how to build and implement a lean content strategy

@gdecugis

How to build and implement a lean content strategy

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Guillaume Decugis Co-Founder & CEO Scoop.it

@gdecugis 2

Hi I’m Guillaume

Guillaume Decugis 3x entrepreneur Engineer-turned-marketer Skier. Gamer. Rock singer.

Content curation service Launched 2011 ~3M freemium users http://scoop.it

Content marketing software Launched 2015 Small marketing teams http://business.scoop.it

http://scoop.it

http://business.scoop.it

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Content has become the fuel of marketing

Goals of content marketers

Content

Generate leads

Nurture prospects

Engage a community

Brand awareness

Traffic and SEO

Source: Content Marketing Institute / MarketingProfs

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But does content work?

“Content shock” (Mark Schaeffer)

“We’ve lost nearly half of our social referral traffic in the last 12 months” (Buffer)

“Crap: why the single biggest threat to content marketing is content marketing” (Velocity partners)

“Social Media Publishing is dead” (Me!)

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But does content work?

“Content shock” (Mark Schaeffer)

“We’ve lost nearly half of our social referral traffic in the last 12 months” (Buffer)

“Crap: why the single biggest threat to content marketing is content marketing” (Velocity partners)

“Social Media Publishing is dead” (Me!)

“It’s too easy to produce great engaging content that goes viral” (no one)

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Content is a struggle

Source: Content Marketing Institute / MarketingProfs

(Which is an optimistic way of saying 70% are not…)

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Google and Social Networks want you to produce fresh quality content constantly

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But it’s hard because content is costly and time-consuming to produce

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Content distribution is complex

Organic reach is declining as social networks want you to pay to play

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Most content doesn’t generate engagement

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And so is understanding what works and what doesn’t

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Back to the basics

Content marketing

=

Publishing and distributing content that drives people to take action

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Lean content marketing = ROI

Produce enough relevant quality content for your target audience

Content production Content impact

Distribute that content as efficiently as possible to obtain

(and therefore measure) the desired impact

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More / better content


More from your content

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Do you need more or better content? Both!

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Can you get quality and quantity? Yeah!

“Some “just okay” content that is published will crush “awesome content” that never gets published.

“You have to produce average content to learn how to produce great content”

Marcus Sheridan (@thesaleslion)

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How to create better content? Strategize.

“Answer your audience’s top 30 questions”

Barry Feldmann (@feldmancreative)

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How to create better content? Research.

Find out what content get shared the most on your keywords

Discover new keywords to use

Ideate from existing content

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How to create more content?

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How to create more content?

(without spending more time / resources)

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3 ways to create more content when you don’t have more time or resources

Content curation

Repurposing content

Contributed content and co-creation

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Content curation

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Content curation can be way more than social sharing: curated posts

4-8x faster to create a curated blog than an original blog

Brings social traffic to your site (not just sources sites)

Brings SEO value

(Google “BruceClay - SEO-Friendly Content Curation”)

Brings credibility to your editorial line

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Content curation can be way more than social sharing: curated email newsletters

Introduction

CTA

Curated news articles (or mix of created and curated stories)

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Content curation benefits

SEO & website traffic:

Brings social traffic to your site (and not just sources sites)

Brings SEO value (Google “BruceClay - SEO-Friendly Content Curation”)

Credibility:

Avoid being “me-centric”

Third-party content 4-7x more trusted

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Repurpose content over and over again

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Assemble or reformat content into a new format

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Encourage contribution and co-creation

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What we learned developing contributors to our blog and ebooks

Identify authors / influencers:

Don’t start at the top of the list: target people who need to build their brand and build your way up

Give before you get:

Curate their content

Add value to their content through comments

Refer them clients

Start with an easy ask:

Quote for a blog post

Build up to more extensive contributions

Make it easy / the format they want

Keep them posted on your own promotion efforts

Market your blog to encourage inbound requests

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Example: how we created the lean content marketing handbook

After 2 years of blogging on lean content marketing, we created a guide.

We repurposed a dozen blog posts.

Some of which we didn’t even write but contributors did.

And asked influencers for comments / original quotes.

Added just a minimum of original content.

90-page produced in less time than our previous ebook of 12 pages.

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Example: repurpose blog posts into an ebook

After 2 years of blogging on lean content marketing, we created a guide.

We repurposed a dozen blog posts.

Some of which we didn’t even write but contributors did.

And asked influencers for comments / original quotes.

Added just a minimum of original content.

90-page produced in less time than our previous ebook of 12 pages.

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More / better content


More from your content

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How to get more from your content?

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How to get more from your content?

(without pay for play)

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5 ways to get more from results your content investment

Focus on your content hub

Don’t share content, promote it

Get your team to share your content

Don’t just promote, amplify!

Content marketing automation

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Yes it’s tempting to build on Medium, LinkedIn, etc… or syndicate content to existing blogs

Publish to an existing audience

Social discovery mechanisms

No set-up / maintenance

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Remember when Facebook told us: “who needs a website when they can have Facebook pages?”

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You can bootstrap on rented land but you need to build on your own website

Publish to an existing audience

Social discovery mechanisms

No set-up / maintenance

But

No brand recognition for you

No call to action / little conversion

No SEO

Dependency on their model (‘pay for play”)

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Focus on your content hub

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Don’t share content. Promote it.

Share each new piece of content multiple times on multiple channels

Source: http://marketingland.com/tweet-repeat-power-sharing-sharing-83050

“At my agency, we’ve set up multiple shares on all of our content for a long time now, and we almost always find that we get much more lifetime traffic for the content.”

Mark Traphagen - @marktraphagen Sr Director of Online Marketing, Stone Temple

http://marketingland.com/tweet-repeat-power-sharing-sharing-83050

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Get your team to share your content

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Don’t just promote. Amplify!

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Don’t just promote. Amplify!

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Leverage content marketing automation

Content discovery (inspiration, curation)

Keyword research / discovery

Real-time content audits

Social media sharing promotion (scheduling, programming)

Email newsletter creation

Performance measurement / analytics

Successful content identification / amplification

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More / better content Strategize (list your audience’s questions)

Research and ideate Curate content

Repurpose content Co-create with contributors


More from your content Focus on your content hub

Don’t share content, promote it Get your team to share your content

Don’t just promote, amplify!

Content marketing automation

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Thank you!

Guillaume Decugis Co-Founder & CEO Scoop.it

More on lean content marketing on:

http://blog.scoop.it

http://blog.scoop.it