dmcanally

M Posted 5 years ago

t 9 min read

We had a great time hosting our webinar around SERP analysis last week. For those of you who weren’t able to attend, myself, Monique Johnson and Doug Antkowiak discussed how search engine results for a keyword reveal what Google understands about the intent behind the keyword.

Micro-Moments provide an easy framework to quantify what these intents are, and if you organize your keywords in this fashion, it provides you with powerful insights into the type of content audiences are looking for in a given moment. We provided some findings from research on these micro-moments across different industries and demonstrated a simple workflow you can use to create a dashboard for micro-moments in your own industry.
 
There were some great questions that we felt deserved some attention, so I’m going to address those here. 

1. Is there a way of doing this type of research without Data Cube? 

It is certainly possible, but it will require significantly more work and manual effort to filter through results. First, you’ll need a tool to do a mass pull of keywords and variations. This tool will need to show you search volumes as well as the presence of universal results appearing for the keywords.   There are point solutions that can do this, and depending on which one you use, you may need to do multiple pulls and compile keyword lists to get a comprehensive view of the market.

Data Cube understands semantic relationships and how keywords are related, so it eliminates a lot of that manual process. Data Cube also lets you combine filtering to create groups of keywords based on the characteristics appearing in the search result. If you are doing this manually, be sure that as you are pulling keywords, you’re filtering out those that could skew your results. For example, in the webinar, we were looking at school supplies. If you’re looking at keywords manually, you’ll need to scrub out irrelevant terms in your analysis (i.e., “Office supplies”). Once you have this research, you’ll need a place to track against the keywords over time. In the BrightEdge environment, you can create keyword groups and the platform will track the keywords, produce a share of voice analysis on them, and derive traffic and optimization insights automatically. Manually, or using a point solution, you would either need to write a script to repull the data or do it yourself.   

2. Where can I see micro-moments in the BrightEdge platform? 

There are a few ways you can dissect the moments. In the workflow we described, you would create keyword groups based on the universal results for each keyword. For example:

• I want to go moments – Keywords with a local 3 pack 
• I want to know Moments – Keywords with Quick Answers, People Also Ask, Knowledge Graph 
• I want to do Moments – Keywords with videos or images
• I want to buy – Keywords with shopping or carousel results

Once you filter and create a group for these (be sure to name and describe them accordingly), they are available in a number of places in the platform. You can look at share of voice across each moment in Competitive Analysis, individual keyword rankings and performance in Keyword Report, and forecast visibility lifts against each moment in Forecasting. The keyword groups designated to the micro-moments will also be available to you as dashboards via Story Builder. So, depending on how you need to view the data, once the groups are created, you’re able to configure however you need!

3. How could we understand the different moments across different industries?

If you are a BrightEdge customer, the good news is you may very well already have the data to help you do this! You could start with the keywords you’re already tracking and simply create new groups for them arranged by the universal results appearing for each (keywords can live in multiple groups). If you’re starting from scratch, you can begin your research by starting with head terms related to your business. For example, if you are an additive manufacturer, start with a broad term like ‘additive manufacturing’ or even ‘manufacturing’ and begin filtering by universal results to understand the moments that customers in that space are in. Your BrightEdge Customer Success Manager is standing by to help you discover more about the mindsets your customers are in!

4. Is it possible to analyze keywords by “I want to” moments instead of rank?

Absolutely. In fact, you can do this entirely within Data Cube without creating a keyword group. The easiest way to do it is filter by the universal elements that correspond to the moment you are interested in. As we mentioned in the webinar, you can combine filters so you can have multiple universal results represented in your result.

Data Cube will break down which keywords by competition and you can differentiate them by long tail and high value. Furthermore, you have the option of creating a dashboard view of these keywords (in my example, if I wanted a laser focus on “I want to go” moments related to school supplies, I could add them to a dashboard and track volumes over time). In this workflow, we’re not even factoring in where your website ranks. This could be particularly useful if you’re analyzing a new market where you have yet to build content and need to see what kinds of mindsets and moments audiences are in to guide what type of content needs to be created.   

5. For share of voice for micro-moments, can I configure different engines?

Yes! When you create a keyword group out of Data Cube, you’ll have the option to select which search engine (by location) you’d like to use. In fact, you can even use Google’s intent algorithm to discern the moments you want and then use another brands’ search engine to track rankings. You’ll be taken to this screen after you click “Track” which gives you a range of engines that can be tracked.

If your locale and engine you want to track is visible, you’ll be able to see Share of Voice Results for that keyword group.

Micro-moments have been a concept in search for a while, but they are as important as ever when we think about the mindsets behind search. We’re really excited to continue evangelizing them and find new and unique ways to use them to understand customer mindsets. If you’re interested in learning how BrightEdge could help you use search to understand your customers’ mindsets, reach out today to schedule a live demo.

gregalbuto

M Posted 5 years 1 month ago

t 9 min read

Distance learning searches saw record highs in March 2020

Distance learning searches saw a decline beginning in October 2020

Between September 2020 and October 2020, queries about virtual or distance learning saw a steady decline. As it was apparent some schools were remaining closed during the 2020 year or others were going back with new sanitation guidelines for cleaning classrooms, less people were wondering about the virutal learning topic. Below you can see the decrease in searches around the same keywords that saw a surge in March 2020.

So, what are users searching for as it relates to school? Vaccinations. College students and their parents are inquiring about vaccinations for university students. It would benefit all universities to add vaccine-based information to their websites. Below you can see the immediate increase in vaccine-related searches beginning in November 2020.

• Optimized how-to videos and demos on how to fill out application forms, financial aid forms, or how to sign up for courses online
• Virtual hangouts with advisors or counselors

Using video to connect with users and generate traffic and views

tvura

M Posted 5 years 1 month ago

t 9 min read

Search data is an invaluable source of insight into consumer intent and behavior. It’s quite literally people communicating the things that interest them. Taken in aggregate, those insights can point to trends and changing tastes, which can inform content creation both on your websites and in other online channels. Those insights can also provide useful information to support other marketing initiatives.  

Generally, as marketers and SEO professionals, when we think about organic search optimization, we tend to think about Google primarily, followed closely by other traditional search engines as the best sources for search traffic and trend data. However, as the world’s most heavily trafficked online video sharing platform, YouTube is one of the world’s largest search engines and should be part of any search insights research effort. 

What can we Learn from YouTube Search Trends?

Video is a go-to source for consumers. It encompasses diverse topics and lends itself well to instructional content. Consider a few key facts about video, according to Wordstream:

• “Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and image content combined
• 96% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service
• 51% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI
• Marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users.”

Because video is an effective, favored format by both consumers and businesses, AND accounts for a high volume of searches, it offers valuable perspective to content creators and the brands they represent on which topics, themes, and keywords they can leverage for both long-range brand development content and in-the-moment marketing opportunities. It also provides useful information to SEO professionals to help them optimize existing video metadata to better capture interest from relevant searches.

Indirectly, YouTube search trends – because they reflect consumer intent and behavior more universally – can help inform marketing more broadly, from advertising to social media to event promotion and beyond.   

Can you use YouTube Search Trends to Optimize Videos?

Yes, and then some.

Much in the same way you can use Google search trends to optimize copy and graphic content, you can learn from YouTube search trends to optimize videos. For starters, you can see which topics, themes and even search terms are getting the most attention and ranking highest in YouTube search. With that information you can: 

1. Plan new video content 

Visitors to YouTube watch more than one billion hours of video every day. They come to be entertained, informed, and instructed. However wide or narrow your message or area of expertise, chances are high that someone is looking for what you have to say. But just because you have a message that someone is looking for doesn’t mean that they will find your video or that it will answer the specific questions they have. 

That’s where YouTube search trend data can help you. First, by understanding the unique and specific keywords searchers are using to find content, you can better produce video content relevant to the searches. This improves your chances of YouTube surfacing your video in related searches and improves the chances that someone searching for that info will watch a greater portion of your video. This is important, because watch time is a central ranking factor for YouTube search. As your video accrues more watch time, its chances of ranking high in search results improves.

Secondly, YouTube search data gives you key insights to optimize the content surrounding your video: Title, description, still images, embedded graphics and more. 

2. Optimize existing video content 

Videos can be costly and time consuming to produce, so it’s not unusual to think of an existing video as a static piece of content that can’t be changed. That is too limited a view, though. At a minimum, without changing any of the content of a video, it’s possible to optimize the video metadata to perform better in search. This is not about gaming the system, because the content must be useful and relevant to the audience. By using YouTube search insights you do a better job presenting and describing the video in a way that aligns with the search data and the searcher’s intent. If you have a great video about how to knit a sweater, it might not perform well in the U.K. where a sweater is better known as a jumper. The content is still good, but a change to the title might help it perform better.

At times, the search insights may be overwhelming enough to merit greater changes either to the text elements of the video or to the video itself. They may even merit re-producing the video entirely. YouTube search insights can help you make the business case for making more dramatic changes to an existing video.

3. Prioritize multi-channel initiatives related to the topic or theme 

Knowing what people are interested in, how they search for it and what topics they commit time to has value beyond the channel. YouTube search insights – especially because of the critical mass of traffic YouTube attracts – can be indicative of larger trends and behaviors. That information can lend direction to your overall content strategy across other online and offline properties whether it be advertising, organic social media, or educational content, for example.

Is there Seasonality Behind YouTube Search Trends?

Like any consumer trend, there is seasonality to YouTube search trends. In simple terms, we can think of the seasonality on two levels:

1. Traditional Seasonality

Traditional seasonality refers to search trends that ebb and flow based on broad seasons, such as travel seasons, holidays, sports, and events (e.g., wedding or concert season).  

2. Micro Seasonality

Micro seasonality refers to short-lived trends tied to current events, such as election day, a flood, or an episode of Saturday Night Live. YouTube search data can help you identify seasons so you can prioritize your content development to better align with the opportunity.

How does the YouTube algorithm Work?

The closest thing to official guidance on how the YouTube algorithm works is captured in the Google publication entitled “Deep Neural Networks for YouTube Recommendations,” but in reality, there is a lot of debate about what factors into a rank and the weight of any one factor in awarding a search rank. Generally, there is consensus on the following:

• Audience Retention. Remember when we said, above, that watch time is an important ranking factor? This is one component of Audience Retention. Google’s retention analysis also looks at “average view duration” or how much of a video does someone watch on average. It does this along four “types of moments” for your videos including intros, continuous segments, spikes, and dips, which measure engagement with the video content
• Engagement. Beyond how viewers engage with the video itself, Google measures related engagement such as video comments, subscribers, video shares, click-through rate, and sentiment (thumbs up or down). 
• Channel Authority. Audience Retention and Engagement tell Google how viewers regard your content and are factors in your channel authority. How the video performs in search (both on YouTube and in referral traffic from other search engines), how many authoritative sources link to your content, the age and relevance of your content and other traditional SEO ranking factors also help determine your channel authority.
• Keyword Targeting. Just like with SEO in Google and other search engines, YouTube’s algorithm relies on broad match keyword targeting, and to a lesser extent, exact match keyword targeting. In short, while Audience Retention, Engagement and Channel Authority reflect to what extent users find your content relevant and useful, how you present and describe your videos – title, description, keyword tags – are important to tell YouTube what your video is about and is a key element of how to get your YouTube video seen.   

Relevant keywords are very important in the early going with videos; as the video begins to accumulate watch time, keyword importance takes a back seat to watch time. According to Search Engine Journal, YouTube “…continues to use metadata to index your video correctly and rank it initially. To maximize your presence in YouTube search and suggested videos, you still need to make sure your metadata is well-optimized. This includes your video’s title, description, and tags.”

How to Leverage YouTube Search Trends

To make use of YouTube search data, you first need to access and understand the data. Here are a few tools to help you do that.

Google Trends

Google Trends is a great place to start to research YouTube trends. While Google Trends doesn’t show actual search volume for a specific query (it normalizes data to show relative popularity of a search term) it does make it easy to find the most searched topics on YouTube and understand interest in a particular topic. 

At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a well-publicized run-on toilet paper. Perhaps you picked up some tips on how to score a roll or two of toilet paper during the lean times and now, as a content creator, you want to decide if it would be worth creating a video to share your tips. In this case, Google Trends indicates that interest in toilet paper has waned since the peak of the shortage, but interest remains high. 

In the example search here, we’ve set the parameters to worldwide search trends over the past 12 months in all categories across YouTube. These parameters can be changed to better suit your particular focus, and you can compare topics to help you settle on the best one to create content around. 

BrightEdge and BrightEdge Instant

Built into the BrightEdge SEO platform is the ability to track specific keywords and topics over time or to search keywords and topics on an ad hoc basis. While that basic functionality doesn’t extend to YouTube, specifically, it can be limited to Google Video results, a majority of which are YouTube results. 

Whereas Google Trends normalizes the data to show relative topic popularity, BrightEdge tracks an enormous amount of real-time and historical search data, so you can see actual search volumes and other details that Google Trends does not provide. You can track real-time data using Daily Pulse. This insight can be used to both plan the content of your video, and optimize the title tag, description, keyword tags and other metadata for better search ranking. 

For tracked keywords within the platform, BrightEdge also provides reporting, so you can be alerted to spikes or dips in important keywords and topics and make necessary adjustments to a given video or content strategy. 

BrightEdge Instant, which is an available add-on to the BrightEdge platform, has a YouTube keyword research capability that enables you to track how well your YouTube videos and your competitors' videos are performing for any search in real time giving you, effectively, a YouTube rank tracker. It also supports YouTube-specific topic research so you can see which products, topics, and influencers are taking off, insight you can use to prioritize the marketing of relevant existing videos and to plan new video content.

However, you source YouTube search data, your use of the data should align with your content strategy: 

Are you looking to be the go-to source on an evergreen topic? In this case, it will be important to understand how search trends on the topic over time, which terms best capture the intent of consumers and which videos are capturing the most attention. From those sources, you can identify opportunities to improve on competitive content and optimize the video metadata for a higher search rank. You’ll also want to monitor activity, so you can optimize over time.

Is there a high-volume, but short-lived trend you want to capitalize on? You’ve just created a t-shirt of Tom Brady throwing the Lombardi trophy from his yacht and want to maximize sales while the iron is hot among his fans. Your research will want to focus on what relevant terms people in specific geographies are using to search right now. 

Are you losing market share to a competitor with an inferior product? You have an objectively better product, but your competitor is entrenched and receives a lot of traffic to its YouTube videos. As part of an overall initiative to steal market share, you’re going to need to understand their audience and how those viewers are finding your competitors’ videos. To do this, you’ll need to go beyond topical search trends and track your videos against your competitors’ videos, as well.

Research and Prosper

YouTube is a powerful marketing channel. Its highly specialized content makes it a go-to-source of information for billions of people worldwide, but remember, it is more than a channel for marketing your own video content. Take advantage of the customer insights and behavior trends you can glean from YouTube search data to plan and execute an effective content strategy and more.

A BrightEdger

M Posted 5 years 1 month ago

t 9 min read

Reading one of the best marketing books listed below is likely to change and improve the way you market. While there are many classic marketing books that could make a best-books list, the recommended reading list below focuses only on marketing books published within the last 5 years. Serious marketers should read the equivalent of 10 or more educational and industry books per year (2500 pages) to maintain and expand skills and knowledge. You may be surprised by the findings in BrightEdge Research's latest channel share report. One digital channel continues to grow and this data will help you make the case and prioritize your traffic efforts. Below are our suggestions for the must-read best marketing books this year.

Great marketing books for this year

1. Unleash Possible: A Marketing Playbook that Drives Sales by Samantha Stone

Like many marketing books, the subtitle well positions the books key thesis. Stone delivers the goods with a 15-chapter playbook that includes the frameworks, question lists, and templates that make you want to put the book down and try the tactics recommended. There are very few good books on product marketing that make the discipline more clear without burying you in too much theory or too many worksheets, but Stone does an excellent job detailing it. She has practical advice on how to move beyond profiles to personas and solid go-to-market planning. Download the SEO initiatives playbook. Another great section is on account based marketing, where she explains the unique role marketing plays in defining and running a significantly different program. She brings her extensive approach and skill as a consultant and experienced marketer to the challenges of a Marketing Playbook that Drives Sales. 

2. This Is Marketing: You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn to See By Seth Godin, 2018

The latest from one of the great thought leaders in Marketing. Marketers make change by creating tension which leads to new choices. That is the central premise of the book. Godin points out that marketers' job is to pick a story and repeat it and stick with long after we marketers become tired of it. He reminds us that over-reliance on ad spending is for lazy marketers. Download the content funnel mapping checklist. He disembowels marketers who cut price and race to the bottom as the laziest. "Low price is the last refuge of a marketer who has run out of generous ideas." Or maybe never had any to begin with.

3. Hacking Growth: How Today's Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success By Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown, 2017

Most marketing books are old wine in clever new bottles, but about once or twice a year I come across marketing books that are completely new wine. Hacking Growth is that wine, er, book and my top pick for 2019. Ellis named and started the growth hacker movement in 2010 after his successes at Dropbox and Logmein. The book is a how-to guide on running a growth program in your company. If you are in digital marketing and not evolving toward growth and away from channels and marketing activity, you are in danger of being left behind. Download the martech stack checklist. Epic, breakout book. Highly recommended.

4. Play Bigger: Create New Categories and Dominate Markets By Maney et al, 2016

Serious marketing executives need to be familiar with this book. In it the authors describe the process of category creation and how to become a category king. They cover how to discover a category, the power of a point of view, creating a flywheel, continuous category creation and how to overcome the innovator's dilemma, and finish with category definition and creation for your career. Download the site readiness checklist. Though marketing plays a big role, category creation has to be embraced by the whole company from the CEO down to have a chance.

5. Data-Driven Marketing with Artificial Intelligence: Harness the Power of Predictive Marketing and Machine Learning by Magnus Unemyr, 2018

The author says he was looking for marketing books that introduced and explained the martech companies and products that are using AI to help us do our jobs, and he could not find one, so he wrote this one. He identified the top two dozen products and interviewed each company to populate the first section of the book. He groups the products into the following sections: Competitive Intelligence, Predictive Pricing, Ads Strategy, E-commerce, Content Marketing, Lead and Customer Acquisition, Customer Relationships, Segmentation, and Customer Journey. That makes it a very helpful roadmap to evaluating and adopting AI solutions.

6. Building a Story Brand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller, 2017

Storytelling is the focus of so many marketing books and assets in recent years that it is impossible to ignore; it's like a tidal wave washing over drab beaches cluttered with pale, self-promoting, feature-based marketing. Miller takes a topic that seems kind of obvious and adds his proven 7-step StoryBrand framework. He analyzes the structure of good story: character, problem, meets a guide, gets a plan, drives to action, avoids failure, and ends with a success. Where Miller exceeds Duarte is that he directly applies the storytelling structure to business cases that resonate with marketers like me and you. Download a free site style guide checklist to help you communicate your message to more customers.

7. Marketing: A Love Story, How to Matter to Your Customers by Bernadette Jiwa, 2014

Don't be deterred by the "love" in the title; instead focus on the ultra-compelling subtitle "How to Matter to Your Customers." Mattering to your customer requires emotional connection. These types of marketing books will apply for entrepreneurs, B2B, and B2C marketers. If you have been unsure about how to introduce emotion into your sales or marketing communication, this book will give you more insight, ideas, and inspiration than any other book out there. She claims you don't sell a product, you sell a story and doing so requires both facts and feelings. Download a Content Funnel Mapping Checklist to help you deliver your message to your prospects and customers.

8. The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly by David Scott, 2017

The rules of digital marketing are constantly changing. Using case studies and real-life examples, Scott explores the latest best practices that lead to marketing success.

The book is a good introduction to the role of social media marketing and PR. The first part is an argument why organizations, especially smaller businesses and nonprofits, should emphasize social media and how the efficient use of social media depends on a different way of thinking compared to traditional media.

He covers the implications for web site content as well. See how to maximize the SEO value of press releases with this checklist.

9. Don't Make Me Think Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability By Steve Krug, 2014

Krug published the first edition in 2000, and the book has been the bible of user experience since the early 2000s. Web sites are the primary interface between most businesses and their customers. So all the great marketing campaigns in the world won't work well unless the site is effective at handling the customers marketing brings to it. The title is the recurring theme of the book: customers should not have to figure out or interpret your site, it should just work the way they expect. Download a free site style guide checklist to help you communicate your message to more customers. The book is shortish at 191 pages and uses the principles he recommends. It is colorful, uses high-contrast layout, and is very skimmable with clear headlines and subheads. Every marketer with a web site needs to read this book periodically.

10. PRE-SUASION: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade by Robert Cialdini, 2016

Cialdini wrote the seminal work on Influence in 1984; Pre-Suasion is the long-awaited sequel, and it delivers. Both books belong on a marketer's bookshelf because marketers work to influence people to take particular actions. In Pre-Suasion Cialdini goes deeper into the subtleties of persuasion, covering privileged moments, attention and importance, focus and causality, identity, place, crowds, and shared action. The book seemed particularly insightful and relevant after watching the momentous 2016 US presidential election. Watch a webinar on persuading your organization to support SEO. These insights help a marketer in two primary areas: 1) persuading internal colleagues and executives to support the marketing plan and its initiatives, 2) persuading the consumers to take appropriate action. A compelling read.

11. Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Digital Distraction by Derek Thomson, 2017

Thomson set out to study what makes things break big. This is an important topic for marketers whose main goal is to make their products known and loved by as many people in their target market as possible. He covers many media over the last 2 centuries, including Impressionist art, winning political speech and speakers, movies, music, fashion, books, Etsy hit products, and mobile apps. In the end he concludes there are no hard and fast rules on what makes things pop, but there are some reliable patterns: 1) simplicity, 2) familiarity, 3) frequency, 4) influential supporters, 5) close-knit supportive groups, 6) rhyming and catchy copy, 7) logical balance and intriguing inversion in messaging, 8) cross-channel support, 9) gradual innovation, and 10) ad hoc random influences. Thomson is a good, young writer and fine storyteller, and he has put together a useful treatise on a nebulous topic.

12. Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content by Ann Handley, 2014

Marketing is driven by content, so our next pick on the list of the best marketing books is about content creation. To create really good content, you need the writing skills to make your ideas come alive in an engaging way.

This book has dozens of useful insights for how to produce really good writing content. Highly recommended for all the marketers who write or edit content.

Read the free ebook on content marketing success.

13. The Ten Principles Behind Great Customer Experiences by Matt Watkinson, 2013

Watkinson is a designer and consultant who helps businesses get their customer experience right, and he brings a product and service design perspective to customer experience.

Great customer experiences are effortless -- for the customer. He outlines 3 areas to address: 1) Time on task, 2) Convenience, 3) Simplicity. Companies often lose track of this principle as they evolve and update their products and services. Download a checklist of site usability and readiness.

The book is an excellent read on design and customer delight which leads to better customer retention with many practical tips and takeaways.

14. Non-Obvious: How to Predict Trends and Win the Future By Rohit Bhargava, 2018

Bhargava focuses on the landscape in which we work, spots trends, and explains how marketers can tap into and take advantage of them. He also explains how to curate information and spot trends for those who are interested. Bhargava republishes the book each year as he understands that trends are fast moving and he wants to keep a current perspective. His trends include: Enlightened Consumption, Overtargeting, Brand Stand, Backstorytelling, Manipulated Outrage, Lightspeed Learning, Virtual Empathy, Human Mode, Data Pollution, and Predictive Protection among others. See how I tried to do some LightSpeed Learning by benchmarking your digital marketing skills with the 4-minute BrightEdge digital marketing quiz.

15. Barking Up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong By Eric Barker

This is one of the more general marketing books that marketers will find interesting. Barker reviews some well-trodden success paths and digs further and adds nuances that are fresh and interesting. He cites research that is less well known than what is usually cited in business success books. Here are some of the most interesting takeaways: Drinkers make 10% more money than non-drinkers and smokers make 7% less because drinking is social but smoking is usually private. Speaking early and often in groups causes other people to see you as a leader. Employee networks are valuable to companies; contacts are worth an average of $948 each. Wearing glasses does make people think you are smarter. Read the book to learn how all these data points fit together to make a person successful.

16. Digital Marketing for Dummies By Ryan Deiss and Russ Hennesberry, 2017

Digital Marketing for Dummies is published by Wiley. This book is an excellent reference, and it includes many practical, specific, and current details, insights, and advice. Learn more about the channels and the digital marketing technology in the free Martech Stack Checklist. It’s a very readable 300 pages and covers the customer journey, marketing planning, landing pages, blogging, SEO, SEM, social, display, email, and data and analytics. I like the focus on landing pages, which often get lost in the shuffle of channel and media planning as a high-leverage link in the funnel chain. They also reiterate the importance of the offer and revisiting and tuning the offer regularly. They provide 57 blog category ideas, including List, How-To, Research, Stat Roundup, People to Follow, Parody, Issue, Comparison, What-If, Challenge, and Products Tips to name just 11.

17. Blue Ocean Shift by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, updated in 2017

Blue Ocean has become a fairly well-known term for creating new markets and not just fighting over the same fixed pie in your current market. A blue ocean strategy focuses on how to create new value for customers. Blue Ocean thinking requires managers to innovate how they plan, develop, and deploy value for their customers. Blue Ocean recommends against over-focusing on your competition for risk that doing so can make you more like them and less differentiated in consumers' minds. On the topic on creating new markets, I much prefer Play Bigger, listed above, over Blue Ocean Shift.

Read a list of recommended SEO books and top B2B marketing books in these posts. Also see our list of best digital marketing books.

Most of the titles on this best marketing books list are well worth the money and time and will help set you up for a productive year. After all that knowledge acquisition, learn more about enterprise SEO platforms.