Content Marketing’s Secrets

When I first transitioned to content marketing from journalism, I figured I had to be missing something. I knew I could tell compelling stories and craft convincing arguments. But the gurus I followed on LinkedIn, the ones building multi-million-dollar content marketing agencies, had to have access to secrets that would prove undeniable ROI, game Google’s algorithms to drive reams of traffic, or otherwise leverage the machines of attention and value generation to justify $5-10k/month in client spend. I assumed I would one day have to learn these hidden tricks of the trade.

I founded Sharp Pen on August 28, 2021, and over the last twelve months, we’ve grown from four clients to about a dozen and from $12k/month in revenue to nearly $80k, or just shy of a million dollars per year. As time goes on, I become increasingly convinced that, while one can certainly apply data-driven analytics to content creation and distribution, running a successful content marketing program is actually simpler than that.

Content marketing is fundamentally about creating content that is helpful and engaging to drive conversations with prospects, partners, and influencers. In turn, those conversations, if sustained over time, build relationships that turn into new customers, referrals, and a robust brand. I’ve built my agency on content, and I’ve helped my clients attract new customers and build names for themselves by following this same, ostensibly simple goal.

In a sense, then, content marketing is just the practice of sharing helpful information with key stakeholders at scale. It is as if, when crafting a content marketing program, you are going up to thousands of prospective stakeholders at an event, talking to them about their business, and teaching them how to create great content to build brands and drive revenue. The great part is that by publishing content on a blog, sharing it on social channels, and placing it in trade publications, you get to have these conversations not only with the prospects right in front of you but also with thousands of readers you may not even know — until the day they send you an email or direct message asking for a discovery call.

That said, while there are no magic bullets or mathematical formulas that single-handedly transform a content marketing strategy into a steady stream of new business, there are a few best practices to bear in mind if you want to drive conversations and relationships with content. These practices include being consistent, meeting your customers where they are, creating educational and engaging content, and participating in two-way conversations.

Be consistent

Every advanced LinkedIn content creator preaches consistency. Believe them. For the better part of Sharp Pen’s first year in business, I produced content on LinkedIn sporadically — maybe twice per week. I’ve seen far better results since starting to post daily in early May. My posts rarely fail to gain any traction. I’ve gotten referrals from content marketers who have come to see me as an authority on content marketing, especially in ad/martech. My number of followers has just about doubled in three months. Most importantly, since May, I’ve added three clients through leads generated on LinkedIn to the tune of $19k in additional MRR.

The reason consistency is so important is simple — as long as you can maintain quality, when it comes to content, more is better. Most of your prospects will miss your posts three out of five days per week. By posting every day, you give yourself more at-bats — more chances to connect with a reader who will then remember you. Those readers are your next customers, referral sources, and partners.

Meet your customers where they are

I thought about going all in on producing blog content before committing to LinkedIn. I’m still publishing biweekly articles on my blog; it’s a long-term strategy, and I expect that over time, as Sharp Pen and my personal audience grow, I may be able to build a significant audience there. But my audience, B2B tech marketers, is not currently hanging out on the Sharp Pen blog. They’re on LinkedIn. So, I craft daily native content for that channel.

Similarly, especially at the dawn of your content marketing program, you need to meet your customers where they already are. Absolutely, run a blog, especially if your agency focuses on SEO or if you have in-house SEO talent. But grow the blog audience, and build another audience elsewhere, by bringing your content to the channels where your prospective customers already spend their time. This will accelerate results, and your audiences will reinforce each other across channels. This is part of what marketers mean when they talk about marrying short- and long-term strategies.

Create educational and engaging content

Most B2B tech content is not especially convincing, helpful, or engaging. I say this not just as a content marketing practitioner but as someone who has edited a martech publication and reviewed thousands of thought leadership byline submissions. The number of bylines that highly compensated PR firms send to editors with unclear theses, consistent grammatical errors, and blatant self-promotion is staggering for an industry where the going rate for bylines is more than $1,000.

To create high-quality content, focus on being educational and engaging. Your primary job is to help your readers, or prospects, do their jobs better by educating them about best practices in your field. (You may have noticed that is what I’m trying to do right now.) Your secondary job is to engage your reader, which you might do through personal stories, humor, or captivating writing structure (such as an attention-grabbing hook on LinkedIn).

Participate in two-way conversations

Content marketing’s final open secret is that it works best if you participate in two-way conversations. Many — I would even say, from experience, the vast majority of — companies investing in content marketing make this crucial error. They pay an agency to write thought leadership bylines, social content, or blog posts, and then they simply publish that content, hoping that by putting it out in the world, prospects will come.

Only publishing content without actively engaging with readers may be somewhat effective at building an audience. But if we recall that the purpose of content marketing is to drive conversations and relationships, we can easily understand that the discipline works far better if the people and companies posting content engage in two-way conversations with their readers. This is where social is especially crucial. A trade publication byline may earn massive reach, but it’s in transforming that byline’s insights into native content on social that an executive gains the opportunity to embark on one-on-one conversations about it with prospects, partners, and customers.

It’s in those content-driven conversations that you will discover content marketing’s most coveted open secret: its ability to drive revenue.