Mastering the Art OF BLOGGING

6 Recipes to Help You Become A More Successful Content Creator

Photo Credit: Jamie Oliver @azeckman

WHO AM I? TopRank MarketingFull service digital marketing agency

•  Content Marketing •  Influencer Marketing •  Social Media Marketing •  SEO Ashley Zeckman

Director of Agency Marketing

@azeckman

Photo Credit: Moon Palace

52% say blogging is critical to

their success.

- CMI & MarketingProfs

80% of companies blog.

- CMI & MarketingProfs

Only 37% have a

documented content strategy.

- CMI & MarketingProfs

Recipe index 1 .  Discovery Donuts 2.  Content Mission Canapés 3.  Best Answer Biscuits 4.  Less is More Lasagna 5.  Content Cheeseburger 6.  Influencer Ice Cream Sundae

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Recipe 1: Discovery Donuts

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“A blog is only as interesting as

the interest shown in others.”

Lee Odden CEO, TopRank Marketing

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UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE

Today’s consumers are overwhelmed with information and have become much more selective about which companies or brands they interact with.

Successful digital marketing strategies identify who consumers are, what they care about and who influences them.

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ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL

Memes

Long-Form Content

eBooks

Gated Content

Blog Content

Memes

Exploring New Recipes

Technically Sound Dishes

Healthy Meals

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IDENTIFY KEY TRAITS To better reach prospective customers, identify key traits of your current ideal customers. Then develop profiles or personas to better target these identified audience members.

Blog Content

Memes

Healthy Meals

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BUT HOW?

UNCOVERING AUDIENCE NEEDS

Ask Customers Directly: Surveys, Social Polls, Customer Calls

Review Analytics: Content Types, Key Phrases

Keyword Research: Uncover top questions for “best answer” strategy

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THE CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE

Celebrity Chef

Investor Food

Network Exec

PR Manager

Investor

Restaurateur

Image Consultant

Food Blogger

Sous Chef

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Recipe 2: Content Mission Canapés

“To work, your [content] mission

statement has to be all about the pain points

of your readers.” Joe Pulizzi Founder, Content Marketing Institute

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What to include

•  Who you are.

•  Who you’re trying to reach.

•  How you plan to reach them.

•  What you want to accomplish.

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Consider multiple target readers

Memes

Long-Form Content

eBooks

Gated Content

Blog Content

Memes

Exploring New Recipes

Technically Sound Dishes

Healthy Meals

@azeckman

Recipe 3: best answer biscuits

Photo Credit: Food Network

“Create signals of authority that position

you as the best answer wherever your customers

are searching.” Lee Odden CEO, TopRank Marketing

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The harsh content reality

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50% of content gets 8

shares or less.

- BuzzSumo & Moz

24,000 GB of of data is uploaded

every second.

- Internet in Real Time

Photo Credit: littlethings.com

PROVIDE CONSISTENCY Content creation is actually a multi-channel approach. Everything from your blog posts to site content and social profiles need to create a consistent experience.

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HOW WE THINK OF THE BUYER JOURNEY

WHAT IT REALLY LOOKS LIKE

Photo Credit: Forrester

A CONSISTENT EXPERIENCE

POWER PAGES & Posts Key to a best answer strategy is creating resource rich content that ranks well in search engines. These pages should essential be the “best answer” for a particular topic.

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POWER PAGE EXAMPLES

Recipe 4: LESS IS MORE LASAGNA

Photo Credit: Food Network

“We don’t need more content, we

need better content.”

Ann Handley Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs

Why more isn’t better

When you try to pump out more content, the lowered quality can actually negatively impact the perception of your blog or brand.

Instead, focus on creating resource rich, high quality content.

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Focus on content impact It’s important to understand how you can have the biggest impact with your blog content. But how can you determine where to focus your efforts?

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Photo Credit: Hana Abaza, Uberflip

HOW TO HAVE IMPACT

•  Create highly relevant content

•  Use contacts, tools and data to help determine relevance

•  Think about your distribution strategy

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Recipe 5: CONTENT CHEESEBURGER

Photo Credit: YouTube

“Content repurposing doesn’t just mean

that you reuse an old piece of content again

and again.” Kevan Lee Director of Marketing, Buffer

Evergreen content Evergreen content can be slightly modified (or not) and be used again and again. Truth is, only a fraction of your audience saw it the first time, so why not share again.

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Top performing posts By watching your blog analytics, you can determine which posts resonate most with your audience. Wait awhile, and then do a revised version that meets current needs.

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Start a series Create a series of posts about a particular topic to keep your readers coming back. Then you can point back to the previous posts in the series to breath new life into them.

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Recipe 6: influencer ice cream sundae

Photo Credit: Cooking with Janica

“People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories and magic.”

Seth Godin Best Selling Author & Speaker

Photo Credit: Martha Stewart @azeckman

CURATE INFLUENCER QUOTES As a first step, you can begin including influencer contributions into your blog content, without event having to perform outreach. All it takes is a simple Google search.

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QUOTE CURATION EXAMPLES

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QUOTE CURATION EXAMPLES

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CO-CREATE WITH INFLUENCERS Influencers  can  facilitate  greater  reach  of  your  content,  improve  quality  and  even  inspire  more  buyer  engagement  to  leads.    Ongoing  influencer  involvement  can  also  lead  to  organic  advocacy  of  your  brand,  products  and  services.  

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CO-CREATION EXAMPLES

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ENCOURAGE INFLUENCERS TO AMPLIFY

If you curate or co-create, you can reach out to influencers and make it easy for them to share. Influencers are busy people so you want to remove as much friction as possible.

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AMPLIFICATION EXAMPLES

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TOP TAKEAWAYS

Understand Who Your Readers Are

Create Content That Has An Impact

Be the Best Answer For What They Want

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Thank you!

TopRankMarketing.com TopRankBlog.com

@TopRank

@azeckman azeckman@toprankmarketing.com

Ashley ZeckmanDirector of Agency

Marketing

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