Data-Driven Content Marketing and Stefan Zechner
Data-Driven Content Marketing
Stefan Zechner is the Digital SEO, Social and Content Marketing Lead for Western Union. He focuses primarily on new customer acquisition through natural search and search optimization. He is accustomed to working with a variety of different departments, including IT, Content, Paid Performance, PR and Marketing at large.
Stefan ensures that there is cohesiveness throughout all of the different teams’ content activities and that all campaigns adhere to SEO best practices. Stefan’s incredible experience and expertise makes us excited to welcome him as a speaker at Share15. We had the chance to sit down with him and speak for a bit and we wanted to share some of the highlights from our conversation.
The Impact of Industry Changes
BrightEdge (BE): What changes in the search industry have had the biggest impact for you and your company?
Stefan Zechner (SZ): The mobile algorithm update in April 2015 was huge. It sparked a mindset change within our organization and helped us understand where our customer base and our future customers - especially millennials - have their focus. This, in turn, has been a huge influence on our UX department.
On the Rise of Personalization
BE: How do you see the space evolving over the next year - what should marketers look out for?
SZ: I think personalization is going to be huge. Semantic search is the first big step in this direction, but I feel strongly that this is just the beginning. It is all about getting more involved, more personalized and more direct in your communication with consumers as a marketer.
On His Presentation at Share
BE: What will you be discussing at Share15?
SZ: I will be delving into data-driven content strategy. I will explore how to use data to drive the right people to the right content at the right time and why SEO is such an important part of this process.
The Incredible Value of Share
BE: What will bring you to Share this year?
SZ: Because sharing is caring - but more seriously: I work under the mantra that when you share something, you challenge yourself and others to become better and more effective. BrightEdge is providing a platform, a safe-haven, for SEOs that ought to be used for collaboration and education. There are a variety of approaches to modern SEO obstacles. While we are all facing the same or similar issues, there are many roads that lead to success. I look forward to discussing issues, such as looking at content marketing and content creation through the lenses of compliance and legal challenges. The exchange of ideas and the opportunity to meet more professionals will be outstanding.
The Role of BrightEdge
BE: What role does BrightEdge play in your organization?
SZ: We use BrightEdge together with our agencies to not only assess current performance but also to check trends and research new keyword opportunities. We use a variety of different BrightEdge capabilities, in particular the Share of Voice and Competitor Analysis. The new StoryBuilder, which helps us create reports faster - and even on-the-fly - is awesome. We love the variety and power of the BrightEdge technology. They also offer excellent customer support, which is always a fantastic resource.
The Fun Stuff
BE: Can you tell us some fun facts about your brand?
SZ: Western Union has been around for more than 160 years and has been transferring money for 140 years. We were the first company to launch a domestic communication satellite network, the first transcontinental telegraph line, the first microwave system to connect two cities, and the first singing telegraph. The brand has an incredible legacy and I enjoy being a part of it.
BE: What about some fun facts about yourself?
SZ: I cannot function in rooms that are warmer than 50 degrees. I also work best between 1 and 3 am and find that the best ideation can come during a good old SciFi series. This was a fun and enlightening conversation with Stefan. We look forward to hearing his presentation at Share in just a few weeks. If you have not signed up yet, make sure you do not miss the opportunity to hear him and the other speakers. Visit our event page and learn more fantastic reasons to attend.
Conference Details September 21-23 Westin St. Francis San Francisco, CA.
