|
BIO: Chris McDonald is a UK freelancer for Webris, specialising in content marketing. Secretly, he plays rugby for England in his dreams! (It’s good to have goals, right?) He’s passionate about the power of the written word, but when not tapping away at the keyboard, he loves all things health & wellness, advocating to be kind and thoughtful of others. Before we get stuck into the argument of whether you should automate your SEO or not, let’s be clear on something… … manualizing the entirety of your SEO just isn’t feasible. So, when going through the pros and cons of both, keep in mind that a lot of the manual SEO is in relation to things like guest posting & link building. Even so, you may need to strike a balance between the two. Ready? Let’s go… A focus on the key differences between manual and automated SEOLet’s start with the automationAutomated SEO comes largely in the form of tools, whether that’s standalone tools:
and SEO WordPress plugins, like:
Sure, there are more than these, but let’s be honest about them being pretty kick-ass. I’ve used all four of the above and they all nail their jobs really well. On top of this, you’ll also find some contact information scrapers, like Hunter.io. This is where I draw the line, and you’ll see exactly why in a bit! And manual SEO?Since SEO is such an all-encompassing term, taking a manual SEO approach will still need to focus on some tools, such as:
But, there’s a slight twist here. Instead of heavily relying on the data extracted from Ahrefs, Semrush, GA & GSC, you could export them into your own spreadsheet and develop your own database and tracking system. PS. Don’t forget that the main contender for manual SEO is completely avoiding any form of automated outreach. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay The argument for automated SEO In a world where we seem forced to strive for synergies and efficiencies, automated SEO definitely has a huge gravitational pull. And it’s entirely understandable to default down that path. But, I still feel you should arm yourself with both the pros and cons of using software… Benefits of using SEO automation Speed, time and money saving wombo-comboI can’t imagine what SEO was like before you could get a list of thousands of relevant keywords within seconds. Image the blood, sweat and tears that would’ve gone into that! With the speed of our current SEO tools, this leads to a time-saving, which also means there's less of an opportunity cost to you and your business. Will deliver business-wide results fasterEverything scales faster with automation, fueling the fire of the business engine. You can then spend more time on bottlenecks in other parts of your enterprise, pushing and pulling resources around as you need. The result? Scaling-up your business faster than expected. Less of a need to outsource your SEOPreviously, being an “SEO specialist” was such a niche skill with high demand and low supply that most of you would’ve outsourced your SEO needs in a heartbeat. Now, having an in-house SEO specialist is a lot easier thanks to the automation that tools bring us. While that person still needs their head screwed on, it’s a lot easier to “learn SEO” than ever. Excellent for planning and schedulingMany SEO tools have built-in scheduling options, enabling you to run the following processes as and when needed:
This further streamlines your project management, aligning tasks in sequence to deliver business and client results. Gone are the days of having to plan your day around researching SEO when you can just hit the button and go off and multitask! (Yes, I’m a guy, and yes, we find multitasking hard!) Perfect for peer review and gap analysisSomething I love about SEO automation is that it opens up the world to analyze your competition, especially in the form of keyword gap analysis. Both Ahrefs and Semrush do this very well, but in Ahrefs, simply hit the “Content gap” link in the “Site Explorer” section: Then add in the URLs that you want to analyze to see which keywords they rank for that you don’t: It’ll then churn out a bunch of keywords for you to analyze further. Tip: Starting with a keyword all of your targets are ranking for is a good place to start Automated SEO isn’t all unicorns and rainbows… here’s why Might create a bad repIn terms of automated outreach, especially, spamming a site with a generic message can really annoy someone, to say the least. The reason I’m writing this very article is because I reached out to Cheryl here at Ginger Marketing. And I made damn sure to read her requirements, more specifically this one: By sending the ill-advised and generic “Can I send you some topic ideas”, Cheryl specifically asks for you to send one. Doing the opposite is a big NO-NO (a bit like putting jam on a scone first), and will mean your message is highly likely to be ignored. You can still use automated outreach, but you’ll find yourself tweaking a draft email every single time, which erodes the time efficiency the automation brings. Likely to incur Google penaltiesGoing in like Miley Cyrus on a wrecking ball and getting links to any site that exists won’t do yourself any favors. We know that toxic backlinks are definitely a thing, and by reaching out to every site and their dog with your eyes shut will land you in hot water. It kinda makes sense when you think about it… why would Google give your site any love if you have one of these super dodgy sites linking to you:
And by using a completely automated outreach approach means you won’t necessarily filter them out. That said, there’s an argument for using something like Guest Bloggers Wanted, which you should totally check out. Learning barrier with some automation toolsI LOVE software. Not in a weird way, just that I find them to be logical. But even so, be aware that you may need to invest some time and expect process destabilization while you get used to some SEO tools. For example, I find Semrush to be quite jumbled and confusing, whereas Ahrefs seems more logically laid out. Coupled with this, you should marry your chosen SEO software to your responsible person’s skills. Just because Ahrefs seems to be more popular, that doesn’t mean it’s going to work for you… Outsourcing might still be a necessity Depending on what your business does, it doesn’t really make sense to hire an SEO specialist if you’re not in the SEO space consistently each day. That said, you should still have someone responsible for SEO, such as a marketing manager, but outsource your SEO work to an expert(s). This kind of defunks the need for you to do any SEO automation and to commit to a hefty (depending on your budget) monthly subscription. But I know that some outfits do still buy up all the tools because they like the bells and whistles, but still outsource the main SEO labor. If SEO isn’t your business’ core competence, should you really be doing it? All about manual SEO Image by Лариса Мозговая from Pixabay To reiterate, I’m not talking about sitting there with a quill and ink, crawling through a website, writing down every word that it contains, then manually adding up how often each one is used to determine the “keywords”. I’m not that insane. Manual SEO is more about using some manual approaches to make your SEO even better. Reasons to consider manual SEONo data/token/report restrictionsSomething I find really frustrating is that, depending on your subscription plan, SEO tools still restrict you with things like:
So, what you can do, especially if there isn’t a huge amount of data to go through, is manually record them in a spreadsheet so you don’t use up your daily, weekly or monthly quota without needing to. I’ve even found that this is quicker, especially if you only need to grab a couple of low-competition long tail keywords that a competitor is ranking for. Going through the rigmarole of exporting the data, removing unnecessary columns and rows, copy and pasting it into your main spreadsheet, re-sorting and then refreshing pivot tables or running macros isn’t always necessary! The power of human contactWhich of the below do you think is going to work better for outreach… Someone using automated SEO to grab any old backlink going: For starters, using automatic outreach tools leaves you open to making mistakes, such as not completely the {First Name} field. Also, the majority of sites that accept guest posts guide you on exactly what to do, so asking to send over some topics doesn’t always float. More importantly, there is zero personal approach in that email. While you may think that “I’ve just been through your site and I love it” is a personal approach, it really isn’t. Instead, something like this works much better: I’ve highlighted the personalisation, but actually the whole email is full of it! And yes, I have been to Edinburgh and liked Princes Street, but I’m sure you can find a way of personalising every manual outreach email you send. More control over SEOWith the manual outreach approach in mind, you can completely pick and choose the:
All the above gives you total control over this side to your SEO roadmap. In addition, and this is a severely underrated aspect, networking via this manual approach could lead to further work and “SEO juice” between your two sites, for a long time to come. Backup in case automation failsWhile this isn’t a regular occurrence, sometimes having a manual database of keywords, for example, can save you in a pinch when you can’t log in to our chosen SEO tool. A classic case of this is when you have shared access to Ahrefs and more than one user is logged in, booting the other person out. This can slow you down, but the worst thing is when you can’t get in at all. Having saved reports within the software that you can’t access is nothing short of frustrating. And the same can happen with something like SiteBulb. It’s an exceptional piece of kit, but I love that you can export ALL the data and analyze it further when needed. Why you should avoid manual SEO Like wading through mud Image by hamperium from Pixabay Imagine taking your SEO 100% manual. You’d been doing it forever! Even a simple task like asking Google to index your new page would be painstakingly slow. And that’s even on a small blog. What if you were to build your dream monster site and pump out a few pieces of content a day? Good luck with that! Even manual outreach is considerably slower than automating it. Restrict business growth Essentially, the more time it takes you to do something, the slower you’ll see results. Caveat: As long as you could’ve generated the same result in a faster method. Not using SEO software’s in-built gap analysis, for example, means you’d have to:
Whereas a decent piece of SEO software will do all of the above at the click of a button. The time taken in the manual approach essentially means a greater opportunity cost to other areas of your business/site/blog. Combine this one small example with a manual approach to other SEO practices, and you’ll definitely stunt your growth. Staff buy-inExpect a heavy amount of resistance! Asking your team to carry out manual processes when they know it can be done more quickly and simply through automation is going to be a rough gig. While you may eventually make them see the light, it won’t be an easy negotiating process. It’s actually more costlyAutomated SEO will bring economies of scale to your enterprise i.e. saving the time cost of manual processes to increase your team’s output. The sheer amount of effort involved in doing things manually may save you a three-or-four-figure monthly saving in not subscribing to an SEO tool. BUT, the time it will take your awesome team of humans to do the same is so far removed that they might as well be on the moon! Do I really have to tell you which is better?Now, you might think I’m going to scream, “AUTOMATE ALL YOUR SEO”, but I actually believe in a combination of the two. And, actually, if you’re a very casual blogger, going manual isn’t so much of a rough deal. But, even if you’re looking to write one post a week that needs some SEO attention, automation is going to be vital. The pure time-saving and removing the need for expertise will have serious knock-on benefits. So, my advice is:
0 Comments
Outreach programs always start with enthusiasm and the best intentions. Vibes are high, the campaign manager has pictures of fantastic results in his/her mind, company wide accolades, failing that a pat on the back from their manager and potentially even a nice little bonus or promotion if it goes really, really well. This stage is really important because anything new has to start with enthusiasm or it would never actually happen. No-one is going to start something they feel is doomed to fail! Without enthusiasm the campaign doesn’t get the investment / resource it needs. The next stage is equally important, the strategy document. The strategy document is where the plan is laid out, the framework for the campaign which makes sure everyone is on the same page and knows where to get access to templates, naming conventions and so on. Again, super important. Then the campaign kicks off, and that’s what we are going to talk about today. This is the bit I think I’m best placed to talk about. I might be odd in that doing the actual work bit, the actual outreach and getting the real results is the bit I enjoy (many people don’t!) I enjoy it because there is a gap. There is a gap between the enthusiasm combined with the strategy document, and the real results. The campaign will always need to be adjusted potentially several times as it progresses if it is to get results and that’s the bit I’m there for (and the reason you shouldn’t hire a junior person or assistant to run your outreach campaign). What happens when the campaign actually starts and how to avoid some pitfalls that are common when an outreach program progresses. For the sake of this article we are going to take a 6 week campaign as an example. So, let’s get started! It’s very, very likely that the person who is running the outreach campaign will run into one or several of these issues. Read on to find out what you can do about it. 1. Running out of leads too quickly Throughout the campaign it’s important to keep an eye on how many prospects you have. The ideal situation is one where you have perfectly grouped prospects in your pipeline ready to be bucketed and sent your templates for A/B testing. However, more often than not you’ll probably have less leads than you thought you would. As long as you stick to this one rule you should be able to keep the momentum going. Make sure that you have a bunch of leads ready and waiting to be emailed out the following morning. Even if it’s just 20 leads, that is better than non. Then, first thing, log onto your pitching software, or email if you are doing it manually, and email those leads straight away. 2. Leads are not targeted Successful outreach campaigns must be targeted. The person reading your email needs to see that the offer you are suggesting fits their blog. It’s not a case of just emailing 2,000 people and hoping that some of them respond. Yes, some of them probably will respond, but not the bloggers you want. And you’ll also get many more angry and annoyed responses too which is not the way to promote yours or your clients business. 3. Low response rate on a template The average response rate after 3 email attempts, i.e. an initial email and 2 follow up emails is 30 - 40%. If a third of people come back to you then you know that you have set up a healthy, targeted campaign, that the people you are contacting are at least interested in discussing with you. If your response rate is less than 10% after 3 email attempts that is a warning sign that something is going wrong and you need to work out why. If you have access to open rates then you can see how many people open your email. If you have a high open rate but a low response then you know that it is probably your offer that is the issue. If you have a low open rate then you know it could be your targeting. Try to identify the problem and set up a new campaign based on your findings and see if the response rate improves. It can take some time, but once you have a converting campaign you can keep adding the leads to it and using it so it is worth the effort. The longest part of the process is finding good leads, so, it is worth making sure you are getting the highest conversion possible. 4. Forgetting to close in on leads (time poor) I have to check myself on this as well. It’s easy to get into the habit of emailing new people and not going back to follow up and check the people you are already speaking with. The people you have started a conversation with are the most likely to want to partner with you so make sure you check in on them. I usually go back to my last client update report and look at the leads I have reported on, then go through one by one and follow up with them every 3 or 4 days. 5. Spending too much time editing each lead There are lots of outreach gurus which say you must include the bloggers name and the website in your pitch. I don’t actually believe that is always needed. In my opinion the targeting and the offer are the most important things to get right. If you have the bloggers name readily available then yes, definitely include it. But editing the details on each lead takes quite a lot of time so be wary at this stage of spending too much time getting everything just perfect. Outreach tools really help with this because you can import a bunch of urls and they will find the details for you. 6. Spending more time on the copy than the offer There is a certain structure you should follow when it comes to writing outreach emails. And I’ll write another post on that. But in terms of the copy i.e. the phrasing, I believe it is not as important as the offer. Of course, if no-one can understand what your offer is then that’s an issue. But you don’t have to worry too much. In fact, worrying about your copy leads to it being overly formal and not connecting with the reader. Try to sound out what you are saying in your mind as you write it. The most important part is to connect with the person you are emailing, you need them to see you as a person, not a robot. 7. Not getting the resource you were promised As I mentioned right at the beginning of this article. Outreach campaigns rarely go exactly to plan. And one of the issues can be that you do not get the resource you thought you were going to get. I.e. you were promised someone to help with prospecting and editing the leads but then find out that this person had to be let go early on in the campaign. When this happens you just need to adapt and find another way. Make it clear that you still require this resource & discuss how you can move forward with the client. For example, you might agree on more hours so that you can do the prospecting until a replacement has been found. I hope this has drilled down into some specific areas that can go wrong during an outreach campaign. Being aware of them now and knowing what to do will help you when you are in the midst of a campaign! Outreach is a challenging role (the reason I enjoy it!), but stay strong and stay focused on building partnerships and you’ll get the results you are looking for! Did you enjoy this post? If so stick around for more! I cover plenty of tips about how to do better outreach , and also tips on how to grow a blog. These are both services I offer my content marketing clients within my freelancing business. I also write about my freelancing lifestyle & business over at The Happy Freelancer, so if you are thinking about starting your own freelance business then check it out. And if you are a blogger interested in collaborating with brands + other bloggers I run a community of UK based lifestyle & parent bloggers over at Guest Bloggers Wanted. Knowing the open rate of your email is obviously very, very important. You could have the most amazing product or service, or the most amazing piece of content to pitch to someone, but if they don’t open your email and it goes straight into the trash then, game over.
As a ginger gal who does a lot of outreach, open rate is a metric I always track. Not as scientifically as some, but I know roughly how each campaign has performed so I can identify if something has worked and can implement that tactic in the future. If you are not a numbers person, this is a good way to go about the numbers. Let them in as a tool to help you. You don’t need to let them take over your life in order to be an effective marketeer. The average open rate of email marketing is around 20%, for the complete break-down go here. These are stats for opted-in email, not cold email. For cold email, there are stats out there saying that Cold Emailers are getting 40-55% open rate. Obviously, these are the guys that have been testing and improving their skills and are ready to write a Case Study! But, this gives you a couple of benchmarks to go by in your campaigns. You can try out the tactic I share with you and see if it improves your open rate. It's worked for me! My last two cold email campaigns had a 49% and a 55% open rate. So, what is the secret to writing high converting subject lines? Be Specific Your subject line is the action or the purpose of your email. This might sound obvious, but it is surprising about how specific you can make it when you spend just a few minutes improving. For Example: Pitching A Guest Post Poor Subject Line: Potential Guest Post Opportunity Specific Subject Line: Guest Post Pitch: 3 Checks To Make Before Pitching Your Guest Post Pitching A Service Poor Subject Line: Building Trust & Leads For Your Business Specific Subject Line: Idea To Build Trust & Create Leads For Your Coaching Business (55% Open Rate) Poor Subject Line: Generating Leads For Your Business Specific Subject Line: Will You Let Me Jump On A Call And Share My Formula For Winning Coaches 600-800 Leads In 72 Hours? (49% Open Rate) Let me pull out a couple of specifics for you here. For sales pitches put the industry into the Subject Line. Not just “business,” but “coaching business.” This makes it seem more special for the person reading the email. I actually had one person who I spoke to (and who is now helping me promote my business), want to have a conversation just because my email was specifically directed at coaches. Go one better here and put the company name instead of the industry. If you can include stats in your subject line, this also boosts your open rate. It stands out in the inbox, and it is a more confident introduction. For Guest Posting, I have trialed so many subject lines over the years it’s hard to count. However this formula always gets a good open rate. Guest Post Pitch: [Title Of Guest Post] Obviously, this does depend on how good your title is! But the most amazing thing about this technique is that if the person opens the email, they are effectively opting in to read more about this pitch. In their mind, they are already warm when they are reading your actual pitch. So many people get worried about pitching content, but the thing is, if your content is good and interesting for their audience, which it should be, then they want to read about it! Your content is going to add value to their website. Just be upfront and specific when pitching content. I hope there are a couple of ideas in here for you to improve your open rate. Of course, open rate is just the first step. Sometimes a lower open rate can have better results, for example, the 49% open rate above actually led to more sales calls, so I will stick with this subject line. But, once you start getting used to tracking metrics and just having a look at the stats, you’ll find you will be able to make this analysis yourself and improve your campaigns, even if numbers don’t come naturally. Good Luck!! And let me know in the comments below if you have some more tips for increasing open rates. I would love to hear what has worked for you. |
AuthorWritten by Cheryl A Clarke Chief Happiness Officer & Content Marketing Freelancer @ Ginger Marketing (unless stated otherwise) Blog CategoriesPopular content marketing postsTotal Social Media Share Count
Top Udemy Courses*Archives
August 2021
|
RSS Feed
MONTHLY QUOTE
Quote Of The Month;
“Successful SEO is not about tricking Google. It’s about PARTNERING with Google to provide the best search results for Google’s users.” – Phil Frost, Main Street ROI
“Successful SEO is not about tricking Google. It’s about PARTNERING with Google to provide the best search results for Google’s users.” – Phil Frost, Main Street ROI