Cashing In On Content Marketing: Recent Episodes
Fractl
Want to get buy-in for your content marketing strategy? Looking for ways to better track your ROI?
Join Fractl Marketing Director Amanda Milligan as she interviews top marketing experts to unveil the answers to one of the toughest questions in our industry: How do we prove the value of our work?
[This podcast was formerly Ask Amanda About Marketing. In these earlier episodes, you can listen to answers to some of the most common digital marketing questions!]
Too often in the world of content marketing, there is no real plan in place for measuring performance. That's why a thoughtful content measurement plan is absolutely crucial.
I had a great time talking with digital marketing lead Azeem Ahmad, also known as Azeem Digital, about his step-by-step process for creating and executing a successful measurement plan that drives results. Azeem explains how to set up an infrastructure for measurement and much more.
What is humantic content? Think of it this way: when it comes to content and its value, context still reigns supreme. And at the end of the day, humans understand content better than AI.
Grant Simmons, VP of Performance Marketing at Homes.com, part of the CoStar Group, joins the show to talk all things humantic content. Grant breaks down how this type of content satisfies both users and search engines, how to create content that prioritizes context over keyword density, and much more.
Whether you're a nonprofit, for-profit, civic organization, or any type of organization, storytelling is an important part of garnering brand awareness and creating an effective marketing campaign.
I had a great time chatting with Tonya McKenzie, Los Angeles County Commissioner and PR & Leadership Consultant, about all things storytelling. In this episode, Tonya breaks down the importance of telling a brand's story, how to work with organizations to do it in an impactful way, and much more.
Getting your content to rank faster might seem difficult, but all it really takes is a little extra effort and work beyond the usual keyword research and optimization.
Patrick Stox, product adviser, technical SEO, and brand ambassador for Ahrefs, joins me to talk all things ranking—and ranking quickly. In this episode, Patrick talks about the tools you can use for more advanced keyword research, utilizing expert insight for more authoritative content, and much more.
The truth about marketing is that not every target market is in the same place at the same time, and every customer journey is different.
It was wonderful talking to the great Carmen Ballock-Bunt, marketing operations analyst with Blue Shield of California, about why these truths emphasize the importance of strategizing your marketing mix, where to begin when building a strategy, and so much more.
Link building is a process that requires quality content, and having content that build links naturally takes plenty of research and trial and error.
I had a great time chatting with digital PR specialist Monique Quarles, of Wiideman Consulting Group, about all things organic link building. Monique breaks down ways to create content that's optimized for building links naturally, explains how to know what format works best for your content, and much more.
One of the biggest misconceptions about a customer journey is that every journey is linear. In reality, there are often hundreds of interactions happening along the way.
The wonderful Kevin Indig, director of SEO at Shopify, breaks down the concept of search journeys and why they're so important for optimizing content, how to use search journeys to anticipate a user's next step after consuming your content, how to improve your keyword research for search journeys, and much more.
Making your content, and content marketing, accessible to everyone is one of the most important things you can do for reaching the widest audience possible.
I had a great time chatting with social media manager and accessibility advocate Alexa Heinrich about the many ways you can make your content more accessible. In this episode, Alexa breaks down ways you can identify where to improve accessibility, the importance of color contrast for people who are visually impaired, and so much more.
The process of spiral thinking is a way of coming up with executable ideas by "spiraling up" into a more positive and optimistic mentality when ideating.
The wonderful Dave Goodman, CEO of the MindShare Network and former Vice President and Executive Producer of Walt Disney Entertainment, explains this invaluable approach to creative thinking, how to apply it to projects and content, designing ideas through small steps, and more.
Content creation isn't an exact science, and sometimes things fail. That can be a tough pill to swallow, but there are ways to avoid some common mistakes to help get the results you want.
It was a blast talking to the wonderful Mark Porter, of Screaming Frog, about some of the most common mistakes in content, how to prevent these mistakes from happening, how to ensure that your content is relevant, and much more.
To understand why your content might not be ranking from a technical SEO perspective, it's important to understand the process of rendering and how it impacts content.
It was wonderful chatting with Jamie Alberico, aka Jamie Indigo, about all things rendering. She explains the process of rendering, the differences between client side rendering and server side rendering, how to determine what is correctly rendering, and much more.
Prioritizing a mobile experience for your content is just as important as it is to optimize content for desktop—especially depending on what type of content your produce.
It was wonderful chatting with the great Garrett Sussman of IPullRank about how to optimize content for devices, what types of content should prioritize mobile vs. desktop, and so much more.
Focusing on all parts of the content funnel, rather than just bottom-funnel content, is an incredibly important part of any strategy.
Purna Virji, LinkedIn's senior content solutions evangelist, breaks down how to come up with content ideas for all parts of the funnel, how to make sure all parts are cohesive, how to increase your audience, and much more.
Developing a good link building strategy is all about perfecting the outreach and having the right expectations about the results you'll get.
This week, I was joined by the wonderful Syed Farhan Raza to chat about the art of link building. In this episode, Farhan breaks down ways to perfect your pitch, how to determine what a quality link is, and much more.
Niche content may seem hard to research and create, but it can be incredibly effective for being authoritative and ranking with your content strategy.
SEO strategist Tessah Aihara, founder of SEO Mama, talks all things niche content. In this episode, you'll learn how to research effectively for niche content, how to improve your meta descriptions, the ways to know when niche content is successful, and much more.
If it seems like Google updates happen all of the time, it's because they do. How does that impact your content and how it ranks?
The great Mordy Oberstein, Wix's liaison to the SEO community and host of The SEO Rant podcast, talks all things Google updates, the evolution of search, how important it is to keep up with updates so your content can rank, and much more.
Creating evergreen, linkable, and thoughtful content can help you get the most bang for your buck—making your content valuable for a longer period of time.
It was a blast chatting with Kate Neuens, SEO Manager at Beyond Identity, about all things content. In this episode, Kate talks about how to create linkable content that serves more than one purpose, how to tie events and holidays to your content to make it evergreen and applicable, and much more.
Utilizing content marketing as a startup starts with creating valuable content and building a community and audience around it.
It was great chatting with podcast host, author, investor, and company advisor Eric Siu about all things content marketing for startups, his tips on when startups should think about a content strategy, and much more.
Improving BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) messaging and visuals in marketing is all about understanding the "why," and having the right intention.
Krystal Glass, co-founder of Black Creative Group, breaks down how to audit your existing marketing efforts to find areas where improvement is needed, how to embed diversity and representation into your content, and much more.
Communicating and fixing problems in workflow between different teams in an organization requires identifying the intersection points and being transparent with colleagues.
I chatted with the great Tommy Walker, founder of WalkerBots Content Studios, about organizing content marketing to create a better workflow and streamline the content creation process, how to document and pitch these changes, and more.
Live streaming can be an incredibly effective tool for a content strategy, and can help launch a podcast that sees returns out of the gate.
Christoph Trappe returns to the show to explain how companies can use live streaming as a launch pad for a podcast, how to navigate the backend of live streaming platforms, and so much more.
Having an understanding of machine learning as a content marketer can help you analyze your content from a more technical perspective.
Senior analytics consultant Jess Peck breaks down why SEOs use machine learning to better understand search engines, how to use it to gain insights for stronger content, and how machine learning can show you biases in your content seen by algorithms.
Understanding cognitive biases and how they impact communications can help you build a better case with organizations, and relay stronger messaging.
Spin Sucks founder Gini Dietrich breaks down the different types of cognitive biases, and how understanding them can help in all areas of communication as marketers.
Being vulnerable in marketing can create a valuable, authentic connection with an audience.
SEO strategist Tamara Sykes dives deep into the importance of being vulnerable as a brand and with content, explains how deviating from the norms of marketing will help organizations stand out, and much more.
Long-form content can show your expertise on a topic, and help you elevate your ROI by generating more leads.
Content strategist and SEO copywriter Chima Mmeje breaks down the importance of long-form content, why incorporating emotion into your content is so crucial, her keyword research strategies, and so much more.
Scaling your content marketing is an important step, but it's important to know both how and when to do it effectively.
Brian Dean, founder of Backlinko and co-founder of Exploding Topics, explains how to scale content the right way, imparts the importance of a content calendar, and much, much more.
Social media can be an invaluable tool for gauging audience behaviors to improve content.
Digital strategist and ViviMae Labs founder Adrienne Sheares breaks down the value of "social first" content, utilizing social media to learn about your audience, and what metrics really matter when exploring analytics.
Selling the value of content in a technical B2B space comes down to understanding the perspective of the organization.
B2B marketing strategist Michael Barber explains how to get the right perspective, how to use retention metrics to understand what customers are doing and not doing, how content can help sell services around a product, and more.
Measuring the success of conversion content, and merchandising your CTA to improve conversion, can be much simpler than you might think.
Media Volery founder Zontee Hou explores the ways to create and optimize conversion content, the importance of refining your call to action, the value of auditing and refreshing older content, and so much more.
What does empathy have to do with marketing? A lot more than you might realize.
B2B strategist Ardath Albee, CEO of Marketing Interactions, breaks down the importance of understanding your target market on a human level, how marketers can learn more about their audiences, and much more.
Top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) content, or awareness content, can be an incredibly effective part of any content marketing strategy.
SEO consultant Dan Shure, founder of Evolving SEO, dives into the reasons why TOFU content is so beneficial, how to determine the right mix of keywords for content, and much more.
What are the benefits to email marketing, especially when it comes to increasing your ROI?
Email marketing expert Samar Owais explains why email marketing is a reliable tool, and how such a direct connection to your audience can be invaluable.
"People are constantly searching"
Let's be honest—sometimes it's hard to convey to clients just how important and powerful content marketing is.
B2B marketing expert Pam Didner explains that it doesn't have to difficult after all. Listen to find out what it takes to get there, and the unique ways she's found success in traditional marketing.
When marketers create data-focused content, they can earn amazing backlinks and brand awareness.
Listen to Semrush's Laura Morelli explain how she's been able to leverage this tactic and share tips on how you can, too.
"Pay attention!"
We heard this countless times as children, right? We learned at an early age that attention is highly sought after.
Neen James explains that attention is actually one of the most important considerations for marketers. Listen to find out how to earn the attention of your audience while also prioritizing your own attention to improve your ROI.
Audience personas might not have an obvious impact on ROI, but they can absolutely make a difference.
Digital Marketing Strategist Henry Adaso explains how to keep your audience personas accurate and how to properly use them to improve your content program and increase the value of your work.
Direct mail can be a great supplement to your digital strategy.
Digital Marketing Consultant Tod Cordill explains how direct mail can reach your audience in a way email can't always achieve and details how you can track this effort in Google Analytics.
Have you been thinking of investing more in video marketing?
Chief Visionary Office of Wave.video Kate Skavish provides her tips on how to get the most ROI out of video content.
Paid doesn't have to be its own separate strategy.
Expert Navah Hopkins walks through how PPC and content marketing can work together to improve ROI.
It's tough to prioritize content marketing initiatives.
This week on the show, Michelle Ngome explains how to decide what to focus on and how to not get overwhelmed when planning your content calendar.
You know you need to create content -- but what should you write about?
Melanie Deziel, author of The Content Fuel Framework, explains how you can come up with great content ideas at scale.
There are several ways SEO should inform your content marketing strategy
Listen to SEO expert Aleyda Solis advise on how an SEO lens can strengthen your content.
You've heard of user-generated content, but are you using it to help you grow your brand?
In this week's episode, Growth Mentor's founder explains how he used USC to promote his company.
Are you collecting the right data and examining the right analytics? How can you know that your content strategy is working well?
Dana DiTomaso explains how you can improve your reporting process to get more accurate insights and ongoing buy-in.
Are you utilizing content marketing at every aspect of your e-commerce funnel?
If not, Luke Carthy describes how content can get you the attention, traffic, and conversion you’re seeking for your products.
With the arrival of GTP-3, AI is becoming more, well, human than ever.
Hamlet and Kristin continue their discussion, exploring how programming and AI could fundamentally change content and search -- forever.
You don't have to be a master of more technical concepts to utilize the power of programming.
Hamlet Batista and Kristin Tynski discuss how marketers can learn programming and utilize AI to their advantage in their content marketing.
Entrepreneur and digital marketing strategist Sujan Patel has launched and marketed 8 different companies.
On this episode, he shares how content has played a major role in his brand growth strategies and provides tips on how to amplify your own content plans.
Figuring out exactly who you want to reach with your content is the first step to effectively reaching your audience, building relationships, and ultimately selling your product or service.
Shondell Varcianna shares tips on targeting, segmenting, and creating content that speaks to the people who matter to your brand.
We get a little meta this week and discuss how you can measure the ROI of podcasting, including some of the lesser known benefits!
This episode of the show is different in that it doesn't cover marketing tactics; it tackles the systemic racism present in our industry and how each of us can play a part in fighting it.
Mike Utaegbulam, founder of the Black Creative Group, explains the challenges Black professionals face in the marketing/design industry and provides tips on how you as a marketer or business owner can start actually effecting change.
Creativity is crucial for all content marketing, but sometimes it can be hard to get leadership's buy-in to think outside the box. Kathy Klotz-Guest explains how to keep your content from being boring and convince your team that creativity matters.
Rand Fishkin, founder of SparkToro and Moz, came on the show to talk about the structural issues often found in companies that prohibit them from making the best marketing decisions.
Are you new to tracking your marketing efforts in Google Analytics, or are you not sure you're taking full advantage of the tool?
Kyle Akerman provides useful tips on how to get clean data and actionable insights that can help you adjust your marketing strategy.
It can be tough to overcome misinformation and misconceptions in the SEO and content industry.
SEO consultant Brendan Hufford talks about his honest perception of the industry and tips on how to communicate effectively.
Content marketing can't succeed in every company without the right perspective and support.
Content marketing strategist/consultant Christoph Trappe of AuthenticStorytelling.net explains what a content performance culture looks like and how to build it.
Marketing is more than publishing and sharing content. It’s about actually engaging with people.
Melissa Fach, the US Blog Editor for SEMrush, talks about how she’s built brand communities throughout her career and provides tips for others trying to connect with their audience (and help their audience members connect with each other!).
Geoff Atkinson, founder and CEO of Huckabuy, talks through how content marketers can get their content ranking higher in the SERPs and thus amplify the visibility (and ROI) of their pages.
If you write a blog post but no one sees it, does it even exist?
That’s the question posted by Michelle Garrett of Garrett Public Relations. She provides tips on how to get the most out of each piece of on-site content you create to improve your ROI.
Andy Crestodina, co-founder of Orbit Media, provides talking points and communication tips about how to respond to these objections and get buy-in for your content marketing proposals.
It's very common to get budget-related pushback on your content marketing strategy.
That's why Taylor Jones came on the show to talk about how to speak the language of execs and address their concerns in the context of ROI.
Martech can feel like a separate world from content.
But Moni Oloyede, Senior Marketing Operations Manager at Fidelis Cybersecurity, explains that content is the lifeblood of marketing automation, and there are countless ways you can use marketing automation to improve the ROI of your content and measure its impact.
If you work in digital PR during COVID-19, you know how much confusion surrounds the job right now. Should you pitch, and if so, who should you pitch, how should you pitch them, and what should you send over?
Dmitry Dragilev walks through the trends he's seeing in the industry and highlights opportunities for outreach professionals.
When you’re trying to sell a product or service, you have to tell a story. But how do you know if those stories are having an impact?
Chris Brogan, creator of StoryLeader™, talks about the biggest issues and opportunities in leadership and brand storytelling.
Countless companies have departments that are siloed; they don't communicate as often or as well as they should. This can present a tough obstacle when you need buy-in for a content strategy.
Laurel Miltner of Orbit Media walks through how she's managed to get approval at previous organizations despite the siloed structure.
"Soft skills" are extremely undervalued. In fact, behavioral skills can mean all the difference between whether your content marketing strategy gets approved.
Matthew Howells-Barby, director of acquisition at HubSpot, explains how he's been able to get buy-in at large organizations and provides tips on how to improve the chances of getting the green light for your ideas.
It can be hard to explain the value of top-of-the-funnel content, but it becomes more tangible when you hear about a real-life example of how someone accomplished this very feat.
Nell Lanman of SquareFoot explains how she set up a series of metrics to show movement through their marketing funnel and improve attribution.
Virtual events are more important now than ever (in the time of COVID-19). Many marketers are contemplating giving them a shot but need more guidance.
Marketing consultant Dennis Shiao covers all the basics while providing excellent tips on how to make your event deliver results year-round.
Some of the best tactics are the hardest to measure. But that doesn't mean you should neglect them.
Gaetano DiNardi, head of demand generation at Nextiva, explains how he's determined the ROI of tactics like top-of-the-funnel blog posts, longtail keyword targeting, brand awareness and more.
How you say something is nearly as important as what you're trying to say.
Tamsen Webster, founder of The Red Thread®, explains the importance of customized messaging in order to successfully be persuasive.
If everyone uses the same marketing tactics, will any brand stand out?
Mark Schaefer discusses the importance of getting buy-in for strategies that are uniquely tailored to your company and your audience.
Marketing strategist, speaker, and writer Kerry O’Shea Gorgone JD, MBA provides the legal lens for what you need to consider when creating and promoting content.
It's easy to get buy-in for content that has a track record of high-value conversions.
But what about top-of-the-funnel content -- content that's not tied to your primary offering but helps build your brand awareness and trust?
Ruth Burr Reedy explains how you can calculate and communicate the value of this important tier of content.
Talking about AI can get intimidating, but if you can harness its power for social listening -- a concept even more powerful than social monitoring that allows you to get ahead of trends and come up with the justification for killer content ideas.
Having great content ideas is one thing. Getting approval and making them happen is a totally different story -- especially at big companies.
Jacque Urick, leader of the 2019 Search Awards Best In-House SEO Team, explains how she's promoted camaraderie among the content/SEO teams and worked to get buy-in for her strategies from execs.
Marketing in sales have a lot in common, but sometimes they live in silos.
That's why I spoke with John Doherty, founder of Credo, about what his sales experience has taught him about marketing messaging.
We've all heard about content saturation, but sometimes it takes courage to produce the type of content you need to make in order to stand out.
Thought Leadership Consultant Lee Price explains how brands can communicate their "big ideas" to improve your brand's authenticity and authority -- while also getting your voice heard.
If you're looking for hacks on how to be more persuasive, listen to Sigma Computing's Data Evangelist Daniel Codella explain the psychological triggers that can help you communicate your content marketing pitch more effectively.
Content expert Joe Pulizzi explains why it's crucial that you justify your content initiatives internally and provides advice on how to do so effectively.
LinkedIn ads expert and founder of B2Linked provides great actionable tips for creating successful advertisements on the popular social site.
Need a refresher on email marketing best practices, or are you looking for a boost in your current efforts? Digital marketing guru Wendy Maynard explains the importance of strategic email marketing, how to improve the quality of your list, and how to send emails that actually provide value to your audience.
I spoke with digital entrepreneur Dan Wesley, founder of CreditLoan.com and chief evangelist at Quote.com, about what it takes to take a site idea and turn it into a full-time gig.
If your idea isn't solid, you're setting yourself up for failure.It doesn't matter how wonderful your article is or how stunning your graphic -- or even how hard you try to pitch or promote it -- if the idea wasn't a good one, well, your content is probably screwed.
This week I run through key ideation process tips.
Everyone wants to know the secret.
They want to know how to promote content AND meet their marketing goals.
This week, we finally tell you. I interviewed fellow Fractlite Ashley Carlisle, who explains how promoting content is more of an art than a science.
You can't genuinely engage with anyone by throwing some links at them and then riding off into the sunset.
Joel Renner, my guest this week, explains that you have to listen in order to begin the process of engaging with people and building a genuine community.
When you know you've created something amazing, using search engine optimization (SEO) allows the search engines to see your content is appropriate for your target audiences.
In this episode, I chat with SEO expert Tom Casano of Sure Oak SEO to get his insight on what can be done to help increase your content's rank and how to use SEO to increase traffic.
I've spoken a lot about how emotion plays into content, both in this podcast and generally in my writing. But there's another way to think about your approach to creating successful content, and that's by creating ego-bait.
Tune in to discover how to create content that appeals to people's sense of identity (prompting them to share!).
As marketers, we have to remember that we humans are social creatures.
That's probably why niche online communities have been taking off so much recently. There's a ton of value in putting a bunch of engaged, like-minded people in one place.
And the best part? Being natural and real makes "networking" way less tedious.
Nathan Collier created an engaged content marketing Facebook group, and he's on the show this week to talk about how to build a social community.
You might think you're ready to blast off into the world of startup success...but are you fully prepared for launch?
I'm joined by Justin Adelson, founder of Perfect Pixel Marketing, to discuss how to successfully prepare for a website's debut.
Listen in to learn about 6 common unfortunate situations in content marketing and what you can do to lessen your chances of encountering these road blocks.
Two of Fractl’s creative strategy experts, Kristin Tynski and Ryan Sammy, discuss the future of content marketing.
Tommy Walker joins us this week to answer the question: how do you find the soul of your blog?
I totally get it -- sometimes it can be...difficult...to reach your target customers.
You might be really wanting to reach out to someone, but if you're not talking about something that interests them in a way they like communicating, they'll immediately tune out. So how do you effectively get your message to your target audience?
B2B content and email marketer Shayla Price explains it all.
Buckle up, ladies and gents. It's time to perform some EXPERIMENTS!
Well, not the beaker-and-test-tube type of experiments -- marketing experiments! The content marketing world is constantly changing, and if we want to succeed, we need to change with it. Content marketing experimentation can help you determine what new tactics and strategies are worth exploring to get the best results.
Ranking #1 or #2 for your target keyword is every digital marketer's dream.
But getting your website to the top of Google takes a lot of work. After investing a lot of time, resources, and brain power to the endeavor, though, it's actually possible to achieve.
How do I know?
Dmitry Dragilev has done it. And we talked to him about it to get his awesome insights.
Have you ever seen a truly terrible infographic?
Of course you have. Because when anything proves to be a super effective way to market or communicate, everyone jumps on the bandwagon, but not everyone does a very good job in executing. Which leads people to ask, are infographics no longer effective? Are they perhaps...dead? I talk to the Head of Marketing at Venngage, Nadya Khoja, to explore why infographics work.
Rebranding isn't like flipping a switch -- it involves strategic planning and messaging to successfully transform a product, service, or brand. In this episode, I talk with Amazon.com's Alexa marketing team to discover how they've rebranded after being well known for its website ranking list but now offering a suite of paid tools -- a brand new value add. (Pun intended.)
It's annual review time! It can also mean it's time for a self-assessment. A lot of people hate writing about themselves and dread this time of year, but it doesn't have to be that way! How? You can use this midyear point to reflect on what you've accomplished so far and assess how you can improve in the future. Listen in to find out more.
In addition to having new, high-quality content, content marketing can also improve a variety of metrics that help you reach one (or more) marketing goals. Find out every benefit of content marketing in this week's episode.
Listen to this week's episode to learn the benefits of controversial content (and how to persuade your boss or client that it's worth trying out).
This week, Amanda talks about what actually goes into creating a successful content campaign in terms of process and timeline, so if you'd love more insight in that area, this is a can't-miss episode.
Amanda provides a quick review of the GrowthHackers conference and talks about how to not fall into traps when using content marketing metrics to analyze success.
Amanda goes back to the basics in this episode of #AskAmanda, in which she talks about the definition of "content marketing" and how it can be used in every level of the sales funnel.
You know you need to promote the awesome content you just created.
But how do you actually create a digital PR strategy? And how should you plan to reach out to some of the best writers on the web?
In this episode, Amanda explains exactly what you need to do to get your content in front of as many eyes as possible.
Need to craft a marketing channel strategy, but don't know which tactics to prioritize? Find out the five questions that will help you decide.
Gayane Margaryan, digital marketing manager for African Wildlife Foundation, reveals how emotional marketing strategies keep audiences engaged.
In the second episode of Ask Amanda About Marketing, Amanda explains how you can use limited budget and time to get some crucial content marketing tasks rolling and set yourself up for success down the road when more resources are available.
In the first episode of Ask Amanda About Marketing, Amanda explores how you can measure the success of a brand awareness campaign and provides tips on what to consider when analyzing your results.