But what does search engine optimization actually mean? What is it that makes the organic traffic that comes from SEO different from other sources of traffic on the internet? Let’s break down the concept of organic traffic and look at some of its benefits, along with how you can improve your SEO strategy to boost organic traffic to your site.

What is organic traffic?

Let’s start with a basic (but critical) definition. What is organic search traffic?

The leading SEO optimization platform Semrush defines organic traffic as “the number of website visitors that come from unpaid search engine results (as opposed to paid results).”

The definition makes two important distinctions:

• First, “unpaid traffic” means you aren’t using paid search (things like pay-per-click ads) to artificially drive web traffic.
• Second, “search engine results” implies that organic traffic comes from search engines rather than direct traffic to your site.

You can increase your organic traffic by using SEO optimization techniques. This boosts your SERP rankings and ensures that your website URLs show up more often in front of a potential customer with search intent that aligns with your brand’s solutions.

4 benefits of organic traffic

It’s one thing to understand what organic traffic is. But how can it actually help your brand? Here are four of the biggest benefits that come from a healthy flow of organic traffic.

1. Organic traffic Is affordable

The easiest differentiating factor here is the cost. Organic traffic is, technically speaking, free. This is especially true compared to paid search, which requires payment for each ad placement or click. When you stop paying for those clicks, you lose that site traffic, those potential conversions and that revenue. With organic, it’s the gift that keeps on giving if you can stay in those top spots.

Keep in mind that you can still spend a tidy sum on organic SEO and content creation. However, in most cases, the costs associated with organic search are well worth the investment. Once you have the onsite authority established and are ranking well, you just need to do the upkeep to stay ranking well.

2. Organic traffic is consistent & compounds

Organic search can take months to build momentum. A keyword could see movement after just a couple of months if you already have onsite authority built up. However, to rank for a more competitive search term can take a year or more depending on what work needs to be done to rank well. Do some keyword research to help you choose a relevant keyword that aligns with your goals.

While it may lack the instant gratification of a paid ad, once you rank for a keyword, you can count on a steady flow of search traffic. This leads to a consistent flow of increased customers that doesn’t require ongoing PPC investment to maintain (as is the case with paid search).

3. Organic traffic creates high-quality leads

Organic traffic comes from content that is not just tailored to search engines. It also answers very real human search queries. That means it offers value to readers.

The result of this targeted approach is that you attract readers who genuinely benefit from the value that your content offers. In addition, organic content is often niche and specific, focusing on topics toward the bottom of the marketing funnel. This leads to higher quality leads and more conversions.

4. Organic traffic signals authority & industry ownership

When your SEO content strategy targets the user experience, it sends the message that you know what you’re talking about. The fact that the content shows up organically (rather than being clearly placed through a paid promotion) reflects well on your brand, naturally increasing your authority.

Visibility is a critical part of growth marketing. When you organically pop up in conversation simply based on the quality of your relevant content, it signals to others that you are a strong contender in your industry.

Tips to increase organic traffic to your site

It can benefit your brand in multiple ways. But how can your business tap into those benefits? Here are a few ways to help you get that organic traffic flowing (or if you’ve already started, turning a trickle of visitors into a flood).

• Optimize your existing content: This is step number one. Whether through cleaning up existing pages, creating new content, or both, make sure to invest in SEO techniques to improve your website traffic.
• Don’t forget off-site opportunities: Along with optimizing your onsite content, look for off-site ways to build SEO, like writing guest posts on industry publications, gaining backlinks, engaging on social media, and publishing press releases.
• Track your traffic: It’s hard to improve organic traffic if you don’t know what it is in the first place. Make sure you have Google Analytics and Google Search Console set up to track the traffic source and flow of visitors to your site.
• Work with a brand-building expert: Good growth marketing agencies utilize SEO as a foundational element for building a brand. They will have the tools, techniques, and experience to help you improve your organic traffic.

As you consider ways to attract consumers to your brand online, remember to keep organic traffic in the mix. It requires upfront investment and patience. Consider partnering with a growth marketing agency that specializes in increasing organic traffic. With the help of an expert, the benefits that this unique form of marketing offers are too good to ignore if you want to take your company to the next level.

The post 4 benefits of organic traffic appeared first on Relevance.

Let’s run through the objectives we prioritize at Relevance and why they’re important. From there, we’ll consider how to turn each one into a SMART goal you can act on this quarter.

Why we never launch a content program without objectives  content marketing strategy

When a new client comes to us without defined content objectives, we build them before writing a single word. Before diving into the specifics, let’s consider the importance of content marketing and the benefits that having goals provides for your content strategy. The biggest benefit is straightforward: goals give you a clear picture of where your content marketing is headed and whether it is actually working.

Content marketing is a vast and complex part of the digital marketing world. From social media to a blog post, emails to ads, each content type stands on its own. Having goals ensures that all of these work toward the same results.

Once you have content marketing goals in place, you can also measure your success and failure easier. This ensures that your valuable content isn’t a black hole of expenses that isn’t performing.

We’ll discuss the specific ways to set measurable goals in a bit. Remember, though, having these metrics in place helps you gauge effectiveness and improve as you pursue your content marketing efforts.

The three objectives we prioritize for every client

There are dozens of possible content marketing objectives, but in our experience managing campaigns across SaaS, healthcare, ecommerce, and professional services, three come up again and again. The main objective of content marketing is to provide value for your target audience.

This should always be a factor, no matter what kind of quality content you create. Content production should strive to educate, inform, and resonate with potential and existing customers and their needs. But value isn’t the only objective.

Content marketing can also align with the three main pillars of a good growth marketing strategy. Here’s how.

(1) Improving your authority

This is the objective we push hardest at Relevance. When we helped a healthcare SaaS client publish a series of original research reports, their domain authority climbed 12 points in six months — and sales reps started hearing “I read your blog” on discovery calls. Authority is not a vanity metric; it shortens sales cycles.

Brand loyalty is a major part of sustained success. When you use your content to demonstrate your firm grasp of industry knowledge and expertise, it cultivates trust and establishes your brand as an authority in your industry.

(2) Building your credibility

Credibility is closely related to authority, but it is earned differently. We have seen it first-hand: when we secure guest posts, expert quotes, and media placements for clients through our digital PR work — over 700 placements to date — it creates a layer of third-party validation that no amount of on-site content can replicate on its own.

Content marketing allows you to show your superiority as a solution for the consumers that you’re targeting. You can use off-site content, like guest posts and other digital PR tactics, to create natural credibility in the eyes of consumers. You also gain some third-party credibility at the same time.

(3) Enhancing your visibility

Visibility is where content and SEO intersect — and it is the objective where we see the fastest measurable results. As you create relevant content, you can use an SEO strategy to optimize your site.

This boosts your visibility in search engines. As you associate yourself with various keywords, link to high DA websites, internally link between other pages on your site, and so on, a search engine will begin to prioritize you in SERPs, leading to greater visibility.

How we turn objectives into SMART goals (with real examples)

Authority, credibility, and visibility are the big-picture targets. But when we sit down with a client’s marketing team, we need to translate those into specific numbers with deadlines.

It’s all well and good to understand the big-picture benchmarks behind your content marketing strategies. But what do these content marketing goals and KPIs look like in action? What do content marketing objectives look like in real life?

This is where applying the SMART goals concept can make a big difference. Here are a few SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely) goals you can set to guide you as you create content:

• Maximizing Conversions: Conversions are your own self-defined actions that you want visitors to take. Tracking conversions with a tool like Google Analytics allows you to set specific content conversion goals, such as improving email sign-ups by 10% in the next month. (The right email marketing platform and marketing automation tools make this kind of tracking and optimization much easier.)
• Ranking Higher in the SERPs: There are many tools (including the keyword research tools we use daily), like Ahrefs and Semrush, that can show how high your content ranks in the SERPs. Moving up the rankings over time is a sign that your content is clicking with consumers.
• Increasing Website Traffic: One of the easiest trackable objectives is traffic to your site. Make sure to consider organic versus paid traffic and use them to create meaningful growth goals.
• Enhancing Engagement With Your Target Audience: Engagements can be anything from clicking on a link to filling out a form, commenting on a social media post, or responding to an email. When you formalize engagements and track them, they become conversions, which you can use to inform your goals.
• Improving Your Sales Funnel: Content can contribute to every part of your sales funnel. Considering your customer journey. How do you generate leads and guide them toward the point of sale? Can you create different content objectives to address weak spots in your funnel?

When you apply the SMART concept to your content goals, it gives them a greater purpose and potency within your larger content marketing plan.

Here are SMART goal examples you can actually run in a 30–60 day window:

• Pipeline: “Increase content-touched opportunities by 20% by February 15 by adding 6 BOFU assets (2 case studies, 2 comparisons, 2 implementation guides) and distributing via email + sales enablement.”

• Organic demand: “Grow non-brand clicks for our 25 high-intent queries by 15% by March 1 via 10 refreshes + 5 new pages.”

• Conversion: “Improve content → demo-request key event rate from 0.6% to 0.9% by end of January by adding stronger mid-page CTAs and tightening internal links to pricing/demo pages.”

• Audience: “Add 1,000 net new subscribers in January with two gated assets and a 3-email welcome sequence (built with the right content repurposing tools and automation workflows) that drives at least 8% of new subs to pricing pages.”

• Efficiency: “Reduce cost per key event by 10% in Q1 by consolidating production around 3 clusters and pausing the bottom 20% of posts by assisted conversions.”

Let your objectives drive every piece you publish

Content marketing is one of the most powerful growth levers available — but we have watched too many brands waste budgets by publishing without a plan. Consider partnering with a content marketing agency if you need an expert’s advice. We can help you build a sustainable strategy with measurable objectives that tie directly to revenue. Book a call and let us audit your current content KPIs for free.

Every piece of content you publish should have a clear objective behind it. When authority, credibility, and visibility goals are woven into your editorial calendar from the start, the results compound — and you stop guessing whether your content investment is paying off.

The post Content Marketing Objectives: The KPIs We Actually Track for Clients appeared first on Relevance.

Venture capitalists (VCs for short) are a common way for fledgling businesses to fund the earliest stages of business formulation and growth. However, this kind of startup funding isn’t free, nor is it easy to access.

You need to court VCs the right way if you want them to fund you. One of the best ways to do that is through growth marketing. This is an effective, affordable form of marketing that can help you gain the eye of VCs no matter what startup stage you’re in.

Here are a few tips and suggestions to help an entrepreneur secure venture capital funding.

Understand what venture capital is in the first place

The term “venture capitalist” puts a certain degree of emphasis on the individual — and in a sense, that’s true. When you seek VC funding, you are interacting with venture investors.

When you break it down, though, a venture capital investor provides more about the specific resources (including, but not limited to cash) rather than the individuals who provide them. That is what the term “venture capital” is referring to.

For instance, Investopedia describes venture capital as “money, technical, or managerial expertise provided by investors to startup firms with long-term growth potential.” In other words, venture funding consists of a combination of three things:

• Financial funding
• Technical support
• Managerial expertise

Together, these are lumped into the concept of “venture capital funds.” Young companies seek this form of financing to establish themselves and become profitable.

If you’re looking for VC money, rest assured that you’re not the only company doing so. Every VC has to choose from a myriad of young brands, all with varying degrees of potential. Growth marketing can help you position your company to stand out from this crowd of suitors.

How to position yourself to attract VC with growth marketing

You want a VC firm to see your startup as a healthy, growing business. In order to guide an investment decision, it’s crucial to have a solid business model and business plan. However, funding will also depend on the stage of growth you’re experiencing and what kind of funding you’re requesting.

The stages of VC funding

VC financing is provided via several “rounds” over the course of a startup’s growth cycle. Seed round funding gets things started. Early stage funding (often referred to as series A funding, series B funding, and series C funding) involves large cash infusions and additional support to build on early growth. Late stage funding (series D, E, and F rounds) feeds a thriving young business, helping it dominate its market.

Consider what stage you’re in and if you come across in that way to investors. Small businesses looking for series D funding from a potential investor, for example, should be well-established and seeking to grow your product line and expand into new markets.

Using growth marketing to impress VCs

In most cases, you want a VC to see your company as one that is already active and building a reputation. Growth marketing is an ideal investment to achieve this in a synergistic fashion.

Growth marketing is cost-effective, a data-driven approach to marketing that focuses on the customer to facilitate sustainable long-term growth. It integrates three key growth marketing pillars.

Digital PR builds credibility

Digital PR fosters industry credibility by accumulating public mentions from third-party entities across yours and related industries. This helps build a sense of trust in VCs as they see other companies and individuals willing to reference and, at times, even endorse your brand.

Content strategy establishes authority

Content strategy builds your authority by publishing high-quality online resources designed to help customers at various stages along the customer journey. This signals to fund managers that you know what you’re talking about and have the wisdom, knowledge, and experience to go the distance.

SEO strategy boosts visibility

Search engine optimization goes hand-in-hand with content strategy. SEO helps increase your chances of receiving a VC investment by boosting visibility. This makes it easier for VCs to see your brand pop up on SERPs (search engine results pages).

Together, these three growth marketing tactics enable a young brand to quickly establish a pattern of upward marketing momentum. This makes them more impressive as VCs conduct research into their brand and consider making an investment.

Attracting VC funding for your startup

Venture capital firms are a unique form of private equity for a business. They provide various forms of seed funding and other resources that can streamline a startup’s path to profitability.

From internal factors like a competent C-suite and clean balance sheet to external considerations like growth marketing, make sure you set the stage before looking into VC funding. That way, when you begin to make inquiries, you’ll stand out as a startup that knows its business and has plenty of potential for future profit.

The post How to attract VC funding with growth marketing appeared first on Relevance.

If you’re assembling a content marketing strategy that will work for your brand, you don’t want to skip steps or leave things half-done. Let’s go over some of the most important areas and elements of content strategy that can help you find a repeatable content creation structure and supercharge your next growth marketing campaign.

Why is content marketing important today?

It may be changing, but content marketing remains more relevant than ever before. It is one of the best ways to inform and educate audiences. It is also a great way to build brand awareness and establish authority through thought leadership. Even credibility, developed through a good SEO strategy, benefits from (and often hinges on) quality content.

If content marketers want to use this powerful marketing medium to reach a target audience, though, they have to think twice about their content marketing objectives. Past content marketing strategies are quickly becoming dated.

Things like advances with AI and Google SEO updates are shifting content marketing objectives. Many of the types of content marketing that a content marketer uses will remain the same. However, the way they’re used and how they fit into content strategy make a huge difference in whether a campaign features effective content marketing or not.

One way to maintain high-performing content is to remember the most important areas of content marketing so that you can address these every time you create an asset for your marketing efforts.

The 6 areas of content marketing

Let’s consider six of the most important content marketing objectives to focus on. These specifically pertain to content marketing and the content creation process.

If you’re fleshing out your content development plans, here are half a dozen key areas you want to have in mind as you prepare to generate a library of content marketing resources.

1. Content strategy is your foundation

You may want to dive into the creation process, but make sure you have a rock-solid content marketing strategy in place first. This functions as your plan of action.

A good content strategy aligns your resources with your goals and ensures that everything you make has a purpose. You want this in place first so that you can use it as a roadmap to keep you on track as you go along.

2. Content creation must be purposeful and holistic

Once you have your strategy in place, it’s time to make the actual content. Don’t treat this step lightly. You may have a personal vision for your content, but how does it fit into your larger strategy?

What is the purpose of each content type? If it’s written content like a blog post, what part of the funnel does it help? If it’s a social media post, does it reflect your industry authority? If it’s a podcast, is it brimming with unique educational insights? As you write, illustrate, and record valuable content, make sure each item has a clear purpose.

3. Content distribution gives you momentum

Most pieces of content will focus on a single distribution channel. A “how-to” article, for instance, will live on your company blog. However, that doesn’t mean you can only promote it in that space.

You can also distribute your content through various channels. From ads and social media to emails and newsletters, look for ways to push new blog posts in front of more faces. This gives it a better chance of seeing content marketing success right out of the gate.

4. Repurposing content optimizes its effect

You can also repurpose content across different customer-facing channels. Repurposing might feel a lot like distribution, and they are similar. But there is a key difference.

Repurposing existing content represents an extended creative cycle. In it, you repackage content in different formats (such as summarizing a blog idea or quote into a social post). The right content repurposing tools and social media scheduling tools can make this process far more efficient. This indirectly extends the lifespan and reach of each piece of content you create.

5. Analyzing content reveals weak links in the chain

Once you’ve strategized, created, distributed, and repurposed your content, it’s time to analyze its impact. You can use tools like Google Analytics and native social media or newsletter analytics dashboards to see how well your content performs. Consider things like organic search engine traffic, link clicks, time spent on page, and other conversion metrics.

The goal here is two-fold. First, you want to see what content performs well. Second, you want to identify what content falls flat on its face.

6. Optimization helps you improve

Once you’ve analyzed your content, it’s time to optimize it. (Pro tip: this can take time. Search engine optimization, for instance, can take half a year to start generating organic traffic. Be patient!)

You can optimize both lagging and engaging content. For the latter, consider ways you can integrate CTAs and otherwise improve on content that is already buzzing. For the former, look for ways to update calls-to-action, links, format, keywords, technical SEO, and other factors — dedicated content optimization tools can streamline this work to get things moving in the right direction.

Focusing on the 6 key areas of content marketing

The digital marketing world is a vast and intricate place. Content is just one part of that world, but it remains an essential one.

If you want your brand’s content to make a difference in your business goals, you may want to consider working with a content marketing agency. They can use the elements listed above to create a clear, repeatable, and successful content marketing strategy so that every piece of content is a comprehensive contributor to your larger marketing efforts.

The post The 6 areas of content marketing appeared first on Relevance.

At least, that’s possible when you work with the right digital marketing agency. The challenge is choosing which agency to partner with. 

There are many different kinds of digital marketing agencies, which can make the decision even more intimidating. Some specialize in niche areas, such as social media marketing, content marketing, or brand awareness strategies. Others are more comprehensive in their approach. 

Relevance, for instance, is a growth marketing agency. That means we use content, digital PR, SEO, and other online marketing tools to create an individualized, comprehensive, and synergistic digital marketing strategy for each client.

So, how do you narrow down which is the right agency for your business? Here are some tips to help you make the best choice for your company based on your resources, needs, goals, and circumstances.

What to Consider When Choosing a Digital Marketing Agency

Before we review the actionable steps you should take to narrow down your options, let’s consider what factors you should assess when looking at digital marketing agencies. 

Remember, you’re not talking about a platform or a campaign. This is a collaborative effort. It requires relationship building and ongoing investment. To work well, you should treat it as a serious, long-term investment. Here’s what to consider when making such an important decision.

1. Assess Requirements and Goals

What are you trying to accomplish? Do you already have an in-house marketing team, and you’re struggling in a specific area like social media or email marketing? Or do you need a partner that can create or overhaul your entire marketing apparatus?

As you consider your current situation, identify the goals, benchmarks, and metrics that matter. What are your marketing objectives? Don’t be vague. Try to identify timelines, expectations, and additional data that can guide your digital marketing agency research.

2. Research Potential Agencies

Once you have an idea of what you’re trying to accomplish, it’s time to look at your potential agency options. Research potential marketing agencies on the market (there are a lot of them out there) and curate your list to reach out to.

The goal here shouldn’t be to create a massive compendium of marketing agencies. Instead, keep your shortlist, well, short. Only add agencies that closely fit your requirements and goals. As you conduct your research, keep these three things in mind:

• Expertise: Does an agency have the know-how to back up what they claim they can do? For instance, if they offer social media management, do they have staff with the training, and knowledge to function in that capacity at a high level?
• Experience: There’s a reason Google considers experience and expertise two separate things. Just because an agency has the knowledge doesn’t mean they have the experience. Investigate each agency’s track record. Have they been around the block a few times?
• Reputation: What do others think about a marketing agency? Feedback and reviews provide effective insights into an agency’s track record. Do they have good case studies that demonstrate an ability to deliver what they promise? Have they gone above and beyond for clients?

Expertise, experience, and reputation. These are your guiding lights when assessing your options.

3. Consider Communication Methods

How does a marketing agency’s communication methods align with your own? This may sound like a minor issue, but inconsistent or misaligned communication can lead to unnecessary stress.

Consider how you communicate with your own team. Make sure a digital marketing agency is prepared to communicate with you at the frequency and level of detail you expect from a collaborative partner.

4. Review Agency Networks

Don’t trust an agency that says they can do everything. From the nuances of marketing strategy to the finer details of Google Analytics, there are many things that go into a good marketing campaign.

A good agency should be able to deliver on most things. However, they should also have a high-quality network of trusted partners that they already utilize to refer work. That way, if you need a unique piece of marketing collateral or a service you can’t access, they will be ready with top-shelf recommendations.

How to Choose a Digital Marketing Agency

Once you’ve considered your own marketing goals and the potential agencies that can meet them, it’s time to make a decision. Here is an easy, four-step process to narrow your choices down to the single, best candidate for your enterprise:

1. Start by conducting interviews and consultations with your shortlisted agencies. Ask each digital agency the same questions so that you can compare and contrast the answers.
2. Clarify pricing structures and service offerings. Don’t leave any stones unturned. An reputable agency should be open and forthcoming about how they will charge you and what digital marketing services each package includes. If you’re confused, ask for clarification, expecting an informed and helpful answer.
3. Expect customized proposals. If an agency doesn’t offer one, request it. These should do more than detail their services. They should incorporate and be tailored to your business needs.
4. Ask for client references and testimonials. A good agency should always come backed by satisfied customers. Everyone doesn’t have to love them, but there should be a consistent crowd of past and present clients singing their praises. Reviews are an essential form of validation. Look for them.

Use these filters and benchmarks to whittle your options down to the one that best fits your unique marketing needs.

Discovering the Best Digital Marketing Agency for Your Business

It’s hard to overstate the impact of choosing the right digital marketing agency for your business. You want to give an agency months to create marketing plans, set them in motion, and assess the results. That means you want to start with the right group from the get-go to avoid wasting time and resources on digital marketing efforts.

Using a strategic approach in your agency selection (like the one outlined above) can help you choose an agency that isn’t just a good fit. They can help you meet your business goals. 

Once they understand your business better, they should also be able to continuously evaluate your progress and adapt to ongoing changes to sustain your marketing success. They can even help you expand your vision, see new markets and opportunities, and reach for bigger, better results. If you’re looking for a good digital marketing agency to help you achieve your marketing goals, Relevance can help. Reach out now for a free strategy session. Let’s see if we’re a good fit, and we can give you the information needed to make an informed decision about your company’s marketing future.

The post How to Choose a Digital Marketing Agency appeared first on Relevance.

These tools provide data, structure, and insights. They improve efficiencies through marketing automation and can even inspire future promotional frameworks, strategies, and initiatives.

If you’re unsure what growth marketing tools you need to incorporate into your strategy, you’re not alone. There are a lot of tools out there. In this article, we’ve divided growth marketing into eight key categories and provided marketing tool suggestions for each activity.

Let’s dive in.

1. Tending to Your Technical Foundation

The first step in growth marketing is establishing a solid foundation for your site. This paves the way for smooth progress as your digital marketing gains momentum. 

Common technical marketing issues include addressing slow load time, complicated navigation, and poor redirects. These quite yet critical marketing components may be out of sight, but they should never be out of mind. They can hurt your user experience and hamper your marketing efforts.

There are tools that can help. Google Search Console (GSC) is the most important of these, as it provides a detailed analysis of the back-end of your website. You can also use PageSpeed Insights for loading speed analysis while an SEO tool like SEMRush or Ahrefs can do third-party site audits and can give you data regarding search engine optimization across your site.

2. Crushing Your Content Marketing

Content marketing is another major building block of a solid growth marketing strategy. This is the owned part of your marketing, and it should consist of targeted, industry-focused, brand-specific content.

The question is, how do you know your content is performing? Is it top, middle, or bottom-funnel content? Is your content thin or cannibalizing itself? What pieces do you need to optimize or even delete?

Google Search Console can help with this, as can Google Analytics 4. The former focuses on the search engine side of things, while Google Analytics 4 provides user insights. Once again, SEO tools are important in building strong, optimized content. AI-powered platforms (see our guide to content optimization tools) like MarketMuse can also help with the planning and optimization process. Other tools like SEOMonitor can help highlight keyword opportunities and cannibalization issues.

3. Benefiting From Backlinking

The 2024 Google Search Algorithm Documentation Leak revealed that backlinks are still an essential part of a growth marketing strategy. How many backlinks do you have? How do your backlinks stack up against the competition? Where can you get more backlinks?

Backlink tools are a tricky one. SEO tools mentioned previously like Ahrefs or SEMRush and Google Search Console remain good starting points here. They can give you the raw backlink data. If you don’t know how to make head or tails out of the information, growth marketing agencies like Relevance can help you draw comparisons, measure results against marketing benchmarks, and discover new backlink opportunities. For the tools themselves, see our guide to the link building tools we trust.

4. Tapping Into the Power of Paid Marketing

Paid marketing is a growth hacking tool that helps you supercharge a growth marketing plan. To work, though, you need to know what keywords to target and how to run your paid campaigns.

Ahrefs has a free keyword planning tool (and you can see our full comparison of keyword research tools) that can help you get an idea of what keywords you could incorporate into a paid campaign. Moz offers a free version of its platform for limited keyword research, as well. Google Ads is the platform you want when it comes time to set everything in motion and orchestrate your paid marketing campaign.

5. Streamlining Your Socials

Social media is another critical area of off-site marketing. Social media marketing allows you to connect and engage with your target audience, increasing awareness, developing trust, and building social proof around your brand.

The issue with social media marketing is that it’s overwhelming, which is why most tools here focus on management and efficiency. Social media management tools like Hootsuite, Sprout, and Buffer allow you to schedule and post to accounts from a single dashboard. (For a more current comparison, see our review of social media scheduling tools.) Platforms like Canva and Unsplash make it much easier to create professional posts, too.

6. Improving Your Emails

Email marketing has always been important. Eblasts can quickly inform your followers about important events and opportunities. Email funnels can nurture leads. Drip campaigns can spread content you’ve published elsewhere. 

In an SEO world that is always in flux, a marketing channel like this that connects directly to an opt-in audience is invaluable. Even so, if you want your recipients to click and your emails to avoid the spam folder, you want to maintain a solid email marketing strategy.

There are a number of tools that can help with this. ConvertKit makes email creation easy. Mixmax makes scheduling a breeze. ActiveCampaign empowers you through cutting-edge email automation options. For a deeper look at current options, see our reviews of email marketing platforms and marketing automation tools.

7. Optimizing Your Conversions

You can get all of the traffic in the world, but if it doesn’t lead to the right actions, it won’t matter. Conversions can be a number of things, from making a purchase to filling out a form. Regardless, you want to know if your growth marketing efforts are actually bearing fruit or not.

Tools like Convert can help you conduct A/B testing to see what options generate more leads. Optimizely gives you key conversion-related insights into the entire marketing lifecycle. This helps you gauge if your customer acquisition process is leading to consumers engaging in the customer journey.

8. Understanding Your Analytics

Finally, for proper growth marketing to work over the long term, growth marketers need data. Short-term data can reveal if a specific marketing effort is working. Long-term data allows you to track how your site, paid campaigns, SEO content, and other activities are playing out over time.

Google comes up strong here again. Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console can give you a ton of data to work with. (For more sophisticated options, check out our review of marketing analytics platforms.) In addition, Screaming Frog can crawl your site to conduct audits and provide data-rich feedback. Conductor is another analytics-based tool that hones in on SEO insights to maximize performance. 

Supercharging Growth Marketing With the Right Tools

Every successful growth marketer has a suite of tools to back them up. The key is finding the right platforms for your needs.

If you’re unsure what tools can supercharge your growth marketing plans, we would love to connect for a free strategy session. Together, we can find the tools that can help you align your marketing efforts with your brand’s vision and goal, giving you and your team the best chance at marketing success.

The post Growth Marketing Tools to Incorporate Into Your Strategy appeared first on Relevance.

Ecommerce SEO uses many similar SEO elements, like keywords and linking. However, user intent plays a large role. While ecommerce SEO should still encompass the entire funnel and target top and middle of the funnel terms, it often narrows in on the consumers who are already considering making a purchase at the bottom of the funnel. 

This isn’t easy, as you’re engaging with Individuals further down the sales funnel. Competition over product pages is also fierce, and your digital marketing must remain in lock-step with things like processing and inventory capabilities. 

Ecommerce SEO requires special attention to work well. It must effectively present products and their details through good site structure, on-site content, and back-end information. If you want to integrate SEO into your ecommerce digital marketing, here are five ecommerce SEO tips to help you do so.

1. Build a Strong Technical Foundation

Technical SEO is a critical first step for effective commerce SEO. There is a distinct difference between technical SEO and other forms of SEO. Technical SEO refers to optimizing your content on the back end. These are things like a meta description, title tags, site speed, and even site structure. 

Technical SEO considers the user experience from a unique angle. In the context of ecommerce, it provides specific pieces of information that can help you not just rank in search engine results but put your best foot forward. 

Simply showing up in search results can help with traffic and search volume, but when you’re selling a product, you want search engines to be able to provide more than a blue link to click on. Structured data is an effective way to maximize Google Search. Structured data includes things like:

• Product details, such as name, price, color, and product description.
• Brand and breadcrumb schema that helps Google understand your site’s structure and navigation.
• Local business details (if you’re geographically focused).
• User-generated content in the form of reviews.
• FAQ pages with important answers to common questions.

With ecommerce, you also want to help search engines display rich search results. These are SERP results that flesh out text results with things like images, carousels, and videos. You can test your current pages to see if they support rich results using this tool.

2. Develop a Content SEO Strategy

Good SEO is always backed by a strategy. This gives it consistency and direction to help support your goals. For a ecommerce SEO strategy, there are a few key areas to focus on:

• Product pages: These are your key transactional landing pages. Make sure each page has a strong title, meta description, and image alt text. Provide helpful content (more on that in the next tip) and ensure user experience is top of mind. 
• Category pages: Along with individual product pages, create pages that gather related products into a single category page. This can help users with navigation and aid search engines in indexing your ecommerce site.
• Keywords: Conduct keyword research surrounding each product. (Google Keyword Planner is a good starting point.) Ensure you understand keywords that apply to top, middle, and bottom-of-funnel topics. With sales pages and ecommerce SEO, it’s best to focus on bottom-funnel, transactional keywords that are more likely to convert.
• Linking: Interlink any topically related content on your website to their associated product page. This helps spread link authority from informational pages that tend to get more backlinks to product pages to help them gain organic traffic and build authority.

Once you have your strategy in place, make sure you have analytics and SEO tools set up to help you track effectiveness and make needed adjustments over time. Google Search Console shows you search-result-focused data, while Google Analytics sheds light on user behavior. Get both SEO tools set up and check them regularly!

3. Create Thoughtful Informational Content

SEO factors into the content that you put on and around your ecommerce site pages. (Usually, this is your company blog or resources section.) The key here is to create helpful content that prioritizes readers first and search engines second. Since Google’s Helpful Content Update, its E-E-A-T content (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) standards have become critical to SEO success. 

Demonstrate authority, credibility, and knowledge throughout your ecommerce site’s content. Make sure everything remains topically relevant to your main service areas, too. Google’s document leak in early 2024 revealed that site-wide topical relevance is important for being seen in SERPs.

As a final note on content, make sure you are using your non-ecommerce content to address all of your top, middle, and bottom funnel keywords. This gives you a more comprehensive content library, all of which should link together and connect to your bottom-of-funnel, rich ecommerce content.

4. Address Offpage SEO, Too

SEO takes place off of your ecommerce website, as well. Backlinks, for instance, are a major factor that can boost your site’s credibility. These signal to search engines you have authoritative, helpful content. 

Digital PR is another component of a good backlink strategy. As you seek opportunities to have third-party sites link to your content, make sure to spread some of the benefits to your ecommerce pages, too.

Linking aside, brand mentions in online publications are also a big deal. They signal to search engines that you are genuinely impacting your target market and industry for the better, and you have the social proof to back it up.

Even social media can help with offsite SEO. By posting on social outlets, you can increase brand awareness, grow organic traffic, and gain backlinks. When you share category and product pages, this can impact ecommerce SEO, in particular.

5. Building an SEO-Optimized Ecommerce Website

SEO is a major factor in a good growth marketing strategy. It can improve your rankings, drive traffic to bottom-of-funnel content, and boost sales.

As you implement SEO solutions for your ecommerce website, make sure to track your analytics. Watch your conversion rate, in particular, to ensure that your SEO efforts are positively impacting ROI.

If you aren’t seeing the results you want from your SEO efforts (or you’re struggling to get started with ecommerce SEO in the first place), we can provide a free strategy session to help your company get organized, efficient, and profitable through its online sales channels. Let’s talk!

The post Ecommerce SEO Strategy: How To Do It Well and Boost Sales appeared first on Relevance.

Digital PR enhances your credibility as a brand. Solid human-focused content reinforces your authority in the eyes of consumers. Social media personalizes your brand.

But what about SEO marketing? How does search engine optimization improve your marketing efforts? 

Let’s break it down.

What Is the Goal of SEO?

SEO is the process of optimizing your branded content online. This includes website pages, sales pages, guest posts, and most additional forms of digital marketing content. SEO cleans up this content so that it shows up in search engine results. There are multiple forms of SEO, including:

• On-page and technical SEO refers to things like keyword research, link building strategies, improving user experience through clear navigation, and helping search engines crawl your site.
• Off-page SEO consists of using guest posts, social media, and similar off-site tactics to link build and create branded buzz on third-party websites.
• Local SEO capitalizes on geographic limitations for businesses that operate within a specific physical area.

It’s important to understand the differences and utilize the various forms of SEO as part of a larger marketing strategy. When done correctly, this can unlock a variety of benefits, including:

• Creating a steady flow of organic search traffic to your website.
• Improving user experience and satisfaction through a better digital experience.
• Increasing brand awareness and boosting your brand’s visibility across your sales funnel.
• Generating leads with minimal costs.

SEO also helps cultivate a sense of trust as consumers see your quality content appear in targeted search results over and over again.

How Does SEO Fit Into Marketing?

SEO is a search engine-centric activity. A quality SEO strategy signals to search engines like Google Search what kind of information your content contains. This allows these search tools to answer search queries by matching your content to users with related search intent.  

As an example, consider a plumber that creates a basic article on unclogging a drain. They use SEO best practices, such as including a target keyword phrase like “unclogging a drain” or “how to unclog a drain pipe.” 

“When a user asks Google “how to unclog a drain,” the search engine can easily find and use the plumber’s resource as a suggested answer on its SERPs. If clicked on by the user, the piece of SEO-optimized content generates organic traffic to the website.

Don’t Put All Your Eggs in the SEO Basket

SEO can feel like a magic trick. Given enough time (SEO often takes at least six months or more to really kick in), a well-optimized piece of content can generate a steady flow of organic traffic to a website for a very long time.

This can make it tempting to pour all of your resources into SEO content. But you have to resist that temptation.

Good SEO requires balance. SEO success should always come as part of a larger growth marketing plan. 

For instance, when investing in on-page and technical SEO, you also want to make sure you’re creating solid content that benefits your target audience. This means it should always prioritize the reader and only optimize for search engines after reader value has been satisfied.

Fortunately, there are times when you can overlap SEO and other growth marketing efforts at the same time. Digital PR often includes drafting guest posts on other websites and industry publications. Along with building brand credibility, this is a great way to invest in link building and generate value through off-page SEO. 

The important thing is to keep each SEO effort strong and balanced with other digital marketing initiatives. This will give you the greatest synergy and the best results over time.

Using Good SEO to Boost Your Brand

SEO is a powerful marketing tool. However, it isn’t the kind of investment you can make lightly. 

On the contrary, SEO best practices are constantly in a state of flux as Google and other search engines tweak their algorithms and change how they search for quality content. This requires ongoing research.

In addition, properly integrating SEO into existing marketing is tricky. It requires the ability to maximize on and off-page SEO without sacrificing the impact of other things, like your social media marketing or digital PR.

This is where working with an SEO company can be a game changer. An SEO agency can bring experience and bleeding-edge SEO knowledge to the table along with the tools to track and confirm that they are delivering results.

If your brand is coming up short in the SEO department, consider working with an SEO company. The targeted investment in optimizing your content can infuse your marketing efforts with a synergy that will continue to deliver results far into the future.

The post How SEO in Marketing Can Boost Your Growth Plan appeared first on Relevance.

This can be tricky, as various kinds of content tend to serve different purposes. They can also require different skill sets and tools.

This makes understanding each content type is an essential step in the content creation process. Let’s break down why content is important in the digital marketing world. We’ll also explore what content options are out there and the many ways they can help a content marketer reach their target audience.

Why Is Content Important in Digital Marketing?

Content is a powerful, multi-functional digital marketing tool. Technically, marketers have always worked with content.

However, marketing in the technological age has given birth to a myriad of unique types of content in digital marketing. Blog posts, emails, podcasts, videos, infographics — the list goes on.

Marketers can use these to develop intricate content marketing strategies. These can provide a roadmap that guides them through the vast and overwhelming online marketing world.

From the consumer perspective, content is important because it helps with every stage of the customer journey. Content can help bring brand awareness to a brand and its offerings. It can inform users, encourage sales, and even provide customer support after the point of purchase.

While content is powerful, once again, it’s only effective if a marketer is using the right content marketing type for each situation.

What Are the Types of Content in Content Marketing?

There are many different types of content. Some of these, like blog posts or video content, were already listed above. Other content marketing examples include social media, guest posts, ebooks, demos, case studies, email marketing, landing pages, and user-generated content.

While understanding each individual option is important, it’s also essential to understand the function that each of these plays in a larger content strategy. Below is a list of several overarching categories that content covers. The same kind of content format can function in multiple categories, such as a blog post serving as an educational and self-help marketing asset.

Marketers should be well aware of these categories whenever they go to create content. That way, they can ensure they are using the best content types and formats to reach their intended consumer audience.

• Educational blog content provides information and value to your end user. This includes a lot of written content, like blog posts and instructional PDFs. It can also consist of audio and video content items, like infographics, how-to videos, webinars, and podcasts.
• Community-building content helps develop engagement and trust with your target audience. It often consists of interactive content, such as social media posts and email marketing. Need help choosing the right tools for each? See our reviews of the best social media scheduling tools and top email marketing platforms.
• Gated content uses lead capture forms to collect willingly provided consumer information. In exchange, those individuals gain access to subscriber-only whitepapers, ebooks, videos, emails, product demos, and other unique assets.
• Outreach content helps brands reach a potential customer. It can consist of email blasts, social media through influencers, guest posts, and other third-party-driven content activities.
• SEO content helps a search engine find a brand’s content and connect it to users with related queries. You can optimize any piece of content, but blog posts (which permanently live on company websites) are most often given the SEO treatment. To make the most of your SEO content, explore our picks for the best content optimization tools and top keyword research tools.
• Paid content is content that you promote as an ad. A company pays a certain fee, usually for each click. They can apply this pay-per-click (PPC) format to various content types, such as blog posts, or visual content such as graphics or videos.
• Off-site content lives on third-party websites as a way to promote a brand outside of its own online assets. This includes sending emails directly to inboxes, writing guest posts for industry publications, and posting social content.
• Self-help content is similar to educational content. However, in this case, you craft it to answer user questions. This informational content often helps existing customers without the need to reach out to a customer service representative.
• User-generated content comes from consumers. It serves as social proof, and often consists of social posts, feedback, and reviews and can serve as an excellent testimony to both a brand’s products and customer experience.

The variety of content available doesn’t just boil down to different formats and lengths. Each type of valuable content serves a distinct purpose in the content marketing process, and managers should always be aware of the kind of content they need for each project.

Being Purposeful With Your Content Marketing Strategy

Content strategy is a complex and nuanced field of business. As time goes on, it only promises to become more complicated, too. That’s where content repurposing tools and marketing automation platforms can help you scale without burning out.

As you craft everything from short social posts to lengthy videos and whitepapers, remember to be deliberate. Create a content marketing campaign to back up your decisions and an accompanying framework to keep track of your content marketing resources and guide the creation process.

If things get too overwhelming, you can also invest in a content marketing partner to help guide you through the process and breathe life and purpose into every piece of content that you generate.

The post What Are the Types of Content in Content Marketing? appeared first on Relevance.

As you flesh out your content marketing strategy, you want to consider all of the different forms of content out there. Only then can you effectively choose which ones fit into your marketing plans.

Let’s take a look at the different types of content marketing available and how you can use them to reach your target audience, educate them, and ultimately encourage them to take action.

What Is Content Marketing in Digital Marketing?

Before considering individual types of content, it’s important to remember the purpose of content marketing in the first place. Too often, marketers focus on content creation and have content strategy take a back seat. 

However, you always want to start by thinking of how your content factors into your larger digital marketing strategy. At Relevance, we consider a strong growth marketing strategy to focus on three areas: authority, credibility, and visibility.

Content marketing helps with all three of these things. Its biggest contribution is in the area of authority. Quality on-site content shows your audience that you know what you’re talking about and are a thought leader in your industry or niche.

Content also helps establish credibility through digital PR efforts, such as a guest post. Pairing great content with the right content optimization tools ensures it performs in the SERPs, too. On-site, informational content can enhance SEO, too, by helping with keywords, link-building, and technical SEO strategies.

What Are Examples of Educational Content?

As AI becomes a bigger factor, the quality of a brand’s content is coming into the spotlight. Strong SEO is no longer enough. You have to create great content that genuinely educates, offers unique insights, and provides value for the reader. 

The good news is that Google has provided guidance on how to make good content that will rank. To do this, the search engine has established its E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authority, trustworthiness) guidelines. A content strategy example that follows E-E-A-T could be a company blog post that provides insightful information from a certified professional on your staff.

For those comfortable with digging deeper, the search engine giant also provides Helpful Content Updates. These aid in generating “helpful, reliable, people-first content.”

What Are Types of Content Marketing?

There are many different elements of a content strategy. Each content type below provides its own value as part of your larger content marketing strategy. Let’s consider each one and how it can help you achieve your marketing goals.

Onsite Content

This is the “big one.” Your onsite content is the content that lives right on your own website. It doesn’t require a social media outlet, third-party publication, or even an email service. This content is fully in your control.

Onsite content can take on many different forms, each of which is helpful in its own way:

• Blog posts; provide both short- and long-form blog content that can be newsy, opinionated, and filled with thought-leadership concepts.
• Resources; such as “how-to” posts, supplemental information, and technical guides can provide easy-access self-service support for your existing customers.
• Case studies; are powerful testimonials that summarize and demonstrate past success for future customers.
• Infographics; condense large amounts of information into short-hand, easy-to-understand visual images.
• Sales pages; provide bottom-of-funnel product and service pitches that seek to close sales. 

Onsite content is one of your best long-term forms of content marketing. It can be intensive and expensive to set up. However, once created, content that lives on your site can continue to deliver traffic and provide CTAs in perpetuity with minimal maintenance.

Gated Content

While much of your on-site content is free, there are certain kinds of content that you only want to give people when they’ve taken a specific action. This is called “gated content.” This includes things like:

• Whitepapers; that provide long-form, in-depth content for serious consumers with a pre-existing base of basic knowledge.
• Ebooks; that dig deeper into brand-related topics and demonstrate strong, intimate knowledge of your industry.
• Demos; that provide interactive, hands-on experiences with your products or services.

An example of gated content in action could be receiving an ebook after signing up for a newsletter or submitting a request for a demo. These are important in-depth marketing steps that help move people who are already considering making a purchase toward the bottom of the sales funnel.

Other Forms of Content Marketing

On-site and gated content are two major content options that every brand should consider. But they aren’t alone. Here are several other forms of content that you should consider. Some of these are variations of on-site content, while others are off-site. In either case, each contributes its own value to a larger content marketing strategy.

• Guest posts; are content that you contribute to a third-party site, such as a news outlet or industry publication. These are excellent forms of digital PR outreach and can build brand credibility.
• Social media; includes anything from memes and quotes to lengthy LinkedIn posts (a solid social media scheduling tool helps you stay consistent) that are as long as a blog post. Social media posts help build brand awareness and cultivate branded communities.
• Email marketing; is a unique form of content — and choosing the right email marketing platform matters — that you can send directly to an audience that has opted in to hear what you have to say. It is a great way to make confident calls to action, from suggesting reading a blog to encouraging someone to make a purchase.
• Video content; is a well-rounded and engaging form of visual content that presents information in a manner that strongly resonates with consumers.
• Podcasting; is also popular and is an effective way to audibly present branded messages filled with insightful information.
• Ads; are a classic form of content that typically conveys bottom-of-funnel calls to action, such as taking advantage of a sale or purchasing a new product.
• User-generated content; is a powerful form of interactive content that invites your audience to collaborate with you by providing their own feedback, opinions, and advice in relation to your products and services.

From onsite and gated content to the smorgasbord of different formats that content can take, there are many ways you can tailor valuable content to meet the current needs of your brand.

Using the Right Types of Content Marketing

As you consider the different elements of content strategy that you want to use, keep this list in mind. To create effective content marketing, you need to analyze your customers, marketing goals, resources, and so on. Then, consider what kind of content fits into that framework. 

Should you invest in content marketing blogs to inform site visitors and lead them down your sales funnel? Do you need social media marketing content for off-site lead generation or to help you retain existing customers? 

As you identify the different components of content marketing that you need, assemble them into a content creation plan. If the whole thing gets too confusing, this can be a good time to work with a reputable content marketing agency like Relevance to keep your content educational, effective, and up to date. They can help you generate high-quality, effective content that can build your brand’s authority in the eyes of the world, your industry, and especially, your target audience.

The post What Are Types of Content Marketing? appeared first on Relevance.