Archive for category: Mission-driven Marketing Resources

A user does a quick Google search for a training service or professional certification they need.

What if your association was the very first thing they see? 

Search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t just for big for-profit brands—any organization that promotes its programs, services, and products to online audiences can benefit from an SEO strategy. Yes, that includes associations!

There’s a common misconception that SEO involves some kind of wizardry to achieve top rankings on search engines. Far from it.

SEO is built on straightforward technical and marketing concepts. Master them, put them into action, and you’ll build a solid SEO foundation for your association in no time. We’ll cover them all here:

Why take our advice? Nexus Marketing has been helping mission-driven brands grow their online visibility and demand generation for a decade now.

In that time, we’ve seen tons of SEO trends come and go. We know the steadfast best practices that drive real, sustained success, and our goal is to help more organizations cut through the clutter and buzz.

What is SEO?

First, the basics. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of technically maintaining your website and publishing high-quality content to appear higher in organic search engine results.

Within the broader field of SEO, you’ll encounter related sub-fields of more specific practices. These include:

• Technical SEO: The practice of improving and maintaining the technical quality of your website so it offers positive user experiences and search engines understand it.
• Keyword strategy: The process of choosing strategically important keywords that your organization wants to rank highly for to achieve its marketing goals.
• Content strategy: The practice of creating and updating high-quality web content that’s optimized for technical performance, keyword relevance, and user experience.

Quick context: Organic search results are any that are not paid ads (like the Google Ads that you’re likely used to seeing). Search engine results pages are often referred to as SERPs, which we’ll use in the rest of this guide.

What are the Goals of SEO?

Organizations of all types and sizes use SEO strategies to rank higher for their target keywords. By ranking higher, they can:

• Generate more sales leads for their products and services
• Increase traffic and engagement from qualified audiences
• Grow their online visibility and brand recognition

Spoiler Alert: Effective, ongoing SEO has a powerful flywheel effect.

In other words, when your website is trusted as a source of high-quality content, it’s more likely to rank higher for a wider range of keywords, further growing your visibility (and incoming sales leads).

Here’s an example: One of our clients was an early member of our free partnership program to receive high-quality content from the Nexus team.

Since joining as a full SEO client, they’ve quickly been able to put their library of content to work for their brand. Clickthrough rates increased by 118% in just 6 months, and their website now ranks on Page 1 for 32 high-priority keywords! Check out the case study to learn more.

Why SEO Matters for Associations

SEO is a smart investment for associations for several reasons:

• When done well, it offers a high ROI.
  • SEO is relatively low-cost compared to other marketing channels. It’s possible to make big SEO gains for free when you follow best practices, although many organizations partner with SEO agencies to reduce workload and boost their results.
  • Another reason that SEO offers such a high ROI is that it allows you to target highly qualified audiences. If someone searches for a niche training program in a specific industry, SEO ensures your association reliably appears front and center.
  • Compared to pay-per-click online ads, SEO generally offers a better ROI—between roughly 500% and 1,300%. The results of an effective SEO strategy increase over time, but its fixed costs do not (unless you want to really increase your SEO activities). Ads incur a cost with each click, meaning strategy mistakes are costly.
• It drives long-term results and brand awareness.
  • SEO is truly a growth investment. As mentioned above, an effective SEO strategy acts like a flywheel—attracting more attention and achieving higher rankings as your website’s authority grows. This kind of organic growth is a powerful marketing force that will establish your association as a go-to resource for all things related to your industry or niche.
• It results in all-around better websites.
  • SEO teaches us to be more thoughtful and strategic about how we use our websites as marketing and engagement tools. When you prioritize your SEO and follow a robust content strategy, you’ll have a technically polished website and a library of high-quality web content.
  • These across-the-board improvements make stellar impressions on visitors, no matter how they found your website. Give them a helpful, positive experience, and they’re more likely to stick around and learn more about your association.

TLDR: Like other mission-driven organizations, associations often have tight budgets. SEO offers a lower-cost, higher-ROI way to drive sustained marketing results, increase brand awareness, and create better user experiences.

Essential Points to Remember

To succeed long-term with SEO, you need to keep a few North Stars in mind. Here are the essential reminders that we often discuss with our SEO clients:

• SEO is a long game. You might see fast results (and we often do), but the biggest impact comes in the months and years after you’ve implemented and maintained an SEO strategy.
• It’s an iterative process. Unlike ads, there’s no need to get your SEO strategy and content 100% perfect the first time! Google constantly recrawls content to check for quality, so you have endless opportunities to study your results and improve over time.
• Consistency and quality are key. SEO should be an ongoing priority to keep showing Google and readers that your website is worth paying attention to. Especially in the age of AI (more on this later), excellent content written for and by humans will reign supreme.
• Understand your SEO objectives. Strategies can easily derail when you focus on the wrong goals, like web traffic metrics. Search algorithms change constantly, some keywords see highly seasonal traffic patterns, and other keywords are just extremely competitive. There are all kinds of reasons why leading metrics will distract you from the real objective—generating leads.

Simply put, demand generation should be your goal, not leading metrics like web traffic.

A Closer Look at SEO Goals for Associations

Keep in mind that SEO is better for marketing some types of your association’s offerings than others:

When you focus your SEO strategy on these kinds of recurring or ongoing revenue sources, you create a much clearer path to success.

We advise our clients that short-term, one-time, or highly localized goals are better supported with other marketing channels like direct email outreach, paid ads, social media, or specialized local SEO services. In other words, SEO should be an ongoing, foundational marketing activity on which you can layer additional channels and campaigns as needed to support specific objectives.

Want an example of how SEO and other marketing strategies play well together? Check out our write-up of the top ways to integrate pay-per-click and SEO campaigns to drive success.

How SEO Works

With the context squared away, let’s get into the nitty-gritty—how does SEO work? How does a page go from unranked to dominating the SERP?

Here’s a condensed rundown of the basics of SEO:

1. Search engines like Google use crawler bots to explore the internet. They screen content, pick up on keywords and concepts, check out linked pages, and log its contextual information as part of its algorithmic ranking system.

This process is called indexing. If a page is unable to be indexed, it won’t appear in Google results and is likely the result of a technical issue that should be fixed.

2. Google pays extra attention to links. When one website links to another, Google considers this a kind of vote of confidence or a little stamp of approval that says, “I trust this source enough to show it to my audience.” Over time, pages accrue backlink profiles of all the other pages on the internet that link to them.

3. Pages are analyzed and ranked for EEAT. EEAT stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. While it’s a somewhat fuzzy concept, EEAT is a helpful shorthand for understanding how Google defines truly “helpful,” rankable content. Let’s take a closer look at these criteria:

• • Experience. Does the page’s author and/or the website domain have relevant experience with the topic and a history of publishing about related topics?
  • Expertise. Does the content demonstrate actual expertise, i.e. correct information, relevant details, helpful insights, anecdotes, and more?
  • Authoritativeness. Does the content have links from other high-quality pages across the internet, and are those links contextually relevant (that is, not spammy)? Does the website publish other helpful content?
  • Trustworthiness. Does the website come from a recognized brand, organization, or person? Does it provide transparent contact information? Has it been flagged for improper SEO practices in the past?

There’s some overlap between these concepts, but taken as a whole, they give us a reliable picture of the content Google wants to serve its users.

4. When users search keywords or longer phrases, Google delivers a mix of content. Google will make assumptions about the user’s intent from the keyword—what they’re trying to accomplish with their search—which informs the mix of SERP features it delivers.

These always include organic results, pages that have organically demonstrated their EEAT to Google. Most SERPs also include pay-per-click (PPC) ads, which are indicated with “Sponsored” taglines.

SERPs usually also include a mix of other features designed to quickly provide answers and satisfy that particular user intent.

5. User engagement signals impact the ranks over time. Based on how users engage with the results on SERPs, Google’s ranking algorithm refines its inferences and makes adjustments over time.

SERPs never stand still for long. In addition to user engagement signals, rankings can change for all kinds of reasons:

• • New competing content gets published
  • Older content on the SERP gets updated and improved
  • Other EEAT signals change (like a page’s number or quality of backlinks)
  • Or the Google algorithm gets updated to prioritize a slightly new balance of factors

It’s important to keep track of your SEO performance and identify slippages so that you can make targeted content improvements—we’ll explain this process in the playbook below.

6. Google comes to recognize some domains as more authoritative than others. As a website publishes more high-quality SEO-optimized content, keeps it updated over time, and accrues more backlinks, Google recognizes that domain as a reliable source of helpful content about its core topics. It then gets prioritized in more SERPs—a powerful flywheel effect that amplifies your SEO success.

To measure a domain’s authoritativeness, SEO professionals use a variety of proprietary metrics. At Nexus Marketing, we’ve long relied on Moz’s Domain Authority score as a rough gauge for comparing how well-established a website is in the eyes of Google.

TLDR: Google constantly screens content for quality, EEAT signals, and backlinks. Content is algorithmically ranked using complex mixes of hundreds of factors, including user engagement metrics.

Over time, Google comes to recognize domains for high-quality content about their particular topics and prioritizes them to rank for more keywords.

Key Elements of SEO-Optimized Content

Ok, so you understand how Google ranks content. In tactical terms, what are the specific elements that your organization’s content needs to catch Google’s attention? Good question.

The Nexus team spends all day thinking about, researching, and writing SEO-optimized content for our clients and partners. Here are our top recommendations and the specific elements we always include in SEO articles.

Our Top Advice for Creating SEO Content

Our three most important rules of thumb for creating effective SEO content:

1. Satisfy the user intent. Understand what users want when they search your target keyword.
2. Don’t clutter the content. Answer users’ questions and create a positive experience.
3. Offer real value, expertise, or something new—in the AI age, you have to go the extra mile to stand out.

From these tips, you can probably tell that there is no one-size-fits-all SEO content template you can follow for SEO success. Stuffing keywords into a generic article and hitting publish may have worked once upon a time, but those days are long gone.

Users and Google alike want quality content from trustworthy sources that’s tailored to the audience’s needs. If the keyword calls for a long, educational guide, that’s what you should create. If the keyword calls for very short definitions and quick bits of information about a product or service, create that content.

Elements to Optimize in SEO-Optimized Content

There’s no single template for SEO content, but there are specific technical elements that any web content intended to rank should include:

• The page’s meta title and H1 heading (which may not be the same—always worth checking) should include the page’s primary target keyword.
• The page’s meta description, or the teaser excerpt that gets displayed on SERPs, should also include a relevant keyword and entice users to click.
• Other H2 and H3 headings should include a mix of natural keyword variants and logically organize the content.
• An optimized URL that isn’t too long and includes a relevant keyword Google can quickly recognize.
• Alt text for any graphics included in the content that briefly describes what the graphics represent.
• Content should ideally include links to other relevant content on the same domain and reputable external websites.
• The page’s and website’s design should create positive desktop and mobile viewing experiences.

Want to see these SEO-optimized content elements in action? Look around you! This very page follows SEO best practices for keyword optimization, user experience, and mobile usability.

Or, check out a comprehensive list of all the content tactics and technical elements that we include in SEO-optimized client content in this complete comparison guide.

SEO for Associations in the AI Age

The rise of generative AI has been a seismic shift in the marketing world, especially for SEO. The introduction of AI Overviews directly in SERPs has probably shaken up the industry more than any other update in decades.

However, anytime you search “AI in [insert industry here]” to learn more, you’re likely to see a slew of dramatic editorials and conflicting claims. It’s often the same in the SEO space, and it’s more confusing than helpful for newcomers.

We want to help you cut through that clutter so you can better understand the real, current state of SEO in the AI age before further investing in it for your association.

We’ve already written a few guides that spell out our positions on the implications of AI on SEO:

• » AI’s Impact on the SEO Content Creation Process
  • Can you use ChatGPT to write SEO content? Should you? Learn more and how we safely use ChatGPT here at Nexus.
• » What’s Included When Nexus Creates SEO-Optimized Content for Your Business?
  • Here we compare the content and technical elements that are included in our content vs. generic copywriter content vs. ChatGPT.
• » Google AI Overviews: What You Need to Know
  • The biggest change to hit Google in a long time. Take a look at how AI results are reshaping Google and how this should impact SEO strategies going forward.

Misusing or misunderstanding AI can create all kinds of risks for your association’s website. If you don’t have time to read these articles, at least take away these key points:

• SEO isn’t going anywhere, but it is adapting to a rapidly changing search landscape.
• Do not use AI to fully write website content intended to rank. It will not offer the same value, originality, experience, and human touch that other content will, and Google will know.
• The introduction of AI Overviews on SERPs means that full-funnel content strategies are more important than ever. This means creating content that covers more specific topics and keywords instead of focusing only on those with very high search volume. Remember, attracting truly qualified audiences drives much more value than simply attracting large audiences.
• Try to create “information gain” in your association’s web content whenever possible. What are the unique insights and positions that only your organization can offer? This is the valuable content that AI will never be able to replicate.

Curious what an AI-savvy SEO strategy would look like for your association? Get in touch and let’s chat about it.

Your Association’s First SEO Playbook

Ready to get started? Here are the core steps for launching an SEO strategy for your association for the first time.

1. Check your site’s technical health.

Start with a quick website check-up:

• Ensure that your pages are indexing properly using Google Search Console.
• Install Google Analytics on your website and learn how to use it.
• Check your website’s load speed to identify any serious technical issues.
• Consider investing in a dedicated SEO tool like Semrush or Moz (our favorites).

For complete coverage and diagnostics, we recommend conducting a full technical SEO audit. Please contact us to learn more about this process and what it entails.

2. Define your objectives.

What are the core organizational objectives that you want to accomplish with SEO?

Remember, these should revolve around demand generation. Is there a particular offering or aspect of your association’s operations that you want to focus on first? These might include:

• Boosting member recruitment
• Selling more training products or services
• Securing more registrants for your next annual event

Under these objectives, you’ll set more tactical goals, like reaching Page 1 ranks for a certain number of your target keywords or increasing conversions on a specific landing page by X%.

3. Determine your association’s first target keyword.

Based on your most important objective, choose your first target keyword to pursue.

Ideal keywords for quick wins live in the “Goldilocks Zone” of high demand and low competition. This means it’s a topic searched by qualified leads but without a ton of other high-authority websites crowding the SERPs with standout content. Writing a stellar article that educates this audience and introduces your offering can drive value relatively quickly.

SEO tools often have their own proprietary methods of gauging a keyword’s competitiveness. Moz’s Keyword Explorer is one of the easiest to use.

But you know your space (and your competitors and peer organizations), too—reviewing the existing SERPs of potential keywords can also give you a quick idea of who’s pursuing them and the caliber of content you’ll be up against.

Reminder: Don’t target a broad, high-traffic keyword just yet. In many cases, these are the most competitive terms to rank for.

More specific keywords searched by users who are already lower in the sales funnel will give you the faster wins and momentum that your strategy needs!

SEO agencies can help you lay out a more comprehensive keyword strategy and roadmap based on your objectives and the competitiveness of your space. This is one of the first steps that we take with new clients here at Nexus. Thorough upfront keyword research pays off!

4. Develop a user-centric content strategy.

Outline an article that will help you rank for your target keyword. Your association’s website may already contain an article that could rank if you update and improve it!

We recommend following these steps to sketch out a winning content strategy:

5. Consider your conversion strategy.

Before finishing your outline, take a moment to carefully think through exactly how you’ll ask readers to convert—take a specific action that supports your organizational objective.

Depending on the context, this target conversion action might be:

• Requesting information about joining your association
• Downloading a free digital resource
• Purchasing a product or service
• Registering for your annual event

Think about your audience, their goals for searching the target keyword, and how your offering aligns with that user intent. Pinpoint sections in your outline where you can promote your offering and ask users to take action.

These calls-to-action (CTAs) are often formatted as buttons, banners, and branded graphics that catch the eye. But however you handle your CTAs, make sure that they link straight to a landing page where users can take the target action. Common landing pages include contact or signup forms, lead capture pages to collect email addresses, and specific product/service pages.

6. Write, publish, and index your content.

Now comes the fun part!

Draft your article, give it a short and intuitive URL that includes the target keyword, review your draft, and make revisions. Bonus points for engaging visuals and videos—users and Google appreciate them! Make sure that your article is also attributed to an author, ideally a real person at your association, but a more generic byline simply listing your association can suffice.

Hit publish, and then head over to Google Search Console. Search your new article’s URL and “request indexing.” This will fast-track the indexing and ranking process for your content

7. Start accruing backlinks to your association’s SEO content.

Once your content is live, you can begin the process of building backlinks to it.

Remember: Backlinks show Google that your content is trustworthy, a key component of quality and ranking power.

Start with internal links. Identify several other high-quality pages on your association’s website where a link to your new content would make sense and enhance the user experience.

Next come external links to your content from other websites. This is a diverse practice all on its own. Authority-building by securing backlink placements with external partners is a core part of our own process here at Nexus. The most common ways to secure backlinks include:

• Writing short guest blog posts for other websites that include a link to your SEO content.
• Finding mentions of your association on other websites using a quote search operator, then reaching out to those websites to request a link to your content.
• Taking the organic route by more generally building your brand’s visibility as it relates to that topic.
  • For example, social media posts and links don’t directly contribute to SEO success, but they do spread the word about your content and can encourage other websites to build links organically.

8. Track and analyze your page’s performance.

As you continue building links and your brand’s visibility, keep track of how your content is performing.

If you’ve invested in a dedicated SEO tool or professional SEO services, this is easy. You can access performance reports or receive them straight from your SEO agency—check out how we handle reporting with easy-to-use dashboards.

On your own, you can also use Google Search Console and Google Analytics to track your content’s visibility, traffic, and more. Just remember to dig deeper than topline numbers. Actual conversions—the number of users who take your target conversion action—are ultimately the most important metric for success.

This is why it’s essential to have a clear conversion strategy on your SEO pages. When you understand exactly what you’re asking readers to do and link your CTAs straight to the place to take action, you can easily measure clickthroughs to that landing page and the number of form completions.

9. Make improvements over time.

Finally, take all of the insights you’ve learned from keyword research, the content creation process, and your page’s performance metrics to make improvements over time.

It’s a good idea to regularly revisit your SEO content to audit its performance and compare it to fresher content on the SERP. We typically schedule these kinds of “refresh” activities for our clients because Google highly values fresh, actively maintained content. This is also when you can make improvements to your conversion strategy if needed.

Congrats! If you’ve followed along, you’ve just rolled out a preliminary SEO strategy for your association.

The beauty of this process is that it’s so easily repeatable. You just need the capacity to make research, content creation, and data analysis part of your ongoing marketing practices—which is why so many brands choose to partner with SEO agencies.

Hiring an SEO Agency for Your Association

Associations hire SEO agencies to handle the ongoing and day-to-day work of running an SEO strategy.

Successful strategies take dedicated time and effort, which is why they’re often postponed by busy organizations.

SEO agencies bring specialized experience and technical know-how that most organizations don’t have in-house. 

Working with experts is the most effective way to get an SEO strategy off the ground, especially when they offer:

• Technical SEO audits
• Custom content creation
• Link-building services
• Networks of relevant partners in your industry
• Additional PR opportunities for your brand

These comprehensive services can support the whole lifecycle of your association’s SEO strategy, turning it from a time-consuming activity for your team to a revenue-generating channel that runs in the background. The right vendor will work with you to develop a custom strategy, maintain the health of your website, and let you be as hands-off (or hands-on) as you want.

So how do you hire one? We recommend these general steps:

Why Nexus Marketing Stands Out

Nexus Marketing is the leading SEO agency in the mission-driven space.

We’ve helped diverse organizations and businesses thrive online, reach the right audiences, and build powerful brands for a decade. Check out our case studies!

What sets us apart? Deep expertise in mission-driven subject matter and extensive, organic connections in the space. 

Plus, we offer a full range of additional content creation and PR opportunities to take your brand’s online visibility to the next level. Between custom email and video production, our influencer marketing program, and constant industry speaking opportunities, we’ve got you covered. These options allow you to drive both short- and long-term ROI, unique among SEO agencies.

Please contact us to learn more about our approach. Tell us about your association’s demand generation goals, and we’ll lay out a plan to reach them.

Learn More about SEO: Recommended Resources

Want to learn more about SEO for associations? Check out our recommended resources:

• Explore the Nexus blog for more guides and updates straight from the source.
• Take a deep dive into industry news with Search Engine Journal.
• Check out the Moz and Semrush blogs, our preferred SEO software providers, for more expert insights and guides.

Finally, don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions. Curious about anything covered in this guide? Have a unique SEO challenge in mind? We’re always happy to chat about SEO and the latest trends!

Nexus Marketing’s Atlanta-based team is growing!

Our team is made up of talented writers, personable account managers, and incredible content publishing coordinators. Together, we create unique content that helps mission-driven businesses connect with nonprofits in need of effective software and services that amplify their work.

We’re always looking to expand our team with headstrong individuals who want to push the nonprofit sector forward. If you’re curious about what it’s like to be part of our team, learn more about life at Nexus Marketing by exploring these topics:

• What is Nexus Marketing?
• What does the hiring process look like?
• Do any colleges recommend working at Nexus Marketing post-graduation?
• What are Nexus Marketing’s core values?
• What is the company culture like?
• How does new hire training work?
• Will there be ongoing training opportunities available?
• Does Nexus offer remote work?
• What do employees have to say about the company?
• How is performance management handled?
• What opportunities are there for promotions & career advancement?

As we’re hiring across a range of roles, we aim to recruit outstanding candidates who are eager to hit the ground running and learn through the job. If you’re thinking about joining the team, we want to make sure that you’re a good fit for the role and will be happy working here.

What is Nexus Marketing?

Nexus Marketing is the only online marketing agency that works specifically with mission-driven businesses that offer tools and services that power social good to create a better world.

We work with companies to create unique, engaging content and turn their websites into revenue-generating assets. Our core services include content creation, search engine optimization, and lead generation. Check out some of our case studies to see our work in action.

What’s more, our team is made of passionate storytellers, savvy marketers, and analytics nerds. We’re always looking for innovative ways to improve our clients’ success and grow our team with talented individuals.

What does the hiring process look like?

Our goal is to find inspired individuals and hire great fits for the team. That’s why joining the Nexus Marketing team requires a few different steps. Here’s what to expect:

1. You apply! Visit our Job Openings page to see what roles we’re currently looking to fill. If one sounds like a good fit, send us your résumé, a cover letter, a list of references, and any other materials the listing requests.
2. Someone from our leadership team will review your materials. If you’re approved, you’ll receive an email saying you’re moving on to the next step of the hiring process.
3. You’ll complete an assessment and a short one-way video interview. This will help us get to know you better as a candidate!
4. Our leadership team will personally review your assessment and one-way interview. From there, we invite select candidates in for a full interview, which is currently being done over Zoom.
5. You’ll complete a mock assignment and talk to someone who’s currently in the role. The mock assignment will give us a chance to see your skills in action, and the ‘Day in the Life’ chat will give you a chance to ask any questions you have about the role and company culture.
6. We’ll reach out to your references. As a final step, we’ll reach out to the references that you provided us early on in the process. After this, we’ll let you know whether you’re hired!

Do any colleges recommend working at Nexus Marketing post-graduation?

Our goal is to make Nexus Marketing an incredible place to work for inspired individuals. We work closely with some of the top universities in our area to connect with ambitious individuals who’d be great additions to our team.

As part of our relationships with these colleges, we are currently:

• Preferred Employers for the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism
• Soar-Level Sponsors at Emory University
• A top company for hiring English / Creative Writing graduates at Emory University

What are Nexus Marketing’s core values?

• Support a culture and environment where high performers feel challenged, are empowered, and want to work. We strive to create an atmosphere where people feel inspired to pursue growth and directly influence their peers to do the same.
• Indecision is the only wrong decision. If you’ve got a reasonable shot at making the right call, take action. Nexus thrives on generating timely, meaningful results for clients and partners. As you get into the groove of your role, you’ll be able to make quick decisions that leave a positive impression on your peers and external stakeholders.
• Demonstrate best-in-class responsiveness with quick, proactive, and thoughtful responses to clients, partners, prospects, and team members. Your team members and external stakeholders will depend on timely responses. When it comes to communicating quickly and effectively, no one does it better than the Nexus Marketing team!
• Give back to your community and the causes you care about. As a company, we want to support the causes you care about. That’s why we encourage you to support your local community through giving programs like matching gifts, volunteer grants, and fundraising sponsorships.
• Stay open to new ideas and advocate for them, but commit 100% once a decision is made. Sometimes you have to adapt based on clients’ or partners’ preferences. Always keep an open mind to their suggestions and come up with innovative solutions when necessary.
• Treat clients, partners, prospects, and team members fairly and exceed their expectations. Nexus Marketing relies on effective and collaborative relationships between clients, partners, prospects, and peers. You’ll need to do your part to keep the ball rolling on projects and go above and beyond when needed.
• The status quo is unacceptable. Strive to learn and grow professionally while pursuing the best ways to drive impact at the company. Working at Nexus means constantly pursuing growth through additional training opportunities to increase the impact of your work, drive the business forward, and feel more confident in your abilities.

What is the company culture like?

We want team members to love where they work, which is why we aim to create an inclusive and welcoming environment. Team members regularly host culture and social events covered by the company both in and out of the office.

From company-wide dinners to Braves games, our culture events are a great way for team members to get to know each other and explore the city!

During office hours, we have team and company meetings to help everyone collaborate on the most important tasks for their roles, work through challenges, and build professional camaraderie. We’re also located in the Inman Park neighborhood of Atlanta, so you might catch team members strolling along the beltline for a quick break or grabbing lunch together at Krog Street Market.

How does new hire training work?

Over the years, we’ve built a very robust training process with thorough reference materials, so you’ll know exactly what you’re doing by the time you’re introduced to partners or clients.

When you come in for your first day of work, we’ll kick things off with an orientation meeting and dive straight into your onboarding process, which lasts around a month. The first few weeks are jam-packed with training sessions and courses, led by your manager and other team members across the business. We strongly recommend asking any questions you have because, chances are, we’ve all had the same ones at some point!

We also strongly believe that the best way to learn is by doing. That’s why we’ll get you started on your first assignments within your first day or so. Don’t worry, though! You’ll receive plenty of feedback from your manager to put you on the right track. You’ll also be paired with a new hire mentor, who will guide you through the transition into your new role for your first six months at the business.

One final note: we believe that training and forming relationships are best done in person. So, while we traditionally follow a hybrid work model, your onboarding process will be heavily hosted in person, so expect to come in every day for your first few weeks.

Will there be ongoing training opportunities available?

Beyond initial training, we also have a company training philosophy that we implement to help push team members toward ongoing professional growth. Beyond our weekly team meetings, here are some of the core ongoing training opportunities we offer:

• Scaling Up Book Club: This is our company book club which aims to teach team members to become business-minded by learning the best ways to grow and optimize a business. Everyone reads the assigned chapter, then comes together to discuss the most important takeaways and how it applies to our company. Everyone is welcome to join!
• Manager Tools: Manager Tools is a podcast that focuses on giving career advice and helping managers become more effective in their roles. Everyone listens to the same episode. Then, we come together as a company to discuss everyone’s perspectives and how we can apply the advice to our own careers, either as managers or direct reports.
• SEO Training Tuesday: Once a month, the entire Nexus Marketing team comes together to discuss the latest trends in SEO best practices. The meeting facilitator sends out an article for everyone to read. Then, everyone comes together to brainstorm how we currently use the advice in our work and how we can more intentionally leverage it in the future.
• Ad Hoc Training Courses: Each employee is allotted a training budget to spend on training materials like books, classes, and online courses directly related to their role. The company also helps cover the costs of professional certification for long-term employees.
• Food For Thoughts: Individual team members set up these meetings to share particular skills or projects that their peers might find interesting or useful. Past topics have included site audits, content development, client upsells, image creation, and many more.

Does Nexus offer remote work?

Our goal is to create an office environment where people want to come in and get to know their coworkers while still having the flexibility to do what works best for their needs. That’s why we follow a hybrid work model.

Each week, different teams have a set day in the office. Then, everyone has one additional required day of their choosing. However, team members are welcome to come in as often as they’d like!

Note that newly hired employees are required to come into the office every day for their first three weeks before shifting to this model. The goal is to help them build relationships with one another, get to know other employees from across the business, and get them up and running in their new roles!

What do employees have to say about the company?

If you think you’d like to work at Nexus, hear more about the different roles we offer from our employees: 

Colleen Carroll, Content Publishing Coordinator

A lot of the daily work of a CPC involves managing our robust partner network, following up on deadlines, and holding partners accountable for what they agreed to do. This means sending lots of emails, keeping an eye on calendars, and tracking the progress of projects.

But there is also a creative side to maintaining each partnership. Every quarter, we build content calendars for each of our partners. This activity almost feels like solving a puzzle because I have to align the interest of my partner with the interests of 2-6 of our clients by finding an article title that will please all parties, benefit the client, and be unique on the partner’s blog.

Then, there is the relationship-building aspect of the partnership. I meet with each of my 30+ partners every quarter and exchange emails with many of them every few weeks to maintain our connection. The final facet is partner sourcing. In 2021, the CPC team onboarded over 125 partners, and we are now working to continue to grow this network in 2022. In order to do so, as a CPC team member, I often find myself:

• Researching organizations
• Making connections on LinkedIn
• Building pitch presentations
• Hopping on calls with organizations to share why I think they would enjoy being a Nexus partner

The CPC role is a very public-facing one — I am representing Nexus to each of my partners. If you consider yourself to be organized, friendly, and a great communicator, you’ll likely enjoy this role.

Outside of the role itself, I really like the company culture at Nexus.

We are a young, engaged, and detail-oriented group that enjoys working with each other and participating in optional company activities outside of work hours.

There are also many opportunities for collaboration with other teams and personal growth.

Jessica King, Account Manager

As an account manager, no two days are ever the same! I’m the face of Nexus for our clients — I’m their main point of contact. I coordinate the work that gets done on each of my accounts each month, I liaise between the Nexus teams, and most importantly, I’m in charge of setting the strategy to lead our clients to their SEO goals!

The account managers have a monthly workflow that starts with deciding the most important activities for client accounts that month and ensuring the copywriters and content publishing coordinators know what they should focus on to best support our clients’ goals.

Then, there are two weeks where we’re actively meeting with clients, analyzing their data, and reporting on the results of our work to collaboratively make decisions about the strategy. Once calls are all wrapped up, then there’s a week to plan the next month’s work, make any changes to the strategy, think of ways we might grow client accounts, and keep pushing Nexus forward!

This job is a great fit if you value:

• Variety: there’s always something new to do!
• Autonomy: as the account manager, you’re making the calls for your client accounts.
• Fast pace: making sure you’re keeping up with the latest in SEO best practices and client priorities and quickly helping teammates get unstuck to drive results!
• Data-driven decision-making: each month, you’ll assess the strategy to see what’s going well and what opportunities there are to pivot if results aren’t where we want them to be.
• Lots of interaction: you get to meet and collaborate with just about every stakeholder in the business, from C-level executives at our clients’ companies to copywriters, content publishing coordinators, and company leadership at Nexus.

If that sounds like you, the account management team might be the perfect fit!

Madalyn McRae Gunnell, Copywriter

As a copywriter at Nexus, I spend most of my time writing for clients with the goal of creating authoritative, interesting online content that can help them connect with their customers and be more visible on search engines.

In my role, I’m assigned to seven to nine different clients at any given time, providing plenty of variety in the subject matter I get to research and write about every day. (Our clienteles’ services range from nonprofit fundraising consulting to donor management software and beyond!)

In the day-to-day, I research and outline pieces of content, write, edit my coworkers’ work, brainstorm graphic design ideas, and manage content on the backend of clients’ websites. I’m also responsible for communicating with clients (mostly via email, but occasionally on Zoom) to ensure that the content I write for them fits their unique brand voice.

At Nexus, I feel like I’m always learning something new and encountering new challenges that keep my job interesting!

Here are a few other reasons I love my job:

• I get to use my expertise (creative writing and journalism) in a very practical and unique way to help social good-centered companies grow.
• Nexus provides plenty of opportunities for you to get to know your coworkers and participate in the company’s fun internal culture, from patio parties to bake-offs.
• When I have new ideas for how our internal processes could be strengthened, I know I can voice those ideas and see them come to fruition.
• Nexus offers me lots of opportunities to take on new responsibilities, whether it’s leading team-wide meetings or mentoring new team members.

If you love learning, listening to music while you come up with pithy sentences, and enjoy seeing all the pieces of a final project come together, a copywriting role at Nexus may be just the thing for you!

Shannon Moran, Copywriting Intern

During my final year at the University of Georgia, I was looking for an internship that could offer me new skills and the potential to grow into a permanent position. After meeting with the team at Nexus Marketing, I knew it was the place for me.

Nexus Marketing values every team member and intern equally. From marketing to copywriting, Nexus understands that each role is vital in providing mission-driven businesses with the tools and services needed to power social good.

I had the privilege of joining their first internship program, and as a copywriting intern at a growing agency, I was able to make an impact on the company’s continued success. Here’s a rundown of what I did:

• Received intensive training that included Search Engine Optimization (SEO) writing best practices, Nexus Marketing style preferences, and editing strategies
• Conducted deep-dive research on a variety of topics in the nonprofit field
• Completed marketing and educational content from start to finish, including initial research, drafting, editing, and coordinating with graphic designers
• Joined a weekly, team-wide intern meeting to discuss upcoming projects and general SEO topics
• Met one-on-one with the internship coordinator regularly to ensure I was comfortable with the workload and on track for success

In such a fast-paced work environment, it’s important to manage and prioritize your work for multiple projects to meet defined deadlines. I kept a running to-do list of tasks which helped me to stay organized and efficient.

With a hybrid work schedule, most of my time was spent completing tasks remotely with regular opportunities to come work in the office and make connections with my coworkers.

My internship ultimately transformed into a full-time copywriting position, and I’m thrilled to continue my journey at Nexus Marketing.

Hear from even more Nexus Marketing team members in this quick video!

How is performance management handled?

At Nexus Marketing, we believe that ongoing performance management is a powerful driver of our team members’ success.

We understand that performance management can be nerve-wracking, especially for new employees! However, it’s important to track individual contributors’ performance while also making sure they have plenty of opportunities for growth.

To reduce the anxiety surrounding performance management, we make sure there’s consistent open communication about each individual’s performance.

Weekly

On a weekly basis, you’ll meet one-on-one with your manager to chat about what’s going well, any challenges you’re facing, and what to be thinking about for your future at the company.

During these meetings, your manager will provide positive and constructive feedback. This way, you can make adjustments based on their recommendations, and nothing comes as a surprise when you have your official performance review!

Biannually

Twice a year, there’s a more formalized process where directs undergo an official performance review with their managers and other members of the leadership team.

There are a few stages of an official performance review, including:

1. An individual’s self-evaluation: You’ll be asked to complete a survey where you evaluate your performance over the past performance period, provide insight into your peers’ performance, and share feedback about how the company can support your professional development.
2. The performance review meeting: The team member, manager, and another member of leadership sit down to discuss what was shared in the self-evaluation and the manager’s evaluation of the direct. This meeting is typically broken into a combination of wins, improvement opportunities for the next performance period, and other relevant items.

That’s all there is to it! What’s more, we believe that hard work shouldn’t go unnoticed, which is why compensation changes go into effect for high-performing team members each year.

What opportunities are there for promotions & career advancement?

We aim to reward team members who excel in their roles and want to take on more responsibility. Depending on your role, promotions and role changes can look a little different from one another.

Here are some examples of how role changes have worked across the business in the past.

David Myers, Copywriting Manager

David is one of our outstanding copywriting managers! He joined the team in 2018, and he quickly got up and running as a copywriter. After working diligently on clients’ sites and writing their content, he became a senior copywriter in 2019.

In his new role, he took on elevated leadership responsibilities for the team, which primarily included:

• Leading the weekly copywriting team meetings
• Contributing to the development of the copywriting role itself
• Developing standardized quality control systems to ensure the entire team’s writing was up to par with expectations

As the writing team started growing, there came a need for managers to help guide the team. As a high-performing team member, company leadership looked to him to step in. In 2021, David was promoted to copywriting manager and began managing a team of 4 direct reports.

Today, he continues to serve as a copywriting manager where he leads a growing team of talented individuals. He continues to guide the team toward greater heights by leading training for any new direct reports who join the team.

Erin Toland, Special Projects Copywriter

Erin joined Nexus Marketing as a copywriter in 2019. After working diligently on client accounts and helping to amplify their web content on search engines, she was promoted to a senior copywriter in 2021.

Beyond being staffed on some of our valuable client accounts, she took on elevated internal leadership responsibilities for the copywriting team. Among those elevated duties, she did the following:

• Spearheaded and continues to manage a mentorship program for new hires today
• Served as the internal documentation coordinator, a role in which she kept existing documents up-to-date and regularly developed new valuable resources for the team
• Led key projects such as the development of our partner content type guidelines and accessibility guidelines

Within a few months, there came a need for increased focus on the strategy and development of our company-owned websites. In 2022, Erin was offered a new role to manage the company’s keyword strategy, copywriting, and other special projects.

As part of this new role, she’s now also in charge of the internship program, where she manages the intern team and helps plan activities that contribute to the advancement of the business. Today, she continues to work on optimizing our company-owned sites and enhancing their keyword rankings.

Hannah Thompson, Content Publishing Coordinator Manager

Hannah has made a real impact on our content publishing coordinator team in her time at Nexus Marketing. After joining us in January 2021, she quickly got acclimated to managing relationships with our external publishing partners and was ready to take on increased responsibilities.

After expressing her interest in making a bigger impact on the company, she got the opportunity to create our digital PR program. Thanks to her hard work, the program has evolved into a robust free service where our team makes valuable connections between clients, partners, and friends in the industry for cross-marketing and educational opportunities like webinars, podcasts, and conferences.

Not only did she help create one of our most successful services, but she also got to learn what goes into launching a big initiative by working alongside the president of Nexus Marketing.

As the content publishing coordinator team started scaling up in late 2021, Hannah took on more responsibility for the team by leading meetings and serving in a support role for new employees. Outside of her day-to-day responsibilities, she also volunteered to serve as a new hire mentor, where she helped a group of new employees get acclimated to post-college work life.

Today, she’s on deck for becoming a content publishing coordinator manager and plays a vital role in leading the team toward success!

Kendall Lake, Account Manager

Kendall joined our team as a copywriter in July 2020. After becoming well-versed in our different clients and gaining some SEO experience, leadership quickly recognized her as being a great fit for the account management role.

After about half a year at the company, she became an account manager, a role she still holds today. She regularly:

• Meets with our wonderful clients to discuss SEO strategy and performance
• Creates the strategy for enhancing clients’ search presence
• Works directly with the copywriting and content publishing coordinator teams to build authority back to clients’ sites
• Develops and presents opportunities to accelerate clients’ SEO strategies and expand engagements

On the account management team, Kendall has led initiatives such as creating a brand new reporting process for our clients, and she has represented Nexus in SEO webinars within our partner network.

In addition to taking on the responsibilities of her new role, she also volunteered to be a new hire mentor, a role in which she made a real impact. She met regularly with her mentee, helping to guide the new hire through her transition into her first full-time role post-graduation.

Today, she continues to serve as a successful account manager for several of our clients!

Ready to join the team?

If life at Nexus sounds like a great fit for you, we’d love to have you join us.