Legendary Guide to Content Marketing: Go From “Traffic Zero” to “Content Hero” in One Afternoon
By: Mihael Cacic
Tags: Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Content Creation, Branding, Content Distribution

Okay, that’s all about Branding!

But —

As we said, Branding is only half of the equation.

It simply states what content you create and in what way…

Now we gotta explore FOR WHOM do you create content, and WHERE you post it.

The partially filled Brand-Audience diagram

Audience

Deeply knowing your audience is, of course, important for creating Content Strategies… And we’ll get to that later.

But right now, we’re interested in something completely different.

We’re interested in knowing our audience so that we can write like they think.

Huh??

Ok, imagine a public speaker.

An expert will always come to an event at least one hour sooner and mingle with the audience. This allows him or her to get a feeling for the audience: the way they talk, what they find humorous, their beliefs, mannerism, and culture.

For example…

The same speaker might deliver a speech about ethics to high-school students in a different way (using different examples and jokes) than to a local Civic Society… Or even have different mannerisms and energy levels.

See? A completely different performance — with the same content.

The same way you have to “mingle” with your audience to get a better feel for:

What they want Where they want it How they want it served

Nail this, and your audience will instantly vibe with your brand.

Ok, that’s all fine and dandy… but how do you mingle with your audience online?

Let’s explore some ways!

Audience Research

There are so many ways to do customer research it’s easy to get paralyzed.

Don’t overcomplicate!

Remember that even some research will get you ahead of the curve since most marketers don’t do any!!

From State of Marketing Strategy by CoSchedule

I believe that one of the reasons for this is because there’s a lack of clarity about what makes customer research good.

Like… When to stop? What’s good enough?

My rule of thumb is that you’ve done enough research when you start to predict what your audience thinks (feedback, comments, beliefs) with high confidence.

Use this rule with the following 6 research techniques that can be done in one afternoon from the comfort of your desk.

(There are a ton more, of course… But I only picked the most simple and effective ones. You know, the “20% that gives you 80% of the results”. You’d be crazy not to do them.)

Anyway, the techniques are split into two parts…

If you’re just starting out and don’t have an audience

#1 Create a proto-persona

In science we call this making an educated guess.

A proto-persona is simply a persona that you create before you do any research.

(You’ll be surprised at what you can come up with by simply imagining your audience in day to day life.

My favorite is Hubspot’s Make My Persona app. It’s completely free and a great way to kickstart your research. Go try it now!

After a series of 7 steps, this is the final result for Hubspot’s Make My Persona app.

#2 Online Observations

What do people like to talk about the most?

Their problems and experiences!

Here are a few things you can do…

Google for <topic> + forums/communities/review sites Search for groups and hashtags on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram Find popular youtube channels about your topic and check what people are commenting.

You get the point.

But if you’re having a hard time visualizing, I recorded the process for you 😄

Recording of me doing audience research for the Keto topic.

#3 The Obvious Adams Technique

The simplest way to get data from your ideal audience? Reach out and ask them!

Go to social media, register on forums, join subreddits…

Then find people interested in your topic and send them a DM like this:

“Hey <name>! How are you? My name is Mihael and I would love to connect because I’m starting a new blog about <topic> and I saw that <what he or she did related to your topic>. <add a compliment, establish a point of interest>. Anyway, if you have 5 minutes, could you describe to me what’s your biggest problem with <topic> right now? Thanks!”

Easier peasier.

If You Already Have Traffic and Sales

#1 Respond to compliments with “Thanks, but why?”

Andrew Grove, CEO of Intel, often did this when his fans praised his classic book High Output Management.

A highly confidential conversation between a fan and Andrew Groove.

(Use different wording if you’re afraid to look like a goofball.)

Nevertheless, it’s a great way to find out why your audience likes your blog/product/content with a simple habit tweak.

#2 Customer Surveys

Send out a survey in a newsletter to everyone subscribed to your email list.

Ask them…

Who they are

What problem they had

How your content helped them

How they gonna spend their weekend…

Or anything else that you wanna know.

(But not too much or you’ll look like a creep.)

#3 Focus Groups

Similar to Customer Surveys, but goes a step further.

Identify 8 loyal and highly engaged fans. Invite them to join an online discussion about your content (or products) where they’ll more deeply discuss their experiences and give critiques.

If you like working with them you can even pay them to form a “Council of Content Advisors”.

That could be fun.

(Lots of companies would thrive right now if they simply listened to their customers — right, Blizzard?!)

Audience Persona

After you soak up all that juicy information about your audience, it’s time you put it all in one place and create a buyer (or audience) persona!

Hubspot’s definition of a Buyer Persona.

I already mentioned Hubspot’s Make My Persona and I definitely recommend you use it…

But if you wanna make it by hand, here are some questions that will help you out…

How old are they?

What’s their education?

What industry do they work in?

What’s the size of their organization?

What’s their job title?

What are their goals? Personal and Professional?

What are their biggest challenges?

What are their responsibilities?

What tools do they use or need?

How do they gain information for their job?

Where do they hang out online?

By now you know really well who you’re actually talking to when writing and distributing your content.

All that’s left is picking the best platform to do so!

Platform

There’s a TON of places you can be active nowadays…

And that’s precisely why people stopped paying attention! They know they can get top tier information on any platform they fancy.

To win their attention we need to create amazing content that stands out. And the only way to do that is by focusing intensely on only one, maybe two platforms at a time.

You see, each platform is unique. It takes a few months before you get a feeling for how it works and adapt your content so that you get shares and engagement.

So if you’re a one-man-army with limited resources… Definitely don’t be like Gary V and his “100 pieces of content a day” model.

Gary V can execute his Content Philosophy with the help of a huge team.

Just pick one platform and master it.

But…

How do you know which platform to choose?

The safest bet is to go with the one you know your audience loves.

(If you don’t know which one is that go do some more Audience Research.)

Now it might not be your preferred platform… and it might have a content format that you’re NOT naturally good at…

But I encourage you to give it a shot anyway. Even if you suck at that content you can always get better with practice.

Here are some platforms you can try:

Now I just told you the safe way…

But you can also go the risky way, like John Lee Dumas.

A few years ago when podcasting started to bloom, John noticed NO ONE was doing interviews with successful entrepreneurs. Was this low supply indicator of low demand? Or was he first to the market?

John took the risk. He started Entrepreneurs on Fire and after 18 months became a multi-millionaire.

Or he might not have.

That’s the risk of taking the road no one took before.

(If you choose to take the risky route, make sure you do extensive research… Sell the idea before you have the product. Reach out to 200 potential customers and ask them if they like the idea. And if they do, get commitment by asking them to invest $1, lol.)

Content Stamp

FINALLY! We’re defined our brand, audience, and platform.

To keep everything in one place made a spreadsheet like this and fill it out.

The last thing we’re gonna do is sum everything up in one short paragraph… Called the Content Stamp.

Content Stamp has to clearly state your audience, values, calling, delivery, and platform.

Improvise a few variations and check which one you like best. Then polish it until you’re happy with how the paragraph represents your brand.

For example, here’s mine.

I write engaging blockbuster posts for entrepreneurs about min-maxing their content & email marketing for optimal ROI. I strive to explain everything in a simple way with lots of case studies and examples.

Keep this in mind whenever you create any piece of content.

We’re moving on to Content Strategies. But first, the Youtube sensation Mr.Beast is gonna show us how to develop a brand to the point that every content goes viral.

CASE STUDY #2: Mr. Beast’s Virality Formula

If Wendy’s taught us about brand-audience fit, then Mr. Beast will teach us how to CONSISTENTLY create content that people share like crazy.

Analyzing his channel I’ve noticed four things he does that you could replicate in your content creation, too.

But before we reveal his secrets, we gotta explore how his brand (and content creation) evolved.

History of Mr. Beast

Mr. Beast brand started in 2013. The content value proposition (what your content is known for) wasn’t anything special. Neither was the execution. Low quality gameplay videos and commentaries, with a few informative videos sprinkled here and there…

They raked in some views, but nothing ground shattering.

After 648 days of experimentation, Mr. Beast struck gold with “How much does Pewdiepie make”. The video didn’t go viral, but it got significantly more views than his regular content.

Note: The video in the picture that got almost 5 million views went viral in 2020, long after his rise to fame.

While mastering content creation around his first viral topic — money, he still invested more than 50% of his efforts towards further experimentation. It took him (again) more than 2 years before he found his second golden nugget… extreme challenges.

Right before the challenge-type content started to explode, he created videos like “Reading The Entire Dictionary In One Sitting” and “Counting To One Mil”… And they went viral — a few million views viral.

After 4 years, Mr. Beast finally got his first big check.

Building an Empire

Even though Mr. Beast‘s videos became talk-of-the-town, at this point everyone with enough time and determination could replicate his videos…

For sure, the execution was admirable… but nothing special.

Instead of splurging his new paychecks on status and fame, Mr. Beast did two things that allowed him to build his content empire.

He reinvested EVERYTHING he made back in content creation. He combined ALL his viral topics into one super-topic.

With the first mover’s advantage, complete dedication, and more than 4 years of experience Mr. Beast started creating videos not many could replicate…

Such as “Buying A House And Tipping It To The Pizza Delivery Guy”. Or featuring influencers and his fanbase to join crazy money-related challenges such as “Last To Take Hands Off $1,000,000 Keeps It”.

Mr. Beast levels of fame. the 50% line represents roughly 300k google searches.

The brand kept evolving for three extra years — finding even more viral topics, sharpening the content value proposition, and upping the production value to MORE than $200k PER VIDEO.

It wasn’t until 2019 (almost 6 years after creating his channel) that he found his winning content template: not partaking, but hosting money-related competitions featuring his friends — usually involving insane challenges.

During this time he discovered 4 secrets keys to viral content that are a part of everything he does.

Four Secrets of a Viral Brand

#1 Viral Giveaways

In 2015, Mr. Beast discovered that people love getting things for free. Since then, all his videos include some element of this topic. Either by blatantly giving out money or by buying and giving away things like private Islands or Lambos.

Here’s another example…

Noah Kagan and other good folks at Sumo.com are also masters at Viral Giveaways. Sure, iPhones raffles are cool… But giving away a $1288 worth of office equipment bundle, lifetime Dropbox subscriptions, or even a fully equipped Tesla Car — that’s something special.

Even though the giveaway item is unique, their success lies in sparking competition by allowing contestants to get more entries if they refer their friends.

This means you don’t have to give away a Tesla and go bankrupt building your audience. You can get a ton of eyeballs by giving away items that your customers want. Like top 20 finance books (valued at ~$300) if you’re a financial advisor.

#2 Lots of Emotions

Mr. Beast documents the reactions of unsuspecting people when he gives them an insane amount of money.

(Like a house to a pizza delivery guy.)

We loooove identifying with that. It’s amazing to see a “hopeless” soul suddenly gets a streak of luck … And has seemingly all problems solved.

We dream to be that person — either the one giving or the one receiving.

So…

If your content, services, or products have clear before and after transformations, simply document the most extreme and inspiring cases and create content around that.

DDP Yoga coached a nearly-disabled war veteran back to full mobility. As of November 2020, this video of Arthur’s Transformation has over 75,208,129 views!!

#3 Feature Your Audience and Industry Influencers

In every of his most successful videos, Mr. Beast features either his friends, famous people, or his fans.

This not only introduces him to new audiences but also creates connection and trust.

For example…

Ben Settle, The Email Wizard, frequently creates content featuring his followers’ thoughtful comments, which encourages his fanbase to stay engaged.

So…

If you’re making blog posts about nutrition, contact 10 nutrition influencers and let them give you a short 100 words answer to a question about the topic. Include the answer in your post.

Not only will they likely share your blog afterward (exposing you to new audiences), your existing readers will trust your brand even more just by associating with these high-profile experts.

#4 Wow factor. Something never done before.

Finally, Mr. Beast pushes his content with crazier and crazier challenges… Employing more and more people… And floors your jaw with his ingenious content ideas on a weekly basis.

There’s simply no telling what he’ll do next week.

Brian Dean, founder of Backlinko.com and the world’s best SEO expert is in a similar boat. He leverages his decade of SEO experience, a team of content creators, and various industry connections to create content not many can compete with.

He recently teamed up with Ahrefs to Analyze 11.8 million Google Search Results and document the findings.

And what can you do?

If you’re experienced and known in the industry then document your techniques and strategies…

But if you’re just starting out then reverse-engineer the techniques and strategies of OTHER world-class companies (or people). Go deep like Chris Von Wilpert and create unmatched content. The market is wide open.

Mr. Beast, The Conclusion

Mr. Beast had a humble beginning. But now, his content empire can’t be overthrown. The Content Value Proposition became so unique and difficult to execute that simply no one can replicate it anymore.

Follow his steps in these three ways…

Ruthless Experimentation — find out or discover what people want. Fierce Reinvestment — every single penny goes back to content creation. Ingenious Combination — viral topics, money, and previous experiences are leveraged to create exceptional content.

If you want to join the content elite, you’ll have to include AT LEAST one virality key in everything you do:

Design Viral Giveaways Make emotional content Feature industry famous people Create something that has never been done before

(Oh, remember Wendy’s from our first Case Study? They do #2, #3, and #4 as well 🙂)

With this in mind it’s time you learn how to craft successful Content Strategies!

Step 2: Content Strategy

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Step 3: Research & Outline

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Step 4: Content Creation

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Step 5: Content Promotion

TBA

Step 6: Content Monetization (Email Marketing)

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