Month: September 2016

The trend towards relevance has made content marketing even more important today than ever before. Sure, other elements of San Diego SEO marketing are still essential and shouldn’t be disregarded, although it all comes back to the need for consistently meaningful content. If you need some convincing that content marketing is king, consider these six facts.

1. Increased Use of Ad Blockers

A couple hundred million people now use ad blockers. This is why Google is placing ads within similar content. Doing so can be an effective way to get your message across without being intrusive since most browsers don’t go to a website for the ads.

2. More Site Traffic from Content Leaders

Content leaders who create valuable and engaging content generate nearly eight times more website traffic than their non-leader counterparts. In other words, browsers expect more from their visit than a sales pitch.

3. Content Equals Brand Recall

You have a better shot of standing out from a crowd of competitors offering similar products and services if your brand is seen as a source of useful information. An IBM Digital Experience Survey found that nearly 60 percent of marketers equate personalized content with higher engagement rates.

4. Consumers Read Relevant Content

The average browser spends nearly 40 seconds reading articles. While there’s still a tendency to skim, useful content is compelling and a steady stream of such content can boost brand recognition.

5. Email Marketing Has a Ridiculously High ROI

For every dollar spent on email marketing, the ROI is nearly $40. When an email campaign is properly executed, it can be an effective way to keep your audience engaged since the content can be uniquely personalized.

6. Fewer Costs, More Leads

Content marketing-related costs are roughly 60 percent less than expenses related to outbound marketing efforts. More importantly, content marketing generates approximately three times as many leads as television, newspaper, weekly mailers, and other traditional marketing methods.

Online marketing isn’t always easy to accomplish alone. As a leading company that specializes in search engine optimization, we make it our mission to identify your target audience and generate relevant content that draws in new and returning customers. Call us today at (858) 277-1717 to request a free website audit.

With content marketing on the rise, there are internet marketing agencies in San Diego of all shapes and sizes hiring content marketers and managers. Content marketing is a niche of its own, making it challenging to find just the right person to fill the role. If you’re looking for a person (or people) to fill content marketing roles, here are a few of the best interview questions to ask.

1. How do you adapt your tone, voice, and style?

While all writers have their own style of writing, part of being a content writer is being able to adapt to the company, audience, and desired format. Be sure to ask for specifics on their process.

2. How has your content been critiqued?

Chances are, no one is going to tell you they flew off the handle during a critique. Instead, watch for a shift in body language, listen for evasive language, and also pay attention to words and phrases that show this person is open to improvement and creative feedback.

3. How do you develop a content marketing strategy?

This will help you determine if the candidate can handle the position you have in mind for them. If they draw a blank, they might not be suited for a position that will involve a complete overhaul of your current system or implementing a new one.

4. How do you measure content success?

Any content marketer should be able to tell you what makes content successful. Listen for the interviewee to use words and phrases like “shares,” “retweets,” “traffic,” and “improved search engine ranking.” Follow-up by asking them to describe their own success with a piece (or pieces) of content.

Some companies find it easier to outsource content marketing efforts, and that’s where we come in. As a leading San Diego SEO agency, we can help you define your target audience, understand their motivations, and create content that converts. Give us a call today at (858) 277-1717 today and ask for a free website audit.

Buyer personas are now a commonly used marketing practice that helps businesses better understand their target audience and how to communicate with them. However, many businesses remain unsure exactly what a buyer person is and how to create one. Here are a few common mistakes San Diego digital marketing companies are still making when creating buyer personas.

1. Describing the Buyer, Not the Decision

One of the biggest mistakes marketers make is profiling the buyer rather than the buyer’s decision. After all, buying is the behavior all marketers want to influence. When creating a buyer persona, your first priority should be to understand decision criteria, buyer attitudes, and what causes buyers to believe one option is better than the other. Outside of retail environments, things like marital status, hobbies, and gender rarely matter.

2. Making Stuff Up

Most buyer personas are based on information marketers get by talking to sales reps, product experts, or by conducting online research. Rarely are buyer personas based on information provided by the buyer. Your content won’t be any better than it was before creating personas if the personas are based on generic information. Spend several hours every month having in-depth conversations with recent buyers, both those who chose your product and those who chose another.

3. Having Too Many Buyer Personas

Buyer personas are meant to help marketers, but creating new persons defined by company size, industry, demographics, age, motivations, etc. can create an unmanageable amount of personas to keep up with. Instead of creating a new person for each segment, ask yourself if you’ll increase revenue by building separate strategies. Separate buyer personas are really only important when buyer insights differ significantly, and those are rarely impacted by things like company size, industry, or job title. If buyers have identical priorities and challenges, regardless of industry, age, etc., a single persona may be the most effective means of marketing.

Need help creating the ultimate content marketing strategy? Turn to Saba SEO, a leading SEO agency in San Diego. In addition to SEO, we specialize in PPC and social media management. Call us today at (858) 277-1717 and ask about our free website audits!