Author: Erica Hakonson - Principal & Founder

Erica Hakonson, Principal and Founder, of the Microsoft Partner Marketing & SaaS Technology Agency, Maven Collective Marketing.At the helm of the team of “Mavens”, Hakonson is passionate about empowering more women in technology and has led Maven Collective Marketing to become a multi-award winning digital powerhouse.Hakonson is also recognized for her leadership and entrepreneurial achievements being published and featured by such publications as the Globe and Mail, BCBusiness, Canada’s Podcast, Insivia SaaS Founder Show, and CanadianSME Small Business Podcast. Beyond Maven Collective, Hakonson holds a Management of Technology MBA from Simon Fraser University and co-founded a new Vancouver-based SaaS company, Orchestry Software.. Outside of the office, Hakonson is an amateur banjo player and outdoor enthusiast spending time in the outdoor capital of Canada with her awesome tiny humans, her heroic husband, and her energetic bird dog.

Compelling Digital Marketing Drills for B2B Organizations

Some B2B digital marketing trends never go out of style. Here are some tactics that you should utilize to see a greater impact and return on investment from your digital marketing efforts.

B2B Digital Marketing Trend #1: Don’t Undervalue Webinars, Videos & Virtual Events

The use of video calling skyrocketed as organizations around the world adapted to remote work and it doesn’t look like this digital marketing trend will be slowing down anytime soon.

The pandemic had a huge impact on the popularity growth of video conferencing, webinars and virtual events, but they were all on the rise long before ‘social distancing’ became part of our daily vocabulary.

The good news is that including webinars, videos and virtual events in your B2B digital marketing strategy can open up a number of opportunities for lead generation, improving the buyer journey, and expanding your brand reach.

Use Webinars and Virtual Events for Lead Generation

Producing high-quality webinars and virtual events that truly add value to attendees can take a lot of work, but we promise that it will pay off and the rewards will be worth the effort!

Not only do webinars position you as an authority and a thought leader, but they are also a great vehicle for generating high-quality leads. People that are willing to take the time out of their day to join your webinar are likely to be highly engaged and searching to add value to their organization within your area of expertise. With that being said, it’s definitely worth adding webinars and virtual events to your B2B digital marketing strategy.

Expand Your Reach with Co-Marketing

Now that you’ve added virtual events and webinars to your marketing must-haves, it’s time to consider how to elevate your reach. Collaborating with compatible organizations to your own can be a great way to elevate your webinars or virtual events by tapping into new, but relevant, audiences.

Plus, hosting a webinar in partnership with a complementary organization means you can add even more value to your audience by going above and beyond your specific area of expertise.

Improve The Buyer Journey With Videos

Videos are an amazing tool for getting all sorts of messages across to your audience in an engaging, easy-to-understand way. When used effectively, they can drastically improve the buyer journey by providing a much more detailed look at the product or service you are offering. In fact, according to Google 55% of people search for a product on Google, and then learn more by going to YouTube before they buy it.

Not only can videos help your audience better understand your products or services, but they can also have a huge impact on your SEO. Search engines love video and value it as high-quality pieces of content. In 2021, it’s estimated that over 80% of all web traffic will consist of video.

B2B Digital Marketing Trend #2: Be Authentic, Educational & Informative

Customers are inundated with messages every day, so being authentic and adding real educational value will help you cut through the noise and create a strong connection with your audience. Use your content to capture interest and establish your organization as a source of reliable information, and stay consistent with the value you provide to your audience.

The following content types are a great way to provide educational content and generate leads at the same time:

Whitepapers – creating technical, in-depth whitepapers on a specific topic can enforce your organization as a thought leader in your area, establish trust among your audience, and solidify you as a go-to source of information.
Guides – help your audience get up to speed with easy to follow ‘how-to’ guides.
eBooks – easy to read and more general than whitepapers, eBooks are a great way to increase credibility and add value through educational content.
Infographics – a great way to format content and information so it’s easy to read, educational and highly shareable.
Blogging – consistent blogging can showcase thought leadership as well as drive traffic to your website.

B2B Digital Marketing Trend #3: Nurture Leads with Email Marketing Nurtures & Automation

If you haven’t already moved your email marketing to an automated platform, we should probably be catching you up on marketing in 2011 rather than now!

Transitioning to an email automation platform (our favourites are MailChimp and HubSpot) can be one of the most highly impactful marketing investments you can make, with substantial ROI for years to come. It will make staying in touch with your contacts easier than ever and allow you to keep them engaged with relevant and personalized content.

Email Nurture Flows

Use your email automation platform to take your contacts on a journey depending on their interest group. For example, if you gained a contact because they registered to join a webinar, you will know the subject area that they are interested in. Moving forward, you can nurture this contact with relevant information that adds value to them within this area and tie in your product or service offering in a way that’s relevant to their individual needs.

Automated Email Follow Up

Reach out to new contacts instantly with automated email follow-ups. Setting up auto-responders to download, sign up or other forms allow you to automatically reach out to new contacts with the information they need without delay. This will allow you to get a higher response from your audience, as when they complete a significant action like filling in a form they will likely expect a response or confirmation.

Consistent Email Communications

To get the most from your email list, it’s important to keep your contacts engaged and remain consistent over time. A great way to do this is by sending a monthly newsletter to your contacts to keep them updated on what is new & noteworthy with your organization, and to share any new resources that may be helpful to them. A monthly newsletter provides the opportunity for you to touch base with leads, showcase your business and keep your database up to date.

B2B Digital Marketing Trend #4: Reinvest in Search Engine Marketing for the Long-Term

When it comes to SEO, it is a common misconception that if you optimize your website once then it will last forever. The reality is interest changes, and so do keywords. For example, in the Microsoft space, “Office 365” rebranded to “Microsoft 365” or “Microsoft Dynamics NAV” is now “Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central”.

It’s important to keep checking back in on your keywords and your keyword strategy, as it’s not guaranteed that they will get more popular with time. This coming year, check back in on your SEO with the following crucial stages:

Revisit Your Website Keyword Strategy

Keyword Strategy - SEO B2B Digital Marketing Trends

Keywords are at the heart of website SEO, so it’s important to clearly define the keywords that have the most relevance and potential for your organization.

To build an effective keyword strategy, start by conducting thorough keyword research using tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Moz or Ahrefs. Use the keyword data gathered in this research stage to guide how you will use individual keywords and how you will track their impact going forward.

Conduct a Thorough SEO Audit

How is your current site performing in terms of SEO? The best way to check what is working and what isn’t is to complete a thorough SEO audit of your site. It’s important to look out for both big issues that may be holding your site back, as well as smaller, easy-to-fix problems that may present opportunities for quick wins.

An SEO audit should cover an analysis of current organic search traffic using Google Search Console and Google Analytics, a content audit and content gap analysis, as well as examining what content (whether that’s written copy, images, or videos) is optimized and what still needs to be.

Book an SEO Audit Today!

Not sure where to start with your website SEO? Don’t panic, Maven Collective Marketing’s expert team is here to help you!

Request My Audit Now

Implement SEO Elements Across Your Site

Last but definitely not least, it’s time to fill in the gaps highlighted in your SEO audit. We recommend building a checklist for each page, article, or blog post, so you have a comprehensive list of all the elements that need optimizing. It can be time consuming, but ensuring that all your headings, images and copy are optimized for search will drastically improve how easy it is for potential customers to find you online.

B2B Digital Marketing Trend #5: Explore New SERP Opportunities

Search engine algorithm updates happen all the time which means there are constantly new opportunities to improve your ranking. Take advantage of rich snippets and structured data markup to take that coveted ‘position zero’ on search engine listings – the most sought after spot on the internet.

Schema Markup

Schema markup is a section of code that you put on your site in order to help search engines serve users with an informative response to best answer their questions. Essentially, schema markup provides search engine algorithms with context to inform what your data means rather than simply what it says.

Rich Snippet Categories

The majority of Google search results show a website’s title tag, meta description and URL. Rich snippets include these, but also adds more to it making your site more compelling and increasing CTR. Search engines like Google will pull this rich snippet data from Structured Markup (like Schema) in your website’s code.

Leveraging Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free service that provides insights to help you measure your site’s performance, flag potential issues and control how Google views your website.

It’s a great tool to monitor and improve your SEO as it can show you invaluable data insights such as how often your site appears in Google search queries and which keywords drive the most traffic to your site. If you haven’t already, setting up Google Search Console should be high up on your to-do list!

B2B Digital Marketing Trend #6: Promote in the Right Channels Consistently

There are countless platforms you could use to market your organization, but it’s important to pinpoint the most important ones for you so you can stay focused on connecting with your audience in the right place at the right time. If you don’t you may find yourself spending an endless amount of time without any measurable results.

Here are the key channels we recommend focusing on:

Email Marketing

As mentioned earlier in this post, email can be a very personal way to reach your target audience. When planning your email strategy, think about how you can create a personalized experience for your contact list so that every communication is relevant to their individual interests and goals.

B2B Social Media

In our experience working with B2B companies, a lot of organizations struggle to get into a routine with social media marketing, or even ignore it completely. When used effectively, social media marketing can present a number of opportunities for your organization so make sure it is a key part of your B2B digital marketing strategy!

Social Media B2B Digital Marketing Trends

The key is to understand where your audience is showing up online, and focus your social media efforts on a couple of key channels rather than stretching yourself across all platforms without much in the way of engagement or return. For B2B digital marketing, our favourite platforms are LinkedIn and Twitter, but don’t overlook the value of Google My Business!

Paid Advertising (Google/Bing, LinkedIn, Podcasts)

Paid advertising is an excellent way to expand your reach, grow brand awareness, and drive new leads to your site or landing page. Depending on your goals, you can run paid advertising campaigns on search engines such as Google or Bing, social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter, or you could even run an audio advertisement on a podcast that’s relevant to your offering.

When set up and optimized correctly, paid ads can be a very budget-friendly option to drive traffic and convert leads. However, as with all areas of digital marketing, it’s important to take a strategic approach and clearly understand who you are trying to reach to get the best return on ad spend.

Co-Marketing

Simply put, co-marketing is when two or more companies come together to promote an event or co-branded offer. By leveraging the relationship between your own organization and an aligned organization, you can experience the mutual benefits of expanding your brand awareness across a much larger, combined audience. This can deliver new leads and grow awareness of your product or service offering, with the added benefit of sharing the workload with another team!

Guest Blogging/Appearances

Guest blogging can present a number of benefits for your organization. You can establish yourself as a thought leader within your industry and expand your reach to a completely new audience. Plus, it can be a great way to build backlinks to your own site from high-authority, high-traffic sites in your field. When getting started, make sure you do your due diligence to ensure that the sites you are guest blogging to align with your brand, have a high domain authority, and are reputable within your field.

B2B Marketing Trends & Beyond

B2B digital marketing trends are ever-changing, but if you keep on top of them then you will be able to uncover countless opportunities to expand your reach and grow your business.

We hope these B2B digital marketing trends will help you keep your digital marketing strategy current through this next year, and beyond. But, if you need some extra help, our expert team is here to help.

Find out more about how Maven Collective Marketing can revolutionize your B2B digital marketing by getting in touch at maven@mavencollectivemarketing.com.

How to Improve SEO and Drive More Traffic to your B2B Website

We all know how important it is to have high SEO rankings, but with over 200 search engine ranking factors in Google’s search engine algorithm alone, it can feel a little overwhelming knowing which factors are the most critical for a successful online marketing strategy.

One question we are frequently asked by our clients is “how can we improve SEO on our B2B website?” This might sound like a simple question but producing the desired results for your B2B website requires establishing and maintaining a complex series of strategies and tactics.

In this blog post, we’ll highlight the key search engine ranking factors you should be integrating to improve SEO.

Improve SEO with Keyword Research — *Improve SEO with Thorough Keyword Research*

Keyword Research Is Essential to Improve SEO

Keyword research is ESSENTIAL to improve SEO strategy and practice.

There are various FREE and paid tools for keyword research, which can be helpful to gain a better understanding of a keyword. We recommend you take the time to evaluate the demand and competition of the keywords you are targeting and think about how someone would search for relevant information based on the specific product or service you are offering.

It’s also worth bearing in mind how competitive a keyword is. If you need to focus on building more authority on your B2B site, try targeting less competitive words until you have built a stronger foundation for your site.

Once you’ve researched and chosen your keywords it’s time to plan relevant and high-quality content around these keywords, BUT make sure it sounds natural and avoid using too many.

Improve SEO with Fresh Content — *Fresh Content is Vital to Improve SEO*

How to Improve SEO With Content Marketing

Producing high-quality content is crucial to increasing your rankings, but DON’T forget about old content once it’s up on your site. Your content needs to be relevant and up to date, so make sure you are reviewing and updating existing content regularly.

This is a fantastic way to signal to visitors that your website contains fresh, exciting, and accurate information. It will also likely increase the amount of time people spend on your site, also known as your dwell time, which can significantly improve SEO.

When reviewing existing content ask questions like, does my content demonstrate expertise, authority, and trustworthiness? Google’s ranking factor “E-A-T” (Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness) is used to measure just this.

While search engines want to ensure users are getting high-quality content, they also want to know that users are acquiring accurate and trustworthy information from your content.

Focus on Technical Elements to Improve SEO

Improving the technical SEO of your site is more important than you might think, so you want to ensure your site is compatible with the standards set by search engines, as this will significantly influence your ranking.

We recognize there are a lot of different aspects to technical SEO, so to make things easier we’ve highlighted some key points for you to focus on:

XML sitemaps – make sure to use an XML sitemap, as this shows search engines your website URLs and allows them to see what content is available and how to reach it.
Site structure – have an organized and flat structure that shows your site’s pages are only a few links away from one another. This also helps search engines to access and “crawl” all of your pages easily.
URL structure – a consistent and logical URL structure provides a better user experience and helps users understand how to move around your site.
Linking – internal links direct users to other relevant pages on your site, which increases your authority as well as your dwell time. It also helps search engines to “crawl” more of your site’s pages.
Duplicate & thin content – avoid duplicate content or providing thin content with little or no value to the user. We recommend using a social audit tool to help you find and remove duplicate content on your site.
Canonical Tags – canonical URLs help you manage similar content on your site and helps specify the exact URL you want visitors to see in search results.
Rich snippets – a type of markup that enables you to include additional information on your pages, making them more noticeable in search results. This will naturally increase organic traffic to your site.
404 pages & 301 redirects – you want to show search engines that all of your links are live, so make sure you don’t have any broken links and use 301 redirects to redirect users if you’ve restructured your site.
HTTPS – make sure to use HTTPS, an encrypted version of HTTP that will improve the security of your site for visitors by encrypting the data between your browser and server.

Optimize User Experience to Improve SEO — *High Quality User Experience is a Key SEO Factor*

Offer an Optimal User Experience to Improve SEO

Evaluating your site for page performance is key to ensuring visitors have an optimal user experience on your page, whether on a desktop or mobile device. This will not only improve SEO but also increase organic web traffic. What’s more, with the increase of mobile browsing, it’s more important than ever to have a mobile-friendly user experience and a fast-loading speed.

Arriving in 2021 is Core Web Vitals, Google’s latest ranking factor. With this new factor, your search ranking will be measured by the user’s experience on your site – we’re talking about the speed of your site when it loads, page performance and mobile experience.

Algorithm updates can have a big impact on your rankings, as well as traffic to your site, so it’s important to stay ahead of them. Here are a few points that will help you understand how to prepare your B2B website for Core Web Vitals:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – how long does it take for the largest piece of content on your site to load? Whether it’s a video, an image, some text, on your desktop or on your mobile, your ranking will be influenced by the loading speed of that content.
Cumulative layout shift (CLS) – is used to measure the stability of your site. Think about whether a user may experience an unexpected layout shift when they go to click a button.
First Input Delay (FID) – how fast can your site start to process and produce a result when a user clicks on something?

Remember, this is all about providing an optimal user experience, so make sure your site offers an easy, accessible and fast experience for visitors.

Improve SEO with High Quality Backlinks

It’s important to build high-quality backlinks by linking to authoritative and trustworthy sites that are relevant to your subject matter. Backlinks not only demonstrate subject matter expertise, but they also build your own authority and trustworthiness.

Take the time to link your content only with relevant and high-quality backlinks and make sure not to include too many.

How to improve seo with social media — *Improve SEO by Growing Your Social Signals*

Social shares may not be a direct ranking factor but getting more social shares to your site can really help your search engine ranking. There are two key reasons for this:

More social shares help to increase organic traffic to your site.
More social shares mean there are greater opportunities for your content to build backlinks.

What’s more using platforms such as Google My Business (GMB) and Bing Places for Business is a fantastic way to improve your B2B business ranking. There is a long list of benefits for local businesses, such as increased customer trust, expanded search engine real estate, increased website traffic and one-click accurate business information for customers.

It’s Possible to Improve SEO!

As we mentioned earlier, the question “how to improve SEO on our B2B website?” is a simple one to a complex series of strategies, tactics, and execution planning, but by following this resourceful guide you too can improve your search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your B2B website.

Have further questions or would like hands-on guidance applying these strategies and tactics?

Get in touch at maven@mavencollectivemarketing.com to learn how our expert team can improve your SEO and drive measurable results.

‘Paying It Forward’: A Simple Act of Sublime Pleasure

With all the challenges that have arisen this year, 2020 will be, if nothing else, a year to remember. Thankfully, as we approach the holiday season and settle into the dark nights, it’s time for us to uphold our favorite tradition – Maven Collective Marketing’s Annual Pay It Forward Initiative.

What is the ‘Pay It Forward Initiative’?

At Maven Collective Marketing, we truly believe in giving back and paying it forward. So, we developed the Paying It Forward Initiative as a way of showing our appreciation to organizations that are working tirelessly to make the world better, kinder, and safer.

Every year, the Mavens at Maven Collective Marketing select a collection of local, national and international charities to support. This year, we have supported 13 amazing organizations (over double the number we gave to last year, wahoo!).

Here are some thoughts from the Mavens on this year’s ‘Pay It Forward Initiative’ and the charities they have selected:

Why Mavens ‘Pay It Forward’

Erica Hakonson Maven Collective Marketing Principal & Founder

“To see this list grow and pay it forward to the organizations we admire so much makes me cherish owning a business that has the ability to do this every year. When I started as a solo entrepreneur so many years ago, my goal was to be able to pay forward a completely funded Fistula surgery for a woman in need through the Fistula Foundation. Today, we have been able to do this year after year, which makes me beam with pride. To grow our list and funds to support additional charities each year makes my heart swell with pride and fuels us to do more and give more each year.”

Erica Hakonson, Principal & B2B Marketing Maven

Pay It Forward Initiative 2020: Selected Charities

Here is further information about the wonderful organizations our team has chosen to support this year and the work that they do to make the world better for all of us.

Fistula Foundation

Fistula is an injury that occurs during childbirth. It has largely been eradicated across the developed world but is still devastating the lives of women in the poorest of countries. The Fistula Foundation aims to “treat obstetric fistula with cost-effective, restorative surgery.” This year, our donation through the Maven Collective Marketing Pay It Forward Initiative sponsored a full Fistula Surgery for an individual.

Find out more about Fistula Foundation >

Nature Conservancy of Canada

The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is Canada’s leading national land conservation organization. They work to protect Canada’s most precious natural places and have helped to protect 14 million hectares across the country since they began in 1962. Their mission is to lead and inspire others to join them in creating a legacy for future generations through conservation across Canada. Since our team of Mavens are dedicated outdoor enthusiasts, we proudly support land conservation to keep the wild, wild.

Find out more about Nature Conservancy of Canada >

Squamish Helping Hands

Since 2006, Squamish Helping Hands has been providing food and shelter programs within the Sea to Sky communities. Every year they serve an average of 35,000 meals to those in need, as well as providing 12,660 brown bag school lunches and 3,000 shelter stays. Their vision is to end homelessness and hunger in our community, to “create a community that assumes respect and dignity for all of its members”.

Find out more about Squamish Helping Hands >

Charity Water

Charity Water is a non-profit organization that brings clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries. To date, they have funded water projects to support over 11 million people around the world.

Find out more about Charity Water >

North Shore Connexions Society

North Shore Connexions Society has been fostering an environment of inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities for more than 60 years. They provide programs and services which support the development and empowerment of adults, children and families. Plus, they advocate for a full range of community-based services to support their participants’ needs.

Find out more about North Short Connexions Society >

The Kettle Society

The Kettle Society has been empowering people living with mental illness substance abuse, poverty and/or homelessness for over 40 years. They serve over 6,000 individuals every year and manage 400+ units of supportive housing.

Find out more about The Kettle Society >

Maven Collective Marketing Senior Marketing Strategiest

“The Darkness into Light sunrise walk started in Ireland in 2009 and has grown into a global movement since. Each year the walk provides an opportunity for people to connect with their local community and to show their support for those who have been bereaved by suicide. The Kettle Society provides much-needed mental health services to people in need and it is the local charity that Darkness into Light Vancouver partnered within 2019 (the 2020 Darkness into Light Vancouver walk was canceled due to COVID). Also, I take part in the annual homeless count in Metro Vancouver and this year, I was placed at a Bloom Group Women’s Shelter for the count and I was touched by the caring environment they have created for women and children in need.”

Cathy FitzGerald, Senior Marketing Strategist

The Bloom Group

The Bloom Group supports the most vulnerable people in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside through the provision of housing, health and social services. Their vision is to help build strong and resilient communities where everyone has adequate housing and health care, and where “everyone is supported to live with a sense of self-worth and self-determination”.

Find out more about The Bloom Group >

St Mark & St Philopateer

St Mark & St Philopateer church relies on donations to host weekly services and provide community services such as providing food for those that are vulnerable and living with food insecurity.

Find out more about St Mark & St Philopateer >

Marketing Consultant at Maven Collective Marketing

“This year, I have selected St Mark & St Philopateer as this church is heavily dependent upon the donations of its community. The church uses the donations to pay rent, host weekly service, help with clergy expenses and provide community services feeding vulnerable populations and providing further services.”

Fady Azmy, Digital Marketing Maven

Plan International

Plan International is a development and humanitarian organization that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. They work tirelessly to empower children young people and communities to make vital changes that tackle the root causes of discrimination against girls and support the safe and successful progression of children from birth to adulthood.

Find out more about Plan International >

Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre

The Downtown Eastside is home to many vulnerable populations including those who are homeless, mentally ill, and or with addictions. But, it is also a place known for creativity, community and tenacity in the face of stigma. The Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre is a safe space for women where they can access resources, take refuge, and grow together.

Find out more about the Downtown Eastside Women’s Shelter >

Maven Collective Marketing Marketing Consultant

“As if we needed any reminding, 2020 has been a pretty difficult year. COVID-19 has impacted everyone. The Greater Vancouver Food Bank and the Downtown Eastside Women’s shelter provide incredibly valuable services that are critical to the type of society I want to be a part of. I choose to donate to them to help them to continue to provide these services well into the future.”

Andreanna Mazereeuw, Digital Marketing Maven

ElderDogs

ElderDog Canada is an organization dedicated to ageing people, ageing dogs, and the importance of the connection they enjoy. They assist and support older adults in the care and well-being of their canine companions so they can keep them at home with them for as long as possible.

Find out more about ElderDogs Canada >

Maven Collective Marketing Digital Marketing Consultant

“This year I have selected ElderDogs and The Greater Vancouver Food Bank. It’s so sad when older people have to give up their canine companions! ElderDog Canada helps make sure seniors can keep their dogs at home with them as long as possible. With the extra difficult year we’ve been having, food banks are even more stretched than usual. They have significantly greater buying power than regular people at the grocery store, and can essentially double each dollar donated. Donating money is the best way to help out.”

Arianna Ardenne, Digital Marketing Maven

The Greater Vancouver Food Bank

The Greater Vancouver Food Banks mission is simple: provide healthy food to those in need. Since starting out in 1983, the food bank has grown significantly and now provides assistance to approximately 8,500 people weekly across Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster and the North Shore.

Find out more about the Greater Vancouver Food Bank >

“Millions of people in Canada face food insecurity every single day. With all the additional challenges that have arisen in 2020, I have selected the Greater Vancouver Food Bank this year. More and more families are relying on food bank services this year, making the amazing work they do is more important now than ever!”

Katie McCourt, Digital Marketing Maven

Crisis Centre of Canada

Crisis Services Canada provide suicide prevention and support to people across Canada. Their services are nationally available via toll-free phone or text, making them easily accessible to anyone that is thinking about, or has been affected by suicide.

Find Out More About Crisis Services Canada >

“The Crisis Centre of Canada is able to be there for those in need when they need it most. This is a cause that is near to my heart. I hope during this tough year organizations like the Crisis Centre of Canada becomes a beacon of hope for those that need it.”

Ella Dinsey, Digital Marketing Maven

Want to learn more?

If you’d like to learn more about Maven Collective Marketing or our Pay It Forward Initiative, we’d love to hear from you! Please don’t hesitate to reach out at maven@mavencollectivemarketing.com.

COVID-19 SEO Tips: Help Your Audience Find the Information They Need

The COVID-19 outbreak has touched every part of our day to day lives this year. With much of the population spending an increasing amount of time at home, so it’s no surprise that internet usage has skyrocketed.

There has been a massive shift in time spent on social media or streaming videos to stay entertained. As well, people are turning to the internet to find answers that will reassure them as they face uncertainties in this ‘new normal’. Do I qualify for emergency financial support? Is it safe to fly domestically? Where can I buy a high-quality mask?

Now more than ever, it’s vital to help your audience find the information they need to make day-to-day decisions and to help them find answers to the many questions they may have. With that in mind, we have created this guide to provide our top COVID-19 SEO tips so you can help your audience to find your resources with ease.

COVID-19 Keyword Planning: Keyword Blocking

First things first, it’s important to note that search terms containing COVID-19 related keywords have been blocked by keyword planning tools such as Google Keyword Planner and Ahrefs.

This move from keyword planning tools and digital ad platforms was essential to prevent organizations from advertising and profiting from the pandemic as a result.

However, it does mean that if you are looking for search volumes for COVID-19 related keywords, then you are likely to struggle. The good news is that there are other SEO tools that you can use to guide you and many different ways you can ensure your content is optimized, so your audience can find it easily.

COVID-19 Keyword Planning: Research COVID-19 Search Trends with Google Trends

Google Trends is an excellent tool to gain insights into the popularity of search terms over time.

It won’t give you a breakdown of exact search volumes for specific COVID-19 keywords, but it does provide a clear insight into the demand for COVID-19 related content and how it has changed as the pandemic developed.

covid-19 search trends impacting seo — *Google Trends Results: COVID-19 & Coronavirus Search Trends Over 12 Months*

Unsurprisingly, the number of people searching for coronavirus queries peaked in March. The coronavirus outbreak had just become a pandemic, and we were all frantically searching for more information.

Since then, the number of people searching for ‘coronavirus’ has decreased and leveled out, but the demand for information is far from over. Searches related to masks, for example, continued to increase after the coronavirus search frenzy began to calm.

masks search trends impacting seo — *Google Trends Results: Masks Search Trend Over 12 Months*

As people have gained a clearer understanding of COVID-19, they are shifting towards searching for information around how it is affecting them personally and adjustments they can make to live with it.

Whether that’s searching for the best masks to buy or further information on emergency financial support, there is a lot of important information that people need to be able to find with ease.

Choosing Relevant COVID-19 Keywords that Don’t Contain ‘COVID-19’

Depending on the content you are writing, there are likely to be several related keywords that you can gather search volumes for when completing your keyword research. For example, when researching keywords for this blog post, it would have been helpful to know the keyword volumes for searches such as ‘COVID-19 Keyword Planning’ or ‘COVID-19 SEO Tips’.

As that wasn’t possible, we instead used for similar keywords, just without ‘COVID-19’, such as ‘Keyword Planning’ or ‘SEO Tips’.

seo tips from google keyword planner — *Google Keyword Planner: SEO Tips and Keyword Planning Search Volumes*

As you can see, there are still considerable search volumes for these keywords. Given the trends of COVID-19 related search queries this year, it’s likely that variations of these keywords that include ‘COVID-19’ are popular too.

New to SEO?

At Maven Collective Marketing, our team are expert in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and can help your site to rank higher in search results to drive the organic traffic you deserve.

If you would like any help with your SEO, get in touch today and see why we just got our fourth straight 5-star review!

COVID-19 SEO Tips

Keyword planning is, of course, a crucial part of optimizing your resource for search. However, there are many other pieces of the puzzle. Here are our top COVID-19 SEO tips that you can implement to make it easier for your readers to find your content.

COVID-19 SEO TIP 1: Keep Content Compelling, Educational & Factual

First things first, creating thorough, high-quality content is essential to SEO. Your content needs to provide a great answer to the searcher’s question, so should be well researched, well written and give a good user experience.

When discussing COVID-19 SEO tips and content, this is more important than ever. There is a lot of false information out there, so it’s important to build content on thorough research to avoid contributing to the spread of misinformation.

Also, we recommend including links in any COVID-19 content back to core sources of information such as the World Health Organization, or your local government response. This ties into our next COVID-19 SEO tip…

COVID-19 SEO TIP 2: Build Links to Other Sites with Relevant Content

It’s good practice to link to other sites and resources from your content. Although it may feel counterintuitive, there are several good reasons for doing this.

Search engine algorithms learn a lot about your site by looking at the websites that your content is linking to. Linking to other resources and reputable sites will help search engines determine the relevancy of your content, and relevancy is key to ranking well in search results.

Providing outbound links to other high authority web pages is likely to increase the trustworthiness of your website. Therefore, search engines will have higher confidence in your site and will be more likely to suggest your content to its users.

Linking to other sites can also encourage them to link back to your content…

COVID-19 SEO TIP 3: Encourage Other Sites to Link to You

When a reputable site has an external link to your content, this is called a ‘backlink’. Backlinks are really important for SEO as they are essentially another site giving your site a stamp of approval.

The most valuable backlinks are those that come from popular, high-authority sites. If you can encourage these sites to link back to your content, it will go a long way to increasing the trust that search engines have in your content and improve the overall authority of your site.

There are many backlink analysis tools that can help you to review your backlinks and help you discover the types of sites that are linking to yours, for example, Moz Link Explorer and Google Search Console.

COVID-19 SEO TIP 4: Fix Anything That is Slowing Down Your Site

page speed insights by google — *Google PageSpeed Insights*: *Example of Results*

Having a fast page speed, or page load time is vital to ranking well in search results. And, it goes without saying that it’s a massive factor in user experience. The longer it takes for your page to load, the higher your bounce rate will be.

You can easily find out your page load speed using Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. When you enter the URL for the page you’d like to examine, PageSpeed Insights will give you an overall page speed score followed by opportunities for improvement.

COVID-19 SEO TIP 5: Monitor and Respond to Your Web Analytics

web analytics for latest seo tips — *Monitor your Web Analytics with Google Search Console*

SEO isn’t something that is ever ‘done’. There will always be ways that you can improve, tweak and adjust your content or website to improve your search engine rankings and authority. Analytics platforms like Google Analytics are a great way to track the results following any changes you make. Another great tool is Google Search Console, which you can use to determine the keyword phrases that are driving the most traffic to your site.

Keeping a close eye on your analytics platforms can provide invaluable insights that you can use to guide further updates and improvements to your site, or even as inspiration for new content ideas.

COVID-19 SEO Tips: Final Thoughts

We hope these COVID-19 SEO Tips help you to get more from your content and provide useful, engaging content to your audience. Organic SEO can take a long time to build, but by following best practices, you will be able to experience long term benefits and get the most from your web content.

At Maven Collective Marketing, our team are expert in organic Search Engine Optimization. So, if you would like some help improving your sites ranking across search engines, get in touch today! We’d love to hear from you.

Content Marketing Strategy: Top Tips for Content Promotion

We’ve all heard the phrase: “if you build it, they will come.” But if no one knows where it is, how will they get there?

It used to be enough to create quality content, but if content promotion isn’t a key part of your content marketing strategy, the only engagement you are likely to get is a thumbs up from your mother. And while we appreciate kudos from family, that doesn’t usually turn our posts or pages into high-traffic, lead-generating machines.

In the world of online marketing and content marketing, content promotion acts as the road that gets visitors to arrive at our destination. So, how do we get people to show up?

Back to the Basics: SEO & Content Marketing

It goes without saying—SEO isn’t optional, it’s a mandatory part of the process. According to Ahrefs, over four million blog posts are published every single day. To help yours stand out from the crowd, there are some important on-page tactics to employ as part of your content marketing strategy:

Use strategic keywords in HTML elements such as title tags, meta descriptions, heading tags, and alt text.
Create relevant and well-written content that is optimized for short and long-tailed keywords.
Ensure page URLs are simple, well-formatted, and incorporate keywords.
Optimize page load speed on mobile and desktop devices (this can be as simple as limiting large video and image files).

Don’t Wait for Indexing

A common misconception is that as soon as a post goes live, Google will immediately crawl your website, index your content, and voila! A flood of visitors will find themselves knocking at your door. While it’s a nice thought, it likely won’t happen.

It can take up to three months (sometimes more) for Google’s bots to find new pages—unless you re-index your website after every new addition (still, please don’t wait for indexing).

indexing website for content marketing strategy

Include Organic Content Promotion in Your Content Marketing Strategy

Once you’ve written high-quality content, optimized for SEO, and published to your website, it’s time to shout your new content from the rooftops. Organic content promotion is used to amplify the visibility and effectiveness of your content or marketing campaigns.

Unlike paid promotion, it doesn’t involve spending money on advertisements or boosting posts. There are several ways to include organic content promotion within your content marketing strategy, but here are five that can yield the most significant results.

Content Promotion with Email Marketing

Email marketing is a powerful way to spread the word. There are loads of great software solutions for marketing automation to help you send targeted campaigns. Begin by identifying the segment(s) of your list that would be most interested in your latest content.

A/B test your subject lines and CTAs to see what resonates. Add a little personalization for good measure, [FIRST NAME]. And do some research on your personas to find out what day of the week and time is best to hit SEND.

Always remember to test your emails on different devices and mail clients before circulating to ensure nothing breaks.

Content Promotion with Social Media

using social media as content marketing strategy for promotion

Social media marketing is a necessary component of an effective content promotion strategy. While you likely aren’t active on all of the different social media platforms, it’s safe to assume your brand probably engages with Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and/or LinkedIn. Here is a useful tip for each:

Instagram: Hashtags are like signposts, but using too many can appear spammy. Wrap your hashtags in “[…]” to hide from followers while still appeasing Instagram’s algorithm.
Twitter: Hashtags are also relevant on Twitter, but even more so is building authentic relationships with your audience. Think of Twitter as a telephone rather than a megaphone.
Facebook: It may be tempting to ask viewers to like, comment, or share your content, but Facebook views these explicit requests as click-bait. With their transition to focusing on meaningful interactions, click-bait is seen as spam and the antithesis to providing value for users.
LinkedIn: The more people you can get your content in front of, the better. Tag team members or friends in your network to encourage dialogue and sharing.

An additional tip for all social media platforms: You can craft multiple social posts from one piece of content. Repromote by using different snack-size bites, such as sound clips, videos, or quotes.

Content Promotion with Backlinks

One of the most important ways to improve the search ranking for your content is to build backlinks. When a high-ranking site links to your content, search engines see that as a “vote of confidence” and elevates its importance in their results.

Backlinks can be notoriously challenging to obtain, but guest blogging, answering questions on Quora and Reddit, or pushing out a PR campaign are a few great, no-cost options to organically promote content and build brand awareness.

Content Promotion with Schema Markup

Technical SEO tactics were once enough to show search engines the value of your content, but not since the advent of semantic search. Structured data markup is a type of in-page code that enables Google, Yahoo, and Bing! to crawl, organize, and understand the information in a similar way people do.

When implemented correctly, structured data markup can enhance your site’s search results leading to rich cards, carousels, and interactive features. These elements increase the findability of your content and make them more appealing to potential visitors as they wade through millions of returned results.

Content Promotion in Online Communities

Most social media platforms offer opportunities for professionals or people with similar interests to form online communities—think, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter Chats.

Joining these groups as an active member can be a great way to share your content and drive strong, relevant traffic. The key here is to be an active member, not just a content pusher. Adding true value to the conversation will yield higher results than dropping in just to push your own agenda.

Need Help Content Marketing Strategy and Content Promotion?

You invest a lot of time and resources in creating valuable content. Using some or all of the tools recommended above will not only tell visitors where you live but also pave the road for getting them there.

If you’ve tried the tactics above and didn’t see a measurable difference or want additional guidance on organic content promotion, Maven Collective Marketing is here to help. We drive web traffic, build audiences, and specialize in SEO content creation and promotion for B2B software and software service companies. Get in touch to find out how we can produce meaningful and measurable ROI for your business together.

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Maven Collective Marketing Principal Awarded 2 Bronze Female Executive of the Year Awards from Databird Business Journal

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Maven Collective Marketing Earns Fourth Straight 5-Star Client Review

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