Tag: Email 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 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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How to Use Email Marketing to Lead SaaS Prospects Down the Sales Funnel

Emily Nyaz

Marketing

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies are in a unique position. You probably sell your products in a subscription model, where customers pay each month to use your service.

SaaS companies with low monthly prices, like the ones listed below, need lots of customers in order to be successful. Instead of having 10 high-paying customers, you need thousands of customers paying low monthly rates.  

These monthly price points are relatively low compared to large software companies that operate on licensing models. For example:

If you want to grow as a SaaS company, you need strategies for acquiring new customers as well as keeping the ones you’ve got.

Today, we’re sharing how you can use email marketing to lead SaaS prospects down the sales funnel.

Why email marketing is great for leads, sales, and loyalty

Email can help you nurture leads into customers that love you, and it works much better than other channels. According to research from Campaign Monitor, prospects are 6x more likely to click links in an email campaign than from a tweet.

Email is a direct channel to a prospective customer’s inbox. As long as you’re creating targeted messages that get at a prospect’s pain points, they’ll be willing to open your emails and see what you have to say. In this way, email becomes an automated sales-person, helping your prospective customer explore what you offer.

But how can you actually make this process work for your unique SaaS brand?

Here’s how to use email to lead SaaS prospects down the funnel:

Create assets & offers that subscribers need

Before you can even begin to send targeted sales emails, you need to get prospective customers to give you their email address. Buying a list won’t do you any good here. Instead, you need to create assets and offers that bring value to prospective customers.

Here are a few ways you can encourage visitors to subscribe to an email list:

  • Create an educational eBook to download
  • Encourage blog readers to sign up for your email newsletter
  • Offer demos in exchange for an email address
  • Offer a free trial or a “freemium” plan
  • Host a webinar with essential info

For example, Sumo Logic offers a 30 day free trial to prospective customers. Not only does this give prospects a chance to try out Sumo Logic’s software, but it also allows the company’s marketing team to send targeted emails to those who’ve signed up for the trial.

Screen Shot 2016-11-22 at 1.29.43 PM

Automate an email series with the aim of conversion

Today’s SaaS companies depend on marketing automation to convert leads into customers. Once you’ve figured out how to get prospects on your list, it’s time to consider how you can nurture your audience. Rather than sending manual emails, you should create an automated series to lead prospects down the funnel.

There are a number of different frameworks that marketing copywriters use to lead prospects– one of our favorites is the Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS) framework.

In this model, you start by defining the problem your subscribers have by showing them that you understand where they are. Then, you send emails agitating this problem, reminding subscribers about the pain their problem causes. Finally, you offer your SaaS product as a solution.

Personalize based on subscriber information

Whenever possible, you should personalize your emails. After all, personalized email messages improve click-through rates by an average of 14% and conversions by 10%, according to Aberdeen.

So, what does it mean to personalize? It means that you take whatever information you have about your subscribers, and send unique messages to that group. You can personalize based on:

  • Job title (for example, a CMO might receive different messages than a CEO)
  • Size of company (for example, someone working at a startup might receive startup-oriented messages)
  • Geographic location (Someone living in San Francisco might receive location-specific messages)
  • Past behavior (for example, if a visitor has downloaded multiple assets, they receive particular messages)
  • Reason they subscribed (for example, if a subscriber downloads a certain eBook, they receive a particular flow of messages)

In order to personalize, you need information about your subscribers. Be sure to ask for this information when you encourage visitors to share their email addresses.

Test and measure to find out what works

Email marketing is an amazing channel for SaaS companies that want to convert leads into customers. However, what works for another brand might not work for you.

That’s why it’s important to test out different strategies to see what works. You might find that the PAS framework works wonders, or that another strategy is a better bet. The only way you know is by testing. If you’re looking for ideas, check out how Buffer, HubSpot, and GrowthHackers grow using testing and analytics.

Thankfully, most email marketing software offers a variety of ways to test automated emails. Take advantage of what these tools have to offer, and work to find a flow that increases conversions.

Wrapping up

It’s easy to get caught up in the little details in marketing. Email marketing, however, gives you the opportunity to make substantial gains in conversions and sales. Email can help SaaS companies’ prospects gain familiarity with the business, consider their options, and ultimately become customers.

Wondering how you can use email to convert prospects to sales? Our team can answer any questions – just reach out.