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Search vs social, which is better?
Before diving into individual marketing tactics like a college freshman into free pizza, it’s important to understand just how important search engine optimization is in terms of the overall mix.
Search, for many companies, is by far the largest channel that drives traffic. With 6 billion searches a day on Google, it’s no surprise.
Google stats
What is the number one digital marketing strategy of all time?
For some companies with large lists, email marketing leads the pack by far, but its success is not as common as that of SEO.
While the pie charts below may not be perfectly accurate, they are made by one of the leading Internet marketing software companies in the world, and were partially based on analyzing 310 million visits.
They clearly show, even if the numbers aren’t perfect, that search on average, drives much more traffic than social media. Both are fantastic, but a proper digital marketing strategy cannot take the efforts needed to do well in organic search lightly.
Web visits by channel
Web visits by channel and by industry
Last year we had an SEO client, who got just under 100,000 total visits to their website but only 2,000 of them were social media visits. They have a young employee at their office doing social media, and they post some pretty decent content and even ask questions somewhat frequently to engage visitors.
Certainly, a good social media marketing company can do much better than that, but it is interesting how that example perfectly backs up the statistics above. Even when a company thinks they are doing a half decent job at social media, it’ doesn’t typically have as much of an impact on website visits as search does. Not that the entire point of social media is to drive people back to your website, but if website traffic is what you’re after, then these statistics are important considerations.
Below is organic search to social media traffic percentages from some of our clients
Note: Data is for a one year period and some of the organic search is for branded keywords when people search on the company by name.
Community Bank
- Direct: 54.79%
- Organic search: 40.42%
- Referral: 4.65%
- Paid search: 0.07%
- Social: 0.05%
- Display: 0.01%
- Email: 0.00%
Restaurant
- Organic search: 56.28%
- Direct: 32.58%
- Referral: 6.12%
- Paid search: 3.71%
- Social: 1.26%
- Email: 0.04%
E-commerce site
- Other: 32.26%
- Direct: 25.97%
- Paid search: 19.44%
- Organic search: 17.54%
- Display: 0.29%
- Referral: 4.40%
- Social: 0.08%
Law firm with over 100 attorneys
- Organic search: 59.78%
- Direct: 27.85%
- Referral: 10.14%
- Social: 1.43%
- Other: 0.43%
- Email: 0.37%
The law firm example might be the most interesting one because we just started doing search engine optimization for them and they never did much with it before. In addition, their blogs are on other domains and are not adding directly to the overall percentage.
You would expect that law firms get less social media attention, but in this case it’s a higher percentage than any of the others. Clearly we have some work to do on tying search and social media together in a stronger way across our client base, even if we are not being paid as the social media marketing agency.
It’s really not one or the other
Search engine optimization really shouldn’t be done in isolation anymore, or without the help of social media for sharing your content in order to get more visits and links. With that said, on average, between organic searches and paid clicks from search engines, not only does more traffic tend to come from search engines, but it usually converts better as well.
Social media certainly can convert well with a very intentional strategy, but usually it is for getting people to visit/view your content or download an e-book rather than giving them a hard sell. Search engines drive traffic that is often related to people’s researching and purchasing needs, that’s why it tends to convert better.
Social media vs SEO smack down
Media bistro recently created a nice info graphic called the “social media versus SEO smack down”, and they broke down some of the differentiating factors below.
- Speed –Social media posts are more instant than SEO.
- Limits –Traffic from search is limited to specific search volume, social media traffic is potentially unlimited.
- Topics –Search is more research and needs based, while social is more emotional.
- Formats –Longer text of 1500 words or more works well in Google, while images drive a lot of social media marketing.
- Audience Intent –Search visitors are more likely to buy, whereas social visitors are far more likely to engage and share, which influences others.
- Effort –Traffic from search engines can last a very long time, whereas social media is hot initially and then goes cold.
- Metrics –Social media provides a ton of track-able metrics, but search traffic tends to produce clearer ROI.
Interdependency
Without a good outreach and social sharing campaign you are very unlikely to get regular back links. Therefore, SEO companies that don’t partake in finding the communities where their content will be valued, allowing them to connect with real people and influencers, will fall short.
Brad Miller of searchenginewatch.com asked Rand Fishkin of Moz, “Will social signals ever become more important than links?” Here is what Rand had to say:
Probably no, but I think that social, branding, press and PR, and things like content marketing will all replace a lot of the purely link-fueled and link-focused outreach and link acquisition,” Fishkin said. “I see the world of SEO continuing to be focused and even reliant on links in a lot of ways, but not reliant on the tactics we’ve used to acquire them in the past. So I think that link earning is going to replace link building.”
So it is more about earning links which are critical to SEO, through content, PR, branding and social sharing.
“EAT” at Google and the rise in complexity of SEO
Google has an acronym (EAT) that their employees use to judge websites. It stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. A website cannot get a high rating, according to Google, ifit is not clear that it is authoritative, has expert authors, and trusted reviews.
Some of the largest and most influential websites in the world are blogs, or have blogs and regularly update their content. This content and/or blogging approach has been proven in the B2B marketing community as well. In fact, HubSpot has a wealth of case studies in this area, perhaps more than in e-commerce websites.
The HubSpot chart below is based on data from approximately 10,000 customers and shows that larger sites with 311 or more pages get a 236% increase in leads.
Whether you are B2B or a B2C company, the old days of SEO being a behind-the-scenes and non-social activity are gone.
Blurring the lines between search and social media marketing
If having a blog and a lot of content is critical for SEO, and blogging is technically a social media marketing tactic, then which are you doing when you are blogging?
Modern SEO requires you to be a thought leader, connect your content with influential authors in your space, and get good reviews. This ties in deeply to social media marketing.
Facebook has changed the game by making it pay to play
In the Wild Wild West days of social media, the “gold” of lots of “organic reach” visitors could be had by anyone with the personality and will to engage and share content. These days, your reach on social media is a small fraction of what it used to be. As Facebook expert Amy Porterfield says:
Facebook’s organic reach has drastically declined. That’s a fact. When reach declines, it often feels impossible to get your fans to engage with you on your Facebook Page…. If you want to see big results from Facebook, you must invest in ads…. If you combine the increase in organic reach WITH your new understanding of Facebook ads, you will finally start to see the kind of results on Facebook that you’ve been searching for all along.”
This is powerful stuff coming from the queen of Facebook marketing, and once again shows how tactics are tied directly together. If you don’t pay for Facebook ads, you will likely have limited results. If you don’t do social media, your SEO will suffer from a lack of awareness of your content.
Leveraging the relationship between SEO and social media marketing
I may be personally biased because I fell in love with SEO back in 1995, but I do give more importance to SEO over social media. With that said, I have failed plenty of times to get significant traffic on certain projects, and the reason is usually because the content that we are trying to promote with SEO is not resonating with people socially.
The smartest digital marketing experts know how to make these two tactics work together. This type of strategic thinking isn’t necessarily on the mind of the niece or nephew that you or your boss might have hired to run your social media. Or is it?
5 social media tips for entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs can become transfixed by the sometimes misleading promises of social media. It works for some, while for others it is just a drain on resources. If you want to turn social media into the powerhouse that it deserves to be, follow these 5 tips to work smarter, not harder.
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Be strategic by making your blog your home base
As an entrepreneur your time is limited, and it is essential that you leverage the powerful relationships between search engine optimization and social media. When you focus on creating an outstanding blog and use that as the foundation of your content sharing strategy, your marketing will become easier.
Keep to a consistent blog writing schedule, such as at least once a week, then share the posts and included images/embedded YouTube videos with influencers in your community. Using quotes from the influencers that you will be sharing with is a great way to get their attention.
Blogging regularly will also lift your organic search results significantly, and make you more of an influencer yourself. A recent study by web marketing software giant Conductor says “Organic search is actually responsible for 64% of your web traffic.” If that is anywhere close to being true, then not understanding the very tangible relationship between SEO and social media is a mistake that you can’t afford to make.
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Podcast with influencers
Just sharing your own content or curating content is not enough. You have to connect with influencers to make social media truly effective. One of the fastest ways to generate buzz is to get in front of other people’s audiences. By doing 20 to 40 minute podcast interviews with influential people in your niche, you are opening a floodgate of sharing possibilities.
Blog Talk Radio has a free option that lets you record interviews in a radio show format by simply calling into a phone number. Use this ridiculously simple option for your podcasting if you want to get started quickly.
The people that you interview will likely have large audiences on their blog and via their email marketing list. If they like the interview, they will share it and your reach will immediately be extended. Also, this often generates incredibly important back links that will give greater power to your SEO.
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Don’t be afraid to pay for Facebook ads
The amount of organic reach that you get from social media has been greatly diminished over the last few years. Facebook ads can help increase your reach and drive people to an offer such as an e-book or free 7-day video training series.
While fans equal community and social proof, the ultimate goal is to turn fans into leads, and prospects into customers. Interestingly enough, paid clicks also help your regular organic posts! Your score actually increases via paid.
Steps to creating a Facebook ad and increasing your email list
- Create an irresistible offer such as an e-book.
- Create an opt-in landing page using a tool like leadpages.net or unbounce.com.
- Create an unpublished page post ad instead of the typical sidebar ad.
- Budget $10 a day as a test.
- Track the results using Facebook Ads Manager. Also make sure to use Google Analytics goal conversion tracking on your “thank you for signing up” page.
- Email your new subscribers helpful content and offers. This is a better place to sell frequently, rather than selling too much on social media.
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Create highly sharable content using BuzzSumo for ideas
Coming up with ideas for content is a lot easier when you know what content has been shared the most. Go to BuzzSumo.com and pop in a keyword that relates to a topic you might like to write about. The results given show the amount of social shares to the most popular content on that topic.
Your job is simple. Pick one of the most popular pieces of content and write something similar. Reference the original piece of content by using quotes from its authors, and share it with them, as well as the people who shared the original post. This can result in an incredible amount of social sharing and back links.
Technically, you will be writing what is known as “link bait” in the SEO community. Killing two birds with one stone by creating highly shareable content, that also gets back links, will help you make the most of your limited time and resources.
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Use feedbackarmy.com to get opinions on how well you are doing
Feedback Army is a tool that allows you to ask a half a dozen questions to 10 different people for $40. Curious if the design of your social media profiles looks good? Why ask just one or two people, when you can ask 10 or more at the same time?
Here are some questions to consider asking:
- Do my social profiles visually look as good as competitors X, Y and Z?
- When you go to my website, am I leveraging social media icons and share buttons effectively?
- Do people appear as engaged with my content as compared to my competitors X, Y and Z.?
- Do I appear to be helpful in social media or am I selling too much?
You can’t only rely on your own opinions, or even those of your marketing consultants, therefore tools like feedbackarmy.com and grader.hootsuite.com are important in order to get a reality check.
Positioning yourself as an influencer
Make sure that your social media isn’t just about curating or sharing original content. It is also about engaging influencers. Positioning yourself as a fellow influencer in a specific niche, via your content, can help you take your social media from good to great.
The art of persuasion in digital marketing
Your power to persuade can be significantly increased using Dr. Robert Cialdini’s 6 principles of influence in all your marketing campaigns.
Dr. Cialdini spent many years in the field as a salesperson in numerous industries, allowing him to figure out what key elements resulted in higher levels of sales. The following are the 6 principles that he came up with, and have since become world-famous in the marketing community.
Dr. Robert Cialdini’s 6 Principles of Influence
- Reciprocity – People are wired to return favors, hence free offers in marketing
- Commitment and Consistency – If you can get people to raise their hand or take a small action toward something, they will be more likely to follow through.
- Social Proof – People tend to follow the herd and people that others are following.
- Liking – People buy more from those that they know, like, and trust.
- Authority – History has proven that people follow authorities. Sadly, sometimes even when they are violent dictators. That is how ingrained this principle is into human beings’ psyches.
- Scarcity – People are often afraid to miss out on a good deal.
Dr. Cialdini on Authority
Abraham’s willingness to plunge a dagger through the heart of his young son because God, without any explanation, ordered it. We learn in this story that the correctness of an action was not judged by such considerations as apparent senselessness, harmfulness, injustice, or usual moral standards, but by the mere command of a higher authority.”
Using the psychology of persuasion on your website
We suggest that these principles are used in every marketing campaign. Whether it be a brochure, a television ad or a landing page, it is best to utilize all of these deeply researched principles.
If you have ever watched an infomercial, you’ll instantly recognize some of these tactics. For example, they might say something like “if operators are busy when you call, stay on the line and we will be right with you!”
This initiates the principle of scarcity and makes people nervous that they might not even be able to get this offer because the phone lines may be jammed. Meanwhile back at the warehouse, there are probably far more operators than people calling, but the tactic still works.
The good news is, you don’t have to use these principles in a cheesy way, and Dr. Cialdini suggests that people who have authentically used the principles of influence will do far better than those that use them improperly.
Another example is celebrity endorsements. This initiates the principle of social proof. If Tiger Woods uses this golf club, then I should too. Well, Tiger may no longer be a perfect example but you know what I mean.
A few important things to consider adding to your website, if you want to increase conversions, are as follows.
Website and persuasion marketing suggestions can include:
Authority
- A clear, specific and unique value proposition of why you are different/better than other companies.
- A better design and user experience. (Also liking)
- Thought leadership by listing recent blog and social posts.
- Pics of real people / thought leaders at your firm.
- Deepen specificity, i.e., number of customers served, etc.
Social Proof
- Awards and affiliations.
- Customer and/or influencer testimonials.
- Large subscriber or follower base when appropriate. (Also authority)
Liking
- Overview or even a basic FAQ video when appropriate for body language and tone.
- Photos of key people.
- About Us pages that are more personal and about who you are, instead of mostly what you do
- Live Chat. (Also reciprocity)
- Address more than one persona. (Liking by showing affinity to certain groups)
Reciprocity
- A top of the funnel call to action such as an e-book for people that are not ready to hire you yet.
- Free “Samples” / Free content.
Scarcity
- Indications that you only accept certain clients or have a limited amount of products in stock.
Commitment and consistency
- Call To Action based on content such as downloading an e-book before pushing them to call you or fill out a contact form, to create inertia and trust.
Using the 6 principles of influence and some of the suggestions above can dramatically improve the amount of leads and sales you get from your website.
Examples of websites using the art of persuasion:
Suzy Orman – Finance Coach:
Mint Levin Law Firm:
Dan Schwabel – Personal Branding Expert (Partial section of his home page)
Can my SEO company, ad agency, or web designer handle this for me?
Web designers typically are not schooled in this type of marketing psychology. SEO companies can also be more focused on keywords than on conversions. Advertising agencies might use these principles but may not understand how they fit into your website.
Understanding this type of marketing is something that you can do easily on your own, compared to learning website development or technical SEO. Armed with these strategies you can then guide your marketing team and maybe even impress them a bit.
If you want advanced help with A/B testing, then hire a conversion rate optimization expert, because CRO at the deeper levels is extremely advanced and is the combination of art and science.
Prove your theories with A/B testing and customer feedback
Just make sure that you get user feedback using tools like UserTesting.com to ensure that whatever elements you come up with are having a positive effect on users. Tools like Unbounce.com (ok for beginners) and Optimizely can be used for A/B testing, to make sure your implementation is working properly.
At the end of the day, your customers and data from analytics are what will help define the best way to optimize your website. Your opinion and the opinions of your marketing agency can only go so far.
Conversion Optimization and Persuasive Marketing Resources
- influenceatwork.com (Dr. Cialdini’s site)
- meclabs.com
- bryaneisenberg.com
How to set goals and achieve them
With the New Year just underway, it’s time to reset and rethink what you want to accomplish in your life, as a person and as an authority in your niche. True thought leaders are strategic, and map out a plan before getting into the weeds. So start setting up goals today, and make this one of your best years ever.
The importance of setting goals
Around 95% of people that set New Year’s resolutions don’t follow through, and 25% abandon them in the first week! This means you likely need to take setting up goals to another level, because even if you set them, the chances you will follow through are not in your favor.
Why set goals?
Mindtools.com puts it this way:
Top-level athletes, successful business-people and achievers in all fields all set goals. Setting goals gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. It focuses your acquisition of knowledge, and helps you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.”
And Melody Beattie adds another inspirational goal setting quote:
The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.”
The amount of famous people that talk in detail about setting goals is almost endless, including personal development expert Tony Robbins.
Tony Robbins on setting and achieving goals
One of my biggest takeaways from going to the Tony Robbins personal power conference was the importance of writing down your goals.
Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” – Tony Robbins
The clearer you become on what your goals are, the more likely you are to achieve them. In addition, you must also understand why you are motivated to achieve them. Tony Robbins calls this getting leverage.
Leverage can happen when you have a true belief in your mind of what will happen if you do not achieve your goal, or when you can truly envision the positive outcome of achieving one. Envisioning the positive and the negative can give you an incredible amount of motivation to persevere even when you feel like giving up.
Tony Robbins often takes people through a series of visualizations where he has them imagine what their life will be like in 5, 10 or even more years from now, after they have failed to reach their dreams.
When you can truly imagine the nightmare you would be living, you can then use that as leverage to motivate you. He then takes you on a highly emotional, positive visualization as well. After going through this exercise with thousands of people at Tony’s conference in Florida, there was barely a dry eye in the crowd.
The power of your thoughts
If you continually imagine your goals coming true, it propels you forward into a positive future. The movie The Secret talks about this in great detail, as does the book Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill.
The premise is that when you envision yourself being successful at any of your goals, it draws them into reality. A simple example of this is an athlete envisioning themselves at peak performance and then winning a gold medal. This repetitive exercise is said to unleash the incredible power of the universe. Having faith and truly believing that you can accomplish your goals can be the differentiating factor as to whether or not you follow through fully.
As Napoleon Hill puts it “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe he can achieve.”
It may sound hokey, but you would be amazed at how many rich and famous people have used this technique. In fact, Napoleon Hill, initiated by Andrew Carnegie, spent 20 years of his life interviewing over 500 wealthy people in regard to what the key factors were in helping them achieve their goals. Overwhelmingly, they cite imagining the positive outcome as a critical factor.
Must-have versus want to have goals
It is only when we turn our wishful thinking goals into must-have goals, that we accomplish lasting results. Are your goals for this year casual, or are they things that you deeply desire, and are willing to sacrifice to achieve? It’s time to create a sense of urgency and put a deadline on achieving your goals. As Napoleon Hill says:
A goal is a dream with a deadline.”
Setting up SMART goals
Achieving your goals is more difficult than simply setting them. That is why many people use a system called, setting SMART goals. Smart goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.
The act of writing down your highly specific goals seals them in stone, and yet so few people take time to do this exercise. Use the worksheet below to guide you. I suggest doing it for at least your top 3 goals.
SMART goal setting worksheet
List your most pressing goal for the coming year by printing out this post or goal setting PDF. Steps to setting goals are as follows:
List your most pressing goal:
Specific: List specific action steps on how you will achieve this goal:
Measurable: How we measure your progress?
Attainable: What will help make your goal attainable?
Relevant: Why you absolutely must achieve your goal?
Timely: When will you attain your goal?
Now that you have your goals documented, stop reading and take at least one small action towards creating a better future.
Why real people on websites are important
I just had an experience with the IKEA website that left me feeling really cold; like 100° below zero type of cold. I was trying to make 100% sure they were open on New Year’s Day, because as an obsessed entrepreneur, I of course must have even more bookshelves to contain the piles of marketing clutter I have around my home office.
When I couldn’t find any information that specified if they were open today, I used the live chat feature. The robot Anna literally blinked her custom illustrated eyes at me and said, “how can I help you today?”
I proceeded to ask, “Are you open today?”
Anna: “What store location?”
John: “Stoughton Massachusetts”
Anna: “Thank you for letting me know your store is Stoughton. How may I help you today?”
John: “Is the Stoughton store open today?”
Anna: “You’re asking about opening hours. The Stoughton store is open Sunday 10am to 7pm, Monday to Saturday 10am-9pm…”
This didn’t address my issue at all because I was asking specifically about today… So I rephrase my question:
John: “No. That is not helpful. Are you open today on New Year’s Day?”
Then Anna gets really animated by blinking her eyes several times and cocking her head to the side, smiles and repeats exactly what she said before:
“The Stoughton store is open Sunday 10am to 7pm, Monday to Saturday 10am-9pm…”
In desperation I said, “This is so annoying and are you open today?”
Her response to my question made it seem like she was intentionally trying to annoy me, because she answers by saying:
“How nice. I must have been a great help to make you feel like that. Now, ask me a question about IKEA.”
After realizing the robotic system is ridiculous, I asked her just for fun:
“Are you an authority in your niche?”
Anna: “I don’t understand what you mean.”
John: “Can I trust you?”
Anna: “Sometimes you have to trust your feelings, sometimes no…”
Clearly, I am not getting a warm fuzzy feeling about IKEA. I guess it makes some sad sense because they are a very low cost provider and I can’t expect amazing customer service but this is the anti-thesis of what you want as an expert and authority.
People buy from people, not websites
While this may not be scalable for a company as large as IKEA, consider the following conversion optimization case study from gundogsupply.com.
Gun Dog Supply is run by two brothers who inherited the company from their father. The company did very well based on mailing an L.L. Bean style catalog to its customers for many years. When the brothers took over the company, they wanted to use the Internet to radically increase sales.
One of the brothers, Steve, is more into using the products such as hunting dog collars. The other brother Rob, is the marketing expert and I saw him speak once at a conversion conference. They did some research which showed that customers really love how knowledgeable Steve is, and how talking to him on the phone enables them to make great purchasing decisions. Their trust in Steve, lead to their decision to put his face in the logo.
They also added little highlights next to Steve’s favorite items, and called them Steve’s picks. They made $10 million more in one year, simply by highlighting a real person in the company that website visitors could connect with.
And here is what Gun Dog Supply says on Steve’s bio page:
“Steve Snell’s Dog Training Equipment Articles, Reviews, & Buyers Guides
Steve Snell is the president of Gun Dog Supply. He hunts quail, pheasant, duck, and dove. He currently has 17 dogs: 1 retriever, 10 pointers, 3 brittanys, 1 GSP, a mutt his brother picked up named “Georgia”, and a cocker spaniel named “Lucy” that his wife made him buy. Questions? Comments? Feedback? Send me an email or call 8-6 CT weekdays at 1-800-624-6378.”
People buy from those that they know, like and trust. When I asked Anna if I could trust her, she basically said sometimes yes, sometimes no. It pretty much sums up the experience you are giving customers when your website doesn’t do a good job of highlighting who you are and not just what you do.
Make sure that at the very least, your about us page highlights some of your people and a bit about your beliefs.
You might not make $10 million more in one year, but you certainly will warm people up much more than the blinking robot Anna.
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