Mehdeeka S3 Best Of
A round up of this season's hits
If you missed it in last week’s issue (which was practical tips on writing an SEO pillar page), season 3 of Mehdeeka is finished! I’m on a break at the moment and will be back with season 4 at an as-of-yet undecided time, but you might get the odd email from me in the mean time.
The most popular issue from this season was the interview with Sam Ficek, an in-house SEO expert at Canva who also runs a blog. Here’s a sample of the interview;
Kayla: For non-SEO people who are tasked with looking after their company's SEO (alongside their actual role), what are, say, the top 2 or 3 things they should invest time and effort into, and 1 or 2 things that they can deprioritise?
Sam: You'll then need to make sure that you have pages containing good content that targets the relevant keywords within your niche. When considering whether to focus on the high-volume but more competitive terms (ie. 'head terms') or lower-volume but less competitive terms (ie. 'longtail terms') will depend upon your site's domain authority and how much time you have to spend on SEO…
For many businesses, especially those that target a fairly limited range of keywords, link-building will be where you will spend a significant amount of effort over the long term. It's highly labour-intensive but essential if you want to rank highly in a niche that's even slightly competitive.
Another interview, this time with George Hatzis, product designer at Wisr and side project Checklist Deisgn.
K: What advice would you give to a non-designer marketer who is in charge of giving design feedback, or evaluating the design work of a freelancer/agency?
George: Pair your feedback with action. In my experience, it's common for a non-designer to say the work "doesn't feel right", or "misses the mark". It's fine to know the mark is missed, but how much did I miss it by? Am I centimetres away, or am I kilometres off? Is it to the left, to the right, or behind me? Giving actionable feedback provides more insight, and is more collaborative. It's better than a back and forth of isolated work, where the designer runs away and creates, comes back, misses the mark, and then runs away and creates again.
This also may be an obvious one, but it's a favourite of mine: criticise the work, not the person.
The interviews just keep coming! Brie Ginman from agency YNC took us through the opportunities and traps of landing pages.
K: Do you think there are any major differences between B2B and B2C landing pages?
Brie: As someone who mostly works with B2B, this is an interesting question. At the end of the day, you are still selling to people, and you are talking to people. The main variable here is the copy. You should be changing your copy based on your persona and their jobs-to-be-done.
A deep dive from myself into the essential journeys for B2B email marketing, point scoring, measuring intention, and giving value away for free.
A subject line should make you open an email (ask yourself: would I open this?)
A pre-header should tell you what to expect (ask yourself: is this related to the content of the email?)
Body text should introduce the topic and prime for the CTA (ask yourself: does this CTA come out of nowhere?)
A CTA should make you take action (ask yourself: would I want to click this?)
An interview and some podcast recs
Last week I was featured on Marketing Trends, another great source of interviews with Aussie marketers from a wide range of industries and backgrounds!
To promote the Astra Zeneca vaccine, someone (?) made an Instagram account with an A-Z of things that are more likely to kill you than the AZ vaccine. The whole alphabet is already populated, so go enjoy the content.
I’ve been making time to listen to podcasts again and here are a few recent recommendations:
A limited series (6x 1 hour episodes) on tracking down and prosecuting child abusers on the internet, spanning international police forces.
An ongoing weekly series following Britney Spears’ conservatorship. I grew up thinking Britney was a ditzy airhead, but now as an adult I’m realising how much of my opinions of her (and other early 2000s women) were formed by orchestrated agendas. This podcast is run by two investigative reporters, so it’s quite a thorough listen with a lot of interviews and details, so I really recommend giving it a chance before you pass!
A quick 5 episode limited series detailing the womens gymnastics at Sydney Olympics in 2000. It’s a look into the ripple effects a single mistake can have, the flaws of the Olympics, and how athletes are (or were) treated.