertise. You can easily share your blog posts with all your connections.
Plus, the posts become connected to your profile. When people search for your profile, they see your blog posts. Also, you can increase your influence since public posts allow LinkedIn users to follow you.
When you amass a series of relevant posts, you can also quickly accumulate a large following.
And, with each publication, all your connections receive a notification through their flag icon.
There isn’t anything that can level the playing field like content marketing. Both small and enterprise businesses can utilize content marketing to increase traffic, engagement and brand awareness. This subtle marketing approach keeps your visitors informed without being too pushy.
When visitors realize they don’t have to endure a hard sell, then they will want to buy your products and services that are relevant to their needs and wants. This is why 90 percent of companies used content marketing in 2016, and that number will only go up. The long-term benefits can’t be ignored.
For example, once your page is ranked well in the search engines, it stays there for an extended period. Plus, around 70 to 80 percent of web users ignore paid ads. Instead, content marketing can be used to promote your products without being overly aggressive.
In terms of marketing, it is important to know what not to do when curating content. You also need to understand how content marketing can affect conversion rates.
With more pages, you get more opportunities. Each piece of content is a new page. And, search engines can then easily index your pages.
Moreover, websites with over 40 unique pages get 12 times more leads than sites with five or fewer pages. And, with your buyer personas, you can tailor your content to ensure your customers are five times more likely to convert.
With the right content marketing strategy, you can effectively guide and motivate your buyers throughout the sales funnel.
Prescriptive content helps target readers to optimize their processes by offering strategic suggestions. Furthermore, prescriptive content can be used to predict outcomes through incorporating specific data points and metrics.
An example of prescriptive content might be a guide on trends to pay attention to in 2018. Additionally, prescriptive content answers questions that prospective buyers have like the ROI for investing in a cloud storage solution or how to implement a new ERP system.
There was a time when a 500-word blog post was all your site needed to get ranked on various search engines like Google and Bing. Well, those days have disappeared in the ether of history.
Since 90 percent of businesses are using content marketing, on top of all the other blog sites and media sites found online, the space for first-page rankings is insanely competitive. So, Google now looks for length in terms of filtering for quality.
And, according to SerpIQ, top ranked content usually has around 2,400 words. What’s the takeaway? For starters, you must increase the word count of your content. At a minimum, make your posts 1,200 words.
“The easiest way to turn off your community members is to broadcast the same message across multiple channels. Instead, determine the kind of content that interests the members of your community in a way that is useful to them.” — Joe Pulizzi, Founder, Content Marketing Institute
CMOs understand they must grow and evolve to stay ahead of the competition and above all the social media noise. To do so, you must segment your audiences by demographics, their point in the sales funnel, their budget and more.
Custom content is a type of hyper-personalization of content. It takes a deep understanding of your target buyer and where they are in their purchasing process. It also requires an understanding of their pain points, along with what makes them tick.
You can learn more about your target customers by spending time in forums and on social media where they are sharing with their counterparts. Then, create custom content with a specific persona in mind.
It’s difficult to trust advertising, but it is easy to trust a brand who can offer real solutions to specific pain points.
Case studies are comprehensively effective. Within a case study, you paint a picture and tug at emotions. It is storytelling at its finest, with a marketing twist. Within a case study, you have three major parts:
And, the case study is always written from the perspective of the buyer persona. You should publish more case studies simply because they are highly targeted.
Each case study conveys a specific goal related to your products and services. Also, through factual claims, you can build your brand as an authority in your industry.
You already understand the significance of blog posts. Yet, email marketing is also an important aspect of content marketing. You can generate $38 in ROI for every $1 spent.
You must incorporate targeted emails within your content marketing strategy. According to Radicati, there are around 4.9 billion global email accounts.
Consider how you interact with websites. Whenever you sign up for anything, you need to enter an email address. Case in point: email addresses and messages aren’t going away anytime soon. Everyone who engages with the Internet has an active email address.
In addition, there are more email accounts than there are Twitter and Facebook accounts. Then, there is the fact that 90 percent of email gets delivered to your prospect’s inbox. Not to mention, Facebook continues to limit how widely your posts are distributed.
You want your readers to accomplish to goal set up with each piece of your content. This happens with a call to action, where you tell your visitors exactly what you would like them to do.
The best place for a call to action is at the end of your post. Also, it must be attractive to your readers. So, keep their demands in mind.
It is difficult for one person to do everything a customer expects. Since you now understand how effective content marketing can be, it is time to hand over your content strategy to a content marketing specialist.
This doesn’t mean you take a completely hands-off approach. Since it is your brand, you still want to be involved. But, it helps to focus on tasks that reap revenue.
And, you can’t be in all places at once. Since your content represents your organization, you must be careful about who you hire as your content marketing specialist.
It should be someone who understands and easily aligns with your vision. They must discover and create the types of content your target buyer wants to see. Then, they must retain and attract readers. On top of everything, their content and strategy must drive profitability and sales.
Final thought
We are living in the era of the “informed customer.” Prospects know they have access to information that helps them make more thoughtful decisions. Therefore, brands must then align themselves, and their content marketing strategy, with the needs and wants of their customers.
To maintain a competitive edge, you must produce the type of content that serves as informative and trusted resources for your customers. This starts with understanding your customers, following their path and customizing content based on their specific personas.
The post 30 Content Marketing Statistics, Trends & Data for Your 2018 Strategy appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>Social Media Trends to Put Into Practice in 2018 [Infographic]
What should social media marketers focus on in 2018? This infographic shows several trends, like social media ROI, mobile growth and trust. Social Media Today
Search, Paid And SEO, Rank Higher As CMOs Seek New Agency Partners
What do CMOs look for in agency partners? A new report shows that while advertising and direct marketing remain on the top of the list, SEO and SEM are moving to toward the top in leaps and bounds. MediaPost
Mobile Ads To Soar In 2018, Especially In Local Media
MediaPost reports: “Social media ad revenue from mobile (not including tablets) now represents just over 70% of total social ad spending - and will grow to 80% by 2022, per BIA/Kelsey.” MediaPost
Google Analytics Introduces New ‘Audiences’ Report
Google Analytics has released a new report called “Audiences,” which is located, appropriately under the “audiences” category within the Google Analytics dashboard. To use this report, make sure to configure audiences in your account. Search Engine Journal
Google Officially Announces the New Google Search Console is Available for Everyone
Great news for Google Search Console users: the new version (in beta) is now available to everyone. You can still toggle between the old and new views if needed. Changes include consolidated error reporting and better export usability. Search Engine Land
Twitter Extends Full Tweet Archive to Developers
ZDNet reports: “Twitter announced it's giving developers access to the full archive of its history - all the way back to the first tweet in 2006. Until Thursday, full access to Twitter's history was only available to enterprise API customers.” ZDNet
Instagram’s Carousel Ad Format is Coming to Instagram Stories
Instagram announced recently that they’re bringing their Carousel Ads into stories, allowing for more than one piece of media. Advertisers can now use 1-3 pieces of media (photos or videos) in this new format. TechCrunch
The State of Chatbots in 2018: Top Benefits and Challenges
Consumers are saying that the benefits of chatbots include 24-hour customer service, along with getting instant responses. However, 43% of those surveyed said a potential blocker to using chatbots would be their preference for a live assistant. MarketingProfs
Amazon Wins the Superbowl (of Ads)
According to USA Today, Amazon’s “Alexa” spots beat out the NFL’s “Dirty Dancing”-themed ads during this year’s Super Bowl. USA Today
US Social Users Head to YouTube, Facebook to Watch Videos
Marketers can no longer afford to ignore video advertising. Why? eMarketer is predicting that video ad spending in the US alone will reach $15.42 billion this year, and will grow to $22.18 billion by 2021. eMarketer
Intel Made Smarts Glasses That Look Normal
Apparently, The Verge recently got an exclusive sneak peek at Intel’s new smart glasses Vaunt, which uses retinal projection to put a display in your eyeball. The best part? The glasses actually look like “normal” glasses. The Verge
Digital Ad Buyers Say Google Search, Facebook Deliver the Best ROI
A December 2017 survey of U.S. senior ad buyers by financial services firm Cowen and Company showed Google search was held in the “highest esteem” when it came to ROI. Nearly half of respondents named the platform as offering the highest ROI. Meanwhile, Facebook ranked second, named by 30% of those polled. eMarketer
Snapchat Slips in Features Like Fonts and Do Not Disturb Amidst Redesign
Snapchat appears to be following in Facebook’s “Time Well Spent” steps. The latest? Snapchat is offering a way to mute specific people without formally blocking them, according to TechCrunch. In addition, the major redesign that’s slowly rolling out comes with ways to jazz up your Snaps with colorful text styles and multiple captions. TechCrunch
Best & Worst Super Bowl 2018 Commercials
While the world knows the Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions, which brands took the gold for best commercials? And which ones can be crowned as the worst? Billboard’s picks for the best include the Doritos & Mountain Dew combo, and Amazon. Billboard
On the Lighter Side:
Pepsi CEO Says It’s Targeting Women With Doritos That Are Cleaner and Less Crunchy. Apparently, ladies need quiet snacks that don't make a mess. At least, that seems to be Pepsi’s belief. As AdWeek reported: “In an interview with Freakonomics, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi said that while women ‘would love’ to lick their fingers and pour Doritos chip crumbs into their mouths, they ‘don’t like to crunch too loudly in public’ and ‘don’t like to pour the little broken pieces and the flavor into their mouth.’” AdWeek
TopRank Marketing (And Clients) In the News:
Debbie Friez - 2018 Social Media Marketing Tips From 23+ Marketing Experts - Hot in Social Media
Lee Odden - Top 20 Marketers that Influence CMOs - Forbes
Lee Odden, SAP & LinkedIn (clients) - Report: Understanding the B2B Content Marketing Landscape - eMarketer
The post Digital Marketing News: Social Media Trends, What CMOs Search For & Mobile Ads Soar appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>The post Digital Marketing News: Social Media Trends, What CMOs Search For & Mobile Ads Soar appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>Social Media Trends to Put Into Practice in 2018 [Infographic]
What should social media marketers focus on in 2018? This infographic shows several trends, like social media ROI, mobile growth and trust. Social Media Today
Search, Paid And SEO, Rank Higher As CMOs Seek New Agency Partners
What do CMOs look for in agency partners? A new report shows that while advertising and direct marketing remain on the top of the list, SEO and SEM are moving to toward the top in leaps and bounds. MediaPost
Mobile Ads To Soar In 2018, Especially In Local Media
MediaPost reports: “Social media ad revenue from mobile (not including tablets) now represents just over 70% of total social ad spending - and will grow to 80% by 2022, per BIA/Kelsey.” MediaPost
Google Analytics Introduces New ‘Audiences’ Report
Google Analytics has released a new report called “Audiences,” which is located, appropriately under the “audiences” category within the Google Analytics dashboard. To use this report, make sure to configure audiences in your account. Search Engine Journal
Google Officially Announces the New Google Search Console is Available for Everyone
Great news for Google Search Console users: the new version (in beta) is now available to everyone. You can still toggle between the old and new views if needed. Changes include consolidated error reporting and better export usability. Search Engine Land
Twitter Extends Full Tweet Archive to Developers
ZDNet reports: “Twitter announced it's giving developers access to the full archive of its history - all the way back to the first tweet in 2006. Until Thursday, full access to Twitter's history was only available to enterprise API customers.” ZDNet
Instagram’s Carousel Ad Format is Coming to Instagram Stories
Instagram announced recently that they’re bringing their Carousel Ads into stories, allowing for more than one piece of media. Advertisers can now use 1-3 pieces of media (photos or videos) in this new format. TechCrunch
The State of Chatbots in 2018: Top Benefits and Challenges
Consumers are saying that the benefits of chatbots include 24-hour customer service, along with getting instant responses. However, 43% of those surveyed said a potential blocker to using chatbots would be their preference for a live assistant. MarketingProfs
Amazon Wins the Superbowl (of Ads)
According to USA Today, Amazon’s “Alexa” spots beat out the NFL’s “Dirty Dancing”-themed ads during this year’s Super Bowl. USA Today
US Social Users Head to YouTube, Facebook to Watch Videos
Marketers can no longer afford to ignore video advertising. Why? eMarketer is predicting that video ad spending in the US alone will reach $15.42 billion this year, and will grow to $22.18 billion by 2021. eMarketer
Intel Made Smarts Glasses That Look Normal
Apparently, The Verge recently got an exclusive sneak peek at Intel’s new smart glasses Vaunt, which uses retinal projection to put a display in your eyeball. The best part? The glasses actually look like “normal” glasses. The Verge
Digital Ad Buyers Say Google Search, Facebook Deliver the Best ROI
A December 2017 survey of U.S. senior ad buyers by financial services firm Cowen and Company showed Google search was held in the “highest esteem” when it came to ROI. Nearly half of respondents named the platform as offering the highest ROI. Meanwhile, Facebook ranked second, named by 30% of those polled. eMarketer
Snapchat Slips in Features Like Fonts and Do Not Disturb Amidst Redesign
Snapchat appears to be following in Facebook’s “Time Well Spent” steps. The latest? Snapchat is offering a way to mute specific people without formally blocking them, according to TechCrunch. In addition, the major redesign that’s slowly rolling out comes with ways to jazz up your Snaps with colorful text styles and multiple captions. TechCrunch
Best & Worst Super Bowl 2018 Commercials
While the world knows the Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions, which brands took the gold for best commercials? And which ones can be crowned as the worst? Billboard’s picks for the best include the Doritos & Mountain Dew combo, and Amazon. Billboard
On the Lighter Side:
Pepsi CEO Says It’s Targeting Women With Doritos That Are Cleaner and Less Crunchy. Apparently, ladies need quiet snacks that don't make a mess. At least, that seems to be Pepsi’s belief. As AdWeek reported: “In an interview with Freakonomics, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi said that while women ‘would love’ to lick their fingers and pour Doritos chip crumbs into their mouths, they ‘don’t like to crunch too loudly in public’ and ‘don’t like to pour the little broken pieces and the flavor into their mouth.’” AdWeek
TopRank Marketing (And Clients) In the News:
Debbie Friez - 2018 Social Media Marketing Tips From 23+ Marketing Experts - Hot in Social Media
Lee Odden - Top 20 Marketers that Influence CMOs - Forbes
Lee Odden, SAP & LinkedIn (clients) - Report: Understanding the B2B Content Marketing Landscape - eMarketer
The post Digital Marketing News: Social Media Trends, What CMOs Search For & Mobile Ads Soar appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>Roughly 120,000 visitors from 130 countries descended on the Twin Cities last week to take part in Super Bowl LII festivities hosted in downtown Minneapolis. To welcome visitors to the Land of 10,000 Lakes, Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank—which just so happens to have its name on the stadium that hosted the big game—wanted to give visitors a taste of “what Minnesota is all about.”
For those of you who haven’t heard, Minnesota—where TopRank Marketing is proudly based—isn’t just known for its frigid winters and as the birthplace and residence of the late Prince Rogers Nelson. It’s also known for its “northern hospitality”—or as it’s affectionately called—Minnesota Nice.
With Minnesota Nice as their inspiration—and some great strategic thinking—U.S. Bank launched the #MnNice #NiceOff conversation and friendly competition on Twitter, inviting its followers and other local brands to try to “out-nice” each other by sharing acts of kindness that are Minnesota Nice signatures.
The result? A social media marketing campaign that was thoughtful, engaging, subtly brand-centric, and influencer-activated.
While the conversation started with the single tweet below, the campaign was in the works for weeks.
As it so happens, TopRank Marketing alumni and current U.S. Bank Social Media Campaign Manager, Jason Schober, was part of the action. And he was gracious enough to give us an inside look.
“We really wanted to evoke some engagement and brand activation within the community of people that would be participating in the activities leading up to and at the big game,” Schober told us.
Eventually, the Minnesota Nice-themed campaign strategy emerged as a winning idea. To get started, the team team laid out a strategy that would ensure FCC compliance by not mentioning financial products or services in communications, respect Super Bowl guidelines since U.S. Bank was not a direct sponsor, and make sure the campaign made sense for their brand identity and voice.
The campaign was in great shape, but U.S. Bank didn’t want to go at it alone. So, roughly a week before launch, they began to form partnerships with other local, well-known brands—including Target, Land O’ Lakes, Sun Country and 3M—to be part of the conversation. However, none of the partnering brands knew what others would be posting until it unfolded on launch day (Feb. 1), which kept the conversation real and spontaneous. Here’s a shot of the beginning of the conversation.
For the work we do at TopRank Marketing, this move is directly tied to the power of influence in marketing. By partnering with influential brands, U.S. Bank was not only able to add credible voices to the conversation, but also extend their reach to these brands’ respective audiences. In addition, once the ball got rolling, other brands and individuals were given an organic opportunity to get in on the fun. Of course, many of the interactions cleverly intertwined a brand’s own marketing message. Here’s one of our favorites:
When it came to selecting the right hashtag to define the conversation, their approach was two-pronged, according to Jason.
“The original idea was #MinnesotaNiceOff,” he explained. “But for both tracking and engagement purposes, we decided to leverage two hashtags: #MnNice and #NiceOff. Reason being, we knew #MnNice was already being used and could open our conversation up to a broader audience, and #NiceOff would be something we could own and brand the conversation with.”
A thoughtful, integrated social media marketing strategy is an absolute must. Start by looking at any compliance and trademark red tape, as well as how a campaign will integrate with and complement your brand. Then ask yourself: What other credible, influential voices can be added to elicit shared value?
There’s little doubt that trolls and disgruntled users are commonplace on social media these days, often trying to ruin the spirit of good conversation. And in today’s world of social media, hashtags are conversations. So, when it comes to branding your marketing message with a hashtag conversation starter, marketers need to prepare for the fact that they don’t necessarily own the content or the conversation.
For U.S. Bank, they knew the risks of starting the #MnNice #NiceOff conversation. But they also believed the campaign easily lent itself to passively putting trolls in their place. As you can see from the thread below, U.S. Bank made it a point to go full-out with the campaign theme when confronted with negativity.
“Our entire campaign was centered on Minnesota Nice,” Jason said. “The only appropriate response to these kinds of interactions was to be as overly polite as possible.”
When it comes to anticipating trolls or negative responses, consider the worst-case scenario for your hashtag-branded campaign and build it into your overall strategy. As our own Joshua Nite recently wrote on the topic of proper hashtag usage, when creating your own hashtag, ask yourself:
Once the tweeting began on launch day, Jason said his team was using Spredfast as a helpful tool to monitor, track, and respond in real-time. But once it became clear that the conversation was on the right track—barring input from trolls—the team decided to leverage Twitter Moments to turn the conversation into a storytelling space.
“This was already in the original plan because we wanted to continue to tell the story beyond the initial conversation,” Jason told us. “But we were waiting for the momentum to take over before creating the Moment.”
As for results, between Feb. 1 and Feb. 6, the Twitter Moment saw nearly 35,000 total opens, 31,247 unique opens, 448 likes, 155 shares, and a 8.48% completion rate.
Whether it be a campaign or every-day usage, make sure you understand the full capabilities of any social media platform you’re engaging on. This will not only help you think more strategically about your messaging and interactions, but also help you provide more value for your audience. This is especially important in the age of decline (or extinction) for organic visibility on social platforms.
In addition, social media listening and management tools are often an investment that pays off—especially during campaigns. As TopRank Marketing CEO Lee Odden has said: “Tools make reaching social media marketing goals possible.”
For brands and marketers of all industries, social media hashtag campaigns like this serves as a great example of running a smart, strategic, and integrated campaign.
By thinking strategically from start to finish—and inviting like-minded, influential brand voices to the table—U.S. Bank was able to not only capitalize on one of the biggest sporting events of the year, but also garner meaningful and organic interactions, engage in some friendly competition with other local brands being gracious Super Bowl hosts, and spotlight and activate their brand identity.
Want some more inspiration from brands on Twitter? Take a peek at both B2B and B2C brands mastering the art of social customer care on Twitter.
The post Social Media Marketing Spotlight: U.S. Bank Rallies Local Allies for a Friendly, Engaging #MNNice #NiceOff appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>The post Social Media Marketing Spotlight: U.S. Bank Rallies Local Allies for a Friendly, Engaging #MNNice #NiceOff appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>One of the most infuriating aspects of e-commerce is facing competition against huge brands – Amazon being one of the top. These giant companies offer one-stop retail stores and consistently dominate search engine results page (SERPs), making it seem virtually impossible for small- and medium-sized retailers to contend. To put it simply, it is nerve-wracking […]
The post How Difficult is it to Outrank Amazon? 4 Strategies to Beat Them Out appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>One of the most infuriating aspects of e-commerce is facing competition against huge brands – Amazon being one of the top. These giant companies offer one-stop retail stores and consistently dominate search engine results page (SERPs), making it seem virtually impossible for small- and medium-sized retailers to contend. To put it simply, it is nerve-wracking to even try to compete with sites such as Amazon.
Any small- or medium-sized business that actually succeeds in outranking Amazon could expect a tremendous boost in sales and reputation. This is why despite the knowledge that they’ll be challenging an established giant in the industry, a lot of retailers still embark on this journey to topple Amazon. Below delves into ways to battle the retail giant and outrank it in the SERPs.
If your plan to outrank Amazon involves focusing on short, general terms describing your products or services such as “men’s shoes” then your strategy needs an overhaul. With the sheer number of sites competing to rank for these common keywords, your page will undoubtedly get outranked by bigger and more authoritative sites. The mere size of their operations alone would ensure that they come out on top, and that’s not even considering the big pockets that match. However, this advantage for them could also work for you.
Giant retailers or sites generally no longer bother with specific long-tail keywords. This is why the use of long-tail keywords could work well for smaller brands because the competition in this arena is less cutthroat. To fully take advantage of this strategy, you must strive to be as specific as possible. In fact, some marketers even use complete sentences as their keywords.
To use our previous examples, we can expand “men’s shoes” to “red Nike men’s running shoes”. In implementing this strategy, you can easily rank higher and can even land on the first page of the results because your keywords are longer and more specific.
An effective method to create a long-tail keyword strategy is incorporating it in a high-quality and relevant original content. This is because longer terms can be used more naturally within these kinds of posts. Consequently, Google will be able to detect the longer keywords and rank you for them.
Google puts a premium on quality user experience, making your visitors’ engagement rates as one of the ranking factors in SERPs. This is why you must deliver spectacular results in this department. Focus on making sure that every user who visits your page would want to stick around and even return to your site. Check on factors like page speed and invest in making your site as mobile-friendly as possible and as comprehensive as possible to avoid high bounce and exit rates. Look into creating relevant content to keep your visitors interested on your page. Every nook and corner of your site must offer something useful.
For example, utilize your category and sub-category options to impart relevant information to potential leads. Check if it would be helpful to create comprehensive guides, infographics, or even instruction brochures to provide a better understanding of your products or services to your visitors. Don’t skimp on these resources as they can turn into powerful tools that could push your site higher in the SERPs. The more useful your content is, the more engaged and interested your visitors become. In turn, this will translate into better ranking from Google.
Here’s the deal: stock manufacturer product descriptions won’t give you any boost in SEO rankings. Generally, brands like Amazon no longer have the time to rewrite each product description included in all their items. With thousands – if not millions – of products included in their inventory, it would not be practical (or even reasonable) for them to invest in this strategy. After all, they are already ranking on top of these items, so why would they bother?
You, on the other hand, should incorporate this into your ranking efforts. Rewriting your stock product descriptions into engaging and distinct copied could go a long way for your SEO. Instead of simply copying and pasting the paragraphs on your site, think of ways to better present your products or services. As mentioned earlier, strive to provide more comprehensive and relevant information to your users. Below is a great example:
Source: GreenandBlacks.co.uk
For example, you can add a link to your original guides or case studies in your product descriptions. That could entice your visitors to stay longer and check out the rest of your site. Whichever strategy you think of, remember that your goal is to set yourself apart from the rest of sites selling or offering basically the same thing.
This is already a tried and tested move – so popular in fact that we can see the results right in front of us: the seemingly unbeatable ranking of Amazon. The most obvious advantage of huge brands is their name recognition. Customers typically go directly to the brands they trust and recognize. This is why it’s crucial that you invest in developing your brand as well.
Ultimately, your goal should be to become a widely recognized, highly regarded, and trusted brand in your specific niche. This is the key to having a sustainable presence and dominance in the SERPs. Try to have a distinct voice and personality to distinguish you from the competition. Consider publishing fresh content on relevant topics to your clients as well. Be as helpful and useful to your target customers as possible. That way, your brand could gradually evolve into the go-to site for all their needs. It sounds obvious, but it’s important to remember that this is not a strategy out of the question.
The Takeaway
Competing with brands like Amazon is a daunting task. They have an almost limitless budget, unsurpassable number of relevant links and pages, and entire teams dedicated to solely amp up their rankings. However beating out Amazon can be done, it just takes a more strategic approach.
The post How Difficult is it to Outrank Amazon? 4 Strategies to Beat Them Out appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>The post 9 Top Marketing Trends for 2018 appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>There is no question that 2017 was an incredible year for marketing.
What’s even better than a banner year is fresh optimism for the next. Predictions and trends for 2018 present even more opportunities for marketers that can see the signal amongst the noise.
As we continue to grow, I’ve been researching what trends are worth considering and investing in for B2B marketers. The result is the following list: Influencer Marketing, Content Experiences, Artificial Intelligence, Data, Video, Privacy Protection, Audience Development, Voice and Purpose Driven Marketing.
Within the realm of influence, there are big shifts towards engaging with microinfluencers, always on programs, greater accountability of influencer reach and effectiveness and an emphasis on measuring influencer marketing ROI. Marketers are also taking a more holistic view of who an influencer is, including customers, members of their community and employees.
Many marketers are shifting their focus away from big name influencers towards niche players and for good reason. Microinfluencers deliver 60% higher campaign engagement rates and those campaigns are 6.7 times more efficient per engagement than those with influencers with larger followings.
Beyond niche industry influencers are the internal influencers to a company: employees. Companies are increasingly realizing the value of tapping this invaluable resource of credible influence. 90% of brands say they are either pursuing employee advocacy programs or have programs already active.
In 2018 we’ll see even more marketers transitioning from campaigns to always on engagements with influencers in a way that emphasizes mutual value. Influencers can build credibility by becoming ambassadors for the brand and the brand develops relationships with the influencer’s audience.
Ongoing engagements with influencers also help build a more authentic experience for the audience vs. one off campaigns promoting a specific product or service. Always on and ongoing influencer engagements with brands will pave the way for greater influencer marketing ROI. That said, those arrangements are only as strong as the relationships and as we all know, relationships are not automatic – they take time and investment.
It is no longer enough to inform buyers, they want to feel something. Content experiences that are highly relevant, purposeful and engaging can come in many forms from video to interactive. All help engage customers intellectually and emotionally.
There is a strong connection between influencer marketing and content experiences. Amisha Ghandi, Head of Influencer Marketing at SAP (client) puts it best;
“Working with influencers to co-create content delivers mutual value. When that content is interactive, it creates an experience that is more engaging and inspires action.” @AmishaGandhi
With so many options for content, customers expect to be “info-tained” not just informed. Brands that can integrate trusted industry and internal experts with interactive and engaging content they are proud to be a part of, will be appreciated by contributing influencers just as much as they will be rewarded by customers.
In a study by Smart Insights, AI and Machine Learning were rated the #3 marketing activity that will make the largest commercial impact on business in 2018.
Another study by Salesforce found that high-performing marketing teams are more than 2 times as likely to use AI in their campaigns than under-performers.
What are marketers doing with AI? Areas of focus with AI in marketing include advertising automation and optimization, chat bots for service and assisting in sales, and content personalization.
Bots for service are not new, but an increasing number of marketers are using chat apps and bots to engage customers during the sales process. In fact, 1.82 billion people worldwide are projected to use a chat app in 2018 and by 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationship with the enterprise without interacting with a human.
I don’t remember where I heard it first, but the saying “Marketers are data rich and insight poor” is more true today than ever. Machine Learning and AI can help marketers make sense of all the “dark data” they’re sitting on as well as structured and unstructured data online to surface insights about ideal content, offers and even emotional triggers to inspire conversions.
Of course, marketers shouldn’t use AI to automate and optimize their marketing because they can, but because that’s what it will take to meet customer appetite for personalized experiences. The increased competition for customer attention amidst the huge amount of media each consumer is confronted with each day requires every advantage to optimize for reach, engagement and conversion.
Speaking of data, it has become clear that few successful marketing programs are not informed by data in ways that were not considered 10 years ago. While companies only analyze 12 percent of the data they have available, senior marketing executives are more informed about what is possible and taking action. Josh Mueller, SVP, Global Marketing at Dun & Bradstreet (client) puts it well:
“A data-inspired framework is absolutely essential for modern marketers. To implement this necessity, we’ve fully integrated our content and demand gen organizations, with shared editorial planning and KPIs across the entire customer journey. With these common insights, our teams have built a continuous feedback loop – from topic selection through performance – that ensures every piece of content we create has a purpose and is measured against that purpose.” @jmueller03
Rather than being limited to using historical campaign data to iterate future campaigns, companies are using evolved marketing automation, machine learning and dynamic personalization platforms to apply customer insights from their data to marketing in real-time. There’s a lot more of that to come in 2018.
There’s been a substantial increase in demand and production of video by brands wishing to better engage with customers. What is catching marketers’ and customers’ attention most with video is live streaming through popular live video platforms including Facebook live, YouTube live, Instagram live, Twitter, and Periscope. According to Facebook’s stats, live videos get 3X the views than recorded videos. Video optimized for mobile experiences is also hot for marketers and customers. Mobile video ad spend alone will grow 49% to roughly $18 billion in 2018.
Everyone with a smartphone and apps is empowered to create, publish and promote video content. Video is not the plaything of B2C anymore either as more B2B companies invest in creating engaging stories through video and publishing them on LinkedIn. I think we’ll see a lot more creative video coming from B2B brands in the new year.
With the increase in compromises to customer data, concern over privacy is something more marketers are tapping in to. Realizing that certain segments of customers care about privacy, some marketers are using it as a marketing attribute.
Another consideration for greater focus on privacy is the oncoming implementation of GDPR in Europe. Companies anywhere including the U.S. that market to citizens of Europe must comply or face potentially significant consequences. Compliance with GDPR requires changes in opt-in, communications and data handling that marketers must address and soon.
Not only is compliance good for customers, it is also a solid marketing message and good business.
Numerous studies show buyers don’t trust ads or brand communications as much as the people and sources “they know”. Brands that develop audiences and community by providing value not only create relevant context but also hedge against the increasing challenges around customer trust and privacy. Companies are also making progress towards growing their own audiences with content marketing vs. buying access to those audiences with ads.
As Robert Rose of Content Marketing Institute says,
The key trend that I’m seeing that will actually help content marketers move the needle will be a move to direct access to subscribed audiences – and the data they provide – as a means of building value for the practice of marketing. @Robert_Rose
Search queries are evolving from obscure sequences of words typed into search box on laptops to sentences either typed or spoken into a variety of devices.
In 2017 20 million units of smart speakers were sold. Voice assistants like Siri and smart speakers like Echo and Google Home are training customers to use voice in ways that marketers must adapt to. Voice accounts for 20% of searches and is expected to hit 50% by 2020.
Voice content in the form of podcasting is also seeing great growth: 68 million Americans listen to podcasts on a monthly basis. Marketers looking for ways to engage with customers in a more meaningful way are looking at podcasting as a way to do that.
Two of my favorite new podcasts are “Data Inspired” from Rishi Dave, CMO of Dun & Bradstreet (client) and the “CMO Moves” podcast by Nadine Dietz. I have no doubt many more brand and executive podcasts will launch in 2018.
With over 80 million Millennials and over $1 trillion in spending power, consumers are increasingly factoring things like brand mission, values, and sustainability into their purchase decisions. A study by the Economist Group found that 79% of consumers prefer to purchase products from a company that operates with a social purpose. Companies must consider what their purpose means in terms of communications and marketing.
Defining purpose is an initiative we are undertaking within our own company and it’s not as easy to translate into marketing communications as you might think! But brand purpose resonates with modern buyers and more companies will be incorporating their purpose into how the brand is positioned and how they operate – including marketing.
Beyond all the tactics of chatbots, microinfluencers, livestreaming, optimizing for smart speakers and purpose driven marketing is the strategy that answers “why” and for “who”. To inform marketing strategy, there is one universal truth for marketing: customer centricity. With a eye for optimization on customer preferences and behaviors, marketers will always have the right marketing mix.
How do you make sense of what trends to focus on? At our own company, we deliver “best answer” content marketing programs that integrate influencers, SEO, social, advertising, design and marketing performance optimization. Will optimization for voice search play a part in that mix? Sure. Do AI and machine learning have a role to play in optimizing search and social ad campaigns? How about using AI to surface insights about the best content to create and offers to make? Of course.
As a marketing agency it is tempting to chase shiny marketing objects to differentiate. To know what’s possible, we really have to. But we’re also focusing on customers and the core expertise that satisfies 95% of the performance expectations of our marketing programs. By being exceptional at very specific things consistently, we’ll be able to exceed expectations. We’ll also have room to experiment and find data that supports new and customer-centric areas for innovation.
2017 was also a record breaking year for our marketing agency, TopRank Marketing. We added 15 new amazingly talented staff and had the largest increase in client programs and new customer engagements than any year before. While we’ve seen much success with B2B influencer and content marketing programs, it is our focus on the intersection with data from SEO, social and analytics plus all new interactive design capabilities that has enabled great results and more opportunities.
What are the marketing trends you’re most focused on in 2018?
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]]>The State of Social 2018 Report: Your Guide to Latest Social Media Marketing Research [New Data]. Buffer teamed up with Social Media Week to collect data from over 1,700 marketers and create a new report with insights ranging from huge opportunities with messaging apps to how successful marketers are measuring social media ROI. Buffer Blog(...)
Read the rest of Digital Marketing News: State of Social, Super Super Bowl Ads, Scheduled Posts on Instagram (725 words)
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]]>As a best practice, when moving pages you should implement 301 redirects from the previous URLs to the new ones and keep them active for at least 1 year. When moving entire domains to new domains, you should keep them active for as long as reasonably possible. This is crucial to maintaining your domain authority […]
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]]>As a best practice, when moving pages you should implement 301 redirects from the previous URLs to the new ones and keep them active for at least 1 year. When moving entire domains to new domains, you should keep them active for as long as reasonably possible. This is crucial to maintaining your domain authority and rankings – regardless of the reason behind the change in your URL. This redirect makes sure that your visitors are sent to your new site without having to type the new URL. Think of it as setting up a mail forwarding system when you move houses. To ensure that you do not miss out on any important mail, you ensure that everything is sent to the new address. The same concern runs true for websites. In tech terms, mail forwarding is called a 301 redirect.
A Quick 301, 101: Benefits and Pitfalls of a 301 Redirect
Without a properly setup redirect, your users might face a 404 Not Found page or get directed to non-operational parts of your website. Clearly, these kinds of messages or errors are turn-offs to users and will certainly cause them to leave your website, but could lead them to completely disregarding your brand. The screenshot below is what it would look like if we incorrectly setup a redirect and you hit our 404 page:
Another consequence could be losing your page ranking because only a correctly set up redirect could point all link juice from your old site’s backlinks to your new page. However with all that said, the benefits, if used correctly, still outweight the pitfalls.
The History of 301 Redirects (and Google’s Response)
301 redirects are permanent redirects from an old URL to a new one. This command sends visitors to the new URL instead of to the one they typed or clicked on from their search engine results. A 301 redirect (not to be mistaken for a canonical attribute) can send 90-99% link juice to the new page. The code “301” is the HTTP status protocol of this kind of redirect. Generally, this redirect is deemed as the most efficient.
In most cases, marketers have various reasons for setting up a 301 redirect:
The Dilemma and Google’s Response
Although the 301 redirect is a widely accepted practice, a lot of site owners still wonder if it’s necessary. If yes, how long should you keep a redirected (301) URL before shutting it down? Theoretically, a 301 redirect is a permanent type of redirect which means you can keep it for the rest of your life (and even beyond). However, keeping something like that in your inventory is definitely not practical or reasonable. At some point, a number of publishers believe that it would be time to let go of the old domain, and answer the question of “when” can only come from Google’s advice.
Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller said that 301 redirects applied to permanent site move situations should be active for a long time. He explained that it takes at least six months to roughly a year for Google to be able to completely recognize that your site was moved. Apart from that, he pointed out that you give your visitors ample time to learn about your changes instead of leading them to a 404 page or a parked domain.
Mueller also wanted publishers to focus their attention on active links that may still be associated with your old URL. This means that even if a significant amount of time has passed and Google has already recognized that your site moved, it might still point to your old domain if the said active links are clicked. Hence, Mueller advised site owners to do their own due diligence as well. He said that publishers should try to spread the word about their move as much as possible. Aside from informing your followers and users, it would be beneficial if you also reach out to the owners of the links. The latter measure would at least give your partners the opportunity to update accordingly from their end as well.
Basically, Mueller suggests that you should keep your 301 redirects as long as possible and reasonable. After taking the necessary steps like informing the relevant parties of the move and disseminating the information in the hopes of reaching your future visitors, give Google sufficient time to recognize your move.
Bottom line
If you are moving from one domain to another, try to keep your 301 redirects for as long as there are sites or links that are still pointing to your former URL. In fact, if you see no pressing reason to remove it, the best decision is to just leave it there. Apart from potentially hurting your ranking, getting rid of your 301 redirects could mean bad customer experience for your users as well. Seeing error pages or outdated pages would badly hurt your reputation and could even cost you lost leads.
Another factor to consider before removing your 301 redirects is your site traffic. Check if the main source of your new site’s traffic is either your old links or direct traffic recorded when users type your old URL into their browsers. If this is the case for you, then it’s highly advisable to keep the 301 redirect forever. It would be too risky to suddenly get rid of your old domain especially if your old links are bringing in so much traffic from users who still find them relevant.
So should you ever take it down? If the source of most of your traffic comes from search engine results, then you can just shut down your 301 redirects after a few months to a year. Like Mueller said, this would be enough time for Google to track your move and recognize your new site.
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]]>In late 2014, the hashtag #WhyIStayed was trending on Twitter. Frozen pizza slinger DiGiorno, known for being snarky and clever on social media, wanted to join the fun:
There was just one problem: #WhyIStayed started in response to a video of domestic abuse. Women used the hashtag to tell their own story of abuse and talk about the societal pressures that led them to stay with their abusers.
At best, DiGiorno looked clueless. At worst, it looked like they were making light of a very serious issue. All they wanted was a little brand visibility...and they got it, but not in the way they were hoping.
Hashtags are an integral part of Twitter and Instagram (and Facebook, to a much lesser extent). As such, they should be part of our social media marketing on each platform. But as DiGiorno and many other brands have shown, it’s not enough to look at the trending tags and hop on board. Marketers need to understand what hashtags are for and how our audience is using them before we jump in.
Here are the #fundamentals you need to avoid invisibility or embarrassment with hashtags.
Hashtags started as a feature on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channels back in 1988, when the internet still ran on steam turbine power. The "#" in front of channel meant that it was available for users across the internet, not just on a local area network.
Twenty years later, IRC fans who were early Twitter adopters proposed using the symbol to help classify common topics or groups. Twitter itself didn’t officially recognize hashtags for two more years. In 2009, the site started automatically hyperlinking hashtags to search results.
Facebook added hashtags in 2013, but they don’t see as much use on the platform. By contrast, Facebook-owned Instagram practically runs on hashtags. It’s not unusual to see a post with a four-word captioned followed by a paragraph of tags: #NoFilter #WokeUpLikeThis #BeachLife #SanDiego #ChihuahuaLove. Clicking any of the tags leads to a custom feed of images with the same tag, much like Twitter’s search functionality works.
Hashtags began as a way to categorize information for future searchers, much like the category or topic tags on a blog. In that case, using the right hashtags is more like SEO than anything else; it’s all about making sure your message comes up for the right query.
But hashtags aren’t really for search anymore. Hardly anyone is going to the search box on Twitter or Instagram and putting in a keyword to pull up a specific hashtag.
Hashtags are not really for marketers to boost their brand or their content, either. We can strategically use hashtags for that purpose, but we must remember that’s an off-label use. It’s important to tread lightly on using hashtags promotionally — as DiGiorno and many others can attest.
If it’s not about search or self-promotion, how should marketers think about hashtags? Or, better question, how does your audience think about hashtags?
Odds are, though, your audience doesn’t actively think about why they use or interact with a specific tag. There’s an innate understanding that makes some tags look “right” or “natural,” while others feel “forced” or “commercial.”
The best way I can think of to express that innate understanding is:
Social media feeds move fast. Hashtags are a way for users to block out space to have a conversation. “We’re telling this type of story in here.” “We’re sharing this type of picture in here.” Using a specific existing hashtag should come with the knowledge that you’re entering someone else’s conversation space.
The social media manager at DiGiorno likely wouldn’t go up to a group of people talking about a sad and serious topic in hushed tones and shout, “PIZZA!” But that’s exactly what they did on Twitter.
So before you jump into a conversation, make sure that:
When you’re making your own hashtags, keep in mind that you’re starting a conversation. You can’t control who contributes to that conversation and what they might add to it.
For example, in 2012 McDonald’s used the hashtag #McDStories in a tweet, seemingly inviting users to share their own special memories of the chain. Instead, they got stories about food poisoning, diabetes, heart attacks, and animal cruelty.
It turns out McDonald’s had intended to use the tag to promote stories from employees and others affiliated with the brand. But they accidentally started a much wider conversation. With a little forethought, the mess could have been avoided.
So, when creating your own hashtag, keep in mind:
Good hashtaggery starts with understanding that hashtags are a conversation. From there, the optimum tactics for using hashtags vary from platform to platform. The good folks at Buffer have an in-depth guide that touches on each of the major social media sites.
Here are some simple tips that I recommend to supplement Buffer’s advice:
Hashtags started as a tagging tool for search. Today, they’re used to create a space for conversations, group people with similar interests, and fill Instagram feeds with puppies. To be most successful with your hashtags, respect conversations that exist already, and be cautious about the conversations you start.
Need to #LevelUp your social media marketing? TopRank Marketing can help.
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]]>Earlier this month, marketers were shocked to learn that Facebook would be making more major changes to its News Feed, effectively bringing brand and publisher organic reach to zero by prioritizing high engagement content from family, friends and groups.
In a formal statement posted on his own Facebook page, Mark Zuckerberg said:
“We built Facebook to help people stay connected and bring us closer together with the people that matter to us. That’s why we’ve always put friends and family at the core of the experience. Research shows that strengthening our relationships improves our well-being and happiness.”
“But recently we’ve gotten feedback from our community that public content — posts from businesses, brands and media — is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other. … Based on this, we’re making a major change to how we build Facebook.”
While the announcement seemed to be the final nail in the organic News Feed coffin, the death of organic reach on Facebook has been a long time coming. Back in April 2015, Facebook announced it was updating News Feeds to strike a better balance between friends, public figures, publishers, businesses and community organizations. Then in late June 2016, Facebook said it would be making further refinements to ensure users don’t miss updates from their friends and families.
Now, after an intense year of political and social upheaval — not to mention the emergence of the fake news engine and the Russian advertising scandal — it’s no surprise that Facebook is re-examining things yet again.
Naturally, disappointed marketers all over the world are wondering how this change will truly impact their social marketing efforts. From our perspective, the change:
Since Zuckerberg’s announcement, there’s been one implication in particular that’s captivated our attention. The way we see it, the value of influencer engagement on Facebook will increase even more.
Our CEO, Lee Odden, has long been an evangelist for working with influencers, believing that influencers can help brands bypass several obstacles. AdBlocking, for example, is in use on over 600 million devices, costing business over $22 billion in ad revenue, according to PageFair. Working with credible influencers who are trusted amongst an audience allows brands to bypass the adblocking obstacle and better connect with buyers.
Lee has also talked about other challenges such as distrust of brand advertising. In fact, 69% of consumers don’t trust ads, according to research by Ipsos Connect. And yet another obstacle is information overload. Americans are confronted with an average of 63GB of media on a daily basis (USC/ICTM).
All of these obstacles, according to Lee, are addressed by working with industry influencers. The virtual elimination of organic News Feed visibility for brands and publishers on Facebook is no different and marketers would be smart to think about how influencer engagement can keep organic Facebook visibility alive.
So, to sum it all up: Now that the organic News Feed is effectively dead, new life is being given to influencer marketing opportunities. Here are a few key considerations:
Last year, we saw influencer marketing explode — becoming one of the most talked about topics among marketers and arguably our most-requested digital marketing services among both B2B and B2C clients. In addition, our own research shows that 57% of marketers say influencer marketing will be integrated in all marketing activities in the next three years.
This quote from Lee sums it up well:
“For any kind of content a business creates and publishes to the world, there is an opportunity for collaboration with credible voices that have active networks interested in what those voices have to say. In many cases, [audiences are] far more interested [in an influencer’s insights] than in what the brand has to say.”
With Facebook reducing branded content and elevating content from individuals, there’s no better time to invest in influencers — which can have an impact across all social platforms.
With #Facebook reducing branded content and elevating content from individuals, there’s no better time to invest in influencers. #influencermarketing
Click To Tweet
Influencer marketing was already poised to be big in 2018, but this change to Facebook’s platform will absolutely spur more brands and businesses to dip their toe into the water. As a result, influencers will see an uptick in requests, giving them more power to be very choosy about which brands they lend their time, insights and audience to.
Influencers have more power to be very choosy about the brand they lend their time, insights and audience to. #influencermarketing
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As illustrated by the previous two points, the Facebook change will lead to an increased adoption of influencer marketing, giving influencers more options. So it’s no surprise that it’ll be time to double-down on your commitment to influencer nurturing.
Now, we’ve always said that when it comes to building relationships and rapport with influencers, it’s critical that you put the time and effort into nurturing — rather than simply reaching out when you have a need. There has to be shared value.
But I think most marketers would admit that they have significant room for improvement in this area — and there’s no time like the present to recommit yourself.
With #Facebook’s recent algorithm change, it’s time to double-down on your commitment to nurturing your influencers. #influencermarketing
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Let’s face it. This “major change” to Facebook’s platform isn’t the first and it certainly won’t be the last. As a result, now is the time to fully capitalize on the opportunity by better working with industry influencers. Now is the time to refocus on connecting with your audience — and influencers can help you do just that by adding authenticity, credibility, unique insights and new eyeballs to your content.
What else is in store for influencer marketing in 2018? Check out these rising influencer marketing trends that you need to pay attention to.
What do you think about the latest Facebook News Feed algorithm change? Tell us in the comments section below.
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© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2018. | Death of Facebook Organic Reach = New Opportunities for Influencer Marketing | http://www.toprankblog.com
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]]>Image source: Instagram
Instagram Adds Gifs to Stories and, Yes, It’s a Direct Shot at Snapchat. Instagram announced users can now add GIF stickers to all photos and videos uploaded to Stories with more than 100,000 moving stickers to choose from, as well as see which movable images are trending. Does this remind anyone of the annoying days of Angelfire and MySpace? AdAge
App Spending Topped $86 Billion In 2017. Around the world, smartphone-carrying consumers downloaded more than 175 billion apps last year, on which they spent over $86 billion according to the latest annual report from App Annie. MediaPost
Google and Salesforce unveil first elements of partnership. At Dreamforce in 2017 Google and Salesforce announced a partnership and are now revealing the first part including Google Analytics 360 users being able to import data from the Salesforce CRM tool such as leads and opportunities. This allows companies using Google’s analytics products to mix and match data between the two systems. TechCrunch
Google Pitches AI Image-Detection Tool to Lure Cloud Clients. Google is introducing a new product called Cloud AutoML that enables data-center customers to automatically generate machine-learning models — computing systems that can crunch and parse huge swaths of information. Google is starting with vision, allowing companies to classify images more effectively, but plans to release the tool for analyzing text, speech and video. Bloomberg
The Google Speed Update: Page speed will become a ranking factor in mobile search. Starting in July 2018, Google will finally use mobile page speed as a ranking in their mobile search results. Google today announced a new ranking algorithm called the “Speed Update” that is designed for mobile search. It will only impact a small percentage of queries involving pages that “deliver the slowest experience to users”. Search Engine Land
Amazon’s ad business is growing faster than Google’s and Facebook’s, although the duopoly still dominates. Google and Facebook combined still represent more than half of the U.S. advertising market, but Amazon’s ad business, while just 2.5 percent, is growing faster than both of them. Digiday
Google Giveth and Google Taketh Away: Winners & Losers of 2017. What do Netflix, ebates.com and thesun.co.uk have in common? They’re among the top 100 domains that enjoyed rich rewards in 2017. Which domains took the biggest hits in search Visibility? Find out in this new report from Searchmetrics
More than 90,000 sites now use ads.txt, up from 3,500 in September. Launched by the Interactive Advertising Bureau Tech Lab in May, ads.txt is a text file that publishers host on their web servers that lists all the companies authorized to sell their inventory. Because ads.txt allows buyers to check the validity of the sellers they purchase from, it should help buyers avoid spoofed domains and arbitraged inventory. Digiday
On the Lighter Side:
Old Spice’s ‘Sweat Mop Boys’ Are Here to Deodorize College Basketball. AdWeek
Cheetos Invents ‘Dance Craze’ To Promote USA Curling, New Cheddar Curls. MediaPost
TopRank Marketing (And Clients) In the News:
Rishi Dave (client) the CMO of Dun & Bradstreet, talks marketing technology in this podcast – Echo Junction
Jason Miller of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions on Marketing Smarts [Podcast] Create a Content Strategy That Rocks – MarketingProfs
Lee Odden to keynote Pubcon Florida – Pubcon Blog
Lee Odden – How to recruit influencers – Inventis
Lee Odden – What is content intelligence? How data-driven marketers will dominate – Hawkeye
What was the top digital marketing news story for you this week?
We’ll see you next week when we’ll be sharing all new marketing news stories. Also, be sure to check out the full video summary on our TopRank Marketing TV YouTube Channel.
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© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2018. | Digital Marketing News: Instagram Gifs, Google AutoML, App Spend hits 86 Billion | http://www.toprankblog.com
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]]>The post How to Prove the Value of Content Marketing to Your CMO in 3 Easy Steps appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>“ROI” can be a blurry idea in the world of content marketing. With often hard-to-measure costs and returns, content marketing ROI or value isn’t always crystal clear. Dealing in metrics like pageviews, time-on-page, organic impressions, and others aren’t always directly translatable into business revenue, which — let’s face it — is what your bosses really care about.
Even though only 8% of content marketers consider themselves successful in tracking content marketing ROI, we all know that content marketing is incredibly valuable. As our CEO Lee Odden has said for a long time:
“Content is the reason search engines exist and it’s the cornerstone of what people share on the social web. A quantity of quality content that answers readers’ questions in a useful and entertaining way serves everything from demand generation to lead generation.”
But how can you prove it with evidence that your chief marketing officer (CMO) or content director actually cares about?
Content is the foundation of everything we do here at TopRank Marketing. And our clients deserve and expect us to be able to connect our content marketing services to tangible business benefits. In just three easy steps, we can help you make that same connection and prove the value of your content marketing up the ladder.
As a marketer, you’re no doubt aware that you need to set a measurable goal before launching campaigns, but just because you know you should, doesn’t mean it always happens. Without setting a measurable goal, one could argue that your content marketing didn’t accomplish anything of real business value.
To set your goals, take a look at the current state of things to understand opportunities and what’s working well. Is there a dip in organic traffic that you hope to recover? Do you aim to increase conversions and marketing qualified leads (MQLs)? If you’re not sure where to start, review your current website performance in Google Analytics or in Google Search Console to identify potential KPIs.
As an example, if you notice in Google Search Console that your top performing organic search pages have a low click through rate (CTR), your goal may be to increase your CTR by 1% in 30 days. Keep in mind that when looking at goals and KPIs, it’s important not to lock yourself into just one metric. As our own digital marketing analyst, Allysia Kveberg, points out that:
“Sometimes marketing campaigns work a little differently than you expect, and that isn’t necessarily a negative thing.”
So, even if you’re driving results that aren’t directly tied to your goals, there might be a different marketing success lying in a related KPI that can help you sell value up the food chain.
Once you have your goals and KPIs locked down, you can now measure your content’s performance against them in real-time.
Without setting a measurable goal, one could argue that your #contentmarketing didn’t accomplish anything of real business value.
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You know you need to measure content performance so you can see how you’re progressing towards your objectives. But how can you do it more effectively and efficiently? Depending on your goals, there are usually three areas of focus you’ll want to measure: awareness, engagement, and conversions. Or in other words, the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel.
Brand Awareness
For measuring your brand awareness, you’ll need to track social shares, impressions, mentions, and overall website traffic from first-time visitors. For our own campaigns, we like using tools like BuzzSumo to see the traction our content is getting on social media.
Another component to awareness, is search visibility. To see if you’re gaining more organic impressions, rankings, or clicks, log into Google Search Console. It’ll take some digging to see the new keywords you may be ranking for and to identify new positions, but it’s worth the extra work to see how your content is impacting your organic traffic.
Audience Engagement
If you’re looking to develop your connection with your audience, improve trust and retention, or promote your thought leadership, you’ll want to track your audience’s engagement with your content. Engagement metrics to measure are time on page, blog pageviews, bounce rates, pages visited per session, or number of return visitors.
Often referred to as “vanity metrics,” this data can still provide you with valuable insight when looking at the numbers in the context of content. For example, an average session duration of 10 minutes overall is nice to have, but it doesn’t tell you anything about why people stayed so long. By looking at the average session duration for individual webpages, however, you can start to identify common characteristics that people stick around for.
You can drill down on these metrics for each webpage in your Google Analytics account in the “Site Content” section of the “Behavior” menu, as pictured below.
Conversions
Conversions are all about content marketing results that have the power to drive revenue. This means form fills, conversions, MQLs, or a growing subscription base. To track most of these items, you’ll want to have your website set up with conversion or event tracking. We like using Google Tag Manager to identify and track these events as they happen. Then, to really see how our content impacts conversions, we’ll also see how many form fills or conversions happened after interacting with a piece of content.
After you’ve identified your metrics and how to track them, take a look at the data as is to set your benchmarks for each metric. Going forward on a monthly basis, make sure to document or export the data you’re seeing to see if you’re meeting or exceeding the benchmarks you’ve set. This makes it easier to see trends and wins now and later when you’re putting together your report.
When tracking these items, you’ll also want to record which pieces of content are your high performers at each stage of the funnel or customer journey. This will give you the information you need to determine the types of content that move people from top to bottom.
Your CMO is probably more concerned about things of business value like sales, savings, or retention over blog sessions or time on page. As Joe Pulizzi, CEO of Content Marketing Institute, shared with us:
“Skip analytics reports for your CMO.”
But to translate your performance into real business value, takes some work.
Perhaps the best place to start is in conversions. How many MQLs and form fills has your content marketing generated? Are you filling the sales pipeline with qualified prospects? Once you have that number, you can use your sales team’s closure rate and average deal size to determine the potential revenue for each lead you generated. This gives your bosses a dollar amount they can easily understand and appreciate.
The value of brand awareness and audience engagement is a little harder to determine as they don’t “directly” influence purchasing decisions. But if you have been tracking your customer journey and marketing funnel, you can show your CMO how that funnel is filling up and how content helps attract and move people from stage to stage.
Below is an illustration of some of the metrics that you should consider highlighting at each stage and in the most business-tangible way possible.
In addition, you can compare your social shares, likes, and mentions to that of your competitors. If you come out on top, this proves that your content marketing gives you greater visibility over your competition.
To present your CMO with hard evidence that speaks for itself, you need to:
If you follow the steps above, you’ll have no problem proving that content marketing is a valuable, revenue-driving tactic. For more ways to impress your CMO with real business results, use these content marketing measurement and ROI tips from brand marketing experts at Kraft and 3M.
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]]>The post New Year, New Outlook: TopRank Marketing’s 2018 Integrated Digital Marketing Predictions appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>The new year is barely underway and already we’re already seeing significant shifts in digital marketing.
Facebook recently announced their decision to favor friends over brands in news feeds and YouTube has tightened the reins on what channels can be monetized. And this is just within the first few weeks of the year.
Undoubtedly, digital marketing tactics like content marketing, SEO, paid, influencer marketing and social media will all face changes in the coming year. Some of which we’ll be able to predict, and some of which we won’t.
However, today’s best marketers know that individual marketing tactics do not stand alone. Which means that integrated, “best answer” digital marketing strategies will reign supreme. That is why instead of focusing our team’s predictions on how individual tactics will evolve in 2018, we’ve uncovered how the role of each tactic will change as part of the overall digital marketing mix.
Lee Odden
CEO
As we head into the heart of Q1 2018, marketers are just as overwhelmed with tactics as buyers are with content. This paradox of choice at scale incurs costs that range from dissatisfied customers to ineffective marketing programs.
With increasing demands, fewer resources and greater complexity in marketing that now includes smart speakers, VR/AR, IoT, AI and all forms of disruptive technology, marketers are looking for the universal truths that will keep them on track and effective.
In my book, Optimize, I talked about a customer centric approach to digital marketing that emphasized search, social and content. The truths about how customers engage content to make decisions outlined then are equally true in 2018 and for nearly any kind of platform.
Those content truths are: discovery, consumption and action.
Discovery: Where do buyers look for solution information? What do they say to their Echo or Google Home device? What do they search for on their phone or tablet? What sources do they subscribe to for updates on their smart watch? Of course laptop, tablet and mobile search and social media behaviors are still relevant.
Consumption: What are your buyers’ preferences for engaging with the content they find? Do they read/watch/listen on the discovery platform or save/subscribe for later? Are there preferences for experiencing or interacting with content vs. simply read/watch/listen? Images vs. videos vs. audio vs. interactive on various devices is still relevant.
Action: What triggers will inspire action? Do buyers need content personalized on the fly or are they willing to exchange contact information to be fed personalized content? What will it take to motivate share, subscribe, inquire, transact or refer? All still relevant.
Marketers in tune with truths about how customers find, engage with and take action on information will reveal whatever technology, platform, media format and experience buyers need. As part of an ongoing effort to optimize marketing with a customer focus, these truths can help architect successful marketing programs in 2018 and for years to come.
Nick Nelson
Content Strategist
There’s a distinct movement taking place in content marketing, with the focus increasingly shifting from quantity to quality. With so much volume out there, it only makes sense to spend our time creating fewer assets that will truly stand out, as opposed to larger amounts of unremarkable material. Since content is already integrated with basically every aspect of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy (or should be at least), I foresee this change in mindset applying to every corner — social, paid media, lead nurturing, data analysis, and so forth.
Ashley Zeckman
Director of Agency Marketing
For years marketers have been talking about the importance of customer experience. And for years, marketers have struggled to uncover the information that makes it possible to create a stellar customer experience.
The game changer in 2018? The emergence of Artificial Intelligence.
In 2017, AI finally began to become more mainstream which allowed platforms to begin harnessing its true power for marketing. In 2018, it will become essential that marketers use data collected by AI to make smarter marketing decisions that will allow them to personalize content, create more data informed social media marketing plans and better target SEO keywords.
Joe Manier
Digital Advertising Manager
What does UX and good design have to do with SEO? Good UX keeps people on the page when they arrive to your site. The same holds true for good copywriting. It’s a one-two punch as people’s search process involves quick scans of copy and page design as they’re determining which result will best serve them.
This is all due to RankBrain, which has been around for a while, but it’s sinking in just how important it is being the 3rd most critical ranking signal. So in 2018, look for SEO to further overlap with UX teams and copywriters as they team up to boost the two main RankBrain components of page dwell time and SERP CTRs.
Rachel Miller
Influencer Marketing Manager
I think influencer relations will take on an increasingly bigger role affecting not just marketing but also sales and support. Partnering with the right people gives businesses unfiltered and holistic feedback that when combined with other key data points makes planning and decision making more effective. This increase in importance will require influencer marketing tools, tactics, and practitioners to bring nothing but their A-game.
Caitlin Burgess
Senior Content Marketing Manager
From compelling ad copy to best-answer blog posts to video on social media — content is the foundation of any digital marketing strategy. Period. And I think we can all agree that won’t change anytime soon. But one thing I see on the rise for content marketing in 2018 and beyond is a refocusing on developing content that aims to bolster and grow existing client/customer relationships.
We’ve all heard the stats on just how much it costs to acquire a new customer versus keeping an existing customer, but content marketing has largely been leveraged to move prospects through the funnel and get that first sale. I think it’s high time marketers developed more robust strategies to nurture after the first check clears. After all, more often than not, B2B and B2C companies alike are more than just one product or service offering—but many of your current customers and clients may not know just what you’re capable of. So, show them.
Stephen Slater
Senior SEO & Digital Advertising Manager
Ad blocker adoption grew 30% in 2016 (numbers for 2017 aren’t out yet, but I’m sure they will show continued adoption) and even browsers are getting in on the action.
So, instead of killing display ads as a whole, I predict that this desire to block ads is going to actually help the industry and drive display ad spend. Projections show that display ad spend should grow by about $5 billion in 2018.
Why would people spend all of that money on display ads that will possibly be blocked by their audience? Two reasons:
So what does this all mean? Even though users will attempt to block ads the CPC, targeting, and improved ad viewing experience will allow display ads to become a bigger piece of the digital marketing mix in 2018.
Anne Leuman
Copywriter
Content marketing, if it isn’t already, will be driving the digital marketing mix in 2018. After all, the foundation of the internet and the genesis of search were both inspired by content. With this in mind, each component or tactic within the digital marketing mix will need content behind it. This includes influencer marketing programs, social media campaigns, video, events, etc. and anything else you might be adding in the year ahead. Each piece of the mix needs content to fuel it.
Instead of asking how does our content fit in the mix, we’ll be asking how the mix supports our content.
Amy Higgins
Strategic Account Manager
The root of influencer marketing is “influence”. You add marketing to the mix, and it leads to how can someone influence a person’s buyer behavior.
I believe that in the next year, we will begin to see that signal of influence move down the funnel and into ABM strategies. Currently, influencer marketing addresses mostly top of the funnel marketing initiatives. In order for this change to happen, marketers need to look at their influencers as extensions of their teams, more community based with deeper collaboration and strategies that benefit all sides of the equation — from the customer to the company, and to the influencer. Influencer marketers will begin to use community growth and acquisition strategies in order to see the largest benefit from their network of influencers. For example, influencer exclusive events influencer newsletters, and community forums are just a few of the tactics that marketers will use when approaching influencers. After all, influencer marketing is a two-way street.
Debbie Friez
Influencer Marketing Strategist
First of all, if you don’t have social media as an integral part of your overall digital marketing mix, you need to start now. You can no longer afford to make social media an afterthought.
Social media will share a place at the table with the other areas of the digital marketing mix.
Getting noticed in the digital age can be hard. Social Media is consistently offering new ideas and avenues to stand-out. Let’s see what 2018 will bring us!
What each of these predictions tell us is that every digital marketing tactic is essential, and has its place. But we’re beyond the point in time where integration is a want, and is now a necessity.
Which of the digital marketing predictions above do you think will have the biggest impact on your 2018 marketing strategy? Tell us in the comments section below.
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]]>In the inaugural episode of Marketers Talking Marketing Over Coffee, we have Rand Fishkin, the Founder and Wizard of Moz. For over 15 years, Rand has been a pioneer in the SEO industry, being a voice and sharing his observations when no one else did. We spoke to him to gain some of those insights. […]
The post Marketing Insights from Rand Fishkin: The Wizard of Moz appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>In the inaugural episode of Marketers Talking Marketing Over Coffee, we have Rand Fishkin, the Founder and Wizard of Moz. For over 15 years, Rand has been a pioneer in the SEO industry, being a voice and sharing his observations when no one else did. We spoke to him to gain some of those insights.
Adam Heitzman: Hello everyone, welcome to Marketers Talking Marketing Over Coffee. I’m pleased to have Rand Fishkin as our inaugural guest. Rand is the founder of Moz and a thought leader in the digital marketing space, and has been for the last 10-15 years.
Rand, thank you so much for being here today. I’m very excited to have you. Many marketers know who you are, but for those that don’t can you give me a brief introduction about yourself?
Rand Fishkin: Sure. Thanks for having me, Adam. Glad to be here.
So, I started a company that eventually would be called Moz. Started that company back in 2003 with my mom, Gillian, and over the next 10 years/15 years that company became one of the fastest growing softwares and service marketing companies, certainly in North America, maybe in the world. And then, a few years ago I stepped down as CEO. And for the next couple of months I’m still an individual contributor at Moz to product strategy and marketing those kinds of things. And, then I’ll actually be starting a new company in a couple of months here.
And, I’ve done a bunch of other things, I’ve co-founded Inbound.org with Dharmesh Shah from HubSpot. And, a lot of folks know me from Twitter and from my personal blog, as well as lots of speaking events and travel around the world.
Adam Heitzman: Awesome. Well, you know the purpose of creating this particular video series in general was really, with social media out there, and there’s so much noise, it’s often difficult for brand new marketers that are just coming in to, not only the digital marketing space, but the marketing space as a whole to identify and learn from true experts. There are a lot of people that come out and say, “Hey we’re an expert.” And, you never know who to believe and who not to believe.
So, kind of what the premise of this video series is, is to interview well-known thought leaders in the industry, so that we can provide that resource to those newfound marketers.
Rand Fishkin: Sure, sure, that makes sense. I don’t know if I’m an expert, but I’ve made many, many mistakes and hopefully I can help folks not make the same ones I have.
Adam Heitzman: Well, great. My first question for you, and it’s one I’ve always kind of wondered myself having followed you for so long: Who would you consider to be your single biggest influencer as a marketer?
Rand Fishkin: Oh, gosh. That was a great question. I think probably … it’s hard to say that it’s not family, right?
I think, in my case, probably my biggest influencer in my life is Geraldine, my wife. And, that certainly had a big impact on me professionally as well. But, outside of that, in the professional space, I think one of the people that I followed very early in my career and for a long time, and then have had a sort of friendly acquaintanceship with over the last few years is Seth Godin.
And, he and I share a lot of beliefs of how marketing can and should work, right? That relationships are there to be earned. That, one of the best ways to sell is to not sell anything, that being unique and having uniqueness as part of your product and brand is a wonderful way to stand out. And that building a small and passionate tribe is more powerful than having a big audience that doesn’t care much about you.
Adam Heitzman: Sure.
Rand Fishkin: So, there’s a lot of ethos-sharing that he and I have.
Adam Heitzman: Right. And that makes a lot of sense. And, you know honestly, Seth is somebody obviously that I follow a great deal about. I guess he just recently did a keynote speaking event, and I can’t remember the event was, and he spoke to a lot of those same concepts that you just mentioned. And, so yeah, he’s a great follow.
Not to take away from that. I honestly thought you were going to go, just based off my past experience of seeing you, and talking, that you were going to talk about your mom. And, I know that she’s probably been a major influence on you as well.
Rand Fishkin: Absolutely.
Adam Heitzman: One of the things that I recently re watched, an interview that you had done on Mixergy as well from years back. And, for those that haven’t seen it, I’ll link to it in the diatribe below. But, in that interview, you opened up about … in that consulting business that you had, you and your mom were working together on, that you ended up in almost $500,000 in credit card debt.
Rand Fishkin: That’s right.
Adam Heitzman: What did you learn about those mistakes from that timeframe. And, how did you use that from a positive standpoint to make sure you didn’t follow down that same rabbit hole with Moz?
Rand Fishkin: Well, so that company is the same company that became Moz eventually, right? I mean, we shuttered the old company and sort of started a new one, a new LLC at the time. But, it was merely a continuation of the same services we’d been providing to clients and that kind of thing.
The biggest lesson there was just that there were a lot of things that we tried that we thought would be effective to earn us business or retain customers, and they were not, because I think they were just window dressing. So, “Let’s get fancy office space. Let’s make sure we have a substantive staff,” which at the time meant five people instead of the two of us. “Let’s make sure that we’re going to trade shows and setting up booths.”
And, I think in each of these cases what we learned is you can have a scrappy, cruddy office above an old, dingy movie theater, which is where we moved to, and it was plenty loud. But, that doesn’t matter as long as your work is good, right? And, you don’t have to go to trade shows and exhibit in the booth if you can produce content that is so interesting and useful, and valuable that you’re invited to speak on the stage.
And, you don’t need a big staff so long as you, yourselves can accomplish the work, right? And, you can wait to hire until you have the clients and the money coming in.
So, a lot of things about the basics of operating a business that I think we didn’t get right. I don’t think there’s a ton of deep, powerful learnings there, other than, “Well, I was real young, and real dumb.”
Adam Heitzman: Right, yeah. And, I think you pointed out a couple things that kind of really resonate with us as well. And, ultimately it comes down to better understanding your clients and your customers, so that you can produce those results for them.
Rand Fishkin: Yup.
Adam Heitzman: Again, it’s less about the flash. It’s more about, at the end of the day, what can we do to help you achieve your goals, right?
And, so obviously Moz is in the software as a service business. And, knowing that, what strategies or tactics have you guys used to better understand your customers?
Rand Fishkin: Gosh, yeah. Well, I would say a lot of things over the years, And, I’m going to have more familiarity with this a few years ago, and they’ve actually passed them in the last couple months.
Some of the biggest and most powerful for me, were spending real, in-person time doing work alongside the people who are our customers. Or, who wanted to be our customers.
And, so one of the more outlandish things I did on this front was I spent a week in something that a friend of mine and I did called CEO Swap. So, basically Wil Reynolds, the owner and founder of an agency out in Philadelphia called SEER Interactive, I think they’re probably around 130/140 people now. I think they were just around 75 when I was CEO for a week.
We lived in each other’s houses for this week. I took care of his dog. I went to his charity events and I went to work, right?
Adam Heitzman: So, you went all the way?
Rand Fishkin: I answered his email, I was on all of his phone calls. And, I got training from his team and spent real time digging into client projects for them. And, that helped me to see a lot of things of how they did their work, what kinds of software and tools they used, when they didn’t use tools, what manual processes could be replaced with automated ones, what data they needed, how they investigated whether data was accurate, all those important things. I think being able to empathize with your customer by having their same problems is a really powerful thing.
I don’t know that I have anything better that I’ve done over my career to get inside the heads of our customers than that.
There’s lots of other things that we do. I mentioned to you early on that I do a lot of conferences and events, and certainly when I’m there I try to spend a lot of time watching other speakers, seeing what they’re talking about, and using and showing off. As well as talking to folks in the audience and see what they’re doing, stopping by booths and seeing what software providers are offering and those kinds of things.
Moz also has a formal usability testing program, where we invite folks into the office and we also remote screen-sharing usability tests and surveying and all the sorts of things that you might expect of a mid-size software company.
But, I really like having those personal relationships. I think there’s no substitute.
Adam Heitzman: Yeah. Absolutely. And, then you’re able to take all of that information and use that not only to develop the products, but actually market it to the correct audience, speaking to those pain points that you’ve learned along the way.
Rand Fishkin: Yeah. Hopefully. I think one of the tough things is, and I think this is just the way people are wired. As an organization scale, it starts to build processes, and a lot of the times the processes require like statistically significant data.
So, we conducted ten usability tests and two people told us that this wording, this language was confusing for them, or they didn’t know what it means. And, so that crosses our threshold of, “We need to change it,” as opposed to, “Well, I spent a ton of time with these people, everyone will get it. We’ll be fine. This is the right language to use.”
And, getting for us to trust intuition over data over design process is very easy when you’re small, and very difficult when you’re larger. So, I think that one of the things that I would say for product designers and folks who want to build something in the software space, and even for marketers who are trying to build projects for their clients, you have to decide how much you want to be artistic and internally driven by your preferences and know how, and how much you trust yourself or your team to do that. Or, how much you want to build process into the system so that you have more statistical types of data and rules around those.
And, I’m definitely somebody who operates better in the, “Strong intuition, in my opinion is better than a data heavy process.”
Adam Heitzman: To each their own I guess.
Rand Fishkin: But, scholars disagree, right?
Adam Heitzman: One of things that I always wondered, I’ve been in the SEO industry now dating back to roughly 2004/2005. And, back then, even before then, everything was so secretive.
Rand Fishkin: Yup, I remember that.
Adam Heitzman: It still, to some extent is, but one of the main reasons that I’ve grown personally in the digital marketing and SEO space is because of you.
Rand Fishkin: Thanks.
Adam Heitzman: You were arguably the first public figure to be open about what works and what you’ve learned along the way. And, so first off, thank you.
In some ways, do you feel like that transparency that you’ve instilled has been a marketing tactic that’s actually helped Moz grow to what it is today?
Rand Fishkin: Yeah. I mean, I would say transparency has strengths, it also has plenty of weaknesses and drawbacks too. The reason Moz did it during my tenure there was not because it was a tactic or it was strategic, but because it was a core value.
Adam Heitzman: Sure.
Rand Fishkin: And, I think a core value is something that you aren’t willing to sacrifice even when it harms the company, you value it above money, above growth. And, that is certainly true for us and transparency. Well, I should say was true for us and transparency.
I think as Moz is evolving in the future as I move onto other places, I think that might change for sure.
It’s a tough call. So, I think the transparency, by being very open, especially early on in the SEO world when things were so secretive, when so few people were willing to be transparent about what worked and what didn’t and why, and the how’s behind things. Google was extremely secretive, the other search engines were too ’cause they were all in this war against each other. And, so they didn’t want any of their secret sauce leaking out. That time period made it incredibly frustrating to learn the practice of SEO and to know if you hired a good SEO, if you trust the person that you had hired to do SEO. And, search was this incredible channel, and still is this incredible channel for driving traffic, but was so obscure and inaccessible that Moz’s … at the time, my personal blog’s transparency really made a huge dent.
It’s been interesting to see. There’s drawbacks to that too. So, over time Moz’s has had a number of copy-cat competitors. And folks get into the field because they sort of saw … and we published our revenue numbers, we published all of our metrics numbers, we published exactly how we collect all of our data and what we do. And, so we’re a very, very easy company to reverse engineer. And, I think certainly some folks took advantage of that, some have even built on top of it very effectively.
But, this was a trade off we were always going to make. So, it’s something for everyone to choose, but can transparency be a great marketing tactic? It can.
Adam Heitzman: Honestly, from my perspective, I think it’s helped you guys tremendously. Obviously that is what drew me to you guys, that’s what drew me to you. I’ve appreciated it through these years.
Adam Heitzman: According to the Moz reader survey, I think y’all just did, what a week or two ago?
Rand Fishkin: Yeah, A few weeks ago.
Adam Heitzman: One of the greatest difficulties faced by SEOs particularly is explaining its value and also properly setting the expectations of the results. I know it’s something we deal with as an agency on a daily basis ourselves. And, so I’d love to hear from your opinion how can this be done effectively.
Adam Heitzman: It’s like a million dollar question, but-
Rand Fishkin: I think one of the challenges is so much of digital advertising, where you pay and traffic comes to you, is incredibly measurable because the channels that offer it. So, Google’s Ad platforms and Facebook’s ad platforms and Twitter’s and all the rest, they have a huge vested interested in making sure that you can clearly, obviously see and easily calculate the return on your investment.
Organic is just the opposite. Google wants to make that very difficult for you to invest in, so that you’ll spend money on paid search instead, and not try so hard to game their systems and not try so hard to write because they kind of prefer that you just took a hands off approach and let them figure it out in a lot of ways.
So, this is an adversarial form of marketing intelligence that we’re trying to get to. And, that’s at the core of the difficulty.
So, for example, every time Google sends you a visitor in AdWords they will tell you exactly what keyword that visitor searched for, what position you were when they clicked on you, which version of your ad was showing, what they did on your website after that visit, all these things.
If they come from organic search, they’ll tell you, “Well, they landed on this page.”
Adam Heitzman: Right.
Rand Fishkin: The rest is up to you. Like, “Good luck with that.” They took away keyword data through the “Not provided” fiasco, which is a bunch of hypocritical crap. But, the way to get this data back is to build sophisticated models, unfortunately that requires some investment, but it is totally possible.
So, in the weeds of it, we can say, “Hey, look we can show you when visitors come to your website from organic search. Here’s what happens next. Here’s the percent of them that come back for a second visit, or come back for more visits in the future. Here’s what percent of them eventually make a conversation, actually buy something or give you their email address, or sign up, or do whatever it is you want them to do on your website.” And, so now we can quantify organic search as a channel and say, “Hey, all organic search is valued at X.” And, we can try to get more sophisticated by reversing out branded search keywords, the ones for which your homepage, or product pages are most likely come up versus the non-branded searches where you’re really competing against everyone else in those.
As you get those levels of sophistication, you can show that data more and more clearly, but I think the process of explaining this to clients is the tough one. It’s that first conversation of, “This will be hard to measure. We’re going to have to do a lot of work to do it. Because it’s hard to measure, fewer people will invest in it. That means the competition is less, and the potential return on investment is much higher than it would be with paid search or any other form of paid advertising.” And, convincing a client to “say, Oh my gosh, you’re right.” That’s such a powerful opportunity because it’s so difficult to measure. I think that’s where the eureka moment can come in.
But, you have to earn that buy-in through those early conversations. It has to be sort of a strategic thoughtful exercise whether they get their minds over it at the highest levels of the company so that they believe in you and they say, “Yeah, we’ll give you six months to show the ROI that you’re going to show.”
Adam Heitzman: Sure, I think that’s one of the things too, and that’s not just with us, I think that’s the case with pretty much any agency out there. It’s all about having those conversations on the front end to be able to set those expectations. And, sometimes the client might not be worth, or may not be the right client for you, right?
Rand Fishkin: Right, absolutely. I think one of the great conversations to have early on is to say, “Now, you’ve got this budget, we can invest it in paid channels, they’re high competition. The ROI will be lower, but it will show you returns right away, and we’ll be able to track in detail everything that is producible.” So, if you’re very addicted to those numbers, you need it early on, you need to be able to show returns really quickly, let’s do paid.
However, if you’d like to have a conversation about organic, just be prepared, it’s going to be three to six months of investment before it starts to show return. It’s going to be tough to measure. We’re going to show a lot of correlated metrics, but it’s not going to be directly causal the way paid is, because we can’t track on a one-to-one basis in the same fashion. So which one do you want to invest in?
Adam Heitzman: Sure.
Rand Fishkin: And, having them choose, “No, we want the lower ROI channel that makes us feel more secure.” Or, “yeah, we’re up for the challenge, let’s take some risk, let’s go for this bigger opportunity.”
Adam Heitzman: Yeah, and actually I think just yesterday you had posted all that data from Jumpshot. And, so it appears that organic is still far superior to the paid in terms of … even with Google’s recent changes on adding a forth ad to the top and moving it from the right reel to straight on top. That organic is still leading the way by a vast margin.
Rand Fishkin: Yeah, I think this is the fascinating part of Google’s journey over the last 15 years is that while Google has gotten more and more aggressive about the advertising, where it appears, how subtle it is compared to the organic results, all those other kinds of things, the click-through rate at least broadly speaking on ads versus organic has remained really similar. So, I showed charts yesterday that were basically over the last two years we’ve essentially had a stable amount of paid clicks per 10 search queries across Google.com, at least in the US where the advertising is most aggressive.
And, organic results, it was I think around 7 clicks per 10 queries, and now it’s down to about 6.6 or 6.5. So, it’s a little bit lower than what it was two years ago, but still 20 plus times as much as paid.
Adam Heitzman: Sure.
Rand Fishkin: So, someone says to you, “Oh, I really want to invest in search. Should I do paid or should I do organic?” I think the smart answer is probably both. But, just be aware that paid drives across google 5% or fewer of the clicks that organic does.
Adam Heitzman: Yeah. I think one of the connections that you made kind of leads to one of my next questions. Is that, even though there was a drop slightly in terms of … from 7 out of 10 down to 6.6. Now, some of that correlation is due to some extent featured snippets and providing those answers on the front end and users not having to click on the listings themselves. Is that correct?
Rand Fishkin: Yeah, yeah. That’s right. So, it’s not that people are clicking on paid more, they’re clicking on paid just about the same amount, it’s that they are clicking overall less, because Google is answering so many queries right in the search results.
So, the percent of searches without any click has gone up, I think about 20% over the last two years. And, it’s now just under half of all queries are essentially solved without a click.
Adam Heitzman: Right. Now, I’m asking you to kind of put your Nostradamus type of hat on here. Obviously with voice search in its infancy, what role do you think it’ll play in the future? Meaning, do you think it’ll start accounting for a larger portion of queries than what it does now?
Rand Fishkin: My perspective on voice search is that I don’t really care, and it doesn’t matter.
The reason being that whether you input your … If I take my mobile device and I type in my query or I say, “Okay Google, what is blah blah blah.” If they show me results on a screen, a desktop, a laptop, a mobile screen, a tablet screen, whatever it is, it doesn’t matter how the query was inputted. What matters is how the query results are output.
Now, what I worry about, what I have great fear is voice answers. So, voice search, doesn’t matter. Voice answers, I think that’s a real cause for concern. And, basically one of the reasons that we looked at Jumpshot data and asked them to collect it is cause we want to say, “Hey, over the last two years we’ve seen a huge rise in voice answers,” Voice applications, Alexa, and Google Home, and all these kinds of things. And, so we want to know are searches that results in a screen of results, are they going down over time? And, the answer is no, they are going up. We’re about 15% higher year over year, this year than last year, and last year than the year before. So, growth continues. And, it looks to us like voice answers and all these home devices and all these sort of things are additive, not cannibalistic.
Which, interestingly that’s the same thing that happened when mobile came out around desktop. So, desktop and laptop searches they plateaued in about 2012/2013, somewhere around there. And, they’ve been growing, but only very, very slightly. But, mobile has continued to grow very dramatically. And, I think we’re going to see the same thing with voice answers. That search will plateau, it’ll level off, I don’t know if the growth rate will stay 15%, maybe it’ll drop to 10%, whatever it is. But, I suspect voice answers will just be additive on top of everything else already.
Adam Heitzman: Okay, that makes sense. For a great deal of time, and probably still links have always one of those larger ranking factors in Google. Do you feel like, obviously you termed that phrase “User task accomplishment,” do you feel like that is starting to overtake or has it already overtaken the power of links? I feel like there is a good balance that you kind of have to have a strong correlation of both to succeed online now.
Rand Fishkin: Yeah, I absolutely agree with that. You need both to success. Right now, links, at least in competitive search results are still a big differentiator. So, thinking or assuming that you don’t need links, so you can stop caring about them is a fallacy. That is even more true in non-English language Google search. So, you get outside the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand you’re gonna find that it’s even more the case that links are the overwhelming ranking factor in a lot of these places.
But, that being said, I do see search or task accomplishment as on the rise. Certainly three years ago we were barely thinking about it, and today I think any SEO who doesn’t include it as part of their on-page optimization strategy is doing themselves or their clients a disservice.
So, we’ll see over time. One of my suspicions is that a good way that Google figures out why their page solves a searchers query comes from the links. Right, So by solving searchers queries well, you earn links that Google can interpret as votes for, “This helps me accomplish this task.” So, I’m not sure that those will ever become entirely disconnected. But, I think we still have … I can’t imagine we have less than 3 or 4 years left where links continue to be a very powerful signal.
Adam Heitzman: Sure. One thing that we specifically, and I’d love to kind of get your input on it, just from having run Moz for as long as you have, one of the things that we sometimes have difficulties with, especially as we hire new employees, or even employees that stay with us for some time, it’s the internet marketing industry as a whole changes so often. There’s a lot of new data, new information that’s constantly coming out. For example, two/three weeks ago obviously Google’s changed to expanding the snippet count to roughly 300 or so. With all these changes happening so often, how do you communicate, or did you communicate that and build that in your infrastructure for your staff to be able to stay on top of these ever changing trends so that they were able to build things, different software solutions to meet the needs of that. Or, anyone that was dealing with some of your customers. Can you kind of talk to that for a little bit?
Rand Fishkin: Yeah. So, I think we had basically at Moz there’s two communication channels that are heavily used for those types of discussions. One is Slack, where there’s a few different channels depending on which group you want to talk to. And, the other one is there’s email lists one of them is SME’s- Subject Matter Experts- which basically just means SEOs now.
And, a bunch of folks are on that list, and they’ll take discussions and they’ll push conclusions or research or whatever over to product.
And, then the other one is Industry, there’s an industry alias that sort of talks about what’s going on in the industry, what’s the news. Those sorts of things.
And, and that has been reasonable for Moz. One of my regrets in building the company, is I wish that I had hired staff and trained a much more significant percentage of the company around SEO specifically. One of the great things that Moz did is hired high-quality people in a lot of their areas of expertise. So, great designers who understand the world of UX and UI, great product people who are good product managers, engineers who understand technology, and those kinds of things. But, upgrading their knowledge and passion for SEO has always been a struggle. And, I remember for years I’d give like seminars about SEO as Moz and attendance was very poor, let’s say. A handful of people would come to that sort of thing.
It was interesting how building an SEO software company people cared about the software, a lot of the other aspects, but not as much the SEO portion.
Adam Heitzman: Right. Well, interesting.
Rand Fishkin: Yeah.
Adam Heitzman: One of my last questions for you is: For those new marketers that are just beginning their careers or just starting out. What advice can you give them as they begin their careers?
Rand Fishkin: Yeah, I think one of the smartest things that you can do for your career today, particularly if you’re in digital marketing is to specialize. And, that is to say, find an area where you have some personal passion, develop some unique skills and experience in that area and work to build a network and a reputation that broadcast and amplify that niche experience. So, I think it’s really tough to say today, “I’m in an expert in SEO,” and have everyone say, “Oh, okay. Well that person is very authoritative in SEO.” It is much easier to say, “I am an expert in early stage consumer startup SEO.” That is a unique niche. There’s plenty of companies in that space. But, it’s a hard one to tackle, it requires whole different skillset than B2B or later stage or agency side or consultant stuff. That is clearly a specialization, and if consumer businesses are what you love and you love those early stage and being very scrappy and designing sort of a content strategy from scratch, an SEO strategy from scratch and you’ve got some people that you’ve worked with you can point to and say, “Hey, they’ve been successful, so yeah I can do this.” That’s a really powerful thing for your career, and I think that can certainly help you accelerate a trajectory for what you want to accomplish in your professional life.
Adam Heitzman: I think that makes a lot of sense. You can’t be everything to everybody, right?
Rand Fishkin: Yeah. Especially as this world gets bigger, and bigger and more dense with talent, it’s tougher, and tougher to stand out in a field like digital marketing, or SEO, or social media marketing, or content strategy, or whatever it is. But, specialization is a great way to do that.
Adam Heitzman: Awesome. Well Rand, that’s all I had for you today. Thank you so much. It’s been an absolutely pleasure and honor. I know you’re leaving Moz in few months and starting on your new venture. So, good luck with everything. Obviously we’ll keep an eye on yeah. I know you also have a book coming out, is that true?
Rand Fishkin: That’s right. Lost and Founder is coming out in April.
Adam Heitzman: Awesome. Okay. Well, we’ll be on the lookout for it.
Rand Fishkin: Awesome. Thank you Adam. I appreciate it, take care.
Adam Heitzman: Thank you Rand, appreciate it. Take care
The post Marketing Insights from Rand Fishkin: The Wizard of Moz appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>The post Digital Marketing News: 2018 Creative Trends, Organic Facebook Dead, YouTube Tightens Up appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>2018 Creative Trends – Shutterstock’s data and creative teams analyzed their customers’ billions of searches for images, footage, and music search and download data to discover the biggest year-over-year increases. What are the top trends? Fantasy, New Minimalism, Space, Natural Luxury, and Punchy Pastels among others. – Shutterstock
‘Organic reach on Facebook is dead’: Advertisers expect price hikes after Facebook’s feed purge. If any brands haven’t already shifted their Facebook strategy entirely to paid, then they may have to soon. Facebook is changing its news feed to prioritize what friends and family share, which will reduce the amount of content that users see from brands and publishers. Open up those wallets folks! Digiday
One in three people—2.48 billion—worldwide used a social network in 2017 – Last year, 74.7% of mobile phone internet users worldwide used their device to access social media. Where are they spending their time you ask? In 2017 nearly 594 million people worldwide used Instagram. 62.2% of all social network users (1.54 billion), went on Facebook at least once a month in 2017. eMarketer
Majority of Consumers Want Brands to Take a Stand on Social and Political Issues, According to New Study – Most consumers want brands to weigh in on social and political issues, according to a new survey by social media management and analytics company Sprout Social entitled “Championing Change in the Age of Social Media.” Two-thirds of consumers responded that it was either “Somewhat Important” or “Very Important” for brands to take a stand on social/political issues. AdWeek
Influencer Marketing Report – A few highlights: Influencer marketing ad spend is poised to reach between $5 billion and $10 billion in 2022. The average influencer engagement rate across industry verticals is 5.7% compared to 2-3% for brands. 40% of influencers believe that overly restrictive content guidelines are one of the biggest mistakes brands and agencies make when working with them. Business Insider
Financial institutions have a growing interest in influencer marketing – Financial services institutions are known to shy away from social media due to strict industry regulations. But a growing number of consumer-facing banks, insurance companies and personal finance apps are looking to create promotional content with individuals with large followings on social media, in order to add personality to their brands and cater to the 18- to 34-year-old cohort. Digiday
Influencer Marketing Stats and Trends (Including Petfluencers) – Collective Bias compiled statistics from B2C influencer marketing research they conducted into an infographic featuring insights on both consumer and influencer behaviors. For example, 10% of 18-24 year olds are likely to purchase a product promoted by a famous pet influencer. 86% of influencers say Pinterest is the platform of choice for food ideas. MarketingProfs
CVS Vows to Stop Altering Beauty Images in Its Marketing – We couldn’t agree more: Starting in April, CVS Health Corp said it will stop “materially” altering the beauty imagery in its marketing materials that appear in its stores and on its websites and social media channels. CVS is also asking brand partners—including Revlon, L’Oréal and Johnson & Johnson—to join the effort. Wall Street Journal
Google Adds AMP Testing Tool to Search Results – Google has released its most significant update to the AMP testing tool since 2016. In addition to accessing the tool at its usual destination, you can also test AMPs directly in search results. Search Engine Journal
YouTube tightens rules around what channels can be monetized – Channels will need 4,000 hours of annual viewing time and over 1,000 subscribers to make the cut to make money on their video content. The Verge
The Brand-Content Preferences of Different Age Groups – HubSpot surveyed over 3,000 consumers 18+ to understand which types of content consumers of various ages want to see more of from brands. Over 50% want to see more videos from their favorite brands. Only 22% of consumers age 18-24 value emails from brands they support, compared with 68% of consumers age 55+. This is highly useful insight if you want to optimize for content engagement and action. MarketingProfs
More Than 1 in 3 Millennials Would Like to Go Viral – However, overall, fewer than 1 in 5 American adults would like to become viral on social media or famous on the news for a short time, according to a recent YouGov survey. Also, men (57%) desired fame more than women (48%). MarketingCharts
On the Lighter Side:
TopRank Marketing (And Clients) In the News:
Lee Odden – The Future, Presented by LinkedIn with Help from Top Marketing Thought Leaders [Videos] – LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Blog
Lee Odden – What Does The Future Of CX Look Like? Here Are Some Of The Most Promising Predictions – Brian Solis Blog
Congratulations to our client Masterson Staffing – Celebrating 50 Years in Business – Masterson Staffing Blog
Congratulations to our clients LinkedIn and SAP – Both were named as a “Best Software Company in 2018” by G2 Crowd
What was the top digital marketing news story for you this week?
We’ll see you next week when we’ll be sharing all new marketing news stories. Also, be sure to check out the full video summary on our TopRank Marketing TV YouTube Channel.
Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.
© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2018. | Digital Marketing News: 2018 Creative Trends, Organic Facebook Dead, YouTube Tightens Up | http://www.toprankblog.com
The post Digital Marketing News: 2018 Creative Trends, Organic Facebook Dead, YouTube Tightens Up appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
]]>For the last several years, SEMrush has conducted studies around the most common technical SEO mistakes that appear on websites. This year, SEMrush collected data on 100K websites and 450 million pages to determine the most common mistakes and issues. Knowing that WordPress is the most popular CMS platform on the web, and using the […]
The post How to Fix the Most Common Technical SEO Issues On WordPress appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>For the last several years, SEMrush has conducted studies around the most common technical SEO mistakes that appear on websites. This year, SEMrush collected data on 100K websites and 450 million pages to determine the most common mistakes and issues.
Knowing that WordPress is the most popular CMS platform on the web, and using the SEMrush study, we wanted to show how you to fix those pesky technical SEO issues on your WordPress sites.
Following the same methodology set out by SEMrush, we have divided the fixes into three big groups:
If you can access your website by going to the WWW version and the non WWW version and both resolve to that address, you have a problem. This is considered a duplicate content concern since essentially there are 2 ways to access the same content.
First determine whether the WWW version or the non WWW is your preferred version. The nice thing about WordPress is that whichever one you enter in the general settings, it will automatically set it up properly assuming you have both version pointed to the same IP address. Meaning if you try to access the website using the other version it should already redirect you to the correct version.
A redirect chain happens with there is more than one redirect occurring between the first URL and the final URL. When a URL is redirected it should be done so pointing directly to its final destination. This can be problematic for SEO because of decreased link equity being passed through.
Once you know where your chains are happening, you simply need to update the link to point to the final destination instead of allowing it to flow through multiple redirects.
Links pointing to other internal pages of your website. A broken link not only provides a bad user experience, it affects how Google assesses your sites quality. The more broken links you have, can cause Google to have a reduced crawl rate, and not effectively distribute link equity.
Although there are a couple ways this can be done, for simplicity I recommend using the Broken Link Checker plugin. Upon activating the plugin, you will need to visit the Settings >>Link Checker page. The plugin will automatically start scanning the website for any broken links. Obviously the larger the site the long it will take to finish the scan. Once completed, you should see a link displaying the number of broken links found. Here is a screenshot:
By clicking on the link shown above, you will be taken to a results page of the individual links:
The great thing about this plugin is that you can update the URL right from this view by either changing the URL or unlinking it altogether.
**Note: This is a very resource heavy plugin so it is recommended to deactivate the plugin after use and just reactivate every month or 2 to ensure your website is in good standing.
A file that lists all of the important pages of your website. It acts as a roadmap for Google. The purpose is that even though your website’s internal linking architecture might not be perfect, the XML sitemap tells Google what all of your URL’s are so they can appropriately crawl and index them.
You want a dynamic xml sitemap so that every time a new page is created on your website the URL gets automatically added to the file. There are many plugins you can use to create an XML sitemap in WordPress but my favorite is to use the Yoast SEO plugin.
Once you activate the plugin, you simply click on XML Sitemaps in the plugin menu:
Once clicked, you can enable or disable XML sitemaps. Once you click the button to enable, the plugin automatically generates the file for you.
Once you have completed this, you simply take the url of the file and submit that to your Google Search Console account.
The robots.txt file is essentially a set of instructions for the web robots. In this file you can determine which pages or areas of the website you do or don’t want the robots to crawl and access.
Using the multi-dimensional Yoast SEO plugin as mentioned earlier, you can edit the robots.txt file. Make sure you have the advanced features enabled, and when so, click on Tools in the Menu:
Your next step will be to click on File editor. From there you will be able to make changes to your robots.txt file. If you don’t already have one, you can create simply click the button to create and save:
When checking the SEO friendliness of your URL structure you are essentially looking for a clear, easy to read setup. The shorter the better. If possible, you want to try to avoid dynamic URLs or URLs with long strings of numbers in them.
Luckily WordPress makes this easy. If you click on Settings>Permalinks, you are taken to a page that looks like this:
The ideal setup in most cases would be to use a custom structure and append the following in the text box: /%postname%/
The above will solve any issues with non-friendly URLs. For URLs that are flagged as being too long, simply go to the page/post, and edit the permalink underneath the Title as shown:
*Note: Any time you change a URL, you should redirect that URL.
Duplicate content occurs when substantial blocks of the same copy is being used on more than 1 page throughout the website. This is frowned upon because it degrades the value of your page because there is nothing of unique substance for Google to reward your page. Ideally every page of your website will have unique copy.
Thin Content occurs when you have a page with very little to no copy. This too is not ideal because there is nothing of unique substance for Google to reward that page either.
You can simply fix both by ensuring there is enough copy on the page to accurately represent the theme of that page and that the copy on each page is completely unique.
Every page on your website should have a meta description and they should all be unique. The purpose of the meta description is to briefly describe what the contents of this page is about.
Using the Yoast plugin, when editing, toward the bottom of each page/post there will be an area that will look like the below. You simply enter the meta description in the box.
Every page on your website should also have a Title Tag and they should all be unique. The purpose of the Title Tag is to Title what the contents of this page is about. The Title tag being properly optimized with keywords is an important facet of SEO.
In the same image shown above with the Meta description, you will see the SEO title. Filling the information in this box will automatically create your Title Tag. Just go through all the pages that have duplication and update them to be different.
Title tags have character limits before Google starts truncating them (typically 60 characters and above). In the case where the Title Tag is too long, you will simply need to edit the Title to be under the 60 character limit.
H1 tags are essentially a type of HTML heading. It is widely believed that H1 tags carry more weight than other headings on a page. Following best practices, each page should have an H1 tag but only 1.
To add an H1 tag to a page, simply go to the page editor in WordPress and highlight the copy that you want to be in an H1. Once highlighted, select the H1 heading from the dropdown menu in the WYSIWYG editor as shown:
If you have more than 1 H1 tag on a page, you will need to find where they are marked up, and follow the same instructions as above except select a different heading type. You can have as many H2’s, H3’s, etc as you would like.
A broken image is exactly what it sounds like. An image that isn’t rendering on the website.
An alt attribute is a tag applied to images that provide a text alternative to the image. An alt tag should describe what the picture is. It’s purpose is for screen readers for those that are visually impaired. Every image should have one.
You can fix broken images by simply updating the image on a post/page, or by removing it altogether.
To add alt text to an image, simply select it in the Media Library of WordPress and you should see a box with Image Details appear as shown below where you can enter in your alt text.
Page speed is an extremely important facet to SEO and user experience. The slower a page loads, the less likely someone will want to stick around for it.
There are many plugin options that help improve Page Speed for a website. There are 3 core ones that we typically like to use that should have a big impact on improving your page speed.
*Note: One of the most common issues that occurs is the reduction in server response time. Unfortunately there is no plugin to fix this. Usually you would need to upgrade your hosting plan to accommodate for newer software & higher resources.
By now most should have a mobile website, yet we still see some that don’t everyday. Google has already started launching their mobile first index which means if you don’t have a mobile website than you will soon be left behind.
The recommended way to solve this would be to make your website responsive. If it is not already, then you will need to hire a developer. The reason we recommend responsive is that you only have 1 website to maintain and it automatically conforms to the size of the screen a visitor is using.
The second option is to have a separate mobile website. Although not my favorite option it is better than not having a mobile website. In this case, I would recommend using WPtouch as a short term solution until you invest in going responsive. Once activated, you can setup your mobile website in a matter of minutes.
The post How to Fix the Most Common Technical SEO Issues On WordPress appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>For the last several years, SEMrush has conducted studies around the most common technical SEO mistakes that appear on websites. This year, SEMrush collected data on 100K websites and 450 million pages to determine the most common mistakes and issues. Knowing that WordPress is the most popular CMS platform on the web, and using the […]
The post How to Fix the Most Common Technical SEO Issues On WordPress appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>When it comes to SEO, there are no secret magic tricks. Contrary to what many want you to believe. In fact, over the last several years, Google themselves has proactively provided more and more details on what it takes to perform well online. One of those ways is through their Search Quality Rater Guidelines. These […]
The post Does your website exude E-A-T? appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>When it comes to SEO, there are no secret magic tricks. Contrary to what many want you to believe. In fact, over the last several years, Google themselves has proactively provided more and more details on what it takes to perform well online. One of those ways is through their Search Quality Rater Guidelines.
These guidelines provide Google’s human raters instructions on how to evaluate search engine quality, website quality, & page quality.
One of the more important takeaways from the 160 page document is the acronym E-A-T. That is the question today, Does your website exude E-A-T? If not, it’s time to rethink your website altogether and make improvements if you want to see success in SEO.
The acronym stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. In short, websites that exude more EAT are considered to be of higher quality than those that don’t.
In fact, the guidelines themselves state that EAT is one of the most important factors when determining an overall Page Quality rating.
When trying to determine whether your website exudes EAT, look at the following characteristics and be honest with yourself:
1. Does your website/page have high quality main content?
This doesn’t mean that the pages that have more content on them are better it simply means that the pages that do the best job at answering the user’s query in the most complete manner is likely to see higher quality ratings than not.
You should be an expert in your field. Provide the credentials to show that off and make sure your content speaks to your expertise. If you’re website is medical, financial, or legal in nature this is even more important vs that of a humor website.
When the raters evaluate the quality of the main content they spend time examining it before determining a conclusion. Is the content is factually accurate? If your page features calculators, videos, or pictures, do they all work and show? If your page is a shopping page, does it have products and if you add to the shopping cart, does it work?
All of these little things are taken into consideration when determining the quality. A great way to see if your website’s main content meets the user’s needs is to look at the websites that are ranking well and see what they are doing that you aren’t. Also, look at the People also ask section for a SERP and see if your content includes answers to those common questions.
2. Does your website make it clearly known who is responsible for the website and how to contact you?
Yes, it is important for users that visit a webpage to clearly see information about who you are & how to get in contact with you. Do you show your address? Phone number? Email addresses? Explanations about your business or website? Having this information helps build user trust which is part of the examination when a human rater determines quality.
3. Does your website have a positive reputation?
When you Google your business or website name and look at the results in the SERPS, do you have articles talking bad about you? Are your reviews mostly negative in nature? If so, those will likely affect the rating you receive. While have a negative review is common in nature, it’s more about the quantity and if the majority of the coverage about your brand is negative. If you have 10 reviews and 2 are negative then it’s likely not going to have any impact.
Your website will only be as good as what you put into it. If the time, effort, expertise, and talent/skill that has gone into your pages is lacking, then it’s time to update and improve. It’s not me that is saying this, it’s Google so take it to heart and make the necessary changes so you can start seeing success in SEO.
The post Does your website exude E-A-T? appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>When it comes to SEO, there are no secret magic tricks. Contrary to what many want you to believe. In fact, over the last several years, Google themselves has proactively provided more and more details on what it takes to perform well online. One of those ways is through their Search Quality Rater Guidelines. These […]
The post Does your website exude E-A-T? appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>Highly compelling copy—the kind that rattles the questions of your audience, and shockingly, (and instantly) gives them the answer—isn’t easy to do. It’s an even greater challenge when you’re targeting multiple generations at once. In this article, you’ll learn the three components of turning ‘good’ copy into ‘I gotta buy this’ branding, no matter how […]
The post Gen X, Gen Y Targeting: How to Target Different Generations on Social Media appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>Highly compelling copy—the kind that rattles the questions of your audience, and shockingly, (and instantly) gives them the answer—isn’t easy to do. It’s an even greater challenge when you’re targeting multiple generations at once. In this article, you’ll learn the three components of turning ‘good’ copy into ‘I gotta buy this’ branding, no matter how old or young your viewers may be.
First Up: Know the Difference Between X and Y (Even Z!)
While you may know a millennial when you see one, do you know how to reach them in a sentence or two? Do you know how to turn a Generation X viewer (otherwise known as a ‘latchkey kid’) into a devoted consumer? Don’t sweat it out. Instead, learn the key psychological components of what makes them ‘click and buy’ – and then sit back, ride the waves of high sales and repeat:
Now in their 30’s and 40’s, they are prone to ignoring the typical marketing pitch, and look for compelling content, fine-tuned sales funnels and impeccable images to stay engaged. They’ve been in the presence of technology since childhood, and crave a variety of digital content, such as ezines, podcasts, and blog posts. Blast them with a variety of marketing content and you’ll keep them engaged and excited for what’s next.
Want to grab hundreds (or thousands) of leads within days and watch your business skyrocket? Give them a free gift (like an ebook or meditation track) in exchange for their email. They want instant gratification now, and they’ll become a loyal customer if you can offer something of high value.
Three Techniques to Reach Each Generation on Social Media Instantly
Now that you know what each generation is about, it’s time to dive head first into targeting each generation on social media—and meet them where they already are. Here they are: three generations, and three strategies that payoff:
Being the most financial responsible of all generations, hook their loyalty with online deals, home ownership tips, or ‘freebies’ (for example: offer free customization on a product you sell).
According to The New York Times, over 64% of millennials would rather make less than $45,000 a year doing what they love than make more money, doing something they aren’t inspired by.
Create content that inspires them. Promote a product that will trigger fearlessness in them to do what they love, increase their productivity, or allow them to instantly achieve greater work/life balance. Just make sure it’s 100% ‘you’. Don’t fake your way to building a brand. Speak, write about, or post videos that are in alignment with your vision, and that you’re passionate about. When you’re ‘you’ and your brand is authentic, they’ll beg for more.
Do you know what generation your audience is composed of? Or, is it a combination X, Y and Z? To know your audience is to compel them to fall in love with your brand. Use the above techniques and see what works best!
The post Gen X, Gen Y Targeting: How to Target Different Generations on Social Media appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>Black Friday is just around the corner, and for many business owners (small and large) it’s the most profitable time of year. According to Techradar, a whopping $3.34 billion was spend last Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Ready to get your piece of the pie this November? It starts, and ends with optimizing your website. […]
The post Black Friday SEO Advice to Get More Sales in 2017 appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>Black Friday is just around the corner, and for many business owners (small and large) it’s the most profitable time of year. According to Techradar, a whopping $3.34 billion was spend last Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Ready to get your piece of the pie this November? It starts, and ends with optimizing your website. Learn the most effective SEO tips to strengthen your brand, achieve higher sales and surpass your ecommerce dreams!
First Things First: Cheat Your Way to Sales Success (With a Checklist)
It’s not really cheating—in fact, it’s a strategy to blow your competition out of the water so that you reach the true ecommerce sales potential that you deserve. While Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year, it can also be the most stressful day of the year as well. How do you guarantee your website won’t crash with high volume traffic? How do you best increase the amount of spending per customer? With this handy checklist, of course! Cross off each task one by one, and you’ll skyrocket your sales just in time for Black Friday:
Now that you have a website equipped for high sales and a low drop-off rate, it’s time to optimize your online business to reach the masses in record time. Apply these five tips to your site ASAP, and you’ll become the epitome of #salesgoals.
Create SEO-Focused Gift Guides
Forget struggling to optimize your sales. One highly effective shortcut is by suggestive gift guide pop-ups as they go through check-out. According to Google’s trend report from 2016, over 70 percent of online consumers start shopping without having something particular in mind that they want to buy! For example, if you sell women’s clothing, put together a few gift guides that include related interests for women, such as fashion bracelets, necklaces and a subscription to a women’s magazine.
Utilize YouTube
Make a few ‘Black Friday Gift Idea’ videos on YouTube and reach even more potential customers (a whopping 68 percent of consumers turn to YouTube when they don’t know what they want to buy!) Just make sure you follow YouTube’s SEO rules by including no more than 2% density keywords and 700 words—max—in your video description (or your video won’t get uploaded).
Add Popular Keywords for Holiday Gifts in Your Marketing Copy
Black Friday is the perfect time to utilize SEO keywords in all platforms of your marketing copy, including: emails, landing pages, PPC ads, blog posts and product descriptions. Start off your search with ‘Black Friday’, and make sure to also utilize ‘related searches’ for more keyword ideas.
Know Your Buzz Words
Once you have your list of Black Friday keywords, make sure that you add holiday specific buzz words to your marketing copy. For example, it’s not enough to simply describe what your product is with ‘Black Friday’ keywords. You have to hook your audience with additional words like ‘Best,’ ‘Incredible,’ ‘Rare,’ or ‘One of a Kind.’
Peak their curiosity with buzz words, so that whether you’re selling champagne filled chocolates or cashmere sweaters, you’ve hooked them and compelled them to click, buy—and become a customer for years to come.
Force the Masses to Discover Your Sale
While content has been and always will be king, never underestimate the power of a really good image. Many businesses use images in their blog posts or web content, but fail to maximize their exposure by forgetting about the alt tags. This holiday season (as well as any other day of the year) remember that your audience is visually inspired. Add stock photos of a picturesque setting, or of a child receiving the perfect gift on Christmas morning. Find images that evoke Universal desires we all have: a sense of joy, wonder and even magic. Then, take advantage of alt tags so that visitors can find you—and inevitably, the perfect Black Friday deal they just can’t pass up.
The post Black Friday SEO Advice to Get More Sales in 2017 appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>Black Friday is just around the corner, and for many business owners (small and large) it’s the most profitable time of year. According to Techradar, a whopping $3.34 billion was spend last Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Ready to get your piece of the pie this November? It starts, and ends with optimizing your website. […]
The post Black Friday SEO Advice to Get More Sales in 2017 appeared first on HigherVisibility.
]]>Are you looking for the best Internet Marketing services to get your business found across all of the internet? Tired of SEO companies making promises and nothing happens? Then check out our video:
Learn more about our Internet Marketing Services at MD Internet Marketing Solutions
The article Our Internet Marketing Services is courtesy
of https://mdimsolutions.com/
Yes, keywords are still very important to on page and off page SEO. While Rank Brain is learning away, we do see that with some of our clients sites that they rank for words and terms that are NOT on their site, and are synonyms or LSI keywords. Still, it’s very important to have as many sprinkled throughout your content AND in your backlink profile, (use sparingly for backlinks).
Gabriel Shaoolian recently published an article on SiteProNews.com that touches on a few key elements of keywords:
Failing to do keyword research.
Nailing a keyword list is going to be the bread and butter for your site’s SEO. In fact, you can think of every keyword as a breadcrumb, trailing users to your site. But in order to create a successful list, you need to not only think of the most basic words to identify your brand. These are the words that consumers are going to be using to start their search. But you also need to consider your competitors.
If, for example, you’re a locally-based eCommerce site for specialty foods, such as gourmet cheese, the terms “specialty foods” and “gourmet cheese” are probably first going to come to mind. But how many other sites out there are already using these words? Probably millions. So, you need to take things one step further by creating a long tail keyword. This would be something along the lines of “best gourmet cheese in Denver.” And here’s where our third what-not-to-do comes into play.
Forgetting to localize.
In the above example, choosing to feature one of your specialty foods—cheese—was a smart move in narrowing down the search competition. But smarter yet was the choice to incorporate the name of your city. This step localizes your search terms, an extremely important SEO step, especially for retail brands with physical locations. In fact, 50 percent of Smartphone shoppers, who search locally on Google, end up visiting physical stores on the same day.
If your brand is failing to optimize itself for local searches, you are going to miss out on an entire pool of customers. Most importantly, given their close physical proximity to your brand, these customers are the ones you should be converting into brand loyalists. When creating your target keyword lists, be sure to include local search terms.
That’s good content from Gabriel, especially about not forgetting to add Geo modifiers to your keywords. Local is important for most businesses as they don’t serve the entire US but only their local city or county. As Google gets smarter it picks up on users location and will direct them to businesses that solves their search query. In fact, with most searches now when you search for something you will see in Google suggests the “near me” appended to your search term. So don’t forget to localize!
We recommend you check out Gabriel’s article because of his next point being speaking like a human, which kind of ties in with keywords and voice search.
This can be a huge pain in the rear. If you get this wrong in the beginning and don’t address it, it will snow ball. This was covered in an article done by Pratik Dholakiya on MarketingLand.com:
Poor URL architecture
URL architecture can be a difficult thing to fix without breaking other aspects of your SEO, so we don’t recommend rushing into this, or you might do more harm than good.
That said, one of the most frequent issues I come across is a lack of solid URL architecture. In particular, folder organization is often spotty.
A few common issues:
- Blog posts listed in multiple categories, resulting in blog posts listed in multiple folders, creating duplicate content issues as a result.
- URLs with no folders other than the parent domain. While this is precisely the form your most important pages should take, pages further down the hierarchy should be listed in folders to categorize them.
- URLs with folders that are, themselves, 404 pages. If a URL is listed under a folder, many users expect that folder to be an operational page. From an architecture perspective, it’s semantically confusing, and from an internal link perspective, it’s ideal to have links to these pages from a parent folder.
- Junk URLs full of numbers and letters. These days, these are primarily reserved for search result pages and database queries that aren’t intended to be indexed and found in search engines. Your URLs should contain useful information intelligible to a human if you want them to contribute positively to your performance in the search engines.
In addressing these issues, there are two complications you want to avoid: creating 404 pages and losing existing link authority. When you change your URL architecture, you need to make sure that the old pages 301 to the new ones. Ideally, any internal links to the old pages should also be updated, since PageRank is reduced by the damping factor every time it passes through a link or 301.
As an exception, if blog posts are listed in multiple categories, a 301 isn’t always necessary, but in its place you should canonicalize to the preferable page.
His first point is one that we see all to often. A blog post that is listed in several categories resulting in duplicate content penalties. It’s important to note that in every test we have ever done on duplicate content, the only time it ever results in a penalty is when it is duplicate content on the SAME site.
His last point is also another one that can’t be overlooked, not properly setting permalink structure. We do run across this from time to time. We have seen that through updates that sometimes the permalink structure gets changed for whatever reason and must be reset.
Don’t forget about the basics, they still work. Keywords in your content and backlinks as well as keyword rich titles and descriptions, H1 and H2 tags with LSI’s. Lastly, make sure your permalink structure is correct and hasn’t changed or been altered by mistake.
As always, if you need help with your Local SEO for your small business, visit us at MD Internet Marketing Solutions
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