Over the last two years, consumers have experienced a constant change in their world of work and personal life.
Demanding simplicity in increasingly complex times, consumer behavior has changed, search engine algorithms have continued to evolve, and so have the strategies that surround and support SEO.
While SEO is critical, relying on search just to reach your market is not a winning strategy.
Instead, the importance of connected and dynamic digital first strategies – as adaptable as consumers aiming to get involved – is now crystal clear.
We understand that the consumer journey is no longer linear.
To engage with consumers effectively, marketers need to step back and rethink strategies, building dynamism at the core of their customer experience approach.
And while SEO alone is not enough – the challenges within the sector are many and varied.
But in short, it is fair to say that SEO is complex and constantly changing – knowledge of SEO provides a real-time picture of the changing voice of the consumer, which can be exploited to inform any number of digital strategies.
Starting with this knowledge, marketers can build plans that are fulsome, multifaceted, and complementary, connecting with consumers across multiple channels and touchpoints.
In this post, we’ll explore why the most effective marketing teams aren’t putting all their eggs in one basket – because knowing that focusing on SEO alone isn’t enough.
Content Marketing
High quality content remains essential for visibility. It is a critical component of the modern marketer’s integrated plan.
Really great content is of course demanding. It answers key questions throughout the consumer’s life cycle, and consumers look for it on any number of platforms.
From ebooks and podcasts to videos and social posts that feel good, content marketing has evolved from blogging only.
When marketers and communicators work closely with SEO, using knowledge from search terms and placing consumers at the very center of their content strategy, they have the best foundation for success.
Consumer journey mapping – and digital contact points throughout each stage – provides an opportunity to build a customer experience strategy supported by quality content that connects consumers on platforms, in channels. multiple points, and contact points.
The scope of content marketing is unlimited, as is the ability to customize, and that’s a recipe for winning.
Creating a holistic strategy that combines content marketing and SEO is the new table shares.
Digital Advertising And Pay Per Click (PPC)
Because SEO is constantly changing, and every business is different, investing time and effort in figuring out what works best for your business can be costly.
Remember, while separate channels with distinct SEO and PPC attributes share a common goal, attracting consumers to your website.
Approaching search holistically, ensuring that SEO and PPC complement each other, helps you navigate the changing environment, rotating as needed in real time.
By joining forces and sharing learning your team will have the opportunity to drive growth and improve budget efficiency in the process.
Building built-in dashboards that provide insight into both organic and paid search results supports a full overview of keyword trends.
Leveraging the right data can support the discovery of key insights, and provide the real potential to improve performance.
The example in this article looks at how PPC and SEO data can be combined to apply a cost-saving lens to reduce your marketing budget.
By combining organic performance metrics, such as impressions with PPC conversion data, opportunities to improve performance can be visually identified using charts and graphs.
Identifying keywords with high CPCs (costs per click) and low organic visibility, and then combining that data with knowledge can provide the foundation for a strategic pivot that will see you reduce budgets in areas which can sustain economic downturn while supporting performance with strong organic visibility. .
Relevance is key, and when we look back at the trends we can map based on SEO data, we can begin to think about the value that SEO data can bring to digital advertising through -targeting.
When we think of advertisements in the traditional media space – OOH (outside the home), print, radio, and television – we are talking about the achievement of certain demographics.
But the demographic groups are large and varied. The Gen Z audience, for example, ranges from age 5 to 25. And what may be relevant to a certain individual within a wide demographic will vary dramatically.
A study conducted by Google and Ipsos in 2020 found that video advertising based on consumer intent has a much greater impact than demographic-based advertising.
Providing consumers with pertinent ads, focused on their needs and wants, rather than just their demographics, leads to engagement, brand lift, and ultimately sales. .
Social Media
The numbers are clear: With over a billion active users a month on the top seven social networks, social media presents incredible opportunities for engaging consumers around the world.
There is no doubt that social media sites are very authoritative, as setting up brand profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter has the potential to ensure additional search results, which support your SEO goals.
Beyond SEO, whether your social media goals are to increase brand awareness, build engaged communities, or simply sell products and services, social media platforms provide a critical method of sharing. information and business promotion.
If you are rethinking your social strategy, consider these recommendations on where to focus your attention for 2022.
If you are just starting out plan for integration from the very beginning and consider strategies that support SEO performance.
Whatever your goals, continuous performance tracking is essential – testing, learning and the pivot of social media should be an ongoing process.
Creating a flexible social strategy is undoubtedly much simpler than planning for dynamism in other areas of marketing and advertising, as social media channels provide a myriad of targeting options, with options both free and paid, and the settings can be changed simply – so you don’t have to set and forget it.
Take advantage of the flexibility!
Brand Management
Every consumer interaction with your business, be it marketing, communications, virtual engagement or person-to-person, contributes to the overall perception of the brand.
In the digital space, managing your reputation is particularly critical.
If you do not manage your online reputation, your SEO efforts will be wasted. Why? In short, consumers trust user-generated content.
Online reviews enable you to build a good reputation, go back to SEO, this is incredibly important for local results.
Let’s think about the search process.
When a consumer searches for your brand, product or service, your website may be one or two of the results shown.
Other search results may include social and review sites that show what others are saying about you, whether negative or positive.
Proactive management of your online reputation, through review sites and social platforms specifically, allows you to control the narrative.
Mistakes happen; how a business responds to consumer feedback has the potential to change consumer perception.
By entering into a conversation, you have the opportunity to correct any misinformation, and to accept responsibility where issues arise.
If you are not monitoring search results with the reputation of your brand in mind, you are simply missing out on an opportunity.
Email Marketing
Great email marketing provides an opportunity for brands to engage consumers in their space in their own time, foster relationships with prospective, current, and past customers, in a highly controlled environment.
Segmentation options are essentially endless, from interests to demographic detail or trigger-based user experience. You are limited by the creativity of your team and the data you have collected.
You can choose to deploy emails based on current trend topics and again, it is something that is easy to keep your wrist on leveraging SEO data as your customer’s voice. .
You may also want to send emails based on the customer’s life cycle.
Both options provide a highly customizable and personalized experience.
Emails can be activated based on any number of commitments to your site (come to mind help emails “you left something in your cart!”), Or you can choose to set and forget a time-based strategy to see evergreen key content from your own. site pushed to new subscribers.
Whatever your strategy, email marketing provides a simple and cost-effective opportunity to drive traffic to your site.
In addition, as is the case with social media platforms, the ability to test and learn presents the opportunity to maximize spending based on proven results.
And that’s just the kind of dynamic strategy we love.
To take your email marketing to the next level (and boost your SEO efforts in the process), check out these top tips.
Conclusion
Building customer-centric strategies means meeting consumers on their own terms.
By starting with the voice of the customer, and leveraging knowledge about SEO in real time, marketers can re-imagine the possible, connect with consumers across all channels – digital and otherwise.
An integrated digital marketing strategy has the potential to increase brand awareness through a strong digital presence.
It can improve conversion rates and drive real value by linking branded content and messages across platforms, leading to higher and faster return on investment.
The current day consumer is connected. Shouldn’t the customer experience and marketing strategies of your businesses also be?
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