big wins for content marketing (or, unsexy strategies for long-term growth.)
TRANSCRIPT
Big Wins forContent MarketingOr, Unsexy Strategies for Long-Term Growth
Presented by:@jimmy_daly
Want to retire young?
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Want to retire young?
(Of course you do.)
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There aretwo important rulesyou must follow:
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Wait.
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Wait.Do you prefer to read thisas a blog post instead?
Yes! I like blog posts.
“The biggest mistake is not learning the habits of saving properly early. It's pretty easy to get well-to-do slowly.”
Warren BuffettBillionaire investor2nd richest man in the world
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Let’s go through thetwo rules individually.
Don’t worry — This really is about content marketing.
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Rule 1:Start investing early.
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Let’s look at ahypothetical example.
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Source: Business Insider
By starting 10 years earlier,Emily ends up with 2x morethan Dave.
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By starting 10 years earlier,Emily ends up with 2x morethan Dave.
That’s a big deal.Start investing early.
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Rule 2:Focus on big wins.
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Don’t waste time with small tasks that generatelittle results.
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“If you had to choose between using your limited willpower to cut back on something you love that costs $2 a day and learning to negotiate a $10,000 salary increase, which would you rather do?”
Ramit SethiEntrepreneurAuthor of I Will Teach You To Be Richwww.jimmydaly.com
Together, these rules make up …
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The Big Win Principle
So let’s apply this tocontent marketing.
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Want to readthe rest of thisSlideShare as afull blog post?
Yes! Let’s do that instead.
There are three big wins you can use to maximize the growth of your site …
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These are not shortcutsor growth hacks. They’re fundamentals that could bring in thousands or millions more readers over the lifetime of your site.
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Big Win #1:Define a Target Audience
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Skip this and you risk years of writing forno one.
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“The target market is not the total market. The target market is the tip of the spear. That is what you use at the front lines to win the battle that allows you to win the war. And you win the war when your target demographic expands to include a lot of other people.”
Tim FerrisEntrepreneurAuthor of 4-Hour Work Weekwww.jimmydaly.com
In other words,going deep first makes it easier to go wide later.
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PeersCo-workersClientsBossesEmployersYourself
You must not write for:
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You must write foryour readers.
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Write for your1,000 True Fans.
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“This small circle of diehard fans, which can provide you with a living, is surrounded by concentric circles of Lesser Fans. These folks will not purchase everything you do, and may not seek out direct contact, but they will buy much of what you produce. The processes you develop to feed your True Fans will also nurture Lesser Fans.”
Kevin KellyEntrepreneur
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Go deep first.Identify a narrow demographic.Write for them exclusively.Earn trust, and deliver consistently.
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Go wide later.Let your fans spread the word.Branch out only when you’ve proven yourself to your target audience.
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Big Win #2:Create a RealKeyword Strategy
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“More often than not, a website is a disjointed array of unrelated information with no clear central theme.”
Bruce ClaySuper smart SEO dude
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300 target keywords=
zero target keywords
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Targeting more than two or three keywords is useless unless you have a team of writers.
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Choose a handful of keywords and focus on them intensely.
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Case Study:Brian Dean of Backlinko
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Brian Dean …• Ranks alongside Wikipedia and
Google for SEO-related content• Gets more than 100K
visitors/month, but has written only 21 posts for Backlinko.
• Is intensely focused on just a few keywords (but ranks for hundreds of long-tail variations).
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He does this by himself.
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His secret?
Silos.
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Not this kind.
This kind.
Read more about silos
Bruce Clay has a great blog post explaining the concept of silos in SEO.
Big Win #3:Commit to a RealisticPublishing Schedule
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Sticking to a publishing schedule will be a force multiplier.
It’s a constraint that will push you to become a better writer.
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“The basic principle of force multiplication is to find and use factors that increase the effective power that you have (or reduce that of your opponents). Using force multipliers has an even greater effect, such that a well-multiplied small force can successfully take on amuch larger force.”
David StrakerPersuasion and Influence Expert
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“The schedule is my constraint. I have to get something out every Monday and Thursday. This forces me to be creative and to do theone thing that good writers do: write. I don’t always hit the mark, but I have stuck with this schedule for two years and I’vewritten over 200,000 words.”
James ClearEntrepreneur
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Source: James Clear
Choose a frequency that is sustainable, even if it means starting slowly.
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Grand takeaway:
Don’t wait until you can do a huge website redesign, SEO turnover, or content audit.
Start early. Take small steps now, and reap the rewards sooner.
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Summary1.Define a target audience. Go
deep, then wide.
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Summary1.Define a target audience. Go
deep, then wide.2.Create a real keyword
strategy. Focus on a handful of great keywords.
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Summary1.Define a target audience. Go
deep, then wide.2.Create a real keyword
strategy. Focus on a handful of great keywords.
3.Commit to a realistic publishing schedule.
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