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17 INTERVIEWS FROM TODAY’S
HARDEST-HITTING CONTENT MARKETERS
The philosophies, tools and budget breakdowns that have turned
these digital influencers into successful entrepreneurs
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CONTENT MARKETERS
INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
The philosophies, tools and budget breakdowns that have turned these digital influencers
into successful entrepreneurs
[LOGOS]
THE STATE OF CONTENT MARKETING AND ITS NEW LEADERS
THE STATE OF CONTENT MARKETING AND ITS NEW LEADERS
Inthe
the
fourcontent
years,
content
marketing
In
lastlast
four years,
marketing
has exploded.
has exploded.
Around 2011, marketers caught wind of the power of content to communicate a brand, individual
or organization’s story—the opportunity to produce something of value—and thus came the
onslaught of content marketing how-to’s, tutorials and 101s.
Roughly four years after we have exposed and exploited the process of content marketing, we are
now seeing its evolution.
2
Successful digital influencers today must be more than content marketers whose mission it is to
educate and entertain. They must be exquisite writers. The must have a fine eye for design and
detail. They must be able to read and interpret data, utilize analytics and automation tools, drive
meaningful traffic and conversion. They must be original publishers and socially engaged.
Ultimately, they must be equal parts left and right brain—fueling strategy with creativity and
using evidence to support their creative process.
INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
Around 2011, marketers caught wind of the power of content to communicate a brand, individual or
organization’s story—the opportunity to produce something of value—and thus came the onslaught of
content marketing how-to’s, tutorials and 101s.
Roughly four years after we have exposed and exploited the process of content marketing, we are now
seeing its evolution.
Successful digital influencers today must be more than content marketers whose mission it is to educate
and entertain. They must be exquisite writers. The must have a fine eye for design and detail. They must
be able to read and interpret data, utilize analytics and automation tools, drive meaningful traffic and
conversion. They must be original publishers and socially engaged. Ultimately, they must be equal parts
left and right brain—fueling strategy with creativity and using evidence to support their creative process.
The interviewees included here are just that: Renaissance individuals operating in the Millennial Age.
Former journalists? Check. Search engine wizards? You betcha. Data strategists? But, of course.
Publishers? Naturally. Entrepreneurs concerned not only with the quality of production, but enhancing
the bottom line? They wouldn’t be here if they weren’t.
The 17 top content marketers featured here have turned themselves, their brands and their clients into
companies that own and understand the value of content in a world flooded with its abundance. They
grasp the social landscape where content exists—and they have figured out methods to maneuver
around, engage with and dominate the marketing universe.
In this interview eBook, you will:
.• See names you recognize and companies you respect.
• Learn which tools they are using for email campaigns, automation and distribution.
• Find out how top content marketers are investing in their marketing budgets.
Perhaps more importantly, you will learn about the people behind the strategy—the paths that shaped
who they are as content marketers today and where they look for inspiration to develop the innovative
processes that have made them successful entrepreneurs.
Meet the rebels, shapeshifters and heros of the digital marketing world.
Erin C. Nelson
Director of Content, GSMI
[email protected]
@erincnelson | @SMS_summit | @GSMIonline
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Table of Contents
Allen Gannett, Trackmaven................................................................................................... 6
Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media .............................................................................................8
Ann Handley, Marketing Profs.............................................................................................. 11
Ash Ambirge, The Middle Finger Project ...................................................................... 13
Brian Dean, Backlinko ........................................................................................................... 15
Brian Honigman, Honigman Media .................................................................................. 17
Doug Kessler, Velocity Partners ........................................................................................ 19
Jason Miller, LinkedIn ............................................................................................................ 21
Joe Pulizzi, Content Marketing Institute ....................................................................... 23
Lee Odden, Top Rank Marketing ..................................................................................... 25
Lisa Barone, Overit................................................................................................................. 28
Michael Brenner, Newscred ................................................................................................ 31
Mike Popowski, Dagger ....................................................................................................... 33
Nathan Ellering, CoSchedule ............................................................................................. 36
Ryan Deiss, Digital Marketer ............................................................................................. 39
Sam Slaughter, Contently .................................................................................................... 41
Sonia Simone, Copyblogger ..............................................................................................44
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THE INTERVIEWS
INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
ALLEN GANNETT
Allen Gannett is the Chief Maven and Founder of TrackMaven,
a platform that lets marketers track, and benchmark against, their
competitors’ digital marketing. With clients including Marketo,
Martha Stewart Living, Omnimedia, the NBA, and more, TrackMaven
helps the world’s best marketers create more effective content.
He also serves as a General Partner at Acceleprise Ventures,
where he invests in early-stage SaaS companies. [@Allen]
“Visual storytelling is a great way to
learn how to weave narratives.”
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
Name: Allen Gannett
ALLEN GANNETT
Company: TrackMaven
Role: CEO and Chief Maven
What you did before Trackmaven: CMO of EmployInsight
Your most valuable asset: Real-time content intelligence.
Number of people on your team: 80
Content philosophy: Content needs to be data-driven, engaging, and a little bit silly.
Most killer piece you’ve produced: Content Marketing Paradox
People describe your writing/marketing style as: Informative yet amusing :)
Something your coworkers don’t know about you: My grade school drama career
peaked in playing the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz.
Platforms you use to leverage content: TrackMaven (of course!), Marketo, Percolate,
and Bizo.
Facebook or Twitter: Twitter
How you tame the analytics beast (how you measure success): We look at relative
engagement to our past performance and our competitors.
Automation/email tools: We use Marketo and FlipTop.
Thoughts on retargeting: We do significant amount of retargeting through tools like
Bizo and standard Google DoubleClick.
Where you put your billz in content strategy (budget priorities): Content quality and
design.
When you wake up in the morning you read: Blogs about DC (where TrackMaven is
based and where I live), it’s the content that is most relevant to my life.
Mentor: I have a lot of people I look to for advice, luckily quite a few are on our board
including Joe Payne (former CEO of Eloqua), Chuck Ghoorah (co-founder of Cvent),
and some on our advisory board like Dan Yates (CEO of Opower).
App you cannot live without: Kindle App for iOS
Best content master in the game: Joe Chernov
Where you go to seek inspiration: Documentaries! Visual storytelling is a great way
to learn how to weave narratives and understand what works and what doesn’t work.
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
ANDY CRESTODINA
Andy Crestodina is a co-founder of Orbit Media, an award winning,
35-person web design company in Chicago. Over the past 15 years,
Andy has provided web strategy advice to 1000+ businesses.
He has written hundreds of articles on topics including search
optimization, social media and analytics. He is also the author of
Content Chemistry: The Illustrated Handbook for Content Marketing.
[@crestodina]
“The best teacher wins at content
marketing. Every. Single. Time.”
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
Name: Andy Crestodina
Company: Orbit Media Studios, Inc.
Role: Co-Founder/Strategic Director
What you did before Orbit Media: I was an IT recruiter. But that was a long time ago.
I’ve been in the digital marketing and web design space for the last 15 years.
Your most valuable asset: My team. No question. The people around you give you
superpowers. I am amazed and empowered by them every day.
Number of people on your team: 38
Content philosophy: Make the best page on the internet for whatever topic you’re writing about.
Go deep. Quality is more important than quantity.
Most killer piece you’ve produced: I once researched and wrote a post about the ideal length
for everything in marketing, from tweets to domain names, from subject lines to title tags.
I was the first to publish this and it’s been copied many times since by many famous blogs.
It was frustrating to see other sites spin my article, but all is fair in love and content. The version
on the Buffer blog was the most shared marketing article of 2014. After that, the book Content
Chemistry is my next most killer piece of content. It’s a complete, illustrated handbook for
content marketing.
People describe your writing/marketing style as: Educational. Our goal is to out-teach
everyone else in our industry. This is how you win the links (for search rankings), subscribes
(for email) and the follows (for social media) The best teacher wins at content marketing.
Every. Single. Time.
Something your coworkers don’t know about you: They know pretty much everything about
me. But a lot of people don’t know this: I make paper mache dragons in my free time. They’re
pretty detailed.
Platforms you use to leverage content: I publish my best stuff on my own blog, but I still write
for other sites sometimes. Last year, I did a guest blogging world tour and wrote for all of
the top marketing sites. It was a lot of fun. But I’ve slowed down a bit and my own site and
newsletter is now my main platform. I still speak at a lot of the big marketing conferences.
I don’t love to travel, but it’s great to see my online friends face-to-face. For online platforms,
I use LinkedIn a lot, but I don’t post there first. For me, it’s a place to repost things. And no,
I’m not afraid of duplicate content. It’s mostly a myth!
Facebook or Twitter: Twitter. I hardly ever use Faceworld anymore.
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How you tame the analytics beast (how you measure success): I measure the big picture
trends, but also the performance of specific posts. There are ways to measure the conversion
rate for every one of your blog posts if you know how (instructions here). The best way to use
Analytics is as a decision support tool. Ask a question and use Analytics to find the answer.
Create a hypothesis and use Analytics to test it. Analytics is for analysis, not just reporting!
INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
Automation/email tools: We use Express Pigeon for email delivery and reporting.
Believe it or not, we don’t use marketing automation. But I do use several other tools
on a regular basis: MOZ, SEMrush, Meet Edgar.
Thoughts on retargeting: The companies that do it well are seeing strong ROI. I’m a content
marketer so I don’t do a lot of spending on traffic, but I hear very good things. Along with
Google PPC and social ads, it seems to be one of the best advertising channels available.
Where you put your billz in content strategy (budget priorities): Live events are one of our
bigger budget expenses. We invest in our own events, some of which are paid and generate a
small amount of revenue, others have a cost to produce. We also budget for event registration
and travel for some of the big conferences, which we view as a marketing expense. As I said
early, face-to-face interaction has the highest value! Even if it’s offline, we consider these to
be content marketing activities.
When you wake up in the morning you read: Quora and Feedly. Feedly is loaded with several
dozen marketing blogs, including Content Marketing Institute, Social Media Examiner, Spin Sucks,
Businesses Grow and Boost Blog Traffic.
Mentor: I’ve learned so much from so many marketers. Two of my favorites are Ann Handley
and Sonia Simone. I’m also a big fan of Avinash Kaushik, Mark Schaefer and a lot of lesser known,
but heroic marketers. I could give you a very long list!
App you cannot live without: Aside from the usual social media and productivity apps, I use the
Google Analytics app almost every day. It’s a useful way to check traffic levels from anywhere
and see what’s getting traction on the blog. I’m obviously an Analytics geek!
Best content master in the game: For content creation, Barry Feldman. For content promotion,
Brian Dean.
Where you go to seek inspiration: Most of my ideas come from in-person conversations
with clients and prospects. Listening to them, I hear first hand what the top concerns are for
marketers. Talking to them, I learn what messages and topics connect and which don’t. I also
get a lot of inspiration in my inbox. Not just from newsletters, but in questions from my network.
When people ask me something and I answer it, the email response was a seed for content. I can
expand on that email and write a post, knowing that the topic is important to my network and
the tone is personal and direct. Your “sent mail” folder is filled with content. Get that stuff out
of there and onto your website!
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
ANN HANDLEY
Ann Handley is a veteran in creating and managing digital content to
build relationships for organizations and individuals. She is the Chief
Content Officer of MarketingProfs, a columnist for Entrepreneur
magazine, a LinkedIn Influencer, a keynote speaker, mom, and writer.
[@MarketingProfs]
“We don’t need more mediocre content.
We need better content.”
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
Name: My byline says Ann Handley.
My license says Ann Margaret Handley.
Company: MarketingProfs
Role: Chief Content Officer
What you did before MarketingProfs: I was the Chief Content Officer and co-founder of ClickZ. Before
that, I was a journalist and editor. Before that, I was publishing newsletters in my neighborhood and
delivering them on my bike. Before that, I was a baby.
Your most valuable asset: My ability to not take things too seriously. (Except when I do.)
Number of people on your team: Oh jeez. I hate math... but let’s see... roughly 45. That’s the whole
company. Because we’re all in this together.
Content philosophy: We don’t need more mediocre content. We need better content.
Most killer piece you’ve produced: Everybody Writes. My heart and soul are in that book.
People describe your writing/marketing style as: Fun but substantive. Accessible but sophisticated.
Or so I like to think. (Maybe you should ask them?)
Something your coworkers don’t know about you: I just asked my daughter this question. She yelled
back from the other room, “You aren’t as funny as you think you are.” But I’m pretty sure my colleagues
already know that. I’m pretty transparent on social media—so I can’t say there is much that co-workers
(or anyone who follows me, really) wouldn’t know about me.
Platforms you use to leverage content: All of them.
Facebook or Twitter: I like them both for different reasons. I went through a period where I hated
Facebook. But now I enjoy the excellent curation: the way my friends surface interesting things for me.
And I enjoy staying connected with extended family, too. Twitter I still have faith in as a social platform,
even if others think it’s dead. I disagree with that notion.
How you tame the analytics beast (how you measure success): I can answer this in two ways: 1) From a
business POV, by tracking actual leads and sales, and not just vanity metrics like Likes and Follows and
2) from a personal POV, not getting too hung up on analytics. I don’t look to any analytics to tell me how
successful a piece of my own content or writing is, or how well a presentation or speech went. That’s
something I know ultimately only in my heart.
Thoughts on retargeting: It’s a bit creepy, isn’t it? Having offers follow you around? But it works.
(Or it has for us at MarketingProfs.)
Where you put your billz in content strategy (budget priorities): Hiring great writers and designers first.
When you wake up in the morning you read: Instagram, Twitter, Email, newsfeeds. In that order.
Mentor: Dick Powers. I wrote about his affect on my career recently on LinkedIn.
App you cannot live without: I can live without any app. But would I live as well? I love Instagram.
But I really love Snapchat. It’s more of a parenting tool for me than anything, because it gives me unique,
immediate access to my kids in a way that’s real (and not curated for a more public platform).
Best content master in the game: No one does video better than Cisco’s Tim Washer.
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Where you go to seek inspiration: My favorite beach in Maine.
INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
ASH AMBIRGE
Ash Ambirge is the foul-mouthed, no nonsense (yet, incredibly poised
and resilient) founder of The Middle Finger Project. [@TMFproject]
“Be opinionated. People are reading your
writing to find out what you think.”
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
Name: Ash Ambirge
Company: House of Moxie, Inc. & The Middle Finger Project
Role: CEO & Founder
What you did before The Middle Finger Project: Magazine advertising sales for print & online.
Your most valuable asset: My blog! 100%
Number of people on your team: After growing a small copywriting agency, I decided I didn’t
like managing people...and have since scaled all the way back down to just one!
Content philosophy: Be opinionated. People are reading your writing to find out what you think.
Most killer piece you’ve produced: The 67 Emotions of Online Success - hands down.
People describe your writing/marketing style as: Irreverent. I also get a lot of compliments on
my voice, and am often told that I help people find theirs. That makes me happy as hell.
Something your coworkers don’t know about you: I secretly hate meetings and appointments.
My creativity thrives on unstructured time, and when I start putting lots of appointments on my
calendar, I get incredibly stifled! I only schedule a maximum of two per day.
Platforms you use to leverage content: I really just write—all of my success has been, very
fortunately, organic. I’m lucky in that way!
Facebook or Twitter: Twitter! There’s something about 140 characters that keeps things short
and sweet and manageable :)
How you tame the analytics beast (how you measure success): My business is about happiness
for me, so if I’m feeling pissy, overwhelmed, and resentful, then I’m failing. I might be making a
lot of money, but if I can’t enjoy it, what’s the point?
Automation/email tools: Aweber all the way.
Thoughts on retargeting: Awesome. I like a personalized experience. The more personalized,
the better.
Where you put your billz in content strategy (budget priorities): Brave voices. Overwhelm
is happening more and more—especially as folks run around trying to be more and more and
more useful. We’re going to start drowning in content, and the only content that’s going to keep
standing out? Isn’t the most useful (that will become a commodity), but the most engaging.
When you wake up in the morning you read: Actually, I write! I’m writing a book every
morning from 5am to 8am. However, once I’m done with that, I hop online to Buffer to check
out their article suggestions of the day. Unfortunately they’re phasing that out, but they still have
a “feed” area where you can add blogs you like, similar to Feedly, and then share those articles
on a schedule, if you wish.
Mentor: My team of intellectual property lawyers. They’re brilliant.
App you cannot live without: Trello, for sure. Scrivener. EVERNOTEEEE! Oh yes, Evernote.
Best content master in the game: Buffer! These guys are killing it with their blog.
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Where you go to seek inspiration: Comedy writers—especially from the past. One of my favorite
is Erma Bombeck. It’s funny how some things never change, even when everything’s changed.
INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
BRIAN DEAN
Brian Dean is the founder of Backlinko. [@Backlinko]
“The one metric that matters: emails.”
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
Name: Brian Dean
Company: Backlinko
Role: Founder
What you did before Backlinko: Freelance SEO/affiliate marketer.
Your most valuable asset: My email list.
Number of people on your team: Me and 3 freelancers.
Content philosophy: #1 or I don’t bother.
Most killer piece you’ve produced: Keyword Research: The Definitive Guide
People describe your writing/marketing style as: Actionable.
Something your coworkers don’t know about you: What coworkers?
Platforms you use to leverage content: Email
Facebook or Twitter: Twitter
How you tame the analytics beast (how you measure success): The one metric that
matters (emails).
Automation/email tools: Aweber
Thoughts on retargeting: Amazing
Where you put your billz in content strategy (budget priorities): Design
When you wake up in the morning you read: The content I’m working on
Mentor: Neil Patel
App you cannot live without: SecondsPro
Best content master in the game: Neil Patel
Where you go to seek inspiration: Outside
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
BRIAN HONIGMAN
Brian Honigman is the CEO of Honigman Media, a content marketing
consultancy that provides strategy on content distribution and
production. As a content marketing and social media consultant,
Brian is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Forbes,
Entrepreneur and other noteworthy publications. He is a frequent
professional speaker at industry conferences and has spoken at
UNICEF, NYU, HuffPost Live (among others). [@BrianHonigman]
“Be generous, earn the right to promote.”
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
Name: Brian Honigman
Company: Honigman Media
Role: CEO
What you did before Honigman Media: Digital Marketing Director
at Marc Ecko Enterprises
Number of people on your team: 3
Content philosophy: Be generous, earn the right to promote.
Most killer piece you’ve produced: One piece of content that received positive feedback
was my article titled The Authorship Question arguing the case that companies should
give over the byline to individual creators. Clients still bring this piece up.
People describe your writing/marketing style as: Straightforward, practical
and informative.
Something your coworkers don’t know about you: I’m a drag queen enthusiast.
Platforms you use to leverage content: Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook
Facebook or Twitter: Twitter
How you tame the analytics beast (how you measure success): Using simple tagging
and attribution to pinpoint where leads came from whether from content or otherwise.
Automation/email tools: Mailchimp, Buffer
Thoughts on retargeting: Can be good, but practice moderation to avoid being
overbearing.
Where you put your billz in content strategy (budget priorities): Blogging and my
email newsletter.
When you wake up in the morning you read: Kissmetrics, 37signals blog, Mashable
Mentor: Dorie Clark
App you cannot live without: Twitter
Best content master in the game: Neil Patel
Where you go to seek inspiration: Pinterest
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
DOUG KESSLER
Doug Kessler is co-founder and creative director of Velocity Partners,
the London-based B2B content marketing agency. Doug has written
a lot about content marketing including the B2B Marketing Manifesto,
the B2B Content Strategy Checklist and Crap: Why the Biggest Threat
to Content Marketing is Content Marketing. [@dougkessler]
“Revenue is the mother of all metrics.”
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
DOUG KESSLER
Name: Doug Kessler
Company: Velocity
Role: Co-founder, creative director
What you did before Velocity: I was a freelance copywriter for years. Worked from
home. Hung with my daughters as they grew up.
Your most valuable asset: My short attention span or maybe my...
Number of people on your team: 38
Content philosophy: Empathy, surprise, generosity, confidence, fun.
Most killer piece you’ve produced: Crap: Why the Biggest Threat to Content Marketing
is Content Marketing (over a million views!).
People describe your writing/marketing style as: Potty-mouthed.
Something your coworkers don’t know about you: I’m wearing women’s underwear.
Platforms you use to leverage content: Twitter, LinkedIn, email, Marketo, Google
Analytics, WordPress
Facebook or Twitter: Twitter
How you tame the analytics beast (how you measure success): Revenue is the mother
of all metrics. Shares are an early indicator.
Automation/email tools: Marketo (clients use all different ones but Marketo seems most
popular).
Thoughts on retargeting: Annoying if done badly. Slightly off-putting if done well.
Where you put your billz in content strategy (budget priorities): The best writers,
researchers, designers and producers money can buy.
When you wake up in the morning you read: The Guardian
Mentor: My mother and father (before he died)
App you cannot live without: Evernote
Best content master in the game: Oooh. Tough one. Handley. Chernov. Pulizzi. Simone.
Halvorson. Rose. Sheridan. Baer. Davis. Brenner. Clark. Ambirge.
Where you go to seek inspiration: Novels (Nabokov, Foster-Wallace, Ford, Updike,
Roth…)
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
JASON MILLER
Jason Miller is the Senior Content Marketing Manager at Linkedin leading the
content marketing and social media strategy for LinkedIn Marketing Solutions.
Previously he was the Senior Manager, Social Media Strategy at Marketo. He led
the company’s social media efforts by increasing engagement, optimizing for
lead generation, and driving revenue. He also played a key role in developing
Marketo’s content strategy by developing many of the top performing
resources and most viral visual content pieces. Before Marketo, Jason spent
more than ten years at Sony Music entertainment developing and executing
marketing campaigns around the biggest names in music.
When he is not building campaigns, creating remarkable content, and tracking
the ROI of social, he is winning awards as a concert photographer, singing 80’s
metal Karaoke, and winning at Seinfeld trivia. [@JasonMillerCA]
“[My writing style is] Axl Rose crossed with Jerry Seinfeld.”
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
JASON MILLER
Name: Jason Miller
Company: LinkedIn
Role: Senior Content Marketing Manager
What you did before LinkedIn: Social and Content at Marketo, Sony Music before that
for 12 years.
Your most valuable asset: My vast knowledge of rock n roll and pop culture.
Number of people on your team: 4
Content philosophy: Not more content, more relevant content.
Most killer piece you’ve produced: The Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide to LinkedIn
People describe your writing/marketing style as: Axl Rose crossed with Jerry Seinfeld.
Something your coworkers don’t know about you: I went to the opening night of Celine
Dion’s residency at Caesars Palace.
Platforms you use to leverage content: LinkedIn, Salesforce, Curata, Kapost, Eloqua and
Google Analytics
Facebook or Twitter: LinkedIn
How you tame the analytics beast (how you measure success): With the right tools (see
above) I measure everything, well almost everything. I’ve learned that there will always
be a serendipitous element to marketing that can never be measured. But that’s a small
percentage anyway.
Automation/email tools: Eloqua (but prefer Marketo because of my roots).
Thoughts on retargeting: Necessary.
Where you put your billz in content strategy (budget priorities): Big Rock Content.
When you wake up in the morning you read: A custom feed of my favorite 25 blogs
synced beautifully into my Pulse app.
Mentor: My wife, Maria Pergolino, Ann Handley, and Ekaterina Walter
App you cannot live without: One Note, LinkedIn, Spotify
Best content master in the game: Ann Handley
Where you go to seek inspiration: Heavy Metal
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
JOE PULIZZI
Joe Pulizzi is founder of Content Marketing Institute, the leading
education and training organization for content marketing, which
includes the largest in-person content marketing event in the world,
Content Marketing World. Joe is the winner of the 2014 John Caldwell
Lifetime Achievement Award from the Content Council. His third
book, Epic Content Marketing, was named one of “Five Must Read
Business Books of 2013” by Fortune Magazine. If you see Joe in
person, he’ll be wearing orange. [@JoePulizzi]
“Become the leading expert in the world
in a niche and be the
indispensable informational provider.”
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
JOE PULIZZI
Name: Joe Pulizzi
Company: Content Marketing Institute
Role: Founder
What you did before CMI: Ran custom media at Penton Custom Media, then launched
two startups, Junta42 and SocialTract, before CMI was founded.
Your most valuable asset: Besides my family, our email subscriber database.
Number of people on your team: 28
Content philosophy: Become the leading expert in the world in a niche and be the
indispensable informational provider.
Most killer piece you’ve produced: So many, but probably the book, Epic Content
Marketing and the event, Content Marketing World.
People describe your writing/marketing style as: Helpful.
Something your coworkers don’t know about you: I come from a family of funeral
directors.
Platforms you use to leverage content: The blog, our podcasts, Twitter, Linkedin
and SlideShare.
Facebook or Twitter: Twitter
How you tame the analytics beast (how you measure success): Acquiring and retaining
subscribers. We show ROI by determining what subscribers do different from nonsubscribers.
Automation/email tools: Act-on.
Thoughts on retargeting: Can be useful if the retargeting offer is a valuable piece
of content.
When you wake up in the morning, you read: My goals for the next month/year.
Mentor: Jim McDermott, my former boss at Penton Media.
App you cannot live without: Bodyweight (for my exercise program)
Best content master in the game: Jay Baer/Brian Clark
Where you go to seek inspiration: Seth Godin/Napoleon Hill
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
LEE ODDEN
Lee Odden is the CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, a Minneapolisbased digital marketing agency specializing in strategic internet
marketing consulting services. As an active thought leader in the
digital marketing and public relations industry, he’s contributed to
numerous industry publications and publishes one of the most
popular marketing blogs on the web, TopRank’s blog. [@leeodden]
“Tap the collective wisdom
of your community.”
www.socialmediastrategiessummit.com ° #SMSsummit
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
LEE ODDEN
Name: Lee Odden
Company: TopRank Online Marketing
Role: CEO
What you did before TopRank Marketing: I don’t think I can remember back that far :) From
1996 to 2001 I worked at an online marketing company that provided web site development
and web marketing services. That is where I cut my teeth on a wide variety of technologies
and tactics from SEO and helping companies go digital in their marketing to hosting and web
development with thousands of websites. We developed one of the first online grocery shopping
platforms in the late 1990’s, as well as the syndication of content across entire networks of
websites.
Your most valuable asset: Curiosity and an insatiable desire to learn more every day. From a
business perspective, my team. From my business partner and our President, Susan Misukanis,
to our Operations Coordinator, Shaya Clark—the collective effort of our team is what makes our
agency capable of performing like a company multiple times our size.
Number of people on your team: Just under 30.
Content philosophy: Content creation challenges marketers with information overload and
requires a new way of thinking about content. The way forward is less about content creation
silos within marketing departments, and more towards the democratization of content creation
through participation with internal and external audiences. As I like to say, “If you want your
content to be great, inspire your community to participate!” I believe everyone (influencers,
employees, customers, community, peers, media) is influential about something and has an
interest in sharing their knowledge. Content co-creation with your constituent audiences
connects brands with influencers and helps subject matter experts become influential. Tapping
the collective wisdom of your community to help create the very content your brand will use in
marketing to them is a powerful thing. I think we’ll see a lot more (good and bad) influencer
marketing and content co-creation in 2016. Rather than gimmicks or passing trends related to
SEO, social media or content or influencer marketing, my philosophy is to co-create content with
relevant audiences to create and maintain relationships for mutual benefit that leads to success
for all involved.
Most killer piece you’ve produced: I’m glad you asked! TopRank Marketing literally won the
Killer Content Marketing award from Demand Gen Report for a content marketing program
we implemented for Content Marketing Institute to promote the Content Marketing World
conference.
People describe your writing/marketing style as: Give to get—create value and educate readers
with info-taining content.
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
Platforms you use to leverage content: Many! Content hosting and management tools, SEO
tools, influencer marketing tools, social media tools, distribution tools, monitoring, analytics and
conversion optimization tools.
Facebook or Twitter: Facebook for personal. Twitter for professional.
How you tame the analytics beast (how you measure success): My business goals center
around client success, agency brand and thought leadership. Also, community, customer acquisition, retention, recruiting and overall business growth. Content moves us towards reaching these
goals. Ultimately, our content serves to make TopRank Marketing “the best answer” wherever
prospects, candidates for hire, customers and industry media might be looking. From there, our
content is held accountable for attracting, engaging and inspiring action towards satisfying the
mutual target audience and agency goals. There are a host of KPIs that go along with that
including reach, engagement, and conversion.
Automation/email tools: Mailchimp, Soon, HubSpot.
Thoughts on retargeting: Creepy. Effective.
Where you put your billz in content strategy (budget priorities): Humans make content
magical, so I invest the most in people.
When you wake up in the morning you read: Email. Then social news feeds.
Mentor: I’ve never really had a mentor. I’d say curiosity, testing and experimenting along with a
continuous effort to iterate and improve have taught me more than any one person has.
App you cannot live without: It’s a tie between Buffer and BuzzSumo.
Best content master in the game: My content marketing team at TopRank Marketing has
provided content marketing services to companies like Dell and LinkedIn as well as Content
Marketing Institute, MarketingProfs and Copyblogger, so I’d say they rank pretty high in the
content marketing game.
Where you go to seek inspiration: North Shore of Oahu—Haleiwa.
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
LISA BARONE
Lisa Barone is the Vice President of Strategy at Overit, overseeing the
SEO, PPC, social media, public relations and social media divisions of
the company. [@LisaBarone]
“You don’t know the value of something
until you’ve had to fight for it.”
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
LISA BARONE
Name: Lisa Barone
Company: Overit
Role: VP of Strategy
What you did before Overit: Before Overit, I co-founded and co-owned a SEO agency, which I
enjoyed for a long time. That gave me a really good foundation in not only creating something
from scratch, but learning to establish a voice and a brand to build a successful product. I’ve
since been able to use those skills at Overit, helping a variety of clients—from startups to large
brands—better establish themselves on the web and create new brands and products.
Your most valuable asset: My voice. Which is interesting because five years ago, that’s probably
the last thing I would have told you (I’m a severe stutterer), but I think my voice and my attachment to voice has made me a dangerous marketer. You don’t know the value of something until
you’ve had to fight for it, and that really separates me from others out there. I know how to use
voice to be heard and to earn an audience.
Number of people on your team: There are 6 people on my direct team; however, Overit is a
team of about 30.
Content philosophy: Write stuff that matters. There’s SO much content being produced every
day. It’s impossible to keep up with it. To stand out, you need to be creating content (words,
videos, applications, websites) that does something and that matters. That might mean taking
hard stands when you need to, or making a habit out of being supremely helpful or supremely
unfiltered. The specifics will be different for everyone, but aiming to create something that
matters is pretty important.
Most killer piece you’ve produced: Man, there’s been a lot of content produced over the years.
I think my TEDxAlbany talk is one of the content pieces I’m most proud of it. It delivered an
important message about the benefit of being weird, and it also provided me an opportunity
to be vulnerable in a way that maybe I’m usually not with my marketing peers.
People describe your marketing/business style as: …direct.
Platforms you use to leverage content: Wordpress, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mailchimp
How you tame the analytics beast (how you measure success): All of the content I produce,
whether for Overit or for clients, has some sort of “measurement.” There’s something we’re
trying to accomplish and we’re able to tie business goals to analytics goals to get that
measurement. Those goals can fluctuate, of course. When it comes to what tools I use to
measure that success—I really like the ease of Megalytic.
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
Automation/email tools: We’re pretty hot and heavy into this at Overit right now. We’re still
seeing how far we can go with Mailchimp for email. When it comes to automation, we like
playing with Ontraport, InfusionSoft and Marketo.
Thoughts on retargeting: Do it and do it often. ;)
Where you put your billz in content strategy (budget priorities): Ordered by priority –
Strategy, promotion, creation.
When you wake up in the morning, you read: Twitter. I’m embarrassed to say this is where
I get a lot of my news from—whether that’s world news or marketing news.
Mentor: Dan Dinsmore. Dan is my boss at Overit, and he’s someone I would follow into a fire if he
asked me to (and he does sometimes). I’m coming up on my three-year anniversary at Overit and
Dan is someone who has really taught me a lot about business and people and the importance
of process. I came to Overit with certain skills in marketing, but watching and learning from Dan
has helped me to evolve into a much more thoughtful marketer, and I’m very grateful for that.
App you cannot live without: I hope there is never a day when I cannot live without an app.
Best content master in the game: I have a huge Ann Handley #girlcrush, but who doesn’t?
Where you go to seek inspiration: Outside. As marketers, we spend a lot of time indoors
looking at screens. I’m not sure that’s really helping us in our lives, or to be more creative or
better at what we do. When I’m seeking inspiration, I go outside. Whether that’s for a walk,
for a lap in the kayak or just sitting on my back deck, it doesn’t really matter. Simply getting
away from the screens and the constant noise slows my brain down to a better place.
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
MICHAEL BRENNER
Michael Brenner is a marketing speaker, author of the B2B Marketing
Insider blog, and a frequent contributor top business publications. As
the Head of Strategy for NewsCred and former VP of Content Marketing
from SAP, Michael is recognized as a top business, content, and social
media marketer. [@BrennerMichael]
“Build the content machine first.”
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
MICHAEL BRENNER
Name: Michael Brenner
Company: NewsCred
Role: Head of Strategy
What you did before SAP/Newscred: I was the CMO for two startups and before that spent 9
years in sales and then marketing at Nielsen.
Your most valuable asset: My family
Number of people on your team: 4
Content philosophy: Help your customers and you will help your business.
Most killer piece you’ve produced: 99 Facts On The Future of Business [Slideshare] while at
SAP, and 20 Amazing Branded Content Marketing Hubs [Slideshare] last year.
People describe your writing/marketing style as: Helpful.
Platforms you use to leverage content: My blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook
How you tame the analytics beast (how you measure success): Subscribers!
Automation/email tools: Triberr, Revive Old Post, Buffer
Thoughts on retargeting: If you have the money for ads, this is the way to do it.
Where you put your billz in content strategy (budget priorities): Creation, Distribution, Visual.
What I mean is, build the content machine first. Focus on the ability to source, create and publish
high-quality content at scale. Then measure what works on put paid distribution behind the winners. Finally, you have to budget for visual content. It’s a huge and fast growing segment whether it’s slideshares, images or video, you have to get visual.
When you wake up in the morning, you read: The Skimm, of course.
Mentor: Joe Pulizzi and Ann Handley are my heroes and have been for some time both for different reasons. But they are both wildly successful, are extremely creative and really amazing
people. I sort of have a “No a$$holes” rule in my life.
App you cannot live without: BuzzSumo
Best content master in the game: Jeff Bullas, Kevan Lee, Neil Patel
Where you go to seek inspiration: Fast Company is the only magazine I enjoy paying for.
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
MIKE POPOWSKI
A proven client service and team leader, Mike Popowski has had success
in building campaigns and activations for the world’s biggest brands
across a variety of industries. Today, he’s focused on driving the
company’s vision, culture and growth at Dagger.
“Value is driven by scarcity and there’s
abundance of content now.”
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
MIKE POPOWSKI
Name: Mike Popowski
Company: Dagger
Role: CEO
What you did before Dagger: I was leading one of TBWA/Chiat/Day’s largest global accounts
(GSK) out of their New York office. I moved back to Atlanta (this is my second time living here)
in late March and started the new role on April Fool’s Day this year.
Your most valuable asset: Personally: my son; professionally: my team.
Number of people on your team: Eight and growing.
Content philosophy: Value is driven by scarcity and there’s abundance of content now.
So, content needs to work extra hard to be valuable. If a brand’s content doesn’t add value to
the consumer on his/her terms, said brand is fighting an uphill battle.
Most killer piece you’ve produced: In 2011, my team worked alongside Visually to produce an
Infographic for Cisco (before Infographics became passé). We published it on Cisco’s blog that
had a nice following and did some outreach — no paid. The piece took off and went viral to a
global audience. When all was said and done, we estimated the piece earned more than $500k
in media. It cost us less than $10k all-in to produce.
People describe your writing/marketing style as: From a communication perspective, I like my
presentations to be clean, simple and visual. I’m also direct. And I use the F-word too much.
Something your coworkers don’t know about you: Not many people know this one: I have no
idea how to dive (into the water).
Platforms you use to leverage content: I literally published my first Medium post today. For the
foreseeable future, I think Medium will be a go to platform for reading and publishing thought
leadership.
Facebook or Twitter: Snapchat
How you tame the analytics beast (how you measure success): For us, it’s all about
engagement. We try to hang most of our client’s KPI’s off engagement, particularly our social
KPI’s. Brands can buy impressions and clicks all-day long, but when their content is shared
(we think that’s the supreme form of engagement) then we can draw a lot of impact from that.
Engagement leads to sales, it leads to a better experience with the brand, it increases traffic
from inbound…the list goes on.
Automation/email tools: I like Hubspot lately, I’m headed to their Inbound conference in Boston
next month. I’ve also got coffee tomorrow morning with the CEO of Brightwave and I hear he’s a
nice guy, so I’ll probably be a fan after that.
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
Thoughts on retargeting: Retargeting is based on your past behaviors. I think a more interesting proposition is “pre-targeting.” In other words, if I am served an ad or piece of content before
I know I might want the product/service—then that’s valuable. Retargeting is not a very valuable
proposition for me as a consumer.
Where you put your billz in content strategy (budget priorities): We’re moving in the video
direction quickly. According to Cisco, mobile video will increase 13-fold between 2014 and 2019,
accounting for 72 percent of total mobile data traffic by 2019. That’s staggering. If you’re not
thinking about video right now, you’re behind.
When you wake up in the morning you read: These days I turn my phone on airplane mode
at 11pm to completely shut out the world. So when I flip it back on in the morning, I’m usually
reading text and emails that came through between 11pm and 7:30am. It’s not a great habit
because I end up back in the grind immediately… I’m working on it.
Mentor: I’ve had a few throughout my life. I basically have an amalgamation of mentors, most
of whom I haven’t even met. There are so many in-depth talks and interviews with great media,
tech and business minds that I end up pulling advice from a lot of different (public) sources.
App you cannot live without: Traffic sucks in Atlanta, so I’d go with Waze. In New York, I was
moderately obsessed with Seamless.
Best content master in the game: I have go with Gary Vaynerchuk. The dude has been a
one-man content marketing machine for years. He built a big personal brand, grew his family
business and now is growing his agency in New York. He’s done it all by putting out valuable,
engaging content.
Where you go to seek inspiration: Right now, it’s Vermont. I grew up there and moved back
there for a bit as an adult. I end up visiting often and it’s a nice escape from the daily grind.
I always end up getting clarity and having some breakthrough idea while I’m there. I think
stepping away is very important.
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
NATHAN ELLERING
As the Content Marketing Lead for CoSchedule, Nathan Ellering is a
content marketing enthusiast, brand advocate, and blogger. He loves
new ideas, strategy, and continually learning how to work more
efficiently. [@njellering]
“Understand what you want to happen
before you start doing it.”
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
NATHAN ELLERING
Name: Nathan Ellering
Company: CoSchedule
Role: Content Marketing Lead
What you did before CoSchedule: I worked in content marketing at a big corporate company.
It’s nice to be on a smaller, more intimate team at CoSchedule.
Your most valuable asset: Our team. The team is what makes an awesome tool like CoSchedule
easy to market. If I didn’t believe in the product and what our developers are capable of, it would
be much harder to do what I do. Our customer success team is great, too, and I obviously love
the marketers. We have this natural, nimble way to execute our projects super quickly, which is
really fun and great for growth.
Number of people on your team: I think we’re up to 10 now with several interns running around.
Content philosophy: It all starts with a goal. We may not have a documented content marketing
strategy per se, but, every project we take on must contribute to our goals or we don’t do
it. Those goals are increasing traffic, turning traffic into email subscribers, and growing our customer base. We consistently publish blog posts twice a week, then use our remaining time to
test other methods to understand what will best help us achieve those goals. It’s part of our
process to just have an idea, a theory of what to expect, then executing and measuring. We’re
always ready to try something new because if we don’t innovate, we’re becoming outdated.
Most killer piece you’ve produced: As far as numbers go, we’ve had several popular pieces.
Color Psychology In Marketing: The Complete Guide was super big with more than 38,000
social shares so far. How To Use A Content Marketing Editorial Calendar To Save A Ton Of Time
is one of my favorites, and people love the free downloads. 4 Lessons From Psychology That
Will Help You Grow Your Blog was a fun one for me to write because I just enjoy deep research.
Understanding what makes this stuff work was fun to explore.
People describe your writing/marketing style as: Actionable advice that includes detailed,
how-to information. We’re very picky about what we publish on the CoSchedule blog to make
sure it goes way beyond scratching the surface. It’s how we differentiate ourselves.
Something your coworkers don’t know about you: I can solve the Rubik’s cube like a true nerd.
Platforms you use to leverage content: We publish a lot of what we do with WordPress.
It’s a solid content management system. We also use all sorts of social networks, forums, and
communities to share our content. I’m a data nerd with Google Analytics, Kissmetrics, and Moz.
Facebook or Twitter: Twitter for sure.
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
How you tame the analytics beast (how you measure success): We know our overarching
goals first, then we understand how our content contributes. If we publish two posts a week,
for example, we know how much those will contribute on average. So we’re working toward
more and different types of content—what could we publish to nail our goals, really? To measure
all of that, we use Kissmetrics and Google Analytics. Setting up Kissmetrics to measure certain
conversions is really great, and Google Analytics is perfect for a general perspective on growth.
I’d recommend setting up goals in Google Analytics to understand how your traffic contributes
to conversions, too.
Automation/email tools: We use CampaignMonitor for email. I’ve been working with LeadPages
to gather leads and use its automated emailing to provide free content bundles in exchange for
becoming a subscriber. That method works really well so far.
Thoughts on retargeting: If it works, do it. Understand what you want to happen before you
start doing it, then measure that conversion. Being at the top of mind is a bonus.
Where you put your billz in content strategy (budget priorities): Building tools to help our
audience. We’ve seen firsthand how developing free tools for your audience can increase your
reach dramatically. We recently built a headline analyzer that was #1 for that oft-searched term
after being live for one day. Since it’s so handy, tons of sources reference it, so we get lots of
quality backlinks. It’s now our most-visited and highest-converting resource. And all we had to
do was take two weeks to build it, and it’s an evergreen generator for us.
When you wake up in the morning you read: Anything by Neil Patel and recently, Brian Dean.
Mentor: Garrett and Justin, our Co-Founders at CoSchedule, are big mentors of mine. Also,
David Held, the marketing manager at Border States Electric.
App you cannot live without: Hmm... CoSchedule? In all seriousness, I love tools that help me
reach my goals, and the email lead generators are some of my favorites: LeadPages (to collect),
CampaignMonitor (to segment), and Kissmetrics (to measure).
Best content master in the game: I’m a big fan of what Neil Patel is doing.
Where you go to seek inspiration: Books. I’m reading Seth Godin’s Linchpin at this moment.
I also check out anything online that sounds awesome—I know we can grow a lot by learning
from the success of others, so that content is always inspiring.
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
RYAN DEISS
Ryan Deiss is the co-founder Idea Incubator LP and CEO of
DigitalMarketer.com. Over the last 36 months Ryan and his team have:
invested over $15,000,000 on marketing tests, generated tens of
millions of unique visitors, sent well over a billion permission-based
emails, and run approximately 3,000 split and multi-variant tests.
Ryan is also a highly sought after speaker and consultant whose work
has impacted over 200,000 businesses in 68 different countries.
[@ryandeiss]
“Welcome to the Great Pixel Land Rush.”
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
Name: Ryan Deiss
RYAN DEISS
Company: Digital Marketer
Role: CEO and Founder
What you did before Digital Marketer: I launched this business in 1999 while I was still a student at The
University of Texas at Austin, so technically this is the only thing I’ve done.
Your most valuable asset: Our email subscriber lists.
Number of people on your team: ~150
Content philosophy: We view content as a theme park. Its role is to 1) gather a crowd, 2) enhance brand
trust and engagement and 3) entertain, but at the end of the day the experience of the content should
be valuable enough to be monetized (i.e. charging for admission) or you need to be able to exit your
viewers through the “gift shop” (i.e. offer relevant advertising and offers). Content without a clear and
obvious monetization vehicle is doomed to failure.
Most killer piece you’ve produced: Customer Value Optimization: How to Build an Unstoppable Business
People describe your writing/marketing style as: Somewhat informal (and at times a bit snarky), but
definitely content-rich, step-by-step and actionable.
Something your coworkers don’t know about you: I’m an art collector. It’s my passion. I’d rather visit a
great museum than attend a sporting event (even though I also love sports).
Platforms you use to leverage content: We’re everywhere our customers are but our focus is on the big
players like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube right now.
How you tame the analytics beast (how you measure success): Keep it simple. Measure metrics that are
actionable such as Cost of Acquisition, Immediate and Lifetime Customer Values and conversion rates on
key landing pages. For content, we prefer to look at social signals such as Shares instead of vanity metrics
like Pageviews and Time On Page.
Automation/email tools: Infusionsoft and Maropost
Thoughts on retargeting: It’s an absolute must. We predict that in the next 24 months, nearly all valuable
display ad inventory will be gobbled up by retargeted advertising, so now is the time to set those
retargeting pixels before the opportunity to advertise disappears completely for smaller players.
Welcome to the Great Pixel Land Rush.
Where you put your billz in content strategy (budget priorities): I invest in good people and give them
the ability to test new ideas and access to the best training.
When you wake up in the morning you read: My curated Twitter list of digital media pros and brands.
Mentor: Roy Williams, “The Wizard of Ads,” Dan Kennedy and David Ogilvy
App you cannot live without: Twitter + Flipboard…it’s how I consume insane amounts of information in a
relatively short period of time.
Best content master in the game: I like to think we’ve got it going on — but Brian Clark at Copyblogger
is no slouch :)
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Where you go to seek inspiration: I like to see what giant publishers like Hearst are doing. They get
accused of being slow and outdated, but they have brilliant people and do lots of very, very smart things.
At the same time, I also like to watch smaller startups like Casper Mattress and Hodinkee.com, because
they take risks and try stuff the established players can’t do.
INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
SAM SLAUGHTER
Sam Slaughter is the Vice President of Content at Contently and a
long-time freelance journalist. He’s responsible for content marketing
campaigns and partnerships for companies across much of the brand
and media spectrum, including Coca-Cola, American Express, Forbes,
UNICEF and Atlantic Media. He also runs Contently Media, which was
nominated as best new publisher by Digiday in 2014, and is chairman
of The Contently Foundation.
Sam is a veteran of several news organizations, including Comcast.net,
NY1 News and the Providence Phoenix, and writes frequently about the
intersection of advertising and journalism, and the emergence of content
as an effective marketing tool. He lives in Brooklyn and is the owner of
two dumb dogs. [@SamSlaughter215]
“Treat people like people.”
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
SAM SLAUGHTER
Name: Sam Slaughter
Company: Contently
Role: VP of Content
What you did before Contently: My most recent position before Contently was managing editor
of Comcast.net, which was my initiation into branded content. Before Comcast I was an editor
and producer for NY1 News. I also spent a couple of years in between driving a 1994 Ford Explorer around various less-than-reputable areas of South and Central America.
Your most valuable asset: I wasn’t sure about this one so I polled my team. There was a unanimous decision that my dogs, Charlie and Lighthouse, are my most valuable asset. I can’t say I
disagree.
Number of people on your team: I head up the content team at Contently. There are six people
in addition to me. They’re all in their mid-twenties, which makes me feel old -- but I think I’m
more up to speed on the latest memes than most people my age.
Content philosophy: Treat people like people. Too many brands treat their audience as a potential purchase, or piece of data to be collected. I understand that marketers have goals to meet,
but the best way to have long-term success as a brand is to build lasting relationships by sharing
content that a human being would actually think is cool and relevant.
Most killer piece you’ve produced: I’m really proud of the most recent Contently Quarterly
we published. Contently Quarterly is the print edition of our digital publication The Content
Strategist. We just opened a San Francisco office, so we published our first Content Quarterly
West Coast Edition. My team pulled some overtime to make sure the content was helpful and
interesting, and our design team made it beautiful. To me it speaks a lot about how far we’ve
come as a company - we try to practice what we preach when it comes to content marketing,
and creating quality content.
People describe your writing/marketing style as: I hope one word people would use is concise.
At Contently we’re advocates for long-form content, but only when it adds value. There’s nothing
worse than a 1,000 word article that could have been 600 words. I also like to think I’m great at
using pretentious literary references as metaphors for different marketing tactics.
Platforms you use to leverage content: We do some paid distribution with tools like Outbrain,
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. We also share our content organically through those social
platforms. To be honest, our most effective channel is our email list, which has upwards of
65,000 subscribers. In my opinion distribution tools are a waste if you don’t have amazing
content to share and an awesome site to drive people to, so we use most of our resources
on our content and site.
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
How you tame the analytics beast (how you measure success): The key to content analytics is
to be able to look at metrics that actually matter, like engagement time, and then optimize your
content to do more of what people like. At Contently we have proprietary software, Contently
Analytics, that provides recommendations based on the data rather than just spitting out
metrics. This insight has helped us grow The Content Strategist’s audience to more than
250,000 monthly readers.
Automation/email tools: We use the marketing automation software Marketo to track the
customer journey from first touch all the way to purchase. This is particularly helpful when
tying content to ROI, a hot button issue these days. For email marketing we rely on MailChimp.
We communicate with our customers through email, as well as the audiences for both of our
digital publications, The Content Strategist and The Freelancer, so this is a very important tool
for us.
Thoughts on retargeting: When people think of retargeting they think of brands creepily
stalking them online. No one likes being bombarded by shoe ads when they glance at a shoe
website for 30 seconds. Retargeting is actually a great tool for marketers when done correctly.
We use retargeting to serve helpful content to to people who do very specific things on our
website—this way we get a ton of bang for a very small ad budget.
Where you put your billz in content strategy (budget priorities): When it comes to content
strategy you need good technology and good people. At Contently we’re fortunate to have
an awesome platform, great in-house talent, and a network of freelance talent. The key to our
strategy is investing in creating the best possible quality content, and building and maintaining
a place where we can share it directly with our audience. An important part of our strategy is
investing in a variety of content types including long-form articles, comics, e-books, white
papers, social posts, thought leadership bylines, etc. It’s a significant investment but we’ve
been able to grow a significant, and loyal audience.
When you wake up in the morning, you read: Instagram
Mentor: My mom, mainly just because she’s the coolest person I know.
App you cannot live without: Tindog (Tinder for dogs)
Best content master in the game: (Contently editor-in-chief) Joe Lazauskas
Where you go to seek inspiration: I try to read only fiction when I’m not at the office. Right now
I’m reading “Pattern Recognition” by William Gibson -- I highly recommend it to anyone (and
people who work in marketing and advertising and believe in conspiracy theories, especially).
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
SONIA SIMONE
Sonia Simone is CMO and a founding partner of Copyblogger Media.
She’s a writer and a longtime content geek, and has a lot of naive ideas
about business that turn out to be pretty profitable. She’s also the
creator of the Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer podcast.
[@soniasimone]
“If your content doesn’t stand alone...
nothing else you do with it will matter.”
www.socialmediastrategiessummit.com ° #SMSsummit
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INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
Name: Sonia Simone
SONIA SIMONE
Company: Copyblogger Media
Role: Co-founder and chief content officer
What you did before Copyblogger: Content marketing strategist before that was a thing ...
Your most valuable asset: My conscience
Number of people on your team: There are five of us on content, not counting a few folks who wear
multiple hats; the company as a whole is close to 50 now.
Content philosophy: If your content doesn’t stand alone, if it doesn’t give real and remarkable value
to the audience, nothing else you do with it will matter.
Most killer piece you’ve produced: Argh, that’s a brutal question! The projects I’m proudest of are
content-centered communities. These days I’m pretty chuffed about the course and community for our
Certified Content Marketers.
People describe your writing/marketing style as: It depends on who you ask. Some would say,
“warm and caring.” Others would vote for “gratingly pink and sparkly.”
Something your coworkers don’t know about you: I’m a freak about the scientific method. Like, I’m kind
of the Church Lady of evidence-based reasoning. And no, that’s not necessarily a good thing.
Platforms you use to leverage content: Twitter, LinkedIn.
Facebook or Twitter: Twitter. I love Facebook, but not in a healthy way.
How you tame the analytics beast (how you measure success): I’m insanely lucky in that we have an
ultra smart team who looks at numbers. I’m a seat-of-the-pants gal. When I’ve hit a home run, I can feel it.
Then my analytics folks can tell me if I’m right or not.
Automation/email tools: We experiment a lot with these, typically I’m about the last person to find out
that we’re playing with something new. We have a few quite fun things that we’re cooking up in-house.
Thoughts on retargeting: I think it’s smart, but keep it respectful and relevant.
Where you put your billz in content strategy (budget priorities): As a company, we’ve always focused
our spending on people, mainly because that’s where we get the best return over time. I’d rather have
fewer pieces from a writer with an amazing voice than a high volume of “thin” cheaper content. We buy
almost no advertising, so that gives us more budget for awesome writers. These days, we’re also investing
in multimedia production -- particularly with our podcast network, we have some audio engineers who
make us sound fantastic.
When you wake up in the morning, you read: My Next Actions list. OK, that’s a lie, I read my Twitter
notifications first.
Mentor: Brian Clark
App you cannot live without: My meditation timer, Insight Timer. And Evernote.
Best content master in the game: Ann Handley. She’s uncompromising on the value of quality above all.
Plus, like all great teachers, she’s hilarious.
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Where you go to seek inspiration: Our Authority and Certified Content Marketer community. It’s this
incredibly smart group of writers, business owners, marketers, and passionate do-it-yourselfers. They’re
constantly challenging me to get deeper and more creative about content and strategy.
INTERVIEWS WITH TODAY’S TOP CONTENT MARKETERS
FOR MORE ON CONTENT MARKETING, STORYTELLING, ENGAGEMENT
AND DATA MEASUREMENT—JOIN US AT ONE OF OUR UPCOMING
SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIES SUMMIT EVENTS:
Social Media Strategies Summit, San Francisco
September 23-24, 2015
Social Media Strategies Summit, Boston
October 21-21, 2015
Social Media Strategies Summit, Dallas
December 8-9, 2015
You’ll find articles, eBooks and information on 2016
events on our blog (managed by yours truly).
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