Many businesses today suffer from generational gaps—progressive marketing managers are often met with resistance by traditional executives who are reluctant to change tried and tested methods that have worked in the past. Sometimes, the way executives wish to protect against risk, hinder the business’ ability to progress in other forms. Thus making it harder for modern marketers to implement newer and better means to make marketing work. When presenting campaign proposals, it is critical that you understand how executives understand and perceive value.
When talking about results, you as a marketer is likely thinking in terms of platforms, resources, and actions you will need to take in order to hit the number of target audience/customers. Executives on the other hand, only think of ‘numbers’. This is why it is crucial to demonstrate quantifiable improvements if you want to get them on board with the type of campaign you want to implement. Search engine optimization, on top of other online marketing processes is a valuable and worthwhile pursuit, but getting decision-makers on board requires quantified results, especially when they are unfamiliar with basic online marketing practices. To them, the concept of investing so much time in processes like keyword research, backlink and content generation can seem too foreign, causing them to dismiss SEO as a complete waste of time. So, is there another way round, to explain the value of an SEO Campaign? Showing them metrics that matter to the company’s bottom line will increase your chances of convincing them to embrace the change. Let us know how:
- Demonstrate SERP ranking improvements.
The easiest way to demonstrate the value of search optimization is by showing measurable improvements in SERP rankings. If the focus of your SEO campaign is on a specific set of target keywords, efforts should result in higher search engine results for queries using these keywords. Tracking these metrics can be done using different types of tools and programs. Not only is it easier to track results using specialized suites, data is also more accurate and reliable than manual monitoring because manually going through SERPs to find keywords will result in artificially higher placements because of the impact of personalized search.
- Quantify traffic
Tracking your overall increase in traffic is also an easy way to demonstrate SEO improvements. Analytics programs like Google Analytics will allow you to see trends on a global or a more granular scale. A growth in your overall traffic is one o the strongest indications of an effective campaign.
- Increased conversions and greater revenue
Rankings and traffic are both useful metrics in demonstrating the impact of an SEO campaign. However, an increase in rankings and traffic doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in sales and conversions. Support these metrics using conversion rates and overall revenue. This all boils down to tracking the impact of your SEO efforts in the ultimate goals of your campaigns. Analytics tools also offer the capability of monitoring and measuring conversions, whether you want to track completed actions, correlations between search histories and purchases, or clicks in multi-channel funnels. There are different methods of conversion tracking that you can use with your monetization model to help you make sense of and prove the value of your SEO efforts to your superiors.
While many businesses do realize the value of the internet as an effective medium to reach out to the target consumers, not many spend enough time, money, and effort on their SEO campaign to realize decent returns. It is your job as a marketing expert to help decision-makers understand the value of search optimization, in turn influencing their decision to put more effort and be more willing to pay for services that can help the business in the long term. SEO is a continuous process that requires constant attention, especially with the changing nature of the web and its technologies.
