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Marketing Agency Exposed Podcast

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  2. Ep 37: What’s Your Agency Content Strategy? How do you produce great content that produces results?

Ep 37: What’s Your Agency Content Strategy? How do you produce great content that produces results?

Sep 9, 2020

Summary:

Understanding the importance of great content creation is the first step in moving towards a killer content strategy- everyone knows they should be doing it, but prioritizing content creation over client work isn’t always the most appealing prospect. In today’s episode, we dive into the DEEP value in creating your own content and how the process has worked for us in our own agencies. 

 

Top 3  Curtain Pulls in this episode: 

  1. If the content you’re creating isn’t genuine and true to who you are as a business, people will pick up on that. Stay true to your message and brand- don’t put out content just to get it out the door. 
  2. Writing a book is a great initiative- promoting that in different places is a powerful way to connect your name with your industry. 
  3. Great content is a long play. While your lead counts may not go up right away as a result, the QUALITY should shift over time. Focus on your industry specialty, creating great content that speaks to those pain points withe unique perspective, and the clients will find YOU!

 

For more tips, discussion, and behind the scenes:

 

About The Guys: 

Bob Hutchins: Founder of BuzzPlant, a digital agency that he ran from from 2000 -2017. He is also the author of 3 books. More on Bob: 

Brad Ayres: Founder of Anthem Republic, an award-winning ad agency. Brad’s knowledge has led some of the biggest brands in the world. Originally from Detroit, Brad is an OG in the ad agency world and has the wisdom and scars to prove it. Currently that knowledge is being applied to his boutique agency. More on Brad:

Ken Ott: Co-Founder and Chief Growth Rebel of Metacake, an Ecommerce Growth Team for some of the world’s most influential brands with a mission to Grow Brands That Matter. Ken is also an author, speaker, and was nominated for an Emmy for his acting on the Metacake Youtube Channel (not really). More on Ken: 

 

Show Notes:

[3:24] Brad talks about the challenge of beginning the process of content creation for yourself, reflecting on the idea that it’s not selfish to do so but actually an important investment! “We need to be our #1 client… and it’s really difficult to get employees on board with that.” 

  • He shares the struggle of perfectionism, wanting to get everything 100% perfect when in reality 85% is great. 

[4:55] Ken talks about how difficult it is to get your voice heard amongst the other screaming voices in the industry.

[7:18] Ken says that creating a strong voice for yourself that is based on being a thought leader in the industry is the philosophy for Metacake.

[7:26] Bob: “I know for me,one of the things that was really successful was Itried to blog and write a lot and try to position myself as somebody who knew what theywere talking about. In that field.”

[9:25] Bob speaks about how agencies should think of themselves more as a media company that just marketing and/or advertising. 

  •  One simple way to start: Write a book! Being able to say you’ve authored a book about the subject matter you’re speaking about automatically adds legitimacy to your “thought leader” role. 

[14:05] Brad asks Bob to talk about content writing, as it’s something Bob has been a strong advocate for for a long time. 

[15:00] Bob responds: “Over time, if you see content writing as part of your longterm strategy, there is power in that. You can google the name of my agency and stuff I wrote 10 or 15 years ago still pops up.”

  • Think of yourself as an agency “on the offensive” and play from an offensive perspective-  creating more content with your name on it means you’re first to come up in Google listings. 

[19:00] Ken talks about what truly good content is and how much investment of time and energy it really takes. Properly writing about new ideas or strategies takes a lot of time and intentionality.

[23:00] Brad: When you’re writing, look at the news of the day and write about it from the perspective of your own industry and how it relates. 

[25:26] Brad: Consistency is key- the biggest influencers and content creators in the world didn’t happen into their success, they showed up every day and put the work in. Be consistent in your content creation and the results will come over time. 

[27:47] Ken speaks on finding your unique point of view and passion for that perspective. 

  • “In my opinion, you should not write for search engines. Write for people, find your passion, and then you get the best of both worlds… you want to help align them with the services that you offer.” 

[36:00] Ken continues to speak on client who are hungry for a specific type of agency relationship- “there is an appetite for good educational content that people could do to help sell themselves or their business” and so Metacake serves to fill that need. 

  • “You have to balance short term activities that drive revenue with longterm activities that will build recognition and benefit your business in 5, 10, 15 years.” 

[39:11] Brad asks Ken about how he gets Metacake behind his content strategy as a team. 

[40:09] Ken: “I think being genuine is really important because… if you’re not genuine and it’s really contrived, you do it just to put a content strategy out… that’s not true to who you are. I think people will feel that hypocrisy and I imagine it will be harder to to get behind longterm, but the truth is a big part of our heart is what we believe our purpose is as a business.”

[41:00] Ken responds: “I believe a product that all agencies sell information and experience… you might deliver that by creating a website, or you might deliver that by writing a book, but you’re still brokering information and experience.”

  • “I’ve tried to intentionally instill that in our team and discuss it… being genuine about what we’re doing has helped create a sort of mantra in the office, and our team is excited about it now… educating our world with how to create a better business using e-commerce. We get to teach people about having a healthy business… and even if you’re an executive at the top direct consumer company in the world, you can still laugh. And so we don’t want to be a talking head, but we want to have a personality that’s true to us and also a little bit fun.”
  • He talks about how Metacake has used humor and silliness in YouTube content to get people’s attention and help establish a personality for Metacake through this process. Sometimes those efforts don’t quite hit the mark, but they’re fun and informative!

[48:00] Brad talks about the importance of deciding where to spend your money wisely- the process of trying something new can pay off massively in learning for your team. 

  • Brad’s agency Anthem hosted lunch and learn session for local businesses a few years back- and they became a much more recognized company as a result. Ken shares that although they may not have gotten immediate ROI for these events, they reaped rewards in other ways.

[48:21] Ken “I have a theory that most of the reason why people don’t put effort into content strategy is they don’t know where to start- what to talk about, what their personality and style are going to be. And so put time into that- that’ll prove returns but also, just DO IT.” 

[51:42] Bob speaks on the next episode, and how The Guys will dive into maximizing content and some of the tools that are used to make this happen. “We’ve convinced you to focus on this content creation, but now we need to know where to start.”