Week 9/12 - CXL Growth Marketing Minidegree Review

I can’t believe I’m only three weeks from the end of this minidegree. It feels kind of weird being this close to the end, as this course has become a way for me to stay “active” just as much as it has been a firehose of information. 

I’ve spent this week in the channel-specific growth track and I am currently halfway through the retention course. 

The channel-specific growth track contains so much information, I don’t think I’ll be able to cover it all here. The courses range from E-mail marketing to Content marketing, PR-strategies, Facebook ads, PPC, ABM, SEO, and Retention.

In this post I’m going to cover the content marketing course, because I found it most helpful and interesting. The course is led by Andy Crestodina from Orbit Media.

Being a solo marketer, being able to prioritize which channel you focus your efforts on is highly important. 

Content is one of the most effective ways to drive results in the long term.

In general, especially for smaller companies, content should be the centerpiece of your marketing strategy. It helps with every part of your marketing in different ways - both directly and indirectly. 

First of all, far from everyone knows how to produce content on a consistent basis. If you know how to churn out a long piece of content every week, whether it’s an article, a video, or a podcast, you’re already ahead of most marketers. 

Second, content is way less “salesy” compared to other forms of marketing. Of course, it all depends on how it’s done but, in general, reading an article or watching a video doesn’t feel like marketing in the same way that an ad feels like marketing. 

Content sells indirectly. And I personally think it’s more aligned with how most people buy.  

Most people either know exactly what they’re looking for, or are unsure of what they want. 

And through content you can cater to both audiences by reinforcing their already existing beliefs or needs, or help those who are unsure to make up their mind.  

Let’s dive into a couple of key takeaways:

Creating a content strategy

Most people over-complicate their content strategy. 

According to Andy, what you really need is a list of keywords broken down into topics, a one-line strategic statement, and a list of influencers within your space. 

Here’s Andy’s template for creating a content strategy: 

Our content is where [audience x] gets [information y] that offers [benefit z]

“Our blog is where marketers find tips and tricks about how to use data to create relevant communication that their customers love.”

Simple as that. 

Except for doing some research regarding keywords and search optimization, you don’t really need much more than that. 

The most effective form of content is not video...

It’s actually original research and strongly opinionated articles. 

EVERYONE has an opinion about content. And the big problem is that most people’s opinions are based on what type of content they mostly consume themselves. 

Video is a great format for when you need to explain something complex, in an easy way. 

Text is great because it takes less time to produce, is easy to scan and for quickly finding what you’re looking for, and will help you rank in search engines. 

Images are best used to reinforce or clarify what’s being said in a text. 

It’s important to think about how each format is consumed. 

Text is almost always scanned, and never read from start to finish.

Video is almost always watched from start to finish, and never scanned. 

And if you’re looking for engagement or results — make sure your content is strongly opinionated. 

Having a strong opinion as a content marketer

Having a strong opinion is hard. I think it’s where most content creators struggle. They’re scared of turning potential clients away just because they have different opinions on a subject. 

Truth is... 

Nobody wants to follow someone who is afraid of making people angry. 

The “aha-moment” in content marketing comes from discovering more people who have the same controversial opinions as you. 

Take a look at the presidential debate. Do you think people would care as much about the election if both parties were kind of the same? 

Opinions are what separates the masses — and it’s the separation that brings people together. 

Humans are actually wired this way naturally, which is why it’s so powerful if used correctly. But hardly noticeable if used incorrectly. 

Creating original research

Original research is one of the most popular forms of content in existence. 

Just recently, we at Triggerbee launched a completely new report called the “Personalization Index”. 

We basically analyzed Sweden’s top 100 ecommerce websites and ranked them based on how good they are at personalization specifically. 

We analyzed the results, and wrote about our findings in a 25-page long report. When we released it publicly, over 200 people downloaded it on day 1. 

Apart from the initial spike of traffic and leads, we can use this report as a basis for when we create posts for social media, we can use the statistics in blog articles and videos. 

Original research is also the form of content that receives the most links, according to a study from Buzzsumo. 

Summary of week 9

The first eight weeks, I thought it would be a good idea to spend most of my time studying after both my wife and child had gone to sleep. 

Initially it felt like a great strategy, because I could focus 100% on the learning material. 

But it wasn’t optimal in terms of having that balance between work, studying, family time and sleep.

One drawback of this strategy is that you don’t get as much sleep during the weekdays. 

I normally don’t need that much sleep to function well and feel alert — I can usually get by on 5-6 hours of sleep each night.

But after eight weeks of going all-in while trying to balance your other responsibilities… you kind of end up going on autopilot. 

This week, I actually studied less, and took less notes. Instead of writing down what was being said, I just wrote down short one-sentence notes and wrote short summaries of every lesson.

I have had way too much focus on writing notes. So far I’ve written well over 45,000+ words of notes from the minidegree… which is around 90+ A4 pages. 

I’m still very excited about the rest of the channel specific growth courses. As I said, i’m halfway through the retention course, which is very useful to me right now as I work at SaaS company where retention is a key metric. 

Next week, I’ll talk a bit more about how to think about retention, and why it’s such an important metric for most SaaS companies.