Growth Marketing vs SEO: Is There A Difference with Mark Spera - EP275

SEO has become a major part of marketing strategies in the past decade.  As Google's ranking algorithms continue to improve and change over time, businesses across all industries must now put more resources into other growth tactics that will keep them going.  In this episode, Mark Spera joined me to talk about  Merchant Center, Growth Marketing beyond long-term SEO investment, the marriage of AI and Content Marketing, and how to speed up SEO and work smartly. After 2020, SEO wasn't really always about ranking and traffic. It was about driving leads, sales, conversions, whatever it may be. And there's more to growth than just organic alone.–Loren Baker, 05:04 Distribution and partnerships are everything, and that's the lowest cost per acquisition way of getting out there. –Mark Spera, 14:36 If you're writing tons of content and it's a major way that you're driving, traffic and conversions on your site, the Growth Bar is for you.–Mark Spera, 11:10 [00:00] - A little about Mark. [02:44] - Find out about Growth Marketing Pro. [05:04] - Ways to grow a company. [09:53] - What does Growth Bar do? [12:58] - What kind of companies does Growth Bar work with? [14:21] - Growth strategies Mark has used that helped companies. [18:03] - Is it advisable to use AI tools to generate 100% of your content? [21:34] - What Mark is doing to give back. [23:28] - How AI can play a part in overall marketing besides SEO. Resources mentioned: Growth Marketing Pro - https://www.growthmarketingpro.com/ Growth Bar - https://www.growthbarseo.com/ It really all comes down to an LTV thing. How much are you spending to get a lead? How much does that lead give you sometimes SEO's the answer, and sometimes it's not.  I think one of the most overlooked channels, in general, is wholesale or just larger-scale distribution.–Mark Spera, 06:40 On dwell time, like Google is kind of like watching and seeing how humans are interacting with your site. So at the end of the day, if the AI is not as good as human-created content, it's not gonna rank. It's just that simple.  AI isn't gonna replace human content yet. I mean, there is, there's a future probably where this will happen, but I, that future isn't now, and there's not a single AI writing tool out there. I, I know because I've tried them, all that is going to like completely replace, what a human can do.–Mark Spera, 12:01 We're not talking about the AI being a replacement for writing, we're talking about AI being kind of an assistant or a proven assistant. –Loren Baker., 11:47 For more content like this, subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/searchenginejournal Are you looking to keep up with current and effective digital marketing today? Check out https://www.searchenginejournal.com for everything you need to know within the digital marketing space and improve your skills as an internet marketer. Connect with Mark Spera: Hard work, perseverance, and success are the hallmarks of Mark's story. Several years ago, he started a blog called Growth Marketing Pro to share his marketing and business growth knowledge - which has now become a six-figure passive income business!  Previously, he led growth marketing for venture-backed startups in San Francisco. All of this also led to the co-founding of GrowthBar, a tool for bloggers and content teams. His love for pizza was probably a big part of it, too! ​​Connect with Mark on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-spera-90a62322/ Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/growthmktingpro Connect with Loren Baker, Founder of Search Engine Journal: Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lorenbaker Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenbaker