Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads

Founder of Mapes Marketing ⚡ I work with a handful of Traverse City and Michigan businesses to win big with SEO & digital marketing 🏆 10+ yrs proven growth

[Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads @seanmmapes]

@kaleighf I'm jealous. Incredible album.

[Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads @seanmmapes]

Want some slop? I see SO MANY businesses and brands leaning into AI for creative and marketing. Please stop.

Yes, you may get some quick wins early but you may also alienate your whole audience who can STILL tell it's AI.

I think AI has its place in business. I don't think using AI for customer facing content is the way. Use AI for the boring stuff on the backend of your business that people don't see.

Why are businesses relying on AI for creative and marketing copy? Because it's easy...which means more and more people will start doing it.

Zig when they zag.

When more and more business start creating AI slop...

Lean into human creativity and connection.

[Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads @seanmmapes]

Everyone says reviews are the key to ranking on top of Google.

They are right...but this is what they don't tell you.

It's NOT about who has the most reviews.

It's about who has the most recent and relevant reviews.

In the screenshot below Team Bob's has 1,000 more reviews than Precision but Precision Plumbing has more recent reviews AND their reviews mention plumbing and plumber (notice how plumber is bolded).

One of the things I do for clients is track all of our competitors' reviews. This way we have a goal for how many reviews we need each month to stay ahead of the competition.

[Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads @seanmmapes]

@thisguyknowsai Send

[Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads @seanmmapes]

@LocalSEO_Guy hi

[Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads @seanmmapes]

@JeremiahPrummer @nuggets Getting excited for the season? I'm a @DetroitPistons fan. I'm having some mixed feelings. Can't be worst than last year, right?

[Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads @seanmmapes]

@ArijanJanes Pages

[Jess @ FireTeam 🔥 An agency on fire... @HireFireTeam]

The Four Stages of Creative Strategy explained:

📐1. Hooks and angles
⚖️2. Stage balancing
🫂3. Audience maximization
🫶4. Performance branding

Let's dig in! 👇

📐 Hooks and Angles

You have a good sense of creative metrics and how to affect and improve them. You know how to identify and execute on new angles with better-than-average hooks and thumbstops.

⚖️ Stage balancing

You have a good understanding of the stages of awareness and the buyers journey and can map it out both for the product and the category. You know which stages the account is spending on, can identify holes and opportunities, and can make creative that can be competitive at all specific stages if needed.

🫂 Audience maximization

You know the saturation level of various audience segments by looking at frequency and performance. You can identify net-new audiences and can produce ads that use creative targeting to reach them on broad audiences. You have an innate sense of angle/audience overlap.

🫶 Performance branding

You can do all the above all while reinforcing or featuring positive brand sentiment. You understand that there are more customers of your brand than your product and can create cohesive brand narratives across creative assets and channels. These assets perform as good as traditional performance creative and you don't have to do any 'brand awareness' discounting. You've already done the brand strategy work to make sure there is even juice to squeeze here.

Any questions?

[Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads @seanmmapes]

@HireFireTeam Damn. This is amazing. Great way of thinking about it. Thank you.

[Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads @seanmmapes]

Everyone wants things right now - instantly.

SEO is the opposite of instant gratification.

It takes patience and consistency.

Something 99% of people don’t have.

THIS is the advantage of SEO.

THIS is how SEO builds a moat for your brand.

[Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads @seanmmapes]

@JoeCopywriting would you rather know quickly that your site and product don't convert or wait months for SEO to work then find out?

[Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads @seanmmapes]

Have an ecommerce brand? Don't start with SEO.

Here's why.

You need to know that your traffic converts.

This is why I suggest starting with ads THEN moving to SEO.

With ads you can quickly adjust your message, offer, and landing pages to see what converts best.

SEO takes time. You don't want to waste on SEO campaigns and getting organic traffic just to find out that your website doesn't convert.

[Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads @seanmmapes]

@boringmarketer BORING

[Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads @seanmmapes]

What do your backlinks say about your brand?

[Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads @seanmmapes]

Backlinks help Google understand your reputation and whether you're trustworthy.

They're a bit like the friends you keep.

If your friends are dirtbags.

There's a good chance Google thinks you're a dirtbag too.

And Google for the most part doesn't like dirtbags.

[Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads @seanmmapes]

Blogging is the most BORING yet consistent way to build a strong brand.

According to @hubspot, brands with active blogs receive 55% more traffic.

Yet only 4% of @shopify brands blog.

So how do you increase traffic AND sales with your blog?

ITTO blog posts

Here's how:

[Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads @seanmmapes]

I've been seeing a lot of Rivians... Good to know there's a less masculine truck than the Honda Ridgeline.

Electric is cool. Those just aren't.

It looks like when a politician wears a flannel shirt and hard hat to a blue collar event. You're not fooling anyone.

[Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads @seanmmapes]

@thePhilRivers

[Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads @seanmmapes]

@heyitsalexP @Abir_CPA I've seen good results for Google ads optimizing Shopify data feeds.
The easiest way to get started is to add a supplemental feed in Google Merchant Center.
If you have a ton of products you may need to use something like DataFeedWatch

[Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads @seanmmapes]

@JacquesDrop Great ad as always. Love the Wet Hot American summer vibe.

[Sean Mapes / Mapes Marketing, SEO and Social Ads @seanmmapes]

@BrockbankJames But I turned the red things to green...