MediaWhiz POV: Content Marketing Like a Pro

www.MediaWhiz.com @MediaWhizInc

Daryl ColwellVice President, MediaWhiz

Content Marketing Like a Pro

Tactics and Techniques to Improve Search Engine Visibility

About Me

2012


• Oversee business development at MediaWhiz

• 12 years’ experience in online marketing

About My Company — MediaWhiz• Integrated digital media &

performance marketing agency• Part of Matomy Media Group• Services: Affiliate, Display, Search,

Social, Data & Email• Top-25 Digital Agency, Ad Age,

2012

What Is Content Marketing?

Content Marketing:•Establishes authority and provides useful information•Should be useful even to someone not interested in buying your product or service•Not disguised as independent editorial•Does not have to run in an editorial environment, like a third-party magazine•Provides value to the consumer.•Is honest and without hyperbole


Content Marketing — The BasicsBasic Rules1.Lead Generation: Your content should generate leads for your business.

– Don’t create content just to have content. – Caveat: Don’t create content that is purely sales-driven.

2.Context: Your content needs to be placed in the right venues for the right audiences.

3.Have a Strategy: One-off efforts won’t cut it. Use an editorial calendar to plan content each quarter.

4.Timing: Plan publication of content around customer buying cycle.

5.Factor in Cost: Content marketing is expensive. It’s a long-term investment; not a short-term solution.

6.Make it Creative: Your content needs to bring something new to the consumer. Otherwise, it’s a waste of time and money.


Why Content Marketing Is Important

It’s simple:

It’s the future of marketing.

Seriously.



It’s also how you should be generating new

business.



You can write for “idea-spreaders” or buyers.

Write for your buyers.


Great Content Marketing

Why It’s Great:•Fits the brand•Builds strong brand affinity•Generates new customers via subscriptions


Avoid These Mistakes

Being Overly Promotional Taking It to the Extreme

Takeaways•Don't make tone obviously promotional•Visualize the info •Ensure imagery and graphics fit the content

Takeaways•Back an argument with convincing numbers •Use proportionate sentiment •Inform the consumer; don’t insult or offend them


Avoid These Mistakes

Bland Content Misguided Content

Takeaways•Make your message interesting and distinctive•Don't just directly turn figures into stats •Use imagination and wit

Takeaways•Content needs to fit your brand and that of third-party publisher•Tone and context are important


Content Marketing & SEO

Benefits to SEO•Attracts authority signals (links, social shares) — improves SEO performance•Positions brand as authority on relevant topics•Increases conversion rates

– Educates users on topics that are difficult to understand


Content Marketing & SEOHow Content Marketing Can Hurt SEO•Don’t create content for “SEO”

– Write for humans

– Content with purpose of satisfying search engines has short-lived benefits

•Spam

– Don’t syndicate content to article distribution networks or off-topic properties

•Inconsistency/falsity

– Fact check and ensure consistency with brand messaging

– Consumers’ trust compromised by off-message or false content


Improving SEO with Content Marketing

Step 1: Define the target audience•Perform research on consumers’ buying patterns •Understand what is compelling and how your product / service benefits them



Step 2: Write about topics your audience cares about•Use keyword suggestion tools (i.e., Google Adwords Keyword Tool) to understand consumers’ searches



• Review Q&A sites (i.e., Yahoo Answers, Answers.com) to see what people are asking about

• Stay on topic — don’t write about anything irrelevant to the brand



Step 3: Offer incentives for readers to share content•Focus on the “why”, not the “what”

– How will your content help your customers?

•Facilitate sharing

– Include sharing buttons (Facebook Like, Twitter Tweet, Google +1, etc) in visible locations



Step 4: Leverage influential and authoritative authors•Identify authors relevant to a topic

– Search relevant topics in Google+, Twitter, Facebook (via Graph Search) and search engines

•Invite influential authors to guest post



Step 5: Develop your backend SEO setup•Ensure proper tagging and mark-up of content

– Use rel=author tags in the byline to credit the author of the content and leverage their authority


Content Marketing & Lead Generation

Your content should generate leads•Content should help generate leads or incremental business•Proper tracking is essential

MediaWhiz as an example•Create content for brand-building and lead-gen purposes with marketers and advertisers•Seed content across internal and external publications


Content Marketing & Lead Generation

“If you’re not putting some

kind of hook to future business into your efforts,

you’re not content marketing.”

– Chris Brogan, Jan. 22, 2013

Source: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/contentmarketing201/


How to Generate Leads with Content

Rule #1: Make your buyer the hero

Produce content that informs

your customers and improves

their business



Rule #2: Never waste content without offering an “Ask” of some kind

“Ask” is more than a “call to action” or intent.

It’s a request for a specific action.• Mix of soft and hard sell• Ask should be reasonable and related to

the content• Examples of an “Ask”:

• Newsletter / blog subscriptions• Free appraisals / audits• White paper download



Rule #3: Make it simple for people to give you their info

Place call-to-action copy strategically throughout content



Rule #4: Make it simple for sales team to interact with leads

Customize form field page to generate contact info you need for follow-up call / email


Lead Gen Best Practices

Prep your sales team• Prep your sales team for influx of new leads

– Some will be qualified leads; others not– Schedule brief training session with sales team to review

new content – Get feedback from sales team about questions they

hear from customers• Use feedback to develop new content and generate

additional leads


Lead Gen Best Practices

Early outreach = lead-gen success• Odds of reaching lead decrease by >10 times in first hour• Odds of qualifying lead in 5 minutes vs. 30 minutes drop

21 times– from 5 to 10 minutes the dial to qualify odds decrease 4

times• Best time to call a lead: 4-6 p.m. Wednesday & Thursday


The Content Marketing Top-10

1. Know your audience: Write for a specific reader or customer. Know what they want and how/where they consume information.

2. Include images: Images will “pop” when content is shared.

3. Commit: Not a one-night stand. Establish an editorial calendar and publish often. Give customers a reason to keep reading.

4. Engage the right buyers with the right content: Write content for all levels of the sales funnel.

5. Repurpose content: Turn blog posts into white papers; white papers into infographics, etc.


The Content Marketing Top-10

6. Create series: If you have 10 steps, share 5 now and 5 in next post.

7. Measure ROI and leads: Track KPIs (visits, conversions, links, social shares) generated to understand what content performs best

8. Track trends: Relate your content to emerging industry trends. Write content that answers customers’ questions about those trends.

9. Be timely: Publish content when your customers are most active.

10. Reference industry influencers: Enable others to generate awareness and leads on your behalf


QUESTIONS?

Daryl ColwellVice PresidentMediaWhizP: 646-442-5513E: [email protected] Tw: @DHColwell

Find out more at www.MediaWhiz.com Call us toll-free at 888.866.9449Follow us on Twitter: @MediaWhizIncBecome a fan at facebook.com/MediaWhizHoldingsLLC

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MediaWhiz POV: Content Marketing Like a Pro