by Aaron Loveland | Aug 14, 2024 | Best Reasons to Blog, Content
Maintaining an active and engaging online presence is crucial for business success in the digital age. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is through regular blogging. A well-maintained company blog provides valuable information to your audience and significantly enhances your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. This blog will explore why blogging is essential for boosting your Google rankings and growing your business long term.
Table of Contents:
Why is SEO so important in digital marketing?
How does blogging help me rank on Google’s first page?
Use keywords and long-tail search terms for the best SEO results
How does off-page SEO help you get ranked on Google?
Example
Conclusion
How Loud & Clear Marketing can help.
Why is SEO so important in digital marketing?
Search engines – like Google – created the lay of the digital marketing landscape. So, to thrive in their arena, we must follow their rules. Following those rules by utilizing the best SEO practices will earn you visibility, traffic, and prospects.
The Million Dollar Question: How do you get ranked on Google?
If you run a business, you’ve probably already done some SEO research to bolster your digital marketing and help you get ranked on Google. You might have used free site ranking tools or targeted some Google SEO keywords. The best SEO goes beyond keywords to become a marketing strategy.
You might think you need to rank on Google’s first page for your industry niche. However, if you’re a local nonprofit supporting animal shelters, ranking at the top of the national “animal shelter” search result might actually hurt you. Yes, you would get more traffic, but it would not be relevant traffic. Relevance is as important as achieving that rank on Google’s first page, and also one of the best SEO strategies is to rank locally.
Why get to the top of Google’s search results?
Let’s start with the most important fact. According to research from Semrush, the first organic result has an average click-through rate of 22.4%, the second receives 13%, and the third gets 10%. So, the top three web pages that get ranked on Google’s first page enjoy the majority of the traffic.
It seems inevitable that you need to rank on Google’s first page and get to the top of Google’s search results. Luckily, there are a lot of first pages. With a targeted, localized digital marketing strategy, you can rank at the top of the right first page.
How does blogging help me rank on Google’s first page?
Every time someone performs a search, Google searches through billions of web pages stored in its index. However, not all webpages are valued equally because of Google’s SEO keywords process. Google wants to provide reliable information from trusted authorities with proven expertise. For that reason, it assigns value to keywords and then rewards content that uses the keywords Google thinks are important while answering queries asked in Google. Good blogging does just that!
For starters, consistently posting original blog content shows Google your business is active. Companies publishing regular blog content attract eight times more visitors and increase their chances for higher rankings by 434%! That’s partially because blogs generate more indexed pages— more mentions in Google’s vast library.
Furthermore, most blogs repeat a business’s name, address, and phone (NAP), which provides huge SEO help. If your repeated NAP information aligns with your Google My Business Listing, it helps Google verify your business. It also improves your chances of appearing in local search and map results. The top SEO blogs use this geo-targeting to attract local visitors who are much more likely to convert into clients (see our blog on how Google adjusted its best SEO practices to better serve local queries).
How are the best SEO strategies changing with Google’s new generative AI?
Google is always changing, and with it, so are the best SEO practices to get ranked on Google. You’ve probably seen Google’s new Search Generative Experience (SGE). It uses generative AI to write concise, summarizing answers to some queries. But that doesn’t mean blogging isn’t important. To write its answers, SGE uses the top SEO blogs.
How Google determines which top SEO blogs to reference is very similar to the standard Google search engine optimization method. Google favors blogs that consistently demonstrate Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). You can achieve this with a strong backlink profile and content optimization, all of which we will explore in this blog.
Use keywords and long-tail search terms for the best SEO results
There are four types of keywords, and the best SEO strategies use a healthy balance of all four.
- Topic keywords are broad general terms that can represent an entire industry or a blog subject. These work best as SEO research categories to generate blog topics. A local animal shelter might not get ranked on Google for “animal shelter.” However, by regularly posting blogs on that topic, Google’s search engine optimization process will gradually notice them as an authority.
- Targeted keywords: These are focus keywords that directly relate to the content of a blog post. That local animal shelter might identify “foster programs” as a topic keyword and then generate “how to foster a pet” or “pet fostering tips” as target keywords. These targeted keywords can then become entire blog posts.
- Semantic keywords: These keywords support your targeted keywords by demonstrating your content’s depth. These related keywords provide the best SEO support when written organically into your content. Examples: “steps to becoming a pet foster parent,” “benefits of pet fostering,” and “preparing your home for a foster pet.”
- Long-tail keywords: These are much more specific. While they have a lower search volume, they enjoy a higher conversion rate. These keywords have great lead-generation potential because they reflect a user’s immediate intention. For example, when you read “step-by-step guide to fostering cats” and “what supplies are needed to foster a pet,” you know exactly what the searcher wants to do. Use these in your blog’s titles, H2 headings, and subheadings. However, they can also benefit you by being organically woven into the main content, similar to semantic keywords.
What free site ranking tools can help me check my SEO rankings?
- Google Search Console: This is a free tool provided by Google. It can check blog rankings, but it provides much more SEO help.
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT): This free site ranking tool scans your website to find which keywords you already rank for.
- Seobility Ranking Checker: Simply enter your domain to check your website’s Google ranking.
- The HOTH Google Rank Checker Tool: Find the top Google SEO keywords already driving traffic to your site.
Remember, most free site ranking tools have limitations that encourage you to purchase the premium version. If you are determined to use free and only free site ranking tools, it’s best to use multiple tools from your digital marketing toolbox to paint a comprehensive, three-dimensional picture. Rankings fluctuate, so check blog rankings regularly for the best long-term marketing strategy. Sometimes, we obsess over individual keyword ranking when we need to step back and see the whole strategy.
If all this SEO research and monitoring feels overwhelming, then you’re not alone! Many small businesses are better empowered to succeed when their SEO marketing strategy is supported by a marketing agency. Businesses that invest in local SEO lead generation enjoy a 40% increase in their online visibility. The best SEO strategies are not one-and-done tactics; they are a continuous effort, but they bring long-term results. A digital marketing agency can provide ongoing SEO research to ensure you always stay competitive.
How does off-page SEO help you get ranked on Google?
Off-page SEO is what you do outside of your website to help you get ranked on Google. The top SEO blogs use backlinks to prove to Google that their expertise is authoritative and trustworthy. Backlinks are when another piece of content links back to another piece of content. We’ve done that several times throughout this blog already. If Google was a traditional library, backlinks are citations, saying “We got this information from this source.” Google’s search engine optimization process sees these as endorsements—votes of confidence – effectively signaling the source must be correct and trustworthy if others are using it.
Ideally, original content organically earns backlinks over time by being competent and trustworthy. However, the top SEO blogs receive additional boosts:
- Guest posting: Your blogger can repost or adapt your original blog content for other reputable websites. You’ll get the best SEO results by contacting industry magazines, local, new sites, or trade publications. Google’s SGE values backlinks as expertise.
- Social media: Promote your content on relevant social media platforms. Engage with your audience, encouraging them to share or engage with it. Google is increasingly including social media posts at the top of its results. For example, year-old Reddit posts are getting to the top of Google search results because people trust them. You can even recycle blog content by breaking it down into more digestible social media posts like short-form videos. However, that kind of marketing strategy deserves its own article (stay tuned).
- Influencer collaboration: The influencer economy is so vast that there are influencers for every business niche, including B2B. Reaching out to influencers provides mutual benefits. Your target audiences can “cross-pollinate” by amplifying each other’s content. You can save the influencer time and effort by providing them with content. Some branding firms go so far as to specialize in influencer marketing. That kind of marketing strategy may become increasingly important as Google evolves. Google’s SGE values social media and user-generated content as experience.
- Good old Public Relations (PR): Before the digital age, PR was how companies promoted their news. A press release could carry newsworthy content from outlet to outlet across the company’s reach. PR is still vital in the SEO age. Today, digital public relations help small businesses grow their reach. Digital public relations can be especially advantageous in promoting content across a local region.
Occasionally, low-quality, spammy backlinks can harm your website’s Google ranking. If your links are associated with a “bad crowd,” Google might think you’re part of that crowd. Luckily, you can use Google’s Disawvow Tool to disassociate your site from those “bad influences.”
Let’s say our local animal shelter partners with a marketing agency to execute a robust SEO strategy. What kind of results might they get?
Their strategy would start with SEO research, guiding their biweekly blogs. If they publish consistently, then their indexed pages will gradually grow, increasing their chances of getting ranked on Google. We already know businesses that invest in local SEO lead-generation enjoy a 40% increase in online visibility. However, visibility takes time and persistence. The animal shelter won’t feel the full results until around six months.
During that time, for example, the marketing agency helps the animal shelter engage with its community. It promotes its top SEO blogs across social media and makes the rounds of guest posting. Its content reaches local newspapers and neighborhood newsletters. A high school volunteer even contributes an article to their school’s newspaper, sparking an influx of high schoolers.
Through social media, the animal shelter connects with a local cat café and dog training school. The three of them swap content and always repost each other’s blogs. The marketing agency discovers a few cat owner influencers in the same region and fosters excellent collaborations.
With patience and persistence, this local animal shelter could generate 67% more leads each month than it did without SEO help. Those leads are also 61% less expensive than leads generated through outbound strategies.
Conclusion:
Incorporating an active company blog into your digital marketing strategy can be a powerful tool for improving your Google rankings and attracting more visitors to your website. Regularly publishing high-quality, keyword-rich content can enhance your lead generation and SEO efforts, build valuable backlinks, and establish your business as an authority in your industry. Take advantage of the numerous benefits that blogging can bring to your digital marketing strategy and long-term lead-generation efforts.
Ready to elevate your business with a strategic blogging campaign?
Our expert digital content marketers will design a customized blogging strategy that boosts your Google rankings and drives business growth. Let’s get started on your path to digital success! Schedule a FREE consultation today!
About Loud & Clear Marketing
LCM was founded in Leesburg, Virginia, by Sharon L. Wright in 2012. Joined by Deb Haynes Swider in 2019, Loud & Clear Marketing is a woman-owned, integrated marketing agency specializing in brand-led lead generation. From branding and public relations (PR) to digital and social media marketing to web development, our team of community builders helps businesses and nonprofits grow so our communities will prosper.
Let’s get started on your path to digital success! Schedule a FREE consultation today!
by Aaron Loveland | Aug 7, 2024 | Analytics, Content, Lead Generation, Marketing
Turning prospects into loyal clients is crucial for sustained business growth, especially in this ever-increasingly competitive landscape. Every buyer navigates through a consumer path, and every business is unique, so how do you build a funnel for sales?
Whether you’re a marketing manager, sales professional, or business owner, you probably already have a rough idea of your sales funnel. Analyzing it, breaking it down into manageable steps, and improving it with strategic actions will help your business grow. Continuing with an unclear or disorganized lead path can stunt your growth, hurt your brand, and waste your sales team’s time.
We’ve helped dozens of businesses optimize their lead paths, from local mom-and-pop stores to national franchises. In this blog, we’ll offer valuable insights and practical tactics from our experience. Let’s dive in and master your sales funnel strategy.
Table of Contents:
- How do you identify and attract quality prospects?
- What are effective lead-generation techniques?
- How do you nurture leads for maximum engagement?
- How do you convert leads into clients?
- How do you measure and optimize your lead path?
- How can Loud & Clear Marketing help?
How do you identify and attract quality prospects into your inbound marketing funnel?
To build a sales funnel and achieve conversion rate optimization, start by identifying your target audience and creating buyer personas—detailed but fictional profiles of your ideal clients. Most small businesses look to their existing clients to build buyer personas. In the beginning, a branding and marketing agency might study a competitor’s target audience to identify new opportunities and ways to differentiate.
For your consumer mapping, utilize available metrics— internal sales data, website analytics, and social media insights. You can also conduct customer interviews to gain deeper insights into their motivations, challenges, and preferences.
The goal is to develop a professional, demographic, and potentially psychological profile to guide your sales funnel strategy. For example, one corporate photographer might identify and target event coordinators, while another corporate photographer specializes in headshots and targets a Chief Brand Officer.
Buyer personas are not rigid boxes every prospect must neatly fit into. They are helpful comparisons to build a sales funnel around. Buyer personas help you understand how potential leads make decisions so you can draw them into your digital customer journey. Once you know what resonates with them, you can craft compelling content specifically around their interests and needs.
The first stage of a digital marketing sales funnel is the awareness stage. At this point in the digital customer’s journey, you must build trust by establishing your business as an authority. You can do this several ways, including but not limited to:
- Blog Posts: These informative articles educate your audience, answer common questions to get found on the web, and gradually build your domain authority and your SEO rankings.
- Whitepapers: These provide in-depth insights and research findings. They can generally be referred across an organization, helping them address a pain point.
- eBooks: These offer comprehensive guides on relevant topics. If written well, they might be referenced for years to come.
In general, you should focus on crafting supportive content that will strengthen your sales funnel strategy. However, that is only one half of the equation. You must engage with your target audience to start their digital customer journey and feed your inbound marketing funnel.
- SEO Optimization: This goes hand-in-hand with blogs. Use your target audience’s common questions to generate keywords you can target in your blogs.
- Social Media Promotion: Use the consumer mapping research you did for the customer personas to find your target audience’s social media channels.
- Targeted Advertising: Use your consumer mapping research to pinpoint the best target for your advertising. Use Google and social media ads to attract the right prospects.
What are effective lead-generation techniques?
Effective lead generation comes down to understanding your audience. You know the English proverb, you attract more flies with honey? Spark lead generation by providing helpful resources to potential customers.
- Lead Magnets: This lead generation content takes the form of valuable resources like checklists, templates, and reports. The idea is to provide content your audience will use in their work. Valuable lead gen content gradually grows trust and keeps you at the top of your leads’ minds as an authority.
- Webinars: Live sessions are a great way to engage with prospects personally. A moderated Q&A can help you build a rapport. Engaging with your target audience at this point of their digital consumer journey grants insight into their consumer path. You might learn new challenges, pain points, and preferences you can address by talking with your prospect.
- Landing Pages: Landing pages are web pages specially designed for conversion optimization. To achieve this conversion rate optimization, build yours with a specific call-to-action (CTA) in mind. In this sense, they become a mini funnel for sales. For something with a low buy-in, like an online course, you can address all of your target’s fears, uncertainty, and doubts (FUD) on one page. However, something with a higher buy-in, like B2B software, will require a more robust sales funnel strategy.
The lead generation content above drives prospects from the awareness stage to the interest stage. These engagement tactics use that interest to promote a specific action, driving your prospects into the next phase: appraisal/consideration.
- Call-to-action (CTA) Buttons: CTAs written with your consumer path in mind can provide conversion rate optimization. The optimal CTAs for each stage depend on your overall sales funnel strategy. Using the landing page example above, a software provider would enjoy a higher conversion rate with a product demonstration CTA than a buy-now CTA. Think of CTAs as stepping stones bridging the digital customer journey.
- Gated Content: Premium content often requires an email address to access. If you have successfully proven yourself an expert and piqued your prospect’s interest, an email is a great price.
- Sign-Up Forms: Sign-up Forms are very similar to gated content. Sign-up forms work best and enjoy the greatest conversion rate optimization when they are simple. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for your prospect to sign up.
How do you nurture leads through conversion optimization?
Even if your awareness content has attracted the highest-quality prospects and they’re interested in your branding, they might still not be ready to buy. These are called not-yet-ready (NYR) prospects and are still valuable to your sales funnel strategy. B2B services only have around a 2% conversion rate. In other words, only 2% of your target audience will need your services at any given time.
Use this time along the digital customer journey to nurture leads. People want to do business with people and brands they know, like, and trust. This phase of the consumer path focuses on expressing your brand and providing content that’s about them.
- Email Newsletters: Regular newsletters can serve as regular touchpoints with your leads. Newsletters keep you top-of-mind. Your brand name will be there when an NYR prospect resumes their digital customer journey.
- Personalized Content: Make your offer about them. Tailor content around a lead’s interests, behaviors, or needs. For example, an advertising & marketing agency that targets non-profits might provide content personalized to specific causes. If your sales team keeps detailed notes of leads through the consumer path, they can reference those details for a personalized touch.
- Drip Campaigns: Drip campaigns automate sending timely, relevant emails. Most sales funnel CRMs can set up drip campaigns based on specific triggers or time intervals. Drip campaigns prevent dormant leads from falling through the cracks while ensuring leads receive the right information at the right time.
The content above goes hand-in-hand with the engagement tactics below to effectively build a sales funnel.
- Segmented Email list: Not every lead circling your inbound marketing funnel is the same. Divide your leads into smaller, more specific groups based on demographics, behavior, or purchase history. Catering to these segments will improve your conversion rate optimization and reduce the number of recipients who unsubscribe.
- Personalized Follow-Ups: Treat your leads as individuals to show that you understand and care about them. Remember, a sales funnel strategy aims to build genuine connections. Personalized follow-ups foster loyalty and long-term relationships.
- Automated workflows: Automated workflows save you time and energy while providing your leads with the right information at the right time. A sales funnel CRM with automated workflows provides efficiency, consistency, and scalability in the long term.
How does a strong digital marketing sales funnel help to convert leads into clients?
At this point, you’ve attracted quality leads and nurtured them to know, like, and trust you. To complete the sales funnel strategy and close the sale, you’ll have to convince your lead to pull the trigger. So far, they’ve taken small steps along their consumer path. In their eyes, the purchase is the biggest commitment, so you need to address their fears, uncertainty, and doubts.
- Case studies: Case studies, or customer success stories, showcase your past success and results through storytelling. Define the problem, demonstrate how you solved it, and prove the results with data. Case studies are one of the most versatile assets for your entire sales funnel strategy.
- Testimonials: Testimonials can be simple positive reviews on Google or bold block quotes invigorating your marketing materials. Similar to case studies, testimonials can enhance any step of the lead generation process.
- Product Demos: Have you ever taken a car for a test drive before purchasing it? Product demos solve uncertainty and empower your leads to try it out. So far, the digital customer journey has been hypothetical, but product demos make the solution tangible—real.
- One-on-one consultations: Personal consultations empower you to address your leads’ needs. View this as customer journey consulting, where you can turn your branding into a positive, hands-on experience.
- Free trials: Similar to product demos, free trials provide a risk-free way for leads to experience your offerings.
- Special offers: You cannot change a lead’s urgency— either they are ready to buy or not. However, limited-time discounts or packages can incentivize actions, leading to conversion rate optimization.
We’ve divided the phases of a sales funnel strategy into content pieces and delivery methods/engagement techniques. We’ve separated them for easy reading. However, these tactics almost always interweave.
You can leave case studies behind after a product demo, promote testimonials across social media channels, and share new case studies via your newsletter. When you view your sales funnel strategy like that, it sounds less like a funnel for sales and more like an elaborate dance. Partnering with a branding and marketing agency becomes especially advantageous. Like a dance partner, a marketing agency can launch you in the right direction.
How do you measure and optimize your lead path?
There is always room for improvement in any sales funnel strategy. Before optimizing your consumer path, you must measure your current sales funnel. Analytics reports and multiple performance metrics allow you to view your lead path from several angles. For example, conversion rate measures the percentage of leads converting into customers, customer acquisition cost (CAC) calculates the total cost of acquiring a new customer, and funnel velocity measures how quickly leads move through each stage.
Most sales funnel CRMs offer built-in reporting. Performance metrics are quantitative data; we can refine our sales funnel strategy with qualitative data— customer feedback. Asking for reviews is always helpful, but we must go deeper. Customer surveys allow you to collect more in-depth data from more clients.
Use this data to update and refine your sales funnel strategy regularly. You can even do A/B testing to further your conversion rate optimization. A/B testing is when you use two versions of the same content (like a landing page or drip campaign) to see which performs better. It’s a cost-effective way to make data-driven decisions.
Conclusion:
Mastering the lead path is essential for any business looking to grow and succeed. By understanding and optimizing each stage of the journey from prospect to client, you can increase your conversion rates and build a loyal customer base. Implement the strategies this guide discusses to enhance your marketing and sales efforts and watch your business thrive.
Ready to take your lead conversion process to the next level?
Schedule a free consultation, and let’s discuss your lead path and how we can help you convert prospects into clients!
About Loud & Clear Marketing
LCM was founded in Leesburg, Virginia, by Sharon L. Wright in 2012. Joined by Deb Haynes Swider in 2019, Loud & Clear Marketing is a woman-owned, integrated marketing agency specializing in brand-led lead generation. From branding and public relations (PR) to digital and social media marketing to web development, our team of community builders helps businesses and nonprofits grow so our communities will prosper. You can find more information about Loud & Clear Marketing at www.LoudandClear.today.
by Aaron Loveland | Jul 1, 2024 | Analytics, Marketing
Search engine optimization (SEO) in digital marketing is constantly changing. Because of changes in algorithms and updates that seem to happen weekly – if not daily – we often get questions on the role of SEO in modern digital marketing. For now, remember: throughout marketing and SEO evolution, keywords remain the guiding stars.
Generative Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Google’s search engine updates are revolutionizing search optimization marketing. Can your search engine optimization strategy adapt to stay ahead of your competition?
You don’t have to do it alone. In this blog, we’ll examine the past to gain insight into the future. You’ll learn how SEO and keyword research can elevate you above your competition. Let’s delve into the best SEO practices for 2024.
An Overview of the Last 30 Years
Experts have written entire books on the evolution of SEO, so this will be an overview. From a broad perspective, keywords lead users toward the right content and quality businesses. From the searcher’s perspective, we don’t use keywords— we just naturally search for things online. It’s the search engines that have to match your search terms to the right content.
Search engines want to provide users with the best experience, so users find that search engine useful and keep using their site. Users want to find the right content with minimum time and effort. Keywords evolved as a way to connect the dots.
Once people figured out that the right keywords could attract more visitors to their website, they exploited optimizing SEO. Pre-Google search engines worked by matching search terms to keywords. Some exploited these pre-Google search engines by stuffing as many keywords into their sites as possible. That made for unhelpful, clunky content.
Google rolled out in the late 90s and became dominant in the 2000s. Instead of keyword density, they prioritized relevance and authority. Relevance can refer to good, up-to-date sources, but Google is more interested in matching content to a searcher’s intentions. We’ll get to that in a minute. Google measures authority based on social signals and backlinks.
The 2010s saw a variety of innovations that essentially made people more comfortable using search engines. Smartphones made it easy to search websites while on the go. Voice assistants like Siri and Alexa turned search terms into conversational questions. People also wanted location-based results.
Answers to a simple search for “pizza” became more complex: “authentic Italian pizzerias near me” vs. “how to make pizza dough from scratch.” These conversational and highly specific search terms are called long-tail keywords. They have a clearer intent than basic keywords.
Today, Google, search engines, and AI developers use NLP to better understand human semantics. Semantic refers to the meaning behind words, but search engines use it to understand synonyms and context. For example, sneakers, running shoes, athletic shoes, shoes for runners, tennis shoes, and gym shoes all refer to the same topic. Thanks to Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), search engines can better match keywords to their underlying topics.
Google’s search engine and competitors will most likely continue innovating to get to the heart of our queries. Google is also currently experimenting with Generative AI (Search Generative Experience or SGE), but that’s a future article.
What Are Keywords and Why Do We Do Keyword Research: Foundations of SEO Optimization
Keywords started as stepping stones for pre-Google search engines. They are words and phrases that connect searchers to the right content. Today, they are part of a larger, more nuanced search engine optimization strategy. Keyword research helps us understand searcher intent so we can genuinely address their needs, build trust, and create an engaging presence.
There are four kinds of search intents. The keywords searchers use reveal their intentions and place in the buyer’s journey. Let’s look at wineries, specifically Harvest Haven winery as an example.
- Informational (I want to know): This begins the buyer’s journey, where they learn what’s out there. SEO content that targets these searchers focuses on raising awareness. If someone is visiting Northern Virginia, they might search for, “Tourist attractions,” “Fun things to do in Northern Virginia,” or “Agritourism places in Northern Virginia.”
- Navigational (I want to go): These searchers want to get in touch or go to a location. These search terms often end with “near me.” They signal a progression in the buyer’s journey. Our example above might go from “Agritourism places in Northern Virginia” to “Harvest Haven Winery address” or “Harvest Haven Winery hours?”
- Commercial Investigation (I want to do): These searchers might study ultimate guides, watch how-to videos, or customer reviews. They want a human perspective that will tell them what to expect or how to. The best way to catch these searches is by including soft influence and user-generated content in a marketing and SEO strategy.
- Transactional (I want to buy): address this search intent with a user-friendly, easy-to-navigate sales page. For example, Harvest Haven would satisfy these searchers with a quick and intuitive booking page.
How Do We Use Keywords In Marketing and SEO?
If Harvest Haven Winery wants a content marketing and SEO strategy to support its future, it first has to step back. It needs to put itself in its clients’ shoes with buyer personas (there’s a reason we start with questions about audience). Then, it can develop seed keywords: generic, core words or phrases potential clients use to discover its offerings.
Harvest Haven Winery finds eight seed keywords. They’ll serve as topic buckets to fill with relevant content.
- Agritourism experiences
- Wine tasting
- Vineyard tour
- Local winery
- Winery events
- Wine and dine
- Vineyard stay
- Vineyard weddings
Next, Harvest Haven will have to use a keyword research tool to develop head terms. Head terms are shorter, generic keywords that have a high volume of monthly searches. These search terms reflect someone early in their buyer’s journey. Stick around, and we’ll share some recommendations on keyword research tools. Examples of head terms might be:
- Wine Festival
- Winery dining
- Farm-to-table winery
- Winemaking classes
- Seasonal wine events
- Winery vacation
- Family-friendly winery
- Wine and food pairing
- Local winery
- Wine Country
- Wine tasting
These head terms might become core keywords for future blog posts or advertorials. However, Harvest Haven should also examine some long-tail keywords. These are longer, more specific keywords that reflect a closer point-of-purchase. They might be “family-friendly vineyard tours near me” or “local wine events coming in July.”
Harvest Haven combines their seed keywords with head terms and long-tail keywords to develop a long list of potential keywords. SEO and keyword search tools share two key insights on keywords: volume and competition. Volume is how often the keyword is searched for. Competition is how often the keyword is used by various sites. Everyone wants keywords that are high in volume and low in competition, but search engine optimization in digital marketing is a balancing game.
Again, this is an overview, there are entire college courses on search optimization marketing. This example search engine optimization strategy for Harvest Haven Winery would guide them in developing a plethora of content that satisfies search intentions. They could satisfy informational search with information on agritourism, why it’s important, and what they offer. They could catch navigational searches by collaborating with local publications and news outlines. They could answer commercial investigations by showcasing some offerings like their wine-making class or their wedding venue. They could invite influencers to tour to encourage user-generated content.
It’s important to note that a successful search engine optimization strategy takes time, sometimes years. You need to continuously publish content so Google learns you’re an authority on your seed keywords. It’ll take time, but if you earn audience trust and engagement by routinely publishing helpful content, you’ll get noticed.
Current Trends and Best Practices in Keyword Research: Navigating the Digital Marketing Landscape
AI is on everyone’s minds, and every business is experimenting with it. However, search engine optimization in digital marketing has always been sensitive to innovation and industry trends.
In 2023, the rise of generative AI made it easier than ever to create large amounts of content. Most businesses asking ChatGPT to write blogs had a rudimentary understanding of marketing and SEO. They flooded the web with poorly optimized content that had no strategy. That content did not rank partly because it read like a robot.
The best practice for search engine optimization in digital marketing is seeing it as a long-term strategy. Remember the ultimate goal is to build trust, authority, and engagement by satisfying your target audience’s needs and questions. AI— like those embedded in the recommended tools below— can help with research. Yet, keyword research and those AIs tools are part of a holistic strategy.
Small to mid-size businesses are often expected to do more with less. AI tools exacerbate this. It’s not realistic for employees to stay up to date with all marketing and SEO innovations. Google is changing and will always change. Instead of struggling to adapt to the constantly changing SEO landscape, you should partner with experts – experts who are surveying the horizon and adapting before your competitors even realize there’s a change.
Ready to supercharge your SEO strategy and harness the power of keyword research for your business? Loud & Clear Marketing can help!
Recommended Tools and Platforms for Keyword Research in 2024: Enhancing Your SEO Strategy
- Ahrefs Keywords Explorer is a free SEO and keyword search tool. It allows you to research keywords and the search questions associated with them. Although it is a little basic on its own, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools can expand on backlinks and domain authority.
- SEMrush is a very comprehensive SEO tool. It can compare your SEO with your competitors, generate topic ideas, and enhance your writing with generative AI. While it can help at every stage of your search engine optimization strategy, its subscription tiers are expensive.
- ChatGPT can certainly help with brainstorming and topic generation, but its content writing reads like a robot. ChatGPT-4 is more advanced and more reliable than its free counterpart but costs a monthly subscription.
- Google Keyword Planner is great for generating keyword ideas; however, it is limited to that.
- Ubersuggest can perform a reverse search on your site to see what it is already ranking for. That is certainly helpful for businesses who just started optimizing SEO. However, it limits you to three free searches a day.
- Good old Google Search Engine. You could type a seed keyword or a head term in the search bar and let autofill reveal what else people are searching. For example, “wine making classes” autofills with “for beginners.” Now we know, searchers want an easy, beginner-friendly experience.
Conclusion:
Search engine optimization in digital marketing has undergone significant transformations over the past three decades—and it’s only bound for more! From humble beginnings to sophisticated strategies, keyword research is the cornerstone of search optimization marketing. To stay ahead, you’ll need more than current trends, best practices, and recommended tools. You’ll need marketing experts to help you navigate the ever-changing digital marketing landscape.
Loud & Clear Marketing does not take a one-size-fits-all approach. Our team of digital marketing experts will work with you to develop a custom action plan around lead generation, SEO, content, digital advertising, and public relations to support you in reaching your revenue and brand awareness goals. Schedule a free consultation today and let’s discuss your company’s future!
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About Loudoun Clear Marketing
LCM was founded in Leesburg, Virginia, by Sharon L. Wright in 2012. Joined by Deb Haynes Swider in 2019, today Loud & Clear Marketing is a woman-owned, integrated marketing firm specializing in brand-led lead generation. From public relations to digital and social media marketing to web development our team of community builders help businesses and nonprofits grow, so our communities will prosper. More about Loudoun Clear Marketing is at loudandclear.today.
by Aaron Loveland | Mar 14, 2024 | Branding
Does your business have a recognizable brand identity? How can you tell?
Branding goes beyond a logo, colors, and slogan or tagline— it’s in everything you use to communicate your brand, whether visual, written, or spoken.
Branding is the overall public perception of your business. Everything you do— from websites to social posts to the way your employees describe your company — contributes to the public’s perception of your business.
Businesses with a well-designed brand identity are easily recognizable, memorable, and ultimately more successful. A strong brand identity fosters customer loyalty and positive emotions, leading to more traction in the marketplace.
If you aren’t strategic when planning your business’s branding strategy, then you’re missing the mark. An inconsistent branding identity won’t resonate with your target audience, won’t be memorable, and you’ll struggle to maintain traction.
Branding 101 – The Basics
Now that we’ve established why branding matters, what can you do to create a strong brand identity? How can you control perception? And how can you foster a brand that will succeed? We’ll explore all that and more, starting with Loud & Clear Marketing’s “Three C’s.”: clear, concise, and consistent.
A Brand Must Be Clear
Potential buyers of your product or service should easily understand what your company does, what needs your product or you or you serve, and who you serve. Those aspects should be understood at first glance. Potential clients should not have to work to understand what you do. Your goal is to make it as easy as possible for an audience to understand your brand identity.
A Brand Must Be Concise
Your brand also needs to be concise. Think about the thousands of brands and advertisements you see every day. How much attention do you give each one? Research tells us we have mere seconds to grab attention. That’s why you should deliver your message as succinctly and efficiently as possible. Potential clients have short attention spans because our daily lives are flooded with branded content. So, hook your audience in immediately, and keep them coming back with concise, engaging content.
A Brand Must Be Consistent
The reason why branding consistency is so important is because it aids with recognition. Since your audience is interacting with thousands of brands a day, consistency will help them remember your business. Consistency anchors your brand identity into the consciousness of potential clients so they’ll think of you when they need you.
The Rule of Seven tells us that it takes seven touchpoints with your brand before a potential client chooses to work with your business. Your brand should be clear, concise, and consistent across all those touchpoints. If your branding is, then your potential clients will more easily understand, remember, and trust your brand.
Branding Strategy tip: tap into your audience’s emotions to leave a stronger impact. Put yourself in your client’s shoes. Which emotions prompt them to act? Which emotions do you want your brand to invoke? This technique will help you grow your client base, foster long-term, dedicated clients, and ultimately generate more revenue.
The Fundamental Elements of Branding
When you first think of the elements of branding, two components usually come to mind: logo and color. Take the Nike swoosh and Coca-Cola red, for instance. These elements are the most recognizable parts of a brand, but there are many more factors to creating brand identity.
Key Messaging
What are the key messages you’re trying to convey? Start by developing your company’s mission, vision, and value statements, as well as an elevator pitch.
A mission statement describes the overall aim of your business— it conveys who you are and what you do to both your clients and employees. What needs are you resolving? What communities are you serving?
A vision statement focuses on the future. Where does your company see itself one year, five years, or 10 years down the line? How are you hoping to achieve that growth? It also acts as a guiding force for your employees, leading them toward your desired future.
Finally, a values statement defines your core values, which form the backbone of your business. What’s important to you? What do you want to prioritize? What principles steer your company? Besides guiding your business toward success, they are also becoming increasingly important to consumers. Edelman’s Trust Barometer showed in 2022 that nearly two-thirds of consumers bought from or advocated for brands based on their values.
Every business should also be able to concisely summarize themselves in an elevator pitch. Narrow down the most important parts of your brand identity and story. Highlight your most significant aspects, such as how you differentiate yourself from competitors. Elevator pitches should be quick and easy for employees to remember, mainly because they’re concise (under 30 seconds). The goal is to have a clear, concise, and consistent statement to share when asked about your business.
Personality
Your brand’s personality is a reflection of all those statements above. It both informs and is informed by the words, images, colors, and content your brand produces. Similar to a person’s personality, our actions are driven by— but also define— our personality. A dating site might want to be flirty and fun. A local sports bar could be exciting, fiercely loyal, and inviting. A research firm might be serious, informative, and precise in its language.
It can be a difficult exercise to define your brand’s personality. However, putting it on paper will help everyone responsible for communication. Defining your brand’s personality ensures consistency. If that fun and flirty dating site starts communicating in a serious and somber tone, then it will confuse clients. Being consistent with your brand identity is the key to success!
Tone
A cultivated personality goes hand in hand with another brand element: tone. The tone your company uses reflects your company’s character and personality. Once again, similar to people, personalities shine through in how we talk. The tone is essential in public-facing messaging as it deeply resonates with the reader. So, knowing your customer base is key.
Using the example above, the sports bar probably wants to be casual and easy-going in their communications. Meanwhile, the research firm should be technical, formal, and specific. Tone can be nuanced, but the more you define it, the easier it is to maintain as part of your brand identity. Similar to brand personality, consistency earns you traction in the marketplace. To be consistent, define it and write it down so that all who communicate on your business’s behalf will be consistent in their communications.
Visual Identity
Visuals as a brand element work to grab attention and hook viewers in your content. Being intentional about the type of visuals your business uses will help with your overall brand and its consistency. Visuals work faster than words because our minds look for them first. Remember the “Three C’s”: clear, concise, and consistent.
Let’s break down the visuals so it’s easier to focus on key elements. A branded color palette is a great first step in bringing your brand to life. A consistent color palette can help your smaller graphics work together with your larger brand for a coordinated look.
Coordinated design elements can amplify your visual identity. You could include a significant part of your logo in your branded messaging. You could also use your color palette and a design element from your logo (such as your linework style) for dedicated graphics. Charity Water’s Jerry is a great example of this.
Well-planned sub-graphics can help your business in the long run. If you have various product lines, try to strike a balance between them all looking unique yet synonymous under your larger umbrella brand. Graphics are the key to a company’s synchronized visual identity.
Being intentional about design will also help when collaborating with other brands. Without a clear brand identity, your business will easily be overshadowed by a better-defined brand.
This is all to say that a clear visual identity helps gain market attention. Designing your brand can be rewarding but also complicated. We dive deeper into the art of design in our Design Tips Blog so you can easily master your visual identity.
Branding has a lot of moving parts. None of which can exist alone. They all need to work together so your brand can thrive. Understanding why branding has these many components will help your business in the long run.
Make Your Brand Identity Easier to Reach
We’ve covered a lot of ground. So far, we’ve touched on identity, messaging, key values, and visuals. Each one can get a little complicated in its own right. Altogether, this branding help can appear overwhelming. It’s helpful to create a single space where the entire brand identity is easily available— especially for hammering out the intricacies. These can be called brand guides, style guides, or brand books. However, they all fill the same role: housing everything about your brand— from the mission statement to the typeface. These guides serve as references when creating any branded content. They don’t need to be chapters long, but the more in-depth you go, the more consistent your brand will be. Any questions someone might have when creating branded content should be answered in the guide. It might be something as small as the space surrounding your logo or something as major as the overall brand tone. Either way, establishing the rule in one place creates a clear and consistent brand.
Branding in a Nutshell
Branding can seem daunting at first. That’s why we broke them down into guidelines, so creating a brand identity is much more achievable. To summarize, we start by identifying your brand’s key messages. Those key messages cascade into your brand’s tone and personality. That then informs your overall visual identity. Finally, to make branding easier in the long run, condense your work into a brand guide. If you need a little help creating a brand guide, check out our free Ultimate Guide to Branding eBook. It guides you step-by-step in creating or refining your brand into your own brand guide.
Remember, use the “Three C’s” as a sounding board for each step. Clear, concise, and consistent brands gain attention, earn traction, secure customers, achieve revenue, and support your overall growth.
Looking for More Information?
You don’t have to do this alone. We at Loud & Clear Marketing specialize in helping businesses grow and thrive. We’re experts in marketing and branding for businesses of all sizes and our #1 priority is helping you reach your business’s goals and objectives. If you’re curious about collaborating, let’s set up a free consultation. If you want to learn more about us, visit our website at loudandclear.today
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