A review

A strategy is “How to choose what to do”

Defining the choices available in marketing has never been more appropriate than now. June 2024, in case you were wondering.

The first step might be to consider how to choose a niche audience and digital channels.

More often, the primary task in the first stages of the website is to focus on “what you do” first.

Once you have done that, the search engines give you feedback,

What works

THE EXPERIENCE: click > the site > the content > the offer

Relevance to our audience, these steps are connected

The experience: when elements all line up, we are used to winning – lots of great projects

A short version of a soul-searching review

  • With all the changes happening, what approach are we taking
  • We want everyone in ‘extended teams’ on the same page
  • And clients to understand what we are doing

Google changes add clicks

We can’t choose clicks to ensure the experience, but we can exclude them.

  • There are a lot of different clicks, thousands per topic.
  • Many types of clicks are new to us
  • We have clicks left over

It is more complex than before – people need to be honest

Can we stop them?

Even with detailed campaign management & time – it’s not always possible

  • Sometimes, getting there, tiny steps forward, always
  • Ambiguous (early) clicks are the ones hard to stop
  • Those earlier stage clicks are less decided

We handle more clicks than we used to and are less convinced.

How we move forward

We know which clicks work best (it is our superskill)

  • We will teach you how keywords are made > link
  • The bidding is now higher for the words we do want
  • When we bid higher, we pay for all of them, including the ones we don’t want

Important to know what we are going for, why and get content sorted

What is our Imperative?

Squeeze as much value out of all the clicks

Help visitors be more decided

Is this just for Search?

NO, when the site works for Search, it starts working for everything else

Convert more how?

Relevance:

  • Finding what they are looking for delights visitors
  • Lots of pages to match the searches, be specific
  • Make pages that cover everything on the topic
    • Map the searches
    • Cover that earlier stage need, provide navigational pages (maps)
    • Images and videos, that match what they want
  • Write for specific types of clients – niche audiences (all of them)
  • Consider broadening the offer to match the click

Content Design:

Make it tidy and easy to find everything (easy to say, hard to do)

  • Readability is the number 1 requirement
  • Menus are usually guesses, be more specific, be intentional

Design for searchers

  • Group content by topic
  • Makes everything easier to find
  • Way more visitors convert

Group topics under umbrellas and compare pros and cons

  • Helping people understand their choices
  • This matches all those earlier stage clicks
  • They need inspiration and motivation (and confidence)

Make navigational pages (start with home page)

  • Helps ambiguous, early searchers find stuff
  • Ambiguous clicks are now the majority

Consider navigation a critical factor

  • especially for mobile – (we created menu tech)

Bring Style: Clean, bright, friendly, consistent

  • Little details to show you care
  • Caring is a competitive advantage
  • Follow through with style in everything we do
  • It is OK to have fun

Content Structure:

Be topic-driven,

  • it’s what visitors want, they will respond
  • write around intent
  • go per topic, make hubs

Persuade visitors we are the best choice

  • Making the argument is the number 2 requirement

Adapt messaging to each Searcher

  • Multi-niche audiences are fine (uniquely done on websites)
  • Consider all the decisions people have to make
  • The decisions change, match the timeline

Product market keyword fit

  • Consider changing the offer to match the keyword market

Make it real for visitors

  • Show team more, tell stories
  • Discuss pricing

Cater for multiple levels of detail

  • 3 levels of interest (early to late)
  • 3 levels of detail (type of reader – more site tech)

Create content that summarises

  • Offers links to more detail

What about SEO?

Those who win at paid clicks will also win SEO

  • Paid has the imperative, drives improvements to support both
  • SEO on its own doesn’t work, but it does work
  • The site and content need to convert
  • Serve all different types of clicks

Spiky Point Of View

SEO’s don’t understand the clicks, marketers don’t understand the audiences

(Because I only just realised how it all works)

The answer

Create for visitors first,

  • define all the audiences
  • the internal page structure is solved
  • write for the decision journey

Create for the highest value clicks first

  • Solves the biggest SEO problem, converting
  • The journey needs to start with a conclusion first

What else?

Make everything else work better, too (cue marketers singed around the edges)

  • fast site for conversion and rankings
  • follow up fast
  • social to match the target search audience
  • local needs Google My Business, images
  • video is more crucial for remarketing

Consider partnering – because all this is way harder now on your own.

Consider niching – because then everything works better (especially partnering)

Strategy Summary:

Be likeable experts

If your site works for search, it works for the market

  • More content to match the broader set of needs
    • Personalisation, navigation
  • Website & Content Functionality to Cater
    • Speed
    • Structure
    • Design
    • Persuasiveness.
  • Track value
    • Call tracking works
    • Google doesn’t, can’t measure anything
    • Page to CRM might work
    • Focus on the words not the numbers
  • A continuous cycle of improvement
    • Keep up-to-date, consistent
    • One step after the other

No content, no business

This is the future.

The missing piece

How do you get all this stuff done? efficiently, and with everyone on the same page (intra-company teams)

  • Defining audiences, lists, auto-updating them
  • Capturing ideas and curating content that supports your beliefs
  • Processing ideas and finding space for all of them – content planning is messy
  • Determine intent, hit the right tone and objectives
  • Distribute via email, website, social channels

Capturing and processing ideas from a large set of people is the challenge.

  • Omnivore – filter out stuff for processing later
  • Heptabase (capture all devices, online and offline, and organise visually – nearly there)
  • Fibery, capture and update audiences
  • Figma, page design
  • Webvizio, page feedback
  • Screen Capture (easy on mobile)
  • Courses and onboarding tech
  • Collaborative spaces

Major challenge: we can’t get people to use our systems – they need their own

Being efficient and productive will become easier with AI interfaces