Content Strategy Insights

By Larry Swanson

Conversations with content strategists from all crafts (strategy, design, engineering, operations, etc.) and backgrounds (enterprise, agencies, UX, content design, technical communication, marketing, ... more

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FAQs about Content Strategy Insights:

How many episodes does Content Strategy Insights have?

The podcast currently has 311 episodes available.

Content Strategy Insights episodes:

February 05, 2019 Kronda Adair: Stealth Content Strategy – Episode 37
Kronda Adair

Kronda Adair helps mission-driven businesses succeed online. Helping her clients authentically share their expertise as digital content is a key part of this mission.

Kronda and I talked about:

her evolution from web developer to a full-service, results-oriented marketing agency
her stealthy approach to eliciting content from her clients
her new "Content Bootcamp" product
how she helps her clients with their communication strategy: crafting a good offer that solves a real problem, identifying the right audience, and polishing the messaging
the conversational style she uses to understand her clients and their customers and translating that into an actionable content plan
how she helps clients move from "media speak" to "just you" - their authentic self and voice
her "gentle kick in the butt" technique to help her clients to actually get started executing
her focus on the "why," "the reason for doing it has to be bigger than the fear"
how she became a resource guru - as speaker, she often offers a prize if anyone can ask a question for which she doesn't already have a resource on her site
how her second reading of "Work the System" by Sam Carpenter led her to become a process nerd and to start proselytizing and asking clients, "Have you accepted documentation and process as your personal savior?"
how the only way to get past overwhelm is to become more efficient - is to document your processes - both for yourself and for folks you outsource to
how good content can pre-sell you and your services - her ultimate goal is helping her clients become "that obvious choice"
her new nickname, "Kronda-pedia"
some of her favorite resources to help drive content creation
how making content creation a habit can normalize the process and reduce the pressure on the creator
the importance of separating content planning from content creation

Kronda's Bio
Kronda Adair is the founder of Karvel Digital, an agency that helps mission-driven service based businesses automate their marketing to create a predictable sales pipeline.

She is a regular speaker at WordPress meetups and WordCamps and has been featured on podcasts such as The Kim Doyal Show, and The Out Entrepreneur with Rhodes Perry.

Her latest project is Content Bootcamp, a 10-week online intensive to teach overwhelmed entrepreneurs how to create and use content as an asset that saves time and sells for you.

When she’s not working, she can be found enjoying time at home with her wife, two cats, and Vizsla puppy, reading dead-tree books, riding one of her five bikes, or enjoying the postcard vistas of the state of Oregon.

[Kronda talks in our interview about the importance of always being helpful. For example, there's that time she jumped on stage to help Ani DiFranco recall the lyrics to one of her songs.]
Video
Here’s the video version of our conversation:

https://youtu.be/Kmejd3wjYNE
Transcript
Larry:
Hi everyone. Welcome to episode number 37 of The Content Strategy Insights podcast. I'm really delighted today to have with us Kronda Adair. Kronda is a digital marketer and strategist down in Portland, Oregon. She runs her own small agency down there. She does a lot of other interesting things as well. I'll let Kronda tell you a little bit more about herself.

Kronda:
All right, thanks, Larry. Yeah, so, January is actually my sixth anniversary of being in business. I started out as a developer, just making WordPress sites for people. As the years went on, I've kind of evolved over time into different things, as I saw that just making websites wasn't really helping people as much as I wanted. Then I started studying marketing,
...more
27min
February 05, 2019 Kronda Adair
Kronda Adair helps mission-driven businesses succeed online. Helping her clients authentically share their expertise as digital content is a key part of this mission.

https://ellessmedia.com/csi/kronda-adair/
...more
27min
January 25, 2019 Jenn Marie: Brand Copywriting & UX – Episode 36
Jenn Marie

Jenn Marie helps small businesses share their authentic selves online. She focuses on personality-driven content marketing that helps her clients start conversations with their customers and prospects.

Jenn and I talked about:

how her diverse business background prepared her for internet marketing work
how her work in experiential marketing informs her branding expertise
the confluence she observed about 10 years ago of experiential marketing and influencer marketing
her first online marketing customer, Idaho Beef, a cowboy/firefighter/fence installer whose well-established personality she moved it to the internet
how that work led to her work with less-well-branded clients
how she helps folks understand what their brand is - "It's what you do, not who you are."
how she sees the relationship between content strategy and branding strategy
her focus on content marketing, which she has to explain to clients to differentiate it from SEO, paid ads, etc.
her answer when clients see her plan and say,"I can't write that much." - "I can."
how she moved from writing 3,000 to 4,000 words per day herself to employing, editing, and managing a team of six content writers with varying skills (experts in blog writing, copywriting, clickbait, translation, etc.)
how branding and user experience/UX work together
how her journalism background helps her stay focused on answering customer questions, instead of marketing-oriented concerns
her approach to conversational content: "Don't sell. Just talk to the consumer."
her take on purposeful content: "Every piece of writing has a point."
the shift in conventional internet writing style from generic "blah blah blah" writing 15 years ago to the current focus on emotionally powerful content that inspires action
how the Amazon Marketplace style guide helps content creators master web/UX writing
the origin story of her branded business name, Jenn Marie

Jenn's Bio
Jenn is the founder of Jenn Marie Writing & Marketing, a boutique content marketing provider that crafts branded content for solopreneurs and online businesses. Her background is a mixture of print journalism, experiential marketing, and e-commerce. In addition to 18 years as a freelancer, Jenn has also worked in sales supportive roles for Dell, Microsoft, and Amazon. She loves helping individuals find their voice through words and is currently working on a Patreon-funded passion project where she tells the stories of underserved communities through eBooks.
Video
Here’s the video version of our conversation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkTlxF5C-MY

Transcript

Larry:
Hi everyone. Welcome to the Content Strategy Insights Podcast. This is episode number 36 of the show that used to be called the Content Strategy Interviews Podcast. I'll do a separate post on the rebranding. But, branding is kind of an appropriate thing to talk about because today I have with us an expert in branding. Jenn Marie is kind of a typical content strategist, in the sense that she has a really diverse background. She's been a model and spokesperson, she's been a freelance journalist, she's done technical support work as well as technical sales and pre-sales and she's written poetry. So, she's a word nerd, a word person like all of us, with a lot of diverse business experience. I'm gonna let Jenn tell you a little bit more about herself.

Jenn:
Hello everyone. So, thanks for the wonderful introduction. Wow, I don't know where to start. As you said, I do have a bit of a diverse background and my explanation for it generally is I did whatever I needed to make money. I've always been the type of person that I do things that I enjoy.
...more
30min
January 25, 2019 Jenn Marie
Jenn Marie helps small businesses share their authentic selves online. She focuses on personality-driven content marketing that helps her clients start conversations with their customers and prospects.

https://ellessmedia.com/csi/jenn-marie/
...more
30min
January 14, 2019 John Sechrest: Content Strategies for Startups – Episode 35
John Sechrest

John Sechrest helps startups tell their stories. By managing the narrative around their startup idea, founders can improve their odds of raising money, attracting the right talent, and - most importantly - connecting with the right customers.

John and I talked about:

the importance in of startup founders telling an effective story and living it
how content strategy is the art of managing a startup's story
how neglecting your narrative leaves you "wallowing in the swamp"
how multiple content strategies help a startup:

manage the emerging company culture
manage the relationship of the components of the company
manage the relationship between the customers and the company
set and define the startups brand

how going from 2 guys in a garage to $50 million in revenue happens by attracting the right people and getting the market to care - both require a narrative, and that narrative is at the root of your content strategy
how "doing a startup is an inherently stupid activity" - takes lots of time, presents multiple opportunities to fail, puts everything at risk - so startup founders really need to know their "why"
why you need a "Mission from God" ("Blues Brothers" movie) - an overarching why:

why potential employees should work for you
why investors should fund you
why customers should engage with you

but interesting stories don't lead with the why - they start with relationship-based conversation that shows the why
there's a why at the genesis of a startup - and you'd better be able to articulate it (Elon Musk, e.g.)
have to have a loud and clear content strategy to be heard over the noise of the journalists who are focused on the sausage making
journalists will always find the problems, that's what they do - so can be hard to talk about the successes - steer conversation back to mission from god
the importance of building an audience as early as possible - 7 billion people know nothing about you - need to sort out who might care, who'll never care, and who need you right now
using Reddit to start to validate the problem you're trying to solve, and professional forums to find industrial folks to start conversations with
sometimes need to tell the story of the problem when it's not clear yet (but you see it) and that's a terrible place for startups - enterprise yes - so get a big enterprise to talk about the problem for you
how a startups content strategy is not only about today but as much about "the business that you intend to be tomorrow"
importance of adapting your narrative to the stage you're at

John's Bio
John Sechrest is Founder of the Seattle Angel Conference, Co-Organizer of the Lean Startup Seattle, and Global Facilitator for Startup Weekend.

As an entrepreneurial collaborator, he focuses on entrepreneurial and innovation efforts as a way to develop new projects and companies. His efforts are focused on building the tools, skills, and processes that enable people to make a positive impact on the world.

John also organizes the Seattle Startups Open Coffee and Eastside Startups Open Coffee meetups.
Video
Here’s the video version of our conversation:

https://youtu.be/kimbGyMA31g
Transcript
Larry:
Hi everyone. Welcome to episode number 35 of the Content Strategy Interviews Podcast [my bad: I re-branded the podcast to "Content Strategy Insights" between the time that we recorded this and the publication date]. This is the first episode of season number two of the podcast, and I'm really happy today to have with us John Sechrest. I know John as the most knowledgeable, generous, helpful person in the Seattle startup world,
...more
28min
January 14, 2019 John Sechrest
John Sechrest helps startups tell their stories. By managing the narrative around their startup idea, founders can improve their odds of raising money, attracting the right talent, and – most importantly – connecting with the right customers.

https://ellessmedia.com/csi/john-sechrest/
...more
28min
October 24, 2018 Andrea Zoellner: UX Copywriting – Episode 34
Andrea Zoellner

Andrea Zoellner is passionate about making the web more accessible and usable. With clear UX copywriting and a single-minded focus on the user, she helps people succeed online.

Andrea and I talked about:

her passion for making the web more accessible
her path to UX copywriting via communications and journalism
her definition of UX copywriting: tiny bits of copy that help people complete a flow
how her journalism background helps her anticipate users' needs
the expansion of the term "copywriting" from marketing and advertising to UX
how common it is for writers now to do be called upon to do both marketing and UX copy
supporting your target customer with the information that they need to accomplish their goals
the balance between being generous with your content and paying attention to the need to get marketing results from it
how to measure the ROI of content, and the importance of tracking and measuring content engagement and performance
the importance of content in achieving SEO goals
the value of writing to connect with your customers and to answer their questions
using tools like A/B testing and other research methods to guide your content creation
how to track content success in both flow-oriented UX task writing as well as how-to content
how she uses Google Analytics to track the validity of her marketing copy hypotheses (and how she's always surprised by the info)
the value of in-person interactions to drive idea generation and to identify sources of friction
the differences between micro copy and macro copy, and how both can/should impel the reader/user forward
how difficult UX copywriting can be, the challenge of being succinct, the need to be accurate and meaningful
how to make my websites more accessible to people and being understood by the largest audience possible
the importance of accessibility in both writing and design

Andrea's Bio
Andrea is a Content Creator at SiteGround and the lead organizer for WordCamp Montreal. She trained as a broadcast journalist and worked in corporate communications before trading it for a career in tech. Now, she uses her experience as a writer to improve how people engage with information online, whether it’s through blogging, editing microcopy, or developing brand messaging. When she’s not at home in Montreal, Canada, she’s sampling the digital nomad life and documenting her adventures on her travel blog capsulesuitcase.com.
Video
Here's the video version of our conversation:

https://youtu.be/WY3DfCzMvNQ
Transcript
Larry:
Hi, everyone. Welcome to Episode Number 34 of the Content Strategy Interviews Podcast. I'm really happy today to have with us Andrea Zoellner. Andrea is a content creator at SiteGround, the web hosting company, but she's done a lot more than that. Let me have Andrea tell you a little bit more about her background and what she's up to today.

Andrea:
Hi, Larry, and thanks so much for having me on the podcast.

Andrea:
Yes, you're right. I am a content creator at SiteGround, but before that, I was on the marketing team at Automattic, so I've been in the WordPress space for a couple of years now. One of the things that I'm most passionate about is making the Web more accessible for people through language.

Andrea:
Before that, I was working in communications in the nonprofit sector and in the corporate sector, as well as working in journalism before that, which is what I studied in college. But yeah, I would say that words are really my business.

Larry:
Nice. Like I said, this is the thirty-fourth interview I've done, and everybody has a different pathway in and yours is unique,
...more
30min
October 24, 2018 Andrea Zoellner
Andrea Zoellner is passionate about making the web more accessible and usable. With clear UX copywriting and a single-minded focus on the user, she helps people succeed online.
...more
30min
October 15, 2018 Heather Lloyd-Martin: SEO Copywriting – Episode 33
Heather Lloyd-Martin

When the field of SEO emerged in the late 1990s, Heather Lloyd-Martin was one of the first writers to focus on search engines. She's still at it 20 years later - writing, coaching, training, and consulting on SEO copywriting.

Heather and I talked about:

her background in SEO, dating back to before the introduction of Google
how much she enjoys testing SEO content ideas
the importance of addressing user intent
the enduring importance of key phrases in SEO ranking success
her definition of SEO copywriting: "using key phrases and content to help that content be found in search engines"
how she trains marketing-oriented copywriters - direct response copywriters, e.g., - to shun a pushy approach and be more conversational
how to break down company silos to re-unite "orphaned content"
the importance of considering how to satisfy micro-moment user intent in your editorial calendar
how a long-tail content strategy can build brand awareness and improve conversion
the importance of doing competitive intelligence before you go after a key phrase, and of offering a unique angle when you target a popular key phrase because Google is looking for unique content, not more "me-too" content
the importance of understanding the context of a key phrase you're targeting - e.g. a "blender" can be both an industrial and a home appliance
how keyword research can improve your content ROI
her recommendation that SEO copywriters learn analytics
how analysis of metrics can help drive, e.g., social media decisions around your content
how copywriters can improve the shareability and linkability of content as they create it with tools like BuzzSumo
how content that looks like clickbait can still be effective for both SEO linkability and social shareability
how even old-school journalists were writing clickbait-looking headlines in order to get those eyeballs to the article
the importance of influencer marketing in link development
how having genuine relationships is a more approach than having someone hammer you constantly
how guest posting is still relevant, because publishers like to share different authoritative voices
the enduring importance of SEO
how SEO and SEO copywriting are changing, due, e.g., to the emergence of voice search and other new technologies and practices
the importance of staying on top of emerging practices to take advantage of new opportunities coming down the pike
how personalization doesn't differ that much from old-fashioned knowing your reader

Heather's Bio
Heather started her SEO career over 20 years ago - before Google, before wifi, and back when we were all using dial-up modems. In fact, Forbes even called Heather, "the pioneer of SEO copywriting."

Today, Heather loves publishing her SEO writing newsletter and teaching people how to write top-converting content that gets great Google positions. She offers online training through her SEO Copywriting Certification training, and customized training sessions for in-house teams. Plus, in her spare time, she offers business coaching and consulting services to entrepreneurs.
Video
Here's the video version of our conversation:

https://youtu.be/hkYQiGxLwZA
Transcript
Larry:
Hi everyone. Welcome to Episode Number 33 of the Content Strategy Interviews Podcast. I'm really happy to have with us my old friend Heather Lloyd Martin. Heather and I go way back to the dawn of the interwebs, and I'm super excited to have her here. We're gonna talk today about SEO Copywriting and Heather is a true pioneer in that field. I can't remember what the term SEO was coined, but we were right there at the start of it,
...more
36min
October 15, 2018 Heather Lloyd-Martin
When the field of SEO emerged in the late 1990s, Heather Lloyd-Martin was one of the first writers to focus on search engines. She’s still at it 20 years later – writing, coaching, training, and consulting on SEO copywriting.
...more
36min

FAQs about Content Strategy Insights:

How many episodes does Content Strategy Insights have?

The podcast currently has 311 episodes available.

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