Technical Content Marketing for Lead Generation & Conversion 10/2023

Content Marketing is defined as:

"... a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action." (Content Marketing Institute)

Examples of content marketing include creation and distribution of:

• News items and articles
• White papers and reports
• Consumer and vendor surveys
• Other keyword-rich materials designed to engender interest and lead to a request for services

In contrast to Digital Advertising, Content Marketing provides a chance for the free generation of leads, particularly in the critical B2B market. This is done by writing and distributing highly focused and useful content designed for niche audiences.

Technical Content Marketing takes a data-driven approach towards content marketing, which includes a 13-step process:

1. Audience definition and analytics: customer data, user research, audience definition
2. Content marketing research, including advanced keyword research
3. Content strategy for lead generation, including Calls to Action (CTAs)
4. Keywords and search engine optimization (SEO)
5. Content generation and editing
6. Content scheduling and recycling
7. Technical SEO, Link-building and off-page SEO
8. Social media and content distribution
9. Online advertising and content distribution
10. Influencer marketing and content distribution
11. Email marketing and content distribution
12. Measurement and reporting, including Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and others
13. Calculating ROI and other benefits from content marketing

Agenda Day 1 

08:30 – 08:45  Registration

08:45 – 10:00  Introduction to Technical Content Marketing 

This module provides a brief introduction to technical content marketing, explaining foundational concepts of content marketing and how this inter-relates to digital marketing strategy. Emphasis is provided on taking an integrated approach to technical content marketing and assuring adequate resources for this commensurate to the conversion challenges identified.

1. The online conversion cycle – the online linear sales funnel – the iterative sales funnel
2. Defining digital marketing strategy: audience definition and targeting
3. Defining digital marketing strategy: content development and distribution
4. Defining digital marketing strategy: channels, budgets and ROI
5. How Return on Investment (ROI) works: Traffic > Conversions > Sales
6. Case studies of successful content marketing

10:00 – 11:00  Technical Content Marketing: Audience Definition 

This module begins with the market: the definition of audiences that each Cypriot enterprise will market towards. Each enterprise will have multiple audiences. Some will depend on their B2B, B2C, or B2B2C sales model. Demographic and purchase behaviour also play an important role.

1.  Identifying and defining customer audiences using different data sources:

• Own sales data and tacit knowledge on customers: use your internal data and customer understanding to define the audience
• Review previous advertising campaigns or other promotional campaigns for audience insights
• Use social media to define custom audiences and then lookalike audiences.

2.  Segmenting (defining) audiences by different factors:

• Purchase behaviour, including price and special offer sensitivity
• Demographic data, including gender, age and socio-economic status
• Affinity and aspirational marketing hypotheses, including brand awareness
• Competitor observation

3.  Using the Facebook Audience Network; Google Mirror Network

4.  Workshop: Defining five key audience segments for each enterprise

5.  Workshop: Assessing audience motivations and value

11:00 – 11:15  Morning Coffee Break

11:15 – 13:00  Content Marketing Products and Audience Tailoring 

This module defines and demonstrates different content marketing products in light of different audiences. It requires each participating enterprise to make assumptions about the wants and needs of each audience in terms of content marketing products, channels and messages.

• Written content for passive search (e.g. references, testimonials)
• Written content for active distribution (e.g. news, articles)
• Written content for advertising and press releases (advertising messages and keywords)
• Written content for free distribution via social media and other websites
• Infographics, photos, and other media
• Video content for free distribution
• Video content for sponsored distribution
• Deciding on content distribution frequency and scheduling: editorial calendars and services
• Deciding on content distribution channels

Case Studies and Samples of News, Articles, Reports, Video Content from different segments will be shown. 

13:00 – 14:00  Lunch Break

14:00 – 14:45  Workshop: Drafting a News Article 

In this module, each participating company will be asked to draft a news article using the following components:

• Title (simple, with active verb)
• Summary
• Dateline
• Intro Paragraph
• News Body (4-5 paras)
• Closing Paragraph
• Contact Information

14:45 – 15:45  On-Page Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) 

This module introduces the all-important component of search engine optimization, or the process of optimizing websites for high search engine rankings. Module topics inlcude:

• Principles of search engine optimisation (SEO) – focus on Google Search
• Keyword selection and placement using Frequency-Prominence- Proximity-Density
• Article length
• Links within the website
• Headings and Title Tags
• Frequent content updates
• Domain name, domain age, registration, URLs and keywords
• Optimising using photos, ALT tags, and PDF attachments
• Google core web vital statistics: page loading time, mobile friendliness, etc.
• Schema and mark-up, including Google Tag Manager

15:45 – 16:00  Afternoon Coffee Break

16:00 – 16:30  Workshop: Using Google Keyword Tool Finder 

We will use the free Google Keyword Tool Finder as a means of researching keywords and related keywords. We will then implement a short keyword frequency demonstration

16:30 – 17:00  Workshop: Using Google Search Console 

Google Search Console is a free technical management tool by Google which any company can use. We will spend 30 minutes reviewing Search Console and showing how to develop a sitemap, demand indexing of certain pages and review Core Web Vital metrics such as loading time, page errors, and more

17:00 – 17:15  Discussion and Closing 

We will conclude the day’s training with reflection and discussion on the content taught and its relevance and challenges with implementation.

Agenda Day 2 

08:30 – 08:45  Registration

08:45 – 09:45  Principles of Off-Page SEO 

In this module, we look at the principles of off-page SEO: the tools and techniques that support your search engine ranking not on your website, but on other websites.

• Content Posting on other Websites / Backlinking
• Domain Authority
• Traffic
• Google My Business
• Developing Website Ecosystems
• Other Off-Page Tools and Tactics

09:45 – 10:45  Workshop: Optimising a News Article 

In this Workshop, we return to the news item created in yesterday’s workshop. Each company will optimize the article based on the on-page SEO tactics discussed in yesterday’s session. Each company will then define a plan for distributing the news article to the widest but most targeted network of audiences and discuss the off-page SEO impact of this.

10:45 – 11:00  Content Distribution Strategy 

This module is an introduction to content distribution strategy. It provides an overview for the distribution methods discussed, and will be followed by detailed modules for each component.

a.  Social Media Distribution Strategy

b.  Advertising Distribution Strategy

c.  Influencer Distribution Strategy

11:00 – 11:15  Morning Coffee Break

11:15 – 13:00  Social Media Distribution Strategy 

This module explores how to create and / or post content on popular social media channels including Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Youtube and TikTok. Some of the specific channels and sub-channels we will look at include:

• LinkedIn News/Posts vs Articles
• LinkedIn Profile and Page Completion
• Facebook Individual Profiles versus Pages
• Facebook Stories 
• Posting on third-party services such as Wikipedia, Medium, Quora

The training subjects include:

• Personal versus enterprise branding using content marketing in social media
• Understanding and selecting the social media ecosystem in terms of audiences, engagement, frequency and timing
• Free posting on your page / profile / channel / stream
• Free posting in groups
• SEO of posting and graphic materials
• Generating transcripts for videos (SEO for videos)
• Managing multilingual posting
• Content recycling; repeat posting; building up to an event posting

13:00 – 14:00  Lunch Break

14:00 – 15:00  Advertising Distribution Strategy 

This module explains how to use various advertising channels to distribute paid content. The advertising interfaces of the following platforms will be reviewed: Facebook Advertising; Google PPC Advertising; Google Display Advertising and LinkedIn Advertising. 

 

15:00 - 15:45   Other Content Distribution Methods 

This module will review other methods of distributing content, including Email Newsletters; Press Releases (paid); Referrors and Influencer Marketing. 

15:45 – 16:00  Afternoon Coffee Break

16:00 – 16:30  Workshop on Advanced Google Analytics 

This module outlines the advanced functionality of Google Analytics. This is used as a “reality check” and incoming traffic confirmation for any paid services, such as traffic advertisements on Google.

• Custom Dashboard Configuration, including Advanced Views, Custom Filters and Custom Metrics using Google Analytics
• Event tracking and user behaviour
• Understanding and managing the Bounce Rate
• Understanding incoming traffic by source, type, keyword, incoming and outbound page
• Remarketing and Retargetting

16:30 – 17:00  Workshop on SEMRush 

SEMRush is one of the most advanced platforms available for search engine marketing and optimization. This company integrates decades of research in terms of search engine optimization and offers advanced functionalities We will review the options offered on this platform as a complement to the free, Google Analytics and Google Search Console. It is important to note that SEMRush has a freemium model, and thus many key features, including an advanced site diagnostic, are available for free (sometimes in limited scope).

• Keyword Analysis and Research
• Domain Authority
• Competitor Analysis
• Page Ranking
• Internal and External Links
• Core Web Vital Site Audit
• Crawlability
• Speed & Performance

17:00 – 17:15  Conclusions and Closing 

Developing an Action Plan for Technical Content Marketing

Tracking total effort, total return and ROI of Technical Content Marketing

Risks and final notes