s11s

Interesting observations.

I have seen a lot of LinkedIn Influencers having followership more than 100,000+ and still less than 100 reacts on their posts.

Thoughts?

it happens, content reach and impressions are not directly connected to number of followers

Its amazing how much thought is put into this entire process. 

Almost drilled it down to a formula. 

It seems like a full time to job to work and manage this. 
How do you get anything else done? Or is this your full time engagement?

<@U02UMCVUFGT> It helps when your job is directly related to content or social media — doesn’t feel like work. Also if you’re a BDR/SDR — then LinkedIn is your bread and butter.

<@U02UMCVUFGT> Yes it seems like a full time job. But once in flow this can be in an hour a day

<https://s11s.slack.com/archives/C02SN04FX4K/p1645113633706349>

Might help?

Wordpress for CMS. We are currently using webflow...easy for website edits but with very limited capabilities.

WordPress, anyday. It's way easier to use than any other CMS out there and I've used 4 of them, including Webflow.

If you have experience with CMS then Webflow, but if you want simple easy to use, then WordPress.

Webflow CMS for website pages at scale
Wordpress as CMS for blog

If you have dev support, then I’d recommend to go with <https://statamic.com/>

WordPress anyday with a good hosting plan

What are the best bottom of the funnel content examples/samples/collaterals that you'd recommend? Do share links wherever possible!

State Of Content Marketing 2022.pdf

Insightful. Might be helpful for other fellow content marketing enthusiast

Jayant, I think your distribution channels will get determined by the industry/customer behaviour. If I tell you write articles for <http://adweek.com|adweek.com>, it may not make any sense if your customers don't lurk around there. I've seen that the best answer to this question only your customers can give you as in what sites they hang out on, which groups do they participate in, which newsletters do they subscribe and so on. Sorry for a generic answer but I truly believe that is the best approach.

To add to that you can look for such target websites using a tool like <http://sparktoro.com|sparktoro.com>, which allows you to discover websites where people of certain interests hang out. You can also use google display planner to identify placements with certain interests. Then just reach out to them, find a mutual fit, write for them, analyse results. Rinse and repeat.

Thanks a lot for the elaborate response Aniruddh. This definitely gives me a starting point. Appreciated.

+1 <@U02USELSBRT>. The nature and distribution of your content doesn’t depend on which industry you’re in but which industry you serve. So we will be better equipped to answer if we know which industry your clients are in.

But best advice would be to ask your clients. They’d be the best people to tell you. think of your best client. Where are they the most active? What do they do when they’re not working? Which blogs do they read? Which newsletters/influencers do they religiously follow? You’ll get your answer when you answer such questions

One trick I use…. look at backlinks of my closest competitors

<@U02UZQJMP8R> - Agree! Easiest and fastest method to find distribution opportunities.

1. Find the backlink of competitor article 
2. Do facebook and linkedin paid post boost 
3. Submitting article in relevant subreddits

1. SEO Tool
    a. Since you're doing it in-house, even if you end up getting data from multiple sources, having one tool to standardise your search volume metrics will be helpful down the line.(everything is inaccurate but at least you get comparative data)
    b. Compare some of the common tools for keyword data in your industry. Eg: For one company, Moz was better, for another SEMRush was better.
2. Competitor analysis:
    a. For at least the US, I've seen SpyFu work the best.
    b. Your primary tool will also have competitive data, so use that as well.
3. Grammar/editor
    a. No comments here since I haven't tested too many tools.
    b. You can also consider using tools like Surfer for SEO alignment or <http://Jenni.ai|Jenni.ai> for AI based research.
4. Project management:
    a. I've seen a lot of companies complaint that having a different project/workflow management tool is really causing a lot of issues in cross team collaboration. I would try using whatever you have before trying something new.
    b. A simple Google sheet with good processes apart from whatever you use has worked for all the companies I've seen.
    c. Consider non-SEO distribution channels and thus stakeholders when creating this channel.
Note: Don't try to make every piece of content needs to rank organically. There are a lot of other uses for content. Identity which content pieces are for organic channel ONLY, vs which are for other channels only vs which are for a mix of two. Eventually this is what defines what kind of ROI you may get.

Note 2: Usually highest SQL generating content are not blogs/ebooks/guides. Make sure you have some flexibility to create other pages like software page duplicates and micro tools when you find a great opportunity in your keyword research process.

Ahrefs + MarketMuse + Asana + Canva + Grammarly + Hemingway.

Don’t overthink it.

Ahrefs+asana+canva+grammarly

More tools will complicate things I would say

We are using
Ahrefs + Keywords everywhere + basecamp + Canva + Grammarly

For SEO, the most cost effective tool would be SE Ranking + Asana/Trello would be good

This is what ours looked like:
SEO : SEMrush. (You can go with Ahref though it's tad bit costlier but you get what you pay for.)
Task management : Height
Editing : Grammarly, Hemingway
Canva for making title cards infographs etc

Each person in the marketing team is trained and aligned together for us

for distribution specifically or any other broader areas as well?

<@U031QKGPNRK> just for distributing the press release.

one of the SEO agencies we interviewed last year mentioned this <https://www.prunderground.com/howitworks/> when talking about backlinking/pr linking. so you might want to check it out

EINPresswire is good, competitive pricing.

We use <https://www.prnewswire.com/|https://www.prnewswire.com/>, quite happy with it

Very useful document :slightly_smiling_face:
<https://www.animalz.co/blog/benchmark-report-2021/>

We tried them for a few paid samples and  the quality of the content was bad.

We are now working with content ninja and they are considerably better.

Yes, very bad content. Stopped after trial.

I didnt have a great experience either. I can see their type of content work for product descriptions/technical content which is scalable

but anything around thought leadership, or deep value, I will be super wary.

Same experience as others. Tried working on a few thought leadership and industry expertise articles. Didn't fare well. Very superficial output even after sharing very detailed content brief.

Hey,
I think this is the second time on this channel  discussion about bad quality of content is happening. I would like to know what all things do you guys look for in a good piece of content

Here are few things that already pointed out
1. Deep Value 
2. In- depth 
3. well researched 
Anything else?

I badly need writers who write Skimmable content, as converational as possible. It is easier said than done

1) well researched, with citations preferably
2) Conversational
3) Avoid being prosy
4) The complexity of language being used should mirror your target audience's language comprehension ideally.
5) Avoid buzzwords. Instead, provide practical examples to drive the point home.
6) Avoid being long-winded. 
7) Answer as many queries as possible while staying on the topic. 

Edit: added 2 more points.

Not a good experience. Dropped them after sample. PR and Sales hype their standard so much. From my understanding, it’s great for quick, low quality, B2C SEO listicles. 

SaaS companies with complex products, workflows, with a professional, niche audience will not prefer it. We’d used YellowSeed— good content briefs but too many draft edits.

Similar experience, but currently been just 2 months have been using their services. Only using them for low quality backlink focussed content, that's it

Yup.
&gt; Similar experience, but currently been just 2 months have been using their services. Only using them for low quality backlink focussed content, that’s it
Exactly this

Yeah not a great experience with Pepper Content either!
You can check out Lexicon, they did a pretty good job in delivering good content after 1-2 rounds of feedback.

What's the cost per word you guys have been paying them?

Curious to know where we stand :slightly_smiling_face:

<https://www.semrush.com/academy/courses/content-led-seo-course-with-brian-dean>

Seems a good course to take!

haven't seen any crushing the game to be honest. there are b2c companies crushing it but none in saas.

<http://Monday.com|Monday.com> - crushing it

Two examples from VWO:

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFUIV1cV58U>
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO0jlbLcmns>

This is a nice blog with a good collection of CT videos, breakdowns and how-to guides: <https://www.laudable.com/blog>

Ryan gives so much value in all of his posts.

On the distribution end checkout everything FoundationInc blog has to offer

Even Animalz case studies are good. Apart from it Semrush is my go to place for learning anything content marketing.

Noted. Thanks gang! <@U033RUXVCAY> <@U02PDC6B0HH> <@U02UGB8DERY> 

<@U030N8RHURZ> Please do share all the other good reads you come across in your research

I have used a couple of them from appsumo, but nothing that can be used directly in a campaign without tweaks. I currently use it to get some inspiration for ad copies while starting the process.

I use <http://copy.ai|copy.ai> but only as thought starters. Nothing more.

<http://Copy.ai|Copy.ai> is good for generating rough drafts and working on ideas. But you'd definitely need to sit and put in work to make it anything worthwhile.

image.png

Have seen these all on TikTok and IG Reels.

Not sure who did it first.

CPB London: <https://www.creativeboom.com/news/ad-agency-cpb-london-launches-imagine-campaign-to-tackle-gender-bias/>

Great copy. This actually pushes you to check your biases

<@U033QDFML74> exactly and they're super efficient with their words. they drove home the point without writing huge debates/articles about what's wrong about us as a society.

10 year old HBR article stating this

Most marketers think that the best way to hold onto customers is through “engagement” — interacting as much as possible with them and building relationships. It turns out that that’s rarely true.

<https://hbr.org/2012/05/three-myths-about-customer-eng>

Bookmarked this several years ago:
<https://copyhackers.com/2017/08/saas-onboarding-email/>

this goes in <#C0318NH5G3C|> <@U030SNYHK6Y>

Hey Kiran, I think I can help. What do you want to know?

Can help with video B2B and B2C! Lemme know.

<@U033R6MA1DY> pls schedule your convenient time here <http://tripledart.com|tripledart.com>

Some tips I found helpful:

• keep the survey short (like 3-5 questions) if you want volume
• pre-qualify the visitors who can respond to the survey to keep the answers high quality and focused
• prefer to reduce respondents work as much as possible, so multiple choice questions over input text boxes, unless you really want the nuance that comes with a subjective reply
• keep the survey logical in flow. one question leads to the next
• don't ask leading questions, ever (like "Is this product good?" or "Why do you think this is a good product?" instead of asking "What is your opinion of the product?" or "In what scenarios would you use the product?"
for the rest, i co-worked on <https://vwo.com/ebooks/voice-of-customer-report-2020/|this ebook> sometime back, would be super useful, with tons of data-backed insights.

I’d recommend reading <https://manuelohan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/The-Mom-Test-en.pdf|The Mom Test> (pdf attached)

<@U031PPF9LTG> - please use threads. It is neater.

From B2b perspective too, large companies have sites in Espanol, Italian, and other global language based on geographies you cater to.

It's all based on the product, you are Marketing. FMCG and BFSI have made it big with Language -first communication, Source: Sharechat

Agreed with <@U031PPF9LTG>

For BFSI and D2C it works really well. Specially for North Indian marketings, using Hindi for TOFU content works well.
I have also seen ads performing better if they are in regional language than english.

So although a lot depends on the product and regions but on high level using vernacular languages get more engagement.

<@U033RUXVCAY> thanks for the insight on ad performance, have you found any vernacular ad networks that caters to this audience better?

Have you tried Sharechat Ads platform? it basically helps you reach language- first audience and you can use creatives in 10 Different Indic languages

ShareChat targeting is good in TTMK languages

Sorry I don’t have the link, but replying on the go

You can check out -
• woodpecker’s ebook of cold email examples
• Gong’s ebook - highly persuasive emails - pretty good
I think even if you tend to write the email nurtures for leads in your DB - you’ll still need some choppy inputs from resources like these :slightly_smiling_face:

Is this the one? <https://www.gong.io/content/sales-template-email/>

This one… and

<https://www.gong.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/11-Hyper-Persuasive-Sales-Email-Templates.pdf>

I think Outplay has an eBook on the same. cc: <@U037UUE6TV3>

<@U030KV8R8RL> Our eBook covers unedited sale sequences from Hubspot, G2, Drift &amp; more.

Here is what you can expect to read for 30 plus companies covered in the book -

- The primary goal of their sequence
- The structure of their sequence
- Success metrics for their campaign
- Individual sequence templates used at each step

*<https://outplayhq.com/ebook/real-sales-sequences>*

<@U02USELSBRT> thank you for the heads up!

would anyone know similar resources for B2C saas please :slightly_smiling_face:

<@U030SDYNX7V>, you should talk to folks at Mailmodo. <@U031MLA8NKC>

<@U030KV8R8RL> I would tell you to watch this youtube series. It is 10X valuable than any eBook you can read about Email Copywriting <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03yl7pJTUYo&amp;list=PLgZaQ3qgjgrGiJV3bQfpEf4utt1q-CtQM>

<https://slack.com/intl/en-in/help/articles/202528808-Search-in-Slack>

<@U038FBFLN2K> Most marketers worry about the _output_ (numbers, traffic, and conversions), and not enough about the _input_ (content quality, wow-factor, relevance, structure, and formats).

If you’ve just started a new content marketing role (or are revamping your old one), dedicate six months just to experimentation. Create your best work — work you actually enjoy making and consuming afterward — and publish it as often as you need to.

Don’t worry about the numbers at this point — that will only hold you back. This isn’t just a psychological hack to keep you focused — it’s also because it takes time for your content to get indexed and rank on Google, so tracking tiny changes to your traffic daily or weekly is unproductive. You’ll quickly get demotivated because you’re not getting results fast enough.

At this point, it’s a lot more important to track other signals of content _resonance:_
1. Are people leaving positive comments under your social posts? 
2. Are they replying to your email newsletters with feedback? 
3. Are they referencing your content in sales calls? 
4. Are they tagging their colleagues and friends in your content? 
5. Are you getting called onto other people’s podcasts to share your insights? 
These qualitative signals are much more indicative of content success than ‘traffic’ or ‘clicks.’

Of course, getting buy-in from your manager or team is key to run a content marketing playbook this way. If they want to see instant results from content marketing, tell them to experiment with paid social or PPC for faster results — if they have the budget for that — while you do the slow, ongoing work of organic content marketing.

To answer your question, content _can_ play into both brand and performance marketing, depending on how fast you need results. For the former, you need time and creative freedom. For the latter, you just need money for ads. Of course, you can run both at the same time to support your overall marketing efforts.

Over and above everything else, I try to focus marketers (content or otherwise) on business impact.
It's well and good to have a 10000% conversion rate on something but if it didn't have business impact it doesn't mean much.

So whatever the actual job is, I try to have people think about:

a. What the intended outcome is from a biz perspective (eg leads) and in what time frame?
Treating everything like a hypothesis helps (ie If I do x, I expect to see y, measured by z)

b. What did it cost to achieve those outcomes in that timeframe?
You can get results but you have to do it in a cost-effective manner for the biz to succeed.

The problem with the "don't worry about numbers" philosophy is that it lacks context.
There is always a certain minimum of biz results that have to be achieved no matter what for you to then say that for x kind of activity don't worry about numbers.
I think people miss out on that necessary foundation on which you build out a lot of these less measurable type activities.

1. If you are a content marketer, you will be focussing on  input metrics as <@U02VDMMC2Q5> mentioned. 
2. On the other hand, as  a overall marketing team you would focus on output metrics, around traffic but also the user interaction with your content, time spent, next action, did people who signed up and became MQL, SQL, Customer interact with your content etc. This would involve instrumentation and user journey analytics. 

<@U02VDMMC2Q5> that was brilliant. Thanks so much. Really appreciate the long, thoughtful reply.

Interesting take <@U032MN1BESJ>. However, the challenge is that its difficult to map out the exact role that your content played in business decisions.

For me, Direct Response Content and Brand Content are different things. Direct Response content can be measured. But you can never measure the impact of a blog, that was written 8 months ago that impacted the CEO of a start-up, to buy your solution today. its next to impossible to attribute the sale to that.

Good content increases the likelihood that your business will get results. But mapping it is difficult IMO.

<@U038FBFLN2K> This is why I said all of these conversations need context.
At an early stage startup you cannot afford to do less measurable activities - the startup will die/not make its next round of funding.

The reason you do direct response stuff early is because it is measurable and feeds the engine by building in predictability.
At a certain point, the marginal returns of this work will decrease and you have to move higher in the funnel to more nurturing activities - but the systems and processes you build to measure effectiveness of direct response stuff helps you understand how to  evaluate higher in the funnel activities.
(Even here when its difficult, you can get directional info by simply asking your leads what tipped them over - it works very well)

Only when these efforts mature does it even make sense to build broad awareness that have limited ways of measuring them.

So again, it's very important to match the playbook to the stage, which means understanding whether you need to build a foundation first or whether you're building on a foundation.

makes sense <@U032MN1BESJ>.I really appreciate the thoughtful responses

My favorite is <https://www.notboring.co/|Not Boring by Packy McCormick>. covers business strategy and trends. love his deep dives on startups.

Love Sairam’s CMO Journal! :)
<https://thecmojournal.substack.com/|https://thecmojournal.substack.com/>

<@U0325QQQALR> good recco. I admire his vulnerability when sharing. #MadeInIndia

Here are a few I read along with the ones already mentioned

<https://latecheckout.substack.com/>
<https://turnaround.substack.com/>
<https://thesaasplaybook.substack.com/>
<https://stratechery.com/>
<https://saassatire.substack.com/> (I would not be doing justice to SaaS if I don’t mention this one :smile:)

Missed this one - <https://every.to/superorganizers>

Okay one more. Last one :see_no_evil: - <https://every.to/napkin-math>

The one I loved the most from them is this one - <https://every.to/napkin-math/product-led-growth-s-failure>

This one is surely last. I feel like I spend a lot of time reading :see_no_evil:

<https://join.trends.vc/>

• Cole Schafer's Honey Copy
• Jay Acunzo's Playing Favorites
• <@U02TTEFFU6B>'s occasional Figuring It Out
• Sairam Krishnan's CMO Journal
• Dr.Fio's Content Folks
• Kushaan Shah's Marketing Mind Meld 
• Dave Harland's The Word
• Dan Nelken's A Self-help Guide for Creatives 
• Salman Ansari's Quick Brown Fox
• Ash Lamb's Visual Ideas
• Sophie Cross's Make It Monday
• Emma Stratton's That's Punchy
• The Oatmeal
• Nicole Tabak's Social Media Detox 
• Nick Parker's Tone Knob

Lenny is just too good to miss for PMs! Also good thread over here!

This thread is gold. Thanks for the shares.

I love Toplyne’s emails. So conversational and has a lot of good value 

Hello everyone! I am glad to join this wonderful community. I'm Dishant, co-founder of Prodraft which is purely a content writing agency. You can find more about it at <http://prodraft.in|prodraft.in>. Looking forward to gaining &amp; share knowledge.

NYT always does a great job.
Latest example: <https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/12/29/us/2021-year-in-graphics.html> (but scroll down to see all others)

Dan Benoni is my absolute fav

Check this out: <https://growth.design/case-studies/duolingo-user-retention>