Who owns content marketing?
Consider this: according to a 2020 study by SEMrush, nearly 80% of content teams consist of 1-3 people, many of whom are doing multiple jobs.
Nearly 15% say there’s only one person responsible for all marketing activities.
And only 9% feel their content performance is “exceptional.”
Intrinsically, everyone from the CEO down to the Marketing Manager knows they “need content” to drive acquisition costs down and add longevity to their marketing program.
But there are a few paralyzing questions that prevent companies from committing:
- Who owns it?
- What are we going to create?
- Where will it live on the website?
- When will we start seeing results?
- Why do we need to do this now?
- How will we measure its success?
The brand team has one answer, SEO has another, and marketing another still. Each team who attempts an answer approaches it with their own bias and definition of success which, unfortunately, could sabotage the program before it even has a chance to survive.
Hi, I’m Tommy, and my mission is to help enterprises and growth-stage b2b startups develop durable content marketing programs that drive more traffic, leads, and sales that will last for years to come.
The goal is to build sustainable, data-informed processes that generate attention-grabbing content that leads to measurable results in the end.
I create high-performance content marketing teams to build must-read destinations that turn readers into prospects, and prospects into customers.
My work has allowed me to build teams that include Emmy winning journalists, multiple award-winning design and video agencies, and authors who have published with Forbes, Inc., “For Dummies”, Amex, Visa, and The New York Times.
As an independent consultant, I purposefully keep a small client load so I can remain focused on doing meaningful work with the people I take on.
The following is a list of services I offer, which can be taken a-la-carte or as part of a holistic strategy depending on where your business is in its content marketing journey.
Content marketing strategy
Starting a blog or a YouTube channel or a podcast is easy. Knowing what you’ll say, how you’ll say it, and who you’ll say it to; that’s where the strategy comes in.
Content marketing has to have a purpose. The first question we’ll answer is “why?” Why should you do it, to what end, and why should they care?
During the research stage of the content strategy, we’ll:
1. Identify key buyer personas
Chances are, you’ve already broadly identified your target market.
Now it’s time to dig deeper and identify who your specific types of buyers are within that market.
Using our research, we’ll identify your 3-5 different ideal customer types and build fully fleshed out characters. These characters will inform everything from what formats we create in, to the tone we use, the frequency of which we publish, and which channels we publish on.
2. Discover user journeys
It takes an average of 8-10 touchpoints before a B2B prospect makes a buying decision. Together, we’ll find those touchpoints to determine the ideal content, format, and messaging should be present at that step in the journey.
3. Perform competitive analysis
What are your direct competitors creating, where are they putting it, and what aren’t they doing? This helps us to go head-to-head on their strongest channels and exploit their blindspots.
4. Identify keyword gaps
What are they creating that you’re not? What can you create that they can’t? The keyword gap analysis helps us prioritize what content we’re creating and find easy wins.
5. Develop core content pillars
Some buyers require social proof, others care about the technical details. Using what we’ve found in our previous research, we’ll identify these pillars to keep your content laser-focused and aligned to your goals without everything sounding like a sales pitch.
6. Define Key Performance Indicators and outline attribution models
Finally, we’ll select the metrics that are best suited to your goals, define benchmarks and create an attribution model that will help you see, on the data layer, what content leads to actual results.*
*Implementation of said model is an add-on service performed by an attribution specialist.
All of this is used to create a comprehensive dossier that identifies your key buyers, their preferred media formats, competitor weaknesses, market opportunities, and more.
This can be used to share vision and direction with internal stakeholders, and act as a roadmap for hiring the appropriate freelancers, vendors, or employees to help take your vision to reality.
Ideal for:
- Businesses who would like to drive down CPAs, show up in Google, and have recurring sources of traffic.
- Established teams in need of direction
- Existing strategists who could use another set of eyes
Beta Price: $10,000 / month | 3-month minimum. (5̷ 4 spots remaining) Inquire now
Editorial strategy
Prerequisite: Content strategy
The editorial strategy takes the work we’ve done in content strategy and turns it into a tactical plan. We’ll document the specifics of how the content strategy gets put into action, who is responsible for what, and what specifically we’ll create and how much everything is going to cost.
During this time, we’ll:
1. Create content voice guidelines
We’ll create a content code that represents the beating heart and soul of your publishing operation. These are simple, yet powerful rules that create the rules of engagement when dealing with your specific audience.
Are your customers trying to disrupt industries and put a dent in the universe, or are they happy making a living doing something they love? From a practical standpoint, the content code helps us to define this and quickly get everyone from freelancers, contractors and vendors up to speed on exactly who we’re talking to.
This is a shining example of a content code that’s set the tone for a multi-million dollar publication.
2. Identify key content themes
Using the content pillars from the strategy doc as a foundation, we’ll build overarching themes that incorporate everything from holidays to industry-specific trade events. This helps us build an ongoing narrative and provides structure to the day-to-day content creation.
3. Scope projects and plan budgets
Two things conspire against any content program; time and money.
Without a spending plan, it’s impossible to scope the projects and talent to bring your program to life; nor is it possible to determine the overall ROI and profitability of the program itself.
This, in combination with a proper attribution model, helps to understand the financial health of your content program, and forecast continual success for the channels you invest in.
4. Identify vendors, freelancers, and other talent
Keeping your budget in mind, I’ll find the ideal combination of agencies, freelancers, contractors, and/or full-time employees to execute your content marketing program.
This process has allowed me to build a network with award-winning designers, videographers, and authors with bylines at some of the most prestigious publications on the planet.
5. Develop your editorial calendars for the coming year
Using our content pillars and themes, we’ll drill down to the granular level and create content calendars for each of the channels we’re creating content for.
6. Set up feedback loops, benchmarks, and go-to-market strategies
Finally, we’ll create feedback loops with your audience to gather qualitative data on how your content is performing. This, combined with the quantifiable data we’ve gathered, will help us determine interest in additional formats and help us set benchmarks we need to hit before launching new content formats and developing a new audience.
By the end of this process, we’ll have developed a full, channel-focused editorial plan that maps out the exact assets, resources, and talent required to generate more leads, traffic, and sales.
Beta Price: $10,000 / month | 3-month minimum. (5̷ 4 spots remaining) Inquire now
Content operations
I’ll make your content operation as precise as a Formula 1 pit crew.
Imagine blog, design, social, SEO, and email working in perfect synchronicity to produce high-performing, multi-format content like clockwork.
To build the optimal content operation we’ll:
- Interview all stakeholders to find the ideal workflow.
- Learn what’s already working and what isn’t
- Identify the tools that work best for your business
- Build prototypes that bring everyone together
- Provide documentation and training
This is the exact process I’ve used to scale content production from a team of 10 authors to 40+ contributors from interdependent areas of the company, publish 800+ articles across 16 different markets, and generate 8 figure traffic in 18 months.
Beta Price: $10,000 / month | 3-month minimum. (5̷ 4 spots remaining) Inquire now
Editorial hiring
Prerequisite: Editorial strategy
The right team creates content that brings visitors in the door, keeps them there, and makes them yearning for more.
With the editorial strategy in place, we’ll find the ideal mix of freelancers, contractors, and/or full-time employees to breathe life into your content and create an unmistakable online identity.
Through my hiring processes, I’ve built teams of authors who have won Emmys, published books in the “For Dummies” series, have written for The New York Times, The Guardian, Forbes, Inc., and a number of other well-known publications. I continue to work with many of these authors to this day and over the years have developed a unique ability to attract a similar caliber of talent.
It’s because of their work our publications have seen:
- Up to 60% return visitor rates on a monthly basis
- Double the visits per visitor over a 90 day period
- Longer read times
- Lower bounce rates
- Time to purchase cut in half
These results would have never been possible if I only worked with individual contributors. It’s the team mindset that makes contributors feel like they’re working toward something greater and pushes everyone to grow and create better content for your organization.
Beta Price: $750 / placement
The Publisher Package
Let me run the day-to-day operation of your publication.
Quite simply, this is everything listed above. I will build (or rebuild) your entire content operation from the ground up.
Having worked with everyone from early stage startups to large established enterprises, I’ll use my unique experience to:
- Do the customer research
- Build the playbooks
- Set the benchmarks
- Design the workflows
- Find the vendors
- Hire the talent
By the end of our engagement, I’ll bring everything together to create a branded, multi-format publishing operation that will create a unique and lasting impression on your market, and drive more traffic, leads and revenue for your business.
Beta pricing: $15,000 / month | one year minimum engagement (1 spot remaining) Inquire now