If you want to take your business to the next level, growth marketing is an essential strategy worth consideration. Growth marketing is a data-driven approach that focuses on acquiring and retaining customers through experimentation and continuous optimization. 

In this article, we'll discuss several growth marketing ideas that you can use to boost your business along with examples of companies that have successfully implemented these strategies.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a website in search engine results pages like Google’s. This is accomplished through techniques such as keyword research, meta tags, and link building. SEO is an extremely powerful way to drive traffic to your website and grow your business. While this is a long-term strategy that requires a lot of effort and dedication, the payoff can be significant. 

In 2023 every business needs a website, and SEO is the way to get it in front of the right people. Improving your website's ranking in search engine results pages can increase visibility, drive more traffic, and ultimately grow your business. There are a variety of businesses that really benefit from SEO, but to see who’s really coming out on top, just take a look at who’s sitting in Google’s number one spot. 

Onsite Content

An SEO strategy is essential for modern businesses, but it’s not really worth much without quality onsite content. Audiences can’t search for content that doesn’t exist, so without it, you’re practically invisible online. Put simply, your content signals to search engines and your audience that you know what you’re talking about. When prioritizing onsite content, you want to make sure your business’s website has relevant material. Types of content may include blogs, infographics, and/or videos, but you have to choose what’s best for your business. 

Leveraging your online content allows your business to showcase your expertise, which can help you earn your audience’s trust and gently move them through your sales funnel. Canva is a popular design tool, and they are killing it when it comes to onsite content. They offer users thousands of design tutorials through their design school. It teaches people how to use their product while also showcasing  the features their service has to offer.

Digital PR

Digital PR is a powerful tool to help businesses build their online reputation and brand authority. With time, it can help you become a reputable industry leader. When done successfully, a digital PR campaign will result in brand mentions and backlinks from sites with quality domains, which increases a brand’s authority both in the eyes of search engines and human readers.

Any current industry leader is most likely benefiting from digital PR. Think about businesses positively mentioned on sites like The New York Times, Forbes, or Entrepreneur. Once those mentions are obtained, it heightens a company’s level of authority. So much so, it’s common practice to see “as featured in” sections on their website. Those sections speak to a level of authority and convince your audience by providing social proof. Strengthening the relationship your business has with the public is important, and digital PR does just that.

Influencer Marketing

Almost everyone is familiar with who influencers are and how they contribute to the marketing space. But to define for those who don’t know, influencer marketing describes a partnership with individuals who have a large social media presence to promote their products or services. Partnering with these individuals can be an effective way to reach a large and engaged audience that is likely to be interested in your products.

With this marketing strategy, you’re able to leverage influencer connections to promote your business. An example of a company that has had great success partnering with influencers is Fashion Nova. They’ve partnered with celebrities like Cardi B and Amber Rose to promote their brand on Instagram. The company made a million dollars on the first day that Cardi B’s line dropped — and that’s largely due to her dedicated fan base. 

Referral Marketing

Referral marketing encourages existing customers to refer their friends and family to your business. To incentivise these referrals, companies often offer rewards and additional perks to these existing customers. This can be an effective way to acquire new customers at a lower cost than traditional marketing methods.

Dropbox is a great example of a company who benefited from referral marketing. They grew their user base by offering more storage space to users who refer their friends to the service. Their company grew 3900% (not a typo!) in just 15 months. That’s wild, but it speaks to how capitalizing on your customer’s connections can really benefit your business.

Mobile Optimization

Optimizing your website, products, and services for use on mobile devices is crucial if you want to grow your business. According to Think with Google, “Almost half (46%) of consumers prefer to use their smartphone to complete the entire process from researching to buying.” This means that having a mobile-friendly website and making sure your products and services are easily accessible on smartphones is crucial to reach customers. Through optimization, you can increase visibility, drive more traffic, and ultimately grow your business.

Personalization

Personalization has become more and more important over the years as audiences expect to be treated as individuals rather than statistics — and rightfully so. However, it can make some marketing efforts more difficult. Personalization as a marketing strategy tailors messages and experiences to individual users based on their behavior and preferences. This can be a powerful way to increase customer engagement and retention.

Netflix is known for its personalized recommendations, which have been successful in keeping users engaged with the platform. According to the company, over 75% of the content that users watch on Netflix comes from its recommendation system. This highlights how effective personalization can be, especially as it keeps users engaged.

A/B Testing

A/B testing is the process of testing two or more variations of a marketing campaign, website, or product feature to see which performs better. This allows you to make data-driven decisions about which changes will have the biggest impact on your business.

If you’re familiar with the meal kit delivery service HelloFresh, they provide a nice example of A/B testing with their menu display update. When they redesigned their menu to create a seamless user experience while also promoting upselling opportunities, they compared their original design to the update. They found the final version contributed to a 7% increase in upselling, proving the second variation performed better.

Remarketing

Remarketing is a strategy in which advertisements are targeted to users who have previously interacted with your business. This can be a powerful way to increase sales and customer retention. Studies show that retargeting can increase conversion rates by as much as 150%. It also helps re-engage the 98% of visitors who leave a website without making a purchase.

Amazon's retargeting ads, which show products that a user previously viewed on the website, have been very effective in driving sales. Just think about how your social media pages look after you’ve been scrolling on their product page. Those great finds sitting in your cart almost immediately end up on your newsfeed. If you’re not remarketing already, it’s an idea worth considering.

Deciding What Strategies Are Right For Your Business

It's important to note that a single method may not necessarily drive the growth of your business. It is important to use a combination of multiple strategies and methods to achieve the best results possible. But you may also find some strategies aren’t worth the resources they will cost your company.

Growth marketing will look different for every business because not all approaches will help you reach particular goals. Continuously testing and refining your approach can help you identify what works best for your unique audience. The above-discussed growth marketing ideas are just a starting point, and you should continuously experiment with new strategies to find what works best for your business.

As a marketer, you are always looking for ways to grow your business and achieve your growth marketing goals — or at least you should be. You’re likely already familiar with the content conversion funnel, but if not, there are multiple steps along the process you may be focusing on strengthening. In its most basic form the funnel has three main components.

At the top of the marketing funnel, you should prioritize attracting high-quality traffic. This is really where you build awareness. Within the middle of the funnel is where you want to build trust. Your audience will evaluate you and your product or service. The bottom of the funnel is where mutual value is created and your audience will make a purchase or follow through with another call to action. Some approaches add additional steps prioritizing retention or referral, which we agree is extremely important.

It’s important to consider whether you’d like to focus on top of the funnel organic traffic or bottom of the funnel converting traffic to drive growth. You need to decide which approach would work best based on your organization. Occasionally, this varies depending on industry. It will also vary based on your established growth marketing goals.

Should You Prioritize the Top or Bottom of the Funnel?

To help you make this decision, it's important to understand the differences between top of funnel and bottom of funnel traffic and how each can impact your growth marketing goals.

Top of funnel traffic refers to the early stage in the customer journey. This stage is where potential customers are starting to become aware of your brand and are considering engaging with you. This traffic is typically generated through awareness campaigns, such as content marketing and social media.

Bottom of funnel traffic refers to the later stage in the customer journey. Here, potential customers are actively considering making a purchase or taking some other desired action. This traffic is typically generated through conversion campaigns, such as email marketing, retargeting, and paid search ads.

For both, SEO and content can play a role in helping you show up for important terms in either top or bottom of the funnel. You just need to decide which to focus on first.

So, How Do You Decide? 

In all honesty, this decision about what to prioritize varies across industries, and your overall marking approach is a big factor as well. Here are a few factors to consider:

Your business goals and objectives:

When making any strategy decisions, you need to ask yourself what you're trying to achieve with your marketing efforts. If your goal is to drive brand awareness and reach a larger audience, focusing on TOF traffic may be the way to go. This is a common top priority for new businesses that need to get their name out there. 

Keep in mind TOF traffic is typically gained by targeting search terms that are broad with high search volumes. When you start ranking well for those terms you’ll see your site’s traffic go up, which means more potential for leads. If you don’t have strong conversion paths set up, this may not do you much good, though.

Say your goal is to drive sales or conversions, then BOF traffic may be more appropriate. If you’re in the fourth sales quarter and numbers are down, prioritizing conversions would probably be the best use of your time. Focusing on customers who already know and trust your company can be an easy way to boost sales, but it’s important to retain a personalized connection with your customer base to successfully utilize this approach. 

And opposite of TOF, BOF traffic is typically lower search volumes, but more quality searchers. You may not see that satisfying spike in traffic, but will ideally see an increase in conversions if you have strong paths and CTAs.

Your target audience: 

Second, ask yourself who you are trying to reach with your marketing efforts. Understanding your target audience’s needs, wants, and behaviors can help you determine the most effective way to engage with them. 

If your target audience is primarily made up of first-time buyers or those who are unfamiliar with your brand, focusing on TOF traffic may be the best approach. A witty social media campaign or partnering with a fun influencer can get your business in front of new eyes. 

If your target audience is made up of repeat customers or those who are already familiar with your brand, BOF traffic could be more effective. This could look like sending out a personalized email marketing campaign to previous customers. You might even send them a promo code or coupon to thank them for their previous purchases and encourage a repeat sale.

Your marketing budget: 

How much money do you have to allocate toward your marketing efforts? TOF traffic tends to be more expensive than BOF traffic, as it requires a longer-term investment in content creation and SEO strategy. 

BOF traffic, on the other hand, can be less expensive because you know your audience and how to reach them. It also allows for a more immediate approach, like email marking discussed early. An additional benefit that comes with this approach is that email is an owned media, so you’ll be using resources like time and energy rather than chipping away at your budget.

Your marketing resources:

Before making too many plans, it’s important to take inventory. Do you have the time, talent, and resources needed in order to execute a TOF or BOF marketing strategy? If you have a small team or limited resources, it may be more feasible to focus on only one side of the marketing funnel. This may mean creating quality content that doesn’t need much follow through. Or instead, you really prioritize making past customers feel special.

On the other hand, if you have a larger team and more resources at your disposal, then you’ll probably be able to focus on both TOF and BOF traffic. And to be honest, combining both strategies at the same time yields additional benefits. However, you have to determine if it’s worth the cost for your business. Not all organizations can prioritize both, and in some cases stretching yourself too thin can cause more harm than good. Marketing requires balance.

In the End, It’s Up to You

Using both approaches can be particularly effective to help grow your business. However, not all budgets or team configurations allow for that approach. Focusing on TOF traffic helps build your brand and reach a wider audience, while BOF tactics convert those potential customers into paying customers. 

These strategies can help you drive both awareness and conversions, leading to sustainable growth for your business. However, the ultimate decision of whether to focus on TOF or BOF is up to you. If you're really unsure, it may be time to consider a growth marketing agency. By considering these factors, you can determine the best approach for achieving your growth marketing goals.

A brand can use media to boost its credibility, if done strategically. Since consumers value working with brands that they know and trust, producing and releasing on-target content is an essential part of reaching potential customers. The question is — what type of content should you promote? What is going to get people to stop long enough to read, learn, and take action?

The truth is, there’s no single type of content that works for all industries or brands. However, there is a variety of content that tends to be interesting for many consumers. And there are steps you can take to improve your content and pick the best options to promote. If you’re ready to start improving your brand credibility through promoted content, keep reading.

1. Look for Content with a High Conversion Rate

There’s content that people remember as it influences their decisions, and there’s content that’s skimmable and easily forgotten. When it’s broken down that simply, it should be easy to know which to promote. But it’s not that simple.

Achieving a high conversion rate entails creating media that people want and need to consume. After you’ve accomplished that Herculean task, you should aim to promote that content. If people are proving they’re already gaining value from a post by taking action, further promote that content to reach more people.

One of the best examples of content that converts is a guide. If it contains valuable content, consumers will read it, learn something, and want to take action. If consumers believe that the guide they’ve signed up for is a free resource and they are getting an extra perk, that can be even better. Who doesn’t love receiving something of value for free?

Another type of high-performing content you might consider developing are blogs. If they cover a topic that’s useful and actionable, users often invest their time into consuming that material. Add a strong call to action to it, and you have content that’s likely to produce some conversions.

2. Choose Content That Resonates with Your Audience

While informative blogs can have a high conversion rate, articles that resonate with your audience are also likely to perform well. The information that will resonate is going to differ from one business to the next. However, it is common that these are the types of blogs that rank well for search engines because people are frequently searching for the topics.

Sometimes, these blogs are those that share a key insight about your business or industry. They answer questions, provide thought-provoking perspectives, or share a feeling with the people who are reading them. While authoritative articles typically remain objective, it can be beneficial to add personal perspectives and emotional reactions, if appropriate. This tactic can humanize your brand and make your content more relatable. Used properly, this type of content can foster a strong brand influence, especially when they are shared many times over.

3. Dive into Long-Form Guides That Rank Well

When a consumer has a problem and turns to a search engine for solutions, they are going to click on websites and links with answers. They aren’t looking for content that’s selling a solution, they’re looking for a person or company to teach them. If you can provide that resource, you’re showing this consumer that you know what you’re talking about, and you’re on their side.

Long-form guides that incorporate a great deal of information and become a resource for people are key to proving credibility. And they’re likely already ranking well. If you have a content strategy that includes guides or plans to create them, put more effort behind promoting them. Doing so can help get more attention for your valuable content. Then, once you’ve established trust with consumers by providing information, it’s easier to encourage them to take action — whether that means making a purchase or referring you to friends.

4. Emphasize Stat-Heavy Infographics

Stats matter. Any business can make up facts and put together a blog about what their product does. However, companies that take the time to research and develop accurate stats are more likely to create interesting content.

Materials that include statistics are viewed as more authentic. It creates credibility because it shows claims are backed up with facts. It is also more believable than any type of sales message. It is the type of material that people can read, recognize as valuable and true, and then share with others. They are more likely to recognize a brand as an authority in its industry when the content is comprehensive and easily digestible.

Look for short, to-the-point infographics that are full of good stats to add to your content or promote on its own. If you can’t find them, create them! People appreciate industry-wide statistics and data, which means your content is likely to perform well. Additionally, if you’re organizing data in an easy to understand format, it’s likely others will cite you. Being referenced by others can lead to further promotion and recognition for your brand.

5. Take it to Video

Consumers often value influencers more than brands themselves. That’s because influencers are people who are authentic, transparent, and engaging in the content they produce. You can take advantage of this yourself if you create interesting, informative videos. These should not be sales hype or product demonstrations but opportunities to truly engage with your audience. You should aim to make a meaningful impression.

Creating videos can seem intimidating, but building credibility means showcasing your authority and passions. It also means sharing your knowledge in a way that people can see why they should listen to you. Talking about your area of expertise on camera showcases your company in a way that’s hard to replicate with a blog or social media post.

Creating videos helps authentically show who you are. Viewers can hear the passion in your voice and see the joy you express when talking about your values. There’s a reason influencers are paid for what they do, and it’s because it drives results. It may not always be easy to step in front of a camera, but doing so can help you build your credibility.

What Is the Value of Building a Brand?

That’s often the big question. If you are going to put the time and effort into this process, what is it really going to do for you? When you invest in your brand, you’re not just focusing on one sale. Your goal is to build loyalty, so people are going to come back to you numerous times. You also build a brand story that people can feel good about and stand behind. Often, brand authority lends itself to word-of-mouth advertising and can even help when it comes time to raise capital.

If you are not working on building your brand yet, now is the time to do so. The right content can make that possible, along with the best team in the industry to support you. Take time this week to reach out to us to learn more about building your content strategy.

The golden age of copywriting may very well have occurred in the 1960's when scotch-fueled, skinny-tied mad men labored for hours over a typewriter in order to craft the perfect five-word slogan. At the dawn of the online era, copywriting's persuasive and artful virtues were cast aside in favor of keyword stuffing and web scraping, which did more to win over the mechanical hearts of search engines rather than the true hearts of consumers.

"Just Put More Content On Your Website, You'll Be Fine"

While there's little doubt today that black-hat techniques do more harm than good, true copywriting has yet to make a full-fledged comeback. In fact, website content is still viewed as a commodity - something that can simply be outsourced at a large quantity and slapped onto a website, netting vast and positive search results. Why else are content marketplaces and article spinning software still so pervasive?

It is obvious to anyone with some knowledge about digital marketing that content and copy are not the same things. The web content Vs. The web copy debate has been going on for years now. If you ask marketing experts if it really matters, the answer will mostly be yes. While content marketing is a powerful way of pushing your business to growth and success, copywriting is a form of fine art that can be effectively used to engage people and encourage them into performing a specific action.

Understanding the difference between the two is important as it can help in defining your market in vivid detail. It can also help marketers in other areas such as identifying growth priorities and hiring people with the right talents to achieve their goals.

An old-school definition:

Web copy is created by using creative words and sentences aimed at engaging people and encouraging them to take some predetermined action. Web copy content has a single aim – of driving people to click through, sign up, fill out an online form, register or make a purchase. It acts as a guiding light, helping people find their way through your website, and providing them with the information they have come in search of.

The web copy must be enticing enough to grab the attention of visitors to your website quickly and make sure that they stick around. The content must sell your brand to them. It obviously means that the core function of a web copy is to sell.

On the other hand, web content is the content found on your website in any form. Web content constitutes all the writing on your website and web pages. The core purpose is to provide information and enlighten people about your website and business.

The key difference between web copy and web content is that the latter is not used for any promotional or selling purpose. Web pages simply provide insights and create value for your business. High-quality and informative web pages can help you gain the respect and loyalty of your customers and achieve your goal of building long-term relationships with your targeted audience.

Web content also includes content in other forms apart from the written word. Well-crafted web content will also have images, videos, and podcasts to support the text form and make the whole page more attractive, impactful, and valuable. If it is information posted to provide your audience with the data they are looking for, then such information can be categorized as web content. It follows that information-sharing is a prelude to educating your audience and gaining their trust.

At the same time, it also helps you create a bond with your targeted audience that can help you sell your products and/or services. Web content can help your organization earn profit in the long term although it must be borne in mind that selling, promoting, and creating sales opportunities are not the intended end goals of web content.

Web content can help businesses attract new customers from diverse markets to their business through a process of creating posts that are informative, interesting, and valuable. Content that provides answers to the most pressing queries that some potential buyers and customers might have can do wonders to your traffic. At the same time, consistency is the key factor. Be consistent in delivering valuable and highly informative content to your readers and visitors and you can be sure that your business will take huge positive strides in the right direction.

Truth Bomb: True Marketers Don't Produce Content

While it may seem like mere semantics, there is a stark difference between website content and website copy. Let’s take a closer look at what is web content.

The statement ‘Content is King’ may appear clichéd but the simple truth is that content is at the core of any marketing strategy. Web content is the key reason why your visitors view the pages you have developed and share them with others using social media, website links, and other modes. Web content can be in the form of website text, images, audio files, videos, and more.

Website Content:

• News
• Press Releases
• Video Transcripts
• Product Descriptions (manufacturer)
• Executive Summary

Contrast that with website copy, which should tell a story, explain a concept, and persuade readers to action. Whereas content (while necessary) is boilerplate and mechanical, a copy is built for conversion.

A closer view of web copy is needed to fully understand the differentiating factors.

The web copy must be conceived and designed to reassure the visitor about your product or service and convince them to take a specific action such as subscribing to your newsletter or buying one of your products/services. It is crucial to develop a copy that provides vital information that your potential buyers are looking for. The web copy creates exposure for your brand by using the right text.

Website Copy:

• On-Page Text
• Blog Posts
• Social Media Updates
• Product Descriptions (original)
• Advanced Content (white papers, eBooks, guides)

As such, marketers should espouse copy over the content. Effective copywriting requires thorough research and thoughtful editing, conducted by a subject-matter expert and a professional writer. It won't be fast or cheap but will pay dividends.

It's The Sales Funnel, Sillyhead

When you draw a distinction between copy and content in this manner, you can see that they correlate directly to the structure of the inbound marketing funnel. Web copy is inherently top-of-the-funnel; built to generate leads, while web content builds trust after a prospect familiarizes themselves with your brand, and should be employed near the end of the sales cycle (bottom-of-the-funnel).

Don't flip your funnel! Boilerplate web content is ineffective at converting website visitors, period. They should instead be greeted with thoughtful, original, and creative copy that speaks to them at a personal level.

Copywriting should be laborious and painstaking (typewriter and scotch optional) but when your finished product comes to life and wows your reader, you'll be thankful for the effort. Long live copy!

To have amazing copy on your site and speak to a Relevance Content Strategist book a call here!

This post was updated on 7-20-22.

Admit it or not, shopping on an e-commerce website saves you a lot of time and effort. What could be more fun than receiving an item on hand within days while sitting at home? But for some people, it might be hard to find the best websites to shop for products. So, in this article, we will put up some of the best websites in e-Commerce that are great at customer retention.

1. Amazon

Amazon is the brainchild of Jeff Bezos who built it from scratch. He made it to the top with Amazon, to be the world's richest person as per 'The World's Billionaires List' by Forbes. Founded in 1994 at a Garage in Seattle, Amazon is now leading the online shopping industry with its outstanding quality of products and services.

You will find a massive range of products on its website and mobile app. They have most of the household or office products listed on their website that you might need. It is the largest company on earth in terms of revenue.

2. eBay

Founded in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar at San Jose, eBay is one of the biggest players in the e-commerce space. It was one of those companies who made it big during the dot-com bubble.

One thing that separates eBay from other e-Commerce websites is that it not only facilitates Business-to-Customer sales. Also, it has the customer-to-customer sales feature where people can sell their used items as well.

3. Walmart

Doug McMillan founded Walmart in 1962 at Rogers, Arkansas. They started with chains of retail stores across the US but soon launched their online portal as well. Walmart also acquired all or significant shares of some good companies such as Jet.com, Moosejaw, Flipkart, etc. over the years to extend their wings.

Walmart is well-known for its wide range of products at big discount prices. Walmart even emphasizes on its USP of low rates for any item in their marketing campaigns.

4. Target.com

Target Corporation started its operations with departmental stores in 1902. It is one of the oldest corporations in the US who has been doing well for over 100 years. In 2018, it was at the 38th rank in the Fortune 500 list of corporations in the US.

They are more focused on providing buyers with trending products at an affordable and low cost than selling low-priced items. It makes them a better choice amongst young people than that of Walmart.

5. Etsy

It is one of the unique e-Commerce platforms where buyers can purchase handicraft as well as factory-made items. It is also well known for the vintage products listed on it by sellers all over the world. The sellers are also provided with individual storefronts where they can register their products for a fee of 20 cents per listing.

Founded in 2005 by Josh Silverman at Brooklyn, New York City, Etsy has been leading the global handicraft and vintage products industry.

6. Wish.com

Founded by two former programmers at Yahoo and Google; Wish.com is another top choice for e-Commerce buyers across the globe. They have raised over $1B in total funding from many top Venture Capitalist firms until now and made it quite a success story.

You will not only find products from small businesses there. There are also products listed by manufacturers on Wish.com which makes the price of some items to be dirt cheap.

7. Costco.com

Costco is a US corporation who facilitates a chain of warehouse clubs which is members-only, but they have a website for online shopping as well. Founded in 1983 in Seattle, they were the second largest retailer in the globe in 2015, just after Walmart.

They are known for their items at a meager price when bought in bulk quantities, but as mentioned above, it needs annual membership to purchase in bulk from them.

Bottom Line

All in all, the selection of the e-Commerce website from where you might want to purchase your products will depend upon the type of product you want to buy. For instance, if you're going to purchase handicraft items, the best choice would be Etsy rather than others.

Nonetheless, Amazon is typically the best choice of most of the buyers around the world due to their fast delivery and excellent customer support. Not to mention, they never fail with delivering high-quality products as well.

This article was updated 5-10-22.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most important tools businesses should utilize in our modern world. SEO-friendly webpages are more likely to be clicked on in a Google search because they contain keywords. Keywords are what search engines use to produce results. If you want your business to pop up on the first page of results, you'll need to educate yourself on SEO.

How it Works

The first step to educating yourself on SEO is learning about search engines and how they work.

Search engines use crawling, indexing, and ranking to produce search results. The system will scour the internet for code and content in URLs that match the keywords. Then it stores the information and ranks the pages from most relevant to least relevant. The first results you see will be considered the most relevant web pages.

There are two types of SEO: on-page and off-page.

On-page SEO is the process of optimizing elements of your website itself. Key components of on-page SEO include keyword research, title tag, meta description, header tag, keyword usage, internal links, and site maps. If your website includes each of these components, users will see your website before your competitors’ pages.

Off-page SEO is the method of promoting a website via link building. Link building is using hyperlinks in other websites to drive traffic to your website. Users click on your hyperlink located on another website. Doing so takes them to your website. This will also drive referral traffic, leading to better authority and credibility.

If you use both types of SEO, your website will receive a better ranking, thereby gaining more visibility.

Read Books Published by SEO Experts

There are many books on the market to teach readers how to use SEO. When choosing which ones will suit your purposes the best, it’s a good idea to decide if you would get more use out of general information or niche market selections.

For information regarding general SEO tactics that are applicable to every field, one good example is The Beginner’s Guide to SEO by Jessica Ainsworth. These “bottom line”-type books can walk you through the basics of SEO and how to take the first real steps toward applying them in your business venture.

Most of these general publications aren’t overly bogged down with technical word salad and are fairly easy to absorb. Some even have corresponding workbooks to help organize your process and record the results of your efforts. Even if you eventually decide to hire a marketing partner to handle your SEO, you can use general SEO knowledge to better communicate with them and judge if their efforts are proving to be successful.

SEO Practices for Niche Markets

Once you have a decent grasp of how SEO processes work, you may want to move on to other resources that go further in-depth and relate more closely to your specific field.

Let’s say you are a fledgling attorney looking to drive clients to your practice. An example of a niche SEO book that would be especially applicable to attaining your desired clientele would be Law Firm SEO: Exposing the Google Algorithm to Help You Get More Cases. Far beyond mere SEO basics, this book goes in-depth, teaching readers such things as how to optimize their websites to make them SEO-friendly.

Even if you don’t necessarily run a law firm, you can use niche SEO resources like Law Firm SEO since Hennessey Digital gives you the information to really dive into ways of navigating data analytics and Google algorithms and applying them to your specific trade or business.

Books are one of the greatest resources for educating yourself on SEO. And with online ease of access, highly specialized subjects such as SEO and derivative niche varieties can be purchased with the click of a button rather than a trip to the local bookstore or library.

Enroll in SEO Classes

There are many programs available to learn about SEO and how to use it.

These programs are broken down into easy-to-digest chapters so you won’t be overwhelmed by all the new knowledge. Some of these programs can be taken online or in person. Since the subject is becoming increasingly vital to marketing, many schools and organizations offer these specialized classes.

Some programs are available for free online, while others cost hundreds of dollars. As the saying goes, you tend to get what you pay for. If you want to get a job that requires SEO knowledge or attain general expertise, getting a certificate or degree may be a valuable investment.

Learn by Doing

It’s all well and good to research until your head bursts, but eventually, you will have to take the first steps of implementing what you’ve learned. Here are a few simple things you can do.

The first thing you should do is consider updating your most important website content. Updating your existing content will save you time and energy, as you won’t need to create new content. This can give you more efficient results for the amount of time invested.

The second thing you should do is consider incorporating long-form content into your website.

Sure, smaller blogs are easier to write, but they don’t include as much content as long-form blogs. Readers consider long-form content to be more engaging. A long-form article is anything over 2,000 words.

One final thing you can do is decrease page load time.

If a webpage loads too slowly, many users will not return to your website. Mobile phone use has gone up, which means more people are using their phones to search the internet. Optimize your website for mobile use, and the pages should load quickly.

Use SEO For Success

Search engine optimization is a handy tool to drive more customers to your business.

One of the best things you can do for your company is to educate yourself on SEO. By following the suggestions above, you can begin improving your SEO rankings in no time.

Retail eCommerce sales have been booming the past few years and completely blew up due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Online eCommerce sales reached $4,280 billion in 2020 alone, as the statistic suggests:

(Source)

This means that creating an eCommerce site for your brick-and-mortar store - or even a store that operates only online - should be a no-brainer. However, the number of eCommerce stores has made creating an actually successful eCommerce marketing strategy all the more difficult.

Where there's a digital presence, there needs to be digital marketing as well. But not just any digital marketing. If you want to stand out, you will need some tips and tricks to help you understand the customer's journey. Just a few will help you maximize your conversion.

Create and Curate Your Email Marketing Campaigns

Email marketing is one of the most important components in any digital marketing campaign, and with good reason:

(Source)

This ROI is pretty hard to find. But this does not mean that your audience will accept any type of email marketing message. This is especially true since we're talking about eCommerce marketing. Customers have seen plenty of email blasts and are somewhat suspicious of marketing messages.

Make sure to master all the best ways of creating an email list from scratch and score interested leads through your landing pages, social media buttons, and the content you share on your platforms.

After that, segment your email list and start personalizing your messages. Relevant content will boost your open and click-through rates and, eventually, your conversion. Just make sure to invest in an email marketing and marketing automation platform that can help you create relevant email newsletter campaigns.

Use Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the act of incentivizing a person's product recommendations. It can be pretty beneficial in the long run. The truth is that digital marketers have just started realizing how much power affiliate marketing holds for digital marketing despite being one of the oldest marketing tactics.

Of course, implementing affiliate marketing tactics and incorporating them into your digital and email marketing campaigns is not always simple. There are some drawbacks for marketers who want to create an email marketing campaign to boost their affiliate marketing efforts, as some ESPs don't support it. The ability to create email marketing campaigns to boost your marketing efforts is one of the most sought-after features amongst many Mailchimp alternatives.

Let's assume that your prospects need to make some extra money. They're looking for a passive income option. They're happy with your product and loyal enough to recommend it to their friends and family.

Benefits of Affiliate Marketing

Through affiliate marketing, your brand offers that option in the form of a commission. Just as long as your audience's peers purchase because of their recommendation and your marketing team comes up with a way to track and trace these actions, your affiliate marketing efforts will boost your revenue and allow you to reach a larger community.

The consensus is that you reach new people, your prospects make more money, and everybody wins.

When you use affiliate marketing to your advantage, you're essentially collaborating with a happy customer, who is much more likely to help you reach new audiences and be trusted than an ad is.

Think of it as using testimonials. They're better than ads since online customers actively look for them and, according to Forbes, "consumers read an average of ten online reviews before feeling that they can trust a company". And now think of the recommendations you receive from people you trust. You're far more likely to purchase an item a friend or a family member has recommended.

Shoppable Ads Are Here to Stay

Social media holds a lot more power than it used to, and it allows marketers to generate more leads, create a unique brand tone that will make their brand memorable, and boost eCommerce sales.

One of the digital trends that are here to stay is connecting a brand's social media posts with their eCommerce store through a shoppable ad that will get people talking about your brand on social media and give you some much-needed exposure. Like so:

(Source)

The connection is seamless and doesn't cause any friction. This allows the prospect to find - and purchase - exactly what they'd been looking for in Instagram's shop. This creates a multichannel experience. It allows the prospect to move quickly and, ultimately, not lose their interest in the product they're viewing.

Another reason why shoppable ads are here to stay is the fact that this tactic allows eCommerce stores to offer a memorable experience while taking advantage of the impulsive nature of a sale, making them a much-needed step in a brand's inbound marketing blueprint.

Not to mention that marketers need UGC and social proof to showcase the products. Social media is full of UGC and social proof. This makes shoppable ads a win-win and allows prospects to shop through their feed.

Customer Reviews Are Everything

Social proof and customer reviews are essential for digital marketing in general. Here's why:

(Source)

From email blasts to unsolicited ads, affiliate programs that don't offer what they promised, and faulty products, customers have seen everything when it comes to digital campaigns. This is why customer reviews are so important. They can showcase exactly what your product can do and how it can make a customer's life easier.

Make sure to ask for a review, either through your thank-you email campaigns or through your digital customer service teams.

A prospect reading a good review on your website, social media pages, or email marketing campaigns is a tried-and-true method to entice and score more sales and better conversion.

The Takeaway

Creating digital marketing campaigns as part of your eCommerce marketing strategy is a surefire way to reach your conversion marketing goals.

That is not to say that digital marketing campaigns are the be-all-end-all. Beautiful web design, targeted messages that are A/B tested and optimized for each prospect, and excellent community management are just as important.

Entrepreneurs are primary contributors to the overall GDP of a nation. Their creative exploits are what make them different from the rest of the people. While most of the population gets stuck in the rat race of the job market, entrepreneurs plan to build their own companies and change the world.

But what exactly defines a true entrepreneur?

People with an entrepreneurial spirit are born risk-takers and filled with creative ideas, helping them kickstart their solo journey.

You can find examples of entrepreneurship in every corner of the world. Facebook, McDonald’s, Walmart, Tesla, and all such multinational giants were built by entrepreneurs who saw a gap in the market and tried to innovate products to fill that gap.

But behind every successful entrepreneur, there are a series of failures.

A recent survey by Gallup revealed that 50% of start-up businesses failed to survive beyond five years. Forbes Magazine also states that nine out of every ten start-ups will eventually fail and not make it to the market. Those numbers might be deterring, but it does not give you the reason to burn your entrepreneurship spirit and stick with a nine-to-five job.

With passion, hard work, dedication, and commitment to your idea, you can score the market and achieve it well.

Entrepreneurs vs. Freelancers

In a globalized and increasingly digital world, people no longer want to limit their skills to just their regular jobs. They are going one step forward, catering to people in need and charging a price for it. They take the jobs that suit their skill and make money on their terms.

While freelancers carry some traits of an entrepreneur, both terms shouldn’t be confused.

Freelancers are not trying to build something new but provide service in exchange for money. So, unlike entrepreneurs, freelancers don’t own anything that will make them money while they don’t work or go on a vacation.

How to Become an Entrepreneur?

What are the right steps to take before starting the scary but exciting entrepreneurship journey? Because of diversity in the market, there is no one perfect strategy to take. For instance, the restaurant owner would not take the steps taken by the owner of a furniture company.

Typically, there are four common steps that every budding entrepreneur builds their path and be the blazer of their trail.

• Research and identify profitable ventures.
• Focus on niches that are growing.
• Find a gap in the market and fill it.
• Create a better version of something that already exists.

Research and identify profitable ventures.

A creative idea sparks up a successful startup. There will be no business without creativity or a unique idea.

There are several ways to get unique ideas that might work for you. You can start by asking your friends or family what they need the most or feel is missing from a product or service and how to start your business. If you can find a solution to that problem, you are already one step ahead in your entrepreneurship journey.

Checking out what other people are building can also be inspiring and motivating to take action. As the world keeps changing, people would need a different product to cater to their needs. A good example would be the increasing demand and growth of transportation services like Lyft, Uber, and other similar services.

Focus on niches that are growing.

Experienced professionals recommend choosing a fascinating field that is not overly competitive. Avoid fiercely competitive sectors, such as the clothing or toy industry. You will be better off with something that responds to innovation and can be quickly licensed. After picking a niche or category, there are other steps to follow. These are:

• Can you identify the benefits of the chosen products?
• What will their marketing and branding plan be?
• How are the consumers responding to the product?
• Are there any gaps to be filled?

Once you have decided on your product, assess the following factors:

• Can you add new features to the existing one?
• Can it be customized?
• How can it be improved?

Find a gap in the market and fill it.

You don’t have to manufacture products that are already in abundance in the market. The formula for many successful businesses lies in their ability to find a gap and create a solution.

An excellent example of this would be Tesla. Owing to the increasing pollution level, driven by diesel and gasoline cars, there was a need for an alternate and environmentally conscious way of transportation. Elon Musk identified this gap and produced the world’s first electric car that runs on electricity, leaving zero carbon footprint.

Create a better version of something that already exists.

You don’t always have to build something brand new to be successful. If you can modify an existing product or service and offer it at a better price and higher quality, you can quickly attract a loyal customer base. And the chances of success for such ideas are more potent, as there is already existing demand for such products.

Some Beyond-the-Norm Suggestions to Become an Entrepreneur

Connect with Like-Minded People

Connect with young entrepreneurs through events and meetups in the local startup community. It offers you a place to learn from the people, sailing on the same boat and avoiding their mistakes in the initial days. Building a strong network helps you build a robust relationship with others and ensure you have people to fall back on when things go south.

Dig Up Information on Patent Applications

Patent applications are made public after eighteen months of filing. Although patenting a new invention right away is not what you need to do, browsing through different patent types and how they can protect your intellectual property would give a better idea of where a specific space is headed.

Conduct Research on Buyer Personas

You now have a brilliant idea for your business. That is great! But that does not give you the privilege to leave your day job yet.

Before you go full-on, you must find out whether there is an actual market for your idea or will it be another sad failure story. To understand the intent and perspective of the market, sketch out your buyer persona, i.e., are there real people willing to pay for the product?

People will not be interested in something that does not offer a solution, no matter how innovative or cool it looks or sounds. That is why market research and understanding buyer persona are important.

Once you have identified a market or a client, the next step would be to interview such clients. Show them the prototype, let them know the benefits, price and how often they’d use it, and so on.

Start with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

Developing MVP is kind of the most basic and simplest version of a product or tool. However, it covers enough functionality to satisfy early buyers and understand what needs to be improved.

Let’s say you want to build an investment app that allows the consumer to track growth and protect themselves from making enormous losses. So, you will start with a bare minimum, launch it on the Google Play Store as a beta version, and encourage people to download and use it.

If the response is decent, you should move forward. And if it does not get the consumer excited, you either rethink or initiate a new idea.

Bear in mind; several start-ups reached great success while some disappeared in the blink of an eye. How you will start and continue the journey will depend on how creative you can get and the level of financial risk you are willing to take to reach your goal.

Keeping your audience engaged and interested — especially while presenting — is a struggle as old as time. You can jazz up your presentations with interesting graphics or videos, but that's often not enough to maintain the attention of your audience. You'll need stories to truly draw your audience in and keep them captivated. This is where adding storytelling to your presentations can make a real difference between engaged listeners and catching your colleagues napping.

Before you start thinking up astonishing stories to include in your presentation, let's take a step back to first understand why storytelling is important.

Elena Valentine, the CEO of Skill Scout Films, sums this up perfectly: We enjoy storytelling because our brains are hardwired for stories. We feel more connected to each other through stories. As presenters, good stories allow us to be both an expert and a human at the same time.

"When we hear a good story, we can really place ourselves into that person's situation," Elena says.

Neuroscientist Uri Hasson supports this point through a number of studies he conducted at Princeton. He concludes that storytelling causes the neurons of an audience to sync with the storyteller or presenter's brain. Therefore, you are likely to respond to the story with the same emotions the storyteller or presenter had when they experienced it.

Given the power storytelling can have on your audience, the next step is understanding how to best wield it and integrate it throughout your presentation.

Building Your Presentation on the Foundation of a Story

Think of your presentation as a narrative in itself. Try structuring your presentation similar to a typical hero's journey. By following a story outline, you'll take your audience on a journey just like Amy Purdy did in her TED talk. Amy walked listeners through how she lost both her legs to meningitis but later relearned how to snowboard to continue her professional career.

Elements of Storytelling

Your story does not necessarily need to end with your hero winning a gold medal. You want your audience to be just as excited about your conclusion as they were throughout your entire presentation. This can be achieved by following the structural elements of a story.

Moving ahead, let's discuss how you upgrade your presentation stories even further using these three storytelling elements:

• Creativity
• Authenticity/Trust
• Relevance

Creativity

Creativity plays a huge role in your presentation. What many people forget, however, is that you don't need to be a master designer to be creative. Keep in mind that how you deliver and present your story can be incredibly impactful for keeping your audience interested and engaged. For example, in one of his TED talks, author Tim Urban uses stick figures and a monkey in order to explain procrastination.

A well-designed presentation can play a role in how your audience consumes the information. However, it's not the most important factor. As long as your presentation is used to supplement your story and complement your delivery, you don't need to include all the bells and whistles.

• Tip for Virtual Presenting: The easiest way to prevent your audience's eyes from glazing over is to incorporate visual content you can interact with as you speak. This can be accomplished using tools such as Prezi Video for adding a few images, incorporating stick figures such as those Tim uses, or even animating some short bullets.

Authenticity/Trust

We've already touched a bit on the importance of authenticity. Epic tales allow space for human connection and emotion, yes, but personal experiences help take your storytelling to the next level.

In a commencement speech at UC Berkeley in 2016, Sheryl Sandberg shared, for the very first time, how she felt on the one-year anniversary of her husband's death. Sheryl built up credibility and trust by confiding in the audience. This also allowed her as a presenter to feel more connected with them. While this element requires the most courage, it also typically generates the biggest reward.

Relevance

Of course, your stories should be relevant to the overall point you're trying to make. This too gives you room to reference your story throughout your presentation. Amy continuously brought up how she wanted to become a professional snowboarder. This desire motivated her to keep working toward her goal.

Having an overarching story or theme to constantly refer back to creates cohesion and maintains interest throughout the session. Another good example is provided by Shawn Anchor, who starts off his presentation with a story about a unicorn from his childhood. As he moves through his presentation, he keeps referencing the story and ties it all together at the end.

Beyond the Keynote

Great stories should not be reserved for formal presentations or TED talks. The principles listed above can be applied to your daily meetings, sales calls, product demos, and more. We still want our audience, no matter how small, to be engaged with what we are trying to say.

Presentation expert and speaker Rich Mulholland shares how he integrates the hero's journey into every sales presentation. The hero — who he refers to as the "dragon hunter" — must wield a weapon to defeat a dragon and retrieve the treasure. In the context of a sales meeting, the potential customer becomes a stand-in for the hero. The dragon represents a problem in the world that your company can uniquely solve. The treasure is the opportunity that exists if they do. By uncovering your client's problem, you can more naturally walk them through the story of your business. This approach humanizes your product while highlighting how it can be a solution.

The next time you're working on a presentation, think about how you can incorporate a story or two into it. Adding storytelling to your presentation will keep your audience engaged, help them connect on a deeper level, and make the experience more enjoyable overall.

Sponsored content and native content campaigns have many similarities, which can make it easy to lump the two together. However, there are some key differences between the two strategies that content creators must take into account. To get both types of content to align, you need to recognize how they are different and how that helps them work in tandem. 

For starters, a native ad is a type of advertising that looks like it belongs. For example, when you do a Google search, you might notice that the first few results are listed as advertisements, even though the results themselves look similar to the others. The same goes for online shopping listings and the social media ads you often scroll past. This is also known as paid advertising, as the advertiser must pay based on metrics such as cost-per-click to have their ad show up.

Sponsored content is a type of native content, but it has its own unique features. It takes a sponsorship role over an advertising one and is presented in the form of more in-depth content. Sponsored content can be found on the site of the publisher, whether that be a blog page or an influencer’s social media portfolio.

So when dabbling in both of these marketing styles, how do you strike a balance? If you can get your sponsored and native content campaigns to work in conjunction with each other, you can get a lot more bang for your buck. Here’s how you can start the alignment process:

Establish Your Goals

Before starting any marketing campaign, set some goals. What do you hope to accomplish with your marketing spend? This should directly influence the decisions you make and will be much more effective than tossing a bunch of ideas at the wall and hoping one sticks. 

Is your goal to increase brand recognition? Your focus might turn toward sponsored content with native advertising as a funnel to the content displaying your brand. Want to use marketing to increase sales? Paid advertising will be the way to go, with sponsored content funneling new consumers to your website to browse your wares.

In the case of these two goals, both sponsored and native content campaigns are being implemented. The difference lies in how each one is emphasized to achieve different ends. Both campaigns will work well together when they’re calibrated toward the same goal. 

Create a Brand Voice

One thing you want to keep constant is your brand voice. This is the “personality” your brand has, so to speak, when consumers interact with it. Television ads, social media accounts, website landing pages, and marketing campaigns should all contain elements of this voice. With it, customers will be able to draw correlations, retain key brand information, and build a relationship with your brand.

The development of sponsored content and native content will differ, but the brand voice should remain the same. Start by reviewing all your past content and seeing whether you can discern a distinct voice. If the answer is yes, use that as a base to build a more sustainable and recognizable brand voice for future pieces of content. If not, you’ll be starting from scratch. 

Try this exercise the next time you’re working on your native advertising. Define your brand in three simple words. Those three words could be anything, but here we’ll use reliable, authentic, and instructive. How can you display those traits in your brand voice? As you craft your content, keep those words in mind. You’ll have an identifiable voice in no time. 

Think About Your Audience

The key to any successful marketing campaign is focusing on your target audience. This tells you where to find likely customers, what they’re probably most interested in, and what their needs are. By tailoring your content to this specific audience, you increase your conversion rates and overall marketing success.

To align your sponsored and native content campaigns, you should focus on a single target audience. If you try to pursue different demographics, your content will be conflicting in nature. You can end up getting in your own way instead of focusing your efforts in one place.

Your target audience will influence how you publish your content as well. If you’re trying to reach Gen Zers, you’ll have more luck placing native advertisements on social media and partnering with influencers. For older demographics, search engine ads and sponsored blog posts will be more effective. 

Consider the Journey

Just as you want to visualize the individual you are trying to reach through your marketing, you should picture their customer journey. Understanding the sales funnel and the steps consumers need to take to get to a sale will help mold your sponsored and native content campaigns.

Think about how you can direct consumers from their web browsing to your site and eventually to your shop, where they will make their first purchase. Perhaps native advertising can be used to link browsers to more specific sponsored content pieces to give them an idea of what your brand is about. Follow up with another native advertising campaign that prompts these people to make purchases based on the knowledge they’ve gained.

Combining sponsored and native content is like having both wheels of a bicycle intact and in sync. Sure, people can get around on a unicycle, but they won’t go nearly as far or as fast as when they have two wheels working together.