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How to reach out to Mark Leonard:

For so long, marketing was all about promoting a product. But as Mark Leonard of Ictus Strategic Marketing tells us in this week’s podcast, it is no longer just the product marketers should be falling in love with: it’s the consumers.

CUSTOMER CENTRIC MARKETING: CREATING CUSTOMER VALUE

The first conversation Mark has with clients is centered around the customer and focuses on value added marketing. He tells us that our tendency is to fall deeply in love with our product and company, but that in the 21st century you have to focus on falling in love with WHO you are trying to help instead of WHAT you are selling. The conversation you have to have is around “How can you best help your customers?”

He starts by asking these questions:

* How can you do it better?

* What are your customers’ needs?

* How are you communicating?

* How are you making sure it is two-way communication?

He follows with:

* How do your customers use the product?

* What would they like to see done differently?

When you redirect your thought process and focus more on your customer, your marketing creates value by putting your consumer first. You need to focus the website and product around who the customer is. Your customers need to see themselves in that market.

FREE RESOURCES

For some CEOs, marketing by giving free resources can be hard to swallow. Traditionally, there is the fear that if you put everything you know in the internet, you will be copied by your competitors.

However, instead of getting caught up in that fear, you should be so helpful to customers that they don’t even think about the competitors. Helpfulness often comes in the form of information. Help them make decisions. Whether they choose your product or not, you need to be helpful.

GIVE YOUR CUSTOMERS INFORMATION

In the 21st century, customers are smart. Telling them how great your product is will not inspire them to purchase it. Of course you say your product is the best. You’re trying to sell it!

Customers today are willing to do their research on a brand. Therefore, instead of pushing your product, help customers do that research. By doing so, you are creating value and positively impacting how customers view your brand.

Tell the consumer what they should be thinking about. Mark uses the example of the school he is working to start. Instead of creating blog posts about how great his school is, he has a variety of articles that inform potential students about what they should look for in a college.

Do they want a big school? Online programs? Mark challenges consumers to consider all of their needs and make the best choice for them, even if it isn’t the product he is selling. This is a way of adding value for customers.

Why should you take on this risk? Consumers are going to find the information somewhere. The internet is a universe of information. The question you should ask is: do you want your customers going somewhere else for that info or to you?

Become the authority in your market so people come to you for that information.

KEY INSIGHTS

* Marketing is about loving your customer,

How to reach out to Bill Sebald:

SEO is dead.

That’s what Bill Sebald has read a million times in his 20 years of SEO experience. He knows better. SEO is alive and well and as competitive as ever. As founder of Greenlane Marketing and as a professor teaching SEO, Bill shares his insights on how to execute the best SEO strategy. On the episode, he explains how to move from SEO tactic to strategy, why SEO is different for different industries and why competitors’ SEO techniques are valuable.

SEO STRATEGY VS. TACTICS

Where do your SEO tactics end and where does your SEO strategy start?

Not sure? Don’t worry. You’re not alone.

“A lot of people struggle with switching from tactics to strategy because it’s not what we’re used to,” Bill explains.

Tactics are a means to an end, such as writing guest posts or adding alt-tags. But, they cannot answer the question of your overall SEO goal. A strategy outlines what the goals are and the plan to achieve them. It requires stepping back from the noise and doing the homework to develop a real SEO strategy.

SEO STRATEGIES CANNOT BE DONE ALONE

To achieve the SEO strategy, SEOs have to wear a lot of hats and work with a range of people.

SEOs combine technical, link-building, and content in their own work. It’s a busy job on its own, then you need to add coordination of people on the team. SEO techniques require coordination from UX, developers, content strategists, and more — not to mention, the needs of the client or the boss.

To do the job right with this much coordination, a clearly identified strategy is needed.

APPLYING YOUR SEO STRATEGY

With the strategy in place, there are a million places to start putting it into practice. The first place Bill recommends starting?

Competitors.

Look at where your site is ranking compared to your competitors. Do an audit to determine the gaps in terms of rankings and estimated traffic.

Competitor backlinks have serious value. Not in comparing volume, but by investigating their source. The sites that are linking back could be useful resources for your own content and can indicate what is popular in your market.

Bill shares these tactics with a key question to always ask yourself: “Does that make sense for our business?” Look at your competitor’s work for standards and ideas, but always ensure it suits your brand.

SEO BASICS

When it comes to improving SEO, you have to be on top of your game.

Google has over 200 signals and they’re changing all the time. Being search engine optimized is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’ that can add to ROI. In today’s world, it’s simply a must. If you're not sure how your site is doing, drop your URL into Sure Oak's

How to reach out to Jay Acunzo:

Content marketing is a crucial tool in digital marketing. But, everybody’s doing it. What are current content marketing trends and how do you stand out in the noise? Jay Acunzo has built a media company Unthinkable Media from the hugely successful podcast. He knows content marketing. He candidly talks from an expert’s point of view why expert advice won’t make your campaign successful.

THE TROUBLE WITH CONTENT MARKETING

Content marketing is invaluable in digital marketing. But effective online content marketing has to stand out from the noise. Few stand out.

The problem of noise isn’t a new one. It’s been a problem since the printing press. “This is just a human problem,” explains Jay. The solution is to stand out from the noise. Marketers need to ensure their content breaks through from the sameness of the market and gets noticed.

DON’T TRUST BEST PRACTICES

To stand out, we look to best practices from people who do stand out.

But best practices are not content marketing solutions. “The danger is that best practices is something that works on average, but we don’t aspire to be average. Or something that works in general, but we don’t operate in a generality.”

Average and generality don’t stand out amongst the noise. Leave the blueprint behind. The solution is to observe the situation in front of you. Look to your own customers and your own team for the best content.

Jay advises to “focus on self and situational awareness, not expertise.” No expert will tell you where in your own organization to find the best content marketing ideas. Only you can do so.

Understanding the core assumptions and shortcomings behind broader concepts allows you to be choosy in picking which trends in marketing to follow and which to forget later on.

THREE KEY CONTENT MARKETING QUESTIONS

Instead of obsessing over someone else’s answers to your digital marketing questions, the key is to start asking the right questions. Jay has developed key questions to develop the right content for your own company:

1. For your team: What’s your team’s aspirational anchor?

Find a simple statement which combines your company’s intent for the future and a hunger or dissatisfaction in the world today.

2. For your customers: What is your first foundational truth about what they’re really struggling with?

For example, nobody buys a better pillow. They buy a better night’s sleep. What is your customer’s real concern?

3. For your resources: What are your constraints?

The best ideas come from places of real limitation. So, define your resource constraints.

STORYTELLING IN MARKETING

One of the best content marketing trends involves storytelling. Storytelling has become a buzz word, but it’s still an essential content marketing tool. However, many marketers miss one essential piece:

The conflict.

All stories have three elements:

* The status quo

* The conflict

* The resolution

Digital marketers mostly focus on the status quo and the product as the resolution. But, without the conflict, the story isn’t interesting or convincing to the reader. Add conflict to be persuasive in your content marketing.

MAKE YOUR OWN PODCAST

Along with adding conflict to your storytelling, Jay suggests the idea of creating podcasts and shows as opposed to independent segments of content. Anyone with a $30 microphone and basic content marketing ideas c...

Event marketing is a crucial tactic in an everything-online world. Hear why hosting events, starting small, and using social architects can help you achieve your marketing objectives on this week’s podcast with Growth Marketing Conference founder, Vasil Azarov.

How to reach out to Dana DiTomaso:

Increasing brand awareness is a terrible goal.

Yep, you read that right. Successful digital marketing web analytics and KPIs require clear goals and the right custom metrics. Dana DiTomaso is the founder and president of KickPoint and has over a decade of experience in web development and digital marketing. On this week’s episode, Dana breaks down how to know what meaningful data to pull from Google Analytics to show the value you create.

REPORTING WEB ANALYTICS

Key metrics are crucial in digital marketing. They allow marketers and clients to understand what value is being produced. But, marketing reports aren’t always as useful as they should be.

“A lot of people don’t know what to report on, so instead they report on everything,” notes Dana DiTomaso. Reports with 50 metrics including everything from impressions, to reach, to page views all listed together. Google Analytics has more data points than most people can comprehend, let alone compile all of them into a useful document. These reports are asking the reader to determine the value from the metrics.

Instead, the marketer should be highlighting only the meaningful metrics.

What are meaningful metrics? Well, Dana suggests you frame them the same way business owners do. Their metrics:

* How much money did we make this month?

* How much money did we spend this month?

* Therefore, how much profit do we have?

Take the wide range of digital marketing metrics and frame them around to those three questions. The answer will be based on what is meaningful in the work that you do.

GOOD METRICS NEED GOOD GOALS

Measuring success in digital marketing requires clear goals. These goals may mean to make a certain amount of money or help a certain number of people. But, it’s easy to have bad goals in digital marketing.

Dana DiTomaso explains, “Increasing brand awareness is a terrible goal.”

Unless you make it measurable. For example, if you want to increase brand awareness, Dana asks:

* What’s the baseline?

* How will you know if we’ve gotten there?

* What do you count as awareness?

These questions move the goal into something measurable. Then you can know what to report on to show value and progress. And consider if another larger analytics goal is more accurate. Make a million dollars this year is a very good, very measurable goal.

We can help ensure that your business goals align with your SEO metrics. Learn more about Sure Oak's Google Analytics consulting services here.

WHAT DOES A METRIC MEAN?

All these measurements have to be organized. Dana has broken down her seriously useful method to define goals, strategies, KPIs and metrics.

Once your (good!) goal is identified, it will have one or more key performance indicators (KPIs).

KPIs are the high-level measurements that indicate overall progress towards a goal. KPI goals are the key values that are reported to client or management.

Each business KPI is broken down into tactics to achieve it.

How to reach out to Shannon McGuirk:

Your PR budget can be $0 — and you can still find PR strategy successes.

Shannon McGuirk explains how the right approach to PR can make a little go a long way. As head of PR and Content at Aira, she has built successful campaigns with everyone from major brand names to small businesses. On this episode, she explains what makes digital PR different and what stories to pitch to journalists for better engagement.

WHAT IS DIGITAL PR?

We’re all familiar with traditional PR, which builds brand awareness through media coverage. Digital PR brings in the added impact of SEO. This PR strategy encourages journalists to connect that content back to your companies site to increase organic traffic.

PR STRATEGY ON A SHOESTRING BUDGET

“It’s so important that small businesses invest the time in coming up with a digital PR and marketing strategy because you don’t need much money to do it,” advises Shannon. “Your budget can be tiny. It’s just your time as a business owner.”

PR strategies can seem challenging, but it simply requires a consistent time investment. Shannon takes a deeper look at PR strategies in her recent guest post, How to do Great Digital PR on a Limited Budget.

Shannon offers a specific tactic for a daily digital PR strategy example:

Think about the publications that your audiences are reading. Spend 5 minutes a day reading those publications. Get to know what the stories and themes those journalists are covering. Then, you can work backward to determine what you can add that conversation. Whenever you pitch an idea, you will be in-line with the publication already.

TOP 3 STORY TYPES TO PITCH

Shannon has seen lots of pitches and knows which ones get picked up and which ones get ignored. Using one of these three types of stories will increase the likelihood of media coverage.

1. Stats and Data-Based PR

Stories with research and numbers do well. You can’t argue with numbers! If you have a budget, you can contract a professional external survey for this data. If you don’t have a budget, you can create your own research through online survey tools and crowdsource your data.

2. Expertise/Tips-Based PR

Actionable content gets picked up. Lists, of course, are a popular format for sharing expertise. For example, an HR firm may prepare a ‘Top 10 interview tips’ content pitch.

3. Awareness Days-Based PR

There are awareness days all throughout the year, and journalists will be looking for content to cover them. For example, in the UK, there is a Small Business Saturday. As this day approaches, there will be buzz around it in the media and a need for content. Figure out how you can add to the conversation and be timely in your outreach to take advantage.

KEY INSIGHTS

* Digital PR combines traditional PR with the added strategy of SEO.

* You don’t have to invest money in your PR. Invest your time.

* The top 3 PR pitches are: research, tips, and awareness days.

SHANNON’S TAKEAWAYS

How to reach out to Patrick Reinhart:

The way your customers experience the internet is changing.

That means your website has to change too.

Patrick Reinhart from Conductor sat down with Tom Casano to explain how the availability of internet is changing how customers interact with it. He coined the term ‘experience-centric internet’ to mark this shift.

On the podcast, Pat digs into his 12 years of SEO experience, his top 3 ways to improve customer site experience, how to meet customer needs, and how to find the best educational content for your customers.

WHAT IS EXPERIENCE-CENTRIC INTERNET?

The internet is no longer only accessed on your desktop computer. People are accessing the internet through their mobile phones, voice search devices (like Echo), even their refrigerators. The way people are engaging with the web is changing.

Therefore, the way they experience the internet is changing. People don’t want the internet to just provide answers, it should solve their problems.

The customer engagement is becoming more holistic. Patrick Reinhart explains that people no longer want to just buy a pair of sunglasses, they want the sunglasses to make their lives better. Your website experience has to be part of that solution. Put the customer first.

TOP 3 WAYS TO IMPROVE SITE EXPERIENCE

Exceptional user experience is crucial in the experience-centric internet. Pat shared XX key ways to improve your onsite experience:

1. Accelerated Mobile Pages

This open source project increases page speed. Over 24 million domains are using it to improve their site experience.

2. Mobile-friendly focus

Google will soon be launching its mobile-first initiative. If your site isn’t mobile ready, it will be left behind. Responsive or adapted design are no longer an option.

3. Live Chat

Customers do not want to make a phone call or wait for an email reply. Instantaneous responses becoming an expected part of onsite experience. Whether that’s a serviced live chat or a chatbot, your site should offer instant customer service.

RESULT OF CUSTOMER-FOCUSED EXPERIENCE

Today, people want to transact with a brand that they trust. This trust can be built through site experience.

Patrick Reinhart shared Conductor’s research that 83% of people who read a piece of educational content trusted that brand. When prompted, they indicated they were more likely to purchase from that brand because they had a good experience from that educational content.

Content can be educational on the product, the field or targeted to the specific customer’s needs. The result is increased brand loyalty and future revenue.

Unsure of where to find content?

Pat advises you to look no further than your customer service department.

Mine the most common questions received by customer service for content ideas. The easiest and most effective educational content is to simply answer their questions with content.

KEY INSIGHTS

* Customers are demanding better experience from their time on the internet.

* Three key ways to improve experience are improved speed, mobile-focus and live-chat.

* To best meet customer needs, focus on being the solution to their problem.

How do you know if you’re hiring the right SEO company? Digital marketing expert, Ruth Burr Reedy, explains the red flags, why guarantees aren’t necessarily good, and what you need to know before you hire. Learn more on this week’s Sure Oak Podcast.

How to reach out to Jay Baer:

Jay Baer shares his 25 years of marketing experience and New York Times best-selling content on this week’s show. He’s used his marketing savvy to launch 5 startups as well as his strategy consulting firm, Convince & Convert.  He sits down with host Tom Casano to explain how word-of-mouth can transform your marketing strategy,  discuss how your customers are your best marketers, and give a sneak peek into his latest book.

WHY WORD OF MOUTH?

Word-of-mouth directly influences 19% of all purchases in the US. Another 20 to 30% is influenced by indirect word of mouth.

With nearly half of every dollar spent in America impacted by word-of-mouth marketing, you would expect most businesses to have a word-of-mouth marketing strategy.

Yet, 99% of businesses do not.

The vast majority of businesses have no strategy to manage this crucial aspect of marketing.

WORD-OF-MOUTH IS NOT A CAMPAIGN

Word-of-mouth is often confused with campaigns. Word-of-mouth is not a flashy stunt that receives a buzz of coverage.

“The best way to do word-of-mouth is to do something different every single day,” clarifies Jay. It’s the regular feature of your business that people can talk about without any encouragement or event.

In order to define word-of-mouth strategies, Jay created the concept of the ‘talk trigger’. He defines it as an operational difference that creates marketing.

For example, the Cheesecake Factory has an extraordinary talk trigger that allows them to spend 5X less on advertising than their competitors.

Their 5,490-word-long menu.

The surprising length of the menu causes people to talk about the cuisine and the business without encouragement. Jay’s research shows that 38% of customers proactively told someone else about the menu in the last 90 days.

Word-of-mouth is what propels a current customer into creating a new customer. This is the best referral program you can have.

WHAT MAKES GREAT WORD-OF-MOUTH

In order to work, your talk trigger has to be remarkable in the true sense of that word:

Worthy of remark.

People don’t talk about average. They talk about what’s different. “Good is a 4 letter word in the context of word-of-mouth,” Jay explains. It should align with the brand while still standing out.

Good may keep customers, but it will not create new ones.

For example, Paragon Direct offers a 24-hour car repair service. Use their company’s app to book a service, and they promise to complete the car repair overnight and have it ready before you go to work in the morning. This highly responsive service is so unique that it creates its own word of mouth. This service level goes beyond ‘good’.

TALK TRIGGER SYSTEM

Jay’s new book lays out the complete word of mouth system. He gave us a sneak peek at their pioneering 6-step process to create talk triggers:

* Understand and observe your customers and use internal insights

* Develop candidate talk triggers

* Find the Goldilocks zone

* Roll it out in a test environment

* Look for evidence of conversation

* When you see conversation development, roll it out to all customers

These steps allow you to develop an everyday business feature that will ca...

How to reach out to Sujan Patel:

Optimizing your marketing sales funnel takes one essential but basic step.

Understanding your sales funnel.

Digital marketing leader Sujan Patel explains how to break down your funnel using the right metrics on this week’s podcast. Sujan runs six SaaS businesses, including Mailshake and Web Profits, a growth marketing agency, and they all use the same highly effective sales funnel. On this week’s podcast, you’ll learn how to build traffic and leverage your own network and customers in your sales funnel.

EXPOSURE

Exposure is not what you do to increase your own exposure.

“It’s the things people say about you when you’re not there,” remarks Sujan. “Exposure is your reputation.”

If someone recommends you to a potential client, exposure is all the information they provide to the client. Whether it’s good, bad, or a mixture, that’s the exposure.

It’s outside of your direct control in the sales funnel, but you can control it indirectly by creating work that is beneficial to your reputation.

Exposure builds trust, and you can build exposure by doing guests posts and creating videos and other content. Using the content to answer the questions clients might ask about you gives you a bit more indirect control.

AWARENESS

How big of a reach do you have? Where are you ranking? These metrics are how you qualify your awareness.

For some people, their big reach comes from social media. For others, it may be paid advertising. At MailShake, Sujan explained that they crush it on private Facebook groups where members share their major content guides.

When potential clients move through the sales funnel from a strong awareness area, you already have some credibility and trust with them.

Every business will have awareness areas that are stronger and weaker. You need to be aware of your strengths to know where future leads will come from.

Sujan recommends asking every lead:

How did you hear about us?

This metric is more accurate at predicting your strengths than Google Analytics. Google Analytics shows their direct search pattern but not the first time the lead had awareness of your brand.

CONSIDERATION

With those potential leads identified, you’re moving into the consideration phase of the sales funnel.

According to Sujan, “this is where a lot of people fail.”

Think about the flow that will move the potential client through consideration and into a sale.

The process will vary. From blog traffic, someone in consideration may download an e-book or join a webinar. That action may move them into becoming an active lead.

You need to know your process and optimize it to ensure potential leads successfully complete the consideration phase. That optimization can be seriously simple:

Ask.

“A lot of people are not aggressive enough in their nurturing to ask for conversions.” Yes, you need to offer a lot of value so your value-to-ask ratio is high.