The Worst Advice Marketing Ever
Gave to Content Rand Fishkin, Founder, Moz | @randfish

What Makes
Content Successful?

It Accomplishes its Creator’s Goal(s)
@randfish Simple.

But… There are Two Kinds
of Goals: @randfish

Not-So-Smart Goals
@randfish

Go Viral! @randfish Lots of
shares and views… But what does that accomplish?

Grow Our Traffic! @randfish Unless
you’re a media property or social network, traffic probably isn’t your true goal.

Boost Sales! @randfish Many businesses
invest in content because they’ve read headlines like this, and think there’s a 1:1 relationship See! A magnet! It gets customers! I want a magnet!

Smart Goals
@randfish

Match the Org’s Most Important
Priorities Grow top-of-funnel for product X by 25% this year Help us win more head-to- head deals vs. competitor Y Earn 10% more leads for our sales team via our free tools Top 3 Priorities: ID & create content that helps audience in our field Create comparison pages & rank for us vs. Y terms ID searches our tools answer & create content to rank Content Tactics

Show the Connection Between Goals
& Metrics @randfish Grow top-of-funnel for product X by 25% this year Twitter follower growth is correlated at 0.7 with growth in traffic from our tweets Twitter growth rate (& 2017 target): 14% (20%) Twitter followers (& 2017 target): 12.5K (22K) Twitter monthly visits (& 2017 target): 4.5K (10K)

Accommodate for Content’s Indirect &
Slow ROI @randfish Me make content. Humans click. Them buy. Me get money.

@randfish CaveRand know. That not
how content work.

How Content Really Works: Me
Make Content. Humans click. If them like, them remember. Maybe see more my content. Visit again. Me build trust, relationship. When them need me, them come back.

Let’s Fact Check Some Oft-Given,
Content Marketing Advice

We’ll Use Politifact’s Scale: Via
Politifact.com

e.g.
Via Politifact.com

Common Themes in Content Marketing
Advice8

Content Brings Direct Leads &
Sales @randfish

@randfish

Content is An Indirect Acquisition
Channel Via Jauntaroo Jauntaroo’s tool serves as leadgen for Expedia, but only a small percent of searches ever lead to conversion on a first visit.

Content is An Indirect Acquisition
Channel Via Moz At Moz, we observe folks visiting our site ~8X on average, before they take a free trial of our

Converting Directly Often Brings Lower
LTV Customers @randfish Folks whose 1st Moz experience is clicking this & signing up stick with their subscription for less time, on avg, than those who visit lots of Moz’s content before signing up.

Conversion is Much Less Likely
on a 1st Visit Via Larry Kim

Interruption Tactics & Dark Patterns
Can Work… Via Copyhackers

Via Copyhackers e.g. This overlay
yielded many more email signups

But They Can Also Backfire
Via Marketoonist

Via Danny Richman

Growth Hacks Are The Future
of Marketing @randfish

@randfish

Roundup Posts?

The Infographic Craze?
@randfish

Ubiquitous Guest Posting?

Auto-Follow Software?

Aggressive Email Pestering

Hacks Tends to Follow the
Law of $h*#&y Clickthrough Rates: Via Andrew Chen

But, Hacks Can Be Useful
When Applied to a Functional Content Flywheel

Publish Amplify Grow network Rank
for slightly more competitive terms & phrases Get links Grow authority Earn search traffic If you know that amplification is where your flywheel is dying, hacks to reach a larger group may indeed be powerful!

(e.g. Rand’s Facebook Hack) I
first published this on my personal blog, but the post went nowhere on Facebook, so I deleted the original FB post and put up this one to my Medium version (which links to the original), and got ~5X the reach.

Facebook is Everything
@randfish

@randfish

You’ve Probably Seen Headlines Like
This: Via AdWeek

But, Facebook is <5% of
Web Traffic Referrals Via SimilarWeb

Yes, In Some Sectors, Facebook
is Huge e.g. the “Humor” category is, not surprisingly, dominated by social referrals (data via SimilarWeb Pro)

Facebook Wants to Keep You
There; Not Send You Somewhere Else Via MarketingLand

Overinvest in Facebook at Your
Peril Via FinancialBrand Today, both these numbers are ~1/5th of what they were in 2013 when “reachpocalypse” hit.

Amplification Starts After You Hit
Publish @randfish

@randfish

Lots of Amplification Work Does
Happen After Publication Via Moz’s WB Friday

But, If You Haven’t Set
Up Your Content for Amplification Success… @randfish The Probability that “It’ll Just Spread Naturally” is Very Low.

Before You Produce Content, You
Need a Great Answer to the Question: @randfish Who Will Help Amplify This and Why?

Say you want to help
this content spread: Via Polygraph.cool

A Crappy Answer: “Movie people
will like this. I know movie people. I have the best movie people.” - a soon-to-be-sad marketer

A Great Answer: Via Followerwonk
It’s only *great* if you’ve actually built these relationships and have buy-in from these folks.

Paid Channels Are How You
Boost Content’s Reach @randfish

@randfish

Paid Can Certainly Boost Reach…
Via Buffer $5/click is a little pricey, IMO…

But, 90%+ of All Social
Clicks Go to Organic Via Nanigans Q1 2016 Facebook Report

On Google, It’s ~80% of
Clicks to Organic ~20% of all clicks ~80% of all clicks

Paid Demands High Confidence in
ROI Via Hubspot

Ironically, Paid Works Best on
Content that Amplifies Well Organically Via Larry Kim Twitter is a great, free, low-risk testing platform for sharing.

Be Wary of Overinvesting in
Short-Term Paid, When That $$ Could Go to Long-Term Organic If I spend $1.07 X 3,000 clicks/month for 6 months… that’s $19,260.

Or I could invest $10,000
in a content effort that might get me 10X the traffic for years to come.

Use Keywords And You’ll Rank
in Google @randfish

@randfish

Keywords Still Matter for SEO

(& Other Forms of Discoverability,
Too)

But Keywords Are Only the
Beginning Via Backlinko Google is much smarter at understanding topics and, most SEOs already do KW optimization, making it a less powerful way to stand out

The Modern SEO Pyramid Crawl
Accessibility, so engines can reach & index your content Compelling content that solves the searchers’ query Keyword Optimized to attract searchers & engines Content that naturally earns links & citations Title, URL, & description that earns high CTR Amplification via social/word-of-mouth Schema & markup that stands out in SERPs

Smart KW Research is a
Must: Via AdWords Sadly, AdWords data is not “smart.” These numbers are wrong (in reality, they represent a range) The “competition” & bids only speak to PPC, not SEO

Better Metrics Can Help Prioritize:
Via KWE Accurate volume ranges Difficulty of ranking in organic Relative CTR Value to my site

Once You Do KW Research…
Via WB Friday

2) Uncover related terms, phrases,
&topics 3) Craft a title, subtitle, & meta description that will stand out in the SERPand have strong relevance to the query 4) Use a format that will serve visitors on every device fast 5) Provide unique value that no one else in the SERPdelivers 1) Investigate what answers & content searchers need so you can effectively serve their needs Follow This 5-Step Process

Correlation is a
Recommendation
@randfish

@randfish

The Best Times to Tweet?
Via Buffer

The Ideal Length of Content?
Via Medium

The Types of Content that
Works Best? Via OKDork

Treat Correlation as Paths for
Inquiry & Experimentation; Not Rules to Follow Via Bloomberg’s What’s Warming the Planet?

Make Great Content And They
Will Come @randfish

@randfish

Need a Great Resume Template?
@randfish Sadly, none of these are going to help job seekers stand out 

Try ResumUP Via ResumUP They’ve
got data to back up the performance of their templates Sadly, they don’t rank well, & haven’t gotten the shares they deserve.

The *Best* Grilled Steak? Via
(actually, this doesn’t deserve a link) If you want some crappy, over- seasoned, poorly cooked meat, listen to Bobby. It’s “easy.”

Via SeriousEats If you want
the best steak of your life, read Serious Eats instead.

Quality Alone Cannot Overcome a
Competitive Landscape

Nor Reach a Hard-to-Attract Audience
@randfish

Doesn’t Mean You Shouldn’t Aim
for 10X Content Via 10X Content

Just Don’t Expect “Greatness” to
Compensate for Marketing @randfish The correlation between quality and ubiquity is not always high…

Our Job is Not to
“Make Great Content” @randfish Our Job is to Make Content that Accomplishes Our Organization’s Goals.

A Lot of Content Marketing
Advice… Is self-serving Suffers from survivorship bias Applies in some fields, but not others Works for only some flywheels Only helps if you’re an early adopter

None of these Caveats Mean
the Advice Isn’t Useful… @randfish

It Just Means We Need
to Apply It in Context @randfish

Don’t Ignore the Experiences of
Others… @randfish

Build a Model for Evaluation
& Experimentation @randfish

Slides Online: bit.ly/worstcontentadvice Follow Rand:
Twitter.com/randfish Rand’s Blog: Moz.com/rand Thank You!