It’s the question we hear every day in marketing: “What’s the goal?” We’ve been trained to believe that the goal, or desired outcome, is the be-all and end-all when it comes to driving marketing success. But what if we’re wrong? What if the real key to lasting marketing success is the willingness to flip the script and focus on the inputs—the work you’ll do to achieve your goals—allowing the outcome to take shape organically. While the technique might seem counter-intuitive, there is plenty of evidence of its efficacy.

1. INPUTS > OUTCOMES
How To Make Your
Content Marketing
INVINCIBLE
ronell.smith@moz.com | @ronellsmith

2. A Process of Discovery

3. “Michelin Man”

4. CARDIO

5. Under-ate

6. Smaller, Not
Healthier

7. A Journey That Changed
My Worldview

8. Discovery #1
Prioritized lean body mass (LBM), not
overall weight

9. Discovery #2
Focused on “simple but not easy,”
especially with regard to exercise
selection

10. Discovery #3
Different from everyone else—
focused on moving better, not simply
looking—in their approach

11. Discovery #4
Focused on the process—better
looking, better movement, better
health was a by-product of the work,
not the focus of it.

12. Discovery #5
Main variables determining success
or failure: diet, exercise, recovery,
stress management and sleep

13. Putting It Together
Goal (e.g., more LBM, less fat) baked
into the Process (e.g., exercise, etc.)

14. Eureka Moment!

15. Inputs > Outcomes

16. Same Soup, Different Bowl
More and better content

17. Same Soup, Different Bowl
More and better content
Grow traffic & links

18. Same Soup, Different Bowl
MelbourneSEO

19. Same Soup, Different Bowl
More and better content
More traffic & links
Be No. 1 on the Google

20. Get Real

21. Lack
Resources

22. 10/15/16 23
Grow traffic & linksWebsite
trapped in
1997

23. 24
Branding
is
Nonexistent

24. Same Soup, New Bowl
More and better content
More traffic & links
Be No. 1 on the Google
Outcomes

25. Same Soup, New Bowl
Mastered Boring stuff
Didn’t chase shiny things
Did things differently
Inputs

26. In Content Marketing,
the thinking goes…

27. We Know the Right Inputs
+
More Content
More Links
= CItations

28. We Know The Work That Matters vs. Doesn’t
Don’t Do Do Every Day
Create Blog PostsManual Link Outreach
Posting to Google Plus New Facebook Posts
Asking for Google Reviews Monitor Review Sites

29. AFocus on Outcome vs. Input Metrics CanYield Success
Outcome
Outcome
Outcome

30. Focusing on Outcome Metrics vs. Inputs Will Bring Success
My Single Best SEO Tip for Improved Web Traffic, by Cyrsu Shepard

31. How Do We Remedy This?

32. Goals For Content
Marketing3

33. #1 — Awareness & Visibility

34. #2 — Reputation & Brand Trust

35. #3 —
Loyalty
Via Contently

36. We’re good at #1 and #2;
Few truly understand #3

37. Instead of Measuring What
Matters, We Measure
Everything

38. Blindly Chase Shiny Things
These elements might be
well correlated with sites
that tend to rank well, but
that doesn’t mean they’re
the best investments your
site can make?
Via Moz’s 2015 Google Ranking Factors

39. Via Rand Fishkin’s Art of Product Marketing Presentation
We Don’t Foster a
Culture of Iteration

40. We Don’t Understand The ‘Why’

41. Our Comfort Zone Is Measuring Output
Via Moz’s 1Metric Content Tracking System

42. Our biggest challenge to
finding consistent content
marketing success.

43. Identifying the Work
that Creates Improvement

44. Identifying the Best Targets
for the Correct Metrics

45. Theory for Content Marketing Success
Tolerance
Adherence
Repetition

46. Putting Theory To The Test

47. Each Effort Can be Broken Down:
WorkMetricsGoal(s)
Eat less,
train more
Scale weight
< 230 lbs
Lose
weight

48. Each Effort Can be Broken Down:
Work Metrics Goal(s)
Eat less,
train more &
test
Scale weight
< 230 lbs
Lose
weight

49. Output

50. Waist: 37
Hips: 42.5
Jan. — Mar.
Output

51. Input
The Work That Moved The Needle

52. Input
The Work That Moved The Needle
Train: 2 -3X/week
Jan. — Mar. Apr. — Oct.
Train: 4X/week +
30-45m walk/day
Tracked meals/snacks
Tracked meals/snacks

53. Waist: 37
Hips: 42.5
Jan. — Mar. Apr. — Oct.
Waist: 35 1/8
Hips: 41 1/8
Output
The Results Don’t Tell The Story

54. “There is growth in every process, but
not inANY outcome.”
— Eric Cressey, Cressey Sports Performance

55. “An outcome is result. It’s what
happens when the work is done.
— Eric Cressey, Cressey Sports Performance

56. Outcome-oriented
I want to be lean and ripped in 30
days

57. Process-oriented
I’m going to eat more lean protein and
vegetables, in addition to getting 60
minutes of exercise per day.

58. What Ultimately Matters
Exercising in am
Adding to schedule
Plan all meals
No snacks before first meal
200g/protein daily
200 oz./water daily
200 oz./water daily
Nudges

59. This is what’s missing from our
current approach to content
marketing.

60. We ignore the inputs that create
those outcomes.
We measure the outcomes.

61. NUDGES, which make consistent
success more reliable.
We aren’t even aware of our

62. What are the (unspoken) everyday
actions that consistently improve
your content marketing efforts?

63. When we commit to _______, we achieve
success by _______.

64. When we commit to blogging more
frequently, we achieve success by
attaining more links.

65. When we commit to on page SEO, we
achieve success by
increased web visits.

66. Our Job: Find the
Best Targets

67. Regular Content Creation?
Establish metrics for
content cadence, and
you’ll know the
benefits of 1X/week
vs. 1X/month.

68. Customer Service?
Great customer
service helps move
the needle with
reviews.

69. Infrequent, Higher-Effort Content?
Many times, one piece of
extraordinary content every
quarter or even every year
can be enough.
See Rand’s List of 10X Content

70. Social Shares? Or Social Followers?
What actions earn
social engagement?
Are they worthwhile?
Via Followerwonk

71. Interacting in Online Communities?
A few replies a week, or
each month, may have a
compounding impact

72. Mainstream or Niche Media Coverage
Press outreach, or
crafting a press-worthy
story/event each month
could be a worthwhile
endeavor

73. More Keyword-Focused Pages?
A handful of
keyword-focused
pages could have a
big, long term
impact.

74. Site Crawl to Find and Fix Issues
Fixing, redirecting,
and/or finding the
linking sources to
these may drive
additional rankings &
traffic.

75. Comment Marketing?

76. Guest Blogging
Via Eric Enge, Search Engine Land

77. Concerted-Effort Outreach

78. Each Effort Can be Broken Down:
Work
Put up two Facebook
posts/week
Fix any broken links
Pitch a guest contribution
1X/month
Participate in three
discussion threads/week

79. Each Effort Can be Broken Down:
Work Metrics
Put up two Facebook
posts/week
Fix any broken links
Pitch a guest contribution
1X/month
Participate in three
discussion threads/week
FB shares, new
page likes, traffic
Traffic increase
Acceptance of post,
traffic driven
Traffic from
discussion site

80. Each Effort Can be Broken Down:
Work Metrics Goal(s)
Put up two Facebook
posts/week
Fix any broken links
Pitch a guest contribution
1X/month
Participate in three
discussion threads/week
FB shares, new
page likes, traffic
Traffic increase
Acceptance of post,
traffic driven
Traffic from
discussion site
Grow reach on &
through Facebook
Direct+search bump
Visibility to new
audience, traffic
Brand awareness,
branded search

81. Each Effort Can be Broken Down:
Work Metrics Goal(s)
Fix any broken
links
Traffic
Increase
Direct+search
bump
Curtail daily
meetings
Nudge

82. The Wrong Way
to do Content Marketing:

83. Grow Traffic to the Blog
Our site’s traffic blows, folks.

84. Assign Target(s)
Let’s get traffic to the
site up by 300% this
month, guys.

85. Do WorkAssumed To Help Us Reach Goals
Looks like we can find some
links over there, y’all.

86. Measure Results
Wake me when this
gets interesting

87. A NEW WAY
to Do MARKETING:

88. Determine Nudges, Work Items & Metrics to Monitor
You have my attention.
Limit all meetings to
only essential parties Post two blogs
per week
Increased social
sharing, distribution,
engagement, reach
Brand mentions,
traffic and links

89. Discern What Work Moves Which Needles
We can do this. Right?

90. Measure the work against
work targets, not simply
metrics goals
I’ve never been more proud
of you.

91. Double Down on Work that Improves
the Metrics
You CareAbout Most
We go this.

92. Improve The
Time to Goal
Achievement
I never doubted you.

93. Make it a Habit
Refine
Revise
Repeat

94. Tool(s):

95. My favorite tool: Trello
Trello

96. Ronell SmithRonell Smith
ronell.smith@moz.com| @ronellsmith
THANK YOU