Leading with Intent: Leveraging the Long Tail and Measuring Content ROI
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Exploring intent-based lead generation from organic search and sponsored social ad perspectives. Learn how brands leveraging long tail keywords and mining social conversations for intent-based keywords and questions to more effectively drive their content marketing and social advertising strategies through to their target audiences. Further, find out how to leverage content engagement tracking via smart URLs to provide a feedback loop with insights for ongoing content, distribution and conversion optimization.
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Leading with Intent: Leveraging the Long Tail and Measuring Content ROI
- 1. WEBINAR: Leading with Intent October 20, 2016 Presented By: Jeff Riddall Director of Product Strategy, gShift @JRiddall Leveraging the Long Tail and Tracking Content ROI
- 2. #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs AGENDA The New Customer Journey Leveraging the Long Tail Identifying Intent in Social Conversations Generating Relevant Quality Content Monitoring and Reporting on Off-Site Engagement Key Takeaways Q & A
- 3. IS DIGITAL MARKETING GETTING EASIER…OR HARDER? #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs
- 5. THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs
- 6. THE NEW CUSTOMER JOURNEY #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs
- 7. WHERE DO TRAVEL CUSTOMERS GO FOR ADVICE Source: Adweek - Social Times, August 2015 http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/social-media-and-travel-go-hand-in-hand-infographic/625230 #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs
- 8. THE NEW CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR = #DARKFUNNEL Today, customers educate themselves before coming to your site. This change has completely altered the traditional sales funnel, adding twists and bends along the way. We call this the #DarkFunnel. The #DarkFunnel is the new sales funnel. #LeadwithIntent #DarkFunnel @Jriddall @gShiftLabs Myth Reality
- 9. IT’S THE CUSTOMER’S SALES JOURNEY, NOT YOURS #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs “A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is–it is what consumers tell each other it is.” Scott Cook, Founder and CEO of Intuit
- 10. So, how do you measure success? MARKETERS LOST IN DARK FUNNEL #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs
- 11. OFF-SITE PATH TO ON-SITE Improve discoverability Authentic referral traffic Expand content distribution Increase reach to target audience Build authority within industry Increase overall brand awareness #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs
- 12. GOOGLE FILES A PATENT “On-site and off-site search ranking results” US 13/285, 995 “Putting an emphasis on building trust for all of your content should become one of the biggest undertakings you have in 2016.” #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs
- 13. MORE ON GOOGLE and THE LONG TAIL #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs
- 14. LEVERAGING THE LONG TAIL #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs • Long tail keywords make up as much as 70% of all search traffic. • Pages optimized for long tail keywords move up 11 positions on average (compared to 5 positions for head keywords). • Conversion rates for long tail keywords are 2.5 times higher than for head keywords. Source: HitTail.com June 2015
- 15. RESEARCHING THE LONG TAIL #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs • Conduct keyword research across multiple organic, paid and social sources • Develop a list of keywords for which you have some authority or can build some relatively quickly • Create relevant, quality content around these keywords and distribute via appropriate channels and influencers • Monitor organic visibility across your entire keyword and content inventory
- 16. CREATING RELEVANT CONTENT #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs “If the social web were a living organism, content would be the air that it breathes.” “You must have at least one source of original rich content and you have 3 viable options: a blog, a podcast or a video series.” “A source of rich content provides something that is shareable, conversational and engaging for social platforms.” Social Media Explained
- 17. FILLING THE FUNNEL WITH TARGETED PROSPECTS #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs Prospective consumers communicate intent in various ways, which can be identified… …enabling you to target them directly… …and move them immediately to the bottom of the funnel.
- 18. FINDING INTENT IN SOCIAL #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs Hotel Accommodation Room I'm looking for Where do I find What am I looking for… …and how do I express it. Results turn up consumer groups (and relevant demographic information or values) who have expressed an intent to purchase/book, enabling marketers to optimize any sponsored campaigns.
- 19. #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs Steps to Segmenting Data Filter Data: • Identify consumers vs suppliers vs influencers • Various ways to use each group Enhance Target Audience: • Age • Geographic Location • Interests • Followers Rank: • Age -> Location -> Content = top 1000 potential customers Segment By: • Keywords Matched (optimize content) • Location (popular products in certain locations) • Which channels the prospective consumer uses when shopping SEGMENT THE DATA – REFINE THE PROSPECT LIST
- 20. TRACKING OFFSITE ANALYTICS & ENGAGEMENT You’ve created great content, developed strong social, messaging and have launched your omni-channel campaign… Now what? #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs
- 21. TRACKING OFF-SITE ANALYTICS & ENGAGEMENT Smart URLs Near Real-Time Engagement Metrics Off-Site Analytics Conversion Path Analysis Branded, Vanity Short URL #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs
- 22. ● Report on improvements in Organic Search Visibility for Long Tail Keyword Groups ● Track and report on content engagement by Channel, by Content Type, by Keyword Group, by Buying Stage ● Create Conversion Paths to map off-site content engagement all the way through to ROI MEASUREMENT & REPORTING #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs
- 23. WHAT IS THIS REALLY ALL ABOUT? #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs
- 24. KEY TAKEAWAYS Consumers are becoming more sophisticated searching and finding answers Leverage on the Long Tail (along with Short Tail) for improved organic discoverability Identify prospects expressing intent to purchase in social A majority of the customer journey occurs off-site #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs Plan, monitor and optimize omni-channel campaigns for maximum conversion and ROI
- 25. Q & A #LeadwithIntent @Jriddall @gShiftLabs Audience Development & Discoverability gshift.it/elu-audienceguide Mastering Smart URLs gshift.it/elu-smarturls
Editor's Notes
- The New Travel Customer Journey – How off-site content plays a major role in the sales funnel today. Leveraging the Long Tail – Mobile and Off-site Content Distribution – Current trends and best practices around getting your content out there. User Generated Content and Influencer Marketing – How to leverage each. Tracking Off-site Analytics and Engagement – Once it’s all out there, how do you measure it and get a sense of what’s working and what isn’t.
- I want to start by asking a simple but scary question. Is Digital Marketing getting easier or harder? Not only is gShift a vendor in the marketing technology space, but we also live in your shoes in terms of executing digital marketing campaigns. So, it’s 2016. I’ve been in this industry since the mid ‘90s. I ‘think’ we’re all getting smarter about digital marketing, but it doesn’t seem to be getting any easier. Different tactics, techniques and tools come along and some make it to full maturity while others fade away. But let’s face this digital marketing world is confusing. Scott Brinkers 2016 Martech super infographic on chiefmartec.com now has 3874 vendors in it up from 1897 in 2015. I can’t imagine how big this number will be next year and I’m not sure how consumers filter through the noise. To compound the problem you can use different terms to describe acts of digital marketing (or random acts of digital marketing),
- such as SEO, Search Marketing, Social Media, Influencer Marketing, Digital Marketing …you get the picture. But the reality is all we’re trying to do here as Digital Marketers is “Audience Development”. Digitally, we’re attempting to build our brand, cut through the noise to find our target market and generate marketing quality leads so our sales team can close a sale. So why, 17 or so years after the beginning of digital marketing time with all the technologies we have available, are our jobs so complex and chaotic?
- Well it’s at least partially because consumer behavior is changing. You’ve probably seen this image or variations of it hundreds of times – the traditional sales funnel – linear, organized. An interested prospect goes in the top (or side) and progresses along in an organized manner from one predictable stage to the next, all on your web site, with your sales and marketing team knowing exactly what is going on, and they come out the final stage as a Closed Sale. We all wish it was that easy.
- Here’s the reality – the traditional sales funnel has been blown to bits! A big chunk the digital marketing you are doing to develop your audience is being engaged with by your prospects, off of your website and their purchasing journey is unpredictable and untrackable. It’s not even about the New Customer Journey anymore, it’s about the New Customer Behavior. The good thing is we know what’s causing this behavioral change – mobile devices and social media. But digging into it a bit more, it’s the people – your prospects who don’t want to inform themselves on a website anymore with onsite content (like they did in the good old days). They want to inform themselves off of your website – with off-site content and by having conversations with people they follow and trust.
- This change in customer behavior is no different in the travel industry. In fact, it may be no more true than in your market. Here are just a few recent stats to bolster this assertion.
- Off-site content engagement is something we call The Dark Funnel. In fact, 67% to 90% of prospect engagement with your brand content is happening off of your website. Put another way, if you are measuring only on-site engagement with tools like Google Analytics, you are capturing only about 10% to 33% of your prospect’s activity. For marketers this should be more than a little disturbing! And we see and hear this everyday from businesses we work with. They say, I see someone engage on our website, then we don’t hear from them for a month, then they come back and buy. Where did they go?
- They go off-site to inform themselves, check reviews, check social, check industry websites. Everywhere, but your site. Here’s another way I like to think about the sales funnel – It’s the Customer’s Sales Funnel, Not Yours. Every customer has their own sales funnel and you’d better hope your business or your brand is in theirs.
- Prospects are not lost, but marketers are. Marketers are lost in their own Dark Funnels. This leads to our agenda topic of Leading with Intent and ensuring your off-site content is discoverable by your audience, your target market, when they are ready to inform themselves and ready to buy.
- To engage the audience, marketers are tasked with creating more complex, complete and coordinated content marketing campaigns… where multiple pieces of owned and paid off-site content drive the user back to the brand’s web presence for final conversion. But with all this, we’re creating our own Dark Funnel. If a prospect engages with one of these off-site pieces of content we need to know. And you can know with Off-site Analytics. Let’s come back to that. Let’s first talk about the Long Tail as it relates to Intent.
- You know a trend is real when Google files a patent. This patent proposes to not only change what they built with PageRank as a factor, but to grow and expand on it — for example, looking at on-site pages as more than that page versus the pages on the other sites, and using a Global Ranking to compare a representative page on a site against: the site structure the overall authority of the domain. query independent information. This makes trust, both coming in and flowing out from links on your site, a major factor.
- Staying on the topic of Google, the most recent significant algorithm change called RankBrain is focused around delivering results based on semantic long tail searches. In other words, understanding the intent of the searcher and delivering the information they are looking for. The rise of mobile search and the sophistication of users has accelerated the need for a more sophisticated algorithm backed by machine learning and artificial intelligence.
- As the way people search evolves via mobile and desktop, the importance of focusing on long tail keywords grows. Searchers have learned they need to be more specific to find what they want and in doing so they are more actively expressing their intent. For example, ”What is the best pet-friendly hotel in Philadelphia?” Long tail searches account for upwards of 70% of all searches and conversion rates on long tail keywords average 2.5x higher. Long tail search phrases are generally easier to optimize for
- So where do we find these long tail keywords and how do we use them? Start with a focused group of short tail words you want to be found for and work your way out from there using keyword research tools like those provided in gShift.
- Organically, content is still King. You must create relevant, contextual content for each stage of the buyer’s journey. And it must be content people want to read, like and share. The jury is still out on whether or not Google pays attention to Likes and Shares, but these along with Clicks can only help to boost your overall authority and thereby your organic discoverability.
- Long tail phrases can in turn be used to identify qualified prospects who are having active social conversations, but currently live outside the traditional sales funnel. The goal is to find them, target them, reach out to them with timely, relevant content either organically or via sponsored posts and quickly move them to the bottom of the funnel.
- Intent to purchase conversations are occurring in social every day. The key is to identify and capitalize on high, quality long tail queries to identify hot prospects to put relevant organic and sponsored content in front of. The primary goal is to accelerate their path to purchase.
- Once a seed list of prospects who’ve expressed intent has been established, they need to be run through a series of demographic, geographic and interest-based filters and segmented to reveal the top prospects. Once segmented, keyword and Call to Action rich content can be tailored to address their stated intent.
- So now how do you measure all of this to understand whether or not your content and the channels you’ve chosen to work with are actually working?
- A Smart URL system will enable you to track a off-site and on-site content through to conversion. Think of it as Google Analytics for off-site content. Empowers digital marketers and content creators to illuminate engagement and conversion analytics without the use of a traditional analytics tool. Don’t just track Likes and Shares, track Clicks.
- From an organic search perspective, you naturally want to monitor how well your short and long tail keywords are performing as a group. How well is your content performing and what share of organic traffic are you obtaining. Smart URLs will enable you to see exactly which channels are driving the most content engagement. Take tracking a step further, by creating and monitoring conversion paths to identify which channels drive traffic all the way through to conversion and to establish an ROI for each channel being used in a campaign.
- The brand’s web presence asset, as I’ve discussed, spans way beyond the content the brand owns and solely controls.