Digital marketing requires analytical skill, creativity and ability to learn new platforms and tools to manage and optimize marketing campaigns and programs. But, how do you acquire the skills that would make you more attractive to an employer? Along the same theme of knowledge, people need to know how, when and in what ways to use these different methods of acquiring, analyzing, and implementing that data into revenue-driving actions. In marketing, taking a data-driven approach is more important than ever, and the approach is constantly changing.

To quantify this, Georgetown University predicts that as the profession becomes more technical, specialized, and strategic, “significant growth is projected for market research analysts and marketing specialists...Specifically, demand for market research analysts will increase 41% through 2020” (much faster than average growth for other functions” US Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s a lot of job opportunity. So, how do you make sure that you and your team members are staying up-to-date to implement a successful buyer's journey? Or, as a soon-to-be/recent college graduate, how do you enable yourself to be an attractive prospect for employers?

If you just spent tens of thousands or more on an undergraduate degree over 4 years, it’s more than likely you didn’t major in SEO, Google Analytics, or Facebook (well, not officially). So how do you get a job in an industry comprised of specific vertical functions run on data and the understanding of each? Especially when unemployment rates are increasing relative to the decreasing levels of education one has (see chart below). There’s a lot of questions. But, consider the graph above--it displays a clear correlation between two things:

1. The amount of education is directly tied to the amount of money made.
2. The amount of education you have is inversely related to the rate of unemployment.

As you acquire escalating levels of academic credentials, statistics show that your salary and chances of job security will rise accordingly. In regards to the world of digital marketing, there are ways to arm yourself against job insecurity as well as increase your hireability, chances at a promotion or a new career direction with a higher salary ceiling. Namely, there are a variety of certifications specifically in Digital Marketing from accredited, 4-year educational institution. So, yes, in a way you can study digital marketing at a four-year university. Though these programs vary in content, pricing and prerequisites, they provide any degree earner with recognized knowledge in digital marketing subjects, an association with institutions of varying levels of academic and social prestige and a statistically favorable increase in hireability/promotability. Digital

Marketing 101

From private to public schools, large research university to state school, below is a list and brief overview of a few different major universities that offer digital marketing-specific ‘degrees’ or advanced certifications. *To note: I didn’t hand-pick these schools out. In the spirit of fairness and SEO, I searched for “online digital marketing courses universities” and picked the first 5. If nothing else, these schools practice what they preach. NYU Type: Certificate Total Cost: ~$4,125 Cost Per Course: $825 - $1995 Total Courses Required: 5 Prerequisites: None Time to Complete: Varies The NYU School of Professional Studies is built for and around professionals looking to “staying abreast of the cutting-edge trends and developments in your field.” They offer two programs both can be completed online or in-person:

• Certificate in Digital Analytics

o    “Upon completion of the certificate program, students are able to: analyze and use the data generated by digital analytics reporting tools to map back to business objectives”

• Certificate in Digital Marketing

o      Offers courses like “Digital Strategies for Marketing” covering an introduction to “using digital channels for inbound marketing and the development and use of digital marketing as a core strategy in the marketing plan” and “Applying Social Media Analytics” to “explore the most effective strategies for evaluating and monetizing captured data that determines consumer insights.” Georgetown Type: Certificate Total Cost: ~$5,370 Cost Per Course: $895 Total Courses Required: 6 Prerequisites:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent
• 3-5 years of experience in a position in the public, private, or non-profit sector
• “Participants should have fundamental marketing skills”

Time to Complete: within 2 years Georgetown’s Certificate in Digital Marketing includes four required courses such as “Web and Mobie Design & Usability” and “Advanced Marketing Analytics & Reporting” plus two Elective classes for a total of 10.8 “Continuing Education Units (CEUs).” University of Phoenix Type: Certificate (undergraduate) Total Cost: $10,980 + books & supplies (est. $810) Cost Per Course: Not specified Total Courses Required: 9 Prerequisites: Unsure Time to Complete: ~8 months University of Phoenix’s Digital Marketing Certificate (undergraduate) is run through the School of Business. It is offered online and for a complete course list, their descriptions, and the general program outline visit here. University of San Francisco USF offers three different types of certification programs with varying degrees of advanced methodology, cost and time commitment. But, all programs are 100% online, which also means 24/7 access.

• Advanced Professional Certificate in Internet Marketing (3 course series)

o    Total Cost: $4,955 o    Time to Complete: Unknown o    Who’s it for?

• “This dynamic, multi-course series is especially beneficial for professionals in traditional or interactive marketing agencies and corporate marketing departments...And for those looking to change jobs, this credential can open the door to an exciting and rewarding career.”
• Advanced Specialized Certificates (6 individual courses)

o    Total Cost: $1,980 o    Time to Complete: 8 weeks o    Courses Offered:

• Advanced Social Media
• Advanced Digital Analytics
• Advanced Email Marketing
• Advanced Affiliate Marketing
• Advanced Mobile Marketing
• Advanced Search Engine Marketing
• Specialized Mini Courses (8 individual, instant access courses)

o    Total Cost: $699 o    Time to Complete: 4 weeks access o    Other Details:

• Downloadable Certificate of Completion
• Direct access to industry experts (facilitation)

Cal State Fullerton Type: Digital Marketing Certificate Total Cost:

• California Residents: ~$3,048 + misc. fees
• Non-California Residents: ~$5,814

Cost Per Course:

• California Residents: $254/unit
• Non-California Residents: ~$626/unit

Total Courses Required: 6 Prerequisites: None Time to Complete: 4-6 weeks/course; whole program ~10+ months One interesting thing to note, during the course you will be “working with a mock company from start to finish developing real-world digital marketing plans.” The entirety of the course includes 120 hours of lecture equating to about 4-5 hours per week. Also note that non-California residents may only only enroll in the program if their state recognizes CSUF as a provider. Further information can be found here. These are not the entirety of digital marketing certificates offered by 4-year universities. Other notable programs include those from Duke University and Wharton at University of Pennsylvania, and there are many more programs at accredited universities like these. “I would be more likely to interview a candidate with a digital marketing certificate than a similar one who studied business or marketing generally.

Most university programs do not teach concrete tactical digital marketing skills. It would be even stronger if the person has applied those skills in any corporate or personal role, like a small business, which they could discuss and demo in the interview process. Knowing specific marketing platform tools is a huge plus,” says Erik Newton, the senior director of demand generation at BrightEdge.

At the end of the day, earning one of these certificates at any of the aforementioned schools gives you a leg up on most other job applicants, provides you with real-world and applicable hands-on experience to digital marketing practices and grants you credibility or affiliation with said university. Who knows, the knowledge you gain and the added educational degree you receive could lead to your next raise, job or opportunity! Take our digital marketing quiz to test your knowledge.

In its 2015 State of Marketing survey of more than 5,000 global marketers, salesforce.com reports that email marketing is increasingly “an integral touchpoint along the customer journey for the majority of marketers,” with 80 percent of respondents indicating that email marketing is central to their business and the buyer's journey for 2015 as compared to 58 percent in 2014. Other notable stats on the state of email marketing include the following:

• The Radicati Group projects that by 2017, there will be 206 billion emails sent to 4.9 billion email accounts worldwide, every day.
• MarketingSherpa’s 2013 Email Marketing Benchmark Report shows 60 percent of marketers reported a positive return on investment from their email marketing efforts; overall, survey respondents estimated an impressive 119 percent ROI from email marketing campaigns.
• Citing research from eMarketer, McKinsey & Company writes at Forbes that 91 percent of all U.S. consumers report using email daily, and conversions from emails are not only three times higher than those from social media, but also claim a 17 percent higher average order value than social media.

Boasting such convincing numbers, email marketing should definitely be an integral part of your online marketing strategy – but it’s much more involved than just creating a message and pressing “send.” In this post, we’ll go over some basic metrics to become familiar with when you’re ready to start tracking your email marketing performance.

Essential email marketing performance metrics

There are five common email marketing metrics used in evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of email marketing campaigns, and those are:

1. Deliverability rate
2. Open rate
3. Click rate
4. Conversion rate
5. Unsubscribe rate

1. Deliverability rate means the number of emails sent out that successfully reach the intended recipients’ inboxes, as opposed to bouncing back due to incorrect or otherwise defunct email addresses. Technically, even emails that end up in recipients’ spam folders are considered “delivered,” although chances are they will not be seen, much less opened. According to Comm100 CEO Kevin Gao, if “email deliverability bounces exceed three percent, then you have entered a red flag zone,” meaning you should revisit your list to see if your source of leads is degrading.

2. Open rate is the number of emails that are opened compared to the total number of emails delivered. In the theoretical scenario of all emails sent being opened by all of the recipients on your list (and assuming a 100 percent deliverability rate), the open rate would be 100 percent. Of course, the real world doesn’t operate that way. If your email open rate is falling short of expectations, try creating more compelling subject lines and testing them. You may also want to experiment with decreasing the frequency of your emails. Based on our own research, we further recommend that you match the timing of your email campaigns to the speed of your sales cycles to optimize open rates. For example, if a given sales cycle is fast and consumers are able to make decisions quickly, a weekly or bi-weekly email campaign may be appropriate. On the other hand, if a sales cycle is relatively long then you’ll likely want to consider a monthly cadence.

3. Click rate refers to the percentage of links contained in a given set of email messages that are “clicked on” relative to their open rate. If your email campaign’s click rates aren’t performing, you may want to consider strengthening your offer and call to action to encourage email recipients to click through to your website’s intended destination pages.

4. Conversion rate is the measure of actions taken per email messages delivered. As conversions are the ultimate goal of email marketing campaigns, the conversion rate is the defining metric of your email marketing’s efficiency and effectiveness. A standard conversion rate ranges from 1 percent to 4 percent, and depends on the industry If your conversions are falling short of the mark, it may indicate that the email list is saturated with your offer. Consider changing up the offer or adding new leads to your list.

5. Unsubscribe rate represents the number of unsubscribe requests relative to the number of emails delivered. It is a telling metric that, if notably high, may mean you’re not providing value to recipients, or the frequency of emails sent may need to be cut back. Whatever the case may be, the unsubscribe rate is a critical measure informing businesses about the state of their email campaigns. Pay attention to this metric and adjust your message content and cadence, testing the results to fine-tune your email campaign.

It should come as no surprise that email is destined to keep growing as a primary digital marketing tool this year, as its track record continues to prove it a highly cost-effective channel for targeting both prospects and established customers with relevant messages. When you’re ready to get serious about your email marketing, make sure you put the research in to better understand the metrics discussed in this post as it relates to industry averages, and then over time, your campaign averages. Every business is different – so you can’t expect the same results as another – but the one thing that’s constant in any successful email marketing program is measurement, and applying what you’ve learned.

Integrated marketing and the ability to run seamless campaigns across multiple channels is a skill that’s mastered over time. Like the conductor of an orchestra, the maestro of the integrated marketing campaign unifies the various segments to create a concerted effort in harmony or at least in synergy. As with any type of program or skill set, developing an approach that’s based on experience, testing and refining the results can ensure that any strategy can exist within a framework. So, in this post, we’ll share with you a framework you can use to launch an integrated marketing program that takes into account the processes, the people and the planning. Over time, you can mold the approach to accommodate what you’ve learned as you conduct your own integrated marketing campaigns.

Integrated campaigns: the planning

Whatever calendar cycle your business is on for planning and executing initiatives, start there in terms of planning for campaigns. It could be annually, quarterly or monthly. Take stock of the major business initiatives within the calendar and decide what marketing campaigns could support that. Based on the total marketing budget and the various channels you have available to you, for example, paid and organic search, online video, television and radio, social media, conferences and networking events an others, start thinking about:

• How the primary message will be disseminated not just the channel, but also in what form – graphic, industry report, video, or text.
• What the approach will be in each channel, for example, if paid search is the channel, will you pursue just text ads on the search network or also display ads?
• The offers that will be available and how they play out in the various channels, for example, social versus the web site
• How to create a unified story across every medium that attempts to matches to the customer journey

If you’re a visual person, sketch out these components on a whiteboard, so you can begin to see just how the story will be created taking these components into account.

Integrated campaigns: the people and the processes 

To orchestrate a large-scale initiative, such as an integrated marketing campaign the right people and the right processes need to be in place. As we see it, the four operational keys to marketing campaign success are:

1. Leadership
2. People
3. Progress
4. Adjustment

Let’s look at those in closer detail:

1. Leadership: Just like the orchestra needs its conductor to keep them on track when the performance pressure is on, so do the marketing teams. This leader is the maestro who will push the project along and ensure clarity, accountability and progress. This conductor is not usually the executive sponsor, but a project manager or integrated campaign manager.

2. People: Integrated campaigns involve many people, especially in an enterprise situation, including teams from varying business units. Each individual needs to know his or her role in the big scheme and throughout the entire campaign, and this should be communicated from the top down, starting with the program leader to the team leader and so on.

To put this massive task into perspective, the roles that could be included in an integrated marketing campaign are:

• Creative director
• Content strategist
• Data analyst
• Designer
• Email manager
• Executive sponsor
• PPC manager
• PR manager
• Project manager or campaign manager (often the “leader” role)
• SEO manager
• Site manager or product owner
• Social media manager
• Video media manager
• Web developer
• Writer

3. Progress: Aside from the obvious that progress should be made, progress reporting is key. All tasks associated with each role on the team should have a delivery date and progress should be measured and reported at various points in the timeline.

4. Adjustment: Campaign structure is not set in stone due to the nature of digital marketing, where results are measured quickly and decisions on how to adjust can also be made in reaction. Be sure to communicate results and proposed or actual changes broadly to the entire group, so everyone is on board with an aligned vision.

Integrated marketing can seem intimidating at first, but brands can start small – even if it’s just with two or three channels. Create a test environment where these two-channel campaigns adopt the framework and use a coordinated schedule, record what you’ve learned and apply it to the next round, perhaps adding another channel to the mix. Over time, you will see the benefit of a coordinated campaign that is consistent in message and broad in its reach in the form of improved awareness and response.  

BrightEdge is a company full of success and potential. From the very first minute when I was introduced to BrightEdge, I saw an opportunity to challenge myself while being able to make a true, measurable impact on the business.

Why I Moved - Seizing The Opportunity

At this time two months ago I was finishing up my best month yet at a large, successful SaaS technology company. Conversations were clicking, negotiations were fruitful, contracts were being inked; I was truly at the top of my sales game there, and it felt GOOD and I wanted more. After the high of a very successful month, I took a look back at the accomplishment and something was missing. Yes, I was successful in closing business, and the company was successful and continuing its growth, but I felt that my own personal career growth was lacking.

I wasn’t pushing myself nearly as much as I normally do to grow my skill set, and I’m a motivated and driven person. I felt I had two options: I could comfortably continue on and be successful at the large organization, but I worried about plateauing, or I could start to look around for a smaller and more dynamic company that would put me on a steeper ramp to greater challenge and success. I took the plunge, and here are three reasons why I did so.

1. Company Growth BrightEdge is seeing explosive growth year over year, which is the main thing that drew me to the company in the first place and pushed me to learn more about opportunities here. Because of the size of the company (growing and very agile) and the fact that BrightEdge had doubled to 300 employees and grew to 6 offices globally over the past year, I could only see they had the approach and the drive to keep that success continuing. BrightEdge is VC-funded and continues to secure funding in new rounds due to continued growth – they secured $42.8M in Series D financing just last year. And we’re pre-IPO, which allows me as an employee to invest my time to help the company go public and see the fruits of that new endeavor. This is something not many sales executives get to say.

Opportunity in Chicago

Because BrightEdge is beginning to really grow its Chicago office, this also gave me a unique opportunity to work for one of Silicon Valley’s fastest movers while remaining in the city that I love. I know everyone in the Bay Area is rolling their eyes, but Chicago is pretty wonderful if you can survive the winter!

2. Professional/Personal Growth Honestly, I don’t know if I want to be an individual contributor forever. I really enjoy owning my own business and my own success at this point in my life, but I am also growing to love having the opportunity to mentor others, transfer skills, and help those people succeed. Eventually, I’d like to have the opportunity to direct a team and an office, both from a professional perspective in terms of growing my career and skill set, and from a personal growth perspective. BrightEdge, due to its exponential growth mentioned above, opens the paths for this type of career trajectory much more quickly than an established organization can, just due to that startup agility and mindset. Check out the video below to see just how far you can progress your sales career at BrightEdge

3. Culture You really have to love your work and love those with whom you work. Everyone has had “bad jobs” in the past, and looking back at those in my past, the issue many times wasn’t the work itself but the people. After meeting the BrightEdge team, I knew this was a place that would be an optimal fit for me. I never want to be the smartest person in the room, so I can continue to learn and grow.  Because there are so many ridiculously brilliant people here, you never stop learning and growing. Not only are the people here intelligent and innovative, but they’re a heck of a lot of fun, too.

Even in a sales role, we push through obstacles as a team, win as a team, and celebrate as a team, and that competitive-yet-collaborative mentality helps the company on the whole to be successful. That’s a place I want to be. Leaving my last company was definitely not an easy decision to make. When you’re experiencing success with a company that cares for its people, but may not be able to offer enough opportunity, it’s really hard to make the decision to grow your career and move on. However, after taking that leap of faith, I realize that I’ve made the right choice and ended up at my new home for years to come. BrightEdge is still growing and hiring at a tremendous pace. Seize the opportunity and join me and BrightEdge on their journey.

Demand generation is an essential part of a growing business. In today’s digital marketing environment, deploying a scaled demand operation and revenue creation engine requires a broad team of talent. Specialization of function allows for areas of excellence to develop maximum efficiency and effectiveness.

At BrightEdge our management experience comes from some of the most successful SaaS companies in Silicon Valley, most notably Salesforce.com, so our departments are designed to scale fluidly as we continue to grow at a formidable rate. Demand generation sits at the intersection of sales and marketing, and as the number of team members involved in the B2B purchase process grows - 34% according to the 2014 demand generation survey - so does the need to acquire and develop a multitude of demand generation skill sets.

Demand generation is all about understanding the user journey and understanding how different roles on your team support that journey to becoming a customer. Understanding clearly the broad spectrum of roles in your demand organization will also help a person evaluate their career options and make an effective career plan. Below are 12 key roles and positions essential to the scale and success of a demand-led organization. Note that the positions are also in the order of products rolling into the market to customers.

1. Product Manager specifies what to make: owns the target market, market sizing, gross margin plan, schedule, and value proposition.

2. Product Marketing Manager describes what the product manager made on the web site and in collateral: owns the description.

3. Marketing Acquisition (advertising) gets people to notice and consider the product: owns the leads and the top of the funnel. Often co-owns the website with corporate marketing. Content marketing manager largely fits in this category.

4. Public Relations Manager generates interest in the products, message, and the company with the offline and online press. Social media manager falls largely in this category.

5. Corporate Marketing and marketing communications define and defend the brand: owns the brand, logo, and tagline. Often co-owns the website with marketing acquisition.

6. Inside Sales works the leads created by marketing acquisition to create sales appointments: owns the middle of the funnel.

7. Outside Sales hunts for leads: owns the cold calls and a quota.

8. Account Executive works the leads brought in by inside and outside sales: owns the bottom of the funnel and a revenue quota.

9. Sales Engineer helps with the product demonstration and trial: co-owns closing from the trial.

10. Customer Service, Customer Support, Customer Success supports the customers’ use of the product: co-owns retention and renewal goals.

11. Customer Marketing supports renewal, upsell, and expansion campaigns: owns engagement, renewal, and upsell campaign development, deployment, and tracking.

12. Strategic Account Manager executes the renewal, upsell, and expansion efforts: owns a revenue quota and the retention goal.

If you are interested in a career in marketing and sales, look over the list of positions and match your talents with the primary activity, your personality with what parts of the work you would like to own, and what types of people you like to interact with: developers, marketers, salespeople, press, prospects, or customers. It takes a combination of all the skill sets associated with most of these 12 positions to build a scaled demand engine. If you feel you have what it takes, then join us on our journey as BrightEdge is hiring.

At BrightEdge customer success is a key priority. This is why we have built the largest customer success team in the industry. We serve over 1000 customers, working with over 8500 brands across 4 continents.

As a product from the innovative leaders in the market, the BrightEdge S3 Platform is incredibly extensive and valuable for customers that enables them to as they transform online content into tangible business results.

To complement our award-winning platform our client services team provides hands-on support to ensure our customers are comfortable analyzing and interpreting the massive amounts of data that the BrightEdge platform processes for them.

My Role At BrightEdge – Customer Care & Partnerships

As a client services manager, I build business partnerships and provide product enablement to complete the story the data from the platform tells. As this Salesforce article highlights - “What is Good Customer Service” – one of the key factors that contribute to exceptional customer service is developing trust.

For me building trust comes from the fact that I genuinely care about my clients and always want to know what attracts and motivates them once they dive into the platform. Clients are extremely appreciative of the detail I provide into ensuring they gain the necessary platform skills. It is my job to actively listen and hear what is important to each person and company I work with.

Because customers recognize the attention I provide, they are confident in our partnership together.

I take the time to analyze and create a customized approach for each individual client, so set them up for success. As Melanie Perkins notes in “3 Keys Providing Great Customer Service,” I must give my clients a voice, so that their opinions can be heard through me. I am an advocate for their user experiences and what will benefit them in the long run. I consistently ask for their feedback, so I can better understand their needs, whether as a new or experienced user of our platform.

My success and satisfaction comes from helping my clients gain value from the platform, define and implement their plans and harvest the business results. This is why I think that BrightEdge clients renew at incredibly high rates.

Anything that is a considered progress or an achievement for my client translates into the same victory for me!

BrightEdge Customers and Business Impact

BrightEdge customers drive measurable business impact in partnership with the client services team via a number of key initiatives:

1. Ignite & On-Boarding Program - BrightEdge engagements are ‘jump-started’ with one-on-one on-boarding assistance, where customers learn about every aspect of the BrightEdge platform, identify goals, and work through a guided Ignite project.
2. Online Training & Certification  - The BrightEdge Certification Program is a user-level certification covering the core BrightEdge platform functionality.  
3. BrightEdge certification – This program validates a user’s ability to leverage the full BrightEdge platform to deliver value from search and digital marketing.
4. On-going Partnerships — All customers, partners and members of the BrightEdge community also stay up to date on the latest changes in search and content marketing as well as key BrightEdge innovations through our product training webinars, networking initiatives, and our industry-leading, must-attend, event Share15. Come learn from our customers and your industry colleagues at Share 15. Space is limited, so I would recommend registering now!

I look forward to seeing you there and supporting your organic marketing success.

Performing competitive research to review the competitive landscape is one of the important tasks when running an SEO program. Learning about competitors, their products and offerings, web positioning (optimization focus, messaging, linking, technical SEO) and measuring your progress against theirs will allow you to understand what works for you and them, and what doesn’t – and can help move your SEO forward more effectively and secure a bigger piece of the pie.

Identify

When it comes to competing in SEO, at least for the large established brands, the focus is on the non-branded space, where prospects are searching for the terms related to product features and capabilities rather that branded names (in some cases users just may not be aware that your brand is offering a solution for their needs). There are several steps that can be taken here.

First, talk with your stakeholders (i.e. people in the business unit, sales or marketing teams) to scope companies that they see as competitors. We need to understand that company does not necessarily equal website here. There are cases where one company would span multiple websites, usually with keyword-rich domain names, to compete for specific themes in which case you’ll need to do some domain research (who-is) to get to the business owner behind the domain.

It’s also a good idea to check with the paid search team to see who is bidding on the high-value keywords. Querying search engines for high-volume, non-branded terms is also an effective way to scope the landscape.

Competitor Products and Solutions

Learn about competitor products and solutions to see how they stack up against your company offering. Start by reviewing their site and noting the categories and topics. Note the title tags, meta descriptions and H1 keywords they use. Understand the set of keywords they rank on. You can use a web site scanning tool to assist with this process.

Online Presence and SEO

Review the way competitors optimize their pages and topics and focus to find specific keywords that use that you do not. In some cases competitive information can provide valuable feedback beyond SEO.

For example this research can expose features in competitor products with significant interest and query volume in search that you can bring as a suggestion to the product development teams.

The BrightEdge Data Cube is a robust tool that allows you discover keywords and content based on a url, keyword, rank, or content type. This is an easy way to get a comprehensive view of the full set of competitor keywords.

Examine linking profiles, both in terms of the cross-linking within the competitor sites and also back linking patterns, to better understand what they are doing well. In some cases this research helps identify shady linking profiles.

Technical SEO is one of the key factors, and understanding the ways your competitors address it can help improve your program.

Learn about the social tactics of your competition (blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, G+, etc.) and implement pieces that make sense for your projects.

Track and Measure

Measuring trends against competitors is a good idea to keep track of how your SEO program is performing against theirs for a set of non-branded keywords, and you can see how big your piece of the pie is. Literally – if you’re looking at the “Share of Voice” competitive research report in the BrightEdge platform.

This competitive research report gives you a sense of where you are at a given point of time.

The BrightEdge Competitive Research Report provides a snapshot view of the performance of your keywords in terms of rankings, for example, your site’s presence on page 1-3 and beyond.

Competitive Research Trend Report provides a historic view of your performance against competition.

Adapt

Like anything else in the SEO world, the competitive landscape is not set in stone which is why competitive research holds such high value. Competitors change their SEO programs, for example, they can migrate sites, acquire other companies to add offerings, change content, linking or technical aspects. Their sites can incur penalties. New competitors can enter and leave the space. Since things are not set in stone, re-visiting competitor research every 6 months can be very useful.

It’s always good to assess others to learn what else you can do on the site. On the other hand, if you learn about something that doesn’t work for your competitors, you certainly don’t want to repeat these mistakes.

Competitive research reports are also a great way to present progress of the SEO program to your stakeholders and show the status of your SEO program vs the competitors.

The New Year is the perfect time to look at the 2015 SEO trends to determine what's helping or hurting your brand. Most of the 2015 SEO trends are continuations from last year where it was important to create quality content, be active on social media and focus on your mobile user.

The line between SEO and other integrated marketing efforts continue to blur. If you don't keep the predictions below in mind and act on them, these 2015 SEO trends might be how your competitors steal your thunder:

• Content reigns
• Websites must be mobile-search friendly
• SEO will integrate further with social media
• Earned links increase in value
• Links won't have to be links

1. Content reigns

There's a balance to be found when it comes to creating, optimizing and distributing content. You want it to be easy to digest, especially for mobile readers. However, your website's content should be unique and not so shallow or mundane that it can easily be found from other sources. Many sites aim for articles between 500 and 700 words, but you shouldn't be afraid to increase word count if you're the expert on a subject.

While Google may cherry pick some of your content if it is useful -- and formatted correctly -- you want the users to ultimately visit and read from your links. Those impressions and potential sales, comments or subscriptions that your brand relies on won't come if you don't offer something unique to the reader.

Furthermore, content doesn't come just in the form of text. For example, video and audio content can be optimized for the search engine -- and you should already be using alt text with the images on your website and in your blog posts.

A combination of informative, entertaining or engaging written, visual and even audio content will draw in visitors and keep them coming back for more as long as you use the proper markup, so Google knows where to add your link in the SERPs.

2. Websites must be mobile-search friendly

By now, few companies that are serious about their online presence are languishing in the days of Web 1.0 with a website that's not mobile-friendly. However, you might be in for some bad news if you've not stayed up with that trend. In 2015 websites don't have to be just mobile- friendly -- they have to be mobile-search-friendly.

So what does mobile-search-friendly mean?

Users must be able to find your site through the local queries they would make on a mobile device. At the same time, also evolve your ability to appear relevant to the semantic or thematic queries that are more likely on mobile.

Understand these queries by tracking your most active mobile landing pages. Conversely, as people become more proficient on mobile typing input, you may also have opportunities to capture traffic with strong intent, which means and long-tail keywords will be more useful to your SEO efforts than short keywords. For example, people might input queries about how to do something on a mobile device or fix a problem.

Mobile-search friendly also means that Google and other search engines have to be able to read your mobile site easily. If, for some reason, you're still using Frames, JavaScript or Flash that would prevent this, you're missing out on traffic because you are making it harder for Google to read it. Mobile users can't view that content either. And make sure to test and optimize your mobile page load speeds on mobile devices.

However, it could be even worse than that if Google starts to actively penalize sites that aren't optimized for users on mobile search and browsing from their phones or tablets. If you've managed to struggle along this far, 2015 might be the year when your efforts fall flat if Google formally introduces or increases weight of mobile optimization in the algorithm for rank on all devices.

Choosing the right approach to mobile is a key factor in corresponding success.

Last year BrightEdge released a report that observes, “over one in four mobile sites are misconfigured, leading to a massive loss of potential traffic. Marketers and publishers must consider their approaches to mobile design carefully and to think about how users interact with their content.”

Download the full report

Jim Yu, CEO of BrightEdge also shares key mobile tips for 2015 SEO trends in Mobile Commerce magazines outlook report.

3. SEO will integrate further with social media

While the interplay between SEO and social media is nothing new, SEO experts can no longer pretend that social media management and search engine optimization are two separate things.

Departments are merging and people who used to focus on one aspect will have to expand their knowledge and skills to be able to do it all. The companies and people able to do both will certainly benefit.

What about Google+, Authorship and Google's own attempts at melding social media with search engine optimization? Some people have already called Authorship a failed experiment, and while it won't hurt you to continue claiming the high-quality content you've contributed to the Internet, expect to see a renewed push toward social cues on established social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook.

With these 2015 SEO trends, "Likes," retweets and other cues have long contributed to content floating toward the top of the SERPs. It's important to remember that this is correlation and not causation, however. If a link is frequently shared on social media, especially long after it was created, the content creators have done something right well beyond a click-bait title. It may be humorous, informative or controversial, but there's a valid content reason why people are sharing it.

4. Earned links increase in value 

A penny earned might be a penny saved, but a link earned won't see the Google hounds sent on you. Create content that other people want to share again and again. This is the content that will go viral on Facebook, and Google will take those cues into consideration.

Don't forget about collaborating with other content creators and influencers, either. Build long-lasting relationships with influencers. While brands will certainly get a boost when it comes to SEO, they also get the power of outspoken bloggers who will stand by a brand they love.

Ambassadorship with a single influential personality can instantly expose thousands of their fans to your brand. A continued relationship with those content creators is far more valuable than purchasing a single sidebar link or guest post on a blog, too. A positive experience with this 2015 SEO trend means your brand may get name-dropped even when you're not asking for it, and long-term organic exposure is worth as much as ever.

If earned links increase in value, will un-earned links decrease in value? Not quite. Google has already made it clear that links that aren't earned, specifically those that are purchased, have no value. If you're caught using such tactics, you can be penalized, which could be the most career-limiting move for an SEO.

5. Links won't have to be links

Thus far much of search engine optimization has had to do with links, literally anchors between websites. You're not alone if you've focused your attention on creating content that will go viral, getting links from relevant sources, adding your own links to directories and other link-getting activities.

However, Google might just turn the links world on its head with this 2015 SEO trend if the search engine isn't just looking for direct links -- HTML anchors. Implied links aren't actual links at all. In fact, Google knows that people have abused links for the purpose of search engine optimization, so the search engine has turned its attention to implied links. This includes mentions of brands and even no-followed links, which website owners are carefully using to avoid possibly penalties from Google.

It makes sense for Google to start tracking implied links, such as brand mentions. After all, people who are naturally talking about the brands they know and love might not think or take the time to add an anchor in their posts or articles at all. This will certainly help brands who haven't focused heavily on SEO in the past, which means you could benefit if you've been treating consumers and partners well all along.

As Google has cracked down on black-hat SEO tactics over the past two years, SEO experts have been forced to skip the shortcuts and roll up their sleeves to see real results in search engine rankings.

If you've put in the elbow grease, your content optimization efforts should serve as a great foundation for visibility and traffic with these 2015 SEO trends and the coming changes.