Marketing is tough when you’re in a disruptive industry.
You can’t rely on what your competitors have done, because you may not have any. The market didn’t exist until you created it. You don’t have any keyword research to work with, because people aren’t talking about your product or service yet (again, because they don’t know it exists).
You have to be creative as you shape your marketing strategy. You don’t want to rely exclusively on SEO. You’ll be able to get farther, faster, through paid strategies like social media and PPC advertising.
But, as we all know with SEO (it’s probably the reason why you’re reading this article), the sooner you get started, the better.
To that end, we’ve put together six smart tips for disruptive brands who want to get ahead with their SEO. Let’s dig in.
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1. Don’t be afraid to go old school.
Tried and true marketing tactics like PR still have a place in search engine optimization, especially for disruptive brands and products.
In early 2010, Warby Parker was featured in GQ. Within just three weeks of the issue being released, the innovative eyewear brand met their sales targets for the year, and they had a waitlist of 20,000 customers ready to buy. The takeaway? Press works.
If you can swing it, partner with a reputable PR firm. Guest blog on larger sites that dominate the SERPs to generate passive referral traffic that regularly trickles in. Offer interviews with your CEO on popular blogs, podcasts, and YouTube channels your target audience subscribes to. Sign up for HARO (Help a Reporter Out).
2. Write the content your audience is looking for.
Do some user research (or read your reviews) to understand what problems led customers to your product or service, and the benefits they’re now enjoying as a result of using it. Pay attention to the language they use as well. Then, create content about those problems and position your brand as the solution, while mirroring the language your audience uses.
Also develop educational content to help existing customers get more value out of your product or service. A loyal customer basis breeds traffic, engagement, shares — and eventually, rankings.
3. Go for quality over quantity.
Having 5 amazing articles that bring in tons of traffic is going to do a lot more for your SEO (and your bottom line) than 500 articles that get barely any visits.
Develop impeccable content. Publish original research. Create free tools. Then, build links to said content, research, and tools — and watch your rankings build.
4. Get more from your marketing dollars.
Stretch your budget further by upcycling every piece of content you create.
That blog post you wrote? Share it in your email newsletter. Turn quotes into social media graphics. Cover key points in a short video. Use it as the transcript for your latest podcast episode.
The more value you can squeeze out of any piece of content, the better.
5. Pay attention to your analytics.
Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and your paid SEO tool of choice are your friends. These can reveal your top performing pieces of content, the burgeoning keywords that you should be tracking, and who’s linking to you.
Take a look at which landing pages bring in the most organic traffic. What keywords are they starting to rank for? Can you speak to those points better in this original piece of content, so it continues to rank? Or, would you be better served by developing new content that addresses those points specifically?
Alternately, are guest posts or features in certain publications driving more referral traffic than others? What ties these pieces together? Is it a certain niche, or the length of your interview?
Check in frequently and pay attention to what’s working. Then do more of that.
6. Don’t forget the basics.
There’s nothing worse than self-sabotaging SEO. Ensure you have the SEO basics covered, so your website doesn’t hold you back. That includes:
- Regularly working to improve site load times and keep them low.
- Monitoring your keyword rankings.
- Leveraging a user-friendly website design that encourages engagement and longer time on site.
- Using SERP-friendly title tags and meta descriptions that drive organic clicks.
- Incorporating keywords into your image alt text.
- Optimizing your URL structure for easy crawling.
Get disruptive with SEO
SEO for disruptive industries is a challenge, but that’s what makes it interesting. At Your Marketing People, we thrive on interesting. Learn more about our results-oriented SEO and how we can help your brand scale the SERPs.
