By Marc Purtell | Director, SEO
In recent months, content marketing has moved beyond trendy buzzword to a full-fledged marketing strategy. Increasingly, the discussion has turned to its value to brands as it relates to SEO.
Some believe content marketing will take over SEO. I don’t. As I outline in a new report, “Content Marketing Like a Pro: Tactics and Techniques to Increase Search Engine Visibility,” content marketing should be used as a way to supplement existing SEO efforts and become a lead-generation source in and of itself.
RELATED: How to choose the right content types for SEO value
In order to maximize the impact of content marketing, both as a driver of leads and sales and as a way to augment SEO and drive organic search performance, marketers should utilize the following 10 best practices:
- Know Your Audience. In order to engage with potential customers through content marketing, it is important to first know who they are, what they want and what they value. This starts with market research. Identify the customer segment and find out the types of websites they frequent. These websites provide an initial list of publisher prospects for the content.
- Include Images. Part of the goal of producing and promoting great content is to influence customers and prospects to share your content with their online communities. Use large, engaging images within your content so that when it is shared via social media, the summary that is visible to other users will include a thumbnail. This will draw more attention to it and garner higher click-through rates. Don’t forget to properly tag your images so that they, too, show up in search rankings and improve the authority of your brand’s content.
- Curate Content. Regurgitated information from another source is not likely to draw much attention from your target audience. Your content should offer a fresh perspective and draw from multiple sources. Curate content from a variety of trusted sources in order to provide readers with a new perspective or insight they may not have already seen.
- Promote. Use multiple channels to promote your content. Leverage your current marketing channels, including email, social media, public relations, display advertising, etc., to inform your customers and prospects about new content resources.
- Reference Industry Influencers. When discussing a specific topic within your content marketing piece, it can be helpful to reference and cite individuals who are known to the audience and have authority on the topic. People love to see their own names published and will likely promote the content on their own for free, thus further spreading the exposure and influence of your brand and its expertise. (more…)
By Keith Trivitt | Director, Marketing and Communications
LeadsCon, a lead-generation conference, wrapped up its West Coast show in Las Vegas last week. The MediaWhiz team was all over the conference, starting with the first day’s Buyers Summit (March 18), and ending with an afternoon panel March 20 on mobile lead generation.
Beyond the ideas and insights our own team brought to LeadsCon, we learned a lot from the dozens of other speakers and vendors who were in attendance. Below is a quick synopsis of our top-3 takeaways from LeadsCon Las Vegas 2013.
RELATED: Check out our photo slideshow on Facebook from LeadsCon Las Vegas.
Trend #1: Mobile Here, Mobile There, Mobile Everywhere
Not surprisingly, mobile dominated many of the panels and presentations at LeadsCon.
Taking a page from that meme, we launched MediaWhiz Mobile at the conference. Serving as our official mobile performance marketing practice, MediaWhiz Mobile offers clients and publishers mobile performance marketing campaigns and offers across a wide range of online marketing channels, including affiliate marketing, email, social media, display, search, SEO and lead generation.
In a March 20 panel hosted by MediaWhiz (“Taking Lead Gen Beyond the Desktop”), panelists discussed best practices for mobile lead generation. One issue panelists highlighted was the need to prepare call centers for the potential flood of incoming calls that could result from making mobile landing pages too easy to convert.
Overshadowing that issue, though, was the bigger concern over whether many companies were even prepared to move beyond the current focus on mobile branding. As Rebecca Madigan of the Performance Marketing Association noted, “Mobile lead generation is a huge ‘money to be had’ opportunity for advertisers and marketers.” A great way advertisers can tap into performance marketing’s mobile lead-gen opportunities is by setting up click-to-call campaigns, according to Madigan. (more…)
By Hakan Lindskog | CEO
Last week, we announced the launch of our new mobile performance marketing practice, MediaWhiz Mobile. While it doesn’t mark our first foray into mobile marketing, it does represent our most significant and dedicated focus on the immense online marketing and advertising opportunities of mobile.
What this launch means for MediaWhiz, however, is insignificant compared to the value we believe it offers our clients. MediaWhiz Mobile will help advertisers more profitably engage, acquire and retain customers across what has rapidly become the most relevant and important digital marketing channel: mobile.
Why the launch now? As I told A4U in announcing the new service, we absolutely believe that mobile lead generation is the future of online marketing.
Consumers are projected to spend $119 billion worldwide on goods and services from the mobile and tablet devices by 2015, according to ABI Research. And with upwards of 70% of online advertising spend in the United States going toward performance-based advertising, it’s clear that advertisers are hungry for performance-based mobile marketing services that do far more than branding. They want mobile marketing services that help their brands profitably engage, acquire and retain customers in the mobile space.
Increasingly, consumers are ditching their desktop computers in favor of their smartphones and tablets. The opportunities these devices offer brands and marketers to reach, connect with and influence the purchasing habits of consumers is beyond what many of us considered possible just five years ago. More importantly, mobile and tablet devices offer advertisers an immense opportunity to acquire customers instantly and to generate leads at the click of a button.
MediaWhiz Mobile is here to service those opportunities across a variety of online marketing channels, including affiliate marketing, display advertising, search, SEO, lead generation and email. (more…)
By Kelly Clay | Digital Communications Strategist | HasOffers
Is your company thinking of starting a performance marketing program? If the concept is new to your marketing team, it’s critical to understand the basics of performance marketing. During last week’s Performance Marketing Insights in New York City, Peter Klein, MediaWhiz senior vice president of media services, gave an overview of what CMOs need to know about Performance Marketing.
In his presentation, Peter defined what performance marketing is, why it’s beneficial for your company, and how to get started. Here are a few key takeaways from Peter’s presentation that can help anyone starting their own performance marketing program:
Performance Marketing Basics
Peter explained that it’s critical to know that “performance marketing is the smartest online advertising investment. It’s no longer nice to have, but necessary to have” as part of an overall marketing strategy. Performance marketing includes advertisers, affiliates, and the networks that sit in-between them. Advertisers pay for performance, while affiliates, who are paid to deliver a specific action, promote the advertiser through various channels (e.g. PPC, SEO, Social Media). The network then acts as a bank, tracking system, client support, media planner, and compliance team. (more…)
By Marc Purtell | Director, SEO
Content marketing can provide tremendous value to a search engine optimization campaign, as outlined in our recent eBook, “Content Marketing Like a Pro.” There are many different content types that can be leveraged as a vehicle for lead generation with a strong return on investment. Today, we’ll examine how you can choose the right content type to increase your brand’s SEO value.
RELATED: Download MediaWhiz’s FREE eBook, “Content Marketing Like a Pro”
eMarketer recently published a study conducted by CopyPress in which marketers were asked which types of content are the most cost effective. Results of the study showed the growing demand among marketers of content marketing as a leading digital focus. Thirty-five percent of marketers surveyed identified content marketing as their leading focus in 2013 as compared to 19% in 2012. It is no secret that content marketing is a powerful lead generation tool and that the return on investment is high.
When it comes to segmenting the various types of content, a vast majority of the marketers surveyed identified featured articles as the content type with the best ROI. The main differentiator between featured articles and other media types is the relatively small cost and simplicity of development which makes the investment very low. The minimal hard costs and effort associated with producing featured articles combined with the innate value of any content marketing piece that follows best practices, makes these articles very attractive to utilize.
Another advantage of featured articles that makes them a priority content marketing piece is the ability to use authorship mark-up to help promote the content and improve organic search authority. Since featured articles typically contain a byline, the rel=“author” rich snippet can be leveraged to tie the content to an authoritative author, making it much more likely to rank for keyword-targeted search queries in search engine results. (more…)
By Giles McGrath | @GilesMcGrath | Creative Director
Last year there were a plethora of logo changes across many major businesses. In the case of American Airlines, not every logo change is welcomed by customers or the general public.
Logo changes can play a major role in developing a new image for your company, but not all logo changes require major design changes; just ask the Minnesota Vikings.
Recently, MediaWhiz Creative Director Giles McGrath took some time to answer questions related to the benefits – and potential pitfalls – of brands redesigning their logos. He also offered some best practices you can use to ensure the successful redesign of your logo.
1) How do you know when it’s really time for a redesign and that you’re not just listening to others who say you need a new logo? How do you make your new logo/branding stand out?
There is no simple answer as to when a logo should be redesigned. Often companies will undertake a redesign prematurely. Some questions brands should ask themselves prior to undertaking a redesign include:
- How does my logo reflect on my brand positioning and personality of my business?
- Is my logo still unique in the market?
- Has the focus of my business changed?
- Would a new logo reflect the new direction of my business? (more…)
By Marc Purtell | Director, SEO
Today, we released a new eBook on content marketing. Titled, “Content Marketing Like a Pro,” the report outlines the key pillars to content marketing and advises marketers on best practices for crafting and executing successful content marketing programs.
This eBook also provides a framework marketers can use to improve their brand’s SEO and generate leads via a content marketing program.
When consumers first encounter a brand digitally it’s not always the brand’s website that makes the first impression. What makes the greatest impression is the authority of the brand’s website measured by where it ranks when a consumer searches.
Content marketing is a method to build this authority and rank.
Learn how to use content marketing to generate leads and improve your brand’s SEO with MediaWhiz’s new eBook, “Content Marketing Like a Pro.” (more…)
By Marc Purtell | Director, SEO
Facebook has once again decided to update its News Feed with a new look and algorithm. This update is meant to give members more control of what they see on their own customized News Feeds. What this means for marketers is that there is a higher importance than ever in successfully engaging with consumers and providing useful, compelling information in order to maintain or increase their current level of visibility.
One of the major changes to the News Feed that will need to be addressed by digital marketers is the ability for users to filter the feed for media types such as images, music, videos, news, or apps. This makes it essential for a Facebook marketing strategy to focus on a range of media types. For example, If a brand is doing a great job regularly sharing status updates, that messaging will be missed by people who are filtering only for images. By diversifying the types of content shared, a brand will be able to penetrate multiple filters and maximize their News Feed presence. Specifically for the image feed, Facebook will be displaying images from both Facebook and Instagram, so brands should be uploading photos to both. (more…)
By Keith Trivitt | Director, Marketing and Communications
Where will you be March 19 and 20? If the answer isn’t LeadsCon Las Vegas, you need to rethink your plans. You can find us at booth #511 at LeadsCon and throughout the conference at a series of events and panels.
Founded in 2007, LeadsCon showcases the best people and companies in vertical media media and engagement advertising. More than 5,000 people rely each year on LeadsCon for unparalleled insights and access to marketing leaders. Click here to view the conference agenda.
RELATED: Read our exclusive interview with LeadsCon founder Jay Weintraub.
Must-Have Information
MediaWhiz will be exhibiting at LeadsCon, March 19-20, 2013. Meet us at booth #511.
Contact Keith Trivitt for more information or to schedule a meeting with us at the conference.
The MediaWhiz booth at LeadsCon East 2012 in New York City.
(more…)
By Keith Trivitt | Director, Marketing and Communications
SMX West comes to beautiful San Jose, Calif., in two weeks (March 11-13, 2013), and the MediaWhiz search and SEO teams will be there in full force. If you’re in San Jose for the conference, be sure to visit booth #321 to chat with us about our search marketing and SEO products and services. Several of our SEO and search marketing experts will be on site to discuss best practices for improving your brand’s SEO and search marketing campaigns.
MediaWhiz Vice President Daryl Colwell will take that discussion a step further during his March 11 presentation, “Content Marketing Like a Pro: Tactics and Techniques to Increase Search Engine Visibility.” Here is a brief overview of Daryl’s presentation:
Time/Date: 3-3:20 p.m. PST, Monday, March 11, 2013
Location: Theater B, San Jose McEnery Convention Center
Session Description
It’s no longer enough to have great SEO for your website. In today’s Google-controlled era of search engine marketing, brands need great content that is engaging, informative and sharable to rank well and generate leads. Join MediaWhiz’s Daryl Colwell to learn about his best practices and techniques to increase your brand’s search engine visibility through content marketing. You’ll come away from this session with a top-10 list of content marketing best practices that the pros use to generate leads and improve their brand’s SEO.
Must-Have Information
MediaWhiz will be exhibiting at SMX West, March 11-13, 2013. Meet us at booth #321.
Contact Keith Trivitt for more information or to schedule a meeting with us at the conference.
What to Do in San Jose
San Jose is one of America’s most innovative cities. Centered at the heart of Silicon Valley, it is the home to many of the world’s leading technology companies, including Cisco, Adobe and eBay. It also has a vibrant night life and plenty of fun, free activities. Here are some helpful resources you can use to plan your time in San Jose during SMX West.
