Content Managers: The New Breed Of Marketer?

by Stephanie Schwenn Sebring

As search engine optimization becomes more sophisticated, the role of marketing will evolve equally fast. “Companies, including credit unions, will need to devote at least a part-time specialist to SEO,” says Jared Miller, social and digital strategist for CUES Supplier member Third Degree Advertising, Oklahoma City, Okla., a marketing communications firm that specializes in strategic planning, branding and research. These individuals, using a factual approach, will draft relevant copy with a focus on crisp ideas and text.

“Content managers will participate in the site’s backend administration as well,” says Miller. “They will work closely with IT. Along with page content, they will be instrumental in developing appropriate metatags and titles.” Search engines look (for this metadata) to find keywords that match what the reader has typed.

“Precise tags and page descriptions are essential,” adds Miller. “It enables what we call ‘crawlers’ to search millions of pages looking for relevant keywords.” Ideally, each landing page will contain 50 to 75 words of keyword-rich copy. It will also have its own unique metatag and page description reflecting those keywords. “If you don’t draft your own description, Google will pick the first 25 words to display on its results page,” concludes Miller.

$405 million/47,000-member Generations Federal Credit Union, San Antonio, uses both internal and external sources for its SEO. “We do most of it internally, because there’s no one who understands our business better than us,” says CUES member Wendy Bryant-Beswick, VP/marketing and business development.

Last year, she moved the Credit Union’s blog, which caters to three distinct member channels, directly onto the Credit Union’s homepage. “It’s a mistake not to host your blog right on your site,” continues Bryant-Beswick. “Another mistake is not having the right platform that can easily manage site content.”

Currently, the credit union uses Drupal as its platform, but will soon be switching to WordPress. “It provides greater simplicity and, at the same time, offers all of the features of Drupal (and more),” she says.

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