Hey everyone! In today’s episode I share the mic with Ameer Rosic, co-founder of Blockgeeks, an online learning platform that helps you learn blockchain.
Tune in to hear Ameer discuss how he got the idea to create Blockgeeks in order to fill a need for a blockchain resource that didn’t exist, what the differences between cryptocurrency and ICOs are, how he went from not understanding bitcoin to building Blockgeeks, and where to go for educational guides and tips on learning more.
Download podcast transcript [PDF] here: How a High School Dropout Built the Blockchain Site Blockgeeks (& Did 1M Organic Visits in 1 Year!) TRANSCRIPT
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Hey everyone! Today’s episode is with Matthew Barby, Global Head of Growth and SEO at HubSpot, which is an inbound marking and sales platform.
Tune in to hear Matthew share the various SEO strategies he has employed in and outside of HubSpot (plus his most successful campaign to date), how you can write for top publications, and the importance of knowing the fundamentals of link architecture and Google algorithms so you can solve your own SEO problems, not just employ the tactics.
Download podcast transcript [PDF] here: HubSpot’s Global Head of Growth & SEO Explains Why Backlinks Are the Most Effective Factor for Ranking
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Today I’m going talk about productivity. Specifically, how I stay productive.
Sometimes, when you have a laundry list of shitty to-dos, (I call them STDs), a lot of stuff just doesn’t end up getting done.
That’s why I usually aim to do just one to three things for the day— and usually before my workday actually starts.
Hopefully, you have the freedom to block out time for yourself where you can actually get the most important stuff done. I find for myself it’s best in the morning. For other people, it’s at night.
For example, Google “Michael Hyatt better week” and you should be able to find “How to Better Control Your Time by Designing Your Ideal Week.” Michael Hyatt (host of the weekly podcast This is Your Life) blocks out time from 5-5:30 a.m. That’s his quiet time, and it’s sacred. He reads, works out, goes through his email, and then he’s dressing up to go to work.
On Mondays, he has all his one-on-ones. On other days, he’s traveling, doing financial reviews, having ad hoc meetings, etc. The point is, it’s all blocked out after 5:30 a.m. because he already gave himself his quiet time. So, for the rest of the day, he’s very deliberate with his time.
Related Content: How ‘Getting Things Done’ Author David Allen Grew A Massive Productivity Movement Over 2 Million People Strong
If you aren’t that deliberate with your time, or if you aren’t in the habit of blocking out every hour of your workday, it may be useful to know just how much time you’re spending on any given activity. Try to track your time using a free tool like RescueTime.
(Source)
It runs in the background and tracks which sites you’re on the most, what apps you use a lot, etc. I find myself using email a lot because I delegate a ton of stuff so that I can focus on important high-value tasks.
Related Content: 15 Time Saving Zapier Workflows That Will Generate More Revenues
That’s not to say that you should never block out time after work and just wing it. In fact, the more I work and the more I budget my time, the more I’m convinced that the key to happiness is about being very intentional with your down time.
Going back to Michael Hyatt, he always has date nights on Fridays with his wife, and he makes time for his kids and his friends in a very structured way. So not only is he very deliberate with his work time, he’s just as intentional with his leisure time.
(Source)
That’s not Michael, by the way. 🙂
Most people who say that they’re too busy to do something are usually anything but busy—they’re just constantly overwhelmed because they’re not good at managing their time.
And because they’re not good at managing time, they’re unproductive and stressed out.
A huge part of entrepreneurship and business building is recognizing that if something is a priority, you’re going to have to make time for it and put it first. Even if you’re working a full-time job, you can still block out time in the evening to work on what you want.
Related Content: 10 Ways Successful Entrepreneurs Stay Productive All Day Long
I’m not saying you should just become a workaholic. Everyone needs their down time, alone time, time with friends, etc. If you want to watch TV and be entertained—by all means. But if you want to be productive, then be productive. Block out time for whatever’s important to you and be disciplined about how you spend your time. That’s the best way to avoid getting distracted.
I use Evernote. For example, I need to plan out the live event for this month that I’m doing, which is going to be like a happy hour in Los Angeles with about 20 to 30 people. Then I have a dinner planned for next week with a group of entrepreneurs. Then I have a bunch of meetings today.
When I look at my Fridays, for example, my afternoon is completely blocked out, but for Michael Hyatt, he blocks out the whole day. I think that’s actually better to block out the whole day for thinking, for planning about you want to do the following week and figure out if you need to be adjusting your strategy or not.
My big goal for 2017 is finishing my book. Then I also plan to travel to Japan for three weeks in July and also hire a GM to help run Single Grain. I have a bunch of in-person events that I want to go to, there’s a bunch of conferences that I want to go to, and I want to throw some meetups, too.
Another thing I do is write in my five-minute journal at the very end of the day before I go to bed. One of the things I answer is: “What’s one thing that you can improve on?” Over and over, as I flipped through it for 2016, the recurring theme was patience. I tend to get things done quickly, so I want things done quickly. But I can’t expect everything to just happen quickly. If I actually reflect on the last year, looking at all the things that were accomplished, it’s actually pretty amazing, right?
Check out my Medium post called Crafting A Morning Ritual Combo That Works For YOU.
So, in order to be productive today, this month and this year, you have to block out the time for everything that’s a priority.
Related Content: Establishing a Morning Routine that Works For You
Now I’m going to do a 360 and say that while a blocked-out calendar is the best way to be as productive as possible, you should still carve out some time for unexpected opportunities.
For example, Jacobo Lumbreras (listen to his podcast here) has a fantastic story about how he got started with his current business. After his U.S. startup failed, he was literally about to go to the airport to fly back to Spain and never return when Keith Ferrazzi, the author of Never Eat Alone, called him and said, “Hey, why don’t you come stay with me?”
Picking up that phone call changed his life.
How do you achieve your results? What’s some insane stuff that you can do to be more productive?
This post was adapted from Eric’s Facebook Live videos: Growth 90 – DAILY live broadcasts with Eric Siu on marketing and entrepreneurship. Watch the video version of this post:
This post originally appeared on Single Grain, a growth marketing agency focused on scaling customer acquisition. Written by guest blogger Stephanie Mialki, a content writer for Instapage. Follow her on Twitter @Stephaniemialki. 
The digital marketing world is large, complex and currently changing at the speed of light. In order to maintain and expand your customer base, it’s critical that you learn everything there is to know about marketing (including the jargon) and do whatever it takes to not just keep up with the latest trends, but beat your competition to them. To make this task a bit easier for you, we’ve evaluated past trends and used them to compile a list of the digital marketing trends that you can expect to see in 2017.
Many brands have become more visual-oriented over the past year, and this trend is only going to increase in 2017. Check out some of these stats regarding visual content to get a better idea of why this might be:
Considering these outstanding visual content statistics, it makes sense that the more image-driven platforms like Snapchat (launched in 2011), Pinterest (launched in 2010), and Instagram (launched in 2010) are sure to see huge increases in popularity and growth in 2017, less than a decade after launching. Take a look at the next few sets of statistics, as well as some 2017 marketing trend predictions, surrounding the increasingly popular, visual content-driven platforms: 1) Snapchat
2) Pinterest
3) Instagram
While text-based content will always be an important, deep-rooted part of marketing, visual content marketing will continue to be one of the hottest marketing trends. Consider this: 65% of people consider themselves to be visual learners and a staggering 90% of information that the brain absorbs is visual. So it only makes sense to use visual mediums to step up your digital marketing game. Here are some of the most effective visual content types to consider using in 2017: 1) Videos Videos are incredibly useful for advertising. In fact, one study showed that having a video on your landing page can increase conversions by 86%! Video marketing can come in many different forms and can serve a variety of purposes. Consider tutorials or how-to videos, demonstration videos, explainer videos, animated videos, and videos of customer tutorials. The options are practically endless. Although video ads are nothing new, the use of video ads for marketing is growing substantially, and will continue to do so in 2017. Learn More: The Ultimate Guide to Video Marketing 2) Infographics Infographics allow marketers to compile complex data, statistics, and facts all into one easy-to-digest visual display (see image below). It is ideal to include infographics in your 2017 marketing strategy as they are have several benefits, including landing page optimization, networking with other key influencers, and social media engagement. Here is an infographic example that highlights some key video marketing stats: 
3) Screenshots Although a bit less common than using videos or infographics, screenshots for marketing purposes will still be on the rise. Screenshots are an excellent way to illustrate complex instructions visually, such as describing how to set up goals in Google Analytics. Consider using screenshots for things like providing specific examples that are easier to point out visually instead of verbally. For example, often times, SaaS companies will display their dashboard on a laptop for viewers to take a look at.
Many companies are already starting to recognize how live-streaming video can provide a whole new world of possibilities for sharing and building their brands. Consider this: the first 2016 Presidential debate was live-streamed this year! That just goes to show how popular live-streaming has become with platforms such as Facebook Live, Periscope, and YouTube Connect, and how it is sure to become even more common throughout 2017. Here are some of the most common ways to use live-streaming video:
Check out all 25 Brand-Building Ways to Use Periscope – Twitter’s New Live Streaming Video Apps
Mobile-first design is the process of designing for mobile devices first and other, larger devices second (see image below). Why is this going to be a 2017 marketing trend? Because mobile Internet usage continues to increase every single day as evidenced by these statistics:
It is important to be seen as a thought leader in your market. Platforms such as Medium and Contently, and tools like LinkedIn Pulse and Facebook Instant Articles, offer content writers the opportunity to publish and respond to articles to establish that leadership. 1) Medium Medium is a free and open platform where anyone can express themselves. As a brand, Medium is a place where executives or CEOs can write articles in their areas of expertise to help establish leadership and brand awareness, which can trickle down to more leads and sales. As Ev Williams, founder of Medium, says: “Medium is not for everybody, but it’s open to everybody. It encourages participation and a diversity of opinion. Anyone can earn influence on Medium via the value of their ideas, thoughtfulness of their responses, or quality of their rhetoric.” 2) Contently Contently is a company built by content creators, for content creators. The platform helps brands create great content at scale, providing them with smart technology, content marketing expertise, and creative talent from journalists, photographers, designers, videographers, and the like. The platform can best be summarized by Brian Becker, Executive Director and Head of Content at JPMorgan Chase & Co.: “Contently helps us put efficiency into the content creation process to better track and measure what we’re doing, and gives us the ability to tap into talented people.” 3) LinkedIn Pulse LinkedIn Pulse is a platform where articles can be posted by LinkedIn users and have the potential to be seen by an even greater audience than ever before. The publishing platform provides over 130,000 unique articles every week, making Pulse one of the fastest growing tools on LinkedIn today. 4) Facebook Instant Articles Facebook Instant Articles is a tool open to all types of publishers, anywhere in the world. The platform allows publishers to quickly and easily create immersive and interactive articles on Facebook for wide audiences to see.
The Internet of Things (a.k.a. IoT) has become a huge topic of conversation in this last year. But what exactly is it? The IoT is a massive network of devices connected to the Internet and/or each other. This can include anything and everything with an on/off switch: computers, printers, cell phones, headphones, coffee makers, televisions, washing machines, lamps, security systems, cars — the options and opportunities are virtually endless. 
So what does this mean for marketers? Impacting everything we do, make, buy, and sell, the IoT has the potential to mutually benefit both businesses and consumers in a substantial way: businesses will gain visibility and awareness, and consumers will gain empowerment. Let’s examine some of the primary ways in which marketers can use the IoT to their benefit: 1) Increased Personalization and Insight into Consumer Behavior As the IoT expands even further, indoor location technology will allow marketers to connect with consumers on a ‘real-time’ basis, and interact with them during their in-store experiences, even more than they already do. For example, marketers can tell when a customer has been lingering near a product for a while, and can send messages to the consumer’s smartphone, encouraging the sale or offering a promotion. This type of narrowed-in personalization is only going to increase over time, providing more insight into consumer behavior. Marketers will get a better picture of what exactly the consumer is doing, as well as when and why they are buying or not buying. 2) Customer Intimacy Along with increased personalization comes increased intimacy between you and your customers. IoT technologies like social media and cloud computing provide consumers with the opportunity to provide instantaneous feedback to you as a brand. In turn, responding quickly to consumers is an ideal way to increase intimate connections with them. 3) Focused Targeting With the IoT providing increased insight into consumer behavioral patterns, marketers will be able to focus their efforts on a more specific target, customizing the experience for each user. So let’s break this down a bit. Marketers can use IoT data to study consumers and target a specific audience; they can communicate directly with their target audience while improving customer service. This improved customer service can only help increase marketers’ chances of conversion. 4) Advanced Social Media Efforts Since the IoT is optimized for use with social media, marketers will be able to better predict the development of social communities and target their efforts toward these communities. This will allow marketers to reach more potential customers than ever before. Although the IoT is still a bit complicated for the average person, it’s extremely important to understand, as it is another marketing trend we’re likely to see much more of in 2017. In fact, by 2020, experts predict there will be over 26 billion devices connected via the IoT.
The amount of wearable technology today is incredible. From the Apple iWatch, Google Glass, Moto 360, and so many other smart devices, you can literally be connected everywhere you go. In 2017 we are going to see even more innovations in wearable technology, which is a game-changer for digital marketing. 
“For the brand and user the intimacy of VR is really dramatic,” said GE’s global chief marketing officer Linda Boff. General Electric (GE) was one of the first to start advertising in this virtual reality about a year ago, launching a VR animated video on the New York Times app. “It’s a tool to tell a powerful story in a way that’s much more personal and up close than we’d normally be able to.” The 360-degree video capabilities of this technology, virtually transports the user to sporting events, music concerts, the wilderness and more! It’s not just an advertisement, it’s an experience. For example, the hiking boot company Merrell launched a VR ad this year that gave the user an experience of walking on an old shambled bridge up high in the mountains. This takes the user away from watching the advertisement to actually being in it.
When it comes to choosing which marketing tools to incorporate into your marketing strategy, it’s important to consider all the different types, including data visualization tools, social media tools, as well as general marketing tools (find more complete lists that we can include in this article by clicking on these links). Here are some of the major marketing tools you’ll want to consider using in 2017:
Chart.js is the perfect data visualization tool for designers and developers looking to create small projects, using responsive and engaging designs. Although Chart.js currently only contains six types of charts, the tool is quickly becoming one of the most popular open-source charting libraries on the market. 
Tableau is another popular data visualization tool that is completely free. This tool offers a wide variety of graphs, charts, and maps. Users can quickly and easily drag and drop data into the system and watch it update in real time, just like that. Furthermore, you can collaborate with other team members, allowing for quick project turnaround. 
Visually is a data visualization tool that combines videos, infographics, e-books, reports, presentations, and much more. It offers a simple yet effective toolset for building outstanding data representations. 
With two pricing options (free or $10/month), Quuu hand-curates content for you and delivers it right to your Buffer queue. The only thing required is to connect Quuu to your Buffer account and select any categories that are interesting and relevant to you and your audience. Once Quuu sends content to your Buffer queue, you can manually edit the suggestions if necessary.
This popular news-reading app is another tool great for content curation. Panda 5 can be used for free, or upgraded to just $4.99/month, and its sole purpose is to help you speed up your content curation process by allowing you to browse a number of websites all at once, integrate with other websites, and gather RSS feeds of your favorite content.
Cyfe is an all-in-one marketing dashboard that helps marketers identify what exactly is working for them and what isn’t. This tool allows you to collect detailed reports on Google Analytics, AdWords campaigns, SEO, competitive searches, brand mentions on the web, and more.
Beegit is an online writing platform designed to help streamline team collaboration, making it easier for marketers to create, share, edit, and approve web content together, no matter where they are located. The tool includes an editorial calendar, as well as communication, workflow, and writing tools.
With the constantly evolving technology, your marketing plans and success tools need to adapt. As discussed earlier, Snapchat is one of the most widely used social media platforms. So if your target market participates on this network, your brand needs to be on there, too. Learn how Snapchat can be used to increase brand awareness and drive traffic to landing pages.
The difference between promoting videos on Snapchat and on any other platform is that Snapchat clips expire after a short time. The idea behind this is that because of the video’s limited availability, consumers are more likely to pay attention to the video and to the specific offer. This can help increase your brand’s awareness, as well as generate sales and/or conversions. 
Just remember, if your goal is not only to increase brand awareness, but also to drive traffic to any of your landing pages to increase conversions, be sure to direct users in that direction in your video. Visit this Instapage webpage for more information about creating effective squeeze pages and how they differ from landing pages.
A contest is one of the quickest ways to get engagement on social media. There are a few steps you’ll want to take to run a successful contest on Snapchat:
GrubHub is one brand that makes great use of Snapchat contests. In the image below, you can see that GrubHub, a well-known food delivery company, asked its followers to use Snapchat’s drawing feature to create a doodle to send to GrubHub. The company then chose ten of the submitted snaps and rewarded them with a discount: 
If you have a new product or a new feature, share it! This is definitely one of the easiest ways to increase your brand awareness through Snapchat. Create a demonstration photo or an instructional video and share it with your followers.
Hosting a Snapchat Q&A is another great way to increase brand awareness and build an established Snapchat following. To do this, you must first set a specific date and time for your Q&A. Encourage all your followers to send in their questions via Snapchat before this date to ensure that you have enough questions when your Q&A airs. When choosing which questions to answer, be sure to make it a mix of both business-related questions and other less serious questions in order to humanize your brand a bit more. When it comes time to host your Q&A, separate the question and the answer into two different Snaps, since the videos can only be a maximum of 10 seconds. In addition, acknowledge the author of the question (see image below) to make them feel recognized and connected to your brand: 
If your goal is to drive traffic to your landing page and increase leads, using Snapchat to introduce special events can be an effective technique. Simply use your Snapchat story to post videos of yourself providing information about the event, including:
Be sure to then direct viewers to your landing page to register for the event. Since snaps cannot be hyperlinked (e.g. to a landing page), the best way to send out your link is to add a text overlay with your link. Users can then screenshot the snap and search your link outside of Snapchat.
There are two major ways to utilize Snapchat influencers:
Monitoring the latest digital marketing trends can only help you better engage with your target audience. Whether that means engaging on different social media networks, alternating content platforms, or using more visual media, technology is constantly evolving so you need to evolve with it. Keeping an eye on past trends has allowed us to compile this list of the digital marketing trends that you can expect to see in 2017. What marketing trends do you plan on investing more into in 2017?
So you created what you thought was a masterful piece of content but there’s no traffic coming in.
The marketing experts talk about the importance of content marketing and how it has made a world of difference in their businesses. The traffic and leads just seem to gush in for them.
Backlinko gets 90,000 visitors a month and it’s a newer SEO blog, Derek Halpern has over 200,000+ e-mail subscribers—and the list goes on.
It’s the one element that people don’t talk about often: content promotion.
And when people DO talk about it, they say content promotion is perhaps even MORE important than the content itself, but no one really tells you how to do it effectively.
In this post, we’ll walk you through how to promote your content as well as repurpose it on other platforms (which in essence is also a form of promotion). Let’s call this ‘Content Expansion’.
The typical content marketing strategy involves publishing a blog post, seeding it to your social profiles, and maybe sending a few e-mails out.
Doesn’t it feel like there should be A LOT more that?
First, the one thing I’ve heard from the Neil Patels and Derek Halperns of the world is to create truly epic content. It’s a lot easier to promote and repurpose content when it’s top-notch!
Assuming you have done that, it’s time to turn your attention to all the platforms that are available for you to repurpose to.
And remember: repurposing is a form of promotion because you are distributing your content further.
Find more statistics at Statista
Sure, these numbers aren’t eye-popping, but as you continue to add them across these other platforms, it adds up. Compound it over years and then you’ll see some serious numbers.
The criteria for admission is a business that does >$1m in annual revenues and a $1,000 annual fee. You’ll also be able to connect with young up-and-coming (under 40 years old) entrepreneurs.
But if you don’t exactly fit the mold for YEC, that’s not a problem. Here’s how you can get on bigger publications:
Build A Publication Target List
First, figure out which publications you want to appear on. For Growth Everywhere, my audience is entrepreneurs and marketers, so it makes sense to target sites such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, Fast Company, and Business Insider. On the marketing side, it makes sense for me to write for sites like Social Media Examiner, HubSpot, and more.
Your goal is to figure out where your audience is hanging out. If you’re not sure where to start, Buzzsumo is a great tool for uncovering the content that is getting lots of shares in your niche. Here’s an example of the results I get when I type in ‘startup marketing’:
Figure Out What Your Unique Angle Is
Next, you need to figure out what your unique angle is. What is it that makes you special? What are you good at? Where can you bring the most value? For example, Tim Ferriss is an exceptional interviewer because he’s a voracious learner. Because of that, he can talk about many different subjects with world-class performers from Arnold Schwarzenegger to angel investor Chris Sacca. That’s why he has one of the top podcasts in iTunes (over 1,967 reviews with a 4.5 star average).
Be unique and authentic, and people will be more receptive to you—especially when you’re trying to get on a larger publication.
How To Find Publication Editors/Writers
Now you have to get to the actual decision makers when it comes to contributions. I usually target the ‘Managing Editor’ title. Even if they aren’t the ones making the call on guest contributors, they can at least point you in the right direction.
First, you can try good ol’ Google:
If that doesn’t work, you can try LinkedIn:
From there, you can either use a tool like E-mail Hunter or simply Google their Twitter handle to reach out to them.
E-mail Hunter will find e-mail addresses from anywhere on the web:
Research The Individual
Now it’s time to sit down and research what topics your target(s) is interested in. By Googling ‘[Name] [Publication] articles’, I can get a quick glimpse of the articles that my target has written recently:
Perfect – looks like this is right up my alley (startup/entrepreneurship). Once I know I have the right fit, I’ll add them to a spreadsheet with a column that notes the topics that resonate with my target.
Come Up With A List Of Headlines
Ok, now it’s time to prepare a list of 5 ideas per category. For example, if you were targeting editors with interests in startup/entrepreneurship, you’d create 5 headlines for this category. If you were targeting editors interested in marketing, it’d be another 5 headlines about that category. Rinse and repeat until you have 5 for each topic.
Make sure they’re GREAT headlines too.
If you’re unsure of how to write attention-grabbing headlines, here are a few resources:
More importantly, analyze the types of headlines they use and mold your headline to match their style.
They’ll appreciate that.
Craft An E-mail Template
Congratulations, you’ve gotten them to open your e-mail! Now it’s time to close them with a solid e-mail template.
Here’s an example that you can swipe and deploy immediately:
Hi [NAME],
Big fan of your work. I especially liked [this article:link] where you talked about [what they talked about].
My name is [YOUR NAME] and I’d like to write on [TOPIC] for [YOUR COMPANY].
I’ve written for [INSERT SIMILAR PUBLICATION LINKS] and I think my writing would resonate with your audience.
I’ve prepared a few ideas just for you. 🙂
Thoughts?
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
Here’s an even easier one to use:
Hi [NAME],
Just wanted to let you know that we mentioned you in a piece we wrote here: [LINK] 🙂
Let me know what you think!
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
Rinse & Repeat
Keep doing this and I guarantee you’ll gain traction. You’ll likely get a few ignores or rejections at first, but the key is to keep pushing. Brian Dean from Backlinko notes that he gets a 11% conversion rate on content promotion e-mails.
More on how he does that here:
If they say no? Make a note to follow up in 2-3 months as you continue to rack up more experience under your belt. You can make life even easier by using sales automation tools.
At the end of the day, it’s just a numbers game. You’re bound to convert a few publications that you can write for.
Bonus Tip: Ask For Referrals
If someone you know is producing content for a publication you want to be on, ask them for a referral to the managing editor. A warm introduction goes a long way.This seems like a ‘duh’ tip but most people forget to do what’s right in front of them.
Build a circle of influencers – GrooveHQ got over 1,000+ subscribers from a single blog post in 24 hours by starting off with an influencer list. From a revenue standpoint, that post generated about $3,425 in revenue.
That was when they were just starting out. They now do over $170,000 in monthly recurring revenue.
Tweeting/e-mailing the people mentioned – This is the lowest hanging fruit you can tackle when it comes to promotion. People love hearing about themselves and if the piece you produced is solid, they’re happy to share. Personally, I haven’t done the best job at doing this but when I do, it pays off handsomely. I have since hired someone to handle this (you probably should if you have more pressing matters to tend to).
You can use the copy above to e-mail people. Here’s the short example one more time:
Hi [NAME],
Just wanted to let you know that we mentioned you in a piece we wrote here: [LINK] 🙂
Let me know what you think!
[YOUR NAME]
Here’s an example tweet you can use:
.@NAME just mentioned you in our piece on [SUBJECT] 🙂 [LINK]
(yes, the period is there on purpose)
Tracking your promotion – what gets measured, gets managed. You can track your promotion through a Google Spreadsheet and start off with simple metrics such as:
For a more automated method of tracking and sending out e-mails, you can use sales automation tools like Outreach.
Seeding to communities -there are lots of great communities where people share content online. For example, Growth Everywhere posts typically cover topics around marketing, sales and startups.
Here are a few communities I can push my content to:
A note on communities: each community is different and you don’t want to be too self promotional or else they’ll rip you apart. Reddit especially.
Not sure where to start? Just Google ‘[your niche] community’ and you’ll find some suitable candidates. For example, I typed in ‘interior design community’ and I came across the Houzz discussion board:
Bonus: Moz put together an exceptional guide on content amplification that I strongly recommend you take a look at:
This post wouldn’t be complete without some recommended tools. Here are some solid tools to help with content expansion:
Moz, Ahrefs, Majestic SEO – Any of these 3 SEO tools will do a great job telling you how a site is doing in terms of link acquisition, what pages are most popular and much more. Moz has tools such as Followerwonk and the Keyword Difficulty tool to help tell you important social media statistics/trends and keywords that are worth going for. Here’s a simple Majestic SEO tutorial:
SEMrush – SEMrush is our tool of choice when it comes to exploring what ads sites are running or which organic keywords a site is ranking for. It also produces simple weekly reports that notes the weekly growth of a site. Here’s a tutorial on SEMrush:
MeetEdgar – If you’re producing a good volume of content, it’s hard to think about what needs to be resurfaced and when to schedule it. Edgar allows you to schedule content (your own or curated), set it, and forget it. I’d advise scrubbing your content every month to make sure that you’re sharing the most up-to-date content with your audiences. Here’s a look at Edgar:
Buffer – Buffer has been a staple in our social media toolbox for years and still continues to be. You can schedule posts to multiple channels through your browser and then view the effectiveness of your posts over time. Huge timesaver and great to pair with MeetEdgar.
Outbrain, Taboola, StumbleUpon – Content distribution networks such as Outbrain and Taboola can return a ROI if you’re really trying to expand your content reach. These are the recommended posts that you see below sites such as CNN.com and ESPN.com. Moz has a post that reports getting 1,000+ social shares and 82 links on a $2,000 spend.
Start A Fire – Start A Fire allows you to promote your content with every external link you share. For example, when we share our content through Buffer, each link is automatically converted into a Start A Fire link that adds a badge to the bottom right corner of each post:
Since using it, we’ve gotten over 790 pageviews and 109 badge clicks for a 13.7% CTR. Not too shabby for not having to do any extra work.
Zapier / IFTTT – Zapier is my go-to tool for integrating applications. For example, if a lead comes through our WordPress site, it’ll immediately push to our Sales channel in HipChat. We made a video that goes through how we use it right here:
Content Expansion
Since you’ve already spent your valuable time creating exceptional content, there’s no reason you can’t repurpose it. For example, Buffer stopped publishing content for a month and instead focused on repurposing and refreshing their content from the archives. Their results were staggering:
Here’s how you can repurpose your content
After you’ve made the original piece MORE epic, think about how you can repurpose it. After that, follow the Derek Halpern rule: spend 20% of your time creating a post and 80% of your time promoting it.
Here are some more ideas on how to repurpose your content:
Infographics
Infographics are a great way to expand upon content you’ve created in the past. Internet entrepreneur Neil Patel notes this about his 47 infographics:
Analytics company KISSmetrics ranks #1 for the keyword ‘how to calculate lifetime value’. But most of us don’t have the budget or time to research a well thought out infographics.
Thankfully, there are a few options to produce infographics quickly on a budget (such as Canva or Piktochart).
SlideShare
With over 60 million monthly users, SlideShare has been called content marketing’s sleeping giant. If you present often, it makes sense to share your slides on SlideShare. You can even slice up past infographics you’ve done and post them up to increase your reach.
With over 300 million users, Instagram can be a major player if utilized correctly. Foundr Magazine’s Nathan Chan gets over 8,000 e-mail subscribers a month from his Instagram account. It took him 5 months to go from 0 to 110,000 followers:
To get a detailed look at his Instagram growth strategy, click here.For you lazier people (like me), here are the key cliffnotes:
Visual bookmarking site Pinterest is projected to have more than 47 million monthly active users in 2015. It’s not just a site for women to post wedding photos on. It’s in your best interest to figure out if your demographic hangs out there. If they do, then it’s time to learn how to market on Pinterest. If you aren’t so sure about your design chops, you can learn how to create visually appealing content from Neil Patel. Using a simple online collage maker or photo editing tool, it’s easier than you’d think to create compelling visual content.
73% of marketers agree that e-mail marketing is core to their business. In 2014, e-mail marketing was cited as the most effective digital marketing channel for customer retention in the United States. Over 59% of B2B marketers say e-mail is the most effective channel for generating revenue. Sometimes, people (like myself) are so focused on the new shiny object that we forget how to optimize our e-mails. Weekly digests are a great way for promoting content to your lists.
For example, I look forward to Hiten Shah’s weekly SaaS digest. It’s very simple and has content that I’m interested in:
What’s one way you can enhance your e-mail marketing to promote your content?
YouTube isn’t the only show in town. Online video site Vimeo has over 100 million users and 400k paying subscribers. I personally use it to host my courses and my summits. Vimeo is all about building communities and the audience tends to be full of quality-seekers. Learn more about Vimeo marketing here.
Quora
Q+A site Quora is a great place to share your knowledge. Venture Capitalist (and former guest on the show) Jason Lemkin has eclipsed over 10M views on Quora and built a very strong brand in the software-as-a-service world called SaaStr.
Here’s how he does it:
Google+ Discussion Groups
Sure, Google may have given up on having Google+ as a Facebook rival, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t thriving communities. For example, the ‘Entrepreneurs, Self-Employed’ Google+ group came recommended to me from a friend that runs a large site geared towards small businesses. I was skeptical at first, but engagement numbers don’t lie:
Other untapped channels
There’s ALWAYS new platforms popping up. It’s on you to take some time out of your week to strategize next steps on how to increase your traffic. Here are a few more:
Periscope – Live streaming social media app Periscope has over 380 years of content consumed PER day and hit over 1 million users in just 10 days. Marketers such as Derek Halpern initially thought Periscope was dumb but now think it’s the next big thing.
Here’s a guide on how to use Periscope.
Vine – Over 100 million people watch Vine videos each month. Here’s a handy guide to using Vine.
Snapchat – Messaging app Snapchat reportedly has close to 200 million users. Here’s a marketer’s guide to Snapchat.
Untapped traffic sources – What about less popular channels? The big ones are mentioned over and over and they’re easy to access. But that also means they can be crowded and expensive. Mat, a guy that was intoxicated, built a completely useless site that attracts 3,000 to 40,000 visitors a day.
Take a look at it.
It does. absolutely. nothing.
But he was able to tap into a site outside of the usual social media bubble called The Useless Web. 90% of his traffic comes from that site.
One more thing: online isn’t the only way to find traffic. An extremely successful dating site ($45m/year) used lawn signs to generate offline-to-online traffic. So be creative 🙂
Surveying Your Audience
The work isn’t done after you’ve had a successful content expansion campaign. It’s all about iterating after that. You can use tools like SurveyMonkey to get a pulse on your audience. For example, you can ask them to rate your specific piece of content on a scale of 1-10 or even ask them which topics they’re most interested in.
From there, you’ll have some data to point you in the right direction for future epic content ideas.
Additional Resources:
The Ultimate Content Promotion Checklist – A simple, interactive content promotion checklist for you to follow. Adapt for your own needs.
Advanced SEO Campaign Blueprint – Content and SEO go hand in hand. If you’re doing content, it’s on you to understand the nuances of SEO. Don’t leave home without this blueprint.
How Nick Eubanks built a site up to 100,000 visitors per month quickly using SEO and content – self explanatory.
Extensive Keyword Research Tutorial:
We all know that content marketing has a compounding effect. What sets most content pieces apart from others is the evergreen effect:
compared to the temporal effect:
If you can consistently expand and repurpose your content, you’re well on your way to creating something really special.