Community Discussion - How can we apply the skills we have as marketers in new, creative ways?
-
Hi everyone,
I hope you all had a wonderful week! This week's discussion question comes from Tuesday's (December blog post by John-Henry Scherck, The Step-by-Step Guide to Turning Link Prospectors into Lead Generators. From the post:
"Digital marketing is a pretty introverted industry. This tends to make us a bit hesitant to embrace sales and outbound selling. There’s no beating around the bush: Sales can be difficult, scary, uncomfortable, and awkward — but if you want to grow your client base, it may require getting out of your comfort zone."
John-Henry shows us the opportunity for people who are good at link prospecting to apply those skills to lead generation, improving business opportunities by creatively using the skills they already have. SEOs and marketers wear many hats, and have a diverse skill set at their disposal—how else can we apply the skills we already have in creative ways?
-
For me, I've always had something "on the side" of my marketing/agency life. I want to have personal experience with ecommerce. How does it feel to sell clothing online? What are the concerns? How can I help clients? What are the hiccups with certain sources of traffic (Stumble, Reddit, Pinterest, even Digg back in the day). When does that traffic help?
I like to always have at least a couple side projects so I can keep a bit of "skin in the game." If I'm spending MY money on Adwords, I get better at it. If I'm spending MY time building a site or generating links, I find ways to maximise the resources I have. If you don't have your own site, maybe split/share one with someone. Just a simple side project and always have at least a little stake in the outcomes.
That goes back to how I learned - I learned marketing by owning a business. I learned SEO by ranking #1 for my own keyword. I learned Adwords after wasting thousands & thousands of dollars. I learned CRO after wasting thousands & thousands of website hits. Make it PERSONAL somehow.
-
I love this idea! That "boring industry" mindset can be extremely difficult to break out of, too.
-
One thing you could try is answering questions which your customers are asking and have pages with the questions being the sole content of the page.
e.g. What can get traffic to my page?
Customers ask how we can get traffic to your pages. One idea would be to have page with answers to the most popular searched questions (Found by looking in Google Adwords Keyword Finder) or by starting to type a question about your product in Google and seeing what it suggests.
Then write an amazing page which gives the visitor his perfect answer, what has this achieved? They have seen your brand and they relate it back to the correct answer for their problem. (Ensuring it is the best answer!)
All of this is SEO Structured of course and therefore gets a high rank on Google and more traffic comes your way which Google will notice and also perhaps deter-main your a guru in your field.
This then has a knock on effect to your product pages and get them high ranking too. Of course inter linking between the pages is good too!
-
Good question Matt and a tough one to answer!
In a general sense, good SEOs can become very powerful entrepreneurs if they put the time into it. We already have exposure to a broad number of industries and have a great understanding of just how those clients go about finding various products and services.
Combine this with our well-versed ability to plan, document, communicate and build a powerful network of people we can leverage effectively as well as access to designers and devs and there are few things we can't do well in the online space.
As for how we can apply our skillset within SEO, I completely agree with John-Henry in that the same tactics we use for link prospecting can be fantastic for outbound marketing. Used effectively, they can ultimately turn an outbound campaign into inbound leads; potential clients seeking you out as a result of your demonstrated value and the referral network you've built.
-
A lot of marketers would benefit if they pulled their energies out of the "marketing cloud" a few times a year and invested some time in their content area. Most industries have numerous trade shows, conventions, and other gatherings where you can try out new products, talk with manufacturers, meet retailers, attend presentations and more.
Depending upon your industry, these can ranges from small events that occupy a single building - to enormous events that fill every venue in a good-size city and with courses, boutiques, demonstrations and more filling half of the available hotel space and even parking lots. They are often attended by people from all parts of the world and from every stage of the industry pipeline, from design, materials sourcing, manufacturing, distributing, retailing and even the consumer.
These are the places where you learn about trends, problems and opportunities in the industry. They are where you get the real industry-stuff that you need to be competitive on an intellectual and practical basis. Attending these events should cure your "boring industry" mindset. You should return to your office with a suitcase full of samples, literature, swag and other booty; a camera full of great photos; and a mind full of great ideas for producing creative, current, competitive, content.
Added: This morning's Moz Blog had an article by Ruth Burr Reedy. While reading it I remembered that she wrote an article about "how to build links in person" a short time ago. Attending meetings in your content are is a great opportunity to follow her advice.
-
It’s always important to go outside of your comfort zone and exercise your brain in ways you typically do not. For example, if you are typically using your analytical skills, try working on a creative project that makes you think outside of the numbers. As digital marketers, we have to constantly hone our skills, test them in new ways and evolve with the times.
Do you typically write your PPC ads in a certain tone? As Larry Kim says, try finding a unicorn opportunity, get creative and don’t just write the first ad that naturally comes to mind.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Article marketing sites
Hi, I'm looking for article marketing sites in English. I have searched and analyzed over 50 sites but I have not find any with the specifics I'm searching to: high/average DA, dofollow, and the possibility to have an anchored text, any suggestions? Thanks!
Industry News | | eriksatie0 -
How to start or create a blogging community for my industry?
Hi Guys, I have just established my new site, and I'm wondering if anyone might know how to go about establishing a blogging community for my industry on my site? I'm trying to establish one by asking other bloggers if they would be willing to contribute but Im left asking myself, well "what is the benefits" of a contributor participating in a newly established blog that perhaps doesn't have any exposure at this point in time? The idea would be to grow it. But my industry lacks this and the quality of information. Any ideas or tips on how to go about establishing something around this? All advice, tips would be appreciated! Thanks
Industry News | | edward-may0 -
Anyone recommend a PPC / Lead / Inbound Marketing agency for Belgium and switzerland ?
Hello ! We're moving to new markets and are looking for agencies specialized in Lead Generation in Belgium and Switzerland. Anyone has some contacts to share ? 🙂
Industry News | | JoomGeek0 -
Best Educational track for internet marketing
My son has a degree in Marine Bio. Has developed a keen interest in SEO and internet marketing. He wants to make a career change. He does not want to go back for a 4 year degree in computer science. Are there graduate programs/degrees that will admit someone with a biological science degree? He wants to have a career in Internet marketing.
Industry News | | wianno1681 -
Is there a way to get a list (backlink profile) of all tiny url's that point to my site or a competitors site?
I have noticed that most all links you find in all the major back link profile tools such as OSE or GWM, etc... do not show tiny url's. If there is a service that shows all the tiny urls pointing to your site, can someone please share. It has already been proven that tiny url's do pass link juice, so with that being said... if there is no way to find all the tiny urls that point to a site, wouldn't it be a great strategy to create all my back links with tiny url's to mask my profile from competitors? Thanks!
Industry News | | johnd57890 -
Email marketing - ready to get serious about this
Ok, I have my PILE of business cards from Chamber of Commerce meetings and different networking events I have attended. I have 8-10 blogs that are worth sharing on my website - www.sawwebmarketing.com (I realize that's a pathetically low number) I am committing to and excited about blogging MUCH more starting today! I have a huge list of ideas. I am adding a signup to my site and putting up a pop up to collect addresses. I have 15-18 clients that are paying me for ongoing seo / Internet marketing (or simply had my team build a new site for them) AND AN ACCOUNT WITH AWEBER I HAVE USED ONCE! 🙂 Where do I start!? Any advice? I want to start building a LIST of subscribers and grow my list by sharing great advice, strategies and tips to help people put their website to work. A) Send one email to EVERYBODY (ongoing clients, past clients, contacts who subscribe, website visitors, blog subscribers) or customize my messages for different groups? B) Put whatever I want to share on my blog and share it via social media AND send an email to my list inviting them to check out what I posted so I get the most bang for my time? (LINKS BABY!) I feel like an idiot I haven't got on this sooner but truly ANY ADVICE from somebody who has been there and done it would be GREATLY APPRECIATED! 🙂 Thank you! Matthew http://sawwebmarketing.com/internet-marketing-blog/
Industry News | | Mrupp440 -
What is the best way to share good content (and help myself in the process)
i spend a decent amount of my spare time browsing quora, stumbleupon, google reader, pulse, etc keeping up with all the different aspects of internet marketing when i come across a particuarly valuable piece of content i take a few seconds and share it using hootsuite on my linked, twitter, facebook (i spread them out so there is only one post a day) this rewards those who write valuable content but im not doing anything to benefit my site - www.sawwebmarketing.com im establishing myself as somebody who has good stuff to share to my potential clients.... what a quick, easy way to share the high quality things i come across that will create links for me as well? (short of writing my own blog post listing the high quality articles i found with my thoughts on each) thoughts? opinions? thanks everybody! Matthew
Industry News | | Mrupp440 -
3rd Party Site Presence and Internet Marketing
An issue that I do not see discussed about much in Internet Marketing circles is the importance of establishing and developing a presence on third party sites other than through guest posting and I was wondering how much other internet marketers focus on this area and recommend this to clients. I see many people wanting hiring internet marketers basically for SEO and the KPI's on which they are judged are SEO based outcomes (higher alexa rank, number of page 1 keywords, number of top 1, top 3 keywords etc). I recently gave advice to someone who had very little time, very little money and very little SEO skills who wanted to rank in number 1 positions for their band for wedding and corporate bookings. I basically showed them sites that were highly positioned in the SERPs where they could get develop a strong online profile and how this would work better than investing 3 hours a month badly into SEO. Ultimately what businesses want is strong convertible leads and sales. For many businesses that might be better established particularly where budgets are tight through other elements whether it is Tripadvisor rankings, presence in other 3rd party sites or in an Ebay store than through SEO for their own site. Obviously for big brands with big budgets SEO is essential but as many keyword terms become increasingly competitive how important should referrals from 3rd party sites be in businesses internet marketing strategy and to what extent do you feel current internet marketing businesses identify and promote this need rather than simply working on improving ranking performance for keywords?
Industry News | | LighthouseC0