Solo Presentation by Lee Odden of TopRank Marketing
It is a PACKED hot room for Mr. Odden who is taking pictures of us all so we can go and tag ourselves daft on their Facebook page.
Lee asks “What is the big lie about content?” – oh yeah it’s the “build it they will come” stuff.
If you have great content… set it free!
92% of US internet users use search to find information to help inform purchase descisions (according to Ketchum study).
Search is becomming a lot more social (innit.)
85% of marketers consider content marketing as extremely important, however only 50% have a content strategy.
Most Popular Types of Content
- social
- articles
- events
- eNewsletters
- blogs
Lee asks if anyone has heard of TopRank Marketing blog. (Erm,.. yeah – I think we might of come fourth in your poll!)
We’re doing a peanut butter and jelly analogy where peanut butter is SEO (‘cos it totally would be) and social media is the jelly (which is actually jam).
So how does this sandwich connect with the consumer?
“I need lightbulbs” – therefore I search; and the SERP presents us with “5 lightbulbs that save you money” i.e. social commentary on a purchase – which is where the peanut butter meets the jelly.
Brands as Publishers
Proctor and Gamble brought content like Dawsons Creek to the world (if there aren’t enough reasons to dislike them already).
Ford publish a “publication” style website, very information-rich.
On TopRank – having an awesome content strategy means…
- 25,000 kw a month bringing traffic to their blog
- 600K+ links
- Great staff
- and some stuff I missed (NS)
liveblog in progress – this will update
3 Types of SEO Content Optimisation Strategies
- Audit existing offline and bring it online
- Optimise priority content
- Develop new content and editorial plan for adding content
Checklist
- goals
- buyer personas (who, how do they discover & consume?)
- KW
- content & assets
- editorial plan
More on buyer personas,.. data sources include customer surveys, web analytics, conversion data, social media listening tools, demog info, KW info, engagement info (PostRank).
Forrester social media profile tool.
Flowtown Appending Service (which collates and analyses the social sphere) and allows for the construction of a soc/dem profile; which if we can do so allows us to create a killer CMO strategy.
Keyword research tools and social KW tools are also incredibly useful for establishing user interest.
SMM tools scrape the social sphere and present our social data (as search engines scrape content and present site data, ranked algorithmically).
Once you have the content themes and ideas in place you need an editorial calendar (which includes multiple platforms inc. social media.) Also consider how you can re-use content across platforms.
Hub & Spoke Publishing
I.e. with site in the center and social publishing outlets as the spokes of the wheel, also incl. PR outlets and industry publications. So a multi-media content distribution strategy with site as central.
Also – think of channels not just media i.e blogging, RSS, email etc.
Model – Cycle of social and SEO
- create promote
- noticed and shared
- attract momentum
- inc. links and social exposure
- that traffic (and data therefrom) informs development
Lee has 45,000 subscribers on their blog (which is more than SearchEngineWatch apparently)!
Tie social media efforts together in distribution channels – which in turn feeds niche blogs, which leads to links!
Repurposing Content
Event occurs; upload video, embed in blog post, post screenshots in flickr, upload images with text as a story in PPT. One piece four ways.
Another example is video transcription.
Lee recommends embedding video and images in PRWeb content.
Content curation is in effect, a method of re-purposing content.
Take aways
- Develop & optimise content with customer personas in mind
- create an editorial plan
- develop your distribution channels
http://tprk.us/cmgsesuk for the TopRank Guide to Content Marketing & Optimisation
Questions – Kelvin asks why don’t people favour audio content? Why don’t we emphasise that kind of content?
Lee – I don’t have data as to why that is and admits to not heavily promoting that content. He fesses up “I don’t know”.
Nicola, of Pira International asks “how do we get internal stakeholders excited about content”?
Lee – there are a number of strategies but fear works well. Look at the consequences of what will happen if we don’t. Look at stats, numbers case studies.