If you’ve ever sat down to create a content strategy, you probably came face-to-face with a calendar. Empty, numbered squares demanded you fill them with titles for blogs, infographics, videos, presentations, and podcasts.

After hours of bouncing ideas around, you lined up the authors, settled the titles, and most importantly: filled those desperate little squares. You breathe easy, the square-filling-gods accepted your sacrifice… for now.

But why perform this ritual at all? Why do the squares need filling, the posts need publishing, the videos need editing, the titles need crafting?

Too often, brands treat content like a product; a product that requires a release schedule, frequent updates, timely arrivals, and a bevy of requirements. This environment of make-work marketing keeps us busy and checks off ‘necessary’ boxes. But does that content attract new leads? Does it build our brand? Does it do anything other than satisfy our need to feel productive? If you’re reading this, then your answer is probably, ‘I have no clue.’

I want you to stop thinking about content like a product, and start seeing it as a plant; a plant whose seed you bury, water, and grow into part of your brand ecosystem. And just like a real ecosystem, your brand requires a variety of plants to perform different functions: grow food, release oxygen, and support native wildlife.

The functions we need our content plants to perform include attracting new customers, educating leads, and nurturing their relationship with us long after their first purchase. And if plants are content, then this course will teach you to garden.

Okay, enough plant analogies because you’re smart and my analogy is a B- at best. During this course, you will discover a system that helps you create content with a purpose and determine whether your content fulfills its purpose.

I break content strategy down into a marketing funnel where three types of content coexist:

Top-funnel: attracts brand new prospects to your business
Mid-funnel: teaches customers about your brand, products, services, and encourages them to convert to paying customers
And Post-funnel: continuously improves the customer experience and builds their relationship with your brand

At each stage, you will learn to measure the return on your investment for every piece of content by looking to Google Analytics. Along the way, we will focus on how the three elements of the funnel differ between B2B and B2C organizations. For a closer look, we study the content strategy of B2B marketing giant, Mailchimp, and B2C Silicon Valley food-darling, Imperfect Produce.

What Is This Course

An engaging high-level overview of a data-driven content strategy
A brief introduction to Google Analytics, UTM.io, advanced Google search techniques, SEOQuake, and SEMRush
Case studies that help you understand and evaluate content strategies

And For Whom Is This Course

Marketers looking for a data-driven way to improve their content marketing
Small and medium-business owners who want to learn about content marketing and begin incorporating long-lasting, valuable content practices
and grammar nazis

Materials

Slides
- This combined slide deck covers every lesson and includes clickable links
- Free to access forever
Worksheet
- This Google Doc will help you complete the homework and formulate your content plan as you watch the lessons

These materials require a Google Account with access to Google Drive, and both documents are read-only, please make a copy to your personal Google Drive by clicking File > Make a Copy...

Linda Clement

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