The Ultimate Guide To Content Marketing & Digital PR — Interactive Mindmaps

Key concepts: Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Metrics of Success

• Sales: track via Google Analytics or call-tracking, not by asking leads.
• Website traffic: evaluate alongside conversion and bounce rates.
• Authority: domain authority (DA) based on age, size, popularity.
• Influence: Klout score measures engagement across networks.

SMARTer Goals

• Goals must be Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic, Time-bound.
• Break long goals into short stages and review regularly.
• Example: if traffic hasn't grown 2.5% by week three, rethink strategy.

Example Goals

• Direct sales: start from current/projected sales, seasonality, target, deadline.
• Sales = traffic × conversion rate; expensive items can sell with low conversion.
• Digital PR drives traffic via keyword-rich content, paid ads, publications, blogger outreach, social campaigns.
• Authority: DA rests on age, size, popularity; build via original content and earned links.

Gain Followers and Influence Them

• Social media rarely closes direct sales; engage customers to become advocates.
• Goal: move Klout score from one number to another by a set date.
• Platforms reward engagement; weak self-promotion shrinks reach.
• Reaching goal requires strong profiles and shareable content, not product shots.

Create an Email Database

• High-performing sites sort visitors by willingness to buy.
• Offer free guide or sample in exchange for email address.
• Goal: set number of signups; test what visitor gets.
• Giveaways work: run competition, collect addresses via Rafflecopter.

Key concepts: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Attention Problem and Content Marketing Solution

• Audiences tune out promotional messages, but businesses still need attention.
• Content marketing embeds the pitch inside interesting, useful content.
• Advertorials in newspapers worked better than regular ads.
• With regular ads, pitch sits next to value; with content marketing, pitch is built inside.

Historical Roots and Modern Revival

• Hasbro's 1984 Transformers cartoon sold toys by being entertaining content.
• Internet age brought massive reach and far cheaper content creation.
• McDonald's answered critics with its own content before they could.

Advertorials and Native Advertising

• Advertorials copy article style, also called native advertising.
• Split testing found advertorials pull 81% more orders than standard ads.
• Pure sales pitches annoy readers; useful content alongside pitch does not.

Press Releases: Use Sparingly

• Half of journalists don't read press releases anymore.
• Only send when you have a genuinely newsworthy story.
• Use attention-grabbing headline and subject line; keep body under 500 words.

Choosing the Right Content Format

• Options include articles, blogs, podcasts, videos, newsletters, advertorials, press releases, social media.
• Pick the form your ideal customer already spends time with.
• Start by figuring out who your ideal customer is.

Key concepts: Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Identifying the Target Audience

• Answer six demographic questions: age, location, gender, education, ethnicity, income.
• Build an avatar to shape content around typical customer behavior.
• Narrowing audience prevents wasting resources on everyone.

Understanding the Teenage Audience

• Teens watch less TV; viewing dropped 30% from 2011 to 2015.
• They prefer YouTube and Snapchat over Facebook due to privacy.
• TV and Facebook ads may fail; use YouTube, bloggers, or Snapchat.

Building a Persona

• Sketch a persona with demographics, problems, and product solutions.
• Keeps focus and prevents targeting everyone.
• Use persona to guide content creation.

DIY Market Research

• Observe customers in competitor shops for behavior and timing.
• Use focus groups, surveys, and competitor analysis.
• Study your own data: landing pages, search terms, top sellers.

Building a Digital PR Strategy

• Align with business goals and audience interests.
• Consider budget, differentiation, and competitor actions.
• Choose content types that appeal to target audience; expect trial and error.

Key concepts: Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Ideas, Goals, and Limits

• Written content is easiest for small businesses to produce.
• Long pieces get shared more; readers engage with text.
• Every piece needs a goal: explain, hit metrics, win client.
• Set limits: time, budget, skills, and tools.

Where Ideas Come From

• Start with sites that move you; analyze how they do it.
• Keep good ideas in a swipe file: bookmarks, Evernote, Trello.
• If unlike your audience, read what they read.
• Note recurring themes to tailor content.

Trends, News, and Rivals

• Catch trends early for exposure; late makes you an imitator.
• Use Google Trends for keyword volumes and comparisons.
• News rewards speed; Google News shows coverage.
• Analyze competitor backlinks with Moz and Backlink Watch.

Choosing an Idea

• Cross out ideas that miss goals or break limits.
• Eliminate anything boring.
• Get feedback until everyone agrees.

Research Tools

• Buzzsumo: what gets read and shared.
• Google Trends: keyword search volumes.
• Google News: news-only search results.
• Twitter: breaking news, influencers, journalists.

Editors as Gatekeepers

• Editors decide what runs; they get many ideas.
• Find them via publication contact pages.
• Build a press list with name, position, contact details.
• Missing emails are encouragement; try Twitter DMs.

Crafting a Pitch

• Show clear benefit; be read in under two minutes.
• Strong headline and subject line with (story idea) tag.
• Opening line as second headline; body under 500 words.
• Answer 'why you'; check grammar; avoid copy-paste.