Elevating Your Digital Presence with Community SEO
The digital landscape is vast, interconnected, and constantly buzzing with conversations. To stand out from the crowd, it’s no longer enough to focus solely on your website and social media profiles. To truly gain an edge, brands need to tap into the power of community SEO.
What is Community SEO, you ask? It’s the art of optimizing your presence across online communities, forums, and interactive platforms, ensuring your brand is not only seen but heard in the places your audience is actively engaging.
At Globe Runner, we’ve mastered the craft of connecting brands with their online communities in meaningful ways. Whether it’s through powerful optimization techniques or fostering genuine interactions, we’re here to help your brand thrive in these spaces. Together, we’ll create rocket fuel for your business, launching you past competitors and right into your audience’s orbit.
Curious how this works? Keep reading to explore how Community SEO can elevate your digital presence and how Globe Runner can guide you every step of the way.
Understanding the Basics of Community SEO
Community SEO is all about integrating traditional SEO strategies into community-based platforms. Unlike standard SEO, which focuses heavily on website optimization and SERP rankings, Community SEO takes things a step further. It’s about being present in the places where your audience is seeking advice, trading ideas, and solving problems.
This approach isn’t just about ranking higher. It’s about interaction. Community SEO helps brands actively contribute to forums, Q&A platforms, and social groups. By doing so, they create a strong, trustworthy presence where potential customers already are. Imagine being the go-to expert in your niche because your brand shows up with valuable insights time and time again. Sounds like a dream? It’s completely achievable with smart Community SEO strategies.
Forums: The Cornerstone of Community SEO
When it comes to Community SEO, forums hold a special place. Platforms like Reddit, niche-specific discussion boards, and even Facebook Groups are buzzing hubs of activity, packed with users who engage daily. But how does being active in forums translate to better SEO? Here are a few key ways:
- Backlink Opportunities: Forums encourage natural backlinking when users reference helpful content you share or link back to your website for more details.
- Keyword Visibility: Whether people are discussing industry trends or asking for product recommendations, aligning your language with forum interests amps up your keyword reach.
- Active Participation: When you actively partake in relevant discussions, search engines recognize your authority in the subject, improving your overall rankings.
At Globe Runner, we understand the nuances of forums and how they can transform your SEO strategy. With our expertise, we’ll not only help you establish a presence but ensure it consistently serves your broader marketing goals.
Forum Optimization: SEO Best Practices
To reap the rewards of forums, you need a tailored approach. Optimizing forum content for search engines requires a strategy that’s both thoughtful and authentic. Here are some best practices:
- Targeted Keywords: Sprinkle keywords into forum posts, thread titles, and descriptions. This enhances visibility without feeling forced.
- Engaging Content: Quality supersedes quantity. Share well-thought-out, informative responses and start discussions that add value to your chosen forums.
- Internal Linking: Whenever possible, link back to relevant pages on your website. This could be blog articles, product pages, or FAQs designed to meet the needs of the forum audience.
- Adhere to Guidelines: Each forum has its own rules. Staying compliant strengthens your reputation and prevents posts from being flagged or removed.
Globe Runner’s team excels at integrating these techniques seamlessly into your brand’s overall strategy. We handle the technicalities so you can focus on engaging with your audience authentically.
Cultivating Engagement: Holistic SEO in Community Spaces
Community SEO isn’t just about showing up; it’s about staying relevant through genuine engagement. When you demonstrate authenticity and value, you earn trust, not just from the people you’re conversing with, but from search engines as well.
Here’s how you can cultivate meaningful interactions:
- Listen Before Speaking: Understand the tone and needs of the community before jumping in. Respond thoughtfully rather than pitching your services outright.
- Ask Questions: Spark conversations by asking insightful questions that encourage discussion and establish your brand as a helpful resource.
- Highlight Customer Stories: Sharing success stories from your current customers can resonate deeply with users looking for solutions.
- Stay Consistent: Frequent contributions show commitment, strengthening your presence as a valued member of the community.
At Globe Runner, we help brands go beyond the typical SEO playbook. Our strategies promote long-lasting relationships with online communities, fostering loyalty that benefits your business for years.
The Metrics of Community Engagement
Success in Community SEO is measurable, and there are several ways to gauge its impact:
- Traffic Analytics: Use tools like Google Analytics to monitor referral traffic from forums and other community platforms.
- Sentiment Analysis: Keep an ear out for mentions of your brand within forums. Are people talking about you positively? Sentiment analysis tools can help you measure how audiences perceive your contributions.
- Engagement Metrics: Track likes, shares, comments, and discussions stemming from your posts. Enhanced interaction is often a sign you’re doing things right.
- Direct Messages: If users are reaching out to you directly for advice or information, it’s a strong indicator your input is valued.
Metrics tell one side of the story; working with Globe Runner ensures these insights feed into actionable strategies that sustain your growth moving forward.
Community SEO’s Impact on Brand Authority and Loyalty
When done right, Community SEO is a game-changer. It transforms passive audiences into active supporters and casual readers into loyal customers. Here’s how:
- Boosts Credibility: Sharing expertise, solving problems, and showing up consistently establishes your brand as a thought leader.
- Encourages Loyalty: Authentic interactions help foster real connections, creating a loyal community that advocates for you.
- Strengthens Visibility: The higher your visibility in forums, the more your brand’s presence spreads organically online.
At Globe Runner, we’ve seen firsthand how impactful strong community ties can be. With our wide array of services, from SEO to content marketing to social media management, we help brands build and sustain a meaningful presence in these spaces.
Potential Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
Of course, Community SEO comes with its challenges. Spam-filled discussions, trolling comments, and off-topic tangents can derail even the best intentions. Here’s how you can avoid these pitfalls:
- Avoid Over-Promotion: Focus on providing value rather than constantly pushing your products or services.
- Moderate Activity: Monitor forums carefully. If discussions veer off-topic or involve disruptive behaviors, gently guide them back.
- Stay Focused: Stick to your area of expertise to establish authority without losing authenticity.
Globe Runner helps brands handle these challenges gracefully, creating strategies that anticipate and address potential hiccups along the way.
Community SEO FAQs
What exactly is Community SEO, and how does it differ from traditional SEO?
Community SEO focuses on optimizing brand presence in forums and community-based platforms, promoting engagement and interaction rather than just ranking.
How can I optimize my brand’s forum content for better SEO results?
Share authentic, keyword-rich posts, link back to your site where appropriate, and maintain consistent engagement within your chosen platforms.
What metrics should I look at to measure the success of my Community SEO efforts?
Track referral traffic, engagement rates, sentiment around your brand, and overall conversions stemming from community-based interactions.
Tap into the Power of Community SEO with Globe Runner
There’s no denying the potential of Community SEO, but getting it right requires expertise, finesse, and commitment. That’s where Globe Runner comes in. With our creative strategies, technical knowledge, and values-driven approach, we’ll help your brand be the spark that ignites meaningful connections online.Use our online form to schedule your introductory call with our team of digital marketing experts today. Together, we’ll transform your presence in online communities and elevate your brand to new heights.
9 Tips for Optimizing Email Marketing
In today’s digital marketing landscape, email remains an important tool for customer communication and conversion, yet many businesses struggle to unlock its full potential. This comprehensive guide will provide you with 10 expert strategies to transform your email marketing approach, helping you craft more engaging campaigns that not only capture attention but also drive meaningful results and maximize your return on investment.
1. Define Your Target Audience & Segment Your List
Defining a target audience for email marketing is a crucial step in creating effective campaigns that resonate with subscribers and drive results. Start by analyzing your existing customer data, including demographics, purchase history, and engagement metrics. This information can provide valuable insights into who is most likely to be interested in your products or services. Additionally, gather feedback directly from your audience through surveys or polls to understand their preferences, pain points, and needs.
To further refine your target audience, consider segmenting your email list based on various criteria. This can include demographic factors like age, gender, and location, as well as psychographic elements such as interests, values, and lifestyle choices. Behavioral data, such as past purchases, email engagement levels, and website interactions, can also be used to create more targeted segments. By combining these different segmentation strategies, businesses can create highly specific customer personas that allow for personalized and relevant email content, ultimately leading to improved engagement and conversion rates.
2. Craft Compelling Subject Lines
Crafting compelling email subject lines is an art that requires strategic thinking and audience understanding. The key is to create concise, specific lines that immediately communicate value and spark curiosity. Start by using action-oriented verbs and keeping your subject line short—ideally around 7 words or 41 characters—to ensure it’s fully visible on mobile devices. Focus on clearly articulating the benefit to the recipient, such as using specific promises like “Increase your open rates by 50% today” instead of generic statements.
To make your subject lines more engaging, incorporate techniques like asking compelling questions, using numbers, and leveraging power words that evoke emotion. For example, a subject line like “Are you making these SEO mistakes?” or “5 ways to boost email open rates” can pique curiosity and encourage opens. Additionally, personalize your subject lines when possible, and consider using techniques that create a sense of urgency or exclusivity. Remember that the goal is to stand out in a crowded inbox by being specific, relevant, and immediately valuable to your target audience.
3. Leverage Email Automation
Email automation can significantly enhance your email marketing efforts, improving efficiency and effectiveness. By implementing automated workflows, you can send timely, personalized messages triggered by specific customer actions or behaviors, such as signing up for a newsletter, abandoning a cart, or making a purchase. This approach allows for highly targeted communication that resonates with subscribers, leading to increased engagement and conversion rates. In fact, automated emails have been shown to generate 320% more revenue compared to non-automated emails.
Using email automation can also help streamline your marketing processes, saving time and resources while maintaining consistent communication with your audience. Set up automated sequences for various purposes, such as welcome series, re-engagement campaigns, and post-purchase follow-ups, ensuring that customers receive relevant content at the right moment in their journey. This not only enhances the customer experience but also helps to nurture leads, boost customer retention, and ultimately drive sales on autopilot. Moreover, most automation tools provide detailed analytics and reporting, allowing you to continually optimize your email strategies based on performance data.
4. Optimize Calls-to-Actions (CTAs)
To optimize calls to action (CTAs) in email marketing, focus on several key strategies:
- Use Action-Oriented Language – Employ clear, compelling verbs that guide recipients toward the desired action. For example, instead of vague phrases like “Click here,” use specific actions such as “Buy now and get 15% off” or “Check out our spring collection”.
- Create a Sense of Urgency – Incorporate techniques that encourage immediate action, such as limited-time offers or countdown timers. This can motivate recipients to act quickly, increasing engagement and conversion rates.
- Personalize CTAs – Tailor your CTAs to different audience segments based on their preferences, behaviors, or past interactions. This personalized approach can significantly improve the relevance and effectiveness of your emails.
- Optimize Design and Placement – Make CTAs visually distinct by using buttons with contrasting colors and clear fonts. Ensure they are easily clickable and optimized for various devices and screen sizes.
- Keep it Concise and Clear – Craft short, straightforward CTAs that clearly communicate the benefit to the user. For instance, “Browse New Collection 10% Off” is more effective than simply “Visit Website”.
- Focus on Value – Highlight the benefits the recipient will gain by clicking the CTA. This approach appeals to the user’s self-interest and makes the offer more compelling.
- A/B Test Your CTAs – Continuously experiment with different elements of your CTAs, including copy, colors, and placement. Use data-driven insights to refine and improve your email marketing effectiveness.
- Ensure Consistency – Connect your CTA to both the email content and the destination page. This alignment creates a seamless experience for the user and increases the likelihood of conversion.
- Use Accessibility Best Practices – Make your CTAs accessible to all users by following email accessibility guidelines, including optimizing for dark mode and screen readers.
5. Personalize Email Content
If you are looking to optimize your email marketing through personalization, try these key strategies:
- Tailor content to audience segments/personas – This allows for more targeted and relevant content.
- Implement Dynamic Content – Utilize real-time data to customize email content, including product recommendations, imagery, and layouts based on individual preferences and behaviors.
- Personalize Subject Lines and Sender Names – Use the subscriber’s name in subject lines and consider personalizing the sender name to increase open rates.
- Offer Personalized Recommendations – Suggest products or content based on the recipient’s purchase history, browsing behavior, or stated preferences.
- Use Interactive and Personalized Imagery – Include visuals that resonate with the recipient’s interests or recent activities to boost engagement.
- Customize Email Timing and Frequency – Optimize send times based on individual subscriber behavior or preferences to improve open rates.
- Leverage Live Content – Incorporate real-time elements like countdown timers, live polls, or interest signals to create more engaging and dynamic emails.
- Continuously Test and Refine – Regularly A/B test different personalization elements and include fallback options to ensure a smooth experience for all recipients.
6. Ensure Mobile Optimization
Mobile optimization is crucial for email marketing success so it’s essential to use a responsive email design that automatically adjusts layouts across different devices. This means creating single-column templates, designing touch-friendly elements like larger CTA buttons, and ensuring content is concise and easily readable on smaller screens. Focus on swift load times, scalable images, and mobile-friendly visuals that capture attention quickly.
To effectively optimize for mobile, thoroughly test emails across various devices and email clients, paying close attention to subject lines, preheader text, and overall accessibility. Key strategies include using responsive templates, crafting brief and engaging content, implementing large, tappable buttons, and monitoring mobile-specific metrics like open and click-through rates. By prioritizing mobile user experience, you can significantly improve email engagement and ensure your marketing messages are effectively received by an increasingly mobile-first audience.
7. Set SMART Goals
Companies optimizing email marketing should set SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. For example, “Increase email open rates by 10% within the next six months” or “Grow our email subscriber list by 20% in the next quarter”.
Goals should focus on key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and list growth. They should be aligned with broader business objectives and based on current performance data. Companies should set realistic targets that challenge the team while remaining attainable. Regular monitoring and adjusting of goals is crucial to ensure continuous improvement in email marketing performance
8. Monitor & Improve Email Deliverability
Email deliverability rates are critical to the success of your efforts. To improve email deliverability, businesses should focus on these key strategies:
- Implement authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to verify email legitimacy and improve inbox placement.
- Maintain a clean, engaged email list using reputable list-building methods and double opt-in processes. Regularly remove inactive subscribers and make unsubscribing easy.
- Monitor sender reputation and conduct proactive blacklist checks. Review metrics like spam complaints and bounce rates to address issues promptly.
- Create relevant, engaging content and segment email lists for better personalization. This improves engagement rates, which positively influences deliverability.
- Maintain consistent sending frequency and schedule to build trust with ISPs and recipients.
9. Optimize Send Times
Optimizing email marketing send times is crucial for maximizing engagement and effectiveness. While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, several key strategies can help businesses improve their email timing:
Target Working Hours
Send emails during typical business hours, generally between 9 am and 5 pm. Studies show that emails sent between 10 am and 3 pm tend to perform well. Specifically, 9-11 am and 1-2 pm are often cited as optimal times.
Focus on Mid-Week
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are generally considered the best days for sending marketing emails. These mid-week days typically see higher open and click-through rates.
Consider Industry-Specific Timing
Different industries may have unique optimal send times:
- Ecommerce: 10 am
- Software/SaaS: 2-3 pm
- Marketing Services: 4 pm
- Hospitality/Online Retail: 8-10 am
- Professional Services (B2B): 8-10 am
- Nonprofits: 3-4 pm
Avoid Weekends and Late Nights
Saturday and Sunday generally see lower engagement rates. Similarly, sending emails outside of business hours (7 pm to 7 am) is often less effective.
Test and Analyze
While general guidelines are helpful, it’s crucial to test different send times and analyze your specific audience’s behavior. Use A/B testing and email analytics to determine the best times for your unique subscriber base.
Implement Send Time Optimization
Many email marketing platforms offer send time optimization features that use AI to determine the best time to send emails to individual subscribers based on their past behavior.
Consider Time Zones
For businesses with a global audience, segment your list by time zone or use a “follow the sun” approach to ensure emails arrive at appropriate local times
Take Your Email Marketing to the Next Level
Ready to elevate your digital marketing strategy and drive meaningful results? Connect with the professionals at Globe Runner today. We can create personalized email marketing, SEO, and content marketing solutions that will help your business soar.
The Ultimate B2B Content Marketing Strategy Guide
All businesses use content in their marketing in one form or another. But how much thought and effort do you devote to the strategy behind the content you use to market your business to the companies who are your potential customers? It isn’t an accident that companies with a well-executed content strategy enjoy significantly improved results in B2B marketing than those that don’t have a strategy. In fact, 62% of B2B organizations that enjoy the most success with content marketing report they have a documented strategy. Below, we explore how to develop a B2B content marketing strategy that will help your business achieve success.
Why Content Marketing is Important for B2B
Did you know that, on average, 47% of B2B buyers report that they engage with three to five pieces of content from a company before engaging with a salesperson? And 60% of people decide to investigate a product after reading about it?
B2B content marketing is vital for businesses because it educates and informs target audiences, positioning them as industry experts and building trust. By providing valuable insights and addressing pain points, content marketing supports longer B2B sales cycles by nurturing leads and guiding them through the buyer’s journey. Additionally, it offers a high return on investment compared to other marketing channels, as it can attract organic traffic, generate leads, and drive sales over time. Evergreen content, which remains relevant and valuable for extended periods, further contributes to long-term benefits, such as increased brand visibility and thought leadership.
B2B Content Types
What types of content do B2B marketers use most often, and why?
Blog Posts
Blog posts are short-form articles that share insights, industry news, and thought leadership. They typically range from 500 to 1500 words. Blog posts can improve your search engine rankings, build brand awareness, nurture leads, and drive traffic to your website.
Whitepapers and Ebooks
Whitepapers and ebooks are long-form content pieces that provide in-depth analysis and expert insights on a specific topic. They often exceed 10 pages or contain more than 2,500 words. These formats can position your brand as a thought leader, generate high-quality leads, and build trust and credibility.
Case Studies
Case studies showcase how your product or service has helped clients achieve their goals. They are story-based content that highlights a specific customer’s success. Case studies can build trust and credibility, convince potential customers, and generate leads and sales.
Webinars
Webinars are live or pre-recorded online events that deliver presentations and discussions on a specific topic. They engage your audience, generate leads and sales, and build relationships with customers and prospects.
Infographics
Infographics are visual representations of data that combine text, images, and charts to make complex information easy to understand. They can improve content engagement, boost social media shares, improve SEO by garnering backlinks, and increase website traffic.
Videos and Podcasts
Videos and podcasts share information and stories in an audio or video format. They can be short or long-form. These formats can improve brand awareness, engage your audience, drive traffic to your website, and generate leads and sales.
Key Elements of a B2B Content Marketing Strategy
A successful B2B content marketing strategy will incorporate these elements:
Clear Goals and KPIs
Define what you want to achieve with your content marketing. Are you aiming for brand awareness, lead generation, customer retention, or thought leadership? Having clear goals helps guide your strategy.
Identify the metrics that will help you measure your progress toward those goals. Some common B2B KPIs include increased leads, website traffic, conversion rates, and social media engagement. For email campaigns, look for increases in opens and click-through rates. You can also measure increases in backlinks to your website. You will ultimately want to keep tabs on your expenditures for your content strategy so you can measure your returns on your investment (ROI).
Target Audience Research
A successful B2B content strategy should identify your target audience(s) with as much detail as possible. A helpful way to do this is to develop buyer personas.
Buyer personas are semi-fictional representations of your ideal customer, based on market research and real data. They help you understand your target audience’s demographics, motivations, pain points, and buying behaviors. By creating detailed buyer personas, you can tailor your marketing and sales efforts to resonate with specific customer segments, increasing engagement and conversions.
AI tools now make it possible to quickly analyze CRM data and find patterns in customer behavior, demographics, and purchase history. This can help divide audiences into segments and create more accurate buyer personas. There are also AI-powered generators that create detailed buyer personas based on the data you provide. Tools with natural language processing (NLP) capabilities can analyze customer feedback, reviews, and other communications to find common themes and attitudes, which can also shape buyer personas and content.
Include in your personas the types of content your audiences consume and what platform(s) they use. This will help tailor your content to their needs.
Competitive Analysis
Analyzing your competitors can also help inform your B2B content marketing strategy.
Benchmark your business’s performance against your competitors by assessing various metrics, such as market share, revenue growth, customer satisfaction, product quality, and pricing.
Benchmarking helps you better understand your market position, determining where your business stands in relation to its competitors. You can also pinpoint weaknesses and areas where you can optimize your processes and strategies. You may discover competitors’ innovative approaches and strategies that you will want to adopt. You can establish appropriate
benchmarks to strive for and measure your progress and use data-driven insights to make strategic choices that will help you stay competitive.
Content Planning for All Stages of the Marketing Funnel
Plan your content for the stages of the funnel: awareness, consideration, and decision.
- Awareness Stage: Create content that attracts your target audience and builds brand awareness. This includes blog posts, social media content, infographics, and videos.
- Consideration Stage: Provide valuable information and resources to help your audience make informed decisions. This includes case studies, whitepapers, ebooks, and webinars.
- Decision Stage: Offer personalized content and calls to action to guide prospects towards a purchase. This includes product demos, pricing information, and testimonials.
Distribution and Promotion Strategy
A robust B2B content marketing distribution and promotion strategy is essential to maximize the impact of your content. First, leverage your owned channels, such as your website and blog. Optimize your content for search engines (SEO) to attract organic traffic. Create a content calendar to ensure consistent posting and strategically distribute content across different channels.
Second, utilize social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and relevant industry-specific groups to share your content and engage with your target audience. Share valuable insights, join discussions, and participate in relevant communities. Additionally, consider paid advertising on social media platforms to reach a wider audience and drive traffic to your content.
Third, email marketing is a powerful tool for nurturing leads and promoting content. Segment your email list based on interests and behaviors to deliver targeted content. Create compelling subject lines and engaging email content to encourage opens and clicks. Finally, explore content syndication opportunities with industry publications and websites to reach a larger audience and gain valuable backlinks. By implementing these strategies, you can effectively distribute and promote your B2B content, generating leads, building brand awareness, and driving business growth.
Measuring and Optimizing Performance
To effectively measure and optimize the performance of a B2B content marketing strategy, it’s crucial to track key metrics and analyze the data to identify areas for improvement. Start by setting clear goals and KPIs aligned with your overall business objectives. These might include increasing website traffic, generating leads, improving brand awareness, or driving sales.
Once you’ve established your goals, use analytics tools to track the performance of your content. Monitor website traffic, engagement metrics (likes, shares, comments), conversion rates, and lead generation. Pay attention to which content pieces are resonating with your audience and which ones are falling flat. Use this information to identify trends and make data-driven decisions.
To optimize your strategy, consider A/B testing different content formats, headlines, and calls to action. This will help you determine what works best with your target audience. Additionally, analyze your competitor’s content marketing strategies to identify opportunities for improvement. Stay up-to-date with industry trends and adapt your approach as needed. By continuously monitoring, analyzing, and optimizing your content marketing efforts, you can maximize your ROI and achieve your business goals.
B2B Content Marketing Best Practices
Focus on Education Over Promotion
Instead of directly pitching your products or services, prioritize providing valuable information to your target audience. This approach positions your brand as a trusted advisor, rather than a pushy salesperson. Offering helpful content helps you attract the right audience–those who are actively seeking solutions for their pain points. Strong, helpful content also provides value which helps build trust and nurture relationships. When you consistently deliver high-quality information, your audience will perceive you as a reliable source they want to come back to.
Create In-Depth, Data-Driven Content
High-quality, data-driven content establishes your brand as an industry authority. By providing detailed insights and actionable advice, you can solve problems for your audience, demonstrate your expertise in your field, and, because search engines favor high-quality content, you can improve your website’s search engine rankings.
Optimize for Search Engines
Search engine optimization (SEO) helps your content appear higher in search engine results, driving organic traffic to your website and generating more leads. By optimizing your content, you increase visibility, making your content easily discoverable by potential customers. By using relevant keywords, you can attract people who are actively searching for your products or services.
Repurpose Content Across Channels
Repurposing content allows you to maximize the value of your content by sharing it across multiple channels. This allows you to reach a wider audience, improve engagement, and save time and resources.
Leverage User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is content created by your customers. By sharing UGC, you can foster community and interaction with your brand and increase credibility. Positive UGC can also help improve or repair your brand’s reputation.
Collaborate with Industry Experts
Collaborating with industry experts can help you reach a wider audience and establish your brand as a thought leader. By collaborating with experts, you can introduce your brand to new audiences, enhance credibility, and create high-quality content that resonates with your audience.
Building a B2B Content Strategy Framework
When undertaking a new content strategy, deploy a strategic framework for best results.
Define Goals and Objectives
A robust content strategy begins with clearly defined goals and objectives. These should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Goals might include increasing brand awareness, generating leads, or boosting sales. Objectives might involve specific actions, such as publishing a certain number of blog posts per month or achieving a specific social media engagement rate.
Create Buyer Personas
We’ve already touched on buyer personas so you understand how important they are. Spending the time to create accurate buyer personas ensures your content resonates and drives conversions.
Map Content to Buyer’s Journey
The buyer’s journey outlines the stages a customer goes through before making a purchase. Mapping content to each stage is crucial. At the awareness stage, you might provide informative blog posts or webinars. In the consideration stage, case studies and whitepapers can be effective. Finally, at the decision stage, product demos and personalized content can seal the deal.
Develop Editorial Calendar
An editorial calendar is a roadmap for your content creation process. It outlines topics, publication dates, and who is responsible for each piece. It also helps you maintain consistency and ensures timely content delivery. A well-structured calendar prevents last-minute rushes and ensures a steady flow of high-quality content.
Establish Workflow and Processes
Efficient workflows and processes streamline content creation. This includes steps like topic ideation, research, writing, editing, design, and publishing. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities, along with effective communication, are essential for smooth collaboration. A well-established workflow minimizes bottlenecks and delays.
Plan for Content Distribution
Effective content distribution is key to reaching your target audience. This involves identifying the most suitable channels, such as social media, email marketing, and content syndication. A well-executed distribution strategy ensures your content reaches the right people at the right time. It’s important to track the performance of your content across different channels to measure its impact and make necessary adjustments.
B2B Content Marketing Services
Globe Runner offers these B2B content marketing services to help your business achieve its goals.
Content Strategy Development: This involves creating a comprehensive plan for your content marketing efforts. It includes defining your target audience, setting clear goals, and outlining the types of content you’ll produce.
Content Creation and Production: This service focuses on creating high-quality content that aligns with your strategy. It may include blog posts, articles, whitepapers, case studies, infographics, and videos.
SEO and Keyword Research: This service helps your content rank higher in search engine results. It involves identifying relevant keywords and optimizing your content to improve its visibility.
Content Distribution and Promotion: This service ensures your content reaches your target audience. It involves sharing your content on social media, email marketing, and other relevant channels.
Performance Tracking and Reporting: This service helps you measure the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts. It involves tracking key metrics such as website traffic, engagement, and conversions.
Content Optimization: This service helps you improve the performance of your existing content. It may involve updating old content, adding new keywords, or improving the overall user experience.
Partner with Globe Runner to Elevate Your B2B Content Marketing
A well-executed strategy ensures your content aligns with your business goals, reaches the right audience at the right time, and delivers measurable results. To achieve real success with B2B marketing, it pays to have a well developed content strategy and a solid partner to execute that strategy.
Ready to elevate your brand and grow your B2B business with compelling content? You can choose all or a selection of Globe Runner’s B2B content marketing services to propel your company to the next level! Schedule a consultation today to get started.
Your Go-To Content Optimization Checklist
Content is the lifeblood of digital marketing. It attracts, engages, and persuades, eventually turning prospects into loyal customers. Content optimization is the process of fine-tuning your content to make it more appealing and actionable. The goal is to improve not only the content’s search engine discoverability, but also its potential for engagement and conversion.
Below we explore the ultimate content optimization checklist for boosting your marketing performance. These steps go hand in hand with the content tips outlined in our Conversion Rate Optimization guide.
How Content Optimization Works
To drive user engagement, content is optimized to resonate with the audience, cater to their needs, spark interest, and motivate them to act. In fact, you’ll appreciate that user experience is a priority right from the top. Content optimization begins with comprehending your audience and their needs, with keyword research providing insights into their interests.
This is the data that guides the subsequent content creation process. Our content optimization checklist will help you draft high-quality copy that is not only compelling, but also structured for easy readability and navigation.
That’s not to say that content optimization ends when you publish the pieces. As you’ll learn from our content optimization checklist, this is a continuous engagement that demands constant monitoring and fine-tuning of your copy. You’ll be using tools like Google Analytics to track the performance of your content and identify possible areas for improvement.
The Content Optimization Checklist
A content optimization checklist outlines the roadmap that you’ll use to maximize your content’s search engine visibility and user engagement. It smoothly integrates into your marketing processes, where it shapes your content creation from both a technical and strategic standpoint.
For instance, in our content optimization checklist, you’ll find a methodical blueprint for keyword research. This is what shows you how to center your content around the terms that resonate with your audience’s searches.
The checklist also emphasizes content quality. It details the technical procedures for not just creating engaging content but also delivering value to your audience.
Our content optimization checklist additionally comes with guidelines for enhancing the user experience. You can follow them to simplify the navigation and keep your content easily readable. Mobile optimization is another focal point of the checklist, as it ensures that your content is readily accessible and perfectly modeled for mobile screens.
You even get a roadmap for distributing content to the largest possible audience. Then to top it all off, the checklist integrates monitoring and analysis schedules, which should help you in tracking your content’s performance.
Keyword Research and Usage
Keyword research is the foundation of content optimization, as it uncovers the keywords that your audience has been using to scan through the web for information, products, or services in your niche. You’ll get clarity on your audience’s interests, queries, and linguistic preferences, along with keywords your competitors are exploiting.
Some of the tools that you could use for the job include Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs Keyword Generator, Moz Keyword Explorer, or the SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool. These tools generate and assess keyword ideas based on search volume, difficulty, intent, and relevance.
Once you’ve identified keywords, here’s how you should integrate them into the content page for maximum impact:
- Start incorporating your primary keyword early in your content, preferably within the first 100 words.
- Use the keywords in your content titles, headings, body text, meta tags, and URLs.
- Pay attention to the questions prospective buyers are asking on social media and create content around them.
- Avoid keyword stuffing; place keywords within the natural flow of the content.
- Use long-tail keywords to target variations on popular searches.
- Regularly update your keyword strategy based on current trends and audience interests.
- Avoid targeting the same keyword on multiple pages to prevent keyword cannibalization.
- Insert Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords in your content to help Google understand the context.
- Keep the URLs short, descriptive, and include your target keywords.
- Optimize your content for voice search by incorporating conversational keywords and questions.
Quality of Content
For easy readability, your content should maintain clear and concise language, employ active voice and second-person perspective, plus infuse storytelling and emotional appeal, all while avoiding grammatical and spelling errors.
You might also want to make the text scannable by partitioning it with images, videos, charts, headings, subheadings, bullet points, and lists.
Here’s are some guidelines to keep in mind:
- Use tools like Grammarly, Hemingway Editor, or Yoast SEO to check and improve your content readability.
- Use original research and data to add credibility to your content.
- Align the content with your brand’s voice and style guidelines.
- Use canonical tags to prevent duplicate content issues by specifying the “preferred” version of a page.
- Structure content with header tags (H1, H2, etc.)
- Make the content long enough to provide detailed information, but not so extended that it becomes boring.
- Regularly audit your content and remove or update any outdated or low-quality content.
User Experience
Quality content is a critically important part of a seamless and enjoyable on-site experience for your users, enticing them to engage with your brand and ultimately convert.
Here are page design optimization guidelines to provide a great user experience:
- Simplify navigation with clear menus and links that guide users to the information they’re looking for.
- Keep important pages three or fewer clicks away from the homepage.
- Accelerate page loading speeds by optimizing your images, skimming the code, and leveraging a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
- Make the site accessible to people with disabilities. Use alt text with your images, attach transcripts to videos, and facilitate keyboard navigation.
- Use clear calls to action to guide users toward desired actions.
- Capitalize on white space to cut down on avoid clutter and improve readability.
- Implement structured data (Schema.org) to help search engines understand your content.
- Optimize images with descriptive file names, alt tags, and compression.
- Regularly check for and fix broken internal and external links.
- Integrate breadcrumbs for easier navigation.
- Set up a search function for convenient access to information.
- Avoid using intrusive pop-ups or ads.
Mobile Optimization
The point of mobile optimization is to make the on-site experience seamless for mobile users. This is especially critical at a time when mobile accounts for close to 60% of website traffic.
Mobile users need a highly responsive website layout that automatically adjusts to fit the device’s screen size. With a responsive site design in place, make sure you address these other content optimization guidelines for mobile:
- Optimize images, minify code, leverage browser caching, and reduce redirects to increase your mobile site’s loading speed.
- Use larger font sizes, shorter paragraphs, and bullet points to make your content easily readable on a small screen. For even better legibility, try to increase the contrast between your text and background.
- Maintain a touch-friendly design on all elements of your website – including menus, forms, and buttons.
- Since Flash isn’t supported on many mobile devices, use HTML5 for animations.
- Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to be sure your website is mobile-friendly.
- Implement Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for mobile speed optimization.
- Use a viewport meta tag to control the layout on mobile browsers.
Content Promotion and Distribution
The creation of high-quality, optimized content is only half the battle. The other half lies in getting this content in front of the right eyes.
For the best possible reach, we’d advise you to distribute it using an omnichannel content promotion strategy. You should especially prioritize social media, email, and guest blogging.
With email marketing, you get a direct line of communication with your audience. And when you send out those emails, you can expect an open rate of between 30-40% – with the bulk coming from engaged leads. You can even engage email conversion optimization techniques to drive sales directly from your automated messages.
Some of the content promotion guidelines to keep in mind here are:
- Highlight new posts or videos in your email signature to encourage people to check them out.
- Personalize your emails to make the content more relevant and engaging for each subscriber.
- Segment your email list based on subscriber interests, behavior, or demographics to deliver more targeted content.
- Use A/B testing to optimize various email elements – like the call-to-action, layout, or delivery time.
- Include clear and compelling calls-to-action in your emails to guide subscribers on what to do next.
- Regularly clean your email list by removing inactive subscribers to maintain high deliverability rates.
Social media, on the other hand, offers a broader audience and more potential for engagement. The platforms to prioritize are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok.
While you’re at it, you should follow these principles:
- Collaborate with influencers and other complementary businesses to promote your content.
- Employ paid advertising to boost your content’s reach.
- Regularly share and promote your old content.
- Include social sharing buttons to encourage users to share your content.
- Repurpose your content across different mediums. For example, a podcast episode could become a blog post, or key points from a blog post could inspire a series of tweets.
For collaborations with other publishers, the best content promotion channel would be guest blogging. It gives you the privilege of tapping into other websites’ audiences through content features.
For the best outcome consider:
- Using content syndication to reach a wider audience.
- Repurposing your content into different formats like videos, infographics, podcasts, etc.
- Creating a content calendar to plan your content promotion activities.
- Identifying relevant blogs in your industry that accept guest posts.
- Writing compelling pitches to external publishers, with each outlining your content idea and why it would be valuable to their audience.
- Avoiding promotional or salesy content in your guest post.
Monitoring and Analysis
The final step in the content optimization process is monitoring and analysis. This is where you track the performance of your content to understand what’s working and areas that need improvement.
The likes of Google Analytics are equipped to generate detailed reports on a wide range of content engagement parameters. They show you which pages are attracting traffic, how long visitors are staying, and what actions they’re taking.
Here are some of the performance metrics that you should pay special attention to:
- Pageviews: The total number of pages viewed.
- Unique Pageviews: The number of sessions during which the specified page was viewed at least once.
- Bounce Rate: The percentage of single-page visits.
- Exit Rate: The percentage of exits from your site that occurred out of the total pageviews.
- Average Time on Page: The average amount of time users spend viewing a specific page or screen.
Start Optimizing Your Content for Better Marketing Today!
As you can see, content optimization is an end-to-end process that encompasses the entire creative workflow – from keyword research to content distribution and performance analysis. With the content optimization checklist, you’ll find it easier to not just coordinate every step, but also compose original content that resonates with your audience and achieves your marketing objectives.
If all this sounds like a lot of work, it is. If you don’t have the time or the expertise to optimize your content, the experts at Globe Runner can help. We can fine tune your content and ensure you are making the most out of every visit to your website. Place your content optimization request today!
How to Come Up With Irresistible Topics For Your Content Marketing
Blog posts that make headlines. Viral social media posts. Web series watched at breakneck rates. That’s the power of well-curated content marketing.
But it’s not enough to have Pulitzer Prize-worthy copy and National Geographic-style imagery. Truly tempting content often begins with one thing: topics that are relevant to your target audience.
Choosing the right topics for your content marketing efforts is part art, part science, and these trade secrets are just the boost yours needs to start improving their ROI.
1. Talk about the topical.
You don’t want to talk about trends exclusively, but if there’s a relevant breakout story that’s even semi-related to your brand, it’s worth talking about while it’s timely.
One free tool that will give you endless easy-to-use data is Google Trends. Whether you want to explore the topics that are breaking the internet that week, or search for something related to your business, this is the place to start.
The very top section allows you to enter a search term or topic you’re interested in. From there you can scroll to the bottom of the page to see related topics that might be more niche and of interest to your readership.
You can keep scrolling down the trends.google.com homepage to see recent stories and trends the internet is already consuming.
Just make sure to exercise all possible channels to help disseminate your high competition topics. We’re talking paid advertising, influencer partnerships, and content with high production value.
2. Get niche.
In the same way, long-tail keywords can help you zero in on topics your target audience is searching for, niche topics that are less competitive tend to yield higher results.
Let’s take content marketing vs influencer marketing as an example. The former is a household name – one that established businesses know they must use in order to stay relevant. However, influencer marketing is an emerging frontier where social media brand ambassadors are just beginning to establish themselves.
Point is, choosing to write about a topic that’s hugely relevant for your brand or industry, even if it’s not well-known yet, can put you at the forefront of thought leadership and bring in loads of new subscribers.
3. Pick network-specific topics.
Whether throwing your hat in the meme ring or comparing terminology used on different social media platforms, make sure to keep where you plan to share your content top of mind and create accordingly.
You can also promote the content differently on various networks for a cross-channel attention grab.
4. Repurpose once-popular content.
Don’t reinvent the wheel. If you had a once off-the-charts piece of content that has since gone dormant, you can likely revive it with newer, more engaging topic phrases.
Whether you republish it on your own site or send it to affiliate sites to remarket it to different audiences, it’s a great way to make your content marketing do double duty without putting in a lot of extra hours.
5. Use content marketing tools.
Remember that you never have to do it all on your own. There are plenty of content marketing tools available to you at low to no cost.
Paid versions give you invaluable insights to see what your audience is searching for, the channels they’re using to find it, and how the search volumes compare over time.
Remember that what you’re not writing about, your competition probably is. Staying ahead of the curve – or at least following along its trajectory- is the best way to ensure your content marketing topics are timely and click-worthy.
Need some help putting pen to paper? Let us do the legwork for you!
Are You Showcasing Your Social Proof?
Trust. It can be built and it can be earned, but it’s rarely instant.
As customers grow more and more wary of brands and businesses they don’t know, gaining their trust upfront is your main marketing objective.
Social proof is your ace in the hole when it comes to influencing visitors and facilitating new relationships. Here’s a high-level overview of what it is, why it’s so valuable, and how to showcase it.
What is Social Proof?
This social and psychological theory has been around since 1984 when Dr. Robert Cialdini coined it in his manifesto, Influence.
In essence, social proof describes the human tendency to “follow the crowd”. Cialdini and marketing mavens understand that, as social creatures, we tend to observe the behaviors and opinions of others, and direct our actions to match, assuming what most people do is the “correct” way to be.
And though you may think of yourself as a truly independent, unique flower, we’re guessing social proof has influenced your own decisions from time to time.
Ever stopped to read a social media update that already has tons of comments and reactions? Or tune in to a new sitcom that’s getting tons of buzz?
Bingo. That’s social proof.
Why is social proof so irresistible? Simple. It validates the user’s interest in your product, service, or piece of content and promises they won’t be wasting time or money by engaging with it.
Where can you use social proof? Easy. Anywhere you have an online presence, from your website to your social media channels and beyond.
Now that you have a sense of what social proof entails, here’s how you can utilize the power of group influence in your own marketing tactics.
1. Go for quantity.
Would you trust an unknown brand that had seven likes or 700? That’s what we thought. Whether looking up recipe ratings or follower counts on your social media pages, customers are looking for signs of your popularity. Focus on increasing these numbers to give your business some off the cuff credibility.
2. Share user-generated content.
Anyone sharing content about your brand deserves thanks, praise, and maybe a small parade. Or, you could acknowledge them by sharing the post with your network. Not only is it a show of appreciation, but it also showcases some serious social proof. That’s because user-generated content is perceived as more genuine and relatable than paid ads or sponsorships.
3. Display reviews and ratings.
You work hard to make sure your customers are satisfied. Once they are, collect and display them on your website, Google Knowledge Panel, Facebook, etc. There’s no better marketing than the praise you collect and show from your peers.
4. Show off your endorsements.
Influencer marketing has come a long way in recent years. The trick with paid-partnerships is to ensure they are authentic. Whether you partner with an industry expert or a respected blogger in your field, ensure the praise is genuine. Your customers are likely to reject anything too “salesy.”
5. Humanize your testimonials.
Without a photo to accompany your testimonials, they’re simply words on a site. Though they still represent your brand well, you need a little more credibility as an unfamiliar brand. Make sure you take every opportunity to personalize them with a photo, location, title, etc.
6. Create case studies.
Customer success stories are huge boons for your brand. Stories capture social proof in a way that’s engaging and relatable. Case studies make your claims concrete and tell potential customers their problems are not only common but also solvable.
7. Offer some authority.
Authority begets authority. Meaning, if your brand is worth its weight in salt, you’ll be able to show other respected companies who are associated with you. Be it a display with all your client logos or an ‘as seen in’ like Globe Runner sports, it gives your brand instant integrity.
There you have it. The social proof is in the pudding. If you’re not already leveraging genuine peer-praise in your marketing strategy, time to turn over the mic to your current customers.
INVENTIVE TACTICS TO DOUBLE YOUR EMAIL LIST
People are wary of email soliciting. Maybe it’s junk mail fatigue, maybe it’s genuine distrust, but on the extreme end, ask for an address and you may as well be requesting their social security number.
Still, we all know companies whose email list numbers in the thousands with impressive open rates to boot. So how do marketers overcome the skepticism and keep subscribers engaged over the long haul?
That, my friend, is today’s aim.
Looking for inventive ways to double your email subscribers? These tools and tricks are designed to do just that.
Why Prioritize List Growth?
You’re still reading so that means you are at least partially invested in growing your email list. Great!
For those of you still on the fence or who need to make a case to the higher-ups, what if we told you that with no email growth strategy in place, you’re likely to lose about half of your list within two years.
According to Hubspot, email marketing databases degrade by about 22.5% every year. Some of your subscribers change companies, others actively unsubscribe part way through the year, and many fed you an inactive yahoo email from the beginning and haven’t logged in since 2007.
We repeat, the time to double your email list is now!
Here are five essential, creative practices to implement starting with your next email campaign.
- Use buyer personas to list segment. You know we’re big proponents of both buyer personas and email segmentation. The two go together as naturally as search marketing and increased sales. Certain users will respond better to certain content. It’s your job to use the demographic information you have about your subscribers to send them pointed emails with information that’s most likely to speak to their specific interests. We also recommend segmenting by action so you know if a reader is more likely to follow a certain CTA or consume particular pieces of content.
- Host an event. Workshops, speaking engagements, and networking events are great ways to bring in fresh potential subscribers. Whether you invite industry leaders, contact social media influencers, or just give out free snacks, there’s no shortage of options to draw a crowd. Simply look within your immediate community to create a killer panel. Or, if you’re like us, consider promoting a cause. In our case, we decided to turn our office into a gallery space, inviting talented local artists to show their work a few times a year. Whatever type of event you host, make sure to use a site like Eventbrite to register guests, send tickets, and capture their emails in the process.
- Offer a guest WiFi. You’ve done it a thousand times at the airport waiting for your plane to board. The security line was a breeze and you now have an hour to kill before takeoff. You shore up appropriate WiFi networks on your laptop and see the Boingo Hotspot or free airport guest WiFi. With the flick of the keyboard you enter your email address, hop online, and never give it a second thought. Similarly, offering a free guest free WiFi option to your patrons or clients who visit your office is a great way to grow your email list without much work. Apps like Gazella make the collection even easier, integrating the collected contacts into platforms like Constant Contact.
- Run a paid ad. Paid search is everywhere these days. It’s a critical part of any digital marketing strategy that can help you knock out all variety of end goals. While most people think it’s designed to increase your web traffic or improve your page views, you can also use it exclusively as an email capture. We’ve seen plenty of clients have great success creating a Facebook paid ad that steered browsers to their email sign-up sheet, effectively doubling their email subscribers in the span of the campaign.
- Go analog. We’re living in a digital world, but don’t underestimate the value of good ‘ol pen and paper. You might try sending out postcards to former customers with a QR code that takes them to your subscription page. Or you could simply create email sign up sheets on rotation at trade shows, your brick and mortar stores, or at the receptionist area of your office.
These email list growth tips only scratch the surface of all the many ways you can increase your subscribers.
Want us to talk you through additional email marketing strategies? Make contact – see you in our inbox!
SOCIAL MEDIA CHANGES YOU NEED TO ACT ON NOW
There’s no such thing as a static social media platform. Like most of the internet, social sites and the algorithms that power them are continuously being updated. Sometimes the changes are sweeping and make our lives easier. Other times they’re hardly noticeable at all, but can still have a huge impact on your social media marketing strategy.
The most recent algorithm changes to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram are a mixture of both, but definitely ones your small business needs to act on. Ahead is a recap of what you should be aware of moving forward and how to plan accordingly.
Facebook Compresses Mobile Ad Format
Social media advertising is mission-critical in the pay-to-play world marketers are contending with, and that goes double for ads viewed on mobile devices. Ad format changes on the largest social media network mean social media marketers will need to make their new paid posts even punchier with less space for images and copy.
Last month, a Facebook Business blog announced the compression, stating that as of August 19th mobile News Feed ads would shrink to, “match the look and feel of the new Facebook design introduced earlier this year.“
Now, images and media will be capped at a vertical 4:5 aspect ratio, down from a previously generous 2:3. Copy, which used to show a lengthy seven lines, will now be reduced to a mere 3 lines of primary text before being truncated.
Why the change? According to the same post, Facebook is looking to “drive increased ad effectiveness and make it easier to use the same assets on Facebook News Feed and Instagram feed.” Essentially, this is great for cross-promotion between the two Facebook-owned channels, and not simply about looks.
What businesses need to do: Starting now, you can maximize your Facebook ad potential by making your first three lines of ad text as irresistible as possible, and formatting all your media to fit the predetermined height ahead of time.
LinkedIn Adopts Reaction Buttons
For the last three years, Facebook users have enjoyed emoting via their reaction buttons. Now, LinkedIn is following suit, offering desktop and mobile users the chance to not just “like” a post, but respond using a professionally-appropriate “celebrate,” “love,” “insightful,” and “curious” reaction.
They certainly took their time rolling out this feature. Now that it’s more than just a passing trend, the professional networking platform is hoping the reaction buttons will ultimately help them remain relevant among other social media players and increase overall engagement.
What businesses need to do: Make sure you’re posting regularly on LinkedIn. Include a variety of professional content so you can capitalize on these projected increasing engagement rates.
Instagram Cracks Down on “Offensive” Posts
All businesses want to make sure their Instagram posts and stories are seen by as many target audience eyes as possible. But they will need to be extra cautious to see that what they’re sharing doesn’t border on “inappropriate content.”
Now, even if a post doesn’t technically violate the network’s Community Guidelines, content that is too sexually suggestive or otherwise offensive will still have a drastically reduced reach. According to one Facebook Newsroom article, the demotion will limit, “those types of posts from being recommended on our Explore and hashtag pages.”
For the time being, your Instagram Stories bar will not be subject to the same problematic content management strategies, but best to steer clear anyway.
What businesses need to do: Before you post, verify that nothing you’re putting out into the world can be considered clickbaity or fake news-worthy. You should also be very careful about sharing any offensive memes (especially if they or the comments contain hate speech) or content that can be perceived as sexualized. In other words, don’t even attempt to push the limits. It’s also a good idea to review the “borderline content” section of the Instagram Help Center.
As the saying goes, “the only constant is change.” But don’t spend too much time mourning the past. If you need a hand to help your social media content roll with the changes just make contact.
LOCALIZED SOCIAL MARKETING + SEO POST GOOGLE+ SHUTDOWN
Logged on to your Google + page lately? If so you might have noticed something different – nothing at all. Though the shuttering of this once highly promising social media platform wasn’t a total surprise you might have been anticipating more time together – and you’re not alone.
When Google first announced the shutdown we were told we would have until August 2019 to say goodbye. But security bugs coupled with reported, “low usage” forced Google’s hand. Earlier this year they revised that date to April 2nd.
And close it down they did. But what now? If Google + has been a component of your SEO and social media marketing plan you may be looking for a new way to get in front of your target audience.
Here’s how localized social marketing strategies are picking up where Google + left off and helping businesses move onward and upward.
How will the Google + Shutdown impact your SEO + Social?
Google and search marketing are one and the same, so it stands to reason that a social networking product under this all-seeing search engine would make SEO soar, right? Wrong.
The good news is that you haven’t just been doing it wrong this whole time. Poor user adoption across the board meant that posts didn’t really amount to much in the way of increased traffic or SEO benefits. That paired with a security breach that compromised the accounts of more than 500k businesses left the writing on the wall.
More good news – even if you were active on the low-performing social site, posts from your other social media profiles have been and will continue to (literally) pull rank. In other words, you really shouldn’t see much of a dip in your search rankings.
Remember that social signals have always had minimal impact on SEO while things like successful website development and backlinks from other credible sites to it count for a lot!
In the wake of this atypical Google blunder, be sure to go back through your site and other profiles to remove the G+ link and icon. Staying goodbye to G+ shouldn’t sink your SEO ranking, but dead links still can.
Google My Business (GMB) and Adwords pages will also not be impacted but hit those heavily for a nice counterbalancing effect.
Localized Social Marketing
Fear not. Especially if you have more than one location or run a multi-store brand platform like Facebook makes it easier than ever to communicate with your local audience in the wake of the Google + shutdown.
SOCi, a social media and reputation management platform, defines localized social marketing as, “marketing efforts that focus on building a local presence for a business, leveraging locally-driven communication channels to reach the specific local communities it serves.” The idea is to turn things like social reviews and ads into “two-way engagement channels.”
According to findings published in a recent SOCi report, “more than 70 percent of brand engagement on social is happening on location Pages.”
Setting up local Facebook Pages for your various locations makes capturing reviews a breeze and gives local leaders a chance to answer questions in more personal and thorough ways than your corporate team can.
In the end, it may not be as tearful a Google+ goodbye as you’d envisioned, but that’s ok. Where Google has closed a door, social media has opened a window.
Want help improving your SEO or setting up a localized social marketing strategy? Let us take your brand beyond.