The Lowdown on the Marketing Budget for Oil & Gas

Jemully Media the lowdown on the oil and gas online marketing budget

THE LOWDOWN ON THE MARKETING BUDGET FOR OIL AND GAS: HOW TO BREAK IT DOWN

It’s your job to figure out how to get your phone to ring. For weeks you have been trying to figure this out. You lean forward and tap your keyboard to wake up your computer.”Maybe I’ll just Google it.”

Getting a website to show up on Google search results is a lifeline to any business today. As we visit with folks in the industry, we hear a couple of common refrains. First, there’s a shortage in the workforce in O&G. On top of that, your good guys get poached. You lose ’em because they are hired away by your competition.

And, second, if you are an oilfield service company, you gotta keep getting new business to keep the doors open, or the trucks running, or the guys busy.

GOOD TIMING

As for the first need, finding the people you need to connect with is not as hard as you might think. In fact, as the workforce in the oil and natural gas industry continues to get younger, reaching out will just get easier. According to a recent study by the American Petroleum Institute, millennials (those roughly 22 – 38 years old) are already well represented in the oil and gas industry. Today they are one third of the workforce, and performing in every role. From managers to engineers to procurement specialists, these guys (and gals) who have grown up online are rapidly becoming the people you need to reach. And the API study predicts that by 2025 this group will constitute 41 percent of a company’s payroll.

What does that mean for you? You just need to show up in the places where the millennials are. And, that’s online because they carry the Internet in their pockets.

Fortunately, this is a really good time to develop your online presence. Because, honestly, most of your competitors have not. (See our recent report on the digital footprint of 100 oil and gas companies working in Oklahoma.) They have ignored their websites and not used their social media. Maybe the web wasn’t important before. But, that’s not the case today. Now, it is not only important, a web presence is vital. The good news is – the neglect by your competitors is your opportunity. Jump ahead of them and get out front. Beat the competition and position your company as the leader. Let them be the ones to play catchup to you.

HOW TO DIVVY UP THE MARKETING SPEND: TRADITIONAL THOUGHTS

Okay, now you know why the web is important – because more than 1/3 of the workforce eats, sleeps, and lives with their mobile devices in hand. How should you spend a marketing budget to reach them?

As a start, we do not recommend that you totally reject traditional advertising. Let’s look at a few. The phone book? No, that’s last century. But, what about trade shows? Yes, trade shows still bring you some value by getting your team face-to-face with folks. Then, what about advertising in trade publications? We are still a fan of trade pubs. Ads can deliver you exposure to your targeted audience. And ads can build your brand with them.

THE DIGITAL DEMAND

So, what about digital? This is where you need to put your biggest investment because there is more long-lasting value for your promotional spending. We’ll explain that a little later.

Do you need a website? Yes, without a doubt. A website is your hub. It’s the place where you are in total control of the branding and message about your company. Go deep here. What about social media? Yes, millennials (and their spouses) are on social media every single day. You want to show up where they are. Paid digital advertising? Yes, you will need to do some paid digital advertising on Google and on social media to help your content be displayed to the right people.

Now, here is our the recommended overview of how you should break out your marketing spend:
  • 30% – Website/SEO/Content Marketing
  • 30% – Social media management
  • 20% – Trade shows
  • 10% – Trade publications
  • 10% – Paid digital advertising

BREAKING DOWN THE DETAILS

WEBSITES – 30%

The biggest portion of your marketing budget should be devoted to building your website and promoting it “organically.” This means that you want to develop strategies that will get people to come to your site “naturally” rather than through “artificial” methods, these latter being paid advertisements.

Organic marketing encompasses a variety of practices that flip the right switches so your website content shows up on Google’s search results page. These practices include SEO, adding content regularly to your website, building links back to your website, and good social media engagement. All of the “organic” marketing practices offer a strong payoff over time.

Social media management – 30%

Next, an equivalent amount of your marketing budget should be spent on social media. Here you want to develop a following on three different social media platforms. Your following consists of employees, potential employees, stakeholders, business partners and relations, and others interested in the oil and gas sector.

Gineers Now magazine’s article about marketing for oil and gas recommended utilizing these social networks for the industry:

Linkedin is best avenue for brand building and lead generation. There’s a gamut of oil and gas engineers, managers, and leaders who are frequently browsing on their news feed. Twitter is the best medium for spreading your latest news while Facebook is your best medium to engage with your stakeholders and employees.

OK Energy Media Social for O&G
O&G related companies should not overlook Instagram as a social network for reaching Millennials.

A consistent presence on social media is an important ingredient in a successful digital campaign. Depending on your company’s needs, the platforms you concentrate on may differ slightly from others in the industry. However, for the progressive in mind, consider Instagram. Especially consider Instagram if your audience is Millennials. Many in the 22- 38 age group prefer a daily dose of Instagram over some of the other social media platforms.

How frequently should you post on social media? Daily is optimal. Posting every day with a variety of content types will keep your followers interested and engaged. If you hire a content marketing team to take care of your content development, they can manage the regular releases on your website and your posts to social media. Moreover, they can build momentum on your networks and deliver a solid return from an ever-growing loyal audience.

Read this article for more information about social media for companies serving in the oil and gas industry.

TRADE SHOWS – 20%

Where traditional marketing is concerned, setting up a booth at a trade show is still a good way to get your name out in front of industry-related people. It allows you to get acquainted with new folks – especially business connections. The trade show expense is encountered in the cost of booth space, booth branding/signage, manpower, travel, food, collateral, and swag. After the event, about the only thing of value that continues to promote your business is your beer koozie, multi-tool, or keychain. The greatest value of trade shows lie in the connections made during the show.

TRADE PUBLICATIONS – 10%

Like trade shows, trade pubs are another opportunity to reach a targeted niche. The optimal value here comes when you run advertising consistently in the publication. Notably, there are some traditional advertising stats that say potential customers need to see an ad seven times before they buy. Some research takes that point even further and indicates that you have to see an ad seven times before the ad is even noticed. Whichever stat is correct, the key takeaway is that consistency and frequency in your advertising is important.

PAID DIGITAL ADVERTISING – 10%

Google Adwords and paid social media ads are the counterpoints to the organic marketing mentioned earlier. Organic marketing requires time. It takes time to build a repertoire of content that answers pertinent Google queries. Content must be well-woven with industry-related keywords and phrases so Google knows when to show your webpage (as opposed to your competitor’s webpage) to answer someone’s search question.

Paid ads are the “artificial” (as in not “organic”) way to get in front of your search audience. They give you the opportunity to buy your position on the Google results page. Your Google ads will target your audience using your industry keywords and phrases so you can jump ahead of your competition.

Similarly, to get your name and your content in front of your audience on social media, these days you have to “pay to play.” Most of the social media sites force businesses to pay for ads that boost those businesses’ content so it will show up in their followers’ news feeds. With some social media sites – notably Facebook – one might be obliged to pay just to reach more of the news feeds of one’s own followers. Or the effort might get you into non-followers’ news feeds. Either way, you’re helped. But you’ve “paid to play.” And, while there is an on-going expense involved, social media ads allow you to rifle-shot-target your audience so you don’t waste advertising budget by delivering your ad to people who are not interested. Social advertising is sophisticated and can get you in front of the right audience on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

MAPPING OUT THE BEST PLAY

The investment in a website, content marketing, and social media keeps on delivering results. Unlike the paid advertisements that stop working when the ads stop running, the content that you put on your website and social media is a valuable resource that can be viewed weeks, months, and years after it is posted. In fact, as your content development increases your digital footprint, it increases the value of your business in the eyes of Google and in the eyes of your consumers.

For further reading on oil and gas marketing

Here are some of our most popular content on marketing for the oil and gas sector.

Seven Steps to Improving Your Business’s Twitter Results

Actor Donald Glover says it well, “If you’re on Twitter, what you’re saying is, ‘I’m important enough for you to care what I think.’ ”

True for a celebrity, perhaps, but just as true for an individual and for a business. Twitter’s slogan is, “It’s what’s happening.” There’s a subtle statement made by the fact of being on Twitter. It’s the suggestion that you’re in the moment, that you matter, that you have something to say that’s worth watching for.

With those thoughts in mind, we funnel this down to just business considerations of Twitter. With no further ado, here are seven steps to make your business’s Twitter account shine:

tweet pic
This is a tweet from our agency’s own Tweet feed. Twitter gives a business an opportunity to take the outside public inside its operations. You can share your values, your personality, your competitive advantages. These help break down possible resistance to your business’s appeal.

1. Set Goals

If you’re at, say, 200 followers on Twitter, set yourself a goal of getting to 1,000 followers. Give yourself a year or two. And remember that you don’t have to have huge followings to get some good out of your Twitter presence. Hashtags, for one thing, will flag and funnel prospects your way, and you can also run advertising on Twitter that will expose prospects to your offerings.

2. Employ Imagery

Don’t run text-only tweets exclusively. Add a photo below your tweet or, for a more professional look, create a graphic that has text embedded in it. This makes for a more shareable post. But even when you create an attractive, professional-looking graphic, think about placing a line of text with it. (That is, text that is not a part of the graphic itself.) Why do this? Because you’ll want your post to show up in people’s searches of Twitter, and unless there is freestanding text in your post, there will be no words to match up against those searchers’ search terms. Words that are embedded in (placed upon) an illustration or photo are not searchable by Twitter. If you want to share a link, then you’ll want the link to be click-able, and that only happens if the link is above the graphic, not displayed within the graphic as text. Also, you’ll want to include hashtags in some of your posts, and hashtags must be in the freestanding text that is not displayed in your graphic. See this example, below.

Sample tweet from @jemullymedia
This tweet from our @JemullyMedia feed includes hashtags, a backlink, and a graphic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this example, the keywords Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace, as well as the hashtagged terms #free, #website, and #cost are all included in the hope of attracting searchers on Twitter who are interested in these topics.

3. Be Engaging

Some businesses, in their Twitter embodiments, maintain a highly corporate look that is all graphics (and these generally with very refined, highly standardized design elements), with (usually) no text-only tweets. That’s fine for a major corporation, but then large corporations tend to be somewhat starched and they don’t generally present themselves as chatty, candid, or casual. If you examine the tweets by large corporations, you’ll see that they have relatively low levels of engagement. I’ve charted a statistic on some of them—retweets per 1,000 followers—and their numbers can be amazingly low. But major corporations are (mostly) not there to accomplish the same ends as small businesses, so if you’re a small business, don’t be afraid to inject text-only tweets, and @reply tweets, and shout-outs, and especially retweets of other accounts’ messages. These are all things that major corporations rarely do, if ever. But major corporations do not necessarily look upon Twitter as a customer-growth or demand-growth proposition. For them, it’s more about staying visible and looking branded across all channels. You, however, as a small or medium-sized business, want to attract potential customers. So get out there and mix it up!

4. Schedule Your Tweets

There’s an additional reason for scheduling your tweets, beyond just the idea of getting many of them done in advance. There’s the pure efficiency that comes with scheduling tweets, especially when you planning to tweet the same material multiple times. In Hootsuite, for instance, one can click the “save” button to preserve a freshly constructed tweet in “draft” mode. So once you have scheduled the tweet, you simply re-open the draft and schedule it for yet another date (and so on, repeatedly, as often as needed). If a Twitter account is going to display a particular tweet eight different times, for instance, then this draft function is a huge time saver. We sometimes like to make minor tweaks on the fly each time we schedule it—changing, say, the hashtags or the textual message or the graphic (don’t forget to use graphics with your tweets when you can).

A graphic illustrating a marketing tip, shared in a Twitter feed.
For our own company Twitter account, we’ve created Tips that we trickle into our feed. We have built some 150 such tips so far. This one links readers to a blogpost, but many such tips don’t. They are a reader service for our followers.

5. Up Your Posting Game

Of all the most popular social media platforms, Twitter is most forgiving on the issue of repeating posts. Today, you’ll find many Twitter authorities urging marketers to be quite liberal in re-posting content. Twitter is a “noisy” platform and the half-life of a tweet is a mere 8 minutes, by at least one estimate. I’ve also heard sources say it’s 14 minutes—either way, it’s probably safe to say it’s less than 20 minutes. That’s not to say that someone should repeat a post in 20 minutes. By no means. But if you want a tweet to be seen by most of your followers, then multiple transmissions of it are necessary.

How many? Again, the estimates vary, but the figures do seem to cluster around 10 (times per tweet). We advise that you spread those out. If the message is evergreen enough, then the freshness-factor is not so critical, and in such a case, one ought to spread the repetitions out at least several days apart. We’re not averse to running repeated messages on consecutive days, but if you are only going to repeat a message, say, ten times altogether, then putting weeks between transmissions is even better. We also have some tweets that run once a month for, say, a year. If the content has value and isn’t time-sensitive, make the most of it.

Sources such as Hubspot recommend that online marketers apply a 40/60 rule to content creation. Forty percent of one’s time is to be spent creating the content, and 60 percent of one’s time is to be spent sharing the content, repurposing it, or promoting it.

sample tweet
Install your Twitter app on your phone and use it to snap pix on the fly to post immediately as live tweets. This one was shared during one of our team meetings. Twitter is all about immediacy.

6. Think “80/20”

Note: The “80/20” rule is not to be confused with the “40/60” rule from the previous tip.

Remember, with social media, you are replacing and bypassing traditional media. Eighty percent of your messaging should be informative or entertaining—not sales-y. In the old world of traditional media, the media outlet itself assembled and held the audience, and marketers simply pushed sales messages, nothing more. But in social media, the account itself has to do both jobs—gathering and retaining an audience, and selling. And so, 80% of your effort ought to be dedicated to obtaining and holding a following, without pushing a sales message. We often encounter clients who, in their early days with us, voice their insistence to be constantly selling. Some of them want to see a sales pitch in every post. They’re not always comfortable with spending time or money on efforts that are not directly tied to a sales pitch. But the practice of selling constantly is at odds with building a brand that retains a following. Who wants to be sold 100 percent of the time? Social media is reciprocal, not unilateral. It helps, then, to remind others that social media is media. To support ads, media must offer something of value to the audience. It has to function as media, as well as marketing. In some capacity, it needs to do the same work that traditional media did.

7. Consider Hiring A Social Media Manager

For brands that reach a certain size, or that desire a certain level of activity, it may become essential to hire a digital agency or solo professional to manage social media messaging and engagement. It might be the most cost-effective thing you can do. Some business owners cannot spend the necessary amount of time to nourish their social presence when they also have a company to run. We know from experience that we can grow clients’ accounts and make good things happen for them. Any business looking to get its feet wet on Twitter can do well for itself by following the first six steps guide, but at a certain point, when you’ve started to see that growth, bringing in a little outside help can be just the thing you need to scale up your social media efforts accordingly.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer Marketing

Influencer:

The individual whose effect on the purchase decision is in some way significant or authoritative (Cambridge English Dictionary)

How influencing works:

Influencers on social media, as vessels for advertising and marketing, have become a phenomenon that many brands have turned to. Influencer marketing benefits the brand by  exposing it to a large number of people in their target audience. This exposure is secured through compensation paid to the influencer. Successful influencer marketing often requires a great deal of coordination and planning between parties. A brand must identify and establish a relationship with an individual who matches their target audience. Depending on the arrangement, the influencer might also receive free products. The influencer must then post about the brand in a creative way for the purpose of engaging their followers. Influencers are effective because their followers look up to them are more likely to receptive to the products they recommend.

Types of influencers:

Mega-influencers:

Mega-influencers are individuals who have more than one million followers on their platform. These influencers are mainly celebrities, such as musicians, actors, athletes, etc. Mainstream brands often reach out to celebrities for advertising purposes, as bigger celebrities often have the greater ability to influence their fans and followings. Mega-influencers are able to reach a broad audience, which is why brands spend the extra money for their endorsements. Some of the most expensive celebrity influencers include Beyonce, Kylie Jenner, Khloe Kardashian and Selena Gomez. Although celebrities are not the ideal influencer for every brand, research can help brands identify when a celebrity will work best for for them.

Khloe Kardashian

Khloe Kardashian’s primary social media platform is Instagram, where she has more than 76 million followers. Khloe has been an influencer for brands such as Amazon and Calvin Klein. It is rumored that Khloe makes around $250,000 per post.

Jonathan Morrison

Jonathan is an influencer in the tech and business world. Jonathan’s main platform is his Youtube channel where he has over 2 million followers. In many of his Youtube videos, he is giving paid reviews for gadgets and also giving away free products to viewers.

Carly Waddell

Carly first gained media attention by being a contestant on The Bachelor in 2015. Since then, she has reappeared on the show and gained many followers. Today, she is a social media influencer for health products, baby products, and everyday usage products.

Macro-influencers:

Macro-influencers are individuals who have between 10,000 and one million followers. These influencers mainly post about everyday lifestyle or business matters. Pet influencers, beauty influencers, food influencers, and travel influencers are just a few of the kinds of individuals who are considered to be macro-influencers.

Lindsay Arnold 

Lindsay Arnold is a professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars. Lindsay’s following includes a large number of younger females and she has partnerships with many food, health and travel companies.

Tuna 

In 2011, Tuna’s owners created an Instagram account for their dog, who became famous online. Tuna has over 80 thousand followers and has been featured by Cosmopolitan, The New York Times and many other sites. Tuna’s posts feature the partnerships with many pet-friendly hotels around the world.

Micro-influencers:

Micro-influencers are individuals who have fewer than 500,000 followers. These influencers are individuals who partake in an everyday work-life, who relate with their followers through real-life authenticity. These influencers can create a relationships and develop trust with their followers.

The Planet D  

Dave Bouskill and Debra Corbeil are a husband-and-wife travel influencing team. They have traveled to over 100 countries and have partnerships with American Express Canada, Intrepid Travel, and Expedia. Their main source of blogging is on their personal website and Facebook account.

Tina Jui

Tina Jui is a breakfast food blogger via Instagram, and her website known as The Work Top. Tina has over 50,000 followers and is an influencer for all things cooking. She makes sponsored posts for food brands, specific cookware items, and also does sponsored giveaways.

Why influencer marketing works:

Influencers create a personal level of trust between themselves and their followers through relating to them and having similar interests. Followers value an influencer’s opinion because they are ‘fans’ of the influencer, and often feel a personal connection to them or aspire to their lifestyle. Big brands have taken notice that having an influencer mention their brand can be one of the best ways to inspire consumer trust.  Some followers even rely on influencers to learn about new brands and products, which can make influencer marketing a cost-effective method of getting the word out under the right circumstances.

The Do’s And Don’ts Of SEO

dos dont's seo best practices

Search engines are constantly evolving, which means optimizing for them is always in a state of flux. This article amounts to a best practices guide to SEO for 2018. Read on for our SEO Do’s and Don’ts, and be on your way to glorious SERP performance.

DO

Test Your Search Performance On Multiple Devices

Searchers use many different devices to find our websites, and different browsers on different devices can yield different results. Each business will have it’s own distribution of referrals, but it’s always a good idea to check your search performance for your top keywords on multiple devices to make sure devoted users of specific devices aren’t missing out on your content.

Optimize For Your Target Market

“Know your target market,” an oldie, but a goodie. Tailor your content and pick your keywords with your ideal target market in mind. Each demographic has characteristics that we need to be aware of as marketers. If you’re going after the college crowd, make sure your content and keywords are relevant to what’s on the typical student’s radar. Beyond the subject matter, do your homework so you can tap into the phraseology, language, and style of content that your target audience favors.

Strive For Content With Quality Editorial And Quality Structure

Quality content can mean a few different things. First, it definitely helps if your content is well-written, and capably edited. Finding an engaging tone can be even more important, still. Structure is another highly visible aspect of your content that can make or break you. For example, if your target market likes list-icles or infographics, then giving them the type of content they want can be just as important as how well it’s written. Put equal thought into all of the elements that make for quality content.

Craft A Frequently Asked Questions Page (FAQ)

If you have a business, then people probably ask you questions about it from time to time. Any question about your industry that you are sick of being asked in real life is probably the right kind of thing to provide on your FAQ page. These kinds of insights, basic as they might seem to the business owner, are the kinds of things that can build credibility and a sense of engagement in your web visitors. If you’re looking to take your FAQ game to the next level, try weaving your most important keywords into your questions and answers. Even if nobody’s actually asking these questions, FAQs can be the perfect devices for presenting your company’s unique qualities.

Optimize For SERP Feature Friendiness

Rich Snippets, Knowledge Panels, Featured Snippets, Answer Boxes; the list of features that a given SERP may incorporate is long. Optimizing various pieces of content throughout your site for an appropriate SERP feature can give you a boost to be displayed more prominently. Here is a quick guide that can get you started.

Link Your Social Efforts To Your Website

At Jemully, we treat a client’s website as the primary hub of their digital presence. Social media is also extremely important, but it should serve the purpose of promoting your website, which is the best platform for fully leveraging your brand. Another way to think about a website is like a city, which makes various social sites the outlying smaller towns and suburbs. The city will always have the most roads leading in and out. The smaller towns will have some, but these roads ultimately lead to the city. The “roads in and out” concept, or links, is an indicator of the size and influence of a site. Ensuring that your website is your greatest presence, and directing searchers to it from other platforms will increase the profile and visibility of your site over time.

Know Your SEO Tools

There are a lot of great free SEO tools out there. They can help you up your game whether you are a neophyte or a seasoned pro. I’ve been writing about SEO for a few years now, and hadn’t even heard of these, but they’re worth checking out for those needing a boost.

Hone Your PR Game

This one takes some expertise, but is well worth doing if you can manage it. Searchers do not always want branded content, but companies (or experts, preferably) can insert themselves into a farther reaching context through public relations initiatives. Is there a trend sweeping your industry? Is there regional, national, or even global issue that pertains to your expertise? Finding a way to put your company in a larger context, and even juxtaposing your comments with those of other recognizable experts, is a neat way to puff up your brand in a way that is not strictly self-serving. This tip is more of an advanced content marketing strategy than an SEO hack, but if done well, it can put you in front of more eyes.

DON’T

Neglect Your Metadata

Headings. Alt tags. Custom URLs. Snippets. All the little things we pay attention to when entering content into our CMS that generally go unseen by the end-readers. Unseen by them, maybe, but most definitely seen by Google (or your search engine of choice). Mind your metadata.

Forget About Voice Search

As searchers continue to use voice commands on their phones, and as smart speakers find their way into a greater number of households, voice search is becoming less of a novelty, and more of the way things are done. Anecdotal evidence suggests that younger audiences, ones who have grown up with voice-tech, are using more naturalistic and conversational search terms. Keep this trend in mind, and as always, know your target market when optimizing.

Test queries and keywords using as many different technologies as you have access to. Keeping an eye on the differing results from device to device will lend additional perspective. And remember:

  • Google Home uses Google data
  • Siri uses Bing data
  • Alexa uses Bing and Amazon data

Only Target The Keywords You Aspire To

Sure, every company wants to be at the top of their search-engine results page (SERP), but that’s not always realistic. The more competitive your field, the harder it is to conquer the search results. If you are struggling, it’s OK! Start smaller by making sure you at least own the SERPs for keywords that are specifically relevant to your individual company. Make sure you dominate searches for your company name, and maybe even searches for your industry plus your city. Start small, carve out your niche, and with strong content marketing, you can make a dent in the broader SERPS in time.

Create A Keyword-Optimized Page And Call It A Day

While each page on your site should be optimized for its own unique keyword, one page is not generally going to be enough for Google to create a strong association between your site and that word. It sounds like a catch-22, but think about it like this: you must convince Google that your site is relevant to a particular keyword. A single content-rich page devoted to a key word is a nice start, but if you only mention that keyword on that one page, then that’s not going to be enough to convince Google. Think of a keyword-devoted page as that keyword’s house. That keyword is still going to want to hang out with other keywords. Each keyword has its own “house,” but that doesn’t mean they can’t visit another keyword’s house. Intermingling a keyword throughout your site will help demonstrate that the keyword in question is of integral value to the site, and vice versa. Make sure all of your best keywords have their own house, but let them visit their friends too.

Forget That Different SERPs Have Different Quirks

Some highly contested SERPs feature paid ads, others don’t. Some have a fancy knowledge panel on the right hand side. Some have space reserved for e-shopping listings. There are many variations, and recognizing the features that pop up on your desired SERPs can lend insight into the type of content that can improve your standing, and maybe even reveal some opportunities.

Let Your Page Load Time Creep Too High

“Three seconds or bust!” is a guideline offered by many SEO websites as a maximum page load time. If you page takes longer than three seconds to load, it might seriously hinder your SERP performance. Whether it is a major ranking factor for Google searches or not, think of it as a facet of UX (user experience). Slower sites are going to provide a less satisfying experience to searchers, which is something that Google ultimately does respond to. There are plenty of free tools (here is one from Google), so try a few of them out to be sure that you’re pages aren’t loading too slowly.

Scoff At Mobile-Friendliness

We’ve written several pieces about the importance of optimizing for mobile. You may read them here. Pertaining specifically to search, SERPs had, in the past, been organized and delivered based on the device used by the searcher. Mobile users would see results that were optimized for mobile, while desktop users would potentially see a less-filtered SERP. For more than a year, Google has switched to mobile-first indexing for ALL devices. Sites not optimized for mobile are still indexed, but if there is a mobile version of a site, then that is the one indexed. It’s just another indication of how search engine queries are handled. Mobile is important. It should be considered in all website matters.

Thanks to a number of great sources of SEO news and content including: Chief Content Officer, Search Engine Land.

The 7 Deadly Sins of Online Marketing

7 deadly sins of online marketing
Sin is defined in the original biblical language as “missing the mark.”  It is we when do not live in a way that embodies the goodness for which we were made. A “deadly” sin could be further defined as being so far off the mark that our behavior becomes damaging to the point of being destructive. When we apply the term “deadly sins” to the topic of marketing, it means we are “missing the mark” and even partaking in some practices and behaviors that turn out to be destructive to our objectives and goals. Could you be committing any of the 7 deadly sins of online marketing?Continue reading

3 Tips For Integrating PR With Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Marketing activity in the digital space has increased exponentially in the past five to seven years. We live the results of it every day. Instead of picking up the morning paper, we flock to our smartphones, tablets, and laptops. On top of that, it’s nearly impossible to go online without becoming the unwitting target of countless marketing tactics. We see this in social media, banner and pop-up ads on the websites we visit, and even in our email inboxes.

Traditionally, marketers and brands alike recognize the importance of including PR efforts in all aspects of a marketing plan. We often see that not all brands have adapted this planning into their digital executions, and this is a big mistake. When dispersing brand messaging, consistency is key. Not only that, but digital platforms provide new and unique opportunities for relationship building.

As a typical rule of thumb: All marketing elements of a brand should work together in symbiosis. Here are a few quick tips on how to make all the pieces work together:

1. Execute all aspects of your marketing to work as a whole, not in silos.

Everything from your website, to your press releases, to your social media posts, e-blasts and commercials need to use the same branding, tone of voice, messaging style, keywords, etc. It is okay to share more sharply focused things only in specific channels, but make sure to share the big-picture things across the board. This will benefit your efforts not only from an ROI standpoint, but it also aids in establishing credibility and overall brand voice. Toward the end of a campaign or other measurement period, you will have a better idea of what works and what doesn’t on each platform.

2. Treat your digital messages as a public appearance.

Public relations managers spend hours upon hours preparing their clients on what to say when they are in the spotlight. Similar preparation and continuity must be executed in the digital space—especially in social media and e-marketing. Plan for how to react to potential crises, opportunities and questions. This is part of the relationship and credibility-building process.

3. Take special care to monitor what is being said about your brand.

It is important to periodically monitor your overall brand sentiment, especially in the aspect of providing and improving upon customer service. As an agency, this can also help you stay ahead of the game in the event of larger problems or opportunities with competitors. This is likely one of the easiest initial changes to make; we recommend signing up for a service such as Google Alerts, Mention, or Talkwalker.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with different strategies. What works best for one brand does not work best for all—but remember, consistency across the channels is key. Also, keep in mind that significant changes in your KPIs don’t happen overnight. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and going viral isn’t always a good thing. Keep up a good, steady effort, and over time you will see your brand become the beautiful butterfly it was meant to be.

View these three tips as starting points from which to grow your efforts, and stay tuned for more tips on digital PR efforts right here on The Jemully Post!

 

Why SEO And Content Marketing Are Much The Same Thing

SEO and Content Marketing Pie

Nearly three decades into the game, SEO is now practically synonymous with content marketing.

The trick of ranking atop Google’s results pages has been reduced to a few simple truths: size, content, and targeting. Search engines will no longer bend to our wills; we must bend over backwards for search engine users.

In the early days of the Internet, search engine optimization (SEO) resembled the Wild West. Outlaws resorted to all manner of nefarious tactics to improve their search ranking and visibility. Such tactics included keyword stuffing, bait-and-switch, and other “black hat” methods that would be considered spam today. These practices have been rooted out in the name of reader service. They simply don’t work anymore—the loopholes have been closed. The logic behind Google and other engines closing these loopholes is simple: provide a better user experience.

Remember: Google, and the concept of SEO itself, does not revolve around who ranks at the top. It’s all about granting ease of access to the content that best serves readers. It’s an end-user product rather than a marketing platform, and thinking in these terms is helpful when evaluating the content we publish.

Internet users scouring various search engines for answers know what they’re looking for. Sometimes it takes a few searches, but they know it when they see it. Users don’t want pages that use metadata to misrepresent what the content is actually about, and they definitely do not want spam. The better results a search engine like Google can provide its users, the more likely they are to use Google the next time. Rendering dishonest SEO practices obsolete is simply a part of the natural evolution of a search engine. “Better search results” precludes weaker or misrepresented web content.

The “outlaws of Internets past” held that SEO was all just a game. One could simply work the system in place at the time and reap huge rewards. The game has changed. With Google effectively acting as a world power now, there is no more latitude for playing around. Getting to the top of the first page for high-competition keywords is not a matter of paying your way to the top (that’s what Google AdWords is for), nor is it something that can be attained through savvy trickery. The game is now entirely above the table, rather than below it. The only way to sneak an ace up your sleeve is to be a huge brand or content farm.

And for the rest of us with average-sized websites and strictly regional brand awareness? We can’t all be Internet giants, but we can become elite at integrating our marketing communications and expertly targeting our specific niches.

The SEO Pie

It helps to think of your SEO efforts as working in concert with the rest of your digital marketing efforts. While trickery is not a valid SEO method anymore, on-page optimization is only one slice of your SEO Pie. On-page is still important, but without an overarching strategy encompassing your web content, social media, advertising, etc., you are only working with a small portion of the pie and should adjust your expectations accordingly.

The SEO Pie - Jemully Media

As marketers, strategy and goal-setting are so vital to what we do. Remember, goal-setting is not as simple as “sales.” Marketing campaigns can raise brand awareness, educate the public, entertain, and lead to many different calls-to-action. Without a specific set of goals, it’s easy to fall into the trap of repeating yourself over and over. Instead, try to design your efforts strategically and with specific goals in mind. The difference is that goals represent a finish line, but selling is never finished. While “sales” and “success” can often look like the same thing, it is important to delineate the two.

It’s difficult to have major SEO success without orchestrating all of your digital marketing efforts around it. First things first; you need an overarching digital strategy. Next, you can’t be worried about SEO unless you have a website, preferably one meeting modern criteria such as mobile-friendliness. Tailoring your web content to your audience using appropriate landing pages and a company blog comes next. Don’t forget about links! Building a strong portfolio of inbound links through social media and email marketing are oft-forgotten ingredients of SEO.

Do you use Google AdWords or Facebook Ads? They may not be traditional forms of SEO, but they regularly deliver traffic to your site’s landing pages. Landing pages work best when they are built and targeted with skill and intent. The better your most important landing pages are, the better your SEO will be.

SEO And Content Marketing

Speaking of landing pages, they are typically your interior pages, containing your meatiest content. Knowing your business’s most valuable long-tail keywords (the three-or-four-plus-word queries that tend to bring people to your landing pages) is emerging as the best way to own your niche, and become a champion targeter. A sound SEO strategy should include building at least one well-written and optimized page tailored toward every long-tail phrase that is important to your business. If you don’t know what those long-tail keywords and phrases are, then spend a some time getting to know your web visitors. Get to know your niche!

In today’s SEO landscape, questions demand not just answers but relevant answers. This means there is now a great deal of overlap between relevance, content marketing, and SEO.

How many pieces of your SEO pie are you using? We want to know!