In the battle for attention, here’s how your agency can stand out.
Our current media moment is defined by paradox. On one hand, there have never been more channels you can use to promote your agency. But on the other, it has never been harder to separate yourself from the crowd and gain media attention. There are multiple reasons for this, including information overload and a changing media landscape. This doesn’t even account for how algorithms prioritize content, preventing many important stories from gaining the coverage they deserve. Yet amidst these challenges, an effective use of earned media can break through the clutter and increase public awareness for your agency. Join us as we explore the details of what this looks like!
Earned media: what is it and why is it important?
As we’ve talked about before, there are many different types of media that you can use to promote your business – each with its own pros, cons and tradeoffs.
First, there is owned media, which is any type of media that you control. This could include things like your website, your social media feeds or your email newsletter. Owned media offers advantages like creative control and cost-effectiveness but also requires continuous effort and delivers slow results.
Second, we have paid media – basically media you put an ad spend behind, like search, social and display ads. Paid media also carries significant advantages for business. For one thing, it can deliver quick and easy wins for a company, but if you’re not careful, those results can come with a sizable cost that harms overall ROI.
Lastly, we have earned media – publicity you gain from sources you neither control nor pay for. Guest blogging, podcast appearances and press release placements are all examples of earned media in action. Earned media is especially valuable because it often appears more trustworthy and less self-serving than other types of media. It can also deliver tangible benefits like improved SEO and greater reach. It has drawbacks as well, with lack of control and dependence on third parties being among them.
Create more earned media opportunities
With an understanding of the three main types of media, we can look at the top opportunities for generating more earned media coverage for your agency.
Human-interest stories: If you’ve ever watched the news, you’ll know how effective human-interest stories are at generating coverage. The reason is simple: People are emotional beings who respond to stories of human triumph and resilience. By tapping into this need, agencies can grow awareness for their businesses.
Novelty: Stories that introduce something novel can be just as effective as human-interest pieces. Pitching about new hires, products or business expansions all naturally lend themselves to potential pick-up in the media, as does staking out a position that runs contrary to the dominant perspective in your field. With the latter point, however, never try to gin up controversy just for the sake of it. People can detect disingenuousness a mile away, which will wind up hurting rather than helping you in the long run.
News jacking: As we’ve discussed, there are more communication channels today than ever before. While this can be overwhelming, it also implies that there is no shortage of news stories in which a title agency could insert itself to offer its unique perspective and expertise. This is known as “news jacking,” a straightforward process where you strategically align your brand with a trending news topic and position yourself as a subject matter expert. When done correctly, news jacking can increase your agency’s credibility, leading to more customers seeing you as a knowledgeable thought leader.
None of these techniques are easy to pull off, but each can help you overcome some of the barriers to entry that exist in the modern media landscape. No matter how many algorithms or communication channels we create, tailoring our stories to cater to human psychological needs will always be a powerful tool for achieving publicity. Similarly, news jacking can help you turn the deluge of daily news we all experience to your advantage, enabling you to hop onto an existing story or news cycle for maximum impact.
Spread the word far and wide about your business
The media environment today is challenging and ever-changing, with contours that are far more complex and fast-moving than they were even a few years ago. For many, this can feel like an impossible burden for gaining the recognition they need to succeed in an already difficult business environment. Even so, a well-planned earned media strategy that leverages human psychology and timely news opportunities can elevate your agency’s visibility, building the buzz necessary for both short- and long-term success.
Gain new business by improving your local footprint online.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO stands for local search engine optimization. It is the process of refining and optimizing your online presence to gain local website traffic and ultimately more business. Taking advantage of local SEO best practices is particularly important for smaller businesses that rely on nearby customers for the bulk of their revenue. Here are a few ways you can use local SEO strategies for your benefit.
Google Reigns Supreme
While Google has lost some luster over the years, it still reigns supreme with local SEO. Begin your efforts by claiming and then optimizing your Google “My Business” profile. As you know, Google makes a point to identify and catalog as many businesses as it can across its services. Business leaders can claim ownership over these listings and then modify the available information fields. Don’t miss out on this valuable opportunity to improve how your business is displayed across one of the most popular websites in the world. Ensure that the following is complete and correct:
Business name
Address
Phone number
Website
Hours
Email
Photos
Your Google “My Business” profile will also include the option for customers to leave reviews, and it is not a bad idea to ask satisfied customers to leave a positive notice regarding your services. Responding to reviews that people leave is similarly important, as it indicates that you are a responsive organization that cares deeply about the customer experience you provide.
Deploy Location-Based Keywords
Businesses like title agencies should also incorporate location-based keywords into their web properties, as their customer base is often defined by a fixed geographical location. On your website, for example, don’t merely refer to yourself as a “title agency.” It is not specific enough and won’t do much from an SEO perspective. Instead, add in mentions of your city and state, and be sure to use a keyword explorer tool to assess metrics and get help selecting your phrases.
There are countless local directories that can be found online, and they represent another opportunity for small businesses like yours to enhance their digital presence. From Yelp and Yellow Pages to Foursquare and TripAdvisor, utilizing digital directories can boost your agency’s visibility and enhance your credibility, especially once you make sure all information is consistent and updated.
When you think about businesses that are deeply intertwined with their local communities, few spring to mind faster than title agencies. After all, these are the firms that secure the very properties that make up a community in the first place. It only makes sense, then, that title agencies should prioritize local SEO to boost awareness, position their brands and grow their profitability. And by following the best practices listed here, you’ll do exactly that.
You don’t need to be a techie to improve your website’s ranking and increase its traffic.
Your website is your business’s front door. But before you can harness your site to promote your business or connect with potential customers, people need to be able to find you online. That’s where search engine optimization (SEO) comes into play. While this can sound like a subject meant exclusively for a serious techie or marketing professional, the opposite is true. Everyone can implement basic SEO steps and start bringing more people to their website.
What is SEO?
SEO is designed to increase the quantity and quality of organic website traffic. Consisting of tactics employed both on and off your site’s pages, SEO allows you to achieve a better ranking for certain keywords that users type into search engines like Google and Bing. For example, if you are a company that sells birdhouses, SEO techniques can help your ranking for keywords related to birdhouses and similar products. If optimized correctly, your site will rank higher on search engine results pages. The higher rankings you have, the more traffic you’ll enjoy and the more sales you may potentially close.
On-page SEO
On-page SEO starts with keyword research. Think about the terms for which your site needs to rank. Use a paid or free keyword research tool. Pay attention to each keyword’s competition ranking as well as its total monthly search volume. The goal is to find keywords that have a modest amount of competition and a high amount of search volume. That’s the sweet spot.
Now pepper your keywords throughout your site. Include a primary keyword in the title and headline of each page, and ideally in the “alt” descriptions for any imagery. Next, include secondary keywords in the body of each page’s content that complement the page’s primary keyword. Don’t stuff keywords into your site, however! Weave each word naturally into your site’s content. Keyword stuffing can lead to consequences being imposed by the search engines.
SEO also involves improving the site’s technical performance. Start by investigating the load time of each page. A slow site will drag down your rankings. Additionally, a site that is not mobile responsive or one with broken links will harm how a search engine perceives your content. Search engines want to provide the most helpful content to their users. They do not look kindly on websites that cannot deliver content quickly and efficiently.
Lastly, don’t forget about the importance of your actual content itself. Develop clear, concise and most of all helpful content assets that are easy to read and provide robust information. Google can read all your content. Make sure it likes what it sees!
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO largely involves link-building. Links are important to search engines like Google and Bing, which perceive them as seals of approval from other websites. Of course, not all links are created equal. Some convey a greater sense of authority than others. Prioritize quality over quantity. Gaining a few links from popular and credible sites will help your rankings far more than having scores of links from lesser-known domains.
How can you best collect links? You could become a guest blogger for another site and include a link to yours in your blogger bio. You can get active on social media. While social media links do not impact SEO directly, by being active on social, there is a higher chance that more people will be exposed to your content and share it on their respective sites. You could even seek out notable websites that have broken links that overlap with content you own and offer a replacement link to the website administrator.
Take it one step at a time
You may feel overwhelmed at this point – and that’s ok. While the principles of SEO are straightforward, they require time to master. Take it one step at a time. Implement these basic steps to make tweaks to your website and collect some high-quality links. Additionally, never stop learning. There are abundant resources online that explain nearly every aspect of SEO. Keep moving forward, and before you know it, you’ll be looking at your very own optimized site.
Releases serve more purposes today than they ever have before.
A
lot of independent agents know what a press release is – many even write them
and distribute their press releases to regional or even national press.
What
a lot of title insurance professionals don’t necessarily understand, however,
is (a) what the press release is; (b) why it pays to write one; and (c) where
to send it and why.
The
mighty press release is a 1- to 2-page document that trumpets news. It tells an
audience that something important has happened, usually to a company and why it
is important. There are tactical elements to a press release: who is sending
it; the date it is sent, the geographical place of origin (city and state); the
headline and the body.
The
best press releases keep it simple: they have three to four paragraphs that
tell what the news is, why that news is important, what that news means to the
company and customers, and a small amount of background on the company sending
the press release. Persons from whom the press release is sent are often
quoted.
Editors,
reporters, TV anchors and radio broadcast people have traditionally relied upon
the press release to alert them to news. Today, social media experts also use
press release material to populate social media platforms and to include in
inner-company and outside-company newsletters and other communication vehicles.
The
press release is actually a celebration of a company. Done right – meaning
well-written, regularly sent press releases – showcase a company’s strengths
and help to tell a company’s story. A new hire, a new product, a company move,
surpassing growth goals – the news is virtually limitless. It need only be true
and told well.
The
Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) says about press releases:
Purpose
Releases serve more purposes today than they ever have before. They provide valuable SEO for your website, serve as a primary source of information for your investors, and help align your internal teams on critical messages — all while advising the media of important changes and events at your company.
Content
No more boring, text-only content on the latest corporate announcements. The press release today can be an engaging, multimedia experience. This is where you can make a journalist’s job easy and increase your changes of getting coverage by including great B-roll footage, embeddable video and compelling, high-resolution images with your release.
Yes!
B-roll can be dropped into a press release, as can YouTube links, photos, even
animation.
But
there’s really no need to reinvent the wheel. Go online to a company’s website
that you admire. Look at their press releases usually housed under a
“News” tab. Read it and mimic it (but don’t copy and paste – that
plagiarism, is unethical and opens up potential worlds of trouble).
Take a look at some of Alliant National’s press releases: https://alliantnational.com/category/press/. Read one or two. They are carefully written, thoughtfully edited and purposefully distributed to appropriate media.
Feel
free to follow the “formula” of a press release and then distribute
to media you want to reach via email. You’ll be surprised when, done regularly
and well, the attention (the good kind) your company ultimately receives.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an ever-evolving beast that can be difficult to navigate.
The rules are always changing and
understanding where to begin can present a challenging maze for those unfamiliar
with the most current trends.
Google, of course, is the giant of the
search engine ladder, and if your business URL ranks at the top of a Google
search, it has a 33 percent chance of getting clicked, while the second position gets close to 15 percent
of the share, and the third position, 9 percent.
Moreover, a whopping 75 percent of people who use search
engines to browse topics never leave the first page of search results. In other
words, a high rank leads to more clicks, and more clicks equate to more leads.
The time it takes for your home page to load is front and
center in the minds of the public—and Google. If your load page is too slow, Google
recognizes the lull and will promptly demote your ranking.
As well, a slow website affects the ways in which visitors to your site engage
with your pages. Research shows that 40 percent of visitors will leave a
website if the page takes more than three seconds to load. Even worse, 80 percent
of those visitors won’t bother to come back.
To test the speed of your website, consult a free online service like Pingdom.
Regularly update your website with new content.
If you allow the content on your website
to become outdated, or worse, let it fade into oblivion, your SEO ranking
plummets. To generate traffic and increase your website’s visibility, posting
fresh content is imperative.
If your site is littered with irrelevant or outdated content, get rid of it. Update
your site on a regular basis with newsworthy, consumable, relevant and value-driven
content (including graphics, videos, how-to guides, webinars and live chats)
and visitors will likely return.
Something else to keep in mind: Google increases your website’s search engine
rank when visitors spend more than a nanosecond on your site. If you keep your target
searchers engaged with great content that makes them care, they’ll stick around—a
factor that Google takes into account when it ranks websites.
Use the correct key words and phrases.
Keywords play a huge role in Google’s
ranking algorithm. When creating content for your website, include keywords and
long-tail keywords (three-or-four-word phrases) that speak to—and define—your
brand.
Keywords can be used in the body of a blog post, header tag or as part of photo
captions.
Google isn’t particularly keen on saturating sites with keywords, however, so use
them strategically and sparingly, otherwise you risk diminishing your search
ranking. Tip: Take advantage of software sites like Moz and Ahrefs, both of
which offer keyword suggestions and monthly search volume.
Retail kingpin Amazon and the nation’s largest residential brokerage firm, Realogy, whose brands include Coldwell Banker, Century 21 and Sotheby’s, have joined forces to attract home buyers in fourteen different cities.
To entice buyers to take advantage of the newly launched partnership—called Turnkey—Amazon is offering up to $5,000 in home services and products upon the closing of a home.
