Class 08: Content Marketing

1. Emily Kate Pope
Senior Content Marketing Manger @Fundera + Teaching Assistant, General Assembly
CONTENT
MARKETING

2. CONTENT MARKETING
WELL, HELLO!
-I’m Emily!
-Currently the Sr. Manager of Content Marketing
at Fundera
-Previously at Spoon University (Audience
Development Manager) and General Assembly
(Social Media & Content Marketing Manager)
-Other interests include travel, positive
psychology, learning the play the ukulele, and
yoga! If you wanna chat about that :)

3. CONTENT MARKETING
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
‣ Discuss: What IS content marketing?
‣ Review popular content types and formats
‣ Go through a three phase process for developing your own content
strategy
‣ This will include building an editorial calendar that you’ll finish for
homework!

4. CONTENT STRATEGY
REVIEW PRE-WORK

5. CONTENT STRATEGY
‣ What did you find most interesting about any of the case studies?
‣ What are the four variables that make up great content?
‣ Great content is VAAR: valuable,authentic,appropriate, and
relevant.
‣ What are several popular content marketing formats?
‣ Blog posts, Case studies, Newsletters, Whitepapers, Infographics,
etc. Webinars…and much more!
LET’S REVIEW

6. WHAT IS CONTENT
MARKETING?

7. CONTENT MARKETING

8. CONTENT MARKETING
HOW JOHN DEAR USES CONTENT MARKETING TO EDUCATE CUSTOMERS
https://youtu.be/rbKvoKeu4vc
You might recognize this example from your pre-work!

9. LET’S DISCUSS
WHAT ARE SOME KEY TACTICS OF THE FURROW THAT STOOD OUT?
- They are unbiased and customer-centric (the magazine isn’t about John Deere,
it’s about the farmers and their needs and interests.
- Truly educational
- Not advertorial
HOW DOES THE FURROW BENEFIT JOHN DEERE?
- Shows customers that John Deere is a reliable and trusted source
- Demonstrates quality and knowledge
- Makes customers rely on them for not just their products, but
education about the industry.

10. MEET THE GODFATHER OF CONTENT MARKETING
Watch GA’s interview of Joe from 2016
I actually got to interview him about his
2016 Book Content, Inc!
LET’S DISCUSS

11. CONTENT MARKETING
WHY WOULD YOUR COMPANY USE CONTENT MARKETING?
Joe Pulizzi says, “it’s to create sales, savings, and
sunshine.”
- Sales: Content marketing can help drive sales by offering
education for your target personas at each stage of the funnel.
- Savings: Content keeps your customers coming back and
engaging with your brand (retaining customers is cheaper than
acquiring new ones).
- Sunshine: Turning customers into brand advocates who
appreciate and share your great content.

12. CONTENT MARKETING
ANOTHER X-TREME EXAMPLE
https://youtu.be/TvXAwYUVbZ0

13. LET’S DISCUSS
HOW DOES RED BULL SET THEIR CONTENT MARKETING APART?
- Focuses on the audience and what they are
passionate about.
- Thinks of their customers as individuals (young
BMX-er) not a general demographic (male, early
20’s).
- Committed to quality and differentiating
themselves from other brands and the media at
large.

14. CONTENT MARKETING
CONTENT MARKETING IS AN ITERATIVE PROCESS

15. CONTENT MARKETING
MARKETING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT A FOUNDATION OF GREAT CONTENT
Social media
marketing
Content marketing
strategy comes
before your social
media strategy.
SEO
Search engines
reward businesses
that publish quality,
consistent content.
PR
Successful PR
strategies address
issues readers care
about, not their
business.
PPC
For PPC to work,
you need great
content behind it.
Inbound
marketing
Content is key to
driving inbound
traffic and leads.

16. CONTENT MARKETING
CONTENT TOUCHES EVERY PART OF THE FUNNEL
Here’s a good
explanation from MOZ
to read later: Content
and the Marketing
Funnel

17. CONTENT MARKETING
CONSIDER THE HONEYCOMB OF VALUE
Your content should
touch on 2-3 of
these areas to have
stronger impact.

18. CONTENT MARKETING
HERO CONTENT AND REPURPOSING
HERO HUB HYGIENE
‣Large-scale,
‣Resource-heavy,
‣2-3 per year.
‣Develop on a regular
basis.
‣Focus on customer
issues and pain points.
‣Based on active
searches.
‣ Includes product
tutorials, how-to
questions.

19. CONTENT MARKETING
HERO CONTENT AND REPURPOSING
HERO HUB HYGIENE
‣Ebook
‣Report
‣Daily/weekly blog posts
‣Evergreen AND timely might
relate to the industry more
broadly
‣Distributed on social media and
in email
‣How to’s or product tutorials that
might live in a knowledge center.
‣Directly related to your product
‣Good for sales/customer service
‣Also SEO-optimized
‣Evergreen

20. HERO CONTENT AND REPURPOSING
EBOOK
(hero
content)
BLOG POSTS
PRESS
RELEASE
INFO-
GRAPHIC
SLIDESHARE
PODCAST

21. CONTENT MARKETING
BRAINSTORMING NEW CONTENT
KEYWORDSDS TOPICS TITLES
‣ Google Adwords
‣ Answer the Public
‣ SEMrush (paid)
‣ MOZ (paid)
‣Google Suggest
‣Google Trends
‣Use a template like this or
this.
‣CoSchedule Headline
Analyzer (this is content
marketing, folks!)
SEO
PLAYS A HUGE
PART!

22. BRAINSTORMING CONTENT: CONTENT TYPES

23. BRAINSTORMING CONTENT: CONTENT TYPES
TIMELY/RELEVANTEVERGREEN

24. BRAINSTORMING CONTENT: CONTENT TYPES
TIMELY/RELEVANT

25. BRAINSTORMING CONTENT: CONTENT TYPES
THEMATIC

26. CONTENT MARKETING
THE GOLDEN RULE
Content marketing is 20%
creation and 80% promotion.
Why make it if you’re not
going to repurpose and
promote the sh*t out of it?

27. CONTENT MARKETING: Pain Points + Solving Problems
Inability to measure
content
effectiveness.
Creating more
engaging
content.
Creating content
with a budget.
Lack of buy-
in/vision.
Feeding the
content beast.
Don’t
overcreate.
Just because
you can
doesn’t mean
you should.
Make sure your
creative ideas
align with
business
objective. If it
doesn’t align
now, it might
later. Add it to the
content library!
Every content
idea and
marketing
strategy must
align with a target
persona and a
SMART objective.
Start there and
identify content-
specific KPI’s.
At a loss for
ideas? Call on
collaborators
and involve
other
departments.
Never be afraid
to ask for help.
Don’t invest in
grand plans or
productions
without gauging
ROI. Be scrappy
and test things
for free, first!

28. WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING?
STOP AND JOT
1. What’s an example of a piece of HUB content that you could
repurpose for your final project company? (Ex: think of an ebook or
report topic you could turn into multiple blog posts.)
2. What is an example of one evergreen and one timely article you
could write for your final project company?

29. DEVELOPING YOUR
CONTENT STRATEGY

30. CONTENT MARKETING
DEVELOPING YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY IN 3 PHASES
- PHASE I: START WITH WHY
- What is the purpose of your content marketing program? Consider your business
challenges and goals and how content marketing can address them. What is your
content marketing mission?
- PHASE II: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
- Who are you talking to? Why do they care? How will your content help move them down
the funnel?
- PHASE III: CONSIDER YOUR RESOURCES & WORKFLOW
- THE MEAT. This is your plan for execution.

31. PHASE I: START
WITH WHY

32. CONTENT MARKETING
SIMON SINEK’S “GOLDEN CIRCLE” CAN APPLY TO CONTENT MARKETING
• Before you get caught up in the what
(blogs, ebooks, reports, etc.) or the how
(creation and distribution processes). Think
about WHY.
• What is your company’s mission? What are
it’s challenges and goals?
• How does content fit into that framework?

33. CONTENT MARKETING
PHASE I- START WITH WHY
STEP 1: THINK CRITICALLY ABOUT YOUR
COMPANY’S OVERALL MISSION.
-Why does your company exist?
- How do you do what you do?
- What the hell do you do?

34. DEVELOPING YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY
STOP AND JOT
- Why does your company exist?
- How do you do what you do?
- What the hell do you do?

35. CONTENT MARKETING
PHASE I- START WITH WHY
STEP 2: IDENTIFY YOUR BUSINESS CHALLENGES
What’s the purpose that’s driving your strategy?
• Do you need to raise awareness for your brand?
• Are you having trouble differentiating yourself in the
market?
• Do you need to educate customers to “close the deal”?

36. DEVELOPING YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY
STOP AND JOT
- What are some business challenges you want your content to
address?

37. CONTENT MARKETING
PHASE I- START WITH WHY
STEP 3: DETERMINE YOUR KEY BUSINESS GOALS
How will you address these business challenges?
• Do you need to build your email list?
• Drive more traffic to your website?
• Nurture prospects along their buyer’s journey?

38. DEVELOPING YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY
STOP AND JOT
- What are some key business goals content will help you hit?

39. CONTENT MARKETING
PHASE I- START WITH WHY
STEP 4: CRAFT YOUR CONTENT MARKETING
MISSION STATEMENT
Now that you’ve identified your company’s overall
mission, key challenges and business goals, it’s time
to craft your content marketing mission statement.
This will guide all of your content decisions moving
forward.

40. CONTENT MARKETING
PHASE I- START WITH WHY
SIMILAR TO ANY MISSION STATEMENT, A CONENT MARKETING
MISSION STATEMENT SHOULD ADDRESS:
1.Your core target audience
2.What will be delivered to the audience
3.The desired outcome for the audience

41. CONTENT MARKETING
FUNDERA’S CONTENT MARKETING MISSION STATEMENT
Our mission: Fundera is an online marketplace that connects small
business owners to the best financing options for their business.
Our content marketing mission: Fundera attracts and educates small
business owners through daily blog posts, in-person events, research
reports, and ebooks to help them make the best financing decisions for
their business.

42. CONTENT MARKETING
FUNDERA’S CONTENT MARKETING MISSION STATEMENT
- Our core target audience: small business owners
- What will be delivered to the audience: daily blog posts, in-person
events, research reports, and ebooks to help them make the best
financing decisions for their business.
- The desired outcome for the audience: Make the best financing
decisions for their business.

43. DEVELOPING YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY
STOP AND JOT
Spend 5 minutes crafting your content marketing mission statement.
Remember it should address:
1. Your core target audience
2. What will be delivered to the audience
3. The desired outcome for the audience

44. CONTENT MARKETING
FUNDERA’S CONTENT MARKETING MISSION STATEMENT
Our content marketing mission: Fundera attracts and educates small
business owners through daily blog posts, in-person events, research
reports, and ebooks to help them make the best financing decisions for
their business.

45. CONTENT MARKETING
WHEN EVALUATING A CONTENT IDEA CONSIDER:
✓Will this address your overall business challenges?
✓Does it tie back to your specific business goals?
✓Does it align with your overall company and content marketing
mission?

46. PHASE II: KNOW
YOUR AUDIENCE

47. CONTENT MARKETING
PHASE II: GET TO KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
• Who is your content meant to reach?
• How can you provide value to them,
beyond your products and services?
• How can you use your content to
support them through their buyer’s
journey?

48. CONTENT MARKETING
YOU HAVE A HEAD START: THINK BACK TO YOUR BUYER PERSONAS
Start by describing the ideal customer
who might benefit from the content you
create:
- Who is the persona? What are their traits?
- What role does she play? What does her
typical day look like?
- Where is there a gap in her needs and
wants?
- When does she need to close her gap (i.e.
where is she in the sales funnel?
- Why would she care about your company?

49. CONTENT MARKETING
ALIGN BUYER PERSONAS WITH CONTENT TYPE AND FUNNEL STAGE

50. PHASE III: DETERMINE
RESOURCES & WORKFLOW

51. CONTENT MARKETING
PHASE III: DETERMINE RESOURCES & WORKFLOW
✓STEP 1: Establish your team
✓STEP 2: Develop your workflow
✓STEP 3: Build out key materials
(content audit, style guide, editorial
calendar)

52. CONTENT MARKETING
STEP 1: ESTABLISH YOUR TEAM
• Who will plan the content?
• Who will create the content?
• Which individuals or departments
will you need help from?
• Do you need to hire freelancers?
• This will depending on your
existing team and resources.

53. STEP 2: DEVELOP YOUR WORKFLOW
Now that you know who will be working on content, how will you
execute and keep everything organized?

54. CONTENT MARKETING
STEP 3: BUILD OUT KEY MATERIALS
✓A content audit, to see what materials you’re already working with.
Think about ways to optimize and repurpose existing material to achieve
your business goals.
✓A style guide, which outlines your preferred editorial style details, tone/
voice, and other rules you want content creators to follow.
✓An editorial calendar, which governs content topics, authors, when and
where your content will be published, how it will be promoted and
repurposed.

55. CONTENT MARKETING
KEY MATERIALS: CONTENT AUDIT

56. WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING?
STOP AND JOT
Spend a few minutes working on a content audit.
- What content does your company have already? List out 2-3
examples.
- How can you optimize this content?
- What’s missing? What are a few ideas you have for new content
to compliment these pieces?

57. CONTENT MARKETING
KEY MATERIALS: STYLE GUIDE
At a minimum, your style guide should outline:
✓ The defining characteristics of your brand identity
(as it relates to the content you will publish)
✓The preferred voice and style your content should
be written in
✓The editorial standards your content efforts
should be held to
➡See Fundera’s Copy Style Guide as an example.

58. WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING?
STOP AND JOT
Create a simplified style guide. Here is a starter template (can
deviate) :

59. CONTENT MARKETING
KEY MATERIALS: EDITORIAL CALENDAR
‣ You already created your customer personas. Keep them
top of mind while you design your editorial calendar.
‣ Why you are creating content? Consider if your ideas align
with your content marketing mission and key business
goals.
‣ Remember your resources and workflow?
‣ Finally, how can you stand out? Knowing where you can play
a lead role in owning the audience’s attention will help you fill
your editorial calendar with impactful content that helps you
meet your business goals.

60. CONTENT MARKETING
LET’S REVIEW THE HUBSPOT TEMPLATE
Find tips on
using this
template here.

61. CONTENT MARKETING
LET’S REVIEW FUNDERA’S ACTUAL CONTENT CALENDAR

62. EXERCISE
CREATE AN EDITORIAL CALENDAR
1. Using the HubSpot template provided, create an
editorial calendar for your project.
2. Focus on one main hero format and how you could
repurpose it into 5 various blog posts throughout
the month to support you.
3. How are you going to track success? What are your
KPIs?
4. How will the content support your target audience’s
buyer cycle?
Editorial calendar
DELIVERABLE
DIRECTIONS

63. CONTENT MARKETING
CONCLUSION

64. CONTENT STRATEGY
‣ Content marketing is 20% creation and 80% promotion/distribution. If you make a
great piece of content, repurpose the hell out of it.
‣ Before your start a content marketing initiative you have to have a strong
understanding of your company’s mission, business challenges, and goals. Know
the WHY before the WHAT and HOW.
‣ Remember the three phases of developing your content marketing strategy
1. Start with why
2. Know your audience
3. Consider your resources and workflow
WHAT WE’VE LEARNED TODAY

65. Q&A
BEFORE YOU GO

66. EXIT TICKETS
DON’T FORGET TO FILL OUT YOUR EXIT TICKET