Undercover Marketing Secrets #74: Interview with SEO Experts Big Surf Media
Earlier this year I had the extreme pleasure of talking with Dan and Anthony from Big Surf Media about SEO and Content Marketing. It was in the context of dental practices, but anyone can take what we talked about and apply it to your marketing.
Here is the entire interview:
Hello, this is Wendy, Susan Richmond, and I am so excited that you are here with me today because I have got a couple of very special guys and I’m going to be talking with today. We’re going to share some really cool strategies for you all. And so I want to first introduce them and we have, Mr. Dan Sher who is, the Marketing Director for Big Surf Media and also worked with him is Mr. Anthony Giampaulo, who’s the Digital Marketing Specialist. And so guys, welcome.
Hey Wendy.
Hey. All right, thank you very much for spending a few minutes with us today and, and helping out with talking about this wonderful topic called content marketing and the importance of it. Before we get into all that you’ve said, do me a favor and just kind of tell everybody a little bit about who you are and what you do and how you help your clients.
Okay. Well, we’re big surf media. We’re a one stop creative agency and we are, we are built and designed to help businesses navigate all things digital. So whether it is building a website or doing some digital marketing, search engine marketing, SEO audio, video, you name it, we do it, here at Big Surf Media and we are an unusual digital agency and that we are sort of under the umbrella of a major media organization which focuses on content. And so we’re talking about content marketing and we’re sort of underneath the umbrella of a media company that does mainly that. So we have access to a lot of great tools, a lot of great services, and, it gives us a leg up in that field. We do all things digital. We’re really excited to do help businesses grow and build audience and it’s really an exciting time and the digital space. So we’re happy. We’re happy to be here.
All right, awesome. Well, thank you for that. So I know they’re experts. They’ve got a lot of knowledge in, in our topic today, so let’s dig right on in. You know, for me, I’m all about helping local dentists bring in more new patients. That’s my big goal. And being a successful marketing director for several multimillion dollar practices, one of the things that I’ve found is so important is the strategy of content marketing. And you know, I want to hear from you know, either one of you about, you know, what is content marketing and you know, why is it so important to, for a dental practice to position themselves as the go to dentists for, we’re talking implants now. So if somebody wants to become a go to dentists for implants in their local area, why is content marketing so important?
Yeah, content marketing, very important for any dental practice because it’s the message that the practice can control itself. It really gives them that intangible and tangible feeling of the doctor itself, the atmosphere of the dental practice, the staff and it’s really good at catering to those new patients that knew that these practices are looking to attract, as they’re beginning their phase down, their customer journey or patient journey into setting up that first consultation, going to their first cleaning andbecoming a regular patient for that practice. With content marketing, there’s an under that umbrella is many, many, many types of content available. Whether it is blogs, articles, infographics, video, white white papers depending on what organizations these dental practice belonged to. A really is that message and that control of voice that really sets the dental practice apart from the one down the road in the next town over that are all trying to attract their local audience and these patients.
All right. Very cool. So now let’s just talk specifically because you know, the thing I really, I’m focused on right now is blog content and article marketing and you know, let’s talk about how a blog or article helps as far as organic search or search engine optimization.
Sure. Yeah. If you want to take that. Yeah, I think this one given my background in search marketing content is key. Google loves content. It’s, yeah, I believe one of, one of the many a ranking factors that google has under its algorithm. Having content on a site shows that one, that the dental practice is an authority in their field field of study. Having content that explains the different types of services, not only helps boost local SEO, but it also helps find those niche patients that are looking for select and certain services that offer, Whether it would be a dental implants or gum therapy treatments. Because those patients that are looking specifically for those services are further down the line of their customer and patient journey. Then regular patient who is just looking for the nearby dental practice nearby dentist and it’s, it’s very key with the blog and article. The keep a very consistent posting schedule with that as Google is crawling millions and millions of websites per day. You want to show these bots and these algorithms that you are updating your site on a regular basis. So it knows to pay more attention to your website over, other dental practices that may have been pretty stagnant over the past year or so. So constant is very key. As far it plays a very important role in a local SEO especially.
Yeah.
All right. Thank you. So based on that, I mean, you’re saying that a dental practice should have a blog on their website?
Oh, absolutely. Yes, absolutely. I totally agree with Anthony. Hubspot did a survey and said the companies with blogs received 97% more links to their website then another comparable website. So I’m producing that you know, reliable, sort of industry news pays off to acquire visitors. Not only do you increase your, your reputation in the marketplace as an authority like Anthony was talking about, but you increase your inbound links so it increases your ability to draw traffic to the site and in turn convert many of those visitors into patients. So it is a, it is a huge boon to any dental practice website.
Okay.
And Anthony mentioned about a posting schedule. So how often should a dental practice be posting content?
Okay.
The best practices post as much as you can. Obviously time and whether they’re doing it in house or if they are hiring writers, whether they have an agency, as long as they have that routine, it’s very key.
It’s hard to kind of gauge a recommended one number for a one size fit all. Obviously it depends on how large the practice is, how many locations do they have, whether the, the dentist is operating at a four or five towns out of different offices. But at minimal I would say at least one, especially if you’re starting off a and kind of ease your way in there instead of posting every topic you can think about in that first couple months. Kind of planning out, have a strategy in mind, link to existing articles that you’ve had. Anyone reading that article. As long as it’s a similar and related topic, it’d be more inclined to read the additional articles as well.
Okay. So, so you’re saying that like if somebody starts with one article, like, okay, so we’re, we’re really going to talk strategy here about becoming the go to implant dentist, right? For their local area. So if they post a blog posts on, um, on their website about the implants, right? And then they post, you know, maybe if they go, ah, I don’t know, should they be posting the same, the same, not the same content, but the same topic? Or should they mix it up for different, for the different services that they have?
Okay.
You can use the same topic over and over again as long as the delivery and the message is different. You could be talking about things you didn’t know about dental implants and then maybe another article could be, questions most patients have before dental implants. And just answering those, it’s all about the customer intent or patient incentive at this point. Or what would be most useful to the reader? Trying to think of a different example. I don’t know if Dan, well, I think, I think you’re right. I mean, if you’re trying to do a bunch of things with various different kinds of trying to educate, you’re trying to establish some sort of trust with the, with the potential consumer, you’re trying to create engagement and conversation. Okay. And you’re trying to give yourself that reputation, that authority.
So any number of topics or any number of ways you can approach the topic under one umbrella topic can be, can be done. I mean, you can educate somebody about dental implants. I tell him the procedures and how they’re, how they’re done and, and what you, what you can expect when you go into that procedure. You can engage them in a conversation about implants that, what kinds of patients typically going for implants. Maybe do an FAQ or a checklist or an infographic. You can, you know, state all the statistics about how you are the best implant practice in any area. Here’s why testimonials, what sorts of things that you can, you can put to a blog that, we’ll sort of check out all those boxes and sort of assuage any fears or trepidation that potential customer might have. And also provide you with a lot of, a lot of visitors to the site, who will see that information and automatically go, you know, what that person really knows they’re talking about. Perhaps they should give them a call. I’ve been, I’ve been on the fence about implants and I think I’m ready to take the points based on what I’m reading.
All right. Yeah. Excellent. And, is there a difference between article marketing and say blogs?
What’s the difference?
Well, you’re talking about sponsored content.
I mean if somebody is an article consider the same thing as a blog or they can take an article and put it on there on their website as a blog.
Well, it depends. I mean, if are taking the article from someplace else, it’s sort of repetitive content. It doesn’t do much for search. Okay. And is already out there. Yeah. You can take the content, repurpose, with the knowledge of the dentist. What’s unique, how that’s unique to their practice. Every dentist may offer the same, but what sets them different? What’s unique about them? What makes them the best, why patients should choose them. As long as you’re answering those questions, related to the practice itself, that would be the best practice.
Hi. And so if you’re going to say, you know, one thing, if somebody is trying, you know, they’ve never done any of this kind of thing before, they might not even have a blog on their website. What would you say to them? It’s kind of like the first step with all this.
The first step I would have would be to kind of draft out strategy. You don’t want to write just for the purpose of, right. I mean, there’d be some intent behind it. Okay. We’re going to write about this topic because this, I believe this week what my patients would benefit from reading about. And then kind of crafting a content silo around that if that’s what I really believe. I really believe this service is popular. People are asking you about this. There’s a lot of questions floating around about the service that I’m offering at drafting out different possible topics under that same topic. Just answering different questions. And as long as there was, there is that game plan in place. Okay. I’m going to write about this today, maybe a couple of weeks. I’m going to set aside time. I’m going to preplan a ticket’s continue upon that as well.
I don’t know if you have a different recommendation. No, I think that’s pretty good. I think, like it’s, it’s like with any digital content and endeavor with social media to create an editorial calendar and pre plan all of the ways in which your write opposed. Let’s see, for a given month. He did the same thing around any sort of blog content. You want to make sure, like Anthony said, you build around a topic that you are confident is going to be of use to your users, um, and build it out that way. And that way there are no, it makes sense to the visitor or the site, you know, what you’re trying to take and what you’re trying to say and it’s easier for you in the longterm to create pieces that fit that. Did that end game. So I think he’s totally right there. Okay.
And is there such a thing as too much content?
No. Never. As long as we’re organized cleanly, and it allows that easy flow. There’s really no such thing as too much content unless you’re saying too much of the same thing across many pages and you’re having patients drop off their journey relatively early before that end result.
Okay.
Okay. And, say on their blog…Should they or shouldn’t they have photos and videos in a blog post?
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. That’s just one kind of content. So, you know, videos and this is all great for repurposing on social media as well. Videos, infographics, articles, you know, audio, you name it. I mean, any kind of content is, which is relevant to the practice is certainly worth posting on a blog. Certainly with, with, an explanation of what it is. Let’s say there’s a, an interview with a, an implant specialist that you wanted to put up as a podcast about what to expect, who she going in for implants or a consultation for the first time. That’s a great piece of content that’s shareable, but it’s also worth describing and texts as well, so that, you know, some of those keywords are accessible, to search box and whatnot. So, yeah, absolutely. Any kind of content.
Oh, great. And No, when it comes to blogs themselves, is it better to take, like if you have one blog post on implants and you have certain kinds of content, is it better to add to the same blog posts or, or is it to do a new one?
Yep.
Does that make sense?
It does make sense. Without getting too technical into it, I would set it up as to go as a series under one, under one overall topic. I’m trying to think of that makes sense. Real quick. I would recommend creating a series around it. Whether it’s like a part one, a part two or part three a, but like in the beginning of part three, you referenced parts one and two in case the reader stumbles upon that one first. You never want to add at all under the same blog post. And he never want to continue another blog post trying this one. It is pretty difficult to say. Yeah, it is.
Hmm.
You stumped us there Wendy. Yeah. Cause I was just curious about, you know, if you had one blog already and then do you just add more text to the bottom when you have like say part two or is it better just to like start a whole new blog on that topic?
I personally would start a new blog, I think.
Okay.
You know, I think it’s, it’s, it’s easier for the user I think.
MMM.
If it’s, if it’s, if it’s fresh, I mean, I guess people will end up on that older blog if they’re searching for specific things and I’ll end up on that page for example, and then they’ll see the updates or you can say updated on a certain date and continue with the discussion if you wanted to do it that way. But I think I started a new blog. Yes. Start a new blog and reference the previous blog. Exactly. Linked to it. Yeah.
Yeah. Links to it for sure. But I would that, that I would say that’s the best practice only because that new post is more likely to be a crawl because it is a new link. Having that local SEO in mind. But if it’s a very specific blog post, like a study or something like that, it doesn’t hurt to add that revision or that update to the bottom of it. If you’re only talking about a couple, like a few paragraphs is text. Okay.
All right. Well this is great. I mean, there’s so much information that you guys have given and there’s some great strategies in here and, and you know, my advice to everybody is like, if you haven’t done anything, just get started, right. Just add a blog to your website and just put out some content, you know, and I mean have the strategy behind it, but, you know, don’t let that just, we’ve got to get some stuff out there and a lot of people just, they wait so long and they’ve got to make it perfect or whatever, but it’s just a matter of just getting started. And if you, so one other thing too is that when you, when you all look at someone and help somebody with their digital marketing and, you know, especially, excuse me, specifically looking at what they’ve done as far as their, their blog posts and articles and things like that, do you, change, do any kind of change it to something they’ve done in the past or do you again help them when it comes to moving forward?
A little bit of both. We’ll look at their past blog posts because it’s constant that’s already been crawled on. There’s definitely ways to enhance it. Sometimes a previous blog post may not contain the proper heading titles. Maybe there’s not enough external or internal links. Especially if the blog has been around a while, it’s probably been linked to in the past. So it’s definitely something we look at to just to kind of gauge and see what type of inbound traffic that post is generating. A, usually you can kind of gauge it from their google analytics and then check the inbound links on a google search console. But definitely any client we bring on a as far for an SEO campaign or content building it, it’s always monitored with a direction in mind. Having that strategy in place, having those conversations on what services are most important to your practice, what do you want to be known for?
Kind of building out a plan, but that creating that content silo, having those main topics and researching what users are looking for based on search data, search trends different times a year and their local market, they’re search behaviors as well because well, what works in one market may not work in the other. Demographics can be different. It really it, to answer your question, it’s the best of both worlds and we feel that’s one of the things that sets us apart from other digital marketing agencies is that it is a full picture approach looking at the, looking at the, at the president as well, and just trying to shape ourselves for a better future. Always adapting. Especially with any type of search campaigns. Google rolls out updates pretty consistently. Making sure all of the sites adhere to those best practices. And as with any dental practice, I’m sure what they’re doing now is different than they were doing a year ago and we have to keep those changes and future changes in mine as well. But that really speaks upon the relationship level. But all of it under the same umbrella, really masters a great marketing strategy and a great marketing plan for whether they’re a dental practice looking to attract new patients or for just the local business. Just looking to generate more leads.
All right, that’s great. If anybody wants to want to make sure that if you want to get ahold of Dan and Anthony and see how they might be able to help you. I know they have something special for you. Can you guys tell everybody how they can get ahold of you and what do you got for him?
Sure. We’re at BigSurfMedia.com. That’s our website. You can come check us out at these pictures up there so you can see what it looks like. And you can email us, there’s a contact form on there if you’ll let us know that you heard us on this on his podcast we will give you a, a free digital audit. We will go over a year, a content, your website, your social media platforms, you name it, and a, we will give you the low down on how you’re doing digitally and ways in which you can improve. We are really a solutions based agency. We don’t talk about things that aren’t going to help you. So if they’re going to help you grow, we’re going to talk about it. If it’s a product and we’re just going to push it on you, that’s not something that we do here.
So, we’re all about helping you grow and get bigger and understanding how digital marketing and digital solutions can help drive traffic to your store or your practice here, whatever. And that’s what we do here at that big surf media. And Anthony is really good at the SEO. He’s particularly good at that, so that’s an issue. You guys have a organic traffic, we can help you there too. We have a lot of in house specialists. Get a great web developer on staff, some terrific social media people. So, we can help in any way you want it. Look us up. Yup.
All right. Well, I’m excited and I know I work with them. Some of my clients work with them, so I highly recommend that you check them out, give them a call and and see how they can help you in your practice. Dan and Anthony, thank you guys very much for being here. I’m so jazzed and again, really appreciate it. Thank you so much.
All right, so that being said, everybody, thank you for listening. I appreciate you taking a few minutes with, uh, with me and with us today. Hope you got some good stuff out of this and again, make it a great day! Marketing does rock and we will talk with you next time.
Here’s the link to listen to this interview:
