Inner Architect Media https://innerarchitect.com Wed, 30 Apr 2025 20:29:36 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://innerarchitect.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/favicon.png Inner Architect Media https://innerarchitect.com 32 32 no Get The CRM Campaign Management Plan That Delivered $500MM https://innerarchitect.com/get-the-crm-campaign-management-plan-that-delivered-500mm/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=get-the-crm-campaign-management-plan-that-delivered-500mm https://innerarchitect.com/get-the-crm-campaign-management-plan-that-delivered-500mm/#respond Fri, 25 Apr 2025 18:33:49 +0000 https://innerarchitect.com/?p=8603 Inner Architect Media had been contracted to review the intake process for a new law firm client. The meeting was going well when my partner emphasized the point that, “CRM campaign management is one of the foundations of your entire marketing program.“ Almost spontaneously the client asked, “But what does that really mean? I offered the beginnings of an explanation, “CRM stands for customer relationship management. A CRM looks at Campaign Management as the planning, implementing, and gathering of results of marketing activities related to a specific goal.” That’s when things got real. “You’ve reviewed our intake process, are we

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]]> Inner Architect Media had been contracted to review the intake process for a new law firm client. The meeting was going well when my partner emphasized the point that, “CRM campaign management is one of the foundations of your entire marketing program.“

Almost spontaneously the client asked, “But what does that really mean?

I offered the beginnings of an explanation, “CRM stands for customer relationship management. A CRM looks at Campaign Management as the planning, implementing, and gathering of results of marketing activities related to a specific goal.”

That’s when things got real.

“You’ve reviewed our intake process, are we doing something wrong?”, the client asked.

My partner, an intake processes expert, gently and frankly offered her assessment.

From what we’ve found, you don’t have a digital repository (CRM) where your data can be collected and recorded. Your collection process for each sales channel is made up of  low tech Post-it Notes, loose handwritten entries, emails, voicemails, Word documents, and pdfs. Much of what your team is collecting can be lost. Without a CRM,  you don’t have an organized action plan to collect and follow up on the data and leads your marketing campaigns are producing.

The rest of the meeting was a kind informational exchange, but our new client was very concerned. We assured her we would deliver a plan that would organize and bring order to her intake process.

Step One: CRM Build

As we explained to the client, the first step to establishing a true return-on-investment (ROI) for all marketing campaigns is to build a robust CRM. We then outlined the role and benefits of their soon-to-be built CRM.

With no digital record keeping in place, we designed the new CRM to act as the home for all of the client’s marketing intelligence originating from each sales channel. The main benefit? It is here where the client’s data is stored and leveraged, not lost.

Design, Setup & Customization

The client played an important role in helping us to determine what data fields would be necessary to capture, track, and analyze over time. Since every law practice is different, the details that weave through firms’ cases are different. Once data fields were defined, we designed a process for capturing or integrating the data.

  • Custom modules including Leads, Intake, Clients, and Cases were established.
  • Examples of the fields chosen for their legal practice included case type, deadlines, and referring sources.
  • Integration with other tools like web forms, email, and call tracking were set up to help feed the sales channel data to the CRM.
  • Productivity and accountability were baked in using automation rules for task reminders, follow-ups, and notifications.
  • The final step was to finish with a data migration phase.

CRM Reporting

Our client’s concerns for transparency were valid and based on their dealings in the past with an agency that didn’t communicate well. We met with the firm’s internal team to review the reporting dashboard build. Reporting is a key to evaluating progress and is a welcome safeguard. Here are a few examples of reporting tools we created for the client.

  • Lead source reporting
  • Intake conversion rates
  • Custom reporting
  • Custom views by user/role

Step Two: CRM Campaign Management

The final pieces of the CRM were finished. Step two, the planning of their CRM campaign management strategies, began with a review of available client lead data.

Lead Scoring

Systems for scoring lead quality provide a roadmap for developing a lead follow-up plan as well as a vehicle for campaign optimization. Let’s take, for example, a lead scoring system of A, B, and C, with A being a top-quality lead. For an A lead, we know that there was something about one or more of the unique attributes of the lead that was a winning factor. This is the key to optimizing campaign performance. We collaborated with our client to come to a final determination of which type of attributes were good benchmarks for each lead grade.

CRM Campaign Management: Historical Baseline

Armed with a small collection of data, we began to build a baseline (starting point) for the client’s marketing programs. This data baseline is the starting point from which all present and future marketing campaigns can be evaluated for effectiveness. With the CRM set up and capturing data, the client’s marketing data will be organized and available on demand for firm decisionmakers and marketing stakeholders to view.

Analysis

Our client wanted to be able to produce a monthly report for its partners and intake team. Here are the templates we created and trained their intake team to produce on their own:

  • Source and channel for each signed case
  • Source and channel for each lead
  • Status of open, closed and referred leads
  • Summarization of unqualified leads

With this intelligence in hand, we were able to help the firm to recognize lead acquisition trends and potential obstacles to lead conversion.

CRM Campaign Management: Testing

Data analysis provides a path for testing with an intent towards improving results. The  standard strategies in how we approach our work include testing of ad copy, landing page copy, bidding strategies, audience targeting, and keywords. As the client’s CRM matures, we are able to conduct this testing using past performance as a guide. This intelligence will likely influence client goals and impact ROI.

Sales Channels

The sales channels displayed (below) are those Inner Architect has found to be most impactful for generating cases. After reviewing these channels, the client agreed to add Live Chat to their mix. Data from each sales channel is recorded in the CRM database. (Sales channels are not listed in order of priority)

Incoming Phone Calls

This channel may be the most impactful on brand success and reputation of all the sales channels.  It’s based upon the experience the caller has with the person handling your phone calls. With the power to land new clients in real-time or completely alienate them, our client needed to fine tune their processes.  Inexplicably, this channel, and the resources assigned to it, is often undervalued by firms.

Live Chat Leads

The most cost-effective sales channel available. Inner Architect’s Live Chat service utilizes human chat agents not bots. Agents are trained to listen and capture contact information. Agents will never communicate legal advice or anything other than building rapport with the interested party in an effort to gather and record contact information. Our client was willing to integrate this channel into their sales funnel and has been happy with the low acquisition cost per case and the overall ROI.

Website Form Submissions

Along with capturing contact information, the website form can capture marketing data in fields that are hidden from the prospective client. People that take the time to fill out a website form are motivated.

Email Leads

Like form submissions, people willing to write email correspondence are motivated to find answers. This channel provides a layer of privacy until the prospective client is ready to engage completely.

CRM Campaign Management: Data Output from CRM

The following are the benefits and goals we strive to achieve when analyzing the data from our client’s CRM.

  • ROI measurement: As explained, this is the goal of analyzing sales channel data, testing, and implementing intelligence from the data.
  • Lead attention assurance: This is the key to the lead follow-up plan we designed for the client. By understanding the quality of each lead, resources can be correctly assigned. This increases efficiency, is a more focused targeting strategy, and provides cost savings.
  • More leads and revenue: Maintaining lead quality and lead status data in the client’s new  CRM, and giving their decisionmakers access to it, enables data gathered after the lead was captured to be optimized for marketing efforts.
  • No risk of losing leads: By introducing technology into the lead generation process, the incidences of lost lead information should decrease significantly. The loss of Information lost by Post-it Notes, paper tablets, or voicemails can be eliminated.

Caveat Emptor or What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You

Buyer beware! The simple but powerful Latin phrase is applicable in marketing. No matter how sophisticated and complete a firm’s marketing program is, there is one concept that can derail everything beyond the absence of a CRM: Your response time.

In today’s information-rich culture, consumers expect instantaneous answers to their questions. In a seasoned Harvard study (The Short Life of Online Sales Leads), the biggest challenge facing professional services firms is responding to leads fast enough.  That challenge remains the biggest opportunity for firms that are prepared to connect with prospective clients rapidly.

Inner Architect Media was commissioned to provide a market analysis to a long-time law firm client. The assignment was to test the firm’s phone response times vs. the phone response times of their biggest competitors.

The results were a wake-up call. The firm’s biggest competitors had response rates from immediate real-time responses up to a two-hour response window.

Consumers don’t have to wait for answers. If your firm doesn’t act immediately, the prospective client will simply move on to the next firm and repeat the process until they are provided with the information they seek.

If client acquisition is a numbers game, then the basis of those numbers begins with your rapid response to incoming leads from all your client acquisition channels.  By instituting this mandate, our client was able to reverse the negative perception and land more new clients.

Questions to Discuss

Our work with our new client uncovered many questions that were never asked or went unanswered. Is your website converting leads to new clients? Are your response times capturing new opportunities? Does your firm have the processes in place to capture data, analyze the data, and answer the question: What is the ROI of our marketing efforts? When your firm can answer these questions, then you can identify what is working, what is not, and how to proceed.

Author’s Note

Dean Guadagni and Susan Hanshaw co-wrote this blog article using Inner Architect client experiences, data, and analysis to provide a snapshot of our work.

 

 

 

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]]> https://innerarchitect.com/get-the-crm-campaign-management-plan-that-delivered-500mm/feed/ 0 3 Must-See 2025 Marketing Statistics https://innerarchitect.com/3-must-see-2025-marketing-statistics/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=3-must-see-2025-marketing-statistics https://innerarchitect.com/3-must-see-2025-marketing-statistics/#respond Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:21:04 +0000 https://innerarchitect.com/?p=8586 Don’t be overwhelmed by marketing statistics when analyzing your own marketing success. I believe there are dozens you can look at but for me it’s simple. The three must-see 2025 marketing statistics are related to advertising and consumer behavior. 2025 Marketing Statistics: Advertising Statistic #1: 90% of internet users will see a Google Ad during their online experience which translates to a total search advertising spend in 2024 of $132 billion. Why is this important?  Seriously? 9 out of 10 internet users will see and engage with Google Ads while searching for information about products or services they will purchase

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]]> Don’t be overwhelmed by marketing statistics when analyzing your own marketing success. I believe there are dozens you can look at but for me it’s simple. The three must-see 2025 marketing statistics are related to advertising and consumer behavior.

2025 Marketing Statistics: Advertising

Statistic #1: 90% of internet users will see a Google Ad during their online experience which translates to a total search advertising spend in 2024 of $132 billion.

Why is this important?  Seriously? 9 out of 10 internet users will see and engage with Google Ads while searching for information about products or services they will purchase soon. If you don’t run Google ad campaigns and your website doesn’t have the SEO power to rank in the top results for your desired keywords, then your brand isn’t being seen.

Success story. One of our first personal injury law firm clients had a sterling reputation locally and nationally. Their founder was a highly revered pioneer in what today is a multi-billion dollar practice area. The firm had a $1,000,000+ marketing budget but  inexplicably no reporting process in place.

Upon review, we learned the firm’s internal intake team, responsible for following up with leads, was not responding to inquiries immediately. We discovered that the staff’s everyday tasks would keep them from consistently monitoring and rapidly responding to incoming communications. Without a process to respond to leads immediately, the firm lost numerous cases to competitors that followed up faster, sometimes within a minute. Most notable is the fact that even with the firm’s website generating over 1,000 leads, no new cases were signed.

Lost revenue. According to the firm, each case had a value of $10,000,000 to the firm.

The fix. We quickly implemented the following:

  • Inner Architect designed our first system for client intake optimization. (2016)
  • A CRM was built as a repository for data that originated through the firm’s marketing channels including Google Ads campaigns, phone calls, contact form submissions, and Live chat sessions.
  • Analysis of the firm’s data from their marketing efforts, to gain an understanding of what works and what does not.
  • Implementing faster, more effective monitoring and response processes.
  • Oversight that guaranteed the new standards were being followed as new protocols.

The results.  Our work achieved the following:

  • Four (4) new cases were signed within the first six weeks of implementation of Inner Architect’s client intake optimization plan.
  • Seven (7) new cases were closed in the six months after implementation of our intake optimization.
  • 12 new cases were signed in the following year utilizing the Inner Architect client intake optimization processes.

And What about that $132 billion in ad spend in 2024? What makes this important is the fact that your competitors, in most instances, are spending ad dollars to generate leads and raise awareness. They are going unchallenged and ensuring their brand will receive exposure to your target audience.

2025 Marketing Statistics: Consumer Behavior

Statistic #2: 93% of people read online reviews before making a purchase. It’s the first thing they do, in most cases, when vetting a company, their product, or services. (LocalIQ.com)

Why is this important? If you don’t have a legion of friends who can recommend or dissuade you from purchasing something, then online reviews become the deciding factor.

Statistic #3: It then makes sense that 72% of consumers will convert to customers only after reading a positive review. 

Success story. A long established and very successful company that provides lifetime experiences to its customers hired Inner Architect to manage their Google Ads campaigns. The company is seasonal so it’s critical to attract as many people as possible for the short time they are open for business.

Upon review. Everything was in place for continued success, the employees were well liked by the customers, and the business offered a wide selection of services to fit every budget. In addition, the expertise of the employees helped to ensure the experience was always fun, safe, and exciting. But there remained one tweak – get the word out so customers would write positive reviews.

The fix.  After reviewing the solid branding the company and its employees supported, we suggested that employees ask for feedback from customers about their experience(s). A simple how did we do question was often met with enthusiastic responses.

The results: Between the branding Inner Architect built into the ad copy and seeking feedback, the company has continued to receive positive reviews for their work.

The 3 Must-See 2025 Marketing Statistics: Questions

Are you competing to attract new clients and customers through Google Ads?

Are you sitting on the sidelines while your competitors bolster their position in your market?

Do you monitor your Yelp reviews and other review sites?

If you monitor your reviews, do you answer questions and address positive and negative reviews?

Do your employees go beyond client expectations helping you build your online reputation?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions, then get them with a free consultation. Contact Dean or Susan at Inner Architect Media to discuss how to take the next step in improving your revenues for 2025.

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]]> https://innerarchitect.com/3-must-see-2025-marketing-statistics/feed/ 0 The 8 Most Influential Story Sources For Content Development https://innerarchitect.com/the-8-most-influential-story-sources-for-content-development/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-8-most-influential-story-sources-for-content-development https://innerarchitect.com/the-8-most-influential-story-sources-for-content-development/#respond Tue, 29 Oct 2024 22:28:08 +0000 https://innerarchitect.com/?p=8387 Now that you’ve made the commitment to mining stories for your content development and created workplace strategies to develop employee involvement in finding stories, it’s time to get granular. Where and what are the actual places, activities, and instances where brand stories are born? What qualifies me to give you advice? I have been writing professionally since 2007 for Inner Architect. My experience includes pieces for Chicago Sun Times, Reuters, Fox Business News, Computer Shopper, and Plaintiff and Advocate magazines. When it comes to finding the stories worth telling, it’s worth looking back at your career. I was able to

The post The 8 Most Influential Story Sources For Content Development first appeared on Inner Architect Media.

]]> Now that you’ve made the commitment to mining stories for your content development and created workplace strategies to develop employee involvement in finding stories, it’s time to get granular. Where and what are the actual places, activities, and instances where brand stories are born?

What qualifies me to give you advice? I have been writing professionally since 2007 for Inner Architect. My experience includes pieces for Chicago Sun Times, Reuters, Fox Business News, Computer Shopper, and Plaintiff and Advocate magazines. When it comes to finding the stories worth telling, it’s worth looking back at your career. I was able to find impactful vignettes by recounting my corporate experiences as a software reseller and national account manager to Wells Fargo bank, working for TransUnion in the credit data space, and even from the beginning of my career as a sales rep selling groundbreaking (for the time) barcode technology for Moore Business Forms back in the 80’s.

8 Content Development Rich Story Sources

Customer Success Stories

Is there anything more compelling to your audience and prospective clients than a story about one of your customers who was struggling and with your guidance, you ended that struggle? When you tell a story of how your company ended the customer “pain”, prospects reading your success story often relate to the challenges they currently face. Those prospective customers will remember the pressure, angst, worry, time lost, money wasted, and negatives of their own challenge. With a detailed account of how you made that customer pain go away, a prospect gets a first hand look into how well you work and how you can help them.

We are not talking about a brief testimonial from a client. This should be a long form written blog post or video that digs deep into the details. Note: This piece can be used by a prospect as social proof when presenting findings to their management.

Company History (About Page)

Some of the greatest stories brands can share include how the company was founded, what the founders-owners were like as people, unique timing or circumstances of the launch, and what made the company unique and noteworthy right from the beginning. Unique stories are great, even little tidbits like this one. Did you know Hewlett Packard, founders David Packard and Bill Hewlett, decided whose name would appear first by flipping a coin?

Founder, Key Employee Profiles

A fantastic example of a great source of stories was from a former Founding partner of a large national law firm Inner Architect works with. The founder played college football at the highest level of Division I and was drafted into the NFL. When this man would meet with prospective clients, more often than not, they would ask about his playing days. And he would tell stories about game days in the university’s historic stadium, what it was like to play in front of 80,000 screaming fans, and the blood and sweat it took to earn a scholarship. Recounting his life experiences thrilled many of his prospects and paved the way for many to become interested new clients.

What Makes Your Services Unique or Noteworthy?

Do you have a differentiating factor that makes your services unique or noteworthy to the marketplace? For Inner Architect what we do is not unique but it is noteworthy with $500MM produced in new client revenue through our PPC campaign management and data analysis. Look for stories of how you’ve solved your customers problems and helped them prosper.

An ultimate example is the story of FedEx (Federal Express). They were “the first company to create an airline to solve the logistics challenges businesses faced. Operations began in 1973 with the pickup and delivery of the first overnight packages.”

Industry Conferences and Networking Events

Were you recognized at a conference for an achievement, did you give a keynote speech, find new clients, or discover industry breaking news?  Conferences are rich resources for brand stories. For smaller local  events you could recount how your preparation for a networking event lead to a new business relationship, allowed you to orchestrate an introduction that created a new relationship for your industry colleague, or helped you discover local industry news relevant to your audience.

How Did Your Company Give Back and Influence Your Community?

Does your company sponsor charitable organizations? Is a key employee part of an advisory board for a worthy cause? Do you organize your own fund raising events and donate the proceeds to local charity? Or are your product(s) or service(s) unique and powerful in influencing change within your community? Our Managing Principal Susan Hanshaw wrote a book titled Inner Architect: How to Build the Life You Were Designed to Live. In her book, she provides a step-by-step guide that helps people understand how to begin to change something in their lives that they wish to improve.

Review Sites

Yelp and Google reviews are, in the public eye, strong indicators to how your brand is being received and judged. For better or worse they are here to stay and something you must monitor and stay connected to. The upside is there are often glowing reviews about companies, services providers, and professional services that are never discovered. The positive customer experience based reviews can be used as a basis for your story. Don’t let a great Yelp review sit buried out of sight. Bring it forward for your audience to see.

In Person Meetings

Whether you’re meeting with a prospect or client in their office or yours, there are often no better opportunities to find impactful stories for your content development. Product or service demos, initial discovery meetings, open houses , new campaign rollouts, weekly, bi-weekly, quarterly, or annual progress meetings, and performance sales meetings are a few of the types of meetings that are rich with opportunity. Be proactive and look for important interactions that could be the basis for a great story that supports your company messaging.

The Next Step

If you are taking the next step to power up your content development:

  • Create a priority list of story sources you think will be the most effective.
  • What’s most important to you or which is the richest source of stories for your content development?
  • Begin to pay attention and look for stories during meetings, at events, while engaging in interactions and during your research.

Being prepared gives your team the chance to find the fantastic stories that make your company special.

Bio
Dean Guadagni
Principal, Content Strategist

Dean is one of the co-founders of Inner Architect Media (2008) and has 20 years of experience as a content producer. Dean has written professionally since 2007 representing corporate clients to solo entrepreneurs. He was an early adopter of WordPress (2007) and an approved member of  the BlogBurst content syndication service where his articles were published by Reuters.com, Nielsen.com, FoxBusiness.com, Ziff Davis Enterprise’s “Microsoft Watch”, Computer Shopper, and the Chicago Sun-Times. His work has also appeared in the leading California legal print publication Plaintiff and Advocate magazines.

 

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]]> https://innerarchitect.com/the-8-most-influential-story-sources-for-content-development/feed/ 0 5 Workplace Content Development Strategies to Find Your Stories https://innerarchitect.com/5-workplace-content-development-strategies-to-find-your-stories/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=5-workplace-content-development-strategies-to-find-your-stories https://innerarchitect.com/5-workplace-content-development-strategies-to-find-your-stories/#respond Tue, 22 Oct 2024 22:50:04 +0000 http://innerarchitect.com/?p=8303 As we now know from Google’s guidelines for creating  helpful reliable, people-first content, writing genuine, honest stories about how you solve problems, and are valuable to your audience, is the most effective content development method to attracting new customers and clients. But where and how do you find these stories, wins, examples of above-and-beyond vignettes to fuel your messaging? Content Development Begins at Home The proverb “Charity Begins at Home” translates to “Be generous to your family before helping others.” When we say, content development begins at home we mean that the greatest source(s) of stories comes from your employees,

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]]> As we now know from Google’s guidelines for creating  helpful reliable, people-first content, writing genuine, honest stories about how you solve problems, and are valuable to your audience, is the most effective content development method to attracting new customers and clients. But where and how do you find these stories, wins, examples of above-and-beyond vignettes to fuel your messaging?

Content Development Begins at Home

The proverb “Charity Begins at Home” translates to “Be generous to your family before helping others.” When we say, content development begins at home we mean that the greatest source(s) of stories comes from your employees, consultants, and close colleagues you work with. Happy employees make fantastic storytellers. So how do you bring those stories forward?

From 1985 until I left corporate life to stake my claim as an entrepreneur in the early 2000s, I worked for companies like Moore Business Forms, Nordstrom, and TransUnion (TU) in sales, sales management, and data. Together with my coworkers we were able to organize and implement some of the following ideas.

The Employee and Partner Voice

Give your employees and partners an open door policy to reach out and connect with their direct reports all the way up to the C-suite. Encourage them to open lines of communication and require your management team to listen and strengthen those relationships.  Give your employees and partners a voice in how your brand’s story is told, what those stories should look like, what types of content development they prefer to see utilized, and how and where the stories should be distributed.

Build a Company Portal to Capture Stories

Encourage employees and partners to contribute their experiences and ideas on what makes a standout story. Give them a place to record their stories and experiences by building an internal facing, employee partner only, portal where everyone can input their stories. A place to gather information that acts as a CRM for your story collection efforts. Assign a committee to monitor, update, and run the portal CRM site. Have your committee submit reports on story submissions and have them make recommendations about possible site upgrades and technology changes.

Organization Brainstorming Sessions

Institute a day on your work calendar where you hold a company wide meeting – in person if possible or Zoom if necessary. Choose stories from your company portal and ask those contributing employees or partners to tell the story themselves.

Assign a videographer to record each session with the idea of searching for clips that can be used on your website About Us page or other outbound channels. These are the stories about the storytellers and people who have contributed to the stories you will use for content development. Emphasize to your workforce that content development is the linchpin to your marketing and sales efforts. Emphasize the importance of how stories can lead to company growth and rewards for everyone in the organization.

Incentivize Content Development

People want to be recognized for their work, for caring about their contributions, for doing a good job. Praise goes a long way but it’s not going to pay the bills. Incentivize your employees and partners by providing bonus monies, perks, travel, or added personal days as reward for their diligent work in creating and finding stories that sell your brand to your prospects.

Leadership

How does leadership affect content development? Some of the most common reasons why employees leave a company include not having a voice in decision making, wanting a challenge, feeling uninspired, and poor management leadership. Find new stories for your content development through employee development. Give your employees and partners the tools to lead and the responsibility to do so. Create departmental teams to begin finding stories internally and on the Internet or other sources.

Poll your employees and partners and ask them what their definition of leadership is, what they believe makes a great leader, and what type of leadership training and development they would like your organization to offer.

Once collected, showcase these stories in a segment of your monthly company wide meeting. These stories could be used as internal stories that motivate and inspire employees and partners as they seek to move ahead in your company.

3 Workplace Content Development Questions

  1. Is your firm ready?
  2. Do you have the infrastructure in place to mine for the past, present, and future stories that make your brand unique and interesting to your prospective clients?
  3. And are you emphasizing the power and importance of uncovering stories for your sales and brand image?

Empower your partners and employees. Give them the opportunity to lead, a true voice in decision making, and incentivize their efforts to find or create those unique stories that attract new customers.

Charity does begin at “home” so remember: Be generous to your family of employees.

Bio
Dean Guadagni 
Principal, Content Strategist


Dean is one of the co-founders of Inner Architect Media (2008) and has 20 years of experience as a content producer. Dean has written professionally since 2007 representing corporate clients to solo entrepreneurs. He was an early adopter of WordPress (2007) and an approved member of  the BlogBurst content syndication service where his articles were published by Reuters.com, Nielsen.com, FoxBusiness.com, Ziff Davis Enterprise’s “Microsoft Watch”, Computer Shopper, and the Chicago Sun-Times. His work has also appeared in the leading California legal print publication Plaintiff and Advocate magazines.

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]]> https://innerarchitect.com/5-workplace-content-development-strategies-to-find-your-stories/feed/ 0 A New Chapter Begins: Welcome to Our Updated Digital Home https://innerarchitect.com/a-new-chapter-begins-welcome-to-our-updated-digital-home/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-new-chapter-begins-welcome-to-our-updated-digital-home https://innerarchitect.com/a-new-chapter-begins-welcome-to-our-updated-digital-home/#respond Sun, 29 Sep 2024 22:52:39 +0000 http://innerarchitect.com/?p=8328 After months of preparation, work, and focus, we are thrilled to finally unveil our brand-new Inner Architect Media website. Having launched Inner Architect Media in the fall of 2008, we are proud of where we’ve come over the last 16 years, and we wanted our new website to reflect that journey. We wanted to relay the message that we are not new kids on the block. Rather we are a team of seasoned marketing professionals with decades of experience—an often overlooked, yet valuable commodity that we bring to the table.   Why is experience so important? Current research suggests that

The post A New Chapter Begins: Welcome to Our Updated Digital Home first appeared on Inner Architect Media.

]]> After months of preparation, work, and focus, we are thrilled to finally unveil our brand-new Inner Architect Media website.

Having launched Inner Architect Media in the fall of 2008, we are proud of where we’ve come over the last 16 years, and we wanted our new website to reflect that journey.

We wanted to relay the message that we are not new kids on the block. Rather we are a team of seasoned marketing professionals with decades of experience—an often overlooked, yet valuable commodity that we bring to the table.

 

Why is experience so important?

Current research suggests that your brain is a predictive machine constantly comparing new experiences against previously stored earlier experiences. As a result, your brain can predict what will happen next. Because we have a lot of experience in building and managing marketing solutions for clients, our instincts for what works are more reliable. Our ability to lead our clients down the right path has improved with experience.

As marketing professionals with years of experience navigating through the trials and errors of testing, our team has built an understanding as to what a winning customer acquisition solution looks like. You can invest in us with a higher degree of trust.

 

Commitment to added value

Another value we wanted our new website to project is our commitment to providing added value. You will see this demonstrated through the various informational downloads we offer and will continue to expand on in the new site.

Whether you are interested in being hands-on with your marketing programs yourself, or simply want a higher level of familiarity with the elements necessary for success, we want our website to be a vehicle for education.

 

Why it matters

Whether you have followed us over the years, or are just meeting us for the first time, our website is often the first impression look at who we are and what we’re doing now. It’s frequently the precursor to a phone call or inquiry towards a new or expanded relationship. We designed our new site to represent the high level of expertise that you will get when you work with our agency.

 

Gratitude

We would like to thank everyone who has been part of this 16-year journey with us—we couldn’t have done it without you!

For those seeing this post that we’ve yet to meet, thank you for the opportunity to introduce ourselves.

If you’re looking for help with getting new business, there are likely some services you’ll find here on our website that could be the perfect solution for you.

We hope you will reach out through one of the many call-to-action buttons designed to make contacting us easy.

On behalf of the team at Inner Architect Media, hello again, and thank you.

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]]> https://innerarchitect.com/a-new-chapter-begins-welcome-to-our-updated-digital-home/feed/ 0 Either Match Content Types With User Intent Or Fail At Content Marketing https://innerarchitect.com/new-either-match-content-types-with-user-intent-or-fail-at-content-marketing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-either-match-content-types-with-user-intent-or-fail-at-content-marketing Tue, 23 Jul 2024 13:22:20 +0000 http://innerarchitect.com/?p=658 What does it mean to match content types with user intent? Whether you decide to use artificial intelligence (AI) platform ChatGPT, a different AI platform, or you produce it yourself, there are necessary steps you can take to get the best results. Critical to your success is knowing the types of content your audience and potential clients prefer. To come to these conclusions, you will need to identify user intent. Understanding how to match content types with user intent is essential to content marketing. Match Content Types with User Intent: 7 Questions In the simplest terms, user intent, also known as

The post Either Match Content Types With User Intent Or Fail At Content Marketing first appeared on Inner Architect Media.

]]> What does it mean to match content types with user intent? Whether you decide to use artificial intelligence (AI) platform ChatGPT, a different AI platform, or you produce it yourself, there are necessary steps you can take to get the best results. Critical to your success is knowing the types of content your audience and potential clients prefer. To come to these conclusions, you will need to identify user intent. Understanding how to match content types with user intent is essential to content marketing.

Match Content Types with User Intent: 7 Questions

In the simplest terms, user intent, also known as search intent, is the reason why most people input a query into a search engine that will help them find the information they want to know. To understand what your prospective client’s search intentions are, you need to answer a few questions. Step one to match content types with user intent.

  1. How do users find your website?
  2. What phrases (keywords) are users typing into Google when searching for the products or services your business offers?
  3. Why are users contacting your company or what are you known for?
  4. What are they buying when they hire your firm?
  5. Which pages are the most popular destinations for visitors to your site?
  6. How long do visitors stay on your website?
  7. What channels are visitors using to enter your site?

3 Types of Search Intent

Once you have your questions answered, consider what your prospects are after when they utilize search terms to fulfill a need. Step two to match content types to user intent.

Informational

This is the beginning of the process where your prospects are attempting to find information like descriptions, statistics, stories, or profiles that help their understanding of what you offer. Your goal is to ensure that the user finds enough information about your product or services.

Navigational or Comparative

This is where prospects compare your services or products to that of your competition. In other words, sizing up the important features and benefits each company has to offer.

Transactional

It’s decision-making time! This is where the prospective client converts, or doesn’t, by taking the action you wish them to take. Whether it’s a purchase, subscription, download, membership, or providing contact information, transactions are most likely to occur during this phase.

How to Choose Content Types Your Prospects Like

As you can see there is a process to match content types with user intent! By answering the six search intent questions and considering the three types of search intent, you’re ready to build a list of content types for your prospects and audience. Once you’ve identified and listed the best types of content to create, consider your ability to execute on each type. Do you have the inhouse expertise? Do you need help? What is your budget? Take everything into consideration before launching. Step three to match content types with user intent.

3 Popular Types of Content and What is Required to Create Them

Video

Video content has been #1 on the list for the last five years. Most people don’t have the time to read anymore. Sadly, even more people have never developed the attention span to read long-form articles. The often cited statistic that supports content made for visual learners is “on average, after three days we can recall 10 to 20% of a spoken word, only 10% of written but an astonishing 65% of a visual image (Joyce, Showers 1989).” Beyond actually meeting you for a conversation, video remains the best method to make an emotional connection with your target audience that is meaningful and a real conversion opportunity.

Required: If you are technically adept, there are apps available today that make video creation much more accessible. But if your internal team doesn’t have the skills to leverage these applications, then you will need the skills of a Videographer, lighting, proper sound recording equipment, and possibly a studio. Editing and final production skills are also necessary.

Visual Other than Video

Much the same as video content, anything that is visual based is extremely effective for the same reasons. Short attention spans and visual learning statistics support the use of infographics, high resolution images, graphics interchange format (GIFs), illustrations, charts, screenshots, Memes, Gifographics (animated infographics formatted as GIFs), SlideShare presentations, or flipbooks.

Required: Creative thinking, strategic ideas, and the right tools that allow your in-house staff to produce any or all of these visuals.

Blogging

Although podcasting has grown in popularity for the past few years, and many podcasters are attracting large audiences, the third most popular type of content comes from blogs. Long-form blog articles are the standard for in-depth learning. Yet, the concept of less is more has led to a surge in short form blogging popularity. The goal is to get to the point fast and leave the reader with valuable insights.

Required: Writing skills that include knowledge of punctuation and grammar, editing techniques, creativity, a solid understanding of blogging rules and best practices, storytelling, and the ability to author a voice for a brand that matches the brand’s mission.

The “Why” Behind Content Marketing

Everyone is doing it, recommending you do it, or warning you if you don’t do it you’re missing an immense opportunity. Let’s also check into some data for supporting the “why” behind content marketing. The three amigos of why?

Usage

Just because a majority of companies are using a strategy doesn’t mean it’s always the best strategy for your firm. Yet, it’s undeniable that if a high number of companies or marketers are utilizing content marketing, then there is value to the practice.

“82% of companies use content marketing.” (Hubspot) Are you one of them?

Consumption

If your prospects and audience don’t spend time consuming content on a consistent basis every day, then what is the point of producing content? Keep reading. . .

Incredible stat from Statista: “American consumers spend around eight hours of their day with digital media, roughly double the time invested in traditional formats.”

ROI

Return on investment is the most significant reason to adopt and support any marketing strategy. Without the ability to measure your ROI, you have no idea if the time and money spent on any activity is simply a waste of time or a wise investment.

“Content marketing generates three times (3x) as many leads as traditional outbound marketing but costs 62% less.” Search Engine Journal via CMI. The cost of producing high quality content can be very expensive, but the leads and conversions generated often outweigh cost concerns.

Dean Guadagni, Principal, Inner Architect Media LLC

Dean has been blogging and writing professionally since 2007, representing corporate clients to solo entrepreneurs with assignments ranging from blog articles, ad copy, and landing pages to website content. He is a contributor to legal publications Plaintiff and Advocate magazines. Learn more about Dean Guadagni.

His writing also includes authorship of a nationally recognized self-help business guide whose articles have been published by Reuters.com, Nielsen.com, FoxBusiness.com, Ziff Davis Enterprise’s “Microsoft Watch”, Computer Shopper, and the Chicago Sun-Times.

TRANSPARENCY STATEMENT

This article is 100% human created by Dean Guadagni. No artificial intelligence (AI) or AI powered writing assistants were utilized in the compilation or writing of this piece.

The post Either Match Content Types With User Intent Or Fail At Content Marketing first appeared on Inner Architect Media.

]]> How to Tell If It’s Time to Fire Your PPC Manager https://innerarchitect.com/how-to-tell-if-its-time-to-fire-your-ppc-manager/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-tell-if-its-time-to-fire-your-ppc-manager Mon, 24 Jun 2024 15:37:36 +0000 http://innerarchitect.com/?p=6576 My first stint as a PPC manager began in 2005 while taking a hiatus from professional marketing work. I had become ordained as a nondenominational minister and was promoting my wedding officiant services. I stepped behind the wheel of the Google ad platform, and even with 20 years’ experience in direct marketing, I was completely clueless! I taught myself enough of the basics to succeed in making Google Ads (it was called Adwords back in the day) one of my best sources for new business. But I will never forget how confused I was at first by the platform. I

The post How to Tell If It’s Time to Fire Your PPC Manager first appeared on Inner Architect Media.

]]> My first stint as a PPC manager began in 2005 while taking a hiatus from professional marketing work. I had become ordained as a nondenominational minister and was promoting my wedding officiant services. I stepped behind the wheel of the Google ad platform, and even with 20 years’ experience in direct marketing, I was completely clueless!

I taught myself enough of the basics to succeed in making Google Ads (it was called Adwords back in the day) one of my best sources for new business. But I will never forget how confused I was at first by the platform. I imagine that’s what it’s like for many business owners today who have Google campaigns in play. While some of the clients we work with have run their own campaigns, more clients prefer to be hands off and not look under the hood.

So, if you’re not experienced with the Google ad platform, how can you tell if your PPC manager is leveraging the features to produce the best possible results?

The role of your PPC manager

Let’s start by talking about the responsibilities you assign anyone managing your PPC campaigns.

Fiduciary responsibility

As the manager of your ad spend budget, your PPC manager has a fiduciary responsibility to you. A fiduciary is a person who holds a legal or ethical relationship of trust with one or more other parties. In other words, their job is to act in your best interests in handling the investment of your marketing funds. Therefore, careful oversight comes with their job description. I’ll get into that more as we delve deeper.

Training and experience need

There was absolutely no way that I would ever have thought to offer PPC management services when I was as green as I was running my wedding officiant ads. It was my money at stake if I messed up. The last thing I wanted was to be on the hook for someone else’s budget.

That’s the mentality you should expect from your PPC manager. Have she or he received training to assure you fiduciary responsibility? Have they received Google certification in Search? You can check the licenses & certifications section of their LinkedIn profile which will contain a link to the certificate awarded by Google if they have.

Google Ads Search Certification link displayed on my LinkedIn profile

Skills required

A strong PPC manager must have a knack for data and whiz around Excel like it’s second nature. You see, you’ve got to be able to dig deep to recognize trends over time and uncover the strategies and assets that are delivering the green.  This involves tons of report exporting and sorting columns of data. Not everyone is into this!

Deadly PPC Management Habits

Let’s look now at areas on the ad platform that can show signs of neglect or outright ignorance to the strategies needed to be successful.

Optimization score

The optimization score, which ranges from 0% to 100%, is a projection of how well your Google account is set to perform. A score of 100% means that the account is completely optimized. A 70% score indicates that there is room for a 30% improvement.

The optimization score is displayed to the right of the Recommendations tab on the left sidebar.

Google Ad account optimization score

The optimization score comes with recommendations for steps that can be taken to improve account performance. The recommendations can be applied or dismissed. Whether they are applied or dismissed, the optimization score improves. Simply ignoring the recommendations keeps the optimization score at its current level.

I view the optimization score as a huge clue as to how closely the oversight has been on the account and how motivated the PPC manager is to keep it optimized. I believe that a score of less than 70% is a clue that the account may be in “set it and forget it” mode.

Manual bidding

Okay, I should preface this by saying that manual bidding in of itself is not bad. It’s just no longer the most efficient way to bid. Google’s automated bid strategies—called Smart Bidding—use machine learning to optimize performance in every auction. Machine learning algorithms help to make more accurate predictions about the performance impact of different bid amounts than a single person or team could compute.

This is not to say that Smart Bidding is on autopilot. Your PPC manager still needs to oversee and make appropriate adjustments.

No negative keywords

Negative keywords let you exclude search terms whose intent are not relevant to what you are offering in your ads. If your campaigns are utilizing broad keyword matching strategies, it is likely that your ads will be delivered to search terms that are broader than your target.  Why use broad matching strategies? To increase your reach to potential productive search terms that would not be targeted with a tighter matching algorithm.

For example, we have a client offering information for a specific disease. Our broad match keywords often target search terms for other diseases that are not relevant. We constantly review the search term reports and have an ever-growing list of negative keywords to maintain a relevant focus.

Inadequate conversion tracking

The purpose of your PPC campaigns is to inspire prospects to take an action that you have defined as valuable to your business. These actions are called conversion goals. Making an online purchase, booking an appointment, and submitting a contact form are just some examples of conversion goals.

The Google Ads platform provides a tool for PPC Managers to measure conversions by source. You can track conversions that were generated from your website, over the phone, or from wherever the desired action took place.

Conversion tracking enables your PPC manager to see what elements are most productive in achieving your conversion goals. What specific keywords are influencing positive results? Which ads are the best producers? Are there particular times in the day that stand out?

When conversion tracking is set up adequately, you can begin to see a roadmap to follow to get more leads most efficiently. Without such a roadmap, you’re flying in the dark.

Where do you find conversion tracking? Log into your account and go to the top grey menu bar. Click Tools and settings. Click Conversions. You will then see a summary of the activity of all your conversion actions.

Google Ads conversion tracking feature

Lack of Testing

Very early on in my marketing career I had a mentor who drilled the words, “always be testing” into my brain. The point is that while something may be performing well, you won’t find something that produces even better results unless you try.

Along with keyword targeting, testing is also important for ad copy. Even subtle word changes can have a significant impact. Google recommends there be at least two ad versions enabled for every active ad group.

Are You Ready to Evaluate Your Manager’s PPC Management Habits?

Maybe everything looks great. Your PPC ads are producing new leads and converting to new business. But how do you know if your campaigns are as successful as they can and should be if you are simply taking the word of your PPC manager?

It’s your money. You’re paying a premium for keywords and continually supporting ad budgets that give your business the best possible opportunity to be seen. And it’s also your money you are paying your PPC manager to do the job at the highest level possible.

If you don’t know, you don’t know. Stop guessing and apply these principles when evaluating your PPC manager.

If you benefit from these tips, let me know. Contact me at 415-485-6961 and let’s discuss what you’ve discovered and how I can help you take the next step to full transparency.

The post How to Tell If It’s Time to Fire Your PPC Manager first appeared on Inner Architect Media.

]]> The Pros and Cons of PPC Advertising to Grow Your Business https://innerarchitect.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-ppc-advertising-to-grow-your-business/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-pros-and-cons-of-ppc-advertising-to-grow-your-business Wed, 05 Jun 2024 12:37:00 +0000 http://innerarchitect.com/?p=7878 Like other marketing solutions, there are pros and cons to PPC advertising. Here's an honest, educated perspective on both sides, plus questions to consider before making your decision.

The post The Pros and Cons of PPC Advertising to Grow Your Business first appeared on Inner Architect Media.

]]> I first stepped into the world of PPC advertising (pay per click) in 2005 as a platform from which to promote my wedding ceremony business. Google Adwords was barely 5 years old at the time. Although I came armed with 20 years of direct marketing experience, this digital landscape was new territory for me. I felt like I was floundering in my lack of experience, yet Google Adwords quickly grew to play a vital role in generating new clients for my business.

What is PPC Advertising?

Fast forward nearly 20 years and, according to Statista, Google will account for an estimated 25.9 percent of the total digital advertising revenue generated in the United States in 2024. PPC advertising makes up a huge portion of that revenue.

As its name implies, PPC offers advertisers paid traffic. Advertisers pay when someone clicks on an ad. The ads run on search engines, social media, mobile apps, and websites.

I’ve managed PPC advertising campaigns for a vast array of clients, from sensitive industries like legal and financial services to those offering fun experiences to consumers. I’ve seen firsthand how effective PPC can be to generate targeted leads and increase the revenue of a business.

Like other marketing solutions, there are pros and cons to PPC advertising. This article is designed to help increase your understanding of paid search ads so that you can decide if they may be a marketing solution that fits your current business needs.

The Pros of Investing in PPC Advertising

  1. Targeted Traffic to Reach Your Specific Audience

PPC advertising enables you to reach your specific audience by age, gender, household income, or interest target. For example, one of our law firm clients has several offices throughout the country. We target users in the states in which they have offices. Because people living in large cities are not typically a good prospect, we exclude many major cities from targeting.

For another client, a single location medical spa, we set the geographic targeting to a certain mile radius surrounding their location. To further fine-tune the targeting, we exclude age groups not yet prime for anti-aging treatments while targeting higher household income groups.

2. Immediate Results Towards Obtaining Your Business Goals

You may be amazed with how quickly PPC advertising can start delivering on your goals. While it can often take several days for a standard search campaign to make its way through the machine language process, we have seen leads begin generating in less than two hours of enabling an AI Performance Max campaign. Unlike SEO which takes months or more to see results, PPC traffic is instantaneous.

3. Visibility Amongst Your Competitors

If you have competitors who can afford to spend more on marketing, don’t let that stop you from believing that you can get the results you want with PPC advertising. Bigger ad budgets don’t guarantee higher visibility.

Your ad’s rank in search results is highly driven by the relevance of your keywords to your landing pages and ad copy, a concept known as Quality Score. By continually optimizing the components which drive your Quality Score, you pay less for clicks which maximizes the stretch of your ad budget and keeps your ads in prominent positions on the search results page.

4. Ability to Measure Your Goal Performance

With PPC advertising you define what constitutes a goal that you wish to measure. You then set up your account to track those goals. At Inner Architect Media, we work primarily with clients seeking to generate leads. This means that our goals are focused on conversions—in other words, contact form submissions, phone calls and live chats. By identifying what drives conversions, you can use these insights to direct your campaign strategies.

5. Control Over How Much You Spend

How much you spend is an area in which you have much control. PPC budgets are typically set to a daily amount. You have the flexibility to change the budget—up, down, or off— whenever you want.

 

The Cons of a Commitment to PPC Advertising

  1. Ongoing Investment Required to Maintain Traction

Launching and maintaining a PPC campaign will provide the fuel for a flow of traffic to your website. Once you stop fueling the ad spend, the traffic is likely to stop just as quickly as it began. This is unlike SEO, which can drive unpaid traffic after an initial investment.

2.  Challenging to Learn and Master Ad Management

Running effective PPC campaigns requires expertise that takes time to build. Understanding how to effectively integrate the campaign components such as keywords, ad copy, and landing pages is only half the job. The other half involves proficiency in maneuvering the ad platform, which is often undergoing continual change. Over the past nine months as Google began its deep investment in AI, the platform was literally changing daily. All of this creates a learning curve which can lead to wasted ad spend.

3.  Consumer Ad Skepticism

Well-ranked PPC ads typically display above organic search results at the top of the search results page. Because they are marked “Sponsored”, some consumers may look upon that with distrust and ignore them.

  1. Fraud Risks if You Don’t Protect Your Campaigns

According to Jupiter Research, 22% of global ad spend was lost due to ad fraud in 2023. Without invalid click monitoring and protection, this can drain your budget unnecessarily. There are several solutions that provide strong fraud protection, yet here again lies another learning curve to gain an understanding of how to use a new platform.

Is PPC Advertising Right for Your Business Now?

Consider your business goals:

  • Is increasing visibility the answer to getting where you want to be?
  • Are you comfortable with committing to an ongoing ad budget?
  • Are you willing to invest in gaining PPC skills for your in-house team?
  • Or would you be open to hiring a PPC management agency to run campaigns effectively out the gate?

Conclusion

We’ve outlined that PPC advertising provides targeted reach, expanded visibility, and immediate results. At the same time, we’ve indicated that an ongoing investment is required to maintain results and that ad management requires an investment in education and resources.  

As you think about the prospect of PPC advertising for your business, remember one thing — Not all PPC Management is Created Equal.

Let our team of experienced, Google certified professionals develop and maintain strategies that will take your business where you want it to go.
Contact us at 415-485-6961 or click the button below and take a step towards business growth today.

 
Tap Into Proven Expertise
 

 

The post The Pros and Cons of PPC Advertising to Grow Your Business first appeared on Inner Architect Media.

]]> 6 Best Basic SEO Tips from Experts  https://innerarchitect.com/6-best-basic-seo-tips-from-experts/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=6-best-basic-seo-tips-from-experts Thu, 15 Jun 2023 00:45:47 +0000 http://innerarchitect.com/?p=7611 As of this writing when searching the query “SEO tips” in Google, 285,000,000 (Two hundred and eighty five million!)  results are returned. Of the top 10 spots in the SERPS for this query, all ten are populated by well-known SEO media companies with how-to guides, lists, and best practices articles. So why read this article? Simple. We vetted, compiled, and wrote an easy-to-understand list of the 6 best basic SEO tips from these expert resources. Let’s go! (image by Jason Dent unsplash) Basic SEO Tips Start with a Website SEO Plugin Hubspot (Hbspt): 15 Best WordPress SEO Plugins for Boosting

The post 6 Best Basic SEO Tips from Experts  first appeared on Inner Architect Media.

]]> As of this writing when searching the query “SEO tips” in Google, 285,000,000 (Two hundred and eighty five million!)  results are returned. Of the top 10 spots in the SERPS for this query, all ten are populated by well-known SEO media companies with how-to guides, lists, and best practices articles. So why read this article? Simple. We vetted, compiled, and wrote an easy-to-understand list of the 6 best basic SEO tips from these expert resources. Let’s go! (image by Jason Dent unsplash)

Basic SEO Tips Start with a Website SEO Plugin

Hubspot (Hbspt): 15 Best WordPress SEO Plugins for Boosting Website Traffic

What the hell are plugins? Technically speaking they are “extension modules for Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress, browsers, and software solutions.” In plain English, a plugin is an easily downloadable piece of software that provides added functionality to your website.

SEO plugins are designed to help you with on-page website SEO and blog article SEO strategies.

Yoast

There are many SEO plugins available like Rank Math, SEOPress, and Hubspot that are very effective. We happen to prefer Yoast, a free plugin that provides a step-by-step guide to what you need to increase your page or article’s SEO. Yoast provides a score for SEO and one for readability. The scores are based on traffic lights with green (passing), yellow (needs work), and red (do not publish).

As you write your content, Yoast checks to see if you’ve included:

  • Focus key phrase.
  • SEO title
  • Meta description
  • SEO analysis with tasks to raise your SEO score for a green light.

The great concept behind Yoast is the fact that you begin to learn more about SEO every time you are ready to publish content on your site. It’s a guide to better SEO practices and an instructor.

Publish a Blog

Having established a personal blog in 2007 and then the Inner Architect blog two years later we can vouch for the fact that blogging has increased our SEO presence while generating new leads and new business. ReadWrite.com sums it up best.

“Another one of our SEO tips is you can’t really have strong SEO without a blog. SEO hinges on quality content, and for most businesses, the best way to get content is through publishing articles on a regular basis.”  

Publishing articles allows you to do two things. First, you can answer the most relevant search questions asked by your best prospective clients. By providing answers and information you give your content the opportunity to rank highly in Google while increasing your brand awareness.

Second, you have the opportunity to tell your story, your company’s story, and provide examples of how you have gained experience and helped people solve their problems.

The Key to Building Organic Backlinks

Search Engine Journal (SEJ): 7 Powerful On-Page SEO Tips For Small Teams In 2023

Links remain a necessary and powerful force in establishing a solid SEO strategy. The three keys to creating content that generates powerful back links:

  • Unique content
  • Up-to-date fresh content
  • Accurate content that is even more accurate than your competitors

Best Types of Content to Build Organic Back Links

Infographics or anything visual, like images or video, are the most effective types of content.

How to Find Content Ideas

Quick Sprout (QS): The Top 15 Ways to Come up with New Content Ideas for People Also Asked
Backlinko (BL): 17 Untapped Ways to Find New Content Ideas  for Searches Related To

There are literally hundreds of ways to come up with content ideas so there are no necessarily right ways. The way you do it should depend upon what and how you like to build your content. But if you want to answer the questions people ask in Google, something that Google highly values in determining SEO rankings, then there are two very important idea generators.

People Also Ask: If you’ve got a general topic idea but you really are looking for something additional, checking out other queries people type into Google that are closely related to your search query is a great way to find a nuance you may have missed.

Searches Related To: According to one of my favorite experts Brian Dean

“This is a great way to find low-competition long tail keywords. All you need to do is search for a broad topic that you want to write about.”

Look at the bottom of what was previously page one, and you will see a list of ideas directly from Google.

Target Less Competitive Keywords

Search Engine Journal (SEJ):  Why You Should Target Zero Search Volume Keywords

Low competition keywords are often “long-tail” keywords, keyword phrases with more than four words, that are more specific and narrower than more expensive shorter keywords. Zero competition keywords, keywords with minimal search volume, are often much easier to rank for in Google. If you’re in a saturated market with highly competitive keywords, then this is an alternative strategy.

But why bother ranking for keyword phrases that don’t get much attention? Although it seems counterintuitive, there is value to dominating these long tail keyword phrases.

SEJ provides an example. “The query “link building for beauty salon” has zero search volume – but it’s a question that an SEO or marketing professional who needs links built for a beauty salon might ask when looking for link building services. . . “

“Like the above example, users who need to build links for a beauty salon client can search the same question with different variations, like “how to do link building for beauty salon,” or “build links for beauty salon.“

Here’s the value. These queries are different versions of the same question each of which may have almost zero search volume on its own. But when combined, they may have a significant search volume. Optimize for your target prospect’s search intent and then combine those long tail, low volume keywords.

Sitemap Basic SEO Tips

Search Engine Journal (SEJ): What Is A Sitemap? Do I Need One?

According to Google, “A sitemap is a file where you provide information about the pages, videos, and other files on your site, and the relationships between them. Search engines like Google read this file to crawl your site more efficiently.”

Think of it this way. You are trying to explain to someone what your business is about, how it can help people, where those people can access information about your business, and why that information is important to prospective clients.

In this scenario, Google and your prospective client(s) are the people you are trying to explain your business to. Google sends bots to crawl your website and uses the sitemap information to understand how to index (rank) your pages for the keywords that are most appropriate. For the human reader, your prospective clients, the sitemap can help them find information as if they are reviewing an index for your site information.

There are two types of sitemaps: XML and HTML.

XML Sitemap

The XML sitemap has the “information needed for Google to crawl, index, and learn other important information about your website pages.” But do you need this type of sitemap?

If your website is relatively new, if it is a large site where Google bots could miss important content, if your site is content heavy with videos, images, fresh new content, or if your website needs to be better organized then you should have an XML sitemap.

HTML Sitemap

According to SEJ, an HTML sitemap is not necessary, but it is considered best practice to build one as well as the XML sitemap. There are two additional reasons to include a HTML sitemap. First, the purpose is for human users. And second, an XML sitemap does not show hierarchy like an HTML sitemap.

6 Basic SEO Tips from the Experts

That’s it. Our take on basic SEO tips you can begin to implement immediately. Plugins, blogging, link building, content ideas, less competitive keywords, and sitemaps. Do you need help navigating and setting up your SEO program? Give us a call (415) 485-6961, engage with one of our live chat agents, fill out a contact form, or email me at dean@innerarchitect.com.

Dean Guadagni, Principal, Inner Architect Media LLC

Dean has been blogging and writing professionally since 2007, representing corporate clients to solo entrepreneurs with assignments ranging from blog articles, ad copy, and landing pages to website content. He is a contributor to legal publications Plaintiff and Advocate magazines. Learn more about Dean Guadagni.

AI Transparency Statement

This article is 100% human created by Dean Guadagni. No artificial intelligence (AI) or AI powered writing assistants were utilized in the compilation or writing of this piece.

The post 6 Best Basic SEO Tips from Experts  first appeared on Inner Architect Media.

]]> AI Writing Assistant Rytr.me — a Sea Change in Content Creation https://innerarchitect.com/ai-writing-assistant-rytr-me-a-sea-change-in-content-creation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ai-writing-assistant-rytr-me-a-sea-change-in-content-creation Mon, 17 Apr 2023 23:45:14 +0000 http://innerarchitect.com/?p=7297 With Google’s recent announcement that artificial intelligence (AI) generated content is not against their guidelines, a complete shift in what they allowed and indexed in the past, I thought it was time to take a serious look at an AI writing assistant to see the possibilities. I chose AI writing assistant Rytr.me (Rytr) for two reasons: simplicity and ease of use. The Revolutionary, Evolutionary Sea Change in the Writing World is Here Unless you’ve been living on another planet for the past few months, you have heard that a massive sea change and revolution is here! Not the invention of

The post AI Writing Assistant Rytr.me — a Sea Change in Content Creation first appeared on Inner Architect Media.

]]> With Google’s recent announcement that artificial intelligence (AI) generated content is not against their guidelines, a complete shift in what they allowed and indexed in the past, I thought it was time to take a serious look at an AI writing assistant to see the possibilities. I chose AI writing assistant Rytr.me (Rytr) for two reasons: simplicity and ease of use.

The Revolutionary, Evolutionary Sea Change in the Writing World is Here

Unless you’ve been living on another planet for the past few months, you have heard that a massive sea change and revolution is here! Not the invention of microwave technology (think Hot Pockets), wireless communications, or the Internet itself. Those all changed how we live, work, and play and continue to today. The revolution in written communication is here! And it promises to change writing and content marketing on a global scale!

One Caveat to Remember: Google’s Advice to Publishers

As mentioned, Google completely changed their stance and guidelines on AI generated content and how it will be indexed in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

If you are producing AI generated content or if you are thinking about it here is what Google wants to see.

Google’s Help Page: Titled “Creating helpful reliable people-first content”  emphasizes the “Who”, “How”, and “Why” of content production/writing.

Who, as in who is producing the content, can be satisfied by writing a brief bio or byline at the end of your piece providing insights about the writer(s).

How, refers to the method used to create the content. Was AI or automation involved or was it 100% human produced? Google insists on transparency if you utilize AI to produce your content. They want to understand why AI was used. Whether you are writing a blog article, a page for your website, or anything that will be published online, Google requires a transparency statement.

Why, and this is vital, pertains to the purpose you are creating content. Google expects your content to help people and not be used for the purpose of manipulating search rankings.  Using tools like AI writing assistant Rytr.me will come with a responsibility and requirements.

What is AI Writing Assistant Rytr.me?

According to Rytr’s website, “Rytr is an “AI writing assistant that helps you create high-quality content, in just a few seconds, at a fraction of the cost!” After testing Rytr, I can concur with this assessment. Why? I was simply fooling around, no serious testing, with the tool when I provided  Rytr with a “Use Case” aka type of writing you want (blog section writing) and “Section Topic” (I chose “Rytr’s features and benefits”) as filters. Below is the copy Rytr produced for an opening paragraph.

“Rytr.me is a powerful AI-driven content writing tool that helps copywriters and content writers create high-quality and engaging content faster than ever before. It offers a wide range of features and benefits to make content creation easier and more efficient. From automatic SEO optimization to plagiarism checks, Rytr.me has it all. It also provides comprehensive analytics to help you monitor the performance of your content in real-time. With Rytr.me, you can easily generate fresh ideas for your next article or blog post and get it written quickly with the help of its AI writing assistants. Whether you’re a professional copywriter or an aspiring one, Rytr.me is the perfect tool to help you achieve success in your field!”

Salesy yes, but grammatically correct, clean, and to the point with a list of benefits incorporated within the text.

Even though AI has been around for years, it’s still early in the AI content creation explosion and AI writing assistant tools are being created at hyper warp speed. There are so many tools worth investigating. This isn’t an outright recommendation for Rytr. Instead, it’s a brief outline of the AI writing assistant Rytr.me to help you begin to understand the possibilities.

How to Write Using Rytr?

Rytr’s goal is to make you a better writer and editor of content. But what does the process of writing look like?  

Writing Process

When you’re ready to begin click on the Create tab and follow these steps:

Languages: Choose your preferred language from 30+ languages from Arabic to Vietnamese.

Tone: According to PBS tone is “The attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience conveyed through word choice and the style of the writing.” Rytr offers 22 different writing tones such as assertive, convincing, funny, and more.

Use Cases: What kind of writing are you producing? There are 30+ uses cases to choose from like:

  • Call-to-Action
  • Blog Idea and Outline
  • Blog Section Writing
  • Email
  • Google Search Ads
  • Social Media Ads
  • Profile Bio

And the list goes on.

Description: Once you select your language, tone, and use case, it’s time to tell Rytr what you want. Each use case provides an input field with a 250 character limit. Here is where you type text that will provide context to the AI. Short phrases with key point(s) will help Rytr understand what you want.

Variant: A variant in Rytr-Speak means a version or different example. Rytr provides you with one to three variants or outputs so that you can compare, contrast, and decide which version you like the best. You can also take different elements within each version  and produce a document that combines the best from each variant.

Creativity Level: Do you want to go heavy on creativity? If so, then choose the max setting. Are you the serious type? Then choose the none filter. You can even go with filters low, medium, or high. But the best setting might be the optimal setting.

That’s it! Hit the big orange button and begin your adventure:

Why Rytr.me?

There are tools being created every single day so look around. But remember you’re only as good as the company you keep. And Rytr is attracting some fine company with big time brands, writers, and content marketers as their clients. According to Rytr, 5,500,000 writers, marketers, and entrepreneurs are using their tool including content writers from these companies:

  • Dell
  • Ford
  • Adidas
  • Ikea
  • Pfizer
  • PricewaterhouseCoopers

According to Rytr, their AI “uses scientific copywriting formulas — such as AIDA & PAS — to provide best quality output that requires minimal to no editing.” What? Did somebody say minimal to no editing??? That’s a very bold statement.

What Rytr Offers

Simplicity, ease of use, a variety of features and great benefits are eventually the deciding factors as to whether you or your colleagues will use a tool, adopt it but then let it sit idle, or completely pass without even testing. Here are some solid benefits offered by Rytr:

Rich Text-Editor

Whether you want to expand or shorten your text or you want to find errors in sentences quickly and efficiently, Rytr’s editor is capable of getting most tasks done. The editor makes it easy for “even those who are not familiar with grammar rules to get started right away.”

Plagiarism Checker

Rytr provides the tools for “robust” project management. It allows your team of content creators to collaborate while keeping the billing straight for those outside content writing consultants. It helps organize your tasks while you and your team are working on multiple projects. After you’ve created your documents, marking as favorites those documents that are most valuable, created folders, and then stored and organized your content into the folders, you can then download your work in docx or html formats.

Google Browser Extension

Take your Rytr writing assistant wherever you go. Use the Google browser extension to work where you go. Emails and chatting, documents and blogging, and social media sites are all accessible areas for you to work within.   

Best of the Rest

If you’re tired of juggling apps in your writing workflow, Rytr provides an SEO analyzer that uses optimal keywords for your project while ensuring the content is mobile friendly. If you’re lost, Rytr has a Ryting community where you can connect with other content creators, share tips, and make new connections. And one of the coolest features is their AI image generator to help your content pop.

Subscription Plan Versatility

Free Plan

  • Generate 10k characters per month.
  • Write in 30 languages.
  • Choose from 40+ use-cases.
  • Write in 20+ tones.
  • Built in plagiarism checker.
  • Generate up to 5 images per month with AI.
  • Access to premium community.

Saver Plan

The Saver Plan includes everything within the Free plan plus:

  • Generate 100k characters per month.
  • Generate up to 20 images per month with AI.
  • Create your own custom use case.

Cost: $9 per month

Unlimited Plan

The Unlimited Plan includes everything within the Saver Plan plus:

  • Generate unlimited characters per month.
  • Generate up to 100 images per month with AI.
  • Dedicated account manager.
  • Priority email and chat support.

Cost:  $29 per mo.

Laws, Regulations for AI May Cloud the Future

Don’t fire your writer(s) yet! Human editorial touch and oversight is still needed to ensure your written content is of the highest quality.

As of this writing, Italy has banned Chat GPT and the European Union is working to pass an Artificial Intelligence Act. The goal is to bring sane and safe regulation to AI and how it is used. With privacy and plagiarism concerns, countries around the globe are rushing to place limits, if not outright ban, generative AI.

Right now, is the time to test tools like Rytr.me before regulation or new legal issues arise.

What’s in it for you?

The future of writing, content marketing, and the warp-speed evolution of how we communicate. Think of it as if we are currently in your grandparents’ era of the 40lb Royal typewriter, banging on spring loaded keys, with little embossed metal letters that physically strike a sheet of paper embossing that letter onto the paper. That’s us right now in 2023.

Around the corner lurks a technology with the massive power to process millions of datasets, synthesize information upon request, and output quality content within minutes – 2 years from now within seconds. Where does that leave you, your painstakingly created content, and your work?

The post AI Writing Assistant Rytr.me — a Sea Change in Content Creation first appeared on Inner Architect Media.

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