• How to Achieve• Content Marketing Nirvana

Ross Hudgens, Founder, Siege Media@RossHudgens http://siegemedia.com

Get the Deck:

bit.ly/mn-search

https://moz.com/blog/why-good-unique-content-needs-to-die-whiteboard-friday

How can we stop being good and start being 10x?

In the last five years, I’ve learned many of the differences between good and great content – between good and 10x.

@ROSSHUDGENS

The answer is rarely simplistically “make it great.” More often, the

answer is make it great – and scalable.

http://thecooperreview.com/10-tricks-appear-smart-meetings/

Without scalability, greatness is often very hard – and very

expensive – to repeat.

@ROSSHUDGENS

@ROSSHUDGENS

Campaigns strike out at a big cost – a cost that is

sometimes the sustainability of the business.

How can we be great with consistency?

STAGE 1: CONTENT CREATION.

Quality has no shortcuts.

Is a lie told by the people who come

in second.

Great content templates aren’t everything, but

they’re very close.

http://siegemedia.com/15-content-templates-to-help-scale-quality

If you aren’t making and using great templates, you’re probably losing.

@ROSSHUDGENS

This is not a good content template. Template != good.

I think they meant “sleeping bag.”

Doing a city study? Slice, dice and invert one set of data to create 108 posts.

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• Safest Cities in America• Safest Mid-Sized Cities in America • Safest Small Cities in America• Safest Suburbs in America• Safest Cities in STATE – 50x

• Most Dangerous Cities in America• Most Dangerous Mid-Sized Cities in America• Most Dangerous Small Cities in America• Most Dangerous Suburbs in America• Most Dangerous Cities in STATE – 50x

KWR can reveal template ideas. Search for add-on

words in your space.Example = “With Kids”

http://www.semrush.com/info/with%20kids+(full+search)

More examples –“Conference Standings”

“Packing List”

http://www.semrush.com/info/packing%20list+(full+search)

Infographics can be templates too. Find concepts that can be repeated.

This concept could be used for any famous founder.

@ROSSHUDGENS

Get the Spreadsheet: http://bit.ly/template-ranking

Segment templates after research and prioritize based

on potential per template.

Once you’ve picked a template, micro-prioritize based on

potential/outreach overlap.

@ROSSHUDGENS

How to create content that’s better, faster, and costs less:

Buy inexpensive design assets that haven’t been used over and over.

http://www.creativemarket.com

Development assets that make high end content – and content templates - inexpensive and quick.

http://www.codecanyon.net

Need occasional help? Hire Canadian talent.

http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=CAD&view=5Y

You don’t get to 10x better content buying photos on Shutterstock.

Stock photos that don’t suck.

http://www.stocksy.com

Free stock photo search engine.

http://www.sitebuilderreport.com/stock-up

How to come up with content ideas that consistently succeed:

Start with the S.U.C.C.E.S. framework.

http://heathbrothers.com/download/mts-made-to-stick-model.pdf

Add an S.

Simple.Unexpected.Credible.Concrete.Emotional.Stories.Shareable.*

*Credit @distilled

*Credit @distilled

Crack open a beer with your team. Beer frees up your mind to make deeper connections - and come up with great ideas.

http://en.ilovecoffee.jp/posts/view/79

Spend 20 minutes with your team jotting down every idea you’ve got (anonymously) on http://usecandor.com

At the end, vote for the best and talk through your choices to see what’s viable and what isn’t.

http://creatingminds.org/tools/brainwriting.htm/

Have your team assess outreach potential after the meeting before formally greenlighting ideas.

Quick hack for outreach potential – what’s the DA of site ranking #1 for “KEYWORD blog/news”?

Make arguments not to rank for a single KW, but a wide set of KWs using the page ranking #1 for your main term in SEMRush.

http://bit.ly/parenting-sem

Want (almost) guaranteed success?

Find visual content with social proof and replace the subject/add an adjective. Recreate it. Win.

General language flowchart.

Any other popular show/movie filming locations with foreign

destinations.

/r/infographics/

Insert new group passionate about

themselves.

Insert anything that’s changed over the years.

Buzzsumo DesignTaxi: http://bit.ly/taxi-inspire

Replace with thing that changes/is niche.

Insert any relevant food “around the world.”

http://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/

Other places to look for replicable content ideas:

BuzzSumo Infographics: http://bit.ly/buzz-infographic

STAGE 2: CONTENT PROMOTION.

@ROSSHUDGENS

Effective relationship building = creating promotable content

while doing so.

Survey your target linking audience

via email outreach for a content idea.

Let them know when the post is live – get shares and links easily.

Leverage that communication for

promoting your next piece not involving them.

@ROSSHUDGENS

The process in action.

We surveyed ~100 bloggers to find out how far in advance

bloggers schedule their content – so ours can be included.

This is what we found.

The average lifestyle blogger plans their editorial calendar 28 days in advance of publishing.*

You might be able to jam your way in there, but it’s not optimal

for anything event based.

When scheduling content based around holidays (4th of July, Mother’s Day etc),

bloggers schedule 37 days out on average.

Big events/holidays mean prep and pitch your content early.

When scheduling holiday content, bloggers plan their content

calendar 54 days out on average.

November/December means you need to be far far on top of it, or

face distribution difficulties.

We improved our process, created good content, and now have relationships to leverage.

Content marketing tactics we’re loving:

Get aggressive submitting infographics to Reddit by hosting them on IMGUR.

@ROSSHUDGENS

Submit high-authority publications who cover your content instead of yourself for additional traction/trust.

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Also good for multiple bursts of traffic from the

same subreddit over time.

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Private message Reddit power users to QA and then potentially

share your content once live.

Submit at the optimal times to Reddit to maximize views.

http://www.siegemedia.com/reddit-submission-time

Find your most shared content using Buzzsumo and submit to Reddit (if it hasn’t been shared already).

@ROSSHUDGENS

Search “in the moment” queries to find targeted prospects.

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Reach out to people who commented on other blogs covering your content – they are often warm prospects.

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@ROSSHUDGENS

Include polls on “best of X” posts to

incentivize mentioned to link/share with their

audience to vote.

Before creating a listacle based on a search term,

research SERP and get to a # higher than others for

CTR boost.

@ROSSHUDGENS

Send pitch templates and outreach possibilities to your team to improve your approach every time out.

What’s content marketing nirvana?

1. Build survey content through outreach using

your target market.

@ROSSHUDGENS

Generate links/shares.

2. Create top-of-the-funnel content with

search potential using templates.

@ROSSHUDGENS

3. Leverage survey relationships to distribute

content templates with ease/get them ranking.

1. Build survey content through outreach using

your target market. Generate links/shares.

2. Create top-of-the-funnel content with

search potential using templates.

@ROSSHUDGENS

3. Leverage survey relationships to distribute

content templates with ease/get them ranking.

Kurt would be proud.

@ROSSHUDGENS

• bit.ly/mn-searchRoss Hudgens, Founder, Siege Media

@RossHudgens http://siegemedia.com