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Why You Need A Digital Marketing Audit and How To Perform One

Mon, 05 Apr 2021 16:29:37 GMT

The key to making data-driven decisions.

A digital marketing audit is an inspection of all the practices, strategies, and outcomes of the actions your business has taken to establish and improve your online presence.

Digital Marketing Audits can vary based on the company performing the audit, the price of the audit, and the depth of the audit.

Free Digital Marketing Audit - Spring Cleaning Special

Seen is offering a quick and comprehensive assessment designed specifically to help organizations like yours find your marketing edge. The Digital Marketing Audit: Spring Cleaning Special is a free audit that requires no commitment. Our goal with this process is to help you uncover high-level strengths and weaknesses in your marketing approach and, in the process, demonstrate our expertise in the field. While we hope you will consider working with us afterward, it’s not a requirement.

Why Do You Need A Digital Marketing Audit?

A Digital Marketing Audit will help make your company aware of the marketing efforts you are currently putting in and their subsequent results. By performing regular Digital Marketing audits, you will be able to set achievable and realistic KPIs and have a good understanding of your performance metrics on each digital channel. With a clear understanding of your digital marketing strategies and by identifying current trends you will be able to make a data-driven decision on what you do next.

Digital Marketing audits will examine various digital marketing channels your organization is currently using and result in; recommendations, results based on your outlined goals, and guidance for setting clear and attainable KPIs. Some channels you’ll want to look at and questions you’ll want to ask are outlined below.

Website

In our previous Blog Post " 5 Ways to Optimize Your dealership's Website " we went over the importance of reviewing your website and making sure the information, images, links, etc., are up to date.

Some questions you'll want to consider during a Digital Marketing Website Audit are:

Are the internal and external links working properly?
Are all of the images up to date and loading properly?
Are there any spam comments in your blog posts that need to be addressed?
Could the metadata use rewriting?

Social Media

When auditing your social media, it is important to have a clearly defined set of achievable goals outlined to help measure your progress. You want your goals to have a clear timeline, and quantifiable objectives you can track. The metrics you choose to track may vary based on your industry.

Some important things to look at when conducting a social media audit are:

Has the traffic from your social media pages to your website risen? If yes, by how much? And, if no, you may need to rethink your strategy.
What is your monthly growth rate?
Are you generating more repeat visitors or new visitors? Ideally you should have a mix.
How is your engagement on social media?
Has your brand awareness increased?
How many leads have you generated through social media?
Impressions: total content views.

Conducting a social media audit will help you realign your goals based on the progress you've made so far.

Paid Search Advertising

A SEM and Paid Media audit should be done if your company advertises on Google Ads or Bing Ads. When doing a paid search audit there are 5 key aspects you will need to investigate:

Target keywords: The SEM audit should list all target keywords, impressions, clicks and conversions. You should look to include negative keywords as well.
Ad copy: Check that you are using active language in your ad copy.
Cost and bid: Analyze your current bid strategy. If you are using manual bidding, check bids per keyword and any ad schedule settings you currently have.
Search terms: Look at the recent user search terms and check what percentage may be irrelevant.
Audiences: Check to make sure your campaigns are effectively using remarketing lists for search ads.

Social Media Advertising

When looking at paid social metrics, it can be easy to get lost in a sea of data and numbers. Try to focus primarily on the "Cost Per" metrics and how they're tracking overtime. Tracking Cost Per metrics will give you a good indication of the spend efficiency for your social ads. Some metrics you'll want to look at include:

Cost Per Thousand (CPM)
Cost Per Video View (CPV)
Cost Per Click (CPC)
Cost Per Conversion (CPA)

Display Advertising

Display ads are the banner ads you see online. Google Display Networks (GDN) is one of the most prominent platforms for display ads, with Facebook's Audience Network following behind.

Display ads are a key digital ad channel, especially when it comes to remarketing. To measure the effectiveness of display ads you can either look at the post click conversion (ie. When the user clicks on the ad what happened after they landed on the website?) or post view conversion (ie. After they saw the ad did the user visit the website and convert on their own accord?).

You've done your Digital Marketing audit, now what?

Now that you've completed your Digital Marketing audit, the next step is to use those results and recommendations to create or enhance your Digital Marketing Strategy. As you go through the phases of your newly developed strategy it will be important to continuously measure key metrics and track your performance against KPIs. This will help to ensure you are staying on track with your plan or help you learn where your plan may need adjusting.

For a limited time you can take advantage of Seen’s Spring Cleaning Special and get a free Digital Marketing Audit!

5 Ways To Optimize Your Dealership's Website

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 14:51:51 GMT

Cars, Boats, RV's, and More.

5 Ways to Optimize Your Dealership’s Website

It has become increasingly difficult to get your business to rank high on Google, especially if you're part of a competitive and complex dealership industry. When we say dealerships, we don't just mean car dealerships, we're talking about a dealership selling any major modes of transportation including Powersports dealerships, Boat dealerships, RV dealerships, and more.

These are industries that can have long sales cycles and where buyers are often doing a lot of comparative shopping. This is why it's important to make sure prospective customers can find your site, and that your site is functioning well when they get there.

In these industries a lot of the research is done online before people even step into the dealership showroom - increasingly so with the ongoing restrictions of COVID-19 in some areas. Many people don't even know what vehicle, boat, or RV they want before they begin their purchase journey. According to Autotrader car buyers spend 59% of their time online researching, this means that you have to be able to educate your buyer before they ever step foot into your dealership.

As if standing out in a competitive industry wasn't enough, most dealerships are selling new products from different manufacturers, used products from even more manufacturers, and offer a service department as well. As a dealership you're potentially running three businesses in one, which means your digital strategy needs to be multi-faceted and informative.

So now that we've told you what you probably already know - the difficulties of competing for attention as a dealer - what are some of the search optimization strategies you should be using as a dealership?

Google My Business

Google My Business can have a direct correlation to local SEO - especially when it comes to showing up in Google Local 3-Pack.

You'll want to make sure you keep your information up to date and you're giving users information that will make it easy to find you.

Online directories (if you're a car dealership specifically car directories)

If you're looking for ways to improve your dealership's rankings and backlink profile, online automotive directories are a great place to start. You'll want to submit your dealership's site to an online automotive directory or to an online directory that has the right category for you and can help to build your backlink profile.

Most of these online directories show up on the first page of Google search results, meaning they can be very valuable for your dealership.

Online Reviews

Online reviews are extremely important for dealerships. When making large purchases like a car, an RV, or a boat, people want to trust the person or company they are buying from. Before meeting you face-to-face, reviews are how people get to know your company. Make it easy for your customers to leave detailed reviews by using dedicated review sites.

Select long-tail keywords

A key part of SEO is making sure you're using the right keywords. You'll want to select the keywords that have a high search frequency but also have mid to low competitiveness so you're not competing with the big brands. Long-tailed keywords such as "2018 Toyota Tacoma TRD features" instead of short-tailed and generic keyword phrases like "Toyota truck" or "2021 Sea-Doo GTX 300" instead of "Jet Ski".

Your keywords should also have direct relevance to your website's content and you should be using keyword phrases that your potential customers are actually using to find you.

Optimize Images

According to Google, searches for "pictures of [insert dealership item]" is up 37% year over year. When uploading photos of your products, whether it be cars, RVs, jet skis. or boats, you should include the words "pictures of" and the name, brand, make and model where appropriate.

Web optimization was just one of the strategies we use to help our customers succeed! Check out our Dealership Case Study for more information on how we helped our Powersports customers grow their audiences and increase online leads and sales!

5 Reasons Why Remarketing is Important for Your Dealership

Mon, 22 Mar 2021 16:22:26 GMT

Show your customers what they want to see.

What is Remarketing?

Remarketing allows you to reach out to customers who have previously visited your site or landing page, engaged with your social media or content, or left something in their cart. To set up a remarketing strategy, a tracking pixel is placed into your website's code that builds a database of shopper interactions with your site. The pixel is able to track what pages they're visiting, how long they browsed for and other important information. When a customer engages with your brand they are tagged with a special cookie that allows you to advertise specifically to them online. This means you get another chance at converting them to a sale!

Remarketing is especially important for Dealerships, where the sales cycle is long and there is a lot of comparison shopping happening. A remarketing strategy helps keep you from losing potential new leads in the marketing stage of things by staying top of mind and showing customers intriguing remarketing ads.

Remarketing was just one of the strategies we use to help our customers succeed! Check out our Dealership Marketing Blueprint for more information on how we helped our Powersports customers grow their audiences and increase online leads and sales!

1, Increased Engagement with Target Audience

On average only 2% of site visitors convert on the first visit to an online store. In some industry's such as the automotive or technology industry we can expect this is the case because of a longer sales cycle. With retargeting the goal is to bring back the other 98% and continue to keep prospective customers engaged with your brand.

2. Increase Brand Awareness

By continuing to engage with and show your customer ads relevant to what they have previously searched you will remain at the front of their decision making process. If they choose to have a quick look at other dealerships after visiting your brand they will see your ads while they're searching. The goal is to stay top of mind so that when the time comes around and the customer is ready to buy their car, they buy from you.

3. Convert Visitors to Known Leads

Remarketing should show your customer the next relevant step in the sales funnel. For example, if someone wants a F-150 SRP or vehicle detail page (VDP), they might later see an ad about why your dealership is the best place to buy pickups. This way you get to know what your customer is looking for and can show them relevant information to turn them into a real lead.

4. Higher conversion rates and shorter sales cycles

As you continue to make it more efficient for shoppers to make a decision by showing them new and relevant cars you can speed up the sales cycle by making sure they are focused on cars available on your lot rather than shopping around and prolonging the process.

5. Higher ROI For Your Campaigns

It almost goes without saying that by showing relevant content to customers who already have an interest and increasing conversions you're going to see a higher ROI for your marketing campaign.

For more information on how our remarketing strategy helped Dealerships grow you can read our Dealership Marketing Blueprint .

Mastering Digital Marketing in 2021

Mon, 14 Dec 2020 20:32:05 GMT

Mastering Digital Marketing in 2021

It can be difficult to predict how the landscape of digital marketing will be effected in 2021. If we try to avoid generalizations around new tech such as "AI in marketing is going to be a thing" (which we already see in some level) we're just left with changes we have already seen in 2020 and how they will continue or change in 2021.

It is impossible to predict how the current pandemic will affect the future. For some, it is definitely a game changer forcing you to reconsider how you interact with customers, for other larger multimedia companies, most things will go back to normal in the long run.

But the special thing about 2021 is, it's not the long run, it's a medium run at best and will be affected by the pandemic somehow.

To stay ahead in 2021 let's take a look at some trends we saw in 2020 and expect to see continuing through 2021.

Digital Marketing Trends in 2021

1. Shoppable Posts

One of the biggest trends in commerce to come out in the last few years is reducing the number of obstacles between a customer and a product . We've seen developments in product delivery, payment methods, and advertising that have all streamlined the purchasing process and made a merchant's life easier.

In other words, the less you have to do between seeing something and getting that something the better for both the merchant and customer. Shoppable posts, introduced by Instagram and followed by YouTube, allow users to add products they see in social media directly to checkout.

See the item you like, click on it, buy it with an attached payment method, and boom, await your order.

During Covid online shopping has become a necessity for store owners, potentially being the difference between surviving and bankruptcy.

In The End: People moved their shopping online due to ease of access and convenient delivery timelines, the pandemic only increased the rate of online shopping. This suggests that social commerce will become even more important in 2021.

2. Subscriptions over everything

How many services are you currently subscribed to? Spotify? Apple Music? Monthly boxes of new toys for your puppy that chews through everything? Boxes of wine delivered on a monthly basis? Chances are you've embraced the subscription life and brought some friends and family on board as well.

Services are advertised differently than products. Instead of the instant gratifications you want to emphasize the comfort, choice, and security that comes with a subscription based services. Subscription based services also allow you to focus on long-term relationships with your customers where the reward for your excellent services is a loyal, returning customer base.

With a Subscription model you want to make sure that you are grabbing new customers but keeping the old OG ones as well. This is a complete rework of a standard customer funnel where you focus on customer retention and nurturing in parallel with attracting new customers.

In The End: With long-term paying customers a company's finances are more predictable and the customers are tied closely to the company. While finding new customers is important those existing customers who you've nurtured into loyal monthly subscribers will keep you steady through the ups and downs of 2021.

3. New Entertainment

Even with lockdowns, and social distancing, people still want and need to be entertained, the main change we've seen in 2020 is how and where this entertainment will come from. Even with the vaccine light at the end of this dark Covid tunnel it will take time for things to go back to normal, keep this in mind and prepare your entertainment for new times.

The obstacles we've seen in traditional entertainment include travel restrictions, closed cinemas, recession, lockdowns, and social distancing rules. These obstacles have been met with new forms of entertainment including local traveling (I personally explored more of Ontario than ever before), cinemas showing more local or older productions instead of Hollywood blockbusters that keep getting pushed back, live music shows streamed online, and many other local collaborations.

In The End: Every offline event can have an online component to maximize your reach and increase user engagement in 2021.

4. Relationships Matter

In this past year did you buy something online during the lockdown just because you wanted to help a business you know? Did you order food just to support your favourite restaurant even though you had food at home? (Guilty!)

Big brands would kill for this kind of loyalty.

As these brands invest in creating more honest relationships with customers the "Shop Local" movement has put pressure on customers to find alternatives to the big Brand names.

The big brands are now working hard to create the same sense of trust and loyalty small and medium local businesses already have from their customers and community. As an SMB this is your time to give your customers what they want, an easy way to search and purchase your products and services online.

In The End: Relationships take time and effort, but with the proper messaging focused on emotion and not only raw data your customers will continue to stay loyal through anything 2021 throws at us.

With such an unpredictable year soon to be behind us it can be almost impossible to predict how the digital marketing landscape will change in 2021. All we can do is learn from the trends we've already seen develop in 2020 and embrace these for the new year.

Have you seen most of the trends mentioned become prominent in 2020? How have they affected your business and customer relationships?

Travel and hospitality: How to use social media as the world reopens

Tue, 14 Jul 2020 09:16:00 GMT

14 minute read / author: Liane Abrams

The UK is slowly but surely opening up again, with pubs, bars and restaurants the latest to be allowed to reopen their doors and travel destinations not far behind. But, following a three month hiatus for most operations and a hefty list of new safety requirements to adhere to, can the hospitality industry expect to bounce-back to what it was any time soon?

Big brands in the hospitality sector have been collapsing left, right and centre during this pandemic, and the situation for small businesses has sadly been even worse. Some sources claim nearly one million small businesses are “on the brink of collapse” as a result of the pandemic, and the hardest hit are those in the hospitality and travel industries.

However, the news is not entirely bad. The pandemic has created opportunities for small businesses to stand out from the crowds, support their communities and build a loyal and lasting audience - an audience that will do what they can to keep their favourite brands alive.

Throughout the pandemic, a lot of brands have taken to social media and got creative with the ways they stay in touch with their community. From restaurants hosting virtual events and wine tastings to drinks brands hosting cocktail classes.

There are a few that really stood out to us which we’ve rounded up below for you, as well as some creative thinking that will prove valuable for anyone building a brand now and in the future.

Most importantly, if you’re in the hospitality industry, what can you do on social media right now? We’ve put together some quick tips to help you re-engage your audience and get customers through the doors.

The travel & hospitality industries

Quite understandably, the travel and hospitality industries have suffered over the last few months. The global pandemic effectively eradicated international travel for weeks, leaving a huge dent in tourism revenue as well as threatening the livelihoods of the thousands of travel employees. Domestically, pubs, bars and restaurants were forced to close, and only those who could manage takeaway options were able to continue trading, albeit on a severely restricted basis.

We spoke to two people who have been feeling the effects of the pandemic on their industry first-hand.

Travel: Matt Ovenden, CEO & Founder at ‘Borrow a Boat’

Borrow A Boat is a tech-based startup connecting travellers with boat owners - without the faff. An AirBnB for boats, Borrow A Boat offers boat rentals all over the world, for novices and serial-sailors alike.

Speaking to us about the impact of the pandemic, Matt says, “We’ve been heavily impacted. All charters were banned worldwide for a time, as well as travel, and all leads and bookings ground to a halt for several months. Existing bookings had to be postponed, rescheduled or cancelled and refunded”. However, Matt and the Borrow A Boat team used the down-time (once the mania of reschedules and cancellations had died down) to focus on tech improvements, improve efficiency across the company, and engage in M&A talks.

Coming out of lockdown now, Matt is seeing a return to some sort of normality: “Borders are back open and charters can resume. We’re seeing a surge of interest for charters this month (July) and next (August) in particular, as the pent-up demand sees people desperate to get away and do something. We’re also seeing a preference for UK charters over Mediterranean, which is a shift in our customers’ behaviour.”

Concluding on a positive note, Matt says, “While I’m not sure I could honestly say it’s done the industry much good at all, we’ve used the time to focus on improvements, to emerge as a stronger entity to what might be a depleted field of competitors”.

Hospitality: Simon Allison, Head of Marketing at ‘Inception Group’

Inception Group owns and operates a number of high-end bars, restaurants and clubs across London. Highly experiential in nature and focussed on visitor experience above all else, Inception Group, like everyone in the hospitality industry, saw revenues plummet to zero as a result of March’s nationwide lockdown. In Simon’s words, “our venues are centred around experiences you can’t get at home, so without the doors open, it hit us hard.”

Unlike many other hospitality brands, Simon and the Inception Group team made the decision early on to keep social media active - and, if anything, more engaging than before. They recognised the power of captive audiences stuck at home and tapped into that, with the goal of being “at the forefront of their thoughts when booking lines, and then venues, reopened”.

Looking to the future, Simon is positive: “I think one of the pleasing takeaways from lockdown is that people or businesses that would have been seen as rivals have become friends and supporters of one another. As an industry, we realise that we are stronger as a collective and have to work together for the better good. Going forward, there will be no and low budgets, so creativity will be key.”

Using social media to re-engage your audience

The pandemic has had an impact on three things:

Combined, these three things make social media an incredibly powerful tool to get your business back on its feet again, even if you’ve been quiet for the last few months.

If you already have an engaged social media audience…

Now is your chance to think strategically and creatively to get the most out of your audience. The most important thing here is to start showing up again on your social channels - if you’ve been a little quiet online over the past few months, it’s especially important to acknowledge your absence and be honest with your audience. Everyone has been struggling, and what we, as consumers, want is to feel like other people have been going through similar things.

The more open and honest you are about how your business has struggled, and how you are planning to get back on your feet, the more of an emotional connection you’ll be able to make with your audience. And, ultimately, people make buying decisions with their emotions, not logic .

If you’ve been keeping your audience up-to-date throughout the pandemic, you already know the importance of showing up. Now, it’s time to start educating your audience about the changes you’ve made to keep everyone safe and encourage them to convert their likes into bookings. A lot of people are still concerned about how safe it is to be out and about in the big wide world, so do everything you can to demonstrate the measures you’ve put in place.

If you get low engagement on your social media channels…

There’s unfortunately no magic bullet to instantly re-engage your audience if your accounts have been particularly dormant recently. Every social media algorithm, regardless of platform, wants you to be consistent, and if you’ve disappeared for the last few months you won’t see an immediate return to your pre-disappearance engagement levels. If those engagement levels were never very high, you’ve got an even steeper hill to climb.

However, it’s far from impossible. As we mentioned earlier, the amount of time each of us is spending on social media at the moment is high - which, for you as a business, means that there are more potential eyeballs your content could attract. The key here is to make the most of the fact that the playing field has levelled out by understanding what it is your customers are looking for.

The pandemic has hit everyone in the hospitality and travel industries equally. While it’s certainly true that bigger businesses have more of a cushion to fall back on financially, everyone’s revenue has plummeted, meaning that everyone has faced the choice of pivoting to a new way of business, or collapsing. For your social media activity, this is a positive thing. Big businesses with big advertising budgets are no longer able to spend thousands on highly-polished photo shoots or long, convoluted video adverts: everything is being done from home, on a budget. And the most successful content over the last few months has had one thing in common: creativity, with minimal resources.

So, take a look at what your competitors are doing and what’s working for them - but don’t restrict yourself to the tried-and-tested. Now is the perfect time to experiment with your content, and do something that no-one else in your industry is doing. Consistently be creative with your content, and your audience will become more engaged.

Creative use of social media

There are a few small businesses that have stood out over the past few months for their honesty, their authenticity and their ability to adapt. While some businesses have been able to offer alternative versions of their offerings (e.g. click-and-collect or delivery options), others have not - but that doesn’t mean they’ve kept their audience in the dark.

Mr Fogg’s @mrfoggsgb

Mr Fogg’s Collection is a number of bars and venues across London, all designed to transport you “back to the Victorian era”. Mr Fogg’s venues are centred around experiences you can’t get at home, so without the doors open, it hit the business hard. While they were forced to close like everyone else, Simon Allison , Head of Marketing at Inception Group (the parent company of Mr Fogg’s), recognised the opportunity in the crisis:

“ We recreated experiences and events we would usually host in venues but online, such as swing dance lessons, weekly explorer talks including from the likes of Levison Wood and Kenton Cool, pizza making classes and singalongs. We had many more ideas of how we could have kept our brands alive and diversified during the lockdown but with the vast majority of the company being furloughed we didn’t have the resource to do everything we would have liked to. ”

Mr Fogg’s Instagram page is benefitting from this creative approach, and from the extra time we’re all spending online. While the path ahead is far from certain and there are many hurdles still to overcome, Mr Fogg’s reopened “near enough at our new capacity” and Simon notes that “one of the pleasing takeaways from lockdown is that people or businesses that would have been seen as rivals have become friends and supporters of one another.”

Simon’s advice for moving forward goes for many brands, not just those in hospitality and to us makes perfect sense. He said, “ I think for now we can’t look too far ahead, we need to keep learning at every moment and evolve accordingly”.

The Wine Rooms @thewineroomstw

The Wine Rooms is, unsurprisingly, a wine bar in the heart of Kent. When they were forced to close their doors to in-person service, their online shop became their saving grace. However, rather than becoming overly-sales-y and pushing their online store in every single social media post, The Wine Rooms pivoted to keep their audience engaged by releasing home-shot IGTV videos of their founder, Dan Hatton , talking about his ‘Pick of the Wines’.

The videos are entertaining, lighthearted, but also do the trick of telling their audience that they can buy wine online. It was a great move to keep their audience engaged and make them stand out from the faceless bigger competition!

Now that The Wine Rooms is back open, their customers are returning and their social media engagement is rocketing.

Fuggles Beer Cafe @fugglesbeercafe

Unlike The Wine Rooms, Fuggles Beer Cafe (who have two branches in Kent that were almost always over capacity!) had never needed to think about online sales before the pandemic.

When forced to close in mid-March, they managed to turn around their business model completely within an impressive 11 days - going from a basic landing page website to a full ecommerce operation. All product photography was shot in-house and all deliveries were made locally by Fuggles’ founder. Within 3 days, they had to temporarily pause online orders as demand was 3 times what they expected and more than they could handle!

Since then, the store has gone from strength to strength and has managed to keep the business afloat while so many others fail. And now, with permission to reopen, Fuggles have explained honestly and openly to their audience that they aren’t quite ready to do so yet. There’s no pretense, no excuses - just honest communication. And that’s what keeps their audience engaged.

Using digital tools to ease the transition

Opening back up to customers is an exciting time - but it’s also more than a little nerve-wracking. With hundreds of rules and recommendations floating around, the way you operate is going to look a lot different than you’re used to. And all those rules can be intimidating for your customers, too.

One of the best ways to encourage your customers to feel comfortable is to explain things clearly on social media so they can know what to expect. Do a walkthrough of your new procedures and post on your social channels, so people know clearly what to expect when they arrive. Explain things honestly and openly and reassure people that they’re in safe hands. Check out this example for an easy way of explaining the new safety measures in a local restaurant .

Aside from social media, there are plenty of other digital tools that will make the transition into reopening simple and easy - for you and for your customers. One of the biggest changes for many restaurants, pubs and bars is the necessity to pre-book before arrival. And one of the biggest challenges facing small businesses who haven’t been using online systems before is managing that hurdle, without needing an entire call centre team taking bookings over the phone.

The best thing to do is keep it simple, here are a few options:

Online reservation systems:

Without thousands of pounds to invest in a completely custom-built online reservation system, there are a number of ways you can implement digital bookings onto your existing website.

If you’re using Squarespace…

Squarespace has an in-built Scheduling system , designed to allow reservations, appointment bookings and classes to be made through your website. At a very basic level, this will allow you to create a schedule of when tables are available, and let your customers book a specific time through the system.

For restaurant reservations, it’s possible to create different ‘appointments’ with different ‘staff members’ in the Squarespace Scheduling system - where appointments can be blocks of time and staff members can be particular tables or seating areas in your restaurant. You can connect your Scheduling system to whichever calendar suits you best, so that your staff can easily see all bookings.

Alternatively, Squarespace offers integration with a number of third-party apps via embedded code, or you can use OpenTable to connect directly with Squarespace.

If you’re using Wordpress…

Wordpress offers much more flexibility and functionality than Squarespace , but often does require a little technical knowledge to make things run smoothly. You’ll find hundreds of restaurant reservation plugins available through the Wordpress plugin marketplace, but be careful not to choose one that a) is incompatible with your version of Wordpress or your Wordpress theme, or b) requires costly monthly subscriptions to run!

An example is FiveStar Restaurant Reservations , which does require a one-off license fee payment, but after that is free to use. Much like the Squarespace Scheduling system, this plugin allows customers to book tables at times you’ve pre-set in your availability calendar, and will link out to Mailchimp for automated reminder emails and to your calendar so your staff are able to see all bookings.

There are hundreds of options out there, so take a look at this article for a nudge in the right direction for which is best for you.

If you’re using a custom-built website…

Chances are, if you’re using a custom built website it has been built on Wordpress. If so, the options above are valid - choose a plugin that suits your needs, and add it to your Wordpress site.

If your site has been built on something else entirely, such as Python, you may be limited as to what you can achieve without an experienced web developer. However, if you don’t have the funds to hire a developer to build a custom reservation platform, you could use a simple system like Calendly as a stop-gap option.

Calendly allows you to generate a link for customers to use to book an appointment with you - which, if your restaurant is fairly small and has limited capacity, could be an effective way of taking reservations without needing a developer to implement. Ultimately, it’s finding something that works for you - and if a booking system is the only thing stopping you from opening back up, a simple solution like Calendly could be an ideal interim workaround.

Above all… do things your way

If there’s one thing we’ve learnt from this pandemic, it is the importance of carving your own path and doing things your way. Yes, it’s important to understand your industry’s landscape and know what your competitors are doing, but it’s even more important to be doing things that feel like you .

The pandemic has forced so many of us to slow down and reevaluate things, and it turns out that most of us are looking for that nugget of honesty and authenticity that so many of the bigger companies out there are failing to give us. Now is your opportunity, as a small business, to really reclaim your audience’s attention, through consistency, transparency and making these new, uncertain processes simple for your customers.

It has always been important to share behind-the-scenes of your business on social media, but now more than ever we all want to know the realities you’re facing, not your highlight reel. Keep things natural, and make them you , not just a copy of your competition.

We build brands that matter. If you want your small business to stand out online, we can help. Get in touch about social media , email marketing , digital marketing or design .

Moving your retail business online: COVID-19 and the rise of small business

Fri, 12 Jun 2020 15:04:00 GMT

( 6 -7 minute read)

author: Liane

For the retail industry, any economic downturn has its casualties. But COVID-19 has wreaked a special sort of havoc on face-to-face retail, effectively grinding it to a complete halt.

With the exponential rise in eCommerce sales, a boom in social media usage and hundreds of big brands collapsing under the strain, are we entering the era of the small business?

The impact of COVID-19 on the retail industry

As with any sudden cultural or economic shift, there have been winners and losers in the last few months. It often feels as though not a day goes by without hearing of another high street store closure: Monsoon, Debenhams, Cath Kidston, and Laura Ashley have all announced either full or partial closures since Coronavirus hit.

Even before COVID-19 struck, high streets across the country were looking sparse, with high rent costs and an increase in online shopping forcing many long-standing retailers out of the running. Now, with retail prices falling by a huge 2.4% in May (the largest monthly drop since 2006), even the retail giants are facing financial difficulties. Clothing and furniture retailers are facing the biggest struggles, with consumers prioritising spending on food and essential items.

And, with only 6% of people saying they’ll make an effort to shop more in-person after COVID-19, we’re likely to see long and lasting impacts on the high street.

The rise of eCommerce and DTC brands

Ecommerce isn’t new. For years now, we’ve seen hundreds and thousands of retailers making the most of online sales - and plenty of new retailers who are online-only. Online shopping has become the default for many of us as it often aids convenience and gives us time for other, more enjoyable things in life. With COVID-19 closing down high streets and restricting our shopping abilities, 48% of us have done more online shopping since lockdown.

With just 9% of respondents saying they’ll return to the high streets ‘immediately’ once shops reopen, eCommerce stands to benefit hugely from the pandemic. Online shopping is the natural solution to the restrictions placed on us by COVID-19: it’s the safe, easy and often cheaper option than in-person shopping, especially given the rise of Direct To Customer (DTC) brands.

The DTC model benefits consumers as it allows us to buy directly from the brand themselves at a better cost — there are no middleman fees. The model also works well for brands as it doesn’t rely on margin-squashing deals with bigger outlets. It also offers them the opportunity to build personal, long-lasting relationships directly with their customers.

The beauty industry was one of the first to see movement towards the DTC model with brands such as Beauty Pie , Glossier and Versed quickly making their mark on the industry. Others taking the world by storm include Warby Parker , Birchbox and Dollar Shave Club .

However, it’s worth nothing that the Instagram-friendly visuals, san serif fonts and quirky messages can only get a brand so far. Most industries are now full of tough competition and growing a strong, long-lasting brand takes a lot more effort. If you want to read more about what the future may hold for DTC you can do so here: Reinventing the Direct-to-Consumer business model.

With online experiences getting better by the day and more previously-in-person businesses pivoting to online platforms, we certainly expect to see eCommerce continue its growth trajectory in the coming months.

Big brands vs small businesses

Online shopping is growing, and there’s no escaping that fact. So how can small businesses compete with the big players?

It might seem futile to even try, but does that mean we shouldn’t?

Amazon dominates eCommerce in almost every retail sector. Their Q1 global sales increased by 26% this year to a whopping $75.5 billion, transactions total an average of $4,722 every single second , and only 4% of 26-35 year olds don’t shop with the retail giant. That is a lot of consumer spending.

If trying to directly compete with Amazon is your goal - good luck. But there’s plenty of space out there in the online world for your small business to make its mark, without needing (or even wanting) to reach the dizzying heights of Amazon.

For small businesses on our high streets, COVID-19 has been tough. Forced to close with very little financial security, and very little ability (or resources) to pivot to online sales, has been devastating for many. But, as is the theme here: there have been plenty of winners, too.

Small businesses have a unique ability to serve their customers and their communities with a touch of personality and individuality that Amazon can never hope to attain. And, during this period of slowing down, taking stock and reflecting on what really matters, many of us are realising that the experience of shopping small is worth an extra few pounds. We’ve been advocating for small businesses for as long as we can remember, but we’re really seeing a shift in consumer attitudes and a buoying sense of community around our local businesses as well as those we work with.

With the shift towards eCommerce, the financial barriers to entry are lower than ever before. With no rent costs, business rates, or other physical overheads, small businesses pivoting to eCommerce are noticing higher profit margins and lower expenditure than ever before - while big brands on the high street are stuck in multi-year leasing agreements with little revenue being generated.

While small businesses may not be able to compete financially with the big brands instantly, there’s a lot they can do to be successful, build communities and serve loyal customers time and time again.

Social media for small business

While we’ve been spending more time at home, our social media use has skyrocketed. Worldwide, 44% of people say they have increased the amount of time they spend on social media - and, given the average daily use of social before COVID-19 was 144 minutes , this means there are thousands of potential customers scrolling social media all day, every day.

Social media is a must-have for businesses, but it’s often difficult to gain traction and persuade decision-makers that it’s worth doing , especially with organic reach plummeting and ad costs increasing. How can small businesses compete with brands who spend thousands of pounds on photography, videography and creative to produce polished content every single day?

A huge positive we’ve seen coming out of the last few months is a levelling of the playing field on social media - and some incredibly creative responses to the pandemic . Big brands, while they may have a content-reserve from previous shoots or campaigns, have been unable to produce new content to the standard they’re used to. Studios have been closed and social distancing measures have crippled campaign plans. Big brands are having to think creatively with the resources they have - which is what small businesses have been doing since the dawn of time.

For the first time, content’s effectiveness isn’t determined by the amount of investment that’s gone on behind the scenes. It’s determined by creativity, consistency and showing up for your community, even if you can’t serve them in the way they’re used to. Bonus tip: share behind the scenes content to build a loyal audience.

Plus, with hundreds of businesses choosing to turn off ad spend completely, or dramatically reduce it, the average cost per click for social advertising has fallen by 30.8% to just $0.09 . Small businesses using social advertising effectively are realising the power it has, especially if your target demographic is young people: 38% of 26-35 year olds have bought a product after seeing an ad on Facebook, and 35% after seeing an ad on Instagram. Social advertising has a unique ability to target, retarget and convert audiences into paying customers.

The future of the high street

Only time will tell what our high streets look like in the future, especially in the run-up to Christmas where some retailers see a huge proportion of their annual revenue generated in a matter of weeks.

In the short-term, we’re expecting to see a steady growth in eCommerce sales, despite retail stores being given the green light to reopen from 15th June. People are realising the power of online shopping and are unlikely to return entirely to their normal shopping habits - especially if they’ve discovered local or small businesses providing a personalised shopping experience. The benefits of eCommerce, for many, will outweigh the novelty of reopened high street stores.

Is it too late?

Never.

For small businesses in particular, while COVID-19 has made things tough over the last few months and it’s been make or break for many, the playing field has levelled out and the opportunity to compete effectively with big brands, particularly via social media, has never been greater.

As I touched on before, this is a trend that’s not going anywhere soon and for those still deliberating whether to move their retail brand online, now is the time.

If you’ve been struggling to keep up with social media during COVID-19 or need to make a splash with the re-launch of your retail business, we’re here to help. See what we can do for your social media, or get in touch with our social media experts.

How to Avoid Scams During COVID

Fri, 22 May 2020 14:51:00 GMT

Due to the current COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, it's prime time for scams and frauds. Frauds are designed to make you not think straight. So, if we're already stressed and overwhelmed due to the impact of COVID, this crisis presents the perfect opportunity for scammers and fraudsters to target their victims.

Latest Stats on COVID-related Frauds

According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), between March 6 and May 1, 2020, 766 Canadians reported COVID-19 frauds. They also reported 188 Canadian victims and $1.2 million lost to COVID-19 frauds. The CAFC urges everyone to be vigilant, as fraudsters are looking to exploit the crisis we are currently experiencing. The following are some COVID-related scams you can keep up to date on by visiting the CAFC website at www.antifraudcentre.ca.

Scams to Watch Out For During COVID

At all times, it's important to remember that if you didn’t initiate the contact or communication between yourself and someone else, whether it's over the phone, over email or they came to your door, then you really don’t know who you're actually communicating with. So you must be cautious of anyone who contacts you out of the blue.

Cleaning and Duct Cleaning Scams

These scammers are offering duct cleaning services to protect you and your family from COVID-19 or special air filters which supposedly offer protection against the virus. Duct cleaners have been making unsolicited calls for years, but now unscrupulous fraudsters are using this crisis to frighten you. You can contact your local health department to see if there are new products and services that can offer you and your family real protection.

Utility Company Scams

Another scam threatens to disconnect your service for non-payment and requires you to go out and buy prepaid cards and then call the "company" back with the gift card numbers. Whatever you do, don’t panic. Instead, stop and think: Why would your local utility company want to be paid in gift cards? Your utility company may already be offering delayed or deferred payments at this time to offer some financial relief to those who have been impacted by COVID-19. Find your utility company's phone number (don’t call the number the scammer gave you) and see what options they are able to offer if you are behind with payments. And never give out your utility account number or other financial information to unsolicited callers.

Public Health Agency of Canada Scam

Some people have received an email saying they have tested positive for COVID-19 and are tricked into confirming their health card number and credit card number, so they can be provided a prescription. Government agencies and other legitimate agencies WILL NOT ask for this personal information via email or phone.

One particular scam sends victims an email telling them they have been exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19. They are then asked to fill out a form that looks a lot like an Excel form, but when users click to view the form, their computer is infected with a download that installs malicious files. It cannot be stressed enough that you should never click on a link from an unknown source.

Charity Scams

Some scammers are offering free medical products, such as face masks, in exchange for a small donation. These fraudulent charities ask you to click on a link that takes you to their spoof website, and then ask for a small donation to cover the delivery fee to obtain the “free” product. Again, their aim is to get you to reveal personal information and financial details, so they can access your money.

Financial Advisor Scams

These scams include offering a hot new stock related to the virus, or financial aid, or loans to help you get through this difficult time. Delete these emails immediately and ignore the phone calls. As always, you should only deal with financial institutions and financial advisors you are familiar with. You can call your own bank to see what assistance they are currently offering regarding deferred payments. Your bank or credit union will never call you to request your PIN.

Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Scam

The CRA is NOT contacting Canadians to claim the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). You must apply for the benefit yourself. According to a CRA spokesperson, any direct communication Canadians receive about applying for the CERB is a scam. These scammers are phishing to get your personal information.

What To Do If You're a Scam Victim

If you believe you have been scammed, you need to keep track of everything that took place and contact your local police. It's also recommended that you report the crime to the CAFC via their website (at this time they are unable to take the information by phone). You should contact your bank or credit union to see if you need to change any bank accounts, credit cards or your debit card. Also, check your credit report to see if there has been any fraudulent activity.

A clever scammer takes advantage of current situations; however, a clever Canadian uses complex passwords and common sense. They also ignore unsolicited calls and emails, never click on unknown emails, and they speak with friends, families and legitimate organizations to verify and learn more about these unsolicited offers.

Welcome to The New Decade of Marketing

Tue, 18 Feb 2020 17:43:00 GMT

Marketers, welcome to 2020.

This year begins the next decade of our profession. We can't predict everything that will change in the next ten years, but we can take a look at what's happening today and use it to better understand the change that is ahead of us.

Since 2010, the marketing world has changed ... a lot. In the early 2010s, social networks were only starting to gain traction.

Facebook reached one billion users in late 2012 . Instagram was launched in 2010. Snapchat didn't exist until 2011.

Customer acquisition costs were low because we had new distribution platforms with hundreds of millions of users and only the early adopters within the marketing community trying to reach them.

Fast forward to 2020. Social networks have grown into a foundational aspect of our culture. Facebook has three billion active users. The competitive landscape is fierce — there are countless disruptions happening across every industry. The old guard is getting taken down by companies who provide a better experience from end to end.

Digital marketing channels are overflowing with noise — average customer acquisition costs have increased by 53% over the last five years.

Buyers have changed, too. Ten years ago, businesses won because they sold a product 10 times better than the competition.

Today, businesses win and lose because of their customer experience.

Whether it's downloading a piece of educational content as a prospect or filing a support ticket as a customer, your buyers want their experience with your company to be simple. More than simple — frictionless.

As marketers, we're the architects of this experience. Every touchpoint we have with buyers is an opportunity to gain trust. Yet many of us only focus on a small part of the customer journey.

Close to 40% of marketers list their top priority in 2020 as generating leads . Only 5% listed customer retention as a focus area.

Today's businesses need marketing strategies that support the entire customer lifecycle. Increasingly vocal buyers, easily replicable products, and eroding trust in businesses mean that a delighted customer base is more influential in driving growth than any marketer or salesperson.

Ten years ago, closed-loop reporting was impossible for many marketers. Today, rich attribution is available to all, but not quite yet the norm. Currently, only 52% of marketers use some form of attribution reporting. We expect that number to rise this year, as more companies embrace a platform approach to their software, enabling robust integrations between systems of record and systems of engagement.

We hope this enables marketers to make better business decisions. One of the most important metrics to track is the return on investment of marketing activities. Only 35% of our respondents replied that it is "very important" or "extremely important" to understand the ROI of any given campaign.

That's low, but I don't think the outstanding 65% is avoiding it. They're facing a technology barrier that's preventing them from measuring their work. Most software that's built for frontline marketers isn't quite powerful enough to capture this, and software that is sophisticated enough requires heavy IT or developer support. That is starting to change.

Ten years ago, having a content marketing strategy really meant that you had a blog. This year, for the first time, video content has surpassed blog posts as the top content marketing investment. Video-based platforms like YouTube show no signs of slowing growth––it was the only bright spot in Alphabet's recent earnings report. Even so, I still see video being used mostly in the decision stage of the buyer's journey.

Marketers create case study videos, product reviews, and videos for the sales team to use, whereas blogging still dominates acquisition strategies. I encourage marketers to think about how we can use videos as an awareness tool — it's a massive opportunity.

As we enter the next decade of marketing, only one thing is certain: more change is coming. To help marketers everywhere get a head start this year, we sourced innovative strategies from marketing managers, directors, VPs, and CMOs, at HubSpot, Litmus, and Crayon, and surveyed over 3,400 marketers across the globe. The resulting report is an in-depth look at the current state of marketing.

It outlines our efforts to connect marketing to business growth. And it emphasizes our commitment to the entire customer experience across marketing, sales, and customer support.

It's a scary and exciting time for marketers everywhere. As you're planning for the future, questions are inevitable. This report is here to help you answer them.

There are plenty of State of Marketing Reports out there, but this isn't one of them.

This is Not Another State of Marketing Report , by HubSpot.

4 Marketing AI Predictions for 2020, According to Experts

Tue, 11 Feb 2020 12:00:00 GMT

According to Gartner, 80% of technology will be built on an AI foundation by 2021 .

As AI becomes more prominent across industries, it's also impacting marketers in subtle ways that might not be obvious to them yet .

While this technology was once described as "over-hyped," marketers now use a handful of AI-powered tools in their day-to-day tasks.

For example, AI tools help content strategists define SEO and keyword strategies , perform SEO-related tasks like fixing duplicate content , and self-optimize mobile pages .

Aside from SEO, AI can assist marketers in tasks like drafting email subject lines and creating basic social media content . Meanwhile, this technology also helps with important, but time-consuming tasks, like deduplicating contacts and recording market intelligence data on both customers and competitors.

And although the technology is still rather new, the list of tasks it can complete is steadily growing.

At that Marketing AI Institute , we track more than 1,500 AI companies with combined funding of more than $6 billion.

As the institute's director, I’ve spent years studying the AI market while working with some of the brightest AI minds in marketing. Aside from researching and consulting on AI strategies, I've also used AI tools throughout my marketing career. Through these experiences, I've gained insights into the opportunities that AI could realistically provide for marketers now and in the near future.

While AI has already subtly crept into the day-to-day lives of many marketers, it's likely to have even more of an impact on them in the future. According to McKinsey , AI is expected to have up to $2.6 trillion worth of business impact in sales and marketing alone.

Source: McKinsey

Despite all of the positivity around AI, many marketers are still might be skeptical about which technologies are actually useful, and which could turn out to be overpriced hype. After all, in the past, there have been a number of outlandish and inaccurate AI predictions or claims. These false statements -- which many AI experts call "snake oil" -- have made it hard to distinguish which AI facts are actually real and which are lies told to gain media attention.

To determine where the true opportunities lie with AI in this stage of its development, it's important to do research to learn more about the tools and current strategies that other marketers are using. You'll also want to look at research-backed trends to keep certain tactics on your radar in case they might be beneficial to you in the future.

To help you better understand where AI is going and how you could leverage it to build a competitive strategy in the future, I've used my research and professional experiences in the AI space to compile a list of four key trends to watch in the next year.

4 AI Predictions for 2020

1. Content marketers will have to adopt artificial intelligence.

No. Artificial intelligence can't write compelling long-form content just yet. But, although bots aren't able to create long narratives, books, scripts, or detailed online articles, AI can still streamline a number of content marketing tasks. According to Jeff Coyle, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of MarketMuse , this trend will only continue in 2020.

“This will be the year that brands begin to seriously use artificial intelligence to build a competitive advantage,” says Coyle. “Right now, many companies are still exploring AI and its potential. But the technology is already having a huge impact on content marketing.”

“The brands using AI tools are already seeing outsized benefits, like huge traffic gains and better search rankings,” Coyle adds.

While AI tools help marketers in drafting light content such as social media updates, online ad content, and email subject lines , Coyle says that many companies are using AI to analyze thousands of ranking opportunities in seconds, identify gaps in their strategies, and create content that skyrockets search traffic.

As a marketing professional who's done much research on the topic of AI, I believe him. In our own report on the top 25 AI use cases marketers value, analyzing existing content for gaps and opportunities tops the list.

We aren't alone in thinking that AI tools will be vital to content marketing strategies. The Content Marketing Institute similarly says that text mining AI tools can help marketers by analyzing online content to identify keywords, phrases, and other variables that link to higher traffic . After an AI tool makes connections between topics and traffic, marketers can create a strategy that leverages those topics.

“In 2020, the market is going to wake up to the fact that if you're not using AI to optimize your content marketing, you're going to fall behind," Coyle concludes.

2. Consumers are going to demand more personalization.

With 64% of consumers expecting personalized shopping experiences based on the interactions they've had with a brand, many marketers are taking notice.

In fact, when we talk to senior-level marketers at the Marketing AI Institute, they’re highly cognizant of the need to hyper-personalize content and experiences for consumers.

While it was once extremely hard to create these experiences with older marketing techniques and technology, AI has opened the door for more pin-pointed personalization opportunities.

Right now, AI is primarily used "to help us get tasks done," says Nick Edouard, Chief Product Officer at PathFactory , an AI-powered B2B marketing platform.

While AI helps marketers "scale faster, write better, and find or mirror target audiences more easily," Edouard says that he expects leaders in 2020 to say, "That’s great, but how can we use AI to enable our buyers? How can we use it to help them find what they need at every stage of the customer lifecycle? How do we make this about our customers and not just us as marketers?"

“These are increasingly important questions to ask, especially for B2B companies, as people already expect relevant, personalized, always-on experiences in every aspect of their lives,” says Edouard.

We're already seeing heavy AI personalization in the marketing industry. For example, many tools allow brands to send marketing emails with names and personalized information in them based on contact list information. In retail, consumers regularly get emails or ecommerce site recommendations for certain products based on what they've already purchased.

But, personalization isn't just a popular trend. It's a revenue generator, A recent study from Monetate notes that 79% of retailers and 75% of general businesses report ROI from personalized marketing.

With evolving technology and our ability to capture data on prospects and customers, it's not shocking to think that AI-based personalization trend will grow stronger in the near future. In 2020 specifically, expect AI to start being used more and more to create solid one-to-one personalization,

3. AI is going to continue to enable and help SEO strategists.

“AI is not only transforming how marketers take business impact to a whole new level. It’s also helping them elevate and advance their careers,” says Krish Kumar, COO and CRO at BrightEdge, maker of BrightEdge Autopilot , which uses AI to automate SEO tasks.

Kumar predicts that marketers are going to reap huge benefits from AI in the coming year, thanks to its ability to automate time-consuming SEO tasks.

“For example, this type of self-driving technology can automatically self-connect website pages, self-optimize mobile pages, and auto-fix duplicate content,” says Kumar.

One example of a company that's majorly leveraging AI for SEO is Campbell’s . Kumar notes that the soup company uses AI-powered SEO automation to compress 75,000 images in a single day. This allows the brand to rank on page one of SERPs for 4,000 keywords within just a few weeks.

The best part?

AI is helping human SEO marketers, rather than making their jobs obsolete. At companies like Campbell's , AI technology allows SEO experts to get results that aren't possible without machines. Not having to worry about this mountain of SEO-related tasks frees them up to work on more intensive projects.

Because it is so beneficial to web traffic and results, expect the investment into AI-powered SEO tools to grow.

4. AI will fit more naturally into the daily lives of marketers.

While AI and automation have already yielded results, cut time out of marketers days, and streamlined a number of outdated processes, small to medium-sized businesses are still hesitant to use these technologies because they worry that working with them and getting up to speed on how each technology or tool works will be added work in itself.

However, as AI technology and tools evolve, they're getting easier to access, providing smoother user experiences, and becoming a more natural fit into the every-day marketer's life.

In 2020 and beyond, “The best AI-powered tools are going to interact with marketers in a way that feels more human,” says Bart Frischknecht, VP of product strategy a Vennli , an AI-powered content intelligence tool.

While many AI tools currently collect data and offer insights that the marketer then has to dive into, Frischknecht says that AI will eventually shift to just offering a marketer a list of improvement suggestions or solutions.

One area where we're already seeing a shift in AI's capabilities is PPC advertising . Some AI tools will just collect data about how a PPC ad is doing and provide predictive analytics to the marketer, who can then adjust the budget. However, other more advanced AI tools can now analyze how the ad is doing, offer marketers suggestions on how to prevent wasted spend, and then allow them to choose one of those solutions directly from a dashboard.

“It’s going to feel more human when AI automatically takes care of tasks so that marketers can focus on marketing, rather than on wrangling the tool,” says Frischknecht.

In 2020, expect AI-powered marketing tools to start becoming so natural to your work that you don't even know they're AI. As John McCarthy , one of the fathers of AI, once said, “As soon as it works, no one calls it AI anymore."

Navigating AI in 2020 and Beyond

Want to make these predictions actionable? We recommend you take the following steps in 2020 to navigate AI in the new year.

Want to take on all three tips at once? Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Marketing: Live from MAICON, will teach you how to apply AI in marketing using a holistic framework and begin conversations around piloting AI in your business.

How Often Should You (or Your Company) Blog? [New Data]

Mon, 18 Nov 2019 22:00:00 GMT

Starting a blog is tough. Thinking about what to post and how to promote it requires strategic planning. And will your content resonate with and delight your customers?

We haven't even covered how often companies should post — a factor that can make or break even the greatest of content.

You might be surprised to know that even though there's a surplus of hard data about why blog posts are integral to marketing, there's not much on the frequency of posting. This is because, well, it depends.

If ambiguity gets your heart racing, fear not. Here, we'll offer suggestions and stats to help inform your decision.

If you're a marketing team of one, don't feel the need to constantly pump out content. If you do, you'll probably find yourself getting burned out and releasing content that's not beneficial to you or your audience.

Keeping a schedule when blogging is important for two reasons. First, it builds organic traffic. Next, it helps with brand awareness. We'll get into why below.

Organic traffic

Blogging is important for SEO if you want to increase visits to your website. But, if you are already posting valuable content, it might benefit you to go back and update that content, especially if after a little while, you want to give certain posts a boost.

Blog post traffic is compounding, which means it gains organic results over time. This is why updating posts are important. This gives you more reads, more recognition, and possibly, more fans.

Brand awareness

Because Google can crawl every page of a website for SEO, every blog post you make has the chance to enhance not only optimization but awareness of your brand. For example, if you're in the beauty industry and you publish high-quality posts about how to apply eyeliner or mascara, you have the opportunity to be seen in those Google search results.

To build brand loyalty, make sure you're producing high-quality content. If you're producing content with images, keywords, and industry-relevant content, you can increase your brand awareness.

So, blogging is still of high importance for brand discovery and building leads. If you're trying to figure out the right publishing frequency for your team and your business, keep reading.

Blogging Frequency

Blogging frequency ultimately depends on what you aim to accomplish with your blog. So, let’s look at the basics of how often you should blog for what you aim to accomplish.

Organic traffic

If your main goal is to raise traffic numbers and bring clicks to your website and content, you want to post frequently. It's ultimately up to you to determine what that schedule looks like.

As a small blog with a limited team, it can be difficult to brainstorm, create, and promote a new post every day. This is where planning comes in handy. When you're coordinating your next product launch campaign, plan for blog posts in tandem, and set aside time to outline those posts.

Having the material outlined and organized before you begin writing saves you time. Because you want to publish as much as possible, think of content that will educate your readers. This can look different depending on the blog, but some blog ideas include industry how-tos, campaign round-ups, and listicles.

For more blog post ideas, check out this list of 101 ideas HubSpotters put together.

Brand awareness

When you're focusing on building your brand, the key is to diversify content. Try to think of the ways blog posts can highlight your brand and help to define it. How can a blog post tell your audience who you are?

Because your focus will be on building a voice for your company, these posts don't need to be published as frequently as a traffic-building agenda would demand. Instead, smaller businesses should try to fit these in once a week or so.

Building brand awareness gives you a chance to provide useful information to your target audience. Providing branded infographics or statistics about your industry that are branded are good ways to build loyalty.

Content can vary even further, from an "Employee of the month" post celebrating your team to an event recap of a recent company outing, or an infographic that explains your core values.

Below is a graphic that summarizes some goals to shoot for when thinking about blog frequency. Remember that updating posts with new information is a great way to build SEO, no matter the goal.

With proper planning in place, the volume of blogs you produce may surprise you. We chose the soft goal of three to four times a week for smaller blogs focusing on organic traffic because blogging should be a priority if boosting clicks is the goal.

In 2019, HubSpot found that marketers who prioritize marketing efforts are 13x more likely to see positive ROI. Making blogging a serious portion of your day-to-day is hard work, but rewarding in that you may garner visits and leads.

Larger blogs with a few team members are able to increase volume but should be wary of burnout and over-saturation of search engine results. That's why the goal is four to five times a week. This ensures new posts have time to gain traffic and updated posts are being boosted properly to round out your campaign goals.

Because content for brand awareness is more specialized and not as focused on gaining traffic, the frequency of blog posts is not as high. We recommend smaller, brand-awareness focused blogs post one to two times a week. While they may not perform as well as researched, traffic-focused content, they give a voice and holistic medium to your blog.

For blogs with more resources, it's easier to up the frequency of brand awareness posts, especially because large blogs probably already have a decent amount of organic traffic. There's more room to focus on content that grows a company's brand and provide thought leadership.

Starting a blog and keeping it consistent can be really difficult, but there's no exact science to it. Because of this, you can be flexible with how you maintain your blog, as long as you are sticking to your business goals.

The Ultimate Guide to Content Distribution

Mon, 18 Nov 2019 14:15:00 GMT

Year after year, hundreds of marketers report increased efforts and spending on their content marketing — or the intention to do so.

But great content is a waste if your audience doesn’t know it exists.

Content distribution is an integral part — if not the most important part — of your content strategy.

This guide will equip you with the tools you need to distribute the content you create. By the end, you’ll be able to build a content distribution strategy that gets your content in front of — and consumed by — your audience.

Although the content distribution process happens after you create your content, it should be step one of your content marketing strategy. You should know where and how you’re going to publish and promote your content before you put the proverbial pen to paper. Otherwise, your time and resources could go to waste.

Take a look at these content distribution statistics:

As you can see, in recent years, we've seen a rapid influx of content … met with dwindling demand. With almost 4.5 million blog posts published every day , there’s only so much content we can consume. Marketing influencer Mark Schaefer argues that, because of this “content shock”, content marketing may not be a sustainable strategy for every business.

While I won’t agree or disagree with this theory, I will outline everything you need to know to successfully distribute your marketing content.

Before we dive into the various content distribution channels through which you can share your content, let's cover the different content types you can create for distribution.

Content Types for Distribution

There are many types of content you can create to market your business. But not all types of content are created equal (literally), and each type typically requires its own content distribution plan.

Ebooks

Distribute your ebook content through a gated form on a dedicated landing page. One example of this is

HubSpot's landing pages

Podcasts and Interviews

Distribute your podcast or interview content through Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or Google Podcasts . One example of this is HubSpot's Weird Work podcast , available on all three podcast networks as well as SoundCloud .

Videos

Distribute your video content through YouTube or Video. One example of this is HubSpot's YouTube channel , which shares brand content, how-to videos, and written content in video form.

Infographics

Distribute your infographic content through Pinterest, as well as on your blog. One example of this is HubSpot's infographic blog posts that are shareable on Pinterest. HubSpot also has its own Pinterest account on which it shares its own infographics in addition to other brand's.

Case Studies and Success Stories

Distribute case studies and success stories through a dedicated page on your website. One example of this is HubSpot's Case Studies page , where visitors can find all kinds of case studies featuring real HubSpot customers.

Webinars

Distribute your webinar content through a dedicated webinar page on your website, as well as calls-to-action (CTAs) on your blog posts. One example of this is HubSpot's Webinars webpage , where visitors can browse and access free webinar content.

Blogs

Distribute your blog content through — you guessed it — your blog. You can also send out a daily or weekly newsletter with a round-up of your best or recently published content. One example of this is HubSpot's Marketing, Sales, Service, and Agency blogs , each which has its own dedicated email newsletter.

Content Distribution Channels

Content distribution channels are the channels through which you share and promote the content you create. There are three types of content distribution channels: owned, earned, and paid. The channels you use to distribute your content will vary based on your audience and resources.

1. Owned Content Distribution

Owned channels are the content properties your company owns. You can control when and how content is published on your owned channels. These include your website and

blog

mobile publishing app

2. Earned Content Distribution

Earned channels (also known as “shared” channels) are when third parties promote or share your content. These third parties could include customers, journalists, bloggers, and anyone who shares your content for free — hence the name “earned”.

These channels include public relations, social shares and mentions, guest articles and roundups, and product reviews. They also include forums and communities like Reddit or Quora — while posting on these sites is free, the content is owned by these third parties and therefore falls under earned channels.

3. Paid Content Distribution

Paid channels refer to when your company pays to distribute your content on certain channels. This primarily includes pay-per-click (PPC) , paid social advertisements, and paid influencer content .

The following diagram illustrates how these three content distribution channels overlap and how you can combine them to enhance their impact and reach.

If 70% of marketers lack a content strategy , how many do you think have a content distribution strategy? I’d bet not many.

Moreover, some marketers recommend that you spend 20% of your allotted content marketing time creating your content — and the other 80% promoting it . Sound like something you’re doing? If not, this is where a content distribution strategy comes in handy.

A content distribution strategy is important for a few reasons:

It boosts your content impact past curation and creation. As I said above, great content is practically useless if nobody’s reading it. A

content distribution strategy

Here’s how to build a content distribution strategy for yourself.

1. Research your target audience.

Content distribution is all about getting your content in front of your audience — not just any audience. You can’t do this properly if you don’t know where they are and what they like to read. Before you build your strategy any further, research your target audience so you know precisely who will be consuming your content.

Start by collecting demographic data from your website visitors, email subscribers, social media followers, and customers. Take a look at your audience’s gender, age, income, location, education, and related categories. You can pull this information from Google Analytics or your social media analytics tools.

Next, collect feedback directly from your customers, email subscribers, and social media followers. Ask them about their pain points and needs as well as how they feel about your current content and distribution efforts.

Use these two data points to create your buyer persona . Your buyer persona(s) act as models of your ideal customers and content consumers and represent their pain points, information preferences, and motivations as you build out the rest of your content distribution strategy.

2. Audit your content.

You may already have some published content out there, such as blog posts, videos, social media content, and more. While your new content distribution strategy doesn’t involve removing that content, you should perform an audit to understand if it’s helping or hurting your distribution efforts. Auditing your current content will also remind you of which topics you’ve already written about and which ones you can expand on.

A thorough content audit is comprised of three main parts:

this blog post

3. Choose your content distribution channels.

Your content distribution channels are arguably more important than your content itself, hence why this step comes before content creation and after target audience research. Once you know your target audience, you’ll have a much better idea of how to get your content in front of your followers and customers.

Depending on your analysis, you may post on forums and communities like Reddit or Quora — and pay to promote your content on those sites, too. Alternatively, you may choose to exclusively share content on social media channels, or perhaps you find that traditional PR is your best route.

Regardless of which content distribution channels you choose, ensure they align with your audience’s preferences and behaviors.

Also, be sure to optimize your owned distribution channels — your blog, email newsletter, and social media profiles — as these are relatively inexpensive and in your control. Even if research shows that your audience prefers forums to social media or news sites to company blogs, never neglect your owned properties as these reflect on your brand and product.

As you work through this step, set aside time to optimize your blog-to-gain readership , brush up on how to send email newsletters (or start sending them ), and learn about organic social media marketing .

4. Decide on your content types.

After you determine your distribution channels, consider what types of content you’d like (and have the resources) to create.Many companies choose to publish all of their content on their blog and then repurpose and re-publish it. Blog posts are universally consumed, easy to repurpose and localize (i.e. translate into other languages), and simple to share — not to mention that almost

50% of buyers read a company’s blog while making purchase decisions

For these reasons, we recommend building a business blog and then expanding your content types from to share on other channels.

Consider the content types we discussed in the beginning of this guide, and think about how you’ll repurpose and distribute them.

5. Set your content distribution KPIs and goals.

Goals help us recognize where we’re going and what success might look like when we get there. Your content distribution strategy should involve setting goals for your content key performance indicators (KPIs) and their subsequent metrics:

key performance indicators	related metrics
Traffic/reach	Unique page views by channel and source
Engagement	Bounce rate, average time on page
Top content (and falling content)	Top page views, top exits
Impact	Click-throughs, conversions, backlinks
Sentiment	Comments, social shares

These metrics may vary based on your distribution channel (i.e. you can’t track comments on your email newsletter or top exists on your social media ads), so be sure to choose the metrics that correspond best to each channel. It might take a few months to establish a baseline for each channel, especially if you haven’t used it before.Set

SMART goals

6. Build an editorial calendar (and include distribution).

Content marketing and distribution require lots of planning to be successful. This is where an editorial content calendar can come in handy. You can create one in Excel or Google Sheets, or even use Google Calendar . Tools like CoSchedule , Asana , and Trello are helpful, too.

Your editorial calendar, like your content distribution strategy, helps your team stay aligned and work towards common goals. It also gives your writers and editors a roadmap for what they’ll be working on in the coming weeks and months.

Here’s what your editorial calendar may look like (using this post as an example):

Your editorial calendar is the perfect place to include your content distribution plans and goals. Here’s what that may look like on your editorial calendar:

See how the right-hand columns now include categories like “Publish Destinations” and “Repurposing Plans”? Your editorial calendar should serve as your hub for all content creation and distribution plans.

Manage and plan your social media content with our free Social Media Content Calendar Template.

7. Create your content.

After you research your audience, audit your content, decide on your distribution channels and content types, and build your editorial calendar … it’s time to create your content. Content creation will vary based on your resources, team size, industry, and brand, so to get the most pointed, applicable advice, check out our Guide to Content Creation .

As you work on your new content, check out these tools:

We’ll talk more about content distribution tools in the next section.

8. Distribute and market your content.

You’ve created your content … now it’s time to put it out in the world. Following your editorial calendar and chosen distribution channels, publish and market your new content. As for any marketing channel, be sure you follow rules to optimize your posts on each channel.

For example, our team at HubSpot paid for ads on Reddit and found that it was helpful to organically engage with Redditors as well as pay for ad space. Alternatively, if you’re posting on (or paying for) social media, be sure to follow the guidelines for the best times to post and share content — the same goes for sending emails .

9. Measure and analyze your results.

As always, be sure to keep an eye on your content distribution results. Remember those KPIs, metrics, and SMART goals you established in step five ? Time to pull those out.

After you’ve published your content, take a look at Google Analytics, your social media analytics dashboards, and your blog performance — depending on where and how you distributed the content. Make sure you set a routine time to measure and analyze (weekly, monthly, or quarterly) so that you can establish a baseline and know which numbers you can beat the following week or month.

Whew! So, that’s what it takes to build a content distribution strategy. Be sure to iterate on this process; these guidelines may change as you expand your content efforts and scale your team. Now, let’s talk about the tools you need to get it done.

Content distribution can be an arduous process, but thankfully there are many

content distribution tools

Content Tools

These tools help you publish your content on additional networks and forums to reach broader audiences.

1. Medium

Medium is a content platform that individuals and businesses alike use to publish content. You can use Medium in addition to or in lieu of your traditional blog. (We recommend in addition to your blog as this will give your content the broadest reach.)

Medium is where thousands of readers consume content. It’s a one-stop-shop platform for all kinds of content … kind of like Amazon is for products. For that reason, consider publishing to Medium to increase the number of people who see your content.

Price : Free and paid

2. LinkedIn Pulse

LinkedIn Pulse is similar to Medium except it lives on LinkedIn. While there isn’t a homepage that aggregates all the published content, it’s still a helpful tool for getting your written content in front of your followers (for free). You can publish on LinkedIn Pulse through your personal or company LinkedIn pages by simply clicking “Write an article”.

Note : LinkedIn Pulse is also a mobile application that you can download to receive daily headlines and trending news.

Read more about publishing on LinkedIn Pulse here .

Price : Free

PR Tools

These tools help connect you with journalists and publications to help expand your earned distribution channels and gain backlinks.

3. PR Newswire

PR Newswire is a press release distribution network. The platform helps you target and contact journalists and outlets by specific industries, geographic areas, and topics. It offers packages for state and local, regional, and national press.

Price : Paid

4. HARO

HARO stands for Help a Reporter Out, which is an online platform that connects journalists and sources. In this case, you’d be the source.

When you sign up for HARO, you’re sent daily emails with journalist queries. Respond to these queries to be potentially featured in an article. This is a reactive content distribution tool, but it’s helpful for getting press mentions and backlinks.

Price : Free and paid

Social Tools

These tools help distribute your content on social media and amplify your posts.

5. HubSpot

HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing software, meaning its useful for email marketing, analytics, and social amplification. I’ve placed it in the “Social Tools” section because its Social Inbox is incredibly helpful for content distribution.

From your Social Inbox, you can monitor, schedule, and post content to your social networks. You can also access information from your email marketing campaigns so you have the big picture of your readers and customers.

Price : Free and paid

6. ClickToTweet

ClickToTweet is a tool that equips your readers to share soundbites of your content on Twitter with a single click. You create your content soundbites, and ClickToTweet provides a link. When readers click that link, the tool opens their Twitter with the content soundbite already ready to post.

It also links to your Twitter account and content — allowing your readers to distribute your content for you.

Price : Free

7. GaggleAMP

GaggleAMP is a social amplification tool that allows you to aggregate your employee’s social networks and post company content directly to them. Employees have the option to review and improve content before it’s posted or allow it to go through automatically. This is a great alternative to constantly bugging your staff to post on about your business.

You can also use this tool to link to social networks from partners, customers, brand advocates, and more.

Price : Free and paid

8. AddThis

AddThis is an on-page social sharing tool. It allows your readers to share your content without bouncing from your page (and potentially getting distracted). You can also integrate AddThis share buttons into your email newsletter and other assets.

Price : Free

Analysis Tools

These tools help you measure and analyze the impact of your social posts and other distribution efforts.

9. Mention

Mention is a social media monitoring tool that provides social media listening, publishing, crisis management, and more. You can use Mention to monitor any mentions of your brand name, content, or social networks and respond accordingly. This is a great tool for measuring the impact of and engagement around your content and see who is promoting it for you.

Price : Free and paid

10. SharedCount

SharedCount is a tool that helps you measure the engagement of your social media posts. Simply input a URL, and SharedCount will report on its likes, shares, comments, and other engagement measures. While it can’t help you distribute your content, it can alert you to which pieces are performing well and which pieces may need to be updated or scrapped.

Price : Free and paid

Additional Tools

These additional tools help with your content distribution efforts.

11. Outbrain

Outbrain is a paid amplification tool that aggregates your content at the bottom of other articles. You can set up content campaigns with an RSS feed or specific URL(s), and Outbrain will place them under related content, encouraging readers to click and read yours.

Outbrain works with an impressive network, including digital publications like NYT and Mashable.

Price : Pay-per-click

12. WiseStamp

WiseStamp is an email tool that allows you (and your employees) to share your latest content in your email signature. Your email signature is often a forgotten but important piece of digital real estate that practically everyone who opens your emails will see. WiseStamp helps you make the most of that space.

Price : Paid

Distribute Your Content to Grow Better

Amazing content is a waste if no one is consuming it. Content distribution is a critical piece of the content marketing puzzle. It’s is also the key to boosting your brand awareness, collecting loyal followers, and encouraging your readers to click, act, and become customers.

Put these content distribution tips and tools to get your content in front of your audience.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in July 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Is Coding the Next Must-Have Skill of the Modern Marketer?

Fri, 15 Nov 2019 21:45:00 GMT

Marketing has evolved over time from,"You can have any color you want as long as it’s black" to just-in-time marketing messages that might lead to your brand posting on Reddit. We're embracing digital channels and understanding the need to create marketing people love more and more ... but do we actually grasp what's running behind the scenes of all these digital campaigns?

Marketing has evolved over time from, "You can have any color you want as long as it’s black" to just-in-time marketing messages that might lead to your brand posting on Reddit .

We're embracing digital channels and understanding the need to create marketing people love more and more ... but do we actually grasp what's running behind the scenes of all these digital campaigns?Code is what lies behind so many of our great marketing campaigns. Our websites, our emails, our apps and tools that are made to give your customers a better experience -- these all run because there are smart coders making them work.

So my question today is this: Since code is the basis for most of our marketing today, should marketers be learning to code?

I'd like to argue yes, we should. Here's why.

1. Coding saves time and inspires.

Getting to grips with code and understanding the structures that bring your sites, apps, and tools to life will give you a better understanding of what is possible in the first place.

And, here, knowledge is really inspiration. Imagine seeing beyond just what others have done and having the ability to use code to create new and innovative tools that truly delight your customers.

It is key here not just to understand code, but to understand what tools your designer is using (and what other tools are out there). There is an array of helpful apps that let you quickly do anything -- from building forms, to creating buttons, to building sites, and other functionality.

You need to know whether the tool offered to you is right, up to date, and will do what you want it to. This will fuel your inspiration, and save costs and time.

2. Coding informs marketers of the process.

My marketing mentor taught me that if you don’t know what’s involved in a process, you're not getting the most out of your budget. I’m far from saying that all suppliers will try and add a few hours to projects, but wouldn’t it be great to have the confidence to know when something is quoted right?

We all need to know what is involved in building a website or a form, and what it takes to make a change to an app or your site navigation. Only then can we actually have an informed discussion about cost and timeframes with the people who will implement our ideas.

Some coding knowledge will enable you to brief a web designer or developer much clearer on your idea, and you’ll understand when a “no” is a negotiation tactic rather than an actual expression of the impossible.

Having this knowledge about coding also helps you choose the right company or designer to partner with in the first place, as it helps you determine whether they can do what you're asking at the right price and within the right timeframe.

3. You can make quick fixes with coding knowledge.

I don’t know about you, but if a paragraph is just not doing in your CMS what you're asking it to do, when an image is not resizing correctly, or the YouTube video you're embedding is just huge for some reason, you want it fixed ... now.

That’s the reason I learned about code. I didn’t want to be in a situation where I would have to call my web designer for every small change. So I went into the HTML view of my CMS, Googled code, and learned how to make small changes on my own.

It has saved hours of my time and budget, and my patience is still intact. At meetings with my designer, I would also ask him to explain small things about code and I started to lose my fear of brackets, slashes, and ampersands. I can’t recommend this highly enough.

4. You can make an impact with even basic skills.

There is no reason why you shouldn’t learn about code. But I don't think a marketer should necessarily learn to code with the aim of becoming on-par with professional coders. In my humble opinion, you should leave specialized tasks to those who know how to do them right.

Web developers and designers have a very different skillset than marketers. As marketers, we decide on strategic direction and look for return on marketing campaigns. And while we might have a good eye for design and user experience, the actual implementation skills lie with others.

Often, we're also too close to our brands -- whereas a good designer will always bring in the expertise gained from different projects and current trends.

But don’t let this stop you from learning more about how code works.

Where Marketers Can Learn to Code

I started learning how to code by Googling pieces of HTML code. It’s a quick and easy way to find what a piece of code does and how to manipulate it. But this method won’t give you the real hows and whys behind it. Also, it gives you very little idea of how different pieces fit together -- like HTML and CSS, for example.

For this level of information, you need to get down and dirty with code and start building from scratch. If you have a developer in your organization who can teach, why not offer a free lunch to him or her while you learn from them?

For something more methodical, I'd also recommend you check out one of the many online courses available. Here are some of the big ones:

1. Code Academy

As they say themselves, this is all about learning how to code interactively and for free. Reviews are great and I know quite a few HubSpotters who used this tool.

2. W3 Schools

W3 schools have a variety of classes for different tools and levels. There is also the option to get certified in your news skill (there is a charge here) so you can show off to your peers!

3. Code Schools

This is another tool that lets you learn from home -- from the basics in HTML and CSS, to Javascript and other languages. Courses are paid but affordable, and you’ll get access to a variety of courses for your fee.

4. Make It With Code

Next, let's look at some alternate routes you can take to coding, such as programs that don't require manual coding at all.

Coding Alternatives

If you don't have the time to take up coding immediately, that's totally cool. That's also why there are coding programs online to do the coding for you — let's get into a few.

1. Embed.ly

Price: Free to embed single links, then $9-99/per month

Emded.ly is super quick and clean to use for getting embed codes for a domain. All you have to do is copy and paste a domain in the box and click "embed." Then, you'll see this screen, where you can customize a couple of details about the embed.

2. iFramely

Price: Free for single links, then $29-$399 for paid plans

If you're a color code person, iFramely will be an absolute vision to you. Copy and pasting your domain into iFramely will generate a color-coded embed for you right underneath it.

3. Siteimprove

Price: Contact Siteimprove to request a quote

CMS Plugins streamline the performance of your website. Siteimprove is an example of a plugin that does just that. It integrates key analytics into the optimization of your domain, fixes errors in the code automatically, and allows you to add custom tags.

4. RedmineUP

Price: $29-$499/per month

With RedmineUP's CMS plugin, you can build simple pages and leave with code that's SEO friendly. These pages are fully customizable and come with templates.

On the website developer page, you can change information at the top to add and change the code in the bottom. With this process, you don't have to add in any brackets, quotes, or operational systems, just the content you want to see added.

Code is part of our Marketing DNA, and even if we don’t need to be able to build sites from scratch, as marketers today, we need to understand how it works to make informed decisions.

Editor's note: This post was originally published prior in April 2014 but was updated in November 2019 for comprehensiveness.

The Beginner's Guide to LinkedIn Marketing

Tue, 12 Nov 2019 20:43:00 GMT

Did you know LinkedIn has over 660 million users across the globe? Meaning the platform is one of the top social networks today. Now, an important question: Is your business using LinkedIn to its fullest potential to improve brand awareness, build your network, boost leads and conversions, increase revenue, and more?

Did you know LinkedIn has over 660 million users across the globe? Meaning the platform is one of the top social networks today.

Now, an important question: Is your business using LinkedIn to its fullest potential to improve brand awareness, build your network, boost leads and conversions, increase revenue, and more?

With new social networks sprouting up constantly, LinkedIn is a platform that often gets underutilized or put on the back burner. But the truth is, LinkedIn can be extremely powerful — especially when you're aware of all the platform's hidden features that don't get nearly as much attention as they deserve.

This guide is chock full of LinkedIn tips you can begin implementing immediately to help you learn how to use the platform to improve brand awareness, share your marketing content, and grow your business.

What is LinkedIn marketing?

LinkedIn marketing is the process of using LinkedIn to make connections, generate leads, improve brand awareness, foster business relationships and partnerships, share content, and drive traffic to your website. LinkedIn is an integral part of many successful business' marketing strategies today because of how effective it can be in expanding professional networks.When you use LinkedIn to market your business, you gain access to useful features related to analytics, connections, and brand-building, just to name a few. (Don't worry, we'll review all of these and more in depth momentarily.)But first, here's a quick primer for those of you who may be new to LinkedIn.

About LinkedIn

LinkedIn launched in 2003

This is why having your business on LinkedIn is so powerful — the platform is a fantastic marketing tool.

Now, let's review the various ways to use LinkedIn to market and grow your business.

LinkedIn Marketing Best Practices

LinkedIn allows you to drive traffic to your website, identify quality leads, share your expertise through thought-leadership content, and grow your network. It's also a great way to market job openings and attract new talent to your company. These are just some of the reasons why LinkedIn is an ideal platform for all businesses to market through.Below, we'll cover LinkedIn marketing best practices and some effective ways to use the platform. These 28 best practices and steps can be tailored to your needs — whether you have a

personal LinkedIn page

business page

Let's dive in.

1. Customize your public profile URL.

Make your profile look more professional, and easier to share, by

customizing your LinkedIn public profile URL

http://www.linkedin.com/in/amandazantalwiener

You can do this by clicking View Profile and then clicking Edit Public Profile and URL. Here you can change your URL to anything you'd like — such as your first and last name or business name — assuming it hasn't already been taken by another LinkedIn user. \

2. Add a LinkedIn background photo to your profile.

In 2014 , LinkedIn finally jumped on the cover photo bandwagon and starting rolling out the ability for users to add a background photo to their personal profiles. Give your LinkedIn profile a little bit more personality by adding an on-brand background photo of your own. Keep in mind LinkedIn is a professional social network, so choose your photo accordingly.

LinkedIn recommends a background photo size of 1584 x 396 pixels , and that it must be a JPG, PNG, or GIF file under 8MB.

3. Add a ProFinder Badge to your profile.

You might consider adding a ProFinder Badge , which is used to identify freelancers within LinkedIn's ProFinder. This service matches contractors with project managers who are seeking help. Freelancers can display a ProFinder badge on their profiles to show prospective clients their skills, expertise, and recommendations.

4. Take advantage of the blog and website links on your LinkedIn profile.

You can add links to your portfolio and social networks to your LinkedIn page. You can also add links to your content and business information to increase clicks. This feature allows you to draw greater attention to specific areas of your page to drive traffic elsewhere.

For example, if you produced a podcast, you can share links to your episodes on LinkedIn (e.g. SoundCloud tracks) to promote your work.

5. Search engine optimize your LinkedIn profile.

Search engine optimization (SEO) isn't limited to blogging — you can also optimize your profile to get discovered by people searching LinkedIn for key terms you want to be found for. You can add these keywords to various sections of your profile, such as your headline, your summary, or your work experience.

Download a free SEO starter pack to learn everything you need to know about optimizing your business's content.

6. Add, remove, and rearrange sections of your profile.

You can edit and reorder sections of your LinkedIn profile to highlight specific pieces of information in any way you see fit. When you're in edit mode, simply hover your mouse over the double-sided arrow in each section. Your mouse will turn into a four-arrow icon, at which point you can click, drag, and drop to another position on your profile.

7. Use Saved Searches and Search Alerts in Recruiter.

If you use LinkedIn Recruiter , you can use Saved Searches to save your search criteria — if you're marketing job opportunities via LinkedIn, this is a great addition to your tool belt.

With the feature, you can save as many searches as you want and receive alerts when new candidates match your filter refinements and criteria. You can elect to receive daily or weekly search alerts from the system about relevant results via the Recruiter homepage.

8. List job opportunities and recruit new talent with LinkedIn's job postings.

And speaking of your business's open job opportunities, don't forget to add and market your new positions on the LinkedIn Jobs page.

Here, candidates can learn about your business and openings by searching for specific keywords such as job title, industry, location, salary, experience level, and more.

9. Take advantage of LinkedIn Endorsements.

LinkedIn offers a feature called Endorsements — this allows you to recognize the skills people you work with (such as employees, colleagues, freelancers, or partners) have to offer.

You can promote and endorse the skills of the people you work closest with to help refer them for other work, make their profiles more impressive, show your support, and more.

10. Use Open Profile to send messages to people you're not connected to.

To branch out and make new connections with potential partners, customers, and other industry leaders, you might want to send them a personalized message.

With the exception of fellow LinkedIn Group members, the platform only allows you to send messages to people who you share a first-degree connection with. But did you know some people let you send them messages anyway, even if you're not connected?

Here's how that works: The ability to be part of the Open Profile network is only available to Premium account holders, but it allows those users to be available for messaging by any other LinkedIn member regardless of membership type.

Additionally, there are options for sending messages to those with whom you're not yet connected, similar to sending a request to connect with a note (though we don't recommend overusing this technique). Additionally, if you have a premium account, you can use InMail .

11. Check your Network Updates (or share your own).

Found on your LinkedIn homepage, Network Updates are essentially LinkedIn's version of the Facebook News Feed. Check this feed periodically for a quick snapshot of what your connections, customers, competitors, and others are up to and sharing. You can also share updates of your own, such as details about your products or services and noteworthy content your business has created and published.

You may choose to sign up for email notifications or sort by "Top Updates" or "Recent Updates" to filter your feed in any way you choose.

12. Be identifiable.

Your LinkedIn profile visitors should recognize it as yours to the moment they look at it. A great way to make your profile easily identifiable and on-brand with your other marketing content is by ensuring your profile's name, headline, and other simple identifiers are easily viewable to any visitor. Make sure these features on on brand, match your other marketing content, and are uniquely yours.

Note: You should always have your Public Profile setting enabled as well, to be visible and identifiable for your audience.

13. Check out who's viewed your LinkedIn profile.

Learn a little about your audience members, potential leads, and customers who are viewing your profile and marketing content that you're sharing on LinkedIn.

How? With the Who Viewed Your Profile feature.

This tool, which is accessible in the main navigation via the Profile dropdown, enables you to identify the exact people who have visited your page. You can see how you stack up against the profile views for your connections, other businesses like yours, and more.

14. Export connections.

Now, it's no secret that you can use the connections you make on LinkedIn to drive traffic to your site and grow your base of paying customers. Exporting your connections — to a contact management system , for example — is a great place to start.

Under your Advanced Settings, you can start exporting your LinkedIn connections.

15. Customize your Connections to grow your professional network.

LinkedIn offers features to help you grow your professional network and make valuable connections . There are several ways to do this depending on what you're looking to accomplish.

Here are some examples:

16. Join LinkedIn Groups.

LinkedIn Groups are a great way to make connections with people who are in, or interested in, your industry. They serve as a hub for you and other members to share content, grow your contact list, establish yourself as an expert in the field, and boost brand awareness.

There are a number of other benefits that come from joining LinkedIn Groups. For example, by joining Groups related to your industry and participating in discussions within those groups, you'll exhibit thought leadership in your industry.

Additionally, by joining Groups, you can view complete profiles of other members of the same group without being connected. Also, if you're a member of the same group as another user, LinkedIn allows you to send up to 15 free 1:1 messages to fellow group members per month (typically, you can only do this if you're a first-degree connection).

17. Create your own LinkedIn Group.

Consider creating a LinkedIn Group of your very own, like HubSpot did with the popular Inbound Marketers Group .

18. Communicate with your LinkedIn Group.

And on that note, there are more reasons to create your own Group on LinkedIn. In fact, one of the perks of managing a LinkedIn Group is that LinkedIn makes it simple to interact and communicate with the members of the Group you're in charge of.

You can either send messages to group members or create a group post . Sending messages allows you to write a member of your group directly, or share content with them, from your group's page. This is great if you have something to share with a specific person in your group. Creating a group post allows you to share any content you'd like on your group's page which is ideal for initiating a discussion.

19. Share your LinkedIn status updates on Twitter.

Add your Twitter account to your LinkedIn profile so you can share status updates across platforms. This is also a great way to boost your Twitter follower and LinkedIn connection counts.

For example, if you're posting an update to LinkedIn that you'd also like your Twitter followers to see, you can easily syndicate that update to Twitter by selecting the Public + Twitter option in the dropdown menu within the LinkedIn update composer.

20. Leverage @mentions in your status updates.

Want another LinkedIn user or company to see your status update? On LinkedIn, you have the ability to tag — or @mention — users and other companies in your status updates much like the way it works on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Include the @ symbol immediately followed by the user's/ company's name in your status update or post. As a result, that user/ company will be alerted that you mentioned them, and their name will also link to their profile/ page in the status update itself. This is a great way to boost engagement and interaction on your content as well as improve brand awareness.

21. Design all aspects of your LinkedIn page.

The design of LinkedIn pages has changed a lot over the years. Make sure yours is set up correctly and optimized for the latest layout, featuring a compelling and high-quality banner image.

Take a look at what HubSpot's Company Page looks like for inspiration:

Use guides and templates to discover the best ways to design your LinkedIn page optimal business, marketing, and professional networking.

22. Create LinkedIn Showcase Pages.

LinkedIn Showcase Pages are niche pages that branch off your business's page to highlight specific initiatives and campaigns or feature specific content you're working on.

Think of Showcase Pages as extensions of your main page that allow you to promote specific products or cater to your individual marketing personas — this provides a more personalized and targeted experience for your page visitors. This is great way to expand your network on LinkedIn because other users can choose to follow your Showcase Page(s) even if they haven't followed your main page.

23. Post company status updates and target them.

Publish Status Updates for your business on your LinkedIn page for your followers to see. This keeps your LinkedIn connections engaged and in the loop regarding your business's latest developments, work, content, and updates. In your status updates, you can share written information, images, videos, documents, and more.

You can also post Targeted LinkedIn Status Updates tailored towards specific people and groups within your audience. To do this, use criteria such as company size, industry, job function, seniority, geography, language, or by including/ excluding company employees.

These targeted updates will appear on your page — or Showcase Page — as well as on LinkedIn for the targeted users (specifically, in their Network Updates feed).

24. Check out LinkedIn's Content Marketing Score & Trending Content resources.

You can learn how impactful your organic and paid LinkedIn marketing content is with the platform's Content Marketing Score and Trending Content resources.

Your Content Marketing Score tells you your impact on LinkedIn by measuring overall audience engagement with your content. Trending Content tells you which topics you are posting and sharing content about that are resonating with specific audience groups on the platform, allowing you to optimize your content for greater impact.

25. Experiment with LinkedIn Sponsored Content and Native Ads.

If you're looking to complement your organic LinkedIn marketing efforts with some paid advertising, LinkedIn Ads are a smart choice. One of the biggest benefits of LinkedIn advertising: the targeting options.

LinkedIn’s PPC ads let you target specific job titles, job functions, industries, or company size, to name a few — you know, the people who are more likely to want/ need what you sell.

If you want to get started with LinkedIn's advertising platform, check out our free guide to advertising on LinkedIn .

26. Share content through LinkedIn's publishing platform.

Good news! You no longer have to be a LinkedIn Influencer to publish new articles to LinkedIn. Publishing is available to all users on the platform . Experiment with how this feature can support your marketing goals by creating content and promoting it on your your business's LinkedIn page.

For example, you might experiment with syndicating content from your blog to LinkedIn — this way, you can promote subscription to your blog via LinkedIn.

27. Add a Page Follow Button to your website.

You can add the LinkedIn Company Follow button to your website to promote your company's LinkedIn presence and the content you share on the platform. When your website visitors click to "Follow" your LinkedIn page via your site, they'll automatically become connected to you and be able to view your company's latest updates on the platform.

This is great way to boost your engagement and number of connections on LinkedIn by driving traffic to the platform directly from your website.

28. Analyze your LinkedIn marketing performance.

So ... how are your LinkedIn marketing efforts faring? Analyzing your efforts and making necessary adjustments is critical to your success on the platform.

LinkedIn has in-depth page analytics as well as reporting tools for businesses to evaluate overall performance. There are specific data about how effective your status updates, content, and reach are as well as details about your page's engagement and followers (like audience member demographics).

Begin Marketing on LinkedIn

Are you ready to get started marketing your business on LinkedIn?

With so many updates and additions to LinkedIn since its launch, we can't wait to see how the network continues to make itself an integral resource and platform for marketers, job seekers, candidate seekers, and other professionals. Get started marketing on LinkedIn by experimenting with the best practices that make the most sense for your business.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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The Best Time to Post on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, & Pinterest

thomas@connectconsulting.ca (thomas rogers) — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 23:06:00 GMT

Social media is one of the best ways to amplify your brand and the great content you’re creating. But it isn’t enough to just post content to social whenever you feel like it. Some times are better than others. So, what are the best hours to post on each social media channel?

So, what are the best hours to post on each social media channel?

Unfortunately, there's no perfect answer. People browse each social network differently, and businesses may find different days and times work best for them. For example, while Twitter sees tweets perform well at hours like 6 p.m., Pinterest sees certain posts perform well as late at 2 a.m..

These aren't your only (or best) times, though. Good post timing depends on the platform you're using, as well as on how your target audience interacts with that platform, the regions and corresponding time zones you're targeting, and your marketing goals (e.g., clickthroughs versus shares).

However, there is ample data out there on the best time to post on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. The great folks at CoSchedule recently looked at a combination of its own original data and more than a dozen studies on this very topic -- from the likes of Buffer and Quintly , just to name a couple -- and created a helpful list of ideal posting times based on industry trends across today's most popular social networks. The industries they analyzed include:

Bookmark this post as a go-to set of guidelines, and refer to it next time you need to find the optimal posting times for your business.

To start, let's take a look at the U.S. About half of the country's population is in the Eastern Time Zone, and combined with the Central Time Zone, that accounts for over 75% of the total U.S population.

Given that sizable share, if you're targeting a U.S. audience, try alternating posting times in Eastern and Central Time Zones -- we'll get into those specific times in a bit.

If you're targeting users outside of the U.S., conduct some research to find out where they live and which social media channels they're using. That kind of data is available through studies like Smart Insights' Global Social Media Research Summary , or We Are Social's annual Digital Global Overview .

1. Best Time to Post on Instagram

Instagram is meant for use on mobile devices. Approximately 60% of its U.S. users use the app daily , though it would appear that many engage with content more during off-work hours than during the workday.

2. Best Time to Post on Facebook

People log in to Facebook on both mobile devices and desktop computers, both at work and at home. How it's used depends heavily on the audience.

3. Best Time to Post on Twitter

Like Facebook, people use Twitter on both mobile devices and desktop computers, both at work and at home. How it's used also depends heavily on audience -- but people often treat it like an RSS feed, and something to read during downtimes in their day, like commutes, work breaks, and so on.

4. Best Time to Post on LinkedIn

Roughly 25% of U.S. adults use LinkedIn , largely for professional purposes, during weekdays and the work hours. It's used with slightly less frequency than some of the other channels on this list.

5. Best Time to Post on Pinterest

Pinterest users skew heavily female , and 29% of users are active on this channel on a regular basis.

Creating an Effective Posting Schedule

There you have it, folks. Keep in mind that although each social network sees its engagement and clickthrough rates increase at specific hours and days of the week, how much engagement you get depends on your audience and content you publish for them.

Perhaps you've established a weekly video series that your audience always expects to see on Friday morning. In this case, don't listen to the data above -- you have an agreement with you followers, and this day and time works just for you.

Need more help developing your social media content calendar? Check out this helpful blog post.

Happy posting, tweeting, and pinning.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in 2017, but was updated for comprehensiveness in October 2019.

Technical SEO Crawlability Checklist

Mon, 11 Nov 2019 17:45:00 GMT

Crawlability is the foundation of your technical SEO strategy. Search bots will crawl your pages to gather information about your site.

If these bots are somehow blocked from crawling, they can’t index or rank your pages. The first step to implementing technical SEO is to ensure that all of your important pages are accessible and easy to navigate.

Below we'll cover some items to add to your checklist as well as some website elements to audit to ensure that your pages are prime for crawling.

1. Create an XML sitemap.

Remember that site structure we went over? That belongs in something called an XML Sitemap that helps search bots understand and crawl your web pages. You can think of it as a map for your website. You’ll submit your sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools once it’s complete. Remember to keep your sitemap up-to-date as you add and remove web pages.

2. Maximize your crawl budget.

Your crawl budget refers to the pages and resources on your site search bots will crawl .

Because crawl budget isn’t infinite, make sure you’re prioritizing your most important pages for crawling.

Here are a few tips to ensure that you’re maximizing your crawl budget:

3. Optimize your site architecture.

Your website has multiple pages. Those pages need to be organized in a way that allows search engines to easily find and crawl them. That’s where your site structure — often referred to as your website’s information architecture — comes in.

In the same way that a building is based on architectural design, your site architecture is how you organize the pages on your site.

Related pages are grouped together; for example, your blog homepage links to individual blog posts, which each link to their respective author pages. This structure helps search bots understand the relationship between your pages.

Your site architecture should also shape, and be shaped by, the importance of individual pages. The closer Page A is to your homepage, the more pages link to Page A, and the more link equity those pages have, the more importance search engines will give to Page A.

For example, a link from your homepage to Page A demonstrates more significance than a link from a blog post. The more links to Page A, the more “significant” that page becomes to search engines.

Conceptually, a site architecture could look something like this, where the About, Product, News, etc. pages are positioned at the top of the hierarchy of page importance.

Source

Make sure the most important pages to your business are at the top of the hierarchy with the greatest number of (relevant!) internal links.

4. Set a URL structure.

URL structure refers to how you structure your URLs, which could be determined by your site architecture. I’ll explain the connection in a moment. First, let’s clarify that URLs can have subdirectories, like blog.hubspot.com , and/or subfolders, like hubspot.com/blog , that indicate where the URL leads.

As an example, a blog post titled How to Groom Your Dog would fall under a blog subdomain or subdirectory. The URL might be www.bestdogcare.com/blog/how-to-groom-your-dog . Whereas a product page on that same site would be www.bestdogcare.com/products/grooming-brush .

Whether you use subdomains or subdirectories or “products” versus “store” in your URL is entirely up to you. The beauty of creating your own website is that you can create the rules. What’s important is that those rules follow a unified structure, meaning that you shouldn’t switch between blog.yourwebsite.com and yourwebsite.com/blogs on different pages. Create a roadmap, apply it to your URL naming structure, and stick to it.

Here are a few more tips about how to write your URLs:

Once you have your URL structure buttoned up, you’ll submit a list of URLs of your important pages to search engines in the form of an XML sitemap . Doing so gives search bots additional context about your site so they don’t have to figure it out as they crawl.

5. Utilize robots.txt.

When a web robot crawls your site, it will first check the /robot.txt, otherwise known as the Robot Exclusion Protocol. This protocol can allow or disallow specific web robots to crawl your site, including specific sections or even pages of your site. If you’d like to prevent bots from indexing your site, you’ll use a noindex robots meta tag. Let’s discuss both of these scenarios.

You may want to block certain bots from crawling your site altogether. Unfortunately, there are some bots out there with malicious intent — bots that will scrape your content or spam your community forums. If you notice this bad behavior, you’ll use your robot.txt to prevent them from entering your website. In this scenario, you can think of robot.txt as your force field from bad bots on the internet.

Regarding indexing, search bots crawl your site to gather clues and find keywords so they can match your web pages with relevant search queries. But, as we’ll discuss later, you have a crawl budget that you don’t want to spend on unnecessary data. So, you may want to exclude pages that don’t help search bots understand what your website is about, for example, a Thank You page from an offer or a login page.

No matter what, your robot.txt protocol will be unique depending on what you’d like to accomplish.

6. Add breadcrumb menus.

Remember the old fable Hansel and Gretel where two children dropped breadcrumbs on the ground to find their way back home? Well, they were on to something.

Breadcrumbs are exactly what they sound like — a trail that guides users to back to the start of their journey on your website. It’s a menu of pages that tells users how their current page relates to the rest of the site.

Source

Breadcrumbs should be two things: 1) visible to users so they can easily navigate your web pages without using the Back button, and 2) have structured markup language to give accurate context to search bots that are crawling your site.

Not sure how to add structured data to your breadcrumbs? Use this guide for BreadcrumbList .

7. Use pagination.

Remember when teachers would require you to number the pages on your research paper? That’s called pagination. In the world of technical SEO, pagination has a slightly different role but you can still think of it as a form of organization.

Pagination uses code to tell search engines when pages with distinct URLs are related to each other. For instance, you may have a content series that you break up into chapters or multiple webpages. If you want to make it easy for search bots to discover and crawl these pages, then you’ll use pagination.

The way it works is pretty simple. You’ll go to the <head> of page one of the series and use

rel=”next” to tell the search bot which page to crawl second. Then, on page two, you’ll use rel=”prev” to indicate the prior page and rel=”next” to indicate the subsequent page, and so on.

It looks like this…

On page one:

On page two:

Note that pagination is useful for crawl discovery, but is no longer supported by Google to batch index pages as it once was.

8. Check your SEO log files.

You can think of log files like a journal entry. Web servers (the journaler) record and store log data about every action they take on your site in log files (the journal). The data recorded includes the time and date of the request, the content requested, and the requesting IP address. You can also identify the user agent, which is a uniquely identifiable software (like a search bot, for example) that fulfills the request for a user.

But what does this have to do with SEO?

Well, search bots leave a trail in the form of log files when they crawl your site. You can determine if, when, and what was crawled by checking the log files and filtering by the user agent and search engine .

This information is useful to you because you can determine how your crawl budget is spent and which barriers to indexing or access a bot is experiencing. To access your log files, you can either ask a developer or use a log file analyzer, like Screaming Frog .

Just because a search bot can crawl your site doesn’t necessarily mean that it can index all of your pages. Let’s take a look at the next layer of your technical SEO audit — indexability .

< Technical SEO Foundations Indexability Checklist >

Technical SEO Clickability Checklist

Mon, 11 Nov 2019 17:45:00 GMT

While click-through rate (CTR) has everything to do with searcher behavior, there are things you can do to improve your clickability on the SERPs. While meta descriptions and page titles with keywords do impact CTR, we’re going to focus on the technical elements because that’s why you’re here. Ranking and click-through rate go hand-in-hand because, let’s be honest, searchers want immediate answers. The more your result stands out on the SERP, the more likely you’ll get the click. Let’s go over a few ways to improve your clickability.

While click-through rate (CTR) has everything to do with searcher behavior, there are things you can do to improve your clickability on the SERPs. While meta descriptions and page titles with keywords do impact CTR, we’re going to focus on the technical elements because that’s why you’re here.

Ranking and click-through rate go hand-in-hand because, let’s be honest, searchers want immediate answers. The more your result stands out on the SERP, the more likely you’ll get the click. Let’s go over a few ways to improve your clickability.

1. Use structured data.

Structured data employs a specific vocabulary called schema to categorize and label elements on your webpage for search bots. The schema makes it crystal clear what each element is, how it relates to your site, and how to interpret it. Basically, structured data tells bots, “This is a video,” “This is a product,” or “This is a recipe,” leaving no room for interpretation .

To be clear, using structured data is not a “clickability factor” (if there even is such a thing), but it does help organize your content in a way that makes it easy for search bots to understand, index, and potentially rank your pages.

2. Win SERP features.

SERP features , otherwise known as rich results, are a double-edged sword. If you win them and get the click-through, you’re golden. If not, your organic results are pushed down the page beneath sponsored ads, text answer boxes, video carousels, and the like.

Rich results are those elements that don’t follow the page title, URL, meta description format of other search results. For example, the image below shows two SERP features — a video carousel and “People Also Ask” box — above the first organic result.

While you can still get clicks from appearing in the top organic results, your chances are greatly improved with rich results.

How do you increase your chances of earning rich results? Write useful content and use structured data. The easier it is for search bots to understand the elements of your site, the better your chances of getting a rich result.

Structured data is useful for getting these ( and other search gallery elements ) from your site to the top of the SERPs, thereby, increasing the probability of a click-through:

3. Optimize for Featured Snippets.

One unicorn SERP feature that has nothing to do with schema markup is Featured Snippets, those boxes above the search results that provide concise answers to search queries.

Featured Snippets are intended to get searchers the answers to their queries as quickly as possible. According to Google , providing the best answer to the searcher’s query is the only way to win a snippet. However, HubSpot’s research revealed a few additional ways to optimize your content for featured snippets .

4. Consider Google Discover.

Google Discover is a relatively new algorithmic listing of content by category specifically for mobile users. It’s no secret that Google has been doubling down on the mobile experience; with over 50% of searches coming from mobile , it’s no surprise either. The tool allows users to build a library of content by selecting categories of interest (think: gardening, music, or politics).

At HubSpot, we believe topic clustering can increase the likelihood of Google Discover inclusion and are actively monitoring our Google Discover traffic in Google Search Console to determine the validity of that hypothesis. We recommend that you also invest some time in researching this new feature. The payoff is a highly engaged user base that has basically hand-selected the content you’ve worked hard to create.

The Perfect Trio

Technical SEO, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO work together to unlock the door to organic traffic. While on-page and off-page techniques are often the first to be deployed, technical SEO plays a critical role in getting your site to the top of the search results and your content in front of your ideal audience. Use these technical tactics to round out your SEO strategy and watch the results unfold.

< Rankability Checklist

The Ultimate Guide to Technical SEO

Mon, 11 Nov 2019 17:45:00 GMT

List three things you’ve done this year that pertain to search engine optimization (SEO). Do these tactics revolve around keyword research, meta descriptions, and backlinks? If so, you’re not alone. When it comes to SEO, these techniques are usually the first ones marketers add to their arsenal.

List three things you’ve done this year that pertain to search engine optimization (SEO).

Do these tactics revolve around keyword research, meta descriptions, and backlinks?

If so, you’re not alone. When it comes to SEO, these techniques are usually the first ones marketers add to their arsenal.

While these strategies do improve your site’s visibility in organic search, they’re not the only ones you should be employing. There’s another set of tactics that fall under the SEO umbrella.

Technical SEO refers to the behind-the-scenes elements that power your organic growth engine, such as site architecture, mobile optimization, and page speed. These aspects of SEO might not be the sexiest, but they are incredibly important.

The first step in improving your technical SEO is knowing where you stand by performing a site audit. The second step is to create a plan to address the areas where you fall short. We’ll cover these steps in-depth below.

Technical SEO vs. On-Page SEO vs. Off-Page SEO

Many people break down search engine optimization (SEO) into three different buckets: on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO. Let’s quickly cover what each means.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO refers to the content that tells search engines (and readers!) what your page is about, including image alt text, keyword usage, meta descriptions, H1 tags, URL naming, and internal linking. You have the most control over on-page SEO because, well, everything is on your site.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO tells search engines how popular and useful your page is through votes of confidence — most notably backlinks, or links from other sites to your own. Backlink quantity and quality boost a page’s PageRank . All things being equal, a page with 100 relevant links from credible sites will outrank a page with 50 relevant links from credible sites (or 100 irrelevant links from credible sites.)

Technical SEO

Technical SEO is within your control as well, but it’s a bit trickier to master since it’s less intuitive.

Why is technical SEO important?

You may be tempted to ignore this component of SEO completely; however, it plays an important role in your organic traffic. Your content might be the most thorough, useful, and well-written, but unless a search engine can crawl it, very few people will ever see it.

It’s like a tree that falls in the forest when no one is around to hear it … does it make a sound? Without a strong technical SEO foundation, your content will make no sound to search engines.

Let’s discuss how you can make your content resound through the internet.

Use the links below to navigate to the area(s) of technical SEO that you'd like to learn more about.

Technical SEO Foundations >

25 Social Media Campaign Ideas to Try in 2019

Fri, 08 Nov 2019 18:00:00 GMT

The summer before my sophomore year in college, I was scrolling through Facebook when I saw my friend dump a bucket of ice water on herself.

When I read the status update, I realized she was doing the Ice Bucket Challenge in an effort to promote awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) disease.

This was in 2014 when the Ice Bucket Challenge went viral and raised $220 million worldwide.

That's what a successful social media campaign looks like.

As a marketer, paying attention to these social media campaigns is important, especially since 45% of the world population is active on social media .

Although every social media campaign can't reach the same viral attention as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, there are several things you can try to improve the results of your social media efforts.

Below, let's review the top social media campaign ideas to try this year.

1. Build social proof.

One of the main benefits of social media marketing is that you can build social proof online. Your online reputation is one of the most important aspects of your brand. On social media, you can personify your brand and speak directly to your customers.

To build social proof, you might start a hashtag for users to submit testimonials. For example, P90X is an at-home training program that uses the hashtag #p90xresults to gather customer results.

This helps build social proof that their product works without seeming promotional. Additionally, you can share posts and interact with customers who mention your brand to spread awareness of the positive results your customers' get from using your product or service.

2. Post offers and discounts online.

To complement your marketing campaign, you can promote discounts and offers on social media. In fact, there's even a special section for offers on Facebook .

Discounts can help spread awareness and bring in new customers who might not have tried your product or service.

For example, a video game store, Play N Trade, uses the Facebook offer section to promote a free year membership:

3. Showcase happy customers.

The best people to promote your brand are your current customers. Using social media, you can showcase happy customers and their stories by liking or sharing posts of them using your product or service.

You can encourage customers to share photos of themselves with your product and create a hashtag to promote it.

For example, Coca-Cola started a marketing campaign called Share a Coke . The hashtag #shareacoke became a place where people would take pictures of the new product. This promoted their campaign and drove more customers to purchase their product so they could find a Coke with their name on it.

4. Host contests.

People love winning free stuff and getting discounts — which is why a content is such an effective social media campaign idea.

Hosting a contest on social media is an excellent way to drive engagement, traffic, and create brand awareness.

You can run several different types of contests including asking followers to tag a friend in the comments, answer a question in the comments, or send a photo of themselves with your product or service.

Additionally, if you're creating an ad campaign, you can host a casting contest and feature your customers in your ads.

5. Create calls-to-action on your posts.

Just like in the real world, being mysterious doesn't get you far. If you want your customers to do something, ask them to do it.

A call-to-action (CTA) does just that. By including a CTA on all your social media posts, people are more likely to interact and engage.

CTAs can be simple -- like asking people to sign up, subscribe, learn more, or comment below. A CTA can increase your click-through-rate (CTR), engagement, and success of your social media campaigns.

6. Encourage engagement with polls.

Who doesn't love a good poll when you're scrolling through your social media feed? Personally, I vote in every poll I see. I'm even tempted to vote in the ones that don't apply to me -- although I try not to because I don't want to ruin the numbers.

With polls, you'll learn more about your audience and increase engagement.

For example, TurboTax used the polls feature on Twitter to see if people considered rideshare drivers self-employed:

If you're running a social media campaign, or any campaign for that matter, you should consider adding a poll to your social accounts.

7. Put together an influencer giveaway.

Influencer marketing isn't a passing fad.

In fact, the influencer marketing industry is set to reach $10 billion by 2020 . Additionally, 80% of marketers say influencer marketing is effective for their businesses.

That's why you should consider putting together an influencer giveaway social media campaign. Working on your relationships with influencers in your industry will help increase brand awareness and build social proof.

After researching the influencers in your industry, contact them and suggest a giveaway.

8. Go live.

When you're putting together a social media campaign, don't underestimate live videos.

In a recent survey of 1,000 respondents , 80% said they would rather watch a live video from a brand than read a blog, and 82% prefer live video to social media posts.

You can use this to your advantage.

Try hosting a live stream, talking to your customers in real-time, or asking and answering questions. This will help you connect with your audience in a way that personifies your brand. By personifying your brand, people are more likely to feel connected to your company in the same way they feel connected to a friend.

9. Have a takeover.

Takeovers is an opportunity to keep things interesting in your Stories section of your social profiles. You can have employees, partners, or guests host a "takeover" for the day. This entails having someone else — apart from your social media team — regularly post content on your social media page(s) for a day.

For example, every day The Skimm has an employee take over their Instagram Stories. Typically, they show followers what they do in a day, discuss what their job is, what their responsibilities are, and give career advice. This helps with branding and also promotes their workplace culture.

If you're running a social media campaign, adding a takeover to your promotion can help increase engagement — additionally, having a guest or partner takeover your account can help your brand reach their audience, as well.

10. Publish behind-the-scenes content.

Behind-the-scenes content is one of the best ways to connect with your audience.

By showcasing a behind-the-scenes look, you can keep current and prospective customers up-to-date, brag about your team, and create an emotional connection that makes you relatable.

With any social media campaign, behind-the-scenes content can show off your personality and broaden your content.

11. Livestream events.

A social media campaign is one of the best ways to promote your events. But the promotion shouldn't end on the day of the event.

Instead, consider live streaming certain parts of the event on social media. This will create more buzz about the event, encourage interaction with attendees, and is helpful for people who couldn't attend the event.

12. Design a viral campaign.

Creating a viral marketing campaign is an easy sentence to write, but a hard concept to execute.

When you're brainstorming your next social media campaign, answer these questions:

Like the ALS challenge, creating some sort of online challenge that influencers can easily participate in will help spread the word.

13. Write event hashtags.

If you're hosting an event, don't forget to create a hashtag. With a hashtag, you can reply to attendees and keep track of questions.

For example, at INBOUND , the event hashtag is typically #INBOUND19 (or whatever year it is). This hashtag helps HubSpot curates content related to INBOUND, including attendees' pictures of themselves at the event, and attendees' testimonials/opinions on the event.

If you can get an event hashtag trending, then you'll be able to create more brand awareness and interact with your customers.

14. Interact with your customers.

Speaking of interacting with your customers, you can design a social media campaign specifically around talking to your customers.

For example, in 2014 Taylor Swift did something called “Swiftmas.” This is when she went on social media, looked for highly engaged fans, chose her top fans, and then sent them presents. She even coined a term for this process, called “Taylurking.” If she commented a Christmas tree on one of your posts, you're getting a present.

This is a great example of interacting with your audience in a way that doesn't feel promotional, yet still creates brand awareness.

15. Use the holidays as inspiration.

Similar to the Taylor Swift example above, you can use the holidays as an inspiration for a social media campaign.

You can use your social accounts to promote a holiday sale, a Halloween contest, or sell holiday products like ornaments.

When it isn't the holiday season, you can still use current events to inspire your social media campaigns. Remember, your social media posts don't happen in a silo. They're happening in the real world, and they should be timely.

16. Provide educational content.

It's easy to get in the habit of just posting your products or services on social media. But that would be a mistake.

Your content should be educational and create value. When you're creating a social media campaign, ask yourself what value it'll bring to your audience. That's how you'll brainstorm content ideas that could go viral.

17. Repurpose high-performing content.

Every time you run a social media campaign, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. You can use old content that has performed well in the past.

Do you have a podcast that has really high downloads? Or a blog that has the most views? You can repurpose that content for social media. Create a video for Stories or IGTV and summarize it in a caption.

Old content is a great way to boost your social media campaigns.

18. Curate content.

Your social media doesn't have to include content that's only from you. In fact, sharing other people's content is a great way to humanize your brand and create value for your audience.

If your social media campaign needs some more post ideas, consider curating content from other people that complement your promotion.

Again, you don't want your social media profile to feel too promotional. Your posts should have variety.

19. Participate in popular trends.

It's always important to remember that the world is still spinning while you're in your marketing meeting, brainstorming social media campaign ideas.

Consider trends, like popular hashtags, and participate in them. For example, #throwbackthursday still hasn't gone out of style. If your posts need a little inspiration, look for popular hashtags and trends and jump on board.

Customers like to see that the brands they follow are staying current.

20. Adopt new social media platforms.

If a new social media platform comes out, be an early adopter and run social media campaigns on it.

These campaigns are more likely to be seen by your audience because the sites haven't developed complicated algorithms yet.

Plus, you should always look for new places to engage with your audience and learn more about them.

21. Plan “caption this” contests.

A fun and unique contest, the “caption this" contest is especially helpful for those times where you have a very intriguing photo but are having a hard time writing a caption.

These contests encourage creativity and are a fun way to interact with your audience.

When you're planning a social media campaign, consider a "caption this" contest to encourage engagement.

22. Design geofilters on Snapchat.

Geofilters on Snapchat are an excellent way to increase brand awareness and create memories with your audience.

If your customers take a photo at an event, they'll appreciate the geofilter. By posting photos of themselves with this filter, your customers are a free, walking advertisement.

Again, the best way to promote your brand is through your current customers. Geofilters will help you do just that.

23. Generate hype for your launches.

When you're about to launch a product, service, or event, you should create a social media campaign to generate hype.

Previews of your product or contests to figure out what the product is will create excitement among your customers.

For example, in anticipation of the summer launch of Kylie Jenner's eye shadow palette , she posted swatches, videos, photos of her in the makeup, and tutorials on her Instagram.

This creates enthusiasm among her customers — as a result, she sold out almost immediately.

24. Come up with human interest campaigns.

At the end of the day, your audience relates to people, not companies. You should always try to humanize your brand in your social media campaigns.

To do this, include a human interest element in all your campaigns.

For example, when Kim Kardashian West launched her shapewear Skims , her social media campaign included videos of the models in her shapewear talking about how it made them feel more comfortable and confident in their skin. The human element in this campaign allowed followers to see the value in Kim's new product.

25. Develop entertaining segments.

You know how James Corden has fun segments on his show the Late Late Show , like Carpool Karaoke? Those fun, bite-sized segments are crucial elements to making his show as fun to watch as it is.

When you're creating a social media campaign, follow in his footsteps and create fun, entertaining segments just like you might for a TV show. After all, most social media has long-form video content like Facebook Watch or IGTV.

This type of content can increase traffic and engagement for your social media campaigns.

Brainstorming social media campaigns isn't always easy. However, you can use this list to get started.

The 11 Best Social Media Dashboard Tools & Apps

Thu, 07 Nov 2019 09:00:00 GMT

When implementing your social media strategy, it's easy to realize that manually posting on multiple different websites, multiple times a day, isn't optimal for your busy schedule. But it's not easy to tell from a baseline or pricing page which tools are not only the best for efficiency but best for your business.

Instead of spending hours of extra research combing through all of your options and sitting through countless demos and free trials, we've compiled a list of the best social media dashboards that fit your budget and brand.

These social media dashboards are optimized for every type of SMB; whether you're a social media team or a party of one, these apps will help you accomplish your goals in a streamlined, efficient way.

1. Later

Price: $9, $19, $29, $49 per month, and enterprise pricing Why it's great: Instagram scheduling

While you can connect Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest profiles, Later is best for Instagram scheduling. This is because of its image-based content calendar scheduling, so you can see a bird's eye view of your brand in a monthly, visual format.

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Later is also an Instagram partner, which means it integrates with Instagram's API. This partnership means your account information will stay completely safe, which is important for Instagram Business accounts that have Shopping set up.

2. Sendible

Price: $29, $99, $199, $299 per month Why it's great: Agency-based management

Are you a social media or marketing agency? Sendible may be the answer to unkempt management: it's a tool fit for an agency with clients. It helps you streamline how you manage brands and offers a couple unique features that help you succeed.

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Sendible has a royalty-free image search tool and a Canva integration. Sendible also has social listening tools, a Reports function, scheduling, and post previews. To put it simply: this is a full dashboard and suite of tools to put your client accounts all in one place.

3. Tailwind

Price: $9.99, $799.99 per month, and enterprise pricing Why it's great: Pinterest and Instagram management

Tailwind is a very unique program, providing services for two apps normally not paired with each other: Pinterest and Instagram. It makes sense, however, considering both apps focus on visual multimedia. Offering a full media dashboard with scheduling, social listening, and analytics tools, Tailwind also has a few interesting program-specific services.

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First, it gives suggestions about how to improve Instagram and Pinterest performance. It also comes with a way to promote Pinterest content and manage Instagram user-generated content. If your brand is heavily focused on visuals, Tailwind may be right for you.

4. Sprout Social

Price: $99, $149, and $249 per user per month Why it's great: Team-based management

Sprout Social is a dashboard platform that's focused entirely on social media teams. What you get for your money is a full suite of tools, including options that allow you to create and schedule posts, social listening tools, and most of all: analytic data.

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The analytic tools are the shining star of Sprout Social. Expansive, in-depth reporting is available. If that's a focus for your brand, consider Sprout. They make the reports so professional and easy to read, there's no editing required.

5. MeetEdgar

Price: $49/month Why it's great: 100% automated scheduling

MeetEdgar is an app with a different approach to social media management, is. All users do is upload categorically-based content into their account and create time slots for when they want their account to post said content.

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Then, according to the time slots and categories, the app will schedule and upload content. If you want your Twitter account to post a meme at 11 AM on a Thursday, MeetEdgar would search through the "Meme" category of content you've already uploaded, schedule, and post it.

Managers might like this option, if they don't have enough time to constantly schedule and upload content. They can plug in their entire content calendar at the start of the month and remove the heavy lifting for the next few weeks.

Post-enhancing dashboards such as these three can take care of your social strategy without losing any of quality.

1. TweetDeck

Price: Free Why it's great: Twitter dash management

TweetDeck is amazing if you're tired of flipping back and forth through the different tabs on Twitter. It’s a free extension of twitter (no download required) that automatically gives you your account's Home, Notifications, Trending, and Messages in a dashboard view.

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This app is especially handy for posting quickly. You can engage with your Twitter in-app, and it feels like a much faster method of running your account than the in-browser functionality . Plus, TweetDeck automatically updates with any new notifications.

2. HubSpot

Price: Free plan, or $50, $800, $3200/month Why it's great: All-in-one social media software

With HubSpot's social media management tool, you get an all-inclusive package. Connect up to 300 accounts and schedule up to 10,000 posts a month. Plus, for super in-depth planners, you can schedule posts up to 3 years in advance.

3. TweetStats

Price: Free Why it's great: Free basic Twitter analytics

This little website is super handy if you don't have the budget to pay for analytic tools. TweetStats can give you the analytics of any Twitter account in about two minutes. The website displays graphs of when you've tweeted, the volume of tweets, time you usually tweet, and your most used words and hashtags.

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Using TweetStats is especially helpful if you want to view the ecosystem of your Twitter. Are you staying on-brand? Are you meeting your tweet goals? What hashtags can you elevate the use of?

4. TubeBuddy

Price: Free plan, or $9, $19, $49 per month Why it's great: YouTube management

If you have a large YouTube presence, consider TubeBuddy. TubeBuddy offers a hefty suite of perks to present a full dashboard. Categories include video dashboard, video SEO, bulk processing, promotion, data & research, and productivity.

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The screenshot above features one of TubeBuddy's card template features. Card templates streamline the process of uploading and finalizing YouTube videos, making it easier to sort videos into a playlist on your channel.

You can install the program for free on Chrome, working sort of like an extension. The free plan gives you access to analytics, productivity, and SEO tools to get started. TubeBuddy is also a YouTube Partner and integrates with Alexa.

5. MavSocial

Price: Free plan, or $19, $78, $199, $499 per month Why it's great: Visual-based streamlined management

This is a great post-enhancing tool. MavSocial has a focus on visual-based management, and as such, offers unique perks, like editing multimedia content and a stock photo digital library. With the editing tools, you can add filters to your photos, crop, and search for royalty-free images.

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On top of all of this, MavSocial has a full dashboard suite, meaning you can schedule content and engage with followers. MavSocial supports YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The app is also an Instagram Partner.

6. Hootsuite

Price: Free plan, $29, $129, $599 per month Why it's great: All-in-one social media management

Hootsuite is a popular social media tool and boasts over 15 million users . The free plan lets you add three social accounts from different platforms on one screen and has a limit on how many posts are available to make.

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While user-friendly, Hootsuite is an expansive app. You can create ads, running an ROI report on those ads, and also has options to schedule and create posts. Note that you can only post on your Instagram using the scheduler, if you have an Instagram Business account.

Every business is unique, and so is every social media dashboard. Because of that, finding the best fit can be daunting. Covering all your bases can be simplified with a social media dashboard, as well as building a community and social presence.

If you want to take a crack at building your own content calendar that'll help you plan your social media posts, check out our article here .

6 Reasons Why You Need a Digital Media Strategy

Wed, 13 Mar 2019 14:51:40 GMT

Everyone needs a digital media strategy, and not for the reasons you may expect. In fact, if you think digital strategies are just promotional, think again.

#1 Most Important Part of Your Campaign

Wed, 13 Mar 2019 14:50:46 GMT

If you think money is the only thing that matters in your campaign, think again. There are many more things to think about.

Notes from the Other Side

Wed, 13 Mar 2019 14:49:26 GMT

Always wondered what happens on the other side of your campaign. Well, now you’re going to find out.

Why Technology Isn't Enough for Your Digital Campaign

Wed, 13 Mar 2019 14:48:21 GMT

Just because you have a snazzy Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat campaign doesn’t mean you’re covered.

10 Reasons You Should Love Blogging

Wed, 13 Mar 2019 14:43:18 GMT

Blog posts are a great way to get recognized within your community and share your voice. Here are the top 10 reasons you should love writing blog posts.

Anyone can make one:
For better or worse, anyone can write a blog post about anything they want. Everyone has a voice and thet voices will rise to the top.

The writer can show their personality:
In blog posts, the writer has more leeway to add in their voice and personality than other types of writing.

Blogs are a great form of mass communication:
You can help people, learn new things, entertain your audience-the possibilities are endless and amazing. Blogging opens up all of these to a very wide audience.

You can make money:
Get the right blog going and you can make a lot of money through advertising and sponsored posts.

It allows people to craft better thoughts:
Instead of reading haphazard, uneducated Facebook statuses, it's much better to see people's thought process in a well-written blog post.

You can establish a community:
Blogging allows you to connect with other individuals who share the same interests. Sharing ideas and opinions within your community helps establish yourself as a thought leader.

Good for SEO:
Keeping content on your site fresh and relevant, you can use your blog to boost the search engine ranking (SEO) of your site and your business.

It brings people back to your site:
If your blog is strong enough and updated regularly, people will come back looking for more and bring traffic back to your site as well.

It's free:
It costs you a grand total of zero dollars to post to the blog, so if you have something to say, there's nothing to stop you.

You can establish yourself as a thought leader:
A blog is a great place for your original thoughts, and it can be a wonderful way to show off your individuality. If people like your ideas, you can become a thought leader in your industry!

What else do you love about blogs? Let me know!

Views – Artifakt Digital, Inc.

Why You Need A Digital Marketing Audit and How To Perform One

The key to making data-driven decisions.

5 Ways To Optimize Your Dealership's Website

Cars, Boats, RV's, and More.

5 Reasons Why Remarketing is Important for Your Dealership

Show your customers what they want to see.

Mastering Digital Marketing in 2021

Mastering Digital Marketing in 2021

Travel and hospitality: How to use social media as the world reopens

The travel & hospitality industries

Travel: Matt Ovenden, CEO & Founder at ‘Borrow a Boat’

Hospitality: Simon Allison, Head of Marketing at ‘Inception Group’

Using social media to re-engage your audience

If you already have an engaged social media audience…

If you get low engagement on your social media channels…

Creative use of social media

Mr Fogg’s @mrfoggsgb

The Wine Rooms @thewineroomstw

Fuggles Beer Cafe @fugglesbeercafe

Using digital tools to ease the transition

Online reservation systems:

If you’re using Squarespace…

If you’re using Wordpress…

If you’re using a custom-built website…

Above all… do things your way

READ MORE SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS

Moving your retail business online: COVID-19 and the rise of small business

The impact of COVID-19 on the retail industry

The rise of eCommerce and DTC brands

Big brands vs small businesses

Social media for small business

The future of the high street

Is it too late?

How to Avoid Scams During COVID

Welcome to The New Decade of Marketing

4 Marketing AI Predictions for 2020, According to Experts

4 AI Predictions for 2020

1. Content marketers will have to adopt artificial intelligence.

2. Consumers are going to demand more personalization.

3. AI is going to continue to enable and help SEO strategists.

4. AI will fit more naturally into the daily lives of marketers.

Navigating AI in 2020 and Beyond

How Often Should You (or Your Company) Blog? [New Data]

Organic traffic

Brand awareness

Blogging Frequency

Organic traffic

Brand awareness

The Ultimate Guide to Content Distribution

Content Types for Distribution

Ebooks

Podcasts and Interviews

Videos

Infographics

Case Studies and Success Stories

Webinars

Blogs

Content Distribution Channels

1. Owned Content Distribution

2. Earned Content Distribution

3. Paid Content Distribution

1. Research your target audience.

2. Audit your content.

3. Choose your content distribution channels.

4. Decide on your content types.

5. Set your content distribution KPIs and goals.

6. Build an editorial calendar (and include distribution).

7. Create your content.

8. Distribute and market your content.

9. Measure and analyze your results.

Content Tools

1. Medium

2. LinkedIn Pulse

PR Tools

3. PR Newswire

4. HARO

Social Tools

5. HubSpot

6. ClickToTweet