By John Jantsch
You might think that SEO is all about driving organic clicks to your company’s website. But the truth is, while that’s certainly a worthwhile goal, those clicks are just the beginning. It’s what happens once the user gets to your site that matters.
You want to direct potential customers down one of two paths: your sales funnel (to get an immediate sale) or your education funnel (to get a sale down the road). Marketing automation can help you do just that, so you can get the most out of your SEO efforts and convert leads into customers.
SEO capture
Too many business owners overemphasize their search engine rankings and are not sufficiently concerned with what happens once a lead actually clicks through to their site. Top rankings will certainly get you clicks, but if you don’t track and follow up with that lead, what good is that click for you? All of your SEO efforts will come to naught.
Marketing automation platforms help you create optimized landing pages, forms, and call-to-action offers that are delivered and tracked, so you'll never lose track of a lead again, making it much more likely that he or she will ultimately be converted.
Content optimization
By now, we all know that content is king. But how well are you measuring the reaction to the content you’re producing? Marketing automation will give you data on how users interact with the content on your website and in your emails. Data that you won’t get from other, more traditional website traffic tools. Data that makes it much easier for you to tailor your website’s content in response to how it’s being received. After all, it’s your site and your content that ultimately converts leads into customers. Adding marketing automation will make you a stronger content marketer, and without a solid content marketing strategy, even a perfect SEO strategy will fail.
Content distribution
Building an email list can be daunting, but it’s crucial to getting your content out there to the people who want it and who will share it. Marketing automation can help you leap over the hurdles of building email lists and gathering social audiences by allowing you to tailor emails based on key data points, such as where a target is on the buyer’s journey and their previous website behavior.
Getting the right content in front of the right target audience is crucial to establishing brand authority, attracting engagement, and getting those coveted likes and shares. And that, of course, helps your SEO.
Reputation management
Potential customers research your business online before determining whether it’s legit and worth their time and investment. So whether you are a B2B or a B2C, knowing how to get Google reviews and other types of client reviews are crucial to your online success.
Your best references are loyal, highly engaged customers who regularly consume and share your content. Because of the frequency and depth of their interactions with your company, they’re in a position to write detailed, persuasive testimonials based on their experiences. Marketing automation tools can help you identify who these customers are so you can reach out to them and get the reviews you need. Marketing automation can also tell you when a bad review is driving traffic to your site, allowing you to respond and repair the situation before any permanent damage is done.
Lead qualification
Strong SEO can attract large amounts of leads to your website, but it doesn’t specifically target your ideal clients, nor does it filter leads in any way. Treating all your traffic equally can mean wasting sales and meeting time—not to mention money—on unqualified leads. The right marketing automation tools will help you sort through the leads your SEO strategy helps generate, so you can focus your precious resources on those that are your ideal clients.
Marketing automation tools take the grunt work out of marketing by doing the repetitive stuff for you, and the data they provide amplify and enhance your SEO strategy. You’ll put out better, more targeted content and you’ll do it more efficiently, freeing up your time and energy for more important things, like finally launching that great new product or sealing the deal with new investors, all while growing your customer base.