Optimizing Branded Content for Search

May 15, 2012 by Leave a comment

Have you ever read a blog post, caught a Twitter update or received an email promoting something that looked interesting but for whatever reason the timing wasn’t right to respond to it?  Perhaps it was a white paper, an eBook, or a webinar and you passed on downloading it because:

  • you knew you didn’t have time to read or view it right then
  • it pertained to a future initiative, but you had to get through the one at hand first, or
  • you were on a mobile device and it wasn’t convenient to download at the time

You aren’t the only one.  Chances are that your prospects have done the same thing with your content.  The opportunity that many marketers miss when they publish great content is to optimize a companion landing page (at minimum) for search.  Since the search engines are typically the first place people go when they’re looking for answers, it makes sense to make your solution easy to find.

Below is an example of one way to approach optimizing branded content for search.  This happens to be how the demand generation agency I’m with approached branded content SEO for their very popular eBook, “The High-Tech Direct Marketing Handbook.”

Let’s assume the prospect forgot the company’s name (how dare they?!) but remembered the asset was something like, “high tech marketing handbook.”  Here’s the search result:

search optimized branded content

The first listing links to the eBook landing page (with registration form), the second listing links to an optimized page on Spear’s resource center.

Even with top billing in the organic listings, it’s still not a bad idea to include branded content keywords to your paid search campaign in the mix, particularly if you find competitors competing for related phrases.

The branded content SEO tactic can also work well when combined with display advertising promoting the content.  By using the display ads to create awareness content asset, you can measure lift in organic search and conversions.

Below are some tips for optimizing a branded content landing page for search:

  • Include the unique, branded title of the content in the URL
  • Include the title and your company name in the Page Title
  • Include a call-to-action in the page description, along with a concise description of how a prospect will benefit from the offer
  • Include the title in the page copy with an H1 tag
  • If the content is registration gated, use an image of the offer content (a thumbnail or similar image) to make it more “tangible”
    • Also, don’t include more registration form fields than are absolutely necessary
  • Reinforce the call to action along with a description of the types of problems that your content will solve
    • If possible, break up the keywords from your content title and integrate them separately in the on-page content
  • Build high-quality links to the landing page via authoritative sites (via blogging, social media, etc.)
  • With gated content, improve conversions by limiting extraneous navigation and unrelated calls-to-action
  • If the content is gated, create a “thank you page” for post-registration that includes social media icons (linked to the landing page) to make it easy to share the content socially
  • If the content is un-gated, place a image, sidebar banner or link to relevant “gated content”
  • If the content is gated, consider fulfilling the content via email (particularly if you use a marketing automation solution because you can more easily track opens and clicks)

Filed under ROI Marketing Tagged with , , , ,

My CEO Says I Need an Email Campaign by Friday…

May 2, 2012 by Leave a comment

Some time ago, I connected with a prospect via a referral.  On our first phone call, he told me that he’d been on the job for two weeks and his CEO was demanding an email go out by the coming Friday or “heads are going to roll.”

He had a relatively defined target audience, but a limited idea of content.  The executive team (operations & sales) was pressuring him to deliver leads, but there was no basis for measurement and no concept of the buyer’s needs. He had to beg for budget. Sound familiar?  I hope not.

This is the absolute worst scenario to be in from a marketer’s perspective. No goals, no metrics, no ROI to stand by. This was simply a “do what I say” situation; fraught with disaster with only a prayer as the upside.  Needless to say, it wasn’t a project I was willing to take on.  I can only assume that the end result was someone on their executive team exclaiming, “email marketing doesn’t work for us.”  No kidding…

So, what can you do to avoid this situation in the first place?  Below are 4 things to consider. I also recommend checking out  Marketo CMO, Jon Miller’s  presentation on the Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics.

1. Establish Measurability

Wide receivers are defined by how many touchdowns and yards they generate. Baseball sluggers are measured by their ability to produce home runs and RBI’s.

Establish a baseline for how you are measured in marketing. (Get it in writing, if possible.) That fundamental exercise will defend against much of the rancor you will encounter as a marketer.

2. Quantify Your Decisions

As a marketer, you are hired to make good decisions; decisions that will impact the revenue of your company. Create an environment in which you can say, “No, we’re not ready.”

Any CEO worth their salt wants a leadership team that will work to understand goals and present better alternatives rather than simply follow orders. If you quantify your decisions, “I need two weeks to evaluate the audience and develop offer content with which to engage them in order to produce any qualified leads,” a good CEO will respect you.

3. Focus on the Pain Points

You can have the highest quality list, but if your message doesn’t resonate with the audience, it will not be effective. It takes time to understand the pain points of various audiences, to craft the message and align with solutions.

Focus on the buyer’s pain points first and develop the strategy around your marketing objectives.

4. Become the Authority (Even if you’re less experienced)

Discover the secrets to winning email campaigns. Learn the mistakes, false assumptions, and risky strategies that doom so many email programs, gleaned from years of experience producing successful campaigns for leading B2B marketers. Download the free white paper, Top 10 B2B E-mail Marketing Mistakes.

Filed under ROI Marketing

3 Steps To A B2B Social Media Marketing Strategy Your CEO Will Love

April 30, 2012 by Leave a comment

B2B Social Media ROI

There’s an ongoing debate about the ROI of social media marketing.  Many of the conversations center around measuring social media as a branding and awareness tool, while others concentrate on the value of thought leadership.

Monitoring the metrics for thought leadership and branding are important, but many marketers make the mistake of using those metrics to support the success of their social media initiatives.  This can result in C-level executives doubting the return on their investment in social media.

Simply put, your CEO is probably less interested in hearing about how many people are talking about your brand/product/service and more interested in learning how social media helped drive revenue.

As a sales person in the B2B Demand Generation space, I’ve invested countless hours researching, experimenting and testing various techniques.

Based on my experience (almost all my sales wins in the past 2 years can be attributed to using social media marketing and sales techniques), the following are three steps marketers can take to directly attribute sales leads to their B2B social media marketing strategy:

1. Convert Thought Leadership Into “Offer Content”

Convert thought leadership into white papers, videos, or otherwise tangible “offer content” assets that are specifically written NOT to sell your company, product or services, but rather to SOLVE a business problem. (Problems that coincidentally, your product/service can assist with.)

Then, develop a plan to promote the content socially.  Tactics can include lacing links to the offer content in relevant blog posts, posting bite-sized snippets of the content on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, and including links in the comments of related blog posts and community forums (but only when they add value, never spam links in unrelated posts).

If the nature of the content is meant for prospects in the early stage of the buying cycle, it’s a good idea to present it as “un-gated” (i.e. no registration required). For offer content that would be most interesting to audiences later in the buying cycle, it might be a good idea to have it accompanied by a landing page* (with registration form), a thank you page and/or a fulfillment email.*

*If your company has invested in a marketing automation (MA) solution like Marketo, visits to the content assets can be tracked, providing valuable sales and marketing intelligence.**

To learn more about choosing the right offer, download a free copy of the white paper “How To Choose Your Carrot: Effective Lead Generation Offers for High-Technology Marketers,” from the lead generation experts at Spear Marketing Group.

2.  Dedicate Sales Time To Social Listening & Social Selling

Social selling is very similar to attending conferences, user groups and association meetings. Except you do it daily.

Your first job is to position yourself in online communities ripe with your target audience.

The second part of your job is to participate in conversations with solutions to their problems, make friends and be as helpful as possible – without coming across as “salesy.”

The third part is to always watch and listen. Keep an eye out for pains and needs that your product or service can solve. Watch for changes in jobs, industry news and other events that signal an opportunity for you to engage.

I’ll post later on more strategies to find your target audience, but in the meantime here are some suggestions on where/how to find your audience:

*LinkedIn Groups & Other Online Forums

*Twitter

*RSS Feeds

3. Craft A Great Intro Email

Believe it or not, the Intro Email is quite possibly the most effective weapon of successful social selling.  At some point, you’ll want to connect outside of social media to get the meeting, and good old-fashioned email  (along with a follow-up call) still reigns king for that purpose.  As with all good marketing emails, the subject line must bestow a benefit to the audience.

Example Subject Line: Learn how to improve your XXX

Once you have their interest, the body of the email needs to speak to their needs and business problems and demonstrate your credentials for offering a solution.

Example Email Body:

[FirstName]:

This email is to introduce you to ABC Corp, an XYZ company specializing in XXX. We help companies like [CompanyName] improve their XXX by assisting with:

<Distill your message to 3 points, maximum. Bullet point them here.>

I’m interested in learning whether you have any XXX initiatives upcoming. If you’re interested in discussing XXX or in learning more about XYZ company, please feel free to contact me directly.
Regards,

[Your FirstName]

<Pay attention, because here comes the important part>

P.S. If you’re interested in tips on maximizing your XXX, get a free copy of our [insert title of  and link to business problem-solving offer content asset here].

[Your EmailSignature]

Trust me, the P.S. works.

So, now that you have the basics, how will you integrate this strategy in your initiatives?

**[Full disclosure: The agency I work for is a Marketo partner.]

Filed under ROI Marketing Tagged with , , , , , ,

← Older posts

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 1,324 other followers