What better way to spend a sunny Friday then along the seafront?
After just three weeks at WSA I headed for my first out of office adventure to Brighton SEO, the biggest search marketing conference in the UK.
Brighton SEO is kind of a big deal in search marketing circles. The ‘big cheeses’ in the field of search optimisation like to share their knowledge with fellow techies and marketers and this year did not disappoint.
While attending I managed to jot down some valuable tips for our blog readers. Here are my top take-aways from Brighton SEO 2018.
Build a detailed picture of your audience
The internet has provided us with detailed insight into our target markets. Utilise this and start by mapping your key customers. Social media tools like Facebook Audience Insights, can give you a comprehensive view of your buyers; their likes and hobbies, what they read and watch, the groups they belong to, the social campaigns they support and the type of content they share. Build a bigger picture of your audience beyond age and demographic and get inside their minds!
Now write a RAP
Cue Ice T… by RAP I mean Research, Angle and Pitch. Once you research your audience, decide on more than one way to approach them. By choosing more than one angle to grab your audience’s attention, you are covering more bases. Then depending on the approach, choose the vehicle to pitch your message.
Lend a hand
When something is broken, what do we do? We Google it!
Provide your audience with immediate fixes, in the form of guides and tool kits. If you see a problem or a means of making something easier for your target market, offer a solution.
Manage your community
It works well to get some order to your community. Devise a calendar with key events and build a better picture of your audience. For example; if your audience are university students you may input key dates like exams, enrolment or student loan payment times. These can all be emotive and exciting times. From your social research you can see the important dates relating to sport, social clubs, or even film releases. You can predetermine some of the key times to market to your audience by organising this kind of calendar.
Are you using video as a marketing tool?
Video content is the latest tool everyone should take advantage of. Worried you do not have anything interesting to film? Try creating a series of guides, announcing a launch of a product, demonstrating how a service or piece of software works, or even running a live competition.
Choose your strongest channel
It is not all about followers; consider the engagement levels of your audience. If you have less Instagram followers but higher engagement levels then this might be the more beneficial channel to post your content.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
Video and blog content amongst other marketing efforts should be considered together as support material for your campaign. Do not rely on one single piece of marketing collateral to get your desired result but see them collectively working together. Your target audience will gather information from a variety of sources. They could start with a company brochure but move on to looking at reviews on social. Be aware that your audience will utilise a number of sources and the message needs to be consistent.
Mobile first?
If your audience are in ‘Generation Z’, those born in the 90’s and early millennium, they will most likely be consuming everything via their mobile. News, music, communication, even booking experiences via their phones. The older generation are more likely to still use laptops, desktops, books and shockingly, they even talk to one another!
Regardless, it is important not to forget the various means people use to view your brand, your website, your product or service. Ensure your branding and content is effective in all forms of media.
I hope these tips have been useful. You can see some of these in action on our case studies page.
