@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

@RaniMonson

Sour

ce: P

RWeb

@RaniMonson

@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

@RaniMonson

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

rani@RainMakingMarketing.comhttp://www.slideshare.net/ranimonson

Jake Thompsonjake@competeeveryday.com

@Jake_T4