It’s a brave new Internet world, content marketing, and search engine optimization changes almost daily.
While computer chips aren’t doubling in speed every couple of months like they used to, the tech industry and all aspects of marketing continue to evolve at a viral rate.
It’s a whole new world for marketers, where competition is stiff and fierce.
One angry competitor can essentially bring your business to its knees with a couple of well placed, and believable, negative comments. Especially if you are relying on Google-maps alone to promote your company.
Marketing has taken on many faces over the years, but in the modern world, the newest is the ability to shape-shift. To morph on the fly with new content marketing ideas.
Entire campaigns are launched with the thought that the entire platform could change overnight. The campaign might need to be scrapped, and replaced with another idea waiting in the background.
Marketers act more as liaisons to the consumer, delivering ideas and advice to help shape products, which in the digital world can also change from day to day.
Nothing is static. No strategy holds its ability to promote your brand or product. No one service can be trusted with your content marketing strategy.
“Content Marketing is all the Marketing that’s left.”
Seth Godin
While this post will cover a lot of content marketing tools you can use to promote your product, the key thing to keep in mind is that all of this could change tomorrow.
Websites are still the crux of online marketing, but they are adapting too, as mobile users are beginning to replace laptop and desktop computers almost entirely.
New competition can crop up overnight, and crush your entire market with a new idea, or a product that completely reinvents the way that we think about a product or service.
Uber is doing this with taxi companies. Air B&B is doing the same with hotel chains. The ability to scrap and adapt, to shift and change, to stick and move. That’s the market today. It’s fast, it’s dynamic, and it’s impossible to predict.
Some of the methods discussed here can help you find your way in this world of technological whirlwind, and they have been around for years.
Others are brand new as of this writing and could either become staples of the SEO world or be gone tomorrow.
We have to think ahead, and always be on the look-out for the newest marketing strategies before they emerge.
Hopefully, the insights that you gain here will put you in that mindset, and you will come up with the next big push in marketing.
Staying current on SEO practices is good. Staying ahead of the trend with your online business is better. Remember, search engines have one goal, to deliver the best possible content to users.
If you have the best content, then your next strategy could be the next standard in search engine optimization. Once you are caught up, keep moving forward. Continue to surge ahead!
Content Marketing Strategies That Work Today.
If it ain’t broke then don’t try to fix it. Try not to fool yourself about what’s working and what isn’t.
Paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for billboards all over the country was once thought to be an effective advertising method, but there’s a problem.
Depending on your market, it may not be effective. Even with digital billboards today, it may still be hard to gain a good return on investment.
Marketers used to burn up cash putting up billboards that might never be seen by a single member of their target audience.
The same reference could be made about SEO and content marketing. What good is 100,000 page views if none of them has the slightest interest in your content, products, or services? Sometimes having the most searched keywords isn’t the best tactic.
I’m not saying that older methods can’t work, they can. They need to be targeted and precise, placed right in the hands of your customers, ignoring everyone else.
That brings us to the best place to start any marketing campaign in this new age.
“We need to stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in.”
Craig Davis, former Chief Creative Officer at J. Walter Thompson.
The Social Platform.
I know what you are thinking. Facebook advertising doesn’t work.
That’s okay, it doesn’t have to. What it does is allow you to go straight to your target audience and engage them directly.
Forget about the ad budgets, what you want is personal engagement, shareable links they can pass from person to person virality.
You aren’t going to get this with a simple business page, though it’s a great place to keep your audience close. In order to build that audience, you need personal accounts.
You can have everyone at your company either use their own personal account to talk about work, where they can invite friends that are interested in what they do.
Instead of frowning on social time, make it effective. Make competitions for who can drive the most likes to a business page.
They can join groups, plug your products and share links.
And here’s a little tip: they can leave a direct link back to your product page without all the URL nonsense.
Simply type an ‘@,’ followed by the first few letters of a business page that you follow, and you can select it from the list.
Facebook will drop in a clickable link that looks like it targets a personal site, and directs clicks straight to your page.
What does this have to do with SEO?
If you are converting FB page likes to clicks, that link back to your website, then you’re building a solid backlink portal. Modern search engines love that kind of stuff.
I’m not talking about social presence here. I’m talking about social engagement.
Running ads on twitter can be a waste of time. Yet every Friday, you can rack up the hit count by participating in Follow Friday, or #FF.
Select your best-engaged tweets, and link five or six of them together in a tweet with that hashtag. Toss out as many tweets as you need, you can even add a backlink there too.
Twitter users want to feel engaged, and when they see their user name being blasted in a follow link from a large profile (yours), they will like and retweet it on their own.
They gain followers from you, you from them, and your audience grows. The new followers will try to win your attention by re-tweeting your pinned post, and you can reward them in the same way on the following Friday.
It’s a self-sustaining philosophy. Help and be helped. And there are tons of these follow share tags in the Twittersphere.
You don’t have to spend all day on social media, and there are services out there that can automate this entire process. But you have to be engaged. That’s the real secret to winning big on social media.
Let your followers take care of the advertising for you.
This will happen because you won’t be an advertiser pushing a product.
You will be an engaged friend, and you’re helping them grow their connections as well.
“Content Marketing provides 4x the ROI of our traditional marketing spend.”
Julie Fleischer, VP Marketing, Neustar
Focus Point For Modern SEO And Advertising
Online advertising isn’t completely dead.
Platforms like Google have made it possible to reach your audience one person at a time, based on whatever they are searching.
You WILL find customers that are already prepared to buy. You’ll find people interested in your brand, or your industry.
This is the modern version of the billboard. Results will vary, but keep a close eye on your ROI. If the ads aren’t working, then maybe a “billboard” isn’t right for your business.
The modern Internet ads do have important distinctions from billboards, and one of them is focus.
Imagine a car full of people, on their phones, driving past your billboard. They miss the billboard, but see Facebook ads for products related to their most recent Google and Amazon searches.
What would you say is more effective?
You don’t have money to waste showing ads to people who will never want your product. Adsense and Facebook allow you to focus on specific audiences so you get your ads right where you want them.
Backlinks Are Essential.
Especially if your company is web-based. You need redirects from everywhere leading to your site, and you need links going to other sites.
Engage on social media, in forums, on reddit, in the comment section of news sites, everywhere.
Leave posts on blogs. And every time, leave a little signature calling card to a product or post on your site that does the job better.
Put external links directly into your signature on forum posts, and select forums that are specific and centered on your niche. If you think about it: it’s free advertising, and generally a fun way to help people while earning their trust.
Make the front page of Reddit with a cute video starring one of your products, and your brand will soar to new heights.
In this marketplace, you need to stay engaged, and you need to stay dynamic at all times. Complacency is not an option here.
Keep up with every new social platform as it hits the market, and explore ways that you can use it to promote your brand.
On the topic of outbound links.
Search engines will like your site better if you have working links to relevant and popular content.
Your customers will also appreciate it when you bring the information they are looking for straight to them.
If you know that every one of you customers will need a supplemental product that you don’t offer, then make it easy for them to stay on your site by finding the best products to accompany yours, and link to it.
Offer tips on different ways that they can enhance their own lives, especially with your products. Show them pictures and videos of yourself using the products. Make them believe. Make them loyal.
You can be the expert they go to for all their off-site links, and they will return.
They might only come back for the link page at first, but sooner or later, they’ll look about the site, and possibly purchase your product or service.
Add bookmark pages specifically for directing traffic.
Outbound links are a win for your customers and your search engine ranking, so take them seriously, and only link to the best content.
It’s safe to say that because of my unique professional experiences, I’ve tested out a lot of headphones.
John Williams
Like it or not, blogs are here to stay.
They are the single most critical link in the chain of brand building, and you can use that chain to your advantage.
Reach out to bloggers. Find out who they influence.
Blogs that target niche markets are the perfect place to send free products for review, especially if they have large or influential audiences.
Believe me when I say that juicy headlines excite bloggers more than the media outlets that steal stories from them.
Send them what they want. Get them on your side, and they will give you backlinks, reviews, allow you to post guest blogs on their pages, and get your name out to thousands of waiting customers.
Blogs are influential, they’re current, and they will bring your brand to audiences that you might not be able to reach.
Vloggers are the new bloggers.
Give them visually appealing, branded stuff to talk about on their YouTube channel. You can tell at a glance how popular a video blog is by looking at their page views on YouTube.
While we’re on the topic of SEO strategies, let’s step out of the box and talk about other tactics that are definitely worth considering.
Double check your stats.
New SEO practices come out all the time, and the easiest way to stay on top of the situation is by doing free site evaluations on your page. It’s easy, and it’s fast.
Critical data is delivered directly to your browser. These sites depend on staying current with the latest SEO trends, and rank pages based on those trends.
So, realistically, you don’t have to learn every new trick. You will find that as the market evolves, you might be doing things already that will pay off with the next search engine change.
You’ll also find out what isn’t working and needs to be changed.
It takes literally minutes, and if you see a new term, you can research it on the spot, and optimize your page for it.
Set up a profile on every new social media outlet, and own it.
Spend some time getting to know the platform. Familiarize yourself with what it can do, and stay engaged.
If it takes off, then your business will be the first to the party.
Be prepared when that happens though. Dynamics change often, so don’t automate and then forget about it.
Check in from time to time, to make sure that your strategies are still working.
Use Social Media Beyond The Norm.
If you’re scratching your head wondering what I’m talking about, let me just give you a few simple examples that are easy to go about doing.
- Try setting up new hashtags on Twitter.
- Form groups on Facebook instead of only having static pages.
- Make an app.
- Never settle and always innovate.If something doesn’t take off right away, then don’t worry about it.You can stay ahead of trends, create numerous backlinks to improve your SEO and drive more buzz about your business.Don’t stick with what everyone else is doing. Make it a point to always find new ways to promote your content.
“The buyer journey is nothing more than a series of questions that must be answered.”
Analyst Firm IDC
Gamification.
If possible, find a way for users on your website to do more than simply log in, read, and buy.
Apps can help with this.
Instead of reaching out to existing social platforms, create one. Make a game related to your business on the website.
Even if you can’t create a “game,” find a way to engage your audience easily.
Give away stickers and bookmarks, or other free swag.
People love free stuff, and that’s never going to change. So, you might as well brand it and hand it.
Give them stuff that will promote your brand.
Sell them some cheapies to keep them interested and coming back.
While this won’t immediately benefit your SEO rankings, it will create buzz about your company, which will encourage blog posts and articles.
Trying the Auditory and Vocal Approach.
The newest trending in search engine optimization is the ability for users to access the web through their voice.
Capitalize on this early, or ignore it at your peril.
- Read your landing page aloud.
- Does it sound engaging, or is it keyword loaded and robotic?
Use common-voice alternatives that your audience will resonate with, so that you’re prepared when a new phone app reads your page to someone, instead of them reading text.
Content Marketing And Advertising Final Thoughts.
Prepare for short attention spans. Just like long blog posts, an hour-long podcast isn’t going to work for most people.
Make your mission and purpose clear, and concise, so that you can engage these audiences as they become more popular.
- Shift your attention from laptops and even tablets.
Mobile users are quickly taking all the market share from the browsing world, so if it doesn’t work on mobile, then it doesn’t work.
Get into a mindset of designing your website for the phone first, and then work your way back to a normal computer screen.
Most people do this the other way around.
The emphasis needs to stay on small screens and mobile, so hammer that out first. Then update the page to accommodate the rest.
I hope these insights were helpful and informative.
Remember, the best way to stay on top of SEO is to always be thinking about the next step, not catching up to the last one.
In this new age of social engagement, it’s vitally important to focus on the future. That way, the search pages are catching up to you, and not the other way around.
“Content Marketing is a commitment, not a campaign.”
Jon Buscall, Head of Moondog Marketing
At the end of the day, you don’t want to be creating content as if a robot will be reading it. Organic and natural content is going to be the golden key here.
Your next move should be to analyze your site and see how you can spice up your current content or maybe add new content following some of these guidelines.
Always keep it in the back of your mind that SEO is not something that stays stagnant nowadays.
However, if you emphasis creating content that reads well and isn’t meant to “game” or “blackhat” the system, then you’ll be certain to always survive future updates.
Again, I hope you’ve learned a bit from this blog. Good luck with your SEO efforts and all the best.
