Marketing at a publishing house can be a challenge — so many books, so little time. It can feel difficult to give each book the time and attention it deserves. But while time often feels like it’s in short supply, content never is. If you’ve been wanting to stop, take stock of what you’re doing, and create meaningful content marketing plans that maximize your impact while taking into account your time and budget-strapped realities, this webinar is for you. Brownyn Kienapple, Director of Content Marketing at PolicyMe, worked in publicity and marketing at Penguin Canada for four years, so she knows firsthand the challenges unique to the industry. Link to presentation: https://youtu.be/FW6m29tmzSE Presented by BookNet Canada on April 4, 2023, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.

1. &
Content Marketing Hacks 101:
The No BS, Low Budget Guide to Driving Revenue from Content

2. What’s on the agenda?
1. Who am I?
2. How do we do content
marketing at PolicyMe + what’s
worked?
3. Setting meaningful goals
4. What channel(s) should I
leverage?
5. Editorial content from SEO 101
6. AMA!

3. Who am I?
From book publishing to tech
Intro
● Have worked in tech for five years: B2C and
B2B. Mostly 20-40 person companies.
● Previously freelanced while living in
Mexico.
● Before that, did the Humber publishing
program and worked at Penguin pre-merger
for four years.
● Jack of all trades and scrappy as all get out.

4. Life and critical illness insurance, proprietary tech to
underwrite (risk-assess) applicants faster + cheaper. Up
against the big banks. Canada only.
Hired in April 2021 to drive revenue from SEO content.
Problem: blog not optimized for search, no acquisition
pages, little brand recognition, low domain authority
website, in process of migrating to a new CMS. :(
Solution: hire a team of two, map the existing content to
keywords by cluster + add acquisition pages, redirect
duplicate content, clean up migration issues, acquire
backlinks, redesign the blog.
What’s PolicyMe and what do I do there?

5. This is what
happened…
Traffic didn’t “10x,” but
boy, did it convert!

6. Why did revenue jump?
Intro
Tight focus on editorial SEO, eschewing other channels
or putting them on autopilot.
Focus on SEO content that drives revenue, ignored
“pink sky” content.
Ambitious quarterly goals with a focus on conversion
metrics, and completion goals for tests.
Close attention to pacing on performance goals, and
making the call ahead of the quarter when to pivot so as
to not be reactive.

7. Book publishing … the
struggle is real
Intro Need to do everything, all at once, with no budget.
The most vocal author gets the most attention.
Lack of focus on goals, measurement, or WHY we’re
doing something.
Love of creativity and pressure to do out of the box
campaigns, without clear focus on performance.

8. What are the right goals for
my content marketing
program?
This webinar is for you if you’re asking yourself:
What channel(s) should I focus
on? Should I start a podcast,
newsletter, YouTube channel…
AI?????????
Why am I so exhausted??
How do I measure what I
want to do?
I’m tired of blogging all the
time.
How can get better results
out of what I’m already
doing?
How can I improve my
content workflow to
maximize output and quality
without spending $$$$?
How can I do everything
I’m being asked to with no
budget?
How can I get buy-in on content
marketing and best showcase my
results?
What am I even doing,
whyyyyyyyyy… ??

9. Getting clear on goals
Clarity

10. The Russian nesting
doll of strategic clarity
Goals
● The what, not the how
● Usually not measurable
● Can be multiple goals
Objectives
● Measurable + specific
● Pretty much a subset of goals
Strategy
● The how, not the what
● NOT TACTICS
● How you’re going to compete + achieve your
objective
Tactics
● The what
● Actions or tools you’ll use to meet your objectives
● The strategy will inform the tactics used
Goal
Objective
Strategy
Tactic

11. For example Goals
● Acquire more customers from content
● Get more leads
Objectives
● X Policy Sales from SEO by end of Q1 2024.
● Grow prospect list to 50k by end of year.
Strategy
● Map all content to funnel/customer needs, find
gaps
● Assess site for gating opportunities
Tactics
● Refresh top 10 converting pages monthly, create
x pages per month to fill content gaps
● Produce three gated assets per quarter
Goal
Objective
Strategy
Tactic

12. Choosing your channels
Focus

13. Focus
Source: newsletter.mkt1.co/p/fuel-engine

14. Focus
All engine, no fuel
● I need to increase leads, let’s up ad spend
● There’s no need for content right now
All fuel, no engine
● My goal is to publish 30 blog posts this quarter
● What distribution plan for my eBook??
● Does this rank for SEO? I dunno??
Fuel + engine don’t jive
● Tons of traffic, few conversions
● High email open rate, high unsubscribe rate
● Lots of people working, no one connecting the
dots
Fuel vs. Engine

15. Editorial content for
SEO is the best way to
build a business case
Focus
Why editorial content for SEO
Compounding effect. Return on revenue takes longer,
but speeds up faster over time. Better long-term
strategy than ads.
Is it right for my business?
If you drive about 1k sessions a month, and have about
1k referring domains, and search volume exists in your
industry, you should lean in to this strategy.
70% hedge bet on SEO?
Your business can be ripe to try this. You likely have the
most say and control over this channel, which is
important to create and prove success.
Dial down editorial SEO later
Invest, prove the channel, and get buy in to do more
creative work in the future.

16. Know your customers’ needs
Empathy

17. What’s the single
biggest problem you
can solve with content?
Empathy
Please make it stupid simple for me to compare life
insurance providers and make the best choice for me.
= a post reviewing life insurance companies
What will it take to make my small business profitable?
= a post about the break even formula
How can I communicate quickly and effectively in my
marketing materials, sales deck, training materials etc.
= a post about how to easily create infographics

18. Collect more customer
needs
Empathy
Get as much input as possible
Map out all these need, just word vomit
them.
Consolidate
Some of the needs will overlap and you will
begin to identify common themes.
Chooses 3 core needs
And commit to addressing them with
content.

19. Map your conversion funnel
Purpose

20. Funnel stages
PINK SKY
PROBLEM
SOLUTION
PRODUCT

21. Content levels
Level
1
“Wall of Text”
● Direct response
to query
● Partially
keyword
optimized
Prettier
+Conversion
● Longer
● Enhanced for
micro
-conversions
● Visual assets
Level
2
+Authority
+Video
● Authority byline
/ review
● Video assets
● Table of
contents
Level
3
+Gadgets
● Templates /
tools /
calculators.
Level
4
+First Party Data
● 1st-party data
● Predictions /
forecasts
Level
5
backlinks
From Jane Flanagan @ Freshbooks

22. Customer needs vs. funnel stages vs. levels
+ Building your case
Map out time spent on non-negotiables, figure out how much time you
can devote to editorial content for SEO or another channel. Scope a
test and present it to your boss.

23. Nail down your content
production system,
then scale it
Action
Visualize your workflow
The way it currently is. Where are the blockers, the time
sucks and where mistakes most often happen? What are
the dependencies?
Decide on your quality must-haves
Strong POV? 2-3 sources? Proprietary data? Original
graphics?
Nail down your process
Briefs, editing checklist, formatting checklist, QA
checklist.
Create an editorial calendar
Scope each project ahead of time, pull baselines, commit
to your deadlines.

24. 1. What type of content do you have too much of? Pink sky, product etc.
2. What type of content do you need more of? Awareness level, product oriented etc.
3. Do you have clear “content clusters”? Do they have a clear customer journey?
4. What content do you already have that’s working? Why’s it converting?
5. Does your existing content address customer needs? Can you repurpose existing content or do
you need to create new content?
6. What stage is your content at, generally? Is it wall of text?
7. What pages are you having the hardest time defending your rankings for? How can you “level up”
your content to solidify your rankings?
8. Does your content have a clear POV? Do you need to think about your messaging? Do you need
to do competitor analysis and see how you can stand out?
9. Do you have a strong visual identity? How can you incorporate this without a huge lift? Could just
be AI-created blog headers, to start.
10. What do you feel most confident in in terms of content and what isn’t giving you a good feeling?
OK this is a lot of information…

25. Thanks for joining me today.
Questions?
Fin

26. Identify your top 10
converting pieces, then
commit to updating them
monthly or quarterly
Quick Tips to Get Started
Test, then scale. DO NOT SCALE
+ TEST AT THE SAME TIME.
What do you want to test?
To avoid burnout,
always have a pet
project that gets your
juices flowing.
Learn the tools you need to
make good business decisions:
GA, Mixpanel, GSC, Ahrefs etc.
Scope your work before
you do it. Identify no-gos.
Audit your vendors and
the tools you use. Do they
still serve you?
Have a frank conversation
with your boss: is the
current content marketing
program meeting
expectations?
With every task you do
during the day, ask yourself,
is this moving me closer
towards meeting my goals?
If you work with SEO
content, you should know
SEO. Subscribe to Marie
Haynes’ newsletter.
Audit your checklists, processes
and documentation. Do they still
serve you?
Try a half or full-day
hackathon and bang
out one impactful
thing.
Ask yourself: do you
REALLY know what
your customers want
from your product?
Tracey Wallace’s
Contentment newsletter is !

27. Thanks for joining me today.
Questions?
Fin

28. Where to find me
Fin
policyme.com
linkedin.com/bkienapple