Before you begin growing (we’ll call these “prerequisites”) you’ll need to have:
- A defined target audience(s);
- An up-to-date website that aligns with your brand;
- GA4 all set up (and someone to run it); and
- Consumable resources, like downloadable assets, a webinar, or checklists.
Growth works when you add the right elements—like yeast for bread dough.
For each of these channels or efforts, you’ll need to create a goal for your marketing team. Our Digital Growth Marketing program provides one example of guidelines we find helpful, but essentially you’ll want to have structured goals for growth.
Channel #1: Organic Traffic
Goal: Long-term growth
Strategy: Publishing 10 content pieces with researched keyword phrases each month
Outcome: Slow, but steady organic traffic increase
This is priority #1 for long-term growth. Organic traffic takes a lot of work and time—but it’s where most of your traffic should come from and will help you keep your competitive edge over time.
In Solid Digital’s growth marketing services with clients over the years, we’ve found 10 (ish) pieces of content to be the ideal number—whether you’re sharing downloadable assets, creating webinars, or publishing regular blogs (or a combination). Through interviewing your subject matter experts, or improving older posts, optimize everything you offer on your website.
VISIBILITY
Increase visibility by ranking for keywords and phrases beyond your specific brand terms. Combine content optimization with backend optimization, and you have a recipe for success. The reward? Seeing your organic traffic increase (and improve) as more visitors enter your website.
AUTHORITY
Build up authority through:
- Research – Keyword research, competitor research, audience research—the data you gather can help you create content that can drive your organic traffic rates up.
- Understanding SEO best practices
- Creating a content strategy
The results may not be immediate, but putting in the effort over time can have a long-term payoff and create better SERP rankings that last. Your website is both your storefront and the foundation of your brand—make sure you can be found by keeping your content regular and useful. More than keywords, your site should keep the user engaged because it’s useful and interesting, represents your brand well, and creates an easy user-journey. Improved rankings and traffic equate to organic growth.
Channel #2: Paid Search Ads
Goal: Reach your target audience with specific search terms
Strategy: Supplement organic traffic with paid search through choosing your top terms
Outcome: Boost engagement and conversion rates
A great supplement to organic traffic? Paid search. Beat out the competition when you choose your top terms and land above your competitors.
Set up your top terms in conjunction with your SEO by looking at the keywords your rank for (and those you want to but don’t). You can start broad and narrow down your terms, or you can be more specific and then cast the net wider as you go. Whatever you start with, tracking, analyzing and reiterating based on data are key to the ongoing success of your SEM efforts.
CHOOSE WISELY
Do not rely solely on search ads instead of good SEO. You’ll end up spending much of your budget, and watch as the costs continue to rise. Combat this by turning ads on and off, depending on season, top terms, and how well you’re ranking for organic.
Ensure whichever approach you take with paid search, you have an expert who understands PPC marketing, can monitor it, and can make adjustments to improve engagement and conversion rates. Relying solely on automatic or AI settings can be tempting but is likely to waste your budget, often reaching too broad an audience and bringing in junk leads. Get a set of human eyes on your campaigns, and correct small things that can lead to more MQLs and SQLs. Ideally, targeted ads will perform better than organic traffic alone because it’s reaching an audience specifically looking for your product or solution.
Channel #3: ABM (Account Based Marketing)
Goal: Boost revenue
Strategy: Use your current database or capture new accounts to turn leads into customers
Outcome: Score your leads and provide sales with a solid list of SQLs
Think of targeting a particular industry in your audience, a certain revenue goal, the number of leads you want to reach. ABM (account-based marketing) platforms are vital to get there.
If you’ve conquered organic traffic with your team of content writers and editors, and have your paid search ads humming along, and you want to help the sales team out, check out ABM platforms like Rollworks, 6sense, or Demandbase. Using these platforms helps narrow down your targeting, and can help you pull in targeted or brand-new-to-you accounts—from all angles, you should see your conversion rates improve.
HOW TO USE ABM PLATFORMS
Account-based marketing platforms are highly sophisticated tools. Keep in mind that none of them will be plug-and-play. After you learn how to use them, you’ll be able to maximize the information provided to get your message to your target audience.
There are two primary uses for ABM platforms. You can either 1) Upload information from your sales team’s current database, and market to the leads already in the funnel, or 2) Find new accounts based on user or account data such as specific keyword searches, websites visited, or industry/job title.
After you decide the method of use for various campaigns, you can begin targeting based on the lead’s location in the funnel. For example, a display ad for new leads asking the user to contact you wouldn’t be a good fit for those who don’t know your brand yet—but it’s a great reminder to reach out for people already in the funnel. Using different messaging and different landing pages based on funnel position is key. Meet your leads where they are.
But how do they move through the funnel in this method? Through ABM platforms, leads can be scored. Here’s some examples:
- A point for clicking on an ad.
- Two points for an newsletter sign-up.
- Ten points for scheduling a demo, and so on.
As the score goes higher, the lead moves through the funnel, ever closer to becoming a buyer/customer. Sales teams can target key accounts and contacts once they reach a set point threshold—making the big fish easier to catch.
Channel #4: Aggregate Review Sites
Goal: Visibility; Lead capture
Strategy: Advertise or rank in the top on an aggregate review site aligned with your offerings
Outcome: Get in front of your ideal customer, and get qualified leads
These days, we’re finding that SEO isn’t everything. Enter: Alternatives. Review sites and aggregate sites are becoming more and more popular—and have begun ranking higher in SERPs. Sites like G2, Capterra, and Clutch offer a collection of “Consumer Reports”-style data points for the best of the best.
PLAY NICE WITH REVIEW SITES
Aim to land your company within the Top 10 of your desired category. This is where your top-of-funnel clients will find you (or your competitors if you don’t appear). Ensure your brand is built out on the site, supplying information about your offerings, your website, contact info, and pricing. One 5-star review won’t bump you to the top, though. Gather plenty of reviews – typically required on a consistent basis – and you may be able to rank well.
OR PAY TO PLAY?
If you’re not to the point of qualifying for a top position, consider advertising instead. Determine which aggregate site is most important to your target market by searching for key terms (and see which one your competitors are on). Consider using some of your marketing budget to get in front of your ideal audience.
Final Note
In order to grow, you’ll need to increase visibility, engagement and conversions. Considering how different marketing channels can help you reach your goals allow you to plan out budgeting and resources. For a little extra guidance through our four favorite channels for B2B growth (plus plenty more, like social media), reach out to our team so we can help your Digital Growth.
