Must Market

The great title of this scoop says it all. Everyone is creating content marketing but no one is sure how the top of the conversion funnel, those things we do like blogging and social media that drive traffic, and the bottom of the funnel, the magic land of conversions and ROI live, are connected.

There are several problems trying to connect traffic generation to ROI and conversion including:

* Attribution.
* Lack of accurate tools.
* TIME.
* Lack of predictive analytics.

Attribution, knowing where converting traffic came from, can be a bear. Conversion funnels can be peppered with visits; content and referring URLs What was the magic combination that actually created the conversion? Sophisticated analytics model attribution and assign some weighted value, but this is riff with bias and accurate enough (generally) to calm the riot. Some modeled attribution still beats NONE since no modeled attribution can lead to cutting off your websites proverbial nose to spite its face.

Time is part of the attribution problem. Some content lasts for a day and that are all its ever going to do. Other "evergreen" content can last for a year sending converting traffic all along. How do you know when you have short or long term content? By how it behaves and that is defining a bard door after horses are already out.

There is a missing algorithm in all of this. The magic QUANT math that can accurately connect funnel tops to bottoms. The problem is that QUANT math better be flexible and have some Artificial Intelligence-like flexibility or it isn't of much use since the web is a constantly changing sea of data, attribution and time.

We will master these complex FACTORS and find a way to better connect our funnel tops and bottoms someday soon. In the meantime bailing wire and chewing gum ROI systems will continue to rule our content marketing investments.

Startups Think Mobile First
I got this lesson at Triangle Startup Factories Fall Showcase when more than half of the "graduating" startups were MOBILE focused almost to the exclusion of content on Google. 

These startups could have cared less about organic SEO. I'm not sure I would live all the way there YET but SOT (Sign of the Times) and yet another big wake up call to Google. 

It is possible via app stores and direct connection into what is rapidly becoming many people's #1 digital device - their SmartPhone - to build a substantial business and have NO top ranked keywords in Google. 

All things being equal I still want content in the Big G since a traffic source as valuable as that is stupid to ignore, but the brash thinking of next gen entrepreneurs DOESN'T INCLUDE GOOGLE. 

Google, for these brash mobile first entrepreneurs, doesn't enter in their field of vision. They aren't worried about winning organic SEO as much as they fear bad ratings on the app store (lol). 

After spending years tweaking, cajoling and pleading organic SEO I'm ready for something new and different. SEO feels played out, not worth half the time we used to put in it and OVER.