1. Modern Marketers Secrets To
Content Marketing
The new way to create original content |
A collection of content marketing advice from
experts in Scripted’s Interview Series.

2. Content in 2014
This year, content marketing
has become one of the most
popular marketing buzzwords
to date. Just take a look at how
the term “content marketing”
has increased in Google search
from 2009 to 2014.
Whether content marketing is
here to stay or not, one thing is
for sure: high quality, original
Google Searches for Content
Marketing (2007 – 2013)
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content is important for any marketing or content strategy. Creating original
content allows brands to improve their credibility, raise awareness, create trust
with customers, drive traffic, and ultimately generate high quality leads. At
Scripted, we believe at the core of any content strategy is relevant and quality
content.
We’ve put together a round-up of inspirational quotes from experts we’ve
interviewed across multiple industries about how they’ve used quality content
to better their business. Enjoy!

3. LearnVest
On measuring content’s
success…
“We’re looking in much the way that any
publisher is, at total site traffic. We’re also
looking at the number of new unique
visits that are coming in. We’re looking at
time on site. We’re also looking at the
social numbers.”
Carries Sloan, Editor-in-Chief
On the most valuable content for readers…
“It’s the personal stories of seeing how other people are struggling with money, or
how they’re making progress on money. People want to know how other people
did it. The other thing that I can point to is content that let’s you compare and
contrast. For example, we did a story, ‘What’s your retirement number?’
“There’s something about seeing those numbers in black & white., and thinking
about your own account balance, that’s really engaging for people.”

4. Creative Market
On advice for
growing traffic for
your blog…
“There’s no silver bullet that’s
going to start driving traffic to
your blog right away. Start out by
building relationships with other
bloggers and writers in your space.
Ask them to mention your site or
content on their blog. See what you
can do to write on their blog or ask
them to write on your blog.”
“Finally, optimize the content in
the body of your post so that when
people read the headline and view
the shared image in their feed, they
are compelled to re-share it. Over
time, if you are carefully
monitoring your experiments and
optimizing, you’ll see the results of
your hard work and your traffic
will compound and grow.”
Zack ONisko, Chief Growth Officer
On the biggest
challenge…
“I think the challenge is coming up with
fresh, new, interesting content. I think at
the volume that we’re producing content
we’ve caught ourselves rehashing old
ideas. If we’re not writing great content,
it’s not going to get read and it’s not
going to be shared.”

5. StoreFront
On making your content
stand out…
“We keep it fun, personal and passionate, as
well as helpful. We don’t need to sell people,
but simply provide the information that
they’re looking for. It’s really like listening.
We’ll listen to what our users are asking
about and we’ll change that in the content
and product to make it easier.”
Tristan Pollack,
Co-Founder/COO
On advice on what’s most important…
“That we’re able to tell our own stories — stories of our members and how they
have evolved. When we launched the Storefront site in March of 2013, we had
renters and space owners, but they were in a different place.
Now we can share how our members have used Storefront to sell their products
better, connect with their customers, and growth their business. “

6. Udemy
On blogging as a lead gen strategy…
“Our blog content is, in essence, lead generation for our paid online courses.
We capture email addresses on the blog and provide opportunities for users to
click over to relevant paid courses.
We look for a three month pay back on our blog content. Basically, three
months after we publish the blog posts we want the leads we capture from our
blog posts to cover the cost of creating the blog posts.
Over the last eight months we’ve seen 800 percent traffic growth. It was just a
matter of actually creating high quality content and putting it out there.”
On driving ROI from a
blog post…
“Any content marketing we’re doing drives
sales and drives users. We’re taking a very
ROI approach to how we think about our
content development. For instance, we might
write a piece of content about Excel
formulas. I want to give it to people who are
searching for “How to use Excel better,” but
at the same time, we’re also able to promote
our content, our long form courses for pay. “
Archie Abrams
Director of Growth

7. Tablo
On B2B companies
publishing eBooks…
“Companies are writing about their
industry or their market to boost their
own profiles and generate leads.
Publishing a book makes someone an
expert in their field. One thing we see
a lot is people using a book as a lead
generation tool, so when you type in a
topic, it comes up at the top of Google
because it’s an Amazon result for your
book. People find the book and find
the company. It’s a really strong tool
for them.”
Ash Davis, Founder
On the future of self-
publishing…
“I think it’s social. I think the entire
publishing model is going to be
flipped around. It won’t be a case
anymore of you have to write
something, then submit a manuscript,
then get rejected, and then have small
commissions for someone else to sell
your book. I think it’s going to be
completely reversed.
You’ll start publishing the day you
start writing. People will start reading
and following your work while it’s in
progress.”

8. Andy Smith
On defining quality
content…
“Every audience has different goals or
different definitions. It's a danger to try
to apply the rules of one audience
against another.
Quality can be one of those things
where people can spend a lot of time
delivering too high quality content to
an audience that doesn't go appreciated.
Maybe they aren't able to deliver
enough content.
Andy Smith, Author
The Dragonfly Effect
Top 10 lists, generally people click on
them. There's something in there. I
find, probably, one every couple of
days that I actually bookmark. The
fact that people have this almost pre-
chewed content out there, that
doesn't make it poor, by definition.
It's a question of how you present it,
and how you blend it.”
You can overemphasize quality, but
each publisher would do well if
they try to understand -- just as
they understand what their
audiences' needs are, in terms of
problems that they solve -- what
their expectations are for the
content they receive.
“

9. UberFlip
On the importance of
headlines…
“We’ve recently gotten much more nitpicky.
We took a page out of Upworthy’s book.
They do this 25 headlines exercise and they
brainstorm 25 headlines for every post. So
we do the same. We meet every Friday and
throw out ideas for upcoming posts,
webinars and eBooks. The first time it took
forever.”
Hana Abaza, Director of
Marketing
On advice for getting started…
Number one: Figure out your goal and what you want to try and get out of it. Most
companies they want to use it as an acquisition channel.
Be realistic. In the first six months of launching you should write the most amazing
content that doesn’t talk a lot about you, but your audience. You’re going to attract
visitors and retain them.
“

10. 42 Floors
On using content for
lead generation…
“We have an education center in which
case we get a good chunk of our content
from brokers who voluntarily ask to write
articles to be in the education center. We
give them exposure and linkage, and how
to show their domain expertise in
commercial real estate. It also helps build
out content around like, ‘How do you rent
office space? Should you go with a broker,
should you not go with a broker?
Bernard Huang, Growth Hacker
What defines rentable square feet footage as opposed to available square footage?
How do you negotiate your lease? What things you have to look out for if you're
trying to build out your space versus getting the landlord to build it out.’
That content is a lot more commercial real estate specific, in which case, we've had
that around for a while. Our current plan is to expand that and make it into an e-
book which we can use it as a lead-generation tactic."

11. Outbrain
On Outbrain’s content strategy…
“One of the most successful things we’ve launched is an email newsletter called
Brainpower. What we’re doing is we’re actually sharing the results of what’s
trending and different aspects of the content marketing industry.
We’re not talking about our product, we’re not talking about Outbrain or trying
to say, “Buy Outbrain,” but rather we’re sharing really interesting industry
trends, which is very effective. Then there’s also the process of curating, of
finding great content that’s out there, and directing our consumers to that
content.”
On trends in content
distribution…
“One trend is that consumers really are
embracing this notion of discovery at the
bottom of the article. I think the second
major trend, is that a lot of publishers are
starting to look at content marketing outside
of the historical Outbrain widget, so folks
like Slate.com, they have a really interesting
deployment, it’s much more pervasive than
simply at the bottom of the article.”
Greg Freishtat
SVB Strategic Alliances

12. GeckoBoard
On creating valuable
content…
“We talk to customers every single
day. We have regular conversations on
Skype, which is a big part of my role. I
try to talk to as many customers as
possible to understand what they like
about us, what they don’t like. “
Sofia Quintero,
Growth Firestarter
What are the stories around the product, how we can help them in different
ways? I think it is important to create content and continuously ask yourself:
‘Is this going to be helpful for anybody, is it going to be insightful, is it going to
change anything?’”
“

13. The new way to create original content |
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