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WELCOME TO THE 2018 NOVEMBER 13-14 ASHEVILLE, NC
Critical Questions to Ask Your Vendors or Marketing Team Justin Belleme
Question Categories 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. SEO Social Media Google AdWords PR Email Marketing
SEO Questions 1. 2. 3. 4. What is the overall strategy? What is the plan for new content? How are we building new links? Are site speed, time on site, and CTR being considered and issues addressed?
SEO: What is the overall strategy? Strategy should include plans for: HTML formatting Meta data, and structured data Optimization of existing content New content development Measures to improve site authority such as link building If your SEO team cannot provide a quick (within 24 hour) response to your strategy question, you may have an issue. Unfortunately, it is fairly common for vendors and even internal teams to hide behind the confusing and technical nature of SEO work.
SEO: What is the plan for new content? Your SEO team should provide a plan for creating new optimized content and should offer SEO editing for any new content your team writes. There should also be a plan to improve existing content. All content sections of the website should be kept up-to-date on the latest SEO best practices. If creating and adding new optimized content is not part of the strategy, this is a big red flag. In some cases, for very large websites, a viable SEO strategy is to focus on optimizing existing content.
SEO: How are web building new links? Reputable SEO teams should know the importance of links and be able to suggest ways to earn new high quality links. Links can come from: PR Partnerships marketing Direct outreach All of these approaches should be discussed and considered One big red flag for link building is any strategy that suggests buying links. Strategies that revolve around automated link building should also be avoided. Both of these strategies violate Google s Webmaster Guidelines.
SEO: Are site speed, time on site, and CTR being considered? Technical SEO is the other area that your SEO team should have a strategy to address. Your initial SEO audit and or strategy should address: Site speed Usability Existing content optimization including Metadata Internal linking Some technical improvements are easy while others may involve programming costs or even a full website redesign. In some cases, these costs and site changes are necessary to see improvements in SEO. Ignoring technical SEO can have serious consequences.
Social Media Questions 1. 2. 3. 4. What is the content strategy? Which platforms are the priority? How frequently will posts be published? What is the paid advertising strategy?
Social: What is the content strategy? Professional social media managers will build a content strategy before taking over account management. Achieving goals such as increased website traffic via social media marketing is difficult without a written strategy. Strategy will help ensure variation in content themes, formats, and sources, which improve engagement and results. Many amateur or inexperienced social media managers simply create content as needed. Be aware that content without a strategy is unlikely to show any significant results.
Social: Which platforms are the priority? Solid social media strategy prioritizes where your audience spends the most time rather than the "newest" or most trendy social media platforms. Also, if your social media strategy is too broad and does not allow resources to be focused on building both a following and engagement in the same channel, results are likely to disappoint. For Tourism: If your social media strategy does not prioritize Facebook and Instagram, that is a red flag. Other platforms to consider are Pinterest and YouTube. Twitter and LinkedIn are less important.
Social: How frequently will posts be published? It is a red flag if your social media team suggests posting much more or less frequently than 1-2 times per day. Posting too often is a waste of resources and will cause your best content to be buried quickly behind other content. Posting too infrequently makes it very hard to build engagement and momentum and also makes your accounts less interesting. For most platforms 3-7 posts per week is ideal. You can post more frequently during live events.
Social: What is the paid advertising strategy? Social media advertising, especially Facebook, should now be part of nearly all businesses marketing budgets. Pinterest and Instagram advertising are increasingly important for tourism. At least 10-25% of your ad budget should be used for social media advertising. Ignoring Facebook advertising or relying simply on native content will significantly curtail your ability to reach potential customers Advertising on Facebook is more complex than you may think. A sound strategy includes building the page via likes ads, driving traffic and engagement via boosted posts and website traffic ads, and promoting events via boosted event pages.
Google Ad Questions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. What are the main campaigns and ad groups? What are the top keywords receiving clicks? What is the average CPC? What are the key CTAs and conversions? How are we approaching Display and Video ads?
Ads: What are the campaigns and ad groups? Your AdWords team should be able to quickly deliver a list of ad groups and campaigns that line up logically with your overall promotional goals and other marketing priorities. Look out for accounts with only one campaign or with lots of campaigns with only one ad group in each. Complex accounts may have many more, but there should be at least 3-5 campaigns with 2-3 ad groups in each one. Red Flag: Campaigns and ad groups create structure within your account. Be concerned if you notice wildly different topics within the same ad group.
Ads: What are the top keywords receiving clicks? Your AdWords team will be willing and able to share a list of the keywords that have received the most clicks and impressions over the last 30 days upon request. This list should be logical search phrases that potential tourists use to look up information relevant to your destination.
Ads: What is the average CPC? Average cost per click (CPC) is very industry dependent. In most industries the average is between $0.50 - $3.00 per click for Google Ads. Tourism the range should be between $0.50 - $1.50 per click Having a CPC that is too high will waste a lot of resources and will make it very hard to achieve a positive return on investment (ROI). Industry benchmarks: Search Wordstream CPC Benchmarks https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2016/02/29/google-adwords-indu stry-benchmarks
Ads: What are CTAs and conversions? One big red flag for AdWords is not having any conversions tracked. It is actually fairly common because CTAs and trackable conversions can be somewhat difficult for some businesses and websites to set up. Without conversion tracking, you cannot see how your campaigns perform against your goals. With conversion tracking, you can spend more on converting keywords and learn more about your potential customers intent when searching.
Ads: How are you approaching video and display? Display and video ads should be strongly considered for your advertising strategy. If these are not part of your current strategy then we suggest talking to your advertising team about adding these strategies to the plan. Recent changes to targeting options are making these strategies increasingly relevant.
PR Questions 1. What are the goals and measurable outcomes? 2. What outlets/publications are we targeting? 3. What is their track record with these publications? Do they have existing contacts?
PR: What are the goals and outcomes? PR efforts can be hard to track. Outreach takes a lot of effort and sometimes comes up empty. Having clear goals keeps your PR team on track and on task. Goals can be set for efforts including: Number of pitches and outlets contacted Number of visits from journalists Total stories written Final Note: PR outreach conducted without the necessary research or appropriate planning is unlikely to succeed.
PR: Who are we targeting? Your PR team should be willing and able to provide a list of the targeted publications before any outreach begins. This should include a mix of achievable outlets and some aspirations or stretch media outlets.
PR: Do exiting relationships exist with the target publications? PR is all about building and maintaining relationships. Good PR firms will have relationships with at least 50% of the target publications and a clear plan to make relationships with the others. A PR team with strong connections on one part of the country may not be able to get results in another, particularly not quickly. It s wise for the strategy to include both attending events where these media outlets will be in attendance and direct outreach.
Email Marketing Questions 1. 2. 3. 4. What is the overall strategy? What is the goal open rate? What are goal click rates? How are we growing the emails list?
Email: What is the overall strategy? Most organizations focus on 1-2 email campaigns per month. The strategy should include distributing new content and events originally published on the website. This approach keeps the focus on the website where the visitor interaction and engagement takes place. It is an issue if a lot of time and resources are used to create new content for the email newsletter each month. It is acceptable to create custom content for special promotions and seasonal campaigns for the email newsletter. These could also be housed on campaign or promotion landing pages within the website to cut down on duplicated efforts.
Email: What is the goal open rate? One of the main success metrics for email marketing campaigns the Open Rate. Your team should know the Open Rate & have a strategy to increase it over time. Some ways to increase Open Rate include: A/B testing of subject lines to see which performs better Segmenting out users who have not been active for several months Optimizing emails to load quickly, offer max. value, & work well on all devices Here are some benchmarks for different list sizes: 25%+ for lists under 5,000 names 20% for lists under 10,000 names 15% for lists between 10,000-50,000 names 10% for lists over 50,000 names
Email: What is the goal click rate? It is challenging to benchmark Click Rates because different email formats and different industries all have different Click Rates. Email template design and layout play a large role in Click Rate. Emails with complex layouts, or where the links are hard to find or hard to click on a mobile phone, will have a much lower Click Rate. To learn more about email Open Rate and Click Rate benchmarks we suggest exploring this article from Mailchimp.
Email: How are we growing the email list? Growing an email list requires a combination of tactics, many of which involve other marketing channels or strategies to execute properly. These strategies include: Designing strong calls to action for email list sign up into the website Running contests that require an email to enter Creating downloadable resources that require an email address An email strategy carried out in a vacuum is a red flag. Cooperation and communication across graphic design, email, website design, and social media is necessary in order for email marketing efforts to yield results.
Thank you! Q and A: Questions? Email me: justin@jbmediagroupllc.com
DIY SOCIAL HOUR At the AC Hotel s Capella on 10 Broadway Street Tuesday 4:30pm Join us for drinks and light bites compliments of Magellan Strategy Group, and enjoy beautiful mountain views at the rooftop bar.
THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE Additional Questions: justin@jbmediagroupllc.com
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