How to Build Links Using Google Alerts

Link building is hard. But did you know that Google makes it easier for you?

Seriously… they do make it easier because they provide you with free tools.

No, I’m not talking about the ones you already use like Google Search Console and Google Analytics…

They actually have tons of other tools. Some you may have heard of, but I bet you don’t use them.

And today I am going to show you how you can build links using Google Alerts.

What is Google Alerts?

As the saying goes, if it isn’t on Google, it doesn’t exist.

Google is the most popular search engine in the world. Their database contains hundreds of billions of web pages and is over 100,000,000 gigabytes in size.

Because of their massive size, they are able to crawl web pages more frequently than any SEO tool including my own, Ubersuggest. This is precisely why you want to start using Google Alerts to build links.

So, what is Google Alerts?

As I mentioned above, they have a bigger database of web pages than any other link building or SEO tool. So, you’ll want to use their database to find easy link opportunities and ideally without wasting time digging through billions or even thousands of web pages.

Google Alerts allows you to create notifications on any subject, topic, or keyword.

So, when a new web page talks about anything that could be an easy link opportunity, you’ll get notified in an email.

Just like this one…

So, let’s set it all up step by step so you can get some backlinks.

How to set up Google Alerts

First, I want you to go here.

You’ll see a screen that looks like this (make sure you sign in at the top right).

I want you to type in your domain name without the www or the https part.

In my case, I would type in: neilpatel.com

You may see an alert preview like the one above, but if you have a newer site you probably won’t see any results, which is fine.

Then I want you to click on the “Show Options” link next to the “Create Alert” button.

Your settings should match mine:

• How often – at most once a day
• Sources – Blogs, Web (select those 2 options, you don’t want news as an option as it tends to create more irrelevant results and we’ve found that it is harder to get news sites to link back to you)
• Language – English (or the language you are targeting)
• Region – any region (or you can select the country you are targeting although I recommend picking “any region”)
• How many – all results
• Deliver to – should be your email.

And then click “Create Alert.”

Up to once a day, you’ll get an email with a list of pages that mentions your website or domain.

I want you to repeat the process and create an alert for the following items:

• Your domain – you should have just done this.
• Brand name – in my case I would create an alert for “Neil Patel.”
• Product names – if you are selling any services or products you can create an alert around that. In my case, I would create an alert for “Ubersuggest.”
• Industry terms – create alerts for anything related to your industry. When people are talking about your space, it is an easy link opportunity. In my case, I would create alerts for the terms: digital marketing, online marketing, and SEO.
• Your email address – create an alert anytime someone gives out your email. Again, another easy link opportunity.

Here’s what mine looks like:

You’ll also notice for all of my two-word phrases I have quotation marks around them.

For example, I would not create an alert for: Neil Patel

But, I would create an alert for: “Neil Patel”

The reason being is that alerts for two-word phrases without quotes aren’t as relevant. For example, here are some alerts from the term: online marketing.

When I use quotes, here are the results.

See the difference?

Getting links

Now that you have alerts set up, it is time to get links.

Keep in mind that when you get an alert email, someone could have already linked to you. So, not every alert will be a link building opportunity, but many will be.

Typically, more than half will be opportunities.

Depending on the alert type, some will be easier than others. So, let’s go over how to convert each opportunity into a link.

Your domain

You’ll find that a good portion of the mentions of your domain will contain a link back to your site.

For those, you don’t have to do anything as you’ve already got a link. 🙂

For the ones that aren’t linking to you, I want you to send the following email to the webmaster…

Subject: Did you make a mistake?

Hey [insert first name],

First off, I just wanted to say thanks for mentioning [insert your domain] in this article [insert a link to the URL that mentions your domain].

I know you are busy so I will just cut to the chase.

Would you mind hotlinking my domain to my website? I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but that extra traffic really helps small companies like mine.

Cheers,

[insert your name]

PS: Let me know if I can do anything for you.

Brand name

When it comes to brand names, it is a 50/50 shot. Roughly half the people will link to you when they mention your brand and the other half won’t.

For the ones that didn’t, send them this email:

Subject: You forgot to do this

Hey [insert first name],

I’m flattered.

Thank you for mentioning [insert your brand name] in your article on [insert the title of their article].

[insert the URL of their article]

You really made my day with that.

Again, thank you!

I feel bad doing this because you already mentioned us, but it would mean the world to me if you also linked our name to our site.

Would you mind doing that?

Sorry to bug you.

[insert your name]

PS: Let me know if I can do anything for you.

Product names

With product names, usually 70% to 80% of the websites will be linking back to you and the rest not. For the ones that don’t, send them an email similar to this:

Subject: Did you mean to do this?

Hey [insert their first name],

I just wanted to take a minute to tell you how much I appreciate that you mentioned [insert your brand name] here [insert the URL of the webpage that mentions your product].

Seriously, thank you!

Now, I feel bad doing this, but would you mind hotlinking [insert your product name] to this page on our website where people can find the product [insert the URL on your site that covers the product]?

Sorry to bug you.

And again, thank you for mentioning us. It really means a lot.

[insert your name]

PS: Let me know if I can do anything for you.

Your email address

Now this one is rare as most people won’t be publishing your email address.

And when they do, they usually aren’t linking to you.

If you try to get them to link the email address, you will find it hard. But what’s easier is to get them to remove your email address and link to your contact page instead.

Here’s the email template I use for this.

Subject: Privacy issue

Hey [insert their first name],

I noticed you mentioned our email address, [insert your email address], on this page [insert the page they mentioned your email on].

Would you mind mentioning and linking to our contact page instead [insert your contact page URL]?

For privacy reasons, I would rather have people get in touch with us through that page instead of our email.

Thanks for your time.

[insert your name]

You also notice that in this template I didn’t include the PS at the bottom. The PS typically helps boost your success ratio, but when it comes to this email, you want to be a bit more firm as it is related to your privacy.

You ideally want the link and fewer people sharing your email because then you’ll have to deal with a ton of spam messages.

Industry terms

In almost all cases, alerts that contain industry terms won’t be linking to you. And this group will also be the largest number of results you get with each alert email.

You’ll have to go through each alert and look at the context of the web page.

If they are talking about something that you have already covered on your website and did more in-depth than they have, there is a good chance you can convince them to link to you.

For example, if there is an article about SEO and they mention how you need to build links, but they don’t go into how to build links, I would email the site owner pointing to this article as it breaks down how to build links.

Here is the type of email I would send:

Subject: Some feedback for you

Hey [insert their first name],

Love your article on [insert the topic of their article] [insert the URL of their article].

I just have one piece of feedback for you (hope you don’t get offended), but you mention [insert the subject they mention that you go more in-depth on within your own site], but you didn’t go too in-depth on it.

I think if you adjusted that it would provide a lot more value to your readers.

Or if you don’t have the time to, I already have an article on it here [insert the URL on your site where you go in-depth on that topic] that you could just link to.

Let me know your thoughts.

[insert your name]

PS: Let me know if I can do anything for you.

How do I get in touch?

Now that you know what kind of emails to send depending on the alert you receive, you’ll have to, of course, get in touch with the site owner.

So how do you find their email address?

Well, the simplest way is to go to their contact page and see if their email is there or if they have a contact form.

You can also check out their terms of service or privacy policy.

Another option is to use tools like Hunter. Just type in a domain name into Hunter and you’ll see a list of people you can contact.

Their free plan allows 50 requests per month, which should be enough to get you started.

Conclusion

Google Alerts is an easy way to build links so I would start with that.

What’s beautiful about it is that you’ll get notified of opportunities. This will save you a lot of time.

And if you find yourself with a bit of extra time, I recommend one more strategy to build links.

Go here and put in your competition’s URL.

Once you hit “search” you’ll see a report that looks something like this:

These are all of the websites linking to your competition. What’s interesting about this list is that it is sorted.

The results at the top have more authority, in which they typically boost SEO rankings more than the ones at the bottom of the list.

You’ll want to go through the list, click on each site, and see if it makes sense to reach out to that website and ask them to link to you.

Typically, if you have similar content to your competition that is more thorough, it’s possible to convince someone to link to you. You’ll have to send them emails like the one below…

Hey [insert their first name],

Question for you…

How do you think it makes you look to your readers when you link to another site that doesn’t really help them?

It kind of makes you look bad and maybe even lose a little bit of trust with your readers, right?

In this article [insert the URL on their site], you link out to [insert the competition’s URL].

The article you are linking to doesn’t cover [insert the areas the competition missed].

I actually have an article [insert your article URL] that covers [insert what you cover that the competition doesn’t and why it benefits readers more].

If you aren’t interested in linking to us no worries. I just know that you care about your readers and you want to do the best for them.

Cheers,

[insert your name]

PS: Let me know if I can do anything for you.

If you follow the steps above, you’ll start building links.

It isn’t that hard and you can do it. You just have to be willing to put in the time and not get discouraged if you send out a handful of emails and no one links back to you.

Just think of your email as a sales pitch and it may not be perfect the first time… so you may have to modify and adjust it.

If you have any questions on the steps or are confused about anything, just leave a comment below.

The post How to Build Links Using Google Alerts appeared first on Neil Patel.

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Is Entrepreneurship in Your DNA?

Is Entrepreneurship in Your DNA? written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with Sydni Craig-Hart

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interview Sydni Craig-Hart CEO and Co-Founder of Smart Simple Marketing, an award-winning content marketing consultancy.

Smart Simple Marketing helps B2SMB marketing professionals gain market share, drive engagement and deepen loyalty with small businesses, women business entrepreneurs and minority business entrepreneurs. They work with brands in retail, technology, financial services, wireless and with associations.

Since their start in 2006 they have worked with small businesses and organizations in 79 different industries, build an engaged community of 30,100+ diverse-owned small businesses, delivered 437 classes, workshops, webinars, taught 9,800+ small businesses and entrepreneurs at our live events, and researched and created over 10,000 pieces of original content.

Questions I ask Sydni Craig-Hart:

• What do you enjoy most about what you do?
• What are some of the biggest challenges your clients are struggling with right now from a marketing standpoint?
• What are you telling people when they come to you and ask “what should I be doing”?

What you’ll learn if you give a listen:

• What it means for Sydni to be a 4th generation Entrepreneur
• How to work with your husband as a business partner
• Sydni’s reading Built to Sell and found the lessons in it are what you should be doing right now

More about Sydni Craig-Hart:

• About Smart Simple Marketing
• Connect with Sydini on social media, on all channels Sydni Craig-Hart

Like this show? Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please!

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by numa. Try a new kind of answering service you will love. Their business customers say it’s like adding another staff member. You can give every customer a fast, personalized response for one low monthly rate — no hidden fees or contracts. Try for free with no billing info required.

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Why Content Marketing is More Important Than Ever for B2B Brands

In his recently published eBook, Corona Marketing, Joe Pulizzi recounts how he and his wife launched the website Content Marketing Institute in 2007 at the exact time as a devastating financial crisis was beginning to unfold in the United States.  “At the time, we believed things couldn’t have been bleaker,” Pulizzi writes. “Looking back though, this was absolutely the best time for my wife and I to start a business.” Why is that? Because their commitment to providing useful, helpful and relevant content – even at a time where it was difficult to drive direct revenue with that content – paid major dividends as the market recovered.  “When we were starting to come out of the recession in 2010, Content Marketing Institute quickly became the leading resource for content marketing education, not because we had some secret sauce, but simply because we invested in our audience for two years when everyone else went silent (or went out of business).” Even when times are difficult, professional audiences still look to people and brands they trust for guidance, information, and entertainment; in fact, one might argue especially when times are difficult. And as we're said on this blog before, that continued search for solutions means the work of marketing doesn't stop.  The challenges our world now faces with the coronavirus pandemic and social justice movement create a unique opportunity for B2B content marketing to make an impact, even relative to other recessions and crises we’ve faced in the past. Here’s why.

The Vital Role of B2B Content Marketing Right Now

In an increasingly customer-centric business sphere, content marketing has become a virtually omnipresent tactic for two primary reasons:

1. It’s cost-effective at a time where budgets and ROI equations everywhere are closely reviewed and scrutinized.
2. It’s non-pushy at a time where customers are increasingly resistant to interruptive, promotional messaging.

Both of these underlying drivers are magnified in the current environment. Budgets are broadly down – both for marketers and their customers – so business purchases (particularly discretionary ones) are being delayed and dialed back. As such, ads and content that aim for direct conversions can miss the mark. In fact, the perception that a brand is attempting to opportunistically profit during a crisis can be outright damaging. But content that is aimed at building brand trust, affinity and loyalty? It has the ability to make a bigger positive impact than ever. This is NOT the time to remain silent. As Sarah Tourville writes in a recent piece at Forbes, “Silence does not convey the look of a healthy brand, and perception is paramount during these trying times.” By stepping up and asserting our values, reinforcing our purpose, and delivering contextually useful insights, B2B companies can leave a lasting impression that profoundly strengthens our long-term outlooks. Your audience is receptive. Digital content consumption and engagement rates are way up. Are you ready to deliver?  Here are three examples of B2B brands that have impressed me with the way they’ve risen to the challenge.

3 Examples of Exceptional B2B Content Marketing During the Crisis

Content Marketing Institute: COVID-19 Resource Hub Since we mentioned Mr. Pulizzi and CMI earlier, they’re a fitting example to start with. The COVID-19 Content Marketing Resources page on CMI’s site is full of free, neatly organized, and continually updated resources for brands and practitioners.  Not only does CMI’s staff curate these articles and assets on their own, but they invite their community to contribute findings as well – while being crystal clear on the submission form about the purpose of these resources: “educational, inspirational, and freely accessible for all.” American Express: Stand for Small Stand for Small is another example of an excellent resource hub directed at a distinct subset of professionals. In this case, American Express partnered with numerous other organizations to compile helpful information and guidance for small businesses, which are feeling the brunt of COVID-19 and its economic impact as much as anyone. American Express’ branding is minimal throughout the site. With tons of other big-name brands participating, this is an impressively collaborative effort.  Stand for Small’s homepage states that “when small businesses thrive, our communities do too.” Unstated is that when small businesses thrive, American Express does too. But there’s nothing cynical about that because both things can be true. When content is able to find purpose in something that’s beneficial for your company AND beneficial for society in a deeper way, you’re doing it right. Citigroup: Executive Thought Leadership While there is a time and place for brands to speak as entities, it’s usually more powerful for leaders within the company to speak up, putting a human face and heart behind the sentiments. One example is a post on Citigroup’s blog from Chief Financial Officer Mark Mason, which opens with a haunting reference to George Floyd’s last words, and closes with an urge for others to join the fight against racial injustice. This was a hard-hitting message, and one that will stick with me when I think about Citi’s brand in the future. Importantly, the comments section was left open on the post, enabling (mostly respectful and grateful) dialogue.  Even more so than pandemic-related topics, this represents precarious ground for B2B brands, with political activism being a controversial subject. But there’s the thing: Mark’s post isn’t political. There’s nothing inherently political about condemning George Floyd’s murder, or calling attention to the systemic issue it reflects, or saying “Black Lives Matter.” The more we can normalize these messages through corporate-backed statements like this one, the more we can stop acting like advocating for social justice is political, or hazardous for brands with prominent voices and an ability to effect change. 

Invest in Your Audience

In many ways, content marketing was built for moments like this. It’s about developing relationships without treating the sale as a be-all, end-all. It’s about establishing what your brand stands for beyond the products or services it offers. It’s about investing in your audience rather than simply expecting your audience to invest in you. I’ll close this out by circling back to another quote from Mr. Pulizzi, this one a bit older – drawn from an interview he did with our own Ashley Zeckman five years ago – but as relevant as ever: 

“I don’t like the idea that marketers only sell and don’t make positive change happen.  That’s why I love content marketing. You can increase the bottom line while, at the same time, help your customers live better lives or get better jobs. Content marketing is the only kind of marketing that provides ongoing value, whether you purchase the product or not.” 

Provide ongoing value, prop up your brand values, and eventually you’ll see plenty of value in return. For more inspiration, check out these five examples of effective B2B content marketing in times of crisis.

The post Why Content Marketing is More Important Than Ever for B2B Brands appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

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Common Marketing Outliers & How to Manage Them

The chances are high that your audience across your various channels is diverse and made up of people with different needs, different values, different constraints, and more. That’s why smart marketers develop marketing personas to help them better cater to the various groups of people that their brand attracts. 

However, sometimes one or more small groups is so extreme in their behavior that they skew the overall behavior of your channel audience in a way that’s detrimental. These groups are called outliers and can cause multiple problems, including:

• Clouding overall performance data, making it appear that you’re doing much better or much worse than you actually are

• Obscuring how your core audience is performing

• Concealing trends in your customer data, causing you to miss opportunities or fail to address challenges

• Skewing A/B test results and leading you to implement the wrong changes or strategies

Let’s talk about some common outliers B2C marketers might encounter across their marketing channels and how to manage potential issues with them.

Common Marketing Outliers

Here are some common outliers that companies might encounter across their marketing channels:

Mega-spenders

These people spend or donate massive amounts—like 100 times your average audience member. For example, for one of the department store clients we work with, they have a group that’s only about 1% of their audience that spends at exceedingly high levels, says Doug Sundahl, Senior Director of Strategic & Analytics Services at Oracle CX Marketing Consulting. 

“Most of them spend over $100,000 every month—and some of them spend many multiples of that,” he says. “It’s likely that these individuals represent a B2B audience of interior designers, resellers, or other businesses.”

JT Capps, Director of Strategic & Analytic Services at Oracle CX Marketing Consulting, adds, “These mega-spenders may also be unauthorized resellers of products. Their purchases then show up across online marketplaces or international markets, which is a big problem for fashion and luxury brands in particular.”

We also see the effects of mega-spenders among our travel and hospitality clients, says Jared Polidoro, Head of Website Optimization & Personalization Services at Oracle CX Marketing Consulting. “Group reservations are an example that could contribute to revenue outliers,” he says, “with one visitor booking a block of 10 rooms for a family reunion or school trip when their average visitor is booking one or two rooms maximum.

Mega offline spenders who never open emails

Unfortunately, never-openers are not uncommon. However, never-openers who spend a lot—particularly offline—are rare. At a glance, it can seem like your emails aren’t impacting these subscribers, but it could be that the presence of your email is having a brand impact on them and that your subject lines and preview text are driving them to your offline channels.

Always openers

These email subscribers open just about everything that you send them, but that behavior often doesn’t translate into them being a valuable customer.

“For some clients, I have seen the top 2-3% of the list open at close to 100%,” says Sundahl “On the flip side, they don’t click as often as others, and there are opportunities to try to influence their behaviors.”

Influencers & detractors

Your influencers rarely purchase, but they’re incredibly engaged with your emails, social posts, web content, or other content, which they often share with their large personal audience. The dark side of influencers is detractors, who are non-purchasers who are highly critical of your brand and seek to pressure or punish your company with their behavior.

Mobile website visitors

Some of these visitors may exhibit strange behavior or convert at a much lower rate than other visitors. Often, poor internet connections for mobile visitors and the resulting slow page load times are the reason, says Polidoro.

Bots

Unfortunately, bots are everywhere. On social media, bots may be sharing your posts on certain topics. 

“When doing social listening, it is really important to ensure topics are set up to reduce noise that comes from spammy bot accounts,” says Vicky Czarniecki, Senior Strategic Analyst for Social Media Strategy & Analytics Services at Oracle CX Marketing Consulting. “Otherwise, your data set is overrun with noise that doesn’t apply to the goal of the analysis.”

On the web, it is important to keep in mind that some marketing technologies account for bots, says Polidoro. “Some tools filter out their own bots,” he says, “while other tools may not do this.”

For bots on your email list, in addition to opening just about everything, they are also likely to be clicking at a high rate—sometimes at a ridiculously high rate.

“We had a project where we identified a lot of bot email signups on a list and click rates in the 99th-percentile were at about 3,000%,” says Clint Kaiser, Head of Strategic & Analytic Services at Oracle CX Marketing Consulting. “We found over 200 Gmail subscribers that were clicking everything.”

That said, not all click bots are bad. For instance, some companies use email bots to help prevent malicious emails from entering their corporate mail systems. Typically, these bots click but don’t open emails, says Kaiser. We classify click bots as beneficial, malicious, or exploitive, and we recommend different approaches for dealing with each type of click bot. 

Employees

You want your employees to be engaged with your brand’s social media posts, email marketing campaigns, and web content. However, it can be a problem if you don’t account for it.

“I've seen employees of a company who open and click everything skew email tests,” says Kaiser. “If you’re judging the winner of an A/B test based on engagement and employees are on the list, it’s possible that they might change the picture.”

Whatever the behavior, sometimes all it takes is just one person to throw off your metrics in a huge way, says Sundahl.

“Years back I was doing a customer analysis and realized that a single outlier was skewing our data,” he says. “It was the CEO’s mom. She had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on high-price point items.”

How to Manage Marketing Outliers

Our consultants see three major ways of handling outliers:

1. Excluding outliers so they don’t cloud the behavior of the rest of your core audience

The most common remedy for outliers is to identify and exclude them from your data. Sometimes you can do this preemptively.

“It's important to think through a campaign from start to finish through the eyes of the visitor and then try to account for negative scenarios or potential conflicts to the campaign logic,” says Polidoro. “Planning ahead to account for common or known outliers can minimize their impact on a campaign.

For the web, especially when running tests, we recommend whitelisting employee IP addresses or diverting them into sandbox environments, so their behavior doesn’t skew results. “This empowers marketing teams to play around within their web campaigns as much as they like without affecting any of the final performance data,” says Polidoro.

Even if you can reduce outliers ahead of time, you’ll often need to filter outliers from your data. Sometimes you need to do that manually, and other times your marketing platforms will be able to help.

“For instance, website testing and personalization solution Oracle Maxymiser allows you to filter out outliers at five levels: 99%, 95%, 90%, 85% and 65%,” says Polidoro. “The 95% level will exclude the top and bottom 2.5% of your data points. Looking at reports with these outliers excluded will let you get a more realistic view of your data that allows you to understand which experience is truly outperforming the other without these external factors contributing.”

For example, our Website Optimization & Personalization Services team worked with an American gifts retailer during the holiday season and helped them filter out customers who would make gift purchases for 10+ recipients. “They surmised these were business entities making bulk purchases for clients and partners,” says Polidoro. “While an important part of the overall business, our client was more focused on the 90%-97% of their overall revenue that comes from buyers with a smaller cart size.”

Our Social Media Strategy & Analytics Services team has assisted multiple customers through crisis situations where some customers have expressed their disagreement with a retailer’s decision by vigorously commenting on their social media posts. “It is frowned upon to turn off comments on owned content, as it can send a message to customers who are upset that a retailer is hiding or potentially dismissing opinions,” says Czarniecki. “The tactic that was used in a recent retailer situation when every single social post was hit hard by negative comments was to continue to allow comments while identifying who the main detractors were. We kept one eye on that detractor group for any escalation, while also keeping an eye on our core audience.”

2. Segment this group out and send them different messaging

While outliers are often bad from a data perspective, sometimes they’re good from a business perspective. For example, mega-spenders, influencers, and even employees are good great segments worth cultivating.

Consider doing direct outreach with surveys and polls to learn more about an outlier audience and what they want and why. Then test offers and incentive strategies to maximize value and loyalty.

“For instance,” Sundahl, “some mega-spenders might be re-sellers looking for items that they can mark up and drop ship, or items with discounts so high they are willing to buy in bulk for resale. You can change your messaging to highlight recently deeply marked down items of which you may have high inventory. Understanding their needs will help you align them to some of your business goals and derive even more value from your relationship with them.”

You may already have a program in place for engaging influencers on social media. Here are some tips for building successful relationships with social media influencers.

3. Diagnosis whether there’s a technical or design flaw in the user experience that’s causing the outliers

It’s also possible that some outliers represent opportunities to improve your customer experience. If a segment is underperforming in a big way, it may be due to a bad experience that you’re delivering, rather than anything intrinsic to the audience itself, says Polidoro.

“For example, is it people using a specific device or browser that are the outlier?” he asks. “Is their behavior truly different or is the experience inconsistent and broken for that segment of visitors?” 

Whatever marketing outliers you have in your company’s data, it’s important to properly identify each group and then come up with a plan for how to deal with them—whether you exclude them, build a messaging strategy around how to directly address their needs, or evaluate whether their behavior is a symptom of a poor customer experience. 

—————

Need help with your analytics and performance reporting? Oracle CX Marketing Consulting has more than 500 of the leading marketing minds ready to help you to achieve more with the leading marketing cloud, including Strategic & Analytic Services, Website Optimization & Personalization Services, and Social Media Strategy & Analytics Services teams that can help you optimize your digital marketing performance.

Learn more or reach out to us at CXMconsulting_ww@oracle.com.

For more information about marketing best practices, please visit Oracle CX Marketing.

 

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Three B2B Marketing Tactics That Will Outlast the COVID19 Pandemic

Without question, the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on the B2B world with companies generally reducing marketing budgets. At the same time, many B2B companies are maintaining or increasing marketing spend as we've seen with most of our clients at TopRank Marketing. While there has generally been a shift from explicit sales/push marketing content to brand messaging that is more aligned with the times and empathetic to customers, sales expectations still exist for B2B brands during the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenge many B2B marketers are facing is to understand how to navigate both the short term changes in what works for customers in the current environment as as well as in the long term, post-crisis. According to research from McKinsey, one of the biggest changes that has happened is the boost in importance of B2B digital over traditional means of engaging customers - 200% more than before COVID-19. This move to digital means higher expectations by B2B customers of self service as well as B2B ecommerce experiences. With those changes in expectations come changes in marketing, short and long term. Not only do B2B companies need to mitigate sales losses because of the uncertainty during the pandemic but those who want to continue being the best solution and top of mind for customers when purchasing behavior comes back need to look at what pandemic-era tactics will stick after the crisis has subsided. For a great overview of how to measure marketing goals in a crisis, be sure to check out Birdie's post here.  How buyers feel about B2B brands short and long term will directly contribute to which brands are the most relevant as budgets open up and business solutions investments experience substantial growth. Some of the long term metrics include branding goals measured by share of voice for social, share of search and earned media. So, can B2B marketers do to optimize and measure their pandemic era marketing? Content is the kingdom. Providing customers with information and resources for surviving and thriving during the pandemic that are useful from the customer's perspective is a good starting point. Demonstrating how the B2B brand's solution provides value in the current environment is also essential for creating relevance and utility with customers. Of course, useful information isn't all there is. The shift towards digital, B2B brands need to make sure the digital experiences they provide are 100%: Information is easy to find, the inquiry or ordering process is easy and fast, there are zero glitches in using online systems. Search is even more relevant. As mentioned in the research from McKinsey, self service is an increasing expectations amongst B2B buyers. One way buyers are performing self serve marketing  is through the use of search engines. An emphasis on search also helps B2B brands reach sales goals without being "salesly”.  This trend has been picked up on by savvy B2B marketers with 63% of marketers saying it will be most important during the pandemic according to a survey by Conductor. This confidence is also exemplified from data reported by G2 Crowd showing B2B tech categories having a 200-600% increase in organic search traffic during the pandemic. Of course to make search work, B2B brands need content and SEO best practices in place to ensure optimized visibility for what customers are looking for. We've seen many B2B brands emphasize SEO during the pandemic which enables buyers who are no longer attending trade shows and engaging in experiential or field marketing activities to use search engines for finding useful information and solutions on their own terms. Findability works best with credibility.  Customers are as skeptical of brand marketing as ever and are tiring of the "in these uncertain times, we're here for you" ads and messaging. While bypassing that with search engine optimization and advertising works well for connecting with customers, optimized content that has added 3rd party credibility can work even better. In our own research in the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report, 77% of B2B marketers say their prospects rely on influencers for information. Confidence in influencer marketing is on the rise for B2B marketers. 63% of survey respondents believe they would have better marketing results with an influencer marketing program. So, crisis era marketing that emphasizes SEO to help buyers pull themselves to brand content that also includes credibility inspiring content from industry experts is what can really create trust and the confidence for buyers to make the connection. This is why SEO and influence are essential partners for any B2B marketing effort during and after the pandemic. Measuring the impact of B2B content marketing that is optimized and influencer activated means understanding the search phrases and topics of influence that are most relevant for customers and then tracking the brand's relevance, engagement and conversion for those topics. For  search marketing, key measures include:

• Topic visibility reporting & share of search for those topics
• Referred traffic to content optimized for the target topics
• Conversions from target topic content

Influencer marketing, metrics to track include:

• Share of voice on topics of include
• Growth of brand affinity with influencers
• Reach of topic content amongst influencer networks
• Engagement and conversion performance of topic content shared by influencers
• Growth in affinity of topics and brand in social
• Growth of organic brand advocacy by influencers and their networks

Uncertainty is a dangerous state for businesses and making no decision is often worse than making the wrong decision or failing fast. Understanding the shifts in buyer behavior can help B2B brands gain confidence in the role content marketing will play in the short and long term. Relevant content that is both findable for increasingly self-serve buyers and credible through industry expert contributions can give the competitive advantage needed to perform both short term and post-pandemic.

The post Three B2B Marketing Tactics That Will Outlast the COVID19 Pandemic appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

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5 Ways an ABM Approach Can Help Marketers During a Crisis

Alex Aztberger, CEO of Epicenter, noted in a recent interview with Forbes that, during a crisis or period of uncertainty, “the marketing mix has to shift, your website has to work harder, your emails will have to work harder, webinars will have to work harder, all these digital channels will need to deliver much more.” However, he provided further insight. As a marketer, think about personalizing content during this time based what’s relevant and helpful right now. And it’s that kind of personalized treatment that’s the main focus of account-based marketing (ABM).

The Terminus blog describes ABM as “a focused approach to B2B marketing in which marketing and sales teams work together to target best-fit accounts and turn them into customers.” With ABM, you treat every account as a “market of one” and target key decision makers at that account with personalized messaging. In so doing, B2B marketers get to know these accounts extremely well and build strong business relationships with them. This firm knowledge of customer accounts and the relationships marketers build with them makes ABM a great marketing approach during times of disruption and uncertainty.

There are five reasons why:

1- Customer account knowledge and empathy go hand in hand 

During crises, show how you can help customers. This means thinking about when and what a customer might need a hand with and what the appropriate tone, cadence, and frequency of communications should be. Exercise understanding, patience, and sensitivity to what is going on in their world and then properly communicate with them. The first step in an ABM strategy involves account selection, wherein you employ look-a-like models to identify which accounts to target as key accounts. This process deepens and enriches your knowledge of an  account, which allows you to better understand and empathize with that account and it will start you down the path to consider what you can do to help the account. 

2- ABM tightens and focuses messaging

Given that it only targets key accounts, ABM messaging tends to be more narrow than typical B2B marketing, which casts a much wider net to engage more prospects and customers. ABM lets you narrow and focus your messaging even further during a crisis. You can communicate only what’s important to a customer account at a specific point in time. By doing so, you can better engage and interest them.

3- Marketing and sales unite

For ABM to work, marketing and sales must align through the sharing of customer information and connect by using consistent messaging. It becomes even more critical during a crisis for marketing and sales to be on the same page. Both teams can work together to show how your brand can help—rather than focus on capturing leads and making conversions. Both teams need visibility into the what the other is sending out so as to not send duplicates and potentially overwhelm customers.

4- Customer relationships grow stronger

During periods of uncertainty, both teams have the time to focus on strengthening the relationships rather than conversions, upsells, or cross-sells.  As Emarkable pointed out, even during a crisis, marketers can still use an ABM strategy to improve relationships with customer accounts by highlighting how their brand can still be of service. Any relationship depends upon the two sides being there for each other, and you, as a marketer, should strive to show how your brand can provide support.  It could be knowing the number of visits to a specific set of web pages, notifying them a product update is coming, or showing what resources are online that can help the customer. You and sales can use your knowledge of the customer to guide the next outreach and show that you care and want to help.

5- The situation informs the content that marketers create

ABM emphasizes personalization. Marketers engage each key account differently, speaking to specific needs as much as possible. During a crisis, content marketing can’t act as if it is still business as usual. It must address what is going on and what different industries and sectors are experiencing where appropriate. The  right tone and the right amount of sensitivity are also important. But content must still be relevant and provide value. Therefore, take a different approach in terms of content and asset type, as each account will have different concerns. Look to strike a consistent, positive, and helpful tone as well. Keep in mind the different concerns of different contacts and work to personalize assets at that level as well. For instance, a C-suite contact may have broader organizational concerns while departmental leaders may have more tactical concerns. Tailor content to cover every possible facet.   

ABM puts customers first by building relationships and understanding customers and how to engage them during a difficult time.

                                                                                                           

For more information about ABM, read "Don't Give in to Account-Based Confusion."

 

 

 

 

 

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10 More Marketing Tips on the Fly from the Pros

In the first part of our "On the Fly" series recap, we shared with you 10 Marketing Tips on the Fly from the Pros, and now we’re sharing ten more:

#1: Treat Newsletters More like Actual Letters

“According to research from MarketingProfs and the content marketing institute, 87% of marketers are using email newsletter as a way to distribute their content- or focusing on the “news” part of the newsletter. However, very few are leveraging newsletters as an opportunity to directly connect with their consumer. Focusing on the “letter” part of the newsletter will change the way we communicate to our customers.” 

— Ann Handley, modern marketing guru and the Chief Content Officer of Marketing Profs

#2: MarTech Can Save You Valuable Time

“Most marketers have so much on their plate that they don't have time to build a proper strategy or to analyze their performance. Leveraging marketing technology effectively can save time for marketers to do things that really matter.”

— Brandi Starr, Chief Operating Officer of Tegrita Consulting Group

#3: Add Details Gleamed from Performance Results to Your Insights

“When measuring your digital marketing performance, add more clarity to your measurement by adding details to your insights. For example, if your conversion went way down, ask and answer among which audiences? Was this among all your conversion points, or just a few? Or what time? Was it a gradual decline or just a momentary blip? Answering these questions can provide much more clarity to your measurement and your insights.”

— Chris Sietsema of Teach to Fish Digital

#4: Make a Case for Your Idea

“Want to get your idea to stand out powerfully? Focus on what people need to hear rather than what to say. You need to build your audience’s case for your idea, which not only helps your idea stand out but makes it so your audience is more likely to act upon your idea.”

— Tamsen Webster, 20 years’ experience in marketing, 13 years at Weight Watchers, and 4 years as TEDx Executive producer

#5: Optimize Content for Trust as well as SEO

“According to research from Demand Gen report, 95% of B2B buyers prefer credible content from industry influencers, but most influencer marketing programs don't factor in SEO. This disconnect is an opportunity. He recommends that just as we use SEO to find the right keywords for better search performance and to also use those keywords to find the right kinds of influencers to collaborate with and create content so you're optimizing for trust as well.”

— Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Marketing

#6: Repurpose Your Content

“Build just one piece of content but make that the very best content for that topic on the internet. Then focus on making it evergreen. Repurpose that content in different formats to drive leads from various channels.”

— Gini Dietrich, founder and author of Spin Sucks

#7: Don’t Pander to Social Movements

“Be careful of pandering to social movements. If your company doesn’t actually support the movements in its policies, it should not be misleading anyone by pandering to it . Your informed customers can see right through your marketing ploy, and what you might think is clever marketing is actually exploitation. This can threaten both the movements that your brand wants to alight itself with, as well as your brand’s reputation.”

— Katie Martell

#8: Relationships Matter More Than Transactions

“People in the sales and marketing world put far too much emphasis on transactions, but it’s not about the transactions. It's about the relationship. So, in 2020, go to market differently. Prospect and nurture more effectively by being relationship focused. If you’re successful in building relationships, the transactions will take care of themselves.”

— Tom Martin, president and founder of Converse Digital

#9: Liven up Your Content

“Does your marketing smile?” Now you may ask, how can marketing smile? Too often in B2B marketing, our content can get static, boring, and might be written too formally. Our prospects and your audience can tell if you're actually enjoying what you're saying. Challenge yourself this year to create content with a little humor and personality.”

— Matt Heinz, B2B marketing and sales guru.

#10: Word of Mouth Is Important

“Dark social sounds ominous, but it just refers to web traffic that’s not attributed to a known source because it is missing a referral tag/ tracking code. So where is this traffic coming from? It is mostly when people share content through private channels such as instant messaging, email, or native mobile apps. Having dark social means you have some serious word-of-mouth going and it should be an important part of your marketing strategy.”

— Anthony Helmstetter, a digital marketing expert and an analyst with Convince & Convert

                                                                    

For more tips and insights into Modern Marketing, check out Oracle CX Marketing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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