Continuing on with our DMSS series where we discuss some of the fantastic presentations that we attended at the Digital Marketing Skill Share (DMSS) 2018 conference in Bali. In this week’s post we will be discussing the presentation ‘Beyond SEO: Next Level Content’ by Gregory Elfrink.
Who is Gregory Elfrink?
Gregory is the Director of Marketing at Empire Flippers. He managers the flow of content surround Empire Flippers brand and this includes blog posts, guides and podcasts.
The Workshop Details
Titled ‘Beyond SEO: Next Level Content’, the DMSS conference explained that the presentation would cover what content marketing should incorporate and how to implement content marketing effectively. The presentation covered the following topics.
- Content Marketing Funnel
- Niche Shoulder Strategy
What is Content Marketing?
Gregory started the presentation by identifying SEO as a small part of content marketing. Predominantly centred around data, stats and SERPS, he encouraged businesses to incorporate content marketing to move beyond search visibility and into creating customer value that will lead into profitable actions. He suggested that the practise of content marketing is best explained through a traditional marketing funnel.
Top of the funnel – Awareness
This part of the funnel is where SEO efforts are largely recognised. He outlined that this process involves conducting keyword research on current website content to assist with ranking. Through the practice of traditional SEO, Gregory stated that at best an increased search visibility only increases awareness around a specific search topic. He suggested that in order to increase conversion rates it is necessary to do more than just developing content that contains high search volume keywords.
Middle of the funnel – Lead Magnet
The second step of the content marketing funnel is producing engaging content. Gregory explained that SEO has allowed businesses to identify a target audience with which they can generate content for. To continue down the marketing funnel he suggested developing valuable content that focuses on solving customer problems and stated that this requires conducting thorough research on customer needs.
Bottom of the funnel – Insider Knowledge
Gregory continued to elaborated the impact of generating unique content and provided us with two examples – case studies and niche articles. He explained that this kind of content contains in-depth information for niche audiences and would not typically be found through SERPS. He highlighted the impact of developing rich and unique content with an example from Empire Flippers, using an article titled, ‘Winning the Wire Race’. This article explained to their audiences the benefits of pre-purchasing their services and highlighted the process involved. As a result, hundreds of thousands of dollars were wired to Empire Flippers prior to purchase.
Gregory accentuated the impact that content marketing may have when implemented correctly and further emphasised that the purpose behind the marketing funnel is to create sales.
The Shoulder Niche
Gregory then revealed his strategic approach to content marketing. He briefly discussed the concept of buying intent keywords and explained that these keywords have high conversion rates even with low traffic as they clarify what searchers want.
He suggested an alternative to this and that was to incorporate Shoulder Niche articles. He explained that use of this strategy is best applicable when:
- You have maxed out your buyer intent keywords or;
- Your keywords are too competitive.
Shoulder Niche keywords do not contain the intent to buy, rather they entice audiences to seek further information. Gregory stressed that these keywords are not for direct sales, rather they pull customers deeper into the funnel for an eventual sale. He concluded that the purpose behind this strategy is to find your customers and develop trust through rich and informative content. He recommended this approach alongside typical SEO tasks such as conducting content alterations in response to Google’s algorithm.
What can we take from this Presentation?
In contrast to our last blog post from the DMSS series – DMSS 2018: Brie Moreau – 11 SEO Mistakes You Are Making Right Now, which provided us with common SEO mistakes and how to mitigate them, this presentation provided us with an alternative approach to increasing organic traffic to your website beyond SEO efforts. Gregory has provided us with a new perspective into developing content and the impact it has when it comes to converting leads into sales.
