4 Ways To Fix Your Broken Content Marketing PDF

Four Ways to Fix Your
Broken Content Marketing
THE THOUGHTFUL MARKETER’S GUIDE

A Letter from Jay
The myth of content marketing runs deep.
We still think that if we build it, they will come. But it’s been proven
time and time again that this strategy doesn’t work.
It’s time to fix that.
This ebook isn’t a magic bullet for making your content marketing
work. That doesn’t exist, unfortunately. What we’ll do instead is take
you through a step-by-step guide on how to define a data-driven
content strategy that reaches your audience with relevant, timely, and
useful content.
Once you’ve got that dialed in, we’ll show you how to think beyond
the blog and into more exciting content types that you can experiment
with depending on your specific goals and outcomes. Ultimately, I
want you to have a clear framework for what to publish, when, and
how so that your content marketing efforts will actually do something
for your business, not just sit on your site growing mold. This way,
you’ll involve the right people, tools, and resources to make
meaningful connections.
Enjoy.
FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

BROKEN CONTENT MARKETING 2
Content Isn’t Really King
 
Now that people check Google first (or at least
early) on the path to buying just about
everything, content is purported to be the all-
powerful mother of marketing.

Introduction Content Isn’t Really King
The dream goes something like this:
Set yourself up with a blog, publish helpful insights relative to

your market and presto! You own your space.
The prospects and customers you covet will discover you, flock to
your site, click the buttons you put in their path, and buy what
you sell.
The reality, well, it's not exactly the same as the dream.
Offhand, I can think of exactly zero business niches in which it’s

easy to rock your cash register by simply populating your website
with information, a.k.a. content.

BROKEN CONTENT MARKETING
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Introduction Reality Check:
• Unless you achieve royalty and loyalty in your territory,

content isn’t king and it doesn’t rule.
• The “first mover advantage” has passed by nearly every brand

in every niche.
• The supply of content outpaces the demand by gazillions.
• The proliferation of media channels is crazy.
• Most content is not shared or linked to—at least to any

significant degree (see data on the next page).
• Most content marketers are frustrated with their results.

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Introduction Is There Anybody Out There?
The majority of posts receive few shares and even fewer links. In
a randomly selected sample of 100,000 posts, over 50% had 2 or
fewer Facebook interactions and 2 or fewer Twitter shares. Over
75% had zero external links.
This suggests there is a lot of very poor content out there and
also that people are very poor at amplifying their content.
OVER
50 % < 2 Facebook Interactions

< 2 Twitter Interactions
OVER
75 % 0 External Links

Source: Content, Shares and Links, a joint research report by  
Buzzsumo and Moz, by Steve Rayson
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Introduction Success Assessments
Here's how B2B content marketers characterize the success of

their content marketing approach in 2017.
3% Extremely Successful 22% Minimally Successful
19% Very Successful 3% Not At All Successful
53% Moderately Successful

Source: B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North
America, by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs
7
You don’t have to surrender.
You have to adapt.
You’re a thoughtful marketer. As such, you think hard about
what’s going wrong and right. You set goals and identify the
obstacles you must overcome.
This eBook is for you. In it, we’ll identify the four most likely
reasons your content marketing is breaking down and introduce
strategies to repair the process.
LET’S TAKE A LOOK!

Content Topics
Relevancy is the Killer App
“If your content solely talks about your company, its

products, and the corresponding features and benefits,
you don’t really have a content marketing initiative; you
have an episodic brochure.”  
— Jay Baer, author of Youtility

Content Topics Relevancy is the Killer App
Your content shouldn’t focus on products and services.
Effective content marketers get it—but effective content
marketers remain a minority.
Effective content marketing is about the consumer:  

the person reading, watching, listening to, or looking at the
content. But wait. Why then would the daily news about the
Kardashians perpetually draw eyeballs by the zillions?
Because celebrity gossip is something readers want.
When they’re surfing their social channels, they want to learn

what’s going on with their friends and family.
So when might they want to consume content about a

brand? The answer may not be never, but it’s likely to be
when they’re deep into a purchase decision.
Fix this issue first and foremost: create content about the
topics your target market cares about—not your brand. Let’s
examine how you master this task. Engagement in social is
just part of the customer’s journey with the brand.

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Content Topics Personification Is All-Important
It’s not surprising that companies flailing with their content
marketing efforts don’t know their customers intimately. In
fact, it’s probably the leading cause of content marketing
“Who the heck are we failure.
going to talk to? Why   To be successful, you need to be relevant. In order to be
will they care? What are relevant, you need to understand who your audiences are
and what they want. The good news is that you’re four
we going to say   steps away from doing just that.
that’s relevant to them?”
—Ardath Albee, author of Digital

Relevance
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Step One: Collect Qualitative and Quantitative
Audience Data
Neglecting to identify who your audiences are is dangerous.
However, undergoing the exercise of creating them based
on best guesses and hunches isn’t the solution. The plural
of anecdote isn’t “data.” You may think you know your
customers, but you’ll never be certain unless you have
proof.

Step 1:
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Audience Data
To find out exactly who your audiences are, start with
collecting qualitative data from both inside and outside
your organization:
‣ Interview Salespeople—Salespeople want better

leads and to close more deals, so they’re bound to
be enthusiastic about contributing what they know
about your customers.
‣ Interview Customer Support People—Pick the

brains of your customer support people who will
know exactly what questions your audience wants
answered.
‣ Interview Customers—Go directly to the source.
Step 1:
Set up brief interviews with 10 or so people who
have recently become customers and therefore
have a strong recollection of the buying experience.
You may even want to interview those who chose
NOT to purchase.
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Audience Data
‣ Do Online Research—You can validate, and

possibly expand, the information you collect via
interviewing by digging into online resources, such
as LinkedIn profiles, blogs, job listings, industry
research, forums, Q&A sites, social media
conversations, book reviews, and more. You can
even dig into publicly available and reliable sources,
such as data.gov, American Fact Finder and Pew
Research Center.
‣ Purchase Existing Research—In some cases, you’ll

find many of the audience insights you need and
want have already been distilled through
Step 1:
professional research and advisory firms, such as
Gartner and Forrester.

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Audience Data
Next, gather as much quantitative data as possible:
‣ Website Analytics—The data mined from your

website is good for insights into your current
audiences and visitors. Review traffic sources, visitor
behavior, demographics, on-site search queries, and
content consumed.
‣ Email Analytics—Leverage insights into current

subscribers by digging into overall engagement,
content consumed, CTA effectiveness, and offer and
promotion activation.

Step 1:
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Audience Data
‣ Sales and CRM Data—Your own internal sales data
and/or CRM data is a goldmine of information. Use
what’s available to identify top-ranked or recurring
problems, elapsed time from issue to resolution, and
customer lifetime value.
‣ Social Media Audience Insights—Social media

analytics can tell you a lot more than just who likes
your posts. The data can tell you about target
audiences, including aggregate information about
geography, demographics, and purchase behavior.

Step 1:
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Step Two: Analyze the Data Collected
Once you have your data collected, it’s time to take a look at
everything and distill it down. In fact, you may have started step
one with the expectation that your biggest challenge would be
lack of data. However, it’s usually at this step when you realize
you most likely have too much.
When analyzing everything compiled, remember to place

information gleaned into two camps: interesting vs. usable. In
other words, what information is helpful or interesting to know,
and what information is really usable? For each data point you
think might be relevant, ask, “So what? Why is this important?” If
you think it’s important, ask yourself, “What action can we take
based on this data?”
For example, if we were a law enforcement agency, we may see

from data that there are over 1200 bars in our county. That
Step 2:
information is interesting because it gives us the big picture.
However, we can’t do much with it yet. If we look further at the
data, we may see that 15 bars account for 25% of the DUIs in the
county. That’s usable. The law enforcement agency can take
action based on this data by targeting efforts to prevent DUIs
BROKEN CONTENT MARKETING from happening at those 15 bars.
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Step Two: Analyze the Data Collected
To get the most usable insights from your data,  
just remember to:
‣ Filter and select the most salient data points that

impact your deliverable (content plan, advertising
campaign, etc.).
‣ Normalize date ranges.
‣ Consider “blips” caused by seasonality, news

events, political events, or other anomalies that
could temporarily disrupt or skew data.
‣ Get a second set of eyes on the data — 

it is easy to be a victim of your own data bias
without even knowing it.

Step 2:
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Step Three: Identify Audiences and Segments
After distilling the data and finding interesting and usable
insights, you can then make educated assumptions about who
you’re targeting:
‣ “We believe millennials are a good audience for us to

target because _______.”
‣ “We think we’re losing business to the competition

because they’re doing a better job targeting _________.”
Your data will tell you how many audiences to create, but you’ll
most likely find that you have three to four main audience
groups.
Keep in mind: the goal isn’t to have as many audiences as

possible, because that’s where segments come in.

Step 3:
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Step Three: Identify Audiences and Segments
Segments are cross-sections of an audience in which individuals
share one or more common traits or can be grouped by a
common trait. Think: Specific groupings, like gender, age, zip
code, prior product purchased, company size, etc.
To find your audience segments, dig deeper into the information

you have for each audience and look for common traits or
qualities.
For example:
‣ “We know that some millennials already own a house, but

others are first-time buyers.”
‣ “We see that there are four very big reasons customers
leave prior to cashing out.”
‣ “A major segment within our audience are realtors and
Step 3:
they have a very high influencer effect on our customers.”
Like your audiences, you don’t want to have too many segments.
Try to stay between 2 and 4 segments per audience grouping.
Also, keep in mind that, in some cases, your audiences may not
have segments. Let the data guide you and inform you. Then
you’ll know exactly how many to create.
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Step Four: Create Marketing Personas
Creating personas need not be difficult. Once you collect your
data and find your audiences and segments, your challenge is to
create no more than five personas that represent the key
customer segments you want to target.
These personas will help content strategists and creators make

smart decisions regarding topics.

Step 4:
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The following tactics will help you effectively personify your
customers. Ardath Albee, author of Digital Relevance, and an
expert on the development of useful buyer personas,
recommends documenting the following:
‣ A Day-in-the-Life Scenario—Try to express, in first

person, how your target buyer would describe what’s
going on in their life today.
‣ Objectives—Document specific objectives, goals and

responsibilities.
‣ Problems—Document specific problems your persona

faces.
‣ Obstacles—What stands in the person’s way when they

work to solve their problems?
Step 4:
‣ Questions—You need to know what questions your
customer would ask at every stage of the buying process.
‣ Content Preferences—Your personas should identify

what content formats and digital channels are preferred.
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Once each exercise above has been conducted, create a short
narrative about each persona and include:
‣ Persona archetype name—This is usually a fun way to

instantly summarize and describe what this segment is
like. For example: “Millennial Mom” or “Coupon Clippers.”
‣ Persona personal information—Give your persona a real

name, age, location, relationship status, and job
description. All of this will help content creators better
visualize this persona.
‣ About paragraph—Give a short backstory to your

persona. What is this persona like? What are their pet
peeves? What are their passions? How does that all relate
in a roundabout way to what you’re trying to accomplish
or help them accomplish?

Step 4:
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Once each exercise above has been conducted, create a short
narrative about each persona and include:
‣ Pains and gains—What are some pains that this persona

experiences on a day-to-day basis? What are the gains
they’re wanting to achieve?
‣ Personality type—How would you describe this persona?

Feisty and outgoing? Introverted and thoughtful? Action-
oriented or strategic planner? Their personality type
affects content creation more than you may realize.
Any additional and relevant details you add to your personas will
help bring them to life even more. In turn, that will ensure you
can be that much more relevant to your audiences and get their
extremely limited time and attention.

Step 4:
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Content Formula Your “Sure Thing” Formula for Content
One of the most vexing questions for content marketers is what
topics to cover with content. Here’s a handy formula for
identifying those topics. You just need to determine your
personas, your funnel stages, and the questions that prospects
must get answered before they move to the next funnel stage.
Let’s say you have 5 personas, 5 stages of your sales funnel, and
have identified 5 key questions for each stage.
Multiply 5 x 5 x 5 and you wind up with 125 topics to tackle

with your content. Address each with a thorough and helpful
answer and you’re bound to produce 125 solid pieces of content
to serve your customers and your marketing objectives.

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Content Formula Your “Sure Thing” Formula for Content
In reality, you will have fewer than 125 distinct questions,
because not every persona has totally different queries as they
When your content
move through the purchase funnel. Typically, you’ll end up with
transcends the 50-65 unique questions and those are the seed corn for your core
transaction, it has a content efforts.
chance of breaking Your prospective customers have tons of questions. Answer them
through because it’s not and your content will be topically on-target.
about you, but about Once you’ve addressed them in one format, go back and address
something your them again in a different format, which brings us to our next
section of recommendations.
customers actually care
about. You give yourself
permission to make the
story bigger.”
—Jay Baer, author of Youtility

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Content Formats
Are you thinking beyond the blog?
“If you have an idea that’s a winner, but it’s only

distributed via text as a blog post then you’re missing out
on a wide range of additional attraction options.” 
— Jerod Morris, VP of Marketing at Rainmaker Digital

Content Formats Are You Thinking Beyond the Blog?
Most content marketers publish content to a blog. That’s good.

However, many don’t stretch their efforts beyond the mostly text-
based format of blogging and that can be bad.
Media consumption habits are unpredictable. For any given

persona, they may change. The mix of options often track to the
rise and fall of social media channels.
The net of it all is it’s wise to consider and pursue various content
formats as you scale your programs—especially if you’re not
seeing strong results with your current plan.
Thoughtful content marketers experiment with different content

formats in an effort to determine which resonate with their
audience (or audiences). With some patience and persistence,
marketers stand to increase their reach and resonance by
spreading their wings across a wider mix of media.

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Content Formats Understand the Power of Atomization
Effective and efficient content marketers embrace the idea of

“atomizing content,” that is, taking a big idea (the nucleus) and
turning it into several smaller content plays (atoms). Essentially,
not every piece of content has to be a “big mother.” One does.
Then, the mother reproduces: she propagates a larger number
of less massive (but still meaningful) content executions. You get:
‣ Greater Output—You cover more ground with your

content, with less effort.
‣ Reach and Relevance—Executing a content theme across

multiple platforms, in multiple ways, gives you a better
chance of producing content in a form that is hyper-
relevant to segments of your audience.
‣ Amplification—By spreading your ideas more prolifically,

you envelop your audience with the concept, creating an
attention multiplier effect.

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Content Formats Understand the Power of Atomization
The strategy is less work and delivers more:
‣ Search Benefits—Producing distinct pieces of content

gives you the opportunity to rank for more search terms,
cross-link your content, acquire links, and get more
ranked pages.
‣ Social Media Appeal—Brevity is what’s hot and getting

hotter across social channels. Consumers are saying,
“show me; don’t tell me.”
‣ Social Sharing—People are more likely to like, tweet,

share, +1, Buffer, and email content they have actually
read or watched.
‣ Mind Share—You’ll get more opportunities to create and

sustain mindshare among media, prospective customers,
and current customers.
‣ Leads—Repurposing your content gives you more

opportunities to offer calls-to-action, and, conceivably,
FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR   higher conversion.  
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Cheat Sheet Your Atomization Cheat Sheet
How might you atomize your content beyond your blog?
Consider the following ideas:
Audio Tactics Community Tactics

‣ Podcast ‣ LinkedIn group
‣ Soundcloud file ‣ Facebook group
‣ Forum/discussion board
post
Blogging Tactics Long-Form Content

‣ Guest blog post ‣ eBook
‣ LinkedIn blog post ‣ Whitepaper
‣ Medium post ‣ SlideShare presentation
‣ Tumblr post ‣ Case study
‣ Quora post ‣ Testimonial/interview
‣ Infographic ‣ Webinar
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Messaging Social Media

‣ Email ‣ LinkedIn status update
‣ Event-triggered email ‣ Facebook post
(marketing automation) ‣ Tweet
‣ SMS messages ‣ Twitter card
‣ Instagram photo post
Paid Tactics ‣ Pinterest pin or board
‣ Remarketed display ad ‣ Snapchat story
‣ Pre-roll video ‣ Photo gallery
‣ Sponsored tweet
‣ Sponsored pin
‣ Paid Facebook post
‣ Sponsored Instagram
‣ Paid LinkedIn status
update
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User-generated content Video

‣ Interactive quiz ‣ YouTube
‣ Poll ‣ Facebook
‣ UGC contest ‣ Instagram
‣ Twitter
‣ Video podcast/vlog
‣ Pre-roll video
‣ Live stream

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Video Rules Video Rules
If your content marketing program doesn’t yet include video, it’s
time for some lights, camera and action.
I must add, however, a
beautifully convenient Video is today’s top form of content.
amendment: you Video accounts for one-third of total online activity. Users, on
probably don’t need average, watch 33.4 videos per month. Brands are realizing
lights or a camera. You success with everything from documentary-style brand stories to
have a smartphone. full-fledged YouTube influencer channels.
It does well with most For many content creators, videos net far more views,
engagement, and shares as compared to blog posts or email.
lighting conditions and
captures HD video. So Video is also analytics-friendly. Oftentimes, you can track
all that’s left is taking retention and engagement more closely than you can with
action. written content, thus providing vital insights into how you can
better refine your messaging and content.

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Video Rules Video and Social Media are BFFs
“Blogging is not less Video is everywhere across the social spectrum. It’s
important because easily rolled into sales pages, landing pages, blog
posts and every digital channel.
something happened to
blogging. Blogging is less
Finally, video is a content making machine. As we’ve already
important because discussed, an atomization process requires a mother. However,
alternate forms of we talked in terms of the idea or concept. Let’s look at the form
content consumption like now.
audio and video are Making video catalyzes and simplifies your repurposing path
finally catching up. going forward. If you have video, you have audio. Producing text
is a simple transcription process. The possibilities that come next
People have more are immense.
opportunities to migrate
to their favorite form of
content.”
—Carly Fiorina, Former CEO, HP

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Content Creators
Don’t just change the message, change the messenger.
“There was a time when creative skills mattered less in

content. Filling gaps and plugging holes with useful
content was enough to succeed. Those days are over.”
— Jay Baer, author of Youtility

Content Creators Don’t Just Change the Message,
Change the Messenger
You can nail your content topics and excel at expanding your
formats and still fail miserably if your content is mediocre. Again,
unless you do business in the most unique niche, the “first mover
advantage” has come and gone. The quality of your content is all-
important.
In an effort to cover all the bases—and expand the content

creation task force—many companies assign content creation
responsibilities to all different types of employees outside of the
marketing department. The idea, of course, is to have subject
matter experts deliver insights about the area they know best.

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Content Creators Don’t Just Change the Message,
Change the Messenger
In theory, it makes sense. In reality, it tends to backfire.  
Content created by employees tends to be sloppy and too
promotional. It fails to win the audience’s trust. Smart alternative
approaches include:
‣ Collaborate effectively—Non-professional content

creators can contribute ideas to your content, but the real
creative pros you hire—internally or externally—should
work closely with them to optimize the work.
‣ Conduct internal training—If you favor the idea of

spreading content creation tasks across various
departments, develop a program to train subject matter
experts to develop a command of headline writing,
storytelling, image creation, search optimization, and
creating effective calls to action. If the content formats
include video and audio, you’ll need to expand the
training accordingly.

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Content Creators Invite the Most Trusted Creators to  
the Party
Your customers are your most trusted brand ambassadors. Given
this reality, it’s surprising how few companies invite customers to
create content.  
 
User-generated content (UGC) can be:
‣ Created (and shared) by fans
‣ All different media types—pictures, videos, testimonials,

tweets, blog posts, and more
‣ The ultimate form of social proof
‣ An effective way to bring like-minded people together
‣ Fun for everyone involved
‣ Free, or very inexpensive, for the brand

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Content Creators Invite the Most Trusted Creators to  
the Party
“If you want to improve User-generated content is:
your reach and ‣ 20% more influential ‣ 35% more memorable ‣ 50% more trustworthy 1
engagement, you’ll need Following are numerous ideas for tapping the power of user  
to find ways to leverage generated content:
user-generated content ‣ Ask users to contribute to your blog or content hub
(UGC) since that’s what ‣ Enlist a small group of enthusiastic customers to be “official” content
friends and family will creators
see first.” ‣ Create contests, publish the entries, and recognize the winners
— Neil Patel, co-founder at Crazy ‣ Leverage videos created by consumers

Egg, Kissmetrics, and Hello Bar ‣ Incorporate product reviews and rating systems
‣ Conduct surveys and polls
‣ Find UGC about your brand and amplify across your digital channels

1
BROKEN CONTENT MARKETING Source: Ipsos MediaTC/CrowdTap, Jan. 2014
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Content Amplification
How do people know your content exists?
“Great content is no longer the finish line. It’s the starting

line. To win the battle for attention, focus must be placed
on distribution as an ‘ignition’ strategy.”
— Mark W. Schaefer, Author of The Content Code

Content How Do People Know Your Content
Amplification
The release of most content, even the best content, is usually
followed by bad news. It fails to find a significant audience—or a
significant audience fails to find it.
What gives? The topic was ideal. An ultra-talented team created

the content. And it was developed and presented in one (or
more) of the formats the chosen crowd covets. Still… crickets, as
they say.
Marketing leader Mark Schaefer gave the problem a name:

content shock. His premise, simply put, is thanks to the
overabundance of content, very little of it can or will be
consumed. And far too few of those who produce it will achieve
the goals they had in mind.
Call it content shock, the law of diminishing returns, or what you

will, but recognize the reality: the existence of content comes
with little or no guarantee that it will achieve any meaningful
reach.

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Content Your Content Must Be Amplified
Amplification
It’s not enough to post content on your blog and then dispatch a few social
media updates. A far more effective strategy is to invest time, energy, and
possibly, money, into paid, earned and owned media.
Let’s examine each and delve into a variety of tactics that could help
improve the results of your content amplification efforts.
Media type Definition Examples The Role Benefits Challenges
Channel a brand •Web Site Build for longer- •Control • No guarantees

controls •Mobile site term relationships •Cost efficiency • Company
•Blog with existing •Longevity communication
Owned Media
•Twitter account potential customers •Versatility not trusted
and earn media •Niche audiences • Takes time  
to scale
Brand pays to • Display ads Shift from • In demand • Clutter
leverage a channel • Paid search foundation to a • Immediacy • Declining
• Sponsorships catalyst that feeds • Scale response rates
Paid Media
owned and creates • Control • Poor credibility
earned media
When customers • WOM Listen and respond - • Most credible • No control

become the channel • Buzz earned media is • Key role in   • Can be negative
• “Viral” often the result of most sales • Scale
Earned Media well-executed and • Transparent and • Hard to measure
well-coordinated lives on
owned and paid
media
BROKEN CONTENT MARKETING Forrester Research created a matrix, which defines three media models,
lists examples and explains the role, benefits and challenges of each.
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Content Owned Media
Amplification
Forrester calls owned media a “channel a brand controls,”
however the degree of control you have varies across media.
Owned media offers you control, cost efficiency, versatility, and
longevity. Owned media can include your:
‣ Website and Blog—Assuming you host your website and

blog, you control the content that goes on it and it
remains online as long as you wish.
‣ Email—While you actually have to “earn” a subscriber, you

do indeed own your email list. Email is the most pervasive
medium in business and will likely prove to be your most
powerful distribution channel. Of course, you will pay to
maintain and use your list with an email service provider
(ESP), however the costs are generally very low.

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Content Owned Media
Amplification
Social Media—Forrester explains, “owned media creates brand
portability.” On it, you extend your presence in channels across
the web beyond your site. Though the level of control you’re
afforded differs (and changes) with social media, it fits best in the
“owned” category.
Free Content Platforms—Here again, your level of control varies

and changes, however a vast array of content communities offer
you the opportunity to publish content as you wish. Popular
options include YouTube, SlideShare, Medium, Quora, and
websites in nearly every conceivable market.

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Content Paid Media
Amplification
In the age of content marketing, it’s common to find pundits
proclaiming advertising is dying. While they likely can offer some
examples to support the claim, you won’t have to search hard to
find companies who simply can’t significantly increase traffic and
“Until you have your leads solely with organic tactics.
audience built, you Paid media delivers eyeballs instantly and can be scaled at will.
should be paying to get An enormous number of options are available to help you
your content in front of expand your reach and elevate engagement with your brand.
an audience so you can

convert them into YOUR
audience.”
— Joe Pulizzi, author of Epic Content

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Social Media Social Media Advertising
Advertising
Advertising options are available for most social media channels—
including of course, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube
“Social media ads —and provide a reliable way to increase leads and sales with content.
provide the most Online advertising expert Larry Kim recommends the following process
scalable content to tap the power of social media advertising:
promotion and are 1. Create—Produce content and share it on social media.

proven to turn visitors 2. Amplify—Selectively promote your top content on social media.
into leads and 3. Tag—Build your remarketing audience by tagging site visitors with a
customers. And the best cookie.
part? You don't need a 4. Filter—Apply behavioral and demographic filters on your audience.
huge ad budget.”
5. Remarket—Remarket to your audience with display ads, social ads,
and Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) to promote offers.
— Larry Kim, founder of
WordStream 6. Convert—Capture qualified leads or a sale.
7. Repeat 

BROKEN CONTENT MARKETING Source: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2016/06/30/
social-media-advertising-tips
47
Social Media Social Media Advertising
Advertising
Paid content distribution is critical to our success.
“The moment you press the
publish button is the beginning
of the job—the job of content Strongly Agree 24%
promotion. If you did not create
Answer Choices
the content with promotion in Agree 29%
mind, you’re screwed. Content
is either engineered to be well Neutral 33%
promoted or it's not. It's a little
bit late in the game if you didn't Disagree 11%
have a plan for distribution and
promotion from the moment Strongly Disagree 4%
you had the concept.” 0% 8% 16% 24% 32% 40%
— Andy Crestodina, author of

Responses
Content Chemistry
As platforms continue to curtail organic reach, and as competition between

content producers heats up, many are turning to paid content distribution. A
research study by Contently indicates the majority now agrees paid content is
critical. 48
Social Media Native Advertising
Advertising
Many online publishers offer native advertising, giving you an
opportunity to publish your content in their publication. Though
your content will be “branded,” it will largely match the look and
feel of the non-sponsored content, hence the name “native.”
In most cases, native advertising is mixed in with standard

content; however, some publishers create specific sections for
the content. While native advertising is seldom a low-cost
endeavor, it will afford you the opportunity to put your content
before a large and highly targeted audience.

49
Social Media Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Advertising
Google AdWords
Google’s well-established pay-per-click program is the most well known
and used. With PPC advertising, you select relevant keywords and pay a
given amount each time your ad is clicked. Traditionally, PPC ads aim at
driving traffic to product pages, but content marketers find it useful for
promoting content. Beyond Google, PPC options are available, including
Bing Ads from Microsoft and Yahoo! Advertising.
Paid Content Discovery Services

Companies including Outbrain, Taboola, and Adblade offer services that
distribute your content on a network of member websites. The programs
are pay-per-click.
Retargeting
Retargeting (also know as remarketing) is a PPC option that tracks your
website visitors and presents your ads to them as they browse the web.
You pay per click. Retargeting’s effectiveness traces to its ability to re-
engage ready-to-buy window shoppers.

50
Content Earned Media
Amplification
You're doing something right when you earn media. You’re not only
getting exposure you didn’t have to pay for, you’re enjoying a trust level
“Earned media is one of the that owned or paid media cannot deliver.
most cost-effective ways to In short, earned media is one of the most effective ways to generate leads,
raise brand awareness and, increase brand awareness and earn web traffic from online media outlets.
if done well, increase sales. Earned media is generally the result of being included in some way on
Word-of-mouth has been other companies’ websites, blogs, and social media channels. You make it
shown to be much more happen with a combination of content marketing and digital PR.
effective than paid media, The challenge lies in attracting the interest of gatekeepers such as
which is why earned media influencers, media makers, and fans.
is a crucial part of gaining
Let’s explore some strategies to earn media.
authority for your content
efforts.”
— Gini Dietrich, author of Spin Sucks

51
Amplification
Guest blogging—Contributing blog posts to other web properties is a
highly effective tactic for expanding your reach. Though your content may
be edited, guest blogging tends to provide you far more control over the
content as compared to other earned media strategies.
Syndication—Online publishers are hungry for content. You can help

yourself and the publisher if you’re able to offer a steady stream of quality
content to satisfy a syndication arrangement. Syndication can be a
beneficial as guest posting, but it’s less work because you won’t need to
produce original or “first run” posts.
Search—The most effective content marketers understand the infinite

power of building a presence on search engines. Search engines award
you rankings based on the quality of your content and slew of ranking
factors including the links your online assets earn. Make it a priority to
understand how SEO works and earn your place as a destination for
respected content.

52
Amplification
Social—Building a social media following is key to earning media
mentions. The right earned media placements fuel meaningful
conversation in social media and drive traffic to your online properties.
The goal is to earn fans and advocates. Because social media relationships
are often largely reciprocal, you’ll likely earn more mentions and shares
when you actively do the same for others.
Influencers—Influencer marketing is the practice of getting leaders in

your field, or even celebrities, to vouch for your brand and its content.
Influencer marketing captures consumers’ natural inclination to turn to
trusted people in their circle for recommendations. A study by eMarketer
found that half of marketers in the U.S. plan to ramp up budget for
influencer-focused campaigns in 2017.

53
Amplification
You can establish relationships with influencers through both paid and
“earned” arrangements. In both cases, three strategic steps are required:
“By working closely with
well-matched Identify influencers— Begin by identifying which influencers may be a
good fit. Consider the influencer’s industry expertise, likeability,
influencers, brands can dependability, audience, and values. There are many tools and services
get feedback on what that can help you discover potential partners based on your needs.
products and messages Engage influencers—Engage the influencers you select with an
specifically resonate introductory email or by contracting with an influencer agency. Some
most with their ideal influencers prefer dedicated projects, such as the creation of blog series.
Others prefer to become an integral part of your efforts on an ongoing
customers.”  basis, which may include a retainer agreement.
— Jay Baer, excerpt from Paid   Measure KPIs—Establish a measurement system to determine if the
& Earned: The Two Sides of   influencer partnership is meeting your agreed key performance indicators
Influencer Marketing (KPIs). Common influencer marketing KPIs include campaign views,
impressions, reach, clicks-through rates, and cost per engagement.

54
Social Media  Advocacy: Extra Media Magic
Advertising
A commonly overlooked and underutilized content promotion strategy is
employee and customer advocacy. Employees are your ultimate content
promoters, especially if they work directly with customers. Getting them to
help with word-of-mouth branding out of genuine interest says much to
your audience.
New Prospects
Current Prospects
Current Customers
Employees
FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR   Amplify your content from the inside out. Start with employees and move to
BROKEN CONTENT MARKETING customers, then prospects. These groups are the most likely to share your
content and provide the momentum and social proof effective amplification
efforts require. 55
Conclusion Create More Customers and  
Keep the Ones You’ve Already Earned
Learn more about Convince & Convert Corporate Consulting:
‣ info@convinceandconvert.com
‣ www.convinceandconvert.com
‣ (602) 616-1895

56

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Four Ways to Fix Your

Broken Content Marketing

THE THOUGHTFUL MARKETER’S GUIDE

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR

The dream goes something like this:

Set yourself up with a blog, publish helpful insights relative to

Offhand, I can think of exactly zero business niches in which it’s

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR

• Unless you achieve royalty and loyalty in your territory,

• The “first mover advantage” has passed by nearly every brand

• The supply of content outpaces the demand by gazillions.

• The proliferation of media channels is crazy.

• Most content is not shared or linked to—at least to any

• Most content marketers are frustrated with their results.

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR

50 % < 2 Facebook Interactions

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR

Here's how B2B content marketers characterize the success of

3% Extremely Successful 22% Minimally Successful

19% Very Successful 3% Not At All Successful

53% Moderately Successful

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR

LET’S TAKE A LOOK!

“If your content solely talks about your company, its

— Jay Baer, author of Youtility

Effective content marketing is about the consumer:

When they’re surfing their social channels, they want to learn

So when might they want to consume content about a

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR

—Ardath Albee, author of Digital

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR

‣ Interview Salespeople—Salespeople want better

‣ Interview Customer Support People—Pick the

‣ Interview Customers—Go directly to the source.

‣ Do Online Research—You can validate, and

‣ Purchase Existing Research—In some cases, you’ll

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR

‣ Website Analytics—The data mined from your

‣ Email Analytics—Leverage insights into current

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR

‣ Social Media Audience Insights—Social media

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR

When analyzing everything compiled, remember to place

For example, if we were a law enforcement agency, we may see

‣ Filter and select the most salient data points that

‣ Normalize date ranges.

‣ Consider “blips” caused by seasonality, news

‣ Get a second set of eyes on the data —

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR

‣ “We believe millennials are a good audience for us to

‣ “We think we’re losing business to the competition

Keep in mind: the goal isn’t to have as many audiences as

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR

To find your audience segments, dig deeper into the information

‣ “We know that some millennials already own a house, but

‣ “A major segment within our audience are realtors and

These personas will help content strategists and creators make

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

Effective content marketing is about the consumer:  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

‣ Get a second set of eyes on the data — 

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  

FOUR WAYS TO FIX YOUR  