What Is an SEO Agency?

If you've been using the Internet over the last 10 years, chances are you've heard the term SEO agency before.  And if you're like most business owners or novice marketers, you're not exactly sure what that means. But not anymore!  Because today's the day we solve that tricky little term.

A search engine optimization agency is a team or organization that's hired to help digital marketers distribute their content in a way that helps search engines likes Google and Bing find it for users.  For example, when you pull out your phone and google "coffee," it's going to bring up that sweet little spot around the corner.  This concept applies to everything on your website and search engine optimization is the thread by which users find your content. Not only does this strengthen the bond between you and users who found you through an organic search, it helps guide your paid-search and ads across the Internet. (Hint:  That's the part of content marketing most first-timers fail at the most.)

Investing in SEO services allows your brand to target a specific user, instead of throwing a line out into the ocean and hoping for a few fish to bite.  After all, wouldn't you rather have 10 lifelong customer made in a week than 20 one-time sales?  (Let's hope the answer is yes to that question.)

What to Look for in an SEO Agency

Hiring a search engine optimization agency can bring a lot of value to your digital marketing strategy.  Everything benefits from a fresh content foundation.  Tightening up the process of your content marketing, emails, and even your landing pages and website copy-- all through an SEO service that helps you find customers that actually care about what you're selling.  It all sounds perfect, until you begin the hiring process.  How are you to know whether or not a company is credible?

Simple, follow these guidelines:

1. Fill out a contact form
2. Schedule a demo
3. Ask for case studies
4. Require a breakdown of the tactics used

Any credible company will be more than willing to walk through this process.  If they're not, how well do you think they're going to handle answering your phone calls?  As with most aspects of business, you need to find the resource that gives you the most value up front.

Need to Get Organized? Get Marketing Automation Tools

Marketing automation is a beautiful thing.  In addition to helping you streamline all of your marketing efforts, the power within marketing automation software comes from the 1 major effect implementing these tools has: People get organized.  When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense.

With the workflows, email campaigns, and endless possibility of marketing automation software your team is going to spend a lot of time getting their ducks in order.  Which may seem stressful at first, but is well worth the work!  After all, it takes 20 days to make a habit.  You're bound to be using a free trial from a marketing automation software vendor longer than that.

Better yet, that organization is more than a state of mind.  It's a habit.  In order to get the maximum potential from your marketing automation tools, you must organize the data and workflows.  There's no way around it.

When Marketing Automation Tools Make Sense

It's no secret that there is a lot of power in marketing automation software.  With the entirety of the internet at your fingertips, it's easy for business owners to seek the gleaming promise of this software and jump on it.  Which is an absolutely horrible idea (especially for small businesses).  Without the proper training and time to dedicate to these softwares, you can lose a reasonable amount of money. So instead of spending money to get started and money to fix the holes, consider hiring marketing automation services before you dive into a full-blown strategy.

Quite often, teams expect marketing automation tools to act as a switch that suddenly turns their sales on and ROI up.  Unfortunately, this thought is borderline delusional.  Yes, these tools are extremely helpful for unlocking your brand's marketing potential but they won't work without your hard work upfront.

If you feel you need help getting started, don't be afraid to seek marketing automation consulting. Not only will it save you money in the end, you'll be able to have a realistic expectation of results.  (You are paying them after all.)

To learn more about sales and marketing automation solutions, visit: Enfusen.com.

Why Your Team Needs Content Marketing Analytics

So you've joined your fellow marketers on the great content marketing journey.  Only problem is, you're not tracking any content marketing analytics.  Which means even though you're given this whole digital marketing thing a try, you aren't collecting any marketing data that tells your team if the content is working.  Continue down that road and you'll find many late nights and a boss who is infuriated about a wasted marketing budget while you wonder: What did we do wrong?

The biggest mistake new digital marketers make is failing to collect content marketing data on their campaigns.  They spend all the time in the world making the perfect Infographic explaining quantum physics and no one reads it.  Why?  Well the answer isn't always that simple.  That's where content marketing data comes in.

2 Major Reasons You Need Content Marketing Analytics

Marketing data is a great way to get the inside look at your content marketing campaigns.  Not only does it let you know whether or not people actually like your content, it provides your team with 2 vital pieces of information.

1. You know where to put the money.  You've run a few campaigns and your content marketing data is telling you that people are click-crazy about your ads that feature cats. (Big surprise, right?)   Instead of running that ad series that featured exotic places, your team can use their inbound marketing analytics to put the money in the right place.  In this case, it's the ads that feature cats.

2. You know where to focus your energy.  Often times, marketers got caught up in campaigns that simply aren't going to work.  Especially when sales are down, it seems as if everyone is scrambling to finish a hit new idea.  Unfortunately, that hit new idea is rarely profitable.  With inbound marketing analytics, your team can use the data to further your buyer persona and create content that truly speaks to your customers.

This precious insight is arguably one of the most important parts of any digital marketing strategy.  The ability to see your mistakes and your successes is easiest way to encourage growth in your sales and marketing teams.

How to Save Money with Marketing Automation Software

The best technology investments are the ones that save you time and money in the end.  For the modern marketer, that tool is marketing automation.  These supercharged automation tools allow you to measure your marketing activities and streamline recurring actions to offer your customers the optimal experience.  With the right strategy, you can use marketing automation tools to generate revenue faster and increase your return on investment.

Look around at your competitors.  Examine your goals.  From the Huffington Post to Amazon.com, the world of eCommerce and digital strategy is encompassing the future of consumerism.  You can no longer afford to sell a bad product.  Relationship marketing has taken over the modern world.  With the world at their finger tips, people across the world can research every nook and cranny of a product before making the decision to purchase. Good intention goes a long way.  Working hard to perfect the consumer experience saves you money in the long run. With people actively supporting your brand, your message can grow and thrive across the nation.

Implementing Marketing Automation Tools

If you're amongst the business owners and marketing managers that hold your marketing automation tools accountable for the loss in marketing spend, it's time to consider rehashing your strategy.  The number 1 mistake business owners make when trying to leverage marketing automation software is implementation.  The goal of using these tools and automating your business is to take an inventive step towards the future of business.  Though traditional marketing will never dissipate entirely, we are quickly approaching a time where those without a digital marketing strategy will be left in the dust.

You may never spend a fortune on making marketing automation software the center of your business and in many ways, you shouldn't have to. That's why you'll read it here and in any other article you read on sales and marketing automation: The success of this software relies on your strategy. 

The most important aspect of using marketing automation services to leverage your sales is providing more to your customer.  By investing in the customer's experience, your given the opportunity to form a relationship with the people who purchase your products and services.