2. @blakepappas22
#DSDCAbout Your Presenter...
● Content Marketing Coach at Vertical Measures, a
50 person PPC, SEO & Content Marketing
agency in Phoenix, AZ
● Sample of our 40+ clients:
4. @blakepappas22
#DSDCAgenda
Time Topic
8:30 – 9:45am • What is Content Marketing
• Putting Together Your Content Strategy
• Performing Ideation & Market Research
9:45 – 10:00am COFFEE BREAK
10:00 – 11:35pm • Developing Useful Content
• Optimizing Your Content for the Web
• Promoting Your Content
• Distribute Your Content
• Lead Nurturing – It’s In the Mail
• Measurement
11:35 – 12:05pm LUNCH BREAK
12:15 – 12:45pm • Case Studies
• Wrap up
6. ● How many of you are webmasters or SEOs?
● How many are primarily marketing people?
● Any business owners?
● Organizations with more than 100 employees?
● More than 1,000?
● How many of you have been successful with CM for at least 12
months in a row?
Who are you?
7. @blakepappas22
#DSDCThe Real Reason You are Here…
Panda: 2011
● On-site penalties
● Thin content
● High ad-to-content ratios
Penguin: 2012
● Off-site penalties
● Low-quality backlinks
● Exact match anchor text
Hummingbird: 2013
● Semantic search
● Full question searches
● Indexing to understanding
21. @blakepappas22
#DSDC
93% of all consumers
use search prior to
making a purchase
93%
90%+ of buyers click on
organic links vs. the
sponsored ads
90%
86% of searchers
conduct non-branded
queries
86%86%
How Important is Search?
Source: GroupM
29. @blakepappas22
#DSDCPublish Like A Publisher
Traditional Media Backgrounds = Great for Content Marketing
• They plan ahead
• They think strategically
• They love editorial calendars
• They understand deadlines
• They can create great content
• They find fresh angles and sources
• They know how to engage an audience
30. @blakepappas22
#DSDCContent Inventory
• Have you taken an inventory of your current
content?
• Look for out of date content
• Look for duplicate content
• Look for content gaps
• Tools to use:
• Screaming Frog
• Excel
32. @blakepappas22
● What will your new content accomplish?
• Lead Generation?
• Increased Revenue?
• Customer Retention?
• Thought Leadership?
• Open New Markets?
• Lower Customer Service Costs?
Why Are You Creating Your Content?
Every piece of content should
have a business purpose.
33. @blakepappas22
● What will you measure?
● Engagement? Traffic? Leads? Revenue?
● Do you have the tools you will need to measure
your success or failures?
● Do you have analytics in place?
● Establish benchmarks right now.
● What does success look like?
● Did your content help its audience members
achieve excellence at what they do?
What Is Different A Year From Now?
35. @blakepappas22
● Your audience can be a number of different groups –
depending on your industry & your site offerings
o Current/potential customers? People spending
money on your product or service now or in the future?
o Location? Are you a location based business and how
might that impact your audience?
o Seasonal? Is your business seasonal with a changing
audience?
Who is Your Audience?
36. @blakepappas22
Who are they?
• Demographics
• Pain points and needs
• Barriers to purchase
• Influencer potential
• Content formats
• Content sources
• Mobile vs desktop
Persona Development
Decisive Dana
“Brand A widget
reviews”
Bargain Britt
“cheapest widget”
37. @blakepappas22
Persona: Homeowner, 30s, prefers shorter & more visual content
Goal: Save money and “go green”
Persona: Buyer's Journey & Content Gaps
How to Lower
Your Utility Bill
Top 7 Reasons Going Solar
Pays Off Long-Term
— CONTENT GAP — Why
SolarCity's
Solar Panels
Last 50%
Longer
41. @blakepappas22
● You are a publisher and you must create
content to speak to your specific
audience and that truly represents YOU!
● Create a Mission Statement
● Find your voice
o Humorous?
o Serious?
o Researcher?
Who Are You?
42. @blakepappas22
● What expertise will you need?
o Creative writing?
o Sales copy?
o Technical writing?
o Graphics?
o Video?
● Leverage your employees – the key
to success? They are the SMEs!
● Business partners or suppliers may
contribute
Who Will Create Your Content?
43. @blakepappas22
● Your Blog?
● Your web pages?
● RSS feeds?
● Social accounts?
● News Feeds?
● Sites for Videos, Images, Slides, PR, etc?
● Will you have content to download?
● Have you developed a communication tool or
process for spreading your content marketing
vision throughout the organization?
Where will the Content be Published?
48. @blakepappas22
#DSDC
THE ODDS OF HITTING A GRAND SLAM
Most of us aren’t the New York Yankees, so we strongly
suggest playing CONTENT MONEYBALL:
1 in 4 at bats = hit (a success)
1 in 36 at bats = home run (a big success)
1 in 1,691 at bats = grand slam (viral success)
49. @ShanaSullivan38
In order to play CONTENT MONEYBALL, you need
to come up with hundreds of ideas so you can
create fresh, USEFUL content on a frequent basis.
Here’s how we do it…
56. @blakepappas22
#DSDCGoogle’s Answer Box
“When we recognize that a query asks a question, we programmatically detect pages that
answer the user's question, and display a snippet as a featured snippet in the search results.” - Google
71. @blakepappas22
● Draw content out of challenges,
trends, achievements and
internal events
● Don’t ask “What can you write
about?” Ask “What questions do
you get asked every day”
● Content@YourEmail.Com
Every Moment is a Content Opportunity
90. @blakepappas22
• Faster, cheaper, engaging
• Drives social traffic
• Average quiz gets shared
1,900 times (BuzzSumo)
• Can be used for lead
generation
Quizzes
91. @blakepappas22
● Optimized Title
● Detailed Description
● Statistics
● Images & Video
● Product Comparisons
● User Generated Content
Let’s Not Forget Product Pages
95. @blakepappas22
Sample Hub & Spoke Schedule
January 10 - Hub Launch, Email #1, Blog, PPC Ad
January 17 - Blog and Email #2 Spoke
January 23 - Webinar Spoke
January 27 - YouTube and Slideshare Spoke
January 31 - Blog Spoke
February 3 - Off-site Article
February 7 - Infographic Spoke
February 15 - Inclusion in e-Newsletter
February 21 - Off-site Article
February 28 - Blog Spoke
March 8 - Blog Spoke
March 16 - Email #3
March 28 - Off-site Podcast
97. @blakepappas22
#DSDCBlog Writing Tips
● Write to communicate a
message, not word count
● Write posts people will
want to link to
● Don't be self-promotional
● Always keep target
audience in mind
● Use visual differentiators
98. @blakepappas22
#DSDCBy “Visual Differentiators” We Mean:
Content Chunking
● Headers and sub-headers
● Multipleimages
● Short paragraphs
● Bolded or italicized terms and
phrases
● Internal links
● Bulleted or numbered lists
See neilpatel.com
This example: 74 paragraphs, 5 subheads,
40 links, 33 images/graphics
106. @blakepappas22
You don’t go there and neither do our prospects…
Source: https://chitika.com/google-positioning-value
107. @blakepappas22
#DSDC
Each month, 8.5 out of the top 10
rankings will change positions.
Every day, 78% of search results
have some ranking change. - Moz
109. @blakepappas22
#DSDCOn Page SEO Elements
Title TagURL
H1 Tag
H2 Tag
Content
"Interested in taking your internet
marketing strategy to the next level but not
sure where to start? Start with a Search,
Social and Content Strategy now."
Meta
Description
110. @blakepappas22
Most Common Problems We Find?
1. Unintentional duplicate content
2. Page-load times
3. Poor HTML (title tags, meta descriptions, broken links)
4. Poorly optimized images and videos
5. Bad backlinks/Not enough backlinks (very important!)
6. Thin content (lack of semantic KW opportunity)
7. Not Mobile Friendly
112. @blakepappas22
Page Speed
• Address key issues like image and JavaScript optimization
• Reducing resources needed to process images, scripts
and files improves PageSpeed
• A one-second delay in PageSpeed can decrease
conversions by 7%
116. @blakepappas22
#DSDC
● Mainly for conversions
● First time a visitor is understanding who you are
● ~140 - 180 characters
Meta Description
117. @blakepappas22
H Tags
● Should be similar to page title
● Tell the bots what to expect on the page
● Hard coded into the HTML (H1, H2, H3, etc.)
● Only one H1 tag per page
<h1>My Post is About SEO</h1>
<h2>SEO is Awesome</h2>
<h2>What is Google</h2>
<h2>People Love SEO</h2>
<h3>Matt Cutts Loves SEO</h3>
120. @blakepappas22
• Important for usability and visibility
• Internal links tell search engines what your site is about
• Proper internal linking structure allows search engines
to spider and index more pages within your site.
• Use, but don’t abuse, internal text links within
content (1 per 300 words is a good rule of thumb)
• Keep footers clean and include a link to sitemap
Internal Links
122. @blakepappas22
● Reduce file size
Use relevant● keywords in image filenames.
DONT: "DL000031.jpg", DO: ”animas-river.jpg"
Make sure <● img> tags have their "alt" and "title"
attributes
Context matters. Google looks at● content placed
around the image, like titles and captions.
How to Optimize Images
EXAMPLE
Current - /images/uploads/galleryImages/_Large/andybarbour27.jpg
New - JPG Name | Alt Tag | Title
/images/uploads/galleryImages/_Large/animas river-sunset-andy-barbour.jpg
123. @blakepappas22
How to Optimize Videos
● Specific, Compelling Title
● Related Tags
● Description
● Include a link placed at
the beginning – with
http://
● High Video Quality /
Resolution
124. @blakepappas22
#DSDCIt’s a Mobile World
In the past 2 years, mobile surpassed desktop in:
• # users
• # Google searches
• time spent on device
Mobile-friendly update
• released April 2015
• “Accelerated Mobile Pages” are rewarded
135. @blakepappas22
What’s Next?
Audit Findings:
• Long, not so fun form
• Irrelevant images and
distracting CTAs
• Did not give any result
based on self evaluation
– not meeting user’s
expectations
Leading to a 61% exit rate on “thank
you” page
Goals:
• Improve user experience
• Increase conversion rate
for self evaluations
• Increase conversion
volume for consultation
requests
140. @blakepappas22
CRO Results
Self-Evaluation
• Increased conversion rate by
130%
• 93% increase in leads (~250
extra leads per month)
Consultation CTA Results
• Increased conversion rate by
81%
• Month over month we are
continuing to see the highest
conversion volume ever
148. @blakepappas22
Why Pay to Play?
500MTweets per day
300 hrsVideo uploaded every minute to
YouTube
2%Average reach of organic Facebook
post
Sources: http://w ww.internetlivestats.com/tw itter-statistics / http://w ww.statisticbrain.com/youtube-statistics
https://social.ogilvy.com/facebook-zero-considering-life-after-the-demise-of-organic-reach/
149. @blakepappas22
Paid Search
● Drive traffic based on
relevant search queries
● Test ad copy and landing
page experience
● Shape your strategy;
quickly learn what
keywords drive quality
traffic
153. @blakepappas22
Paid Social
● Drive traffic based on
audience interests
● Test engagement through
ad creative
● Shape your strategy;
quickly learn what content
engages with targeted
audience segments
155. @blakepappas22
Programmatic
● Drive traffic based on 1st and 3rd party data
● Real-time bidding based on audience segments
● Shape your strategy; quickly learn what audiences are engaging with
your brand
156. @blakepappas22
● Identify low hanging fruit
o Guest blog posts or articles (they are still okay)
o Where you have relationships
o Local partners & listings
● The best links:
o Are from trusted sites
o Have varied anchor text
o Are from many different, relevant websites
Build Links To Your Content
158. @blakepappas22
• A paid/organic content
promotion or distribution
strategy
• Target influencers based on
personas
• Use a variety of content
formats
• Provide an easy route for
influencers to promote
Influencer Marketing & Outreach
168. @blakepappas22
#DSDCSocial Media Policy
● Do you have one documented?
○ If not, create one and share
● Who has the authority to post?
○ On the company accounts?
○ On their personal accounts?
● Who will moderate, respond?
○ Acceptable turnaround times
● Take sensitive conversations offline
● Escalation and crisis policies
175. @blakepappas22
#DSDC3 Types of Distribution
OWNED EARNED PAID
Website Social media Display ads / Google AdWords
Blog User reviews Social ads / promoted posts
E-mail Backlinks Sponsored content / native ads
181. @blakepappas22
#DSDC
“When you're wondering what to say or
how you look, just remember, she's
already out with you. That means she
said yes when she could have said no.
That means she made a plan when she
could have just blown you off.
So that means it's no longer your job
to make her like you. It's your job not
to mess it up.”
182. @blakepappas22
How Can Lead Nurture Help You?
• Increase business by providing consistent value
• Keep your company top-of-mind
• Deepen existing relationships
• Move people through the buying cycle quicker
• Build brand recognition
• Create loyalty and trust
184. @blakepappas22
• Visually appealing and branded
• Incorporate into editorial calendar: plan frequency
• Segmenting: targeted messaging
• Plan out segmented drip or follow up campaigns
• Stay brief: Read More, Get More Details
• Great subject line!
E-mail Best Practices
190. @blakepappas22
#DSDCPOV’s
• Point of View that includes:
your response, opinion,
solution, expertise
• Shows you are up to date,
have your customer’s best
interests in mind, and are
an authoritative source of
information
198. @blakepappas22
● Measure for successes… and failures
● Check your rankings, traffic, conversions and other key metrics
● Focus on the strategies that are providing the best ROI and keep publishing
Measure!
199. @blakepappas22
Metrics that Matter for Content Goals
Primary Content Goals Corresponding Metrics
Improve SEO Keyword rankings, Average SERP position, SERP CTR, organic pageviews and organic sessions
Educate audience Avg. time on page, pages viewed per session, return visitors, external link, brand awareness lift
Drive qualified leads Conversion rate (CVR), Cost-per-lead (CPL); Cost-per-Customer-Acquisition (CPC)
Encourage social sharing Social shares, comments, mentions
Start/own the conversation Comments, external links, shares, email forwards
Personalize brand N/A - Conduct qualitative research following content campaigns
Increase brand following Direct traffic, Email subscription growth, Unique open rate, Unique CTR, brand mentions, external links
200. @blakepappas22
● Where are you in relation to direct or indirect competitors?
● Guide your strategy with this data to find gaps or to play catch-up
Competitive Analysis
PAGES
INDEXED
KEYWORDS IN POSITIONS 1-
20
KEYWORDS IN POSITIONS 1 -100
RATIO OF RANKED KEYWORDS
(POSITIONS 1 - 20) TO INDEXED
PAGES
HTTPS:/ Y OUR DOM A I N. C OM / 118 22 208 0.19
HTTP://WWW.C OM PET IT OR- ONE. C OM 46 190 1052 4.13
HTTPS:// SU BDOM AI N.C OM PETIT O R- ONE.C OM / 1720 3650 7316 2.12
HTTP://WWW.C OM P ET IT OR-T WO. C OM / 26 158 482 6.08
HTTP://C OM P ETIT OR-T WO. C OM / PA GE 478 1439 4480 3.01
HTTP://SU BD OM AI N.C OM PETI T OR-T WO.C OM 258 1834 3976 7.11
HTTP://WWW.C OM PET IT OR-T HR EE.C OM 40 127 357 3.18
HTTP://WWW.C OM PET IT OR- FOUR.C OM / 10300 264 1859 0.03
201. @blakepappas22
● Where are your traffic/leads/contactscoming from?
● How can you optimize your sources to improve?
Sources
Organic
17%
Referrals
29%
Social
8%
Email
4%
Paid
14%
Direct
26%
Other
2%
205. @blakepappas22
The Content Journey to Conversion
Became a
customer!
December – End of February
Read blogs,
watched videos,
attended webinars,
downloaded hubs
212. @blakepappas22
#DSDC
Fixed SEO issues and started
sporadically posting content
Increased blogging to at least
2x per month
Organic traffic is up over 1800% by adhering to SEO best practices and posting content
Industry: Business Consulting
Services: Coaching
214. Started posting 3x per
month
Since posting 3x per month, organic traffic has increased 235%
Industry: Outdoor Recreation
Services: SEO, CRO
215. @blakepappas22
● It takes courage to give away something of value without
the expectation of immediate return
● It takes courage to trust that your customers and
prospective customers will reward you with attention and
sales and loyalty at some point in the future
● It takes courage to play the long game, not the short game
It Takes Courage...
216. @blakepappas22
What if we never used these words again:
● Blogging
● FAQ’s
● Content Marketing
● Inbound Marketing
● Social Media Marketing
217. @blakepappas22
Listening to What Customers are Telling You●
Building your List of Interested Prospects●
Communicating on a Regular Basis●
Helping Your Prospects Make a Decision●
Teaching or Training your Customers●
Building a Learning Center●
Creating Content People are Actually Searching for!●
Instead Talk To Management About:
219. @blakepappas22
Six Qualities of the Most Successful Content Marketing Case Studies
Via the SalesLion
1. Education is Their Primary Focus
2. The Entire Company Believes in Content
Marketing
3. They Produce Their Own Content
4. The Content They Produce is Educational, Honest,
and Non-Promotional
5. They Aren’t Afraid to Tackle the Big Questions
6. Sales and Marketing are United in Producing
Content
223. @blakepappas22
What We Do for our Clients
Content Marketing Strategy
and Development
Profit-Driven Pay-Per-Click
Management
Technical Search Engine
Optimization
224. @blakepappas22
If we were to offer you an online, self-paced, digital marketing coaching
program where you would receive:
• Online access to everything we just covered
• Dozens of videos with short assignments covering each step
• Downloadable workbooks with step-by-step training modules
• Access to a comprehensive video training library for advanced users
• Private webinars
• Private, live Q&A sessions every month
Question For You:
Who would find that valuable?
Would you pay $200 per month for it?