Digital marketing fundamentals for new business owners presented in Charleston, S.C. for SCORE. Covering content marketing strategy, SEO, blogging, and pay per click advertising.
2. what will we cover?
• Content Strategy
• SEO
• Blogging
• Search marketing pay per click
3. Do you feel like this?
Every time I breathe lately I have eager people
wanting to SEO my website, social media campaigns,
etc...
I don't know this game or the parameters of what to
do to draw people in ...people doing internet
searches.
Google analytics? I'm hanging on, trying to fully
understand where I am now and where I need to be
on the web competition game.”
7. digital marketing
• digital marketing is the promotion of products
or brands via one or more forms of electronic
media.
• allows small, local businesses to compete
• Requires business marketing strategy
• planned: annually, 6 mos, quarterly
• use a planning template
11. content is king
• Anchors plan
• Can be basis for social
media
• Starts a conversation
• Positions
12. why strategy?
If you put effort into planning your
marketing and content strategy you
you’ll have a higher success rate and
also continue to execute based on a strategy,
versus reacting to what is wrong due to lack of
organization.
13. strategy
Before you jump into planning answer these
critical questions:
– What triggers your customer to purchase?
– What are you seasonal / sales goals?
– What do you want to communicate?
– Who are my customers; personas/segments
– What questions can you answer, problems can
you solve, or understanding can you add?
– What can you reasonably commit to?
14. content planning questions
• My audience is...
• I’m offering them...
• They will find it via...
• They will care because...
• They will interact by...
• Their next step will be...
• They will share it because...
• They might not share it because...
• The solution for this is...
From How to Create a Winning Content Promotion Plan by Stephanie Beadell on BuzzStream Blog
15. From How to Create a
Winning Content
Promotion Plan by
Stephanie Beadell on
BuzzStream Blog
16. customer path
need a new fridge
search net for deals
visits yr site
and calls
buys
need a new fridge
search net for deals
visits yr site
and calls
need a new fridge
search net for deals
buys
visits yr site
and calls
need a new fridge
search net for deals
17. sales funnel
show up in SERPs
visit website
sign up for newsletter
open / read
buy
or see your
PPC ad
or call for information
show up in SERPs
sign up for newsletter
visit website
show up in SERPs
sign up for newsletter
open / read
visit website
show up in SERPs
sign up for newsletter
buy
open / read
visit website
show up in SERPs
sign up for newsletter
or see your
PPC ad
buy
open / read
visit website
show up in SERPs
sign up for newsletter
18. Owned=Channel a Brand Controls
Earned=When Customers or
traditional media become
the channel
Paid=Brand pays for
Using a channel
Website Blog
Tumblr Pinterest
Flickr Twitter
Facebook Google+
Advertisements
Facebook Promoted Posts
Promoted Tweets
Google AdWords
Your marketing sweet spot
Facebook shares
Magazine articles
Newspaper articles
Re-Tweets
+ ups in Google+
owned earned paid
22. truth
“SEO has evolved to become the
result of an actual marketing
strategy versus marketing tactics”
Rae Hoffman
23. seo planning is step 1
• seo is not an item to be
left to the end
• plan first
• w/o planning, you’ll
never get where you
want to be
Photo credit: Oatsy40
24. Google’s goal = best answers
“We showthe results at the top that
answer the user’s queries directly
(after all we built Google for
users, not websites).”
Posted by Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google
27. fundamentals
• solid, strong brand
• great copy
• adds value
• well-designed site
• useful information
• fast
• mobile responsive
28. all ins
• Title
– page
– file media library
• Text
• Tags
– alt
– post
– H2, H3
• Page
• Subheads
• Descriptions
29. other considerations
• Relevant inbound links
• Cross site links as on-
page navigation
• No “click this link”
rather, “click for map to
our location”
31. why blog?
Companies that blog have
434% more indexed pages.
And companies with more
indexed pages get far more leads.
--Search Engine Strategies Conference, NYC 2013
33. reasons to blog?
• Improve Search Rank
• Build for Long-Tail Content
• Community and Market Education
• Communicate High Trust Content
• Build Lists, Conversions and Reach
• Build Brand Value and Equity
--Search Engine Watch
36. simple advice
Not sure where to start
with your blog content?
Follow one, simple rule:
Help other people
From Shareaholic Blog: 4 Ways to Increase Audience Engagement Kali Hawlk
37. Your content must:
• Provoke thoughtful
questions.
• Encourage interested
discussion.
• Provide intense
happiness.
• Offer solutions to
complicated problems.
From Shareaholic Blog: 4 Ways to Increase Audience Engagement Kali Hawlk
38. taxonomy
• Map it out
• Identify primary
• Supporting branches
• Categories
– One per post
• Tags as micro-
categories
– Not contained in post
titles
39. plan blog categories
Cupcakes
Chocolate Birthday DecoratingChocolate BirthdayBirthday
Parent
Category Child or
Secondary
Categories
Parent
Category Child or
Secondary
Categories
41. create editorial calendar
Topic Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat Sun
Cakes Birthday
Cupcakes
Chocolate
Cupcakes
Desserts How to
decorate
cupcakes
with real
flowers
Favorite
Milk
Chocolate
Cupcake
Recipes
Superhero
Birthday
Cupcakes
42. after posting...promotion
“The real magic lies in content promotion.
Without it, your content will struggle to earn a
social mention, let alone a quality backlink.”*
• Where will they see it?
• What will motivate them?
• Where will you/they share it?
*Robbie Richards in 16 Explosive Content Promotion Strategies
44. pay per click knowledge
• best for businesses with online sales
– direct sales
– when you can ask for specific action
• ads must be placed so they intersect your
customer at the right time in buying
cycle/search
• buyer personas can guide campaigns
• landing pages
45. pay per click must dos
• determine network, Google, Bing, Facebook
• set budget
• keyword research
• word ads
• refine ads, campaigns, keywords
• placement, mobile? Network? Search results?
• Google Adwords will help you get started