The Ultimate Content Strategist Playbook No. 4:: Engaging and Building An Audience

ULTIMATE CONTENT STRATEGIST PLAYBOOK
The Ultimate Content Strategist

Playbook No. 4:
Engaging and Building an Audience
Copyright 2015 Contently. All rights reserved. contently.com
CONTENTLY
By Joe Lazauskas
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. The Magical Email Newsletter
III. Organic Social Media
11
IV. Paid Content Distribution
16
V. SEO
23
VI. Conclusion
26
CONTENTLY
Four years ago, I found myself on a plane to
Sizwe quickly became known as the South African
Zurich, drunk on Air France wine and oblivious to the
Barack Obama for his uncanny resemblance to
fact that I was about to learn a very hard lesson
the president and powerful oratory skills. He wasted
in content marketing.
no time making big speeches and rallying the other

attendees to spark a global movement. We captured it
I was 23 and excited for the most badass project
all via video, blog posts, and tweets, polishing
of my young career. I was part of a small but talented
each piece of content and pushing it out as quickly
team of young writers and documentary filmmakers
as possible. Though our salaries and expenses
tasked with creating a real-time documentary
were being paid by the corporate conglomerate bank-
about five young entrepreneurs fighting for social good
rolling the conference, we felt like we were working
at a young leadership conference. From interviews
for Sizwes movement. Better yet, we felt like we were
wed conducted over the previous few weeks we knew
making something worth reading and watching. By
they had plans to rally their peers and the powerful
the end of the weekend, we were on a serious work
world leaders in attendance. The plan was for our team
high: There were concrete plans for a global movement,
to capture it all as it unfolded, posting updates across
and a number of powerful leaders had rallied around
social and on a slick site wed built in just 20 days.
our young stars.
Things went better than we could have ever imagined.

Our five young protagonists, all aged 17 to 21, were
infectiously charismatic; the groups leader in particular,
Sizwe, had the power to make us swoon.
CONTENTLY
The project felt like a huge success. There was excit-
Edelman Chief Content Strategist Steve Rubel goes as
ed talk of keeping the documentary going for years to
far to suggest that brands should think about content
come, and I was pumped at the prospect of helping
distribution first, and everything else later.
lead the editorial operations of a mini-revolution. But

within a week, the whole thing was deemed a colossal
Brands need to put distribution thinking ahead of con-
failure and shut down. You see, while we had created
tent development, which sounds completely backward.
a ton of great content, no

one had actually seen it.
It was a deadly mistake.
Wed failed to build any sort
of real content distribution
or audience-building
It was a deadly mistake. Wed
The history of the content industry is

make something greatand that bars go-
failed to build any sort of real
ing up by the wayand then think about
content distribution or
how you distribute that great thing, he
audience-building strategy, and

it cost us a huge opportunity.
strategy, and it cost us a

huge opportunity.
said. What BuzzFeed and others have

taught us is that you need to think about
all of the different pathways that people
take to find great things. You need to
identify what those brands do, and what those content

creators do, to get their content out there. It should not
It was a hard-learned lessonone that a lot of brands
impede your creativity, but it should inform it.
and publishers have learned over the past few years.

If you build it, they probably wont just magically come.
Instead, you need to work your ass off to get them
there and keep them coming back.
CONTENTLY
In our Ultimate Content Strategist Playbook series so far, weve

coveredstep-by-stephow to evangelize a content program, create
a killer content strategy by identifying an underserved audience,
and staff and launch your content program so that you can publish
high-quality content quickly and efficiently. But the most important
workgetting people to read, and keep reading, your contenthas
just begun.
Here, in our fourth Ultimate Content Strategist Playbook, well dive
into a detailed overview of how to build an audience for your brand
publication. Youll find insights from some of the most successful
brand publishers on Earth, as well as from our own experience growing
our audience tenfold to over 200,000 readers in the past year.
ALONG THE WAY, WELL COVER FOUR MAJOR TACTICS:
1. Email newsletters
2. Organic social media
3. Paid content distribution
4. SEO
Lets get started.
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2. The Magical Email Newsletter

The biggest weapon in brand publishers arsenal has
been around since Bill Clinton got his first Hotmail
account: the email newsletter. Its given birth to many a
new media empire, and it remains the most effective
audience-building tool that you have as a publisher,
allowing you to drive loyal readers back to your site day
after day.
CONTENTLY
Tomas Kellner has built GE Reports into one of
For the past six years, how many email subscribers
the hottest tech publications around, with over half a
a story drives has been one of the most important
million monthly readers. And though his content
metrics for GE Reports. Talk to most successful
regularly goes viral on Reddit and Tumblr, he really
publishers and youll hear a similar sentiment.
perks up when he talks about email.

Email is huge, said Neil Patel, a serial entrepreneur
We love email, Kellner gushed. It may sound old-
whos built audiences of over 100,000 monthly visitors
school, but email subscription is really a hard-
for three separate blogs: KISSmetrics, Quick Sprout,
wired link to your audience. For us, email subscribers
and Crazy Egg. In terms of distribution, its the biggest
are an extremely valuable audience that we want.
thing you can do.
Every day 15,000 people get the blast from GE Reports

that a new story is out.
Patels blogs are filled with real estate devoted to

collecting email addresses; usually, hes offering
When Kellner came over to GE Reports from Forbes,
something in return, like free access to his Advanced
building GE Reports newsletter was his first mission.
Guide to SEO. It pays off. For one of Patels blogs,
We started with zero subscribers, just like anyone else,
email accounts for 28 percent of all trafficand this
he explained. With any brand, really, you start with
doesnt even take into account the second wave
employees, and then you build the list from there.
of traffic as those readers who came from email share

his posts with their followers on Facebook, Twitter,
and LinkedIn.
CONTENTLY
This wave of readership is an incredible phenomenon, and its one that

we experience every day at The Content Strategist. Our daily email
newsletter drives thousands of readers to our site every day. Simply put,
the email newsletter is the old-school engine that could.
Simply put, the email newsletter is the old-school

engine that could.
CONTENTLY
Heres a quick look at the effect an email newsletter has on driving readers to your publication:
EMAIL NEWSLETTER
BLOG TRAFFIC!
THEYRE LOVING IT
TWITTER SHARES
FACEBOOK SHARES
LINKEDIN SHARES
OMG EVEN MORE

BLOG TRAFFIC!
THEY LOVE IT TOO!
EVEN MORE
TWITTER SHARES
EVEN MORE
FACEBOOK SHARES
NEW EMAIL
SUBSCRIBERS
EVEN MORE
LINKEDIN SHARES
EVEN. MORE. BLOG.

TRAFFIC. GUYS.
This may seem incredibly obvious, but a lot of brand publishers

fail to develop a dedicated newsletter for their content. Its one of the
most common mistakes new brand publishers make.
In truth, the technology stack needed to make this all work is ridiculously simple; its more PB&J than Italian sub. At Contently, we use
MailChimp to build and send our newsletters, and Sumo.mes List
Builder and Scroll Box tools to intelligently collect email addresses.
Both MailChimp and Sumo.me come with well-designed templates that
are easy to set upno coding required. Patel uses Maropost for both.
There are a lot of effective technologies out there for building your email
newsletter, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
The important thing is that you pick one and start building your list.
An email newsletter is the foundation of your audience-building efforts.
Without it, all the other audience-building techniques were going to
discuss dont work nearly as well.
10
CONTENTLY
3. Organic Social Media

Last year, Adobe Marketing Cloud released a hilarious
commercial that poignantly captures the way a lot of
marketers do social. Two dorky marketers are in an
elevator with a couple of hipsters. Yo bro, you on Woo
Woo? one of the hipsters asks.
11
CONTENTLY
Are you kidding me, bro? Everyones on Woo Woo.
We need an ethnically ambiguous Woo Woo mascot!

the other declares.
The two marketers go into a panic, and storm into their

office barking at their team to go all-in on Woo Woo.
I want sponsored Woos! I want targeted Woos! We
want to be all up in your Woo Woo feed! one orders.
12
Meanwhile, the hipsters are back in the elevator.

Are they still on Woo Woo? Nah man, my moms on
Woo Woo.
CONTENTLY
Anyone whos gotten caught up in the storm of
that if if you have 100,000 Facebook fans and another
excitement over flash-in-the-pan social networks like
100,000 Twitter followers, getting 100,000 readers to
Meerkat and Ello know that this is all too true. Its
your blog should be a piece of cake, right? Wrong.
all too easy to get caught up in whatever new platform

is inspiring 1,000 TechCrunch think pieces on any given
week. Its also easy for brands to get caught up in social
Late last year, Forrester released a fascinating report,

Social Relationship Strategies That Work, which
media in general and
showed that brands were
lose sight of the goal
While a newsletter sent to 100,000
reaching only a small
at handin this case,
subscribers can easily result in
percentage of their Facebook
driving readers to
the publication you
just created.
The simple truth is that
brands often invest a
10,000 readers within a few hours, a
and Twitter following: less

than 2 percent of followers saw
Facebook or Twitter update sent to
an average post, and less than
the same following is likely to produce
0.1 percent interacted with its
less than 70.
content. While a newsletter
ton of time and money
sent to 100,000 subscribers can

easily result in 10,000 readers
into social media with unrealistic expectations of what
within a few hours, a Facebook or Twitter update sent
results those efforts will deliver. Theyll assemble giant
to the same following is likely to produce less than 70.
social media teams and pump big money into buying

Facebook fans and Twitter followers. Theyre assuming
13
CONTENTLY
But paradoxically, social media is an incredibly
Its pretty simple. The secret is that the majority of
powerful force on the web, driving over 30 percent of
your social media traffic will come when other
all traffic to content sites. As Shareaholic noted in
peoplesuch as your email subscribers or influencers
its end-of-year analysis of over 300,000 websites
you interviewshare your content, not when you
that reach over 400 million people, Facebook is particu-
share your own content. Your number one social media
larly dominant, driving nearly 25 percent of all traffic
priority should be creating content that people cant
on the Internet. Thats insane.
help but share.
This presents a paradox for brand

publishers: Barely anyone sees updates
from brand accounts, yet social media
is an incredibly important source of traffic
for publishers of all kinds. So how can
brand publishers invest in social media in
a way that helps their brand publishing
efforts?
14
CONTENTLY
At Contently, for instance, 37.6 percent of our readers this year have
come to our content directly from social media. Thats not because we
post incredibly viral social updatesits because we invest our time
and resources in creating compelling content thats shared over
600 times on average. That doesnt mean you should abandon your
own social updates. Without a doubt, you should be active on the
platforms where your readers are sharing and talking about your content. For usas for most marketing pubsthats Facebook, Twitter,
and LinkedIn. For your brand, it might be a different combination of
social networks. Just dont let those efforts get in the way of creating
content that people want to share.
The secret is that the majority of your social

media traffic will come when other people
such as your email subscribers or influencers
you interviewshare your content, not when
you share your own content.
15
CONTENTLY
4. Paid Content Distribution

Its time for the obvious question: What do you do when
youre investing money in creating great content, but
your email list is still small and your social channels are
only driving a small amount of readers?
The answer: You invest in paid content distribution.
16
CONTENTLY
For brand publishers spending $400 on an article, spending an extra

$50 to ensure that twice as many people see that article just makes
sense. And right now, there are a plethora of companies popping up to
help brands acquire an audience cheaply and effectively.
In truth, every publisher is always hungry to grow their audience.
I know we are at Contently. We have 200,000 monthly readers today,
but we want a million. And that means
we have to go to where those potential
For brand publishers spending $400
readers hang out online.
on an article, spending an extra $50
Ultimately youve got to reach people

in the venues where theyre choosing
to ensure that twice as many people

see that article just makes sense.
to spend time, said renowned content

marketing expert Jay Baer. If everybodys spending time on Facebook,
you have to reach them there. The key is, whatever youre doing on
Facebook, use that to get them over to your own world, to get them to
subscribe to your email or something else thats a little bit more reliable
in terms of your messaging.
At Contently, thats exactly the approach we take.
17
CONTENTLY
We have 15,000 fans on Facebook, but our organic
The CPC for these posts typically ranges from $0.15
reach sucks due to Facebooks penalization of compa-
to $0.20, which actually undersells their cost effective-
nies. Were lucky if our Facebook posts reach 500
ness, since the numbers doesnt account for the organic
people organically and generates a few dozen clicks.
reach and clicks that occur when readers share your
However, as I detailed in a recent post and will plagia-
sponsored Facebook post. Our Facebook sponsored
rize here, weve figured out how to use Facebook in
post for our Seth Godin interview, for instance, was
a powerful way thats made it a hugely valuable plat-
shared 449 times, which resulted in 800 additional
form for our content team.
clicks and an organic reach of over 18,000.
We test out most of the stories we post on Facebook
But were not just buying clicks; were also investing
with an unpublished Facebook dark post. Basically,
in our long-term audience. The new readers were
we pay $5 to $10 to deliver each story to a target audi-
driving to the site stick around, spending nearly three
ence of marketers and see how it performs. And if
minutes engaging with our stories on averageand
it performs really welllike our recent interview with
per Chartbeats data, readers who spend three engaged
Seth Godinwe put more money behind it. (We have
minutes with a story are more than 50 percent likely
a relatively small budget for this kind of thing, so we
to return within a week. Additionally, we try to make
spend it carefully.)
sure these readers return by prompting them to sign up

for our daily newsletter, and nearly 5 percent do.
Crucially, these new subscribers tend to be more
engaged than our list as a whole.
18
CONTENTLY
Heres what the whole thing looks like:
FACEBOOK
SPONSORED POST
ORGANIC
REACH
CONTENTLY
NEWSLETTER
CONTENTLY
PRODUCT PAGES
ADDITIONAL
SHARES ON TWITTER,
LINKEDIN, ETC.
So through Facebook ads, we're getting engaged readers who are likely
to return. We're getting email subscribers who will probably come
back. We're bringing tons of new people to our site who might opt to
find out more about Contently's services. In that light, the $0.15 CPC
investment starts to look like a steal. And we haven't even considered
the fact that those new readers tend to share our stories like crazy
on Twitter and LinkedIn, who will in turn drive even more readers and
email subscribers to our site.
But Facebook sponsored posts aren't the best venue for everyone. Many
Contently clients use Outbrain's distribution services through Contently,
and typically see a CPC under $0.25. Twitterwhile significantly
more expensive per click than Facebook or Outbrain in our experience
may provide superior results for some in the media, marketing, and
tech industries. And while LinkedIn has CPCs approaching $4, the ability
to target based on job title and company makes it an invaluable
platform for those looking to target a small but significant audience.
20
CONTENTLY
No matter what platform(s) you use for paid content distribution, you can supercharge your audience
growth if you use them correctly:
PAID CONTENT
DISTRIBUTION
READS
AWESOME CONTENT
ON OWNED SITE
SIGNS UP
FOR NEWSLETTER
SHARES ON
SOCIAL NETWORKS
EVEN MORE
TCS TRAFFIC &
NEW READERS
As always, its worth keeping in mind that this only works if your content
is so good that people want to subscribe to your newsletter and share it
with their network. But if it is, the effects can be magical.
For step-by-step instructions and tricks on how to be incredibly effective
on each platform, check out our recent e-book, Paid Content Distribution 101: The Beginners Guide to Getting More Eyeballs on Your Stories.
22
CONTENTLY
5. SEO
Despite all the trend reports declaring search dead
in the age of social, thats far from the case. According to
Shareaholics last search traffic report, search still
drives about a third of all traffic to publishers sites (a bit
more than social, although its likely social has caught
up by now). No matter how you cut it, search remains an
important part of any successful content strategy
a channel that, like social, will drive readers and new
email subscribers.
23
CONTENTLY
If you havent rethought SEO this decade, well, its
The good news is that if youve followed the steps
probably time to ditch any preconceptions. A lot
laid out in our first three playbooks and developed
of people still think that good SEO means aggressive
a strategy to create original, high-quality content
keyword stuffing, but thats been completely untrue
in a high-interest area relevant to your brand thats
since the release of Googles Panda algorithm in 2011.
currently being underserved, you have a very good
Instead, SEO in 2015 is about one big thing: quality.
shot at being in that top 5 to 10 percent of content

thats out there.
I think theres still a lot of [misguided] belief around

quantity over quality, said Rand Fishkin, co-founder of
Instead of focusing on keywords, focus on content,
Moz. The vast, vast majority of links and shares and
Ambar Shrivastava, a veteran developer who is now VP
amplification signals of
all kinds are going to only
of product management
SEO in 2015 is about one big thing: quality.
the top 5 or 10 percent of
for Tutor.com and the

Princeton Review, told The
content that gets put out. Theres not a whole lot of val-
Contently Strategist. Really try to map out content to
ue in writing a decent blog post anymore. [Theres not a
your target audience. You want to think about
lot of value] unless you can be pretty extraordinary.
your audience and whats important to them instead

of creating pages built for keywords.
24
CONTENTLY
Essentially, if youre creating content thats unique, generating

value for the reader, and earning links from people who find it fascinating, youre in great shape. SEO is a processthe way things earn
attention, how they are amplified, who amplifies them, how they earn
links, whether theyre targeted at things that people actually search
for, Fishkin explained. Whether they solve those search queries is
the user experience you provide.
According to Cyrus Shepard, Mozs director of content and SEO, Google
is beginning to estimate time on site, which means that stories that
capture a users attention for longer will get a boost in Googles rankings.
Google is also optimizing for sites that load quickly and are optimized
for mobile. Like with everything else weve discussed, SEO comes down
to putting your audience first and telling great stories.
Starting with audience first and finding where it resonates is what will
work in 2015 and beyond, said Shepard.
25
CONTENTLY
Conclusion
Of all the steps you take as a new publisher, audience-
By this point in our Ultimate Content Strategist
building is probably the most challengingbut it
Playbook series, weve learned how to evangelize con-
also might be the most fun. Its the point when you
tent, build a content strategy and roadmap, staff
truly start connecting with people and begin to see
and launch our publications, and build an audience.
the tangible returns of your content marketing efforts.
But one big piece of the puzzle remains: measure-
But its also a challenging time because even with
ment. Tracking the success of each tactic you use and
the most aggressive efforts, it can take months or even
optimizing accordingly is crucial. In doing so, youll

create a system that ensures the
years before you start

to build the audience of
Building a content brand takes time,
continual improvement of your
your dreams.
but the rewards are huge.
content marketing efforts.
What you have to understand is that the companion to
In our next and final Ultimate Content Strategist Play-
content marketing, said Baer, is elongating your time
book, well cover everything you need to know about
horizon for success.
content measurement and optimization. By the end,

youll be sure of one thing: Theres no limit to how big
In other words, building a content brand takes time, but
and powerful your new brand publication can grow.
the rewards are huge.
26
CONTENTLY
Want more insights into the

state of content marketing?
For daily insights, subscribe to our online magazine,
The Content Strategist.
And if youd like to talk to someone about Contentlys services,
please reach out to us at sales@contently.com
or visit contently.com.
contently.com
27
CONTENTLY

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ULTIMATE CONTENT STRATEGIST PLAYBOOK