How a Content Coach Can Ensure Content Marketing

Success

89% OF CONSUMERS USE ONLINE SEARCH PRIOR TO MAKING A PURCHASE

How a Content Coach Can Ensure Content Marketing Success

verticalmeasures.com/services/content-coaching/

Content marketing has a curious reputation: Some claim it can transform your business, while others think it’s too difficult of a mountain to climb. Based on our 10 years of experience in the space, we know that content marketing really works. But before it can, you must do two things: you and your team must be committed for the long haul, and you must find someone experienced — a trusted partner — who can guide you.

This is why we’ve developed Content Coaching. In this document, you will learn:

• Why content marketing has such promise for all types of organizations

• Why content marketing is hard

• How a Content Coach can help you overcome obstacles and accelerate success

• What services make up our Content Coaching program

• What you and your team will need to do to achieve your goals

State of Content Marketing89% of consumers use online search prior to making a purchase, according to Fleishman-Hillard. Whether you’re a digitally savvy marketer, or a small business owner, that statistic should signal one thing very loudly and clearly: You need content!

When your potential customers are searching online for a product or service, if you have relevant content that ranks well in Google, you can earn their click, their time and interest, and ultimately their business. Content is the glue that connects your audience’s needs and your business goals.

Without a content marketing program, supported by sound search engine optimization

(SEO), you won’t appear on the search engine results pages, and your organization is unlikely to even register on a prospect’s radar.

Despite more money flowing into content marketing efforts and a large majority of organizations using content marketing, Forrester reports that 87% of marketers admit they struggle to produce engaging content. Even worse, just 30% of B2B marketers and 38% of B2C marketers believe their organization’s content is effective, according to the Content Marketing Institute.

So experts and marketers alike believe in the power of content marketing, but the stats say that organizations are either doing it wrong, or they’re vastly underutilizing its power. Why is that, and what can we do about it?

First, we need to understand what content marketing is. Vertical Measures CEO Arnie Kuenn, who has written two books on the subject, defines content marketing as the art of providing relevant, useful, non-interruptive, digital content that makes your customers more informed before they buy.

Successful organizations understand that buying decisions are largely made online, and that they must publish timely content that addresses customer questions in their moment of curiosity or need.

Content marketing encompasses many facets, including SEO, social media, and content distribution. It also requires a strategic approach, such as our proven 8 Step Process. But everything is rooted in consistently creating and publishing unique, valuable, authoritative content.

1. CAN CONTENT MARKETING REALLY HELP ME?2. HOW CAN I GET MY TEAMMATES ON BOARD?

3. HOW CAN I RANK HIGHER ON GOOGLE?4. HOW DOES GOOGLE’S ALGORITHM WORK?

5. WHY IS MY WEBSITE NOT DRIVING LEADS?6. WHAT IS SEO AND WHAT ARE BEST PRACTICES?

7. SHOULD WE HAVE MORE SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILES?8. HOW MUCH SHOULD I INVEST ON CONTENT MARKETING?

COMMON CONTENT MARKETING QUESTIONS

CONTENT MARKETING CAN TRANSFORM YOUR ORGANIZATION’S RESULTS IF YOU LET IT TRANSFORM YOUR ORGANIZATION’S CULTURE

How a Content Coach Can Ensure Content Marketing Success

verticalmeasures.com/services/content-coaching/

Content Marketing is HardMarketers who prioritize blogging are 13 times more likely to have a positive ROI, according to Hubspot. In other words, content marketing can transform your organization’s results if you let it transform your organization’s culture. But make no mistake — it’s a challenge. It will take discipline, serious effort, and ongoing commitment from many folks in your company.

Going down this path isn’t about expanding your marketing department, or hiring an intern to write some blog posts and manage your social media channels. Content marketing represents a cultural shift in your entire organization.

We have identified two key milestones on the journey toward content marketing success:

1. Buying in to the philosophy2. Applying best practices month after month

Both of these steps are hard. “Buy-in” has to come from your entire team — including your executives. If you need help convincing them, visit howtoconvinceyourboss.com for information on how to craft your pitch, compelling statistics, and more. Being on board with the content marketing philosophy means that you:

• Accept that this isn’t a 30-day ROI

• Understand that content marketing is a mindset, not a campaign

• Understand it may take six months or more to see results

• Believe that every moment is a content opportunity

• Have the enthusiasm and commitment from a wide variety of colleagues

Once you, your company’s leadership, and your teammates have adopted a content marketing mindset, now is where the hard work really begins. Now it’s time to learn and follow a proven methodology — like our 8 Step Process — and follow through. We will walk you through this recipe, from strategy through measurement, and it will be up to you and your team to:

• Unlock the knowledge and expertise of your colleagues so you have a steady stream of content

• Learn best practices and apply them across a range of digital channels

• Maintain your discipline over time and don’t give up

KAPOST REPORTS THAT 78% OF CMOS BELIEVE CUSTOM CONTENT IS THE FUTURE OF THE MARKETING INDUSTRY

How a Content Coach Can Ensure Content Marketing Success

verticalmeasures.com/services/content-coaching/

Knowing best practices in content marketing will also help you rise above the noise. According to Relevance, 2.73 million blog posts are published every day. So many companies and organizations have adopted a digital-first approach that it’s not enough to simply have a website and a Facebook account. After all the hours you’ve put into content creation, how can you be sure that your content is as effective as it can be?

Could a Content Coach Help Me?We’ve established that content marketing can transform your business’ results, but that it’s difficult to implement and to do well on an ongoing basis without the right support. We’ve also established that content marketing presents many obstacles:

• Gaps in knowledge about online marketing

• Internal roadblocks or slow progress

• Challenges from competitors

Vertical Measures has developed a new service called Content Coaching to help you overcome all of these challenges and more. A Content Coach is well-versed in all things digital, and will arm you with the knowledge and best practices you need to meet your business objectives. A Content Coach will help you create a content marketing strategy, make ongoing recommendations, and will motivate you and your team week in, week out.

We have been doing content marketing for the better part of 10 years, and we’ve seen what works and what doesn’t — for companies of all sizes, in almost every niche imaginable.

Our Content Coaching service includes content marketing training and education that ensures you won’t get stuck in common struggles. Having a dedicated Content Coach gives your organization the best chance of content success, because the coach has already been through the inevitable roadblocks you will hit, which may include:

• Shifts in organizational priorities

• Lack of commitment from team members

• Inability to create content that resonates or engages

• Inability to publish content on a set schedule

• Lack of results due to poor SEO foundation or other website shortcomings

We created Content Coaching with a singular goal: to make content marketing truly work for any organization that commits to it. Your content marketing program will have a short shelf life without sustained commitment, so it’s important to find a good Content Coach who can encourage you, teach you, and answer your questions along the way.

How a Content Coach Can Ensure Content Marketing Success

verticalmeasures.com/services/content-coaching/

What Exactly is a Content Coach?Think of your Content Coach as your guide and mentor through this content journey you have decided to pursue. You can even think of them as your personal trainer.

Like someone beginning a new exercise regimen, those new to content marketing usually start out strong, but then they plateau. An effective Content Coach will keep you motivated and focused on delivering genuine, measureable results.

Just as you might meet once a week at the gym with your trainer, you’ll meet several times per month with your Content Coach. During these sessions, your Coach will show you the habits to develop, potential pitfalls, and the path to success. Together, we’ll discuss your content marketing “workout” program, your struggles, your strategy and goals, and next steps.

Just like a personal trainer, your Content Coach will develop a customized, week-by-week plan to get you to the “body” you always wanted — a sustainable online marketing engine that drives web traffic, leads, and revenue!

Your Content Coach is there to:• Keep you accountable

• Motivate you and encourage you

• Answer questions between sessions

• Course-correct your plan as necessary

The most important thing to realize here is that while your Content Coach is your compass, your guide — you are ultimately responsible for doing much of the hard work. If you want a strong, healthy content marketing program, you must commit to doing the work beyond our meetings.

If you stick to the plan, though, Content Coaching can be a partnership that truly creates and sustains a culture of content at your organization, leading to positive business results.

Our Content Coaches will:• Educate you and your teams on content

marketing best practices

• Share digital marketing industry updates and trends

• Ingrain your new culture of content into your company’s DNA

• Unlock your team’s institutional knowledge and expertise

• Shape your content strategy relative to your goals

• Show you how to create hundreds of ideas for content

• Make ongoing recommendations to optimize results

• Oversee your team’s content production and keep you accountable

• Ensure you stay on track to meet your business objectives and KPIs

• Be available to answer questions between meetings

• Drive results!

Content Coaching: Concept and ApproachWhen companies decide to embrace content marketing, they have three options:

1. Do all of it in-house2. Outsource to an agency partner3. Collaborate

Coaching Meetings (Tactical)

Training Classes

(Strategic)

What?

Content marketing guidance that is tai-lored and customized to your organization

Content marketing classes, via webinars

Why?

Discuss specific con-tent marketing tactics and plans for your business

Learn content market-ing concepts

Where? By phone, by video, or in person

Online, via a gated web portal

When? Meet 2-4x/month, plus in-person workshops

Throughout the year, live and on-demand

Who?

Your Content Coach from Vertical Measures + 2 or more from your organization

Subject matter experts from Vertical Measures + 2 or more from your organization

How a Content Coach Can Ensure Content Marketing Success

verticalmeasures.com/services/content-coaching/

The third approach is the optimal one because it ensures both parties — your organization and your agency — are invested in the success of the program. We will be in it together and hold each other accountable. The Content Coach brings their online expertise to the table, while your organization’s resources supply their institutional knowledge and passion for your products or services.

More specifically, you play a significant role in creating and publishing your content, and the Content Coach helps establish a culture of content at your company, nurturing it and your team along the way. When we are able to collaborate in this way, it produces a recipe for success, and we can drive results much faster than alternative approaches.

We love this approach because we have heard time and time again: “I hired SEO content writers, but they didn’t produce content that was up to our standards. We gave up after three months.” Some industries require specialized knowledge, significant education, or an excessive amount of time for content creators to get up to speed. This is why leveraging your own internal experts and turning them into content producers is so valuable. Your people know your business, your customers, and the nuances of your industry better than anyone!

Another advantage of truly partnering with an agency is that it can decrease costs. Instead of lobbing everything over the proverbial wall and ordering so many hours of SEO services plus a certain number of content pieces, you will galvanize your staff and play a significant role in the process.

What Content Coaching really does is it teaches you and your team “to fish.” Our goal is to give you and your team the confidence and skills you need to successfully execute your own

content marketing program, without assistance, over time.

Content Coaching works best when your organization has a pool of resources who will:

• stay committed for the long-term (more than 12 months)

• be hungry to learn about content marketing and ask questions

• create valuable content consistently

• update your website expeditiously

Content Coaching: ServicesContent Coaching consists of two primary components: weekly coaching sessions and training classes. This approach combines strategic online marketing lessons with tactical guidance. Let’s explore how these pieces play a part in your overall content marketing education.

YOU CAN WATCH OUR TRAINING CLASSES LIVE OR ON-DEMAND, VIA OUR EXCLUSIVE, ONLINE CONTENT COACHING LIBRARY

How a Content Coach Can Ensure Content Marketing Success

verticalmeasures.com/services/content-coaching/

Coaching MeetingsDuring scheduled coaching meetings, we will focus on your business, your objectives, and your unique content marketing program. Together, we’ll review your work, discuss execution, plan tactical next steps, and devise strategies. Your Content Coach will meet with you several times per month, for 30-60 minutes each time.

Remember, just like a person trainer would do, your Content Coach will assign you homework! It’s up to you and your team to stay disciplined. Here’s what the first few months might look like:

Month 1• Kickoff: In-person Workshop! (half-day)

• Discovery #1: goals, knowledge, resources

• Discovery #2: audit, platforms, budget

• Content Strategy: business goals, audience goals

Month 2• Content Ideation: keywords, formats, theme

• Content Calendars: timeline, prioritization, alignment

• Content Creation: outlines, resources, best practices

• Content Review: quality, authority, SEO value

Month 3• TBD, depending on your progress,

objectives, and recommendations from your Content Coach

• Industry updates and best practice reminders

• Hiring content marketing resources

• User experience

• Landing page optimization

Note that we recommend kicking off each quarter with an in-person workshop. This helps ensure our teams are aligned, allows us to take an audit of our efforts, and reinforces concepts in person.

Training ClassesThe training classes give you the opportunity to learn broad concepts from across the content marketing landscape, directly from subject matter experts. Your team will:

• Develop a shared baseline of understanding for all of the great work you will be doing

• Gain valuable exposure to all aspects of content marketing

• Learn to think strategically about content

You can watch our training classes live or on-demand, via our exclusive, online Content Coaching library. The library will be hosted on coaching.verticalmeasures.com, and Content Coaching clients will be provided with a secure log-in. The library will include webinar videos, checklists, templates, free guides, and other resources and supporting materials to help you.

These training classes will answer the following questions:

• How does content marketing fit into the broader idea of online marketing?

• Why should I, and how do I develop a content marketing strategy?

GIVE A MAN A FISH AND YOU FEED HIM FOR A DAY. TEACH A MAN TO FISH AND YOU FEED HIM FOR A LIFETIME. -CHINESE PROVERB

How a Content Coach Can Ensure Content Marketing Success

verticalmeasures.com/services/content-coaching/

• What will my agency do, and what will my internal resources do?

• Which content types should I create?

• Who should I be creating content for?

• What are SEO best practices?

• What are website publishing best practices?

• How do I promote my content through e-mail and social media?

• How do I measure my content marketing efforts and then improve?

You will get answers to these questions and more. The training classes will include 15 unique webinars, which explore and expand upon our 8 Step Process:

1. Content Marketing 1012. Content Marketing Strategy3. Content Types4. Working with your Content Agency5. Working with your Resources6. Target Audience / Personas7. Ideation 8. Content Calendars9. Content Creation10. Hub & Spoke11. SEO12. Content Publishing13. Social Media & Promotion14. E-mail & Lead Nurture15. Measurement

Content Coaching customers will have three options to view the classes:

• Live webinars, hosted by Vertical Measures (recommended)

• On-demand courses

• Take a class during one of your weekly coaching calls

Just as learning is a life-long process, training is an ongoing commitment. Vertical Measures will continue to regularly update training courses so that they are relevant and align with the latest online marketing trends. Similarly, your organization will want to continually train new team members and take refresher courses.Upon completing all classes, each attendee will receive a “Vertical Measures Content Marketing Fundamentals” certification.

What It Takes to SucceedRemember, content marketing is hard, but our Content Coaching program can be the differentiating factor in your success. To achieve optimal results, your team needs to commit to playing an ongoing, active role in your content marketing program. This includes: Time & Effort

• In addition to at least 30 minutes per week of meetings with your Content Coach, your team will be expected to perform 2-10 hours work per week.

• You commit to completing and delivering homework and assignments on time, per deadlines set with your Content Coach during ongoing meetings.

• You will submit content and website updates for review by your Content Coach prior to publishing.

• You will consistently produce and publish content, per your Content Coach’s recommendations.

WE CREATED CONTENT COACHING WITH A SINGULAR GOAL: TO MAKE CONTENT MARKETING TRULY WORK FOR ANY ORGANIZATION THAT COMMITS TO IT

How a Content Coach Can Ensure Content Marketing Success

verticalmeasures.com/services/content-coaching/

Attendance• Vertical Measures requires that at least

two people inside your organization are committed to Content Coaching at all times.

• At least 1 member from your organization will attend each meeting with your Content Coach (2-4 sessions per month).

• At least 2 members from your organization will attend in-person, half-day workshops (usually quarterly).

• At least 2 members from your organization will attend all online training classes.

If you follow our curriculum and guidance, you will be successful in content marketing.

What Do I Need to Start?Content Coaching may not be a panacea completely by itself. It’s important that we discuss and consider all of the resources and platforms that could contribute to your success. If you do not have all of the following resources, that’s OK — Vertical Measures can help along the way. But you should have some of these capabilities and platforms:

• Internal staff: writers, editor, web developers, sales, customer service

• External staff: freelance writers, designers, developers

• Website management/hosting

• E-mail marketing program

• SEO professionals

• Digital advertising professionals

• Social media or content distribution strategists

• Marketing automation platform (such as Hubspot)

• Analytics platform (such as Google Analytics)

To get started with Content Coaching, contact us today!

About Vertical MeasuresVertical Measures is a full-service Internet marketing agency dedicated to helping clients drive profitable growth through content marketing. Based on the principles outlined in Vertical Measures’ proven 8 Step Process, VM produces integrated digital strategies, content pieces, and targeted SEO & PPC campaigns for organizations large and small. As an industry leader, VM publishes in outlets like Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Land, teaches educational content marketing workshops and seminars around the globe, and and crafts personalized coaching programs and on demand training for organizations in need of a content kickstart.

LEARN HOW PARTNERING WITH A CONTENT COACH CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS GROW! OR GIVE US A CALL AT

(602) 314-3460

CONTACT US NOW!

How a Content Coach Can Ensure Content Marketing Success

verticalmeasures.com/services/content-coaching/

Meet Your Content CoachSince 2014, Drew Eastmead, Director of Content Marketing Education, has been training and helping Vertical Measures’ clients with content strategy, content creation, digital marketing, SEO, and e-communications. Previously, he worked in New York City for 10 years, managing websites and teams of online marketers at Avon, Nielsen, and Incisive Media, which produced Search Engine Strategies and ClickZ.com. Drew has deep digital expertise and is passionate about content marketing, user experience, and teaching others. He was born in Germany and graduated from Miami (Ohio) University.