Content Performance Marketing, the sharing of insights and the elevation of personal and professional performance, is central to the Share15 theme this year. Over 60 global brand speakers and 1000 digital, content, and search marketers come together on September 21 – 23 in the heart of San Francisco. As the search, content and digital marketing ecosystems continue to evolve in synergy Erin Everhart, Lead Manager for Digital Marketing - SEO, from Home Depot states:

“Because we consume content in different mediums and because we use so many different media types based on our time of day, device, search query, and maybe even our mood, companies can’t exist on only one channel.”

About Erin Everhart and Home Depot

Erin is speaking on the content marketing track at Share15 on the Demand for Content: People, Personas & Intent session alongside Michael Mothner, CEO of Wpromote and Jesse Farley from Cabela’s. Erin leads the content marketing team in the digital marketing and SEO department at Home Depot. Her primary focus is content optimization and marketing; better leveraging different channels for both onsite and offsite initiatives to increase .com traffic and demand.

Below, Erin shares further insights into how the search landscape has evolved and how the shift from keyword to page performance strategies signify the marriage of search and content performance marketing.

SEO is a different ballgame

BrightEdge (BE): In your opinion, just how much has SEO evolved in recent years?

Erin Everhart (EE): It’s curious, actually, and something I’ve been thinking about more and more as search continues to evolve. You can ask almost anyone and they’ll agree that SEO is a totally different ballgame, if not a completely different sport, today than what it was 10, even 5 years ago. The tactics used today are completely different. I think a large part of that change is attributed to Google. It is becoming much more sophisticated at being able to spot the sites that aim to manipulate their algorithm. Search Engine Watch did a really great write-up of the history of Matt Cutts’ (and by transitive property, Google’s) stance on SEO. Points that were made in the early 2000s are the same things being said now, albeit replacing PageRank with Domain Authority. For example:

• 2002 - “ranking individual pages based on the number and the importance of the pages linked to them.”
• 2002 – “stay away from hidden text, hidden links, cloaking, sneaky redirects, lots of duplicate content on different domains and doorway pages.”
• 2003 – He was one of the inventors on Google’s patent that said it adjusted rankings based on how often a page is clicked, if the page had newer content, traffic and link weight.
• 2004 – “Thematic incoming links from authority sites carry more weight than on-page optimization.”

The point being that maybe SEO hasn’t really changed all that much in the past 10 years; Google has just gotten better at spotting the spam, forcing the old black hat SEOs to legitimize their tactics.

Page performance strategies are a new priority

BE: How important is page performance compared to keyword strategies in a Secure Search World?

EE: Just using keyword strategies doesn’t work too well because they’re often far too granular and really only encompass a small sliver of the landscape. Just think about the number of keywords out there and then the number of keyword variations out there that people use. One keyword is not indicative into how all of your users come to your site; it’s a fraction of a fraction of your potential customer base. Page performance strategies allow you to have a good viewpoint of both how people are getting to your site and what they’re doing once they get there, which ultimately you need both if you’re going to make a successful website. Just as you want your keyword to match your pages content, you also need to match up the intent of both the query and the page itself. Think - What’s the purpose? Transactional? Informational? Inspiration? Ranking a transactional page for an informational keyword is only going to bring you high bounce rates and annoyed users, who have already exited your site and found what they’re looking for on one of your competitors.

Content and SEO – “one cohesive bubble”

BE: What is your viewpoint and subsequent approach to leveraging SEO and content together?

EE: You have to view content and SEO in one cohesive bubble. Search can, and should, be helping drive what content you produce; content can, and should, be one of the key entry points for your users that helps move them through the buying journey. Content comes from a lot of different places, and there’s probably not one person in your organization who owns all the content. So, not only do you need to have writers embedded directly on your SEO team and everyone on your SEO team should have a content-first mentality, but you (as the SEO) need to ingrain yourself within the other teams who produce content. For example, social media, PR, email and web teams. Those will be some of the best relationships you can manage, making sure they understand how their actions impact SEO but more importantly, how you (as the SEO) can make their job easier and help them achieve their KPIs more efficiently.

Converged media – multi-channel marking versus omni-channel strategy

BE: What role does digital play in the convergence of media, search and content strategies?

EE: I don’t really view it as a convergence because I don’t think digital marketing can or could have ever existed without some form of content. They’re not interchangeable terms — content is used in digital marketing; digital marketing distributes the content — but there wasn’t a time when we marketed without content. That’s all marketing, not just digital. Content consumption has grown massively just by the sheer number of ways we, as users, can access it, but that content has to be distributed somehow. Because we consume content in different mediums and because we use so many different media types based on our time of day, device, search query, and maybe even our mood, companies can’t exist on only one channel. However, it’s not enough to just be active across all channels; that is a multi-channel marketing strategy. You have to make sure your messaging is aligned across all channels, and more importantly, they’re all working together to achieve the common business goal; that’s an omni-channel strategy.

“If multi-channel is each medium having its own swim line, omni-channel is one giant pool party."

How to take advantage of the Share15 networking opportunity

BE: What advice can you give share attendees in order for them to make the most out of their Share15 experience?

EE: Take advantage of every networking opportunity given to you at Share15, even if that’s coffee or a quick lunch. At Share15, you never know whom you’re going to meet and having that strong network of leading industry peers to bounce ideas off of is critical in this industry.

Join Erin and your digital marketing peers at Share15 and become part of the industry leading digital marketing community run by digital marketers for digital marketers.

Early bird pricing closes on July 31, so we would strongly advise you to sign up and take advantage of this rate.

Capacity is limited. Register here. 

As the VP of Channel Marketing for Ancestry.com, Mark Fiske understands the art of an integrated campaign. He is in charge of leading the television, display, search, mobile, content and social acquisition programs - helping to build the brand across all channels. Mark is an experienced lecturer at a variety of ecommerce and marketing events, including Share, and we are excited to have him speak again at our industry-leading event Share15 in just a few weeks. Ancestry.com has recently upgraded to the BrightEdge platform and we enjoy working with him and his team. We took a few minutes to sit down and discuss the changes we have seen in the industry and gather some insights about what he will present at Share.

The Enterprise SEO talent gap

BrightEdge (BE): What key trends and challenges have you noticed in the SEO industry lately?

Mark Fiske (MF): I have noticed that it has been remarkably challenging to find talented SEOs. Many people and businesses are interested in the quick fixes. If they are specialized in SEO, then they know how to game the system and see short term results. Others prefer to focus on other areas of marketing where it is easy to see results quickly and efficiently. Finding people who understand not only how to build a long-term campaign but also have the right mix of product, marketing and development background that can create the necessary campaign for an enterprise organization can be a real struggle for many brands.

The content development shift

BE: What trends have you noticed in the industry overall?

MF: There seems to have been a shift in how businesses and marketers look at their content development. In the past, it was viewed more as a link page or the opportunity to rank for different keywords. Lately, people have been paying more attention to their relationship with their customers. They are leveraging their content as an opportunity to capture people’s attention and bring in new visitors. I also believe that producing high-quality content regularly is the best way to actually encourage external link building and development. If you want to attract high-quality links you have to produce the high-quality material that will attract the desired attention. It will allow you to catch the eye of the influencers and get them to share your content and securing the reach.

The Ancestry.com and BrightEdge partnership

BE: It has been great having the opportunity to work with you and Ancestry.com. Why do you like working with BE?

MF: I have found that in SEO, you need every possible advantage. Every 2% here and 3% there can deliver the changes you need to see to accomplish your goals. The BrightEdge content performance platform is a fantastic source of the valuable data that we need to make the necessary adjustments. To succeed in SEO, you need to play the long game-- you need to be able to look down the road and see how your changes can positively impact the brand reputation and result in more leads and sales. It is not as much of a dollar-in-dollar-out game that paid options are, but the potential for long term results and great ROI once the campaign gets off the ground is incredible.BrightEdge technology helps to make that possible.

Mark Fiske at Share15 – attribution untangled

BE: What are you planning on speaking about with the attendees?

MF: I will be speaking about practical approaches to attribution modelling that apply to the front lines. It is my job to make sure that everything is working together towards a common goal, and attribution is key to that. This valuable experience in integrated marketing gives me the insight to hopefully create an informative and engaging presentation that will help attendees better understand how to make integrated marketing work for them. I find that front-line marketers often find attribution modelling and how it applies to their jobs on a daily basis to be confusing. I hope to help them understand what an attribution model is and how they can build their desired model. Not only do I want them to walk away feeling confident in the idea of an attribution model, I want them to be able to see how they can leverage the idea to actually see results in their jobs.

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

MF: I have been working with the BrightEdge platform for a while now and I have been excited about the capabilities that I have found so far. I think Share15 will be an excellent opportunity to learn about more of the latest technology and capabilities as well as a chance to network with some of the greatest minds in the industry. It should be an exciting few days.

We always enjoy speaking with Mark about Share and about the marketing industry. We look forward to seeing him in less than two months at the event. Come join us!

Early bird pricing only lasts until July 31, so register today.

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

Take our digital marketing quiz to test your knowledge.

Towards the end of April, numerous site owners began reporting a disruption in their traffic, leading many experienced in the industry to suspect an algorithm update. Since there was no official message about changes, the update was quickly termed the Phantom II update (the first being an update that occurred back in 2013). The update was later confirmed by Google in mid-May. The impacted sites included major brands, such as LinkedIn, which reported an estimated 15 percent drop after the roll out. Although the information from Google itself has been limited, marketers have been working to analyze the results of the changes to identify the targets of this update and what all site owners should know to avoid being penalized by the change.

What the Phantom II update sought to correct

When Phantom II’s impact was first noticed by site owners, many mistakenly believed it to be a Panda update. This was because both updates seemed to focus heavily on the quality of the content on the website. A few weeks after Phantom II was first noticed, Gary Illyes admitted that the update was a change in how the algorithm interprets quality signals. Google has also said that the update was going to be impacting individual pages and not entire domains. Here are a few key factors that industry professionals agree led to Phantom II penalties.

• Poor content
• Technical problems
• Design and appearance

1. Poor content. Poor content can create an awful user experience. The Phantom II update sought specifically to weed out thin and duplicate content. For example, many sites that contain large amounts of user generated content, which often includes a considerable amount of duplicate content, saw a large drop in rankings. That includes the popular site HubPages, that indicated that they had experienced a significant drop in traffic.

The attempts to weed out duplicate content also hurt major brands like LinkedIn, which often contains duplicate user generated content, such as on their company pages. Poor content can similarly include information that is difficult to digest or does not really address the point that the user is likely looking to answer. This thin content adds little value for the user and serves more as a placeholder than an attempt to engage and convert consumers.

2. Technical problems. Sites that are not functioning correctly, such as those with error message or those that do not properly load were also negatively impacted by the Phantom II update. These sites can hurt the user experience by making it difficult for people to find the information they seek. Considering that adding just one extra second of load time can decrease conversions by 7 percent, it is clear that customers do not appreciate sites that have been poorly constructed and exhibit latency.

3. Design and appearance. Websites that have not remained up-to-date on website advancements and continue to have designs that appear more spammy or less user friendly have also been hit by the update. The appearance and the ease of navigation impacts how well people can find and interact with content on the site. If you have fantastic content, but the site looks too spammy, then no one will be taking it seriously and they will not feel comfortable trusting you. Google recognized this problem and sought to correct it.

Protect websites from traffic losses or correct past damage

The key to weathering the phantom update is to focus on quality. We recommend rereading Google’s recommendations following the Panda update, which also focused on quality. In the post, Google reminds site owners to ask themselves questions, such as:

• Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
• Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
• Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark share with a friend or recommend?

These types of questions will provide you with guidance about how well a piece of content adheres to Google’s quality standards. We also recommend that you consider the following steps:

1. Use traffic tracking platforms, like BrightEdge to look for any changes in traffic patterns around the end of April and beginning of May. If there has been a drop, this is likely due to the Phantom update and you need to examine your page and the content to see what might have caused the problem.

2. Look carefully at your user signals across your site. Even if you have not been impacted by this Phantom II update, it is clear that Google has been placing an increased emphasis on content that is both valuable and relevant. You want to look at data, such as bounce rates, to determine the content that is resonating most with your readers and what is not having much of an impact. The content that is not achieving the desired result should be updated to Google’s quality standards.

3. Work on increasing the depth of your content. Thin content has been the target of several updates, including this one. Work on creating material that does not just skim over a topic or state the obvious but actually dives deep into the material and offers insight and analysis. Make sure your content is worth reading. As you develop rich content, you will find that the ability to add in keywords increases naturally, so be sure to maximize this opportunity with tools like the BrightEdge Data Cube and track it with logic from Data Quant. Our Data Cube makes it easy for you to analyze demand, keywords, and what content your competitors are having success with.

4. Watch your layouts and designs to make sure they are user friendly. Do not let your site become dominated by ads. Make sure that your design has been updated to be user- friendly and trustworthy and not spammy in appearance.

5. If you have any errors in your site, such as 404 errors, get rid of them immediately. Correct any internal links that lead to pages that are now missing so that your site can be easily navigated.

The Phantom update from Google took many websites by surprise, impacting even major brands like HubPages. If you found yourself suddenly losing traffic as well, you were not imagining things. Rather than trying to rectify the situation by adjusting minor technical issues on your site, you need to focus on the big Content Performance Marketing picture and produce the high-quality, valuable content that Google and more importantly your users want to see.  

As the Director of Marketing, Sudhir Sharma is an experienced expert in the field of traffic acquisition. He and his team spend their time driving traffic to the Movoto site and find new ways to excel in the digital marketing ecosystem. Sudhir regularly blogs at the BrightEdge website and you can check out some of his latest thoughts here. Sudhir connected with us the other day to speak about the upcoming Share conference and we were excited to get his insights about the industry and the upcoming event.

All about Share15

BrightEdge (BE): What will you be speaking about at Share?

Sudhir Sharma (SS): While I am still finalizing the content of my presentation, I look forward to bringing some valuable insight about technical SEO and how it relates to content. At Movoto we have the luxury of using data to support our SEO efforts, but for many new, as well as many smaller companies, it can be a real challenge to allocate resources for traffic acquisitions. You have to figure out how to appropriately structure a team, how to leverage content and optimize it, how to determine if content is helping and in what areas - it can be difficult. You have to find the right vendors that can align with your company’s expectations. I hope to use my presentation to offer valuable insights for these companies so they can understand how to make content optimization work for them.

BE: Why should attendees be sure not to miss your session?

SS: The internet is becoming increasingly saturated with content and information, and businesses have to find a way to rise above that constant chatter. It does not do any good to fill your website with content and not take the time to measure it so that you can see what works and what does not work. I think my presentation will be very valuable for those trying to learn how to maximize their resources and receive the attention they need to make digital marketing work for their brand.

Talking shop

BE: Have you read any good business books or blogs this year that you would recommend to others?

SS: I would highly recommend Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry, Jean Greaves and Tom Parks. I believe that to be an effective leader in any field, you cannot rely on just your own industry knowledge. Instead, you have to understand how to build your team and help them work towards a common goal. You have to be able to think emotionally intelligent and use that insight to structure your team. This book offers great information about how to effectively lead and has benefitted me countless times. In addition to reading that book, I also regularly read online publications like SearchEngineWatch and SearchEngineJournal. The writers there tend to be fantastic and it is a great way to remain updated on the industry.

BE: Can you name one marketing tactic that you have been meaning to try but have not had the chance to?

SS: I would love to try leveraging a link-building team. Backlinks can be so valuable for SEO purposes and establishing the credibility of your site. Using a strong link-building team can help you improve your ranking and drive more traffic.

BE: What interesting industry experiences have you had lately?

SS: At Movoto, we actually have a number of members of our engineering team in Shanghai. I am regularly speaking with them and traveling to meet with them to teach them how to work with Google. We often hit a major gap between these Chinese employees and our workers back here in the States just because of all the restrictions on Google and search engines in China. It provides us with a host of challenges that we are regularly working to overcome.

About BrightEdge

BE: What do you like most about the BE platform?

SS: The BrightEdge platform is an excellent source of the valuable data that I use to grow my content campaigns. It helps me make sure that everything is on track. I have worked with BrightEdge for a while and I look forward to learning more about the platform and the latest capabilities in just a few weeks at Share15!

We look forward to speaking more with Sudhir and the rest of the Share15 presenters this September. To make sure you do not miss out on the excitement, networking and learning, register now.

Early Bird pricing ends July 31!

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

Share15 is just weeks away, and we have found that the timing could not be more critical to the success of marketers across the country. The statistics that have been coming in have been extraordinary.

• By 2020 there will be an estimated 44 trillion gigabytes of online data available. Compare that to just 4.4 trillion gigabytes in 2013. Much of that increase will be fueled by the creation of content by professionals.
• According to IBM, an estimated 90 percent of the content available today has been produced in just the past 2 years.
• An estimated 83 percent of brands now use content marketing to market their business and influence their online image-- even if they do not have a documented strategy in place

These statistics mean that the Internet is now extremely saturated with content. If you want to stand out, you have to be equipped with the right tools and experience. Share15 will help brands understand how to make their content break through and generate results. The logos below represent a fraction of the brands speaking at Share15.

“No conference today has assembled such concentration of search and digital marketers from big brands and that’s a very compelling proposition.” -Alex Edlund of Marriott

About Share

At Share we plan on offering three tracks: Content, Digital, and Search. Each of these groups has their own special concerns about how to succeed in the world of digital marketing. Share works to build a strong community among the attendees so that they can learn how to improve their own jobs and success.

“Share14 was extremely valuable for the team and enjoyable for all of us. The speakers and content were first-rate as was the networking and hospitality.” - Adobe Systems

[embed]http://videos.brightedge.com/share15/share15-testimonials.mp4[/embed] The conference will bring together some of the greatest industry minds and over 1,000 experienced marketers in the heart of San Francisco for exciting and engaging presentations, excellent opportunities for networking and the chance to grow as a professional.

What makes Share so unique

There are numerous conferences held each year, but Share captures attention because it takes the experience of attendee to the next level. Rather than just being a passive listener to different presentations, we work to create an experience where you are an active participant. We will introduce lab sessions where you can work on your own laptop in small groups and practice implementing all the new information. You will learn more about the industry-leading BrightEdge platform and how to use the different tools to maximize your content marketing strategy. BrightEdge technology includes some of the foremost advancements in analytics and data collection, including the Data Cube, which allows you to gather information on a massive scale about keyword performance, search and how your site measures up to the competition and demand. You will gain training and experience so that you can take these tools and achieve marketing success long after the conference closes its doors.

“Every industry has an ‘inner circle.’ Share is it for SEO and Content Marketing” - Majestic

1. Content marketers. Content marketers understand the urgent need to produce content that will resonate with the desired audience. At Share15 you will learn about and produce effective and relevant content. You will also learn about collaborating across teams and departments to create this important material and how to integrate the content production across multiple channels.

2. Digital marketers. Those on the digital marketing track will learn about better managing their different channels. A successful campaign will be able to integrate the different channels and align them with business goals. You will also delve into revenue and how to demonstrate ROI. Feel free to test your knowledge with BrightEdge Digital Marketing Quiz or SEO Quiz.

3. Search professionals. Search marketing becomes increasingly precise and sophisticated with each passing year. At Share, you will explore the latest algorithm changes and how to make sure your site remains compliant with the latest algorithm changes. You will delve into data analysis and how to effectively measure ROI. Explore different data tools and see first hand how they can help you solve your own marketing challenges. The fantastic day sessions will only be matched by our entertaining evenings.

The parties and events held during the evening hours will provide you with optimal opportunities to speak with industry leaders from global brands and experts who have been in the industry from the beginning. The network and peer-to-peer sharing opportunities promise to add even more to the conference and make it one to remember. The online marketing industry continues to change at lightning speed.

Google and the major search engines regularly update their algorithms, the Internet has become increasingly saturated with content and marketers must learn how to get themselves noticed. Share15 offers professionals the opportunity to convene, brainstorm and learn together. Take an active role in enhancing your career. Network, work out problems and learn with representatives from global brands.

Tickets Are Selling Fast Take advantage of our early bird special pricing before July 31 and receive the incredible value of Share15 for even less.

Conference details September 21-23, 2015 Westin St. Francis San Francisco, CA We hope to see you there 

Last week the Share15 team managed to catch up with Alex Edlund, Director of Global Search, at Marriott International for an exclusive interview on the digital revolution at Marriott. As part of the Share15 interview series Alex shares insights into how advancements in technology and user behavior have forced companies to rethink how to best structure and operationalize their marketing organizations. Alex is the Global Director, Search Marketing for Marriott International where he oversees performance-marketing initiatives for more than 4000+ properties worldwide.

Since 1927, when the journey began, Marriott has only had three CEOs. Marriott operates more than 4000 hotels in 70 countries and employs roughly 150,000 people around the world. The Marriott search marketing team manages multiple agencies across the world, responsible for growing search visibility in a multi-billion dollar channel.

The search landscape – search engines in the travel industry

BE: How much has the search landscape changed over the last year?

AE: Search engines are increasingly successful in delivering a single platform experience for your content needs. The travel industry has seen a great change in how consumers behave in search with a growing number of users clicking on links that keep them in search engines. This has many implications-- both for users and companies. We are noticing organic click share decrease as ad space grows and Google Hotel Ads are seeing much stronger integration and click share than ever. As a company we need to understand and act on these trends to ensure we remain competitive in growing search visibility.

BE: What has had the biggest impact for you at Marriott?

AE: The on-going shift in consumer behavior cross-device must serve as the largest impact to how we measure and engage with people. Not only does it force us to rethink attribution, it also drives design and delivery of mobile first experiences that serves content differently. The opportunity to deliver relevant messaging is greater than ever, but there’s also a great challenge in executing that relevance in an increasingly complex environment.

BE: How do you see the space evolving over the next year– what should marketers look out for?

AE: Marketers need to understand that your data strategy is everything to the success of your marketing efforts. Your marketing decisions need to be informed by a model that routinely finds and influences the right consumers in the right moment irrespective of channel. Companies who employ sophisticated data capture, integration, and modeling practices and use this data programmatically will thrive.

BE: What tips can you share on adapting to rapid change in the market?

AE: Advancements in technology and user behavior force companies to rethink how to best structure and operationalize their marketing organization. Gone are the days of channel teams and last-click attribution. Additionally, listen and empower your customers and build trust and loyalty through authenticity. Traditional branding practices are not effective in today’s transparent world. Companies who understand that the power of balance has shifted are equipped to win. Find a way to let consumers advocate on your behalf.

The search, content, and digital media revolution

BE: How are you aligning your content and search optimization efforts?

AE: The two are inextricably linked through goal alignment, injecting SEO visibility into content marketing efforts, and using search insights to shape content calendars.

BE: How critical is measurement of content in your organization?

AE: Marriott has gone through a digital revolution with the establishment of a massive 65-person in-house content studio, MLive, our social media hub and content marketers in every corner. Over the last six months we’ve produced a wealth of content projects such as “Two Bellmen,” “French Kiss,” Marriott Traveler and working together with influencers. Our goal is to become the Red Bull of travel, the world’s favorite travel company and to get there we need cutting-edge measurement. We employ a series of analytics tools to understand what content drives visibility in search, social media, and beyond.

Content marketing and the brand vehicle

BE: Tell me more about your view on the convergence of content and digital marketing.

AE: Content marketing is the new branding vehicle. We connect with our customers by sharing stories that they can relate with and aspire to experience. While our goal remain to put "heads in beds," we must never forget that we are a travel company, and people seek all forms of content to inspire travel. When we talk about native advertising or the idea of using unique and compelling content to win the hearts, minds, and wallets of next generation customers, that starts with great content and digital marketing exposes and amplifies that content to a larger audience. In the last year, no major content project at Marriott has gone without the support of a paid distribution plan, and I suspect we’ll continue that way for a long time ahead. Consumers want information and a reason to care, and today’s successful content marketing builds brand affinity through storytelling.

The orchestration of paid, owned, and earned media

BE: What are the challenges and what advice can you give the audience about the convergence of paid, owned and earned media?

AE: It takes time and orchestration among several, sometimes disparate, groups of people from various departments with different stakes in the game. It’s time-consuming and labor-intensive with all the required orchestration. You’re creating a micro-symphony and if you get it right, you can make substantial impact. If you get it wrong, nothing happens. So, create multiple scenarios with contingency plans to hedge your bets.

Marriott session at Share15

AE: My session covers the previous question about the challenges and insights that we at Marriott gained from a recent project that brought several groups together to create an experience that would lift and shift the perception of Marriott as a travel company. This involved utilizing paid, owned, and earned media to offer a unique experience to our next gen customers.

The Marriott and BrightEdge partnership

BE: Could you tell the audience a little more about how you use BrightEdge and how the platform helps you achieve your business objectives? AE: Data transparency has been a real issue for search marketers for quite some time now. BrightEdge fills a strategic role in Marriott’s search marketing strategy in driving high-impact decisions through content and search insights. The BrightEdge Data Cube is a tremendous technology that gives Marriott insights and captures missed opportunities. The Data Cube continues to be an extremely valuable capability. BrightEdge makes me smarter.

About Share15 – the high concentration of digital and search marketers

BE: Why Share – why do you attend?

AE: ‘Share15’ has evolved greatly over a short span of time. No conference today has assembled such concentration of search and digital marketers from big brands and that’s a very compelling proposition. I want to hear and learn about innovation in our space from individuals in companies similar to Marriott. I am really looking forward to the connections and conversations sparked by like-minded people from all over the world.

More about Alex

Alex is Swedish-born and raised. He met his wife in Spain in 2004 and moved to Las Vegas four years later, where he made a career in digital marketing. Alex joined the largest family in hospitality a year ago to run Marriott’s search marketing program. He lives in Bethesda, MD, with his wife and two kids, age four and two. A soccer fan and keen traveler don’t be surprised if you find Alex singing ABBA in a karaoke bar.

Share15 – join the digital marketing community

 This year Share15 is even bigger and better with over 60 speakers from an envious collection of the world’s leading brands. In fact, no other conference compares to Share with regard to:

1. Concentration of quality brands and thought leaders at Share15
2. Focus on delivery of insights and actionable takeaways
3. Zero tolerance on sales pitches
4. Attendee profiles across search, content and digital marketing

Space is limited so register now to avoid disappointment. #Share 15 @brightedge

Meet Eric Enge

As a professional who has worked in SEO since 2002, Eric Enge has seen his share of industry changes. He now serves as the CEO of Stone Temple Consulting and is the lead author for The Art of SEO, which will be released for its 3rd Edition by O’Reilly Media in August 2015.

The 50-person Stone Temple Consulting agency works with some of the world’s largest brands and truly practices what they preach. They bring in their clients exclusively through their content marketing strategies - there is no sales team! Eric will be attending and speaking at Share for the first time this year and is excited to rub shoulders with some of the greatest minds in the industry.

Getting together so many advanced and experienced marketers promises to provide everyone in attendance with fantastic learning and networking opportunities. Eric and BrightEdge sat down to discuss the upcoming conference as well as the changing digital landscape and how companies can get noticed.

About Share

BrightEdge (BE) We are excited to hear about your presentation at Share. Tell us more about it.

Eric Enge (EE): I am going to present on the evolution of the digital and SEO professional (or the SEO team) and what it takes to be successful in today’s environment. My talk will illustrate how a successful SEO program contains many different elements that must work together to successfully get content in front of the appropriate audience. At the heart of the talk will be some ideas about how to pull together an organization or develop a personal strategy that will help you deliver outstanding results while also minimizing potential disruption from future Google algorithm changes.

In my experience, it’s best to stay focused on your customer. Yes, you need to be smart about what Google is doing as well as the mechanics and limitations of search engines. Your primary priority, however, should always be on your customers and how to create a superior experience for them. That is what Google wants to rank highest anyway, so by making this your chief focus you will be prepared for future Google shifts. I plan on exploring these and other ideas to a much deeper degree so that people can walk away with a firm idea about how they can create a strong, lasting content strategy.

BE: What advice can you give share attendees in order for them to make the most out of their Share15 experience?

EE: Pick out the people you really want to hear speak (pick me, pick me!) and make a point of putting aside the time in your calendar to see their presentations. Then, take advantage of networking opportunities to meet some new people and perhaps forge some new partnerships.

About the industry

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

EE: Google will continue pushing towards building the Star Trek computer. That means they will expand their computing capacity, continue to experiment with more rich-answer boxes and continue to add more structured databases of information. You will see more progress on this during the coming year. You will also see more action against various types of spam as well. Perhaps more doorway updates, a Panda or Penguin update, etc. I’d also expect that the mobile update will see a major revision before the year’s end.

BE: How are you aligning your content and search optimization efforts?

EE:The search world and the role of the web is now highly integrated. Content on your site plays a direct role in bringing links to your site and establishing your overall authority. Content measurement is also the primary driver of growth for our business and we take it extremely seriously. Measurement allows you to gauge the success of your efforts and helps you fine tune your campaigns so that you can see continuous results over time. At the same time, one of the biggest challengers for marketers is finding a way to stay above the noise. The sheer amount of content being produced now means that for your content to attract attention it has to be meaningful and it has to be helpful.

Generic, uninspired content is not going to cut it any more. You need to choose your channels wisely and pick the ones where a large percentage of your target audience spends time- for both your paid and owned strategies. Creating differentiated content and distributing it through the right channels will help you get the most earned media results.

About BrightEdge

BE: How do you work with BrightEdge?

EE: We get fantastic competitive analysis data from BrightEdge. We use this valuable insight on our client’s behalf to help them see results from their content campaigns. Our clients use the BE platforms to collect key data points, such as Share of Voice measurement, to perform Content Optimization and much more. We use the data to tune the digital marketing strategies we put in place for our clients.

The fun stuff

Did you know that Eric was the 1984 World Champion in Foosball? It was in an event known as Goale War. He also won the US National Championship in 1985. Foosball at Share15 for a beer anyone? Anyone? Eric promises to deliver an engaging and informative presentation at Share15 this September.

We look forward to speaking more with him about the industry and the future of digital marketing in just a few weeks.

If you have not signed up yet to participate in this exciting conference, there is just a short time left to take advantage of the Early Bird Special! Early Bird pricing ends July 31.

Share15 Details September 21-23 Westin St. Francis San Francisco, CA We hope to see you there! 

Brand new products are unveiled every day — and many of them fall short. In fact, up to 95 percent of the new products introduced each year are ultimately unsuccessful. That’s a lot of time, money and relationships wasted. The reality is that consumers today demand near perfection, and with so much innovation occurring in and outside of Silicon Valley on a daily basis, we’ve all been spoiled in receiving it. But what happens when a new product doesn’t measure up? It’s a quick road to obsolescence for one reason: customers don’t value it.

The key to building a successful product ultimately lies in delivering value to your customers — not once, but repeatedly. In an era of almost complete transparency, customer satisfaction and feedback has never been more accessible or more essential. Every company should be focused on leveraging customer relationships to drive product development priorities. Tapping into honest, insightful feedback is key to understanding what delivers value, drives business success and ultimately becomes essential to any customer’s work. Here’s how we do it at BrightEdge:

Build a circle of trust for customer satisfaction

The first step to leveraging customer relationships is to start listening. No matter the size or industry of your customers, they all have a monumental importance in finding your own product success. Their willingness, dedication and honesty in offering product feedback are key to future innovation — so listen closely and respectfully. Take their hang-ups, difficulties and feedback seriously and identify the big issues that plague the larger group. If you’re looking for complete honesty, be prepared to hear it, and make your customers feel safe in giving whatever feedback they have. It’s all constructive in the end. At BrightEdge, we’re lucky enough to have developed powerful relationships with our customers — and we continue striving to strengthen these relationships every day (we even won an award for it!). We know that a huge part of finding success as a company lies in customer relationship management, so we work to empower our product managers with time to meet and get to know the businesses we serve. Building relationships starts with trust, so we prioritize building it with customers before expecting intellectually honest feedback.

Nice-to-haves won't change the world

As an expert on your product — and your industry — it’s up to you to understand what your customers need as opposed to what they think they need. However, it’s also important to remember that surface-level necessities might be symptoms of deeper, more complicated problems that need solving. And the distinction between those lies in two questions.

The first: Will your product help the customer satisfied and successful? Whether that’s in their relationships, their profits or their overall business results, customer success (and satisfaction) is what keeps your business growing. However, you’re not just in business to answer every customer’s whim — presumably, you’re looking to innovate on a larger scale.

So, that begs an important second question: Can your customers live or work without your product? Whether a product helps each of your individual customers succeed or not, this answer must inarguably be “no.” While building an indispensable product naturally takes time, Salesforce or Oracle didn’t get where they are by creating a suite of nice-to-haves. Optional technology is simply not enough to support business results and to renew customers year after year. We pay close attention to how our customers value our products, and we take note of the results of their product usage.

If enough of our customers identify the same issue, we know it’s a priority item. The problems worth solving are the ones that directly affect how our customers work, and we know that solving them is what keeps our customers loyal. We’re deeply invested in the success of our customers and customer satisfaction as a collective, which is why we’re inviting them all to be a part of Share15, the leading digital marketing event of the year. Join us in San Francisco this year to learn how best to leverage BrightEdge technology as well as to hear from industry experts on how to optimize success in marketing.