Content Marketing

WEEK 2

DIGITAL ERA SKILLS

This week, we’re going to dive headfirst into our projects.

I like to divide each session into strategy and execution. We need both humming and functioning in order to succeed.

So, first we’re going to be first talking about funnels - and ways to draw awareness to our work. Then, we’ll get into the specifics of writing copy that catches eyes and draws your audience in.

Your readings this week will reinforce the importance of compelling copy, along with an overview on SEO.

Let’s get started!

ATTRACT: Content Marketing - SEO & the power of words

Before we get too far down into funnels, let’s start with words of advice f rom Leonardo Da Vinci.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Thus should ultimately guide you content anytime - but even more so specifically for the web.

Why?

According to the Nielsen Norman Group, most web users stick around less than 59 seconds. So, if you don’t capture a user’s attention in less than a minute, you’ve lost them. It’s more important than ever to make sure your message, and what you want your audience to do, comes through clearly and quickly.

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LEONARDO DA VINCI Polymath, Artist, Content Creator

If you’re building a digital brand, generating traffic to your social media or website is critical. You could be the most amazing XYZ in your field, but if no one knows you - or knows how to reach you, it’s a moot point.

Building a digital brand is the same as building any relationship.People use different terms to explain this funnel, I’ll use the HubSpot (and text book) terminology of: Attract, Convert, Close, & Delight.

1. ATTRACT is getting strangers to become visitors and to become aware of your product or service to that you can build on that contact and market to them in the future.

2. Once you have attracted new people to you, we want to CONVERT them - in whatever way that may be: getting them to fill out a form, subscribing to your newsletter, comment on a social post - whatever action you want them to take. This point doesn’t mean you’re trying to get them to buy f rom you. You’re just trying to get them to take a first action of identifying themselves.

3. Now that your CLOSING visitors have identified themselves and become leads, you want to nurture them to close the on a sale. This is nurturing the relationship and making sure you’re weeding out the folks that will purchase f rom you f rom the ones who are unlikely to.

4. lastly - keep your clients happy (DELIGHT them) and they’ll come back to buy f rom you, sing your praises through testimonials

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1. (important for credibility as our textbook lays out), and encourage others to check you out,

That’s the whole funnel.

This week, we’re focusing on the very first ATTRACT or awareness stage.

OK, so how do we pull in strangers and turn them into visitors? With smart SEO and killer content.

Here’s an SEO joke: Where’s the best place to hide a dead body? On page 2 of google…

● 3.5 billion Google searches are made every day. ● Google is responsible for 94% of total organic traffic. ● 91% of all search traffic never get past the 1st page.

I don’t have to convince you of the importance of google. It’s crucial for a digital brand.

So, what’s SEO and what does it have to do with Google?

SEO stands for search engine optimization and it’s the process of optimizing your online content so that a search engine will show it as a top result for searches of a certain keyword. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

There’s SO MUCH to know about SEO. So much, in fact, that we could do an entire six week class on it. But we just can’t. So, I am going to leave you to your own devices to read the very thorough Neil Patel round up on SEO (along with our text book this week). You’ll be much better served.

Which means we are freed up to talk a little about Content and Content Marketing.

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The #1 Result In Google Gets 31.7% of All Clicks

The 2nd domain gets 17.6%,

7th only gets 3.5%

Search Engine Optimization:

the process of optimizing your online content

so that a search engine will show it as a top

result for searches of a certain keyword.

SCREECH - hold up. What is content? What is content marketing? And what’s the difference?

Content is information and experiences that are directed towards an audience. It’s podcasts and blogs and vlogs and infographics, and white papers. It’s apps, video games, photography. It’s social media posts - it’s replies to social media posts. Content is everywhere.

But CONTENT MARKETING

To Neil Patel - who is a digital marketing hot shot you’ll be reading this week - content marketing is a long-term strategy that focuses on building a strong relationship with your target audience by giving them high-quality content that is very relevant to them on a consistent basis.

In a nutshell, content marketing is a conversation with your audience. It humanizes your brand, can add authority to how your audience perceives you, and can give back to you really valuable insight and information into who your customers are and what they want and need.

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...content marketing is a long-term strategy that focuses on building a strong relationship with your target audience by giving them high-quality content that is very relevant to them on a consistent basis.

– Neil Patel

What is Content

Marketing?

OK - so content. Big sigh. That’s a HUGE piece to tackle. It’s a great challenge because you can not create content in a vacuum - you need to map your content to each step in your audience’s journey.

That brings us to strategy - you will find ways to map content (as defined earlier) to all stages of your audience decision making.

Consumers need different pieces of content at different stages in their process.

● In the "awareness" stage, people looking for answers, resources, education, research data, opinions, and insight.

● In the "evaluation or Consideration" stage, people are doing heavy research on whether or not your product or service is a good fit for them.

● In the "purchase or decision" stage, people are figuring out exactly what it would take to become a customer.

What a person needs in terms of content is very different at each of these stages.

While you do not have to map out the buyer’s journey for your

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assignment, I do want you keep a persona in mind, and think about what their pain points are in the awareness stage and WHY your content will be engaging for them. I want you to know this is an important piece of the strategy - and if you had more time or were doing this exercise professionally, I would HIGHLY recommend you completing an exercise like this.

Phew. Ok. I need to take a breath after that one.

Ok! And now we move onto the actual content creation. Hooray!

As we focus on the Attract stage, we’re going to be creating content that maps to that stage in the buyer’s journey.

For the assignment, it’s pretty straightforward. You’ll have an opportunity to create two pieces of content to generate awareness to your potential buyer/employer/client.

There are two types of content we’ll be working on. Created content and Curated Content.

Created content is 100% your own - your own words & thoughts. It helps you to strengthen your brand and a leadership position because it is from you - and you are coming off as the expert.

Curated content is you pulling in someone else’s content (video, blog post, infographic, meme etc.) but adding a few lines of your OWN content to frame the curated media. You can help build relationships with others by strategically pulling content from someone you want to collaborate with, or start a conversation with. It does save time and it allows you to open your wings a bit.

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Creation

• Your own content • Generates leads • Establishes leadership • Strengthens brand

CONTENT! For the win

Curation

• Someone else’s content • Builds relationships • Saves time • Wider knowledge

Content Creation is the process of creating

your own content from scratch and

marketing it to your followers or

subscribers.

Content Curation is the process of

gathering existing information like blogs,

social media posts or, ebooks relevant to a

particular topic and sharing it with your

brand’s followers.

For instancem if you’re not a videographer, you can pull in someone else’s video content onto your site.

For most organizations, content marketing involves a mix of these two types. While the ideal ratio will vary by industry and organization, a good rule of thumb is to share 40% created and 60% curated content, making adjustments to this ratio as you discover what resonates best with your audience.

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Curating content for your website or social media can be a great way to keep a site f resh. But there are some basic best practices to make sure you’re using other people’s content ethically and giving credit where credit’s due.

Before you choose what to curate and share, think:

● Who should I share this with? ● Why would this help them? ● Is this a trustworthy source? ● Is it unique and worthy of sharing?

The legality of the situation is thankfully pretty simple. Don’t take and use something that is not yours and call it yours. If you want to share something or curate it for your audience, make sure that you attribute the original source of the content.

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CURATION Best Practices

• Choose wisely • Always add your own wrap of editorial to curated content

• When you curate content, change the title • Make sure the original source of the content is prominently

credited

PHew ok - the strategy side has been addressed, now a few tips for getting the writing done:

You’ll be reading more about this in this week’s online reading. Enchanted Marketing also has a great, f ree email series on writing that I would highly recommend if writing is your thing. But, in general, the rules are - keep it simple. (Thanks, Leonardo!)

Use short paragraphs – four sentences max.

1. Use short sentences – twelve on average. 2. Skip unnecessary words. 3. Avoid jargon and gobbledygook. 4. Avoid the passive tense. 5. Address your web visitors directly—use the word you. 6. Shorten your text.

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● White space is your friend – chunk copy, bullets, section headers, space between paragraphs and images

● Use relevant images to visually break up text

● Optimize for search engines around long tail keyword (in the URL, image alt text, body text, and title)

● Include links to relevant internal and external sources – 1 to 2 sources at most per paragraph

Web Writing - Best

Practices

PHew ok - the strategy side has been addressed, now a few tips for getting the writing done:

You’ll be reading more about this in this week’s online reading. Enchanted Marketing also has a great, f ree email series on writing that I would highly recommend if writing is your thing. But, in general, the rules are - keep it simple. (Thanks, Leonardo!)

Use short paragraphs – four sentences max.

1. Use short sentences – twelve on average. 2. Skip unnecessary words. 3. Avoid jargon and gobbledygook. 4. Avoid the passive tense. 5. Address your web visitors directly—use the word you. 6. Shorten your text.

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2 more points

Eight out of ten people will read your headline - only two will read it. Why? Your headline is one of your MOST important pieces of content. Think about what will get people to click on your blog post.

BuzzSumo broke down a whole slew of headlines, and I’ve included here their diagram of what makes the perfect storm of virality and clickability.

Use numbers, emotional pulls, shortish headlines and promises of easily digestible content. Watch Neil Patel’s video this week for more.

I am looking forward to seeing YOUR viral headlines this week.

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Viral Headlines

Using a viral headline structure = higher level of interest, clicks and shares

• A common headline structure = 3 to 5 interchangeable elements: the content format, content type, topic, emotional words and a promise

• The specific elements resonate differently depending upon your audience and social network

• A strong promise can stand alone as a viral headline -Buzz Sumo, How to Write Viral Headlines

And Lastly, This is SnowJumper.

He is a 9 lb cat living in a house with two enormous dogs and two crazy-active little kids. And he always gets what he wants.

Why? When he wants something, he tells you - clearly, loudly, and with a hint of ferocity.

We call those Calls to Action.

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It's really important to guide your visitors through the using strategic CTAs.

CTA stands for call to action, and it's the part of a story, webpage, advertisement, or piece of content that encourages the audience to do something. In marketing, CTAs help a business convert a viewer, visitor, or reader into a lead for the sales team. CTAs can drive a variety of different actions depending on the content's goal.

These don’t have to be fancy. They can be a sign up link for a newsletter at the end of your blog post, an ad displayed in a sidebar, or a download button on a homepage. The point is, though, they get the point across. The tell your visitors EXACTLY what you want them to do.

You can use them to:

● Promote offers on your blog ● Use blogs to tie to relevant offers (next steps) ● CTAs should be on every post – at the bottom and in the sidebar – but

don’t interrupt the experience and don’t be pushy ● A Subscribe to Blog CTA should be universal

I follow three rules for CTAs:

1. They should be loaded with direct, verb-driven asks like: ⚡Donate Now. Make your Gift Today. Give Online. Save your Space. Book a Class. Become a

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CALLS TO ACTION (CTAs)

Member. Take Charge.?

2.They should be at the top, bottom, and middle of your messages- using a variety of methods: images, buttons, linked (anchor) text

3. And, at least, one should be popped with vibrant ✨color that calls attention to your CTAS but is still on brand

WEEK 1

ASSIGNMENT

One Created piece of Content:

Your created blog writing (and/or pictures, videos, etc.) should an awareness stage piece of content. Keep in mind your persona, their journey, and the why for the piece.

One Curated of Content:

Curate content f rom third party sources and weave the curated content together with your own editorial content. Your curated content can be video, images, slideshares, tweets, other blog posts, etc. Be creative and keep it interesting. The topic you curate on should tie back to yoour buyers awareness stage.

Elements of both posts:

• Viral headline • Writing style per web writing tips • Editorial content (and attribution on curated) • Clear Call to Actions • Recommended length of 300ish words

– Note, the best blog length for SEO in 2020 is 1,760 Words. But I just don’t want you to do that much writing for this week.

• Optimized with keywords, URL structure, and header tags • Mapped appropriately to the buyer’s journey - Awareness Stage

Week 2 Assignment

QUESTIONS?

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