Post on 13-Jul-2015
Arnie Kuenn, CEO, Vertical Measures
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
How to Convince Your
Boss to Invest in
Content Marketing
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
About Your Presenter…
• Vertical Measures is a 50 person content marketing
agency with an SEO foundation
• Instructor for the Content Marketing Institute &
Online Marketing Institute
• Columnist for Marketing Land, Chief Content Officer
& Relevance
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
VERTICAL MEASURES
about VM stuff goes here
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
“Arnie, I just can’t get our
management to see the potential
in this. Getting buy-in seems to
be impossible…”
After 2,000+ students in our content
marketing workshops, the most
common thing we hear afterwards…
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
“I really think we should be
doing more social media…”
(said by no one that ever got buy-in)
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
“I really think we should be
blogging…”
(said by no one that ever got buy-in)
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
“I really think we should be
doing content marketing…”
(said by no one that ever got buy-in)
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
What if you went back to them with a
presentation and never used these words:
• Blogging
• FAQ’s
• Content Marketing
• Inbound Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
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• Learning Center
• Listening
• Being Helpful
• Communicating
• Teaching
• Coaching
Instead you used words like:
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
Buyers are searching for
information that helps them
make an informed decision.
Businesses that provide
that information - will win.
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
“When prospects visit our website, do
we want to help solve their problems
better than anyone else in our
industry?”
“When they “Google it”, are they
going to find US or our competitors?”
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
Companies, large & small, that truly
understand these principles are the
ones doing incredible things online
– and will win in the long run.
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
Educate Them
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
“Content Marketing”
Google Trends
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
What Is Content Marketing?
• Content marketing is the art of providing relevant,
useful content to your customers without selling or
interrupting them.
• Instead of pitching your products or services, you are
delivering information that makes your customers
more informed before they buy.
• If you deliver consistent, ongoing valuable
information to your customers, they ultimately reward
you with their business and loyalty.
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
Today, relationships are
created with information –
not people.
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
THIS IS NOT A 30 DAY R.O.I.
BUT THE LONG-TERM PAYOFFS
CAN BE HUGE
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
Travel Niche
5 months
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Health/Nutrition Niche
4.5 months
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Entertainment Niche
6.5 months
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You Will Probably Fail In The Beginning
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
It Takes Courage…
• It takes courage to give away something of value without the expectation of immediate return
• It takes courage to trust that your customers and prospects will reward you with sales and loyalty at some point in the future
• It takes courage to play the long game, not the short game
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
ROI On Content Marketing
Source: Content Marketing ROI (Kapost – Eloqua)
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Courtesy of The Sales Lion
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
Because most of our clients are not the NYY, we
strongly suggest playing MONEYBALL
1 in 4 at bats = hit (a success)
1 in 36 at bats = home run (a big success)
1 in 1,691 at bats = grand slam (viral success)
THE ODDS OF HITTING A GRAND SLAM
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
(
In order to play content MONEYBALL, you need
to come up with hundreds of ideas so you can
create fresh, useful content on a frequent basis.
Here’s how we do it…
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ASK YOUR
STAFF!
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Research Tools
Google Keyword
Suggest
Relate
Searches
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KeywordTool.io
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
More than 410
questions about
More than 3,400
using broad match!
“visit the grand canyon”
(exact match)
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
Long tail searches are
like hitting those
singles.
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Come Up With a List of Content Ideas
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Put Together An Editorial Calendar
VerticalMeasures.com/calendar
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Create Useful Content
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
Search and SEO are Critical
More than 80%
of people click
here!
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of all consumers use search
prior to making a purchase
Source: GroupM
of searchers conduct non-
branded queries
of buyers click on organic
links vs. the sponsored ads
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@ArnieK #CSAUSA
Most Common Problems We Find?
• Unintentional duplicate content
• Duplicate title & meta tags
• Over optimization of anchor text in
backlinks and footer
• No image optimization
• Blocked pages or site
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@ArnieK #CSAUSA
Sharing New Content Can Be Very Simple
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Budget for Some Ad Spend
Pay Per Click (PPC) and Native Advertising
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Don’t Get Hung Up On Social
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
This page had more than 2,000 views.
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
On Base Percentage Is The Key Factor
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
The Results…
• Yale’s traffic has grown from 40,000 visitors to 150,000 annually
• Leads have grown from 800 to 2,300 monthly!
• Revenue is up by 40% since starting their content marketing program.
• And according their president Steve Sheinkopf: “Profitability is up way more than that, because we eliminated marketing expense.”
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
Once In A While You Will Hit One Out Of The Park
@ArnieK #CSAUSA You MUST Measure
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
What Really Matters To Your Business?
• How many people visited your website this
month compared to the previous months
• How many people filled out a form to
download a piece of content you provided
• How many new subscribers to your blog
• How many qualified leads you’ve gained
• How much has your revenue increased
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
The best time to start
a content marketing program
is 5 years ago.
The second best time is NOW!
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
We can bring our
content marketing
workshops to you.
Get everyone on the
same page.
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
@ArnieK #CSAUSA
Contact: 888-476-1881 www.VerticalMeasures.com
More Traffic. More Leads. More Business.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!