the 7 step content marketing playbook for startups
TRANSCRIPT
Content marketing gets 3x the number of leads vs paid search
Content creation is the single most effective SEO technique
27 million pieces of content are shared every day
80% of decision-makers want to learn new info from articles vs ads
82% of consumers feel more positive about a business afterconsuming custom content
Why you're 100% right tobe focusing on content:
How to Use ThisContent Marketing Playbook
1. Read these seven repeatable, proven steps.
2. Remember that content creation and contentmarketing aren’t part of a perfectly linear process.
3. Get a sense of the big picture (especially if you’rejust getting your content marketing plan off theground) and return to each step when you need to.
Set Your Direction01 Define why you’re creatingcontent, who you’re creatingit for, and what you want toachieve from it.
Answer these 6 Questions:1. What do you hope to accomplish with your content marketing?
2. Is there demand for your content? What are the pain points you can solve withyour content and are there enough people paying attention to justify your plan?
3. What valuable experience can you deliver at each stage of the buyer’s journey?
4. What resources do you have to execute your plan? Will it impact othermarketing initiatives? Do you have the team to execute? If not, what's missing?
5. Do you have the time? Not only to execute but to start seeing results? Are youwilling to put in the work, over the long term?
6. What happens if your strategy fails? What do you have to lose if it does? Is itworth the risk?
We’ll become the best ________________ for___________________ who are interested in__________________. This will help us becomethe ________________ and ________________. And unlike _____________, we do______________ differently by _______________.
Now fill in the blanks
Your Content Marketing Mission Statement:
02 Do Your Research
Uncover the specificproblems your idealcustomer is trying to solve.
Use the 'Jobs‐to‐be‐done' Framework
JTBD Framework takes out the “who” and focuses instead on the“what” and “why” of consumer behavior. It frames purchasingdecisions as a choice to “hire” a product or service to do a job.
“The customer is the wrong unit of analysis forinnovators to focus on. Instead, focus on the jobthat customers are trying to get done when they
use your product or service.”
1. Start by interviewing people who have purchased and used yourproduct or service or one similar to it.
2. Interview in teams of 2. That way, while you’re jotting down a note orthinking about a response, your interview partner can jump in and keep thingsmoving.
3. Ask them actual questions about their struggles. For example, startwith, “Take me back to the last time you did your taxes.” Then, like acameraman, inspect that moment from all angles until you find the story. Thenmove on to the next point in their journey, looking for the struggle.
4. Avoid assumptions. We may think that a person is doing their taxes whilesitting at home, when in fact, it’s the week before taxes are due, they’re on acramped airplane that’s about to land, and they’re desperately trying to finishbefore the steward comes by and tells them to close their laptop.
Implement JTBD for better interviews
03 Choose Your Channel
Pick the best place to deliveryour content and maximize it foreach stage in the buying cycle.
3 ways to determine whichchannel(s) to focus yourcontent efforts on:
By who you’re targeting and where they’re
already hanging out.
By type of channel (owned, paid and earned).
By time and money.
Whatever the channel,the key to success is
consistency.
Experiment and make your final choicesbased on the results, but don't forget tofactor in the interest and bandwidth youhave for maintaining and growing yourpresence on each one.
Create Useful, Clickable,Shareable Content04 Use powerful storytelling forpieces that make you standout from your competition.
1. A repeatable process
2. An idea intake machine
3. A masterful storyteller
4. A big goal and a subgoal
5. A happening place to share your ideas
The 5 ingredients you need tocreate remarkable content:
CHOOSE ATOPIC
#1 ‐ Repeatable Process
WRITE DOWNEVERYTHINGYOU KNOWABOUT IT
WALK AWAY
PUT YOURRESEARCH
LINKS INTO IT
WRITE AROUGH DRAFT
RESEARCH
WALK AWAY FIRST EDIT FINAL EDITS
START
RESTART
Example for Writing Content
#2 ‐ Idea Intake Machine
Keep a living doc in Google docs or Airstory
for worthy topics you come across or come
up with to delve into.
Sort by type to maintain content diversity:
Educational
Topical
Self-interest
Storytelling & Case Studies
Curation
Fresh Spin on an old idea
amazingstorytelling
stellarcontent
marketinggoals
#3 ‐ Masterful Storyteller
#4 ‐ Big Goal and Subgoal
Find a person, or persons, who can create a thousand ways to tell your story.
Each piece of content needs to honor your big goal while focusing on a subgoal.
Find a blog, a group or a social media platform hosted bysomeone talking to people who want your content.
Give those people awesome, useful content.
Make them say, “Holy hell! Where can I get more of that?”
Include a link to more of your content.
Keep on producing the kind of content that’s so good they’llcry when it’s gone because nobody else does it like you do.
#5 A Happening Place to Share Your Ideas
Promote More ThanSeems Reasonable05 Exhaust every relevant outlet toget people talking about yourcontent and see long-term returns.
You're killing yourself tocreate brag‐worthy contentyour audience will love.
Make sure every one of them sees it.
3 Ways To Ensure You'reMaxing Out On Promotion
1. Create a “Marketing Promotion Checklist” spreadsheet
Track what you're doing, when you did it, and what happened
2. Make a list of all of the places you could be promoting your content
Prioritize opportunities in the channels you decided to focus on in step 3
3. Each time you create a new piece of content, consult your
"Marketing Promotion Checklist" results to guide you
See what channels are giving you the best results and if you're already doing
great, start experimenting with your next channel of choice.
Measure and Monetize06 Diversify your streams of incomeand capitalize on unexpected,lucrative opportunities.
4 Key Metrics for Measuring Success
Measuring the ROI for content takes time. In some cases, it can take aminimum of six months for a campaign to produce enough data to evenanalyze whether or not it’s working.
But that doesn’t mean you have to wait to monetize your business...
Consumption
Sharing
Leads
Sales
MONETIZE CONTENT BY USING IT FOR:
Turn you stellar content intomultiple revenue streams.
Books
Live events
Affiliate programs
Licensing of content
Workshops
Podcast sponsorships
Paid speaking
YouTube advertising royalties
Paid newsletter or magazine subscriptions
Virtual and in-person trainings
Subscription and membership programs
Native advertising
Crowdfunding
Take Out the Big Red Pen07 Repurpose and improvecontent to increase youraudience engagement.
Remember that killer piece you from a year ago?
With a few edits, up‐to‐date research and freshgraphics, you can breathe new life into old content.
And you can get just as much traction on them as youdid on something you wrote last week.
And usually in less than half the time.
You already wroteyour next great post.
You can go back to any step whenever you need to.
Remember, content creation is fluid.
1
SET YOURDIRECTION
2
DO YOURRESEARCH
3CHOOSEYOUR
CHANNEL
4USEFUL,
CLICKABLE,SHAREABLECONTENT
5
PROMOTEPROMOTEPROMOTE
6MEASURE
ANDMONETIZE
7TAKE OUTTHE BIGRED PEN
Congratulations!
Now go create some remarkable content!
You now know more about building awinning content marketing strategy than themajority of startups marketing online today.
Get more killer content marketing resources at CopyHackers.com
sourcescontentmarketinginstitute.com/research/
oracle.com/webfolder/mediaeloqua/documents/Content+Marketing+Kapost+Eloqua+ebook.pdf
contentmarketinginstitute.com/2015/03/buy‐in‐conversation‐content‐marketing/
localvox.com/content‐marketing‐is‐the‐secret‐to‐local‐marketing‐success/
udemy.com/mastering‐jobs‐to‐be‐done‐interviews/
gfk.com/us/Pages/default.aspx
demandmetric.com/content/content‐marketing‐infographic
slideshare.net/CMI/mastering‐the‐buyin‐conversation‐on‐content‐marketing‐the‐essential‐starter‐kit
nowrevolutionbook.com/#sample
bitrebels.com/
webmarketinggroup.co.uk/