[Video] Will These Tips Help Your Online Marketing Reseller Business in 2014?

A lot of white label SEO resellers are actually small business owners who have little marketing know-how when they started in the industry. Some entrepreneurs began as freelancers who did all the technical work on their own before they got burned out. Others worked 9 to 5 jobs but wanted more time freedom and financial security. They are motivated to do well. But sometimes, their lack of experience in marketing makes the work tougher.

Today’s small business owners are no different. They understand their core business better than anyone, in the same way online marketing resellers used to understand coding or content writing. They make the best tasting pizzas in town, lay the highest quality roofing, and style the most fashionable haircuts. But when it comes to marketing what they do best, that’s where they seem to fall short.

Good thing there are companies like AWeber that are always sharing helpful tips to small business owners. In fact, AWeber’s blog was voted as the best email marketing blog in the 2012 Marketing Sherpa Reader’s Choice Awards. In their latest post, the email solutions provider listed 4 1/2 things small businesses should know in 2014. Seeing how helpful these can be to our blog followers, we decided to convert them into tips for SEO and online marketing reseller agencies. Hopefully they help boost your reseller business in 2014.

Are You a Typical Small Business Owner?

In a survey of nearly 1,500 respondents, AWeber tried to paint a picture of what small business owners look like today and how they market their products and services. The study found that today’s owners are actually a “marketing army of one.” While 96% of owners have five employees of fewer, they serve as both the CEO and the primary marketer for the business.

It’s no surprise that many digital marketing agencies are subscribing to white label SEO reseller programs. As small businesses, they receive orders for their services but do not have the manpower needed to face all the demand. Your clients are in the same position because they do not have enough staff, particularly on the marketing side. So the first tip off this video / infographic is to:

Tip #1: Offer Online Marketing Help

As an SEO reseller, your job is to ensure your clients get the online marketing and web design help they need, and at the time they need it. In the year 2014, they need this help more than ever. As you can see, most owners serve as both the CEO and main marketer. The survey also found that only 12% of owners consider themselves a “pro” when it comes to online marketing. While they want to do everything on their own, it simply won’t be possible as they also need to focus on the core business. They may also not have sufficient knowledge to carry out all the marketing efforts they are planning.

What’s the best way to approach prospects? Establish your authority as an online marketing consultant by coming prepared for your initial consultation. If your white label online marketing provider runs online presence reports for you, use the report to introduce your services to the client. Online presence reports typically give clients an overview of where they fare as far as the local online competition is concerned. In most cases, they fare badly.

Tip #2: Help Owners Optimize Social Accounts

Social media optimization is clearly one area where white label online marketing resellers can help small business owners. This year, owners plan to increase their use of these five channels: email, website, blog, Facebook, and Twitter. What’s noticeable in the top 5 online channels is that two of them are social networks. And if you look at how much time they currently spend on these two networks, you’ll see that 55% of owners can only stay on Facebook for less than two hours a week! The situation is worse on Twitter as 79% of owners allocate the same amount of time to the micro-blogging site. Clearly they want to market via social networks but they simply do not have the luxury of time.

Tip #3: Assist in Blog and Website Setup / Maintenance

Some 81% of small business owners plan to use website more this year. Some 74% aim to use blog more. But here are the challenges. First, do these owners actually have a blog or website set up? If yes, can they produce enough content to keep them updated? If yes, is this content SEO-optimized so Google and other search engines can index the pages and increase their search rankings? 

Sadly, around half of all small business owners can only spare two hours or less a week for blogs and websites. Again, we’ll have to remember that the CEO is also the prime and perhaps only marketer for the business. That’s why it’s crucial that SEO reseller agencies are able to consult with owners and determine which areas in their online marketing need more attention. In most cases, it’s these two.

So, as a tip, ask your SEO reseller program provider if they have free website audit reports. That’s the first step to everything. Then, based on the audit, plan your next moves. Do you set up a new blog? Change it from a subdomain (blog.domain.com) to a category (domain.com/blog).

Resellers Are Small Business Owners Too!

So in essence, these reseller business-boosting tips will also apply to your own agency. When was the last time you get a website audit? Is your website even mobile responsive or mobile friendly? Have you optimized your social accounts yet? 

The truth is you really need to set an example for your clients. For them to trust you – and for them to entrust you with their marketing budget – they need to see that you know what you are doing and that you can apply it to your own business. So, go ahead and evaluate what other services you need to outsource so you can focus on your core business. Check your online social presence, as well as your blog and your website.

PPC Resellers, Listen: Online Retailers Rate Facebook as Best Advertising Platform

Pay per click advertising reseller agencies should be looking at Facebook ads as a new service for their clients. Why? Just take a look at this freshly published study on how over 800 retailers are using social commerce to improve the shopping experience. According to social discovery platform 8th Bridge, the biggest online retailers prefer Facebook as a choice of traffic from the social sphere. No surprise there, right? Actually there is.

 (Image: 8th Bridge)

Most PPC resellers would think that retailers get that traffic via “organic” Facebook efforts, such as uploading content and encouraging people to naturally Like and share that content. Surprisingly, 8th Bridge found that that social traffic is not from organic Facebook efforts. Rather, the biggest retailers are using Facebook Exchange, the social network’s pay for play advertising platform.

FB Ads: Costly & Counterintuitive or Effective?

Normally, pay per click resellers would think that the biggest advantage of Facebook, as well as other social networking sites, is the cost-effective element. Marketers can simply open a fan page and start getting Likes from there. That’s one reason why we PPC folks would rather leave some retailers alone; it’s because they want to get referral traffic from Facebook. They do not want to spend so they do not opt for paid search. But apparently, that is not the case.

When asked which platform has the most potential to drive sales, most of respondents picked Facebook. In fact, nearly 3 in every 5 retailers asked believe in the potential of the world’s biggest social network. Newcomer Pinterest ranked second with an approval rate of 27%. As expected, Twitter and Instagram tied for third place with 5% each. Another 5% of respondents said they do not expect to generate sales from any of these social networks.

(Image: 8th Bridge)

And the most surprising statistics perhaps for white label PPC resellers in this study is the high adoption rate of Facebook ads. At present, a whopping 78% of these companies buy Facebook ads – showing just how much confidence retailers have on the social network.

Social Networks as Traffic Drivers

OK, so sales are out of the question for some. What about traffic? Using the presence of upstream traffic as metric, researchers found that 2.16% of retailers receive visits from Facebook – although much of it is paid. The closest social network would be YouTube, which posted a much lower percentage of 0.82%. Pinterest (.1%) and Twitter (.02%) were third and fourth respectively.

While the average seems low, some brands are getting a substantial amount of traffic via Facebook. PetFlow.com, for example, gets over 32% of its unique monthly visitors from the social network. “PetFlow is highly effective in engaging its Fans on Facebook. Engaging Fans on Facebook effectively means talking about what they care about, in this case, pets. If you were a children’s clothing company, then you would talk about children,” the study said.

What Do Adoption Rates Say?

(Image: 8th Bridge)

The most effective traffic sources among social networks according to retailers are obviously, the most adopted too. In this case, Facebook leads the race with a 99% adoption rate. YouTube is a very close second at 98%. Twitter and Pinterest, again, complete the top four, with a similar rate of 89% adoption. Instagram posted an adoption rate of 69% while Vine, Twitter’s new video site, placed sixth with 38%.

When it comes to buttons, the Pin it button is most popular. It has an integration rate of 62%, just a bit higher than the Tweet button (61%) and the Facebook Like button (59%). Google+ comes into the picture finally, placing fourth with its button being integrated by 42% of retailers.

YouTube Worth the Spotlight, Too

As the biggest video-sharing site in the world, there’s no doubt on YouTube’s reach. When you look at the average though, the upstream traffic retailers get from it is so low. Less than 1% said they get traffic from YouTube. But those who do get a lot. That’s why white label PPC resellers offering SEO and social media services should consider the inclusion of YouTube optimization in their set list.

Take the case of Lancome. The U.S. arm of the French luxury cosmetics house gets over 21% of upstream traffic from YouTube. Second-placer Vat19.com gets 17% of traffic from the video site. According to 8th Bridge, what makes Vat19.com video ads so effective is the demonstration of actual product use, and done in a way that grabs customers’ attention.

PPC Resellers: Traffic to Main Site Crucial

(Image: 8th Bridge)

While social networks can be a driver of traffic, it should be noted that optimization efforts on the retailer’s website is still more important than ever. When asked to rate which method was better for learning new products, customer respondents said “browsing retailer’s sites” was the most effective. This simply underlines why your clients need SEO, and of course, instant traffic via PPC advertising. Their websites need traffic because that’s where consumers learn about new products. Emails, as usual, are important. Social starts to come into the picture at No. 3: post by friends on Facebook, followed by activity feeds, and then browsing pins.

So while we recommend you study the possibility of offering Facebook optimization and Facebook ad managements due to the high demand, you should not take PPC and SEO for granted. 

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.  

SEO Reseller Tips: Shorten Your Marketing Emails Please

Thanksgiving Day has just gone and many SEO resellers took advantage of the holiday to send out emails to their clients. Some are as simple as a Thanksgiving greeting. Others contained he usual news about the business and the industry. Many probably sent promotions via email, too.

But hopefully your email wasn't "stuffed."

In the words of email software company AWeber, email "stuffing" is "when you try to cram way too much into one long message." Are you a private label SEO reseller guilty of stuffing? Then you should definitely read this post.

Statistics Prefer Shorter Emails

To stay updated with the latest SEO and online marketing reseller trends, you’re probably subscribed to various email lists. Do you appreciate cluttered and convoluted emails? Or succinct ones that lead you to more information through a link? Think about it. You won't be able to consume the appetizer, main course, and dessert at the same time, right? The same goes for email and research backs this up.

Studies conducted by Marketo showed that emails with shorter body copy tend to have higher click-through rates (CTR). The marketing software maker compared concise emails with highly descriptive longer ones and found that the shorter version increased click-to-opens by 7%. In another test, this time with a bigger audience, the shorter email beat the long one by 2%.

“We believe difference exists because not only are short emails less likely to overwhelm readers, but also they're not cluttered by text, so the CTA (call to action) appears prominently,” Marketo said. 

Prepare, Segment, Maximize

According to AWeber, the best way to avoid stuffing emails is to use these three tips: prepare a content plan, segment the audience, and maximize other channels. 

For instance, instead of cramming all your SEO and online marketing promotions into one email, you may opt to send a few shorter emails throughout a longer period of time. These smaller messages will be easier to digest for the recipient. And because you’re sending out a number of emails as opposed to a single message, you have more chances of converting subscribers to buyers.

Another strategy is to send a small email to a segment of the audience that is more likely to be interested in that offer. For example, many white label SEO reseller consultants have verticals as their market. Can you segment your food and beverage establishment clients into family friendly places and couple restaurants?

As for maximizing other channels, AWeber recommends sending only the highlights of your promotion via email. The rest can be announced via other channels like social networking accounts and the company blog. 

Focus on CTR, Increase Conversions

Shorter copy generated a high CTR (image: Marketing Experiments Blog)

In a post for the Marketing Experiments Blog, MECLABS senior research editor Brad Bortone argued that marketers often confuse the purpose of an email message with that of a landing page. “Our research shows that selling your product twice – in an email and then the landing page – disrupts the reader’s thought sequence and could possibly hinder conversion,” he said.

The research was conducted on a highly targeted audience that was very interested in the contents of the emails. In the end, the shorter copy posted a 16.9% higher click-through rate. Bortone said there were two lessons here: “How can I “learn more” when there’s not much left to learn?” and “Don’t make me read when you want me to click.”

“Many marketers lose connection with their audience by overstating value, or simply burying it in a wash of information and unnecessary language,” he said, noting that the email copy should be used as “catalyst for further discussion, rather than as an impromptu landing page.”

Copy Shortened, Now What?

Obviously, the first step to cleaning and shortening your emails is editing the copy. Don’t cram everything into one long copy. After you’ve done that, what else can you do?

A great recommendation from emailmonday is to clean your email template. Maybe it’s time you sat down with the designer to see which elements you can take out. “Don’t stuff your email template… Beyond one point, you are not adding value at all. But just confusing people,” the email specialist said.

Another recommendation is to not send one big image. While it may be tempting, emailmonday discourages this practice as the image may not automatically load on your recipient’s browser. It might also not display automatically in popular portals like Gmail. In some client-based email portals, the image can even appear as an attachment.

Avoid Other Common Email Errors

Aside from shortening your copy, cleaning elements, planning, and focusing on the click-through, you must also avoid typical marketer mistakes to improve your email marketing campaigns. Service provider MailChimp listed down common rookie mistakes when it comes to email marketing. 

White label SEO resellers can learn a lot from this list. One of the best pieces of advice from the list is to stop thinking of email marketing as a “blast.” Rather, it should be thought of as a “relationship.” “Email is all about getting permission from customers, sending them stuff they want to read, and listening to their feedback,” the post said.

SEO Reseller Tips: The 4 Most Used B2B Content Marketing Tactics

Today’s white label SEO resellers must use or offer the following content marketing tactics: social media, on-site articles, newsletters, and blogs. These are the most used tactics by business to business (B2B) marketers when it comes to marketing with content, studies by reputable marketing organizations found.

According to the 2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends report by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and Marketing Profs, social media is now the most popular method to distribute content. Social media (with the exclusion of blogging) garnered an adoption rate of 87%. This is four percentage points higher than on-site articles, which was second most popular among B2B marketers. The third and fourth places were a close content between electronic newsletters (78%) and blogs (77%).

Social media tops B2B content marketing tactics (CMI/Marketing Profs)

Also notable in survey results is the increase in the number of tactics being used. The number is up from eight in 2011 to a dozen in 2012. In the previous survey, articles proved to be most popular.

LinkedIn Dominates Social Media Distribution

Digging deeper, the researchers found that LinkedIn was the most popular social channel for B2B marketers. The professional social network posted an adoption rate of 83% in 2012, up from 71% the previous year. 2011’s top performer, Twitter, was No. 2 at 80%, dropping six percentage points. Tying the micro-blogging site at the bridesmaid spot was Facebook, which also has an 80% adoption rate. The biggest social network posted a 70% rate the previous year.

Google properties rounded up the top five. YouTube was fourth with 61% while Google+ was fifth at 39%. In the previous year, the video-sharing site posted a 56% mark. Social layer Google+, meanwhile, leapfrogged from only 13%. SEO resellers who are also offering social media optimization should pay particular attention on this piece of data.

LinkedIn leads social media channels in content distribution (CMI/Marketing Profs)

Needless to say, these five online networks should be part of an SEO reseller’s social media optimization offerings. In a separate social media study by Social Media Examiner, the importance of LinkedIn was even stressed. Forced to choose only one platform, surveyed marketers opted for, as expected, Facebook (49%), and then LinkedIn (16%).

On Site-Articles, Newsletters, Blogs

(CMI/Marketing Profs)

The three other “tactics” chosen by respondents are also important so they must also be part of any reseller’s product line. The approach and intent may differ from platform to platform but in essence, you will need written content to publish any of these three.

Off-site articles used to be the norm but with Google’s algorithm updates Penguin and Panda cracking down on poor and massively submitted off-page articles (with rich backlinks), marketers now are focusing on generating quality content onsite. What white label SEO resellers need to remember here is that their clients need high quality written content to publish articles, newsletters, and blogs.

Based on Social Media Examiner’s findings, 66% of marketers plan to increase blogging activities this year. Some 62% want to learn more about it. At present, nearly 60% of marketers use blogs for their marketing activities.

What SEO Resellers Should Do Now

From these two studies, we know that there are four types of tactics that content marketers use today. The first is distribution via social media. Business owners and their marketing teams will be needing help in implementing social media optimization. As a reseller, you should be able to extend your hand to clients, especially when it comes to five important social networks: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+. These are the social networks that require your attention today.

B2B marketers plan to spend more in the next 12 months (CMI/Marketing Profs)

Marketers and business owners are also expected to use of on-site articles, newsletters, and blogs for their marketing efforts. It is important to check with your recommended white label SEO reseller provider if they provide content generation. If they do, you’ll be in a great position to fill and profit from businesses’ need to create and publish onsite articles, newsletters, and blogs. Should you really expand your offerings to content creation and social media optimization instead of focusing purely on search engine optimization?

Will Marketers Spend More?

Good thing the CMI/Marketing Profs study also asked B2B marketers about their planned spending for the next 12 months. Some 45% answered in the affirmative! This already means 45% of your clients right now are likely to spend more for marketing in the coming months. Another 9% said they will “significantly” increase their marketing budget. Of the total, 34% will retain their exiting budgets. Only 2% said they will spend less this year while 10% are unsure.

Based on these studies alone, you now have an idea on where B2B businesses plan to spend their marketing budgets. As they say, luck is when opportunity meets preparedness. There is an opportunity to cash in on, but it will require that you prepare for it by learning more about the top four tactics used by marketers.  You need to start learning more about these services so that you can begin offering them, initially as an add-on to existing clients and then as a standalone product to new clients.

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?

SEO Reseller Tips - The Definition of the Ideal Modern Marketer

Perhaps the most difficult part of being a white label SEO reseller is balancing parties on two different ends. On one end there's the client, the person who pays you in exchange for services. On the other end, there's the provider, who you pay to give your client the services they need. But here’s how you can make it less complicated. Think about it this way: you're simply dealing with two "customers" with different needs. That’s something a modern marketer can easily do.

But what exactly is a “modern marketer” anyway? Is he simply someone who is able to change his approach based on the kind of customer he is serving, just as how resellers change their approach to bridge providers and clients? Is he someone who prioritizes testing to find out which campaigns actually work? The definition will always change per person, primarily because this is very a subjective topic. But then again, there's a way to quantify what people often qualify. And that's exactly what marketing software company Eloqua did.

Defining the Modern Marketer: From Real to Ideal

Eloqua sponsored a research (conducted by BtoB Research Services) to find out marketers' perception on what a model marketer should be. The survey, which we here at SEO Reseller Tips are lucky to have secured a copy of, asked over 550 professionals who are active in digital marketing.

Among its goals were to define "modern marketing," get a picture of who an ideal modern marketer would be, and where marketers currently stand compared with this ideal marketer. And true enough, knowing your audience and adjusting your approach seem like some of the best qualities needed to become an ideal modern marketer.

Respondents said the "ideal" is composed of 30% targeting. The researchers cited the following as examples of "targeting": knowledge of people involved in the buying process, clearly defining roles and responsibilities, and dynamic profiling to adapt to changing environments. The second biggest chunk was engagement, which accounted for 24%. For instance, delivering the right content at the right medium at the right time is good engagement. Our SEO reseller followers can check the full composition of the ideal marketer below

The ideal Vs. actual modern marketer (Source: Eloqua)

How the Actual Marketer Fares Vs. Ideal

As you may see in the graph above, today's marketers rate themselves as being only 65% of what the ideal benchmark is. For example, they rated themselves only 21% when it comes to targeting, which is what the biggest concern of an ideal marketer should be. They were also short when it came to the second biggest factor, engagement, grading themselves with only 16% out of the possible 24%.

Of the possible 19%, actual marketers are only 12% when it comes to conversion. Researches gave an interesting example of conversion, and frankly one that is often the disconnect in online companies these days: collaboration with sales and delivering high quality leads. When it came to analytics, which accounted for 13% of the ideal marketer's composition, actual marketers were graded only 8%. Marketing technology accounted for 14% of the modern marketer but the actual is short at 9%.

Transformation of Marketers to 'Modern'

What's transforming the "modern" marketer (Source: Eloqua)

The BtoB survey defined a modern marketer as someone who pays attention to the following areas: targeting, engagement, conversion, analytics, and marketing technology. These are the factors that make a marketer "modern." But what exactly led to the transformation of the traditional marketer to a modern one?

The study found that "tracking marketing ROI via technology" is the most transformative factor today's marketers are coping with. It's the biggest change that contributed to the formation of the modern marketer, being rated as No. 1 by 60% of respondents. The surveyed professionals also believe the use of social media in marketing (58%), shift of power from brand to customer (42%), and maturation of demand generation and lead nurturing (42%) are also important changes that "modernize" marketers.

How is Modern Marketing Success Measured?

As the tracking of marketing ROI via technology is a massive concern for today's marketers, it's also not surprising that appeared as a key indicator of marketing success. Researchers asked respondents what measures are most important in gauging marketing success and "marketing ROI" topped results at 35%. This is quite difficult to achieve for businesses that employ various strategies to market their products. On the contrary, those who use purely white label PPC advertising are able to track ROI easily. The ability to influence sales (24%) and conversion rate (16%) also garnered double-digit percentages.

How "modern" marketing should be measured (Source: Eloqua)

Customer retention (9%), customer experience (9%), revenue per customer (7%), and social media metrics (7%) were the other measures for gauging marketing success.

How 'Ideal' Marketers Help Resellers

White label SEO resellers are in essence marketers because they conduct various online efforts geared toward marketing the brand. For example, search engine optimization is of course aimed at landing on the page 1 of Google to that the website can be visible online, and so it can be used to market products. PPC advertising is of course aimed at sending targeted traffic to a sales funnel, and that is essentially marketing. That is why it is important to pay attention to what the modern marketer is up to nowadays.

In a nutshell, the benchmark marketer wants data to see the progress of campaigns and to prove whether his activities are bearing fruit. The use of technology is also crucial. As a reseller, this translates to being able to provide your clients "quantifiable" or "measurable" data on your reports. They also want data that's mined through technology, such as the dashboard technology of white label SEO reseller provider Endlessrise. The dashboard enables your clients to check data about their campaigns just by logging into the system. Remember, it is easier to prove the success of your efforts by providing data to clients and using technology to gather and present that data.