@RaniMonson
Building a Content Strategy You Can Execute Yourself
…And Why You Should
@RaniMonson
Agenda• What is Content?• Does Content
really make $?• Building your
Content Strategy• Executing your
Content Strategy• From the
Trenches: Jake Thompson of Compete Every Day
• Last Tips
@RaniMonson
@RaniMonson
Warning
@RaniMonson
MY PERSPECTIVE ON CONTENTIt might help to understand…
@RaniMonson
@RaniMonson
Who I Am
@RaniMonson
The First Job
• After asking the question “why” my entire life, I became a newspaper reporter
• I was getting paid to create content!• Belief system:– Content matters in life
@RaniMonson
The Second Job…Content Confusion
• Acquire content
• Make money with said content
• Huh…
@RaniMonson
Content | Money Tug-of-War• Struggle: the balance between love for
content and the ability to monetize it– That approach (aka skepticism) is the same for
Content Marketing• Does it result in sales?
@RaniMonson
WHAT IS CONTENT?
@RaniMonson
What is Content, Exactly?
• Content = Information• Information (aka content) can take many
forms and formats– Text– Photos– Infographics– Testimonials– Audio– Video
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@RaniMonson
GOOD CONTENT WILL HELP YOU MAKE MORE MONEY
Finally. We get to the money.
@RaniMonson
Most Effective Types of Content
@RaniMonson
• Companies that publish 15 or more blog articles per month generate 5x more Web traffic than companies that don't blog at all– Those that blog 9-15 times / month generate 3x more traffic than those that don't blog
• Companies generate a 45% lift in traffic when they increase the number of published blog posts from 11-20 articles to 21-50 articles.– Small businesses (1-10 employees) tend to generate a bigger lift than larger companies
when they accumulate published blog content
@RaniMonson
BUILDING YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY
@RaniMonson
Keys to Successful Content
• Create a Content Strategy– Know your audience
• Content is currency — something we trade for our audience’s attention
– Create 1-3 Key Messages • These will be repeated over and over and over again to build your
brand• Verbatim: not the time to be creative• Basis of your content strategy
– Key Messages can answer:• Why business is unique / competitive advantage• Why you’re better than the competition• Why clients refer business to you
@RaniMonson
Content Calendar• Plan ahead
– This will let you reinforce your key messages
• Block out rolling 13 months – Holidays – Seasons– Industry events / conferences
• If that’s too daunting, try 13 weeks– Or days
• Just get started– Pick a topic | format you like
• Keep the technology simple– Paper is your friend– So is Word / Excel
• Don’t over think – it’s digital– It can be deleted
@RaniMonson
Much of the Calendar Will Be Evergreen Content
• Content that is always relevant, or “green”– Can plan / prepare ahead
• Examples:– Historical industry info– Lessons learned– FAQs– Case studies– How-to guides– Q&A– Calendar of industry events
@RaniMonson
Curate More Content for Calendar
• Content you curate is created by someone else– And you give them credit for their work
• Don’t plagiarize, steal, etc. – It’s bad content karma
• Sources:– Industry websites / trade publications / analysts– Your business partners– Guest bloggers– Competitors
@RaniMonson
Last, Add Timely Content to Calendar• This means you will
adjust your calendar to account for timely information– Postponing something
that can wait• Industry news • Emerging trends• Data / facts • Research reports
@RaniMonson
Other Sources of Inspiration
• Pop culture: movies, music, TV• Media: news, magazines, websites• Remember: Truth is stranger than fiction
• Be careful with:– Current events– Politics– Religion
@RaniMonson
HOW ABOUT A REAL EXAMPLEJake Thompson – Compete Every Day
@RaniMonson
Compete Every Day
• Knew we couldn’t compete with Compete.com for Google Ad Words
• Miniscule budget – all money was going into apparel and events
• Needed angle to grow our brand’s unique story & passionate community
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Compete Every Day
• Daily stories of people, brands, causes that fit the Compete Every Day message
• Post 1-2 stories per day on website blog• Post 3-5 items on social media channels,
including graphics, quotes, & apparel• Search & initiate conversations
@RaniMonson
Compete Every Day
• Distribution on social media channels
• Promote with collateral & images offline to drive traffic to site
@RaniMonsonI’M BORED
Are we done yet?
@RaniMonson
Additional Tips• Read your content to yourself
– out loud• Ask someone else to read it • It’s digital!
– You can always fix it later | Hit delete
• Schedule a deadline for yourself– Withhold things you like until
you do it• Yes punish yourself
• If it just isn’t going to happen…– Consider paying someone else
to do it– That way it will get done
@RaniMonson
Put Your Content to Work + Metrics
@RaniMonson
Don’t Confuse Social Media Tools With Content
• Businesses rush to jump on social media
• Often don’t stop to think– What they want to say– Who they want to say it to– aka a Content Strategy
• Key is to remember social media is a vehicle - only– It drives traffic to your content– But your content needs to add
value
@RaniMonson
Q&A | Thank YouRani Monson
[email protected]://www.slideshare.net/ranimonson
Jake [email protected]
@Jake_T4
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