The rules of engagement for SEO are always changing. There was a time when leveraging traffic on platforms like Facebook or Reddit created an easy path to victory. It was innovative at first, but like most cheap, guerilla-style tactics, it stopped working once the sites got wise to blatant self-promo tricks. Recent changes have made it nearly impossible to use these platforms for direct promotion — unless you heavily invest in paid advertising.
This left companies scrambling to get their message out, so they fell back on classic marketing methods like email. Unfortunately, this flooded that channel as well.
Delete & Repeat
Email, once the flagship of digital marketing, has all but sunk due to reader apathy, overuse, non-stop spam and malicious clickbait. Customers are more skeptical than ever about anything that even looks like marketing, which has tanked email open rates to a fraction of what they once were.
What’s the path to victory for today’s skeptical users? How do smart companies recruit long-term customers?
Market Leadership
Modern conditions make it essential for businesses to adapt their tactics for sustainable online visibility. The shift from focusing on content promotion over to content creation is a direct result of evolving algorithms and user behaviour. In the past, the 80-20 rule, where 80% of efforts were dedicated to promoting content and only 20% to creating it, was the recommended strategy. Today, leading companies have found the ratio should be flipped to the exact opposite.
Iceberg! Right Ahead!
It is now recommended you spend 80% of your efforts on generating high-quality content and 20% on promoting it. We call this the Iceberg Content Model: the visible portion of your content leads customers to discover a much deeper engagement that’s waiting below the surface. The reason this works is because it responds to what users are searching for and rewards them with useful, engaging results.
Course Correction
What led to this change? It was a combination of user demand for valuable and meaningful content, and the search industry’s commitment to accurately provide it. With every update, search engines have become more sophisticated in evaluating the relevance and usefulness of content for users.
Load the Cargo Bay
Winning modern SEO battles is all about creating and providing value for your audience. By investing the majority of your efforts into content, you can generate a ship load of information that will establish your authority in your industry and attract organic traffic.
All Aboard!
When users find answers to questions, solutions to problems, or valuable insights on your website, they are more likely to trust your brand. Trust is the foundation of any successful business relationship, and by consistently delivering valuable content, you can win over more customers and foster the long-term loyalty that maintains steady business traffic.
So how do you start filling your cargo bay? Talk to the Battleship crew for a full rundown of what content will get the best response for your industry and your next wave of customers.