Black History

Did you know that the open rate for SMS is nearly 98%?

Because SMS can offer such incredible open rates, it can be one of the best ways to reach your target audience. But if you want to use SMS to market your business, you may have doubts about where to begin.

You might be unsure of how to get the phone numbers for your campaigns. You may also worry about the kind of messages you should send people, once you have their phone number.

his post aims to provide you with some clarity on how SMS marketing works. Once you’ve read this post, you’ll be able to comfortably answer the question “What is SMS marketing?”



Let’s begin!

What Is SMS marketing?

SMS marketing is a means of marketing that’s based on you sending text messages to people. SMS (short message service) is just another way to describe a text message, and the two terms are interchangeable.

This method of marketing works well, as people carry phones with them everywhere they go. This then makes it easy for you to reach your target audience, no matter where they are.

Additionally, a text message often demands more attention than an email. This is usually down to the fact that not many other companies are using SMS marketing to contact customers.

It’s also worth noting that the notification for a text message often differs to the notification for an email.

SMS notifications are often more audible and can cause the phone to vibrate, whereas emails might not allow for this to happen. Following this, SMS marketing can produce better levels of engagement. That’s because people will quickly check their phone, upon receiving a promotional text message.

Considering that 93 percent of online experiences begin with search, and that even 82 percent of customers about to buy something in store will still research online, brands today cannot afford to overlook the importance of SEO and creating a strong digital presence. Many organizations, however, have to learn how to manage this with a small SEO team. Given the immense task of fully optimizing a site and elevating a brand across the web, this can feel challenging.

Fortunately, we have seen many organizations that achieve considerable SEO success despite a small SEO team by using an optimal strategy. Here is what we would recommend for those who want to take their optimization to the next level.

Understand the importance of training people in multiple disciplines
When it comes to building a highly efficient small SEO team, you want to emphasize the importance of cross-discipline training and cooperation. One of the challenges faced by small SEO teams is the variety of disciplines that go into building a solid SEO strategy.



In general, you need someone who:

Can manage the technical side of SEO to help you take advantage of opportunities in presentation with coding and schema markup

Will produce high quality content to help demonstrate the brand’s expertise and trustworthiness
Has the ability to do standard on-page SEO optimization to help the content rank as highly as possible

Understands how to use social media to engage with prospective customers and drive traffic back to your site to build engagement and rankings

A marketer who understands the overarching SEO strategy and content production who can create schedules and fit all of the different pieces together into a solid strategy.



On a small SEO team, it may be a challenge to create a fully equipped team with a member to fill every role. Instead, often a single team member needs to have the insight to fill multiple roles.


Offer opportunities for team members to receive training in various disciplines that the group needs. For example, provide your content writers with lessons and training opportunities to help them understand how to do on-page SEO.

Online, there is now a wealth of opportunities for brands who want to find training for different areas of SEO. Blogs, like our BrightEdge blog,  can help novice SEO professionals delve into different areas of specialization. Training courses and books can also help professionals learn more about how to drive success online.

Is there an intersection between content marketing and local SEO for B2B businesses? That’s what we want to explore in this piece. Google and Bing have leaned a lot into local SEO on their search engine results pages. It’s become a lot easier for local businesses to get a high placement on SERPs than in the past.

At first glance, local SEO might only seem like a B2C thing. The point of local search is to help the public find things nearby that relate to their interests. For instance, if someone is hungry they can look for restaurants on their phones and get results based on their location.

But the stereotype for B2B is different. It’s all done through phones and emails, not someone walking up to a storefront. Business decisions aren’t decided in an instant either, unlike deciding to look for some food. So why would a B2B business even want to look at local SEO techniques?



Quick Takeaways:

Know how Google defines a local business and what characteristics you share with one.
Doing Local SEO right gives you a lot of visibility on search engines.
Give a local flavor to your content, wherever you have or want to build brand presence.

Local Content and Search Advantages for B2B Businesses

There are plenty of tactics that you can use in the quest to raise brand awareness. Some choose to use paid advertising, others want to pay for billboards, and still others engage in email campaigns. Local content is another tactic. Local content is content that talks about something relevant to the local business area.

This kind of content is great for improving local SEO results because it gives search engines the confidence that your business is located in a region. “It really comes down to one question: would you advertise locally to acquire new clients? If yes, then you can utilize local content. If no, local content probably doesn’t make sense for you,” says Crazy Egg.

The process of creating local promotional content is very similar to creating content for a national brand.



Find something which resonates with your local residents
Create a piece of content that encompasses that + is better than what you’ve encountered up until then
Promote that piece of content using social media channels and platforms.

After assessing the results, repeat the process.

A catering company for business events might write something like “Top 5 convention centers in Spokane,” assuming they were in the Spokane area. Local content goes above and beyond general articles to provide information relevant to that area. Articles about local festivals and events, weather conditions, and the like are all possibilities.

Have you read sales pages that scream, “You don’t need to know SEO! Our software does it all!”

Solving your SEO writing woes with software sounds so easy. You wouldn’t have to worry about keyphrase usage, penning the perfect title length, or structuring links. Just feed in your copy and poof! instant optimization help! In fact, the sales copy for one SEO plug-in even says, “We walk you through every step: no need to hire or be an SEO expert.”

Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Here’s the question: do you even need to know SEO if a plug-in can do it all? In other words—can you trust SEO writing tools, or do writers still need to know SEO? Here’s how to think about it.



Machines can’t replace humans (yet!)

SEO tools are extremely helpful and save marketers time. We rely on them every day. But their recommendations are just that: recommendations. The writer (or SEO) makes the final optimization call. Sometimes, it makes sense to follow the recommendations, and sometimes, it doesn’t.

For instance, I’ve received emails from my writing students asking, “The Yoast SEO for WordPress plug-in is telling me to [fill in the blank]. Should I do it even if it doesn’t quite work with the page?” The plug-in was telling them one thing, while their writing experience was telling them another.

Please know that I love and highly recommend Yoast’s SEO for WordPress plug-in and many other SEO experts do too. It’s a nice plug-in that handles a lot of the geeky SEO stuff behind-the-scenes. Plus, it allows you to preview the title and description, check your readability, and more. Heck, I use it on my own site!

But other than a quick check, I don’t follow Yoast’s checklist recommendations as gospel. Why? Sometimes, following the recommendations would mess with the copywriting flow. There may be a reason that I’m not using the focus keyword in the title or that I don’t include the focus keyword in the first paragraph. Or I choose to link a certain way.

I may not follow every recommendation, but I know the page’s SEO strategy is still sound.

At the end of the day, good SEO writing connects with the reader and converts. It’s not because it ticks off various “here’s how to optimize everything perfectly” boxes. Even Yoast admits it’s “nearly impossible” to get a “green bullet” for every checklist item.

Plus, some tools still use keyword density as a scoring item. This means writers are still matching the keyphrase exactly multiple times in order to satisfy a mythical keyword density. They don’t know any better. They’re just doing what the tool tells them to do.

Considering more than  90% of online purchases start with a search engine, and nearly 60% of B2B marketers say organic search generates more leads than any other marketing tactics, your number one digital marketing goal should be getting your site onto the front page of search engines.

7 tips for hiring an SEO consultant people should be able to find your blog or website with just a few clicks. Search engine optimization (SEO) practices have changed significantly over the years, but remain at the core of digital strategy.

Between Google’s history of algorithm updates and increased competition, running an SEO campaign by yourself can be harder than you think. That’s why many people seek the help of an SEO expert. But finding an SEO specialist with the right mix of writing ability, technical skill, and industry knowledge to get your website on the front page may not be easy.



You have to make sure you are on the same page (so to speak) and share the same view. Marketing agencies bring a diverse mix of talent, though they can end up charging a small fortune. If you run or manage marketing for a small to midisized business, an SEO freelancer might be the best answer for you.

But with the abundance of freelancers on the market, how can you make sure you find the right fit? Here are seven tips that can help you make the right decision.

Be Specific with Your Requests and Deadlines

Before beginning your search for the perfect SEO match, get as specific as possible about what you are looking for. Coming up with a description for your project will help the freelancer build a proposal for discussion.

Most freelance websites that connect employers with specialists allow you to put together a description of the project and let freelancers submit proposals you can choose from. A description should give information about your business, expectations, and deadline. Drawing up a clear description of your request will ease the communication between you and the freelancer and help you find the best match.

Get to Know the Person You Will Be Working With

Working with a person you just met online can be frightening, especially in today’s world. Giving access to your website can expose you to all sorts of issues. The online world sadly includes scams and frauds as well as legitimate service providers.

A reputable SEO expert should be able to answer your questions in a simple, straightforward manner. If you have any suspicions, you can conduct a background check to find more about the person, before sealing the deal. Some red flags might include asking for payment before the work is completed, not delivering original content or— if you contracted them through a platform—asking for money offsite.

Ask for References from Past Clients

An experienced SEO specialist should have no problem giving you a short list of clients they’ve worked with. Do a Google search on those clients, with specific keywords, and see if they show up on the first page. Don’t hesitate to contact them and ask for a reference.

Want more leads? Maybe… but probably what you really want is better leads. It’s 2019, after all – B2B marketers have evolved past “lead gen 101”. They need leads that contribute to pipeline. Leads that become closed deals and real revenue.

Plenty of research backs this up. But here’s just one example: 58% of marketers said their top priority was lead quality.

Only 46% said it was lead quantity.

Getting higher-quality leads is a great goal, but it means you have to think more strategically about your ppc lead generation advertising. You have to think beyond the first click – way beyond it. So while many of the tools we’ve listed here are expressly for ppc, a couple are for optimizing what happens after the click.



Some of these ppc tools may be brand new to you, some will be familiar. Some you may already use. We’ve also included a handful of tools that aren’t primarily known as pay per click tools – but if you know how to use them, they can really help B2B lead generation campaigns.

PPC Lead Generation Competitive Analysis Tools

SpyFu.

SpyFu can show you detailed information about your competitors’ SEO and pay per click campaigns, including keywords, estimated spend, estimated traffic, and even the ads they’ve run. It will give you suggestions for negative keywords, tell you who their top organic and paid competitors are, and more. SpyFu’s new tool, Nacho Analytics, even promises to basically show you your competitors’ analytics reports.



Ahrefs is another tool that has similar functionality to SpyFu. They’re primarily known for SEO, but because SEO and PPC are so complementary, you could easily find ways to optimize your ppc accounts with this tool. Same goes for Moz, which is also a terrific SEO analysis tool.

SEMRush.

SEMRush is another competitive analysis tool that can be used for both SEO and PPC. It can help you:

analyze your ppc strategy and your competitors’ strategies
organize your keywords into ad groups more effectively
find negative keywords (more on that below)
research your competitors’ keywords and ads

Social media success isn’t nearly as random as it can seem. Most successful pages and brands have had a great deal of work put into them over time, along with solid decision-making in terms of content, post frequency, and who or what they tag. Though it’s a challenge, there’s no magical force keeping you from reaching your social media goals.

Why you need a social media audit
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

To reach your destination, you first need to know how to steer your ship. That’s difficult if you don’t know where you are in the first place. To establish that, begin with a social media audit.



What Is a Social Media Audit?

This post will cover the basic elements. You may want to consult other sources for further details about the process. A social media audit generally looks into the following:

The results of your posts and overall engagement, including metrics such as likes, number of comments, the overall reach for reach post, mentions, shares, and more. If it can be measured, it probably should be measured.
How your posts perform in both short term and long term. While most social media content doesn’t have a long shelf life, sometimes a piece of content can go viral after the fact. A good audit helps you figure out why.

Comparison of similar posts to see how the differences between them affect success.
Both your top performing posts and your worst posts, in-depth, in order to help you adjust strategies for the future.

The alignment between your social media campaign and your brand / company goals and stated values. There shouldn’t be dissonance here.
Your expenditures and an analysis of whether the current outreach used is the most cost-effective option.

The audit will use the data collected to help your team analyze the interests of your audience and take demographics into consideration, maximizing future engagement.

As noted, you can absolutely add or remove elements depending on your business needs. What is important to note is that it is a holistic process. For this to be effective, you must look at everything. A missing (but important) factor can potentially take the whole audit off course.

To perform an audit, we recommend using social media monitoring tools so your time isn’t wasted gathering data (a task a program can do nearly instantly). Which tools to use is up to you, but try to pick a service that will keep all your data together for easier analysis, as well as one that won’t try to keep additional data behind paywalls.

The Information to Develop a Clear Strategy

A proper social media audit will provide all the information you need to develop a clear strategy and goals for the future. It will help identify which platforms to focus on for success, develop a solid posting strategy, and even help optimize post timing and scheduling.

Did you know that 15 percent of state surveys miss actual harm and jeopardy nursing home residents are facing?

When these cases come to light, these people need legal representation. If they don’t know about your law firm, they won’t be able to contact you. The ability for people to be able to find your business is why you need an effective digital marketing campaign.

In this article, we are going to talk about marketing a law practice and how you can use the internet to get in front of your target market.



Launching a Successful Digital Marketing Campaign

As you are learning more about launching your firm’s campaign, your goal should be getting your firm in front of your ideal customer. While wide-reaching approach type marketing plans may be the norm, you don’t want normal. When you have a well-planned campaign, you will be able to pass your competition with smart law firm marketing ideas.

When you become a lawyer, you probably didn’t expect to need to learn digital marketing skills for your business. While you may not have gone to school for marketing, you’ll need to get good at it if you want to bring in a steady stream of clients.



Focus on UX (User Experience)

User experience should be the center of your marketing efforts. Your website should allow potential clients to find what they need easily.

Setting up your site’s navigation in a common-sense way will make it easier for people to use the site. Keep visible options to a minimum so extra buttons don’t distract users from taking desired actions. Important call to actions should be positioned strategically.

Use YouTube to Get in Front of Potential Clients

Video marketing is a powerful way to get your message in front of your target market. When people watch your videos, it is easier for them to connect with your image than words on a page.

When you use video marketing, do keyword research to find terms you want to rank. You might want to rank for terms in your local area, such as lawyer in your city or attorney in your city. Optimizing your videos for certain terms helps your videos show up in the right places.

Make Sure Your Website Is up to Speed

Most legal professionals haven’t checked their website’s speed performance. If your website loads slow, you are likely losing website traffic. Websites that take more than a few seconds to load don’t satisfy visitors’ need for instant gratification.

Downsizing images or using fewer images on a page helps reduce loading times. Remove complicated scripts and any elements you don’t need from your site. If you use the CMS WordPress, make sure you aren’t using any plugins that you don’t need.