How to Use SEO in Your Digital Marketing Strategy
Many websites provide great tools that allow you to see how your website is performing. The track, for you, what keywords are being searched, where your traffic is coming from, how long people stay on a page, etc. Again, Google Analytics is a great tool to know how to use, as well.
Know What Your Competition is Doing
Competition is good for business. It forces you to be on your game and be more creative. But you don‘t have to do it blindly. Knowing what keywords are used to drive traffic to your competitor’s site can be invaluable marketing information for your business. Websites such as seositetools can be a great tool to use in your data-driven marketing strategy.
Website Optimization and Marketing Strategies
There are a plethora of avenues for collecting data. How you use it will determine your business success. As stated by Kate Cooper, CEO of Bloom Worldwide, digital marketing has tracking capabilities that generate data, whereas traditional marketing mediums such as direct mail and print couldn’t be tracked accurately. The main challenge is choosing the most important data to analyze. You can easily get overwhelmed with all the information available.
As discussed above, researching your competition is a good place to start when creating a website that captures customers and keeps them engaged. By using the keywords that bring customers to your website you can determine what may or may not be beneficial to your marketing strategy. Also, make sure that you are optimizing all aspects of your site; add alt text to images; use at least two headers on each page or with each post, if you have a blog; and use external links.
Don’t forget to keep on testing, as well. Strategies and plans need to have a fluid component. Business moves fast online, and so does the way search engines rank. When your competitors change the construction of their web presence, it will affect you. It’s important to avoid working with a reactive approach. Stay proactive and do your own research to determine the best way to stay at the top. Additionally, make sure that the rest of your company is in prime condition. As the saying goes, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. A balanced company is a successful one.
Alt Text
Using alt text is a simple way to increase your SEO ranking. Images do not get ranked, text does. Incorporate short, descriptive language and keywords into your alt text. If you are selling hand-woven baskets, then you should add this tag to your images. This will not only help your site ranking but will also help when people are searching for images, as the alt text is what is picked up in searches, not the actual image itself.
Headers
Using headers is an easy and often neglected way to increased site rankings in search engines. Web crawlers first look for header 1 and header 2 on websites and will go on to search lesser headers, 3, 4, and so on. Neglecting to add the initial headers will substantially hurt your SEO and ranks. Never leave off headers.
External links
You would think that linking to another site to yours would hurt your ranks. Why would you want to bring attention to another website? But having at least two external links boosts your SEO. Make sure that you link to meaningful articles, but not your competition, and that you link through keywords. If your company sells skylights in Maine and Vermont, link to a website that perhaps discusses the top five ways skylights benefit homes in the northeast. If you can google the topic to find the article, linking to the article through the keywords you used to search for it will help your website.
Test and Retest
Think of testing your marketing plan the way you would any other theories: with the scientific method. First, start with the data you have collected. Then ask a question about the information you have assembled. Determine your hypothesis or theory about this data and test it with an experiment. Next, analyze your results and formulate a conclusion. Finally, use this information in your fluid marketing plan. Take these steps often to ensure that your strategy keeps you at the forefront of the market.
Balance Within Your Company
Be sure that you have not only marketing goals, but company-wide goals. It’s one thing to have a solid marketing plan, but if the rest of your company is a disaster, you will ultimately fail anyways. Don’t spend money on marketing until you have all other sectors of your business in order, from your company finances to your POS systems.
Set SMART and RACE objectives
To win in business you need to run a SMART RACE. Yes, it’s true that success is a marathon, but not a sprint. You can’t take off fast and maintain success with a plan. Consider your marketing strategy more of a marathon; moving forward at a steady pace to gain success over time. Using the SMART RACE acronyms will help get you there.
SMART
The acronym SMART stands for: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.
Specific: Have a specific goal and audience in mind.
Measurable: Make sure that your strategy includes measurable data. Can you track where your audience is coming from? How you gained your customers? What your rate of conversions are and returning users?
Achievable: Making a billion dollars your first year is not an achievable goal for any business, nor is gaining a million new followers to your blog. Make sure that your plans are achievable and that your growth plan includes recruitment and retention. It’s great to get a client, but if you can’t keep them then what is the point?
Realistic: Can you accomplish your goals outlined in your marketing strategy? Are the timelines you set to hit your goals even capable of being reach in the current economy? Make sure that your marketing strategy is a realistic one.
Timely: Timing is everything. You don’t want to miss the boat nor do you want to be ahead of your time in business. Make sure that your plans include data from the current economy. Do not use outdated research when planning for future growth. Yes, you can use old data to formulate new plans, but make sure you test your theories before putting them into action.
RACE
RACE stands for: Reach, Action, Convert and Engage
Reach: There are many ways to reach your customers. The Seven Touches marketing principle suggests that to gain a new customer you must get their attention, through various techniques, at least seven times. This may include social media posts, emails, and even offline contact, such as print media and person-to-person. You can increase traffic to your website by creating multiple avenues, such as ads and social media. You can also utilize other websites to help promote your business, whether it be smaller blogs or larger discount pages. Using different paid, owned and earned media can help you grow and thrive.
Action: Action comes in many forms. It can range from user interaction to a call to action. Either way, the idea is to interact with your prospective audience and give them the steps to becoming your customer. Phrases such as “limited time offer,” “this week only,” and “join our mailing list and get 25% off now” are great examples. They all tells prospective consumers that if they act now, they can get a great deal or that they can get something they may not be able to get once a certain amount of time passes. Utilizing various forms of media to convey this message will meet your seven touches strategy and direct them to do a specific task.
Convert: Reaching your prospective customers is one thing, but converting them to actually make a sale is entirely different. If you have 100,000 visitors to your site weekly but are only selling 10 items, your conversation rate is horrible! Be sure to include realistic conversion goals into your marketing strategy and develop ways to increase them over time.
Engage: You reached your target audience, encouraged them to take timely action, and make the sale. Now you need to ensure that they keep coming back. Engaging your customers will ensure that you have a revenue stream for life. Provide “value-added” services, by letting them know about new products, and encouraging them to take advantage of future promotions. The best marketing strategies include maintaining your current clientele. It is easier to sell to a customer who already knows your product than to get someone onboard who you have never interacted with; remember the seven touches.
Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will a successful marketing strategy to grow your business. Do your research, create a website that will increase your SEO rankings, test what you implemented, and use the data collected to rejuvenate your marketing strategy, use SMART RACE techniques, and work all sectors of your company collectively to maximize your success.
Originally Posted at Tenfold.
