Another great talk at Inbound from Ross Hudgens. 99% of this post is from his brain to this blog. Like with other posts from Inbound, it's not going through our normal editing process, so we can get this information to you quickly, so please be forgiving with spelling and other errors.
1. Topics
Where do you start with content marketing? First, take a step back and do the research to determine what topics will start to move the needle. Ross presented the KOB score, which you can generate using this formula:
Once you have run all of the broad match terms that you have brainstormed for you business through this formula, you also need to consider whether the content will generate links or not. Ultimately, you're looking for a high KOB score on a topic that is likely to generate links.
You'll find that starting with the top of the funnel will produce the most traction more quickly than middle of the funnel content. Once you have built out your TOFU content, you can layer in content from the middle of the funnel as well. Laying in MOFU has other benefits as well:
- Improve click through rate and potentially rankings
- Maybe improve brand topic authority
2. Content Creation
Two ideas that are getting a lot of traction in content creation are:
- The Skyscraper technique
- 10x content
And for good reason! The skyscraper technique boils down to three steps:
- Step 1: Find link-worthy content
- Step 2: Make something even better
- Step 3: Reach out to the right people
Check out the link above to figure out how the process works more in depth. 10x content is a little easier to understand. It simply means producing content that is much better than the best content that is already ranking well in search. No Bounds thinks the 10x part can be a little misleading. Depending upon the competitive environment, 5x, 2x, etc. might work just as well in terms of SEO and conversions, but the better the content the better the chances that you will earn backlinks, rank well, convert well, and prevent competitors from taking your spot.
Ross offered a useful list of things that you can do to improve the quality and effectiveness of your content:
- Make URLs shorter
- Create a better title
- Make it simpler to read
- Structure the content better
- Increase the font size
- Increase the number of visuals
- Source professional photos
- Include an image every 75 to 100 words
- Use floating share buttons
- Include a tall image
- Link out
- Make your content longer
- Think about search spikes for all content
- Add 'last updated' to your content
Once you have a great piece of content that "should" rank well, it's time to reach out and earn backlinks through general blogger outreach, broken link building, and the dozens of other tactics that produce links.
Many businesses make the mistake to believe that content marketing is inbound marketing. Content marketing is a piece of the puzzle, often a big piece, but there are other components as well. Download our free introduction to inbound guide here to get the big picture.
