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FUNNEL MAGAZINE TRAFFIC & LEAD GEN

6 FUNNEL FEATURES

LEADERSHIP

TACTICS-OPPORTUNITIES THAT YIELD A WINNING ADVANTAGE

THE INTERVIEW

48 METRICS

18 STRATEGY & TACTICS

LEADERSHIP

68 SOCIAL MEDIA

VOLUME 2

FUNNEL MAGAZINE

IN EVERY EDITION

LETTER

IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF YOUR CONTENT

FROM THE EDITOR

TARGETING HIGH VALUE CLIENTELE?

CUSTOM PACKAGING CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR YOUR FUNNEL

RACHEL PEDERSEN

THE SECRET TO CREATING 7 FIGURE VIRAL MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

GENERATING TRAFFIC TO CLIENT FUNNEL WITH NON-PPC OR LONG-TERM SEO

LAUNCHING A PRODUCT IN LITERALLY 4 HOURS

THE SALES OF SOCIAL PROOF

GETTING S.M.A.A.R.T. ABOUT ACCOUNTABILITY

THE LATEST INNOVATION IN PRIVACY INVASION!

EDITION 8

FUNNELMAGAZINE.COM

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR OF

FUNNEL M

Dear Funnel Genius, It has come to my attention that our covers have been predominantly male. While we here at the magazine strive to be inclusive, and focus on great information for the marketing industry it is no surprise to me that we indeed have a problem. But our publisher is not to blame. This is an industry where very few women are behind the screen. IT in general is notorious for being a sausage fest. And yet here I am your editor. And half the team (maybe more) who help bring you this magazine are female. Even other articles that are written are inclusive of both genders. I have met many female funnel hackers but again there are nowhere near as many. So the question becomes how to we get more women in the spotlight when it comes to funnels. Which is ironic as being a funnel builder or strategist is certainly a behind the curtains job. A person is doing well if they are not seen, not noticed. It is much like technical theater or film editing, you want to be in black unseen to be great. We have stepped out to bring those that are making waves and have great insight a platform to share this knowledge. We have had kids featured, and people of all shapes, sizes, colors and backgrounds. And we are doing our best to change the way the industry works for the better. Both in information and in the way that genders are represented. We have released a mini edition featuring Jacki McLenaghan but as that was a separate product many of you did not get to experience that exclusive edition. So we are lining up the female experts in our industry and bringing them to you. And if there are more people out there that you want to see featured on our cover let us know and we’ll connect. Send your message to our Contributor Coordinator, Lisa at Lisa@InvertInc.com In this edition I’m proud to say that we are featuring Rachel Pedersen and that is just the first of many female covers. To hear our publisher’s thoughts on this in his own words go to funnel. news/v2e8-publishers-insight Happy Funneling - Kate Mikado, Editor-In-Chief

VOLUME 2

FUNNEL MAGAZINE

EDITION 8

FUNNELMAGAZINE.COM

TRAFFIC & LEAD GEN

VOLUME 2

FUNNEL MAGAZINE

EDITION 8

FUNNELMAGAZINE.COM

How to Improve the Quality of Your Content ARTICLE BY Bogdan Zlatkov

If you’re a B2B company with limited resources, how Source: Hubspot benchmark data much content should you be aiming to create? This data is super useful and definitely something you There are merits to both a quantity-heavy and a quality- should consider when planning your content marketing strategy. The issue that I take with this data, however, is heavy approach. First, let’s take a look at quantity. it only measures quantity of blog posts and quantity of Those who favor a quantity-heavy approach will traffic. Most importantly, it leaves out the quality of the typically cite stats like, “Companies that published 16+ traffic and the quality of the leads. blog posts per month got about 4.5X more leads than companies that published 0-4 monthly posts.” Then For example, working with one of our recent clients at Pixel Press, we decided to do a collaboration with they’ll add a fun chart like this… another company on an e-book we were putting out. Our client, a B2B company of about 200 people, was going to partner with another B2B company of about 2400 people. Clearly there was a huge upside to working with a company larger than us and with far more reach than us. So, we spent about a month producing a quality e-book that addressed both companies’ target markets and we pressed publish. We estimated that we would receive about 3,500 leads from the e-book.

We were wrong, very wrong. VOLUME 2

FUNNEL MAGAZINE

Not only did we surpass our 3,500 lead goal but we smashed it by securing over 14,000 leads in just 1

month! Wow! Huge win! High fives all around!

Most other content marketers agree that content strategy depends on a lot of factors. But rather than If we only took a quantity metric of this e-book it would stopping at “it depends,” let’s look at exactly what to do be counted as the best piece of content we had made at different stages in the growth of a B2B company. all year. But, being responsible content strategists of course, we also measured the quality of the leads. Position in the Market How? We do this the old school way. Not by measuring conversions (again that’s a quantity-based approach) but by talking to the actual sales team. Yes, we had real conversations with real people which, from what I understand, is pretty rare in the content agency world.

Where you are in the market should be your first step in determining how much content you produce. Ross Simmonds, an expert on digital strategy, stated it perfectly when he said, “If you’re in a competitive space where every ideal keyword has been claimed with 10x content - you’re walking up a steep hill with 50lbs on your back. In this case, it’s possible you’re going to need to take an aggressive effort as you’re truly playing catch up.”

When we spoke with the sales team we found out that the majority of the e-book leads were grossly unqualified. There were people who didn’t even recognize the If you are playing catch up to competitors who have a company name, let alone what they actually did. ton of content out already, then yes, you should churn Having poor quality leads can be attributed to a few out a content library as quickly as possible. Having a good backlog of content not only helps boost your things: SEO for keywords, but it also begins the process of • Misleading subject titles compounding returns. • Over promotion to the wrong audiences According to Hubspot, 1 in 10 blog posts are • Under-nurturing leads compounding, meaning organic search increases their • Misleading CTA traffic over time. So, the sooner you can create blog • Lack of brand placement posts, the better chance you have of hitting that 1 in 10 When creating a piece of content, there are a million shot of one of them taking off. quality metrics that contribute to making that piece of When you’re first entering a market, you don’t really content successful or not. I think this is why everyone know what works and what doesn’t from a content likes to fall back on the quantity metrics. They’re clear. perspective. You need to experiment and see what They’re easy. resonates with your audience. So yes, if you’re new to But if you only measure the amount of traffic and leads content marketing, write and write often. you’re generating, chances are you’ll be wasting your A good benchmark we recommend for new companies sales team’s time and thus wasting your money. to hit is about 4 blog posts per month without a So, while it’s true that creating more content is a good dedicated content writer, or 8 blog posts per month thing, creating content simply for boosting numbers with a dedicated writer. This guarantees that by the end of the year you’ll have 48 to 96 pieces of content. isn’t necessarily the smartest strategy. Taking that into account let’s look at...

Efficiency of the Sales Funnel

If, however, you’ve been in the content marketing game for at least a year or two, it’s time to take a more For a B2B business, the amount of content you create qualitative approach to your strategy. How qualitative should largely be based on: your approach should be is largely determined by how good your sales funnel is already. • Position in the market • Efficiency of the Sales Funnel Continuing to churn out blog posts just to increase • Size of Sales Team traffic is a fool’s errand if you’re just taking that traffic A Quality-based Approach to Content Creation

and chucking it into an inefficient sales funnel. Giving blanket advice like “this is how B2B businesses should…” is never a smart idea. You always need to The internet is full of clever ways adjust your advice based on variables of a business, to increase your sales funnel and that’s why we developed the above variables when conversion rates. From advising our clients. EDITION 8 FUNNELMAGAZINE.COM