Content marketing presentation by Chris Sciulli of Smokehouse SEO and the International Society of Automation (ISA) on Content marketing for small teams on a budget

1. RALEIGH SEO MEETUP |
MARCH 19, 2019
NO TIME? NO TEAM? NO PROBLEM!
CONTENT MARKETING FOR EVERYONE

2. WHAT’S THIS PRESENTATION ABOUT?
• What is content?
• Why should I care?
• Why is no one reading my content
and how can I fix it?
• How can I share my content?

3. THIS PRESENTATION IS FOR:
Small agencies/in-house marketers
Small business owners & content marketing
beginners
Marketers with limited time/money/tools
That one person in your office who keeps
getting stuck with literally every single
digital marketing job in the place because
they used Facebook once but that’s not
really what they do so they kinda just ‘wing
it’

4. WHAT IS CONTENT?
“CONTENT MARKETING IS A COMMITMENT, NOT A
CAMPAIGN” – JON BUSCALL

5. WHAT IS
CONTENT?
• Is content your blog?
• Is content your email marketing?
• Is content your social media posts?
• Is content your use of images in
posts and product ads?
• Is content the words you use on
your CTAs and web design?

6. YES!
“YES! YES! YES!” – DANIEL BRYAN

7. BUT NOT TODAY…
• For the sake of clarity and
brevity, we’re focusing on
blog articles
• Blog articles can be used for
so much more than your
blog!
• Useful for eblasts, social
media posts, and more!

8. WHY SHOULD I CARE
ABOUT CONTENT?
“JUST BECAUSE I DON’T CARE DOESN’T MEAN I DON’T
UNDERSTAND!” – HOMER SIMPSON

9. TOP FIVE PEOPLE WHO THINK THEY DON’T
NEED TO CREATE CONTENT
eCommerce/Drop
shippers
“Content?? Who
cares, just sell all
the things!”
1
Mom & Pop
Shops/SMBs
“Who’s going to
care what we
have to say?”
2
Huge,
International
Brands
“We’re big
enough not to
care about this!”
3
Education &
Training Orgs
“Our brand name
is plenty!”
4
Everybody!
“I don’t have time to
write anything!”
5

11. PROPERLY DONE CONTENT MARKETING
CAN
Drive your
sales
pipeline
Help you
become an
industry
thought
leader
Drive
backlinks
(When
combined
with good
promo!)
Help you
rank in
search
Grow social
media
followers
(FYI: This is
NOT a
‘vanity
metric’!!)
Help limit
your email
unsubscribe
s

12. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY….
1
Content Marketing is
supposed to interest,
educate and engage
with your customers
and potential
customers.
2
Happy, interested
and informed
customers become
brand
ambassadors.
3
Happy, interested
and informed buy
your stuff and tell
their friends to buy
your stuff.

13. WHY NO ONE IS
READING MY CONTENT
“CONTENT MARKETING IS A SCAM!!! IT’S A WASTE OF
TIME!!” – EVERYONE WHO DID IT WRONG

14. I WROTE A BLOG
ONCE…DIDN’T DO
ANYTHING!
• Was it timely and relevant to your
readers?
• Did you have an angle?
• Was it an article or just a disguised
commercial?
• Did you promote it properly?

16. BE RELEVANT: DID ANYBODY CARE?
• Content research is not the same as traditional keyword research!
• Was your topic timely? Does your audience even care about this?
• Use the FREE stuff! Answer the Public, Google Trends, Quora, Reddit
• Use the PAID stuff! BuzzSumo, Social Media Listening Tools
• Use the SNEAKY stuff! Amazon Q&As, Competitor Q&As,
Company/Product reviews
• Straight up ASK them! (e.g.: Hotjar, SurveyMonkey)
• Remember: It’s not about YOU – It’s about THEM.

17. BE ORIGINAL: DID YOU HAVE AN ANGLE?
• E-A-T is not new for Google and it’s definitely not new for
readers
• Did more trusted brands cover your topic?
• Go targeted! (You sell pants? Don’t write about just ‘pants’,
write guides on getting stains out of pants, care tips, how to
choose pants, etc.)
• Use personal touches ‘the big guys’ usually don’t. Be
personable and showcase your brand voice
• This is particularly useful in highly competitive markets &
industries

18. BE USEFUL: WAS YOUR ‘ARTICLE’ ANOTHER
AD?
• Marketers sell things. People don’t want to be ‘sold’ things.
• Don’t disguise promotional material as a ‘how to’, ‘product
comparison’ or a ‘review’ – that’s just janky. It makes everyone
mad and you look bad
• If there is no reason for the article to exist, don’t write it.
• Blogging for the sake of blogging does not work.
• Answer customer questions, spread interesting company news
& info & save the pitches for your ads.

19. BE SEEN: DID YOU EVEN TELL PEOPLE?
• This ain’t ‘Field of Dreams’: Just because you built it, doesn’t mean
they’ll come
• Use all of your channels to promote your content: Email, Social,
Website
• Was it SEO friendly? JSON-LD/Schema, proper tags (H tags, metadata,
etc), content block usage (Gutenberg-style), etc.
• Out of the box promos: Reddit AMA, Twitter chats with the author,
Facebook Live video premieres (note: these better be AMAZING
articles for this kind of promo!!)
• If you don’t tell people, how are they going to know it’s a thing?

20. HOW LONG DOES THIS ALL TAKE??
• BuzzSumo, Google Trends, “search engine” type
research – 2 hours per week
• Social media listening, Hotjar polls – Alerts can come to
YOU (about 0 active hours per week to get data, about
30 minutes per day to analyze, 2 ½ hours per week)
• Quora, Reddit, Amazon Q&A research – About 2 hours
per week
• Writing the articles – Depends on how good you are!
(about two hours per week average)
• Total: About 8 Hours per week – You still have about 32
hours in a typical work week for other stuff!
• Pro tip: DON’T try to do this all in one day!

21. HOW DO I PROMOTE
MY CONTENT?
“THERE’S NO SECRET ABOUT SUCCESS. DID YOU EVER KNOW A
SUCCESSFUL MAN WHO DIDN’T TELL YOU ABOUT IT?” – KIN
HUBBARD

22. EMAIL MARKETING
Newsletter section content
One-off blasts/re-
engagement campaigns
Lead Magnets
Segmented lists & Targeted
blasts (eg: send your ‘pants
care’ content to people who
bought pants, not hats, etc.)

23. WEBSITE CONTENT
NEWS SECTION OF
YOUR SITE
HOME PAGE IMAGE
PANEL/SLIDERS
LINKING TO IT FROM
RELEVANT PRODUCTS
CREATE ‘CONTENT
COLLECTIONS’

24. SOCIAL
MEDIA
MARKETIN
G
Use all channels you have that are appropriate for the article
(eg: ‘fun’ stuff on Facebook, Twitter, etc. more ‘serious’ topics
on LinkedIn)
Don’t be afraid to be informal and use emojis when
appropriate
Create a cover image for Instagram & Pinterest and link to
articles (use shortlinks for Instagram!)
PAY FOR YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING (except on
LinkedIn!)

25. IDENTIFY YOUR GOALS AND KPIS
With content marketing,
dollars are usually not
going to be your
immediate conversion
Realize content marketing
is usually used to inform
and warm up audiences
Customize the right
content type for your
particular goal
Not everything is going to
be a winner – don’t give
up!

26. HOW MUCH DOES THIS ALL COST???
• Email & Website – However much you pay for labor
hours
• Social Media – Depends on your target countries
(US/UK/Can, etc. will be more expensive than
developing nations (Sri Lanka, Nigeria, etc.)
• Starting Suggestions: At least $400 per month per
platform in US/UK/CAN and at least $300 per month in
developing markets (depending on how many people
you want to reach, of course!)
• Pro Tip: For best results, create engaging Facebook ADS
– DO NOT ‘boost’ posts. Carousels, Videos & Slideshow
ads have a far higher engagement
• Pro Tip #2: LINKEDIN IS SUPER EXPENSIVE (CPC) AND
USUALLY DOES NOT DO WHAT YOU WANT. BE
EXTREMELY CAREFUL WITH PAID LINKEDIN ADS!!!!!!

27. CHRIS SCIULLI
• Digital Marketing Lead, The International Society of Automation
(ISA)
• Owner & Author, Smokehouse SEO
Follow Me On Twitter: @scin383
Follow the Blog: smokehouseseo.com

28. THANK YOU!
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER: @SCIN383
FOLLOW MY BLOG: SMOKEHOUSESEO.COM