What’s the Difference Between Modern SEO Services and Growth Marketing Stacks?

According to Forrester Research Inc, online shoppers went from spending an average of $231 billion in 2012 to 370 billion in 2017. Clearly, online sales are dominant, and there is no sign they will ever slow down. Here’s what is truly fascinating, despite the fact that 97% of shoppers using mobile devices abandoned their carts in 2014, and 75% of desktop shopping carts were abandoned in 2013, overall online shopping continued to grow by massive leaps and bounds. 

So what does this mean: It means that people are able to use SEO strategies to attract lots of organic traffic, and other marketing channels draw traffic, but there is a massive loss in opportunities. This ultimately means the quality of traffic is poor.

When organizations realize their digital marketing services are subpar, they will seek another approach from trusted growth marketing agencies that offer modern SEO services and custom growth marketing stacks to ensure revenue targets are hit, year-over-year. But what is the difference between modern SEO services and custom growth marketing stacks?

Understanding Modern SEO Services

Good modern SEO services will focus on Google’s current algorithm, current search and buyer behavior, use content that focuses on the customer’s needs while offering a solution, and will hold true to Google Best Practices. In addition, the SEO strategy in a modern approach will predict buying behavior, search trends, and foresee algorithm updates, and lay out the strategy to accommodate these changes and perform exceptionally well. From generating more traffic to increasing new users, and from improving rankings to securing more conversions, there are a number of metrics that a modern SEO approach needs to improve, and set the stage for future performance.

What are Custom Growth Marketing Stacks and How do they Work?

A custom growth marketing stack is a set of hand-selected tech tools and strategies (that include modern SEO services). These strategies run in synch through a multi-channel approach to drive high quality traffic through a nurturing funnel. Here, leads are generated, and buyers are taken down an educational journey in which they learn more about their needs, and how the company’s products provide the best solution. This process  is crucial for converting traffic into leads, and leads into sales. Once they become customers, growth marketing stacks continue to work by making your clients brand advocates. Again, modern SEO services are part of growth marketing stacks, as are paid media, inbound marketing, and social media marketing services. The strategy revolves around the sales cycle, the buyer’s journey, and how customers engage with an industry’s content. Growth marketing stacks are generally an ideal fit for brands with longer sales cycles, and for companies with higher product price points. Examples of products that are ideal fits for a growth marketing stack includes things like swimming pools, luxury vacations, cars, boats, SaaS products, health care services, and schools seeking enrollment.

When SEO Sends Tons of Traffic, but can’t Generate Leads

People seek SEO services because it is the most popular digital marketing strategy, and businesses are under the false assumption that ranking leads to sales. In some cases it does, but when you have a longer sales cycle, nobody is going to click on a link, see the jet skies you are selling, and say, “aww, what the hell, they look cool”, and buy them on the spot. People looking for hats or a blender would do this, but when it comes to high-end items, most buyers are savvy and do their research. Therefore, SEO alone will often underperform for such brands.

However, when modern SEO strategies driven by content are used in a growth marketing stack, a robust CRM used by the growth marketing agency will qualify leads, segment them into the right buyer personas, and enroll people into a nurturing system fueled by marketing automation technology that educates the lead through an amazing journey until they feel confident in pulling the trigger and making that purchase. This is actually one of the main reasons why brands transfer from SEO services to a full growth marketing stack, as the nature of their business and customers need more attention, and a strategy that’s more in depth. 

SEO Services are for Impulse Buyers & Short Sales Cycles, Growth Marketing Stacks are for Researchers & Long Sales Cycles

If your buyers spend a lot of time learning about their own needs, they look for various product solutions, and the sales cycle is long, a growth marketing stack is likely for you. If we use the example of a company that designs and builds custom swimming pools, there are a number of campaign approaches that could be run, with SEO and paid media sending high-quality traffic to all levels of the conversion funnel. One campaign can be on swimming pools increase a home’s resale value. Another campaign could focus on the multiple pain points shared by entire families, and show how a pool meets all needs (good for mom’s arthritis, great way for dad to stay in shape, creates an amazing entertainment atmosphere, and provides the kids with fun).

Let’s say someone dropped $200,000K on a custom pool with a swim-up bar, waterfall, and grotto after having spent 6 weeks in an inbound campaign from a growth marketing stack. Now the customer needs some fun pool toys and barware (and if you don’t sell the small stuff, they will Google search it). Clearly, a growth marketing stack would be an overkill on products that cost $30 and that have a short sales cycle. In fact, some people may just buy these items on impulse. This is where modern SEO strategies really shine: they need to rank the right content, for the right buyers, who are likely to make a purchase right on the spot, or within the next couple hours.

Are You a Good Fit for the Growth Marketing Stack?

Download our FREE guide on the WEBITMD growth marketing stack. It might make a lot of sense for your business, or perhaps a modern SEO approach will be the better investment. Once you have read the guide, give us a call and let us learn about your brand, products and customers, and together we can find the best approach to help you achieve your goals.