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#SMX #23a

Kevin Mullett

Dir. of Social Media & Visibility

@kmullett

March 4th, 2015

HOW TO CREATE CONTENT THAT EARNS SHARES, BACKLINKS, & CITATIONS

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#SMX #23a

Content marketing isn’t just blogging, we already have a name for that, it’s called blogging. Think

bigger!

The Lego Movie is an excellent example of content marketing. The goal was for

you to watch what could be called an entertaining 100 minute toy commercial.

Content marketing is disguised promotion that has perceived value. And often

the end product is unique from the companies regular products or services.

You just watched our

100 minute toy commercial.

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#SMX #23a

SEO doesn’t replace good content, but without it your good content isn’t reaching everyone could. SEO is the

foundation quality content should be built on.

What I am saying is that we are going to start with the premise that content should be good, AND that your website

should be correctly architected, with an internal link strategy, and clear conversion paths.

Don’t just regurgitate to me that content or context is king. That sounds great, but the reality is that content is often

caught on websites that can’t be crawled correctly, have no CTAs, and don’t rank despite having great content.

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Every website has at least two audiences. They have similar requirements, but different needs. The

good news is, if we can get either audience really excited about our content, we can earn good

visibility, citations, and backlinks.

People

Your audience, the ones who will buy or have bought

The ones who will promote and champion you or be an advocate

Already have an affinity for your brand

Search bots

Google and Bing

Demand organic looking, editorial, and anchor text variation

Will watch to see if your content is sticky and shared

Both Google and Bing openly show you relevant subject themes and keywords your website should

have content to cover. And if Google and Bing lists it, their audience must be looking for it. It isn't

difficult or costly to discover either, you just need to know where to look. As you type queries into

either Google or Bing you will see predictive suggestions. These are queries the search engines

believe are related. Boom, write content that covers those alternate concepts. If you need long-tail or

additional suggestions, look to the "related to" section on Google and the "related searches" sidebar

on Bing.

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Content 101. Solve people’s problems, answer their questions, evoke emotion and entertain them. Go

ahead and tweet that, I’ll wait.

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#SMX #23a

Solve people’s problems

Make sure your content is solving people’s problems. Your site should become a resource with tools

that provide real solutions for them. This is more than just answers, this content should save them time

and help them perform a task.

Provide stats, inspiration, specifications, apps, calculators, templates, generators, facilitate

communication, and so forth.

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#SMX #23a

Answer people’s questions.

Your site should be a relevant reference point to find out information that proves that you are subject

matter experts. You should answer who, what, where, why, when, how, and how much questions

before they are asked. And do so with authority and relevance.

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#SMX #23a

Evoke emotion.

Does your content evoke emotion? Does it feed their wants, hopes, and desires? Does it create feelings of efficacy,

inclusion, or belonging? Have you invited them into your community and made them feel welcome and wanted? Have

you stirred up or created controversy?

Don’t just create emotion, creation emotional connections and relationships!

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#SMX #23a

And entertain people.

Don’t forget to entertain visitors. Be interesting, humorous, and intriguing if you want to be word-of-mouth and share worthy.

Screen grab shows an episode of Will It Blend from the brilliant folks at Blendtec. -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIODuCUsL0c

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#SMX #23a

Are you worried about Google’s site munching algos? You should be less so, if you are being useful to

your audience because that isn't a trick or trend, and it never stops working. This isn’t NEW SEO, we’ve

been doing it for a long time. Algo proof? Perhaps. Good for backlink and citation building? Absolutely.

And considering that the Internet is where we do research and look for help in 2015, you should want to be the one

being useful.

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#SMX #23a

Encourage your team to H.E.L.P., by Humanizing the company message, Encouraging conversation, Listening first on

behalf of the company, and promoting less and more organically.

If your employees are helpful, part of your industry culture and community, they will earn mentions, shares, citations,

and yes, backlinks.

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#SMX #23a

Uncle Kev, where do useful content ideas come from? I’m glad you asked.

You see, when a mommy and daddy customer–and sometimes young adults–asks one of your company

representatives a question, it means they don’t understand your product, your service, or how to apply it to solve their

problems. Or perhaps if it fits their needs at all. When the same questions come up repeatedly, it signals an opportunity

to write content to address it.

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You can unlock (earn) backlinks by providing: the right content and type, for the right audience, in the right place, and at

the right time.

It helps if this is accompanied by a purpose, goal, and strategy.

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#SMX #23a

The right content type or format could include: blogging, listicles, infographics, memes, videos, podcasts, eBooks,

guides, white papers, polls, how-tos, reviews, stories, etc.

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Properly identifying and creating personas for your ideal audience is a task unto itself. But, it is a worthy task to tackle,

and when you are aware of the right context, market and locations, segments, and your clients intent to purchase, you

can provide content that is extremely relevant to them.

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#SMX #23a

Where should your content live? Careful consideration should be given to where your content will be

placed so the value of backlinks can be maximized. This could include landing pages, marketing

pages, blog posts, events, news, f.a.q. articles, various forms of embedded content, or event off-site

content with a citation or link CTA.

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#SMX #23a

Timing could be everything when it comes to content. Consider your content (editorial) calendar

carefully to hit events, seasonality, holidays, and to take advantage of news-jacking, trend-jacking,

campaigns, lead nurturing programs, conversion points and sales paths associated with your funnel,

and of course, when your audience is attentive and receptive to your message.

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#SMX #23a

Get locally relevant and authoritative backlinks, as well as citations by doing some research. But,

make sure you apply quality standards and common sense when selecting from the research results!

And follow up on citations to ensure NAP consistency!

Also consult with website owners to discuss memberships, groups, and organizations they’re a part of.

Do they know of any places that have business listings that are relevant to their products or services?

What events are going to be coming up in the future? Really dig in and ask questions about their

business and industry.

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Here are 10 tools to help you organize and optimize your content opportunity.

Consider creating a content opportunity report (COR) before settling on an content (editorial) calendar,

because it is important to discuss opportunity, and the value of each one, before committing to the

effort to create content for each one.

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Here we have 17 tools and 2 tips for discovering what fuels your competitors backlink success. Of

course you could be researching yours as well.

Let’s take a peek into what your competitors are doing over in the “socialsphere.” Anything stand out

as good or bad? Which of their content is getting shares and discussed? Do you have content

covering that subject? Do you have a similar or different opinion? Can you do the same content but

bring additional value to it? And remember to check their user names and the actual business name.

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Still wanting more tools? Here are 109 SEO tools and 200 Audio, Video, & Image tools. Total = 309

more tools.

// http://www.marketsnare.com/news/talking-about-seo-tools-for-winning-business-at-smx

// http://www.marketsnare.com/news/over-200-audio-video-image-tools-for-social-media-marketing-

from-ismconf

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LET’S CONNECT

Search for Kevin Mullett, but please note the two “T’s” at the end of my name. It is what distinguishes

me from the fish or the haircut. Please find me on any network you are already participating on and

say hello.

ASK ME ABOUT CAPTURING LOCAL VISIBILITY FOR YOUR NETWORK OF PARTNER

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