It’s that time of year; a time to reflect, assess, and think about what can be optimized for inbound marketing in 2013.
Internet marketers are under more pressure than ever to deliver high quality leads to the sales folks. That, coupled with the continued role of social media, remains a challenge to most.
It sounds like a broken record; we need to generate more traffic, enhance our brand, improve content, increase conversions, target better, figure out this social media thing, prove ROI, and more. For B2B firms, lack of staffing and resources is the number one challenge to marketing success as noted on the chart below.
Let’s get more granular, and review some internet marketing 2013 resolutions that you can optimize now:
Planning
- Really understand your target audience; why they buy; what pains they have; why they need your product or service; perform better buyer persona research
- Re-evaluate your firm’s value proposition; what makes you different, how do you communicate your uniqueness; have a white board meeting with your executive team, and reassure what you sell and how you sell it is on target
Search Engine Optimization
- Update your SEO strategy; re-evaluate the keywords your buyers use to find you; and make content adjustments to reflect those keywords.
- Stop the automated link building schemes. Utilize a PR professional to begin pitching unique content to high quality blogs and online content websites. This is the new SEO; I call it “relationship SEO”
Paid Search-Pay-per-Click
- Really understand the search terms people use to find you and click your ad. Review “Matched search query” reports to reassure your keywords are aligned to your products; then adjust and take advantage of negative keywords.
- Go through each campaign, and take advantage of the following- the integration of analytics website metrics with Adwords, Sitelinks, automated bidding rules, keyword insights, etc. Many new features in Adwords as well as Bing. Understand them, and increase your paid search effectiveness
Conversion Architecture
- Test landing pages for conversion. i.e. headlines, calls-to-action statements, offers, etc. By utilizing A/B tests, you can significantly increase landing page conversion rates. And, keep those form fields to a minimum
- Reassure that when audiences click your ads to get to your landing pages, include trust factor content such as testimonials, case studies, association logos, and a privacy policy link.
- Take advantage of responsive design for your website, or at least, insure that your website and landing pages are mobile friendly. The future awaits, and it’s mobile.
Online Display
- Improve efficiency and increase message reach by considering buying campaigns via a DSP (demand side platform), by taking advantage of real-time bidding and 3rd-party data for better targeting
- A must for increasing conversions- utilize retargeting or remarketing to bring audiences back to your website or landing page, with a special offer just for them.
Video Marketing
- Video is a proven marketing tactic that increases engagement and conversions. Include video on your website and landing page, and let me see your service in action; include motion graphics as well as a powerful voice to attract attention.
- Utilize event tracking within Google analytics to measure video plays; in fact use event tracking to measure all of your content downloads and other website activity.
Social Media
- If you’re not actively posting content, engaging prospects, and measuring your activity; readdress your needs and priorities- either rethink your strategy or outsource, but prospects don’t like to see limited Twitter use, or a blog updated rarely. Think about it.
- Are you measuring your social activity correctly? I recently did a blog post on social media measurement and analytics. You need to prove that your efforts are improving, or time to optimize. Read about social media measurement here.
Content Strategy
- Assess all of your white papers and content assets. Are they targeting the right audiences? What are your content goals? Review your editorial calendars and content mapping. Have a plan to promote this content via search, display, and social. We can help you with this.
- On the chart above, firms have challenges in developing the right content. For 2013 review your internal sources, and if necessary, consider outsourcing content strategy, which include not just the planning and writing, but the promotional and SEO elements of content marketing as well.
Analytics
- Really understand the value of Google Analytics; take advantage of the multitude of reports and advanced audience segmentations. Why? Only with these tools can you really determine the effectiveness of your website once you define your conversion goals, and your metrics for success.
- Finally, just don’t review the data without having an action plan for improvement. It’s not what the numbers say; it’s how you utilize those numbers to increase conversions and revenue. Right?
Well, that ends a brief checklist for your 2013 inbound marketing resolutions. This is just the tip of the iceberg, but if you’re not consistently optimizing lead generation, you’re not doing your job. Let’s grow in 2013. Take the steps to improve your successes.
What steps are you taking to optimize in 2013?
