Content MarketingThat Doesn’t Suck

That Will Make You Rich!

by

Jackie CohenDirector of Content Marketing and Communications Consulting

at

We’re going to talk about:

1. Creating things people want to consume, rather than things they have to.

2. Anticipating your audience’s interests and molding content strategy to fit that.

3. You. Not me. You.

Who’s on the microphone?

Jackie Cohen20+ years creating content

high 7-digit audiences

LinkedIn.com/in/JackieCohen

NEWS FLASH:Most online content is BORING

Ever notice how statistics about content contradict one another? Different audiences.

E.G.: Longer articles have better SEO (Sprout Social RE: blog readership)

2/3 of people only read the headlines (McKinsey RE: Bloomberg readership)

Average audience statistics are no substitute for data on your own audience. Survey or poll ‘em!

This presentation is content!

And you are the audience. Ladies and gentlemen, we are a case study!

So what do I know about YOU?Or what can I surmise about you?

• You are involved in brandpromotions, either within (a)an agency or in-house (b)at the brand.* You like case studies in

presentations(that’s what OMI said)* You can hear me but you can’t see me.

What are my content goals?

To convince you to give me a five-star rating as a speaker.

To get invited to speak at more Online Marketing Institute events.

What challenges must my content overcome?

You’re tired, I’ll bet. It’s harder to engage an audience when

they can’t see you on a stage.

Therefore my content strategy should…

Not rehash stuff already covered in the previous presentations.

Be creative about engagement.Not remind people of sleep (Whoops!

How about some coffee instead?)

Okay, so what the heck was that?

1.Identified our goal2.Studied our audience’s preferences3.Factored in the challenges or

limitations in satisfying our audience’s preferences.

4.Strategized on matching #1 and #2 while accounting for #3.

What didn’t we do?

We didn’t shoehorn someone else’s content strategy into this particular situation.

What could we have done but didn’t do?

We could have asked the audience what they are interested in learning.

We could have tested and refined the content in real time.

Congratulations! You were just post mortemed! (Yep, I made it a verb. Journalists love to turn nouns into verbs.)

Always do a post mortem on content that has gone out.

Identify mistakes. Own them. Learn from them. Try not to repeat them (but don’t make yourself crazy).

7 POINTERS FOR NEARLY ALL

CONTENT TYPES:

1.Less is more! (Anything that makes you stop reading, watching, or listening to

something should be the basis of your editing.)

,

2. The medium should mold your

message

Work with what different content types can and can’t do. Ditto for publishing platforms and schedules.

3. Make a list of topics for content before you commit to an editorial calendar.

4. Try making your first piece of content and then base your style guide on that.

5. Lead by example: Do at least one piece yourself before you start assigning or delegating anything.

6. Don’t reinvent the wheel: Use professionally written style guides, buy syndicated content, etc.

7. Repurpose and reformat -- in

moderation.

It’s not homework. It’s OMI’s Move the Needle!

Retain at least some of what I’ve told you about…

Let’s drill down on pointer number three: Maintaining a list of topics you will create content about will help you formulate a more realistic content publishing schedule.

Create what I call an idea file. Save it as a to-do list within whichever application you use most frequently for calendaring. Populate it whenever you think of good ideas – like when you get inspired by other content.

Key Takeaways

Don’t do a one-size-fits-all content strategy unless you WANT to put people to sleep.

Learn as much as you can about your audience and try to align your content with their interests.

Less is more.

Create a topic list before you Commit to any publishing schedule.

Thanks!