High-Impact Content Marketing: Strategies to Make Your Content Intentional, Engaging and Effective

Description

Create meaningful engagement, drive conversion rates and boost customer retention with this crucial resource to unlocking the true potential of your content marketing strategy. In an era of user-generated, human-generated and machine-generated content, mistakes are increasingly costlier to make. And more difficult to recover from. To succeed in the highly competitive creator economy of today and the future, content marketers need to rethink their approach or go the way of the dinosaurs. High-Impact Content Marketing shows how to succeed by taking a simplified yet strategic approach to standing out and driving revenue impact. It covers time-proven strategies to create video, audio, social media and longer-form content that audiences will actually want to consume and how to do so in a genuinely inclusive way. It also shows how to master content distribution across channels such as websites, blogs, email and social media networks to maximize reach, engagement and impact. What makes High-Impact Content Marketing unique is how it weaves in behavioral science and adult learning principles to maximize and measure impact. It features easy-to-implement frameworks and actionable guides throughout as well as examples of best-in-class content marketing from the likes of Patagonia, Microsoft, Spotify and Google plus interviews with top industry experts from across the globe. Guidance is also included on how to align content with various stages of the customer journey. This is an essential blueprint for ensuring the long-term success of your content marketing strategy to increase brand awareness, build relationships and boost conversions. Cover Contents Acknowledgments About the author 01 Why It’s Time To Reinvent and Future-Proof Your Approach to Content Marketing Introduction Where Did Things Go Awry? Five Choices Marketers Often Get Wrong Evolve or Perish with the Status Quo The Wrong Shortcuts Can Lead to Even More Wrong Choices Change is Inevitable, Progress Takes Work About This Book Notes 02 The Must-Haves for Long-Term Content Marketing Success Introduction Content Marketing Too Has its Own Essential Elements A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing The Four Essential Element Pairs 1. Behavioral Science and Learning Design 2. Empathy and Inclusion 3. Copywriting and Selling Skills 4. Strategy and Measurement Notes 03 Needs Analysis: How You’ll Build a Strong Foundation Introduction The CATNIP Formula for Success 1. Concept Based on Audience Understanding 2. Applicability in the Moments That Matter 3. Timing the Market 4. Nailing the Execution 5. Identifying the Correct Positioning 6. Progressing and Evolving With the Customer What Do All the Elements of CATNIP Have in Common? What is a Needs Analysis and How Does It Apply to Content Marketing? Internal vs. External Needs Analyses Notes 04 The GIFTED Way to Figure Out Internal Needs Introduction Step 1: Get Clear on the Goal Step 2: Identify Relevant Interviewees Step 3: Finalize Your Interview Methods Step 4: Tailor Your Question Sets Step 5: Embark on Your Listening Tour Step 6: Draw Out and Prioritize Key Learnings Make-It-Easy Guide: Top Questions for Internal Needs Analyses 05 How to Conduct a Powerful, Conversion-Driving Customer Needs Analysis Introduction What is a Customer Needs Analysis? What Information You Need to Gather How to Gather the Information With COCOA Step 1: Customers: Actually Talk With Them Step 2: Ones Who Got Away: Talk With Those You Didn’t Convert Step 3: Customer-Facing Colleagues: Get the Voice of Your Customers Step 4: Online Sources: Scour the Internet for the Voice of Your Customers Step 5: Automated Data Collection: Round Out Your Learnings The Key to Everything is to Respect Your Customers’ Time Make-It-Easy Guide: Document Your Learnings For Easy Reference Notes 06 Decode the Competitive Landscape With a Competitor Content Audit Introduction One Big Caveat: This Isn’t “Simon Says” Get Decoding: Optimize Your Approach Step 1: Consider Direct, Tangential, and Disruptor Competitors Step 2: Figure Out the “What” and the “Where” Step 3: Analyze Your Findings and Learnings Make-It-Easy Guide: Track Your Learnings With a Start–Stop–Continue Planner Notes 07 High-Impact Strategy and Measurement Planning Introduction What Does a Content Marketing Strategy Plan Cover? What If You’ve Never Created or Followed a Strategy Before? A Content Marketing Strategy Empowers You to Build Your Own Treasure Map to High Impact CLUE Step 1: Compile Your Key Information Step 2: Lay Out Your Strategy Plan Step 3: Use Backward Design to Plan Content Step 4: Evaluate Performance With the Right Lens Your Plan is Your Treasure Map Notes 08 High-Impact Brainstorming: How the Best Ideas Are Born Introduction Brainstorming: The Origin Story How Does the Brain Form New Ideas? Those Brainstorms Aren’t the Path to High Impact Notes 09 Mine, Combine, Refine: Simple Strategies to Optimize Your Brainstorming Introduction Mine Combine Refine Notes 10 How to Make Inclusion the Default Introduction The Reality is You Can’t Afford Not to be Inclusive As Content Marketers, We Have a Responsibility Towards Our Audience Focus on Accessibility: Getting the Table Stakes Right Mind Your Language Be Intentional With Creatives: How You Say Things Matters Pay Attention to Content That’s Not “Content” Inclusion: All For One and One For All Notes 11 Time-Proven Copywriting Strategies to Keep People Reading On and On Introduction Dissecting the Anatomy of a Body of Content 1. Next Steps: Start With What You’d Like Your Audience to Do Next 2. Open: Get Clear On What’s Relevant For Your Audience 3. Main Body: Cover All Relevant Details in an Easy-To-Follow Way 4. Close: Reinforce, Encourage, and Inspire as You Wrap to Leave a Lasting Impression 5. Headline: To Write the Perfect Headline, Write it Last There’s a Clear Path to Great Content Make-It-Easy Guide: How to Know if You’ve Nailed Your Content Notes 12 Build With Distribution in Mind: Less Effort, More Impact Introduction Same Concept, Different Times Same Concept, Different Audiences Same Concept, Different Funnel Stages Same Concept, Different Sources and Angles Same Concept, Different Channels and Formats Tailoring Your Content For Different Channels Find Big Ideas and Work Your Assets Off Make-It-Easy Guide: How to Analyze Great Writing to Become a Better Writer Notes Index