CONTENT MARKETING

Study Notes

SEO (SEARCH ENGINE

OPTIMIZATION)

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Content Marketing
LESSON 1: CONTENT MARKETING CONCEPTS AND STRATEGY ................................................ 7

CONTENT MARKETING ................................................................................................................................................................... 8

How content marketing adds value to business ............................................................................................................. 8

Benefits of effective content marketing.............................................................................................................................. 9

CONTENT INTENT............................................................................................................................................................................. 9

Content marketing and the Buyer’s Journey .................................................................................................................... 9

Qualities of effective content marketing ......................................................................................................................... 10

TOPICAL AND EVERGREEN CONTENT ................................................................................................................................. 10

Types of marketing content .................................................................................................................................................. 10

CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY........................................................................................................................................ 12

What is a content marketing strategy? ............................................................................................................................ 12

LESSON 2: DEVELOPING A CONTENT MARKETING PLAN .......................................................... 15

CONTENT GOALS ............................................................................................................................................................................ 16

Different types of content marketing goals ................................................................................................................... 16

Aligning marketing and business goals ........................................................................................................................... 19

BUYER PERSONAS .......................................................................................................................................................................... 19

Factors to consider ................................................................................................................................................................... 19

Audience insights ...................................................................................................................................................................... 19

Purpose of buyer personas ................................................................................................................................................... 20

Developing a buyer persona ................................................................................................................................................. 20

Best practices .............................................................................................................................................................................. 21

Creating a content campaign ................................................................................................................................................ 21

LESSON 3: USING CONTENT RESEARCH TO FIND OPPORTUNITIES ...................................... 24

SOCIAL LISTENING ........................................................................................................................................................................ 25

What is social listening? ......................................................................................................................................................... 25

Competitor monitoring ........................................................................................................................................................... 25

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 COMPETITOR CONTENT ANALYSIS ....................................................................................................................................... 26

Conducting a competitor content audit ........................................................................................................................... 26

Content analysis tools.............................................................................................................................................................. 26

GETTING IDEAS FOR CONTENT TOPICS .............................................................................................................................. 27

Using keyword research ......................................................................................................................................................... 27

CREATIVE BRIEF ............................................................................................................................................................................. 28

The importance of the creative brief ................................................................................................................................ 28

Writing a creative brief ........................................................................................................................................................... 29

Elements of the creative brief .............................................................................................................................................. 30

BRAND PERSONALITY AND STORYTELLING .................................................................................................................... 30

What is brand? ............................................................................................................................................................................ 30

What is brand storytelling? ................................................................................................................................................... 31

Creating content with brand storytelling ....................................................................................................................... 31

Defining your personality ...................................................................................................................................................... 32

LESSON 4: CREATING CONTENT, CHATGPT, AND CURATING CONTENT ............................ 35

CONTENT CREATION .................................................................................................................................................................... 36

What is content creation? ...................................................................................................................................................... 36

The role of creativity ................................................................................................................................................................ 36

CONTENT TYPES ............................................................................................................................................................................. 37

Content marketing formats ................................................................................................................................................... 37

Critiquing content ..................................................................................................................................................................... 38

Sharing content .......................................................................................................................................................................... 38

Creating image content ........................................................................................................................................................... 39

Creating infographic content ................................................................................................................................................ 40

Creating video content ............................................................................................................................................................ 40

Headline writing ........................................................................................................................................................................ 41

Best practices for writing content...................................................................................................................................... 41

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 Writing blog content ................................................................................................................................................................ 42

Creating whitepaper content ............................................................................................................................................... 42

Creating podcast content ....................................................................................................................................................... 43

Creating webinar content ...................................................................................................................................................... 43

CONTENT CURATION ................................................................................................................................................................... 44

What is content creation? ...................................................................................................................................................... 44

Benefits .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 44

Types of curation ....................................................................................................................................................................... 44

Finding content .......................................................................................................................................................................... 45

The difference between creation and curation ............................................................................................................ 45

CONTENT REPURPOSING ........................................................................................................................................................... 46

What is content repurposing? .............................................................................................................................................. 46

Benefits .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 46

Best practices when repurposing content ...................................................................................................................... 47

CONTENT WRITING AND COPYWRITING ........................................................................................................................... 47

What’s the difference between content writing and copywriting? ..................................................................... 47

Best practices for content writing and copywriting .................................................................................................. 48

CONTENT PERSONALIZATION ................................................................................................................................................. 48

What is content personalization? ....................................................................................................................................... 48

Benefits .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 49

How to personalize content .................................................................................................................................................. 49

Case study ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 49

INTRODUCTION TO CHATGPT ................................................................................................................................................. 50

What is ChatGPT? ...................................................................................................................................................................... 50

What are the differences between ChatGPT-3.5 and ChatGPT-4? ....................................................................... 50

Benefits of Chat GPT for digital marketing activities ................................................................................................. 50

How ChatGPT can support digital marketing ............................................................................................................... 51

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 Limitations and caveats .......................................................................................................................................................... 51

GETTING STARTED WITH CHATGPT .................................................................................................................................... 52

Getting started ............................................................................................................................................................................ 52

Using the interface .................................................................................................................................................................... 52

Getting started with prompts and creating your first prompts ............................................................................ 52

Best practice for creating effective prompts to support digital marketing activities ................................. 53

Monitoring and analyzing ChatGPT performance....................................................................................................... 53

Cost-efficiency and scalability with ChatGPT................................................................................................................ 54

CONTENT CALENDARS ................................................................................................................................................................ 54

What are content calendars? ................................................................................................................................................ 54

Benefits .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 54

Elements ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 55

Key considerations ................................................................................................................................................................... 55

LESSON 5: MANAGING, DISTRIBUTING, AND PROMOTING CONTENT.................................. 57

STRATEGIC CONTENT DISTRIBUTION ................................................................................................................................. 58

Content platforms ..................................................................................................................................................................... 58

Content seeding .......................................................................................................................................................................... 58

YOUTUBE VIDEO MANAGEMENT ........................................................................................................................................... 59

The importance of YouTube ................................................................................................................................................. 59

Types of YouTube channel .................................................................................................................................................... 59

Setting up a personal YouTube channel .......................................................................................................................... 60

Switching from a personal to a brand YouTube channel ......................................................................................... 60

The ABCD of effective video content ................................................................................................................................. 60

Uploading your YouTube video........................................................................................................................................... 61

Video metadata ........................................................................................................................................................................... 62

Video thumbnails....................................................................................................................................................................... 62

Adding YouTube Cards to your video ............................................................................................................................... 63

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 Using YouTube Studio tools .................................................................................................................................................. 63

Enhancing your YouTube videos ........................................................................................................................................ 63

YouTube Analytics reports .................................................................................................................................................... 64

CONTENT SCHEDULING .............................................................................................................................................................. 64

Types of scheduling .................................................................................................................................................................. 64

Benefits .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 65

CONTENT PROMOTION ............................................................................................................................................................... 65

Paid methods ............................................................................................................................................................................... 65

Unpaid methods ......................................................................................................................................................................... 65

COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT .................................................................................................................................................... 66

What is community management? .................................................................................................................................... 66

Why is it important? ................................................................................................................................................................. 66

LESSON 6: ENHANCING CONTENT MARKETING USING METRICS AND AI .......................... 68

CONTENT MARKETING KPIS ..................................................................................................................................................... 69

Value of KPI measurement .................................................................................................................................................... 69

Benefits of measuring content ............................................................................................................................................. 69

CONTENT MARKETING CAMPAIGN METRICS .................................................................................................................. 69

Engagement metrics................................................................................................................................................................. 69

Conversion metrics ................................................................................................................................................................... 70

ANALYZING CONTENT PERFORMANCE .............................................................................................................................. 70

Choosing metrics ....................................................................................................................................................................... 70

Steps to derive insights ........................................................................................................................................................... 70

Determining return on investment (ROI) ....................................................................................................................... 71

The content marketing report ............................................................................................................................................. 72

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LESSON 1: CONTENT
MARKETING CONCEPTS AND
STRATEGY

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CONTENT MARKETING

How content marketing adds value to business

Let’s begin with what might seem a simple question: What exactly is the internet?

When we take a step back from how we perceive the internet, we can see that it is simply a tool to
navigate content, words, text, opinions, images, and videos. In essence, content is what the internet is
about. It is what the internet is made up of.

People are searching the internet for, and engaging with, content all the time, so content marketing is an
opportunity for organizations to create the type of content that people want. The marketing element of
‘content marketing ’refers to creating content in a strategic way, with the aim of:

Building brands

Educating customers about the benefits of your products and services

So, you can think of content marketing as:

The opportunity for organizations to create useful or entertaining content that people want as a means to
engage them online and move them towards your business goals.

How does content marketing add value to a business?

Content marketing drives awareness and engagement on social media channels through video, images,
memes, audio, and text. All of this is important because it can build understanding of product features and
brand benefits within your audience. This in turn can enable you to sell to, or connect with, them in a
meaningful way in the future.

Furthermore, content can drive valuable search traffic to increase the number of valuable visits and
actions taken by your audience. It begins a relationship of familiarity and trust, as you repeatedly show up
when people seek information or entertainment.

Example

At the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Crayola used search data to identify shifts in consumer demand.
It quickly saw that there was a rise in demand for at-home experiences by analyzing search marketing
data. The company decided to move quickly to take advantage of this opportunity.

Crayola partnered with Craft Box Kids to create a ‘virtual summer camp’. This entailed sending out a box
of products to children so they could replicate the summer camp experience they were having to miss due
to the pandemic.

This was coupled with a series of videos to help parents and children create at home using Crayola
products. These new sets rose in the search rankings and became Crayola’s best-selling products for the
year.

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Benefits of effective content marketing

So why should you use content marketing in your digital strategy? Because it brings you several benefits.
For example, with content marketing, you can:

Grow your brand and increase business awareness.

Recruit brand advocates.

Increase search engine rankings by incorporating search engine optimization (or SEO) into your
content creation.

Generate new business leads.

Enhance understanding of your business proposition.

Nurture trust and authority.

Build valuable relationships.

Example

Let’s look at an example of how SEO can be used as part of a content marketing strategy.

Funky Pigeon used SEO to establish its market position. The company creates personalized cards for its
customers for a variety of occasions. It realized that its own products could be used as a hook for content
marketing campaigns. By attracting interest from reputable news outlets, the company could then
improve its SEO rankings for high-value search queries, such as ‘personalized greeting cards’.

The company created a range of topical greeting cards that responded to trending news topics, and then
sent them to journalists. The journalists wrote about the cards and linked back to the Funky Pigeon
website. The company was able to secure the top three ranking positions for all its target keywords.

CONTENT INTENT

Content marketing and the Buyer’s Journey

Just as the best strategies have a clear objective, the best content has a clear purpose, or intention. So
always make sure that your content has an identifiable intention. Why are you writing the content?
Consumers can easily spot a lack of intention – and when they do, they won't react to your content!

Let's look at the ways that your content intentions could align with the traditional sales funnel.

Awareness: Let potential customers know why you exist, what you stand for, and your unique
selling points (or USPs) compared to competitors. Tell potential customers what you do, how you
do it, and how you can solve a problem for your customers.

Interest: Capture the audience’s attention beyond awareness and convince them of your
proposition. Get them interested!

Consideration: Give further details on what you do. Tell potential customers about your expertise,
price offerings, and other happy customers. Show why customers should choose you over your

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 competitors – demonstrate your experience, customer testimonials, and expert knowledge.
Always ask yourself, “What do customers need to know to help them say ‘yes’ to choosing your
brand?” Give customers a reason to consider you as the solution to their problem.

Conversion: Foster an enticing and personalized experience between your customers and your
business. This includes lead nurturing, adding value, managing customer expectations, clear
terms of service, requesting feedback, and community management. This will nudge customers
towards taking valuable actions, such as subscribing to a list, downloading a brochure, buying a
product, or signing up for a service.

Retention: Encourage repeat business but also highlight positive customer experiences for new
potential customers. This involves celebrating, or ‘heroing’, champion customers and showcasing
user generated content (UGC) through your content marketing channels. Remember, it’s cheaper
to retain existing customers than find new ones!

Qualities of effective content marketing

Once you’ve settled on the intention of your content, you need to polish it to that it delivers on your
business objectives. How can you do this?

Effective content will:

Be relevant.

Be personalized.

Be educational.

Be useful or entertaining.

Address needs and interests.

Include CTAs.

Demonstrate that you are the solution.

TOPICAL AND EVERGREEN CONTENT

Types of marketing content

Broadly speaking, we can group content into two broad categories:

Topical content

Evergreen content

Both types have benefits when it comes to creating content for your digital marketing efforts.

Topical

Topical content is content that ties into something that is happening now and typically has a short
lifespan. It is usually inspired by trending topics.

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Topical content is usually shared on social media or email. Examples include:

Short written pieces

Tweets and social media posts

Memes, videos, and images

Audio content, including podcasts

Example

The J.P. Morgan Making Sense podcast is highly topical, reflecting on the latest news in finance and
discussing the market outlook. In each episode, the hosts tackle a complex issue affecting the global
economy. Interestingly, the podcast features experts from within the company, helping to position it as a
market leader. It also draws on its external connections to bring in well-known thinkers from the finance
world to discuss breaking news.

A similar approach would work well in any other knowledge-based service area!

Evergreen

The second content category is evergreen content. This is content that has a longer lifespan and is
generally of high value. It helps brands to drive conversions and brand affinity over a longer period of
time, as people will always be looking for this kind of ‘timeless ’content.

Examples include:

‘How-to’ articles

Video tutorials

Beginner’s guides

FAQs

Case studies

List articles

Checklists

Example

Hobby Lobby created a very detailed guide to knitting for a YouTube video series. The video has attracted
over 8 million views!

It does an excellent job of explaining knitting for beginners, but it also ranks for a variety of SEO
keywords in what is an evergreen topic. The content was created in 2015 and it remains relevant today.
Putting the time into creating a truly comprehensive resource was worth it for Hobby Lobby.

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The Hobby Lobby video aims to teach the basics of knitting in a no-nonsense way, giving the facts
unencumbered by distracting visuals or jarring music. The video is simply 14 minutes of instructions, and
not much else. However, people can follow the instruction in real time, knitting along with the video.

This video also highlights how important it is to tailor your content to your audience. As the title says, this
video is aimed at beginners, and the content was created with beginner knitters in mind. They don’t want
to get overwhelmed with background information or get lost in fast-paced instruction. They want content
that meets their needs, at their pace. Also, for many of the people in the audience, knitting is a hobby, an
enjoyable project. The video also aims to be enjoyable, but instructional.

CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY

What is a content marketing strategy?

A content marketing strategy is an ever-evolving plan that outlines your content marketing goals and
target audience.

It determines the content needs of your target audience.

It defines their user journey, content formats, and content styling.

It aligns to business objectives, and it is fully integrated with the wider business.

It is ‘ever evolving’ and should always be tweaked and modified to adapt to changes in the market
and how people are consuming your content.

A content marketing strategy is essential for quality content marketing, as it sets out the
objectives and scope of your project. Your strategy will help you to keep everything on track while
providing a roadmap for execution of the different aspects in the strategy.

Bear in mind that your content strategy aims to communicate your brand or campaign messaging
consistently across different creative assets and channels.

Basically, your creative strategy sets out your messaging and tone to be applied to all creative assets and
content pieces. These pieces include:

Website creative

Email templates

Promotional videos

Banner ads for digital display and social media

Any offline creative pieces such as TV, radio, or print

Example

The smoothie producer Innocent has a very clear tone and brand identity, which it communicates
through all its creative assets.

It uses playful design on its website, as well as its product design. The key here is that while it is consistent
in tone, it also is adaptive to different media environments. For instance, Innocent has a distinctive voice

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on social media that responds to the audience’s needs in that context. It is more conversational and
humorous on Facebook than it would be on a TV ad, for example.

It’s important to note that developing a content marketing strategy is a cyclical process that evolves when
the data and performance indicate that you need to adapt your content in relation to your marketing
goals. Don’t fall into the trap of sticking to a rigid strategy that is no longer fit for purpose.

Moving through a complete content strategy process will help you create meaningful content for your
target audience. This will also allow you to apply learnings from one phase of the campaign to another
and to optimize future campaigns.

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NOTES

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LESSON 2: DEVELOPING A
CONTENT MARKETING PLAN

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CONTENT GOALS

Different types of content marketing goals

Your content marketing strategy needs clear goals to give it focus. There are five main types of content
marketing goals:

Awareness

Consideration

Conversion

Affinity

Advocacy

Awareness goals

For awareness goals, you’re likely to create content such as social media posts, banner ads, or videos and
images that let people know about your brand, sales or promotions, or your products or services. All
these types of content drive visibility with the target audience.

The effectiveness of awareness content is largely measured in impressions (the times an ad is viewed by a
user on a website, app, or social media platform), number of people reached, and uplift in the number of
people who search for your brand online.

Example

Increasingly, awareness goals extend to digital out-of-home campaigns too. Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH)
campaigns are a form of advertising that makes use of digital media in outdoor settings. Unlike traditional
outdoor advertising that uses static billboards and signs, DOOH campaigns use digital platforms such as
digital billboards, digital signage, or screens in public places like shopping malls, airports, or bus stops, to
display ads. These campaigns can feature dynamic content, including video, interactive elements, or real-
time data feeds.

The job search site Otta launched a range of humorous digital ads in strategic positions in London, close
to busy working areas. These ads then drive intrigued customers to search for the brand and continue
their journey on the website.

As noted on the JCDecaux website, the largest outdoor advertising corporation in the world:

With awareness rising from 2-9% and a 45% increase in site traffic when the campaign was run, these
strong results helped Otta get noticed and rise above its competitors.

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Consideration goals

Consideration goals drive content such as blogs, demonstration videos, or specs that outline product
benefits and features. This type of content helps the audience make up their mind and choose your
organization when they are looking to buy, engage in a sales conversation, or take some other valuable
action.

Consideration content can be measured by looking at the number and quality of comments, shares, likes,
and replies. It examines anything that elicits a response from the target audience.

Example

The software company Airtable creates informative videos for its YouTube channel.

The company explains the benefits of its services by showing how it works in detail. This helps to nurture
consideration from its audience, without pushing an aggressive sales message. This content is a perfect fit
for the customer’s needs at this stage of the journey, allowing them to explore the software’s features
before committing to a trial.

Conversion goals

Conversion goals can be achieved using content such as digital advertising, lead magnets, and purchase
landing pages. This is the sort of content that drives users towards ecommerce or lead generation areas of
your website or business.

The purpose of this content is to build on the effectiveness of your awareness and consideration content,
and then get the valuable action over the line. In many cases, it is the last point before a person makes an
ecommerce purchase or completes a lead generation form.

Consideration content can be measured by tracking the number of sales or leads that you receive via this
conversion content.

Note: A lead magnet is when a person enters their contact details into a web form on a website in return
for something from the company. Examples of lead magnets include ebooks, free trials of a product, or
access to a webinar, podcast or video content. When a company is giving away valuable content for free,
people will give their contact details in return for access to these pieces of content. The details are passed
on as a lead, so the company's sales team can then follow up with the person and try to sell its products or
services to them.

These lead magnets can be used for capturing more than just contact details. They can also be used to
capture preference data, for example, which can then be used to tailor marketing messages. This is also
sometimes referred to as ‘zero-party data’.

Example

Baby stroller brand Mockingbird knows collecting zero-party data sometimes means playing the long
game to avoid annoying consumers. After entering an email address for baby strollers, the customer is
asked for baby due dates. Mockingbird’s email frequency and content changes as the due date
approaches!

Later in the pregnancy, emails become more frequent, as the company knows customers need to decide
on a stroller soon. This is the time to highlight the strollers ’specific features and benefits. This method

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shows an understanding of customers individually, while the company gets relevant, timely information
to help personalize emails and offer product recommendations.

Affinity goals

Affinity goals affect all content types! They are usually associated with brand building and driving
positive affinity and connections to attract new or retain existing customers.

Affinity can be measured by ranking social media engagement via reactions, comments, and feedback
signals in terms of positive or negative sentiment towards your brand or organization.

Example

Diet Coke launched its ‘love what you love ’campaign in 2022 to engage current customers and increase
brand affinity. The campaign included out-of-home activations, a partnership with London Fashion Week,
and a variety of new social media creative assets.

Advocacy goals

Advocacy goals are a continuation of affinity goals. They affect all content types associated with retaining
existing customers. When people have a positive affinity towards your brand or company, not only can
you retain them as customers, but you can also encourage them to go on to be your brand champions or
advocates, and have them recommend you to their contacts.

Advocacy is determined by ongoing positive engagement, user generated content (or UGC), reviews,
ratings, and recommendations. In many cases, customers and people will create content on your behalf –
such as an unboxing video, a testimonial, as well as social media shares and comments that include their
own personal recommendation.

Example

Unboxing videos are hugely popular on YouTube, but they are typically found in the electronics and
clothing categories. An unboxing video shows a user taking a new product out of its box, usually with
commentary on the user’s initial impressions of the product and packages. Unboxing videos often capture
the user’s excitement as they hold their new product for the first time, and have become a popular source
of authentic reviews about brands.

Mattress company Casper was a surprise success in this area. The design of its packaging lends itself to a
spectacular ‘unboxing moment ’and its customers have seen an opportunity.

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There are thousands of videos of Casper unboxing moments, and many of them have over 100,000 views!
This is a clever way to turn customers into immediate ambassadors for the brand, especially in an area
where the brand rarely interacts with the customer post-purchase.

Aligning marketing and business goals

There are some key factors to bear in mind when aligning your content marketing goals to your overall
business goals:

Consistency: Ensure that there is a high level of consistency in language, appearance, and
messaging across all your content, in line with other marketing materials.

Timing: Consider how your content marketing activities can help support other campaigns that
the business is running.

Input: Get buy-in and encourage input and ideas from the wider business – including PR,
Communications, HR, Legal, Product, and Finance.

Website: Assess how content marketing impacts your website content, structure, SEO goals, and
ecommerce conversions and whether there are any improvements to be made.

BUYER PERSONAS

Factors to consider

How does starting with your customer and working backwards towards your goals help shape a content
strategy?

Once you have decided on your content marketing goals, you need to consider who the people who
typically buy from you are. After all, these are the people who you want to market to!

For this, you can create a buyer persona. This is an imaginary character based on research and data that
represents your ideal buyer or target audience. Buyer personas help you understand your customers and
prospective customers better.

Audience insights

So, how can you develop these buyer personas? You can use audience insights to help develop them.

This involves uncovering learnings from your audience that help you to visualize who they are and how
you can effectively communicate with them. This will help shape your strategy, because you can then
make decisions based on, for example, the audience’s social media platform usage, device usage, time of
day that best suits them for consuming content, content needs, and access to high speed internet.

Example

The healthcare company Kaiser Permanente sought to promote its telehealth capabilities (Care On
Demand) using psychographic segmentation. This means it broke the audience down into groups that
shared characteristics, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles, and it then created a user journey for each of the
groups.

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Kaiser Permanente developed four ‘archetypes ’that represented different groups in its audience. For
instance, the ‘data-driven ’persona wants information on demand, whereas the ‘caregiver ’wants to save
time but without sacrificing quality.

These personas were then used to shape creative assets for targeting each segment in online ads.

Purpose of buyer personas

Buyer personas can help you develop your content marketing strategy because they prompt you to try to
expand your knowledge about your customers. By better understanding your customers, you can then
effectively target them, using the formats and channels that they prefer:

Targeting: Targeting helps to position your products as relevant and worthy of consideration. It
provides you with valuable insights for conveying your message, performing market research,
targeting advertising, website design, usability testing, and keywords for SEO.

Format: Looking at the individual creative and digital formats that your target audience
consumes gives you the information and perspective you need to make objective decisions about
how to craft your brand messages through the most consumed and widely accepted formats. This
allows you to create compelling content. Personas also help determine the platforms and media
you use. You can create content to meet the targeted needs of each buyer persona profile and
address the needs of each persona.

Channels: Discovering the channels your audiences are inhabiting allows you to get a grasp of
your audience’s channel behavior. Where are they having conversations? This allows you to truly
tailor your brand messages so you can get the best possible response by positioning content at
the most relevant touchpoints for your audience.

Developing a buyer persona

You can develop a buyer persona using the following key considerations:

Objectives: What are they looking to achieve by interacting with your business? How many
competitors will they consider? What information is pertinent to their decision?

Location: Where are they from? Where are they based? This will include cultural considerations.

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 Demographic: How old are they? What is their gender?

Job details: What is their economic position or job role?

Platforms: What are their main sources of information? Which online platforms do they inhabit?
Which resources do they consult when making decisions? How influential are each of these?

Devices: What are they using to access the internet? What is their browser speed and are there
any connectivity considerations to consider?

Purchase behaviors: What is their path to purchase? What steps do they take when considering a
purchase?

Interests: What issues are they trying to solve? How do these issues impact on their lives? What
are the benefits of solving these challenges?

Note: You can get most of this information from social, search, and site analytics. However, some of those
specific questions may require you to conduct some primary research such as interviews, focus groups, or
surveys.

Best practices

The following steps are best practices for using buyer personas in your content strategy:

1. Prioritize your personas in terms of:

How easy it is to reach them online

Their value to your business or objective

2. Use your reach or value prioritization to help set budgets for production and allocate
resources.
3. Develop creative messaging and creative assets that align to buyer needs, solve their problems,
and showcase your business in a useful, authentic way.
4. Choose to distribute the content on the channels and devices that buyers use, and then align
your content production outputs to the requirement of these channels.
5. Create the types of content they need at key stages of their purchase journey.
6. Manage internal expectations and set KPIs and timelines for engagement or conversion
outcomes by understanding the typical purchase or conversion journey and frequency as
detailed in your persona research.

Creating a content campaign

Once you’ve decided on your content marketing goals and established your audience personas, you can
execute your content marketing plan and launch a campaign!

There are six key steps for creating a content campaign:

1. Use social listening and competitor research to unearth popular content topics.

2. Do keyword research to discover what people are searching for online.

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 3. Write a creative brief to help guide and brainstorm ideas.

4. Review and agree on content themes and topics for production.

5. Share on your website, social media, and email.

6. Review engagement metrics and try to improve performance.

Understanding your personas allows you to get a more complete knowledge of not only their job title but
their background. Their needs and interest sets offer up important information on how to access them
emotionally, but also illustrate what motivates and frustrates them. This can help you paint a picture of
your ideal customer. It’s vital to flesh out these personas based on their content and information needs to
position your brand or business as the solution to their requirements.

The hardest working customer personas are developed with field research, focus group research, surveys,
and interviews with your target audience.

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NOTES

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LESSON 3: USING CONTENT
RESEARCH TO FIND
OPPORTUNITIES

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SOCIAL LISTENING

What is social listening?

To learn more about what types of content your potential customers are likely to want, you can conduct
content research. You can use several strategies to do this.

Social listening is the method of tracking online conversation in relation to keywords, topics, or phrases
to derive key insights about your personas and target audience, competitors, and industry.

Benefits

Let’s now look at the benefits of social listening for your content strategy:

Identify talking points: It enables you to identify what people are talking about in relation to your
organization or brand.

Spot potential risks: It helps you to spot potential risks in relation to emerging competitors,
threats, and negative customer feedback before they become a serious issue.

Understand brand sentiment: It helps you to understand your brand sentiment, business position
in the market, and how your brand is perceived. Brand sentiment refers to the perception and
feelings that consumers hold towards a specific brand, which can be positive, negative, or neutral.
This is typically assessed through the analysis of consumer comments, reviews, and discussions
across various channels like social media, review sites, and other public forums.

Competitor monitoring

Whether you're a business-to-consumer (or B2C) brand or a business-to-business (or B2B) organization,
looking at what your competitors are doing is a hugely beneficial way for you to understand what kind of
content audiences are interacting with out on the web. Get into the habit of regularly checking out your
competitor's social media, website, and email activities to see how they're using content in their channels.

In fact, competitor monitoring is often just as valuable as social listening for your own brand. Competitor
monitoring refers to the process of tracking and analyzing the online strategies and tactics of industry
rivals.

Here are some of the benefits you can take advantage of:

Define the content that works well for your competitors’ audience and see how it compares to
your own content. Can you see what’s working for them and can you do it better?

Spot content gaps by looking at successful competitor content that you don't currently have.

Identify innovation in platform usage by looking at new channels and content types they are
using.

Avoid clash of content or ideas by keeping your content unique to your brand or organization.

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 Track competitors' online reputation: Monitoring your competitors' reputation can give you a
better understanding of their standing in the market and how consumers perceive them. This can
help you position your brand more effectively in the market.

There are numerous scenarios in which competitor monitoring can be useful in digital marketing.

For example:

Keeping an eye on competitors' search engine rankings can provide insight into their SEO
strategies. If a competitor consistently ranks high for specific keywords, you might consider
optimizing your content around similar terms or seeking new, less competitive keywords.

Signing up for competitors' newsletters or email promotions can give you a sense of their email
marketing strategy, including the frequency of their communications, the types of offers they
promote, and the kind of language they use to engage their audience.

Monitoring competitors' social media accounts can help you gauge their engagement strategies
and how well they're received by their audience. Noticing a competitor's successful campaign
could inspire similar efforts on your part, while observing their mistakes could help you avoid
similar pitfalls.

COMPETITOR CONTENT ANALYSIS

Conducting a competitor content audit

There are some key things to look out for when you do a competitor content audit.

Ask questions like:

What is their content development schedule?

How is their customer feedback to and from customers?

How do their search engine rankings look?

Are they making use of back links?

Is their website optimized?

How is their social following?

Are they connecting with influencers or ambassadors?

What's their tone of voice and does it work well? And…

What new formats and channels are they using?

Content analysis tools

You can choose from several tools when conducting social listening and competitor content analysis:

TweetDeck

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 TweetReach

BuzzSumo

Google Alerts

Fanpage Karma

Sprout Social

Example

The Atlanta Hawks NBA team uses Sprout Social to integrate social listening into its marketing strategy
and reporting.

It uses Sprout Social’s tagging feature to pinpoint what audiences will want next, by analyzing their
conversations in real time. This sophisticated tagging structure allows for more granular reporting on
content performance by type, theme, and campaign. The marketing team can also report on its social
media performance by tracking how reputable news outlets and local influencers talk about the fan
experience.

As noted on the Sprout Social site:

A lot of internal stakeholders love seeing the Topic Insights Word Cloud and Sentiment Summary. When we
launched the Martin Luther King Jr. Nike City Edition jersey earlier last season, it was met with 99% positive
sentiment.

GETTING IDEAS FOR CONTENT TOPICS

Using keyword research

To create effective marketing content, you’re going to need some inspiration! So where can you find
these great ideas?

Keyword research is an effective strategy to spark your content creativity. It helps to guide your content
development. As content marketers, we can look at the things people are searching for and the questions
they ask Google. What are they looking for?

We can then create the content for our website that people are actively looking for. As a result, when they
search, our website shows up!

Using keyword research, you can:

Get inspiration for the type of content topics your audience actually wants. If they are searching
for certain subjects, you can create content based on what they are asking the search engine.
Your content becomes the answer to their question!

Get your target audience to visit your site by creating the content that they are searching for –
rather than guessing what they might like.

Identify keywords and topics with high search volume. You can then create content based on
these themes to increase visitors to your website.

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 Identify content gaps on your website by comparing new keyword trends and topics to your
existing content topics. What questions are you not answering yet?

Provide unbiased statistical rationale for choosing which content themes you want to create. As
already mentioned, this takes the guesswork out of content creation!

Identify new opportunities and stay fresh with emerging themes and trends based on what
people are searching for.

Conducting keyword research

So how can you carry out keyword research? Here are some key steps:

1. Pick a topic based on your understanding of your audience. You can use social media comments,
email feedback, and suggested search in search engines for inspiration on a topic to begin with.

2. Brainstorm ideas about this topic. Then use your understanding of your audience, market, industry,
and business to develop these ideas further.

3. Enter your keyword ideas into an SEO keyword tool such as Moz or Ahrefs to find related keywords
which people are searching for.

4. Download your results and review their relevance to your business.

5. Prioritize keywords in the list in terms of relevance to your original keywords and the number of
people who search for these topics each month. This is known as the search volume.

6. From your priority list, group the related keywords together, as if they were content sections. These
groupings are almost like paragraphs for text content or descriptions for image or visual content.

CREATIVE BRIEF

The importance of the creative brief

A creative brief is an important aid to getting your content marketing right from the beginning. It gives
your content creation a focus and destination.

The brief helps you to identify the most important insights and understandings that will inform your
creative outputs, be they blog posts, ebooks, or Instagram stories. You can get insights for your content
from the different types of research that you've been doing for your strategy on personas, competitors,
and the general industry landscape and keywords.

Writing a creative brief will challenge you to distill your insights into a document of usable actions that
your creative and content teams can follow. It will act as a set of clear instructions for content
development to work towards your objectives.

Benefits

You'll see some real benefits from taking the time to write a brief. These include:

Developing a better understanding of your audience, goals, and campaign idea

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 Teasing out the nuances of the campaign

Developing consistent engaging messaging across all channels and formats

Using time with writers and designers more efficiently, and…

Using your budget more efficiently by minimizing the number of amendments and ‘rebriefs’, and
reducing the risk of creating content that your audience doesn’t actually need.

Writing a creative brief

When you're writing a creative brief, always keep in mind your overall content strategy, considering the
following questions:

What is the campaign idea, and what are you hoping to achieve with your campaign?

What do you want the audience to do or feel when they see the campaign?

Who is your audience? What are your buyer personas?

What's your brand personality and story?

What channels will be used in the campaign?

What are the formats and sizes required?

What's the budget?

What's the deadline?

Are there any other mandatory elements to be included like logo or legal disclaimer, and so on?

Let’s suppose Coca-Cola wants to launch a summer-themed campaign. The creative brief would include
the following:

The idea is to promote their beverage as the go-to refreshment for hot summer days ("Share the
Summer with Coca-Cola").

They're hoping to increase brand engagement and sales during the summer season.

They want the audience to associate Coca-Cola with joy, refreshment, and summer fun, inspiring
them to share a Coke at their summer activities.

Their primary audience would be young adults, aged 18-35, who enjoy social activities and
outdoor events.

Coca-Cola's brand personality is joyful, social, and refreshing, with a story centered around
sharing special moments with loved ones.

The campaign would utilize channels like Instagram, YouTube, TV commercials, and outdoor
digital billboards.

Formats could include social media posts, short videos, and digital billboard ads.

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 The campaign budget and deadline would be set based on the company's marketing plan and
strategy.

All campaign materials must prominently feature the Coca-Cola logo and maintain adherence to
the established brand guidelines.

Elements of the creative brief

The brief you write will be the final output before you produce any content, and it will help you deliver on
your objectives in line with your brand and company identity.

You'll need to include a number of research elements to complete a well-developed brief. Some research
elements and insights contained in a creative brief include:

Personas and customer insights

Social listening

Competitor analysis

Keyword research

An audit of your current content library

BRAND PERSONALITY AND STORYTELLING

What is brand?

What exactly is a brand? This is an important question, because it applies to both B2C consumer brands,
and how companies view services and products in the B2B world.

For companies and organizations, your brand is many things. It can be:

The commercial and the non-commercial actions you do as a company

The stories your customers and communities create around your mission

Your customer service and how you relate to your customers

The experiences every single person has with your company, in every channel

The image and style associated with your company

Having a strong brand purpose means that you stand out in the market with content that's unique and
recognizable, content that connects with your audience in a meaningful way. And ideally, helps form a
relationship with them.

Key messaging is a fundamental aspect of brand storytelling. It refers to the core value propositions and
communication points that a brand uses to express its purpose, differentiate itself in the market, and
consistently engage its target audience in a manner that builds trust and fosters an enduring relationship.
This messaging should be clear, compelling, and consistently incorporated across all marketing channels
and touchpoints, forming the backbone of the brand's communication strategy.

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What is brand storytelling?

Brand storytelling is a marketing competency that drives engagement at an emotional level.

This results in improved business performance through communicating engaging and memorable stories
about your business with your target audience. It's a way of connecting with people who share your
values and your beliefs and builds a personality for your company. It invites others into your community
and embraces them in an authentic way. In other words, don’t just tell people about your brand or try to
sell them your products or services. Tell them a story!

Why are brand stories valuable? Stories are up to 22 times more memorable than facts and figures. And
brain activity increases to five times higher when a person is consuming information through a story.
Storytelling is a very powerful tool for creating meaningful, relatable engagement with your audience.

Developing a compelling brand story can enhance you brand in several ways:

It helps your credibility.

It highlights your authenticity.

It will support you in any times of crisis.

Creating content with brand storytelling

Brands develop their stories in different ways. However, there are some key steps you follow when
incorporating a brand story into your content:

Know who you are: What does your brand stand for? What values does it wish to exemplify?

Understand your goals: All content should be driven by business objectives. This gives your
content focus and purpose, and enables you to evaluate its effectiveness.

Find your story: Uncover what makes your brand unique.

Identify your audience's knowledge level: Decide whether you wish to educate, inform, or
entertain your audience, or spur them to action. What do they already know about you?

Map story elements to personas: Every story needs a cast of characters. And your customers and
potential customers are the most important characters in your story. Your buyer personas will
prove invaluable here.

Craft your story: Engage your audience with a carefully structured story, one that has a beginning,
middle, and end, progressing, for example, from problem to resolution.

Share your story: Know which platforms your audience is active on, and share your story there.

Engage with your communities: Don’t just tell a story. Start a conversation!

Example

Lexus Australia used interactive storytelling for its ‘Uncompromised Elegance ’campaign, created in
partnership with BBC StoryWorks.

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Global marketing publisher, the Drum website, noted that:

Lexus Australia sought to raise awareness about its new UX 300e, the first all-electric Lexus model to enter
the Australian market. In particular, the luxury automaker hoped to find a powerful way to connect with its
target audience of affluent car enthusiasts in a way that communicated that style, performance and quality
need not be sacrificed for sustainability.

At the same time, the brand needed to address low awareness about Australia’s electric vehicle (EV)
infrastructure and educate potential buyers about how electric vehicle charging works.

All of these objectives had to be met while connecting audiences to Lexus ’luxury brand image.

Here's a handy checklist for identifying your brand's story:

Focus on the audience and their needs.

Stick to a single message in the narrative.

Use facts appropriately.

Create characters in the story who reflect your audience.

Develop dramatic tension in your ‘plot’ where possible, like: what's next, and how will it end?

Structure your story, so that it's easier to understand. In other words, introduce the problem,
show or describe how your characters deal with the problem, and showcase the resolution.

Defining your personality

Every company or business has a brand personality. People don't like thinking of brands as cold,
unfriendly businesses. They like to see brands as people with a story to tell. So having the why behind
what you're selling and being able to act with authenticity and a personality will help you resonate with
consumers.

Categories

There are three categories of content that will enhance or fill out your particular brand personality.

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 Functional: This is purely fact-based content that's not very emotive. This is a strong driver of
action-based content and is directly related to the business or brand. It's the hard sell. This
includes announcements or news items.

Emotional: This is the realm where you tap into the human experience and show a personality
that allows consumers to relate to your business. This includes user testimonials, videos, and
information about how your brand or product benefits and impacts the lives of your customers.

Essential: This is the absolute bare minimum amount of information that a consumer needs to
know about what you're selling to interact with your business. This includes things like prices or
contact information, which people will need to help them make a decision to buy or engage with
your business.

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NOTES

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LESSON 4: CREATING
CONTENT, CHATGPT, AND
CURATING CONTENT

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CONTENT CREATION

What is content creation?

When you've completed your research, developed personas, defined your brand personality, and written
your creative brief, it's time to turn these insights into content.

Content creation is a process of generating various formats of content (also known as collateral) that
serve the needs of your content strategy objectives. They will serve these objectives and amplify your
brand personality by engaging your buyer personas in a way that helps build your brand or company's
authority, utility, and creditability. In this way, your content can help to connect your target audience
with your brand or business.

The role of creativity

At this point, you might be thinking that content creation is very scientific and formulaic, aligning
different types of content to different business objectives and audience data. However, that’s just part of
the story. Don’t forget about your creativity!

Of course, your content development should be ‘guided ’by audience, competitor, and keyword research,
and based on verified, objective data. However, it's important to also leave room for the creative spark to
add a splash of colour to the research findings and bring the content alive.

Creative process steps

So, having concentrated somewhat on the scientific, process-led side of content creation, let’s now switch
our focus to the fun part – the creativity side. Although creativity can sometimes seem to be spontaneous,
with inspiration hitting when you least expect it, the creative process for content marketing does require
some discipline and a logical approach.

Here are some common steps in the creative process for content marketing:

Research: Having identified what types of content your audience is looking for, research these
areas, consuming as much relevant information as you can.

Expand: Having conducted your initial research, create a range of ideas that you can explore in
deeper detail. At this stage, you could use generative artificial intelligence (or AI) tools, including
ChatGPT, to help you deep dive into the content.

Brainstorm: Having come with your list of content areas, you can start brainstorming ideas,
identifying themes, and conducting keyword research.

Leave: Brainstorming can be an intense process. So, after you brainstorm, you might find it
beneficial to step back, go away, and do something else. In other words, leave the idea alone for a
period and let it percolate in your subconscious.

Return: After a time, return to your idea, and critique or validate it in terms of your objectives,
audience, and strategy.

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 Test: No matter how much you research your ideas and explore them, not all ideas will turn out
to be good content! Create prototypes where possible to explore and test your content in its
simplest form before investing further.

Create: Once you’ve tested and prototyped your ideas, you can start creating your content with
greater content.

CONTENT TYPES

Content marketing formats

There are many content types and formats that content marketers can use in their content marketing mix.

Whitepapers are a great knowledge-sharing resource that can help you build thought leadership
and credibility within your industry. They’re a strong lead-generation tool and can also be a great
awareness tool.

Ebooks are often shorter and a lot more interactive than whitepapers. They generally focus on
multimedia content and ‘how-to ’guides, rather than thought leadership pieces. Ebook formats
are more likely to be read as they contain functional benefits that businesses can implement
immediately.

Infographics allow you to take large sets of data and turn them into an interesting visual story.
Look towards user research, customer data, or information from a historical context in terms of
the impact your business has had to create interesting infographics.

Blogging is an effective tool that allows businesses to journal their activity through the forms of
text and imagery. A blog usually sits on a company website and allows you to create a great
structure that drives search engine ranking. Case studies are often featured as topics within blog
posts. These are evergreen pieces of content, but they can also develop thought leadership and
credibility with your potential customers.

Interactive content encourages users to take an action and interact with your page within a social
space. Interactive content delivers over 500% more engagement than static posts in the
newsfeed. Interactive content formats include images, video, click-through, and polls.

Videos are the number one content format on the web, with the majority of video being viewed
on mobile. Audience attention rates are short and there is a lot of competition online, so make
sure that you're creating short, sharable, bite-sized videos that will capture the attention of your
audience. Video formats include ephemeral, live, short-form, and social TV.

Articles are long-form social posts that work to build thought leadership and demonstrate
expertise in a particular area. You can post articles to a blog or to certain social media sites.
Articles focus on a specific topic or theme to drive conversation and engagement and usually
include images, video, and CTAs along with text and sometimes other media. Engage with
comments on articles to continue to display your credibility and expertise in the subject area.

Templates and checklists can be useful content formats for seeding content to your potential
customers. These allow you to build credibility, help solve a pain point, and add real true effort to
help your audience.

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 Webinars are web-based seminars that provide you with an opportunity to connect to your
audience in a human way by putting a face or voice to your offering. Theme your webinars on a
specific area of your expertise and use visual aids such as videos, animations, or slide decks to
talk the audience through solving their business needs or to educate them in a specialized area.

Podcasts are audio recordings that users can listen to on smartphone apps or through audio
streaming services. Types of podcasts include interviews, conversations, reviews, storytelling,
show recordings, and Q&A. When you're creating a podcast, make sure that you have a good
quality recording set up and focus on a single theme. If you plan to record a series of podcasts, it
is good practice to follow a clear structure that will be used consistently across episodes so
listeners know what to expect.

The importance of variety

Different content types suit different situations, as you just saw. This is why it’s important to have a
variety of content in your content marketing strategy. This also brings several other benefits, such as:

Increasing brand awareness

Developing thought leadership

Generating excitement and advocacy

Reaching wider audiences

Critiquing content

You may become too attached to the content you’ve created. After all, you’ve put a lot of effort into
creating it, so you’re likely to want to share it with the world! However, not all content is good. And
content that works effectively in one context may not work in another context.

So, once the first rush of creative satisfaction has passed, it’s important to be objective (and even
ruthless) about your content. How can you do this? Here are some best practice guidelines when it comes
to validating or critiquing your content.

Does it provide utility to your audience? (Is it useful? Does it meet their needs?)

Is it fit for the platform you're publishing on? What works on Facebook may not be suitable for
LinkedIn, for example.

Can you measure the effect of the content? Do you have clear metrics that you can measure against?

Is it consistent in appearance and style with your brand?

Is it aligned with your business goals? All content should flow from clear objectives.

Sharing content

When you create content, you’re hoping that people who see it will share it with others. Understanding
why users share content will help you to create more effective and sharable content.

The four most common motivations that drive users to share your content are:

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 Incentives – when people like and share in return for something

Fame – when people want to be the first person to share this content

Utility – when people believe the content will be helpful or useful to their friends and connections

Topicality and trends – when people want to show that they are up to date with current
developments

Creating image content

Let’s now explore the different types of content that you might create. We’ll start with image content.

Here are some best practices for creating images.

Use simple, clear images – don’t clutter them with multiple subjects.

Use dominant colors – just one or two in general.

Add copy beside or directly into the image that develops the story or helps drive action towards
your goal.

Frame the image appropriately, and try not to cut off parts of the subject (unless it’s intentional).

Use the rule of thirds as a means of composing your image by dividing your image into a grid of
nine squares. Standard practice is to have the most important element of the image in the center
of the grid.

Consider the golden ratio where the size relationship of a smaller segment to a larger segment is
the same as the size relationship between the larger segment and the sum of the smaller and
larger segments.

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 Take time over CTAs. Don't be afraid to A/B test or experiment with different CTAs.

Creating infographic content

The next content type we’ll look at is infographics.

These are a great way to present a large amount of data in a visual way that is easy to read and quick to
share. Here are some tips for creating infographics:

Consider your flow. Does the infographic tell a clear story? Can you easily see how the different
elements relate to each other?

Remember that statistics and text copy can be made visual. For example, consider your font
choices.

Take the viewer on a journey towards a final piece of information.

Pepper the journey with mini 'pay-offs', such as interesting stats, stories, facts, and animations.

Example

Google’s Year in Search review is a great example of effective use of infographics. This visual content is
displayed in a social media ‘story ’format that tells the stories of Google users, through interesting and
surprising data. The narrative progresses, and the data is used to tell an engaging story.

Creating video content

Video is one of the most popular content formats and will play a key role in your content strategy. What
are the types of video content formats available to content producers?

High-quality video production, corporate videos, TV, and online commercials

o This usually involves expensive cameras, lighting, sound, and post-production

equipment.

Low-budget native social and live formats

o This usually involves smartphones, webcams, and lower-cost production and post-
production equipment.

Best practices

The following best practices will enhance your video content offering:

Tell viewers what your video is about within the first 3–5 seconds – for example, an impactful
establishing shot, or title.

Bear in mind the importance of location.

Consider the tone and accent of the VO used.

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 Consider the shape of your video: portrait, landscape, square video. (This can depend on the
device that people typically use to consume the content. For example, mobile viewers prefer
portrait or vertical videos as this is how they look at their phones.)

Use closed captions for 'sound-off' video views.

Consider high-impact special shots if appropriate: drones, mounted cameras, GoPros, and so on.

Don’t forget the importance of ‘Watch Next ’video content to keep users engaged.

Headline writing

Headline writing is a creative process and writers can choose to include some or all the tips from this list
in their headline outputs:

Focus on the needs of the reader – show how you will solve their problem.

Be specific, include numbers or percentages where appropriate.

Put your most important words towards the beginning.

Drive urgency! Hint towards the interesting content of the piece.

Write your headline for people to engage on a human level.

Use tools like Jasper and CoSchedule Headline Analyzer to help generate and then analyze
your headlines.

For SEO, consider the five Ws (Who? What? When? Where? Why?) from the consumer's point
of view.

Best practices for writing content

While there are many best practices for writing copy, it's always worth starting with George Orwell's
guide to writing:

Never use a commonly used metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech (clichés).

Never use a long word where a short one will do.

If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

Never use the passive where you can use the active.

Never use a jargon word if you can think of an everyday equivalent.

Bearing these tips in mind, what are some best practices for writing content? Here are some points to
consider when writing blogs, articles or long-form copy:

Chunk your copy into short digestible paragraphs.

Use sub-headers to make content skimmable. (Everyone skim-reads online when seeking
information.)

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 Break up long pieces of text with relevant images and video.

Don't be afraid to go into depth – some of the best-ranking knowledge-based pages are several
thousand words long! If this is the case, use a simple table at the beginning of the article with
clickable anchor links straight to sections.

Writing blog content

Take the following steps to increase traffic to your blog:

Write and publish on your blog regularly and consistently.

Use SEO keyword research as a guide to identifying topics to write about.

Note the importance of specific questions as a means for searching online.

Optimize page titles, page headings, and body content for SEO.

Create longer-form evergreen content – that is, content that isn't time dependent and won't get
old.

Write short-form pieces about current trends and topics.

Choose themes that are useful to people to help you become an authority and resource.

Look at the performance of existing content to gauge what your audience responds to and see if
you can look at it from a different angle.

Comment and engage with other people's blogs to generate awareness of your blog and goodwill
from the other bloggers and their communities who may check out your blog or share your social
posts.

Create the best piece of content by far to answer the question you've identified as being in the
mind of your target audience.

Creating whitepaper content

Whitepapers are a valuable tool for building thought leadership and demonstrating expertise in your
industry. What types of whitepaper formats can content producers use?

Research-intensive, data-driven whitepapers

This type of whitepaper often involves in-depth research, analysis, and interpretation of data, and is used
to establish thought leadership or to provide insights into industry trends or issues.

Solution-oriented whitepapers

These whitepapers are used to address specific problems or challenges in the industry and provide
detailed solutions or recommendations. They can be used as a lead-generation tool and to demonstrate
expertise.

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Best practices

The following best practices will help enhance your whitepaper content offering:

Make sure the topic is highly relevant to your target audience and the industry.

Provide in-depth and useful content. Don't shy away from going into detail - whitepapers are
expected to be thorough.

Support your arguments or insights with reliable and accurate data.

Use a professional and formal tone, but make sure the content is still engaging and accessible.

Include an executive summary at the start of the whitepaper to provide an overview of what
readers can expect.

Creating podcast content

Podcasts are an excellent medium to reach an audience that prefers audio content. What formats can you
consider for your podcasts?

Interview-style podcasts

This format involves the host interviewing one or more guests, often experts in a particular field.

Storytelling podcasts

This format typically features a narrative or story, which could be fictional or non-fictional.

Best practices

The following best practices will enhance your podcast content offering:

Ensure high-quality audio - poor sound can cause listeners to tune out.

Keep a consistent schedule - whether weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, consistency helps keep the
audience engaged.

Provide show notes with key points, links, and resources mentioned in the podcast.

Engage with your audience through Q&A sessions or social media interactions.

Creating webinar content

Webinars allow you to connect with your audience and provide valuable content in a more personal and
interactive way. What formats are available for webinars?

Instructional or educational webinars

These webinars focus on providing detailed information or instruction on a particular topic. They often
include a presentation followed by a Q&A session.

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Panel discussion webinars

These webinars feature a discussion among several experts or panelists. They're a great way to provide
different perspectives on a topic.

Best practices

The following best practices will enhance your webinar content offering:

Choose topics that are timely and relevant to your audience.

Use visual aids such as slides, infographics, and videos to make your presentation more engaging.

Promote the webinar well in advance and provide clear instructions on how to attend.

Engage with the audience during the webinar - consider using polls, quizzes, or Q&A sessions to
interact with attendees.

Make sure you have a reliable internet connection and technical setup to avoid disruptions
during the webinar.

CONTENT CURATION

What is content creation?

Content curation is using or sharing other people's or third-party content as part of your content strategy.
It's a quick, easy, low-cost, and high-impact use of content marketing… when done correctly!

Benefits

Content curation has many benefits for content producers:

You’ll appear less promotional.

It may make your audience like you more.

It will generate goodwill overall.

You’ll develop relationships with publications and companies with similar audiences.

You can position your company as an industry leader.

You can connect with the original creator.

Types of curation

There are four main types of curated content:

Aggregation means curating the most relevant content about a topic into a single piece or
viewpoint. This is the most common form of curation, and the basis of most content curation
services available for use or purchase.

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 Distillation takes the overall ‘noise ’about a topic and reduces it to its core concept. The best cases
of social content curation can be catalogued into this definition.

Mashups merge different content about a topic to create a new original point of view.

Chronology is historiographical content curation. Typically, this method consists of presenting a

timeline of curated information to show the evolution of a specific topic.

Finding content

When you want to share content, the first place to start is to look at your own social channels. If you don’t
already follow brands that are related to your products or services, it’s worth following them on social
media to find shareable content more easily, as well as to keep up with what is trending in your industry.

You can also search on Google (or use tools like BuzzSumo) and focus on the topics or industries that you
want to share content from to find good quality shareable content. Always make sure that you have
permission to share the content you share and that you clearly credit the content creator.

The difference between creation and curation

Now that we’ve looked at both content creation and content curation, let’s pause to consider the
differences between the two.

Created content

Here are some of the key characteristics of created content:

Original: Created content is original, and therefore not available anywhere else on the internet.

Investment: Created content needs a higher resource investment. After all, it takes more money
and time to produce content!

Ownership: Because you have created the content, you have 100% ownership. Therefore, you
also have full control of it.

Credibility: Because the content is original and controlled, it gains greater credibility with online
audiences.

Curated content

And now, here are some key characteristics of curated content.

Third-party content: Curated content has been created by third parties. Be sure to check who
has created the content and how reliable or authoritative the sources are.

Commentary: Don’t just share curated content. Add your own commentary or opinion, or find
other ways to add value to the curated content. Explain why you’re sharing the content, and try
to spark a conversation around it.

Investment: By its nature, curated content tends to require a lower resource investment. It uses
up less time and money by leveraging existing content.

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 Ownership: You have limited (if indeed any) ownership of curated content, because it was not
created by. Remember, when sharing curated content, you need to credit the original source.

Community: With curated content, there’s great potential to engage your community with the
content, prompting discussion and interaction around the content ideas.

Example

SEO software provider Moz’s ‘Top 10 ’is a great example of curated content. Twice per month, Moz sends
out a curated list of the top 10 stories in content and search marketing. As a respected voice in the
industry, Moz is trusted by its readers to pick out the articles that are really worth their time. Although
these articles were not authored by Moz, this strategy still helps reinforce their position as industry
thought leaders.

CONTENT REPURPOSING

What is content repurposing?

You can repurpose content into different formats to maximize its use.

Repurposing content means that you adapt it or break it up to use for another purpose, such as taking an
infographic and turning it into a number of individual images, each of which could be used in single social
media posts or added to an email.

Benefits

There are many benefits to repurposing your content:

Speed: It saves time as it's quicker than creating new content from scratch.

Low cost: It's more cost-effective to reuse something than to purchase or commission new
content.

Efficient: If you've already spent time and money in researching and interviewing for a blog post,
for example, and then writing it up, adding images, and strategizing social media posts, then you
should reuse that effort and good content as much as you can. Break up elements of it into tweets,
spark a discussion about it on LinkedIn, turn it into a podcast, or create an auto-generated video
of it by using a tool like lumen5.com.

Reinforcements: If content appears in more than one place, then it reinforces the message that
you want to make. In short, if you have good evergreen content, always look for opportunities to
maximize and reuse it and to save yourself some time.

In short, if you have good evergreen content, always look for opportunities to maximize, reuse, and save
yourself time.

It’s worth noting that there are some great tools and templates out there for most of the jobs you need to
do.

If you've written the article, you've done the really hard work of researching, gathering sources, writing it
up etc. That can (should) then become lots of different types of content – quotes in tweets, an auto-
generated video, a podcast episode where you discuss it with an expert, and so on.

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Best practices when repurposing content

Here are some rules to be aware of when repurposing content:

Quality: Ensure that the quality of the source content is high and free from any copyright. And
don’t forget to credit sources, when appropriate.

Placeholders: Remember to remove any placeholder content. (Your repurposing templates may
include placeholder, or ‘boilerplate’, text.)

Inspiration: Be inspired by these sources, but don't just copy them directly. Let them spark
further creativity.

Templates: Be careful of the contrast and fonts of some of the templates you might use for
repurposing. For example, if you are repurposing a template you found on a site like Canva, you
will need to pay close attention to the formatting and fonts on the existing version. Adapt these
as required to suit your brand’s purposes.

Videos: When repurposing content as video, be aware of aspect ratios and video length
requirements.

Platforms: Make sure you understand what works best on different platforms. For example,
content on LinkedIn has a very different tone from content on TikTok. You may have to express
the same idea very differently to suit the platform.

Generative tools: When using auto-generation tools, aim to keep content reasonably on-brand
when using templates.

Publishing: Stagger publishing at different times and days to reach audiences of platforms at
relevant times, and to reach other time zones.

Text: Be aware of how text descriptions vary across platforms and don't just replicate blindly.
People use hashtags differently and may have different @handles across different social apps.

CONTENT WRITING AND COPYWRITING

What’s the difference between content writing and copywriting?

For many people, content writing and copywriting are essentially the same thing. However, in a digital
marketing context, it’s important to understand that content writing and copywriting each have their own
set of purposes and best practices. These skills are required at different times in a marketing strategy.

Content writing

Content writing is essentially informative. It:

Informs, educates, entertains, and/or instructs readers

Requires advanced SEO knowledge to drive maximum value

Examples of content writing include blog posts, white papers, ebooks, and articles.

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Copywriting

Copywriting, on the other hand, tends to be more persuasive. It:

Persuades the reader to take an action

Can usually be measured through short-term metrics (CTR, CVR)

Examples of copywriting include product descriptions, advertising slogans, and social media CTAs.

Digital marketers must use these skills at the right moment in the customer journey.

Best practices for content writing and copywriting

It is important to understand the difference between content writing and copywriting, so that you can
then apply best practices for both.

Content writing, on the one hand, requires good SEO skills.

Copywriting, on the other hand, requires effective persuasive techniques.

Digital marketers need to be able to adjust their writing style to suit the requirements of each task, as part
of a comprehensive content strategy that both informs and persuades your audience, driving engagement
and conversions.

Example

GymIt, for example, shows how to use copywriting to attract attention through humor. With just a few
words, it creates a connection with prospective customers. That’s what great copywriting can do.

CONTENT PERSONALIZATION

What is content personalization?

Content personalization is a powerful process of using different content at different stages of the buying
process to be fully relevant to the right user at the right time. This is especially relevant to B2B
organizations where the buying process is longer or more complicated and deals tend to happen between
individuals and companies. So, personalizing content to the individual buyers and stakeholders is
essential.

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Benefits

The benefits of personalizing your content include:

Targeting the right people in the relevant platforms and in the right context

Increasing your conversion rates

Improving brand affinity across platforms

Driving efficiency

How to personalize content

Follow these steps to give you content a personal touch:

Research: Do your research around your audience segments and understand their consumer
journey. Make sure you're leveraging as much consumer data as possible. Are they on your
website? Have they looked at a newsletter that you've sent them?

Target: Target your messaging. Make sure you're getting them on the right platforms, the right
channels at the right time and with the appropriate message.

Measure: Make sure to measure and analyze what you do.

Case study

The beauty brand Aveda does a fantastic job of personalizing its content to customers. When new visitors
arrive on the website, they are asked to complete a quiz about their hair and skin types. This allows Aveda
to create a personalized set of content for each individual user, based on their responses. Even if site
visitors are not yet ready to make a purchase, Aveda can send them emails that are tailored to their
unique characteristics.

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INTRODUCTION TO CHATGPT

What is ChatGPT?

Perhaps the most well-known text-based generative AI tool is Open AI’s ChatGPT. According to ChatGPT
itself:

ChatGPT is a language model developed by OpenAI, and it’s based on the GPT (Generative Pre-trained
Transformer) architecture. It’s designed for natural language understanding and generation, making it well-
suited for a wide range of conversational applications. ChatGPT is capable of understanding and generating
human-like text based on the input it receives.

You can enter a query (or prompt) into the ChatGPT input field, and it will generate a text-based
response. The more specific and detailed your prompt, the better the result you’ll get from ChatGPT.

You can use ChatGPT for both content ideation and creation. For example, you could ask it to suggest
topics to write about, based on a list of keywords or buyer persona characteristics. Or you might ask it for
ideas for social media posts, based on a current trend or a new product launch. Or you may simply use it
for research for an article, by asking it specific questions or for suggestions.

What are the differences between ChatGPT-3.5 and ChatGPT-4?

The latest free version of the tool is ChatGPT-3.5 A more advanced, paid version, called ChatGPT-4, is also
available.

What are the main differences between 3.5 and 4?

Price: Whereas ChatGPT-3.5 is free, you need to pay a subscription for ChatGPT-4.
Prompts: ChatGPT-4 can handle longer prompts and conversations.
Image content: 3.5 can only answer text-based prompts, but 4 can process images as part of the
prompt.
Language capabilities: Version 4 can support 25 languages, including English, French, Spanish,
and German.
Plugin support: You can add third-party plugins to ChatGPT-4.
Accuracy: Results generated by version 4 tend to be more factually reliable.
Speed: Interestingly, ChatGPT-3.5 generates its results more quickly than ChatGPT-4. This is
because of the increased complexity of version 4.

The bottom line is that ChatGPT-4 can generate more complex content, but it is slower and more
expensive. This means that, generally, ChatGPT-3.5 is effective enough to manage most of your likely
tasks.

Benefits of Chat GPT for digital marketing activities

ChatGPT offer several benefits for digital marketers:

Content ideation: ChatGPT is ideal for brainstorming and initial content research. You can use it
to suggest topics based on keywords. It can also create content outlines based on topics or
learning outcomes that you suggest.
Content creation: You can use ChatGPT to generate the first drafts of your content. If you create
detailed prompts, it’ll be able to create content that aligns closely to your needs. However, be
prepared to review, fact check, and polish these AI-generated first drafts!

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 Content optimization: ChatGPT can also optimize existing content. For example, you can
enhance it for SEO, make it more concise or engaging, or summarize it for shorter content pieces.
Content personalization: With ChatGPT, you can rewrite your content for different buyer
personas and target audiences. For example, you can ask it to suggest or rewrite blog posts or
email content for different demographics.
Content repurposing: You can use ChatGPT to turn your blog post into a series of social media
posts, for example.
Greater efficiency: The great advantage of ChatGPT is its speed. It can generate complex content
at staggering speeds. This can enable you to quickly publish content in response to emerging
trends or breaking current events.
Increased scale: In other words, ChatGPT enables you to generate massive amounts of content
that previously would have required large teams of writers to deliver.

How ChatGPT can support digital marketing

Companies can use ChatGPT to automate workflows, act as a collaborative creative partner, and generate
personalized content.

Here are some examples of how ChatGPT can be used by digital marketers:

Keyword research: Generate a list of long-tail keywords for a given topic.

Content ideation: Generate 10 blog post ideas for a given topic.
Content briefs: Create a content brief for a blog post on a given topic.
Text workflows: ChatGPT can be used in conjunction with Microsoft Power Automate to create
text completion workflows. This allows users to effortlessly generate text for various purposes
such as email responses, social media posts, and much more.
Email newsletters: Generate a series of emails about a given topic that will be included in a
newsletter series.
Social media: Generate social media posts for a given topic for a given set of platforms.
FAQs: Create an FAQ article for a given topic.
Content checking: Use ChatGPT as an editing and proofreading tool by pasting your copy into
GPT and asking it to check it for errors, or for use of the passive voice, and so on.
Content translation: Use GPT to translate content into one or more other languages.
Meta descriptions: Write a meta description that accurately describes an online tool or website
and that includes the most relevant SEO keywords.
HTML title tags: Generate HTML title tags of no more than 60 characters for an article on a given
topic.
Data analysis: Generate Excel formulas to help analyze marketing data in a spreadsheet.
PPC: Use GPT to generate PPC copy for Google Ads and for the associated landing page on a
website.
IT support: ChatGPT can be used for IT support tasks, such as resetting passwords, providing
information about software or hardware, and troubleshooting common issues.

Limitations and caveats

Although ChatGPT is an efficient tool for content brainstorming, research, and drafting, you do need to be
aware of its limitations:

Its output is only as reliable as the source material it draws upon. In other words, it could
perpetuate existing inaccuracies or deliberate misinformation in online content.
The output is only as detailed and relevant as your prompts. If you enter vague prompts, you’ll
get vague responses.

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 ChatGPT content is not always up to date. It can be particularly unreliable for topics after 2021,
for example, and it doesn’t have access to current, real-time data.
Content returned by ChatGPT may be plagiarized or violate copywrite.
It’s not always alert to the nuances of human language and style.

For these reasons, it’s important to always regard ChatGPT content as a first draft. Ensure you review it so
that it meets quality and ethical standards. And add your own human style and brand voice to the content.
Human intervention is needed to ensure responsible and effective use of the technology and to avoid a
very bland output!

GETTING STARTED WITH CHATGPT

Getting started

To get started with ChatGPT, follow these steps:

1. Go to the ChatGPT website: chat.openai.com.

2. Click Sign up.
3. Enter your email.
4. Create your password.
5. Open your email to verify your email.
6. Enter your details, such as first name, last name, organization, and date of birth.
7. Select ChatGPT.

Using the interface

ChatGPT uses a simple chatbot interface. In other words, there’s an input field where you can type your
queries, known as prompts. And then the AI-generated response displays below your prompt. You can
then ask follow-up prompts to further refine the answer.

Familiarize yourself with the user interface, identifying key features that can be leveraged for digital
marketing purposes such as customization options, language settings, and output formats.

For instance, you can now set custom instructions in your account that will apply across all conversations
you have with ChatGPT. You can add information about your business, your challenges, and the type of
content you want to see from the AI. This will significantly improve the quality of the output you receive,
if you take the time to craft these instructions carefully.

It is also possible to use ChatGPT to generate multimodal content, meaning you can create new image
content as well as text. This applies to data visualizations too, because ChatGPT can now read files and
generate insightful charts. The technology is very powerful, but the important point to note is that you
need to direct it with purpose. Consider your goals when configuring your ChatGPT workspace.

Getting started with prompts and creating your first prompts

The key to success with ChatGPT is knowing how to write effective prompts. If your first prompt doesn’t
deliver the result you want, ask it follow-up prompts. So, for example, instead of asking “What are SEO
best practices?”, ask “What are SEO best practices when trying to drive traffic from young female users to
your online clothing store? List five best practices as a bullet list with explanations.”

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In other words:

Tell it exactly what you’re looking for.

Tell it how you want it to display the response, in terms of media format (chart, image, text) and
also the tone of voice.

If you find the response too complicated, you can then ask it to simplify the response for a specific target
readership. For example, “Can you simplify that for a beginner audience?”

You can also limit the response by setting a context or providing constraints. For example, “Can you
summarize that in one sentence?”

Remember, the more guidance you give ChatGPT, the more likely it is to deliver the results you want.

Best practice for creating effective prompts to support digital marketing activities

Bearing all that in mind, what are some best practices for creating effective prompts to support digital
marketing activities?

Do

Be specific: Clear, specific prompts yield better results. If you’re generating an email subject line,
instead of just asking for “an email subject,” ask for “an email subject line for a back-to-school
marketing campaign.”
Experiment with prompt length: While brevity can be effective, sometimes longer, more
detailed prompts help the AI to better understand the context. Experiment to find the right
balance.
Set a tone: If your brand has a particular voice (formal, casual, humorous, and so on), indicate
that tone in your prompt. For instance, “Generate a playful tweet announcing a summer sale”
would guide the AI to generate content that matches your brand’s voice.
Ask follow-up prompts: If you’re not happy with the first response, ask it follow-up prompts to
further guide it.

Don’t

Don’t be ambiguous: Phrases that have multiple meanings can yield unpredictable results. For
instance, avoid using jargon that might be interpreted differently in different industries.
Don’t skip the review: Never use AI-generated content directly without reviewing and possibly
editing it. The AI might not fully capture nuance or brand voice in the way a human would.
Don’t assume it knows your brand: While ChatGPT is a powerful tool, it doesn’t have access to
specific data or strategies related to your brand unless you provide this context in the prompt.

Monitoring and analyzing ChatGPT performance

Treat any content you create using ChatGPT just like you’d treat any other marketing content you
generated. In other words, monitor its performance and then tweak it as necessary.

Set up metrics to monitor the efficacy and performance of ChatGPT in your digital marketing activities.
And analyze the output quality, making adjustments for better results over time.

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Among the metrics you could measure are:

Speed of content creation

Clickthrough rates
Time spent on content
Conversions
ROI (return on investment)

Cost-efficiency and scalability with ChatGPT

ChatGPT enables digital marketers to generate large amounts of content, both at speed and at scale. This
can lead to several cost efficiencies. For example:

Market research: You can use ChatGPT to quickly gather information about industry trends,
competitor analysis, and customer preferences. This helps to reduce the need for costly manual
research.
Keyword research: ChatGPT enables you to quickly carry out keyword research, so that you can
develop content that’s likely to perform well on search engine results pages (or SERPS). This
avoids the need for expensive keyword research tools.
Content generation: ChatGPT can help you generate a wide range of content, including blog
posts, social media updates, product descriptions, and more.
Content personalization: Using ChatGPT, you can personalize content, based on users’
preferences and behavior. This increases the relatability of the content, so it will better resonate
with people and ultimately lead to conversions.
Customer support: You can use ChatGPT as a cost-effective customer chatbot, using it as the
first line of customer service.
A/B testing: You can A/B test your content, using suggestions from ChatGPT. This then enables
you to optimize your content for maximum impact.
Ad copywriting: ChatGPT can help you to write your ads for your pay-per-click (PPC)
advertising campaigns. This may lead to increased clickthrough rates, and a reduced cost per
click (CPC).
Content distribution: You can ask ChatGPT to suggest content distribution and promotion
strategies. If these strategies are successful, it will increase the reach of your content.

But don’t forget the role that human oversight provides in ensuring that the content is of a suitable
quality, and that it aligns with your brand’s voice and objectives.

For maximum efficiency and impact, you should aim to integrate ChatGPT into your existing marketing
technology stack for maximum efficiency and impact.

CONTENT CALENDARS

What are content calendars?

Content calendars are an essential tool for all content marketers. A content calendar is a centralized
document that is used to plan content across multiple platforms and themes.

Benefits

There are many benefits of using a content calendar.

It helps you plan your content efficiently.

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 Keeps the team focused and organized.

Helps prevent delays caused by writer's block.

It allows key dates for functional messaging and topical content.

It keeps social content on track across multiple platforms and realigns aim or strategy.

Elements

A complete content calendar will contain the following elements:

Copy: the text or narrative that goes with your post

Creative: the image, video, gif, poll, or format that accompanies your copy

Theme: who this content is for – the purpose, pain point, or audience interest the content is
serving

Date and time: when the post will be published and the length of time it will be promoted for

Platform: how the content will be published and where

Key considerations

There are some key points to consider when creating a content calendar:

Theming your content around the time of year (topical and cultural events)- for example, New
Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, spring, summer, the school year, exams, BBQ
season, bank holidays and so on.

Business priorities, timelines, and product launches

Other marketing activities, PR, and traditional advertising activities

Sponsorship activity

In-store promotions

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NOTES

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LESSON 5: MANAGING,
DISTRIBUTING, AND
PROMOTING CONTENT

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STRATEGIC CONTENT DISTRIBUTION

Content platforms

It’s so important to think carefully about how content will appear on a different platform, or social media
channel.

Consider both its format and in the messaging and intention. Understand the importance of
aligning platform choice to your audience and content.

Audience mindsets change across platforms. In other words, people react to, and engage with,
content in different ways. Discussions can break out on a Facebook post in a way they don't in a
LinkedIn article or a Snapchat story. And people behave differently on Twitter, LinkedIn, and
Facebook, for example.

Be careful about formats and tone – a long blog post with video snippets might not work well in
an email newsletter. Videos would work effectively on TikTok or YouTube, and stories and reels
are popular on Instagram.

Think about what your content elicits and leads people to do. Can they act on it, for example click
through to a website? On Twitter they can click a link instantly, but they can’t click through on
non-paid Instagram. Think about what your content means and what actions it might drive
people to take. Keep the engagement mechanics in mind.

All of these are important considerations when it comes to selecting the most appropriate platforms for
your content.

Content seeding

It's important to take a strategic approach to publishing content so that it is seen by an audience who will
positively engage with it. This is sometimes known as content seeding where you publish or share your
content in the hope to ‘plant the seed ’with your message and watch it grow in terms of reach and impact.

So, aim to be strategic, and publish your content on key platforms such as news forums and message
boards – as well as including it as part of relevant Twitter conversations, on Tik Tok live, in LinkedIn and
Facebook groups, and so on. Then you increase the chance that it will be picked up and distributed by
social influencers, content producers, or publications, who will help to boost your content reach. Rather
than posting and sharing your content everywhere, take a thoughtful, focused approach and select where
you want to publish it.

Example

HP sought to promote its own sustainability credentials and encourage viewers to do their bit. It
partnered with comedians, for example, to show how even humor can play a role in reducing single-use
plastics. This led to the #HPRadicalReuse challenge.

The brand focused on TikTok as a distribution channel because it enables users to get involved and create
their own version of the original content.

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YOUTUBE VIDEO MANAGEMENT

The importance of YouTube

When it comes to content distribution for businesses and brands, YouTube has become an indispensable
resource for housing and sharing video content. For brands with complex products or businesses that
require some sort of product demonstration as part of the sales cycle, video is an excellent medium.

Why has video become so important? With video, it's possible to explain complex subjects in a succinct
manner, rather than using lengthy text pieces. Likewise, many customers like to see products in action or
being used so video is the ideal medium for product demonstration. In many ways, YouTube acts as a
library of useful videos that people can watch while on their Buyer’s Journey.

The rise of video search

Actually, let’s take a moment to think about that video. Did you know that YouTube is considered the
second biggest search engine in the world after Google? So, you can think of your videos as content pieces
that people are looking for to help them decide on a course of action.

Remember that you want to position your content as the answer to a user’s question. To help with your
video content creation, try to anticipate the types of ‘explainer’, demonstration, or ‘how to ’videos your
audience is looking for. You can then expand and validate your ideas with YouTube keyword research
using the suggested search options in the YouTube search bar.

So, if you want to create findable videos on your YouTube channel, it's very important to think about who
is looking for video content and what they are looking for. What searches will lead to your video?

Types of YouTube channel

When it comes to creating YouTube channels, there are two options that you can choose from –
depending on the type of video creator you want to be.

Brand: A brand channel is run and managed by an advertiser or company. It contains no personal
details. Bear in mind that a Brand channel can be managed by multiple accounts.

Personal: A personal channel can contain personal details. It has only one administrator.

A brand channel is ideal for businesses, large organizations, or anyone who plans to represent a brand,
rather than an individual. This type of channel is advantageous for several reasons:

Multiple managers: A brand channel allows you to add multiple managers and editors. This
means different team members can manage the channel without sharing personal Google account
details. This is particularly useful for larger organizations where different departments or roles
may need to contribute to the channel.

Customization: Brand channels offer more customization options than personal channels. You
can add a channel description, links, and channel art to improve your branding. You can also
organize your videos into customizable sections and playlists to guide your audience's journey.

Analytics: Brand channels provide access to advanced analytics, helping you understand viewer
behavior and preferences, which is crucial for refining your content strategy.

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 On the other hand, a personal YouTube channel is suitable for individuals who want to share
content centered around their personal identity or interests. This could include vloggers, artists,
educators, and influencers. While you can only have one administrator, personal channels are
simpler to manage and are a good choice for those starting with video content creation.

Setting up a personal YouTube channel

You can create a personal YouTube channel by following these steps:

1. Sign in to YouTube on a computer or using the mobile site.

2. Try any action that requires a channel, such as uploading a video, posting a comment, or creating
a playlist.

3. If you don't yet have a channel, you'll see a prompt to create a channel.

4. Check the details (with your Google Account name and photo) and confirm to create your new
channel.

Switching from a personal to a brand YouTube channel

Even if you initially set up a personal YouTube channel, you can change it to a brand account later.

Follow these steps to switch your personal YouTube account to a brand account:

1. Sign in to YouTube on a computer or using the mobile site.

2. If you have multiple channels already set up, go to your channel list and choose the channel you
want to move.

3. Visit http://youtube.com/account_advanced.

4. You can then choose Move channel to a brand account and create your new brand account.

5. All your subscribers and analytics will also be switched when you move over to a brand channel,
so there is no loss of historical performance.

The ABCD of effective video content

If you’ve ever spent any time idly browsing through YouTube videos, you’ll certainly have noticed that not
all videos are effective! How can you help your videos to stand out in the stream? The ABCD of effective
video content provides some good tips:

Attract attention.

Brand naturally.

Connect with the viewer.

Direct the user.

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Attract attention

Attract attention from the start by outlining what the person is likely to learn or get from the video. Don’t
forget that your video content creation might be a result of keyword research. So what are the questions
that people are asking the search engine that inspired your video? What are they likely to have been
searching for when they find your video? At the start of your video, show how you will answer these
questions in order to draw people in.

Brand naturally

Brand naturally and meaningfully. Make the brand an integral part of the story that the video is telling.
However, focus on the story, not the brand!

How can you do this? Well, try not to wear too much company branded clothing. Avoid close-ups of the
logo. Don’t needlessly repeat slogans or tag lines unnaturally. Viewers are on your channel, so they
already know who you are! Simply top and tail the video with a quick shot of your logo and brand name.
Try to keep this at 1–2 seconds max. Otherwise, people might leave before the actual video starts.

Connect with the viewer

Don’t forget the importance of your story! Connect with the viewer through emotion and storytelling. Also,
include tips and tricks for product use, or provide other helpful information.

Direct the user

Direct the user clearly to what you want them to do next after watching the video. Try to incorporate a
CTA – such as, for example, buy now, call us, visit our store, or try it yourself.

Example

The online-only sunglasses retailer William Painter showed how to implement the “ABCDs of effective
video content”.

The video is engaging from the first scene, explains the product well, and features constant movement to
keep the story flowing.

Uploading your YouTube video

Upload a video using Direct upload by following these steps:

1. Sign in to Google.

2. Go to your YouTube channel.

3. Click Upload.

4. Select the video file you want to upload and set the basic information, name, and the advanced
settings of your video, and select the video privacy settings.

5. When all the information is completed, you can upload the video to your channel.

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Video metadata

When you upload a video to your channel, you’ll also need to include metadata. Your metadata gives
viewers more information about the video, and it ensures that your videos display in relevant search
terms.

Here are some useful tips for crafting your metadata.

Video title: Provide a title that contains keywords, so it is more findable when people search on
YouTube. Well-written titles will encourage users to click on or watch the video.

Video description: Accurately describe the content of the video that a user is about to watch,
aiming to give them a reason to watch it.

Tags: Add keywords to your video to make the video more findable on YouTube.

Video thumbnails

Video thumbnails let viewers see a quick snapshot of your video as they are browsing YouTube. They act
as a preview of the video.

Well-chosen thumbnails drive more views because they encourage people to clickthrough and watch.

Good thumbnail

Bad thumbnail

Adding a thumbnail to your video

To add a thumbnail to your video:

Sign in to YouTube.

Go to YouTube Studio > Video Manager.

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 Next to the video, click Edit.

On the left of the preview screen, choose a thumbnail.

Click Save changes.

Adding YouTube Cards to your video

YouTube cards are interactive elements that you can add to your YouTube videos. They can appear at any
specified time during the video, and they're designed to engage viewers and drive them towards a specific
action.

These actions could include directing viewers to another video, playlist, channel, or a poll. Cards can also
be used to promote your website, merchandise, and crowdfunding platforms. They are a useful feature for
driving more engagement and interaction with your content, and they're optimized for both desktop and
mobile platforms.

They can drive deeper engagement with your:

YouTube channel

Videos and playlists on your YouTube channel

Your website

Using YouTube Studio tools

Once you have started to build your video library, you can use the tools available in YouTube Studio to
manage your video content. Here are some useful tools:

Dashboard: Check for notifications and alerts.

Video Manager: Organize and update videos from one place.

Community: Review and respond to comments, view private messages, and see videos where you
have been credited.

Channel: Adjust channel settings.

Analytics: Review channel performance.

Create: Create new videos using the audio library and video editor.

Enhancing your YouTube videos

Take some time to explore the features of YouTube Studio and get comfortable with using the different
tools to enhance your videos.

For example, you can use YouTube Studio to:

Trim the start and end of your video.

Cut out sections from the middle of your video with the split function.

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 Replace audio with music from the YouTube library.

Add an end screen to your video to encourage your audience to keep watching your content.

YouTube Analytics reports

You can analyze your video performance using YouTube analytics reports. These reports are generally
most important for content creators who rely on the organic success of their videos and are on the
receiving end of YouTube advertising.

There are:

Earnings reports, which include estimated earnings and ad performance.

Watch-time reports, which include watch times, views, traffic sources, and audience retention.

Engagement reports, which include subscribers and annotations reports.

CONTENT SCHEDULING

Content scheduling is the method by which content is uploaded for future publishing.

Types of scheduling

There are two main ways you can schedule your content for publishing.

Native scheduling: This is a method of publishing content that uses a social platform's own upload
function – for example, Twitter Studio or Facebook Publishing Tools.

Third-party applications: Tools such as Buffer, Hootsuite, and Sprout Social are used by validating
logins for your platforms and scheduling or spreading content across multiple platforms through
the single hub.

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Benefits

Why do content marketers schedule their content?

Time efficient: Scheduling a large amount of content in one sitting allows for time spent on other
activities.

Cross-posting: Some third-party tools let you schedule content to multiple platforms with a single
click from their integrated approach. A word of caution here. You should never cross-post
automatically without planning for each platform and thinking ahead. Specifications for images,
videos, and copy vary between platforms. Usernames and hashtags can also differ. Cross-posting
without thinking shows the audience you're not really building a community, but just putting
content out there without thinking about why you are doing it.

Note: It's also important not to post too far in advance, in case something changes in the world or the
market, and your scheduled post might seem insensitive or inappropriate. Keep track of scheduled posts
and make sure that you or another team member always have access to edit or remove a post at short
notice. It’s also important to ensure that marketers should never auto-cross-post, because image, video
and copy specs vary between platforms. Usernames and hashtags differ too. Cross-posting shows the
audience that you're not building a community, but just pumping out content!

CONTENT PROMOTION

Content promotion is defined as the strategic approach to getting your content seen by a wider audience
than your immediate own channels. This applies to both the earned and paid space and we’ll look at the
different content promotion methods in each here.

Paid methods

Paid media and advertising: These are paid content promotion campaigns, such as LinkedIn,
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and so on.
Influencer marketing: Here, you need to consider the benefits of using influencers, identify the
right influencers, co-create content with influencers, understand how to measure influencer
marketing, and guideline compliance as well as influencer contract considerations.
Affiliate marketing: This includes paid third-party blogs or publications that produce content
that drives engagement with your brand and traffic to your website with the intention of
converting this traffic into leads or sales for a fee, usually paid as a commission per lead or a
percentage of the sale value.

Unpaid methods

Owned media channels, such as your website and your blog, your email list, your company's
social media channels and so on. Non-paid or organic reach is limited on social channels, but a
popular blog on your website and well-subscribed email list are effective ways to promote your
content.
Hashtags and tagging. These allow you to join conversations or categorize your content relevant
to your audience and theme.
Guest blogging and takeovers. Consider extending the reach of your content by writing a piece
for another publication, company, or influencer.
Interviews or Q&A. Interviews conducted on the basis of outreach or a press release can
promote your content to a wider audience and be repurposed in many ways.

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COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT

What is community management?

Community management is the stage that comes after content has been published. It involves engaging
with your followers, and handling complaints or feedback on your content, brand, and organization to
drive better customer relationships.

Why is it important?

In order for your content marketing strategy to succeed, community management is key:

You can manage negative experiences with your business and turn them into positive solutions.

You can respond to business queries and help drive sales, leads, and conversions.

You'll gain insights about your business from real people in real time and adjust if needed.

You'll find opportunities to network with like-minded businesses or influencers.

Ultimately, this will all drive new sales and repeat business.

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NOTES

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LESSON 6: ENHANCING
CONTENT MARKETING USING
METRICS AND AI

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CONTENT MARKETING KPIS

Value of KPI measurement

Measuring what you do is, of course, a vital part of your digital marketing strategy. It's important for both
B2B and B2C marketing.

Measuring the success of your content marketing efforts shows the value of your work in terms of how it
has achieved the key performance indicators (or KPIs) that you've set for the activity.

Benefits of measuring content

Measuring your content marketing efforts can help:

Justify spend and resource allocation.

Provide learnings for future campaigns.

Unearth unexpected insights.

Create a valuable roadmap on how to produce a content strategy.

Clarify topics and themes that resonate with an audience.

CONTENT MARKETING CAMPAIGN METRICS

You can use a wide variety of specific metrics to measure the success of your content marketing
campaigns. However, in general, these metrics can be broken down into:

Engagement metrics

Conversion metrics

Let’s look at each type in a bit more detail now.

Engagement metrics

Engagement metrics include:

Higher average time on site, or reduced bounce rates

Increased numbers of returning visitors

More pages viewed per session

Scroll depth – for example, 50% of users get to the end of a blog

Growth in discovery through organic search or social visitors

Increased number of people searching for your brand

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 Higher channel engagement metrics – for example, social shares, email opens, brand mentions,
and more links to your content, which is good for long-term SEO, and so on

Conversion metrics

Conversion metrics include:

Higher number of goals achieved

Increased conversion rate

Shorter path to purchase

Reduced cost per sale or lead

ANALYZING CONTENT PERFORMANCE

Choosing metrics

Follow these steps when choosing metrics:

Begin with your objective: Was it an awareness or conversion objective?

Choose the appropriate metric set: Choose one to report on your campaign. For example, if your
objective is to increase brand engagement on your blog by 10% in 3 months, you'd look at
metrics like increased session length on blog pages, high return visitors to the blog, or changes in
email newsletter subscribers to determine if your new content themes are resonating better with
your target audience.

Look for changes: Examine these metrics before the campaign started, during the campaign itself,
and after the campaign has concluded, to see if there are changes, either positive or negative, in
relation to these metrics to help unearth trends and demonstrate the value of your content
strategy.

Steps to derive insights

Metrics are just data. To understand the story that they are telling, you need to unearth the insights that
they contain.

So, how can you derive valuable, actionable insights from your content activity?

Metrics: Choose the metrics you want to measure, such as conversion or awareness metrics, and
so on.

Groups: Group the metrics for your themes and formats together in a table in, for example, Excel.
You could put your themes and formats in the left-hand columns of your table and your metrics
in the right-hand columns.

Themes: Identify if there was a particular theme or format that performed above or below the
campaign average for those metrics.

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 Channels: When you have identified the best-performing themes and formats, dig deeper to see
what the best-performing channels for distribution were (such as social media, SEO, and so on).
This will help with channel optimization in future campaigns.

Elements: Look into your data to see if any content elements such as images or headlines were
particularly effective. This can help with identifying ways to reproduce compelling headlines or
images going forward.

Times: It's also worth noting the best-performing times and days which can help with future
content scheduling

Example

Social listening data, for example, has value across the company. Digital marketers at Grammarly, a
writing AI assistance tool, feed data into reports from other departments to add context. They combine
what they find in Sprout Social with data from customer service platforms like Zendesk to build a
rounded picture of their customers’ thoughts about the brand.

These findings are then shared around the whole organization, increasing visibility for the marketing
team. Marketers at Grammarly go a step further, too - they are always on the look-out for opportunities to
integrate social listening with the rest of the business.

As one team member says on the Sprout Social site:

If I see someone share a slide deck in Slack, I’ll go to them and ask, “How can I support you with social
insights?” We’ve set up monthly syncs with our consumer insights team, as well as our user experience
team, so I can complement their work with listening data from Sprout.

This all helps cement marketing’s position at Grammarly as the ‘voice of the customer’.

Determining return on investment (ROI)

How can you determine return on investment (ROI) from your content marketing efforts?

When you've looked at the metrics related to your objective, it's important to understand the cost of
producing these metrics. In other words, divide your most important metric improvements by the cost of
the campaign.

It's simple enough to work out the ROI and other valuable return-on-spend metrics.

1. Look at the weeks prior to your campaign and set these as benchmark metrics.

2. Subtract these benchmark metrics from your campaign metrics to see the actual increase. For
example: How many new visitors did you drive versus the benchmark? How many workable
leads were generated? Was there an increase in revenue?

3. Divide the campaign spend by the increased metrics. This will give you metrics such as cost per
new engagement, cost per new conversion, and cost per increased brand search.

4. Determine the value. You can create your own metrics to show the value of your activity, simply
by seeing what changed, noting the change, and then dividing the spend by the increased metrics.

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 5. Use simple language. When creating metrics for non-analysts or non-digital people, use simple
language. For example, say, ‘increase in people looking for our brand on Google’ rather than
‘higher brand searches’, or ‘cost per new visitor to the website’ rather than ‘cost per incremental
user’.

The content marketing report

How do you create a report to show all this information?

Here are the elements you should include in your content marketing report:

All content that was produced and the cost and campaign metrics associated with these costs.

Overall performance versus KPI or objective.

What worked, headlines, channels, times of day. Show the metrics and anything else that's
relevant.

What was less effective, for example, formats, messaging, and so on.

A summary of the insights you've derived from the data.

What would you recommend for the next campaign based on the data?

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NOTES

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