How to Create Competition Crushing Content Whether you work in B2B or B2C, content is the driving force behind effective marketing. But how do you create content that connects and leads customers toward a sale? By using easily obtained insights to write, record, and promote using language that makes sense to your customers! (Hint: your competitors likely aren't doing this!) In this presentation, you'll learn: -How go about developing a content strategy that's customer centric -How and where to glean insights so you can avoid buzzwords and industry jargon and lead with "customer speak" instead -How to keep your content interesting and action focused

1. Creating Competitor
Crushing Content Using
Customer Insights
Ali Schwanke
Founder, Simple Strat
@alischwanke

2. Content
used to
feel like
this:
Now it feels like this:

4. IF IT LOOKS LIKE MARKETING, ACTS LIKE
MARKETING, AND SMELLS LIKE
MARKETING, IT DOESN’T WORK.

5. “Content
marketing is the
only marketing
that’s left.”
- Seth Godin
P. S . H e s a i d t h i s i n 2 0 1 5 !

7. We’ve been
trained to look for
the intuitive path.
We don’t like
friction or effort.

10. Competition-crushing content gets you in
the game sooner.
It’s like that road race where they didn’t
realize you were running, and suddenly
you pass them.

11. CREATING A
CUSTOMER CENTRIC
CONTENT PROGRAM
1. Focus
2. Specificity
3. Timeline

12. Awareness of
problem
Exploring solutions
Making a decision
on a solution

13. Content marketing that works . . .
Must add tremendous value to customers
and is something only you can produce.

17. Topic:
What your
audience
cares about
Context:
The value
your business
provides
Sweet
Spot

18. Topic:
What your
audience
cares about
If you create content only
about what your audience
cares about, you will end
up with lots of traffic and
little to no conversions.

19. Context:
The value
your business
provides
If you create content
that’s too promotional
and talks too much about
your value, you won’t get
any traffic.

20. Topic:
What your
audience
cares about
Context:
The value
your business
provides
Sweet
Spot

21. Step 1: Perform a competitive audit

24. • What type of content?
• How frequent?
• What stage of the funnel?
• What’s their SEO strategy?
• Do they have a particular point of view?
• What does their sales approach look like?
• What is their web traffic makeup?
• Are they leveraging thought leaders?

25. Step 2: Find customer insights to use in your
content marketing strategy

32. Step 3: Make your content actionable

33. 2 Rules:
1. Every page must have a purpose
2. You must ask for the “sale”

35. Contextually Relevant
Call to Action
Their product actually
makes you a better SEO
writer

36. • Contextually relevant CTAs
should be like “duh”.
• They’re the most logical next
step that a reader or viewer
would take.
• So logical in fact, that they feel
like a part of the content – not
a sales pitch.

40. Awareness Consideration Decision
GOOD The beginners guide to
writing a content
strategy
Get a free 1 page content
strategy specific to your
industry + a free
promotion plan
Schedule your free
content strategy
session
BAD 101 Things You Need to
Know to Write a Killer
Content Strategy
How to hire a content
agency
Purchase an ads
plan

41. Search intent (or user intent,
audience intent) is the term used to
describe the purpose of an online search.
Google wants to rank pages that best fit
the search term, as well as the search
intent behind a specific search query.

42. The same goes for YouTube.

43. Competitor-crushing
content is INTERESTING
(even in boring industries)

44. If you’re bored,
they’re bored.
1. Observe
2. Research
3. Strategize
4. Deploy
5. Analyze

46. Instead of:
Read our blog post about innovation.
Try:
What are the 3 essential ingredients to make innovation
happen? Find out if one is missing on your team.

48. Topic:
What your
audience
cares about
Context:
The value
your business
provides
Sweet
Spot

49. Free resources at
simplestrat.com
Ali Schwanke
Simple Strat
ali@simplestrat.com
@alischwanke