HOW TO CONQUER A COMPETITIVE INDUSTRY with Internet Marketing 1
CONTENTS Introduction Chapter 1 On-site and Off-site SEO Chapter 2 Social Media Marketing Chapter 3 AdWords Chapter 4 Content Marketing Chapter 5 Web Design Chapter 6 Local Results Chapter 7 Email Marketing 3 5 8 11 14 17 21 23 Epilogue Leveling the Playing Field 25 2
INTRO Your competition never rests. It would be nice if it would take the occasional day off, just so you could catch your breath every now and then. But no, it just keeps plugging away at it, always determined to carve out and protect its own little niche in the internet. You don t need to have the budget of an international mega-corporation to conquer your industry. There s an opportunity right in front of you. It takes some time and effort, let s just warn you about that upfront, but when you do it right, you can be the company that rules the internet in your industry. Understanding The Online Business Environment The internet is filled with opportunities, but the road to success isn t always an easy one. Your competition is at this very moment working to dominate the search engine results, keep a steady stream of emails flowing into inboxes, and updating their paid advertising strategy. How are you going to get noticed in the middle of all that? Some of these strategies can get you noticed right away, and some will take more time to achieve but provide more sustainable results. Your individual campaign should examine the current state of the industry to determine how you can mix paid and organic strategies to get the best results. 7 Online Marketing Strategies You Can Start Using Today There are 7 common strategies that companies can use to get established online. They are: Onsite and Off-site SEO Social Media Marketing AdWords Content Marketing Web Design Local Results Email Marketing Despite the apparent dominance of wellestablished brands, there s no such thing as untouchable in online marketing. When you consistently use the right tactics and strategies, you can tailor your website to thrive in the online business environment. 3
CHAPTER ONE SEO 4
SEO How Does SEO Work? SEO may have changed a lot, but the one constant is the focus on providing real value. Broadly speaking, there are two ways for any company to do this: 1) Develop your on-page content to answer your customers questions, and 2) Reach out and build relationships with other websites that will provide quality links to your site. 1. On-Page Optimization The Things You Can (and better) Control It may feel like your website is getting battered around by the obnoxious whims of the search engine algorithms, but effectively optimization of certain elements on your website based on solid principles rather than sudden trends can help you stand up to the changes and maintain strong rankings. These on-page elements should be a high priority because this is where you have the most control. So if anything is left undone, there s only one person to blame. These are critical components of your website, and even small changes could make big differences. Quality Content: Is your content unique? Does it answer your customers questions? Site Navigation: Is it intuitive? Can you reach every page within one or two clicks? Internal Linking Structure: Do the links between pages provide value? Page Structure: Is the layout simple and effective or does it confuse visitors? Load Times: Visitors don t want to wait. Even small increases could make a difference. Mobile Compatibility: The future is mobile. Keywords: Keywords are effective when they define topics and show relevance. 5
2. Off-Page Optimization The Things That Are Harder to Control Search engines have always placed significance on the links from third-party websites. The amount of weight they place on these links has changed a lot, but this isn t something you can ignore. Why? Because quality links don t just build your rankings. They can send actual traffic to your website. There are some simple ways to ensure that your efforts match Google s quality standards. Build relationships with other websites: Create quality content for another website (in the form of guest posts or participation in interviews or studies). You can then get a link back to your site from the content. There is a right way and a wrong way to do this, of course. Only work with websites that are relevant to your own and never send out mass emails hoping for a response. Think of this like building relationships in the real world. You wouldn t just walk down the street shouting at every random person in hopes that someone will acknowledge and like you. Approach them with a good plan and be useful to them, and you ll have a better chance of creating some great, long-term relationships. Creating content assets: If you build it, they will come. And if you create some great content on your own site, the links will come. A content asset can be anything from ebooks and whitepapers to fun and engaging blog posts and infographics. Once again, the goal is to provide relevant content and answer important questions. Anything else that provides real value (even entertainment value) can really encourage visitors to share your content with others. This is how viral content is born. Also, note that we refer to this as a content asset, rather than link bait. You want to create content that generates links and gives your visitors a reason to do business with you. 6
CHAPTER TWO SOCIAL MEDIA 7
SOCIAL MEDIA Whether it s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or one of the growing number of other popular platforms, social media is a critical part of online marketing campaigns. The right campaign can easily impact your reputation, your image, and your brand. More than that, though, social media is a great way to build a community that is interested in buying and even promoting your products or services. This means that, like every other aspect of online marketing, you can t dip your toes in and hope that everything will work out. You need to actively manage your social networks and quickly respond to questions, comments, and concerns. Understanding How Social Media Fits In It can be hard to sell your own company on the importance of social media. A lot of higher-ups just don t want to invest in anything that doesn t have an immediate and measurable ROI. They re too focused on last click attribution to see that social media doesn t really work like that. People who click to your site through a social post are likely just getting to know you. Unless you specialize in impulse buy type products, they re probably not going to make a purchase then and there. They will, however, come back later, going directly to your website, and bypassing all the recent social media posts. It can be hard to track that behavior and properly attribute the source that led to the sale, but it is possible. So, in order to get the most out of all social media, it needs to be tied to all of your content. It is a promotional platform and a community hub. This is a promotional opportunity that goes straight to the huge group of people waiting around at the top of the sales funnel. Being Personable People don t follow companies. They follow personalities and interests. When they click that like or follow button for a business, it s because they want to get a glimpse at the inner workings of the company. They want to feel like they re dealing with an honest-to-realness person who is just like them and not a faceless corporation. Always be real and personable. React quickly to questions, complaints, and compliments and your customers will start to sense your genuine efforts. This is when they ll become brand advocates. 8
Choosing Your Network It s not profitable (and probably not even possible) to be active on every single social media network. That s okay, though, because a lot of them are not relevant to your business. All the major networks tend to appeal to different interests and demographics, so as you pursue this marketing channel, you need to understand the benefits of each. Facebook This is, of course, the most populous of all the social networks, and the first place many people go for referrals. A Facebook Page makes you more discoverable and serves as a good hub for your community. Twitter It s amazing what you can do with 140 characters. Studies show that people who follow businesses on Twitter are more likely to make purchases from them. You can easily announce important developments and keep customers in the loop. Google Plus You may have heard that Google+ is a ghost town and that no one is actually using it. While it would be hard to call that statement untrue, that doesn t mean there s no value here. Google has made some recent updates to its social network, which means they still consider it important. And that means it should be important to your business, too. See the Local Results section for more on using all of Google s tools for better search engine Instagram This is a great way to visually express your business. Plus, people who hesitate to share a large post will happily share an image. Instagram even offers a lot of tools that will help businesses engage with their customers. Pinterest While this network may have garnered a reputation as the place to post recipes and craft projects, it has become a useful tool for promoting other types of content. You can use specialized product pins, article pins, place pins, and more to attract a specific audience. 9
CHAPTER THREE ADWORDS, DISPLAY ADS & SOCIAL MEDIA ADS 10
ADWORDS, DISPLAY ADS & SOCIAL MEDIA ADS Your businesses can gain a lot of exposure through pay-perclick (PPC) advertising, and there are several channels available for publishing your ads. AdWords, display ads (through Google or one of several other display networks), and social media ads can all reach your audience, if you target and run them correctly. This is an appealing route for many companies, since you are only charged if someone actually clicks on an ad. And those who do click are likely to have at least some interest in your products or services. Those who don t will still see your ad, resulting in a small but not insignificant increase in the number of people who have been exposed to your brand. AdWords and other paid search marketing campaigns involve: Performing extensive keyword research to find the most relevant keywords. Bidding on those keywords and setting how much you re willing to pay for a click. Writing attractive ad text or designing effective displays that appeals to the right audience. Measuring results to ensure you re always maintaining a profitable ROI. Why It Matters Google is devoting more and more space on its results pages to paid advertising. They ve removed the ads from the side bar and now only displays them above the organic rankings, pushing those natural rankings further down. Paid listings are also important because they can get your website in front of search engine and social media users immediately. Organic SEO will always take some time to climb the rankings and secure a good position, but PPC lets you bypass that process and start getting visitors to your site immediately. 11
Display Ads We used to call display ads banner ads, but since that term doesn t have a lot of positive associations anymore, it s best to just categorize them this way. And while people will try and claim that these types of visual ads don t work, studies show that s just not true. Just like any other online advertising technique, it s all about how you use it and how you optimize your efforts. Display ads can be extremely effective when you avoid bad placements, correctly set your impression caps, and effectively use negative keywords and topic categories. Social Media Ads Social media sites like Facebook have their own algorithms, and recent changes have made it harder for company posts to make it into their followers newsfeeds. Social media ads can bypass this problem and ensure your communities see your message and are regularly exposed to your brand. Just like paid advertising in the search engines, you can target a very specific audience based on location and interests. You can even define the times your ad will be delivered, giving them a lot of potential for productivity. Why You Must Be Cautious Even on a small budget, PPC can be extremely effective, but only if the campaign is properly maintained and carefully controlled. You need to know what a single click is worth, you need to know the value of a customer who comes to your site through an ad, and you need to be able to target the right keywords and audience. If your cost per acquisition is too high, a PPC campaign could do more damage than good. When everything is running properly, though, PPC is an effective tool for attracting the consumers who are interested in your products and are ready to make a purchase. 12
CHAPTER FOUR CONTENT MARKETING 13
CONTENT MARKETING High-quality content that you give away for free is an effective way to build your brand and your rankings. It is a simple way to provide the answers that your customers are seeking, which means they ll stay on your site longer, look at a few more pages, and remember you when they have more questions. On top of that, it s been shown time and time again that no matter how much the search engines change, quality content will never be penalized. In order to achieve the best results, though, you have to think beyond creating keyword-rich copy, or creating content to fill a space on an editorial calendar rather than for a specific purpose. Why? Because your customers aren t interested in reading keyword-rich copy. The thing is, search engines look beyond the words on the pages to see how people interact with your content. Are they sharing it? Are they spending a significant amount of time on the page? Are the other links on your site supporting the page? This kind of engagement can actually affect your rankings. In other words, creating the content is just the first step. You ve still got some work to do to get the most value. Content Strategy Content without strategy is just stuff. The internet has so much stuff in it that it s becoming difficult for people to find and consume the content they really want. Content that doesn t have a strategy behind it will not benefit your business in the long run. Either the content won t engage your consumers so they won t feel the need to take any action or the actions they take won t generate any returns. As you develop your content strategy, you need to plan for every step of the sales funnel. Some of your consumers just want to learn a little more about your products. Some may want to know why they need one specific product over the other. Most will need to know exactly why they should buy from you instead of the competition. In other words, your content should facilitate: 1. Awareness Show them that you and your organization exists and have solutions for their situation. 2. Evaluation Now they need to have enough information to make an informed choice. 3. Conversion You content should show the benefits of taking an action. 14
The process for setting up a solid strategy isn t difficult. It involves: Determining your target audience: Develop personas to represent your ideal customers as well as customers who might have concerns about your products or services. Creating the content: Be creative, unique, and direct. No matter what media you are using, focus on creating quality, valuable content that consumers will be willing to share. Promote the content: A blog (or ebook or press release or whatever) is just a bunch of words until someone reads it. Start putting it out there on your social networks and encourage others to spread it around. Types of Content You Should Be Creating Blogs Consistent posts can build a captive audience. Newsletters / Emails This kind of outreach is great for encouraging clickthroughs. Images Unique, original images that are fun, informative, or insightful are easy to share. Whitepapers This can help with the evaluation and conversion parts of the funnel. Videos Within a few years, video is likely going to be the mostproduced content. Ebooks This kind of evergreen content can creatively facilitate awareness and evaluation. Podcasts Afraid you don t have the look for video? Try the classic podcast. Infographics Summarize important information in an easily sharable format. Slideshares A quick and simple way to dispense important information. Case Studies Facilitate the conversion decision by showing why others have worked with you. 15
CHAPTER FIVE INTUITIVE & EFFECTIVE WEB DESIGNS 16
INTUITIVE & EFFECTIVE WEB DESIGNS Web design isn t just about how your images and colors work together. The words you want to focus on in this chapter are: user experience. The best websites will focus on eliminating impediments and friction between a visitor arriving on the site and making a purchase. Internet users can be a fickle bunch, and even one too many clicks in the wrong place may be all it takes to steer them away from your website. Design standards and internet best practices can change regularly, and if your website looks like it is still relying on fiveyear-old trends, your customers are going to feel less confident with your business. And their concerns will likely be confirmed when the user experience matches the outdated design. Sometimes it only takes a small tweak to improve the site s appearance and performance, so you may not need a whole new website. Consider focusing on the following: Writing for the Web The actual content of your website is just as important as every other element. You must be able to grab your visitors attention within just a few seconds (and a few words) and give them a reason to stay a little longer. There was a time when web content writing was all about keyword density and linking to specific pages with the same exact words. Now, your content has to fit with the rest of the design and immediately provide value for your customers. Remember that this is about the user experience. Your words should be focused on the users and what they get, not what you have or how great you think your products are. Always highlight the benefits to the customer and they ll be more likely to work with you. 17
Design Elements There are a number of design elements that can improve the user experience. Consistent headings, fonts, colors etc. Don t confuse your visitors with random colors and sudden changes in format. White space Don t overcrowd your designs. When you use whitespace effectively, you can highlight the most important things on your website. Images Generic stock photos are not as effective as images that are unique and help show off your company s personality. Bullet points Lists work great on the internet. Highlight the important points and make sure that it is easy to read. Links It s not just what you link to, it s how the links appear. They should be distinct from your text and imply value for clicking. Calls to action Whether you re using in-line CTA links or banners and graphics, they should tell the user what they will get for taking an action. \ \ Page speed This is a critical aspect of user experience and SEO. If you have so many images and ads that the site bogs down and loads slowly, it s time to change things up. 18
Supplemental Content Google has talked about supplemental content quite often, and yet there aren t many websites that use it effectively. What do we mean by supplemental content and how do you implement it? The biggest example may be YouTube. Everyone s favorite video site is nearly 90% supplemental content. For every video you watch there are 20 recommendations to help you find the next one. When it s used so extensively, we actually come to rely on it. We ll just keep clicking through all the content because it s clear that it is relevant and helpful. Now, suddenly, the features designed to help your users find other products and content may be just as effective as the main content on the page and show Google just how much people enjoy clicking around your site. Google s quality rating guidelines say that this kind of content can be a large part of what makes a high-quality page very satisfying for its purpose, meaning: it s a great way to improve the user experience. 19
CHAPTER SIX LOCAL SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS 20
LOCAL SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS Just because you re on the internet doesn t mean you have to try and reach a global audience. Small businesses or companies that have physical locations can benefit from focusing on a very local audience. This can be very effective because when someone searches for a specific product in a geographical location, they re probably in the mood to make a purchase. There are a few things you can do to get noticed and, eventually, get these customers to visit you in person. Be Mobile Ready It s generally safe to say that if someone has performed a search with a geographical qualifier, they re probably using a mobile device. It s a natural development when you think about it, because these keywords indicate someone is looking for something close by. Make sure your site is mobile ready, and you will look more attractive to all those customers. Google My Business This is Google s tool that gathers and shares important information about your business. This is how you can provide your business hours, phone number, and even directions to your location right in the Google Search results and in Google Maps. You can also use it to stay on top of reviews, see how people are interacting with your business, and track the clicks, calls, and views. Citations While a lot of SEO is about attracting valuable links, local SEO is a little different. Sometimes a simple citation might be enough to improve your search engine standing. A citation is basically any instance of someone mentioning your company on their website, preferably with your logo and contact information. There are many ways a company can receive this kind of attention, including: Sponsorship citations Member pages of the local chamber of commerce Listings in online phone directors Media sites Event citations Citations show that people are talking about you, and Google can associate those mentions with your business. These are important listings, so Google will want to make sure you are who you say you are through a verification process. 21
CHAPTER SEVEN EMAIL MARKETING 22
EMAIL MARKETING Email marketing is one of those things that has been around so long that many businesses assume that it is outdated and ineffective. However, studies have repeatedly shown that this kind of direct mailing can be extremely profitable. The thing to remember is that people aren t trying to find things in their inboxes. They re trying to clear things out. You have to give people a reason to click open instead of trash. This can be accomplished through some best practices and solid strategies. There are 3 Components to a Successful Email 1. The Subject Line This is where you create the most crucial few words for your email marketing campaign. You only have a few seconds a few words to give someone a reason to open your email. This isn t just about grabbing attention, though. Crazy, over-the-top, clickbait is relatively easy to create. Generating actual interest in the content is much more challenging, and much more valuable. Your subject line should be: Relevant Clear, precise and simple Appealing Credible Filled with urgency and importance 2. The Message Let s assume your subject line has convinced someone to give you one click. The next step is to encourage them to give you another. You re still not trying to sell a product or service in your email. All you want at this point is to give them a reason to visit your website (where the real selling can take place). Your message should make it clear what the customer is going to get once they give you a click. It should tell them why it s worth their time to go to your website or check out your latest deal. It s a matter of preparing them for what they ll find so they ll be more likely to follow through and complete a purchase. 3. The Call to Action More than anything else, an email should encourage the reader to do something. And you need to make this action an easy one to take. Use a single, clear call to action (CTA) to tell your potential customers exactly what they can do, and why they should do it. Don t confuse the matter (or the customer) with multiple CTAs, and make sure that the other end of the action immediately meets their expectations. Even now, you re still not trying to sell a product. The CTA it just the next step toward your website where you can do a right and proper job of selling. 23
EPILOGUE LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD 24
LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD Any business can be accessible and personal, focused and fast, adaptable and agile. And these characteristics are critical for an effective online campaign. You don t need to have the budget of a multinational corporation to compete in the larger marketing arena of the internet. You do have to have the dedication, time, and creativity to see the campaign all the way through. In the end you ll be able to build an audience, establish a trusted brand, and increase your revenue. Ready to take your marketing to the next level? Find out how you can get it done. Phone: 800.351.9081 Email: Contact@SEO.com Get a needs-based proposal today. 25