The success of every marketing campaign – or business, for that matter – is measured by a single thing: the bottom line. The “measurement” part, however, is where Marketing Analytics comes in. Data helps marketers analyze their performance, change their tactics, wisely allocate their budgets, and manage and maximize the effectiveness of their campaigns. On digital channels, all of this translates to metrics like traffic, clicks, views, engagement, and so on. During last week’s #SEMrushchat, our guest Steve Hammer shined more light on how organic traffic and other metrics influence customer acquisition, business growth, and revenue. Steve is the founder of digital marketing agency RankHammer, winner of the Best Small Agency award in the U.S. Search Awards. Here is a summary of his opinions and what our other chat participants had to say: Q1. What are the biggest drivers of growth within a business? Does it vary by business size? The answer to that is … [Read more...] about How to Use Marketing Analytics to Drive Superior Growth #SEMrushchat with Steve Hammer
Content marketing manager salary
The Top 28 Digital Marketing Certificate Programs to Enroll
There is a talent gap in the market, and digital marketing jobs take 16 percent longer to fill than other postings and show a growth rate of 30 percent over traditional marketing roles. A McKinley Marketing Partners report on 2017 Marketing Hiring Trends revealed that 56 percent of companies plan to hire more digital marketers in 2017. If you take a closer look at the hiring landscape, it’s clear to see that the talent gap directly affects the hiring in digital marketing roles. The most in-demand marketing skills were digital advertising (46 percent), content creation and curation (38 percent), and content strategy (34 percent). But what about the salary of digital marketing professionals? Has the incentive kept pace with the demand? Well, yes. Digital marketing professionals make $7,000 over their traditional counterparts, and according to data collected by Glassdoor, a digital marketing manager earns an average of $77,015 per year. How can professionals … [Read more...] about The Top 28 Digital Marketing Certificate Programs to Enroll
Ask SEMpdx: In-house or Outhouse? What Criteria Should a Company Use to Decide How to Handle its Search Marketing Needs?
How should a company handle its search marketing needs? It depends. Many factors need to be taken into account in order to make the correct choice. Companies frequently make a choice based upon incomplete / incorrect information and end up with unsatisfactory results. I asked my fellow SEMpdx members to offer their analysis of this important decision: Kent Lewis: When deciding whether or not to build an in-house search engine marketing (SEM) team, or to outsource to an SEM vendor, it´s not quite as simple as a quick cost-benefit analysis. A successful SEM campaign is all about ROI, but comparing in-house and outsourced vendors is somewhat apples to oranges. At the fundamental level, you can look at the cost of the employees from a salary and benefits perspective, and compare that against vendor pricing (annualized). The challenge is that there are many hidden and soft costs associated with an in-house team, including recruiting, training and retaining. It´s very … [Read more...] about Ask SEMpdx: In-house or Outhouse? What Criteria Should a Company Use to Decide How to Handle its Search Marketing Needs?
Marketing Day: November 7, 2013
Here’s our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the Web. From Marketing Land: Google Glass Adds Work/Home Directions, Google Calendar Search & More Google has rolled out a few new search-related features as part of a new software update for Google Glass wearers. The XE11 software update lets users say voice commands like “get directions to home” or “get directions to work.” To make that possible, though, the user has to first provide home and work addresses in […] Study: Only 8% Of Brands Believe Its Marketing Team Is Strong Across All Digital Marketing Channels A new survey from Online Marketing Institute in conjunction with Kelly Staffing and ClickZ has discovered a majority of brands and enterprise organizations rank digital marketing very important, but only eight percent claimed to have marketing teams that were strong across all digital marketing channels. … [Read more...] about Marketing Day: November 7, 2013
Marketing Day: January 23, 2013
Here’s our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the Web. From Marketing Land: Most Popular App In The US? It’s Facebook (Thanks To Apple) Facebook can thank Apple for helping making it the top overall mobile app in the U.S. in 2012, according to new numbers out today from the comScore Mobile Metrix service. ComScore says Facebook ended the year with more than 85 million unique adult visitors — that’s on both Android and iOS. It’s about 11 million […] Treating Your Conversion Symptoms, But Not The Disease Many organizations get fixated on metrics data, without thinking of where it comes from. But, what if your metrics indicate a problem which originates somewhere else? Huh? What I’m asking is, “why should we believe that the place at which we measure our metrics is also the place where the problem occurs?” Perhaps the metric […] Now Hiring! We Have … [Read more...] about Marketing Day: January 23, 2013
Marketing Day: July 20, 2012
Here’s our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web. From Marketing Land: Marketing Biz: Future Shock (Is Already Here) It’s one of those weeks where those digital marketing ideas that used to feel so cutting edge are now a reality. Google+ is over a year old. Twitter has a suite of advertising offerings. Foursquare is connecting loyal customers to businesses. E-signatures are poised to become ubiquitous. The future of marketing is already here if […] A New “Rethought” Digg Will Launch August 1st Last week, betaworks bought the remaining assets of Digg after the once-prominent social site sold. The Washington Post acquired the Digg team, LinkedIn purchased 15 patents and betaworks was left with the Digg.com website. Well, betaworks isn’t planning on sitting around moping, today they released a blog post on rethinkdigg.com that states they are […] Woman Killed … [Read more...] about Marketing Day: July 20, 2012
Search Marketing Is A Game Of Resources
A lesson I learned many years ago (the hard way), is that the “free traffic” from organic rankings (SEO) is anything but free. Even something as basic as rewriting your vendor’s product descriptions to create unique content takes time – or you have to pay someone to do it. And if you’re getting traffic, you still need to do something with it…convert, convert, convert! You’d better believe that your competitors aren’t sitting still and neither should you. Ultimately, all other things being equal, those websites that make the most profit from appearing on search results, will be best funded to compete and win – whether that’s in organic search, paid search, social media, or any other channel. Writing content, marketing your business, handling public relations and press releases, and reaching out to webmasters for links – these are all areas that must be tended to, if you plan to maintain top search engine rankings. See, I … [Read more...] about Search Marketing Is A Game Of Resources
Building An Enterprise-Level Search Marketing Team: Part 1
Several years ago, I was tasked with building an enterprise-level search marketing team for a top online retailer. Because of the lessons learned and results achieved, I want to pass this intel on to those tasked with creating a search marketing team from scratch. Your Foundation: The Search Guru My first recommendation is to start out with an organic search guru, an experienced person specializing in organic search. Search gurus are those with a long-standing history of getting results and making good things happen. You’re going for a knowledge-transfer expert, not a permanent employee. The guru may cost 4x the salary of an employee, but s/he can earn you 150% YoY increase in revenue. You can potentially receive a 600:1 ROI on your guru — that is, for each $1 you spend, you’ll bring in $600 — so don’t worry about the cost. It’s trivial in the long run. Pay the guru half in salary and half in performance-based bonus. Give them top-down support and … [Read more...] about Building An Enterprise-Level Search Marketing Team: Part 1
Marketing Personas: The Complete Beginner’s Guide
I am writing this post to Dan, Mary, Steven, and Rachel—one of whom is likely you. You see, Dan, Mary, Steven, and Rachel are personas, created with a combination of raw data and educated guesses, representing slices of this blog’s readership. Dan could be you, and Mary could be your coworker. What these sketches provide is a touchstone for creating content: When I can put a name and a background to the people reading what I write, I can hopefully meet their needs even better. The same holds for marketing and sales. Building personas for your core audience can help improve the way you solve problems for your customers. The process of creating personas is well worth the time. Here is a blueprint and beginner’s guide to getting started. The basic marketing persona template I love this description of a marketing persona from the team at Krux: With personas, businesses can be more strategic in catering to each audience, internalize the customer that they are trying to … [Read more...] about Marketing Personas: The Complete Beginner’s Guide
5 Productivity Tips and Tools for Lazy Content Marketers
In the American workplace, few things are valued as highly, or pursued as aggressively, as productivity. On average, Americans work more hours than just about any other industrialized nation in the world. They spend more hours at the office, take fewer vacations, and even go to work when they’re sick. For many, this isn’t a choice – it’s just what they have to do to survive. For some, however, the cult of productivity has become an all-powerful idol, and one that businesses all over the country fervently worship. Work-related stress has become a badge of honor. Employees regularly boast of how early they come in, how late they stay, and how little vacation time they’ve used. Even in casual conversation, many Americans simply can’t help mentioning how hard they’re working. Admit it – if you’re reading this at work, you’d probably rather be somewhere else, and that’s exactly how it should be. There’s more to life … [Read more...] about 5 Productivity Tips and Tools for Lazy Content Marketers