SEO Resellers: Survey Shows Top 3 Priorities of Marketers in 2014

You have marketing priorities in 2014 as an SEO reseller. It may be to increase your website’s traffic and lead intake so that you may convert more prospects. Some of you want to focus on increasing sales from existing customers by offering them add-on services. But regardless of what you want to prioritize when it comes to your own marketing, you would want to find out what your clients need this year.

White label SEO reseller program provider Endlessrise compiled a list of 5 massive outsource opportunities in 2014 just a few weeks ago. Those findings are based on a report by Webmarketing123 called the State of Digital Marketing Report 2014, which was released in the latter part of 2013. The findings in that research coincide with the results of another major digital marketing survey that was released just recently a marketing automation company owned by SalesForce.

2014 State of Marketing: Top 3 Priorities

In 2014 State of Marketing, ExactTarget bares what marketers’ new priorities for this year will be. The top three priorities of marketers in 2014 are:

1) Driving increased conversion rates – 47%

2) Increasing and improving brand awareness – 46%

3) Collecting, measuring, and using behavior-based data – 29%

And to achieve these priorities, an overwhelming 98% of marketers said they will either maintain or increase their spending in 2014. This is good news not just for in-house marketing teams, but also to SEO resellers. The presence of goals and bigger budgets means businesses will need teams and agencies to execute their new plans. What areas do they plan to spend more money on so they can achieve these top three priorities?

Where the Marketing Money Will Go

(Image: ExactTarget) 

According to the 2014 State of Marketing, which surveyed over 2,500 global marketers, there are five areas that are expected to receive more funding this year. They are:

·         Data and Analytics – 61%

·         Marketing Automation – 60%

·         Email Marketing – 58%

·         Social Media Marketing – 57%

·         Content Management – 57%

Cross-referenced with the 2014 State of Digital Marketing Report published by Webmarketing123 in the latter part of 2013, the three areas that match are: content, social media, and email. Marketers are expected to spend more on these three areas this year. And as a private label SEO reseller, these are the areas you can help your clients with. And when you do, always take into consideration their three main priorities mentioned earlier in this post.

Email Marketing: Can SEO Resellers Help?

Most white label online marketing resellers do not provide email marketing for clients. That doesn’t mean you can’t help your clients. Businesses tend to carry out email marketing on their own, using tools and email marketing software available at their disposal. As proof of its importance to businesses, some 68% of marketers believe email is core to their business. Nearly 50% of respondents are collectively sending 500,000 emails each year.

But here’s where they seem to get it wrong. Some 42% rarely or never use responsive design in their marketing emails. This is such a pity as some 41% of marketers confessed that 31%-50% of their subscribers use mobile devices to open emails! This means only half of subscribers are able to see those marketing emails without having to zoom in and out or wait for a long loading time. And if they get to see the email, another chunk will struggle to view the landing page. That’s because 37% of marketers rarely or never use mobile responsive web design in their landing pages.

(Image: ExactTarget)

The lesson here is simple: convince them to implement responsive design in their emails. If that is not possible, at least ensure they have a mobile responsive website so they can welcome mobile traffic.

Social Media Necessity: Google+ and Blogs

Some 57% of marketers will increase their budgets for social media marketing this year. Some 55% plan to spend more on social advertising. Needless to say, social will be receiving bigger budget allocations in 2014. Of course, white label SEO resellers typically offer Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn optimization to clients. But what other platforms and social networks should you pay attention to? Here are some hot services and the percentage of marketers that plan to introduce them into the marketing mix this 2014:

·         Google+ – 18%

·         Blog – 17%

·         Pinterest – 16%

·         YouTube – 15%

“Content marketing is propelling Google+ back into the spotlight, with Google offering extra search juice to content authors for posts shared on Google+,” the report said. White label SEO reseller program providers typically have blog writing and Pinterest and YouTube optimization services but not all of them offer Google+ optimization. Check with your provider today.

Content: Tested in 2013, Widely Used in 2014

(Image: ExactTarget)

At present, some 71% of marketers surveyed in the State of Marketing report are using content management as part of their marketing plan. Much of content’s rise to popularity has to do with the numerous algorithm updates and refreshes launched by Google last year. These changes in how the search engine ranks web pages stress the importance of having high quality content. Many marketers are realizing this fact today. That’s why 19% will introduce content management into their marketing plan this year.

How can you help clients in terms of content management? As a private label online marketing reseller, you can help clients by providing them with 1) blog setup, 2) article writing, 3) video creation, 4) infographic design. When it comes to using this content for link building, make sure you use Google-compliant methods. Here is an old but informative piece on using content for natural link-building.

So for 2014, marketers and businesses want to convert more leads and sales, increase brand awareness, and collect data. As a private label SEO and online marketing reseller, you can help them achieve these goals by offering services that are in line with their goals.  

Practical SEO Reseller Tips on Using Marketing Data – Lessons from Teradata Infographic (Inside)

Earlier today, I was thinking of a blog post for SEO Reseller Tips when I stumbled upon an interesting infographic courtesy of analytic data solutions provider Teradata. The infographic was titled, "Untangle Your Data Assets for Sustained Competitive Advantage." A copy of which you can look download from the Teradata website through the link above, or you can also scroll down below to see what I'm talking about.

Source: Teradata

Data is something all SEO resellers should be passionate about; data used for analytics to be precise. That's because information, although appearing boring due to its presentation as mere numbers and figures, says so much about what our customers want. In short, when we have data, we actually have the answer on how we can grow our business. We'll know exactly how our customers want to be sold, how they want to be approached, what type of services they need, and so on. The only problem is, do we have this data?

What is a Zettabyte?

Long and short of it, we at least have ways to access this data if we don't have it today. Chances are we are among the 3 billion people who will create 8 zettabytes of data in this lifetime. (According to Wikipedia, a zettabyte or 1 ZB = 1000000000000000000000bytes = 10007bytes) If that still doesn't make sense to you, look at it this way. Perhaps you've seen one of those external hard drives? Those black bars that can handle 1 terabyte of movies, all the past seasons of How I Met Your Mother and other TV series, and a handful of other media that you would never want other people to see? Imagine having a billion of those hard drives. A billion hard drives. That's a zettabyte.

This just means we actually are creating and storing information in our daily lives. As marketers, white label SEO resellers also store information although it may not be on a central location. For instance, a lot of beginners in this field (yours truly at one point included) actually jot down phone numbers or email addresses of prospects I meet in events and gatherings, where? On a notebook! Worse, on a piece of paper that’s doomed to be misplaced and never to be found. I still do that writing down thing until now and there's nothing essentially evil with that. However, what has changed nowadays is that I enter that information into one central location, AKA my master list of prospects, and do it as soon as I can. It's a simple spreadsheet that contains prospects' names, phone numbers, emails, and business of interest like SEO or PPC.

While this may not be the most advanced way of data collection and analysis, it works for me. It keeps everything organized and in one place. But there's another way I "centralize" data, especially when it comes to prospecting and delivering work reports to clients but I'll talk about that later. For now, let's see why Teradata's infographic is so important for us SEO resellers, marketers, and frankly for any business owner that wants to grow the biz.

Global Trends on Marketing Data

It seems marketers, particularly marketing executives, are looking more and more into data for their campaigns. The Teradata infographic predicts there will be an increase of 60% in spending for marketing analytics in the next three years. It seems it will be a productive three years for providers of marketing analytics software and solutions. But more than that, this prediction means marketers will be relying more on actual data – as opposed to preconceived notions about what works and what doesn't – when it comes to marketing.

Source: Teradata

Another interesting nugget from the infographic is that by 2017, CMOs will outspend CIOs on technology! As I mentioned, it seems executives are realizing the power of data and technology when it comes to marketing. Chief marketing officers now understand the power of data and they are willing to spend on technology to get hold of this power.

Marketer Priorities & the 'Blame Game'

The infographic, which is based on a full-scale marketing study, also listed the top three priorities of marketers today and true enough, all of them have to do with data and technology. They are:

1. Improve Efficiency

2. Cross-Channel Integration

3. Prove Effectiveness with Outcomes and Metrics

Need I say more? What marketing department wouldn't want to prove its worth to its company, right?

Some marketing campaigns are easier to track because they have a fix set of metrics. For example, it is easier for white label PPC resellers to prove the worth of their service because PPC records data like impressions, click-through rate, cost per click, cost per lead, and cost per sale. With SEO resellers, it's a bit more difficult because it is hard to track and organize organic traffic. That is why when selling SEO services, the "value" is often sold, not the actual figures.

Another interesting part of the infographic is the section in the "internal blame game." Unfortunately, this happens even in the smallest of companies. Most of the time, marketing, sales, and IT are disparate departments that do as little communication and coordination as possible with each other. The result? Silos of data that do not provide an accurate picture of the customer and the company's performance. Some interesting stats from this section:

Source: Teradata

Practical Marketing Data Tips, Teradata-Style

The infographic recommends a simple five-step process on how marketers can utilize data to improve their marketing, and eventually increase their revenue. The five steps are:

1. Get smart, get strategic

2. Tear down silos

3. Untangle the data hairball

4. Make metrics your mantra

5. Process is the "new black"

While this step is specifically for the application of "big data," it also works with organizing the marketing efforts of smaller ventures like our reseller businesses. This five-step process actually reminded me so much of the reporting system of my recommended white label SEO provider Endlessrise. Remember earlier I mentioned my other way to "centralize" data when it comes to prospecting and delivering work reports? My provider uses a dashboard system that allows me to contact prospects all in one place. Communication is also saved in one place so every time I need to back track on the conversation thread, I don't need to open various applications. I'm able to send proposals and contact leads in one place.

Plus, when the project is in progress, I can give my clients access to a certain portion of the dashboard and from there, they can check the progress of their campaign. I'd say the dashboard is still a major step in organizing, analyzing, and making use of marketing data. How about you? How do you organize your marketing data?