Content Marketing + SEO + Increased Web Visitors = LEAD GENERATION

Don't cha just love it when studies come out that reinforce the broken record message you've been delivering for, oh, I don't know - forever?!

Demand Metric in partnership with Ascend2 completed a SMB/Enterprise Survey covering content marketing objectives for SMB and Enterprise organizations. The survey results were provided by Marketo. Thanks to all for the great info!

Here's one snippet I particularly liked:

"As a lead generation strategy, content marketing is more effective when paired with other objectives on this list, such as increasing website visits and improving organic search rankings. 

While these latter objectives are not highly ranked, they also are top drivers of lead generation performance."

The majority of Small Businesses and Enterprise organizations surveyed had lead generation as a top objective for content marketing while less than a third named their content objectives as focusing on increased website traffic and SEO. The bottom line: you need to have a mulit-dimensional content marketing strategy for it to deliver the benefit of lead generation. And, you need to make sure your content is compelling (will increase web visitors), audience-driven, and optimized for search engines (will improve organic search rankings). 

Why Is Web Content so Important?

Content is vital for the success of your Marketing campaigns. Your audience - no matter the size of your company or the type of product or service -  is a group of "self-educators" who are doing more online research before making purchasing decisions than ever before. 

Because of this self-education process, the information you provide has a big job of attracting, engaging, and acquiring new customers. This is something you might want to do right to make sure your lead generation objectives are being met.

Resources Needed for Content Creation and Implementation

For most companies (SMB and Enterprise) the problem with creating and executing successful content strategies requires resources. Here's something to think about:

"More than half (53%) of SMBs use only in-house resources to execute content marketing campaigns. 

68% of large enterprises outsource all or part of their content marketing campaign creation and implementation, gaining higher levels of expertise and performance available outside the organization. 

Outside resources are helpful for obtaining specialized skills or to remain agile in the production of content." 

SMBs... do you think your in-house resources are the most knowledgeable choice for creating and executing the best content marketing strategy that will meet your lead generation objectives.  Enterprise organizations... are the 32% of you not using outside resources with more specialized skills getting the results you want to compete with the 68% who "get it"? Two words to remember:  Awareness Creation!

Just saying...

Important Website Content - Don't Forget SEO!

Website content has always been and will continue to be important for B2B vendors (and any other kind of website) not only for search engines but for your visitors' satisfaction. Many companies really don't have an understanding about what makes great content - and - the power great website content has when it comes to forming a good relationship with prospective clients. Of course, optimized content also has the power to get a website more visibility within the major search engines.

Many times, website owners don't offer website content that is important to their audience; perhaps, they're not sure what kind of content the audience wants to see. When it's time to create or update your website content, here is a great resource to keep in mind:

The above survey results were just released by KoMarketing Associates and Dianna Huff. It's interesting to see the most important asset for establishing your credibility is Contact information and About information. This correlates to years of website analytic reporting for hundreds of websites:  the vast majority of visitors only visit the home page and then drop off the website without diving deeper into the website information. I personally prefer not to see so many one-page visitors but if that is something we have to deal with, why not make sure your B2B website gives the visitors what they're looking for?

On the flip side, here are a couple of the most annoying website elements that result in high exit rates:

• Auto-playing video or audio and animated ads.
• Contact forms that require too much information. By the way, most people do not want to share their telephones numbers or addresses but are comfortable with sharing emails, company, and position information.

For more details about this study, check out Must Have B2B Website Content

And - remember - don't put great content on your website without optimizing it for search engines. If your prospective clients can't find you - it doesn't matter how great the content is! 

Internet Marketing - Digital Marketing – Web Marketing – Online Marketing: SEO, SEM, PPC, SMM, OPR, ETC. WTH???

We’re finding there is some confusion about the basic difference between “Internet Marketing”, “Digital Marketing”, “Online Marketing”, and “Web Marketing”; not to mention the fog surrounding the concepts of SEO, SEM, PPC, etc. and how all of these tactics relate to your overall Marketing and Brand objectives. At Awareness Creation, we see all of this confusion as an unruly beast running amok in the minds of marketers and execs within companies of all sizes, in practically all industries. 

Sooo… to help tame the beast I thought I’d put together a map that shows how the various tactics we use relate to one another and converge to create effective Internet Marketing Strategies:

Oh. I see. No wonder there’s a lot of head scratching goin’ on out there. Bottom line:  take my word for it! Once these tactics come together in a professionally developed Internet Marketing strategy, the out-of-control beast turns into a benevolent saint. It's a beautiful thing!

Awareness Creation Internet Marketing – Come Back!

We haven’t really been that far away; we’ve just been humming along, in the background and meditating on our relevance as we listen to the Internet noise about SEO, Social Media, Local Search, Blogging, Mobile SEO, Google Enhanced Campaigns, and now the brouhaha about Yahoo! overtaking the #1 U.S. Web property status from Google.  Ok. Enough of the humming along, meditating, and listening;  I’ve got something to say about something (at least one thing for this post).

Social Media vs. SEO

With so much focus on social media, it’s easy for people to ignore the importance of SEO.   Stephen Mahaney of Planet Ocean Communications reports that there is a “relatively disproportionate focus on Social Media Marketing and Brand Awareness that means companies big and small are rethinking their online marketing strategies.”  They point out SEO is still very important but it appears that social media is five times more in demand than SEO.

Hmmm… just because it’s in higher demand does that mean social media is more important? Not at all.  Just because tomatoes are in high demand does that mean broccoli is less important?  Just because web developers are in high demand does that mean that SEO experts are less important?  Of course not. I rest my case.

Internet Marketing is About Effectively Reaching Your Audience

The audience of any given product or service is multi-dimensional so you can’t create awareness of and interest in your products or services with a one-dimensional online strategy (e.g. SEO or social media). Through the years we have created expert, multi-dimensional Internet Marketing Strategies that have included SEO, optimized content writing, online PR, Local Search, PPC campaigns management, website analyses and social media – all bringing fantastic results for our clients.  And, fortunately, we continue to develop, implement, and manage strategies that are up-to-date and relevant to the needs of our clients.

Hiatus… Updating… Reevaluating… Reinventing… Refreshing… Researching… Regrouping… Ay yi yi!

You know, sometimes sitting back and listening is just what you need to realize the relevance is there – even if it seems like there is no demand.  We’re not just sitting back. We continue to listen and we want to hear from you: tell us what your demands are and I know we’ll have the relevant solutions.

So, more thoughts about something else to be continued…

Colorado SEO Blog - SEO, Social Media, Search Engine Marketing Tips & More: Creating a New Website? Re-Designing an Existing W...

Colorado SEO Blog - SEO, Social Media, Search Engine Marketing Tips & More: Creating a New Website? Re-Designing an Existing W...: Creating a New Website? Re-Designing an Existing Website? Talk to Your SEO Pro First!!!  One More thing... ... if you decide you want ...

Creating a New Website? Re-Designing an Existing Website? Talk to Your SEO Pro First!!!  One More thing...

... if you decide you want to emulate an "industry leader's" website, make sure that "leader" is really using a web design and a Search Engine Optimization Strategy that is going to boost your search positioning potential.

For instance, let's say you're a mid-size, natural dog food manufacturer and you want to compete with the well-known companies. (By the way, this is a fictional example and any similarities to real companies are purely accidental.) You decide you should have a website that is like "theirs" (since they are so successful) and you get your website designer to look at the big company sites to get an idea of a direction you need to take with your website design. Sound familiar?

Your website designer designs a site that has a gorgeous flash banner that takes up half of the web page showing beautiful, healthy dogs romping through a fantasy meadow, pulling dog sleds, swimming in a mountain lake, or saving a baby falling from a skyscraper - you get the picture(s); all the information about your dog food and company is within aesthetically-appealing graphics; there is no real informational/optimized content; the SEO is practically non-existent. You love it! 

Give it two months (give or take) and you'll find that your site can't be found because it's buried so deeply in the Google cellar that it's seems like you don't even exist. What happened?! You did everything the "industry-leaders" did for their sites - you would think that you should be found at least in the top 20 search positions. You would think. But that's not the way it works.

Without getting too technical and caught up in all the details, you didn't have a chance to get top search positions. Your new website was never going to get you better search positions because the "industry leader's" website you emulated didn't have a good website design for successful online exposure.  Chances are, the "industry leader" didn't even have that great of a search presence for the keyword searches your audience would use - they don't have to - they have brand equity.

When you have a well-established brand, your website can still work for you because the audience knows your name and will search for specific information using your brand. So, if you cannot cash in on a well-known name, you may want to think about cashing in on a solid website design that uses up-to-date search engine optimization. 

Just sayin'...

Colorado SEO Blog - SEO, Social Media, Search Engine Marketing Tips & More: Get Professional SEO Help Now!

Colorado SEO Blog - SEO, Social Media, Search Engine Marketing Tips & More: Get Professional SEO Help Now!: Creating a New Website? Re-Designing an Existing Website? Talk to Your SEO Pro First!!! We see it all the time... companies create their n...