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DirectionGroup Inbound Marketing - EDGE event slides September 2014
This document discusses inbound marketing and content marketing strategies. It defines inbound marketing as optimizing online assets like content to attract customers when they are ready to make a purchase. Content is seen as the central element of inbound marketing. The document outlines best practices for search engine optimization, social media marketing, and creating high-quality content across different formats and platforms. It emphasizes the importance of understanding customers, creating valuable content, and integrating content with search and social media activities.
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DirectionGroup Inbound Marketing - EDGE event slides September 2014
- 1. INBOUND MARKETING Theconvergence of content, search and social 25 September 2014 @Direction_grp #dgedge Check-in
- 2. The good olddays What ever happened to them?
- 3. This happened Customerstook control of information
- 4. WHAT IS ‘INBOUND MARKETING ’ ANYWAY?
- 5. Inbound - adefinition Inbound Marketing The process of creating text, audio, video and other online assets and optimising them to appear when prospective customers are ready to pull the trigger on a purchase – Halligan & Shah, Hubspot We live in an self-directed, opt-in world – we have to earn customers’ attention Customers will seek you out because of the quality of the information you offer to help them make better decisions CONTENT IS THE WORM ON THE INBOUND HOOK http://www.newfunpages.com/i
- 6. “Inbound marketing isnot just content creation: it’s a philosophical approach to marketing that starts with thinking about what (information) customers actually want and need and ends with a comprehensive approach to optimize that experience from the first website visit to email nurturing to sales outreach to social media marketing.” Dharmesh Shah, Hubspot
- 7. The end ofInterruptive Marketing as we know it WWW.eharmny.co.uk “Marketing to your customers by repeatedly interrupting them with advertising or selling messages is simply not good enough any more - technology has changed all the rules” Seth Godin
- 8.
- 9. Inbound - contentdoesn’t sit in a vacuum CONTENT Videos, Blogs, Articles, eBooks, Whitepapers, podcasts, infographics SOCIAL MEDIA Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, Forums and more SEARCH On & off-page, Link Building, Bookmarks, Keywords, Tags ATTRACT CUSTOMERS LIKE A MAGNET It needs to be integrated with other inbound activities
- 10. Why is thisimportant? of B2B buying decisions are being investigated, evaluated and compared BEFORE the selling brand is even contacted (and this figure is rising) Source: SiriusDecisions/Harvard Business Review, July 2012
- 11. “About 50% ofall B2B inquires come from inbound channels, and that will jump to about 70% by 2015-2016.” SiriusDecisions 2013
- 12. Is Content Marketing a form of Inbound Marketing OR Inbound a form of Content Marketing? • There are no agreed definitions • Inbound is ‘owned’ by Hubspot • Content Marketing is an approach - also includes outbound and offline • The distinction probably doesn’t matter
- 13. You need astrategic structure on which to build your content driven inbound activity www.dezeen.com
- 14. Building your ContentMarketing Engine™ to drive your inbound leads A structured, efficient marketing engine to plan, create and distribute content which engages customers FUEL IGNITE ACCELERATE Fuel your content marketing with a thorough, robust strategic plan 8.Amplify 7.Keep conversion in mind 6.Atomize, repurpose, reimagine Ignite prospects’ and customers’ interest with engaging content which is relevant, compelling and timely to their needs Enable your organisation to produce more, better content and accelerate to greater content success 1.Focus on the customer and their journey 2.Distil your brand story 3.Define the editorial process 4.Build a content creation community 5.Create Effective Content 9.Build content rhythm 10.Rev the engine 11.Measure and improve 12.Look in the rear view mirror
- 15.
- 16. What is Content? “Any information provided by a brand in a format which is relevant, compelling and timely to the audience’s needs at the point at which they engage with it and that does not overtly seek to sell the brand or its products” Holliman, Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing 2014 http://goo.gl/lN7Tt7 16
- 17. Why does contenteven matter? BECAUSE SAY SO Google turns content into currency! • Content builds awareness • Content facilitates the “inbound” effect • Content fuels social media marketing • Customers learn to seek it out • Content helps customers make better decisions 17 Images: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/,www.wikihow.com/Draw-a-Panda , www.archive.benchmarkreviews.com/
- 18. The power of visual content 90% info transmitted into brain is visual (Source: 3M) x69,000 Faster visual processing than text (Source: Zabisco) x3 more inbound links for posts with video (Source: SEOMoz)
- 19. 93% of B2B marketers 90% of B2C marketers + say they are using content marketing Source: CMI/MarketingProfs B2B Content Marketing 2015 Benchmarks, Budget and Trends, North America
- 20. Just “doing content”is no longer a competitive advantage. Because 70% of content created is never used Source:SiriusDecisions 2013
- 21. There are 27,000,000 pieces of content shared every day Source: Hubspot www.mymarketingjourney.com
- 22. Qualities of trulyeffective content RELEVANT COMPELLING TIMELY
- 23. Think: unanswered questions • Ask yourself: What questions do my customers have which are going unanswered? • Does your content help customers make a better decision?
- 24. Is your contentso valuable that customers would be prepared to pay for it?
- 25.
- 26. 93% of B2B buyers use search to begin the buying process Source: Marketo 2014
- 27. European Search Landscape– August 2014 Google Bing Yahoo Others 89% 6% 4% 1% Data: The E Word – August 2014 So lets talk about
- 28. So How Does Google Work?
- 29. Crawling, Indexing, andRanking Google continuously craws the web to index pages, PDFs and other digital documents Current Estimates - 60 Trillion individual pages indexed and growing Ranks each page with a multiple factors (on page, off page and social factors) As you enter search text google: Spelling Identifies and corrects possible spelling errors and provides alternatives. Auto Complete Predicts what you might be searching for Synonyms Recognizes words with similar meanings Query Understanding Gets to the deeper meaning of the words you type Searches Index via stacked algorithms and provides Google Instant Displays immediate results as you type.
- 30. For Discoverability, FirstPage is Everything
- 31. Over 200 Ranking Factors
- 32. Search Metrics 2014Ranking Factors Social Backlinks OnPage (Content) OnPage (Technical)
- 33. “Each year, Google changes its search algorithm around 500–600 times.”
- 34. Brief History ofGoogle Algorithm Factors 2000 – 2004 PageRank - Content Keywords 2004 – 2006 More Content for Keywords (Everyone's Keyword Stuffing) 2006 – 2009 Fresh Content Promoted 2009 – 2010 Caffeine Update Everyone Needs a Blog (Fresh Updates with lots of Content) 2010 – 2012 Panda (Major Update) Content Needs to be Unique (Duplication, Spinning Penalised) 2012 – 2013 Penguin (Major Update) Can’t Buy Links, Penalises Suspected Auto Link Building and Link Farms 2014 – Humming Bird (Major Update – Complete Overhaul) - Content needs to be Useful and Authentic, On Site Engagement Factors are more important than links – Dwell Time, Bounce Rate are now factors
- 35. Three Major ElementsWorking in Tandem Panda Penguin Humming Bird
- 36.
- 37. Hummingbird was builtto support semantic and conversational search, both of which are heavily focused on “long-tail searches” Hummingbird is designed to apply meaning technology to content, elevating content that is authentic, unique and most of all useful to long tail search queries (users)
- 39.
- 40. Why social mediafor business? Source: www.langleynewmedia.com/
- 41. Why do youwant to be on social media? That’s where your prospects are! Internet users spend 4 x more time on Facebook than on Google. (Social Media Examiner) Active Users 1,300,000,000 645,000,000 360,000,000 300,000,000
- 42. Social media iseffective for acquisition (HubSpot) Social media is all about publishing and reach Traffic on your website is anonymous Social media gives you more control of what you’re posting – and most importantly to whom. So how does this work.. the lead gen bit?
- 43. Social works acrossthe inbound journey Use great content to attract new visitors Drive visitors to your conversion page Nurture leads with relevant and timely content Offer great customer service engagement www.huspot.com
- 44. Three types ofsocial media marketing PAID EARNED OWNED OWNED Where the brand owns the channel and uses it organically (e.g. your twitter profile) EARNED Connections become the channel – social sharing spreads the word PAID Where we’re paying to leverage the channel (e.g. Promoted Tweets with Twitter Source: (modified from) Forrester Research Inc.
- 45.
- 46.
- 47. Which platforms aremy target personas on? Knowing your personas is important, so you can get them the right content, at the right time. Once you’ve found them, listen to what they’re saying, what they’re interacting with. GENDER FEMALE MALE AGE 65+ 55-64 45-54 35-44 25-34 18-24 0-17 EDUCATION
- 48. Build reach Howbig is the potential reach? How many followers do your followers have? Engage with thought leaders, spokespeople industry commentators – they have huge reach and your messages easily get megaplied* The Rules of Engagement 1. ASK QUESTIONS, allow these influencers to talk about themselves. Don’t just talk about yourself. 2. 80 / 20 RULE: The majority of content should be helpful – 20% can be more promotional. 3. MIX THINGS UP. Don’t just share links. Try pictures, videos. Ask questions. Hold competitions. 4. SELL YOUR CONTENT – don’t just chuck it out there 5. SHARE CONTENT from other people too. Curate other, relevant content to help build a point of view... * Struto coined the phrase to represent the networks of networks of networks...etc
- 49. Curated content No-onelikes people that just talk about themselves. Share other people’s (brand’s) content. BUT: Add your own spin. Don’t just share content wholesale. telegraph.co.uk
- 50. The power ofcuration – CMO.com “Curation was a great way for us to build audience and critical mass – but it was the addition of original content that enabled us to develop the distinctive Adobe point of view. That helps us position our employees as thought leaders in the space – and ultimately helps us influence it.” Timothy Moran , Editor in Chief
- 51. Social media profile Optimise them. They are mini versions of your website. Make the most of the real estate with personalised cover image, profile pictures, background images etc. Google+ has loads of useable image space! TOP TIPS 1. Use keywords in your profiles to make them more searchable. 2. Link to your website on your social platforms 3. Always include a CTA link so you can track the resulting interactions
- 52.
- 53. The primary inboundsocial platforms There are many social media networks – but we’re going to look at those which can help inbound marketers generate traffic and leads
- 54. TWITTER Short, engagingand easily shareable. TOP TIPS: 1. Keep them under 140 characters, to allow people to add a comment and re-tweet. 2. Use hashtags to connect with trends and aid discovery 3. Don’t start with a @ - that means its only seen by mutual followers. 4. Make it visual – 50% better click through than tweets without. 5. Post at the right time – use Followerwonk to analyse when your followers are online.
- 55. Pics, stats andquotes Tweets with visuals have 5x more engagement when compared to text-based tweets. Hubspot There is a 17% increase in retweets when you include a stat. Hubspot There is a 19% increase in retweets when you include a quote. Hubspot
- 56. LINKED IN THEbusiness social network One in every 3 professionals worldwide Over 50% of visits from mobile devices TIPS: 1. Make sure you’re using your company page - its like a mini version of your website. 2. Be authentic and try to add value rather than being self-serving 3. Less posts, but make them more deep and thoughtful 4. Encourage employees to share content from your company page
- 57. LINKED IN Morethan 1.5 million LinkedIn Groups – Great for active engagement. LinkedIn groups send notifications about new posts, meaning you’re not only sharing with people who immediately see it; you’re effectively using the group’s email list to share it with its full audience. TIPS: 1. Identify groups that might be relevant to your content marketing strategy 2. Then for each new piece of content, decide on the groups it could be beneficial for 3. Always try to ask a question or share a valid opinion on the content you post or comment on 4. Save the marketing pitches for offline or private discussions 5. Be on the lookout for influencers you can engage with for collaboration Source: contentmarketinginstitute.com
- 59. SlideShare Rate, commenton, and share content Web and mobile apps mean this content is very accessible Content on SlideShare feature in search results – the more views, the higher the ranking: TIPS: 1. It’s all about TITLES and COVER THUMBNAILS 2. Connect your LinkedIn and SlideShare Profiles 3. Don’t’ just post any slides...they need to present themselves 4. Use widescreen formats for best use of real-estate
- 60. FACEBOOK Fun andpersonal – not the place for serious content Keep posts under 150 words – short posts get better engagement. Post less regularly, but with value. Use images – more engagement Videos auto play in the newsfeed, this can mean people scroll past rather than watch. Organic Reach Per Fan on Facebook
- 61. GOOGLE+ Is itreally a “non-entity”? Google+ is an extension – or the social layer – of other Google products and services we already know... like “places” Great for Search Engine Optimisation TIPS 1. Diversify content that you post – photos and videos. Google+ layout is perfect for showing visual content 2. Link your account to your website - stuff you publish will show up in search engine results with your photograph and ‘circle’ information. 3. Get involved in communities – whether that means joining an existing one, or creating your own niche community. 4. Posts from G+ will help organic search, even if you don’t get traction on the platform
- 62. YouTube YouTube isthe world’s second largest search engine Video testimonials from clients Interviews with members of staff Product demo videos Corporate storytelling Product user guides Live video conferencing Animated explainer videos YouTube is the third most visited website after Google and Facebook Embed links that can drive traffic to other video content or your website or even calls to action that incentivise purchase Vimeo has become a popular alternative – quality, control, less advertising
- 63. Gathering intelligence Thereis a lot of data we can use that will help us publish content that is more likely to get shared. Socialcrawlytics – identifies your competitors best performing content AND social platforms. Buzzsumo – identifies most popular content for chosen keywords and selected domains.
- 64. Making your contentshareable Have industry experts provide quotes and commentary for your content. Include some unique data in your content. Co-create content. There needs to be value for all parties. Make sure you’re facilitating your content getting shared… 1 2 3 4
- 65.
- 66. LinkedIn Sponsored activity Any update on your company page can be turned into a Sponsored Update, extending its reach beyond those already following your company Direct Sponsored Content is published direct to the LinkedIn Feed, without the requirement to publish it on your company page: TAILOR content to audience segments or prospect types TEST different content variations and formats DEFINE what your target audience should do next Sponsored InMails You only pay for the response Members are alerted with a notification You’re guaranteed 100% share of voice
- 67. Specialised Advertising UseJoin Group Adverts to drive people to engage with your Discussion Group Use highly targeted Follow Ads to quickly attract a precise audience Top Tip: Keep targeting really tight on LinkedIn, your cost per click tends to be higher.
- 68. Twitter: promoted tweetsand accounts Promoted tweets – get your tweets in front of new audiences and increase engagement Promoted accounts – get your account in front of new audiences and increase followers Twitter cards – attach rich photos, videos and media experience to Tweets that drive traffic to your website. Top Tips 1. Remember – Pics, Stats and Quotes 2. Experiment with your targeting – niche targeting can increase engagement by 55% (hubSpot) 3. Find niche topic experts in your space, and then target their audience.
- 69. Facebook Facebook hasa lot of targeting options. That means a lot of time & effort! Test different ad placements & formats Test different audiences to target Top Tips 1. Right-hand column ads have a low price, but low performance 2. New feed ads have higher engagement – good for generating additional organic results. 3. Use custom audiences to match your customers / prospects on facebook
- 70. Other options...? Thereare a growing list of options for paid content amplification. Tumblr Instagram Sponsored Photos and Videos StumbleUpon Paid Discovery Reddit’s Self Serve Platform Outbrain & Taboola Content Discovery Platform Consider the best platforms – not only for your target personas, but also for the content type.
- 71. A word onblogs... Are they content, or OWNED social? Technically speaking its content, but it can also act as social in terms of distribution. Great way for brands to get their views across Great way to showcase Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) as thought leaders
- 72. WHO IS DOING INBOUND MARKETING WELL? 72
- 73. A case fromInbound 2014 - River Pools • 2008 a tiny, regional pool installer • $50,000 average sale • “What questions do my customers have unanswered?” blogposts Solution • “My goal is to give more valuable, helpful and remarkable content to consumers than anyone else in the field, which will in turn lead to more sales” Marcus Sheridan CEO • Blogposts, videos and an ebook ‘How to buy a pool – without getting ripped off’ Results • Despite recession now has 5% market share (USA) http://www.riverpoolsandspas.com/
- 74. A case fromInbound 2014 - Cervelo • Business built on key word rich content • “Our goal is education - we’re obsessed with helping customers choose the right bike for them” • Consistent behaviour and a genuine personality that is authentic • “You sell more when you stop selling”
- 75. A case fromInbound 2014 – CFO on Call • Outbound cold calling had dried up, poorly performing content • Created a persona of ideal client • Answered their unanswered question in blogs • Optimized for key search terms • Socialized content and created conversations that drove inbound leads x9.6 increase in leads (in 6 months) 200% increase in traffic (in 6 months) 153% increase in qualified sales leads (in 6 months)
- 76.
- 77. An increasingly confusinglandscape Content Lumascape www.lumapartners.com
- 78. Three Common ScenariosDrive Tool Selection Source: Rebecca Lieb, Altimeter
- 79. What technologies doyou need to help you? Source: Rebecca Lieb, Altimeter
- 80. Will outbound marketingever die? “I told you I was ill” • Outbound will never die • Some times you need to jump start the Proportion of marketing spend Time conversation • Some still customers prefer to have content pushed to them Outbound Inbound Outbound Marketing
- 81. Inbound - convergenceof content, search and social CONTENT Videos, Blogs, Articles, eBooks, Whitepapers, podcasts, infographics SOCIAL MEDIA Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, Forums and more SEARCH On & off-page, Link Building, Bookmarks, Keywords, Tags ATTRACT CUSTOMERS LIKE A MAGNET
- 82. Next Marketing BestPractice forums • Better Briefs, Better Results 16th October • Enabling Sales Enablement 13th November • B2B Marketing in 2015 11th December • Content Marketing 25th January 2015 • Marketing ROI & Accountability 26th February 2015 Sign-up today or at http://edge.directiongroup.co.uk/
Editor's Notes
- #2 10.00
- #3 Predictable customers Few media channels Brand controlled the message Trade shows, trade mags, request literature, Sales people came to visit, we went on site visits.
- #4 THIS happened. Technology, specifically the Internet, put all the power into the hands of the customer. As customers, we have more options than ever on what we consume with relation to content. Only the brands that do the hard work to make it interesting engaging and pretty darn enjoyable to interact with will win the battle for faithful customers.
- #6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3yCB7AvvAk#t=30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOiVhNr7Qms&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLlw9qxNtFom02GSWZm9wiXHK6dMDb510a
- #8 The end of ‘interruptive marketing’ as we know it (Seth Godin) The broadcast model is broken
- #15 Not necessarily a linear process but you need to consider all of the stages carefully
- #16 10.35
- #17 “Anything created and upload to a website: the words, images or other things that reside here.” Handley & Chapman “Content Rules” 2011 “How a brand creates, delivers and governs original or curated content to attract and retain customers, positioning the brand as a credible expert and , ultimately, motivating a change In behaviour” Pulizzi & Barrett 2008
- #26 11.00
- #30 Google continuously craws the web to index content it can see Applies ranking to each against multiple factors (on page, off page and social factors) As you enter search text google: Checks Spelling Identifies and corrects possible spelling errors and provides alternatives. Auto Complete Predicts what you might be searching for Recognizes words with similar meanings Gets to the deeper meaning of the words you type in context Searches Index via stacked algorithms and provides the Search results
- #31 Large Scale Data Analysis has show that for discoverablity being on the first page is everything. People simply don’t visit the second page unless they’re desperate So getting the right ranking factors for your content is essential…
- #32 There are current estimate to be over 200 ranking factors
- #33 Here we see Search Metrics 2014 analysis of a selection of the estimated 200 raking factors and their weighting. Social Signals are heavily weighted but transient. They don’t last long. Your Backlink profile is very important, with the number of quality backlinks providing a stable heavy weighting but again this can degrade over time. Onpage Content factors are next which are vital and most importantly permanent. They don’t change over time. Onpage technical factors are last. These are important but can be seen in SEO terms as Hygene. So how do these factors get used. This is all down to the Google Angorithm.
- #34 Each year its estimated google changes its algorithm 500-600 times and year. That averages almost twice a day.
- #35 2000 – 2004 PageRank - Content Keywords and page authority - this was revolutionary in the search market and enabled Google to quickly kill Yahoo and AOL. 2004 – 2006 More Content for Keywords (Keyword Stuffing) People understood you could gain rank by keyword stuffing, hiding keywords, placing large amounts of content into hidden pages etc. It was a arms race. 2006 – 2009 Fresh Content Promoted To try and beat the arms race Google promotes new content to provide better results for News and Fresh Content Universal Search was introduced with the inclusion of News, Video, Images and Local Results into SERPs 2009 – 2010 Everyone Needs a Blog - Fresh Updates with lots of Content being distributed across many Distributed Blogs, Spinning of Content and Link Farms start to emerge and again its an arms race 2010 – 2012 Panda Update, Content Needs to be Unique (Duplication/Link Farms Penalised) Again to beat the Arms Race Google releases Panda, this is a major release and heavily penalises duplicated or spun content. Many major ecommerce site see a dramatic fall in ranking, the black hat SEO industry changes tack and focuses on link farms and link distribution to regain losses 2012 – 2013 Penguin Update, Can’t Buy Links, Penalises Suspected Auto Link Building 2014 – Humming Bird (Major Update – Complete overhaul of how on page content is crawled and indexed- Content needs to be Useful and Authentic. Context is take into consideration and On Site Engagement Factors are more important than links – Dwell Time and Bounce Rates are see as factors of how useful was the content to that search term so the rankings are learning over time.
- #36 So now these three major Algorithms now work together to produce all page ranks
- #37 In simple terms, social signals are still very important Off page link building and developing a quality, authentic backlink profile is important. but keyword stuffing is dead.
- #38 With “speaking” technology advances such as Siri & Google Now, Google needed to prepare itself for the future of search. More and more people are asking Google direct questions, and they are expecting the search engine to understand what it is exactly that they are trying to find out. Example Where can I find the closest dealership with a black Audi S4 with leather? In a pre-Hummingbird world, Google would scan its index of webpages for content matching the query or containing a slight variation of the query. It would find the pages with relevant keyword content, order them based on the more than 200 signals it receives such as inbound links or domain authority, and serve them to the user in a search engine results page. With Hummingbird, Google now deconstructs the query by focusing on the meaning behind each word to gain better understanding of the user’s intent: “[Where : Adverb meaning at or in what place] can I find the [closest : Superlative adjective meaning “a short distance away”] [dealership : Local business type] with a [black : color] [Audi : Automotive manufacturer] [S4 : Product | Car model] with [leather : Product feature | interior fabric]?” It is dissecting the query to understand the intent behind the search. It even understands that when you say “the closest,” your physical location needs to be considered (based on history and/or IP address). Hummingbird is designed to apply the meaning technology to billions of pages from across the web, pushing the authority of content that is semantic and useful to long tail search queries
- #39 So in summary – with the release of Humming Bird….content is king…. Again. Importantly this content needs to be authentic, and useful to the user. Providing content aimed and keyword stuffing and non organic link profiles will both be heavily penalised.
- #40 11.35
- #51 Pure curation start – grown into 20% original ‘thought leadership’ content 125,000/ month page views; 16,000 subscribers
- #63 Sometimes, an amateur video makes you look more human and accessible, and helps customers relate to you.
- #73 12.35
- #81 Over time you content will become so useful and valuable that once you have socialized it on your own channels then the inbound effect will come into play and customers will seek it out. However if a product or market is new to you then you may need to jump start the conversation using outbound/paid media.