PPC Snobs
Ideation for your content topics doesn’t have to be strenuous exercise. The best content (I believe) is built around the organization’s mission, service/product offerings, industry and market topics, and most importantly, the stakeholder and customer funnel.
What kind of content would be useful to stakeholders as they research solutions? What kind of content will help our stakeholders better understand the nature of my business and services?
I planned the content in my lesson plans around several purposes:
The content for my modules were designed using the pillar and cluster approach recommended by HubSpot.
I started with my 4 main pillars: Startup, Discover, Setup & Optimize. Then I wrote 4 cluster pieces to support each of those key topics. If you look through my sitemap, it’s easy to see the logic and storytelling I’m trying to achieve when you look at my overall website structure.
My approach to content structure isn’t very complex either. I literally take an ABC123 approach using a standard template. (If you’re looking for more ways to structure your content, consider reading this blog post template guide from Ahrefs).
What type of content illustrates our professionalism, trustworthiness and results? What type of content highlights the value of our services ? Does it justify why we charge our rates?
How can we educate our stakeholders about changes and trends in our industry and market? What type of content better informs our stakeholders about what we do and how it can improve their lives?
How can stakeholders best get in touch with us? What can we ‘gift’ them in return for reaching out to us?
Module 2.1: Research, we spoke about how to gather critical insights about our business, industry and audiences. The research collected at this stage should provide more than enough information about the keywords that we should include in our headlines and descriptions.
It’s good practice to develop your content strategy, matrix and template with SEO in mind. Every webpage should have a title (60 characters), an H1 tag (80 characters), and a meta description (160 characters). Not only are these important for SEO, we can also repurpose these for later.
Ads on most PPC platforms also require headlines, descriptions, and/or images. Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) are an ad creative format used by Google Ads & Microsoft Ads. RSAs use 15 headlines (30 characters each), 4 descriptions (90 characters each), images and videos. The headlines and descriptions that I develop here can be also used across multiple platforms.
Invest in high quality static and rich media. They will more than pay their return on investment. Think of them like tattoos. Cheap, poor-quality ones last forever and they don’t look good.
Reaching audiences through different platforms, channels and mediums is like speaking different languages. What type of creative asset (i.e. case study, video, webinar, mortgage calculator, pricing guide, demo video) can help best communicate with stakeholders?
People use niche platforms for a reason. The tone and feel is more in-tune with what that audience prefers from a digital experience. So, experiment with a variety of mediums: video, podcast, song, AR/VR, etc… Everyone processes information differently.
Images that highlight brand, product and services are essential. Logos should be the first creative asset investment. Canva is a free design tool where we can develop amazing visual content for our website and ad channel. There are also free stock images from websites like Pexels and Unsplash.
Videos are an absolute must in 2023. You can create a high-quality, whiteboard video. using Doodly that highlight your brand’s mission and objectives. Screen recordings are another great way to go. I use them for service demos, troubleshooting and customer support.