1. Focus on Local and Mobile:
With an ever-increasing number of people using cell phones and tablets to access the internet, SEO has had to adapt to a correspondingly growing local audience. Focusing on local keywords and mobile optimization will be one key to success in the coming year.
2. Get Social, Especially On Google +
It’s always a good idea to expand your social reach – for marketing and SEO purposes. Think about it – Google wants to create a good experience for the user. Isn’t it evidence that users want to hear from a company, if that company is engaging and interactive with its customers and therefore popular on social media? If, last year, you knew this but didn’t act on it, maybe it’s time to take the proverbial leap of faith and get to work on social media monitoring and marketing. In this case, it’s important to be a social climber!
3. Create High-Quality Content… and Keep Creating!
“Content is king” is and should always be on your mind if you are an interactive marketer. As Panda continues to be run, content will continue to rein over the land of SEO, and if you aren’t consistently creating fresh and unique content, you will be expelled from the kingdom. Create content that users will want to read and engage with, comment on and share with their friends and colleagues (while this is easier said than done, it’s something to strive for. Spend some time getting to know your audience before beginning to write, and you might notice improvement!).
4. Improve the Relevancy Off-Page Factors: Link-Building:
Link-building is as important as ever, but with the Panda update, higher quality links are paramount. Further, these links should be relevant to your site, and spammy links should be avoided at all costs. Further, rather than simply building links for your highest priority keywords, be sure to focus on branding as well. Further, make sure to go after quality over quantity when it comes to link-building.
5. Implement the Rel=Author Markup:
The authority of content has also been important, and will very likely continue to be this year. How do you prove the authority of your content? Well, you (or whoever writes content for your blog) use the rel=author markup (if Google approves you, that is). This necessitates having a Google + profile, and linking it to an author page on your blog. With a clear headshot, someone who has the rel=author tag correctly set up will likely see his or her information show up in the SERPs when his or her blog posts come up in the results.
About Everspark Interactive:
Everspark Interactive (ESI) is a full-service digital marketing agency specializing in getting their client’s websites to rank in the top position on Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Currently, Everspark Interactive has roughly 25 clients and $2 million in revenue, offering a wide range of services from website design and layout, to full, top-tier SEO. Headquartered in beautiful Atlanta, Georgia, Everspark Interactive was founded in June 2009 by Chris Watson and Jason Hennessey, standout graduates of StomperNet., the world’s largest SEO training company.
As the New Year approaches, most SMB marketers evaluate the previous year to determine changes and improvements to their company’s marketing efforts and ultimately improve ROI. Just in time for your New Year’s resolutions, marketing automation platform provider, Act-On Software has compiled a list of 8 tips to improve marketing’s ROI in 2012.
1. Define the “qualified” lead.
Marketing and sales must discuss what constitutes a qualified lead and define its characteristics together. This becomes the foundation for a lead scoring system through which marketing can winnow more-qualified sales ready leads from all those captured. Once lead characteristics are established, lead scoring also allows marketing to determine the key triggers that identify the ready buyer, so those prospects can be delivered to the right sales people in real time, decreasing the time to conversion through rapid response.
2. Formulate an integrated marketing plan.
It’s easier said than done. Keeping track of email campaigns, drip campaigns, traditional media outreach and coverage, content to bloggers, tradeshows, SEO marketing, social media campaigns, and more, calls for a lot of juggling – not to mention funneling, segmenting and filtering the leads you’ll generate through all these activities. A good automated marketing platform is the best way to manage and track an interrelated set of campaigns and programs and the resulting leads. The usual process is to begin with email and lead scoring, and then scale to additional capabilities, as your programs get more sophisticated. As you scale, make sure that the leads and data you get from each program are not silo’d. Ideally, every interaction with a prospect should be tracked in a single location, usually a profile in a sales or marketing database. On the content side, aim for consistency in messaging and offers. Create, manage and coordinate your messages across all channels for a consistent customer experience, and update all channels when messaging changes.
3. Segment your lists
By segmenting your lists, you can deliver more focused campaigns by targeting promotions to specific audiences, providing the right content, and making the right offer at the right time. The concept of message matching is based on the idea that people pay attention only to what matches their own needs, which in turn helps build more targeted lists and boosts overall response rates. List segmentation comes in infinite forms – by demographic factors, title, industry, offer, behavior, interactivity, preferences, company size, to name just a few. Start simply, and let testing and sales results guide you to more sophisticated list parsing.
4. Create compelling landing pages
When your prospect clicks on a search result or an online ad, the resulting landing page should be exactly what the prospect was looking for and should provide a compelling offer (webinar, trial, whitepaper, demo, etc.). The value of the offer increases with an accurate, concise description of what the prospect will receive. A relevant landing page delivering content that addresses the visitor’s problem induces the reader to not only consider the offer, but often to pursue it. And a strong call to action that clearly shows how they can “act now” provides the incentive for lead capture, in turn allowing your company to continue the dialogue and nurture that new lead toward conversion.
5. Refine your surveys and registration forms.
Develop and implement productive online surveys that capture relevant prospect data and furnish quality leads. Review each of your lead generation forms, and make sure they work together to gain more information as the prospect continues to engage. Keep the initial form short and sweet; aim for capturing simple, basic information. You can ask for more information as the dialogue progresses.
6. Measure, measure, measure
“Metrics” has to do with measurements, such as tracking numbers of web visitors. “Analytics” has to do with teasing those numbers apart so you can distinguish categories (e.g., how many visitors visited your pricing page). To gather precise information about campaign effectiveness, you need to tap into the full spectrum of metrics available from all your programs. Analysis will guide you in determining which leads are ready to go to sales, which leads need more nurturing, and which offers are or are not working. All such information helps you focus on where you are most likely going to generate qualified leads that are likely to convert.
7. Test, test, test
Testing tells you what works and what doesn’t, so you can focus your budget and efforts on what does. Remember, less is more! What you choose to test depends on your industry, your target audience, and your campaigns. You can test lists, ads, landing pages, keywords, email campaign content, sending strategy and more. Commonly tested list elements include titles, actions, and industries. Commonly tested content and campaign elements include headlines, body copy, calls to action, offers, contact forms, days of the week, time of the day, page design, graphics, and so on. Begin with a simple plan and let your results and changing conditions guide you to continuing, expanding or redirecting your testing efforts. Continued testing will allow you to understand how to optimize and improve your communication with your target audience, which leads to better leads, more conversions, and closed sales.
8. Automate, automate, automate
Automate as much of the process as you can. You will save time and labor; you’ll also increase consistency, efficiency, awareness, actionable intelligence, and measurability. A good marketing automation platform reduces complexity, makes workflow more efficient, and enables and enhances well-timed communications as contacts, leads, prospects and sales professionals interact. It also gives you real-time visibility into every aspect of the sales cycle, from lead generation to close, documenting the data and circumstances that make success repeatable. And finally, automation delivers the sales and marketing reports that provide data for analysis and planning, proves marketing’s contribution to sales, and illustrates return on investment.
Author: Shawn Naggiar, Chief Revenue Officer of Act-On Software. Act-On Software is the provider of the fastest growing, cloud-based marketing automation platform for the Fortune 5,000,000, enabling marketers to realize their creative expression to the fullest.
In many SMBs, the squeaky wheel almost always winds up getting the grease. Customers tend to be rewarded for complaining, but that strategy leaves money on the table, according to marketing consultant Betsy Kruger.
“No one likes hearing a complaint, so when a customer complains, a business quickly and resoundingly rectifies the complaint,” said Kruger, author of Top Market Strategy: Applying the 80/20 Rule (www.BetsyKruger.com). “The problem with this strategy is that disgruntled customers bring in less profit than loyal customers. Your business should focus on gratifying your most profitable customers.”
Contrary to popular opinion, the customer is not always right, Kruger says.
“It’s wrong to reward complainers,” she says. “You should reward loyal customers since they reward your business with higher profit. You should value their business since loyal customers value your business.”
Kruger says the 80/20 rule governs all results, including profits from customers.
“When you sort customers by their profitability, this universal law predicts that the top 20 percent of your customers will generate 80 percent of your profit. Conversely, the bottom 80 percent of your customers will generate only 20 percent of your profit – and virtually all of your complaints. This means you should target the top 20 percent with a top market strategy.”
Your business can profit from the 80/20 rule by enacting these steps:
• Distinguish your top customers – Identify ways the top 20 percent of your customers differ from other customers and what characteristics they have in common. Realize that your top customers are highly profitable.
• Target your top customers – Gratify your top customers with a top market strategy. Discontinue marketing to the bottom 80 percent of your customers by automating all interactions with that group.
• Promote to top prospects – Focus resources on converting similar prospects into top customers. When you replace your less profitable customers with these new customers, you can expect your total profit from customers to quadruple.
“You may feel it’s rude to consider some customers as less valuable than others, but research proves it’s true,” Kruger says. “The top 20 percent of your customers magnifies your profit, whereas the bottom 20 percent of your customers magnifies your complaints.”
“I feel it’s rude to reward complainers since loyal customers deserve to be rewarded. When you prioritize your customers with the 80/20 rule, you are prioritizing your profit.”
About Betsy Kruger
Betsy Kruger heads Strategic Power, a marketing consultancy committed to empowering world prosperity, one business at a time. Business Expert Press released her book, Top Market Strategy: Applying the 80/20 Rule, in August 2011. This book enriches marketing and strategy textbooks and shows business leaders exactly how to quadruple their profit from customers. She writes articles, motivates groups, leads seminars, and consults with clients on how to prosper from the 80/20 rule.
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