Content That Grows: Recent Episodes
Ten Speed
Welcome to the Content That Grows podcast by Ten Speed, where we discuss the strategies and tactics that make the top content marketing programs successful. Here you’ll find interviews with our experienced team members and various in-house content leaders aimed at providing you with the most relevant advice in marketing, today.
In this episode, Nate and Ryan discuss the challenges of navigating between the advice given by influencers and the reality of working in-house. They explore the need to discern between valuable advice and unrealistic expectations, as well as the importance of balancing done versus perfect.
They also provide practical tips for dealing with the influx of advice, such as unfollowing absolutists, saving ideas for future reference, and getting buy-in for new ideas.
- 03:02 The Challenge of Balancing Advice and Reality
- 07:06 Navigating the Noise: Ignoring Absolutists
- 09:57 Getting Buy-In for New Ideas: Setting Expectations
- 21:03 Getting Buy-In for New Ideas: Finding Allies
- 24:09 Testing and Revisiting Ideas: Adapting to Change
In this episode, Nate Turner interviews Michael Goldberg, Director of Content Strategy at Freshworks, about multimedia storytelling and creating content for specific segments and personas.
Michael emphasizes the importance of understanding the audience and their needs when creating content. He shares his experience in tailoring content for different audiences, such as marketers, data scientists, and engineers.
Michael advises building strong relationships with product and sales teams to gain insights and create targeted content.
- 09:14 Focusing on the Outcome, Not the Features
- 13:59 Practical Tips for Getting Started with Multimedia Storytelling
- 26:32 The Shift to Being a Content Producer
In this episode, Nate and Kevin discuss the concept of content decay and how it has evolved in 2024. They highlight the factors that contribute to content decay, explore the impact of AI overviews on content decay, and provide insights on how to properly address and fix content decay.
- 04:13 Old Factors and New Factors
- 10:59 Addressing Content Decay
- 14:55 Optimizing for SERP Features
- 28:35 Differentiating Content for a Better User Experience
Note: Unfortunately, the audio quality of this episode is poor. The discussion and insights from Kevin are valuable and worth a listen, or reading of the transcript, so we hope you can get past the low-quality audio and still take something away from it.
In this episode, Nate Turner and Kevin McLaughlin discuss Kevin's experience creating and distributing data reports for Bluevine. The report, called the Business Owner Success Survey (BOSS), focused on small business success and included insights on market sentiment, spending habits, and decision-making.
The report was distributed through various channels, including email, social media, and a drip marketing campaign. The format of the report was initially interactive, but there are plans to create a static PDF version as well.
In this episode, Nate and Ryan discuss how to establish an editorial process that gets consistent results. They emphasize the importance of focusing on the post-writing phase of content creation and highlight the need for processes and systems to scale up content production.
They also discuss the importance of involving the right stakeholders at the right times and creating a single source of truth for consistent content.
- 06:03 Flexibility and Bend-Don't-Break Processes
- 10:57 Conceptual Edits before Line Edits
- 15:24 Creating a Single Source of Truth
- 29:05 Planning Ahead and Building a Buffer
In this episode, Nate and Kevin discuss the seven most common technical SEO issues. They cover topics such as website speed, mobile-friendliness, indexation issues, site structure, schema markup, and duplicate content. They also touch on three less common issues: improper localization, reverse proxy, and legacy scripts.
0:57 Website is too slow
4:52 Website is not mobile friendly
8:03 Indexation issues
12:10 Site structure
15:24 Internal linking
19:15 Schema markup
21:08 Duplicate/similar content
24:30 Three Honorable Mention Issues
In this conversation, Nate and Ben discuss the differences in content strategy between SMB and mid-market/enterprise companies. Ben shares his experience transitioning from a VP of Marketing role to a Director of Content Marketing role and the decision to focus on content leadership.
They explore the challenges of targeting mid-market and enterprise companies, such as the higher cost of the product and the need to convince the C-suite. Ben emphasizes the importance of community and expert-driven content, as well as the need for multiple pathways to convert website visitors.
07:02 Differences in Content Strategy: SMB vs. Mid-Market/Enterprise 14:12 Multiple Pathways to Conversion: Engaging Website Visitors 27:41 Finding Connectors and Guides: Navigating the New Market Segment
In this episode, Nate and Ryan discuss the concept of authority content and its importance in content marketing strategies. They define authority content as content that drives brand authority, influences a specific audience, and contributes to an industry or community.
They emphasize that authority content is different from SEO content, which is designed to drive traffic and conversions from organic search.
04:53 Elements of Good Authority Content
09:48 The Importance of Having a Strong Belief and Perspective
24:34 Exploring Distribution Channels for Authority Content
In this episode, Nate and Kevin discuss the elements of a comprehensive organic growth strategy. They emphasize the importance of understanding the ideal customer persona (ICP) and how they buy, as well as having deep knowledge of the products or services being offered.
They also highlight the significance of competitive analysis, technical foundation, evaluating organic search opportunity, thought leadership, and distribution in a successful organic growth strategy.
- 10:39 The Importance of Competitive Analysis
15:08 Building a Strong Technical Foundation
26:24 Thought Leadership and its Role in the Strategy
30:40 The Significance of Distribution
37:13 Continuous Adaptation and Staying Up-to-Date
In this episode, Nate Turner and Ryan Sargent discuss how to get the most out of a research report. They define a research report as a long-form written piece of content based on original data, such as first-party data or data collected through surveys. They highlight the benefits of research reports, including the ability to add something unique to the conversation, establish brand authority, and drive backlinks.
01:08 Defining a Research Report
07:36 Planning and Structuring a Research Report
13:32 Distribution Strategies for Research Reports
24:29 Repurposing Research Reports
30:35 Long-Term Impact of Research Reports
In this episode, Nate Turner and Kamil Rextin discuss the differences between demand generation and brand awareness in marketing. They explore the importance of aligning on definitions and metrics, as well as the need to focus on both the top and middle of the marketing funnel. They also emphasize the significance of revenue operations (rev ops) in ensuring accurate measurement and performance tracking.
Overall, the conversation highlights the need for marketers to prioritize business outcomes and avoid getting caught up in semantics or overcomplicating marketing strategies.
In this episode, Nate Turner and Kevin King discuss the 11 most common site migration issues when moving to a new CMS.
They cover topics such as internal redirect chains, no index tags left on, staging site getting indexed, canonical URL issues, URL structure changes leading to 404s, page speed and site performance declines, metadata loss, image issues, header tags and content formatting, site maps not updated, and JavaScript and tracking codes.
In this episode, Nate Turner interviews Josh Palmer, the Head of Content for OnBoard, a board governance and collaboration platform. They discuss the growth of OnBoard over the past 12 to 24 months, with a focus on shifting from paid to organic traffic. They also explore the importance of building on an SEO foundation and expanding beyond traditional content marketing.
Takeaways
- Shifting from paid to organic traffic can lead to more sustainable and efficient growth
- Building on an SEO foundation is crucial for content marketing success
- Internal marketing is essential for ensuring that content assets are utilized effectively within the organization
- Understanding the customer and product is key to developing targeted and impactful content
- Marketers should strive to have a business mindset and understand the broader context of their organization.
Chapters
00:36 Overview of OnBoard and Growth
04:11 Benefits of Organic Growth
08:03 Expanding Beyond SEO
10:50 Progression of Content Marketing
13:34 Content as Fuel
15:38 Internal Marketing and Content Promotion
26:12 Adapting Plans and Building Momentum
34:26 Importance of Business Context for Marketers
In this episode, Nate Turner and Ryan Sargent discuss the importance of content briefs in creating quality content. They explain that content briefs provide guidance and information to writers, ensuring that they understand what is expected from the content.The conversation highlights the components of a good brief, including the purpose of the content, style guide preferences, and subject matter expertise. They also discuss the pitfalls of relying solely on AI-generated briefs and emphasize the value of detailed briefs for success. Takeaways:* Content briefs are essential for providing guidance and information to writers, ensuring the creation of quality content. * A good content brief includes the purpose of the content, style guide preferences, and subject matter expertise. * AI-generated briefs may lack originality and fail to differentiate content. * Detailed briefs with specific instructions lead to successful content creation. * Content briefs are valuable for both external contractors and internal writing teams.
Chapters:
00:46 What is a Content Brief?
01:16 Importance of Content Briefs
02:22 Components of a Good Brief
04:21 Style Guide in Briefs
05:22 Subject Matter Expertise in Briefs
08:14 Additional Elements in Briefs
11:26 The Pitfalls of AI-generated Briefs
15:09 Detailed Briefs for Success
16:55 Briefs for Internal Writing Teams
18:17 The Importance of Introductions in Briefs
In this episode, Nate & Kevin talk about several ways that B2B content teams drift from being aligned with business impact, why it matters, and what marketing leaders can do to resolve these issues.
Key moments in the conversation:
2:40 - Workflows bottlenecked with too many people involved
8:05 - Investment cases being made but not shared
10:55 - B2B content marketing is expected to drive growth
15:45 - Mindset needed to drive growth
22:07 - Creating content on topics your competitors already cover
28:00 - Leverage reporting to drive alignment across the company
On this week's episode of Content That Grows, Nate is joined by Alli Tunell, Director of Strategy at Sweet Fish, who talked about her approach to modernizing the content playbook.
In this episode, Alli shares why she believes there is a genuine desire for a change from the old content playbooks, how the team at Sweet Fish uses a podcast-forward approach to lay out the overall content strategy, and how to approach podcast experimentation.
Key moments in the conversation:
5:50 - What's causing people to adapt their content playbooks
9:00 - Talking trend predictions
11:00 - Pushing companies to go beyond the basic interview podcast
13:20 - Approaching podcast experimentation
25:45 - Stop letting AI create your ToFu content
Welcome back to this week's episode of the Content That Grows. Nate was joined in the studio by Ramli John of Appcues to discuss using an audience-first approach to your marketing strategy.
In this episode, the two of them go over why audience-first approaches and evangelists can help your company grow effectively, who is doing this well right now, and what your company needs to think about to execute its own version.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:10 - What audience-first means and its advantages
- 6:30 - The skillset needed to thrive as a company evangelist
- 11:00 - What companies is this strategy working for?
- 18:55 - Risks of building around an employee evangelist
- 23:05 - Your creators need dedicated creation time
Welcome back to the Content That Grows. This week, Nate spoke with Ryan Baum about his approach to creating content that uses authority to drive added value and trust for readers/viewers.
In this episode, Ryan gives us a first-hand look into why he believes authority is so vital for SaaS content and the ways he's been able to implement it into his strategies. This episode is for people who love getting a front-row seat into how other content marketers are processing the fast-changing digital marketing landscape.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 3:11 - Ryan's "Aha moment for prioritizing authority in content
- 6:50 - Different SMEs for different responsibilities and products
- 16:15 - Understanding authority and trust's impact on the reader
- 27:50 - Exploring the relationship between trust and authority
- 41:41 - Having multiple leaders with different goals
Welcome back to another episode of the Content that Grows. This week, Nate sat down with Stuart Balcombe, Head of Growth at Arrows, to talk about finding key wins without competing with how and where everyone else is.
In this episode, they cover how to increase your odds of finding these opportunities, how Arrows found their content-market fit and what that content looks like, and Stuart's least favorite marketing conversation on social media right now.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:20 - What does it mean to find low/no-competition wins?
- 7:25 - How do you find these low-competition opportunities?
- 11:40 - Taking a product management approach to find opportunities faster
- 20:00 - Examples of content that has worked this way for Arrows
- 34:10 - Stuart's least favorite marketing conversation happening on social
This week marks the 50th episode of the Content That Grows. In it, Kevin and Derek are discussing a topic that's still a moving target: Google's SGE.
In this episode, the two of them discuss what it is, what's changed since Google first announced SGE, and how teams can best prepare for its launch.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:40 - What is SGE and what's it able to do?
- 6:15 - Why SGE is so challenging to discuss right now?
- 11:00 - Our responses to SGE opinions floating around the internet
- 18:30 - How to approach learning to use SGE in your SEO plan
- 24:21 - Beware the SGE fearmongering consultants
This week, Nate and Lauren Funaro from Scribe sat down to discuss the why and the how behind their investment in SEO and Content this year.
In this conversation, they cover Scribe's decision to get started with an aggressive SEO strategy, what their return has been, how much content they're producing, and how they achieve high volumes with a small team + contractors.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 0:55 - What convinced Scribe to go all-in on SEO & content
- 6:10 - How are your different teams convening and finding alignment
- 10:40 - How Scribe's product informs their content
- 17:32 - SEO is about answering the question well, not creating a novel
- 18:33 - What you'll need in place to publish consistently
In this week's episode, Nate sits down with Ronnie Higgins of OpenPhone for an in-depth conversation about the current state of content marketing.
They cover a range of exciting topics like how Ronnie and OpenPhone have diversified content offerings after building an initial revenue engine, the original speech that coined the term, "Content is King" and the interesting place we're in as an industry as a result of individual creators and media company emulation.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 2:00 - The end of content marketing as we know it...what does that mean?
- 9:50 - What the death of B2b content looks like
- 16:15 - The evolution of content at OpenPhone over the past two years
- 28:37 - How to talk about investing in new channels with decreased visibility
- 48:28 - Why the media company conversation is Ronnie's least favorite happening right now
Nate is joined by Natalie Marcotullio, Head of Growth and Operations at Navattic, this week to continue a conversation that more and more PLG companies are having: Should we build an interactive product demo?
In this episode, the two of them discuss why this style of demo is so effective, how people are getting them in front of their prospects, and how teams are measuring their impact.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:10 - The obvious & non-obvious impact of interactive demos
- 4:50 - Ways you get interactive demos in front of people
- 8:45 - Combining SEO and the use of product demos
- 13:35 - How are teams measuring the effectiveness of interactive demos
- 17:45 - Why Natalie joined Navattic after using the product
This week we're joined by Andrew Capland, founder of Delivering Value, where he provides 1:1 career coaching to Heads of Growth and advises B2B SaaS teams on product-led growth.
In this episode, Nate and Andrew cover everything from interactive product demos to effective content types they've experienced working with PLG SaaS companies.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:20 - Why Andrew's bullish on interactive product demos
- 10:20 - Different demo experiences for different companies
- 19:53 - Segmenting prospects by their experience level
- 21:55 - Content that feeds people into the product
- 32:24 - Mistakes companies make when implementing a PLG go-to-market motion
We're joined this week by Jakub Rudnik, Director of Content Marketing at ActiveCampaign, to talk about his experiences scaling multiple content programs for startups (Scribe, G2, and now ActiveCampaign).
This episode is packed with substance and candid, honest responses ranging from what it takes to scale, hurdles you'll face, and how different startups have measured success for Jakub's teams over the years.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:05 - Defining "scale" and timelines
- 5:30 - Hurdles all content programs face to achieving scale
- 11:26 - Keeping leadership satisfied in the early stages
- 16:02 - Creating 100s of pieces per month and addressing decay
- 21:40 - Maintaining voice and style at a fast pace
- 27:48 - How ActiveCampaign, Scribe, and G2 defined marketing success
In this episode, Nate and Derek discuss the differences and overlap between what people mean when they talk about driving organic growth and doing SEO.
From defining the phrases to what differentiates flourishing organic growth programs at software companies, tune in to make sure you're setting your company up for the best organic results.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:45 - SEO vs organic growth
- 10:00 - Example of an entire organic growth program
- 17:00 - Differentiators for achieving organic growth at SaaS companies
- 22:45 - Takeaways to leave this episode with
In this week's episode, Nate Turner is joined by Justin Simon of JustinSimon.co to discuss content repurposing and distribution at SaaS companies.
From the first time Justin started to see the value hidden inside existing content to the mistakes he sees some teams make in executing distribution, this episode is packed with helpful advice for you and your team.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:25 - The trigger moment for an emphasis on content repurposing and distribution
- 8:00 - Biggest mistakes people make with content repurposing
- 13:00 - Is it cheating to repurpose your content?
- 18:35 - The biggest value proposition for companies to repurpose content
- 25:40 - Distribution opportunities for SaaS companies beyond social media
In this episode of the Content That Grows, Nate is joined by Adam Goyette of Curdis.co to discuss ways he helps SaaS companies find the right recipe for growth.
They discuss everything from the ways most SaaS startups initially grow to how to expand teams to hit the next phase of growth.
Key moments in the conversation:
1:11 - Walking through the common stages of growth
7:45 - Finding immediate opportunities for marketing
13:00 - Hiring generalists vs. specialists vs. agencies
19:30 - Setting up your team and company for the next growth stage
23:40 - Hiring in-house vs outsourcing to agencies
In this episode, Nate and Derek discuss how in-house teams can approach content outsourcing to ensure a positive, successful experience for their team.
From alignment on roadmaps to having a process repository, there is something for all levels of content marketers in this episode.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 3:00 - Trust + reputation + rapport
- 7:30 - Documentation and prepping agencies or freelancers
- 14:00 - Up-front alignment on strategy and roadmaps
- 18:45 - Close the gap between writers, editors, and approvers
- 23:00 - Create process visibility together
- 27:45 - Emphasize and respect the reality of outsourcing content
In this episode of the Content That Grows podcast, Tara Robertson, CMO of Bitly, generously shared how she approaches the team-building process as a CMO entering an established company.
From aligning the leadership and marketing teams to how she approaches outsourcing vs. expanding in-house talent, there are plenty of takeaways for any level of marketer.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:30 - Creating alignment on the path moving forward
- 8:00 - Thinking about plans after the first 90 days
- 15:37 - When to build in-house and when to outsource
- 23:00 - Ensuring success with change management
- 33:15 - How Bitly measures marketing success
In this week's episode, we're back and talking about the mistakes that most often plague SaaS content teams in their mission to scale a content marketing program successfully.
This episode includes everything from moving too fast without goals to hiring the wrong first content marketer. There is something for everyone to learn and reflect on this episode.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:20 -Starting a content program quickly without setting goals
- 4:00 -Moving too slowly when it comes to executing
- 6:45 -Hiring the wrong content marketer for your company's needs
- 10:05 -Creating content with one distribution channel in mind
- 14:45 - Creating content about topics based on your intuition rather than customer insights
- 18:30 -Forgetting about service and product-focused content
- 22:45 - Outsourcing solely to save time and money
- 27:50 - Judging content based on the performance of individual pieces of content
- 33:50 - Misunderstanding ROI and leading indicators of content
- 36:50 -Forgetting about and lacking empathy for the buyer's journey
In episode 38, we chatted with Jonathan Bland of Omni Lab for his expertise within the paid marketing space - particularly its place as it relates to content, non-paid opportunities, and SaaS marketing.
He shared everything from when SaaS companies should start investing in paid marketing to the assets he's most bullish on making a part of your paid strategy.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:22 -The relationship between paid and non-paid marketing efforts
- 9:11 - That's not how the paid (or any) buyer's journey works
- 17:00 -Common challenges for teams promoting content with paid channels
- 26:02 - Promoting product tours and contextualized demos
- 30:30 - Recent SaaS success story/learning from a crucial shift
In this week's episode, Nate and Derek approach the many reasons your organic traffic might not deliver results for your SaaS company.
From empathy for the buyer's journey to incorrect CTAs, tune in to diagnose why your SEO and content might need some tweaking to produce the results you were hoping for.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:00 - TLDR What the 7 topics are
- 2:00 - Having a weak brand and an unknown product
- 6:15- Siloed SEO efforts or SEO as your only channel
- 10:00- Focusing ONLY on short-term results
- 17:48 - Wrong mix of topics across the funnel
- 20:30 - Not covering enough topics
- 24:00 - Not having enough meaningful touchpoints with prospects
- 28:30 - Having the wrong CTAs
In this week's episode, Alina Benny talks about the rapid organic growth at Aura using a lean content team and a focus on the growing list of cybersecurity and online theft concerns that searchers have.
From what their content team looks like to aligning content with the rest of the marketing efforts at Aura, you'll want to check this out.
Key moments in the conversation:
1:00 - What the content team looks like at Aura
5:50 - Observed differences between B2B and D2C content efforts
15:59 - How content fits in the marketing strategy at different companies
19:24 - How to keep SEO and content aligned with all the marketing initiatives
25:00 - How Aura defines success for SEO and Content efforts
In this episode, Nate and Derek chat about leveraging your investment in SEO to help promote and drive traffic into your content assets that might not be optimizable but are essential to your company and your prospects.
This includes content like newsletter issues, white papers, podcast episodes, and webinars.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:15 -Why SEO content often gets siloed from other content efforts
- 6:30 -SEO content in relationship to other content types/distribution channels
- 14:20 - How Sprout Social amplified different content types based on clustering and search intent
- 17:00 - Results of integrating content types in front of organic audiences
- 20:30 - Content types that work well as embeds and CTA-bait
In this week's episode, we welcome Eric Doty of Dock onto the show to talk about his experience being the solo content marketer at several of his last companies.
He shares everything from how he thinks about prioritization to the content he thinks works well at seed-stage startups. Tune in to learn more!
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:20 - Common themes as a solo content marketer at several companies
- 3:10 - Approaching prioritization as a solo marketer
- 13:00 - Content that works for seed-stage startups
- 19:10 - Building content allies within your organization
- 27:20 - How Dock defines success for Eric & the marketing motion
This week, Nate and Derek discuss SEO and SaaS marketing - specifically, how SEO can support company growth and why a "pure" SEO strategy can conflict with your other marketing efforts.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:00 - The difference between "Pure" SEO and SEO for a SaaS company
- 7:00 - Common areas of a website where SEO requires compromise with other marketing efforts
- 14:25 - SaaS companies have to balance SEO, product marketing, brand, and conversion
- 19:06 - Balancing optimization and SaaS marketing best practices is achievable
- 25:40 - Rules for making sure SEO is in service to the SaaS company's larger goals
Welcome back to the Content That Grows. This week, Nate Turner is talking with Jess Cook from LASSO about the power of narratives within marketing strategies for SaaS companies.
Jess shares everything from distinctions between topics and narratives to how you can tests narratives and build them into your strategy.
Key moments in the conversation:
3:10 - The difference between topics, themes, and narratives
6:10 - What comes first, strategy or narrative?
9:11 - How to narrow in on the right narratives for your brand
14:00 -Differentiating your narrative around trending topics
24:57 - Measuring marketing success at LASSO
In this episode, Nate and Derek discuss Webflow, the popular website-building platform/CMS with which more and more SaaS companies build their marketing sites.
In this episode, they cover everything from what is leading to the the excitement around this platform, the significant upsides, and even some of the quirky frustrations with this WordPress competitor.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:05 - Building our own site on Webflow
- 5:30 - Why early-stage startups are excited about Webflow
- 9:30 - Desired areas of platform improvement we'd like to see
- 20:48 - What Webflow gets right from an optimized content perspective
- 25:20 - Easily optimize your website for Mobile
Nate and Amanda Natividad (Sparktoro) jumped into a conversation about the ever-popular topic of "high-quality content."
From deciding what content marketing opportunities to pursue as a team of 3 to the metrics Sparktoro uses to measure success, Amanda shared plenty of insights that'll help you think about your own efforts.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 2:00 - The inherent challenge of defining high-quality content
- 7:00 - Deciding to pursue or NOT pursue marketing opportunities
- 11:45 - Maintaining content quality and volume with a small team
- 14:30 - Events and webinars within a content strategy
- 23:05 - Quality KPIs are illuminated after continued engagement
- 31:14 - How Sparktoro views marketing success
In episode 29, Nate and Derek discuss the role templates can play in helping scale content production for SaaS companies.
They talk about everything from the real benefits of using templates to examples of companies that offer good examples for your own execution.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:00 - Why team are attracted to templates
- 9:00 - Types of pages that benefit from templates
- 14:00 - Programmatic SEO vs. using templates
- 19:00 - SaaS companies using templated content pages
In this week's episode, Pius Chan of Lumen5 joins Nate to discuss the evolving buyer's journey from sales-led to marketing-led and the role of content in allowing people to educate themselves on a product solution.
From persuading entire buying committees to what makes people seek out a product, you'll want to tune in.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:30 - Shifting away from a sales-led customer journey
- 5:40 - Marketing-led vs customer-led vs community-led
- 8:50 - 3 reasons buyers buy
- 17:40 - How to transition from sales-led to being marketing-led
- 25:00 - How Lumen5 measures content success
In this episode, Nate is joined by Emily Kramer of MKT1 to talk about a common pain point for many SaaS marketers at early-stage companies - creating an effective homepage and simple website that converts.
From homepage messaging and must-have page sections to A/B testing and the type of content Emily is currently bullish on, there is plenty of excellent advice for every level of marketer.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 6:50 - Starting with messaging vs. design
- 9:45 - Small iterative changes or big changes all at once
- 17:00 - When to build out your SaaS website
- 20:45 - Biggest mistakes companies make with homepages
- 30:27 - Data reports, why you can and should do them
- 36:20 - Measuring the success of marketing
Nate and Derek are back in the next episode of Ten Speed's Content That Grows podcast to talk about how marketers communicate ROI at their respective SaaS companies.
From progressing your understanding of ROI and monitoring leading indicators, to discussing specific metrics, they cover a wide array of helpful advice for any content marketer to use.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:20 - What ROI often means at SaaS companies
- 8:30 - Discussing ROI in an economic downturn
- 12:15 - Evaluating if content marketing is delivering an acceptable ROI
- 18:15 - What to understand if there isn't a direct tie to revenue
- 29:00 - What to come prepared with when pitching a content initiative
Nate and Derek are back to talk about the hype surrounding AI in the marketing industry.
In this episode, they take a realistic, even-tempered approach to discussing how impactful AI will likely be and how it will be used within various content marketing efforts.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:20 - Addressing the AI hype machine
- 7:00 - What AI tools have they tried and what did they think
- 15:00- What should content teams be aware of when using AI tools
- 24:20 - AI tools replacing writers and search engines
- 31:40 - What is AI good at right now
Nate and Kevin are wrapping up Season 3 of the Content That Grows podcast with a discussion about the future of content distribution.
In this episode, they cover dark channels, niche communities, the rise of creativity, and so much more.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 2:16 - Dark channels continue to grow and make for impactful content distribution
- 4:46 - SaaS companies will benefit from identifying smaller, niche communities for distribution
- 7:07 - Paid social distribution will remain a priority for its ability to support organic reach and offer direct targeting
- 9:42 - Short-form content will continue to play a significant role in content distribution
- 13:27 - More teams will be re-packaging content into “traditional” media formats
- 22:18 - The rise of creativity on emerging/growing social networks (e.g. TikTok, Twitch, etc.)
- 30:07 - Community building via Slack, Substack, etc. acts as natural expansions and not replacements for distribution
Nate and Kevin are back for episode 5 of the Content that Grows to talk about how teams can measure the effectiveness of their distribution efforts.
In this episode, they cover tools, forecasting distribution results, vanity metrics, and what measurements teams can use to validate their strategy is working.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 3:30 - A big challenge for measuring distribution results early on is interpreting underwhelming data
- 6:00 - Choosing the “best” tool for measuring distribution can be overwhelming
- 8:33 - Marketers thrive on well-understood, standardized metrics that ineffectively measure distribution
- 11:27 - Discussing the challenge of forecasting future results with content distribution
- 21:21 - Incorrect assumptions we see about measuring content distribution
- 23:34- Rethinking the assumption that vanity metrics are useless
- 29:50 - Content distribution metrics that validate you’re doing the right things
- 32:43 - The importance of measuring impressions when evaluating content distribution
Episode 4 sees Nate and Derek back in the studio to discuss using LinkedIn as a content distribution channel.
In this episode, they cover everything from why so many SaaS folks should be taking advantage of the space, mistakes companies are prone to making, and how you can dial in your LinkedIn marketing efforts.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:39 - Why is LinkedIn a strong distribution channel for many marketers?
- 7:56 - LinkedIn content distribution mistakes we see SaaS companies make
- 14:46 - How to look at your video content data on LinkedIn
- 17:50 - Ways to get content distribution right on LinkedIn
- 22:17 - Take advantage of the creative ways LinkedIn allows you to reformat your content
- 23:24 -Try hooks about taking action + references to what’s currently happening
- 25:17 - Should SaaS companies be leveraging brand pages, personal employee accounts, both?
In episode 3, Nate and Derek focus on Twitter as a content distribution channel.
In this episode, they explore the quirks worth noting before you begin your distribution efforts that make Twitter a unique space, what brands use Twitter for beyond marketing, and best practices when using it as a distribution channel.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:07 - Need-to-know quirks of Twitter before using it for content distribution
- 6:11 - Twitter offers a fluid, conversational engagement unlike the other social platforms
- 7:49 - Twitter offers one of the best opportunities for the amplification of your posts/content
- 10:29 - Brand profiles on Twitter have become more than solely a marketing channel
- 15:58 - Best practices for distributing content using a personal Twitter account
- 20:28 - Brands on Twitter have a lot to gain by offering valuable zero-click content
- 26:38 - Practical and tactical ways to ensure successful content distribution using Twitter
In episode 2, Nate and Kevin explore who owns the actual responsibility for ensuring that created content is distributed.
They cover a range of points worth considering, from the complications of bringing cross-functional teams together for distribution efforts to whether we'll soon see people whose entire job function is distribution and repurposing.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:02 - The organizational challenges of establishing who should own content distribution
- 5:12 - How do you bring cross-functional teams together to execute content distribution?
- 8:05 - Cross-functional efforts in content distribution need to operate on longer-term strategies
- 12:52 - How to approach substantial repurposing efforts to avoid workflow disruptions
- 17:56 - How we’re implementing content repurposing in our own marketing
- 20:32 - Content repurposing is not just cutting up existing content, it also means creating new content
- 22:20 - What roles often own content distribution at a company?
- 24:50 - Will a Content Distribution Manager become a dedicated role for companies moving forward?
We're officially back for Season 3 of the Content That Grows podcast. And this entire season, we'll be exploring the topic of content distribution.
In this episode, Nate and Derek talk about the value some of their clients see from effective content distribution. They also explore common mistakes and best practices that'll help you on your road to success.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:43 - What content distribution options are available for SaaS content teams?
- 7:42 - Some distribution channels speak to your direct audience, and others expand your reach
- 9:41 - Brands that distribute their content see some of these huge upsides…
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12:25 - We pulled content distribution traffic and revenue data for a few clients
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18:08 - Mistakes companies make when they get started with content distribution efforts
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27:06 - Learned best practices for distributing content most effectively
- 35:11 - When distribution and company goals don’t align, it’s a great time for an internal conversation…
We're back for the third season of the Content That Grows Podcast!
This season will be packed with topics centered around "distribution & repurposing."
A few topics we'll be exploring along the way:
- Who should own distribution
- The ins and outs of LinkedIn and Twitter distribution
- Measuring distribution
- The future of content distribution
New episodes will come out every two weeks starting the week of September 19th - 23rd.
And subscribe wherever you prefer to watch/listen - available on our Ten Speed website, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and YouTube.
Nate and Kevin are back for the final episode of season 2 on the Content That Grows podcast.
This episode covers various topics about using multiple media types as part of your content marketing strategy (from videos and podcasts to blogs). If you've been thinking about experimenting with more multimedia options, check out some of the highlights below and tune in.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:21 - Why Use Multiple Media Types in Your Content Marketing Efforts?
- 6:04 - How to Determine Which Media Types/Formats to Create?
- 11:08 -How to Organize Multiple Media Formats on Your Website
- 14:53 - Use an SEO Mindset to Prevent Internal Competition Across Different Multi-Media Types
- 22:17 - How to Understand the Business Impacts of Different Content Media Types
Nate and Derek return to the Content That Grows podcast with an episode all about the art of repurposing and distributing content.
In this episode, they explore the myriad of ways content repurposing benefits a team's marketing efforts, ways to think about breaking down blogs & videos, and metrics to evaluate/shape your distribution campaigns.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:15 - Why Is Content Repurposing So Valuable?
- 5:08 - How to Think About Choosing Your Distribution Channels
- 9:37 - Scalable Processes to Break Down Content Into Social Posts
- 13:00 - How Many Social Posts Can You Create From a Single Blog Post?
- 15:11 - Content Repurposing Is Not ONLY About Your Old Content
- 21:38 - Approaching Metrics Around Your Content Distribution
- 26:25 - Pitfalls Content Teams Make Around Distribution Efforts
Nate and Kevin are back on the Content That Grows podcast to discuss the role that consistently publishing and updating content plays in improving your overall marketing performance.
They traverse a range of topics from the psychological quality trap that teams fall into as an excuse to avoid consistency to the understanding of why some content needs to be updated more frequently than others.
Additional key moments in the conversation you won't want to miss:
- 1:27 - What’s the Value of Having a Consistent Publishing Cadence?
- 6:53 - What’s Required for a Team to Consistently Publish Content?
- 12:07 - Why Some Companies Shy Away From Consistently Publishing
- 17:34 - Why Take Advantage of Updating Your Existing Content?
- 23:07 - Regularly Updating High-Value Content on Competitive SERPs
- 30:52 - Ways to Tactically/Strategically Approach Content Updates
Kevin, Nate, and Derek discuss the popular topic of blog posts and conversions.
They cover everything from successful conversion types and setting up an initial blog layout that works to identifying conversion opportunities on already existing content.
Enjoy, share, and subscribe!
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:38 - The Types of Conversions That Tend To Work Best For Blog Content
- 6:10 - What Makes Downloadable Templates or Tools an Effective Conversion Tactic?
- 9:07 - An Initial Blog Layout That Ensures You’re Ready To Capture and Convert Your Audience
- 15:24 - Managing CRO and Content Publishing as You Scale Is an Evolving Process
- 17:00 - How to Approach Creating More Effective CTAs In Your Content
- 21:54 - Diagnosing and Approaching Content With High Traffic but Low Conversions
Nate and Raven Haynes (Content Production Manager at Ten Speed) step into episode 4 of the Content That Grows podcast to discuss the differences between good content and great content.
In this episode, they talk about needed details to boost the overall quality of content, such as using first-party data and SMEs. They also cover the importance of an effective workflow that allows marketing teams to repeatedly create higher quality content.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 1:22 - The Differentiators Between “Okay” Content and “Great” Content
- 4:22 - Creating Content With a Unique Angle That Ranks
- 8:44 - Where to Start if You’re Looking To Improve Your Existing Content
- 14:23 - What An Effective Content Workflow Looks Like
- 18:01 - The Best Content Comes From Detailed Content Briefs
- 23:48 - The Essential Components to Include in an SEO Content Brief
- 28:01 - SaaS Companies Using High-Quality Content That Fits Well With Their Product
Nate, Kevin, and Derek are transitioning the conversation from the last episode (selecting content topics) to clustering your topics in a way that best serves the users while improving the organic rankings.
The discussion centers around the many benefits SaaS brands and their users experience when using what has been popularized as pillar and cluster models or wheel and spoke models. In addition, you'll hear ways you too can think about organizing your website in this way and some examples of SaaS companies who are using this strategy well.
Key moments in the conversation:
- 3:10 - How Topic Clusters Heighten the Overall User Experience
- 9:10 - Why Topic Clusters Generate Better SEO Results (Rankings)
- 15:16 - Examples of Topic Clusters You Can See In The Wild
- 24:46 - How to Start Building Out A Topic Cluster
- 32:46 - Determining the Number of Pillars and Clusters To Build Out
Nate and Derek team up in episode 2 to talk about choosing content topics that will resonate with your target audience and ultimately grow your business.
In this episode, the conversation covers the many ways in which effective SEOs and content marketers think about topics that satisfy customers' needs and how they leverage algorithms and tools to help ensure those topics work together to increase rankings in the SERPs.
Key moments in the discussion:
- 1:45 - Effective starting points for choosing your initial content topics
- 4:44 - Topic research closer to your product/ICP vs from a keyword research tool
- 8:38 - How aligning on topic themes gives teams unity plus creative freedom
- 16:48 - How to think about building clusters of related content topics
- 22:11 - Interpreting Google Search Console data to inform content topic choices
- 27:05 - Organizing your website for like topics based on user experience
- 31:32 - How search intent is used to create the content someone is looking for
- 39:53 - Common pitfalls content team run into when selecting topics
Kevin and Nate sat down to talk about Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) as they relate to their significance in content marketing.
This episode is packed full of advice from which internal teams/departments likely have the most information to help your marketing department understand customers to using the Jobs To Be Done framework to understand their "pain points."
Key moments in the discussion:
- 2:06 - Using other teams and pivoted CRM data to identify ICP data
- 4:28 - How earlier stage SaaS companies can identify their ICPs
- 8:55 - Ineffective persona building vs understanding the human who is reading your content
- 12:52 - Understanding ICPs based on the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework
- 17:25 - Practical advice for getting to know your ICP's pain points
- 24:09 - Start your content strategy with a product-led approach
- 32:11 - What happens when you create content that isn’t focused on your ICP
We're back for another season with the Content That Grows podcast!
Join us as we explore how great SaaS companies leverage content marketing to grow their businesses. From understanding ICPs to using multimedia content, we'll be discussing tactics & strategies that your SaaS marketing team can take with them.
Don't forget to subscribe to catch the latest episodes and check out Season 1 while you wait.
Happy listening!
Kevin and I sat down to talk about investing in content.
We chat about why leadership buy-in is essential, how aggressive goal-setting can trap teams in 'short-term mode' that limits long-term growth, why it is crucial to understand your competition's efforts when setting expectations, and more.
We sat down with Kristen Bryant Smith, Director of Content Marketing at Help Scout, to talk about building a content strategy for a new product launch, producing Brandwagon at Wistia, and creating In the Works at Help Scout.
We also discussed how to join a new team the right way as a leader and how to measure content efforts that aren't meant to drive direct conversions.
We sat down with Melanie Deziel, Author, Speaker & Chief Content Officer at Storyfuel, to talk about how storytelling makes content marketing better, native advertising, and content frameworks. We also talked about common pitfalls in creating a content strategy and why you always need to remember to have fun.
We sat down with Chelsea Castle, Director of Content Marketing at Chili Piper, to talk about how the content team works at Chili Piper, how they plan content, and how they measure performance and impact. We also talked about how content marketers can leverage journalism best practices to create better content, the recent Chili Piper social campaign on Linkedin, and how marketing advice is not one-size-fits-all.
Kevin and I sat down to talk about some of the early years of SEO content at Sprout Social. We chat about how some of the technical SEO work we did early on helped us scale organic performance, how we got started optimizing existing content, big content bets like The Always Up-to-Date Image Sizes Guide, and how Kevin approached joining Review Trackers and growing a content program he inherited.
We sat down with Amy Lecza, Director of Content Marketing at G2, to talk about how G2 runs its content operation, shifting from high-quantity to high-quality, the importance of specialization on your team, and more.
We sat down with John Bonini, Director of Marketing at Databox, to talk about prioritization during the early days of your content program, how they have approached attribution & strategy as they grew, scaling content operations, content formats, and his community, Some Good Content.
We sat down with Erin Balsa, Marketing Director for The Predictive Index to talk about building content teams, how to use proprietary data to create one-of-a-kind data reports, and content planning. Plus, Erin shares why your content can't be boring if you want to stand out.
We sat down with Sangram Vajre, Co-Founder of Terminus, to talk about how they generated leads from content when he was leading marketing at Pardot, and how that experience led to the co-founding of Terminus. Plus, 1-to-1 content, the power of community, and what he learned when writing his new book, MOVE.
More information:
- MOVE (Sangram's latest book)
- Terminus Website
- Peak Community Website
- Ten Speed Website
- Content That Grows Podcast
We sat down with Rand Fishkin, CEO of SparkToro, to talk about how the Whiteboard Friday video series was created, how they approached content at Moz, what's working for the team now at SparkToro, the content formats he's bullish on, and more.
More information:
- SparkToro Website
- Ten Speed Website
- Content That Grows Podcast
Thanks for checking out the Content That Grows podcast!
Our guests are experienced marketers sharing the thought process behind where they invested, how they built, scaled, and tested their way to successful content programs, and the lessons they learned along the way.