advanced content creation, seo & storytelling
TRANSCRIPT
Advanced Content Creation, SEO & Storytelling
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All startups are in the same business.
The broccoli pizza business.
See here:
http://growthship.com/startuppizza
The Handicap of Selling Innovation
Innovation does a violence that creates disconnect.
Without context = ‘What is this? Why do I need it?’Fear: What the heck is that?!
Projection = ‘Are you saying I’m stupid?’Joy: Who puts broccoli on pizza?!Risk = ‘What if it doesn’t work?’
Disgust: That's it. I'm done. [walks off]
Your Product
Your Channel
Hacking Growth in 1948
Evolution from Medium to Channel
0) The Hyped Next Big Thing1) The Wild Wild West2) The Hockey Stick
3) Tragedy of the Commons4) Governance & Civilization
5) Decline
Growth Hacking vs Marketing
The Medium is the Message
Why the Medium is Paramount
The medium resolves and rewards.
Without context = ‘What is this? Why do I need it?’Projection = ‘Are you saying I’m stupid?’
Risk = ‘What if it doesn’t work?’
Violate at Your Own Peril
Launching innovative product into existing channels = FAILStartup or business unit cannot afford growth on any paid channels = FAIL
Startup go to war against its own customers = FAILStartup fears unconventional sales & marketing = FAIL
Engineering builds a product, sales sells another product = FAIL
ADD origins of Growth Hacking slide
ADD origins of Growth Hacking slide
ADD origins of Growth Hacking slide
ADD origins of Growth Hacking slide
ADD origins of Growth Hacking slide
ADD origins of Growth Hacking slide
MESSAGE:
TupperwarePayPalYour product?TeslaZyngaPebbleApple products
MEDIUM:
Home partiesEbayYour channel?Luxury storesFacebookCrowdfundingApple retail stores
MESSAGE:
???????
MEDIUM:
VR & ARBitcoinAI3D PrintingInternet of Things & WearablesDriverless carsDrones
Evolution from Medium to Channel
0) The Hyped Next Big Thing1) The Wild Wild West2) The Hockey Stick
3) Tragedy of the Commons4) Governance & Civilization
5) Decline
State of Online Marketing Today
The Day to Day Reality
Channel Life and Death
SEM/PPC
Welcome to End of an Era
Cheap startups, cheap talent, and
cheap growth are all coming to an end.
What does that mean?
With acquisition and distribution radically more expensive, differentiated
growth hacking become even more critical than ever.
Today, the most compelling & most differentiated content
a) solves customer actual problems, b) engages by “playing to their priors”,
c) and is more than a blog post.
Advanced Content Principles
Think beyond the blog post. (SERPs have changed.)Differentiation is critical. (Make it harder to copy.)
CRITICAL TO UNDERSTAND:You need to blur the lines between product/content.
The Content Garden Model
Content is deciding what to plant.
SEO is what you nurture and, paramountly, what you prune.
Constellation of Customer Problems
Understanding Your Customers’ Priors
Why did your customer become who they are?
Hidden, unconscious motivations?
Understanding Your Customers’ Priors
What sorts of lies and self-deception?Weird or odd behavior?Unconscious signaling?
Understanding Your Customers’ Priors
How do they think/perceive themselves?What problems do they perceive they have?
How do they prioritize these problems?
Three Segments’ Reactions
The Producer The Artiste The Drowning
Initial Reaction “Whoa. This is amazing.”
“Are you really better than
CoreAudio or OpenSL ES?”
“Can you write code for me??”
Secondary ReactionHave their team benchmark our performance.
Build simple app. Get stuck on code
samples.
Three Segments’ LiesThe Producer The Artiste The Drowning
Lie #1“Everything in my
audio stack is bulletproof.”
“I could have built this.”
“I can program audio.”
Lie #2
“I have the power in my org to make
buying decisions by myself.”
“I understand low-level code and optimizations.”
“I know what I am doing.”
Three Segments’ Self PerceptionThe Producer The Artiste The Drowning
How they think of themselves
Professional and battle-tested.
Under-appreciated & undiscovered genius.
Unique-snowflake innovator.
Hard core developer.
In reality Mostly professional.
Insecure mediocre middle. Quick to blame software.
Incompetent.
Three Segments’ MotivationsThe Producer The Artiste The Drowning
Typical Question/Objection
What impact does XYZ have on CPU
usage?
How do I do XYZ with your SDK?
Can you write XYZ for me?
Motivations Staying at the top. Getting to the top. Not getting fired.
Three Segments’ Value PerceptionsThe Producer The Artiste The Drowning
What they’re really asking for
Weird edge-case features.
Docs that don’t make them feel dumb.
Ready-built templates.
Job to Be Done
Smooth sailing. Smart and safe choice. Solidifies their position to
management and rest of team.
More in-flow coding. Cannot help them.
Three Segments’ Problem PerceptionsThe Producer The Artiste The Drowning
Problem We SolveThey need a
customizable and flexible solution.
They think they need a customizable and
flexible solution.NA
Adjacent ProblemInfo about latency and future audio
tech.
Ability to test latency.
NA
Adjacent ProblemLook smart in front
of underlings.Look smart in front
of boss. NA
Getting Developers & Marketers on Same Page
Exercise
http://growthship.com/growth
(Copy and fill out)
Starbucks understands growth hacking.
http://growthship.com/starbucksoutlook
Content Production Schedule by SEO
Content Garden Model
Content is deciding what to plant.
SEO is what you grow and prune.
Why NO growth?
Veteran LeadersContent ProcessOptimized SEO
In-house & External Team
Optimized & multiplied their output!
The End Of An Era
The SEO Avocado Tree
Sculpt & prune your site to growth.
The more you cut, the more you grow.
Growing & Sculpting
(not provided)
What are the seeds, or existing leaves and fruit to grow?
PRIORITIZE!
What Content Should I Grow & Sculpt?
Behavior > Site Content > Landing Pages
What Content Should I Sculpt?
http://growthship.com/analytics
How Should I Sculpt It?
What Type Of Content Should I Add?
What Related Content Should I Add?
Google Wants To Help Shape Your Growth
http://growthship.com/kwp
How To Cluster Your Content
Content Production Schedule by SEO
Google Tools & Recap
Google AnalyticsGoogle Search ConsoleRelated Search Queries
Auto CompleteGoogle Keyword Planner
Pruning Your Site
Do not waste energy on inefficient leaves.
Less is more.Content = Seeds
SEO = Optimizing Sunlight To Grow
Where Do You Start With Optimization?
Paralysis By Analysis
$20,000 for 200 pages, butWHAT DO I DO?
Actionable SEO Audit in Less Than An Hour
Help Google, help you.Google likes to learn.
Exploit unrecognized simplicities.Prioritize your actions to success.
Layups -> Slam Dunks
Keywords On Your Homepage?
Keywords On Your Homepage?
Are You Mobile-Friendly?
Are You Mobile-Friendly?
Site Speed Across Devices
http://growthship.com/speed
What is yours on mobile & desktop?
Duplicate Content & Duplicate Sites?
https://www.YOURSITE.com/marketinghttp://www.YOURSITE.com/marketing
http://staging.YOURSITE.com/marketinghttps://www.YOURSITE.com/marketing/page/2https://www.YOURSITE.com/marketing/page/7
Site Search, Indexation & Crawl Budget
How big is your site? What’s getting indexed?
Site Search, Indexation & Crawl Budget
site:YOURSITE.com
Over-Indexation v. Under-Indexation
Leaves to Sunlight Ratio Off Bugs In The GardenSubdomains JavaScript Staging Environments Crawler ErrorsTag Pages Blocking URLsNo Canonical URL Orphan PagesCustomer Created URLs Robots.txt Broken
Over-Indexation v. Under-Indexation
Under-Indexation: Prune Wisely
Crawl Budgethttp://growthship.com/crawl
Domain Authorityhttp://growthship.com/authority
Crawl budget is roughly proportional to domain authority.
Crawl EfficiencySite Structure, Internal Linking, Speed, Robots.txt, Sitemap
Finite Resources
Where should the sun shine?
Where should Google help you crawl?
How much sun do you get?http://growthship.com/crawl
Optimize Crawl Budget
4.5%
Google wants the most important pages to remain the ‘freshest’ in the index.
What Is Your Domain Authority?
http://growthship.com/authority
How big is your tree?What is your DA? How many pages do you have indexed?
What Is Your Domain Authority?
Is it low?
Even more important to properly optimize your site.
What Is Your Crawl Budget?http://growthship.com/crawl
What Is Your Domain Authority?http://growthship.com/authority
Crawl budget is roughly proportional to domain authority.
How Can You Improve Crawl Efficiency?Site Structure, Internal Linking, Speed, Robots.txt, Sitemap
To prune or improve?
Pruning Your Dead Leaves
Indexed Pages v. Organic Landing Pagessite:YOURDOMAIN.com Behavior > Site Content > Landing Pages
Total pages indexed?Last 30 days?
Last 6 months?Where can you prune? No tree is the same.
Indexed Pages v. Organic Landing PagesOrganic Landing Pages:
199 v. 232 in past 30 days
Behavior > Site Content >Landing pages
(filter Organic Only)
More Pruningsite:YOURSITE.com -inurl:www
Over-indexation: Total indexed pages for each subdomainSecurity: Staging sites & customer data
What Leaves Should Get Sunlight?
How can you shift your internal ranking bias to your more important pages?
As quality content becomes table stakes, channeling PageRank becomes paramount.
Sculpting PageRank
http://growthship.com/internal
Trunk : Branches : Leaves & Fruit Homepage: Categories : Content
Optimize Crawl Budget
0.87%
Where Should I Sculpt PageRank?
Google Analytics (filter Organic Traffic Only): Behavior > Site Content > Landing Pages
Sort by:Sessions
Conversions
Audit Recap
Basics: Title, H1, Content, URL, Alt, MetaBasics: KWs, Mobile, Speed, Dupes
IndexationOrganic Landing Pages
Sculpt PageRankOptimize Crawl Budget
Content Clusters + Tiered Internal Linking
Questions
STORYTELLING
The Universal Human Data Format
Story beats are encoded into your DNA.
Stories, not facts or figures, but stories.
Simplest Story
A problemand
A solution
How Apple uses story to sell the making of memories (ie iPhones).
https://youtu.be/nhwhnEe7CjE
Disney hit film Frozen is a ‘Quest’.(Star Wars set in medieval Scandinavia.)
Anna (the special hero)= LukeKristof = Han SoloSven = ChewbaccaRock trolls = EwoksOlaf = C3PO/R2D2
https://youtu.be/TbQm5doF_Uc
Rocky is a ‘Rags to Riches’.
Rocky is an un-special hero who ‘wins’ only by perseverance, grit, & hustle.
https://youtu.be/eMhDQFLwrAA
Taken is a ‘Revenge Story’.
Some injustice has happened in a far off land. We must go and deliver justice. The ends justify the
means.
https://youtu.be/uPJVJBm9TPA
Once Brothers is a ‘Love Story’.
Two opposites meet. Become one. Then separate. Then unify once again.
https://youtu.be/h_FTjCe1C7Y
PS Think beyond ‘Romeo & Juliet’.
Edge of Tomorrow is a ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’.
Something big has happened to reshape the landscape. Your old magic doesn’t work. You must
learn and master the new magic for the new landscape.
https://youtu.be/fLe_qO4AE-M
The Five Fundamental Stories*
The QuestRags to Riches
Stranger in a Strange LandLove StoryRevenge
*Based on the work of Dr. Nick Morgan of http://www.publicwords.com/
Pro Tricks to Tell Better Stories
No conflict, no interest.The counter-intuitive hook.
The protagonist makes it worse.The payoff matters.
Structure. Structure. Structure.
Your turn. Write a story that plays to your customers’ priors.