Actionable Marketing Podcast

Thought leadership: You’ve no doubt heard the buzzword, but do you know what it means? More importantly, do you know why it matters when it comes to building and growing your business? Today we are going to talk to John Hall, the co-founder and CEO of Influence & Co., is going to chat with us today about how thought leadership can help you scale your business and take it to the next level. 

Some of the highlights of the show include: 

• How John got started with Influence & Co., how the company helps other businesses, and why they developed the technology needed for content creation and distribution.
• What inspired John to write his book, Top of Mind: Use Content to Unleash Your Influence and Engage Those Who Matter to You.
• Tips on building influence for those who want to use their influence to write and publish a book, as well as the first steps to take when writing a book.
• How a marketer can find a great idea to pitch to an influential publication.
• Some tactics John has used to build influence and position himself as an authority.
• Ideas on measuring intangibles like brand awareness, thought leadership, and influence with both qualitative and quantitative measurements.
• John’s best advice for someone looking to position themselves as an authority or an influencer. 

Links: 

John Hall on LinkedIn

Influence & Co.

Top of Mind: Use Content to Unleash Your Influence and Engage Those Who Matter to You

Likeonomics

Non-Obvious

CoSchedule

There are some companies that have extremely high standards for the industry that they’re in. When it comes to content teams, one of the best is Intercom. Today we’re going to be talking to Geoffrey Keating, an editor for the Intercom content team. He’s going to let us in on his secrets when it comes to the jobs-to-be-done theory, how to create unique content, and how keep yourself on schedule by planning and prioritizing. 

Some of the highlights of the show include: 

• Information about Intercom and what Geoffrey does there.
• Thoughts on crafting a message that reaches the readers where they are.
• The types of content and marketing collateral produced by Geoffrey’s team.
• How a small team gets all of the work completed that needs to be done.
• Why Geoffrey shies away from calling himself a content marketer.
• What Jobs-to-be-Done is and how it can help people create better content and better reach and engage with their target audience.
• The four main “buckets” that the Intercom team draws its ideas from when developing unique content.
• Geoffrey’s best advice for marketers who are not happy with the status quo. 

Links: 

Geoffrey on LinkedIn

Intercom

Jobs-to-be-done method

BaseCamp

CoSchedule

Groove HQ

Priceonomics

Data-driven marketing is a magnet for traffic, backlinks, and word of mouth. To produce it, you need to do some research and present it in an appealing way. In return, you’ll be able to boost the traffic to your site. Today we are talking to Susan Moeller, the business development manager at BuzzSumo. She’s going to tell us about how she finds, analyzes, and translates data for her readers. 

Some of the highlights of the show include: 

• A bit about BuzzSumo and what Susan does there, as well as her marketing background and what brought her to BuzzSumo.
• How Susan defines data-driven content and how she uses it in her position at BuzzSumo.
• Why it’s important for your content’s authority to research and have sources for things you know to be true.
• Why using data in your content can boost backlinks and shares.
• How Susan determines which questions to ask to find the data that her readers are looking for.
• Susan’s processes for gathering, analyzing, and translating the data that she finds.
• Susan’s best tips for starting to create data-driven content for someone who hasn’t done it before.

 Links: 

BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo Expert Webinar Series

Anders Pink

BloomBerry

CoSchedule

As a marketer, you have a day job. Did you know that taking on freelancing clients or having a side hustle can invigorate you and help you bring more to the table when it comes to your main job? Today we are going to talk about fanning those creative fires through a side job. CoSchedule’s blog manager, Ben Sailer, will be conducting the interview with Laura Posterick, the senior copywriter at Catchfire and the brains behind her own freelance business, Copy That MPLS. The conversation will be about lists, how to handle a freelancing business on the side of your day job, and how to glean inspiration from your personal life. 

Some of the highlights of the show include: 

• What Laura does at both Catchfire and Copy That MPLS.
• How Laura keeps all of her projects organized without losing her mind.
• Tips on keeping your personal life separate from your professional life and not letting one encroach upon the other.
• How Laura handles her workflow with each company and meets her deadlines.
• Advice for people on how to say “no” to projects and clients you might not have the time or experience to take on.
• How Laura’s side projects and hobbies have helped her in her main copywriting job.
• How someone might convince a hesitant boss that taking on side projects won’t negatively affect their performance at their day job.
• The first thing someone should do if they are wanting to jump into the world of freelancing in addition to keeping their main job.

Links: 

Catchfire

Copy That MPLS

Asana

CoSchedule

Do you have too much on your plate? Are you spread too thin? Are you constantly putting out fires? All of these are symptoms of a bigger problem, and oftentimes, that problem is a lack of prioritizing and planning ahead. If you see yourself in any of this, you will not want to miss today’s episode.

We are talking to Jana Barrett, the senior content marketing manager at GetFeedback. In her position, she needs to balance prioritizing with getting all of her projects done. Today we’re going to talk about setting priorities for your projects, coming up with great ideas, and getting it all organized so you don’t fall behind.

Some of the highlights of the show include: 

• Information about GetFeedback and what Jana does there as the head of content marketing.
• How Jana finds a balance between strategic work and executing projects, particularly on the importance of seeing the forest for the trees and not getting caught up in minutiae.
• Jana’s system for time management: How she uses calendars and spreadsheets.
• Why it’s important for a marketing team to get feedback from a sales team and how this strategy helps the marketing team get closer to the customer.
• Where Jana’s first marketing ideas came from during her earliest projects.
• What the typical workflow looks like at GetFeedback, how they do their scheduling, and how far out they plan their content.
• Jana’s best advice for someone trying to get more organized and set better work priorities.

Links: 

GetFeedback

CoSchedule

It’s a challenge to get traffic to your website. Even after you put in the effort to build traffic, many visitors don’t buy what you’re selling the first time they visit. What you want to do is get your visitors to return so they make that purchase. Today’s guest is Nick Steeves, the chief product officer at Wishpond. He is going to talk to us about retargeting, video ads, and how to measure your digital advertising success. If you want to get more people to come back to your site to buy your product or service, you won’t want to miss today’s show! 

Some of the highlights of the show include: 

• Information about Wishpond and what Nick does there.
• Retargeting: What it is and why it’s important. Nick also talks about two ways to do retargeting -- one way that is basic and one way that is more advanced.
• How Wishpond comes up with retargeting ad ideas.
• The types of retargeting ads that work the best for Display and Facebook.
• Tips on making great videos that will result in conversion.
• Why it makes good business sense to “pay to play” on Facebook.
• Why Wishpond calls their marketing team “the growth team.”
• What the Wishpond growth team’s workflow looks like and how they keep it all organized.
• How to test ads to know what works best, as well as what to look for to know whether the ad is working or not working and how to learn from the ads that just didn’t work.
• Nick’s best advice for someone just starting out with retargeting ads. 

Links: 

Nick Steeves

Wishpond

AdEspresso

Google AdWords

Asana

CoSchedule

Have you ever wondered how far ahead you should plan your content schedule and how you should manage your workflow? What do you do to keep everything running smoothly when unexpected projects pop up?  It’s a common challenge and one that many business-owners have struggled with. Today we’re going to be talking to our in-house expert, CoSchedule’s own Ben Sailer. He’s our blog manager and the one who sends out the emails that you probably receive. Today we’re going to talk to Ben about planning ahead, keeping on top of your workflow, and honing your publishing process.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• What Ben’s position as the blog manager of CoSchedule entails.
• How far ahead Ben plans and how much content he has ready to go at any given time, as well as his thoughts on why planning ahead is important.
• How CoSchedule communicates with the marketing team so everyone is in the loop at all times.
• How often the marketing team is publishing content and how they correlate what they’re posting to the day of the week.
• How Ben gets guest authors and why they are an important addition to the in-house team when it comes to producing content.
• How the team stays organized with so much going on and what a typical workflow looks like.
• Ben’s best advice for getting more organized and establishing a marketing calendar.

Links:

CoSchedule

The CoSchedule Blog

Do you want to be known as the one-stop resource for just about everything pertaining to your niche? If you have a content hub, you can be just that. Today we are talking to Krista Wiltbank, the head of social media and the blog at GetResponse, an all-in-one online marketing platform. She has launched a content hub centered on marketing automation. She’s going to talk to us about what a hub is and how it differs from a blog, how to launch your own content hub, and how to maintain the hub once it’s launched. You’re not going to want to miss this episode!

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• Information about GetResponse and what Krista does there.
• What a content hub is and an example of one that many listeners will recognize.
• Why a content hub is important and what type of information it includes.
• Factors that make a content hub launch a success.
• The process that Krista used to determine what needed to be included on the GetResponse content hub.
• A step-by-step approach to adding pieces of content to the hub, where to put it, and how to stay organized.
• How CoSchedule helps Krista and her team promote their content on social media.
• Tips for promoting webinars and other events.
• Thoughts on promoting infographics and how to optimize infographics for different platforms.
• How Krista leverages influencers and cultivates relationships that aid in content creation.
• The goals behind creating a content hub and the achievements that GetResponse has reached.
• Krista’s best advice for getting a content hub started.

Links:

Krista Wiltbank

GetResponse Marketing Hub

CoSchedule

Storytelling is one way to grow your business. It piques the interest of potential customers, draws them in, and is sometimes the catalyst that converts interest into a sale. You probably have your own story to tell, but you also likely have the stories of others that could hold an important position on your website.

Today we are talking to Lelia King, the communications director at The Iron Yard, a software development school for adults. Lelia knows how to collaborate with others to find the stories that will inspire people to sign up for the programs. You can learn to harness the power of social proof to help your potential clients envision themselves finding success just like others have done. This is one episode you are not going to want to miss.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• The story behind The Iron Yard, who makes up the team, and what Lelia does there.
• The planning process when coming up with a lot of content with a relatively small team, as well as how Lelia uses scheduling to ensure that there is a variety of content available.
• How the Iron Yard team weaves newsworthy and time-sensitive content into a schedule that has already been planned out.
• Why agility is such an important part of a marketing strategy.
• Why it’s important for The Iron Yard to share student stories and how stories help others envision themselves in those students’ shoes.
• Tips on finding the stories that you want to include on your website or in your advertising materials.
• The process that Lelia uses when it comes to storytelling and why sometimes a framework or formula does not work.
• Lelia’s best advice for someone who wants to start incorporating customer storytelling into their marketing strategy.

Links:

Lelia King

The Iron Yard

Yes We Code

Slack

Feedly

Asana

Jobs to Be Done

CoSchedule

Have you ever said, “make it pop,” to your graphic designer? While you know what you mean, it’s likely that your graphic designer does not have the same mental image you do. Today’s episode is going to be about collaborating with your designer to make an amazing image that pops the way you want it to. It’s all about communication!

Ashton Hauff is the CoSchedule graphic designer. She designs up to 15 blog posts every week, as well as managing our Instagram account, helping with branding, and a lot of other tasks. Today she’s going to talk to us about trusting your graphic designer, as well as how to best communicate so that together you can create something beautiful.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• How Ashton got into design and why she loves it.
• Why digital design is such an important part of the marketing process, as well as why some types of design just add visual clutter and are ineffective.
• How Ashton makes sure that her designs are intentional and relevant to the blog posts or projects she’s working on. She also talks about how she goes about storytelling through her designs.
• Tips on finding a theme and settling on colors for a particular project.
• Why communication is an integral part of the design process.
• Some of the problems that designers can encounter when they’re working with marketing teams.
• Why it’s so important that a marketing team trust the designer’s expertise.
• How marketers can work with designers when there’s something they don’t like in the image.
• Why simplicity matters for high-quality designs, as well as why simple designs can be challenging to create.
• Why agility is important, as well as how much Ashton creates over the course of a week.
• Examples of times when things just went wrong with Ashton’s design process, including what ended up being the problem and lessons she learned.
• Ashton’s vision of the future of design in marketing, as well as her advice for people just getting started in design.

Links:

Ashton’s archive on CoSchedule

Latent Semantic Indexing blog post

CoSchedule.com

Lynda.com

Canva.com