Eric Schwartzman

In this episode of the B2B Lead Gen Podcast, digital marketer and strategist Nick Wilsdon talks about the enterprise SEO strategies of major brands, working with SEO consultants, why big changes at Google could make or break your search engine visibility, and more.

Nick Wilsdon is the co-founder and CEO of TorquePartnership, a company that provides digital consultancy and search engine optimization advisory programs to enterprise clients. A keynote speaker, blogger, and contributor to industry publications such as The Drum, Reuters, and The Moscow Times, Nick Wilsdon is passionate about digital performance, integrated digital marketing campaigns, and joining up the dots.

Advertisement

Enterprise SEO vs Small Business SEO

According to Nick, there are major differences in how enterprises and small businesses approach SEO. Small businesses, for instance, are more focused on link building, whereas enterprises are more focused on the technical side of SEO since they deal with considerably larger websites. Enterprise SEO is B2C SEO. Small businesses serve consumers and other businesses, but it's fair to say that most SEO B2B campaigns are launched on behalf of small businesses. “Link acquisition isn't really as important for them,” Nick reveals. “They've got the authority. Usually, the thing that's holding them back is tech, SEO, and implementing that.”

Nick also mentioned that to get a decent SEO strategy up and running for an enterprise, there’s a complex process that involves a lot of tweaking, fixing, and approvals. “There's a lot of process and politics behind that, to get those things fixed. That takes a huge amount of strategy and thinking to push that through those organizations kind of.”

SEO at Scale

https://youtu.be/Y48wU7S2mbY

Another key difference is the sheer scale of enterprise SEO, a problem that small business SEO strategies don’t have to deal with. Even the seemingly simple act of making SEO changes must take the different teams and interests of the organization into consideration; Nick says that this often requires a “very strong business case” to justify those changes. “It involves [the specialist] understanding the commercial nature of the business, far more than most of the technical SEOs. So you have to have a balance between your technical knowledge, but also an understanding of what the business is trying to do and what the objectives are through the business.”

Value of Soft Skills in Enterprise SEO

That’s why soft skills are important for people working in SEO: Being an expert on the nitty-gritty of SEO can only take you so far. “If you can't convey the value of what you're trying to do to senior stakeholders, then you're never going to move up in your career, and you're never going to make these kinds of projects land.”

Nick also took the time to emphasize the importance of internal linking, whether for enterprise sites, small business sites, or any other type of online business site. “Those internal links are absolutely fundamental,” stresses Nick, “and you should always be thinking, ‘If [I] have highly linked pages, and [I’m] going out with something that does attract links, where am I linking to internally from that page?”

https://youtu.be/bXLk91CDAZ4

Ironically, this is the aspect of SEO that’s often overlooked, according to Nick. One example is how when an internal link goes dead and goes to a 404 page, it no longer transfers any equity to your site. “As a small business owner, what are you doing to recover those links coming into your site? How are you making sure that you monitor them with some of the tools that are out there to make sure that they're always live? Because it's far easier to do link recovery and to monitor and maintain your current linking database, and it is to go out and get more links.”

Ecommerce and Tips for Working with SEO Specialists

With the overnight changes in the business landscape brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, Nick believes that now more than ever, it’s time to hop on the ecommerce bandwagon. Lockdowns and health restrictions have forced businesses to go “digital first” — and this transition has made businesses realize just how important it is to prioritize getting the digital aspects of their operations (such as digital orders) working, mainly because we don’t know what else to expect in the years to come. Nick cited the UK as an example, in which Black Friday and Christmas sales were restricted to digital events. “When people joke about what has caused the business transformation, ‘Has it been the CEO, the CTO, or COVID?’ It's definitely been COVID. It's pushed us 10 years ahead.”

SEO for WordPress

https://youtu.be/aEBSrKnK7DE

When it comes to hiring an agency to work on SEO, Nick suggests that businesses should look at consultants before looking at agencies. “I think this also reflects how the market has changed,” Nick opines, citing how businesses these days tend to jump right into SEO execution without coming up with a decent plan first. “I would take the time to talk to a consultant, to really establish a plan and a blueprint for what [I’m] trying to do... Just to actually think behind this before you go into execution mode is so important.”

To hear more of Nick’s insights, including the knowledge gap some companies have regarding SEO, cross-platform campaigns, working with major brands like eBay, and finding reliable WordPress developers, listen to the full episode.

If you're just getting started and need basic SEPO training, take my FREE SEO Course to bring yourself up to speed.

And to support this podcast, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts here.

Rory Cellan-Jones is a technology correspondent for the BBC. He has covered numerous groundbreaking tech and business stories across the decades, from the late ‘90s dotcom bubble all the way to the rise of Google, Facebook, and the iPad.

Rory Cellan-Jones is a prominent British journalist. In this summary of an exclusive podcast interview him him, he provides invaluable lessons for media relations professionals. His extensive tech reporting experience underscores the importance of keeping abreast of industry trends.

He emphasizes the need for concise and engaging press releases that cater to a fast-paced media environment. His preferred engagement platform is X (formerly known as Twitter). Media relations experts who read this article or listen to podcast will learn from Cellan-Jones's ability to adapt to evolving media landscapes and maintain a strong online connection to their audiences, whether its consumers, business customers, or journalists.

Often described as "the non-geek's geek," he aims to look at the impact of the internet and digital technology on our lives and on businesses. He started out exclusively as a domestic news and business reporter for TV; nowadays, he reaches a much wider audience, and even does a weekly radio show.

Promoting New Apps

https://youtu.be/fSiPJpW_9Ws

Full Video Interview: https://youtu.be/D5LE1B0soMk

Close to celebrating a hundred years of operations, the BBC is the premier mass media institution in the UK, as well as the world's oldest national broadcaster. From being a dominant presence in press, TV and radio, the BBC has greatly expanded its media coverage across various platforms and regions, an institution built into the fabric of British society that strives to deliver balanced, impartial news and the truth to a global audience.

In this podcast interview, Rory talks about how prefers to work with public relations agencies, how many PR firms pitches he receives daily, and how he sifts through the noise to identify the important news stories worth covering.

What Makes a Tech Story Idea Newsworthy?

These days, Rory closely coordinates with their online team through scheduled meetings, keeping a close eye on what’s trending on social media to identify and monitor stories that are resonating with audiences. Rory recalled being an early adopter of Twitter, which he said was great for reputation management, because you saw news break there first. He gets contacted by media PR firms on Twitter fairly regularly.

Rory also noted the changing dynamic of audience feedback to stories and how that impacts the practice of writing story headlines. “You change your headline on an online story, you can immediately see, yeah, there are more people [reading] that story than there were before,” he explained. This is interesting because it shows that how the news is reported is now colored by audience feedback. It’s not enough to report the news accurately. It must be done in a way that dovetails with social media and engages influencers.

PR Agency Story Pitches

https://youtu.be/iz-8xZ8FbwY

Full Video Interview: https://youtu.be/D5LE1B0soMk

Despite his years of experience in breaking and reporting editorial news stories that matter, Rory affirmed that determining whether or not a tech story is newsworthy remains a complex, bespoke process. “There are different stories for different audiences,” says Rory, “and one can say, ‘That is a story that will work online, on our tech index, where people come who have pretty good grounding in technology, but that will not make for the nightly news.” He cited the story of Steve Jobs unveiling the iPhone as an example. “I stuck my neck out and said, ‘Well, I think that was a story. I think that history will show that was an important moment.’” And true enough, it turned out to be an incredibly important moment in the history of the smartphone revolution.

Consuming media and working with PR firms

A responsible reporter stays informed, and unsurprisingly, Rory is no exception. He is an ardent reader of articles in the Financial Times, the New York Times, the MIT Technology Review, and other news sites. “The real challenge is information overload: being able to actually sit back and properly absorb something rather than just skimming, in a desperate hop from one link to another,” Rory admitted.

One area where Rory definitely experiences overload? His inbox, which receives about 300 emails a day, including an “unbelievable” number of pitches from publicists at public relations firms. 

“Every now and then, I feel guilty, because I don't reply to most of the pitches I get. But then, when I try and clear my inbox at the end of the week, I realize that if I replied, I would literally do nothing else,” he revealed.”The sheer volume of PR material - and a lot of it really, really badly targeted - is becoming almost impossible to cope with.” In fact, Rory estimated that out of a dozen story pitches that come from a PR agencies and publicists, only one or two would actually count as legitimate, newsworthy pieces.

According to Rory, he tends to build strong professional relationships with two or three really good PR companies (often people at in-house PR departments) who will only approach you with something that’s worth the effort of turning into a piece for television or online. “The trouble is, as one gets older and tighter and more cynical, there's a real danger that you miss the really good things.”

Promoting Truth in Journalism

https://youtu.be/W65DVYfA3-k

Full Video Interview: https://youtu.be/D5LE1B0soMk

To listen to my full interview with Rory (in which we tackled other important topics, click the link at the top of the post to listen to my interview with Rory Cellan-Jones.

Subscribe to the Earned Media Podcast for more on the latest developments in public relations.

If you’d like to support what we do, leave us a review here on Apple Podcasts.

This is an audio podcast recording of a digital marketing keynote Eric Schwartzman of Schwartzman & Associates delivered at the National Coffee Growers Association.

Owned media marketing is about leading a horse to water and making them drink.

In the analog days, marketers led the horse to water, and sales made them drink. But online – where buyers self-educate and make purchasing decisions without talking to salespeople – marketers have to be able to create an online experience that converts attention into transactions without the help of sales.

The idea is to leverage original content to attract buyers searching for solutions to problems your product or service solves. By creating the best editorial content, marketers drive click-throughs, conversions, and, ultimately, new business and revenue. 

But to do this, you need a place to publish original content alongside an e-commerce store or conversion funnels, and you need resources to scale owned media editorial. You can’t build your content marketing or B2B content marketing funnel on social media or someone else’s website. You can only do that on your own website.

So you need your own website where you control the page layout because whoever controls the layout controls the payout. In digital marketing strategy, we call this an owned media presence. You build a media outlet that you own and control, which means:

You don’t have to pay a commission to a third party if you generate a sale.

You have access to the customer or lead’s contact information.

You can’t be easily de-platformed, like you can by a social network.

There’s no engagement-based algorithm you have to appease with sensational content to get seen.

So digital marketing starts with an owned media presence. Next, you add shared, earned, and paid media channels to drive traffic to your owned media presence. 

The benefit to owned vs earned media is control. Your Instagram followers are not your followers. They’re Instagram’s followers, and they can take them away at any time. 

Third-party platforms also offer very little in the way of analytics. Analytics are essential to understanding your customers, their engagement habits, market trends, and more. To be reliant on only the analytics someone else is willing to give you severely limits what you can learn from the data being collected. 

They say data is now more valuable than oil. But just like oil, unrefined data is not nearly as valuable. With owned media opportunities, not only are you in control of your audience, but you also have access to all data being collected and are free to analyze it to get the business insights you need. 

When companies fail to pivot to digital, it’s usually for similar reasons. Namely, they drive traffic before they’re ready to convert it into tangible opportunities. The secret to a successful digital pivot is applying the media channels in order. The secret is the sequence. 

But what many fail to appreciate is that to have a viable owned media presence, you also need some sort of tech stack. It can be basic. At the simplest level, this is a website, web forms, a CRM, and an email marketing platform. 

Now, the goal is to leverage original content – designed to appeal to potential customers looking for answers to problems you solve – to a conversion funnel that resides in your owned media presence. 

For ecommerce marketers, that conversion will be a sale. For B2B content marketers, it will probably be a micro conversion, like getting someone to sign up for email notifications or attend a webinar so the company collects a new lead. Either way, you need a website where you can publish content and build conversion funnels to make that happen. 

Driving the right traffic to your website starts by researching popular key phrases people search for when they’re problem-solving online.  

But there’s so much competition that unless you can commit to outperforming your competitors by writing the best articles, using professional pictures, and publishing them to a website that looks trustworthy, you’re better off with paid media.

In this podcast recording of an owned media marketing keynote I delivered at the National Coffee Growers Association, I walk you step-by-step through the process of pivoting to digital.

In this episode we go deep into revenue attribution with Steffen Hedebrandt, chief revenue officer and cofounder at Dreamdata.io in Copenhagen, Denmark, an expert in digital revenue attribution, purchase intent and user tracking.

But before we get into the interview, here are some revenue attribution basics...

What is Revenue Attribution?

Revenue attribution is the aspect of marketing and sales analytics that allows businesses to understand how different digital touchpoints contribute to revenue generation. It involves identifying and assigning value to each interaction a customer has with a company, helping organizations optimize their marketing funnel so they can allocate their resources efficiently.

Revenue Attribution Models

To excel in revenue attribution, marketers need to employ advanced analytics tools and platforms, align with their sales teams, and stay up to date on industry trends. Revenue attribution requires an understanding of data analysis, customer behavior, and marketing strategy. The best revenue attribution models help businesses allocate their budgets, improve their ROI, and make data-driven decisions for growth marketing.

First-Touch Attribution: This model attributes all the revenue to the first interaction a customer had with the company. It's valuable for understanding how initial marketing efforts contribute to conversions.

Last-Touch Attribution: In contrast to the first-touch model, this one assigns all revenue credit to the last interaction before a conversion. It's useful for recognizing the final touchpoints that directly lead to a sale.

Multi-Touch Attribution: This model is more complex and assigns value to multiple interactions throughout the customer journey. It acknowledges that customers often interact with a brand multiple times before converting.

Linear Attribution: Here, revenue credit is distributed evenly across all touchpoints in a customer's journey. It provides a balanced view of how each interaction contributes to the final outcome.

Time-Decay Attribution: This model assigns more value to interactions that occur closer to the conversion point, recognizing that some touchpoints have a more significant impact as the purchase decision nears.

Custom Attribution Models: Many businesses create their own attribution models tailored to their unique customer journeys and industry-specific factors.

About Steffan Hedebrandt

Steffan serves primarily on B2B digital marketing agencies. His services help clients nurture leads through the sales cycle to a decision point, which hopefully results in a sale. As a result, he thinks a lot about keyword intent. The specific term someone searches says a great deal about there likelihood to complete a purchase. And this interview, he shares his formula for keyword intent strategy.

Does a lot work helping SaaS companies with 15-500 employees. He targets marketing directors and says direct sales in the fastest channel. Or you can try to capture the highest intent by purchasing traffic from very specific channels like Capterra or G2, where visitors are very far down the purchase funnel, essentially comparing competing services to each other, which is among the strongest indicators of intent to purchase because the buyer has already invested a lot of time and energy into researching a product category.

Anonymous vs. Authenticated User Tracking

Marketers are starting to appreciate the difference between anonymous and authenticated user tracking. Anonymous user tracking platforms like Google Analytics track devices, rather than individuals. That means Google Analytics is limited in its ability to understand behavior, since the same customer journey can span a variety of different devices.

To get more customers, you need to understand the entire journey from start to finish and not just the last click. Google Analytics attempts to she light on the journey with its Multi Channel Funnel Assisted Conversions report, but its accuracy is limited by user anonymity. Customer data platforms, on the other hand, use email address to circumvent double counting the same users on different devices. Customer data platforms and CRMs are ways to count authenticated user activity, which is always going to be more accurate.

Generally speaking, for impulse purchases, direct to consumer purchases, or any other purchase where the cell cycle is relatively short, Google analytics offers all sorts of great insights for increasing conversions. However, if on the other hand you are a B2B assuring prospects through the sales cycle, the information from Google analytics is probably going to be a bit more scattered and less useful.

We also spoke about the previous podcast interviews I recorded with Justin Cutroni, who at the time was independent but who currently works for Google. Most advertising platforms use tracking parameters to minimizes the number of users who are tracked as "direct" visitors. One way to make sure your links don't register as "direct" is by using the Campaign URL Builder tool to assign UTM parameters to your links.

Monitoring Email Marketing Campaigns

Email marketing metrics are not what they used to be. Cybersecurity software monitors inbound emails, sometimes triggering what looks like an email open, but in fact was not. If you want to be sure that someone actually opened your email, you want to see a minimum of two opens. That way you know it was the person who opened the email, and not software scanning inbound email messages prior to distributing them to the recipient. Better yet, use click thrus and responses as a more accurate measure of engagement. For more on email marketing best practices, check out my Email Marketing Guide.

If you'd like to get a look a look at the Dreamdata.io customer data platform, reach out to Steffen for help with solve their multi-touch attribution challenges and they work particularly well with companies using best-of-breed stacks. In the tradition of product-led marketing, Dreamdata has a free tier you can play around with to see if it's a fit for you.

Dirty Little Secret about Revenue Attribution

In the intricate world of revenue attribution, there exists a pervasive challenge that often goes unspoken in vendor discussions (Steffan and I did not discuss this) — the issue of platforms aggressively vying for credit and, at times, even doubling down on attribution.

This "dirty little secret" reveals that advertising, social media marketing, and email marketing platforms are not always forthcoming about their role in conversions. It's not uncommon to witness two or more platforms claiming the same revenue, which can muddy the waters of accurate attribution.

The challenge at hand lies in unraveling this complex web of attribution to ensure transparency, fairness, and a more realistic understanding of each platform's contribution to conversions. Effective data collection methods, unbiased attribution models, and a critical eye toward the credit-taking tendencies of platforms are essential to navigate this unspoken challenge in the world of revenue attribution.

In this episode of the B2B Lead Gen Podcast, cryptocurrency investor, entrepreneur, and public relations executive Michael Terpin shares insights into the challenges of promoting cryptocurrency through public relations efforts, the critical issue of data protection and security – particularly in the context of telecom companies like AT&T. Terpin recounts a personal experience in which he falls victim to SIM card swapping fraud, leading to the theft of his cryptocurrency assets. Terpin's subsequent legal action against AT&T highlights the importance of robust security measures in safeguarding not only cryptocurrency but also individuals' personal information and digital identities. He calls for regulatory changes and enhanced data protection practices within the telecommunications industry, and share insight on promoting ICOs, and other way of promoting cryptocurrencies.

About Michael Terpin

In 2013 Michael Terpin co-founded BitAngels, an investment network for blockchain technology startups and the first angel network for bitcoin and digital currency startups with 500 international investors. In 2014, he founded Transform Group, a bitcoin and blockchain marketing and PR firm headquartered in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which promotes initial coin offerings (ICOs). More on that latter. Terpin also runs CoinAgenda, the leading conference series connecting mainstream investors with blockchain and cryptocurrency investors.

Before we get into Michael Terpin's interview, let's cover some cryptocurrency marketing basics...

What is an ICO?

Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is a fundraising method commonly used in the blockchain and cryptocurrency startup industry to raise capital. Some ICOs are handled by the actual startups minting the new cryptocurrency. And sometimes they hire a PR firm.

In an ICO, a company or project issues a new cryptocurrency or token to investors in exchange for traditional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum or fiat currency. These tokens represent a stake or utility within the project's ecosystem. ICOs gained popularity as a way for startups to secure funding quickly, but they have also faced regulatory scrutiny due to potential risks and fraudulent activities.

It's essential for investors to conduct thorough research and due diligence before participating in an ICO, as the cryptocurrency market can be volatile and risky.

What is Fiat Currency?

Fiat currency is a type of currency that a government has declared to be legal tender for transactions within its jurisdiction. Unlike commodity money (such as gold or silver), which has intrinsic value, fiat currency has no inherent value and is not backed by a physical commodity. Instead, its value is based on the trust and confidence that people have in the government and the stability of its economy.

Examples of fiat currencies include the US Dollar (USD), Euro (EUR), Japanese Yen (JPY), and many others. These currencies are used for everyday transactions, such as buying goods and services, paying taxes, and settling debts. Central banks and governments have the authority to issue and regulate fiat currency, including controlling its supply through monetary policy measures like interest rates and money printing.

Fiat currencies are the most common form of currency in the world today and are essential for the functioning of modern economies.

Cryptocurrency Marketing and PR Tips from Michael Terpin

Terpin thinks the term "cryptocurrency" is not be entirely accurate, as most governments treat it more as property or a commodity than traditional currency. He suggested that "crypto commodities" might be a more suitable term.

The origins of cryptocurrencies trace back to Bitcoin and its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, who introduced the concept in response to the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent actions of central banks. Satoshi's white paper, published in late 2008, laid the foundation for Bitcoin and blockchain technology.

Blockchain is a distributed ledger operating on thousands of computers worldwide, with no centralized ownership. Terpin likens it to the internet's decentralized architecture, ensuring resilience and redundancy.

Bockchain technology is groundbreaking because it brings together various existing technologies to create a revolutionary system that withstandsnumerous challenges and attacks over the years. Terpin also notes the humble beginnings of Bitcoin, initially used for gambling and only later finding its first real-world use when one miner paid another 10,000 Bitcoin for a pizza in 2010.

Eric Schwartzman 14:34Why are so many different types of cryptocurrency because Bitcoin is a type of Ethereum as a type Dogecoin is a type you actually as part of your business do what's called an ICO an initial not not public offering, but coin offering, where you actually help organizations that are launching new coins make a market for those coins.

Michael Terpin 14:59Well, I ICO is not even a term that's used anymore. That was kind of a term from 2017 and 18. And I wasn't the one who was staging them. We were simply doing marketing or advisory work for other companies who were innovated at model. So we worked with the very first company to do an initial coin offering. Yeah, it's again, like cryptocurrencies sort of an unfortunate word. Because if they simply called a token starter, like Kickstarter would actually be a little bit more relevant, because it's not, it's not an offering of a security. You know, under the US sec, under Clayton J. Clayton, the the past chairman of the SEC, under Trump, he basically looked and said, You know, I think most of these things are securities proved to me that they're not as opposed to actually have any regulation. He went back and said, Well, we have the 1933 Act. And we have the howey test, which was a Supreme Court ruling on what was and wasn't a security based on the differences between orange futures and wine futures, and had nothing to do with technology. It had nothing to do with the innovations of the internet. It actually predated, you know, mainstream television, much light and computers. So, you know, under the current regime, under Biden, and under Gensler, who has just recently been approved, we're expecting that there will actually be hearings, and there will actually be definitions, instead of saying, hey, go back to the 1930s and fight it out in court. So that will be you know, there is currently a proposal by the longest standing Commissioner on the SEC, Hester purse, who was a republican appointee under Obama.

So she's a little bit apolitical to control as the chairman. So now you have a three to maturity for the Democrats. But, you know, for the most part, I wouldn't say that it's really kind of a mainstream political issue. I think it's really a definition of trying to figure out what regulation to put this other because right now, in the United States, you've got the IRS since 2014, has said that Bitcoin and most cryptocurrencies or property fincen has set its money. And the ctfc has implied that as commodities, like gold, and so you have to have some agreement about what this is, or else, you know, everybody has to kind of just guess, on their own. And for the most part, what they've done is American entrepreneurs have left the United States and simply done everything outside of the United States, because they're just afraid that they're going to get it wrong, because there's no clarity about what's what getting it right is. And so most jurisdictions, the United outside of the United States and a few other jurisdictions, you know, have said, No, we know what it is. I mean, Singapore is what it is. And, you know, some other places have said, yes, if you do that, if you do a, a a token generation event in our jurisdiction, here are the rules. within the United States, Wyoming has said, we will exempt you as not being a security if you meet the following criteria, because the SEC has said Bitcoin is not a security. They said Ethereum is not a security, but they had this kind of vague definition that if you're using a token to go and build something that doesn't exist, then it's a security, which is kind of an odd thing, because that's what Kickstarter does, right. And Kickstarter is are typically not considered securities, because you don't have any equity interest in the company. And so we're in this very gray area right now that most entrepreneurs simply don't deal with us. And they simply go offshore. And they, you know, they they start companies in Singapore. And it's a shame because this is all taxable revenue, that that is saying, we want to be a US company. And so there's been a flocking of companies to Wyoming, because Wyoming, which two years ago was two, three years ago and forget when the the first legislation was, you know, very, you know, kind of, I wouldn't say anti crypto, they just simply their existing regulations that you couldn't even, you know, donate Bitcoin. And then that was considered money laundering of some form. And Caitlyn long, who is incredibly bright woman and a friend of mine, who, you know, graduated from the University of Wyoming, you know, went to New York spent 25 years on Wall Street at Morgan Stanley primarily, and then got into cryptocurrency early, she wanted to go and donate Bitcoin to her University. And they said, Well, you can donate cash. But, you know, from our reading, it's against the law for you to donate Bitcoin. She said, That's ridiculous. She moved back to Wyoming. She got that law changed and clarified in Wyoming. And while she was there, she decided that she could turn Wyoming into a crypto capital for the United States and she working with the you know, Wyoming governor that we're having legislature have now passed over 70 laws and there's been A boom of companies moving to Wyoming to do token sales there because Wyoming will go and say,

Demand for effective digital marketing consultants has never been higher. 

But despite all that demand, the supply of worthy and well-qualified digital marketing generalists, with the ability to coordinate owned, shared, earned and paid media remains scarce. 

It’s a good time to be working at a website marketing company. Because the demand exceeds the supply.

But what should marketers be focused on to deliver results? How do you allocate finite resources for maximum gain? 

That’s what today’s podcast is about. I’m going to walk you step-by-step through my framework for pivoting to digital marketing. And when you’re through with this podcast, you’ll understand how to sequence a digital pivot for maximum impact.

Digital marketing is not social media. And digital marketing is not pay per click advertising. Those are just tactics. Digital marketing is about integrating all those tactics into a practical strategy that delivers measurable results. 

Those new to digital marketing can fall prey to an online influencer promoting a course or a subscription service. Or they rush out onto social media prematurely. 

The truth is, before you're ready to pivot to digital marketing, you need a big picture understanding of what it takes to build and operate a digital business.

That’s what we’re covering today in this podcast. That’s right. Everything you need to know to orchestrate a digital pivot. In one podcast.

Smartbug’s Chief Revenue Officer and RevOps analyst Jen Spencer talks about her recent benchmarking report on the convergence of inbound marketing and revenue operations (RevOps): a survey of 200-plus revenue leaders that includes a RevOps framework for how best to adapt to these trends.

Rev Ops -- or the alignment of technology and processes to support the collaboration of marketing, sales and customer success efforts -- has become increasingly popular as companies look reorganize to support the full customer lifecycle.

advertisement

We also talk about RevOps strategies and the kinds of apps that most businesses are using and how that will change moving forward, the importance of integrated technology to most companies, and why cross functional collaboration is the new competitive advantage.

https://youtu.be/eQ_ETGnZZPI

In this RevOps Tech Stack podcast:

01:27​ What is RevOps or revenue operations?

03:23​ Smartbug’s survey on revenue operations, digital marketing, sales and customer success.

05:06​ What is a tech stack?

06:46​ Defining small business tech stacks.

10:23​ All-in-one tech platform solutions vs. best-of-breed stacks.

14:29​ Interoperable stacks and retaining customer data.

17:20​ The meaning of digital business, and how to build one.

20:04​ Trends in CRM and integrating best-of-breed stacks across marketing, sales, and customer success.

21:52 HubSpot versus Salesforce: Which solution is right for you?

24:12 Cross functional integration as a competitive barrier to entry.

27:43 How account-based marketing creates a more unified customer experience.

29:25 How customer account data helps sellers create raving fans.

32:02 RevOps metrics for measuring marketing and customer success correctly.

34:08 Why cross-functional collaboration matters in the modern enterprise.

With 30% marketshare, WordPress is the world's most popular content management system (CMS) on the Internet today. Unsurprisingly, plugins designed to work with it, especially those that use the freemium business model to convert free to premium subscribers, also enjoy tremendous popularity and loyalty from their users.

In this episode of the B2B Lead Gen Podcast, sociologist and digital maven Marieke van de Rakt PhD talks about the intricacies of running an SEO company, technical aspects of SEO consulting, how the pandemic has affected businesses, and more.

SEO Consulting Philanthropy

https://youtu.be/GOsfcDWEULM

Full Video Interview

Marieke is the CEO of Yoast, a popular WordPress plugin used by more than 11 million people to make their website easier for Google to index. Armed with a PhD in Social Sciences, she is focused not just on Yoast’s growth, but also the company’s online SEO training academy, which offers free and premium subscriptions. 

Yoast’s SEO business growth (and keeping up with Google)

Yoast offers both a free version and a paid (premium) version with added features for site maintenance, site structure, and other SEO essentials. And for a plugin such as Yoast that works with WordPress — a content management system built on open source, public domain software — the premium version serves as the support system that allows the free version to keep being operational. “If you have an SEO plugin for 11 million sites, and you're not making any money off of it, that's not possible anymore,” Marieke explains. “So I think it's in the best interest of the whole WordPress community that we make money from it, so that we can give back to the people.”

In order to keep up with Google’s changes, Yoast maintains a close relationship with the internet giant. This involves maintaining constant communication with Google, or at least its relevant departments. “I don't see Google as one company,” shares Marieke. “They're so big that they don't know everything.” 

There are certain limitations, though. A major algorithm change, for instance, is not something Yoast can immediately address until the team fully understands the extent of the changes. “So it's a lot of conversation and a lot of testing. And that keeps us up to speed.”

SEO Consulting Mission of Yoast

https://youtu.be/yD3A3Q-arg0

Full Video Interview

Reinventing the idea of SEO for small business

With approximately 400 million small- and medium-sized businesses in the global economy, Yoast has only really penetrated less than one percent of that ever-growing community. According to Marieke, their focus on WordPress is likely the biggest deterrent toward growing their market share. 

Marieke says that Yoast is currently in the process of tweaking Yoast SEO for other platforms aside from WordPress. However, she also notes that such ventures are unlikely to scale as big as WordPress, which holds the lion’s share of the CMS market. However, she still thinks that there’s plenty of room for Yoast to grow, even if it’s just within WordPress. “There are a lot of challenges — and a lot of people who can build a website start with WordPress, which is good.”

Many small businesses have yet to take the leap towards the digital business game, which Marieke attributes to the inherent difficulty in putting together a WordPress site, as opposed to how easy it is to just create a Facebook page or an Instagram account. “On a website, you own your own stuff, and you have everything on your own domain. WordPress makes it the easiest part to get; the thing going on that it's yours, and you can do with it what you want. But that takes a little bit of training.” 

Despite these challenges, Marieke still believes that people should own their own websites and own their own digital identity. She also proudly proclaims that their mission is SEO for everyone, which is why the Yoast Academy is offering free courses for everyone. “WordPress's mission is democratizing publishing, so we want to make it possible for everyone to make their own website. But nobody cares; If nobody finds your website, you don't want to have a website without an audience.”

Understanding site structure

Marieke has this tip for small businesses when it comes to their site structure: “Google uses your internal linking structure to index your site. So you should always keep that in mind when you're structuring your site or when you're linking pages to each other, because Google follows those links.” She explains that the way you structure your website, along with the way you internally link one page to another, is the same way Google determines which of your pages are the most important ones.

https://youtu.be/GOsfcDWEULM

Full Video Interview

Last year, Yoast implemented an update that significantly improved the plugin’s performance. According to Marieke, they sought to solve the issue of Yoast being as “bloated” as other plugins out there. “Now, we are much faster than we used to be. We are saving our data in a different way. We built our own indexable tables, which also gets us ready to go for a headless WordPress system as well.”

To hear more of Marieke’s insights, including contextual linking, WooCommerce, and the impact of the pandemic on recurring revenue, make sure to listen to the full episode.And to support this podcast, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts here.

In this episode, writer, investor and entrepreneur Chris Yeh talks about B2B Growth Marketing – which he calls Blitzscaling: The Lightning Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies in a book he wrote with Linkedin CEO Reid Hoffman on scaling B2B ventures – which explains how companies like Amazon, AirBNB, and Uber use a very specific set of offensive, competitive strategies that prioritize speed over profitability to achieve massive scale at incredible speed.

We also discuss how Amazon Chairman Jeff Bezos is blitzscaling at Amazon, Uber's growth scaling strategy, and racism in the venture capital community.

B2B Growth Marketing (aka Blitzscaling) Podcast

What is Blitzscaling? (Spoiler Alert: It's B2B Growth Marketing on steroids!)

Significance of network effects in Blitzscaling

How network effects create winner-take-all markets

https://youtu.be/IctAOlXuv-A

Full video interview: https://youtu.be/QOJFEnvUduQ

The difference between fastscaling and Blitzscaling

Difference between B2B growth marketing and B2B marketing

https://youtu.be/j-Sez4lsjfE

Full video interview: https://youtu.be/QOJFEnvUduQ

Which startups can afford to ignore efficiency

Dangers of out-of-control growth

Uber Blitzscaling growth marketing strategy

Racism in the venture capital community

https://youtu.be/VzqzqwqON9U

Full video interview: https://youtu.be/QOJFEnvUduQ

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos

Industry vs. Growth Marketing Experience 

How Yeh decides which startups to invest in

Automation and outsourcing drive growth. But at what cost?

Companies are too good at using half baked algorithms and business process outsourcing firms to discourage us from contacting them. And short of retaining legal counsel – which is not economically feasible – there’s nothing you can do.

Got a problem with something you bought? Either let it go, or press 1 for sales, 2 for service, or 3 for technical support. And if those options don’t work, wait on hold for hours to beg a third world call center rep to escalate your case. Companies intentionally make it hard to get a hold of someone.

It’s the drill of dread. First, penetrate a computer or phone system that is controlled by shoddy artificial intelligence. If your problem doesn’t match one of the provided options – and pressing 0 to speak to an operator doesn’t work – you have to appease the algorithm and get sent to the wrong department just to talk to a real person. Now, you’ve got to break through their second line of defense. You’ve got to explain your issue to an outsourced, offshore call center rep with no authority. 

Companies use automation and outsourcing to lower costs. Just as algorithms can only solve simple problems, call center reps from far away places struggle to resolve issues for western customers. Explaining a problem to a call center rep who may be living in poverty without access to clean water is demeaning for the customer and rep alike. 

Here’s how bad the situation has become. Last year, when it looked like the pandemic was over, I used a travel search engine called KAYAK.com to buy flights to Italy on American Airlines. Then, Omicron surged and the Center for Disease Control issued a level 4 travel advisory warning Americans to avoid travel to Italy.

My family and I are fully vaccinated and boosted. But we’ve heard horror stories from friends who were vaxxed, got long-COVID or traveled and got stuck in expensive quarantine hotels. My wife’s friend in her early 50s is not overweight and has no health issues, but she still has equilibrium problems 8 months after getting COVID. And my cousin who’s in her late 20s and is the picture of health still has COVID fog brain 4 months after testing positive. Neither of them can exercise because of extreme shortness of breath. They both feel tired all the time.

For us it was an easy decision. The risk of gasping for air in an Italian hospital outweighed the reward of a Venetian gondola ride, which meant we had to either reschedule or cancel the trip. 

That’s when I realized we didn’t actually buy the tickets from KAYAK.com. And we didn’t buy them from American Airlines either. It turns out, KAYAK.com uses a company called ChatDeal to process transactions, and that’s who we had to contact.

ChatDeal offers customer support via online chat. But you’re not chatting with a person. At least not at first. You’re chatting with an algorithm. 

I entered my booking ID into the chat. And without even thinking about it, the chatbot responded “May I have your Booking ID, please?” I double checked and re-entered it. And it spit back the same question. System failure? Maybe I should have just gone on vacation? Now, instead of lounging by the infinity pool, I was stuck in an infinity chatbot loop. 

I was going to have to fail to phone. So I put on my warpaint, dialed the 800 number and waited patiently while my auditory cortex got pummeled by a hold music. Every few minutes a voice would apologize for “unusually long hold times.” But just as customer service has become an oxymoron, unusually long hold times have become doublespeak. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Unusual is usual.

Finally, after an hour and 47 minutes, a woman with an Indian accent named Sally came on the line. After I explained the situation about our decision to postpone because of the CDC level 4 travel advisory, she said she’d have the right department call me back. That’s when it became clear that I’d wasted half a day of my life that I’d never recover just to leave a message

Struggling not to become indignant, I asked when they’d be calling. I work and it’s tough for me to take calls during the day. She didn’t know. I asked if she knew what number they’d be calling from because I get a ton of telemarketing calls and answering them all would be punitive. She had no idea. I asked if she could send me an email so I have a record of our call. She couldn’t. But she assured me that the department I needed to contact would be in touch.

A week went by. No one contacted me. Ugh. I’d have to call again. This time, I waited around an hour on hold, until click, I was disconnected before anyone answered. But I called back, waited another hour on hold, and got the same story. They said someone would call me. But no one did.

Now I’m angry. I call a third time, wait another 2 hours, but this time I lose my cool and demand support. And I get transferred to a woman who says her name is Dona. I plead my case all over again. I share the CDC advisory. And she says they’ll evaluate the situation and see if I qualify for a refund.

A few days later, a refund offer arrives in my inbox. ChatDeal wants to charge me a $300 airline penalty fee for each ticket, which seems out of line since we’re cancelling because of an American travel advisory. So I call American Airlines directly to check and they say American Airlines is waiving penalties to countries the CDC advises against traveling to. But the agent also told me that since I bought it through ChatDeal, she couldn’t help me. 

On top of that, ChatDeal wanted a $279.94 “Administrative Fee” and a $75 “Refund Processing Fee” for each ticket. I bought 3 tickets for $1000 each. They were all the same flights. Same reservations. But they wanted to price gouge me $655 per ticket. If I accepted their offer, I’d only recover around $1000 of the $3000 I spent. 

Scamming that kind of money while automating the purchase process and offshoring customer service during a global pandemic is the definition of price gouging. But if I wanted to reschedule, they’d be happy to help, for an additional $1,000 in fees. My chat deal had become a chat steal. 

Algorithms are great at solving binary problems. “If this, then that” problems are easy for computers solve. They’re great at selling us things. But if the problem is a “if this, and this, when that happens during a pandemic” algorithms choke. Artificial intelligence can’t resolve disputes. 

We talk about artificial intelligence and outsourcing as though it will solve all our problems. The promise of AI today is on par with the original promise of social media, which was unshackling the wisdom of the crowd, or the internet, which was democratizing information. But it turns out, the crowds aren’t actually that smart and information doesn’t want to be free. 

In his book The Narrow Corridor, Doron Acemoglu argues that liberty and justice happen when there’s a balance between the power of government and the people. More than anything else,  it is liberty and justice that drive economic growth, because unless people have rights and feel protected, they have no ambition, because they feel like the deck is stacked against them. What’s the point of working hard if anyone can legally steal your money.

If we allow autocratic automated companies like ChatDeal, KAYAK.com and Airbnb to rob us of our rights, how will that impact our economy long term? If we allow companies to deprive us of liberty and the pursuit of happiness, how will that damper our collective initiative and ambition as a nation?

We need autonomy over automation and outsourcing. Algorithms that automate business processes with martech stacks without seeking public approval are too autocratic. We need a tripswitch.

Human participation preserves liberty. The US is the dominant global economy largely because of the balance between the power of the state and power of the people. But how can we expect future generations entering the workforce and starting families to advance our economy without a fair and just society? How are they supposed to prosper and drive growth in this environment?

It’s time to bolster the power of the people against the power of technology. When sales, service, and accounting are all integrated into one technology solution, the result is automation. When finance, policies and the military are all combined to promote the expansion of the state, the result is autocracy. And automation, without checks and balances, is autocratic.

When systems fail, instead of letting people fall through the cracks, we need freely elected representatives to empower the American people against callous companies like ChatDeal. If we forever lose control over autocratic automation, and corporate elites can scam with impunity, the basis of the American dream is at stake.