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Some People Excel At Seo Tools For Online Business And Some Don't - Which One Are You?

16 Must-Have Tools for Off-Page SEO and Link Building

Off-page SEO can be a chore for some. Link building isn’t easy in the modern age of SEO and with so many signals, techniques and prospects out there, it can be hard to know where to start.
Luckily, there is a whole arsenal of tools at our disposal – both paid and free – that you can use to make your life easier in all these areas. Not only can these tools speed up some of the more long-winded processes that come with the territory, but they can also increase the scale of your strategies and improve success rates.
In this article, we’ve got an up-to-date list of the best tools available in 2020 for off-page SEO. Here’s a quick preview of which tools we’ll be looking at today:
  • Google Search
  • Ahrefs
  • Majestic
  • Moz’s Link Explorer
  • Linkclump
  • Check My Links
  • Web Archive
  • Talkwalker Alerts
  • SEOquake
  • Screaming Frog’s SEO Spider
  • BuzzStream
  • Streak for Gmail
  • SEOTools for Excel
  • SEMRush
  • Kerboo
  • Contentbird
  • The more advanced tools on that list are paid but there are plenty of free tools in there, too, for specific off-page SEO and productivity tasks. So let’s get started.
    Price: Free
    I know it seems really obvious to include Google here, but so often we see curated SEO tool lists that omit it, so for the sake of being pretentiously obvious, it makes an appearance.
    Google indexes the entire web. Translation: Google has a list of every place you could potentially ever want to get your site linked!
    When you’re looking for off-page SEO opportunities (eg: the best SEO blogs to get juicy backlinks from), it makes sense to get this list directly from the source by searching for “seo blogs,” “seo news” and other related queries into Google Search.
    Price: Ahref prices start from $99/month (you’ll be charged in USD)
    Backlinks make the web go round in terms of traffic, for both referrals and search visibility. Therefore, analysing and keeping track of this data is key on both your own and your competitors’ websites. All three of these tools work hard to crawl the web and keep an extensive index of backlink data.
    You can also use these tools to unearth new link opportunities relevant to your industry. Some also offer additional analysis features, such as Majestic’s Clique Hunter tool, which can make this process much faster.
    Price: Free
    Linkclump is a Chrome extension that can highlight multiple links at once on a page and then serve an action for those links, whether it be copying them to paste into a spreadsheet or opening them in multiple tabs.
    This may not sound like a lot, but if you’ve ever had to copy or click a huge list of links one by one, you’ll know it’s one of the most tedious things on earth. This will not only save you time and effort when doing your job, but a tiny fraction of your sanity too.
    Price: Free
    Check my Links is my go-to tool when carrying out broken link checking on external sites.
    Found a resource list you’d quite like to get your content cited on? A broken link check on said page which identifies some issues means you A) have a helpful reason to contact the webmaster to begin with, and B) have given the webmaster a reason to edit the site, thus increasing your chances of gaining a backlink.
    You can then also use Linkclump to copy and paste all the broken links you find into your outreach email, too.
    Price: Free
    Web Archive is exactly what it says on the tin – a historic index of pages and sites across the web.
    As for using this for off-page SEO, it can be incredibly useful when you find broken links with Check My Links. When you find a link to a 404 page, the chances are that there was once good content on it and other sites will be linking to it too.
    You can use Web Archive to find out what this content was, recreate (and improve) it, and then outreach to other sites requesting they update the broken link back to the updated resource.
    Price: Free
    Talkwalker Alerts is an alternative to Google Alerts that simply works better.
    Don’t ask me why, but for some reason around 2013, Google Alerts broke, and although it’s been “fixed” since then, it hasn’t been updated to meet the needs of modern SEO. Talkwalker’s offering delivers either immediate, daily or weekly alerts when it finds whichever search term you are following on the web.
    These alerts are useful for no end of things; tracking brand mentions, tracking competitor mentions, unearthing new off-page opportunities via footprints and much MUCH more.
    Price: Free
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    There are numerous plugins you can get for your browser that give you separate metrics on the web page you are browsing, however SEOquake has most of what you need under one roof, including page rank, domain age, Cache date, social shares and more.
    SEOquake also works in SERPs, allowing you to see metrics of every website from a single page and has a handy option that highlights nofollow links with a strikethrough.
    Price: Free version available, paid version £149 per year
    Screaming Frog is mainly praised for being an excellent, on-site SEO tool, however, once you understand the ins and outs of the software you’re sure to find uses for off-page SEO too.
    A personal favourite use of mine is for brand mention link reclamation by using Screaming Frog to crawl the complete list of pages I have found and using a custom filter to see if there is a hyperlink back to said brand’s website or not in the HTML. This can save hours (or even days!) over manually checking each mention.
    Price: Prices start from $24 per month
    For outreach management, there are very few rivals to the online software platform Buzzstream. Divided into two key areas, Buzzstream is a tool for managing A) link building and B) PR and social media.
    What they say: “Media fragmentation has resulted in millions of micro-influencers having conversations about products and services across the social web. Building and effectively managing relationships with these influencers is the key to getting found by customers.”
    Due to the evolution of search engines and the introduction of social media, people have fundamentally changed the way they shop and learn about products. What does BuzzStream do? The aim is to bring order to the chaos of developing authentic relationships with word-of-mouth influencers across the social web.
    Whether you are new to link building or an experienced ‘outreach-er’, you’ll understand the power of management and organisation in this department. Staying on top of things can become overwhelming and this quirky platform will keep you on top of opportunity.
    Price: Free version available, paid versions start from $49/month per user
    Streak for Gmail is exactly what it says on the tin – customer relationship management for your inbox.
    Not only does it have a pretty interface that is very intuitive to use, but it’s fantastic for managing your outreach process from “Hello, how are you?” to “Thanks for the link!”
    This means no prospect currently in the outreach pipeline gets lost or forgotten. You can also add useful notes to emails for both current and future reference.
    If you can’t afford to splash out a few bucks on BuzzStream, consider this as the alternative.
    Price: Free
    The first line on Niels Bosma’s page for SEOTools for Excel is “Real SEOs work in Excel.” We can’t argue with that statement, and we also can’t argue with just how useful his brainchild is either.
    SEOTools for Excel can import a whole wealth of data into your spreadsheets, for both on-site and off-page SEO purposes. Not only can you access page rank and social shares, but it makes good use of Majestic’s API too.
    One of my favourite uses for this tool is sorting prospect lists by their authority and signals, thus meaning I can prioritise them in terms of importance and benefit.
    Price: Free tools available, prices for full paid version start from $99.95 per month
    SEMRush has a lot of data, which can be useful for everything from penalty analysis to backlink audits. A great all-rounder.
    Price: Starting from £249 per month
    Kerboo is a tool developed by hands-on SEOs for hands-on SEOs, which gives it a very competitive edge for a wealth of activities, from discovering and disavowing links to ongoing monitoring and reporting.
    The feature particularly of interest for off-page SEO is the “Peek” function. By simply adding relevant keywords relating to a site’s industry or subject matter, Kerboo will go off and do the prospecting for you. Not only will it discover potential sites for outreach, but it can sort these by SEO value and authority, as well as harvest contact and social channel information.
    Kerboo’s most impressive aspect we felt was their email search. Going a few steps beyond the LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Kerboo brings back all that information and then some!
    A great example of how you could use this feature is that it can track down almost everywhere online a person is writing and contributing content using their email address, thus opening up a wealth of further link building opportunities.
    Price: Starting from €100/mo per user
    Contentbird is a tool that serves as an all-round hub of information and data tracking for SEOs, however I feel it favours link building primarily.
    Almost every step of the link building process is incorporated into Contentbird from start to finish. First, it has a link prospecting tool that goes off and does the bulk of the hard work for you. From there you can then send outreach from within the tool itself and track this outreach from pending to success. The outreach feature also allows you to save templates and pull in information about the person/site you are contacting automatically, so every email is easily customised for the recipient.
    Second, Contentbird doesn’t stop working once a link has been built; your entire backlink profile is monitored and checked regularly, meaning no removed or lost link will go under your radar.
    Contentbird also offers an alert service to track your most important business phrases around the web, be it your own brand, competitor mentions or those discussing subjects relevant to your industry.
    However, by far my favourite feature is how easily you can create and tag almost anything, be it contacts or stages in the outreach process. Not all agencies and marketers follow the same process for outreach, so being able to tweak this to your own style of working is a massive bonus.
    Of course, we can’t write an article like this without mentioning our own prescriptive marketing platform, Apollo Insights. Much more than just a link-building too, Apollo collates every piece of data available about your website from lots of the tools mentioned above, analyses it and identifies any threats and opportunities in your search marketing campaigns. It’s what sets us apart from other SEO agencies and why we’re able to give our customers the edge in their industries.
     Author: Lee Wilson
    Lee Wilson is the Head of SEO for Vertical Leap, a UK Search Marketing and Digital Agency that offers the most effective and thorough search marketing service in the UK, helping companies maximise their online visibility. Vertical Leap combines specialist expertise with a bespoke prescriptive marketing platform (Apollo Insights)… View full profile ›

    Get your money right in 2020 with these tips and Tucson resources

    If a financial resolution made it on to your 2020 list or vision board this list is for you. 
    We took a look at some common financial goals people make this time of year, asked a few local experts to share some of their best quick tips to help you jump start those goals and found several local resources that can help you learn more or help you stay on track. 
    Maybe you've heard some of these before, but sometimes a little reminder helps you remember that you've got this!
    Goal: Make a Budget
    The first step in working creating a budget it to track your expenses for a month or two to better understand how you're spending your money and where you can cut back, says Scott Bennett, a certified financial planner and executive director of 3rd Decade, a Tucson financial education program for adults in their 20s and 30s.
    Getty Images/fizkes
    There are lots of reasons you might want to budget your money. Maybe it's to save for a big expense like a trip, wedding, or new home — or you want to cut back on spending and focus on building your savings or paying down your debt. Whatever it is, your budget is your plan to help you get to those goals.
    "The first step is to look at a cash flow analysis for the first couple months," says Scott Bennett, a certified financial planner and executive director of 3rd Decade, a local financial education program for adults in their 20s and 30s. "(Keep track) of what money’s coming in and how much you have to spend and what’s going out."
    Then you can look at areas where you can cut spending, Bennett says.
    Bennett says participants in the 3rd Decade program are advised to use a plain, straightforward Excel spreadsheet for tracking and budgeting, but it’s important for you to find the system that works best for you.
    "There are a million different things and its not one size fits all," he says. "Don’t be afraid to try different tips and tools and see what works for you… if you’re hating every second of it, the chances of you keeping up with it isn’t really going to work."
    When designing your budget, Bennett recommends following the 50/20/30 rule, a common budgeting practice.
    This method suggests that 50 percent of your income should go to necessities (rent, utilities, etc.); 20 percent should go toward your financial goals (paying down debt, or saving for a vacation for example); and the remaining 30 percent is your discretionary spending (eating out, shopping, all the fun things).
    Goal: Pay off credit card debt
    Your best option for paying down credit card debt is to work toward paying down your balance on your card with the highest interest first and then the card with the next highest interest rate after and so on, says Scott Bennett, a certified financial planner and executive director of 3rd Decade, a Tucson financial education program for young adults.
    Getty Images/Farknot_Architect
    If you're ready to say 'goodbye' to some credit card debt this year, the first thing you need to do is take a hard look at your bills and understand what you owe and what you're paying. 
    "A lot of people think 'I'm paying my minimum on my credit card bill and that's good enough,' when it's not," Bennett from the 3rd Decade program says.  
    You'll want to look at your interest rates and see how much of what you're paying is going toward interest and how much is going to the actual principal. 
    There are two ways to approach paying down your balances, Bennett says. 
    "The back of the book, straight forward answer is to pay off the highest interest credit card first and then focus on paying the others," he says. 
    But, he also acknowledges that for some people using the "snowball method" is more motivating.
    It works like this: you focus on putting any extra money toward your card with the lowest balance while paying the minimums on all your other cards and then once that's paid off and rolling over that money to pay off the next highest card and so forth until they're all paid off. 
    Goal: Save money
    Establishing clear goals for your savings is one of the most important things you can do to ensure your success, says Scott Bennett, executive director of 3rd Decade, a Tucson financial education program for young adults. 
    Getty Images/eskaylim
    If one of your 2020 goals is to spend less and save more, the sooner you start the better. 
    "The younger you can start saving and thinking about that stuff (like retirement), the better you'll be in the future," Bennett says. 
    He advises establishing clear goals for your savings as one of the most important things you can do to ensure your success.
    "Budgeting should be the first step and then that budget is going to relate to those goals and having something to work toward, not just saying 'I'm going to save as much as I can,'" he says. 
    Bennett's top tip though involves re-thinking how we spend and save. 
    "Most people get a paycheck and then spend and then save what they have leftover, when that idea should be flipped on its head," he says. "It's the No. 1 thing people can do when they want to get serious about saving."
    There are some simple things you can do like making sure you're fully maximizing your employer's retirement contributions and setting up automatic deposits into personal savings accounts so that money is stashed away before you even see it.
    Personal finance resources
    Here are a few places you can find personal finance workshops and courses where you'll dive deeper into the three topics mentioned above. 
    The 3rd Decade Program has been offering its free financial education program for adults in their 20s and 30s since 2015. The course covers topics like investing, housing, insurance, budgeting, and debt and upon completion you'll receive a contribution to a Roth IRA. Classes fill up very fast and there is a waiting list. Go here to learn more about the program and eligibility requirements. 
    The Primavera Foundation offers free financial empowerment and education classes for qualifying individuals. There is a general course and one for single mothers and their children and another for grandparents raising grandchildren. Go here to learn more. 
    The YWCA of Southern Arizona in partnership with Score offers free financial literacy courses in English and Spanish covering topics like creating a personal budget, taxes, basic financial planning and emergency funds. Go here for the calendar of events and to learn more. 
    Goal: Start a business
    The Womens's Business Center at the YWCA of Southern Arizona offers business coaching, courses and workshops like the DreamBuilder Bootcamp.
    Courtesy of the Women's Business Center
    So you’ve got a one-of-kind idea and you’ve always wanted to be your own boss? Now what?
    There are lots of organizations in Tucson dedicated to helping aspiring entrepreneurs turn their dreams into realities, if you’re ready to put in the work.
    Francisca Villegas-Braker, director of the Women’s Business Center at the YWCA of Southern Arizona, shared her top three tips for anyone looking to start their entrepreneurship journey. 
    "The first thing you need to do is to identify what it is you want to do. Do some research, what are you good at? What do you have experience in? What’s your background?" Villegas-Braker says. "A lot of times we want to start a business because other people are doing it and just because this other individual is doing well doesn’t mean that you’re going to do well. It has to do with your experience, your background and your passion, because it’s a lot of work and it’s not easy."
    Assess your personal credit
    There's a good chance you're going to need additional funding to help with startup and other costs associated with launching a business, so making sure your personal finances are in order is important. 
    "If you’re trying to access capital, your personal credit will be the credit of the business," Villegas-Braker says. "Go to the free annual report website (find that here) and get a free credit report. You can see your FICO score and if things are reported accurately."
    "There're a lot of requirements that you need and you don’t know what you don’t know," says Villegas-Braker. "You want to be in compliance. You might need a City of Tucson license, you might need a Pima County license, you need an EIN number. (There are) all of the requirements to be in compliance with all these different government entities."
    Plus, you're going to need a business plan which will help you get funding, structure and grow your business
    "A lot of people don’t want to spend time working on the business plan because it’s boring..." Villegas-Braker says. "But it will save you a lot of headaches in the long run."
    Here are a few places that will help you work on that business plan, get coaching and connect with other entrepreneurs
    Women’s Business Center at the YWCA of Southern Arizona hosts a few different programs in English and Spanish to help all entrepreneurs launch and grow their businesses. Programs include frequent orientation sessions to help get you started and consider if starting a business is the right move for you, one-on-one business coaching and workshops like the upcoming DreamBuilder Bootcamp, a series of 13 classes in which you’ll create a complete business plan to help you gain access to capital. Many of the WBC’s programs are free, and although some do have a fee, scholarships may be available. Go here to learn more about the WBC’s programs and find the full schedule.
    Pima County Public Library has a whole range of workshops and services to help with aspiring and current business owners and nonprofit organizations through its Ignite program. Free sessions are hosted at four different libraries in the community and include topics like "Want to Start Your Own Business?"; "Simple Steps for Starting your Business: Financial Projections"; and one-on-one mentoring from the SCORE program. Follow the Ignite page on Facebook here to see all the offerings, or the library’s calendar of events here.
    SCORE Southern Arizona offers free one-on-one business consulting and mentoring services and workshops. Mentors are volunteers who are dedicated to helping entrepreneurs succeed. Upcoming workshop topics include marketing your business, financing your business and turning your idea into a viable concept. Go here for details.
    Startup Tucson has a number of business education courses, coaching and networking events to connect you with mentors and other entrepreneurs. Learn more about their programs and events here. 
    Goal: Become a homeowner
      Jim Davis / Arizona Daily Star
    Buying a home is a major life milestone and if 2020 is the year you hope to find a place of your own you'll want to spend less time watching HGTV and more time looking for the right lender to help you along the way.
    Elia Jaime-Bracamonte, producing branch manager with Sunstreet Mortgage has worked in the banking and mortgage industry for more than 14 years. She says that before you start looking for the home of your dreams, you first need to look for a local lender you want to work with.
    "Talking to a lender is the very first step you have to take to learn if you are ready to qualify, what program options you have and what is it going to take to get there," she says. "Unfortunately, I have sat down with buyers that come to see me after they have fallen in love with homes only to find out that the payment and down payment required for that home is out of their range of qualifying for or affording."
    She says there are several local and federal programs that offer down payment assistance available to home buyers who qualify for those programs (usually dependent on income and location you are purchasing in) and working with an experienced lender can help you understand what all your options are.
    You can find a lender by asking for a referral by someone you know and trust, or do some online research to find someone you want to work with. 
    "If researching online, social media — Google, Zillow or LinkedIn — would be good sources to see what their previous clients reviews and testimonials," Jaime-Bracamonte says. "While you're there take a look at their bio, if it is available to see their experience on the field."
    Then it's on to the next step.
    "Once you meet with a lender, then you can meet with a local realtor that will sit with you to learn what is that you are looking for in your home… then the fun part begins — house hunting," she says.
    Here's a couple of local resources offering home buyer education and info about down payment assistance programs:
    Family Housing Resources offers free comprehensive home buyer education classes, down payment assistance options and pre-purchase counseling which includes viewing your credit history, disputing errors, creating a plan to eliminate debt, determine which loan is best for you and other counseling services to help you through the process. Go here to learn more about the courses and services. 
    The Primavera Foundation offers free home buyer education courses for families with low-to-moderate income to learn how to find a lender, get a safe loan and find down-payment assistance. Learn more about this program here. 
    Pima County has a collection of the many different down-payment assistance and first-time home buyer programs on its Home Buyer Resources page. Go here to find a bit of generic info and links to the Tucson/Pima County HOME Down payment Assistance Program, Pima County Community Land Trust, Mortgage Credit Certificate and Pima Tucson Homebuyer's Solution Program. These programs each have their own eligibility requirements based on income levels and the location you're looking to buy in. 
    A group of realty, insurance, title and mortgage companies hosts a First Time Home Buying Class every month at the Catalyst Arts & Maker Space at Tucson Mall, 4500 N. Oracle Road. The class happens every second Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to noon and helps first-timers learn more about the home-buying process. The next class is on Feb. 8, go here for more information. 

    What to do in the first 90 days as a marketer

    “Ergh, urm I - er, I’m not sure”.
    That was me back in 2008 when I started my career in marketing and was introduced - unexpectedly - to my MD. I wasn’t expecting to bump into them, and at that moment when I was asked who I was and what I planned to do in my new role - a simple question - I lost the ability to speak.
    Why hadn’t I prepared an elevator pitch for this very reason?
    What a great first impression from the marketer who’d said in the interview she had the ability to communicate effectively and, as such, would be the right candidate to help craft the voice of the business.
    After this, I swore I’d always prepare for whatever role I had. Of course, every role I went on to hold, within the first 90 days, I would find myself facing new ‘first experiences’.
    Sign up for Free membership
    The first time I had to:
  • Manage a meeting, but was faced with a really loud person who dominated the meeting.
  • Create buy-in for a new campaign and share that SEO wasn’t a ‘dark art’.
  • Manage expectations when we missed lead targets.
  • I dread to think about how much time I spent worrying about if I’d done a good job or if I was delivering what my new boss required of me.
    In fact, it’s a focus we have at Careercake, the video careers platform I work for, that creates content to help people overcome the firsts. If new hires can understand it’s okay to make mistakes, they could spend more time delivering.
    Why it’s important to take on the first challenges as a new marketer
    The problem is, a lot of time can be spent focusing on the ‘wrong’ parts of a new job and by doing so, can really affect the impact you have.
    This article is the culmination of answers to the questions new marketers are asking us during the onboarding phase as well as the tips I wish I’d been told as that first time marketer who was longing to make a great impression.
    Download our Free Resource – Marketing careers and skills development workbook
    Our guide shows you how to map out your personal short-term and long-term goals, become more productive in your day-to-day work, identify your key motivators, analyze your digital marketing skills, how to leverage your strengths, and understand the different paths you can take to reach your goals.
    Access the Marketing careers and skills development workbook
    So, here are eight steps for new marketers to make a great impression:
    1. Understand what’s required of you (and what authority you have)
    The first thing you need is to get real clarity with what your objectives are. Far too many people don’t get this from the start, which makes it difficult to understand after month one, month two and month three whether or not you’re doing what’s expected of you.
    Of course, this will be determined by the level you are working at. However, you need to know where the opportunities lie as well as any restrictions there may be. It’s your job to push for this, after all, it’s your career, not your manager’s.
    What are you responsible for? Are you tasked with:
  • Growth marketing? (acquiring new users)
  • Partner marketing? (developing relationships and opening new channels)
  • Product marketing? (hits to specific product pages or sign-ups)
  • It is all too common for a marketer’s objectives to shift over time -  more so in an SME where you’re the first marketer and the business is pivoting whilst it tries to find product-market fit. But the needle can’t keep moving: for both your sanity and the business’ success.
    Agree with your manager what your focus will be within the first 90 days and set some objectives to work towards.
    Avoid just looking at hard numbers, your objectives need to also address the professional development aspects. Developing and nurturing relationships, understanding the culture and learning who is who are also really important to your long term success. You’re not there just to hit marketing KPIs, after all.
    2. You’re going to feel like you have to work twice as hard as everyone else
    I really feel for marketers. In some businesses, we are incredibly misunderstood and can often be the discipline that works extra hard to justify a project or change in tactics. We tend to be the first out or our budgets are slashed when things get tough because a stakeholder doesn’t understand the value of our work.
    Understandably, this can impact your confidence levels and feed that inner dialogue that is telling you “you’re not good enough” or “they’re going to find you’re not as good as you said you were in the interview”. It’s no wonder many marketers experience imposter syndrome.
    It’s tough to remove this feeling completely but what I would suggest is set expectations from the start and understand who you can talk with if you’re feeling a little low or in need of a confidence boost.
    3. Get ready to challenge your boss (professionally)
    If you are the first marketer appointed in the business, there’s going to be the occasion that you have to push back on your boss because, quite simply, what they are suggesting isn’t possible.
    “I want 100 leads from top FTSE companies, in the next six months, with no budget.
    “Let’s sign up to this annual contract because I was told it’ll get me sales.”
    “We don’t need to see what the competitors are doing."
    Sound familiar?
    The expectations of some bosses who may not have marketing training mean that when you come in, you’re expected to perform all sorts of miracles.
    It’s not their fault, marketing may not be their bag, but if you don’t manage expectations from the outset the rest of your 90 days - and in fact tenure there - is going to be tricky.
    If you find yourself in this type of situation I suggest explaining in a way that they respond best to why their suggestion may not be feasible, but always follow it up with an action plan on how to overcome it. Present them with solutions, not just problems and that’ll help alleviate some of the pain.
    Download our Business Resource – 30-60-90-day planning templates for new employees and managers
    By following these templates, you'll be able to record the essential information you need to fulfil your responsibilities and write down both your short-term and long-term goals.
    Access the 30-60-90-day planning templates for new employees and managers
    4. Get to grips with your positioning - and fast
    The business you join may or may not already have its positioning nailed. Either way, it’s your job as a marketer to test it and see if it’s resonating.
    You need to define what your business is and why this is important to a particular segment of customers.
    Talk with a range of stakeholders to see if they recite back to you the positioning you see on the website or within presentations. If they are struggling to convey what it is the business does and what problems it is solving, you may have your work cut out for you. Importantly does this match with what customers are saying and see you?
    Don’t accept poor positioning it’ll make your job so much harder.
    An amazing person to follow on this is April Dunford. I’ve seen her talk many times and her no-nonsense approach to this actually makes it easier to approach.
    In her words, she says: "Marketing can polish a turd. Positioning can turn a turd into fertilizer". Check out her tips on how to conduct positioning work on GrowthGenius.
    5. Overcome phobias: The first time you have to make a phone call in an open plan office
    We use our smartphones for everything, apart from talking to one another. We’ll order pizza, we’ll check in on social media. The frightening thing is, some of us scroll more in one day that we walk. But when it comes to talking with someone for some reason this really scares people - but it shouldn’t.
    I mention this because I hear of all sorts of stories where new hires are so worried about others hearing their call they’ll go and conduct the call somewhere they ‘feel safe’. Using this example, I would suggest booking a room where you can spread yourself out and write a script.
    But don’t write it word for word, I want you to colour-code different areas to help guide you where the conversation may go. Write up that first sentence where you introduce yourself or that paragraph that helps you to deal with the call if that person isn’t in. You’ll need to do this a few times but once you’ve got your flow and understand your style, it’ll be easier.
    6. Talk to at least 15 customers/prospects
    I love it when I see a new hire take the initiative and talk with customers to get a feel for how the brand is seen. Do this as soon as you can and follow the next few steps:
  • Arrange conversations with around 15 customers or prospects.
  • Arrange face to face meetings or video calls, to pick up on social cues.
  • Get them talking about what problems your product solves.
  • Example questions to start with, based tools including the Jobs to be done framework,  include:
  • Tell me what was going on in your day that made you realize you needed (product).
  • What would you be using if you weren’t using (product)?
  • Tell me how your role would change internally if using (product) was a success.
  • What is it you like about (brand)’s customer service or speed of delivery etc?
  • The info you collect will be important and can be used in a range of ways, from landing pages to sales scripts and more.
    Customer Lifecycle
    7. Create a customer journey map to identify quick wins
    Walkthrough your customers’ journey by mapping out every step and interaction they have with your business. Start with what you know from a marketing perspective, and then go to each department and ask them for their input.
    It works wonders for building those first relationships, and what’s more, this process will help you to highlight success gaps that any MD would be interested to see and act on.
    Check out Hubspot’s article on creating customer journey maps.
    Here’s a framework I use:
    Customer Journey Map Framework
    8. Create a mini action plan that will set the scene for your overall marketing plan
    This should be a culmination of all of those customer interviews you’ve conducted, all those opportunities you’ve highlighted, as well as key research you’ve picked up that will meet that initial objective you’ve been tasked with owning.
    I tend to work with marketers to create a mini-plan over the first three months to see how we work together, what their strengths are and to create small realistic targets. It also helps complement the testing phase of a marketing campaign and can be a great foundation for things to come.
    This mini action plan pulls through elements of PR Smith’s SOSTAC® framework but seeks to set a basis of working and will be used to show your boss how you work and what support you have access to.
    Stage 1:
    What does the business do? What is its positioning? Who are its competitors? Is it on track to meet the targets set by the company? What are the customers saying?
    Aim: You want to audit the business to understand its current situation (internal and external factors) to determine what strategy you’re going to propose.
    Stage 2:
    What objective are you looking to achieve (relate back to point 1)? When will you revisit and revise?
    Aim: Think about the business level objective you are looking to help work towards. If you’re looking to help increase new business think about what segments you are going to market to and which metrics you’ll need to look at that will help you build momentum.
    Stage 3:
    What is your strategy? Is it to go after a particular market? How will you position the company? What potential activity will you drive?
    Aim: Here you will use the information you collected about the customer - why they buy, how they buy and how they search for solutions like yours to pull together to create a campaign.
    Stage 4.
    What will you measure and control? What milestones will you look to work towards every week and month? Use this to manage expectations with your boss and ensure communication channels are open.
    Summary
    The first 90 days as a marketer can be tough but it’s also a great opportunity to develop both your personal brand and your ability to develop awesome work. These tips are there to help accelerate your learning and help you make an impact sooner, giving you shortcuts to some of the answers you may find you may need to thrive.
    With a background in the learning, tech and recruitment industries, Lucy Heskins, Marketing Director at Careercake, has a track record in building marketing functions and driving marketing strategy to scale businesses.She was a finalist in the Best New Talent category in the ESTNet Wales Technology Awards 2019 and a finalist in the Wales Online Awards both for the work she's done with Careercake.

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