Is anybody out there? Creating content that lasts and building an

audience that cares

Barrett brooks, fizzle.co

@barrettabrooks @fizzle

@mimatweet #mimasummit #anybodythere

let’s do the social thing

blog, podcast and video content are More

popular than ever

61.8 million wordpress posts published in september 2014

“hundreds of thousands of free podcasts” -apple

100 hours of video uploaded to youtube every minute

and this is just a fraction of the total

content being produced

but watch, read or listen to a given post,

podcast or video…

and find average quality content created

for someone else

which means there is plenty of room for you,

if you do things differently

great content is the best way to build an audience that cares

an audience of raving fans who can’t wait to buy your products and

services

let’s talk about two things

1. understanding your audience

2. creating helpful content

understand your audience

1

the problem: Customer avatars

1 photo by kempton on flickr via avatar movie trailer

i have a secret: dads with 2.7 kids don’t

exist

1

your audience is made up of real humans

1

“The way to succeed in a startup is not to be an expert on startups, but to be an expert on your users and the problem you're solving for them." !

- Paul Graham

http://paulgraham.com/before.html

1

C. experiment

1A. gather

B. evaluate

1

woohoo, aggregate

data! (GATHER)

1

Now I know

everything! (GATHER)

wait…

1 photo by kempton on flickr via avatar movie trailer

(GATHER)1

¯¯¯

What does he/she think & feel? What really counts?

What major preoccupations? Worries and aspirations?

What does he/she see? What’s in the environment?

What do his/her friends look like? What does the market offer?

What does he/she say & do?

Attitude in public? Appearance? Behavior towards others?

What does he/she hear? From friends? From boss?

From influencers?

1

Problem.

1

"We could broadly generalize about our users (savvy, self-reliant, techie, motivated), but we realized that we couldn’t rattle off the four or five archetypical MailChimp users.” !

- the mailchimp blog

how to do audience research like mailchimp1. interview stakeholders to see who you assume your

audience is

2. rank pool of active users by industry

3. identify subjects from popular industries and interview, interview interview

4. analyze what you see and hear

5. share the findings with your team

1

source: http://blog.mailchimp.com/new-mailchimp-user-persona-research/

1

source: http://blog.mailchimp.com/new-mailchimp-user-persona-research/

Is this the audience you want?

(EVALUATE)

1

if no, TRY new audiences

(EXPERIMENT)

1

1

AUDIENCES YOU WANT TO SERVE

AUDIENCES THAT MIGHT

PAY YOU FOR WHAT YOU DO

(EXPERIMENT)

if yes, then we can move on to solving their problems

with valuable content

1

your audience is made Up of human beings.

Understand them first on the individual level.

1

create helpful content

2

2

ME me, me, me, me, me

the problem: most marketers start with

their goals

2

you are not the hero. You are yoda.

2

your content is firepower for your audience

2

IT HELPS GET RID OF THIS IDIOT.

1

“just because it’s important to you, it doesn’t mean that it’s important to your audience. Focus on the latter and not the former.” !

- seth godin

1

“great content is the best seo strategy.” !

- rob flaherty

1

http://www.ravelrumba.com/blog/editorial-seo/

C. experiment

2A. gather

B. evaluate

2

(GATHER)

2

(GATHER)

2

(GATHER)

2

(GATHER)

average time on post ÷words in post = apples to apples

(GATHER)

2

three questions to ask

1. what’s working well?

2. what’s not working so well?

3. what might you do differently?

2

(evaluate)

what to consider

1. length

2. Content type (audio/video/written)

3. Content purpose (teach/inspire/entertain)

4. Relevance to the audience

2

(evaluate)

what to try

1. try new lengths

2. try new formats

3. try to teach, inspire, and entertain

4. try solving a real problem for your audience

2

(experiment)

2 artists

musicians

filmmakers

authors

designers

developers

2

“grow your audience and

promote your work with instagram"

on the gumroad blog

deconstructing the strategy

1. solve customer problems

2. make customers famous

3. ps: gumroad is great for selling

2

create helpful content that solves real problems for

real people

2

Write (Create) for the body of work you want

(your brand) to have in 5 years.

2

questions? what’s on your mind?

1. converting visitors to subscribers to customers

2. growing your audience

3. telling your story

4. onboarding subscribers and customers

5. creating content for customers

My closing thoughts:1. most content is exceedingly average at best

2. there is still room for your content to stand out if you… ✴ care enough to understand the humans in your audience

✴ put in the work to create engaging + valuable art (content)

3. great content is the best way to build an audience who cares

4. audiences who care are audiences who are profitable