Download pdf - Content Marketing Workshop 2017

Debbie Williams

Co-Founder/Chief Content Officer

Content Marketing Workshop Learn to grow your business and customer relationships through content marketing.

@debwilliams23

@sproutcontent

#contentmarketing

Who Am I?

• 20 years experience in strategic, creative

content, helping companies create their

voice & positioning:

• 12 years as senior copywriter for

global consumer brands in NYC

• 8 years as content marketing/inbound

marketing agency owner: SPROUT

Content, Platinum Level HubSpot

Partner

• Content Marketing Author

• 11 years on Gulf Coast

• NJ/NYC area Native

Debbie Williams

Co-Founder/ Chief Content

Officer

SPROUT Content

@debwilliams23

Who are you?

2017 Content Marketing Workshop

Pre-Event Survey

Q1: Which of the following best describes your job role? (please choose only

one.)

Pre-Event Survey

Q2: Do you have a documented content marketing strategy?

Pre-Event Survey

Some of your greatest content marketing

challenges:

❏ Staying current with SEO and site traffic.

❏Understanding what is most effective.

❏What content to develop and who will develop it.

❏How to share your expertise.

❏How to create a custom marketing plan.

❏ Frequent, consistent dynamic content.

❏Reaching and engaging an audience that is not

opted in.

Pre-Event Survey

Top things you hope to take away:

❏ Improve buyer journey

❏Develop engaging content

❏ Expand content reach

❏New ideas, and effective strategies

❏Metrics, tools and tactics

❏Content marketing strategy

❏Creating and using buyer personas

❏Understanding SEO and increasing site

traffic

AGENDA

. ● Content Marketing Overview

● Content Marketing Strategy

● Buyer Personas

● Editorial SEO

○ Keyword Exercise

● Content Ideas

○ Editorial Calendar Exercise

● Content Distribution

● Q&A

What is Content Marketing?

“Content marketing is a strategic marketing

approach focused on creating and distributing

valuable, relevant, and consistent content to

attract and retain a clearly defined audience —

and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer

action.”

Content Marketing Overview

You are your own media company. Every company, in any size and industry, can create and distribute

educational information and build trusted audiences.


Your Readers don’t just want “CONTENT” they want solutions to problems.


The Ultimate Goal

Become the trusted, expert resource in your industry,

where your customers are looking for information online -

so they FIND YOU and CHOOSE YOU.

Content Marketing Overview: WHY?

THE WORLD HAS

CHANGED.

HOW PEOPLE SEEK OUT

INFORMATION AND MAKE

BUYING DECISIONS HAS

CHANGED FOREVER.

Content Marketing OverviewIn 2011 (6 years ago!), Google

released the Zero Moment of Truth

(ZMOT)Whether we're shopping for corn flakes,

concert tickets or a honeymoon in Paris, the

Internet has changed how we decide what to

buy. At Google, we call this online decision-

making moment the Zero Moment of Truth —

or simply ZMOT.

81% of buyers research before they buy, consulting an average of 10.4 sources. (in both personal and business decisions)


Decision making: The HARD STATS

● 94% of buyers conduct online research at some

point in the buying process.

● The average buyer progresses nearly 60% of the

way through the purchase decision-making

process before engaging with a person at your

company.

● People turn to the internet and social media first.

If they are looking for your products/services – what

are they finding?

http://www.fronetics.com/why-visibility-needs-to-be-part-of-your-business-strategy/

https://blogs.hbr.org/2013/07/the-perils-of-being-a-social-media-holdout/

https://blogs.hbr.org/2013/07/the-perils-of-being-a-social-media-holdout/


Content Marketing Methodology

ATTRACT CONVERT CLOSE DELIGHT!

Strangers Visitors Leads Customers Promoters

Blog

Social Media

Keywords

Influencer

eBooks

Social Ads

CTAs

Landing Pages

Forms

Contacts

Infographics

Webinars

Video Testimonials

Email

Workflows

Lead Scoring

Sales Intelligence

Foundational Strategy

● Buyer Personas

● Content Audit/Inventory

● Competitive Analysis

● Content Style Guide

● SEO Strategy

● Social Media Strategy

● Content Mapping

● Influencer Marketing

Strategy

Social Media

Email

Workflows

Influencer

Surveys

Promotions

Gilmore Services has an almost

equal grade in the HubSpot

marketing grader than national

leader Iron Mountain

Content Marketing Levels the Playing Field


Gilmore Services has PAGE ONE rankings for their top

keyword, in between two of the biggest national

competitors.

The meta

descriptions for all

three companies

are similar and

include the same

keyword phrases.

SPROUT CONTENT

Page 1 of national search

results for content

marketing agency


Content Marketing Strategy

CONTENT MARKETING

STRATEGY


How many of you have

a documented

content strategy?



Essential Factors to Content Marketing

Success:

1. Company wide buy-in from the top down

(marketing is no longer a department)

2. Alignment between marketing and sales

3. Documented content strategy aligned to

GOALS

4. Content resources and accountability


Essential Factors to Content Marketing

Success:

4. Content resources and accountability

5. Content mapped to your buyer’s journey

6. Consistency (in voice/brand and publishing

cadence)

7. Content distribution strategy

8. Measurement and Tracking

Content Marketing Strategy: Test

EXERCISE:

The Content Marketing

Test

Content Marketing Test: (1 pt for each Yes)

Best Practice YES NO

Company wide buy-in from the top down

Alignment between marketing and sales

Documented content strategy aligned to GOALS

Content resources and accountability

Content mapped to your buyer’s journey

Consistency

Content distribution strategy

Measurement and Tracking

Content Marketing Strategy:Test


The biggest content marketing

mistakes companies make:

0 PLAN + 0 GOALS + 0

MEASUREMENT =


0 results found.


Content Marketing Mistakes

@SPROUTContent

Pre-Work:

SET MEASURABLE GOALS AND BENCHMARKS


1: Outline content marketing goals.

Clearly outline your goals before you start

anything else.

● What do you want to achieve? (site traffic,

thought leadership, leads?)

● What metrics will you use to track success?

● Is this feasible?



2: Establish KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)

Determine the KPIs you will evaluate to determine whether

your content is successful.


3: Measure Success

What tools will you use to measure performance?



Buyer Personas

BUYER PERSONAS

KNOW AND DEFINE YOUR AUDIENCE

Buyer Personas

Buyer Personas

What is a buyer persona?

Buyer Personas are: “fictional,

generalized representations of

your ideal customers.

They help you understand your

customers (and prospective

customers) better, and make it

easier for you to tailor content to

the specific needs, behaviors,

and concerns of different groups.”

Buyer Personas

@SPROUTContent

While 64% of the C-suite have final say in decisions, so do 24%

of the non-C-suite, 81% of which have a say in purchase

decisions. If you’re marketing to only the highest level executives,

you’re not reaching those who are looking for you first.

Buyer Personas

Each persona uncovers the most important messages to

be included in the content you publish and provides insight

on how to lead your target audience down the sales funnel.

Buyer Personas: SAMPLE

Financial Decider Diane

Goals

• Creating value for shareholders

• Increasing stock price

• Delivering predictable performance

• Recognition from CEO, BODs

• Building personal ‘street cred’

Challenges

• Maintaining/increasing top- and bottom-line revenue

• Staying aware of planned/proposed SEC reg changes

• Keeping financial data secure

• Exceeding shareholder expectations (stock price, EPS, EBITDA, etc.)

• Keeping Finance team engaged/motivated

What we can do

• Help team collaborate more easily

• Provide regulatory expertise and filing support

• Mitigate external market risk with accurate, timely reporting to SEC

• Save time for team to focus on other company/dept. objectives

• Help them rest easy; make them look smart

SAMPLE

Buyer Personas: Exercise

EXERCISE:● WHO is the persona?

● WHAT do they do? What does their day look

like?

● WHERE is the gap in their needs/wants?

● WHEN do they need to close this gap?

● WHY do they care about us?

Buyer Personas: Exercise

PERSONA NAME: (based on role not Title)

ROLE IN DECISION MAKING:

•Who reports to/direct reports

•Researcher/middle/final/financial

GOALS:

•Persona’s primary goal

•Persona’s secondary goal

CHALLENGES:

•Primary challenge to persona’s success

•Secondary challenge to persona’s success

HOW WE HELP:

•How you solve your persona’s challenges

•How you help your persona achieve goals

Buyer Personas

How to create buyer personas:

1. Identify the important decision makers throughout every

stage of the sales cycle, from research to financial

qualifier to decision maker.

2. Develop strategic questions to reveal who they are, their

core responsibilities, pain points and challenges, and

decision criteria.

3. Conduct interviews (with real people).

4. Use social media for additional insights.

5. Develop content ideas inspired by real insights into what

your buyers need to know from you.

Buyer Personas

For more information on developing buyer

personas:

http://www.sproutcontent.com/buyer-personas-marketing-through-

the-voice-of-your-buyer

http://www.sproutcontent.com/buyer-personas-marketing-through-the-voice-of-your-buyer

Editorial SEO

SEO

Editorial SEO

Develop Your SEO Plan

SEO SIMPLIFIED

SEO is all about content and vice versa.

Editorial SEO

SearchEngineOptimization

Optimize content so PEOPLE and SEARCH

ENGINES (Google, Bing, etc.) can find you.

Editorial SEO

WHAT DOES OPTIMIZING YOUR CONTENT

MEAN?

● Search engines need content to deliver

results.

● Content marketing is content.

● Creating QUALITY relevant content helps

Google, and people, FIND YOU.

Editorial SEO

A SIMPLE SEO PLAN - YOUR CHECKLIST.

❏ Develop buyer personas.

❏ Conduct keyword research.

❏ Determine the most common phrases your buyers are using to

find you.

❏ Create a content plan mapped to your personas and keywords.

❏ Create QUALITY content.

❏Ensure proper meta descriptions (back end of content), internal

linking and headers (front facing content) are complete.

Editorial SEO

Start with Keyword Research.

Using a tool like Google Adwords Keyword planner,

HubSpot, SEM Rush or MOZ, start a list of the top words and

phrases people (your customers/personas, not you) would use

to find solutions to their challenges.

Word Current Rank Monthly Searches Difficulty

CPC

Editorial SEO

EXERCISE:

WRITE DOWN THE TOP 10-15 KEYWORD PHRASES YOU

WANT TO BE RANKED FOR - AND THAT YOUR AUDIENCE

MIGHT USE TO FIND YOU.

Editorial SEO

HOMEWORK THIS WEEK:

Go to: https://moz.com/free-seo-tools and

analyze the top 5 words you’ve listed. This is a

starting point for your research.

Editorial SEO

https://moz.com/free-seo-tools

Use a tool or spreadsheet to analyze results

and choose your top keyword opportunities.

Editorial SEO

Create a content roadmap for each persona that addresses

their major pain points while executing the SEO strategy.

This is accomplished with a content funnel strategy targeting

each stage of the buyer’s journey (Awareness, Consideration,

Decision) with relevant topics and keyword phrases.

Editorial SEO

How does it all come

together?

Content curation team for Venue, not

necessarily for AD

Lacking structured creation and

distribution schedule

Reactionary

Lacking measurable goals

Not created for specific personas

Become viewed as a thought leader

Be found online organically

Establish a regular content creation and

distribution schedule

Create content for personas

Financial Decider Diane

Search Engine

Optimization

Keywords are available for Venue and

AD (a more extensive list is available

for AD)

Initial and current rankings per keyword

are unavailable

Competitive analysis conducted by

Sprout

Take stock of previously

established foundational

research, analyze current goals

and processes, and create

Phase 1 of Content Strategy

based on available information,

to identify and meet attainable

goals.

Phase 1 of Content Strategy

Establish a blog editorial calendar

and production process to:

● Ease current gaps and

frustrations in the content

production process

● Create high quality content,

regularly, in order to

increase SEO and organic

search results, and increase

reputation as industry

thought leader

● Match content to specific

personas, and their buyer’s

journeys

● Build ABC brand reputation

and recognition as a thought

leader

Buyer Personas

Current content

creation process

Current content

goals

PHASE 1:

INITIAL STEPS

AIM

GOALSAVAILABLE INFORMATION

SAMPLE

Content Mapping

Use what you’ve learned about your

buyer’s journey to plan your content

editorial calendar mapped to

keywords, personas, buying stage.

Editorial Calendar

Content Editorial Ideas

EDITORIAL CONTENT


HOW DO YOU COME UP WITH SO

MANY INTERESTING TOPICS???


IDEAS ARE ALL AROUND YOU!

Google Trends helps you identify trending topics and see the

popularity of various search queries over time.

https://www.google.com/trends/


Google AdWords Keyword Planner gives you insight into the

searches your customers are performing, including linguistic

opportunities you may not have otherwise uncovered.

https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner


BuzzSumo lets you research specific topics and see what articles

about those topics have performed well, giving you insight into how

your content may perform.

http://buzzsumo.com/


Your own data, such as website and social media analytics, can

give you a wealth of insight into your audience and content

performance.


Interview your internal subject matter experts.

● Sales Team

● IT

● Product Specialists

● Customer Support

Content marketing needs to be a company-wide collaboration.


Set Up Google Alerts alerts.google.com

- Find Relevant Content to share

- Listen for Story Ideas

- Build Your Influencer List

- Monitor keywords and industry news



www.hubspot.com/blog-topic-generator

Content Editorial Ideas: Advanced Tip!

HubSpot’s built-in content cluster tool helps you find and build-

out the most relevant topics based on what your audience is

searching for.

Create “How-To Guides” and longer form

educational content.


Don’t be afraid to give away your knowledge.

Listen in social media

● Monitor keywords and hashtags to find relevant

content and conversations

● Use tools to help manage lists such as HubSpot,

Twitter Lists, Tweepi, Sprout Social



- the buyer’s journey

EXERCISE:

Take five minutes and write down the top

questions your customers and prospects

ask you on a regular basis.


HOMEWORK THIS WEEK:Talk to your sales team.

● Find out the top questions they receive over and over (if

one person has the question, others do too)

● What are the concerns people have to choosing your

company/product/service? Why are they NOT buying from

you?

Content Distribution

CONTENT

DISTRIBUTION


60% of Marketers

Distribute at Least One

Piece of Content Every

Day - eMarketer

https://www.domo.com/blog/data-never-sleeps-4-0/

https://www.domo.com/blog/data-never-sleeps-4-0/


Don’t just publish and forget it! Focus 20% on NEW content development and 80% on content

distribution.

● Targeted/themed emails with a series of content topics (yours and

curated)

● Social Media (80% educational content from all sources / 20%

promotional or sales related).

● LinkedIn Pulse blog - republish blog posts in full

● Create a Medium blog or publication

● Research Blog syndication opportunities in your industry

● Review Quora and Reddit opportunities to link to your content

authentically


Slice and Dice your content.One content idea should be repurposed in many forms.

SocialMediaToday

RECAP - Who are you?

Some of your greatest content marketing

challenges:

● Staying Current with SEO and site traffic

● Understanding what is most effective

● What content to develop and who will develop

it?

● How to share your expertise.

● How to create a custom marketing plan.

● Frequent, consistent dynamic content.

● Reaching and engaging your audience that are

not opted in

RECAP - Who are you?

Top things you hope to take away:

● Improve buyer journey

● Develop engaging content

● Expand content reach

● New ideas, and effective strategies

● Metrics, tools and tactics

● Content marketing strategy

● Creating and using buyer personas

● Understanding SEO and increasing site traffic

QUESTIONS?

Q&A

Are you ready to take your content

marketing to the next level and learn to

be more transparent?

Learn more in our book:

Brands in Glass Houses

www.sproutcontent.com [email protected]

Available at

http://www.sproutcontent.com/contentmarketingbook/

mailto:[email protected]

THANK YOU

@sproutcontent

@debwilliams23

#contentmarketing

#inboundmarketing

www.sproutcontent.com

[email protected]

http://www.sproutcontent.com/