There’s so much info out there about journey mapping, personas, segmentation, behaviors and more, but we cruise right on by on providing value to the customer. These articles in this newsletter cover tactics you can use to grow your awareness, increase acquisition and convert more users. However tactics cannot outweigh value.
I’m in B2B and more often than not B2B marketers take advantage of their users attention and time. We should always be providing more value than the customer expects. If you ever ask the question, “Does this provide enough value to the customer?”, the answer is always “give more”.
Its a relationship built on value and trust. Don’t take advantage of either of those.
Buckets. Buckets Everywhere.
The problem is once you pick a way to segment, there’s always another way to do it. There are so many ways to segment your database and the more data you have the problem gets bigger. This article gives a lot of insight on how to get started with segmentation plus some basic things to consider.
However the best way to segment your customers is what’s best for your business. What goals are the company trying to accomplish? Target your customers to help achieve that goal. There’s no right to do it, just follow the goals and use the segmentation to add value to your users.
However there is a wrong way to segment. If you’re segmenting to harass or spam your users, stop right now.
Audience Segmentation: Where Do You Start?
Long Live SEO
As you know, I love these kinds of lists. There are a lot of really smart people sharing great insights for one of the most complicated and important tasks in digital marketing.
Consistently through their responses you see two critical pieces of information. One, SEO takes a time. In some cases, it takes a long time. Watch out for anyone saying they can increase your SEO performance fast.
Two, its all about people. The tools, tactics, best practices and strategy mean nothing if you don’t have good people. Having someone coordinate and manage SEO needs to be someone who is invested in your companies success over the long term.
Stick with it and invest in the people managing your SEO.
25 SEO Experts Share The SEO Misconceptions They Had When Started – MarketingSyrup
I Love a Good Landing Page Story
This is a good read, although also an ad for the company (FYI). Its another example of what works best for your business, not what you heard at a conference.
Build, test, measure, repeat.
This quote in particular:
“…helped us understand that the key to success was a hybrid approach to SEO – programmatic content that was highly scalable, but with enough editorial value to avoid duplication. “
Measuring the impact of 95,000 landing pages
Stop Climbing the Wrong Mountains | Get Better Friday
Last week I talked about going on a trail and seeing a mountain you want to climb. The trouble is, the trail you’re on doesn’t go up the mountain. If you want to climb that mountain you’re gonna have to get on a different trail.
I don’t have a video this week, but instead a story from my favorite newsletter Brass Ring Daily. Last year Kara shared a story about climbing mountains. But this one is about climbing the wrong mountains. It’s one of my favorite pieces of career advice I’ve ever read. Climbing a mountain is a huge accomplishment! But does it feel that way if it was the wrong mountain. Instead of climbing the wrong mountain because of sunk costs or peer pressure, its better to stop and find the right mountain.
Please subscribe to Kara’s newsletter, its the best thing you’ll do this week.
Here’s her story:
Are you climbing the right mountain?
Oh, hi friends!
So you’re walking along on your way to a babbling brook, because you’re really into brooks right now. They look so cool, so refreshing. Your goal is to sit by the brook. So simple.
But on the way, you come across a mountain.
Huh, you think. I didn’t feel like climbing a mountain today.
I wanted to frolic in that brook and maybe lie on a warm rock in the sun, but…the mountain’s right here.
That could be fun…in a different way.
But I don’t have the right shoes, you think. Or the right gear. Am I wearing a bathing suit? I am. You can’t climb a mountain in a bathing suit. And yet…
The mountain’s right here. The brook’s all the way over there.
Why not?
And so you start climbing and it’s very hard—because mountain climbing is hard, remember? You get past a tough bit and think, Well, now it’d be foolish to stop.
And you keep climbing. The mountain is steady and endless under your feet. You feel like you’ll be climbing forever.
But now you’re halfway up. No turning back. You’re stubborn. You’ll see this through to the end. That’s what you do.
It’s even kind of exciting, this little side adventure. You see some…mountain creatures. You don’t even know the names of these animals—you’re that ill-prepared for this journey.
Finally, you reach the top.
You have no idea how long you’ve been climbing. Days, weeks, years. But it feels good, standing on a summit. You think about how tough you are. You think about going home and telling people what you’ve done. You think about how much they’ll admire you. You’ve climbed a mountain!
And then you look down.
All the way down.
And you see your babbling brook.
By climbing the mountain you’ve done something hard. Ambitious. Admirable.
But it’s not what you wanted.
It’s not what you needed.
It’s not what you came here for.
Please stop climbing the wrong mountains.