Introduction
It’s come to my attention that there might be some misunderstandings around how SEO marketing works, how it fits into a bigger component of a digital marketing strategy, and what to do when you’re just getting started.
Common Misunderstandings
Recently, I had a few different comments or conversations with either clients or just people in our community asking questions specifically about how SEO marketing feeds into sales and client acquisition.
Importance of Clarity
And I think it’s really important that we talk about this and address this because what we have to remember is SEO marketing is one part of the entire strategy. It’s not the full business, and I think that’s one of the mistakes that a lot of folks make, whether it’s assuming Instagram is the main thing, or Facebook is the main thing, or TikTok is the main thing, or SEO is the main thing.
Holistic Approach
You have to remember that each one of these components is one part of a bigger picture strategy and a bigger picture part of your business.
Understanding Marketing Phases
Marketing Stages
The first thing that we have to understand is how SEO marketing, Instagram marketing, Facebook marketing, any type of marketing component, plays into the bigger picture of your business. When we’re thinking about business, you have to understand that marketing is broken into different stages or phases.
Client Buying Journey
And this is not anything new. This is something that has been documented long, long before I ever came around and before most marketers in today’s world ever came around. And it’s understanding different phases or stages of awareness when we’re looking at the client buying journey or the client acquisition process.
Stages of Awareness
And we start with first awareness: how are people becoming aware of who we are and what we do? Google breaks this down into a few different stages: you have awareness, then consideration, then the point you make a decision, then when somebody has made a decision they’ve decided to invest, now it’s about retention, and then finally advocacy.
Focus on Acquisition
And we’re not going to talk about the last two here because we’re focusing specifically on acquisition, which means we’re looking at how we’re moving from awareness to consideration to decision-making.
Role of Different Platforms
Brand Awareness
How are we taking somebody from feeling like, “Oh, they know who you are and that you exist,” to starting to consider working with you, and then deciding that you’re the person that they’re going to be investing in? And what we also need to understand is how different platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, podcasting, how they fit into that bigger scope in marketing.
Social Media vs. SEO
You have brand awareness and brand development. Brand awareness means we want to make more people aware that you actually exist, that you’re somebody that they should consider, and that you fit into the niche of the bigger scope of the problem that they’re trying to solve. You can do that in so many different ways.
How Platforms Help
How you use social media versus SEO marketing is important to understand here because social media is a great place when you’re building brand awareness and connection with an existing community. When you’re using platforms like SEO-based content, YouTube, Google, podcasting, Pinterest, you’re generating brand awareness through search-based content, meaning people are coming inbound searching for what you do, versus with social media, you’re putting content out and it’s going out into the world with people who are already following you or potentially through engagement.
Limitations of Brand Awareness
Both platforms help with brand awareness, but the brand awareness stage isn’t really the main goal. It’s a component, but it’s only one small piece because people can be aware you exist, but that doesn’t mean that they’re going to consider working with you or that they’re going to decide that you’re the one that they want to work with.
Moving Beyond Awareness
From Awareness to Consideration
So SEO marketing helps with building brand awareness. We get more people seeing who we are, but how do we move somebody from the awareness stage to start to considering working with us and then, of course, deciding that we’re the one they want to hire?
Importance of Strategy
And that’s why it’s important, again, whatever platforms you’re using, you have to recognize the role that they play in the bigger picture of your marketing strategy. If you’re just relying on one platform, often times we become overly reliant on it, and that’s what creates a lot of the burnout or a lot of the overwhelm or the frustration that comes from that because it’s not meant to only be living in a silo. It’s meant to be living in relationship with the other components of your business.
Building a Sustainable Strategy
Moving to Owned Assets
So when we’re using SEO or Instagram or TikTok or Facebook for brand awareness, we now have to say, “Okay, how do I move somebody from here to an asset that I own, and from that asset that I own, how do I continue to nurture that relationship, help them consider working with me, and then make the decision on wanting to purchase?”
Nurturing Relationships
You can use things like creating, again, additional free content and resources similar to what we do here. We continue to create YouTube videos, we continue to create blog articles, educate and support our customers, and better understand what we do. So we’re moving beyond just brand awareness. More people are becoming aware of us. Now we’re moving into consideration. We’re nurturing the relationships that can be done on any platform as long as you have a consistent way to do it.
Decision-Making Process
So regardless of which one you choose, you continue to do it. Then we move into decision-making: how are we helping people decide that we’re who they want to work with and that we have the right offer? This requires a bit of a sales process in there so that they recognize that one, we do have a way to work with us, and then two, that they understand that we are the right fit for them or that they are the right fit for us.
Common Mistakes
Over-Reliance on One Platform
So if you’re only relying on one platform and you’re only focusing on educational content, the issue is you’re consistently building brand awareness, but that brand awareness doesn’t really go anywhere unless you’re having things like going viral, growing through sharing content, or other people sharing your content or commenting on it.
Need for Owned Assets
In the world of social media, in the world of SEO, they have to find you, but they have to continue to subscribe and stick around. So whether that’s you having a YouTube channel, a podcast, whatever it is where you can continue to build and nurture that community, you do not need to be everywhere all of the time, but you do need to have a home base for where you’re building that.
Email List Importance
Now when we’re going from brand awareness to the consideration and the nurturing process, ideally you’re also leveraging something like an email list where you’re bringing people into your world and now they’re starting to get to know you not just on the main platform that you’re using, whether it’s social, whether it’s an SEO platform like YouTube or podcasting, but now they’re connecting via email, via whatever way you want to consistently engage.
Long-Term Growth Strategy
From Awareness to Sales
From there, then we move into the sales process. SEO marketing is amazing because it helps build brand awareness, not just through you creating outbound content that you’re posting online. It helps bring people through inbound marketing because they’re finding you via search. But if we stop there and we don’t look at how we’re then using our blog posts, our YouTube videos, our podcast episodes to take them from just being an engaged visitor and potential audience member or subscriber, how do we then have that move to the next stage?
Connecting Engagement to Sales
Then you’re missing out on a lot of opportunity and growth in your business. So it’s not just about having a bunch of content that ranks well or having a bunch of posts that do really well and viral content. It’s how do you connect the engagement, the awareness stage to consideration and decision-making, so folks are working towards investing and purchasing from you.
Biggest Mistake
Hyperfixation on Brand Awareness
So this is the biggest mistake that most business owners make: we hyperfixate on brand awareness through one platform and we don’t ever zoom out to see the full bigger picture.
Building Relationships
What we have to do is we have to say, “Okay, great, we’re using this to build brand awareness. Now how does that brand awareness then attribute to having them come closer to my world, taking a step closer, and then learning more about what I do so they’re sticking around, they’re building a relationship, and then they’re choosing to invest and work with you.”
Practical Implementation
Importance of Email Lists
In my personal opinion, I think having an asset that you actually own, like your email list, is absolutely crucial for this because then you can connect directly with them without having to rely on a platform like YouTube, like podcasting, like Pinterest, like TikTok, because all of these are platforms that you are still renting space on, even if you’re creating the content on there.
Risks of Relying on Platforms
Similarly, if YouTube were to decide that they didn’t like the content, I can get banned and all my content can get taken off. I still don’t own the content that’s on here, even though I’ve created it, which is why, again, you have to have a place where you live outside of just the platforms that you create the content on.
Getting Off the Hamster Wheel
Strategy for Long-Term Growth
And the answer is fairly simple, though not always as easily implemented, and that is that we need a strategy to go from building brand awareness to actually bringing people onto our email list. We need a process for them to go from understanding that you exist, building awareness, to becoming an actual subscriber or some sort of user in your world that is consistently there, building that consideration phase, ideally growing on your email list, and then from there, nurturing them and then enrolling them in what it is that you do through a really simple and organic sales process.
Simplicity of the Process
This doesn’t mean you need to have crazy launches. This doesn’t mean you need to have a whole crazy ad campaign. It can be really simple and really straightforward.
Conclusion
Final Thoughts
This completes the full understanding of how SEO fits into a bigger marketing strategy, how different platforms contribute to awareness, and why moving users toward assets you own is essential for sustainable long-term growth.