Let's Talk SEO for 2024

What Is an SEO Strategy?

An SEO strategy is a plan to create, optimize, and promote content to improve its visibility in search engine results, attracting more organic traffic to a website. It involves a variety of techniques, such as keyword research, on-page optimization, technical SEO, and link building.

In other words: an SEO strategy is the process that you follow when you want to get more organic traffic.

Before assessing your SEO strategy, you must understand where your business or brand intends to go in 2024 and beyond.

The business strategy needs to be built into the foundations of your business or marketing plan, so the more you can understand this and ensure your goals are aligned, the better.

Audience insights: Has anything changed about how customers search or buy your product or service?

How well do you know your audience? And how well is this informing your search strategy? 

Audience understanding should be foundational to your marketing strategy. When did you last map the customer journey? 

Are your audience still turning to a search engine, or are they searching on social? Do they want written content or are they hoping to see audio or video? 

Also, are you still considering the right audience, or is there a new audience you could tap into?

Tools: When did you last review what you are using?

We all build habits, and it’s no different with our tools. We go in and use the same reports that we always use. But is there more to the tools you have that you aren’t benefitting from?

Or, are there new tools that might add to your capability, speed up processes, or improve the way you tackle your SEO strategy? 

Depending on when your annual budget renews, it is worth taking some time to look at what is on the market and the best use of your tool budget. 

AI: Have you embraced it?

2023 was the year where AI was the topic of nearly every article, podcast, and event. Have you tested where AI might fit in for you and your business? If not, we would recommend carving out some time in 2024 for this. 

We believe AI is a valuable ally for strategy, serving as a data slicer, researcher, or ideation machine. While it’s not a finisher for tasks like content publication or final decision-making, it significantly enhances processes and accelerates delivery.

Keywords: Are they still relevant? What are you missing?

Understanding your audience’s search behavior is crucial for your SEO strategy. It’s not just about optimizing what you think makes sense; you need to ensure it aligns with user intent. 

Without this knowledge, you risk failing by either having the wrong content for user intent despite a good position or having both position and content but failing to guide the user to a conversion.

Refining your 2024 SEO game plan

Approach 2024 with confidence by ensuring your SEO strategies are strong. Carefully evaluate what has worked, where there are gaps, changes in your audience, and alignment with your business goals will set you up for success. 

What to Expect in the World of Video Production in 2023

As we look ahead to 2023, the video production industry is set to go through a lot of big changes and make a significant amount of progress. The rise of remote work is one important development we expect to see more of in the future. As more companies use remote teams, the need for video production tools and services that make it easy for people to work together from far away will only grow.

We also anticipate that the amount of virtual reality and augmented reality content will grow. As VR and AR technology gets easier to use and cheaper, we expect there to be a huge rise in immersive video experiences that engage audiences in new and exciting ways.

In 2023, the video production industry will be affected by the ongoing shift to streaming services. Since streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ are becoming more popular, there will be more demand for high-quality, original content. This will give video production companies more ways to make and share content all over the world.

Overall, the future of the video production industry looks good. As new technologies and platforms come out, there will be a lot of room for creativity and innovation. As the industry changes, companies will need to keep up with the latest trends and tools to stay competitive in 2023, when things will be changing quickly.

Reels Grew By 220M Users in Last 3 Months

The number of users that marketers can reach with ads in Meta’s Reels feeds continues to grow.

Figures published in the company’s ad planning tools reveal that the global audience for ads in Facebook Reels has jumped by almost 50% over the past three months.

The latest potential reach figure is just a shade below 700 million users, reflecting an increase of more than 220 million users since July 2022.

The number of users seeing ads in Instagram’s Reels feed has also increased since last quarter, albeit at a much more modest rate.

Figures for October 2022 show that Instagram Reels ads now reach 758.5 million users, which is 0.5% more than the 754.8 million users that Meta’s ad planning tools reported back in July.

With simple video marketing tools and strategy, your brand can be seen.

Creating a 30-Day Social Media Plan

Your goal is to deliver high-quality, relevant content that will engage your audience, establish brand trust, and drive business—but how can you tailor your social content to break through all of the noise, provide value to your audience, and ultimately impact your bottom line?

Week 1. Establish Goals for Social

The objective here is to give purpose to your social efforts. Once you’ve established your social goals, the content you produce and share should continually support those goals.

This week you will:

1. Define your success metrics

2. List out your challenges

3. Brainstorm solutions

4. Analyze the competition

Week 2. Optimizing your profiles and brand voice on social media

Take a deep dive into your social strategy and determine where you are successful and where there is room for growth.

It might even be a good idea to conduct a survey among your marketing, sales, customer service, and product teams to gauge where they see areas of success or room for improvement.

This week determine your strengths and weaknesses. Run a social media audit to identify your best-performing content and most popular channels. Take time to understand what’s working and why. Your metrics can help you identify which posts effectively cater to the interests of your audience. Use social media listening tools to identify the keywords most often associated with your brand. These keywords can help your team throughout the content brainstorm and creation process.

Week 3. Find and listen to your audience to better understand your industry

Transforming your social marketing strategy may require you to either revisit your current buyer personas or to create new ones from scratch.

Buyer personas help you better understand current and future customers, so that you know exactly who you are marketing to and can create relevant content and offerings. Start by writing down everything you know about your target customer and perform research to fill in any gaps.

1. Listen to your audience

2. Research industry trends and topics

3. Choose your content types

4. Start thinking about the types of content that will benefit your brand the most, while keeping your audience engaged.

Week 4. Fill out your social content calendar to increase reach and engagement

Now’s the time to gather your inspiration and plan out content you know will resonate with your audience. The key to effective brainstorming is to put yourself in the mindset that inspiration can come from anywhere. Your publishing cadence depends on a handful of factors including your company, your audience, the campaign in question and the social networks being used. We cover this more in our guide to creating a social content calendar, but here are some suggested guidelines on how often to post: 

1. Facebook pages: 1-2 per day

2. Twitter: 3-10 times per day

3. Instagram: 1-3 times per day

4. Instagram Stories: 2-5 times per day

5. Pinterest: 3-20 times per day

6. LinkedIn: 1-2 times per week

To begin your calendar:

1. Gather resources

2. Create your content

3. Optimize your content

4. Create a call to action

Keep in mind that transforming your social media strategic planning doesn’t have to end with these 30 days—continue to identify challenges to your social marketing strategy, analyze your competitors, discover ways to optimize your content and social profiles, and remember to always revisit and adjust your strategies as needed.

What's Going On With Instagram...

Instagram has been on a path from its origins in 2010 as a photo sharing platform towards becoming a video-focused app in 2022 – however, its latest update might be a step too far as its received widespread backlash from users.

The new update which features photos and videos in a new TikTok style format that takes up your entire screen and forces you to swipe between individual posts has been slowly rolled out to users since the beginning of May.

On 3rd May, Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri posted a video announcing the app was moving “to a place where video is a bigger part of the home experience, where content is more immersive – it takes up more of the screen”.

What that means in reality is a new full-screen feed where posts appear in a larger 9:16 ratio, the same as you see on TikTok.

Instagram has consistently updated the direction of the app to stay on top of trends and make sure they aren’t overtaken by competitors. In 2013, Instagram first introduced videos to the app as they competed against Vine. In 2016, Instagram launched Stories following the success of Snapchat Stories.

The new direction taken by the app in 2022 to promote a full-size feed and push Reels appears to be the next step the app is taking to fight off its latest competition – TikTok.

What you need to know-

Square photos are OUT. Portrait (1080X1350px) is now the size of the new layout feed.

Are Instagram Reels Important in Digital Marketing?

With nearly 1.1 billion active users every month, there’s no doubt about it- Instagram is the top visited social network today.

And people love it for a reason:,it’s a versatile platform that allows users to share all kinds of things… from the simplest images to full-blown artistic masterpieces. 

So the question is: how do you stand out in an oversaturated platform like Instagram? 

The answer? Leverage the power of video snippets. 

Thankfully, you can do just that with Instagram Reels.

What are Instagram Reels?

Instagram Reels are short video clips that are only up to 60 seconds long. The said feature emerged as a reaction to the success and popularity of TikTok, another video-based social media platform. 

It’s no secret that Reels are extremely similar to TikTok, but the most crucial difference is that the former doesn’t have a platform on its own. A user will only be able to use Reels when they’re inside the Instagram app. So you are still able to post photos, videos, in addition to reels to your instagram profile.

Reels are also similar to Instagram Stories, but unlike the latter, IG Reels don’t disappear after 24 hours of posting. 

How Instagram Reels Reach Audiences

Instagram Reels can be used as a strategic way to capture attention, or you could use them as a way to seed your other content. 

One of the best things about IG Reels is that they have a dedicated feed that attracts users who enjoy this type of content the most, allowing the latter to see your post and be drawn to it in the most frictionless way possible. 

By reaching an audience that already has an interest in what you’re sharing, the chances of your post being shared are increased. This means that the likelihood of your brand being seen organically is high.

Final Thoughts on Using Instagram Reels

While Reels are still a relatively new addition to the Instagram platform, the opportunities that come with it are incredible. However, it doesn’t mean that there won’t be challenges along the way- proper hashtags, proper captions, using trending music etc.

If you’d like some help on how to use IG Reels effectively for your brand, we can help. Our team of social media strategists at Bound for Glory productions can help you develop a strategy and data-driven digital marketing strategy that ensures that your efforts yield maximum results. 

Bound For Glory Wins 2022 International Telly Award

Bound For Glory Productions is honored to accept the Silver 2022 International Telly award in the Social Video Series category. We are thankful to City Lights Foundation, for trusting us to tell their story, as well as all of our clients who trust us to share their stories every single day. The Telly Awards honors excellence in video and television across all screens and is judged by leaders from video platforms, television, streaming networks, production companies and including Adobe, Netflix, Dow Jones, Duplass Brothers Productions, Complex Networks, Jennifer Garner, A&E Networks, Hearst Media, Nickelodeon, ESPN Films, RYOT, Partizan and Vimeo.

The City Lights video campaign highlighted the non-profit’s brand identity in the community, as well as testimonials and stories of the organization’s generosity and impact. Executive Director, Sarah Grounds, shared the history of the organization, City Lights Tulsa, where volunteers met the needs of the communities homeless with food, shelter, clothing, and friendship.

Financial Manager, Zak Bates, took our film crew through City Light’s sister company Mobile Lights. Mobile Lights is a community of volunteers who bring essential items to those in need or who cannot make it to City Lights Tulsa events.

The Telly Awards is the premier award honoring video and television across all screens. Established in 1979, The Telly Awards receives over 12,000 entries from all 50 states and 5 continents. Entrants are judged by The Telly Awards Judging Council—an industry body of over 200 leading experts including advertising agencies, production companies, and major television networks, reflective of the multiscreen industry The Telly Awards celebrates. Partners of The Telly Awards include Video Consortium, Ghetto Film School, We Are Parable, Future of Film, IFP, LAPPG, NAB, Stash, NYWIFT, Production Hub, and IFP, with support from The Commercial Director’s Diversity Program.

The full list of the 43rd Annual Telly Awards winners can be found at www.tellyawards.com/winners.

Types of Video Content to Add to your Website/Blog

1) Vlog

While blogs are great, vlogs, or video blogs, are much better. Vlogs offer you a cost-effective platform to establish a unique brand voice and personable image that resonates with your target market. It is inexpensive and easy to shoot a short, off-the-cuff vlog with nothing more than your smartphone or webcam. This authentic approach gives your video content a relatable, personalized quality instead of a super-slick, corporate production.

2) Behind-the-Scenes/Company Culture

Compelling brand storytelling can set your company apart from its competitors, simultaneously motivating employees and captivating prospects. For this reason, one of the best types of video content you can use is a behind-the-scenes video that reveals your company culture. This type of video offers an immersive experience, pulling back the curtain on your company to allow customers to forge a connection with your brand. In essence, a behind-the-scenes video enables you to breathe life into your brand, humanizing it to appeal to viewers on a personal level.

3) Interview/Q&A

Interview videos are ideal for building brand authority as they allow you to align your brand with thought leaders and inspirational figures, help you establish authority with input from respected voices, and give your audience an intimate 1-on-1 experience where someone in your business or market space answers hard-hitting questions.

4) Product Reviews

Product reviews are among the most valuable types of video content, especially for consumers in the consideration phase of the customer journey. These videos work best when you have already established some trust with your audience. By reviewing products, you can answer common questions, dispel doubts, and show viewers the unique benefits that your product offers, which give prospects all the information they need to make purchasing decisions. A product review video can be only 30 seconds long and get the brand message and product benefits across loud and clear—without using a single word.

5) Testimonials

While blogs, presentations, and product reviews are all excellent types of video content, creating video testimonials is a clever way to take each of them to the next level. By putting the spotlight on existing customers, you can show viewers just how happy your brand (and its products and services) makes people. The key factor here is to get real customers. Reach out to your satisfied customer base and create genuine video testimonials. The best way to persuade potential customers to buy in on what you offer is by asking your current customers to convince them.

The best way to capitalize on video content is to integrate it with your other marketing efforts. When done strategically, videos can be used to help increase engagement with your blog posts. As a result, doing so will also improve how readers interact with your content.

Let’s get started!

Why Use Video Marketing to Increase Engagement?

As we are moving rapidly through 2022, the social media world is rapidly updating its algorithms. Now is the perfect time to look at new ways to increase your marketing content strategy.

Video content has the highest demand with Instagram reels, tik toks, Facebook stories, etc. Video content is not only for entertainment, it is now a demand for brands and businesses to increase on platforms for consumers. Consumers are now trusting brands that compete, follow trends, track world updates, and are creative. But this is not without strategy.

Many businesses are curious or skeptical of allowing their brand be involved with Tik Tok trends, Instagram dance reels etc. How long will the audience watch the video? What will be remembered? Is the logo big enough? Did they swipe after 2 seconds? As directive as these questions may seem, understanding consumer and audience behavior is crucial and needed when discussing content creation and long-term video marketing.

This study by Oracle suggests that videos can increase the time spent on your webpage by more than 100%. When you include videos in your blog posts, readers will feel more inclined to stop when they reach the video. More often than not, readers will end up engaging with the content by clicking on the video because it stands out in the midst of all text in the blog post.

We’ve discussed the “why”, so now we’ll discuss the "how”. There are a number of ways you can use video content to increase engagement with your blog posts.

#1 Create original video content

Creating original and authentic video content and embedding videos into your blog posts will help increase the overall engagement of your posts.

#2Keep videos under 2 minutes

If you’re looking to use videos to increase engagement with your blog posts, make sure the videos are short and straight to the point.

#3 Host your videos on YouTube

This is because YouTube offers a wide range of SEO and analytics tools that help track engagement.

#4 Host your videos on YouTube

If you already have an existing YouTube channel or a content hub with existing video content, repurposing videos is another excellent way to increase engagement with your blog posts.