hchung

M Posted 10 years 10 months ago

t 9 min read

The digital world has become increasingly competitive. According to IBM, roughly 90 percent of the information on the Internet today has been produced in just the past two years. To answer the need of businesses trying to compete in this saturated space, BrightEdge has developed Share of Voice to help you see exactly how much of the market share on a topic is controlled by your brand, rather than having to guess at the relevance of your pages. This innovation can provide you with more insight than just learning about your competitors, however. You can also use the positioning information to learn about potential partners.

There are several different types of partnerships you can leverage to improve your brand reach and reputation, particularly blog partners, affiliate partners, and channel partners. The essential component in all three types of collaboration for SEO management is finding professionals who have a strong readership among your intended demographic.

Use the Share of Voice technology to find potential partners and measure important factors, such as their ranking for certain keywords and keyword groups, their page profiles, backlinks and search volume. This can help you identify the optimal partners in each category for share of voice.

Blog partners for Share of Voice

Blog partners can help you by providing you access to your ideal audience and offering you a platform to exchange blog posts. When you publish a guest post on a blog that is read by your intended audience, you have the opportunity to extend your brand reach and interact with parts of your consumer base that you might not have otherwise met. The blog partner will be vouching for you by allowing you to post on their blog, which helps you to establish authority in the eyes of the readers. Links to your main site in the body or in your signature can help bring some of this targeted demographic back to your site, where they can learn more about you and what you can do for them.

You can also find blog partners that would be willing to make a guest post on your blog. If your blog partner is a respected member of the industry, then a post can add an extra degree of authority to your blog. You can also ask the partner to link from their site to your blog for the post to increase readership and drive relationships. Blog partners can also be great sources of backlinks. In addition to the thought leadership and brand reach benefits of guest posts, writing informative pieces for other sites can be a great way to boost your backlink profile and therefore your search ranking.

Affiliate partners for Share of Voice

Affiliates are rewarded for every customer they bring your business. You can track sites that have a strong reach within your intended consumer base and ask them to join your affiliate program and help you get the message about your brand into the hands of your customers. You might have an arrangement to display ads on their sites or you might ask them to promote a product or service through their own original content. The key to finding good affiliate partners is tracking sites that run quality sites with quality pages themselves. Google has been cracking down on affiliate sites that exist solely for the purpose of capturing and redirecting traffic towards other pages. For you to correctly use this tactic for your advantage, you need to find site owners that have a strong, natural audience for a particular keyword or keyword group. They will continue to serve their own audience while also providing you with an affiliate service, such as displaying ads.

Channel partners for Share of Voice

Channel partners are other brands who would like to work with you to market your goods and services. They might go through a certification course of some kind to master your offerings and then market it to their own customers. It is an excellent way to leverage your network to work for you, particularly on a local level. This type of relationship requires you to be in constant communication with your partners to make sure that they are up-to-date on the latest products and services. It is a mutually beneficial relationship where they grow when you grow, so they are looking for ways to help you achieve your goals. Finding the right channel partners, however, requires tracking down professionals and businesses that already have a strong grasp and expertise in your intended market. Channel partners that can best help your brand to grow will have the industry insight needed to be effective.

The Share of Voice technology can be a fantastic resource for learning about competitors and how you measure up for your targeted keywords, but it also can help you build the partnerships that will move your brand forward. The insights can help you identify key blog, affiliate and channel partners that will help you grow and leverage your network by gauging market research and traffic. Recognize the value of collaboration in your growth and take advantage of all that BrightEdge Share of Voice has to offer.

A BrightEdger

M Posted 10 years 10 months ago

t 9 min read

As we make our way through the final preparations for Share15, we had the chance to sit down with Allison Fabella, the Director of Global SEO for CareerBuilder. She helps her brand develop their global strategy and had some great insight about the direction of the industry and how to build cross-functional teams. We were happy to have the chance to chat with her about Share15 and industry trends and we wanted to share some highlights with you.

On Changes in the Industry

BrightEdge (BE): How do you see the space evolving over the next year- what should marketers look out for?

Allison Fabella (AF): I believe that there will be a continual blurring of the lines between SEO, content, and marketing. Marketers are already speaking about the importance of these three and I believe that the cross-influence will only continue to grow stronger. Tech will also become even more important. We have already seen the big emphasis on mobile/responsive design in the past year. I believe that the emphasis on mobile will become even more prominent in the next year. Generally, in the next year, you will find that marketers are going to be pushed toward taking a more holistic approach to their marketing.

The Importance of Measurements and Data

BE: What role does data and the measurement of content play in your organization?

AF: For me, data and measurement have been critical. I am fairly new to the brand, and although CareerBuilder is a mature organization, SEO was not really integrated into the process until the past year or so. Data has been a huge aspect for me to help build credibility and make my job much easier. I regularly run small scale tests to gauge performance. I can then bring this information to prove that new ideas will be successful and can proceed on a larger scale. If the test does not perform as I would have liked, I can make adjustments. The data also helps me convince others of the value of SEO as they can see the progress and results themselves. Data helps to eliminate guess work and everything runs more efficiently.

The Role of BrightEdge

BE: How does BrightEdge help you accomplish your goals?

AF: I am very data-oriented. As I already described, I use data to prove concepts large and small. BrightEdge produces the fantastic numbers I need. I can inform my teams about our progress and move forward with confidence. I use the information produced by BrightEdge on both the front-end and the back-end of campaigns and initiatives. The technology really helps to guide my every step. I particularly love how the BrightEdge dashboard integrates with Google Analytics. It is great to be able to take the competitive analysis and keyword data from BrightEdge and overlay it with the Google Analytics information and get a more holistic picture about how everything is performing.

Excitement About Share

BE: What are you looking forward to the most about Share15?

AF: I attended Share last year and had a fantastic time. I got BrightEdge certified, attended some great sessions, met awesome people and networked. It was an overall wonderful experience. I even remain in regular contact with people that I met at Share14. This year I really hope to get more of the same. I am looking forward to the great speakers that are lined up, many of whom I have followed over the years. If I can get everything out of Share15 that I did at Share14, then I will consider this conference a success.

BE: What advice would you give new attendees about Share?

AF: Do not be shy! Last year there was a nice assembly of people who were really happy to share their advice and experience. Whether it is your first conference or your hundredth, do not be afraid to walk up to people after listening to them and ask questions. One of the things I loved last year was how friendly everyone was.

BE: What will you be discussing at Share? Give us some teasers!

AF: I am going to be talking a lot about being cross-functional within an organization. SEO does not exist in a vacuum and content comes in so many different forms. I consider content to be everything from your articles to your inventory to videos! It is really important to build cross-functional teams to help your brand succeed. I know at CareerBuilder it often feels like I spend more time speaking with other departments than I do with my own SEO team. That stems from our efforts to develop these efforts and build cross-functional teams and relationships. I will be bringing 4 case studies. Each will discuss a different scenario when circumstances presented themselves that required a bit of reaching across departments. In each situation, the teams involved were able to create successful outcomes, and I will discuss how they made that possible.

The Fun Stuff

BE: Can you tell us something interesting about yourself?

AF: In my spare time I actually love to play the cello. One time, we had an intern here that had the same passion. I ended up contacting her and inviting her in to play together. I thought we could sneak off to a side room somewhere and play a bit. What I failed to take into account, however, is that it is very difficult to hide the noise-- so sneaking off did not work out so well. Instead, we had people stopping by to take pictures. I think the entire episode even ended up in some slides somewhere. The intern had to give a presentation about her work experience, and I am pretty sure that some of those photos were featured.

BE: What do you love most about your job?

AF: I love that it is a global position. I like to travel, and it is fun to go to all the other offices. It is also interesting to learn about SEO on an international scale. I have had to learn about the similarities and differences in approaches and expectations across different cultures and languages. You also have to take into account local expressions and idioms. So many phrases that I use regularly when discussing SEO just do not work in other countries, and they have their own expressions that they use. Gaining these experiences has been wonderful for me. We are just days away from kicking off Share15 and we cannot wait to continue this conversation with Allison and hear her presentation. If you have not yet signed up, we invite you to visit our event page and do so now. We hope to see you there!

Conference Details September 21-23 Westin St. Francis San Francisco, CA 

Dov Markowitz

M Posted 10 years 10 months ago

t 9 min read

For those in the tech hardware industry, appropriately using online marketing is a critical part of growing the business. The industry has the potential for strong engagement rates. The email click-through rates for these types of companies demonstrate that - on average they reach as high as 14 percent. Many tech professionals are beginning to catch on to the trend and 78 percent of tech marketers are producing more content than they did a year ago. These tech marketers are using a variety of different types of content, including blogs, ebooks, videos, white papers and webinars. The key is learning how to take this content and leverage it to produce the brand’s goals. Even those who have years of experience in the space find that spending time with other fantastic industry marketers can help them stumble upon new ideas to try that can help them make their marketing efforts even more efficient and productive.

As a tech marketer, you want to capitalize on these trends for your company. That is why at Share15 we have brought together some of the brightest minds in the industry to discuss some of the most pressing concerns impacting the vertical. We hope that these talks will help inspire you, lead to fascinating and insightful discussions, and prepare you to create an incredible marketing plan for your brand.

Going international with your brand

The world is quickly becoming an international marketplace and the technology hardware industry is no different. Global retail e-commerce is expected to reach $994.5 billion in 2015 and it will only continue to grow. For you and your brand to leverage this powerful market, you need to make sure that your content and marketing efforts are prepared to handle the challenges associated with the international marketplace.

Marco Muijsert, the Global Search Manager for Philips, will be exploring international search and localization along with presenters from several other major international brands. Marco has been largely responsible for building his brand’s search capability around the globe. He will be able to offer attendees incredible insights about how to handle the issues unique to marketing internationally, such as SERPs in the US, EMEA and APAC, translation issues and how to appropriately brand your company across such a variety of different countries and regions. Often, marketing on an international scale requires careful consideration of not only language requirements but also local culture.

Leveraging content to reach audiences

Content provides you with the platform to cover key topics that can get you found through search engines while also helping you build relationships with your customers. It is the cornerstone of any online marketing campaign. Content is also a pressing concern for tech marketers, but many struggle to effectively leverage it. Some of the biggest issues facing tech marketers who want to leverage content marketing include:

• not having enough time to meet goals - listed by 69 percent of marketers
• not being able to produce enough content - listed by 58 percent of marketers
• not producing content that is engaging - listed by 55 percent of marketers

Fortunately, those who implement content marketing are finding success with these techniques. An estimated 62 percent of those who have a documented content marketing strategy have found it to be effective. By learning how to make content development an efficient, company-wide experience, you can rid your brand of much of this stress and see what content marketing has to offer you.

Robert Reneau, the Director of Digital Marketing for Maxim Integrated, will be exploring how to scale content effectively. He and his co-speakers will discuss topics such as building and fine-tuning a content marketing machine. Learn how to build a content-centric culture throughout your organization and how to get everyone involved with the process. Creating this type of culture can be incredibly valuable for making the content development process a fundamental part of your brand. Share15 offers immense value for those who work in the technology hardware industry.

The insights offered from the global brand leaders, like Marco Muijsert and Robert Reneau will have you walking away with new ideas and feeling like this was a well-spent few days. If you have not yet registered for Share15, we invite you to do so now by visiting our events page. We look forward to seeing you there.

Conference Details September 21-23 Westin St. Francis San Francisco, CA.

dpatel

M Posted 10 years 10 months ago

t 9 min read

For those working in the tech software industry, succeeding in search continues to be an ever-pressing concern. Fortunately, 62 percent of tech marketers who have a documented content strategy say that this form of marketing has been effective for them. That is why Share15 will bring together some of the brightest mind in tech marketing to help you dive into the major issues marketing faces in this vertical. We want you to walk away from the event feeling confident in the marketing plan for your brand.

Incorporating analytics and data into marketing

Data-driven content is the key to making sure that your marketing efforts are reaching the intended audience and having the desired impact, but one of the top five problems listed by technology marketers is accurately measuring the effectiveness of content. Although most in the industry recognize the importance of looking at metrics to gauge success, there are many who struggle with implementing the idea. At Share15 there will be several different topics that will focus on addressing data integration and tools.

Jennifer Day, the Senior Director of Demand Generation for Tableau Software, will be one of three speakers addressing about how marketers use data to bolster cross-channel digital marketing strategies. The talk will focus around maximizing ROI by understanding your target audience and how to build an effective cross-channel mix.

Kirill Kronrod, the Senior Global SEO Manager for Adobe, will take data in a slightly different direction and explore content measurement and how to make sure that your content is meeting your performance standards. The presentation will delve into ROI, report value and other critical metrics as well as third-party analytics and ensuring that your content produces the results intended.

Sudhir Sharma, the Director of SEO for Movoto, will contribute through a fascinating conversation about taking data and using it to inform your decision making. This presentation will also discuss using data from 1st and 3rd parties to gain the most accurate picture about the performance of your content marketing.            

Leveraging content production to create effective marketing campaigns

The backbone of any online marketing campaign is high-quality content that meets the needs of the customer. Content, however, does present a number of challenges for tech companies. Sixty nine percent say that a lack of time is a major obstacle for them when it comes to effective online marketing. Producing enough content and making sure that the content is engaging are also noted as significant challenges, with over 50 percent listing them. Share15 will be bringing in several prominent speakers who can help tech marketers learn how to overcome these factors as well.

Allison Fabella, the Director Global SEO for CareerBuilder, will be joining other speakers to discuss scaling content and how to produce it effectively within an organization. The presentation will give you great ideas for building a strong content culture and how to create a collaborative process to facilitate effective content production.

Alex Volk, the Director of Search Marketing for Microsoft, will also be adding insight to the discussion by delving into how organizations can mature in their content production to account for search opportunities. Learn how to achieve maximum efficiency through capturing economies of scale while also carefully monitoring SEO performance.

Content performance does not always apply solely to content on websites, it can also include content for email marketing campaigns. That is why Tyler Altrup, the Senior Sales Consultant for Oracle, and Dave Lawson, the Director of Solution Consulting - North America for Ignition One, will be speaking about effective email marketing and marketing automation.           

Where marketing is going in the future

Marketing capabilities continue to change and adapt as the algorithm updates, customer expectations change as the tools available improve. Keeping up with the rest of the industry, and even getting ahead of the curve, can be a challenge for many tech companies. Fortunately, there will be several different industry professionals who will be offering presentations that will address core issues facing marketers in the upcoming year.

Charmaine Madamba, the Senior Search Marketing Manager from Citrix Systems, and Cindy Phan, the Senior Manager of Digital Marketing Strategy for VMWare, will dive into the subject of the convergence between paid, earned and owned media. As marketers become more sophisticated, it is becoming increasingly more apparent that these three silos need to work together. These speakers will explore how to use holistic strategies and create branded storylines. 2014 has also seen tremendous changes in the Google algorithm, including the famed mobile update. These updates have left countless brands scrambling to make sure their sites were ready. This stressful process has resulted in many marketers asking how they can move beyond the algorithm and stop perpetually responding to updates to avoid massive traffic hits.

Dawna Olsen of Epicor will share insights from a major site update she executed this year and how companies can begin to optimize for their users and get ahead of the curve. The Google mobile update caused quite an uproar when it went live in April 2015. Although people knew that mobile was growing in importance, many had put off the efforts needed to ensure that their websites were mobile-ready. As the importance of mobile continues to grow in the coming years, companies now need to be ready to serve these customers.

Denis Scott, the Senior Director of Acquisition Marketing for OpenTable will be discussing the latest in mobile friendly techniques and how to measure and understand your brand’s mobile performance. Share15 presents incredible opportunities for diving into the hottest topics of conversation with some of the greatest minds in the tech software industry. Exchange ideas, learn and excel in online marketing when you come to this event. We look forward to seeing you at Share15. If you have not registered yet, come visit our event page and learn more about how the conference can help those in the software industry.

Conference Details September 21-23 Westin St. Francis San Francisco, CA