Timothy Carter

Chief Revenue Officer at SEO Company

Industry veteran Timothy Carter is SEO.co’s Chief Revenue Officer. Tim leads all revenue for the company and oversees all customer-facing teams for SEO (search engine optimization) – including sales, marketing & customer success.

He has spent more than 20 years in the world of SEO & Digital Marketing leading, building and scaling sales operations, helping companies increase revenue efficiency and drive growth from websites and sales teams.

When he’s not working, Tim enjoys playing a few rounds of disc golf, running, and spending time with his wife and family on the beach…preferably in Hawaii.

Over the years he’s written for publications like ForbesEntrepreneur, Marketing Land, Search Engine Journal, ReadWrite and other highly respected online publications. Connect with Tim on Linkedin & Twitter.

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Editorial Backlinks: 6 Proven Methods for Acquiring Editorial Backlinks
Timothy Carter

Editorial Backlinks: 6 Proven Methods for Acquiring Editorial Backlinks

Acquiring backlinks is the single most important aspect of your SEO strategy. Backlinks are the foundation for ranking in the search engines. There are plenty of ways to acquire backlinks, including through content marketing, guest blogging, and several other link building strategies. However, the most valuable backlinks you can acquire are building editorial links What are editorial links? The benefits of editorial links are generated naturally when bloggers or publishers decide to use your editorial link-building strategy  as a resource in a published article. The most valuable editorial links come from high authority website’s, but those aren’t easy to acquire. Owners of high authority sites know that external editorial link quality matters so they don’t link to random web page. Instead, they carefully select external links and only editorial link building to the highest quality content they can find. Want to gain ranking in the search engines? You need editorial links If you’re already generating backlinks through content marketing, don’t stop your campaign. Content marketing is an essential long-term digital marketing strategy. However, if you want to get backlinks from high authority websites, here’s how you can earn some benefits of editorial links. 1. Find out where your competitors have backlinks Searching for your competitors’ backlinks is one of the easiest ways to find leads for obtaining editorial links. First, use our backlink checker to find out where your competitors have backlinks. Next, visit each website to determine whether or not you’d want to be associated with the content. If the site gets your stamp of approval, find out how you can get a backlink published on the site. Contact the editor or have your PR department make contact to find out what’s possible. 2. Create irresistibly authoritative contents Creating irresistibly authoritative contents is the most reliable way to generate natural backlinks on a long-term basis. Unlike seeking out backlinks individually, when you have irresistible content, people will find your content and editorial link it on a regular basis. At least, that’s the goal. It is possible to create a website that gets natural backlinks from high authority websites. There are plenty of examples on the internet of sites that have achieved this level of popularity. For example, Social Media Examiner is one of the most-linked social media marketing websites on the internet next to Neil Patel’s website. Both sites produce high-quality content with useful information on a wide variety of topics. When people are searching for information while writing an article, they’ll usually editorial link the first qualifying website found in the Google. That’s why it’s important to create authoritative contents. When people search for resources to cite, and your site shows up in their search, you don’t want to give them any reason to bounce and start looking for a better resource. You want to make sure that when people find your web page, they are impressed by the content enough to use it as a resource either now or later. Getting ranked will increase how often you get linked It takes time to get ranked in the Google, but once you start showing up in top search results, your site will start getting linked naturally more often. That, in turn, will help you rank higher in Google, which will continue to increase your site’s visibility, traffic, and backlinks. Creating authoritative contents is just the step. Once you’ve created irresistibly authoritative contents, you’ll need to find a way to let potential publishers know about your content. Don’t rely solely on Google to get your content noticed. That brings up the next technique. 3. Hire a PR professional for outreach in your niche   If your business has a PR department, have your PR personnel reach out to the editors of major publications online. Have them ask what kind of content they’re currently looking to publish and how you can maximize your chances of getting content published on their site with a backlink to your website. If your business doesn’t have a PR department or you’re an entrepreneur and freelancer, hire a PR professional to perform outreach services. Many professional marketing agencies provide outreach link building services for editorial links, but there are also independent outreach services you can find. 4. Dominate your niche The ultimate method for getting high-quality editorial links is to publish content that dominates your niche. Not just one or two pieces of content, but as much high-quality, authoritative, in-depth content you can possibly create. Here’s how to create content to dominate your niche. 1. Produce genuinely authoritative contents Let’s face it – if you want people to editorial link to your content naturally, you need authoritative contents. Your content needs to be seen as the ultimate reference for whatever topic you’re covering. For an example of this kind of content, check out WP Beginner’s guide to moving a WordPress installation from HTTP to HTTPS. MyThemeShop also produces exceptionally high-quality content as seen here in this WordPress security article. These two websites dominate the search engine for tutorial-related searches for a reason. Both of these websites publish thorough, accurate, and extremely helpful content. How to create authoritative contents Brainstorm. The first step to creating authoritative contents is brainstorming several topics and choosing one to start. Try to think of topics that are important to people. Topics that answer previously unanswered questions are a good place to start. However, you can cover a more general topic as long as you dive in deeper than any of your competitors. Research. Assume you don’t know everything there is to know about your topic. Even if you’ve been a professional in the field for 50 years, there will always be things you don’t know about your niche. Research as much as possible to discover what you don’t know. Read what your competitors have to say about the topic and take notes when you learn something new. For example, say you run a website documenting the Maya civilization. In your research, you might discover that the Mayans developed the

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Google E-A-T: Google’s E-A-T SEO Ranking Factor
Timothy Carter

Google E-A-T: Google’s E-A-T SEO Ranking Factor

If you ask most people if they want to be the best at any given thing, they’re probably going to say yes. Who wouldn’t want to be the best at what they do? But who or what is the best depends on what criteria are used to evaluate quality. If you want an “A” grade, you need to know how you’re being graded. If you want to win the gold medal, you need to know how the judges will score you. If you want to have the highest rank in Google search results, you need to understand E-A-T. Google E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) are the search quality rater guidelines that Google uses to determine the quality of a website’s E A T. Then, they rank it accordingly. When you make and publish a website, it will eventually be seen and manually reviewed against these guidelines by one of the thousands of quality reviewers Google hires to submit feedback about web page quality. That information is used as a major contributing Google ranking factor. So let’s break down each of these categories: Expertise One of the wonderful and horrible things about the internet is that anyone can publish anything. When you come to search engines like Google e and put in a search term, you want results from people who actually understand the subject they’re writing on. That’s where expertise comes in. To do well in this category, you need to show that you have a particular kind of expert knowledge related to the content of your site. Otherwise, how can readers rely on you? Think about this: if your site offers unreliable or only basic knowledge that doesn’t help the audience solve their problem, they’re just going to go somewhere else and fast. That’s not good for you but it’s not good for Google either so your site direct ranking factor will suffer. Provide clear, detailed information which shows your everyday expertise and experience and you will succeed in this category. Authority If you hadn’t noticed there are a lot of websites and businesses out there to choose from. Truly a lot of them. So, people will choose the ones that have authority. Authority can come in the form of reviews, references, any kind of recommendations. These are things that prove your credibility as a business. When other credible sources are recommending you as a credible source, that boosts your position as an authority even higher and gives customers something they can really put their faith (and maybe even their money) into. Trust Ah, trust. Is there anything as hard to win and easy to lose? Click baiting will lose your audience’s trust in an instant. If someone clicks on your site for one thing that you claimed to be offering or writing about and very clearly doesn’t find that thing, forget about ever seeing that person on your site again. The payoff simply isn’t there and Google knows that. Being accurate and consistent in the way you portray yourself and your high-quality content will help to build trust. Don’t try to hide sponsorships or affiliate links. Don’t push the sale at the cost of honesty and transparency. Your audience and potential customers won’t respond well and neither will Google, creating quite a nasty cycle where the main loser is your business. Trust is worth the effort. Write that down so you don’t forget. That’s how true this is. Why Does E-A-T Matter? Hopefully, the importance of these three descriptors is somewhat obvious just from reading their descriptions and running a business. You always want to be an expert in your field, authoritative sites, and trustworthy. Meeting the E-A-T guidelines is one of the most important things you can do to stay high in Google rankings, according to SEO professionals. It will keep the people who visit your website from going elsewhere and developing a negative view of your business. It will make Google drive traffic toward your site over others because the reviews show users will have a better experience on your website. It will help you gain or maintain a favourable position in search engines results, positively impacting your traffic and revenue. Sound good? It should. Here’s how you can actually make it happen. How to Improve E-A-T Improving E-A-T is no small feat and it will require a significant amount of work. But here are some of the highlights of what you should do: Be consistent: Is your brand memorable and capable of instilling trust in customers? Stay up to date: Are the facts and other information in your create content Google still accurate? Make quality, useful content: Does your creating content meet a need and the standards customers with Google set? Write an About Us, Contact Us, and FAQ page: Are you telling the story of the brand, giving customers enough information to trust you? Just by answering these questions and making some adjustments, you can go a long way toward improving your site in terms of E-A-T. Quality content creation is the most important of all so even if it takes some time, it’s worth focusing your energy there. Try using this guide to write effective content. Clearing Up Some Misconceptions Working on E-A-T will only be beneficial if you know what you’re doing so here are some common misconceptions you shouldn’t believe. No E-A-T Scores You aren’t assigned a score for your adherence to the E-A-T guidelines by Google’s search algorithm or the quality raters. It’s not like the SAT where a few more points can get you into Harvard or in this case, the top of the search results page. The way your website exhibits Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness Or E A T indirectly affect the rankings of your website (fairly significantly) but this can’t be tied back to a single score or internal grade from Google. E-A-T is Not New Though these three letters have become the subject of much discussion lately, E-A-T is not actually new. It has been

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Why Isn’t My Link Building Working
Timothy Carter

Why Isn’t My Link Building Working?

When it comes to link building for SEO, measuring results can be nebulous. But boy is it frustrating when you have been actively doing quality outreach and your link building campaign still doesn’t seem to be yielding the results you want (or need). In my experience link building campaigns typically fail for one or more of the following reasons: Your links are from low quality sources (e.g., low quality link directories) Your links are not diverse, relevant or natural Your links are over-optimized for specific anchor text Your content doesn’t fit search intent (it’s either too long OR too short OR doesn’t answer the users’ query) Your content is poor in quality or cannibalizes itself with other content on your site Your niche and corresponding keywords are super competitive Some of what follows should be able to uncover at least a few of the issues plaguing your link building campaign. So why aren’t your link building campaigns working? Let’s find out. How Link Building Should “Work” First, let’s talk about how link building is supposed to “work” in the first place, and the various ways that link building can go wrong. You likely understand the goal is to establish or earn links pointing back to your domain to reap the benefits of increased authority and traffic—so how can you tell if your strategy is working or not? Link permanence. Nothing on the internet is truly permanent—at least, that we know of—but for the most part, the links you build should seem that way. One of the biggest advantages of link building is its capacity for accumulation; since all your links remain in place indefinitely, they’ll continue paying dividends of traffic and building on each other’s authority to improve your campaign further and further over time. If your links are getting removed, or if they’re otherwise unable to fulfill that duty, your link building campaign can’t possibly work. If you’re links aren’t sticking or you’re finding your linkgraph is plagued with broken links, then you’ll likely need to fix broken links by engaging in a broken link building campaign to get them back online. Increasing referral traffic. Link building should also increase your referral traffic; each new link you build serves as another portal to your site, and if that portal is relevant to your audience, at least a portion of your readers should be inclined to click through. As you build more links on higher-authority sources and continue reaping value from your old links, your total referral traffic should be on a trend of constant incline.If your growth slows to a negligible crawl, or worse, if your traffic starts to actively decline, you have a problem on your hands. Increasing domain authority and organic traffic. Similarly, as you progress in your link building efforts, you should see both increasing domain authority and organic traffic growth. Domain authority growth is an indication that you’re building positive momentum with the number and diversity of links you build to your site, and you can calculate that figure using Moz’s Open Site Explorer or a similar tool. If your domain authority becomes stagnant or starts to decline, it’s a sign that your campaign is in jeopardy. If your domain authority is rising, your organic traffic should also start to rise, since your overall search rankings will rise; if it doesn’t, something isn’t working correctly. New opportunities and reputation growth. Throughout your link building campaign, you should be met with a steady stream of new opportunities and the growth of your reputation. That means, you should gradually work your way up to bigger and higher-authority publishers; if you find yourself trapped in the same handful of publishers you started with, you’re doing something wrong. Though reputation is linked to this upward momentum, it’s a distinct concept that’s much harder to measure; if you feel you aren’t establishing your brand as an authority in the industry, it could be a sign your link building isn’t working as well. These general problems all indicate that something is probably wrong with your campaign. Even if you’re earning value in some areas, a disruption of growth in any other area is enough to warrant closer inspection; detecting and correcting the issues within your campaign can always make it stronger. That said, there are many different possible issues to address, so I’m splitting them into two main groups: high-level and ground-level issues. High-Level Issues First up are high-level issues; these are general problems with your approach, your overarching strategy, and your means of execution. They aren’t specific to any one aspect of your campaign but can affect almost all aspects of your campaign when they exist. Publisher Inaccessibility One of the most effective ways to build links is creating guest content to be featured on off-site publications; this provides context for your link, gives you a good excuse to be featured on high-authority sites, and gives you a recurring platform for development. However, if you can’t find your way onto a publisher’s site, which is usually the case, then this option is closed for you. I wrote an in-depth guide on how to become a contributor at major media publications, called The Ultimate, Step-by-Step Guide to Building Your Business by Guest Blogging. But bear in mind that guest blogging services should be filtered with extreme caution. Rejection is to be expected with this strategy; no matter how authoritative you are or how strong your pitches are, some publishers just won’t be interested in what you have to offer. But if you find yourself rejected consistently, and unable to land your first guest spot or advance to another publisher, you won’t be able to progress. There are a few possible influencing factors here: Status and reputation. First, your status and/or reputation may not be sufficient to land you a guest spot. Publisher standards vary from highly restrictive to universally open, but if you don’t have a portfolio of content to demonstrate your abilities, or a sufficient online presence to prove your

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5 Alternative/New Content Mediums to Boost Your SEO
Timothy Carter

5 Alternative/New Content Mediums to Boost Your SEO

Content marketing is always changing to reflect the latest technologies and the latest trends in consumption. Content is a broad term, referring to anything from simple social media comments to extensively detailed whitepapers, and everything in between. Using each content medium to its maximum potential is the best way to be successful with your inbound online marketing campaign, but if you stay consistent with only a handful of content types, you run the risk of a stagnant or uninteresting campaign. New Mediums For Content Marketing Content marketing is a strategic approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. Content marketing’s purpose is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating and curating content in a way that is valuable to them. Its goal is not to sell but to build trust and brand awareness while nurturing leads through the sales funnel. When done right, content marketing can benefit both consumers and businesses. For businesses, content marketing can be an extremely cost-effective way to reach new customers and generate leads without resorting to paid advertising. And for consumers, well-crafted content can be a valuable source of information and assistance during the purchase process. But before content marketing can be effective, businesses must first understand what their audience wants and needs. Only then can they create content that resonates with that audience. If you’re looking to stay up to date in the content marketing world, or if you’re just looking to inject your strategy with a handful of new mediums, try using one of these content types: Podcasting Podcasts are a series of audio or video episodes that are free to create and syndicate throughout the web. Many leading online brands have their podcast series, each with a unique angle or subject matter that’s explored regularly. Some podcasts focus on industry developments. Some focus on interviews and news. Still, others have more audience engagement factor, bringing in questions and answers or tackling subjects from reader requests. Since podcasts are usually based on a subscription model, they function as a social media platform as much as they do an independent content marketing strategy. Knowing that you can tailor your podcasting strategy to fit your audience appropriately, covering topics and speaking in a way that’s more fluid than straightforward blogging yet more structured than social media interactions. Like with interviews, it’s wise to include written transcriptions of each episode on your website and social media. Do note that podcasts take commitment. Unlike journal articles, which can be used once to great effect, podcasts need to be rolled out regularly before they start generating results. Online Interviews Interviews are a great content medium, especially for busy content marketers. The content takes the form of an organic discussion. You’ll have to spend some time finding and vetting candidates, but once you’ve found a potential interviewee, the remainder of the content piece practically takes care of itself. You can post your interviews as a video or audio file but ensure to include a transcript on your site. The written words are powerful for SEO and are more scannable for readers looking only to get the highlights of the piece. Interviews are valuable because they share information and enhance authority. In addition to providing some great material and positive experiences for your growing content audience, it is a sophisticated form of relationship building and generally works as a mutually beneficial relationship. One thing, If a brand and a leading voice in the industry are both involved in the interview, both of them get a share of credit from the other’s existing audience. First-Party Source Research & Journalistic Articles The term “journalistic articles” is used somewhat loosely here. In order to be accepted into a real academic journal, you usually have to be a strong authority in the field, backed with years of experience, deep knowledge, and a full team of supporting researchers and reviewers. But you don’t necessarily need to be published in a major peer-reviewed academic journal in order to reap the benefits of the “journalistic article” medium. Like whitepapers, journalistic articles are essentially in-depth, detailed pieces of written content that focus on a given concept. The differentiating factor with journal articles is the research factor; whitepapers usually offer secondary research (and occasionally some primary research) in order to support a main point, but journal articles revolve around a bout of original research. Rather than making a point and using data to support it, instead you’ll be presenting data and drawing a conclusion from it. Chances are, you won’t draw people in with humor or entertainment in your journal articles. Instead, these are scientific, logic-driven pieces that will heighten your status as an authority and provide source material for others to use in their content marketing programs. Memes Strictly defined, a meme is an idea or a behavior that spreads rapidly from individual to individual within a given culture. Originally used as a descriptor of evolutionary principles, the term “meme” itself has evolved to refer to bits of online content that have captured attention and gone viral. Some Internet users and online marketers have since begun to refer to any amusing picture as a “meme,” though this isn’t always the case. It’s technically impossible to start a meme, since a meme does not exist until it begins to spread, but you can implement pieces of content that could become a meme in a given context. Hashtags are an accessible example. By introducing a trend, action, or conversation topic using a given hashtag, companies hope to inspire a viral movement collected under that term. Of course, hashtags aren’t a necessary component of meme creation; if you can start a trend simply by making a request or doing something bold, by all means, do it. The key here is to present a piece of content in an easily digestible format that can spread easily from one person to another, preferably in

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Content Syndication: How to Scale Your Backlinks with Syndicated Content
Timothy Carter

Content Syndication: How to Scale Your Backlinks with Syndicated Content

Content syndication is one of the best methods for scaling your backlinks in for SEO & content marketing. Writing and publishing the original article (or infographic, or video, or any piece of material, really) is only the first step. Even if you create something informative, entertaining, valuable, and shareable, it won’t mean much unless there are actual people around to read and consume it. Syndication attempts to solve that problem by making your created content available to a wider audience. In this guide, we discuss what free content syndication is, why it matters to SEO companies, and how you can execute in order to rank your content for years into the future. If you’re ready to dive in, we’ll get started! What is Content Syndication? Content syndication is a term used to describe the re-publishing of content by third-party websites. Any type of digital content can be syndicated. This includes traditional blog posts and news articles, videos, images, infographics, and press releases. The type of content being syndicated in today’s online world might look a little different than it did 25 years ago, but syndication has been around for as long as there’s been mass media. Prior to the World Wide Web, newspapers and magazines often syndicate your content from freelance writers, local publications, and smaller papers with fractional readership. The purpose of content syndication, both then and now, is to provide a mutually beneficial outcome for both parties: The individual/company who offers up the valuable content for syndication gains access to a much wider target audience. The publication that publishes the syndicated content gets access to free and/or on-demand content without having to invest internal resources. Benefits and Perks of Content Syndication In this guide, we’re focusing primarily on content syndication from the perspective of the business providing the content to the syndicated partner. In other words, we want to explore how syndicating your content can impact your website and brand. With this in mind, here are some of the top benefits (other than higher visibility): 1. Referral Traffic The first benefit is direct referral traffic. Whenever you have a post syndicated, there’s usually some sort of referral link back to your site. And they’re generally pretty prominent. At the top and/or bottom of the post, you’ll typically see something like: “This post originally appeared on…” or This content was first published on…” with a hyperlink back to your website. A percentage of people will click the link and become a visitor on your site. 2. SEO As you may know, backlinks play a prominent role in search engine optimization and are one of the top few ranking factors for Google and other search engines. Getting a link from a syndicated content partner provides an authoritative backlink and visible inroad into your site. Check your backlinks now with our free tool!  3. Subscribers Depending on how your own content is syndicated and the type of call-to-action or link that you use back to your site, you may be able to pick up email subscribers and leads. Entrepreneur Sara Peterson recently published one of her articles on EliteDaily. At the end of the post, she got permission from the editors to include a bio that read: Sarah Peterson is the author of Unsettle.org, where she encourages people to never settle for careers they don’t love. Sign up for her free course to find the perfect idea for a lifestyle business so you can gain flexibility and freedom and do work you live. This simple link to download a lead magnet allowed Sarah to accumulate 1,000 new subscribers within a matter of days. She’s since gone on to show people how you can repeat the process. 4. Branding From a branding perspective, getting more visibility and exposure for your company is a great thing. Every time you syndicate a post, you can/should include your logo and brand name as a way of building trust with readers. (Even if they never click the original link or visit your own website, there’s still some exposure there that could spark trust in a future exchange.) 5. Resource Maximization Finally, content syndication is a sustainable method of content creation. It helps you maximize the more resources that you have on hand and prevents the need to constantly publish new content over and over again. Repurposing vs. Guest Blogging vs. Syndication There are a lot of different phrases and terms people use when discussing content. Let’s explore three of the top terms and explain how they’re similar yet different. Repurposing. When you take an existing piece of content and then change it up to fit a different medium or format, you’re repurposing the content. A classic example of content repurposing is when you take a podcast episode and turn it into a own blog post (or vice versa). Guest Blogging. When you publish a guest blog posts, you’re actually writing a brand new post that’s never been published anywhere else and then publishing a guest post on a third-party website with your own bio and a backlink to your domain. Content Syndication. Finally, there’s content syndication (which is what this article is about). This is when you take an existing piece of content and syndicate to another platform. Syndicated content is typically done on a word-for-word basis, though there may be some changes to the title, formatting, and/or basic structure in order to fit the publisher’s unique editorial requirements. As you can see, these three concepts are pretty closely related. However, the execution and application is slightly different. Understanding this will allow you to make smart and intentional decisions about your content strategy. The 3 Tiers of Content Syndication There are plenty of different ways to think about content syndication. But one way is to look at it in a series of three “tiers,” which dictate both an order and a degree of importance for the overall campaign success. Within each tier, there are a number of different options for individual brands to choose. But

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How to Execute Digital Marketing on a Small Budget
Timothy Carter

How to Execute Digital Marketing on a Small Budget

When you think of ‘digital marketing,’ what comes to mind? Is it splashy ads, viral social media content, online marketing and immersive website experiences? Do you imagine billion-dollar businesses like Coca-Cola, Nike, and Apple flexing their creative muscles and spending millions of dollars on clever campaigns? While high-rollers like these certainly have the advantage of a massive digital marketing budget, the reality is that you don’t need a six- or seven-figure pot of gold to generate results. Because if you’re willing to roll up your sleeves, work creatively, and focus on the right investments, small marketing budgets can generate pretty impressive returns. In this guide, we’re neutralizing the mythical correlation between digital marketing success and dollars spent. Instead, we’re going to explore some of the top tips, strategies, and frameworks that are helping brands with limited digital marketing budgets reach customers and engage them in high-level ways. If you’re ready to learn how we can get started! Cultivate The Right Mindset It might sound odd to begin a discussion of marketing strategies with mindset, but this is a very important concept. And once it’s grasped, you’ll discover much more freedom to invest your resources into the right channels and initiatives. The problem most smaller brands have with digital marketing channels is that they see it as a one-off project. At first, this might not seem like an issue. But it has negative ramifications – especially for brands that don’t have a large marketing budget. The correct way to view marketing activities is as an ongoing investment. Yes, each campaign and initiative has its own life, but you’re always feeding a long-term vision. It’s best to think of your marketing campaign as a framework or foundation. It’s something that you’re going to continue to build on for years to come. And as is the case with any foundation in a building project, it needs to be sturdy if it’s going to serve its purpose. Any brand can build a sturdy marketing foundation. The digital marketing budget is irrelevant. And just because you have a shallow budget today, doesn’t mean you won’t have more financial resources to invest in marketing in the future. If you’re viewing marketing as a one-off investment today, you’ll end up constructing a cheap and flimsy foundation that won’t hold up under the weight of a more intensive marketing campaign down the road. However, if you cultivate the right mindset and see the importance of creating a strong and scalable foundation that grows with you over time, you’ll be able to generate results regardless of the size of your marketing budget. To put it even more clearly: Build a strategy that won’t be obsolete when you have a six- or seven-figure online marketing budget in tote. This doesn’t mean your marketing strategy will look the same – it just means it’s grounded with a strong foundation that can scale up and evolve with ease. Develop a 12 Week Plan Before we dig into the very specific strategies you can use to generate results on a small marketing budget – including tips related to the content, social media, email, etc. – it’s important to touch on one more key element in relation to strategizing. For years, annual plans and goals have been the measuring stick and framework within which businesses plan campaigns. But we’re going to encourage you not to use a one-year plan and to instead begin with a 12-week plan. Planning in blocks of 12 weeks is a concept that bestselling author Brian Moran has popularized. It’s a goal-setting approach that’s rooted in the fundamentals of periodization (which is the process of focus, concentration, and overload in an athletic training environment). The idea is that, by moving the goalposts in from 12 months to 12 weeks, you increase intensity and urgency. This simultaneously improves your chances of reaching the goals you set. Annualized planning has been around for years, but it should no longer be a best practice (particularly within the context of digital marketing). When the annual plan was first introduced more than a century ago, businesses were able to look out three to five years into the distance and feel confident that nothing major would change. But as you know, we don’t operate in an environment like this any longer. In the digital marketing space, trends and best practices are changing on a weekly basis. So why create a marketing plan that’s focused on one year out? A 12-week period of time is enough to help you generate results without eroding that much-needed sense of intensity and focus. There’s nothing wrong with having an annual vision – or even a three-year vision – but it should always come back to a shorter time frame. And it just so happens that 12 weeks – or roughly a quarter of the year – provides the perfect structure. 6 Tips for Marketing on a Small Budget – 6 Steps For Allocating Your Digital Marketing Budget Now that we’ve discussed the importance of developing a strong and scalable foundation, as well as the need for campaigns and goals that have the right blend of intensity and focus, it’s time to get into the good stuff. While it might be easier to be successful with marketing if you have a large online marketing budget, the constraints of a smaller budget can force you to emphasize the right principles. It basically takes away all of your crutches and forces you to get to work. And with that being said, here are a few specific tips you can use to generate more with less: 1. Create High-Value Content While much has changed in the digital marketing space over the past decade – and much will continue to change in the near future – one thing remains true: Content will always be the king of marketing. And if there’s something that we’ve continued to learn about content, it’s that quality reigns supreme. One of the biggest problems we see in our space is

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