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Thursday, 12 November 2020

SEO Strategy for Startups: How to Win in 2021

SEO is still a viable channel for startups heading into 2021. However, make no mistake – it’s getting more difficult. In this guide, I am going to break down exactly how your startup can build a foundation for long-term SEO success.

But here’s the problem:

Modern search engines and their algorithms have become vastly more sophisticated, and therefore the SEO techniques that used to work many years ago no longer work today.

The so-called “SEO experts” told digital marketers that they needed large volumes of content and backlinks in order to be successful. While some of that is true, it’s a gross oversimplification of how modern SEO actually works. You can’t just pump out tons and tons of content and expect to win. Search engine optimization is more surgical than it’s ever been – meaning that quality is more important than quantity.

Don’t believe me? This is the exact SEO process I am using to grow organic traffic at Nextiva (we’re a business VoIP system with superpowers). Here is a snapshot of our organic keyword growth to prove that this really works if you follow the process:

1 Nextiva Organic Traffic Growth

Click here to download it for free right now!

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

10 Golden Rules for Startup SEO Success:
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about SEO for Startups

10 Golden Rules for Startup SEO Success

These are the top ten rules you must follow to see success for your startup's SEO strategy.

1) Set Your SEO Goals (& Be Realistic about the Outcomes)

This depends on the nature of your business and how you generate revenue. For example, if your business generates revenue by monetizing online ads or affiliate commissions, you may want to focus on organic traffic generation and content marketing.

If local SEO matters, I guarantee that your customers are doing “near me” searches as well as mobile and voice search:

Near me searches

You might even approach SEO in unexpected ways. When I led the search engine optimization team at Pipedrive, we drove a ton of sign-ups optimizing for a specific keyword that wasn’t even directly related to our product:

We ranked #1 for a high-volume keyword – “sales management” (9,900 search volume) – just by focusing on solving a problem for a key customer segment.

My final advice on this: Don’t spend too much time trying to forecast SEO or predict how much organic search traffic you should be getting. Remember, you’re a small business and you can’t afford to not be executing. You’re better off experimenting and learning by doing. Get in the trenches and go make something happen!

If you’re a marketing manager and need help laying out your OKRs, you should look at some goal templates for inspiration.

Dive Deeper: 10 Effective SEO Techniques to Drive Organic Traffic in 2020

2) Create a Basic Measurement System

Determine which metrics to measure as well as how and why you should do so. Build a strategy around these metrics, but don’t go too crazy. You don’t need anything too fancy or too complicated.

Then take key actions such as:

Set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
Integrate your CRM and marketing automation with lead capture sources.
Do additional research:

Dive Deeper: Google Analytics for Content Marketing: How to Track and Improve Your ROI

3) Crawl Your Website and Fix Technical SEO Issues

This step should be taken particularly if you’ve been producing content for a while.

Search engine crawlers will index all your site’s webpages and validate backlinks based on the HTTP response code. There are several SEO tools you can use, like Screaming Frog (which has a freemium version), in order to crawl your website. This guide from SEER Interactive will help you make sense of the spreadsheet-formatted report.

Common things to look for in a crawl report are:

SEMrush issues severity level

Dive Deeper: How to Fix 15 Common On-Site Technical SEO Issues

4) Audit all User Experience (UX) Aspects on Your Website

UX is an SEO ranking factor. They don’t tell you that in school!

Poor navigation, incompatibility with mobile screens, and other issues that impede the user's experience on your website will destroy your search rankings. Here are some countermeasures:

Track user engagement using heat map software such as Hotjar.
Determine exactly where users are disengaging and why. You can use Google Analytics’ funnel feature:

funnel-visualization-report

Organize your website properly with clean navigation and internal links.
Validate your website’s mobile friendliness with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool.

Dive Deeper: 7 Mistakes in UI and UX That Are Costing You Engagement

5) Perform On-page Optimization

This process involves aligning your content marketing strategy with specific search terms, topics and user context.

Here’s a mini checklist I created to help you track your on-page optimization efforts:

Target Search Term
SERP Analysis (can you even rank?)
Title Tag
- Target search term present
- <60 characters
- Buzzwords for CTR

Meta Description
- Contains target search term
- Compelling CTA that encourages high CTR
H1 Tag (keyword optimized)
H2 Tag (secondary keywords)
Body Copy
- Contains specific keyword in first 200 words
- Has natural keyword density
- Contains Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords

Content Length (comprehensively answers the searcher’s query)
Content Structure (easily readable and scannable)
Content Assets (rich/interactive media?)
Canonical Tag (specified to the correct URL)
URL Structure
- Contains target keyword
- Has clear taxonomic organization
- Does not contain stop words (this is okay in certain cases)
- Does not contain underscores
- Less than 100 characters

Internal Links
- Contains 1-2 deep links to relevant content
- Has specific keyword-relevant anchor text
- Is implemented naturally
Outbound Linking (contains 1-2 links to authoritative & relevant sites)
Image Optimization
- File names contain target keyword
Social Metadata Optimization
Alt Tags Contain Target Keyword
Appropriate Image Dimensions Specified

ClickFlow, Single Grain's SEO experimentation tool, is great tool to help with a lot of your on-page optimization. You can easily test the effectiveness of each web page to increase your organic traffic without the hassle of building links or writing more content by:

Testing new title tags and meta descriptions to grow your traffic in weeks, not months

Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

Rank your content #1 in search engines by nailing on-page optimization

Business Impact of Every On-Site Change You Make

Identify “Content Decay” and refresh old posts to win back traffic

Refresh Old Posts to Win Back Traffic

Dive Deeper:
* What Is Content Decay and How It Affects Your SEO
* Why You Should Update Content – Or Risk Losing The Traffic You Have [Case Study]

6) Evaluate Branded Search Opportunities

This is where brand awareness starts. You must protect your startup’s reputation on review sites and other places around the Internet.

Google your brand’s name and evaluate the search results that come up:

Check for bad press and negative reviews.
Ensure that the metadata you created for your site appears on the results and clearly describes your brand/products.
Ensure that sitelinks and social accounts are properly set up and aligned.
Maximize mark-up opportunities.
Review the bottom of the search engine results page and evaluate what searchers care about when searching for your brand.
Use auto-suggest to explore long-tail keywords that contain your brand name.
Check for competition using “alternatives to” and “versus” queries:

Alternative queries

Dive Deeper: 3 Steps to Create a More Effective Reputation Management Strategy

7) Find Long-tail Keywords to Rank For

Long-tail keywords are 3-5-word phrases with low search volume that are used to capture relevant traffic to a website. They target niche audiences instead of mass audiences. Some examples of long-tail keywords are:

White Adidas shoes with green stripes
Where can I find my windows product key?
Best vacation spots in April

This 30-minute keyword research hack from Moz can help you find long-tail keywords to rank for. Remember to always break out your keyword research by topic clusters:

Doing so will allow you to build topical authority while focusing on relevant keywords that are low difficulty but still winnable.

Make sure long-tail optimization is part of your content marketing strategy. I’d recommend using a free tool like:

Dive Deeper: Why You Should Use Long-Tail Keywords in Your SEO Campaign

8) Prioritize Content Opportunities

You can prioritize content and keywords using different criteria such as high search volume, low difficulty, strong CTR opportunity and high relevance.

You should also think about “how to” style searches, since this usually reflects highly actionable content that will teach your target audience how to do something tactical, and it will naturally gain free backlinks.

For example, this guide I produced targeting “how to become a songwriter” earned a natural backlink from newsweek.com – which is a 90 DR website!

pasted image 0

9) Build Backlinks and Get Influencer Amplification

Link building can be a pain in the butt, but here’s an easy way to build backlinks in a very targeted and cost-effective manner.

Some of my top SEO tips for acquiring great backlinks:

NEVER pay for backlinks.
Search your brand name, domain name and founder’s/exec's names for unlinked brand mentions.
Find relevant directories and round-up articles and make sure your site is mentioned and linked there.
Find out where and how your competitors are getting backlinks, then get similar backlinks from those sites. Just make sure they’re high quality.
Do interviews and get influencers involved.
Don’t waste time sending thousands of cold emails in an effort to go for high-volume link acquisition.

Dive Deeper:
* The Marketer’s Guide to Link Building
* How – And Why – To Build A Backlink Portfolio
* The Easy Guide to Broken Link Building for SEO
* The Ultimate Guide to Link Building with Content for SEO

10) Stay Updated on SEO News, Trends and Google Updates

Staying up to date on SEO news, Google updates and various marketing trends (like Single Grain's “Marketing Trends You Can't Ignore” series) will ensure that you don't miss any critical information that can help your startup business grow and thrive:

Single Grain's marketing trends collection

Here are some of my favorite blogs/sites that I've subscribed to so that I can stay in the know:

Dive Deeper: How to Prepare Your Site for the New Google Page Experience Update

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about SEO for Startups

These are the questions about search engine optimization that I get asked most often, so I thought I'd include them all here.

Is it true that SEO efforts take at least 6 months to work?

This is a classic “it depends” answer, but typically, yes, it takes 6-12 months to start seeing results for your SEO efforts.

If you are a small business with a tight budget, getting leads via paid channels such as Google Ads (PPC) can become untenable, despite being much faster than SEO. If you have a lot of cash to play with, you definitely want a joint SEO and PPC strategy working together.

Dive Deeper: How Long Does It Really Take to Rank on Google?

How should I go about link-building for my startup?

Here’s the reality: You should focus on street cred. Find out what type of connections your CEO or investors might have and try link building with “warm” connections. Don’t waste hours sending thousands of cold emails for backlinks.

If you have a small SEO team, leverage them as well for link connections. Have them tap previous colleagues to form link partnerships. Again, warm relationships will yield better results and you’ll spend less time spinning your wheels with cold outreach.

Dive Deeper: How to Sustainably Build Quality Links by Building Relationships

Is social media an SEO ranking factor?

No, not directly. However, promoting your content on social media is a good idea, as you should always be thinking about content distribution as a way to drive up engagement to your content. Unfortunately, though, everyone knows that unless you pay for boosted promotion, organic social media alone is not effective enough to get your content seen by the eyeballs that want to consume it.

Dive Deeper: Google’s 200 Ranking Factors [Infographic]

Isn’t SEO too competitive for startups?

Well, everything is competitive in digital marketing today, so you shouldn’t let that stop you. Whether it’s Google Ads, content creation, launching something on Product Hunt, growing a podcast, etc., it’s going to be saturated no matter what. But the longer you wait, the more you hurt yourself, so you might as well get in the game now and start building a foundation.

Isn’t SEO too expensive for startups?

Not true. You don’t need costly softwares or overpaid consultants. Just invest time and sweat equity into your SEO efforts, and you’ll see incremental gains with big payoffs. According to HubSpot’s research, SEO is the lowest risk, highest ROI B2B marketing channel.

Google keeps changing the algorithm. Is it too hard to keep up?

Here’s the bottom line: Don’t be a marketer who studies the gossip tabloids.

You don’t want to become one of these algorithm chasers. Instead, follow the fundamentals of white hat search engine optimization best practices, serve the intent of your target audience, and you will be fine! If you’re really worried about the algorithm, just follow Moz’s tracking updates.

Dive Deeper: How to Understand Searcher Intent and Use It to Boost SEO Rankings

Can thin content rank for competitive keywords?

Depending on the website’s topical authority and website strength, absolutely. I have seen thin homepages rank for competitive search terms simply due to the fact that it’s a homepage and naturally gets tons of backlinks.

However, let’s look at an actionable example of a landing page that ranks for the search term “LMS for compliance training” (Learning Management System). It’s not impressive by any means, but because of page authority and backlinks, the webpage is able to rank. It's a simple WordPress template, but it gets the job done.

pasted image 0 1

Should I mostly be producing blog content or landing pages?

Well, you need both. Certain queries won’t rank with landing pages, and other queries won’t rank with blog articles.

For example, Nextiva ranks very high for “What Is VoIP” because we created an awesome blog article that explains everything there is to know about VoIP (Voice-over Internet Protocol):

2 What is VoIP

Dive Deeper: The Ultimate Guide to Creating a High-Converting Landing Page in 2020

Should I be going after keywords with the highest search volume?

Not all the time! Why? Because keywords with the highest search volume often have the most difficulty. In other words, they’re super competitive. As a startup, you probably have a younger website, meaning it will not have the authority needed to compete against more established behemoths in your niche.

Does bounce rate matter for SEO?

Meh. Bounce rate is a slippery slope.

I would pay attention to metrics like “average time on page” rather than “bounce rate”. If a visitor stays on your webpage for seven minutes, consumes all the content, and then leaves, is that a positive or negative experience? It seems like a good one to me because they were highly engaged and probably got all the information they needed.

That being said, if visitors are pogo sticking your content (hitting the back button after they land on your webpage), that’s a bad sign.

Does my website’s domain authority matter for SEO?

Unfortunately yes, it does. The stronger your domain authority, the easier it will be for your site to rank for competitive search terms and topics.

However, it’s not a one-size-fits-all rule. Don’t be discouraged just because your website has a low domain authority. You can still rank for good keywords with a low domain authority if you focus on long-tail keywords to drive maximum SEO efforts.

Another important thing to remember is that as your brand awareness naturally progresses, so will your domain authority.

Dive Deeper: Starting From the Bottom: How to Build Up Your Domain Authority from Scratch

Can I still grow my website’s search traffic if I have a lot of technical issues?

Yes, you definitely can. I have seen some of the worst technically flawed websites rank for a ton of great search terms and yield tremendous amounts of search traffic. However, I would not recommend this. It used to work for a 1990s-style content strategy, but it probably won’t work in today’s competitive SEO landscape.

What are some common issues that will hurt my search rankings?

Poor UX/website navigation
Low-quality content
Low-quality links
Not serving the intent of searchers
Not understanding the problems of your target audience
Slow page speed (having a slow website will cause visitors to get frustrated and leave)
Poor content strategy (for example, having very similar or repetitive content)
Keyword cannibalization
Outdated content

The post SEO Strategy for Startups: How to Win in 2021 appeared first on Single Grain.

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Tuesday, 10 November 2020

What Is Phygital Marketing?

Pop quiz: Which is more important, the in-store customer experience or your digital marketing efforts?

In other words: Online or offline?

This is actually a trick question. 👉🏽 Both online and offline are essential. Many businesses struggle more than they need to because they’re focusing almost exclusively on one or the other when they’d benefit from a much more integrated approach.

That’s where “phygital” marketing comes in: Physical + digital = phygital

In this post, we’re going to discuss everything you need to know about phygital marketing and how to create a strategy for your business.

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What Is Phygital Marketing?

Phygital marketing is the merging of online and offline marketing strategies to create one cohesive experience that’s both strengthened and curated for each customer.

In today's digital atmosphere, it's easy to think that online is the only environment that really counts. Not so.

63% of shopping begins online, but 49% of Americans still prefer shopping in physical stores.
82% will browse on mobile even while they’re in a physical store, looking for reviews or deals even before speaking with a sales associate.
And offline spending that’s been influenced by a mobile experience has exceeded $1 trillion.

Phygital marketing is all about creating a seamless and personalized customer experience, and there are plenty of different ways to do this, including drive-throughs, click & collect, in-store lockers and online reservations.

☝🏽 This strategy has evolved from what originally began as multichannel marketing, which is the practice of having campaigns on multiple platforms. You might have a distinct content marketing strategy for SEO, social media profiles for discovery, and PPC campaigns to drive sales.

✌🏽 Multichannel marketing then evolved into the now ever-present omnichannel marketing. This is the practice of having a single, personalized user experience across all channels and devices.

An omnichannel experience may include banks that allow users to make appointments or deposit checks on their mobile devices, or sites that allow users' carts to be carried from desktop to mobile effortlessly. The shopping experience is made to be as effortless as possible.

🤟🏽 And now phygital marketing has evolved from omnichannel marketing. It’s not just about creating solid online experiences, but about extending that customer-centric seamlessness into physical storefronts, too – like Target does:

Target

If a user is online using your mobile app to research products, can they see how many of the item is in-stock near them and reserve it for in-store pickup? And if they’re in the store, can they scan a product’s QR code in the store’s app to so that they can add it to a wishlist and purchase it later?

These functions all give the customer more options to make shopping super-convenient for them, and contribute to a more positive user experience.

Learn More:
* Attention Marketing: 10 Tips to Acquire More Customers
* How to Use Engagement Marketing to Acquire More Customers
* What Is Feature Marketing? The Complete Guide for 2020
* How to Use Event Marketing to Generate Leads & Close Sales
* What Is Category Design in Marketing (& Why Is It an Important Strategy)?
* Neuromarketing 101: How Neuroscience Affects Customers’ Buying Behaviors

Benefits of Phygital Marketing & Experiences

The biggest benefit of phygital marketing is that it creates an improved user experience regardless of where and how they’re shopping.

It can increase overall purchases both online and in-store, too. Consider this:

Certain people prefer to shop in a brick-and-mortar store because you can touch and try on products, talk to a human clerk right away and purchase without any dreaded last-minute add-on fees.
Other customers prefer to shop online because you can browse global stores, have items shipped right to your front door and avoid crowds.

But phygital retail appeals to (and markets to) both types of shoppers because it's no longer a case of one or the other, but rather an integration of both as the customer sees fit (more on this later).

Phygital marketing has been a game changer for the businesses who have used it in the past, especially during peak sales seasons like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the general holiday season. Customers are able to discover new products, research them quickly, and make a purchase via whichever method works best for them in that moment.

And while it does improve the user experience, it definitely can help your staff out, too. If it’s easy for people to scan a QR code to get more product information, you may need fewer sales associates on the floor, for example.

Phygital marketing has practically become a necessity for some businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a large number of shutdowns and/or social distancing requirements in place that impacts how customers shop in physical stores.

With customers wanting to come in to your store quickly (or not at all), offering seamless online and in-store experiences is crucial. Many businesses have adapted to increasing their digital strategy and functionality to make up for this, along with offering new features like curbside pick-up options.

Last month, my laptop died and I needed a new one the next day. I was able to look at my local Best Buy’s inventory online, find a MacBook that was available, and order it for curbside pick-up the next day.

I got an email instructing me to click on a CTA when I had arrived, which took me to a page to describe my car and location. I got my laptop much faster than if I’d had to order it online for shipment which, as an immunocompromised person in an active hotspot, was my only other option.

Screen Shot 2020 09 18 at 1.22.19 PM

Even beyond the pandemic, giving your customers new ways to shop at your store (virtually or otherwise) is a solid strategy.

The more convenient and personalized the shopping experience is to your customers' needs, the better.

Drawbacks of Phygital Retail

There aren't many disadvantages to phygital retail.

The only real con is the time it may take to set it up and synchronize the off- and online versions. If your site or app doesn’t currently have online-order-for-pick-up but you want to offer that, you’ll need to work with a developer.

Likewise, if your physical store wants to add digital aspects, it will take some time and money upfront. Both of these situations are well worth it.

Take the periodical industry, for example:

With the rising popularity of the Internet, the New York Times has transformed itself into a purely digital publication.
France's paper, Le Figaro, has been able to keep its offline presence while adding an online version: When an online article is not available for free, customers can pay a fee to read it or buy the physical newspaper in a brick-and-mortar shop.
Another French newspaper, Le Canard Enchaîné, has managed to remain 100% offline with no negative impact on their business performance.

Fortunately, once you make these changes, all you need to do is maintain the functionality moving forward.

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Phygital Technologies

It's not enough that you offer both on- and offline shopping options for your customer; you must let them know. When someone is online, you have to advertise your physical store features and benefits, and when someone is in your store, you have to advertise your digital features and benefits.

There are different types of technology that you can use to help improve the phygital experience for your customers. Let’s look at some of the most popular ones.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) 🤖

AI has had an increasingly large role in marketing and customer experiences for a while now, and it can help you with phygital marketing, too.

Examples of AI in phygital marketing include:

Optimizing your website to show users relevant products that are available in-store once they’ve added to their cart.
Offering automated helpdesk chatbots, which can resolve basic customer concerns or hand off more personalized issues to human customer service representatives.
Adding QR codes to hardcopy magazine and newspaper ads. The user scans the code, which sends them to the digital location to make the purchase or get additional information.
In-store robots to help customers find products, such as those at the San Jose Orchard Supply Store. If you've ever been to a huge store like Orchard or Home Hardware, you know how difficult it can be to find not just the product you are searching for, but the damn aisle in the first place. Their retail service bots greet customers and help them locate what they need.

Retail service robots were

Augmented Reality (AR) & Virtual Reality (VR) 🎮

With the AR/VR industry growing so quickly — by 2023 it's predicted to be a $160 billion industry — it's not surprise that these two technologies are making their way into more stores and onto e-commerce sites to help customers make more informed purchases.

Virtual reality is the computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way by a person using special electronic equipment.

Augmented reality is the result of using technology to superimpose information — sounds, images and text — on the world we see.

With the aid of these technologies, phygital retail becomes a reality. For example, users are able to upload a picture of themselves online and then “try on” different clothes or shades of makeup on sites like Maybelline to see which products would work for them:

Maybelline VR

Some stores even offer VR and AR tools in person. MAC, for example, offers AR try-on features in-store thanks to virtual “mirrors”:

Location-Based Push Notifications 📱

If your business has a mobile app, location-based push notifications are an outstanding phygital marketing tool. They allow you to send targeted messages to users within a certain geographic location when the app interacts with Bluetooth beacons installed in your store.

For example, if a customer has your app installed and they’re walking past a bakery, they could receive a notification offering them 10% off their order or a free coffee with the purchase of any item, like this example from my own phone:

Screen Shot 2020 09 18 at 2.01.33 PM

This can increase your overall traffic, capturing people as they walk near your physical storefront with a digital solution. They might purchase at that moment or head home and purchase later online if you have e-commerce functionality.

Automation ⚙️

Marketing automation drives a 14.5% increase in sales productivity – and companies using automation enjoyed an average 12.2% reduction in marketing overheads.

pasted image 0 33

Automation is a big part of what makes phygital marketing and experiences so beneficial for everyone involved. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it takes some tasks off your hands.

Here are a few examples of automation with phygital experiences:

When online users schedule an in-store pickup, they’ll instantly be sent information about their pick-up availability and instructions for how to do so — like my Best Buy example above. There’s no need for further instruction from in-store sales staff, and they know exactly what to expect and what they need to bring.
When customers make a purchase in-store, they’ll be emailed a receipt if the have an account on file. It will also be logged in your CRM so you can create relevant retargeting campaigns later.
Some of these retargeting campaigns are automated, too, including dynamic product campaigns based on past purchases or items they’ve viewed/converted online.
If a user scans a product’s QR code in a brick-and-mortar store to research it, your app can automatically prompt them to save it or add it to their cart for later purchase.

Learn More: What Is Marketing Automation: Definition, Benefits & Uses

Video Shopping 🛍️

Although video calls, such as WhatsApp or FaceTime, are nothing new, using them with a store clerk is.

HERO, the “world’s leading conversational commerce app for stores,” allows customers to text, chat and video call with their favorite stores. Their tagline is “growing e-commerce sales and converting website visitors into store customers,” as Nike, Adidas, Levi’s, and other retailers have done.

Pre-coronavirus, one third of customers who start their shopping journey online via HERO will then make a purchase at a physical store. But post-quarantine, that's not always a reality. Instead, they can use this technology that's “like FaceTiming your favorite sales associate with one- or two-click buying built in.”

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5 Examples of Phygital Marketing to Inspire You

We’re seeing an incredible crossover in phygital retail right now. Businesses that were previously exclusively e-commerce are now opening physical locations, and brick-and-mortar stores are working on creating a stronger and more integrated digital presence.

Let’s take a look at five outstanding examples of businesses who are embracing phygital retail and marketing to better connect with their customers.

1) Amazon Go + Cashier-Less Shopping

Amazon may not be the first option that pops into your head when you’re thinking about groceries or ordering lunch, but that's changing. Amazon Go is made up of convenience stores that have fresh groceries, breakfast, lunch and snacks… but no cashiers.

Screen Shot 2020 09 18 at 2.15.02 PM

This e-commerce marketplace titan is now expanding beyond pick-up and drop-off lockers, but they’re still putting a major emphasis on pretty much immediate service. Users can download the Amazon Go app and make purchases before they even arrive at the store for fast pick-up.

2) Sephora + VR Product Testing

Cosmetics chain Sephora has physical stores all over the country. While customers have always been able to try on products in-store, there’s a limit to full testing abilities. If you try on one foundation, for example, you can’t always easily remove it to try another. Some also avoid using trial products for hygienic purposes, making expensive purchases a gamble.

Sephora offers VR and AR features both online and in select stores so that users can try as many products as they need to in order to find the perfect fit. Customers with sensitive skin or who are worried about using products that others have can now “try on” products risk-free.

3) Nike + Pop-Up Stores

Nike is a major household name in retail shoe stores around the world, they’ve also branched out to pop-up locations:

Screen Shot 2020 09 18 at 2.29.45 PM

Last year, Nike started opening pop-up stores at strategically chosen places based on the data analysis they pulled from their SNKRS app. They found locations where their customers tended to go.

To encourage users to come out and purchase, they made some of their limited-edition shoes available at the pop-up, and sent SNRKS app users a notification about shoe availability. Nike already uses location-based text notifications through the app to grant access to other limited-edition sneakers while users are in-store.

4) Timberland + Virtual Inventory

One common reason that customers will stick to online shopping is that there is typically more inventory available.

As someone who needs to shop specifically in petite sizing thanks to my 5'0″ frame, I almost exclusively shop for clothes online because most stores don’t carry a lot of petite inventory, as there’s not as much demand.

Timberland, the outdoor clothing and footwear retailer, found a way to work around that with their incredible TouchWalls. These are digital displays that show customers online-only inventory and in-store inventory:

Timberland Blends Physical and Digital Customer Experience

Customers can will actually touch the product images to get more information, create personalized shopping lists, and be able to shop the full inventory even if it isn’t actually in-stock.

You can see how it works here:

Aside from increased order values and foot traffic, Timberland is also gaining a massive amount of customer data that they can use to improve their marketing moving forward.

5) Warby Parker + In-Store Experience

Online prescription glasses and sunglasses retailer Warby Parker is known for their exceptional marketing, so their foray into phygital marketing likely won’t surprise anyone.

Even with the brand’s popular “try at home” option that allowed customers to order multiple frames to see which they liked, the store realized that many customers still wanted an in-store shopping experience. They have physical storefront locations they’ve dubbed “The Warby Parker Readery,” which features glasses you can try on and postcards, books and other items that those glasses can help you appreciate:

Warby Parker

They have also had pop-up locations, including in the New York Public Library’s Rose Main Reading Room (which they called their “hush mob”).

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Conclusion

There’s an enormous amount of attention being placed on exclusively digital experiences. While digital definitely isn’t going anywhere and should be a core component of both your marketing and sales experiences, this doesn’t mean that you should neglect physical experiences.

As you can see from the examples in this article, striking a strong balance between physical and digital marketing is the best way to stand out from the competition and create an enhanced, streamlined experience for your customers.

It comes down to personalization. Every customer will have their own preferences and pain points when it comes to not only your products but shopping itself, and offering multiple solutions for how they can interact and purchase from your business can revolutionize your business.

The post What Is Phygital Marketing? appeared first on Single Grain.

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Tuesday, 3 November 2020

How to Create a Killer SaaS Content Marketing Strategy

For most SaaS companies, the reasons to start content marketing are beyond compelling. For instance:

On average, content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing, yet generates around 3x more leads
SaaS companies that use content marketing see 30% higher growth rates and 5-10% higher retention rates
The customer acquisition cost (CAC) of SaaS companies from content marketing is about 15% lower than that of paid ads
20% of the average person's time spent online is now used to browse content

In this article, we’ll show you step-by-step how to create your own killer SaaS content marketing strategy, including all the tactics, methods, and tools you’ll need.

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How Does Content Marketing Differ for SaaS Companies?

Unlike traditional companies whose main aim is usually to get a sale, most SaaS companies use content marketing to differentiate themselves from their competitors and attract trial subscriptions or demo sign-ups.

As the SaaS space gets increasingly competitive, software is becoming less differentiated by features alone and consumers are placing higher importance on branding, positioning and content when deciding which software to choose.

What’s more, SaaS companies do not sell their software for a one-time purchase fee. Instead, they operate on a recurring revenue basis, which means that they must constantly keep their users engaged in order to prevent churn and decreased MRR.

As such, content marketing for SaaS companies is not solely about attracting new users, but can also be used to retain existing users and even upsell them to higher plans.

Dive Deeper:
* How to Create a High-Performance Content Marketing Strategy in 2020
* 22 Brands with the Best Content Marketing Campaigns
* SaaS Marketing Strategy: 12 Killer Ideas to Grow Your Company

A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Killer SaaS Content Marketing Strategy

Creating great content is only one part of a winning formula. To see long-term success, however, you must first take the time to create a content marketing strategy. Why is a strategy so important?

Common pitfalls that can occur without a SaaS content marketing strategy:

Lower content engagement and reach. Not only will you put yourself at risk of producing content that no-one cares about, but without creating a promotional strategy to decide how you’ll attract people to your content, you’ll reach a far smaller audience and your content marketing results will suffer.

Delays, inefficiencies and rising costs. With a strategy in place, your SaaS content marketing will run like a well-oiled machine, with defined costs, deadlines and expectations for each part of the process. Without it, content will be produced inconsistently and coordination between different people in the process will be inefficient, which naturally will lead to delays and rising costs.

Lack of management buy-in leading to budget cuts. One of the most important things to realize about SaaS content marketing is that it’s a long-term strategy that’s unlikely to yield instant results. Therefore, in order to be successful, every relevant stakeholder within the company must truly believe in it. Otherwise, if you aren’t able to demonstrate any tangible results within the first few months, but others can see that you’re investing a lot of money into it, you could experience internal pressure to stop. However, by creating a killer strategy first, you can share it and get buy-in from others within the company to (hopefully) prevent this from happening.

Inability to measure success. If you never define what your goals are or what represents a successful outcome, you won’t be able to objectively measure how well your content marketing efforts are performing. Specifically, when it comes to SaaS content marketing, tracking, attributing and measuring results is far trickier than most other companies who have the goal of gaining sales.

Step 1 – Evaluate Whether Content Marketing Is a Good Fit for Your SaaS Business

Everyone has limited time, money and resources, so before committing to content marketing, you should step back and evaluate if it’s the right focus for your SaaS company.

Below is a list of clues to help you evaluate whether content marketing is a good fit for your SaaS business. If you find yourself nodding in agreement to a few of these, then take that as a sign to start creating!

A) Your customers have a few pain points for which they typically Google the answer

Take the very competitive email marketing industry. There are numerous pain points involved in sending emails, including issues of deliverability, technical woes of verifying your domain, and GDPR compliance.

Unsurprisingly, a quick check on Google Keyword Planner shows that many people are searching for ways to solve these problems. For example, the phrase “email deliverability” receives between 1K-10K searches per month.

All of this could mean that there's a good opportunity for SaaS email marketing companies to create relevant content with high buyer intent.

Dive Deeper: 7 Creative Ways to Collect Emails Without Being Spammy

B) You operate in an industry where things change quickly

One example of a fast-paced industry is e-commerce. Most software in this space is designed to provide tools to eBay, Amazon or Shopify sellers to help them automate their business.

The problem is, these marketplaces often introduce changes with little notice, and the software companies are forced to adapt their software accordingly. To help deal with this, companies such as Helium 10 invest heavily in content marketing, producing near-daily blog articles to educate their users:

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Dive Deeper: How to Set Up Your E-commerce Product Page for Maximum Conversions

C) You have existing promotional assets that you can leverage

If you already have some promotional assets that you can leverage to share your content, then your content marketing efforts will be much easier.

For example, HubSpot has a private Facebook group with over 17,000 members. This means that every time they release new content, they can easily create a post and promote it to all these members with very little effort:

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You don’t have to have a Facebook group. Instead, you may have a large email list, an engaged social media following, or a strong relationship with a key influencer – anything that could help you to promote your content to a relevant audience once it’s published.

Dive Deeper: 12 High-Performing Facebook Group Engagement Tactics

D) Your target customers are ‘knowledge-hungry’

A good example of this are CRM companies like Pipedrive that target salespeople.

Salespeople have highly pressurized jobs because they’re held accountable for how many deals they close and the revenue they bring to the company. As such, these are the types of people that are always looking to learn how to become better at their jobs and learn new sales methodologies.

Pipedrive has capitalized on this by launching a blog with how-to guides, templates and scripts specifically for sales reps. And once the salespeople see great value from the content, the hope is that they’ll sign up for the software too!

Dive Deeper: 30 Ways to Come Up with Great Ideas for Your Blog Posts

E) Your software is complex without tutorials and education

Accounting software companies like FreeAgent help small businesses and freelancers to file their tax returns. The problem is, most of their target demographic aren’t tax experts, hence, the company creates useful content to keep them up to date with tax changes and help them to understand new features.

Screenshot 2020 09 05 at 17.39.45

F) Customers have no pre-existing brand loyalty when making their buying decision

Imagine that your Google Ads budget is spiraling out of control due to click-fraud, and you’re looking for some software to solve the problem. There’s a very high probability that you go to Google, type in “click fraud software” and open the tabs of the first few results:

Screenshot 2020 09 05 at 18.05.10

In a situation like this, customers are unlikely to be brand loyal because they’re probably not even aware of the software companies serving this need. Therefore, content can be a great way to differentiate your SaaS product from competitors and reach potential new users first.

G) A reasonable % of your website traffic comes from search engines

You may have already seen from a previously published SaaS SEO guide that Google is generally the biggest source of traffic for SaaS companies, driving up to 77% of visitors.

If you operate a SaaS company that likewise sees a large percentage of high-quality traffic from search engines, then this is a great indication that creating content could lead to more new user sign-ups.

Dive Deeper: The Anatomy of an Effective SaaS Lead Generation Strategy

H) You have a marketing budget that can sustain producing and promoting content for the long-term

A good SaaS content marketing strategy requires regularly creating new articles and having a reasonable content marketing budget.

If you’re unsure if you have the resources to sustain your content marketing efforts for at least one year, then it may not be right for you. (Later on in step 5, you’ll learn how to calculate the budget required to sustain your content marketing strategy.)

Dive Deeper: Content Strategy on a Budget: How to Grow Your Online Presence on a Shoestring

I) Your software is geared towards one main audience

If your SaaS company has one clear audience, it’s much easier to create highly targeted and relevant content. For example, Adobe Photoshop is a SaaS application aimed specifically at creatives, which gives them the advantage of their entire user base having very similar interests and needs.

Screenshot 2020 09 05 at 18.23.35

On the other hand, a SaaS company like Calendly targets multiple audiences with wildly different needs, including marketers, educators, freelancers and job interviewers, which can make it much harder (though by no means impossible) to produce compelling content.

Dive Deeper: How Adobe Does SaaS Marketing: A Case Study

Step 2 – Decide on Your Main Goals and KPIs

Ultimately, every SaaS company wants to increase its revenue. However, there are a number of ways this can be achieved in the context of content marketing. The goal you choose will have a huge impact on every aspect of your overall content marketing strategy, from the type of content you produce to how often you produce it.

Below is a list of the most common content marketing goals and KPIs for SaaS companies – we advise choosing one goal only.