Frame a Purpose Statement
We start
with the most basic question. It may feel basic, but trust me, it’s a doozy and
amazing how easy it is to get tripped up here, especially if you’re used to
hitting a link quota with a standard set of link
building strategies. You’re in the weeds cranking out links, but how
often do you stop and think about your client from a 10,000 foot perspective?!
Start here:
Why does
the business exist?
The usual
answer is—to make money!
Yeah, we
get it, we all want money, but there’s no difference between a bakery and a car
insurance company if we look at business in such simplistic terms.
So, step
back and really think about this. Why does your business exist?
Make sure you put this in terms of the service or product you’re supplying
versus founder motivations.
At
Outspoken Media, our answer looked like this: Our purpose is to help grow and
protect businesses.
Using the
aforementioned examples, the bakery’s purpose may be to provide fresh, local
artisan bread to their community. The car insurance company exists to make
roads safer and help their customers recover from an accident.
In
something as simple as a purpose statement, there are enormous opportunities to
drive creativity with regard to content marketing,
audience targeting, keyword research, etc. What am I talking about? Let’s ask
another question:
Set Website Goals
Why does
the website exist?
Let’s
look at that bakery again. Their website exists to:
- Connect with new customers
- Nurture customer loyalty and
retention
- Attract and acquire new
talent
- Build industry credibility
- Demonstrate the values of
the business
Awesome!
Now we have got a clear understanding of what we want to measure on the site:
conversions, lifetime value, lead sources, job applicants, industry
mentions/sentiment, brand perception, etc. These define metrics, not just goals
and they should help you see the bigger picture of a website. Whenever you do
anything online, make sure it’s rooted in the business purpose and goals for
the site. It will be difficult to go wrong if you have this map guiding
decisions and marketing strategy.
The
bigger question is of course “how.”
Develop Your SEO Strategy (Marketing Strategy!)
It’s time
to ask: How are the website goals accomplished?
Using our
bakery example, how does the bakery accomplish their goals?
1. Connect with new customers
The site
can achieve this by displaying accurate contact information such as their phone
number, address, hours, days of operation, directions, email, etc. They should
also consider accessibility and how users may be trying to find information
about them. As a storefront, they probably have a lot of users trying to look
up information from their phone or map directions. They will want to develop a
mobile and local strategy. They should also look into social media to ensure
that they’re present on sites like Yelp and Facebook and their visitors can
check-in at their property. This will drive new customer acquisition through
social mentions/shares, personalized search results and reviews that build credibility.
2. Nurture customer loyalty and retention
This can
be accomplished through basic customer service—using the site to publish daily
specials, reviews, coupons, catering and event info, etc. Through email
marketing, they can capture an audience that prefers to receive their news
through email. Through social media they capture a different market that wants
to access the world through their Facebook wall or tweets. Consider all aspects
of your customer’s lifestyle and make sure you’re getting in front of them
outside of just the SERPs, because these days, we know that personalized search and the knowledge graph are
becoming far more crucial to a successful SEO strategy.
3. Attract and acquire new talent
Provide
accurate contact information for HR and post open positions to the site and
social accounts. More important, make sure the site conveys the expectations
and values that make employees successful in your organization. This will help
ensure that applicants understand your business before applying and you’re more
likely to receive a better quality candidate as a result. Don’t be afraid to
get personal and share founder stories or quirky pictures of the business and
team. This will demonstrate the culture of your business.
4. Build industry credibility
Credibility
is where I always find the most value in content strategy. This is when you’re
defining what you know and publishing content around it. The baker may want to
publish recipes, share their approach to bread making, reviews from customers,
awards/recognition from peers, seasonal notices/information, etc. We already
stated that the bakery’s purpose may be to provide fresh, local artisan bread
to their community. Take this statement and turn it around like this to guide
content strategy (and even blog categories):
The
bakery writes about fresh ingredients, local supplies, artisan creations, bread
making and the community.
Now you
don’t just have a content strategy, but blog or resource categories. You’re
developing your own Wonder Wheel! This
will shape not just your content strategy, but the audience you’re targeting
and the methods you’ll use to reach them. Now you have a link building and social media strategy.
5. Demonstrate the values of the business
This has
already been addressed in the points above, so I won’t go into a ton of detail.
Basically, does your content reflect your values? Have you ever thought about
what those values are? As an agency your values may even be at odds with the
clients! Find out and make sure you’re on the same page or you’ll have an
incredibly difficult time finding success in your link building, social media
outreach, or other campaigns.
All of
this from three simple questions:
- Why does the business exist?
- Why does the website exist?
- How are the website goals
accomplished?
Credit: Business Insider
