Make Every Visit Count
In today’s search landscape, the user experience is central to everything.
We are in a day and age where Google and Bing et al have put total power in the hands of the consumer. User experience dominates the search engine market.
Search engines are constantly monitoring your website for key user experience cues. Therefore your website, marketing, products and services need to support a compelling user experience.
You also need to ensure your strengths translate into a (technical) language that search engines can fully understand.
It's true to say that SEO and effective marketing go hand-in-hand.
When we think of SEO now, we should understand it as the omnipresent component that underpins most, if not all our online marketing efforts.
SEO is still responsible for driving organic traffic, and that’s not going to change for the foreseeable future. But because the way to drive organic traffic isn’t anything like the way we used to drive organic traffic, SEO has become more cross-functional.
Nowadays, when someone refers to ‘SEO’ they really mean a multitude of marketing disciplines that aren’t typically considered SEO.
So called 'Ethical SEO' & Link Building
SEO is still responsible for delivering backlinks and driving organic traffic.
However in the face of fiercer competition and the search engines’ bias towards user experience, service providers such as my digital agency Midas Media can’t (and shouldn’t) guarantee you a set number of links.
In fact, you can’t even guarantee getting links. Full stop.
A provider that does guarantee you X number of links per month is either gaming, placing or purchasing links which, if discovered, carry severe penalties.
There's always a temptation to take short-cuts, but you don't have to...
An Inbound strategy enables you earn links.
High quality backlinks are about investing time, understanding your audience, building relationships, developing ideas and creating high calibre assets that deserve links. Naturally.
Goodbye Blog, Hello Content Hub?
You might be proud of your blog, but it might be time to consider an 'upgrade'.
A content hub is the idea of centralising your content into a one-stop shop for website visitors. It's like a blog but only better, and on steroids (without the budgie smugglers).
Instead of segmenting your blog from your whitepapers and other media types, your hub serves as the central resource point for all your content.
This content can range from, but is not limited to:
Blogs and news articles
Branded content
Curated content (sourced from around the web)
Social media updates and highlights
User generated content, such as surveys
Videos and presentations
Corporate documents and guidance
Product guides and whitepapers
Lead generation forms
Webinar sign-ups, and more...
Developing a content hub allows you to tie together disparate content into a more cohesive presentation with more context, control and analytics.
Combining contextual lead generation with lead nurturing only serves to gain additional value from your Inbound Marketing efforts.
An example of a content hub in action - American Express Open Forum
The level of complexity in developing the above solution will vary depending on your requirements; the hub can be introduced in a simpler function to start and enhanced over time.
Content is at the Heart of Modern Marketing
Content is at the heart of your marketing; it’s the engine room and production line.
Your content needs to resonate with your audience and serve a specific role at each stage and throughout the customer life-cycle.
From a marketing perspective heavily researched well written content serves to:
Generate targeted traffic to your website
Educate your prospects with overly pitching
Build trust in your brand
In turn this produces 'real' thought leadership
Attracts leads and support sales
Reduces customer churn
The customer journey is often visualised as a funnel, and can be categorised as follows:
Owned and earned media, the micro-conversions (likes, shares, comments, links), paid and organic traffic.
CTAs (Call to Action) and landing pages, the macro-conversions, form completions and lead capture. The heavy-lifting.
ToFu: Top of Funnel content that generate leads/interest.
MoFu: Middle of Funnel content that turns leads in to prospects.
BoFu: Bottom of Funnel content that qualifies your prospects.
In order to make a funnel (top-down or inverse) effective, you need to address and support the customer journey with relevant content.
Website Content = Inbound Fuel
Typically found on blogs (or more impressively, content hubs), the below content types reside at the top of the funnel.
They are designed to entertain, educate and/or inspire your audience.
Audience tailored blog posts
Researched and curated round-ups
Case studies, written or visual
Industry interviews with key players and people
Infographics - because everyone loves data visualisation
Whitepapers, ebooks and guides
Industry news and commentary
Newsjacking/on trend updates
Research and stats analysis
Slide decks and presentations
To make your content creation easier (and more efficient), all of the above content types can be re-packaged to extend their value further. For example a infographic can also be presented in slide form, or even a webinar.
That said, a wider Content Marketing strategy doesn’t simply reside on your own website. There are offsite considerations too, as outlined below:
There's a Whole WWW out there!
Employing an outreach program that enables you to contribute unique content to reputable industry trade publications is invaluable.
This strategy should not be confused with traditional PR and is very much centred around creating value for their readership. This supports your brand building and widens influence.
Offsite content typically takes the form of a blog or feature articles.
As relationships mature with publishers the opportunity for more extravagant content (as per the above ‘onsite’ list) should present themselves.
Make Friends and Influence People
Outreach - because people are wired to trust a third party more than someone talking about themselves.
Outreach marketing supports how humans learn about new things i.e. from other people, and weaves this idea into a communications strategy that can pay dividends.
The process looks for key publishers and personalities within your industry that may serve to amplify your content or increase your reputation.
In building these relationships you serve to:
Foster relations with relevant publishers and people
Generate a connection to their audience through tailored content
Gain positive exposure to their audience (who should be your target market)
People talking about you and what you do
Not a ‘one-and-done’ tactic
SEO, rankings, social presence and brand advocates fall in to place all that bit easierwhen you focus on relevant people, audiences and authentic marketing.
Social Media is Content Driven
Your strategy should not just focus on managing social media platforms, but aim to build a content driven social presence in order to:
Build your share of voice
Drive cross-platform engagement
Attract a relevant following and audience
Deliver targeted website traffic
Capture leads via your ToFu content
Let's look at the building blocks of a sound social media strategy:
Your Content in a Calender (Not Rocket Science)
Creating, scheduling and publishing content is at the heart of any social media strategy.
Each month a unique pool of content should be created, developed, curated and scheduled across your profiles.
Your content calendar should reflect your mission statement, per audience profile and per platform.
Furthermore and much in line with content marketing, your social content should support your audience through different stages of the buying cycle.
For example as a rule of thumb your calendar could be structured following the 80/20 rule, with 20% set aside for promotional:
50% of your updates drives traffic to your website/content
25% of your posts will be curated from other industry source
20% of your updates will drive conversion focused content
5% of your content will be people and culture (and a little fun)
Key Your Eyes on the Prize
Social media is often used as a first-touch for customer service and enquiries.
You should ensure your first response and direct interactions with your audience are timely and on message. Social media moves fast, a next-day reply is no longer acceptable.
Interaction is a key ingredient to a healthy and successful social presence, keep on your toes.
Also, don't think of 'measuring' as boring. Taking the time and energy to craft and post relevant content is only part of the story.
By analysing and benchmarking not only your own audience but that of competitors, you can determine best times to post, the type of content that people are responding to and who they’re listening to in your market.
This can mean the difference between making time (money) or losing it...
Data Capture is Lead Gen' 101
The wider Inbound Marketing strategy educates and attracts prospects to your proposition but we should never lose sight of the end goal – introducing leads and generating a return.
Data capture can occur at any point during the buying cycle - at the top, middle or bottom of the funnel.
Data capture is the process of putting a name to your prospects by means of:
Website form completions
Social media data capture
Surveys and feedback
Free trials, assessments, consultations and estimates
Email list building and segmentation
Content Marketing is the foundation that attracts prospects, SEO is the discipline that underpins the content and Social Media is the process that helps promote your content.
Therefore it’s your data capture that turns those efforts in to a list of leads who you can nurture going forward.
Land on a Page - Take Action
A landing page in the context of marketing and advertising is a standalone web page, distinct from your main website that has been designed for a single highly focused objective – guiding visitors toward your intended conversion goal or CTA (Call to Action).
Some example lead generation landing page techniques are:
Ebook or whitepaper
Webinar registration
Consultation for professional services
Survey entry
Free trial
A physical or electronic gift
Notification of a future product launch
Direct sales enquiry
Tailored landing pages enable your marketing efforts a highly relevant and message-matched data capture point.
Each page should be specifically developed and designed with the end goal in mind.
Strengthen the Bond with Email Nurture
Your content has attracted and engaged your audience, your data capture has delivered a list of leads – now what?
Lead nurturing is the process of further strengthening the bond between your brand and the prospect.
As with any form of content, understanding your audience is paramount. You need todeliver content that answers their pain points, objections and their business application of your service in a way that educates and reinforces your value:
Deliver emails and content that nurture rather than sell
Continue to educate by regularly sending leading content
Include curated third party content that supports your message
Demonstrate thought leadership and brand authority
Take warm leads and make them ‘hot’ prospects
Regularly sending resources and educational content created by your brand forms a stronger, lasting bond with your prospect. This bond fosters trust and establishes authority between your brand and your prospects.
In the B2B markets the decision process can be long; nurturing leads ensures your earlier efforts aren’t in vain.
Less Churn x Less Burn = More Return.
One often overlooked benefit of lead nurturing is the knock-on effect to your bottom line by reducing customer churn and turnover.
Lead nurturing is the ‘hidden gem’ of customer relations, keeping you at the fore and increasing the lifetime value of your hard-won customers by supporting the established relationship.
WAIT! Don't Let Your Efforts go to Waste
Rounding off this strategy should be paid display advertising in the form of native ads and remarketing.
‘Native’ is advertising that matches the form and function of the platform on which it appears. For example native ads on Facebook are often promoted news articles and not sales pitches for end products or services.
Remarketing can also occur on Facebook, but also many other websites across the web.
The benefits of native and remarketing tactics are profound:
Your existing audience are highly receptive to your content
The cost to advertise to your audience is cost-effective
Native ads further support your content via paid amplification
Amplification ultimately drives more traffic and builds your audience
Going native offers a higher likelihood that your content will be engaged, read and listened to.
This lends itself to a greater trust between your prospects and your brand further increasing the likelihood of data capture.
More engagement equates to more leads over time.
That's a Wrap - Get it Done!
If you've made it this far - thanks for reading.
What's most important here is that you understand who your audience are and where they can be found.
You produce content they want to read. You support it with additional assets they want to digest, save, share and talk about.
Crucially - you must turn this audience and interest in to leads that you can monetise through nurture.
Related stuff you might like: - Do You Segment? Boost Sales with Automation - How to: Get Traffic & Build an Audience When No One Knows You Exist - The Only Social Media Marketing Strategy You Need
I hope you've learnt something from my above Inbound Marketing strategy, if you have any questions please do comment below and of course... I appreciate any likes/shares you throw my way!
