In today’s world, every employer looks for smart professionals who have the fervor to think out of the box. The job of an SEO consultant demands the same. However, there comes a point when every SEO campaign becomes monotonous and the scope of work seems limited.
Well, in this blog I will be sharing a few tips which will change this notion. With the intention of bringing out the SEO Superhero in you, here are 3 ideas which have the power to change the game –
The Customer Buying Cycle Perspective
Let’s stick to the basics first. As a marketer you must always keep in mind the buying cycle of a customer.
Relating your SEO strategy with customer buying cycle will help your client in better understanding of your recommendation and its significance. Segregating SEO tasks based on the different stages of this cycle can surely refine your campaign.
As an SEO expert you need to ask yourself – Have I considered keywords of all these stages? Which is the most important stage for me and where am I lagging in terms of keyword rankings? Do customers prefer my competitor over me? What am I doing on the SEO front to retain existing customers? and so on…
Queries like these are bound to give you an entirely new perspective. This will enable you to come up with a much more effective and focussed SEO plan.
Also, not everyone on the client side may be well versed with the technicalities of SEO. So try and back your recommendations with marketing basics rather than speaking SEO-ish all the time. For instance, marketing managers will definitely be interested in enhancing brand presence and beating competitors on Google Images but they might simply ignore a mail titled “Image Sitemap Optimization Recommendations”.
Basically bringing in core marketing concepts such as Brand Awareness, Brand Positioning, Customer Retention, Online Consumer Behaviour, and Competitor Analysis etc. will make your SEO case more SOLID. This is essentially because you are highlighting the role of SEO in the bigger picture.
Cross Vertical Learning
Understanding of the overall marketing movement of your brand will help you in building a more meaningful SEO strategy. You need to be aware of all the important brand campaigns across verticals. Be it Social Media, Display Media, Paid Strategy (PPC), Mobile and even Offline Campaigns and Activation – just stay updated. This will give you an entirely fresh outlook and you will start thinking beyond your conventional tasks.
For instance, consider an Online Clothing Store that plans to rope in a celebrity as its brand ambassador. Now, you don’t want to just sit and watch all other verticals leveraging on this association right? So here are a few things you can recommend as an SEO expert based on cross vertical learning (breaking it down medium-wise):
Social Media – Incorporate images and videos from social profiles to the website. Optimize them for your keywords and enhance internal linking.
PPC – Know the keywords which are working for them and try to include them in your SEO plan as well. Know if they are targeting a specific geo location and amend your strategy accordingly.
Display Ads – Learn about the brand’s communication style in their display ads. Look at the websites they are targeting for displaying ads and see if you can utilize them for off-page SEO.
Mobile App Marketing – If your brand has a mobile app, then take up App Search Optimization.
Offline Activity – Create a buzz about this event and sustain it via blogs on your website. Have a prominent CTA button to boost your conversions on these blog pages. Incorporate new keyword themes to target terms related to “event”, “event + celebrity name”, “celebrity name + brand” etc.
These are just random ideas which struck me. But the point which I am trying to make here is; DON’T RESTRICT YOURSELF! Interact with other verticals and get acquainted with their approach of marketing the brand.
Innovation and Experimentation
Once you are done with your basic SEO (titles, metas, sitemaps, internal linking, off-page etc.), you need to think beyond. But excellent ideas don’t come overnight.
So I have listed down a few pointers on how to go about this scouting for brownie points. These are not “use them as is” ideas but are more like “approaches” to find innovative ideas –
- Content Marketing: With the evolution in link building over the past years, SEO experts have realised the importance of creating and optimizing quality content. Few of the popular avenues are blogs, articles, images, infographics, videos etc. So utilize the most relevant ways to publish quality content consistently.
- Learn from Case Studies and Awards: To become the talk of the town you got to put in that extra effort. Well to start with, why not dig into who’s done it well already? Yes, deep dive into brands that have received awards and accolades in your industry. Reading their case studies will open your eyes to some fantastic approaches and you will be more than inspired to implement a few yourselves.
- Follow Industry experts to be aware of the latest developments in your industry. This will help you in coming up with the most relevant content ideas for both on-page and off-page SEO.
- Be Social: Stay updated with all the top forums (Quora, LinkedIn) and other social sites (Facebook, Twitter) to know trending topics related to your industry. This is a MUST to understand the needs of your target audience.
As you must have figured, from basic marketing concepts to cross vertical interaction and content marketing, the magnanimity of SEO is huge. It all boils down to how much more are you willing to explore. And to do this you need to become someone else. So are you ready to wear your Superhero Suit?
– Written by Priyam Srivastava
