The Spring Tour of the Leading SEO Conference Is a Wrap!

On April 19th, BrightEdge concluded the first leg of its Share Global Insights Tour in London. Share, a series of one-day SEO conferences for digital marketers, by digital marketers, kicked off the 2018 tour with stops in New York in March and London in April and will reconvene in San Francisco this Fall. This year’s tour saw even greater attendance than 2017, a sign that the BrightEdge community is full of momentum and collaboration—not to mention a huge roster of impressive thought leaders in the industry from brands including: L'Oréal, IBM, Staples, Thomson Reuters, BlackRock, Comcast, and ShopDirect! Read more about the first half of the tour The theme of #Share18 is Search, Content, and the Customer Experience, and content explored understanding consumer intent and how agile organizations are using AI and automation to bring together search and content marketing to deliver a personalized digital experiences. At BrightEdge, we believe that performance starts with the customer journey and understanding consumer intent—which is possible through search and practical insights. The Share Global Insights Tour aimed to give digital marketers actionable takeaways through the daily efforts of our customers. Great examples included:

• Carlos Spallarossa, Head of SEO at L’Oréal explained how optimizing page speed helped drive organic traffic conversion and how vital it is to stay on top of AMP for the mobile customer experience. [Share NY]
• Connie O’Brien, CMO at Tungsten Networks, Scott Roen MD of Digital at BlackRock and Collin Colburn, Analyst at Forrester joined our industry panel to share best practices around elevating the role of SEO within organizations and how to ultimately drive deeper cross organization alignment. [Share NY]
• Michel Kant, Head of SEO at Staples, shared his journey and best practices around extending the value of search beyond the SEO channel and how to move SEO upstream in an organization by leveraging search to develop messaging, persona mapping and ultimately drive deeper engagement with your audience. [Share London]
• Jennifer Gac, SEO Manager at ShopDirect, spoke about key goals that e-retailers are trying to accomplish with their websites, how SEOs collaborate with content, merchandising, and trading teams, how to elevate SEO in the organization, and how to leverage AI to improve the performance of digital marketing. [Share London]

A huge theme from the spring tour stops surrounded the ever-expanding topic of AI and how to leverage machine learning in today’s digital marketing arena. Paul Roetzer of AI Institute, and Collin Colburn of Forrester joined panels to share the latest trends surrounding machine learning and how digital marketers should be thinking about establishing AI processes internally. Ellen Mamedov, IBM and Michel Kant, Staples encouraged the BrightEdge community to kickoff AI projects on a small scale and begin measuring results, as trial and error is a unavoidable in becoming successful at leveraging machine learning insights.

BrightEdge Community All Stars: BrightEdge Announced 2017 Awards at Share NY and London Recognizing Excellence in SEO and Content

BrightEdge announced and presented the BrightEdge 2017 SEO and Content Marketing Awards at Share NY and London. Response to the call for nominations was tremendous with more than 200 submissions and campaign summaries submitted. Marketers from top-tier brands across industries had remarkable achievements in 2017, and these awards recognized their results, community leadership, and business acumen. Read more about the London Share event and awards on the ClickThrough blog post published following Share London.

Here is a partial list of award winners from NY and London:

• SEO Program of the Year in North America: L’Oréal (New York)
• Agency Campaigns: iProspect and Resolution Media (New York)
• Innovator of the Year: Michel Kant, Staples EMEA (London)
• Community Member of the Year: Jennifer Gac, ShopDirect (London)

 We would like to give a big “thank you” to the more than 40 speakers who led breakout sessions, spoke on panels, shared (pun intended) their valuable insights onstage in the spring of 2018. Check out the agendas and full lists of speakers: New York, London.

What’s Next? The Final Leg of Share Global Insights Tour in San Francisco

BrightEdge is excited to announce that the Share Global Insights Tour will complete its Fall tour in San Francisco on October. Our flagship SEO conference, Share San Francisco, will take place October 10, 2018, at the Westin St. Francis. This 1.5 day event will be packed with industry leading panels, persona-based breakout sessions, dynamic keynotes, and formal networking opportunities.

Make sure to check out our Share San Francisco event page below and send questions to events@brightedge.com. San Francisco: October 9-10

Need Inspiration?

We are thrilled to announce our keynote speaker for Share, Derek Redmond, and his inspiring story of grit and determination. Derek’s semi-final at the Barcelona Olympics will be remembered as an eternally inspirational moment, as his father headed onto the track to help him cross the finishing line after a serious injury mid race. Lauded as NBC’s third top Olympic moment ever, and mentioned in a public speech by Barack Obama, Derek Redmond is a top global motivational speaker. Dogged by serious injury from the start of his career, Derek’s remarkable achievements are internationally lauded. “Derek Redmond bravely making it through with little help, moments of euphoria after years of hard work. Moments when the human spirit triumphs over injury that should have been impossible to overcome." -President Barack Obama

Reasons to Attend Share San Francisco

We want you to get the most out of your Share experience so we’ve taken your feedback from 2017 and optimized the 2018 roadshow to make it even better. Here’s what you can expect:

1. Innovative Break Out Tracks: Whether your focus is in digital, content, or strictly SEO, Share will have two tracks specifically designed for you. Get the most out of your day with BrightEdge by attending sessions specifically tailored to your needs.
2. Training and Certification: Would you like to BrightEdge certify or certify someone on your team? We will be offering in-person training on October 9th for just $300. Participants will be the first ones to receive training on the latest product functionality and to earn the BrightEdge Update Certification 2018.
3. Innovation: Join industry experts who will help bring artificial intelligence to your fingertips. We’ll cut through the hype surrounding AI and provide real, practical advice on how you can become an AI-First marketer.
4. 2018 Global Award Ceremony: BrightEdge will recognize outstanding achievement in the community at the closing ceremony of Share SF event. Leverage the knowledge and success of your digital marketing community.
5. Community Networking: Learning happens both on and off the stage (ahem, and at happy hour) and this year Share will have tailored networking so you can connect with peers in your distinct role and share your successes.

Register Now!

Calling all early birds! Register for Share SF before September 14th to take advantage of early bird pricing for just $499 ($699 regular price) Learn more about Share San Francisco here: San Francisco.

Submit Your Award Nomination!

The 2018 call for BrightEdge Edgie Awards nominations is open now. You can nominate yourself, a colleague, or a customer in 7 different categories through August 2018. Winners will be announced at Share SF.

Want to Speak at Share SF?

We here at BrightEdge can’t wait to bring you more innovative and creative ideas at Share SF this October. If you are interested in becoming a speaker at Share, please submit your topic and interest on our Share page. This year, the BrightEdge Community has become an impactful network that shares insights, provides platform best practices, and, most of all, elevates the role of SEOs and digital marketers across the industry. We look forward to building on our community success in 2018 in San Francisco! Whether you are running a global SEO team or a powerhouse team of one, Share has something for you. See you all there!

Connecting SEO and content marketing trends and strategies with the people that execute them

At BrightEdge, helping our customers succeed is at the heart of everything we do. And this year, we continued to build and expand our programs and events to help our customers thrive in the fast-paced and ever-changing digital marketing landscape. In 2017, our investment in our users is reflected through success in three pillars: SEO Conference Share Global Insights Tour, SEO/Content Marketing User Groups, and the SEO and Digital Marketing Webinar Series. These three types of events were designed to inspire through thought leadership, promote best practices that deliver real results, and provide networking opportunities with other leading marketers to fuel personal and professional performance. Let’s dive into these events and see how the BrightEdge Community pushed the boundaries of the SEO and Content Marketing landscape in 2017.

The BrightEdge SEO Webinar Series: Taking SEO and Content Marketing to the Next Level

If you haven’t joined the 30,000+ community members engaging with our webinars this year, you are missing out! In 2017, BrightEdge hosted 27 public webinars featuring community speakers on a wide range of subjects including:

• Developing Pre-Optimized Content
• Debunking the Myths: Organic and Content Marketing Convergence
• Beyond SEO: Connecting Content to Conversions
• SEO, The Heart of Digital Marketing

On24 put it best in their recent 2017 Benchmarks Report: “Webinars have the ability to deliver deep and engaging content at a time when so many other communications are superficial or 'snackable.'” Webinars dive deep into the subjects’ marketers care about most and are a convenient means to access the best thought leadership in the business. Here’s what the community had to say about #brightedgewebinar:   

There are still five webinars coming up in the Fall Webinar Series for both B2B and B2C tracks. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to further develop your SEO and Content strategy!  Don't forget you can always access these webinars on-demand here.

BrightEdge User Groups: Connecting with the very best in SEO

Regional BrightEdge User Groups are a popular new element of the community in 2017. These customer-led groups meet to network and keep ahead of the latest trends impacting search sharing best practices to elevate the role of SEO across their organizations. So far, there are 11 user groups in the following cities: New York, London, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Austin, Dallas, Seattle, and San Francisco, with groups in development in Cleveland, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. Nearly 400 customers have joined the community and the momentum is growing! Sam Khandelwal, senior director of marketing strategy and business development at Position 2, spoke about his experience with the local User Groups:

“The User Group in San Francisco has helped connect me with a lot of different ideas and insights and all of the ways we were not using the BrightEdge platform, and helps connect with folks who have similar ideas.”

If you are interested in joining the BrightEdge User Group near you, sign up to join today.

Share Global Insights Tour 2017: The Leading SEO Conference is a Wrap!

On October 4, BrightEdge concluded its Share Global Insights Tour with the final SEO conference in Chicago. Share, a series of four one-day SEO conferences for digital marketers, by digital marketers, stopped in New York, London, and San Francisco. This year’s tour saw even greater attendance than our three-day event in 2016, a great sign of community momentum. Read more about the first half of the tour. This year’s tour was centered around The Convergence of SEO and Content Marketing. At BrightEdge, we believe that performance starts with Smart Content and Smart Content starts by understanding consumer intent — which is possible through search. The Share Global Insights Tour aimed to give digital marketers actionable takeaways on how SEO and Content Marketing work together to deliver better marketing results. Great examples included:

• Scott Mowery, director of digital marketing for Cleveland Clinic, explained how site redesign helped drive both the general public and patients seeking care to the Cleveland Clinic site for general health tips and urgent medical needs [Share Chicago]
• Laura Ann Mitchell, Cisco, shared her journey and best practices around extending the value of search beyond the SEO channel and how to move SEO upstream in an organization by leveraging search to develop messaging, persona mapping and ultimately drive deeper engagement with your audience. [Share San Francisco]

A huge takeaway from the SF and Chicago stops of the Tour was the introduction of BrightEdge Content. Avi Bhatnagar of WhiteHat Security gave a live demo of the new product, showing just how easy it is to identify profitable topic opportunities and create new content that’s tuned for user experience and search success. Avi encouraged the audience to replace the traditional content marketing waterfall model with a new Smart Content methodology that focuses on customer intent, content optimization prior to publication, and embedding CTAs and dynamic content recommendations for maximum content performance. In his article for Search Engine Watch, digital marketing strategist and Share speaker Clark Boyd recapped key conference takeaways including his vision on teamwork and SEO.

“Working in SEO in 2017, therefore, requires a broad range of skill sets, from the technical through to the strategic and the interpersonal. Frankly, SEO fails if it exists in a vacuum and it requires input from across departments to reach its full potential.”

We would like to give a big “thank you” to Clark and the other 32 speakers who lead breakout sessions, spoke on panels, shared (pun intended) their valuable insights on stage in 2017. Check out the agendas and full lists of speakers New York, London, San Francisco, and Chicago.  

What’s next? Plans for 2018

BrightEdge is excited to announce that the Share Global Insights Tour is returning in 2018 and our flagship SEO conference, Share San Francisco, will take place October 9-10, 2018, at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco. This two-day event will be packed with persona-based breakout sessions, dynamic keynotes, and a BrightEdge Certification course. Read the press release. Make sure to check our events page for updates on Share San Francisco and the other stops on the 2018 Global Insights Tour as they are announced! Specific questions about the Global Insights Tour can be sent to events@brightedge.com. This year, the BrightEdge Community has become an impactful network that shares insights, platform best practices, and, most of all, elevates the role of SEO and Content Marketers across the industry. We look forward to building on our community success in 2018 with more engaging events! Are you a part of the BrightEdge Community? Share your favorite moments of 2017 in the comments below!

Enjoy the Share16 testimonial videos to gain insights from current customers and learn more about SEO maturity. Use them in your own company to help grow SEO maturity and secure more resources for the largest channel.

Every year at the Share conference, the BrightEdge community comes together to exchange ideas and learn more about SEO and digital marketing as a whole for an information-packed three days.

There are countless conferences that take place across the country every year, but Share is unique in its ability to bring together a group of some of the best digital marketers in the industry to learn about elevating SEO strategy and practices within their own organizations. Brands exchange ideas based upon their own experience with the BrightEdge platform and walk away feeling more equipped and ready to mature the digital marketing process in their business.

Throughout the conference, we had the chance to sit down and speak with a number of different customers. These videos are now live and we wanted to bring them to the attention of our audience. The conversations we had with these customers were informative and insightful, and we hope you will like them as well.

Share16 Testimonial videos in the B2B space

Astute Solutions

“In about a 6-month period with the help of BrightEdge, and with the help of the team there... we’ve been about to increase the amount of listings we have on page 1 through 10 by 20% just in 6 months and actually increase our organic site traffic by 60% in that same amount of time.”

- Natalie Skarzynski for Astute Solutions

Natalie describes how BrightEdge helps her and her team move forward, understand the biggest priorities, and create content and strategies that will maximize their impact.  

WhiteHat Security

“With BrightEdge Content, we have the ability to kind of fast-track, the ability to build out optimized and targeted content. The content that we produce out-performed our blog content by 170%.”

- Avi Bhatnagar, WhiteHat Security

Avi spoke about how WhiteHat Security uses BrightEdge to identify Moments that Matter and create content that appropriately targets their customers. He also spoke about the level of support he receives from BrightEdge and how the platform has become a core part of their strategy. Through their successful use of the BrightEdge platform and BrightEdge Content, they elevated SEO and made content an important part of their brand.  

Share16 Testimonial videos in the B2C space

STAPLES Europe

“The first and more important problem that BrightEdge helps me solve for our business in Europe is to make SEO tangible. So we use the Story Builder to really combine all the different data points and the insights that we get with the platform so that we can tell the whole story.”

- Michel Kant, STAPLES Europe

Michel describes how their BrightEdge usage helps them maximize their resources. He is able to use the data from the platform when talking to others and to show the business’s progress.  

Hallmark Cards

“We’re a very small team doing a large amount of optimization for a large organization spanning multiple countries, multiple verticals; and ultimately, the amount of data analysis we can offboard into a system like BrightEdge that can then spit out very, very actionable insights for us, it’s been a game changer.”

- Kelly Rivard, Hallmark Cards

Kelly spoke about how the BrightEdge Share of Voice helped them better understand the optimal directions for growth. Working with Professional Services, she was able to see rapid growth at Hallmark, and uses that case study to continue to replicate their results across different aspects of the site, elevating SEO within the organization.  

Share16 Testimonial videos on the Global level

Oracle

“By gaining key customer insight through tools like BrightEdge, now you can create more relevant content, more relevant campaigns and messages that really resonate.”

- Kelvin Gee, Oracle

Kelvin spoke about the transformation that many brands are undergoing as they venture from the old way of doing marketing to the new digital strategies- and how BrightEdge can help brands successfully mature in this way. Using the platform, Kelvin and Oracle can better understand what customers want and then produce the content needed to engage with their audience.

“We’re using the BrightEdge Data Cube to inform our content and create intelligent content so that we’re matching the content to the search activity of our target audience.”

- Joyce Boland, Oracle

Joyce explains that BrightEdge has played a core role in the creation of content that better aligns with customers. Rather than creating content based around what they want the customer to know, they now create the content that people seek. They can better develop the material for the entire buyer’s journey.  

Adobe

“BrightEdge’s platform helps us in a couple of major areas. One of them is in just insight into our SEO data. It also helps us forecast business cases, predictive modeling.”

- Jay Middleton, Adobe

Jay says BrightEdge helps Adobe look globally at their SEO efforts and strategy while also monitoring over a million keywords. They use a variety of the different BrightEdge functions, such as Story Builder, Data Cube, and Share of Voice to better understand their position and strategy.

“Unified BrightEdge platform allows us to very effectively address reporting rather than focusing on just one or two different features, we have a comprehensive view of SEO success and that allows us to actually get more buy-in.” Kirill explains that BrightEdge helps Adobe succeed on a global scale. They can use the platform to improve their organic traffic rates and elevate their SEO success.

Share16 Testimonial videos from agency customers

Overdrive Interactive

“BrightEdge actually helps us solve several problems. First, we use it as a business development tool. Second, we use it as a benchmarking tool to get an idea of where the client is sitting and also from a competitive set. And then thirdly, from a reporting standpoint always showing that we’re doing a great job for our clients and success,”

- Jeff Selig, Overdrive Interactive.

Jeff describes how his agency often works on a variety of different initiatives. They use BrightEdge dashboards to clearly display their performance metrics. They build their dashboards specifically to speak to those in the c-suite to show the work and success of the marketers.  

97th Floor

“One of my favorite real specific features that BrightEdge has, that really no one else has that we found in the company, is the Quick Answers and the reporting tools around Quick Answers.”

- Chris Bennett, 97th Floor

97th Floor founder Chris Bennett was one of our keynote speakers this year at Share, and he offered some great insights into the power of Quick Answers in the optimization process. In his video here, he speaks about how BrightEdge supports him in these efforts and helps him elevate SEO with his clients.  

Noble Studios

“We see improvement across all our clients in performance, we see lift in conversion. We use BrightEdge across all of our accounts, and there is no way that we could replicate the speed and the workflow automation that the platform allows us to do across all of our clients.”

- Michael Thomas, Noble Studios

Michael Thomas of Noble Studios spoke about how the Story Builder on the BrightEdge platform lets them really see the impact that SEO is having on the organization as a whole. The platform is at the core of how they tell the stories of success to their clients.    

Be Found Online

“BrightEdge, well for me, it’s the most complete and comprehensive solution that just gives us everything in one place.”

- Bob Dearsly, BFO

Bob Dearsly of Be Found Online spoke about the importance of moving forward in SEO. Everything is in a perpetual state of change in this industry, and BrightEdge provides BFO with the tools they need to provide for their clients. The BrightEdge testimonial videos from Share16 are now live for your enjoyment.

This is just a sampling of the many people who so generously took the time to speak to us about how they use BrightEdge to succeed. It was great to speak with so many customers and hope that you find their remarks as insightful as we did. You can check out all of the videos on our testimonial page. 

See all testimonials

Share16 has now officially wrapped up after some more exciting keynotes and engaging breakout sessions. The conference brought together some of the most talented minds in the industry and created an environment with great energy and a fantastic exchange of ideas.

The morning Share16 keynote

The morning of the third and final day of Share16 began with a great keynote presentation from Joyce Boland and Kelvin Gee of Oracle as well as Rachna Sethni of Facebook. Both brands discussed how marketing has transformed their organizations over the past few years and where they see themselves going. Oracle, the world’s largest enterprise software company, explored how it shifted its strategy and even its core culture, in response to the rise of modern technology and marketing. Facebook spoke about how quickly mobile has overtaken other media forms and how convenient it can be for users when everything comes together on a mobile device. Sethni says that Facebook is working to develop apps and capabilities to better bring customers and brands together, creating a superior experience for all.

The Search Track at Share16

S104: Technical Site Configuration: SEO Friendly Design, Build & Infrastructure Austin Kane Austin Kane, the Senior Manager of Search Marketing at John Wiley & Sons, spoke about the importance of valuing technical SEO. He explained that brands also need to have a proactive mindset, not just a reactive one. This means they should pay attention to strategies that can help them grow, rather than just trying to fix problems as they appear. Mark Munroe Mark Munroe is the Founder and CEO of SEORadar. He reminded us that sometimes it can feel as though you have too many cooks in the kitchen when you are trying to design a website. Munroe also spoke about how easily things can go wrong with websites, but that sometimes it can be hard to understand what exactly changed He recommends implementing monitoring processes and having deep visibility into the website.  Jacqueline Urick Jacqueline Urick, the Head of SEO for Pampered Chef, reminded us all that the developers on our teams are people, too! Improving communication can go a long way in helping everyone work together, as well as understanding the goals and pressing concerns of the different groups. Dashboards in particular can be helpful to show progress on SEO projects and to help developers understand your needs. S105: Global and Local Search: SEO, PPC, and Social Synergy Collin Colburn Collin Colburn is a researcher at Forrester Research. He spoke about the importance of creating a frictionless, anticipatory, and immersive marketing experience in the world of post-digital marketing. He drove home the point that marketers really need to do what they say; customers are not nearly as interested in what we say as they are in what we do. Consumers today are interested in personalized messages, rather than general broadcasts, and they want brands that understand the value of being human, helpful, and handy. Chad Hallert Chad Hallert is the Director of Digital Strategy at Noble Studios. He explained to the room the importance of genuinely integrating your teams. Integration requires actual change in your output, not just adding numbers together on a document. When paid search and SEO work together, for example, they can achieve great results. The data we get from the various silos and departments in our organization can all benefit others. Looking at the micro-moments in the consumer journey can also help brands identify opportunities for integration by understanding the types of content most likely to benefit customers. S106: Insights from In-House Experts: Technical Tactics & Conversion Strategies This was a question and answer opportunity with the talented Alex Bullo, the Digital Marketing Manager for SEO & Audience Acquisition at Salesforce; Kirill Kronrod, the manager of Global SEO & Search Analytics at Adobe, and Heather Mezzeta the Sr. Marketing Manager SEO at Sephora. They fielded questions from the audience, covering a range of topics, including HTTPS, scaling SEO in-house, MP, and the importance of data when communicating SEO value to those higher in the organization. The group also mentioned that the areas they are most interested in watching as we prepare to head into 2017 will be AMP in ecommerce, voice search and digital personal assistants, and artificial intelligence.

The Content Optimization and Digital Integration Track at Share16

CO204: The Search, Social, and Content Marketing Trifecta: Digital Branding & PR Rachel Freeman Rachel Freeman, the Director of Integrated Marketing and Digital at Centrify spoke about the impact of PR on SEO. In particular, she touched upon how customers make many queries before actually engaging with a brand, so having a strong brand awareness is critical. When SEO and PR work together to establish consistent communication, they can see great results. Clark Boyd Clark Boyd, the VP of Strategy at Croud, explored the ideas of impulses, habits, and emotions together. He said that there is often too much information and not enough meaning. Brands need to be thinking about improving user engagement and moving towards meaningful content measurements. We need to think beyond immediate interactions, and instead see the big picture. Bringing different disciplines together can help with tracking important metrics and understanding the impact of the content produced. Chris Attewell Chris Attewell, the SVP Americas at Search Laboratory, described the results that can be achieved when SEO and PR are brought together. When brands correctly factor PR into the rest of the marketing discipline, they can produce great results in key areas such as awareness, engagement, and market share. Attewell believes that brands should not let themselves get lost in flashy campaigns and lose sight of methods that have been shown to work, including link building. CO2015: Managing Multiple Digital Channels: Finding The Perfect Mix Cindy Phan Cindy Phan, the Senior Manager of Digital Demand Strategy at VMware, delved into the idea of managing multiple digital channels. VMware has a personalized digital framework to help them understand the audience and segment them for more effective marketing. She spoke about the importance of using 1st Party Data as a means of validating statistics on conversion and campaign performance and always outlining the goals and KPIs of campaigns before they begin. Paul Williams Paul Williams, the VP Director at Performics, explored the importance of understanding intent in the cross-channel experience. He believes that intent is the single largest performance marketing variable, which shapes queries and dictates purchase paths. He also spoke about the shift away from direct response campaigns-- like with television ads expecting people to call, to indirect response-- when customers respond by adjusting their online searches. Allen Nance Allen Nance, the CMO at Emarsys, spoke about finding the right mix between computer automation and human marketing. Data is our most valuable asset, and one day machines will be able to deliver 1:1 personalized marketing. We already use machine learning regularly, and as we rethink the role of the marketer, it will become more prominent.

The Business & Career Elevation Track at Share16

BE304: The Digital Marketing Mind: The Psychology of Self Development Dave Lloyd Dave Lloyd is the Principal Consultant of Optimization and Personalization at Adobe. He spoke about aligning personal goals with the company and team to help you grow both within your personal skill set and in your career. He addressed the importance of asking for feedback and being willing to revisit data. Lloyd also touched upon the importance of using creative storytelling to get buy-in from executives. Adam Audette Adam Audette, the SVP of SEO at Merkle, spoke about the “digital mind” and hacks to grow your career. In his 8 step career algorithm, he explored the importance of actually ‘doing’, following great leads, and not being afraid to make mistakes or ask for help. Mel Carson Mel Carson, the US Brand Ambassador for Majestic and the founder of Delightful Communications, discussed the importance of building a personal brand. By doing so, professionals can make themselves more discoverable, shareable, and memorable. This involves thinking about how you fit in your team, how to project your expertise and skills, and making the right connections. BE305: Organizational Design: Building Digital Centers of Excellence Mauricio Moreno Mauricio Moreno, the Director of SEO at Revana Digital, spoke about how to build “Centers of Excellence” and how they are integral to SEO success. Brands need to focus on three stages: pre-content generation, content generation, and analysis. This means identifying the audience and doing the research needed to know what they want to see, creating content that answers those needs, and then watching for good results during analysis. Eric Hess and Ryan Rickets Eric Hess and Ryan Rickets, Program Managers of SEO at REI, addressed the idea of splitting up SEO into Content and Technical Aspects. The two of them are a team where one handles the technical and one handles the content and they find that the system works well by leveraging the strengths of each. Garrett Mehrguth Garrett Mehrguth, the CEO of Directive Consulting, spoke about the importance of moving quickly and regularly testing. He believes that testing inputs is essential to SEO. Inputs must be measurable to be used. Mehgruth notes that there is no failing in SEO, there is only learning.

Closing Keynote at Share16

After finishing up these incredible sessions, we all gathered together again to hear the closing keynote speeches, and they were worth the wait. We first heard from the Gold-Level sponsor for the event, Chris Bennett of 97th Floor. He explored with us the idea of digital distress, that countless marketers do not feel confident in their own digital marketing abilities, or those of their organizations. He also delved into the growing importance of featured snippets and the impact they can have on traffic and brand presence. They also can offer a variety of information, including cost quotes-- effectively bringing people through much of the sales funnel before they even click on your site. Bennett also explained the concept of TF-IDF (Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency) and how even though this is a part of Google’s patent, it is still severely underutilized by marketers. Thao Tran of Google then took the stage and spoke about the latest on the mobile web. This included discussing one of the goals of Google: to help users have a frictionless mobile experience. AMP will also ideally be compatible with a variety of different types of sites, helping all mobile users experience the fast loading sites. According to Tran, there are already 700k websites that use AMP. Tran spoke about the rise of the progressive web app, where brands can help their users have a positive experience, even offline or if they have a spotty internet connection. Many of the pioneering web apps that Tran used as examples actually originated outside the US, but American brands are expected to begin leveraging the technology soon as well. Brands can also equip their apps with capabilities like a credential manager. Ninety-two percent of customers will just give up if they forget their user name or password, and equipping the app to remember the customer when they open this page can help cut back that attrition rate. On the issue of the secure web, she also did not leave any room for discussion when she said, “HTTPS is now the web standard. The future of the web is a secure one.”  We are still feeling excited and invigorated after such an exciting week at Share16. We want to extend another warm thank you to all of our sponsors and speakers. It was wonderful to have your input and your help in making this conference so incredible. We hope that all of our attendees had as much fun as we did and we hope to see you all again next year at Share17! Learn about VSO or Vertical Search Optimization.

As Share15 approaches, we’re doubling down on our efforts to spread the word on content performance marketing. With content in mind, we’re excited to extend an invitation to our upcoming Twitter chat!

Follow #ContentBattleground on September 3rd at 11am PDT to see Share15 speakers from brands, like Cabela’s, The Home Depot, VMWare and Stone Temple Consulting (and a few big-brand special guests!) discuss and answer questions on all things related to content performance marketing. And don’t forget your own questions! We want to hear from you. The session will be moderated by Amberly Dressler of Website magazine.

So why #ContentBattleground? With brands opening microsites, producing how-to videos, and even opening their own publishing houses, content marketing has never been more prevalent — and essentially more competitive. As more and more brands invest in content, the landscape becomes increasingly crowded: a true content battleground.

But it’s not enough to just show up and stake your claim anymore — with more and more competitors entering the landscape, brands are finding that they have to fight amongst each other for share of voice. That’s where content performance marketing comes into play. While churning out content and spreading it around haphazardly may have worked once, the game has changed. For the best shot at success, marketers need their strategies to be powered by data-driven insights. When they see where they stand, where their competitors stand and where the opportunity areas are, they can develop a clear plan of attack that will lead to victory.

We look forward to discussing the Ins and Outs of the #ContentBattleground with you during our Twitter chat. And to continue the conversation, don’t forget to register for Share15, where we’ll have dozens of sessions and hands-on labs that can continue to arm you with information to help you find success on the content battleground.

Retail Marketing Advantage

Online shopping has become an increasingly important factor in the retail industry. Online retail revenue had 11 percent growth, year-over-year, during the first quarter of 2014. Online shopping retail is projected to continue to grow from $231 billion in 2012 to $370 billion by 2017. It is also estimated that more than a third of every dollar spent in retail stores has been influenced by digital interactions with the brand. For businesses to thrive in the modern marketplace, they must be able to succeed online. At Share15 we want to help our retail attendees gain the insights they need to make their online goals a reality. That is why we have brought in speakers from some of the leading retail brands to discuss some of the most pressing issues impacting those in this vertical. 

Creating a remarkable experience

The core challenge for many retail brands is to find a way to get their voice heard above the crowd. The marketplace today has become incredibly saturated with products and brands that fill nearly every niche available and it is extremely difficult to develop a product that cannot also be purchased from a competitor. This means that retailers must focus instead on the buyer’s experience. They need to be enticing from the first interaction with the customer through the transaction and even after the customer has made their purchase. Creating this outstanding experience begins online. An estimated 81 percent of shoppers will conduct online research before they make a purchase. This includes 60 percent who will use a search engine to look for specific products. People are interested in learning more about their options and what is available to help them solve their problem.

Retailers must focus on answering this need to begin the creation of a fantastic experience. Knowing exactly who your customers are and what they want to learn about can be particularly helpful. This can be done by constructing customer personas that illustrate the central categories of customers that your business attracts and what drives those customers to make a purchase. This will guide your content development, your optimization efforts and your personalization initiatives.

At Share15 you will be able to dive deeply into the creation of  customer personas and how to leverage data to understand your audience. Gain insights about how to create content for multiple personas and how to use your content to build engagement. Jesse Farley of retail giant Cabela’s and Erin Everhart of The Home Depot will be two of the presenters. You can also listen to Adam Audette of RKG speak about going beyond the algorithm. Many retailers struggle with the ever-shifting requirements. The year 2014 alone saw multiple updates that targeted low-quality content.

The mobile update of April 2015 also left many brands struggling to ensure that their content was up to date.Keeping up with the Google algorithm and how customers search Audette and his co-presenters will help you understand how and why the algorithm keeps changing and how you can optimize strategies and data that will keep your site in front of your customers’ eyes. They will speak about focusing on the end user instead of focusing on the algorithm and how this can benefit your company as a whole.

Using data to drive decisions

Given the intense competition of the retail marketplace, you need to leverage data to ensure that you are reaching your marketing goals. Listen to Jay King of Ben & Jerry’s and Stefan Zechner of Western Union Company speak about leveraging data to ensure that campaigns are executed with maximum efficiency. In the heavily competitive retail marketspace, keeping costs down whenever possible is critical for success, so ensuring that your marketing campaigns are aimed precisely at your target audience and that no resources are spent unnecessarily will be valuable. Data can also help you better engage with your audience by helping you understand them and what they want to find. This can further help enhance the customer experience. The power of data can be incredible.

Mastering the multi-channel approach

As a digital savvy retailer, you know that meeting your customers’ needs requires having a strong presence on multiple platforms. You want customers to find you on search, engage with you social, and convert either on your website or be inspired to visit one of your stores. Managing an integrated campaign that allows you to take a holistic approach and look at your customer’s journey across the different spaces where they might interact with the brand. This will help you remain relevant in the minds of your customers and improve brand reach. You can explore the convergence between search, social and content by listening to a presentation by Jamie Peach of House of Fraser (UK) and consider how to build marketing campaigns holistically so that you can reach your customers across the digital ecosystem.

Search and social are heavily intertwined with content as all three must work together to create content that is truly optimized and ready to bring in the retail customers that online marketing is capable of producing. You can also listen to Allan Price of Monster Energy give a presentation on managing an integrated marketing campaign. He and his co-presenters will look at how to use multiple channels and build cross-functional teams that can work towards a common goal and deliver a common message.

Managing a successful retail brand requires mastering the arts of online marketing, e-commerce, social, and physical retail. Meeting the needs of these digital customers poses many challenges for retail brands. Come to Share15 to listen to industry leaders and gain the insights you need to succeed. If you have not registered yet for Share15, visit our event website and sign up today. We look forward to seeing everyone in just a few weeks.    

Data-Driven Content Marketing

Stefan Zechner is the Digital SEO, Social and Content Marketing Lead for Western Union. He focuses primarily on new customer acquisition through natural search and search optimization. He is accustomed to working with a variety of different departments, including IT, Content, Paid Performance, PR and Marketing at large.

Stefan ensures that there is cohesiveness throughout all of the different teams’ content activities and that all campaigns adhere to SEO best practices. Stefan’s incredible experience and expertise makes us excited to welcome him as a speaker at Share15. We had the chance to sit down with him and speak for a bit and we wanted to share some of the highlights from our conversation.

The Impact of Industry Changes

BrightEdge (BE): What changes in the search industry have had the biggest impact for you and your company?

Stefan Zechner (SZ): The mobile algorithm update in April 2015 was huge. It sparked a mindset change within our organization and helped us understand where our customer base and our future customers - especially millennials - have their focus. This, in turn, has been a huge influence on our UX department.

On the Rise of Personalization

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

SZ: I think personalization is going to be huge. Semantic search is the first big step in this direction, but I feel strongly that this is just the beginning. It is all about getting more involved, more personalized and more direct in your communication with consumers as a marketer.

On His Presentation at Share

BE: What will you be discussing at Share15?

SZ: I will be delving into data-driven content strategy. I will explore how to use data to drive the right people to the right content at the right time and why SEO is such an important part of this process.

The Incredible Value of Share

BE: What will bring you to Share this year?

SZ: Because sharing is caring - but more seriously: I work under the mantra that when you share something, you challenge yourself and others to become better and more effective. BrightEdge is providing a platform, a safe-haven, for SEOs that ought to be used for collaboration and education. There are a variety of approaches to modern SEO obstacles. While we are all facing the same or similar issues, there are many roads that lead to success. I look forward to discussing issues, such as looking at content marketing and content creation through the lenses of compliance and legal challenges. The exchange of ideas and the opportunity to meet more professionals will be outstanding.

The Role of BrightEdge

BE: What role does BrightEdge play in your organization?

SZ: We use BrightEdge together with our agencies to not only assess current performance but also to check trends and research new keyword opportunities. We use a variety of different BrightEdge capabilities, in particular the Share of Voice and Competitor Analysis. The new StoryBuilder, which helps us create reports faster - and even on-the-fly - is awesome.  We love the variety and power of the BrightEdge technology. They also offer excellent customer support, which is always a fantastic resource.

The Fun Stuff

BE: Can you tell us some fun facts about your brand?

SZ: Western Union has been around for more than 160 years and has been transferring money for 140 years. We were the first company to launch a domestic communication satellite network, the first transcontinental telegraph line, the first microwave system to connect two cities, and the first singing telegraph. The brand has an incredible legacy and I enjoy being a part of it.

BE: What about some fun facts about yourself?

SZ: I cannot function in rooms that are warmer than 50 degrees. I also work best between 1 and 3 am and find that the best ideation can come during a good old SciFi series. This was a fun and enlightening conversation with Stefan. We look forward to hearing his presentation at Share in just a few weeks. If you have not signed up yet, make sure you do not miss the opportunity to hear him and the other speakers. Visit our event page and learn more fantastic reasons to attend.

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

 

BrightEdge One of the Fastest Growing Companies in the US

BrightEdge, the leader in content performance marketing, is honored to be named in the top 20% of the nation’s fastest-growing companies in this year’s Inc. 5000 list of America's Fastest-Growing Companies. The marketing technology space has become more crowded than ever and this award is testament to our market-leading growth, focus on innovation, and commitment to customer success. BrightEdge was also the highest-ranked content marketing technology company on the list.

Growth and Momentum

With 587-percent growth over the past three years, we plan on continuing that momentum. From where we stand today, it’s hard to believe that only eight years ago, BrightEdge was a two-person operation based out of our CEO Jim Yu’s kitchen. Fast forward to today, and thanks to every person on the BrightEdge team, we were able to take BrightEdge from a bootstrapped start-up to an established, global marketing enterprise technology leader.

Innovation and Customer Success

Beyond the talent and hard work of our team, this recognition is a reflection of our unwavering commitment to our customers.

Customer success is our number-one priority at BrightEdge and the driving force behind our innovation. This has made it possible for us to maintain significant year-over-year growth.

Innovation and customer success will continue to be the main tenets of our business. We would like to thank our customers, our executive staff, and our investors for helping us get where we are today. Read the rest of the Inc. 5000 list here or visit our awards page to learn more about the slew of acclaim and awards BrightEdge has received.

Join the BrightEdge community at Share15

At Share15 the team will be showcasing the latest innovations set to change the content performance marketing landscape alongside many of the world's leading brands - such as Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, Wiley, Marriott, Adobe – and over 1000 digital marketers. Come join the conversation on 21^st – 23^rd September at the Westin St Francis in San Francisco.  

In November 2014, Forrester Research released a report entitled Predictions 2015: Most Brands Will Underinvest in Mobile. The report touched upon budgeting and leadership problems for many companies. This is particularly concerning in light of the recent Google mobile algorithm update of April 2015. A marketing strategy based only on responding to algorithm updates is a poor one. Your strategy should be focused on creating an ideal customer experience on your site. In today’s increasingly mobile world, that includes having a viable strategy in place to handle all devices - desktops, tablets, and smartphones. If your organization’s not already aggressively focused on mobile user experiences, the info below will help you play a role in developing a strong mobile strategy for your brand.

The Importance of mobile growth

According to the Measuring the Information Society Report, “mobile-cellular population coverage has reached 93 percent globally: in other words, almost every person on the globe lives within reach of a mobile-cellular signal and, at least theoretically, has access to mobile communication services.” This means that the vast majority of the global population can potentially access mobile networks. This is particularly significant in developing countries, where populations may have better access to mobile than they do to landlines. The numbers are equally significant in the United States. According to Pew Research:

• 90 percent of American adults have a cell phone
• 64 percent of American adults have a smartphone
• 42 percent of American adults own a tablet computer
• 32 percent of American adults own an e-reader

Mobile also now exceeds desktop internet use, demonstrating how powerful the mobile market has become in just a few short years. Companies that do not have a viable mobile marketing strategy are losing customers each day since people cannot access their sites easily on the go.

Designing a mobile-friendly site

Let’s start with some common sense – mobile devices and search engine bots should have access to pages that are easily read on mobile devices. Consider the example of Metrarail, the Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corporation. The system serves more than 300,000 passengers a day throughout the Chicago metropolitan area. They know that people accessing their website from handheld devices are also struggling to hold onto a briefcase, bags or a child’s hand, so they made an easy to navigate site that focuses on crucial passenger information, such as train schedules and weather advisories. Take a look at the screenshot below:

The desktop version of www.metrarail.com, however, is designed more for customers who are ready to read leisurely and learn about helpful information and promotions.

Look at the below Metra desktop screenshot for contrast.

This example shows perfectly why designing a mobile site is about more than just making a screen fit a mobile device. In a recent article on CickZ I talked through how best to implement a mobile web strategy. There are three main techniques you can use to create your mobile site.

Responsive Web Design

This means that your site will automatically detect the screen size upon which it is displayed and resize to fit. Google specifically states that they prefer responsive design. You are at a disadvantage, however, with older devices that do not support the necessary CSS code. There are also occasional problems with slower page load times.

Dynamic Serving

Dynamic Serving allows you to have separate HTML pages that can be optimized for load time on varying devices. The ability to have mobile-specific content on a separate HTML pages can be a big plus. You can also leverage keywords that can be context- and location-specific. The downside is the bandwidth & logistics needed to manage two sites – full of potential problems.

Separate or Dedicated URLs

With this system, both the HTML pages and the URLs are separate for desktop and mobile versions. This provides maximum flexibility across the various platforms in terms of content, page loading, and navigation. You again have to consider the financial & time costs to run two sites. Those interested can read an additional case study on mobile SEO strategies.

App Optimization

No discussion on mobile would be complete without including mobile apps. Apps can help customers access your site and content faster and easier while increasing engagement. Competition is fierce though. There are roughly 60K apps added on iTunes each month and 50K on Google Play. And an estimated 23 percent of iOS apps are used only once. For your app to be successful, it has to stand out from this crowd.

• It has to be a high-quality app that is engaging and easy to use
• It has to align with your organization and brand message
• The focus should always be on the customer experience
• You should leverage relevant and opportunistic keywords along with engaging descriptions
• All images, including the icons, should be visually pleasing and useful
• Keep an eye on ratings and reviews

Keep in mind that optimizing your apps is not a one-and-done approach. It’s best to continually refine your apps and implement best practices whenever possible. App store optimization, like all optimization activities, is ultimately about improving the user experience, not just search results. Mobile is now a dominant force in the world of digital optimization. Not only do you need to factor in the Google update, but your marketing strategy should account for the growing popularity of smart devices and the consumer base who uses them.

About Dave Lloyd

Dave is a veteran in the search marketing space and this will be his 3^rd year speaking at Share15. A valued customer, and partner, Dave also writes for Adobe.com and ClickZ. We look forward to continuing the conversation at Share15 in just a few weeks.

If you have not registered to join us, sign up now!

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

This week Binti Pawa from Time Inc. shares insights into content and site migration challenges and best practices in this Share15 interview. Binti presently heads SEO for Time Inc., working on such brands as Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine and InStyle, where she is responsible for leading, developing, and integrating SEO and content strategies.

Binti Pawa from Time Inc. at Share15

BE: Can you tell readers a little more about your session?

BP: I’m very excited to speak again and be back at Share! This year I’m talking about “Surviving the Perfect Storm” of Content Migrations—a popular industry topic and challenge for us all. For audience growth, businesses or marketers have to make a call on what to tackle—whether it’s a CMS platform migration, domain migration, re-design, or content overhaul. We’ve all been there. The question that always comes to mind is this: How to migrate with least impact to natural search traffic? Attendees at my session will walk away knowing how to mitigate natural search referrals by touching on key areas and learning best practices. One of the Time Inc. brands will be used throughout the presentation as a test case in how to survive the perfect storm. Attendees will also take away learnings and “gotchas” that will help them in future migrations.

Expectation management and SEO challenge

BE: What do you think are some of the biggest challenges facing people in SEO?

BP: I think the biggest challenge that SEOs face is mismanaged expectations. “There is no one definition or one right way to do things in SEO—but there is a wrong way.” This can often lead to mismanaged expectations. It’s important for SEOs to ensure that stakeholders or clients understand what to expect from BIG changes to their site. Many times I see SEO programs fail because the expectations were not set up front or the teams were not educated. Keeping up with the constant algorithms is also up there. Just when we think things are settling another wave of updates are announced-- the most recent with Google’s April Mobile update. With big projects already underway for most SEOs it can make it difficult to introduce new projects into the roadmap, especially when the impact is uncertain.

Time Inc. and BrightEdge product innovations at Share15

BE: How does BrightEdge help you elevate your business performance?

BP: I love the speed at which BrightEdge adds new features and functionality to its platform. Last year at Share14, they introduced the concept of the Story Builder and enhancements to Data Cube. A few months later, the products were released. I particularly enjoy the Story Builder, and think it’s a great feature when you want to share a narrative about a particular campaign or a project vs. just having dashboard with graphs.

I love the speed at which BrightEdge adds new features and functionality to its platform.

BE: This is your 2^nd year at Share15 – why do you attend?

BP: I also enjoy attending Share because it’s not your typical conference. There is a genuine sense of learning and takeaways from real-life case studies that Share15 speakers relate to the audience. It’s a good-size conference where you don’t feel overwhelmed—perfect for networking and meeting different individuals from many industries.

Networking with experts and making the most of Share15

BE: What are you looking forward to the most?

BP: I’m really looking forward to networking at Share15; it’s a terrific place to meet some of the greatest experts in the industry. I’m also very eager to hear about new capabilities and technology enhancements that BrightEdge may possibly announce at Share15. To make the most of your trip Share15 I would advise you to plan ahead. Know which sessions you want to attend in advance as some get full fast. Don’t skip the morning breakfast or lunches; it’s a great time to network and bounce ideas off of leading experts in the industry.

If you have not had the opportunity to register for Share15, make sure you head over to our conference page and sign up. We look forward to seeing you there!

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