Tag: content marketing

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When to Focus on Your SEO Strategy

Karin Meglitsch

SEO

Many brands often try all sorts of approaches to attract new visitors but may often neglect their SEO strategy, which is crucial to gain new customers. It is an essential feature of digital marketing that you cannot afford to leave behind, so make sure that you plan your budget accordingly. Focusing on your SEO strategy is vital and is one of the top ways to convert results.

 

There is plenty of information available on the top SEO trends, but many fail to understand what it is when they should incorporate it into their strategies, and why they need to do so. We will help you understand the Why, When and How for an efficient SEO strategy.

When Should You Focus on Your SEO Strategy?

Although there are times when you need to consider refreshing your SEO strategy for better results, in the long run, there are certain times when it is critical:

Site Relaunch

Relaunching your website is a significant task to undertake and you should always perform an SEO audit before you give the green light, just to be on the safe side. An efficient audit can help identify potential SEO pitfalls so that you can fix the issues prior to your relaunch. This often consists of pre-launch and post-launch audits that include factors such as, smooth web analytics, review of technical issues such as coding, and images that affect a page’s overall speed. It also includes reviewing links, benchmarking SEO metrics, and reviewing content for your website. 

Site Pre-launch

People often think that they should launch their websites first and focus on SEO later.   Although you may think your website is more or less ready for launch, it may need significant tweaks to rank on Google. On-page SEO may work, but often it isn’t enough, and if your website lacks backlinks, external links, meta descriptions, keywords, and SEO titles, you can’t expect to attract many visitors.  A significant pitfall that most companies face is not checking the load time for their new pages. Page speed has a significant impact on your rankings because your website can lose a lot of organic traffic and its rankings may proceed further down in Google’s results.

 

Keep in mind that Google can take about two months to rank new domains and will more than likely not find value in a website where it cannot quickly extract relevant content. If Google and other search engines recognize you as authoritative for a product or service, it will feed visitors’ results with your content. Also, not planning your SEO pre-launch can result in higher costs to redesign your website and revisit every element.  By not planning ahead you will lose time and — more importantly — the opportunity for conversions.

Site Post-Launch

Sometimes you may think that your website is ready, but you may still not see an increase in visitors. This is the perfect time for you to revisit your SEO strategy and make technical changes to optimize your website. The best way to do this is to perform thorough internal checks for at least two months and observe the changes in traffic and rankings. After your website launch, you should make an SEO checklist to confirm whether internal links work well and that no pages contain a 302 redirect (temporary redirect) because Google will not filter authority sources unless the redirect is permanent, such as a 301 redirect. Apart from this, you should also check for 404 errors because your site’s crawl impact takes a negative blow if Google takes too long to find your unique URLs.

Another crucial point to add to your checklist would be to determine page speed. According to a 2020 study by Google, Deloitte, and 55 Data Company, a mere 0.1 millisecond change in site speed has dramatic impacts on customer behavior. Page ranking affects every aspect of digital marketing, such as traffic, site rankings, conversion, and customer engagement.

Rebranding

Whenever a company is rebranding for any reason, be it an outdated image or a change in management, they will risk losing their SEO ranking progress and may have to start from scratch. While rebranding is a good thing and may be necessary at times, you need to understand how it impacts SEO. You might be worried about the hit that your website will take, but it doesn’t have to be a devastating blow as long as you carry out research. It is crucial that you revisit your existing strategy and make changes to prevent low rankings. For example, make sure that your old website redirects to the existing correct pages and uses similar URL structures and similar content. Apart from this, try to keep to your original domain name and preserve your old content as much as possible.

Site Rebuild

Often companies wait until the website is almost complete before implementing SEO because many business professionals consider it to be an addition instead of the heart of their website. Good SEO can maximize customers and improve revenue if incorporated correctly. If you think that it isn’t necessary, you risk losing time and resources to fix essential features later, and organic traffic results from significant technical SEO issues. When you’re rebuilding or redesigning your website, you will need to focus on: technical problems that affect page speed, structural issues such as site navigation, access, organization, and efficient URL structures.  Apart from this, content is another significant element that can benefit from SEO direction for content development, publishing, and displaying. 

Content Refresh

Your website can run into two significant problems; how to create new content and how to update existing content. Website content has a lifespan and after a while, it will stop generating results and website traffic may come to a halt.  A dynamic SEO strategy and content creation go hand in hand.  For example, if you’ve produced a good blog post that has resulted in better traffic for your company, you should update the content so that it continues to have value and generate traffic back to your website after a long period of time. There are plenty of benefits to aligning your strategy with content and one of the most significant is ranking better on Google. 

 

Google’s aim is to serve the best results to the user’s search and it requires fresh content that is up-to-date. Hence, whatever you post needs to be authoritative, trustworthy, and relevant. Your SEO strategy can include certain keywords that your brand focuses on that you can include in your content. You can also utilize deep-linking and reposting on social media for better results.

Expectations and a Successful SEO Overhaul

 

If you’re reevaluating your SEO strategy, your website ranking is bound to drop. Since Google takes about two to three months until it recognizes new domains, be patient, and wait until then for traffic to pick up.

 

Here are a Few Tips for a Successful Overhaul:

 

  1. Don’t change your website name unless you need a fresh start. This could lower your rankings.
  2. Refrain from doing away with your old content completely. Try to produce similar content if your old website achieved good rankings.
  3. Keep important keywords that rank well, redirect to new pages, and create relevant inbound and external links.
  4. Promote your new brand or your site relaunch on social media as much as possible.

 

How HUSL can Help

We partner with brands to help them plan and execute SEO strategies and campaigns. SEO is just one part of a larger digital strategy. What happens if your SEO campaign is successful but you aren’t converting traffic on your pages into leads and leads into revenue? Drop us a line, and let’s see how HUSL can help you build and convert quality traffic.

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5 Clever SaaS Companies Doing Content Marketing Right

Emily Nyaz

Marketing

It is often said ‘content is king’ but we think for the modern B2B marketer, content is air. That makes it so much harder to decide: should B2B marketers look for content marketing services or keep the work in-house?

 

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies understand the value of content. Content marketing allows you to build brand awareness, generate leads, and get prospects down the funnel.

 

According to Content Marketing Institute’s 2020 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends Survey, nearly half of B2B  marketers expect their content marketing budget to increase in 2020. That’s because it works.

 

For SaaS companies that don’t have traditional sales teams, content marketing is an essential part of the marketing mix. By providing educational resources, you can…

 

  • Teach prospects about your services
  • Help them do their jobs better
  • Nurture leads down the marketing funnel
  • Become a go-to expert in your space

 

Most of us know the benefits of content marketing, but what does it look like in practice? Content marketing has changed a lot in the last decade due to the evolution of both audience and technology. See the marketing metrics that are working.

 

For a little inspiration, we’re sharing how five SaaS companies are reaping benefits from content marketing.  Read on:

 

1. Groove HQ

When Alex Turnbull, Founder of Groove, a help desk for small businesses and startups, started digging into his marketing, he realized that the company blog needed some love. The existing blog was full of generic tips on how to be better at customer support. Turnbull knew it wasn’t super inspiring.

So, Turnbull and his team decided to share their journey as an SaaS company, in the hopes that other SaaS companies would read along, and then get interested in the software. The resulting blog was honest, tactical, and inspiring.

The blog doesn’t function alone, either. The Groove team built email marketing into the overall experience, allowing readers to follow the journey through email.

SaaS content marketing example
Source: Groove HQ

Later on, Groove added a blog dedicated to customer support to reach prospects and customers who wanted advice on how to get better at providing a great customer experience.

 

Key takeaway: Tell the truth with fairness, integrity and accountability.

 

2. CoSchedule

CoSchedule offers an editorial calendar to content marketers. The software is great, but they’re competing in a cluttered space. After all, there is so much content out there about content marketing.

At first glance, it seems like there’s no room to succeed. But CoSchedule was able to differentiate themselves from the competition with content that was beyond valuable.

Not only do they provide insanely well-researched posts on how to write the perfect blog headline and how to improve content with “the skyscraper technique,” but they also provide a variety of templates that can be printed out and used by any content marketing manager.

Additionally, CoSchedule went all in with content, evident from the images in each post, which are well-designed and on-brand. The team doesn’t rely on silly GIFs or bizarre stock photos. Everything is branded and beautiful.

 

Key takeaway: Create detailed content give data and examples

CoSchedule example of content marketing for SaaS
Source: CoSchedule.com

3. Shopify

Shopify provides an easy to use website builder for those selling goods online, and they’ve long boasted some of the best small business content on the internet.

It’s not just that the content itself is informative and valuable– the Shopify has done significant work in organizing their content to make sure that visitors can find what they need. For example, Shopify has the following categories on the right of its blog:

Shopify example of content marketing for SaaS
Source: Shopify.com/blog

This design allows visitors to navigate towards the topics that interest them, rather than forcing them to read the latest blog post.

 

Key takeaway: Make your words the hero of your design

4. Wistia

Unlike most SaaS companies, Wistia does much of its content marketing using video, rather than words. Of course this makes a lot of sense for a company that sells video embedding software to businesses.

Wistia provides quirky, educational resources on how to create professional videos through an all-inclusive hub. A lot of their tips explain how to do more with less. Like CoSchedule, Wistia creates many custom images to complement blog posts and videos.

Wistia SaaS content marketing example
Source: Wistia.com/blog/understand-your-audience

Bonus: Wistia publishes their videos using their own software, which makes it obvious how good the videos are when a prospect watches. They feel much like watching the best possible how-to video on YouTube.

 

Key takeaway: Use customer-centric point of view.

5. Grammarly

Grammarly is a best friend to any writer, marketer, or editor. After all, the software helps ensure there are no grammatical or spelling errors in a piece of writing.

When it comes to content marketing, Grammarly is extremely charming. They’ve developed a brand voice that feels like a cool, hip librarian who’s dishing all they know about the written word.

A lot of Grammarly’s posts are positively useful, but it’s clear the team has done a lot of work to consider SEO. For example, how many times have you googled something like “lay vs lie”?

Grammarly SaaS content marketing
Source: Grammarly.com/blog

 

Key takeaway: Your brand overall style must be consistent

Caring about content

All the Saas companies we’ve explored have different approaches to content marketing, but they have one thing in common. They all believe that content marketing is important, and have dedicated substantial resources to making sure that the assets they publish are up to snuff.

If your company has questions on marketing your SaaS product, reach out to us! 

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5 B2B Content Marketing Trends That Will Take Over 2017

Emily Nyaz

Marketing

At the start of the new year, you’re probably considering what you can do in the coming months to drive traffic, revenue, and more sales. But marketing is an ever-changing landscape. Will the tactics that worked last year continue to work in 2017? Are people still downloading eBooks? Has the social media sphere changed? Enter content marketing. 

You need to be on top of the latest trends if you want to propel business forward. One thing is for sure– B2B businesses continue to see content marketing as an integral part of their customer acquisition and retention strategies.

Content marketing is here to stay, and B2B companies that want to generate more business need to pay attention. That’s why we’re sharing 5 B2B content marketing trends that you should focus on in 2017.

1. Email takes a front seat over social

In the past few years, the social media landscape has changed. It used to be that B2B companies could gain substantial organic traffic from sites like Facebook and Twitter by promoting their content. Today, it’s become much more pay-to-play, and many companies feel jerked around by ever-changing algorithms and ad prices.

Because of this, many companies are focusing their efforts on email marketing. Although email marketing is a more traditional tactic, B2B businesses are finding clever ways to use email to nurture leads and convert them to prospects. Enhanced features such as personalization, segmentation, and automation have made email one of the best channels for ROI.

Content marketing provides the fuel for every successful email marketing program. When you email your base, you need great content that inspires them to engage with your brand. According to a study by CMI and MarketingProfs, email was rated as as the top success metric for measuring content marketing.

HubSpot b2b email marketing
HubSpot targets business professionals with this email campaign promoting their webinar.

2. Shifted focus on influencers

In 2016, we saw many B2B brands going after influencers for content marketing assets, with a flurry of blog posts with insights from the experts. Many brands created round-up posts featuring industry experts from around the web, in turn finding ways to get links and mentions.

This tactic proved successful, but it has become overplayed. Influencers are more careful about what the say, where they get quoted, and how they share the content. Influencer content was a hot trend of 2016, but we expect the focus on it to shift in 2017 as B2B brands get savvier about how to use influencers.

A McKinsey study found that influencer marketing earned, on average, $9.60 for every $1 spent in 2015, compared to 2014 where $6.85 was generated per $1 spent. If you want to see substantial ROI from influencer marketing in 2017, you need to be deliberate in your strategy and approach.

Joanna Gaines of HGTV's Fixer Upper promotes Darling Magazine.
Joanna Gaines of HGTV’s Fixer Upper promotes Darling Magazine.

3. Higher quality content for niche audiences

As the content marketing space gets more competitive, it won’t be enough to just have content. In fact, B2B businesses are not only going all in with content marketing, but they’re getting much better at producing better content.

According to Content Marketing Institute, 72% of B2B marketers cited creating engaging content as a top priority in 2016. This coming year, we expect that companies will create even better content at a more efficient rate.

Additionally, brands will get better at narrowing their focus and speaking directly to their audiences. Rand Fishkin, Founder of Moz, tweeted that marketers should “get more niche—serve smaller and smaller interest groups.”

4. Organizations get real about what it takes to do content

In the past, marketing leaders saw content marketing as something they could throw at an inexperienced intern, reasoning that writing blog posts wasn’t that time consuming or difficult. Many in-house content marketers complained that they didn’t have the budget or human resources to create the big, bold content that gets attention in the B2B space.

In 2016, that changed. According to CMI, 85% of B2B organizations are now investing in content. These organizations are realizing that in order to do content marketing well, they needed to hire experts in the field, people who have experience building and running content marketing strategies.

5. Rise of native advertising

Ads are everywhere. According to a study by HubSpot, 85% of people notice the ads in their Facebook NewsFeed. Because ads have taken over, people are beginning to opt out. This makes traditional digital advertising less effective.

Enter native advertising. B2B brands are increasingly turning to native advertising strategies as a way to promote content. This allows them to get the message out about their brand while providing value to the audience. It’s a win-win for B2B, and we expect to see more of it in 2017.

LinkedIn Sponsored Updates
LinkedIn sponsored updates captures the attention of engaged people on LinkedIn and drives qualified traffic back to your business page.

Wrapping up

Content marketing will take centerstage in 2017, as marketers focus on new ways to get audience attention. They’ll double down on email, get real about investing in content, and experiment with native advertising. Do you have any additional insights on B2B marketing trends for content creators? We’d love to hear them and continue the conversation!

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Using Social Media for SaaS Companies: 5 Things You Should Know

Emily Nyaz

Marketing

If you’ve ever read up on how today’s brands use social media, you’ll notice a pretty big trend. Most of the success stories comes from big companies who sell to consumers.

Yep, it’s easy to find inspiring stories about how McDonald’s, DiGiorno’s Pizza, and the NFL are using social.

But SaaS companies are benefiting from social media, too. These nimble software companies are boosting brand awareness, engaging with prospects and customers, and learning how to link social with email and other areas of marketing.

Social media isn’t something you can ignore. In fact, you need to be paying attention to your presence and working to improve it.

Today, we’re dishing what we know about the social media landscape and sharing 5 things you should know about using social media for SaaS companies.

Why social matters for SaaS

SaaS companies turn to social primarily to boost brand awareness. Social media can also be used to field support questions, convert leads, and educate customers.

Here’s why social matters for SaaS:

    • Everyone’s on social — Social has taken over. More than 1 billion people are active on Facebook. Not only do people use social media to connect with friends, family, and colleagues, but they also use it as a search engine. As an SaaS company, you want interested parties to be able to find you on social sites.
    • Emergence of new channels — You don’t have to stick to Facebook and Twitter. There are many different social media types and communities to join. Other options include Quora, LinkedIn, reddit, Instagram, StackOverflow, and Snapchat.
    • Opportunities for targeting & ads — Facebook has some of the best ad targeting on the internet, and SaaS companies routinely take advantage. You can even upload a list of email addresses to Facebook and target ads to a particular list.

5 tips for social media success

Want to be successful as an SaaS company on social? Here’s how:

1. Separate social from sales

When you start a new marketing activity, it’s easy to obsess over ROI. You want to know exactly how many sales you’ll get from a new marketing campaign. When it comes to social media, it’s actually best to step back from ROI and focus on relationship building and authenticity.

Yes, you can use social ads to increase sales, but you should start by using social as a way to connect with your audience. Think of it first as a relationship-builder and communication platform. Provide content that your audience wants. Offer support when they need it. Be authentic.

2. Choose your channels wisely

Many marketers think their brand needs to be on every social media platform available. They hear about Snapchat and rush to create a presence, or focus only on Instagram because that’s what an expert suggested.

Thing is, your SaaS company is unique. It’s best to go deep on one or two channels that make sense to your company’s strategy than spread yourself too thin. Get to know a social media network inside and out– then go all in.

3. Be ready to pay for reach

Unfortunately, it’s extremely difficult to reach an audience organically, especially on Facebook. Although this has caused frustration among marketers, it’s relatively easy and inexpensive to pay to play.

Set aside some funds for promoting on social media. Facebook offers the best targeting, as well as very low costs. LinkedIn is a great option for B2B companies, but the cost-per-click can be expensive.

4. Make life easy on your audience

An SaaS company shouldn’t be on social just to make sales. Your first goal should be to make life easy for your audience. There are many activities that can help you reach this goal. Some favorites are:

  • Offering live support & answering questions
  • Sharing educational content
  • Providing content at the right time (often through targeting)

You’ll need to fuel your social media efforts with content, and it’s best to create your own. You can share inspiring images, as well as educational blog posts. Here at UpTrending, we try to help our audience with their unique needs through educational content. We share our blog posts on social media, where we know our audience will find them.

UpTrending social media share

5. Automate what you can

SaaS marketers are super busy, and running social media is a lot of work. That’s why you need to automate what you can. If you update social media manually, you’re going to waste a lot of time.

There are tons of software solutions that can help you schedule social media updates (UpTrending uses HubSpot). You can also hire a social media consultant or agency to help you create content and manage your social presence. In today’s marketing arena, automation is the name of the game.

Wrapping up

Social media offers the opportunity to connect, and SaaS companies are taking advantage. At its root, social media is meant to be social. You can think of it as an online networking event. Be yourself, provide useful information, and engage with those who follow you. If you do, you’ll be well on your way to social media success.

Need more information about how to manage social media for your SaaS company? Our team can answer any questions – just reach out.