Content That Grows

Simplifying Content Distribution

Ten Speed — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 08:09:00 +0000

In this episode, Nate and Ryan discuss simplifying content distribution. They highlight the common reasons why companies struggle with distribution, such as lack of bandwidth, fear of not having the expertise, and overcomplicating the process.

They emphasize the importance of having a schedule and incorporating distribution into the content creation process. They also suggest starting with one channel and gradually expanding, repurposing content, and measuring success through diverse metrics.

02:19 The Power of Repurposing Content
04:19 Starting with What You're Good At
08:03 Simplifying Distribution for More Reach
19:12 Having Content for the Next Question
24:17 Balancing Quality and Risk in Distribution
29:41 Measuring Success Across Channels
33:57 Moving Between Owned and External Channels

The Importance of the Relationship Between Product and Marketing Teams at a PLG Company

Ten Speed — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 21:26:52 +0000

In this episode, Nate Turner and Darren Chait discuss the power of a strong relationship between product and marketing in product-led growth (PLG) companies.

They highlight the importance of continuous integration between product and marketing teams throughout the growth journey and explore the role of the website in PLG companies and the need for personalized content based on user personas and journey stages.

The conversation touches on the impact of a strong brand on content strategy and the challenges of re-educating users about the full capabilities of a well-known product.

Stuck Between Influencers and Reality

Ten Speed — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 19:03:21 +0000

In this episode, Nate and Ryan discuss the challenges of navigating between the advice given by influencers and the reality of working in-house. They explore the need to discern between valuable advice and unrealistic expectations, as well as the importance of balancing done versus perfect.

They also provide practical tips for dealing with the influx of advice, such as unfollowing absolutists, saving ideas for future reference, and getting buy-in for new ideas.

03:02 The Challenge of Balancing Advice and Reality
07:06 Navigating the Noise: Ignoring Absolutists
09:57 Getting Buy-In for New Ideas: Setting Expectations
21:03 Getting Buy-In for New Ideas: Finding Allies
24:09 Testing and Revisiting Ideas: Adapting to Change

Multi-Media Storytelling and Persona-Based Content Creation

Ten Speed — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 14:46:26 +0000

In this episode, Nate Turner interviews Michael Goldberg, Director of Content Strategy at Freshworks, about multimedia storytelling and creating content for specific segments and personas.

Michael emphasizes the importance of understanding the audience and their needs when creating content. He shares his experience in tailoring content for different audiences, such as marketers, data scientists, and engineers.

Michael advises building strong relationships with product and sales teams to gain insights and create targeted content.

09:14 Focusing on the Outcome, Not the Features
13:59 Practical Tips for Getting Started with Multimedia Storytelling
26:32 The Shift to Being a Content Producer

What Content Decay Looks Like in 2024

Ten Speed — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 16:20:24 +0000

In this episode, Nate and Kevin discuss the concept of content decay and how it has evolved in 2024. They highlight the factors that contribute to content decay, explore the impact of AI overviews on content decay, and provide insights on how to properly address and fix content decay.

04:13 Old Factors and New Factors
10:59 Addressing Content Decay
14:55 Optimizing for SERP Features
28:35 Differentiating Content for a Better User Experience

How to Create and Distribute Data Reports

Ten Speed — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 16:45:08 +0000

Note: Unfortunately, the audio quality of this episode is poor. The discussion and insights from Kevin are valuable and worth a listen, or reading of the transcript, so we hope you can get past the low-quality audio and still take something away from it.

In this episode, Nate Turner and Kevin McLaughlin discuss Kevin's experience creating and distributing data reports for Bluevine. The report, called the Business Owner Success Survey (BOSS), focused on small business success and included insights on market sentiment, spending habits, and decision-making.

The report was distributed through various channels, including email, social media, and a drip marketing campaign. The format of the report was initially interactive, but there are plans to create a static PDF version as well.

How to Establish an Editorial Process That Gets Consistent Results

Ten Speed — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 14:42:52 +0000

In this episode, Nate and Ryan discuss how to establish an editorial process that gets consistent results. They emphasize the importance of focusing on the post-writing phase of content creation and highlight the need for processes and systems to scale up content production.

They also discuss the importance of involving the right stakeholders at the right times and creating a single source of truth for consistent content.

06:03 Flexibility and Bend-Don't-Break Processes
10:57 Conceptual Edits before Line Edits
15:24 Creating a Single Source of Truth
29:05 Planning Ahead and Building a Buffer

7 Most Common Technical SEO Issues

Ten Speed — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 13:15:22 +0000

In this episode, Nate and Kevin discuss the seven most common technical SEO issues. They cover topics such as website speed, mobile-friendliness, indexation issues, site structure, schema markup, and duplicate content. They also touch on three less common issues: improper localization, reverse proxy, and legacy scripts.

0:57 Website is too slow

4:52 Website is not mobile friendly

8:03 Indexation issues

12:10 Site structure

15:24 Internal linking

19:15 Schema markup

21:08 Duplicate/similar content

24:30 Three Honorable Mention Issues

Content Strategy for SMB vs Mid-Market and Enterprise

Ten Speed — Tue, 28 May 2024 14:47:25 +0000

In this conversation, Nate and Ben discuss the differences in content strategy between SMB and mid-market/enterprise companies. Ben shares his experience transitioning from a VP of Marketing role to a Director of Content Marketing role and the decision to focus on content leadership.

They explore the challenges of targeting mid-market and enterprise companies, such as the higher cost of the product and the need to convince the C-suite. Ben emphasizes the importance of community and expert-driven content, as well as the need for multiple pathways to convert website visitors.

07:02 Differences in Content Strategy: SMB vs. Mid-Market/Enterprise 14:12 Multiple Pathways to Conversion: Engaging Website Visitors 27:41 Finding Connectors and Guides: Navigating the New Market Segment

What Is Authority Content and Why Do You Need It?

Ten Speed — Mon, 20 May 2024 19:15:00 +0000

In this episode, Nate and Ryan discuss the concept of authority content and its importance in content marketing strategies. They define authority content as content that drives brand authority, influences a specific audience, and contributes to an industry or community.

They emphasize that authority content is different from SEO content, which is designed to drive traffic and conversions from organic search.

04:53 Elements of Good Authority Content
09:48 The Importance of Having a Strong Belief and Perspective
24:34 Exploring Distribution Channels for Authority Content

Key Elements of a Comprehensive Organic Growth Strategy

Ten Speed — Tue, 14 May 2024 15:20:26 +0000

In this episode, Nate and Kevin discuss the elements of a comprehensive organic growth strategy. They emphasize the importance of understanding the ideal customer persona (ICP) and how they buy, as well as having deep knowledge of the products or services being offered.

They also highlight the significance of competitive analysis, technical foundation, evaluating organic search opportunity, thought leadership, and distribution in a successful organic growth strategy.

10:39 The Importance of Competitive Analysis
15:08 Building a Strong Technical Foundation
26:24 Thought Leadership and its Role in the Strategy
30:40 The Significance of Distribution
37:13 Continuous Adaptation and Staying Up-to-Date

How to Get the Most Out of a Research Report

Ten Speed — Tue, 07 May 2024 15:24:47 +0000

In this episode, Nate Turner and Ryan Sargent discuss how to get the most out of a research report. They define a research report as a long-form written piece of content based on original data, such as first-party data or data collected through surveys. They highlight the benefits of research reports, including the ability to add something unique to the conversation, establish brand authority, and drive backlinks.

01:08 Defining a Research Report

07:36 Planning and Structuring a Research Report

13:32 Distribution Strategies for Research Reports

24:29 Repurposing Research Reports

30:35 Long-Term Impact of Research Reports

Demand Generation vs. Brand Awareness w/ Kamil Rextin

Ten Speed — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 07:56:00 +0000

In this episode, Nate Turner and Kamil Rextin discuss the differences between demand generation and brand awareness in marketing. They explore the importance of aligning on definitions and metrics, as well as the need to focus on both the top and middle of the marketing funnel. They also emphasize the significance of revenue operations (rev ops) in ensuring accurate measurement and performance tracking.

Overall, the conversation highlights the need for marketers to prioritize business outcomes and avoid getting caught up in semantics or overcomplicating marketing strategies.

11 Most Common Site Migration Issues

Ten Speed — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 13:55:00 +0000

In this episode, Nate Turner and Kevin King discuss the 11 most common site migration issues when moving to a new CMS.

They cover topics such as internal redirect chains, no index tags left on, staging site getting indexed, canonical URL issues, URL structure changes leading to 404s, page speed and site performance declines, metadata loss, image issues, header tags and content formatting, site maps not updated, and JavaScript and tracking codes.

Going Beyond the Blog in Content Marketing feat. Josh Palmer

Ten Speed — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 08:01:00 +0000

In this episode, Nate Turner interviews Josh Palmer, the Head of Content for OnBoard, a board governance and collaboration platform. They discuss the growth of OnBoard over the past 12 to 24 months, with a focus on shifting from paid to organic traffic. They also explore the importance of building on an SEO foundation and expanding beyond traditional content marketing.

Takeaways

Shifting from paid to organic traffic can lead to more sustainable and efficient growth
Building on an SEO foundation is crucial for content marketing success
Internal marketing is essential for ensuring that content assets are utilized effectively within the organization
Understanding the customer and product is key to developing targeted and impactful content
Marketers should strive to have a business mindset and understand the broader context of their organization.

Chapters

00:36 Overview of OnBoard and Growth

04:11 Benefits of Organic Growth

08:03 Expanding Beyond SEO

10:50 Progression of Content Marketing

13:34 Content as Fuel

15:38 Internal Marketing and Content Promotion

26:12 Adapting Plans and Building Momentum

34:26 Importance of Business Context for Marketers

Key ingredients in a high-impact content brief

Ten Speed — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 15:55:00 +0000

In this episode, Nate Turner and Ryan Sargent discuss the importance of content briefs in creating quality content. They explain that content briefs provide guidance and information to writers, ensuring that they understand what is expected from the content.

The conversation highlights the components of a good brief, including the purpose of the content, style guide preferences, and subject matter expertise. They also discuss the pitfalls of relying solely on AI-generated briefs and emphasize the value of detailed briefs for success.

Takeaways:

Content briefs are essential for providing guidance and information to writers, ensuring the creation of quality content.
A good content brief includes the purpose of the content, style guide preferences, and subject matter expertise.
AI-generated briefs may lack originality and fail to differentiate content.
Detailed briefs with specific instructions lead to successful content creation.
Content briefs are valuable for both external contractors and internal writing teams.

Chapters:

00:46 What is a Content Brief?

01:16 Importance of Content Briefs

02:22 Components of a Good Brief

04:21 Style Guide in Briefs

05:22 Subject Matter Expertise in Briefs

08:14 Additional Elements in Briefs

11:26 The Pitfalls of AI-generated Briefs

15:09 Detailed Briefs for Success

16:55 Briefs for Internal Writing Teams

18:17 The Importance of Introductions in Briefs

Keeping B2B content teams focused on business impact

Ten Speed — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 08:02:00 +0000

In this episode, Nate & Kevin talk about several ways that B2B content teams drift from being aligned with business impact, why it matters, and what marketing leaders can do to resolve these issues.

Key moments in the conversation:

2:40 - Workflows bottlenecked with too many people involved

8:05 - Investment cases being made but not shared

10:55 - B2B content marketing is expected to drive growth

15:45 - Mindset needed to drive growth

22:07 - Creating content on topics your competitors already cover

28:00 - Leverage reporting to drive alignment across the company

Bringing podcasts into 2024's content playbook feat. Alli Tunell

Ten Speed — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 07:00:00 +0000

On this week's episode of Content That Grows, Nate is joined by Alli Tunell, Director of Strategy at Sweet Fish, who talked about her approach to modernizing the content playbook.

In this episode, Alli shares why she believes there is a genuine desire for a change from the old content playbooks, how the team at Sweet Fish uses a podcast-forward approach to lay out the overall content strategy, and how to approach podcast experimentation.

Key moments in the conversation:

5:50 - What's causing people to adapt their content playbooks

9:00 - Talking trend predictions

11:00 - Pushing companies to go beyond the basic interview podcast

13:20 - Approaching podcast experimentation

25:45 - Stop letting AI create your ToFu content

Audience-First Strategies & Company Evangelists Feat. Ramli John

Ten Speed — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Welcome back to this week's episode of the Content That Grows. Nate was joined in the studio by Ramli John of Appcues to discuss using an audience-first approach to your marketing strategy.

In this episode, the two of them go over why audience-first approaches and evangelists can help your company grow effectively, who is doing this well right now, and what your company needs to think about to execute its own version.

Key moments in the conversation:

1:10 - What audience-first means and its advantages
6:30 - The skillset needed to thrive as a company evangelist
11:00 - What companies is this strategy working for?
18:55 - Risks of building around an employee evangelist
23:05 - Your creators need dedicated creation time

Thinking through the authority challenge in SaaS content Feat. Ryan Baum

Ten Speed — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Welcome back to the Content That Grows. This week, Nate spoke with Ryan Baum about his approach to creating content that uses authority to drive added value and trust for readers/viewers.

In this episode, Ryan gives us a first-hand look into why he believes authority is so vital for SaaS content and the ways he's been able to implement it into his strategies. This episode is for people who love getting a front-row seat into how other content marketers are processing the fast-changing digital marketing landscape.

Key moments in the conversation:

3:11 - Ryan's "Aha moment for prioritizing authority in content
6:50 - Different SMEs for different responsibilities and products
16:15 - Understanding authority and trust's impact on the reader
27:50 - Exploring the relationship between trust and authority
41:41 - Having multiple leaders with different goals

Finding marketing wins without competing Feat. Stuart Balcombe

Ten Speed — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Welcome back to another episode of the Content that Grows. This week, Nate sat down with Stuart Balcombe, Head of Growth at Arrows, to talk about finding key wins without competing with how and where everyone else is.

In this episode, they cover how to increase your odds of finding these opportunities, how Arrows found their content-market fit and what that content looks like, and Stuart's least favorite marketing conversation on social media right now.

Key moments in the conversation:

1:20 - What does it mean to find low/no-competition wins?
7:25 - How do you find these low-competition opportunities?
11:40 - Taking a product management approach to find opportunities faster
20:00 - Examples of content that has worked this way for Arrows
34:10 - Stuart's least favorite marketing conversation happening on social

Studying SGE and Having a Plan to Take Advantage of It

Ten Speed — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 07:00:00 +0000

This week marks the 50th episode of the Content That Grows. In it, Kevin and Derek are discussing a topic that's still a moving target: Google's SGE.

In this episode, the two of them discuss what it is, what's changed since Google first announced SGE, and how teams can best prepare for its launch.

Key moments in the conversation:

1:40 - What is SGE and what's it able to do?
6:15 - Why SGE is so challenging to discuss right now?
11:00 - Our responses to SGE opinions floating around the internet
18:30 - How to approach learning to use SGE in your SEO plan
24:21 - Beware the SGE fearmongering consultants

Being Bullish on SEO and Content Feat. Lauren Funaro

Ten Speed — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 16:00:00 +0000

This week, Nate and Lauren Funaro from Scribe sat down to discuss the why and the how behind their investment in SEO and Content this year.

In this conversation, they cover Scribe's decision to get started with an aggressive SEO strategy, what their return has been, how much content they're producing, and how they achieve high volumes with a small team + contractors.

Key moments in the conversation:

0:55 - What convinced Scribe to go all-in on SEO & content
6:10 - How are your different teams convening and finding alignment
10:40 - How Scribe's product informs their content
17:32 - SEO is about answering the question well, not creating a novel
18:33 - What you'll need in place to publish consistently

Are we at the end of content as we know it? Feat. Ronnie Higgins

Ten Speed — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 06:00:00 +0000

In this week's episode, Nate sits down with Ronnie Higgins of OpenPhone for an in-depth conversation about the current state of content marketing.

They cover a range of exciting topics like how Ronnie and OpenPhone have diversified content offerings after building an initial revenue engine, the original speech that coined the term, "Content is King" and the interesting place we're in as an industry as a result of individual creators and media company emulation.

Key moments in the conversation:

2:00 - The end of content marketing as we know it...what does that mean?
9:50 - What the death of B2b content looks like
16:15 - The evolution of content at OpenPhone over the past two years
28:37 - How to talk about investing in new channels with decreased visibility
48:28 - Why the media company conversation is Ronnie's least favorite happening right now

PLG and the Power of Using Interactive Product Demos Feat. Natalie Marcotullio

Ten Speed — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 06:00:00 +0000

Nate is joined by Natalie Marcotullio, Head of Growth and Operations at Navattic, this week to continue a conversation that more and more PLG companies are having: Should we build an interactive product demo?

In this episode, the two of them discuss why this style of demo is so effective, how people are getting them in front of their prospects, and how teams are measuring their impact.

Key moments in the conversation:

1:10 - The obvious & non-obvious impact of interactive demos
4:50 - Ways you get interactive demos in front of people
8:45 - Combining SEO and the use of product demos
13:35 - How are teams measuring the effectiveness of interactive demos
17:45 - Why Natalie joined Navattic after using the product