Liftoff: Optimizing Content With Dom Kent

When a client says, “Hey, we wanna get into content marketing but we have no idea how to start,” what do you do?

You start at the very beginning.

That means figuring out what content you want to produce. Is it a blog post, a podcast, an infographic, or something else? Start at the bottom of the funnel and write about your product, its use cases, and the problems that it solves. After you’ve brainstormed about why the product exists, you’ll have a collection of topics to make content about.

The next step is figuring out how to get your content seen by the right people. Too often, marketers overlook their target audience or are too focused on their specific goals (e.g. lead generation, demand generation) to see the big picture. Always remember that content marketing works by aligning your expertise as a company with an audience that's looking for answers.

Actionable Insights

Use What Google Says to Frame Your Writing

Now, speaking of an audience looking for answers, we turn to an incredibly simple but immensely effective tool — Google. Google contains a wealth of information within its search bar and results page, such as suggestions, autofill completions, related searches, and the “People also ask” widget.

There are a lot of marketers that are simply given a keyword, a request to “rank #1 on Google,” and very little else to work with. That’s great and all, but it tells you nothing about who we’re writing for or what the intent behind a keyword is.

For example, is someone searching “MS Teams” because they want to know how it works or how to download the software? The content that each query requires is different, so always look into what your audience is actually searching for. Remember, people are different — they can search for the same things while looking for different outcomes.

Always Get Someone Else’s Opinion on Your Niche Subject

When writing a blog, Dom suggests making it the “best version available online.” In theory, Google will reward your content by ranking it #1 if it’s better than number #2. However, it’s difficult to create quality content, especially for informational blog posts. To make your posts credible, interesting, and unbiased, you need someone else’s opinion, input, or research.

It's really about finding where your sources are and where your niche experts hang out so you can hang out with them. Getting a second opinion can be as simple as asking for 10 minutes of their time for a chat, sending an email with five questions you want answers to, inviting them to contribute to the article, or even just citing their tweets.

However, trying to establish yourself in a community, even online, can be incredibly difficult if you suffer from impostor syndrome.

Handling Impostor Syndrome

With regards to imposter syndrome, Dom poses this analogy:

Imagine that you just got invited to a party (i.e. you found your community of niche experts). You’ve gotten through the door. What’s next? You grab a drink (i.e. start interacting, even through something as small as liking a tweet). Getting to that second step can be impossible if you let fear and anxiety win.

At the end of the day, you’ll find that you’re only holding yourself back. If you know something that works, why not share it? It might help someone else out and they might appreciate it enough to be open to favors in the future.

Allowing yourself to be vulnerable by acknowledging that you’re here to learn will do more for your growth than pretending you know everything. As host Ryan Tabb puts it, “Everybody’s an impostor. And if we’re all impostors, then no one is. We’re all just trying our best to share what insights we have and see what we can glean from other people.”

Don’t Wait for SEO — Have a Content Distribution Plan

Imagine the worst case scenario: an update to Google’s algorithm wipes all your content from the search pages overnight.

That’s what Dom woke up to in 2020, and it’s the reason that he’s become so passionate about content distribution today.

The best way to get content in front of more people is by coming up with a content distribution plan and diversifying your sources. Of course, this involves a lot of trial and error, which isn’t ideal for startups or solo marketing teams who don’t have a lot of time on their hands. To solve that problem, Dom came up with a checklist of 50 proven content distribution tactics that you can try out for yourself. After all, why send one tweet when you could send six tweets, in six different ways, over six different days?

If you’ve learned a lot from the insight shared here, feel free to connect with Dom on his Twitter or LinkedIn. Interested in Learning More?

Want to launch a podcast for your brand? Contact the experts at Podsicle Media.