The document outlines a strategic approach to content marketing, emphasizing the importance of understanding the audience through well-defined buyer personas. It details a six-step process: knowing your audience, discovery and ideation, creation, marketing and distribution, analytics, and conversion. The text further discusses the evolution of consumer behavior and the need for marketers to adapt to the current digital landscape, moving away from traditional advertising methods.

1. Actionable ways to fill your content calendar for the next six months
Starting with Content Marketing

2. (source: HubSpot Global Jobs Poll Q2 2016)
MARKETING HAS A LOVABILITY PROBLEM
Who do you consider to be trustworthy?

3. QPEOPLE USED TO LOVE ME… RIGHT?

4. APEOPLE HAVE CHANGED…

5. THE WAY WE WORK AND LIVE HAS CHANGED
1990 2000 2010
Hours when we work 9-5 8-6+ Continu
Our office 4 walls Open Cublicles iPhone
Internet None Email & Web Research Everything in the cloud
How we get to know new
products
Tradeshows, Ads, Print
Publications, Sales Reps
Tradeshows & Google
Social Media, Google,
Freemium
How the sales process is
working
Sales Rep in Office & Golf
Course
Sales Rep on Phone / Web No Sales Rep

6. THE WAY WE CONSUME
CONTENT HAS CHANGED

7. EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT
ANALOG IDEAS LIKE TV SPOTS,
PRINT AND RADIO HAVE THEIR
USE.
BUT THE ATTENTION OF THE
CONSUMER IS SHIFTING.

8. ATTENTION,
NOT IMPRESSIONS

9. INFLUENCING BEHAVIOUR HAS
BECOME COMPLETELY DIFFERENT IN THE
DIGITAL AGE.
ADVERTISING IS JUST ONE OF THE
FACTORS THAT DRIVES BEHAVIOUR.
BUT…

10. PEOPLE ARE GETTING BLIND
FOR ADVERTISING.
(source:http://www.adotas.com/2013/03/study-86-of-consumers-suffer-from-banner-blindness/)

11. WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN?

12. THE CUSTOMER
IS IN CONTROL.

13. No one wakes up
and says:
“I want to see and ad.”

14. Marketers have been bad.

15. Time for something new?

17. Content Marketing is just solving the same
problems that your product solves through
media you create and promote.
Hans van Gent - https://www.hansvangent.com/
“

18. 1. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
2. DISCOVERY & IDEATION
3. CREATION
4. MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION
5. ANALYTICS
6. CONVERSION

19. Know your audience
#1

20. Understand
Who they are,
Which channels they use,
& what keeps them up at night.

21. A buyer persona
is a semi fictional
representation of
your ideal client.
based on real data & insights

22. time to make your own

23. Buyer
Personas
Personas are fictional characters created to represent the
different user types within a targeted demographic, attitude and/
or behaviour set that might use a site, brand or product in a
similar way.
A persona should have enough psychological detail to allow you
to conveniently step over to the persona’s view and see your
products and services from her perspective.
A persona can function almost like another person in the room
when making a decision—It is “Magnus.” He looks at what you’re
doing from his particular and very specific vantage point, and
points out flaws and benefits for him.
(fictional) name
picture
FACTS & DEMOGRAPHICS
Gender
Age
Location
Education
Occupation
BEHAVIOURS PROBLEMS & NEEDS
GOALS & DREAMS PLACES & KEY INFLUENCERS
https://www.hansvangent.com/
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24. Buyer
Personas
key questions
Describe a stereotypical customer as detailed as possible
•Name
•Gender
•How old are they
•What is the highest degree or level of school your persona has completed (for
example a college degree)
•What industry do they work in (for example, finance, retail, or advertising)
•What is the size of their organisation (for example 1-10 employees)
•What is their job title? (for example sales rep)
•How is their job measured? (for example leads generated, revenue generated,
team productivity, etc.
•Who do they report to? (for example the CEO, middle management, etc.)
Facts & Demographics
icon by Paulo Sá Ferreira

25. Behaviours
•How do they prefer to communicate with their suppliers or other businesses? (for
example phone, email, text messaging, social media, face-to-face)
•How do they get their information to do their job? (for example they take only
courses, or go to conferences)
•What social networks are they active on? (for example Facebook, Instagram,
LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest)
•What tools do they use or need to do their jobs? (for example accounting and
bookkeeping software, Email, CRM software, Project Management software)
•What books does they read?
•What's he/she already doing to solve their problems?
Buyer
Personas
key questions
Describe a stereotypical customer as detailed as possible
icon by Paulo Sá Ferreira

26. •What are their points of pain as HE/SHE thinks about them?
•What product or service, similar to yours, is he/she using but unsatisfied with
•Then, what problem is he/she trying to solve with that?
•What challenges keeps him/her up at night trying to Google the answer?
Problems & Needs
Buyer
Personas
key questions
Describe a stereotypical customer as detailed as possible
icon by Paulo Sá Ferreira

27. Goals & Dreams
•What are their goals or objectives? (for example leads or revenue)
•What is he/she trying to accomplish?
•What is most important to him/her?
•What are their biggest challenges? (for example Employee Morale, Change
Management, Collaboration & Creativity)
•What are their job responsibilities? (for example people management, or content
creation)
Buyer
Personas
key questions
Describe a stereotypical customer as detailed as possible
icon by Paulo Sá Ferreira

28. icon by Paulo Sá Ferreira
Places & Key Influencers
•Where (online and offline) can you find him/her? Forums? Comment sections of
which blogs? Social networks? Meetups? LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Groups?
Reddit?
•Who does he/she trust as a thought leader?
•Who knows a lot of your customers and can introduce you to them?
Buyer
Personas
key questions
Describe a stereotypical customer as detailed as possible

29. icon by Paulo Sá Ferreira
Facebook
•Find the page that you want to target the fans of
•“Copy link address” of profile picture, e.g. >
https://www.facebook.com/5550296508/photos/
10154246192721509
Buyer
Personas
how to find information online
Describe a stereotypical customer as detailed as possible
Page ID
•Use the following URL with the found Page ID
>> https://www.facebook.com/search/<page ID>/likers/pages-liked?hc_location=ufi
to find people pages liked by people who like your page, or that of a competitor
•Use the following URL with the found Page ID>>
https://www.facebook.com/search/str/<page ID>/stories-keyword/stories-live
to see people sharing content of that page
•articles shared by people who like / Favorite interests of people who like

30. icon by Paulo Sá Ferreira
Twitter
•Look at your followers, of the followers of competitors
their bio, how do they describe themselves?
•Using Followerwonk to find the most active hours, bio
word cloud etc.:
https://followerwonk.com/analyze
Buyer
Personas
how to find information online
Describe a stereotypical customer as detailed as possible

31. Exercise:
Create your Buyer Personas

32. Discovery & Ideation
#2
Find topics your audience will ❤

33. CONTENT THAT
TRIGGERS
AN EMOTION
WITH YOUR
AUDIENCE
CONTENT YOU
CAN CREATE
CONTENT THAT
ALLOWS YOU TO
QUALIFY YOUR
AUDIENCE
Sweet spot!

34. Step 1: Start by having conversations
When you connect with someone, be curious and ask them questions about:
• current pain points and challenges
• desired outcomes and results
• what topics and themes they’re reading
• who are the influencers and content creators they follow in your industry

35. 29 Places
to identify and talk
with your buyer persona
LinkedIn
#1 Join LinkedIn groups
#2 Use search + InMail
#3 Check your existing connections
#4 Ask your connections for intros
#5 Post to the LinkedIn Newsfeed
#6 LinkedIn Pulse (aka LinkedIn articles)

36. 29 Places
to identify and talk
with your buyer persona
Facebook
#7 Look up your friends
#8 Ask your friends for introductions
#9 Look for fan pages (message on your behalf)
#10 Look for Facebook Groups
#11 Try graph search

37. 29 Places
to identify and talk
with your buyer persona
Twitter
#12 Ask your followers
#13 Ask your followers for referrals
#14 Ask Twitter Accounts to tweet on your behalf
#15 Search for relevant Hashtags
#16 Join a Twitter Chat > https://www.tweetreports.com/twitter-chat-schedule/
#17 Search Twitter for People Talking about your Problem

38. 29 Places
to identify and talk
with your buyer persona
YouTube
#18 Talk to Youtube Channel owners
#19 Ask channel owners for promotion
#20 Start your own channel

39. 29 Places
to identify and talk
with your buyer persona
Email
#21 Email relevant friends / contacts
#22 Use Name2Email to find emails & cold email:
#23 Make your Hangout status a call for help/intros
#24 Make your signature a call for help/intros

40. 29 Places
to identify and talk
with your buyer persona
Other websites
#25 Reach out to other bloggers for interviews
#26 Reach out to commenters

41. 29 Places
to identify and talk
with your buyer persona
Forums, Micro Networks &
Communities on the web
#27 Join in the conversations on the sites
#28 Message individual users of interest
#29 Reach out to moderators

42. 10/80/10 rule
to identify and talk (aka outreach)
The initial 10% should be customised according to why you decided to reach out to
them.
e.g.:I came across your blog post called {{blog.title}} in which you talked about {{interesting.fact}}
With the middle 80%, your goal is to give them an idea as to what you’re going to be
speaking to them about and to reassure them that this IS NOT A SALES CALL.
e.g.: I’m building an outbound prospecting platform intended to help teams like yours prospect more effectively and efficiently,
and conversations with top SDR managers like yourself really help my team an I build a better product.
This is NOT a sales call at all. I would just like the opportunity to ask you three questions about the pains you and your team are
feeling so we can improve our product.
The bottom 10% should express to your prospect why you have chosen to seek out their
help specifically.
e.g.: I was hoping to talk to someone with {{experience}} experience, so I’m really looking forward to speaking with you.

43. Exercise:
Create outreach copy and reach
out to 10 people/places

44. STEP 2: USE THE INFORMATION
AND FEED THEM INTO
AMAZON BOOK LISTINGS

48. STEP 2: USE THE INFORMATION
AND FEED THEM INTO
IDEA GENERATORS

49. KLOCK.WORK

50. LINK BAIT GENERATOR

51. TITLE GENERATOR

52. STEP 2: USE THE INFORMATION
AND FEED THEM INTO
SOCIAL NETWORKS

53. QUORA

54. PODCASTS IN ITUNES

55. POPULAR VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE

56. POPULAR PRESENTATIONS ON
SLIDESHARE

57. STEP 2: USE THE INFORMATION
AND FEED THEM INTO
EXISTING CONTENT

58. 10X EXISTING CONTENT

59. STEP 2: USE THE INFORMATION
AND FEED THEM INTO
ONLINE TOOLS

60. ANSWER THE PUBLIC
ALTERNATIVE: MOZ KEYWORD EXPLORER

63. INSERT INTO GOOGLE SHEETS

64. DELETE MODIFIER & MODIFIER TYPE, ADD COLUMNS

65. DELETE NON-RELEVANT TERMS

66. USE THE GOOGLE KEYWORD PLANNER >>
SEARCH VOLUME DATA AND TRENDS SECTION

67. USE GOOGLE SEARCH

68. USE GOOGLE SEARCH

69. Exercise:
Create a Google Sheet with all
suggestions, average monthly
searches, results on Google,
suggested bid

70. #3
Creation

71. EVERNOTE

72. GRAMMARLY &
HEMMINGWAY

73. GOOGLE DOCS

74. CANVA

75. PABLO

76. Exercise:
Create a first draft outline of one
of your topics (title and
subheadings)

77. MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION
#4

78. BUFFER

79. ONLINE COMMUNITIES
FACEBOOK GROUPS/LINKEDIN GROUPS/NICHE SPECIFICS LIKE INBOUND OR GROWTH HACKERS

80. STEALING FROM YOURSELF
REPURPOSE YOUR OWN CONTENT ON DIFFERENT PLATFORMS (VIDEO, AUDIO, SLIDES, ETC.)

81. BUZZSUMO

82. HARO

83. GUEST POSTING
your keyword(s) + inurl:write-for-us
your keyword(s) + guest-posts
your keyword(s) + inurl:guest-post-guidelines
your keyword(s) + become a contributor
your keyword(s) + bloggers wanted
your keyword(s) + submit an article
your keyword(s) + want to write for
your keyword(s) + contribute
your keyword(s) + become an author
your keyword(s) + guest post by
your keyword(s) + now accepting guest posts

84. BROKEN LINKS
your keyword(s) + links
your keyword(s) + resources
your keyword(s) inurl:links

85. Exercise:
Find three websites that accepts
guest posts for your target
audience.

86. ANALYTICS
#5

87. GOOGLE ANALYTICS

88. GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

89. FACEBOOK PIXEL

90. Exercise:
If you did not set up Google
Analytics, Search Console and a
retargeting pixel do it now.

91. CONVERSION
#6

92. GET EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

93. If you forget everything I just said,
please remember these 6 steps.

94. 1. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
2. DISCOVERY & IDEATION
3. CREATION
4. MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION
5. ANALYTICS
6. CONVERSION

95. @jcvangent
WHEN CONTENT
IS EVERYWHERE,
IT PAYS TO GO DEEP.
https://www.hansvangent.com/
“