What happens to marketing experiences when you add together a healthy dose of findability and an impressive amount of topical credibility?
Our CEO Lee Odden provided answers to that question and more as he joined SERPstat for on its Twitter #SERPstat_Chat series. They explored how marketing experience (MX) thrives when content findability through search is aligned with content credibility through influencer expertise and social proof.
To help B2B brands improve the marketing experience theyre creating for customers here are 6 helpful take-aways on how optimizing for experience can take B2B content to the next level.
1 Why being findable in search is no longer enough to succeed in marketing:
Most buyers start their journey with a search engine, but what good is being found if content isnt credible & trusted?
Brand trust is one of the key obstacles to customer engagement today. HubSpot research shows that 65 percent don't trust ads, and 55 percent dont trust brands they buy from.
What do they trust? The DGR Content Preferences report says that 95 percent of buyers prefer credible content from industry experts and influencers. But few influencer programs integrate SEO.
Optimizing for findability is key but optimizing for trust and credibility is just as important.
2 How SEO and influencer marketing are connected
SEO concerns itself with finding ideas and topics that are important to buyers. Influencer marketing does the same thing. Marketers can use topics high in demand to find people who are influential on those same topics.
Influencer marketing that focuses on topics of influence is about themed content collaboration, sharing and promotion including links.
Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness (EAT) has everything to do with credible experts making relevant contributions and promotion of topically themed content.
3 How influencer marketing boosts SEO performance
Find influencers that publish to websites with high SEO value. Engage them on content collaboration that features brand content on those websites: blog, industry publications, and websites.
Links back from the third-party publications that influencers co-created may or may not count, but they will certainly boost brand visibility in the SERPs.
Here are specific steps on how influencer content adds value and performance to SEO efforts:
https://www.toprankblog.com/2020/01/optimize-for-trust/
4 Why Customer Experience so important in 2020 and the connection to Marketing Experience
Customer experience is a top priority for brands that want to differentiate in a very crowded marketplace. The experience buyers have when interacting with marketing is a big contributor to that.
Brands that optimize for findable, relevant and experiential content that is also highly credible and trusted will create a marketing experience that is superior and result in better performance return on investment (ROI).
Integrating SEO, influencer marketing and content marketing specifically enables marketers to optimize for a better marketing experience by connecting customers with best-answer content.
Here's an article that digs a bit deeper into how influence and SEO can drive better customer experiences through an Attract, Engage, and Convert model:
https://www.toprankblog.com/2020/02/how-influence-and-seo-can-drive-customer-experience/
5 Best practices for creating and optimizing content that is findable and credible
Connect SEO topic research efforts with influencer identification and engagement. SEO topics that drive content creation should also inspire which influencers credible around those same topics you collaborate with.
Find influencers who author content on their own and third-party websites, about the SEO topics you are focused on. Create robust information pages on the brand site that the influencers can link to.
Consider recruiting influencers that Google has identified as entities with a verified knowledge panel. It's possible their relevant content might resonate better than influencers who arent Google entities.
6 Examples of brands integrating SEO and influencers for content marketing
A corporate performance management software company, Prophix wanted to create brand association with finance and artificial intelligence (AI). Keyword research aligned with influencer selection to create this content:
https://www.prophix.com/artificial-intelligence-in-finance/ai-finance.html
An oldie but goodie: This small HVAC business engaged local influencers for content and promotion which helped for a 600 percent increase in page views:
https://www.toprankmarketing.com/newsroom/how-an-influencer-focused-content-campaign-increased-blog-pageviews-by-609/
Sisal Rugs engaged an interior design influencer for a blog post interview, which drove 4 percent of all revenue for the year, along with organic ranking. Then the influencer invited Sisal to participate in an article in Architectural Digest. That link drove four new clients.
Delight and Inform B2B Buyers with Better Marketing Experiences
Delivering a better Customer Experience is one of the top priorities for B2B brands and one of the most compelling opportunities to deliver on that priority is through content optimized for search findability and influencer credibility. Now, more than ever, B2B brands need to be the best answer for the customers actively looking for solutions. Competition is high, so ensuring brand content is trusted is essential. Hopefully the recommendations above will help B2B marketers understand the value of optimizing for search and influence as an integrated effort and take the first steps towards creating best answer content marketing programs.
To learn more about TopRank Marketing integrated Content, SEO and Influencer Marketing programs, see our services page or contact us directly at info@toprankmarketing.com