In 1989, I was conquering the eighth grade with a pair of Hammer pants, big bangs, and a stockpile of Aqua Net hairspray. During class, notes would be passed so friends could arrange to drink Dr. Pepper, eat Skor Bars, and play Debbie Gibson’s Electric Youth album on a ghetto blaster after school. On a real good day, there’d be a message from the guy I was “going with” on the answering machine when I got home.
Source: Antique and Retro Shoppers Map
Luckily for us, since the late 80s, the pace at which technology has evolved is astounding. If I want, I can get fashion advice from people all over the world who share my size and style. If I need to get in touch with a friend, all I need to do is send a quick text. And, if I actually needed it, I could, in fact, order a can of Aqua Net Super-Hold from my mobile phone, sitting on the couch, streaming a Jack Johnson concert, while reading a post on Pocket from Vogue about other uses for Aqua Net when it’s not serving as “an invisible cantilever for implausibly huge heads of hair.”
There’s no doubt that these technological advances have made our world faster, smaller, and more connected. How is it even possible that it took phone companies 89 years to connect 150 million people, where it took Facebook only 8 years to connect 1 billion?
What’s interesting, and actually quite ironic, is that even though the world is more connected than ever, when it comes to companies and their customers, many of the relationships couldn’t be further apart.
Source: Christoph Becker
It’s no wonder there is a ginormous distance wedged between companies and their customers. Many companies — especially in the tech industry — are not being built for the long-haul and they have their priorities in all the wrong places.
For many of today’s companies, growth is emphasized at all costs. Overvalued tech companies are painting an unrealistic illusion of what to strive for as a business.
Source: Nathalie Nahai
In the good old days when I was using Aqua Net, the average time for a Fortune 500 company to reach $1billion in market value was 20 years.
Google did it in 8.
Facebook in 5.
Uber and Whatsapp in 2.
Snapchat: just 22 months.
To expect growth at this speed is unrealistic for most companies, yet that’s the new role model. Working to become the next unicorn pushes companies to value the wrong metrics and lose sight of what’s really important: putting in the time to earn the trust of their customers and building a business that’s worth being connected to.
As marketers, we’re forgetting that it’s not just about the content we produce, it’s about the experience people have with the brand and the company we’re working so hard to build.
As we walk into yet another year, we need to be intentional about building purposeful brands. Without fail, we need to deliver a seamless, authentic experience. And whatever we do, we need to ensure people, not technology, are driving marketing efforts.
*****
Build purposeful brands
Source: Mark Boncheck
All too often, the content that companies are generating is entirely disconnected not only from the needs and desires of their audience, but from the brand and company they aspire to be.
Over the years, content marketing has fallen prey to the "more is better" mentality. Rather than intentionally developing content as an extension of a company’s purpose and promise, content has become a quest for volume.
As more research has been advocating that high volume isn’t necessarily the best strategy, and that there actually is safety in quality over quantity, companies are starting to be more intentional about what they’re producing and why.
Unfortunately, the way many companies still view content strategy is generating a bunch of stuff that’s going to help them rank rather than as an altruistic gesture that builds credibility and serves a true need for their customers and community.
Source: Velocity Partners
There’s no doubt that content strategy is still important and that your content must be the best search result anyone can find, but just because you have great content doesn’t guarantee you anything.
As we continue to lose the ability to organically reach an audience on search and social, as technology increases the opportunity for people to block advertisements, and as avenues for connecting with customers increasingly become more digital, we must build brands so compelling and human that they transcend technology. We must become so real and relatable and true and trustworthy that customers don't wait for you to come to them, they go looking for you.
Your content — whether that’s the words on your website, the listings on your product pages, the posts on your blog, the promotions in your emails, the exchanges on social media, the conversations with your customers, the design of your packaging, the presence of your team at an offline event, or your actions to remedy conflict — has to be part of a seamless experience across channels and mediums. This should all be part of a marketing strategy that’s working toward building an experience with a purposeful brand.
At the heart of every powerful brand and an effective marketing strategy is a company’s meaning beyond money. Many companies, not just startups, struggle with first identifying this meaning and then understanding how it integrates into their positioning. They’re not quite so sure what sets them apart from their competitors or who the right audience is for their product. When you don’t have clarity on these things, no matter how big your budget is, it’s going to make it really difficult to connect with your customers.
Arielle Jackson offers some questions and a simple framework to make sure your positioning is solid by using the prompts: For, Who, That, and Unlike:
Source: Arielle Jackson via First Round
With this formula you can quickly, clearly — and most importantly, in a very human way — communicate your positioning and your purpose. This is Harley Davidson’s:
Source: Arielle Jackson via First Round
To start, and in order to populate the prompts in the framework, Arielle recommends answering these questions:
Source: Arielle Jackson via First Round
She also recommends that when developing or evolving more meaningful positioning, it needs to come from the mark your company wants to make on the world.
Source: Arielle Jackson via First Round
In your positioning, you must identify where you fit in this world and also answer the question:
Source: Arielle Jackson via First Round
Several years ago, Dove redefined their purpose and discovered a more significant meaning around which to build their brand.
Source: Arielle Jackson via First Round
Since 2004, the driving force behind Dove’s brand, their meaning beyond money, has been expressed through many mediums inside the Campaign for Real Beauty movement. From ads with real customers:
Source: Dove.us
...to billboards around the world that ignite engagement and thought:
Source: Dove.us
Since starting a conversation around what beauty really looks like more than 11 years ago, the way they've been communicating the message has continued to evolve so that it remains relevant. With this approach, Dove has earned brand advocacy, loyalty, many awards, and a hefty climb in profit from $2.5 to $4 billion.
Although their approach has received a great deal of press questioning its authenticity, Dove has made sure they aren't just spreading awareness but putting action toward the meaning behind their message. Partnering with Girl Scouts, Boys and Girls Club, and Girls, Inc, Dove has funded and supported activities that bring awareness to bullying as well as discussions about what it means to be beautiful.
Ultimately, far beyond profit, the greatest result Dove has experienced is actually working toward achieving their purpose: helping more women love and feel good about their bodies.
What you stand for as a company and a brand drives your products, your actions as a company, and also your marketing. More importantly, it will be the spark that ignites a connection with the people in your community.
When it comes down to it, people will continue to have access to more: more content, more products, and more choice. The need to build meaningful relationships with your customers is not an optional approach, but a requirement. Identifying and communicating your purpose as a brand is just one part of making this happen. The rest is delivering a seamless, authentic experience.
*****
Deliver a seamless, authentic experience
Source: Mark Boncheck
In Joseph Pine’s TED talk on What Consumers Want, he discusses how we’ve hit a new level of value in our economy. In this “experience economy,” we must go beyond goods and services to a create a memorable event. An experience. This isn’t a new concept and many companies have used experiential marketing very successfully.
But the most important piece of Pine’s talk explains how the experience needs to come from an authentic company. That authenticity has become the new consumer buying criteria. In other words, who you’re going to buy from and what you’re going to buy has everything to do with how authentic the company is. This authenticity can’t be faked through your advertising or any components of your brand’s identity. 63% of consumers would rather buy from a company they consider to be authentic over the competition. Bottom line: If you say you’re authentic, you’d better be authentic.
Authenticity means that the things we say, and especially our actions, communicate the things that we actually believe. So instead of companies saying what the demographics data tells them consumers want to hear, authentic companies — their employees and all — actually live and breathe, with conviction, their meaning beyond money, across all channels and mediums.
Take Wear Your Label for example. A fairly young brand, Wear Your Label is striking up conversations about mental health with clothing. Their mission as a company is to remove the stigma of mental illness one piece of clothing at a time.
Source: Maya Sherwood Photography - MTV News
Wear Your Label lives and breathes their meaning and authenticity, which is apparent in everything they do — on- and offline. They create an inclusive, welcoming, empowering experience. Even the labels on their clothes exude their purpose. Instead of washing instructions, all clothing has a self-care reminder:
Source: Wear Your Label
On their blog, Wear Your Label is transparent about how they make their clothes and have a community of advocates who write their content.
Offline, Wear Your Label sticks with being real. When they were asked to put together a show for New York Fashion Week, instead of solely pulling from a supermodel cast, they featured an open call to pull three customer role models onto the runway. When they spoke at Youth Day 2015 in Toronto, they went experiential by setting up a pop-up shop, having 15 volunteers hand out conversation cards to the crowd, and giving a dollar of every purchase to a partnering mental health organization.
On social, their feed is refreshingly human. On Twitter there’s a balance between self-promotion and igniting a connection. It’s real people wearing their clothes, providing daily self-care reminders, and everything is a reflection of their purpose. Wear Your Label is off to a great start as a brand and is doing a ton of good stuff to earn credibility and build relationships that will, over time, result in a strong community and a profitable customer base.
But here’s the thing. Creating this presence is fairly simple from a marketing standpoint. Any brand can do this. Any brand can ask people to tell their stories and put emotional videos up on their website. Any brand can post some helpful, heart-filled tweets on social media. But an online presence is only a fraction of the authenticity equation.
The most telling pieces will come from the quality of their product: how it wears and washes. How easy it is to order online across devices. What it’s like to deal with a return if something wasn’t a great fit. Whether they respect email preferences. When they say that order volume is high and delaying shipping, do they honor the window of 5-10 additional days as published on the site, or do they fail to communicate when they need to break this commitment?
Source: Wear Your Label
When a brand follows through, this is the stuff that builds a seamless experience, proves that they are authentic, and fosters trust and connection. In order to earn the loyalty and advocacy of their customers, like every brand, Wear Your Label has got to deliver. No matter where. No matter what. And at every touchpoint they have the opportunity to win over their customers and community. I have confidence that Wear Your Label will continue to be successful in their growth and be one of the good ones.
Source: Ekaterina Walter
Many marketers and CMOs are wondering where to put more marketing dollars. Put those dollars where your experience falters. You may not control “the funnel,” but you do control how you behave every time a customer or community member interacts with your brand throughout the lifecycle.
You can control how authentic you are, the quality of your customer service, how much time you spend improving your product, and the value the customer gets from your product once they’ve taken it home. If you’re blowing it at any stop along the way, invest your money there. By ensuring your customers have a seamless experience with your brand, the closer you’ll get to achieving your brand and revenue goals.
Source: Help Scout
The fact of the matter is that your actions as a company are what afford you a runway with your customers. If there is a disconnect in the experience you’re providing at any point, you’ve either lost a customer entirely, or you’ve just dissolved trust that has previously been built and will negatively affect your customer’s purchasing decisions and advocacy behaviors.
Source: Mathew Sweezey
The pressure is on for brands. Not that companies have to be perfect. We’re all human and we make mistakes. But in order to build deeper relationships with customers, we have to do what we say and genuinely show that we care. Companies who are willing to invest in building this level of trust will not only profit from it, but outlast their competition.
*****
Let people, not technology, drive marketing efforts
Source: Robert Safian
These same authentic companies who are out making their mark on our world operate entirely differently from the companies my parents worked for when I was using Aqua Net and wearing Hammer pants. Companies who have had success building relationships, connecting, and earning trust from their customers in our extremely digital world know that it hasn’t come solely from their marketing strategy.
They’ve successfully presented a very human experience for their customers because it’s a passion and a mindset that’s breathing life from inside their very core. And their entire company, not just their marketing department, is feeding it. Internally they know how to break down silos, communicate, and effectively align their organization to their goals so they can deliver what their customers and community really need. They may use technology like HipChat or Slack to be more efficient internally, but they don’t allow it to take the place of face-to-face when it’s needed most.
Source: Mathew Sweezey
As companies get their bearings in our rapidly changing world and make the necessary adjustments to stay alive, marketing can no longer operate separately from other teams.
Doesn’t the shipping or product team need to work closely with the website and social teams to communicate real-time delays or bugs to customers? Wouldn’t the marketing and engineering team benefit from the feedback customer support is receiving? Shouldn’t the social and community teams work alongside sales to nurture relationships on- and offline? In order for companies to be fully authentic, they cannot mislead by presenting a unified presence on the outside that is completely disconnected from what it’s really like on the inside.
It’s also impossible for companies to deliver a seamless experience if the people — on both internal and external teams — cannot collaborate, align with co-workers, or focus together on achieving the overarching vision of the company. Just as you must build trust with your customers, the people on your teams need opportunities to do the same.
Teams need to be given the tools to self-manage, empower each other to be leaders on many levels, and have the courage to more effectively communicate with their peers. Changing the way your organization operates internally certainly gives your employees the opportunity to figure out how to work better together, but on a much grander scale, it affects the trajectory of the company.
Your entire organization is responsible for the customer experience at every touchpoint, which means giving your employees the power to take initiative and collaborate across teams allows more people in the company to focus on the customer. Similarly they can recognize the challenges you’re facing as a company and take the initiative to collaboratively find solutions to fix them. All of these actions affect your bottom line.
Source: Gary Vaynerchuk
It’s also up to every person in your entire company to find ways to relate to your customers. In Max Lenderman’s book Experience the Message, he tells the story of the Ritz Carlton approach not just to customer service, but customer data. Each day the doormen and concierges are given a check-in manifest that they memorize. Guests are personally greeted — by name — by the staff.
As the hotel staff learns the likes, dislikes, and habits of their guests, they make note of these characteristics in a customer relationship management (CRM) database. The more often someone stays at the hotel, the more personal their experience becomes. Their guests return. A lot. The average Ritz Carlton guest spends $100,000 over a lifetime.
But having this data is not what builds the trust and relationship with their customers. It’s how the Ritz Carlton staff apply it in their very caring and personal interactions one-on-one with their guests. It’s in the values that serve as their staff training tool. It’s in the way they use the data not to exploit their guests but to make their experience better.
Source: Rita J. King
Technology is unfortunately a double-edged sword. It certainly benefits us tremendously, but it’s also what’s causing the insatiable desire for companies to be more real and human. We think a CRM system or marketing automation platform is going to help us talk to someone at the right time and the right place and make the sale for us. That’s not for a machine to do. That’s where we — as people — win. Those systems are only tools and a tool is not a solution. They are to be leveraged to create better experiences and ultimately help brands become more human.
*****
Let's build better companies
The way our world is evolving heavily affects how companies should shape and market. Content strategy isn’t enough because with the quick-wins marketing approach we have now, we’re losing our connection to people. We’re trying to force control over a journey with our customers in which we have very little influence. We’re thinking technology is going to build our relationships for us and that couldn’t be further from the truth.But although these are huge challenges, they're also huge opportunities. They give us the chance to stand above the level of mediocrity that consumers — and even other brands — contend with every day.
Content will always be extremely important. And when building your content strategy, you must have the entire cross-channel experience in mind, and that should guide the tools you use to effectively and authentically engage with your audience. But just producing great content won't work unless you also prove yourself to be the worthwhile company your customers desire.
The characteristics of an authentic company are harder to prove results from. And building a purposeful brand takes a great deal more work and time to earn a customer base. But it’s also what will keep your customers around longer. It’s what will motivate them to tell their friends about you. And it’s what your competition can’t build overnight. The companies who are willing to do this work are going to be the ones who win over the next many years.
And these are the companies we need to build. The ones who will stand out from the rest. If you invest the time to build a genuine brand, people will hear about you. And they will come find you. Hammer pants and all.
***
A special thanks to Olivia Roat, Mike Soderholm, Beth Etter, Rebecca Gilmore, and Courtney Brown for their support in writing this post.
This post makes me so happy!! Not just because it started with Aqua Net either. I have had the pleasure of working with a company for the last for years that allowed me to help shape and develop their core values, messaging, community involvement and overall brand identity. My job was digital marketing but they gave me the freedom to move outside of that and they have flourished as a result of the authenticity and transparency we continue to put out. Other clients are not so easy to convince and are really looking to SEO and SEM as a magic pill for their business. Thank you for validating an effort I was starting to doubt. Love this so much!! (And Aqua Net)
That's so great to hear Lauren! It sounds like your client picked a great digital marketer. This approach requires a great deal of effort and care, but it's no longer an option but a requirement for companies who want to succeed. Keep up the good work!
Sometimes I've the feeling that companies should put more out there from their own employees than the content itself, I mean, If you're running a real state agency and you're creating a content strategy, let your workers add personal experiences or something emotional that's affected them so people who'd like to buy would feel more identified. I don't mean to make a joke out of it, but givint if a speacial touch that would actually connect the public with the brand, not being always so general and so serious. BTW I love all of your posts Mackenzie! All of 'em!
Aquanet is the best hairspray for potato guns.
Content strategy should be built in a way that will allow the customer to experience the brand in a really personal way. Since there are so many channels to share that content, it's not enough to write any old thing and then saturate the internet with it. Sure it takes more time to develop content and share it using this strategy, but all the hard work will be worth it. This is what it takes to build a loyal and enthusiastic customer base!
I agree with you. We usually forget how important is the content strategy!
A good artice, with lots of information and details
Thank you for sharing! We usually forget how important is the content strategy!
I love the quote that mentions users are becoming numb to brands dumping their presence on us. I recently carried out some research on social CRM for Marriott International, Inc. What I found really interesting on a personal level is, how Marriott are using data to create a VIP experience, but where do we go from here? Will this type of service be replicated across a wider set of industries, and will it make us feel like VIP's? It's most certainly an edge to Marriott's competitiveness, where in such a saturated industry, service is the key differentiator. But how will it progress? What happens when we become numb to being treated like VIP's, when we know businesses are targeting us specifically on the footprints we leave behind, will we perceive it as being fake? Will it be counter-productive to consumer satisfaction?
Either way, I thourughly enjoyed this article, thank you so much for sharing.
With advancement in marketing strategies and so many people setting up blogs it has become necessary to provide something better, something unique, something attractive something which hits a home run in the mind of the reader to be able to survive in blogging. One needs to research and you have put it well as a matter of fact that we need to stand out from the rest and that will be the only reason why people will give us recognition and end up being associated with us. A good read, nicely put together.
Good article, I just get frustrated seeing 'content strategy' and 'content marketing' being used interchangeably. This should really be called 'Why Content Marketing Isn't Enough'.
This is a great post!
From my experience, the issue with content strategy is that it boils down to the unhelpful idea that "great content is great." We all know it, but to envision great content from the get-go is the hard part. There are just so many variables when taking into account your audience, industry, topic, time of year, etc. etc. etc.
One of the most helpful things (and I know many digital marketing companies are using this method for their SEO) is to create customer profiles to get an idea of your "usual" target. You can then research keywords that would fit in with your profile's interests and tendencies and write content catered directly to them. At lot of this requires putting yourself in their shoes and REALLY knowing your business and your customers.
However, the real bulk of the work comes after your strategy is under way. You should then begin a testing phase that aims to find what strategies work, and which ones don't. Honestly, early on, we often create a ton of content (based on any data and research we can) and just see what sticks. We aim to create quality posts around as many potential strategies as possible.
For instance, if you had a blog regarding cooking, you might test posts regarding recipes, kitchen products, famous chefs, specific foods, etc. All of these have to do with the topic of cooking, but very different and with tons of potential ways to take them each. Every new post makes the image appear a bit clearer, and after a reasonable amount of time, you should begin to understand what content matters, and what content just doesn't work.
Does anyone employ similar strategies or have other ways to handle it? Always looking for new tips.
-Frank
Yes, Frank. Listening to and understanding how your content is performing with your audience is very important. In fact, Moz has built a great tool that can certainly help you with this. But producing great content that profiles and speaks to your persona is only part of the equation. Although we don't control how a customer will travel on the path to purchase, we do control how we interact with our customers at every touchpoint in the lifecycle. It's in these actions (much of it offline) that a company will stand out and above their competition.
Agree completely! I always encourage my team and my clients to have an "Always On" approach. Never create content for the sake of content. Every bit of content you create, every social post, every website change should be made to impress and not to just fill some keyword opportunity. Because if some half-you-know-what blog is the first interaction a potential customer has, you have compromised a potentially great relationship.
This was very educational for me, and think I will need to read it again tomorow to understand it all :)
The content you put together here is great. I think a lot of marketers do lose sight of the human aspect and use the tools to make things "optimized". Thank you for the insight.
I think the issue with a lot of businesses in this day and age is they hear about the benefits of SEO they see it as a means to lower the overall cpa's in the balance books and ultimately drive more profit. What they don't always realise is that you can't necessarily employ an SEO and continue doing everything the same way you have been over the years, allow them to work for a few hours a week on SEO alone and expect to see great results in a relatively short amount of time.
They don't always realise that there is an element of short term pain for long term gain in many instances, changing the way the company communicates, increasing the brands online visibility and allowing customers to reach them through new channels usually requires some extra investment... Simply setting up new profiles and communication channels to post your content, simply isn't enough, they need to be actively monitored and nurtured which usually takes time to build trust through engagement.
Thank you for the information given and good quaility post.
I so much agree with you on this one. Nice article.
Because you have to publish the content right place from where you can get potential customers for your business.
Excellent article, I continue learning more and more in this Seo, thank you very much for your contributions, I will continue investigating on the subject in different places to continue learning and updating, good luck
Very interesting this article. I am currently learning digital marketing and much these contributions clarify me ideas Thanks
Of course Content Marketing is not enough. It's one of the most important strategies.
Very great article
What a great article. Thanks for putting the heart and the thought into this. It really brings home the fact that a company must have congruence of the content they are putting put with how they operate as a business, with the central focus being: how can we make the difference to the customer we set out to make, before thinking about what they can get.
This is such a great post--so many on-point insights! Like this one: "Over the years, content marketing has fallen prey to the "more is better" mentality. Rather than intentionally developing content as an extension of a company’s purpose and promise, content has become a quest for volume."
But as a content strategist, it frustrates me, because what you're describing is what happens in the absence of content strategy. Content strategy is all about connecting to a clearly articulated purpose, communicating (and marketing) in a way that's authentic to your business' values, and defining processes that align people in the service of a customer experience with continuity and humanity.
A smart, thoughtful, forward-thinking content strategy is a critical part of creating the seamless customer experience you describe so well. Which is why this piece makes an awesome case for content strategy--and why the semantics matter here.
"Creating content for content's sake" isn't strategy--it's mindless content production. It's blindly chasing metrics. It's jumping on the "content marketing" bandwagon without a thoughtful strategy in place. A CRM or CMS isn't content strategy either. It's a communication management tool, a content production tool. And I agree--an editorial calendar, a mass of "great content", and a technological solution aren't enough. But those things are not content strategy.
Truly, I wish I could share this article with others--I couldn't have said some of this better myself!--but it's really problematic to call out content strategy as the right label for the volume-oriented, "best-practices"-centric content production mindset you describe.
Very interesting to read this post, very well written and presented!
Hey, Great Post Mackenzie Fogelson, You Covered those points which are generally ignored by many SEOs.
Nice Work!
Thank you for reading Vishal.
Good Content is always helpful for very Blog site. you have suggest good ideas how to write quality content and you explained very useful tools. thanks for sharing.
This is one of the best read I have had about content. Great work Mackenzie Fogelson
great... its the reality, always had a hatred towards the herd of content marketing gentlemen
Very well presented the facts along with what every possible approach to content marketing strategies. Content strategy only works when its align with the user expectations and related towards their interest, but most importantly, providing value to those users!
[link removed by editor]
Marketers today need to work in many different fronts, and that is the harsh reality.
Great article, Mackenzie!
Best,
VS
@Mackenzie
Very well presented the facts along with every possible approch might be. Content strategy only works when its align with the user expectations and requirements.
100% Agree most seos ignores that!
In this article again it has proved that Content place an important role in any aspect.
Useful article!
Very useful for us which continues to learn seo and help small and medium businesses as our clients.
In addition we should rather focus on developing the brand. Quality content should never be ignored, in line with the products / services offered to users.
Thank you !
This article is right on point with the message it is conveying. So many people out there think that producing great content is all they need to be successful, but that could not be further from the truth. I, myself, started a very local marketing company (Uptick Consulting) targeting small businesses in my area. When I began, I read all the articles, posts, etc of people saying that the best way to build backlinks (and your business) is though "high quality content". It is the field of dreams hope - "build it and they will come". However, through my experience with many businesses, it is more about the experience you deliver to your clients then the promises you make that will grow your business, both in search engine rankings and in terms of your bottom line. Under-promise, over-perform, and deliver a product to your clients that far exceeds the "quality content" that you produce on your blog, and THAT is what will be the best marketing tool for your business. Nothing is more valuable to your SEO campaign then VERY satisfied clients posting create reviews, sharing your content with others who need your help, and spreading your company name by word of mouth. If your company has a great reputation, your quality content will be shared more often, and your rankings will increase.
One of the best blogs we have read in a long time! We constantly bang on about this to clients. Thank you... have shared the arse out of it...
Ha. Thanks Chris. I appreciate your kind words.
Thanks Mackenzie for all the helpful input. Content strategy will be effective only when it connects with users. Users today look for originality, real deal and simplicity. Miss these elements, your brand will surely lose its sheen and calibre.
Best,
Maria
[link removed by editor]
Excellent post Mackenzie, great companies cannot have authenticity limited to a certain set of people, it has to be pervasive throughout their entire company culture and customer experience. In many ways it's not hard for us to know what's authentic but the effort it takes to be consistent is significant and have that represented by your brand is no small task.
Thanks so much Chris. I would agree wholeheartedly that it's not really in figuring out what it is that will provide an authentic experience, it's in following through and actually doing it every step of the way. What makes the authentic approach more difficult is that it requires marketing to come from a very different place: the core of the company. Marketing really comes from your values, your culture, and the way your employees operate and work together. Certainly companies need an effective, integrated, cross-channel strategy that they can execute, but the power of a company's marketing isn't in a campaign. Ultimately marketing should be a reflection of what's already on the inside of your company.
I'd recommend this post from Cindy Gallop. I love how she talks about how "you have to completely reinvent yourself from the core." In my mind, that's the next big step for marketing: getting companies to eliminate the separation between operations and marketing.
Good article!
This short article was very useful and outlined an element people sometimes ignore when speaking about SEO.
Besides, I think we should focus more on developing the brand. Brands increasingly powerful attraction for traffic on our website.
Examle : Brand SIMICART
Traffic comes from the keyword: simicart Higher than the main keywords as magento mobile, mobile app mageto, etc.
Thanks !
What Ritz doing is a breach of privacy. I'd never choose them (not because I can't pay $400 a night :P, I get Moz for 4 months with that money, #priorities).
"Unfortunately, the way many companies still view content strategy is generating a bunch of stuff that’s going to help them rank rather than as an altruistic gesture that builds credibility"
Your company is one of the biggest reasons for this problem. The content that you've put up over the years has told us to do just this. Terrible. I can understand why you're backtracking now, though I think the damage is done.
You've lost credibility! Now you're backpeddaling and going the content marketing route more than SEO. Most of the time I just shake my head at Moz these days.
Not 100% familiar with her company's posts so I can't speak to that.
But I do feel with content (and anything that will be put onto your website) should always be created and laid out with SEO in mind.
For content, I think it should always start with an SEO mindset. Do your keyword research and understand what relevant questions or topics are in your space. That way, you're not creating really good content that no one cares about. However, from there, it's important to veer away from the classic SEO ideas of what is quality content and really focus on answering the question at hand as clearly and as informative as possible.
Simply put, SEO should guide your strategy but not guide the content itself.
Thoughts?
Approaches certainly evolve with the times. What's great about Moz is that they understand that SEO doesn't exist in a vacuum. The best SEOs know that they must work to optimize the customer and user experience, and ultimately, help their clients build a business and brand worth connecting to.
Hi Greg. As someone who spent some time managing this blog, I wanted to chime in here with a few thoughts.
First, Mackenzie is exactly right. Approaches and best practices evolve with industries, and those related to online marketing have evolved more quickly than most others. Google is a different search engine than it once was, and SEO a vastly different field.
That said, I don't think we've actually changed our approach much. We've always advocated satisfying the user query ahead of rankings alone; you can rank #1 for every query you can imagine, and you'll get a lot of clicks -- but if your site is garbage, all that work is for naught. This is illustrated in a great many posts, including Cyrus's 2013 post about how ranking factor #1 is satisfaction, or Rand's more recent Whiteboard Friday in which he introduces the concept of "10x content," saying that's the bar we need to set in order to feel comfortable publishing today. Content and SEO are inextricably intertwined and interdependent. To be successful in search, you need both high rankings and truly valuable content. That hasn't changed, nor has our advice on it.
Lastly, we put quite a bit of effort into maintaining an inclusive community around here that always keeps TAGFEE at the forefront. We always appreciate feedback (and would love to hear any specific suggestions you might have for us), but unconstructive rants like this are neither empathetic nor generous, and only serve to derail the more valuable conversations we'd like to see. Please keep that in mind when you chime in.