1. Implementation of Clusters.
Search engine optimisation has always been one of the essential digital marketing strategies for any type of company. Getting more organic traffic has always been one of the main objectives of most companies with websites because, in general, more traffic means more sales. And the latter, in the case of technology companies, especially if they were start-ups, was even more important.
However, over time we realised that any kind of organic traffic coming to our website was not necessarily relevant to boost our sales. Working keywords with many monthly searches, known as short-tail keyword, did not necessarily translate into end customers. Therefore, the creation of content around long-tail keywords began to be essential to attract more qualified traffic, users interested in more specific content that could potentially convert.
However, this is the strategy that everyone has followed and, as a result, the rules of the game with Google and other search engines have changed again. Following Google’s RankBrain update, with which the search engine improved its understanding of the context of the queries made by users, they began to rank pages that offered up-to-date and valuable content and that were identified through their CTR but also dwell time and bounce rate.
Google’s RankBrain update, which improved its understanding of the context of the queries made by users, began to rank pages that offered up-to-date and valuable content and that were identified through their CTR but also dwell time and bounce rate.
Today, what is important for positioning is the creation of valuable content, always thinking about the search intentions of our potential customers, whom we must know very well. But it is also necessary that this content that we create belongs to an internal network of information, that is to say, to a SEO cluster, with which you must reorganise the structure of your website, to improve the permanence of the user on it.
What exactly are clusters and what do they have to do with your positioning strategy?
The cluster or themes are a way to organise and optimise the content of your website to boost the ranking of certain pages. In short, a cluster is an association of pages on your website that respond to a problem or need that your potential customer may have, i.e. a topic that is of interest to them.
It is possible that the solution is ultimately the acquisition of a product or service, but not always, because the problems and needs, i.e. the topics, can be constructed differently for different types of consumers that your company has, which is why this solution may be the acquisition of several products and/or services, depending on the type of technology company.
Thus, the solution may be the acquisition of several products and/or services, depending on the type of technology company.
So how should you build the cluster according to your technology company?
Step 1. Analyse your buyer personas, what they are looking for and what their buying cycle is.
We have repeated this on multiple occasions, and it is that the buyers, representations of your potential customers, are the key to the implementation of all your marketing strategies and, in particular, are the reason why you can choose the right search terms that will boost more qualified organic traffic to your website. These buyers, during their buying cycle, are the ones who have problems that you can solve and needs that you can address with your content. In other words, they are the key to creating the right topics.
Step 2. Identify what are the main topics of your cluster and create pillar pages.
A pillar topic will be the core of a cluster, a resolution page in which you cover in depth the content related to the pillar topic you are dealing with. So, these pages are content-heavy and should be directly related to your website, but they don’t always have to be a product or service page because, in fact, they don’t have to be associated with the last stage of the buying cycle of your potential customers.
Step 3. Prioritise and create the necessary subtopics or topics, associated with your pillar pages.
Each pillar page can have multiple associated subtopics covering a very specific issue in greater depth. To send authority to the main topic, the pillar page, in blog articles, landing pages and other pages it is necessary to include a link to it, which will send traffic to this page. The subtopics can respond to various searches throughout the buying cycle of your potential customers.
The subtopics can respond to various searches throughout the buying cycle of your potential customers.
An example: Imagine that your technology company specialises in different software for companies in the healthcare sector. In particular, one of the concerns of your buyer personas may be related to the security of their patients’ data, given the sensitivity of the same. Around this pillar issue, multiple subtopics may arise, such as those related to GDPR regulations, data obsolescence, role assignment, etc.
All of these subtopics may be related to the security of their patients’ data.
As you have most likely already created content in different articles, we recommend that you keep an eye on the following content marketing trends for your technology:
Content marketing trends for your technology company:
2. Recycling previous content
The task ahead of you can take time. And if you’re a start-up your time and resources are precious. Especially now. For this reason, the first thing we recommend is that you take stock of the content you already have on your website. The point is not to work harder, but to work smarter. That’s why:
Step 1. Review all your content
You’re probably surprised, but you really shouldn’t be if you’ve already organised all your content into different publishing calendars. If you had not done so, generate a document in which it is easy to identify the topic you are dealing with, the URL, which buyer or buyers it would help and at what stage of its cycle, the usefulness or obsolescence of the information and other data that may be interesting according to your line of business, especially if there is some kind of seasonality in terms of promoting your products and/or services, or if you were planning to conduct some kind of seminar, webinar, etc.
Step 2. Create a document with your cluster and a publication schedule.
Indispensable, consider what your clusters will be and what articles and pages already published can be included in them. Determine what your company’s content creation priorities are and generate an appropriate calendar to not only publish, but also to have a record that will allow you to evaluate the performance of your efforts in the future.
Step 2. Recycle content and recycle URLs
You don’t need to rewrite everything. You may be able to recycle, especially some URLs, i.e. some pages whose content could be improved. Redirects should be avoided as much as possible. On the other hand, recycling content also means rethinking it in different formats: from an ebook you can generate several articles, infographics, case studies and, especially, videos:
3. Creating interesting videos
One of the biggest problems for technology companies is the difficulty they have in getting their message across, simplifying explanations, and facilitating the understanding, need and suitability of a product or service for their potential customers. And that is where the power of video comes in.
Video is a great marketing tool as it has proven its capacity for attraction and engagement. According to HubSpot more than 81% of companies that generate content create video, and according to Brightcove pages that include it increase their ability to attract organic traffic by 157%.
More and more users are prioritising video in their searches and, especially if you have to deal with complex topics, one of the best ways to liven them up is through this format. But video marketing can also manifest itself in the form of tutorials, especially when you’re selling technology products that lend themselves to it.
So what types of videos should you create if you are a technology company?
- Demonstration videos: These pieces of content should explain in an exhaustive (but not boring) way what the functionality of your product is, or what your service consists of. They are key elements for your sales managers, but also useful for marketing. In fact, parts of this content can be recycled for the elaboration of multiple audiovisual pieces, such as the following, but also for the creation of other content.
- Explanatory videos: are the ones that work best on the web to show information about your products and/or services, clearly specifying what their value is, what the advantages of their acquisition are and when the results can be seen from their implementation, if it is the case. These videos can be distributed on other social platforms, always adapting the format.
- Success stories videos: As is obvious, these are the audiovisual pieces in which you deal with the successful performance of your products or services with your customers. Sometimes it is difficult to get them, especially due to the competition in many sectors where your clients are (for example, tourism). In this case there are alternatives, which leads to the following section:
4. Development of value studies
On the other hand, when it comes to content, there is nothing better than demonstrating the effectiveness of your products and services. Particularly interesting for larger technology companies, research can be a way of showing your potential customers how hard you are working to improve your products and services and how much you care about them being effective.
If your customers are not interested in your products and services, you can also use research to show them that they are effective.
If your customers are not as engaged and you find it difficult to create pieces of content about success stories, whether in video or other format, studies can help you gain greater authority in the industry and go beyond showcasing the virtues of your product, but also provide insight into its impact on your customers and your industry.
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5. Conscious and active collaboration
Promoting collaborations in your sector is fundamental both at the level of products and/or services and in the development of content to attract your buyer personas.Firstly, you may not be able to meet the needs of your customers with your offer alone, and the truth is that that’s OK. The point is to be realistic and not to try to monopolise the whole sector, but to be helpful and humanise the relationship with your potential clients.
In fact, the “competitive cooperation” business model works for many technology companies. It is possible that your product and/or service is a part, a fundamental but only part, of a problem or need of your potential customers. So finding partners who share your values and the same vision of business and growth of your technology can help you attract more qualified traffic and improve your customer portfolio.
And secondly, this collaboration leads you to make content or guest posts on your partner’s website, which allows you to attract traffic coming from another website. This practice is also fundamental in collaboration with other sites that have a high authority in your sector. The quality backlinks that you create are essential to improve the ranking of your own pages.
6. Improving your promotional strategy
In addition to these collaborations, you need to think about how to promote the content you generate. Both newly created content and content you have created before, but which is still relevant. This relevance may be due to the seasonality of your products, or to the intention to promote the content of an cluster. For example, in the case of improving the features of a product or service or launching a new one in which this cluster is relevant and can help you attract organic traffic. To do this, it is best to take advantage of social networks.
Social media should be part of your content strategy. Whether it’s generating unique content by recycling other material, sharing other posts or pages, generating conversations, sharing third party content relevant to your industry and, especially, commenting on other posts, because as we said, quality backlinks are important.
Social media should be part of your content strategy.
On the other hand, one of the best ways to promote yourself is by starting or participating in seminars, webinars… that are related to your sector and in which your products and services can be of help. Because as we have said, your offer can be part of the solution to a need of your potential customer. By creating (or participating) in these types of events, you can also share information relevant to your audience. And this is ultimately a great promotional strategy that will help you gain more authority, not to mention conversions.
7. Use of Chatbots and CRM.
As a technologist you already know that automating functions is essential to save time and resources. And you also know that depending on the complexity of your products or services it is necessary to have a service that responds to your potential customers. And in this case, chatbots can help you.
The chatbots are marketing automation resources that simulate conversations like those that would take place in a live chat with a salesperson. The more information you have from your users, the more you can refine these conversations and they are an excellent tool for reinvesting your resources where you need them most.
A chatbot is an excellent tool for reinvesting your resources where you need them most.
A chatbot is a very useful software to boost conversions from your website, especially when user queries are simple and when you have already created enough content and resources to satisfy them. That is, they are resources that work when you have already gathered some information about the buying process of your potential customers, you understand what their needs may be, and you have created specific segments.
Obviously, these segments, which correspond to the needs of your buyer personas at different stages of their buying cycle, must be well organised in your CRM. And the CRM is an essential tool, not basic, to have organised all the interactions you have with your customers, whether they are marketing or sales.
CRM is an essential tool, but not basic, to have organised all the interactions you have with your customers, whether they are marketing or sales.
The CRM allows you to keep your teams aligned in the same direction, sharing relevant information about customers and potential customers. In addition to the suitability of maintaining segmented lists to better target content and other marketing actions, these lists give you a clue as to which trends are of most interest and provide you with data to automate actions and conversations, as in the case of chatbots.
And here are the most relevant marketing strategies for 2021. Want more resources? Check out our featured publications below:
