Are you an epic content marketer? Here are 18 things I’ve seen in people who are. Check the items off the list and see where you are at (and remember to tweet your results). If you are interested in the ‘why’, read on below.
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Now let’s go through each of the main points.
You don’t find it difficult to produce regular content
James Schramko put out 6 posts last week. Great content marketers don’t struggle creating a lot of content.
I’m not the world’s biggest fan of posting schedules and the like but perhaps that’s because I don’t find it that hard to regularly produce content. I’ve also noticed this among other passionate content marketers. They are never short of ideas and never struggling to create a lot of high quality content.
Here are some simple ways that you can produce more content:
Repurpose content. I do this all the time. I have blog posts, email courses, guest posts, ebooks all around the same sorts of topics (online marketing, content marketing, analytics, freelancing etc). There is no duplication but there definitely is some overlap. For example in my last post Increase your conversion rate with this blog review template I write a full post covering 12 different areas in which you can improve your conversions. At the end of the post there is an optin for a Google Doc that allows you to complete the review on your own site. This is essentially the same content as in the post but a different, more useful format (for some people).I also have released 3 podcast episodes on the topic of common blog conversion mistakes(part 1, part 2 and part 3).In fact the post you are reading right now has 18 points about being an awesome content marketer. These points are included in this website review template published in this post (Freelancers & agencies, use this website review template to win your next project [FREE TEMPLATE]).Don’t feel bad about repurposing content. As long as you aren’t plain duplicating stuff then if your audience will find it useful – publish it.
Do what you are good at. About a year or so ago James Schramko started going nuts with producing regular videos (like this one). He can produce exceptional videos very quickly and at a crazy scale (i.e. 1 a day easily probably 10 a day if he wanted to). He looks great on camera, especially in those pink and purple shirts (he’s an ex sales guy after all).Around the same time John Dumas started doing a podcast. He executed it with military precision and is now up to episode 235 (as of 12 June) – he’s got a military background after all.My point is, the medium isn’t so important. Video isn’t necessarily easier. James can do a video in 5 minutes. It takes me half a day. John can do 10 podcasts in one day. It takes me 10 days to organize 1. But I find it easy to write so I focus most of my energy on that. Do what you are good at and producing a lot of content won’t be difficult.
They make it a priority. You know there’s those things in business that you don’t really care about (bookkeeping, hosting, IT, generating a profit etc). They are the things that you know have to get done but you don’t give them enough priority to warrant doing them yourself.Great content marketers don’t treat content like this. They may not write every post themselves but generally the successful content marketers have a passion for it and no matter what size they get to, they are still regularly producing content and doing a good chunk of it themselves.Neil Patel is a great example of this. He posts frantically on his QuickSprout site and still managed the time to post 400+ comments on this AMA thread….. Boss.
They are creative about it. Great content marketers who want to produce a lot of content but don’t have a lot of time get creative about doing it. James Farmer over at WPMU pays people up to $500 for a guest post (see here).Kirk Drake asked his 12 employees to spend a few hours writing down answers to common customers questions. The result? 100 new blog posts (see here). The point is if you believe in content marketing you will find a way to create a lot of great content.
They are always capturing ideas. Once you open up your mind to looking for ideas you will see them everywhere. I use Evernote to capture ideas whenever I think of them (which is often). I discussed this topic with James Schramko a few months back, it’s worth listening to if you are wondering how he has a non-stop stream of ideas for his content.
“If you believe in content marketing you will find a way to create a lot of great content – click here to tweet this!“
Your content isn’t all about you
This is one of the biggest mistakes made by new content marketers. In many ways the name ‘content marketing’ isn’t the best name because it focuses on the output rather than the purpose. If it were called ‘value marketing‘ or ‘problem solving marketing‘ or ‘education-based marketing‘ (which it sometimes is) then it would be clear that it’s not about producing content, it’s about solving problems and helping people (in your target market).
If you are solving problems and helping people then your content won’t be all about you. If you are just focused on the act of creating content then you can fall into the trap of creating a lot of information about you that doesn’t help out your audience at all.
Here are 3 easy ways to easily stop your content marketing from being all about you:
1. Use case studies
The Informly monthly stats reports go into detail about specific things I’m doing, what is working and what isn’t. People love this type of content.
Case studies (even if they are based on your own experiences) are actionable in nature. They show people what results others are getting and how they can replicate those results in their own business (or avoid them if they are bad).
This kind of content is extremely popular, people love hearing about about real stuff!
2. Mention other people, businesses and content
Great content marketers do this all the time but new content marketers are reluctant to link out to others, send traffic to their competitors and even admit that they don’t know everything. This is a huge mistake. If you have that mindset then you will never create great content. Great content is always a collaboration of ideas from lots of places.
Chris from Vero regularly reviews email marketing efforts from other companies. This is great actionable content.
Chris from Vero does a great job with his posts, regularly reviewing what other companies are doing with their emails. This kind of content is highly actionable and useful to people.
Great content is always a collaboration of ideas from lots of people. Click here to tweet this
3. Force-include a list of action steps
If you specifically include a list of action steps in your content you will quickly work out whether your content is actionable. It’s a bit of a bug-bear of mine how often people claim their content is ‘actionable’ when it clearly isn’t. By definition ‘actionable’ means people will have a specific list of actions that they can complete as a result of consuming the content.
I’ve started specifically listing action steps in my monthly income reports. If I’ve learnt something valuable during the month I suggest other people try it and see how it goes for them. This forces me to keep the content actionable.
Over time it might get a bit repetitive to specifically include a list of action steps in every post but early on it’s a good way to start to understand how actionable your content really is.
Keeping an eye on your emails and blog comments is another way to measure this. If people are saying ‘great post’ that’s good but if people are saying, ‘that’s a great idea I’m going to try this today’ then that’s infinitely better (see example below on that).
Your content is specific
Another mistake I see new content marketers making is creating content that is too broad. If your content isn’t specific enough then it’s probably not very actionable nor highly relevant to anyone.
For example if you are helping businesses out with their web presence something broad like ‘what is social media‘ isn’t going to be highly useful to them. Something specific like ‘10 things to do after signing up to LinkedIn‘ is specific and is going to be more useful.
Kiss Metrics go into insane detail on very specific topics on their site. That’s what makes their content so actionable.
Another way to think about being more specific is trying too hard to appeal to the masses and not targeting your core audience. People get too obsessed with vanity metrics and going ‘viral’. Epic content marketers know that their job is to attract and build trust with customers not make the front page of Hacker News.
The more specifically you can aim your content at helping people who are within your target audience, the more effective the content will be. It also means the people sharing your content will be sharing it with relevant audiences thereby attracting more targeted visitors.
Your content solves problems for your target customers
If you have your idea generation strategy right then this won’t be hard. That is, if you are getting all of your ideas from your potential and existing customers and the problems they are having then your content is going to be good at solving these problems (see becoming a problem solving machine with James Schramko).
If, however you are just producing content because your web guy says “that’s what Google wants” then your content probably isn’t solving problems for people.
Again you can tell from the feedback on your comments whether you are succeeding at this.
Clay Collins from The Marketing Show regularly produces content and tools that help solve problems.
The marketing show content is rock-solid when it comes to solving problems.
Problem: not enough sales.
Solution: Not only do they provide great tips on how to structure a sales letter but they even give you the thing to download for free! (see the post here).
And if you want proof that it’s content that is solving problems for real people within their target audience just look at the comments:
When people (particularly well known authorities in your field) say they are USING your content in their business then it’s great content that’s solving real problems.
Your content tells your customers what they want to know
This one seems so obvious I feel stupid saying it except for the fact that I know of businesses like River Pools and Spas that have become the largest of their kind in the world from doing this simple thing.
Out of the hundreds of posts that Marcus Sheridan and his team put up on their blog the number 1 post was this Fibreglass pool prices: How much is my pool really going to cost. Other companies didn’t want to tell people how much a pool would cost until they got a quote but it’s the question on every customer’s mind.
Marcus Sheridan from River Pools and Spas is a bit of a content marketing celebrity as a result of writing simple articles that told potential customers what they wanted to know.
The other cool thing about this of course is if it’s a question that lots of customers have then it’s going to be something that people put into Google (when they are looking for a company like yours). And it’s no surprise that when I google “How much does a fibreglass pool cost” River pools and spas rank 1st…..and 2nd.
According to Marcus the top 5 types of articles that customers want are:
Cost / price articles
Problems articles
Vs. / Comparison-based articles
Review-based articles
“Best of” articles
In your industry it might be different but the concept is the same. Understand your customers and give them what they want. That makes for great content.
You have a long term mindset
The great content marketers know that content marketing is not an overnight get-rich-quick scheme. I’ve seen quite a few traffic charts for people who have had success with content marketing and they all look a lot like this.
WPMU traffic growth over 5 years.
This is what Hubspot’s traffic growth looks like:
Great content marketers know that content marketing is a long term strategy. Even if you get a few viral posts in the early days, the best results will come from consistent output of high quality content over many months or years. They have a long-term mindset.
You are prepared to reveal inside secrets
I spoke before about Marcus Sheridan and his River Pools and Spa’s content pricing post. At the time it wasn’t common for pool companies to freely give people prices. But this is what customers wanted so Marcus did exactly that. People appreciate honesty.
Pat Flynn started a bit of a craze in the Internet Marketing space a few years ago when he started producing his monthly income reports. The reports provide detailed information on what is working, what isn’t, how much traffic he’s getting, how much money he is making etc. This was the kind of information people weren’t sharing at the time particularly in that industry where hype dominates the landscape. But people love it and this strategy has been a huge winner for Pat.
Pat Flynn’s transparent income reports have become stuff of legend.
The old mindset is keeping everything under wraps because you are worried someone will steal your IP. The new mindset is revealing as much as you can because you are driven by creating value and the rewards will follow (plus if you don’t, someone else will).
Your content isn’t too technical
If your content is too technical in nature then it’s a good sign that it’s not creating a lot of value for other people. This happens a lot in the IT space where people are busy posting about what code they are using, forgetting that their customers aren’t programmers.
But it happens in every industry and is a throwback to when blogging was about journalling your every-day events. These days though, people expect a bit more and unless you have the most interesting business in the world they probably don’t want to hear about how you go about doing your job.
There are exceptions to this of course. Maybe it’s super-relevant to your customers. Maybe your business actually is legitimately interesting to people! Nah… Unlikely.
More often than not the great content marketers will produce content that is created for the consumer not the producer. And technical content won’t appeal to the consumer in most cases.
Your content has personality and a viewpoint
Great content stands out and epic content marketers aren’t afraid to inject their personality into their content. I can think of a lot of examples of great content marketers like this:
Jason Calacanis is my favourite. I’m sure he pisses off more than a few people but he doesn’t hold back and he injects his strong personality into everything that he does.In this great post last week he explained why he was ending his deal with Youtube including this classic piece “Note: I’m not allowed, due to my agreement with YouTube, to tell you our exact split. However, I’ve spoken to over two dozen other funded content partners, and they told me their split was 45% to YouTube and 55% to the content creator. Again, I can’t tell you mine, but a smart person might conclude they gave everyone the same deal.”
Derek Halpern is achieving break-out success with his blog Social Triggers. In his posts and his videos he doesn’t hold back. Again I’m sure some people find him abrasive but I think it helps him stand out.
Chris Ducker injects a lot of his own quirky personality traits into his podcast and his videos. Plus he has a great accent. A good accent goes a long way
My friend Brendon Sinclair managed to offend 4 different groups of people when he appeared on my podcast (here and here) but to date he’s the only guest to be specifically mentioned in an iTunes review. Why? Because people remember him.
Your content is graphic-heavy
The great content marketers take visuals seriously. Whether that be by producing specific images for their posts, building out high quality infographics, creating professional videos or investing in a well designed site.
Few blogs now have the luxury of being able to just produce purely written content – certainly very few who don’t have an existing audience.
Here are a few examples that spring to mind:
Jake Hower does great illustrations for all of the guests on his MultiMedia Marketing show.
Derek Halpern and James Schramko put a lot of effort into producing great quality video.
Hubspot take the time to create supporting graphics for a lot of their blog posts that convey some of the content of the post (not just decorate it).
KissMetrics do amazing Infographics.
The web is becoming more and more graphic-heavy and great content marketers know they need to do more than add a few cheesy stock photos to their blog posts to really engage people.
You aren’t afraid of long content
Ok maybe I went totally over the top with this post in terms of length (clocking in at around 6,000 words) but as a general rule epic content marketers create long content. Whether that be long podcasts (This week in startups regularly goes for over an hour), or long written posts (Peep from ConversionXl rarely posts content under about 2,000 words on his blog perhaps an ebook or a book.
I don’t want to suggest that just because something is long it means the content is great because there does seem to be a trend emerging of people creating long content that isn’t really that good. But still I think from the people creating the great content I think longer content is common among most of them. I think this is simply because if someone is going to truly take something away from your content then it has to be meaty enough for that to happen.
Your content is designed to convert
Great content marketers aren’t just obsessed with creating loads of content, they are driven by generating conversions (optins) and customers for the business. So that means:
The content itself is often written in a way that encourages people to engage (eye-catching headlines, building interest throughout, post-specific optin at the end of the post.
Advanced conversion techniques are used on the post (as mentioned above post-specific optins, scroll opt-ins, top pages optimized etc.
Copywriting techniques used through the content
CopyBlogger have hundreds of posts detailing little strategies like the ‘Double Whammy’ Headline’ that are designed to get more view and more conversions.
In short great content marketers know that their job isn’t just to get eyeballs it’s to get customers.
Here are a few extra resources on this topic:
The ultimate guide to creating content that converts
Increase your conversion rate with this free blog conversion review template
You introduce new concepts
Epic content marketers don’t just recycle old material they try to break new ground by introducing new concepts.
Seth Godin has made a habit of introducing new concepts on an almost daily basis (‘permission marketing’, ‘the dip’, ‘purple cow’)
Brian Halligan from Hubspot created the term ‘Inbound Marketing’
These are major things but even just introducing a new language
Rip Pivot and Jam – from Dan Andrews and Ian Schoen
Own The Racecourse – from James Schramko
Anything! If it’s original then you pass this criteria.
You have your own audience / list who share your content
All great content marketers learnt the importance of building an audience early on. What a lot of people don’t realise is to get to a point where all you have to do is publish content and it gets traction is very very difficult. Most blogs never get to this point. Even successful ones rely on their audience to build traction for their posts.
Since blogging began, audience-building methods have come and gone but ‘email’ has stayed strong! Most well known blogs have a big email list to market to, which means by default their posts are going to get a huge amount of traction just by letting their list know.
Blogs also use this as proof to help them stand out from the crowd. Here are some examples of the list sizes published by some well known content marketers:
If you’ve got it. Flaunt it.
You engage in offsite content and partnerships to build new audience members
As I mentioned above, great content marketers know how important it is to build an audience and most have used partnership and off-site content to build that audience.
A lot of new bloggers think that all they have to do is create great content and the rest will look after itself. They end up talking to themselves most of the time and wondering why they aren’t getting traction.
It’s very rare for a content marketer to simply start creating great content and grow an audience this way. Most people have utilised partnerships or offsite content.
Here are a few examples:
Kathryn Minshew from thedailymuse.com got early traction by posting content to Forbes.com (see Mixergy Interview here about that). Her site is getting a million uniques a month.
Derek Flanzraich from Greatist.com reached out to influencers in the fitness space in the early days and ultimately grew his readership to a million a month as well.
Gregory Ciotti Of SparringMind.Com had his most successful moment as a content marketer when he reached out to the owner of a YouTube channel about doing a video for them. It resulted in 8,000 new subscribers!
Unbounce and KissMetrics both have great blogs but they also both know the importance of partnerships. In their Landing Page Action Kit they have come together to put together great content for both of their audiences.
You know who is converting on your site and what type of content they love
Stop debating about whether to include comments and just install Disqus. You won’t get spam and you will get to know your audience.
Great content marketers know that generating thousands of pageviews isn’t the goal of content. The point is to attract new potential target customers and over time get them to know, like and trust you. So it makes sense that great content marketers know their audience and what content they love.
Here are a few ways they do this:
They respond to comments on their site! I can’t believe we are still having this argument. You aren’t Seth Godin. Put the damn comment box on there and use it!
They get their content ideas from customers. Last week I read a 600 word blog post with about 10 tips of finding ideas for content. I will save you the 600 words because it didn’t mention the only one that matters —> ask your effing customers!
They are active on social media and forums interacting with people about their content (more later on this).
They get other influencers and people in their space involved in their content (through podcasts, mentions, guest posts etc – more on this later too).
They pay attention to what posts are working well on their site and they do more of it.
They pay attention to what is working well on other sites and they use that to develop ideas.
They know their metrics backwards and know what posts are more likely to be shared and which ones are more likely to drive conversions.
You are active in social media engaging with your audience
Again like the point above, once you get to a Seth Godin type level you have the luxury to avoid social media if you so choose. Until then it’s probably the best way to get to know your audience and share your content.
When you’re auto-retweet account has 280,000 followers you can ‘choose’ not to be active on social media.
For the point of this post I’m going to include in this:
The main social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest
Forums that are frequented by people in your target audience
Other blogs that allow commenting
Industry events / webinars etc
These are all opportunities to be social with other people in your space and they will lead to partnership opportunities, a better understanding of what people want and who they are and ultimately better content. They are also a great way to work out what other content people like and find ideas for sharing.
Pretty much all great content marketers are active in sharing other people’s content in social media.
You are actively engaging with the experts in your field?
As you can see from this post this is one I take pretty seriously. I’m always learning from other experts in my field (content marketing, online marketing etc) and that comes out in my content. All of the people down the right hand side of this post have been mentioned in this post because they are doing great things with content marketing.
Who are the experts in your field? How can you engage them in your content? Here are a few things I’ve done:
Started a podcast and interviewed awesome people (Web Domination) <– Best way to network online with content marketers.
I’ve also been on lots of other podcasts I never say no – great opportunity. Just this week I’ve been on Preneurcast, BrightIdeas, BootstrappedWeb – I’m quite sure people are sick of me!
I regularly mention other people in my content and when I do, I tell them (Twitter or Email).
Sometimes I cold email influencers and tell them about my content. In the past I’ve been re-tweeted by people with 100,000+ twitter followers as a result of doing this.
I joined an email group of startup content marketers who share each other’s content (if it’s good).
Every day I will share 1-2 articles from other people in my field on social media.
I’m also working on some co-authored content.
There’s no limit to what you can do for this and the results are only going to be good. More sharing, more learning, more helping, better content to name a few.
Are you an epic content marketer?
Let me know your score in the comments below, what you think of the items in this quiz and if you know anyone else I should have included.
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