5 Approaches to Marketing We’re Excited About for the Rest of 2023

It’s been an exciting year for digital marketing. But really, when is it not? AI was supposed to replace everyone and everything. It didn’t. Google Maps in SERP started doing this awkward slide-out motion every time you hovered over it. These are not entirely breakthroughs, but they’re promising for what’s to come. While we’re keeping our heads down and executing on all of the fundamentals, such as strong human-generated content, comprehensive authority-building campaigns, and thorough execution of on-site optimization, here are other tactics the team has become more and more excited about. Some will look familiar with a new angle, and others may be top of mind continually in the near future.

Focus Groups

Focus groups are front and center because, even though they’ve been going on for just a few months, they’ve been a source of tremendous insight. Many of the findings from the focus groups have already been implemented on client sites and observed in some of the ways we do our own marketing.

For anyone who wants more information on how Focus Groups work, I created this article outlining all of the benefits. If you want the “Too Long, Didn’t Read” version—which makes for a great segue after this subtopic—here are the key takeaways from focus groups:

• You can control the audience: Participants aren’t just anyone. They are narrowed by geographies and demographics that make the most sense for your business.
• The insight transcends surveys or word of mouth: Surveys and hearsay are one-dimensional. Hearing it straight from people allows you to go in-depth and see the non-verbal reactions to certain questions.
• Feedback is quick and cost-effective: Focus Groups are being done remotely and with automatic recordings and transcriptions so you have actionable data the same day.
• The data/feedback is very clear
• The data/feedback is extremely simple to share

Check out the following video to see a compilation of some of our most recent Focus Groups:

As well as a recent podcast.

TLDR in Professional Content and Other Forms of Engagement

Speaking of Too Long, Didn’t Read – this feature isn’t just for Reddit and Buzzfeed articles anymore. With the attention span of consumers continuing to dwindle down, especially with the instant gratification of social media platforms like TikTok conveying messages in 15-30 seconds.

I’ve been seeing a TLDR approach more often on professional websites, such as a website for dental services. The main points of the service or procedure are essentially presented immediately, and then elaborated throughout the article. This allows people to have a good understanding of the procedure, options, and next steps within that 15-30 second range, and then decide to scroll through the rest of the article should they be interested in knowing about further details.

Example (prototype we’re working on):

Advanced E-E-A-T Tactics

We’ve known about Google’s EAT standards for quite some time (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust), but the additional E for Experience has been rolled out as another component Google is looking for within credible websites, especially “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) websites. Websites that fall under this designation include websites that specifically include financial, medical, and legal information. This means if you’re a dentist or a lawyer, it is more critical to observe EEAT updates that Google periodically rolls out.

SEMRush does a good job outlining EEAT and YMYL in more detail here. Because Experience is the newest component, it is worth noting that to observe this portion of the EEAT standards, it will require the website’s content to express details and assets that showcase the experiences happened (e.g., images of an event, real-life examples, and anecdotes).

The New(ish) SEO Kid on the Block: Entity SEO

https://keyword.com/blog/how-to-use-entity-seo-to-rank-higher/

This section will be understated for now, but it is safe to say that Entity SEO is going to be a much bigger player in years to come. Because the algorithm has been so focused on links and content for the past two decades, this is truly the emergence of a new angle Google takes when looking at where you (yes, you as an individual) and your website fit into the grand scheme of things. And it is especially important for doctors and lawyers.

Google has been spending years mapping out data in many different ways and using different techniques to figuring out their relation with one another. Words you may hear in this context could be “knowledge graphing” and “neutral mapping”—which sounds much more sci-fi than anything else—but what it comes down to is still the fundamental premise of Google’s philosophy: delivering the best results possible based off of the varying search intent and queries that searchers employ.

There will be more research into Entity SEO as the months go on, but think of Entity SEO as an elaborate plan to see how every “entity” (let’s just say, person, place, or thing) fits into the scheme of everything else on the internet. One example that gets touted often is “Harrison Ford,” a famous actor associated with many different roles and movies. Let’s say some of the strongest associations would be Star Wars as Han Solo and Indiana Jones. Google would deem Harrison Ford a nearly primary figure in Star Wars (alongside Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, and the newer characters since he reprised his role of Han Solo for Episode 7).

He may have a stronger association for his titular role in Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones in the movies originally took place in and around World War II – Entity SEO would associate Indiana Jones with World War II because of the period of his famous fictional ventures. But if you were to start with World War II and branch out associations in accordance with Entity SEO, it would likely never come across Indiana Jones. Understanding this process is essential to winning in the future, as you, as a lawyer or a doctor, will be associated with your website and other organizations, directories, citations, and authoritative sources. Doing this correctly could position you as an entity associated with highly important search queries.

Augmenting Video With AI

As much as I bash AI for text, it is pretty incredible when it comes to imagery and video. Though it is easy to spot deep fakes (for now), AI has been fairly impressive when it comes to generating completely original images, especially when they’re not attempting to mimic real life. If you do any straightforward searches for anything like “AI image generator” or “AI video generator,” you should find yourself with plenty of options for getting your hands on some media that separates what you may be used to getting from your generic stock image and video providers. These new assets could integrate seamlessly with any videos you’ve been doing, making videos a bit more dynamic with a b-roll plus voiceover duo instead of always doing videos focused on one subject the entire time.

Reach Out to Market My Market for Needle-Moving Marketing

From best-in-class content writers to expert SEO analysts, Market My Market comprises some of the brightest minds in our industry working towards a common goal: positioning you highly on search engines and attracting leads. As we go about this process, we’re constantly looking for ways to move the needle and try out new systems that will change the game in the marketing industry. To learn more about how we can help you take the next step with your marketing, contact us at (866) 270-2250 or complete our contact form today.