Our Digital Marketing Process
Our Digital Marketing Process
Start on the right marketing path
(Or take a detour to a better one than the one that you’re currently on)
By now, you’re probably getting excited about the prospect of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of new visitors coming into contact with your business.
You probably already have the basis of a way of creating or revitalising your company’s online presence. Online marketing is just like offline marketing in so many respects.
Nothing is more important than having a good plan.
Depending on what goods or services you sell, you’ll have more or less of a captive audience to listen to your value proposition. If you sell houses, you might be able to talk to a prospective client for half an hour even if they’re not interested. If you conduct seminars, the audience might feel like they have to stay all day, because they paid upfront and want to get as much as possible in return.
Online, things are very different, and attention spans are much shorter. This length of attention is one of the main differences between offline and online businesses. Visitors can back-click to their search results in a few seconds if it looks like they haven’t found what they want.
Because of this, you have to distil your sales message to make it instantly recognisable. At a glance, each page of your website should tell a visitor how they will be enlightened or entertained. If they’ve arrived at your site in error, that’s fine, but if they’re a suitable prospect, then you need to engage their attention quickly.
Gather information about your business
To proceed most efficiently, you need to collect some information regarding your business, offers, and your favourite type of client or customer.
Before getting started in helping you with your online campaign, we need you to gather some information. We’re unlikely to be experts in your particular sub-section of the industry. While we can research, guess and extrapolate, we prefer some factual input from you to make sure that we’re on the right track.
As you’re probably aware, internet search engines use algorithms to order data. The most important aspect of this revolves around keywords, key phrases and associated synonyms. One of the best ways of increasing online visibility is to identify which of these words and phrases best relate to your business. We then use these words and phrases liberally, in as many places as possible alongside your company name. (We use these words as much as possible while making sure our content is very readable. We also avoid overuse of keywords).
We also ‘spoon feed’ these words and phrases to the search algorithms in a way that ticks as many algorithmic boxes as possible. There are many other tasks ahead, but keyword research and proper use is the most crucial building block, along with link building.
When we build links carefully and gradually across the internet, they have to be in blocks of text that also contain relevant keywords and phrases.
We need to answer some critical questions
So, we start the process with a few questions that need to get answered concerning your business.
These are the most important questions to ask:
- List as many keywords and key phrases that you can think of that apply to your business. If you sell bicycles, then you will write ‘men’s bikes’, ‘men’s bicycles’, ‘women’s bikes’, ‘women’s bicycles’, all the way down to ‘cycle chain’ or ‘bike sprocket’.
- Who are you targeting? I.E. Who’s your perfect customer? Who do you want to find your website and take action that leads to revenue?
- Give us a 30-second ‘elevator pitch’ for your company. This elevator pitch should be more important than any mission statement.
Do you know what an elevator pitch is? Just in case there’s a quick explanation:
When you’re at a dinner party, and someone asks you what you do for a living, there can be a tendency to ‘dress up’ the explanation. Many of us like talking about ourselves or our business, and we can effortlessly bore or confuse people. If you get in an elevator with someone and they ask you what you do for a living, or what your company does there’s little time.
A badass businessperson can very quickly sum up what they do, who they do it for and the results they get.
(The value proposition, target audience, and problem solved).
We need to distil this into a few sentences because this fits into the attention span of an average internet surfer.
When a client comes to us for content marketing assistance, first of all, we ask them to answer the three questions above. After this, there are a few more questions that we need answering for us to help them:
- Please list direct competitors websites for your business. We can research how well they’re doing in the internet marketing areas that we’re targeting. We can audit backlink profiles, for example. This analysis means that we’ll know how hard they’ll be to outrank, and how long it might take. When reviewing competitors backlinks, we can find opportunities to get the same backlinks as them. Then if we get some extra ones, we should be able to outrank them.
- Please list places that your target audiences go online. (The people and companies from question 2 above). The best place to recruit a larger audience is to go and ‘hang out’ with them. LinkedIn and Facebook are two prominent places, but please list any others that come to mind.
- Please provide admin and login credentials for anything that fits into our action plan. We DON’T need to see anything valuable such as your hosting, domain or email management accounts. We DO need to be able to log in to any Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook or any other social media accounts. We also need to be able to log into the admin control panel of WordPress, or whichever content management system you’re using.
Our immediate strategy
Research is the first step. We’ll audit your website for statistics relating to site speed, health, and seo ranking factors. We’ll also do this for several competitors. (If you don’t have a website yet, we can focus on competitor intelligence).
While we’re conducting research, we’ll get started on developing the social media presence for up to five social media channels. We’ll organise a platform where any of us can log in and review, edit, comment or post on any article across the whole set of social media accounts.
We’ll put a system in place where we can set up alerts for when any of your businesses keywords get mentioned across the internet. From this alert, updates, links or articles can be posted across the social media platforms. This system will keep a regular supply of ‘hot news’ that can get discussed.
We’ll compile a list of relevant backlink targets. Some of these will be easy to create, some will require outreach, and others might cost money (e.g. sponsorship or high-quality directories). These links will be built gradually and carefully so as not to cause unnatural spikes that search engines might not like. After a month or two, ‘before and after’ external audit tools will show clear progress across the web assets.
Longer-term strategy can then be discussed, depending on initial results. Our approach will evolve as we shelve misses and double down on hits.
Reach out to us if you have any questions!
We hope that we’ve explained our process clearly, feel free to supply as little or as much information as you have time to compile. We can do our research, but some of these requirements can only come from you, and all the elements are best coming from you.
Content Marketing Strategy Ideas
Content Marketing Strategy Ideas
We want to get found online, but what exactly do we want our customers or clients to see? Here are some simple ideas to help you achieve the results that you desire.
Following on from our article about creating an internet omnipresence, we examine some ideas around how to go about this. We can start with our website that needs to get created or expanded as much as is feasible.
The idea here is to put a volume of knowledge onto our sites so that we offer more in-depth information on as many topics as possible. We want to include as many industry-related keywords and key phrases as we can, and use synonyms and variations in the wording of phrases. This diversity will send signals to Google, Bing and the other search engines that we are authoritative in our area, because of the depth. Because of the width of topics, we’ll be more likely to be included in longer and more complex searches from users.
When people search nowadays, the terms are far more varied than they used to be, and the search engines can differentiate this and offer accurate results. Both search engines and searchers have evolved.
Create content about every topic that you can think of
So, the idea will be for us to cover every conceivable relevant topic in our niche. There’ll be limits to this, as you wouldn’t want to put sensitive company information, or your successful marketing tactics online. You should cover every topic in a way that helps a visitor. Hopefully, we leave them wanting more by offering ‘teasers’ of better information or solutions. They find out more if they buy/sign up/enquire or whatever goal we have in mind for them.
We want to make our content clickable, linkable, and helpful.
An example of clickable content would be a headline and subject that piques curiosity. This headline encourages searchers to click on our result in the search engines rather than someone else’s. (Not to be confused with clickbait!)
Clickable search results can help increase your ranking position. Imagine one of your posts is at number seven in a search and it’s getting more clicks than number six. Googles algorithm will detect this as a signal that your result is more relevant to the search and often switch the results.
Examples of clickable headlines/topics:
‘Discover the 3 best ways to avoid caking when applying eye makeup.’‘The biggest mistake that new engineers make that can hurt their career.’‘The solutions to the 5 most common challenges while chopping meat.’‘The top 10 countries to work in as a chef.’‘3 regions that you should avoid visiting altogether at the moment.’
People might get curious if the article indicates that it’ll help them avoid a big mistake or be better off somehow.
A piece of linkable content is something that another webmaster or author might want to share with their readers.
When writing an article, it’s often helpful to include statistics. Other times complicated concepts are introduced that can’t get explained in the limited space in the content.
If I were writing about the increasing popularity of home-delivery gourmet food, I might want to show a graph or an infographic. I’d include one that I found through Google and link back to the source. If that source happened to be you, (because you created an attractive piece of content), my link back to you will increase the power and authority of your site.
These links are added to help people find out more about a topic. They’re also similar to a bibliography in an academic book or paper. The reason why bibliographies exist is to show that research has gotten done, add credibility to the writer, and for them to cover themselves.
(It is OK to use small snippets of text or data under ‘fair use’ in copyright law.)
Unlike a bibliography, a backlink is sending ‘link juice’ and power back to the source. Over time these links make the whole destination site more powerful and authoritative.
This increase in website authority is what we aim to achieve.
Examples of linkable content:
- An infographic where information gets displayed visually.
- A controversial viewpoint that causes an opponent to write an article debunking it. They’ll link to the argument they’re referencing.
- Something groundbreaking, remarkable or funny. Something that people would want to share with their peers or associates.
- A resource that others would like to share. For example, you might create a free downloadable safety manual. You could then send an email to training managers, letting them know that they can use this for free to help them in their training programme. You would then ask if they could include a link to your download page from their website so that as many of their visitors can benefit as possible.
Valuable content will solve problems and answer questions.
These pages will correspond to actual and typical questions that searchers have.
Examples of valuable or helpful content:
‘Solving the problem of trouser legs getting oil from bicycle chains.’‘How to reduce or eliminate lower back pain.’‘Free downloadable map of the park.’
These types of topics will naturally attract searchers. If you want ideas for creating additional articles like this, Yahoo Answers or Quora are good places to look.
We can search for questions related to our industry, then answer them in as much detail as possible. If we can do this through a video, Slideshare or Infographic then even better.
These new articles will be helpful, but also clickable and linkable.
Easy wins
1) Re-purposing existing content.
If you look through the emails or newsletters that you’ve sent to subscribers, some will be out of date. Other emails will still be timely. The best ones will be timeless or ‘evergreen’. If you look through your emails, notes, reports or anything that has not gotten published online, ask yourself whether this work could be re-purposed.
If you don’t have a subscriber list yet, then look through emails that you’ve sent to colleagues, customers or suppliers. You’ll find that lots of these can be tweaked and changed into blog posts or articles. Make sure you change names or specifics or ask permission from other collaborators if you want to use these details.
Anything that might be clickable, linkable or helpful can be re-jigged into a blog post, report, ebook, or infographic. This practice means that the work you’ve done in the past can be recycled and additional value can get garnered from it. Use topics that are as helpful as possible without letting out trade secrets or any ‘secret sauce’ from your in-person presentations.
2) Create a Glossary of terms which will be a powerful page on each website. With so many keywords on one page, this content is likely to appear in many different searches. It’s also linkable and helpful.
3) Create an FAQ page, (or expand an existing one), for the same reasons as the Glossary of terms.
4) Think of any top 10 lists for any aspect of each business. Searchers love top 10 lists.
Conclusion
To think about starting to write articles can be daunting to someone who doesn’t do it regularly. It’s like anything in life; it gets easier with practice.
We don’t have to think of article ideas for the next year. We only have to get inspiration for one or two. Hopefully, after reading this, you have an idea for at least a few. We get these produced, and during the process, inspiration strikes, and within a few days, there are more ideas for articles.
Fast forward two years, and we have a hundred pages or more on each website. Visitors are finding us from different keyword searches going into the thousands. This rise is partly thanks to the increase in authority. It’s also because of the number of keywords, and the different wording of search queries matching the content on our sites.
At this point, a new competitor has an uphill struggle trying to catch up with our sheer volume, depth, and width of written material. This material will be on domains that have a track record of producing valuable content for years, with many backlinks to internal pages of the
Need an online presence? Get an online omnipresence!
Need an online presence? Get an online omnipresence!
How’s your online presence?
Almost all businesses need an online presence. Most business owners realise this. The problem is, too many company websites look old fashioned and out of date.
So many look like they got created because:
… Some bright spark encouraged the boss to get one, many years ago. (The bright spark has since left through frustration).
… The boss heard that they really ought to have one to keep up with their competitors and ‘stay up to date’. That was as far as the online efforts went, a few thousand invested into a website that just sat there stagnating, receiving virtually no visitors.
Why do most websites look like this? They say that appearances can be deceptive, but in this case, these are the two most common situations that explain what has happened.
So, with TV, print and billboard advertising becoming less and less cost effective, what will you do? Will you keep hammering the telephone to try to keep new business coming? More client visits? Expensive prima donna salespeople, who don’t have enough leads, and can’t close enough new deals to be cost-effective?
Anyone who has got their online efforts on track will agree, having people calling and emailing you to do business is far better. Even better still is to get up in the morning and take a look at how many orders came in overnight while you were off duty.
Speaking of making money in your sleep, doesn’t that sound a bit like the online dream that many marketers try to push with their guaranteed push-button systems?
What’s the truth? Is it easy to create or expand an online business?
What are the pieces of the puzzle in relation to creating an online omnipresence?
The key is in the word business. What does your business offer, how many clients do you have, and how healthy are your margins? An already successful business can become even more successful by improving their online presence. If on the other hand, you have an unsuccessful business, it’ll probably fail online too.
So, assuming you have a successful business…
(Meaning that you have a product or service that people will pay you for, at a rate that allows you to pay all of the bills, and some extra to use for expansion).
What then?
You go online. Perhaps you sell a physical branded product that can be sold on Amazon, or through an online store. Perhaps you sell a service in the local area, you’ll want to create or improve a website that’s search engine optimised for the local area. You’ll want to make sure your business is listed in Google My Business (the new ‘Google Places’), and featured on local directories and by local media.
Many businesses don’t fall into these clear-cut strategies. You might want to look for customers in other areas. You might be choosing between paid advertising, social media marketing or trying to find affiliates to sell your product for you.
In many ways, creating or improving your search presence is an experiment in itself, so the best way to go about it is by using a blanket strategy. We call this the online omnipresence approach. Instead of choosing A particular avenue, you’ll want to pursue ALL that are suitable for your business.
You move from one to another mastering a technique at a time, until your customers are finding you everywhere. Unlike an offline business where the process is more labour-intensive, online efforts are in many ways cumulative.
For example, if you opened a new restaurant and gave out flyers in the street, what happens when you stop giving out the flyers? New people stop seeing them, and you are relying on different marketing methods. Imagine if you used the same time that it took to create the flyers, but added your business to Yelp and Zomato, new potential customers can keep seeing your message for weeks, months or years to come.
When movie film reels and plastic records got invented, actors and singers were able to become far more successful and wealthy. Suddenly, there was no need to perform every week at the theatre or go on tour. Their performances could be heard and viewed by millions, for decades. This principle embodies the logic behind nurturing a successful online presence.
Sam and his model train shop
So, let’s imagine that you own a model train shop. The local fanatics know who you are and where you’re situated. Every now and again you set up an exhibition and get some new publicity from your local newspaper. How will your business grow? You’ll probably be in a situation where you rely on Christmas sales every year to keep going. One bad Christmas and the following summer is going to be hard.
Now imagine a different city and a different store. The store owner there is called Sam. Sam has every product that’s stocked in the store also listed on eBay, Amazon, AND a Shopify E-Commerce store. He’s getting more significant discounts from his suppliers because of the volume of business that he’s doing.
While people are competing on price online, Sam isn’t. On his blog, he posts instructional ‘how-to’ posts on every aspect of building miniature landscapes to display his trains correctly. People are so happy with the advice, they’re less price-conscious.
Not that Sam doesn’t offer bargains because he does. His products are bundled together in packages that get specially priced. This tactic works because, in the bundle, two items are very profitable, and two are ‘loss leaders’ to make the package price more attractive. The loss leaders are lightweight, so they don’t affect the postage and packing cost much.
As well as the instructional posts on Sam’s blog, he has a YouTube channel. The YouTube channel, and a recently started Podcast are found and downloaded all over the World. Sam is even starting to appear on other peoples podcasts, not just concerning model trains, but how to run a successful online business as well. He speaks at events and can’t believe that he gets paid for it.
The model train shop isn’t just a shop, and the ‘shopkeeper’ isn’t just a shopkeeper. Sam is now a renouned expert, and the shop is more of a showroom, especially now it has moved to its new premises that are ten times the size.
Sam, (the model train expert), now has four e-books published on Amazon Kindle, one of them is only 50 pages long and retails at £3. Between the four e-books, the revenue is about £2500 a month. This modest amount is excellent because it’s an entirely passive income. The books are delivered by Amazon, as is the monthly cheque.
Sam’s model train store now has the most substantial following on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in its niche. Products and offers are listed there by an outsourced online advertising specialist. Sam only checks last months revenue, and next months spend. The ad guy is now using Google Adwords to advertise on other peoples model train websites. Sam can’t believe that this is allowed. But it is.
Other industry websites publish Sam’s articles. These ‘guest posts’ allow return backlinks. These gestures amaze Sam as his website is better, so too are the value of his product bundles. Why would competitors send their visitors to him? But they do.
The hardest decision is when to slow down. How much success is enough success? Since Sam put a general manager in place, he doesn’t need to do so much. He can focus on his passion, which is to create a bigger and better model railway system. But it’s tempting to take his Amazon UK listings and bundles on to Amazon US, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, and anywhere else. After all, they already know Sam through his blog, YouTube videos, podcasts, guest posts and speeches.
Sam often sits back and wonders what his grandfather would think of how the small family store evolved with modern technology.
So, this story is excellent; it’s fictional but based on reality. You might be wondering whether this would work with a service, or with other products. We might need to modify or tweak the process. Some online avenues will be suitable, and some won’t, but let’s explore them.
It might seem like a lot of effort, but the hard work is mostly in learning each new technique. After that, many processes or marketing materials will be in place permanently, such as the podcasts, guest posts and e-books. Other tactics, (once proven profitable), can be outsourced or carried out by staff members. (For example tactics such as running Adwords or eBay campaigns). At some point, most successful online business owners find that the business almost runs itself, just as with offline corporations.
Hopefully, you understand the difference between an online presence and the online omnipresence that we promote. Can your business be omnipresent on the internet?
Contact us and we’ll give you our best opinion.
