how to create blog posts your readers will want to share
TRANSCRIPT
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How To Create Blog Posts Your
Readers Will Want To
Share
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Who We Are
JD Peterson, Scripted.com
SVP of Marketing
[email protected] [email protected]
Skip Besthoff, InboundWriter
CEO
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InboundWriter – Know Before You Write
Our Vision
InboundWriter predicts content traffic performance before the content is written, based on the topic and target website
Our Software
To simplify creating content that engages target audiences and drives superior performance
Industry Recognition
Our Customers• Content Marketers: enterprises & digital agencies• Launched in Sept ’14; approaching 50 accounts• Commonalities: content and performance
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According to a recent report 90 percent of B2C organizations use content marketing. Yet only 34 percent of these B2C marketers consider themselves effective.
A 66 percent failure rate might work in baseball batting averages, but boardrooms won't tolerate this level of performance for very long.
Cold, Hard Reality - Most Content Doesn’t
Work
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New Research - Performance is Driven by
Topics• ‘What’ you write about is as, or more, important than ‘how’ you write it
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A Typical Scenario
• A pet e-commerce company has a big investment in online content (4 blogs, 1 to 2 posts / week in each)
• The company has explicit content marketing goals, mostly focused on traffic (search, social, referral), engagement and conversion
• It knows most content doesn’t work and is looking to improve these metrics
• As an example, they wanted to write about: “How Pets Keep Us Healthy”
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Guesswork is the Status Quo
• Nothing on the surface suggests this topic won’t work• However, we know this content would not drive traffic or hit
the target audience (thus engage / convert as expected)– People don’t search for ‘how pets keep us healthy’– The term that will drive the most traffic to this content is ‘healthy
pets’; not aligned with the topic
• Bottom line: very low probability of success in terms of both traffic and engagement
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Many Factors Impact Traffic and Sharing
How competitive is your website versus the websites publishing on the same topic
Competition
Does the topic overlap with content already on the target website
Uniqueness
Is your topic tapping into a large online audienceAudience Size
Which terms will drive traffic to that content, and what is the relevancy of those terms to the topic
Terms / Relevancy
Is your website known for the type of content (text, news, video, etc.) that the target audience seeks
Match to Content Types
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What To Do - Let Data Guide You
• By analyzing search / social data you can remove guesswork, generate related topic ideas and hit your objectives
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Search and Social Clearly Overlap
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Typical InboundWriter Case Study
• B2B Customer; ~350k pg views / mo
• Green / Yellow outperform Red by 4.5x (organic), 3.5x (pg views)
• Green content – top 10 pages on the site
• G / Y vs control group
• 3.2x in organic
• 2.6x in pg views
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Parting Thoughts …
• Guesswork will not yield the results you seek • Define goals (traffic, social, engagement, etc.) and
create a content strategy based off them• “Measure twice, cut once” (i.e. research is very
important)• Measure -> Analyze -> Refine• Give yourself some time –
content marketing has a significant ROI but needs 3 to 6 months to kick in (if you’re doing it right)
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JD Peterson, Scripted.com
Chief Revenue Officer
@jd_peterson
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Who Is Scr ipted?
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Crowded Playing Fie ld
Inbound Marketing
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Who Are You Trying To Reach?
Inbound Marketing
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Don’t Create Content Just To Create Content!
Content Creation
Your Audience
What They Value
Know This First:
Know Your Audience
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Start With Human Behavior
Inbound Marketing
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Start With Human Behavior
Inbound Marketing“The most fundamental component to keep in mind is that when people share content, they are getting some sort of reward for it”
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/20-ways-make-content-shareable/114975/
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The Decis ion To Share
Inbound MarketingShould I?How will this reflect on me?
Does it make me look good?
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What Makes Someone Share?
Inbound Marketing• Positive articles are more likely to be shared• People like to share articles that inspire a sense of
“awe”• Sharing content is used as a way to establish
emotional connections with others• People share content on topics that define who
they are and supports their beliefs
• People are more likely to share articles they perceive as being from a trustworthy source
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What Makes Someone Share?
Inbound Marketing
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Be Wary Of The Myths
Inbound Marketing
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CONTENT MYTH #1:
WRITTEN CONTENT IS DEAD! IT’S ALL ABOUT THE VISUALS
Content Myth #1
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But Visuals Are Important!
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CONTENT MYTH #2:
THE HEADLINE IS THE ONLY COPY THAT MATTERS
Content Myth #2
• 8 out of 10 people will read your headline
• But only 2 out of 10 will read the rest
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CONTENT MYTH #3:
PEOPLE ONLY WANT SHORT “SOUND BYTE” STYLE POSTS
Content Myth #3
• Cat pictures and short lists do well but everyone is doing them!
• Stand out from the crowd by going where there is less competition
• 16X more content created in 2014 with <1000 words
• People like sharing, intellectually stimulating long-form content
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Team• Content Manager
Volume• 30+ pieces of content
published per month
Content Creation
Scripted Writers
In-House
20%
80%
Content Myth #4
CONTENT MYTH #4:
IT TAKES A BIG TEAM TO CREATE THIS STUFF!
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Scripted Case Study
• Speaks directly to an area of concern for our target audience
• One of our longer posts; more details than a standard list
• Straight-forward headline
• Use of images
• Trust builders:• Byline with pic• Clear branding• Mention competition
Q & A
THANK YOU!