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| Hey good folks and happy Thursday! I’m back from vacation and sorting through all the things you sort through after a week off. So, this week, I’m pulling up a piece I published a few months ago that I find still incredibly relevant. Two years ago, I published a list of content types, in priority order. It was representative of how I approached content type prioritization while working at a start-up. Here is that list:
A lot has changed in two years, and my content type prioritization list has changed…a lot. Here is what I’d prioritize now:
That’s a drastically different list. But then again, AI has changed content marketing significantly. Here’s why things fall where they do: Thought leadershipAs zero-click platforms proliferate (historically it was only social, but now LLMs are nearly zero-click, and Google is becoming more so), the primary goal of content isn’t traffic, or even conversion. Its visibility and memory. You want folks to see your content on zero-click platforms like LinkedIn, ChatGPT and Google. And you want them to see enough of your content that they remember you––or at least remember your narrative. That means they need 5-7 touches, on average, with your content in these platforms to achieve that. So, you need great thought leadership themes that map back to your company’s brand narrative to make sure that all your channels are prioritizing the right message to get the biggest memory-share possible. If this works, you’ll see your visibility on the topics grow in tools like Signal, AirOps or Profound, and also see an increase in direct traffic. Case studiesCase studies are proof that your company can do what it says it can do. You need these for sales, and you need them to earn credibility and trust. After all, if thought leadership is your top of funnel asset, you’ll need something mid-funnel to build trust and validate a buyer. Case studies should always always come with video content so you can use it in paid media and on those zero-click platforms to earn engagement and further visibility. Landing pagesLanding pages are your sales pages, and technically your bottom-of-the-funnel pages, too. This rounds out a simple prospect funnel in basic marketing terms (with the two types above included). These pages should be optimized for search and conversion, and include at least one video (ideally a demo video). Bonus points for anyone who creates comparison landing pages, since these are showing up a lot in the buyer’s journey for folks who use LLMs to compare tools. Other blogsThe listicle is back, baby! LLMs are loving “best of” articles, which aid in the LLM buying journey. Listicles can also be used for traditional search, as well as sales enablement, giving the team easy to scan and read assets to reach out with. Education contentThis is content to teach users how to use your product. I’d ungate it for SEO and AEO, and focus on this to build out the middle of the funnel through onboarding. I’d also use it to build out a branded YouTube channel, with these assets as my foundation. DownloadablesDownloadables or lead gen assets are critical for many brands. Sales cycles can be long, and beyond product-led growth conversions, you need to build a pipeline. But, I’d deprioritize these because your thought leadership, listicles, and even education content can be easily combined or deconstructed to create derivative content without too much extra lift. Sales collateralThis used to be my #1, and rightly so. Content needs to support sales motions and often the most critical thing sales folks need is collateral so they know what to say, have something to send, etc. But, LLMs can do a really great job at giving sales folks custom outreach templates and even full messages referencing any of the content above. Maybe there is an AI prompting training you can give, but it should take a salesperson just as long to create their own personalized message in an LLM versus looking up the more generic version of what you already created for them. All right. That’s it. That’s the updated list. What list would you make? A NOTE ON THIS ADVICE You do you! One content marketer’s best practices aren’t always right for another one, though I do try to distill out the main concepts and core practices I believe everyone can benefit from. That said, you must use good judgment when deciding whether to take advice given from folks on the internet. I am an expert, and this advice comes from my direct experience, but I am not smarter than you, and I have nothing to gain or lose because of what you do. THINGS KEEPING ME CONTENT
Thank you so much for reading. Let me know what you think by replying to this email. Very excited to be here with y’all. Tracey | ||||||
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