Yesterday, I went to a digital marketing conference in Columbus called interact19. I’ve been to several conferences before and I can honestly say this was one of the best I’ve attended. Every presentation and speaker was filled with actionable knowledge that I could take back and apply to my workplace. So many of the tips were practical and cost-effective, requiring just time and skill.
I’m starting a new job later this month and in my interview, my future manager asked if I knew anything about Voice Search and I said I wasn’t that familiar with it and needed to do more research about it. Well at this conference, two of the speakers talked in-depth about the state of voice search, how to use it and where it’s going in the future. Now, I have practical information I can tell my new boss about how we should be using voice search. By attending, I learned something I can apply in my job and I can show that I’m staying up to date on marketing trends and best practices.
I definitely would recommend this conference and want to go back next year. I’m grateful to Volunteers of America for making it possible for me to attend.
I want to share what I took away from each session at yesterday’s conference:
Opening + Morning Keynote: Be Mighty by John Fimiani
- Unify around the brand promise
- Best Buy was able to turn around their business by focusing on human relationships and creating human experiences
- It’s more important to be human than it is to sell.
- The University of Oregon was able to redefine themselves by investing in simple branding and aligning around a purpose. Now everyone knows that Oregon Football = Faster.
The 1% Content Strategy: Combining the top SEO and lead gen tactics to statistically beat 99% of content programs by Andy Crestodina
- People link to helpful blog posts
- When people link to your blog, that causes page authority and is link building
- Publish your mission
- Our content is where [audience] gets [information] that offers [benefits]
- Content mission formula :Where __ find ___ for ____
- Our content is where moms get tips on how to save money
- Marketers are more successful when they have a content mission statement.
- Answer the webpage visitor’s question “Why am I here?” Why is your visitor on your page? Spell it out on your webpage.
- Your email sign up link should be
- Prominent- big and on every page
- Promising – what will they get when they sign up?
- Proof- how many current subscribers are there?
- CTA- Sign Me Up
- Your social bio is your promise to your followers
- Our content is where [audience] gets [information] that offers [benefits]
- Find topics they’ll love
- What does my audience want?
- Data-driven empathy
- Use Google autocomplete
- “Audience” ______
- Use keyword tool: www.keywordtool.io to find relevant keywords and blog ideas
- Use https://answerthepublic.com/ tool
- Use https://www.quora.com/ tool
- Make a list of topic ideas, sorted from least detailed to most detailed
- High-level list posts
- Overview of a specific topic
- In-depth detailed posts
- What does my audience want?
- Create Original Research
- Well-researched and evidenced content
- Original research gets linked to the most
- It’s like a citation used in a bibliography
- Observation: you’re contributing to the conversation
- Survey: gather new data
- What are the assumptions in your industry that are lacking data?
- 10x effort = 100x results
- Spend more time creating better quality blogs
- Don’t take shortcuts. They take too long.
- Most successful content creators:
- Write 2,000+ word articles
- Publish more than weekly
- Spend 6+ hours per article
- Write guest posts
- Publish original research
- Collaborate with influencers
- Add videos to articles
- Write for your prospects
- What questions is your audience asking?
- Create content that answers their questions.
- Talk to other people in your organization to find these FAQ
- Upgrade the visuals
- Infographics, diagrams, graphs, memes
- Let’s turn our top _____ into ______
- Let’s turn our top blog post into a video
- Testimonials using your keywords are gold
- Test email subject lines on social
- Update, repurpose high performing content
- Collaborate with influencers
- Influencers who link to your website is gold
- To find influencers search “your topic” + “blogger” “writer” “author”
- Use https://followerwonk.com/ tool
- Use https://buzzsumo.com/ tool
- Work with influencers for
- Deep dive interview
- People love to be interviewed
- They’ll be flattered
- Use their quote in your blog
- Include the influencer in your content
- Single Point of View content is a thing of the past. Think of it, a news article would never use just one source. You should use multiple sources too.
- Use a headshot with their quote
- Deep dive interview
- Write for other websites
- Guest blog, collaborate
- Write an article for them, send it to them.
- “Here I wrote this for you. Here you go.”
- Pitch to podcast hosts
- Repurpose How-To articles into How-Not-To articles to be published on other websites
Research who is linking to your site.
Research how many links your competitors have.
If you make content that’s Mission Driven, Research Anchored, Influencer Powered, and PR Focused, you’ll be in the 1%
| Search | Social |
| Long form text | Compelling visuals |
| Answers questions | Triggers emotion |
| Meets expectations | Unexpected |
| 😬 | 😐 |
| Looking, hunting | Unplanned, waiting |
| Expert quotes | influencers |
Growth by Content: Driving Massive Traffic Without a Big Budget by Nadya Khoja
- Content marketing is easier and cheaper than buying social ads
- Goals
- Set multiple specific goals, like high domain authority, more traffic, higher conversions
- One piece of content will not meet all of these goals. You need to create content for each goal.
- One content per goal, not one content all goals
- You can’t just brainstorm fun ideas to write about.
- Goal: Domain authority (your site’s reputation and credibility)
- Make viral, editorial content
- Goal: Conversions
- Make how-to content
- Goal: Traffic
- Make inspirational content that will rank for long tail keywords
- One in-depth content piece for many keywords
- Publish new information and data
- Research
- You don’t have to write ALL the things
- Start with keyword research
- Make content that’s connected to your landing page (or pillar page) that meets your goals
- Make a spreadsheet with
- Search term categories (Words) Your Pillar Term
- Average monthly searches (#)
- Difficulty (High, Medium, Low)
- Keywords related to categories
- Search terms
- Authority
- Get high-quality backlinks, focus on link building
- Guest blogging can help you get backlinks and authority
- Use https://ahrefs.com/ SEO tool
- Use https://mailshake.com/ to send a pitch email to ask for links
- “Hey, can I give you something if you link to us?”
- Build relationships
- Offer value in your outreach, give them something
- Find content that already mentions the keyword you want to rank for. If they don’t have that keyword linked, email them and ask
- Cold outreach has about a 3-5% success rate
- Don’t sound like a robot in your cold emails, be yourself
- Link building is a long term strategy
- Promotion
- 80% time spent on promoting content and 20% of time spent creating
The Future of Voice and Its Impact on Content by Adam Deardurff
- Alexa, Siri, Google Now, Cortana, Bixby
- Most people use voice for Music, Weather, Fun Questions, Search, Alarms, News, Calls
- Google serves up Position Zero aka Featured Snippet in voice searches
- How to get a featured snippet
- Research FAQ and common searches
- Answer FAQs on your website
- Use schema.org markup
- Follow baseline SEO best practices
- Have a Google My Business page
- Podcasts are growing, especially among ages 12-24 years
- Consider hosting an internal podcast for employees
- How to leverage podcasts
- Understand your audience
- Explore podcast advertising networks
- Reach out directly to targeted podcasts
- Start creating your own
- Be a guest on a podcast
- Start talking to your voice speaker. Learn about its capabilities
- Get specific with your content. Be the Waldo.
- Get your product audible
- Podcast ads
- Influencer marketing
- Give your people a voice
- Highlight top employees and corporate culture
- Accessibility and security
Five Hot Digital Marketing Trends and How They Impact You by Pam Didner
- Voice search
- Optimize text and voice search for how you talk
- Longer inquiries, shorter answers
- Use local search like Google My Business
- Voice is another form of content
- Explore questions that are likely to be asked
- Put voice search and voice content in your annual marketing plan
- Look into Alexa for Business and Google Home for Business
- Add intelligence to products
- Voice controlled microwave
- Smart plugs to make basic appliances smart
- Product Personalization
- AI
- Using AI for lead gens, follow-ups and chatbots
- Marketing fundamentals haven’t changed
How to Be Remarkable: The Unusual Yet Proven Path to Marketing Success by
Andrew & Pete
- 90% of your effort should be on doing something remarkably well
- 10% should be spent experimenting
-
Posting something is not better than nothing
- A successful blogger, SEO pro only has 50 blog posts but generates 200,000 page views
- He writes long pieces
- He only makes a new blog when he’s happy with his current blog’s page rankings
- People who spread themselves thin don’t win
- You don’t need to be on every platform
- You can’t do everything well
- Do one thing remarkably well
- Make relatable content
- Lean into the reaction spikes you see.
- Do more of what’s working
- Listen to your audience and give them what they want.
- Reallocate your efforts
- Readjust your strategy based on where your audience is moving
- A brand moved from Snapchat to Instagram Stories
- It’s scary to drop a channel or stop doing something but data will guide your decision
- Consistency
- YouTubers promise new content weekly “new videos every Tuesday” giving their audience a reason to come back
- Create fun content
- Do you enjoy marketing?
- Find the Fun
Debbie Gillum Wakefield 