Jay Lane

Read this part twice, "in order to identify issues and THEN address them." Seek to understand and then to solve. Also...processes can be tested; communications can be tested. Not everything is/or requires a tech solution. #citizenexperience #equity #efficiency #bpr

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Is your website just now feeling the effects of the March 2024 Google core update? And maybe didn't even know it? ICYMI: This Google update targeted low-quality, often AI-generated, content that is cluttering search results. All of this affects the quality of information users find online, meaning Google had to step in and clean up. With this update, Google aims to reduce spammy content in search drastically by over 40%. The update doesn’t penalize the use of AI in content creation. However, it aims to ensure that content meets the same standards as real/human authors. This means AI-generated content should be informative, accurate, and engaging. Also, it should offer unique perspectives or insights that benefit the user. You may not have felt the impact right away, but a few months later you may notice a trickle down effect on your traffic and/or leads. Recently, We had a client mention that that they have had less leads and form fills since the spring. We took a look at their Analytics dashboard and, sure enough, they have a gradual decline of organic traffic since late spring. With no other changes in their tactics, strategy or partners, we are seeing their specific site feeling the effect of this update related to "low quality" content. Let us know how we can provide copywriting and a content strategy that WON'T be penalized by Search Engines? Andreas Gran is an amazing copywriter and strategist that will add wisdom to the convo. Also, Surroundings Group is happy to take a look at your Analytics Dashboard and have the conversation about how we can help you increase and grow your traffic.

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How do you get a great website design quote? ⛔ Don’t panic search Google ⛔ Don’t throw together an RFP ⛔ Don’t rush into the process blind Here’s a great guidebook to getting the best price on a website! https://lnkd.in/gaY4dr_A No email address, no lead gen form. Just a PDF to get you started. #webdev #smallbusiness #gettingstarted

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As a small agency, we can't always keep up with the slick documentation larger agencies provide. But where we shine is solid implementation—fast and tailored to business needs. With the healthcare company below, they'd selected another partner, impressed by their proprietary process docs and timelines. After the project dragged on 3x the original projection and data challenges between NetSuite and HubSpot had not been addressed, they came to an impasse. Enter MM. We had them up and running in a week and a half, with all data moving as needed through creative troubleshooting between both systems. No flashy PPT, but quality execution. We've continued to help train and build out additional needs for their healthcare business in Sales and Service Hub to fully leverage HubSpot for their goals. Let us know if your healthcare sales, marketing or customer success team needs support getting into HubSpot. We'd love to assist and save the day for your team, too. #healthcaremarketing #healthcaresales #hubspot #saleshub #servicehub

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When you understand the "emotional blueprint" of your audience, you can overlay this sentiment with #InclusiveMarketing data. Victor Reiss, FACHE of UNC Health illuminates this in 3 ways: Flashlight: Hightlight particular trends in data. 🔦 Floodlight: Cast a wider net to understand less obvious trends. 💡 Foglight: Slice through the fuzz to bring clarity to particular insights. 🌤 #SHSMD2024

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Endless, unproductive meetings kill time and quality decisions. This article cuts through the noise with three key questions to ask before you hit "schedule." Is it even needed? What's the goal? Who needs to be there? #increaseproductivity #timemanagement #meetingeffectiveness

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I got to do some work with a long-time great client yesterday as we shot some video for Akeneo: The Product Experience Company. As Aidan and I set up the first shot we kept on coming back to it and trying to adjust it. It was "fine", but wasn't working for us as well as we wanted. Finally we grabbed a chair, walked away and started taking picture on my phone of the chair in different areas. In just a couple of minutes we found a great spot. We moved all the gear over, adjusted the lighting and were ready to go in a few minutes. My point is that no matter how great your message/story is you need to have it in the right frame. The frame sets the tone and provides background for the story. Here are some storytelling frames for different methods. - Video - The background and lighting - Verbal Story - The setup of the situation, characters, and location - Audio - The music, and overall soundscape - Graphic - The size, layout, and colors All these things provide information and set the tone for how your audience will interpret your information. Background is important. #storytelling #video #audio #collateral

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I'm not a thought leader. I realized this a long time ago. I love what I do, and I thrive finding innovative ways to capture the newest theories in my industry to suit my clients. But my strength is being in the weeds. I can deep dive the impacts of product sort order on SEO, or debate the merits of one CMS over the other for small businesses, or sift thousands of lines of data to identify process changes that need to occur for a business to perform better in organic search. I'm not the one who sifts through Google release notes to get the first read on an algo update. I'm not the one with the big new ideas about the future of organic search. If you need someone to post frequent articles about the hot topics of SEO today, it's not me. I wish it was. I often find myself envying the attention and notoriety (and the halo financial stability) that often comes with thought leadership in our industry. But my best work happens when I'm in the guts of a site, or grinding my way through a website crawl export on the hunt for patterns and red flags, or verbally processing a site's functions with a small business owner who feels overwhelmed. Not everyone has to be a thought leader to leave an impact on our industry. Sometimes, the biggest, most meaningful contribution is just being the person in the weeds, doing the work. Do I miss occasionally being invited on to stages? Yes. Speaking about this industry and the way it can help deserving organizations grow is an incredible experience. But ultimately, the work of positioning myself to be that person, isn't where my strength is. Being the one in the weeds doesn't always generate that kind of opportunity. I'm not a thought leader. And I appreciate the people who are. And if you, too, feel the imposter syndrome of not being thought leader-y enough, just know that there is nothing wrong with being so deep in the work that you don't talk about it. There is nothing wrong with just giving it your best for your clients or partners or colleagues. It's okay not to shout what you know from the mountaintops. I've wrestled with this a lot. I MISS speaking. But I'm also sure that my clients are getting a better version of myself when I'm more focused on the work they need, than positioning myself as a thought leader. (Worth noting: a lot of incredible people do both!) It sometimes takes some coming to terms. If I had the focus and consistency to be a thought leader in SEO, maybe I'd build some of that reputation back up. But I can't juggle the thought leadership with the in-the-trenches, hands-on work I'm doing every single day. So for now, at least -- I'm not a thought leader. And I'm generally okay with that. And if you're not a thought leader either, welcome. We can grind on the nitty-gritty work together.

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What's the value of an SEO ranking report in 2024? As SEOs, we've been doing them forever. But how telling are they in today's personalized search-result world? Baileigh has thoughts!!!

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I was a skeptic for many years…   Ten years ago, all of the hype was about Facebook. (Sort of like AI today)   I didn't believe that just showing up on Facebook would magically make customers appear.   So, I published an article titled "A Sober Approach to Social Media."   It went through the numbers… and based on the organic reach then, it would take 3600 fans to get a single conversion.   Organic social didn't make sense to me…   And Facebook was already becoming a pay-to-play platform.   But there was one thing I could never resolve…   Why would someone scrolling through their timeline want to click on my ad??   So, for many years I mostly ignored Facebook…   Until I met Chris…   Chris said, "Craig, people go to Facebook to read stories about people… make your ads stories about people."   For the first time, it made sense to me…   …and it opened up a channel for high-ticket B2B leads… at a bargain.   Every once in a while, someone will ask me, "Craig, isn't Facebook for B2C?"   "Do you believe your B2B customers don't have a Facebook account?" is my response.   Connect with me if you want to learn more… or download my guide on High-Ticket B2B Facebook leads (in the comments).   Guess what… if your ideal clients have a Facebook account… you can reach them there as long as you approach in the right context…   #leadershipqualities #salesandmarketing #growthstrategies

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In the fast-paced world of online search, it's important to stay on top of your digital footprint. Take charge and regularly review your search results! One of my newest clients made some broad changes to their website recently and one of those changes had an unintended and nasty impact on how they appeared in the search results. This directly resulted in fewer visitors. Regular audits would have revealed the specific reason. By consistently searching for your own company, products, or key people, you'll gain valuable insights into how your brand is presented in the search results. This allows you to identify any outdated or missing information, inconsistencies, or even negative content that could be hurting your reputation. Remember, your search results are often the first impression someone has of your business. Ensure it's a positive and accurate reflection of what you represent. #SEO #digitalmarketing #branding #reputationmanagement

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When you're developing customer case studies, the temptation is to include every last bit of detail and "how great we are" messaging. But don't give away your secret sauce. While case studies can serve multiple purposes, the main goal is to close the deal. And give just enough, and the right, information to help your customers understand what you did, why it matters, and how your customers are better for it today. Need a fresh perspective and extra bandwidth? Revelant Writing specializes in customer case studies for B2B healthcare brands. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eUAysMtz

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Vanity metrics often refers to site traffic or social media followers. Rarely do I see people reference vanity metrics with your email list size, but it's one of the biggest offenders I see in business. The number of mailable contacts in your database doesn't translate to the ENGAGED contacts in your database you can safely email without creating deliverability issues. That's the stat that matters. How many engaged contacts do you have that will get inboxed safely? #emailmarketing #deliverability #engagedcontacts

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Reputation is everything... If you want to learn SEO at this level, I'm doing a live training Sept 12 and 13, both virtual and in-person (in Utah). I've been successfully running an SEO Agency for 17 years. In that nearly two decades I've worked with Russell Brunson, Utah Jazz retail division, Dan Kennedy's Magnetic Marketing, Rockwell watches, & Shark Tank featured businesses, and recently signed Tony Robbins. But my favorite stories are mom and pop businesses growing from their kitchen table or garage to giant warehouses; many now with more success in a month than they used to have in a year. WHAT TO EXPECT I'll cover in deep detail how to launch an SEO campaign from start to finish: 👉🏻 Keyword research to find your ideal buyers. Stop guessing. Instead, get in front of existing search volume and demand. 👉🏻 Mapping out a content calendar around high value keywords How to focus topics towards attracting pre-qualified buyer intent. 👉🏻 On-page optimization Dial in your website's structure so search engines see you as an authority. 👉🏻 Pros and cons of a variety of off-page optimization techniques. Yes, not only will I show you the good stuff, but also outdated, bad SEO advice to avoid. WHO THIS IS NOT FOR ❌ Lazy or stubborn people I will share all of my processes used within my agency that businesses pay thousands of dollars per month for. You have to implement them though. ❌ Impatient people SEO takes time to drive a return. If you're not willing to put in the time implementing, save your time and money. ❌ Drama I like to spend my time with cool people. Other people are paying good money to hang out with other cool people, too. ❌ Broke people My time is valuable. This is not a charity. See above about lazy people. People pay thousands of dollars per month to access this. WHO THIS IS FOR ✅ Entrepreneurs and business owners wanting to increase their visibility on search engines. ✅ Agencies wanting to offer SEO or expand their knowledge to improve their SEO processes. ✅ 9-to-5 employees wanting to advance their SEO skills for potential advancements or opportunities. Register now and save $500 AND also bring a +1 for free, or split the cost. (Prices go up from $1000 to $1500, and no more +1 invites after August 15) In-person I originally planned on inviting only a dozen, but I've already sold seven seats. Let me know if you want the info. 👇

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In our fast-paced digital world, few understand email marketing nuances like Robert Wasiluk. He's unpacking strategic insights through a new video series that takes a deep analytical dive into campaigns. Grab your coffee and get ready to become an email marketing expert!

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"Scaled Content" rules could impact your AI-written content strategy. Are you ready? #digitalmarketing #SEO @Google Moz #contentmarketing #contentstrategy #aicontent https://lnkd.in/gQcpHCd5

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The Good, Bad, And Frustrating Aspects of Account and Person-Level Identity Tools. I'm working with a client that has great ICP traffic coming to their website. Their traffic also includes job seekers, consultants, and everyday curiosity seekers. This client has a very well-defined ICP and they are well-known in a niche public sector market. This company currently has Lead Forensics installed and RB2B to help identify accounts and visitor-level data. Lead Forensics is working very well to identify visitors at the Account level. It is identifying the correct accounts, and it’s working as advertised. RB2B is working very well to identify some U.S. visitors at the individual person level as advertised. 🔷 Here’s the problem: Lead Forensics does not identify individual-person-level traffic. When your ICPs are giant global companies, this only goes part of the way. Prospecting through an entire division of people is extremely difficult. Lead Forensics in this manner isn't enough. RB2B is identifying individual person level LinkedIn profiles. This is great. The problem is that RB2B is not very good at identifying the ICP accounts we have identified. These are giant global companies with operations in the U.S. RB2B is doing a fantastic job of identifying the people we don’t particularly care about (non-ICP identities). I know the Account level visitors from within the U.S. are hitting the site because Lead Forensics is reporting on it. I just haven't yet been able to link the account with the individual visitor yet. Ugh! What's another way to approach this? What are we missing? If this is solvable and you know how to do it, I would love to hear from you.  

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