Top of the Funnel

How much money do you reckon Ryan Law made this year? Here’s my guess: A buttload more than me 🫠 Because Ryan has spent the last 14 years saying smart things about content marketing online. And I’ve spent the last 14 years: → Dicking about → Being unserious → Staring into the gaping void of the blank page, wracked with imposter syndrome Luckily, Ryan has shown us all how we can be like him when we grow up in his latest for the Ahrefs blog: 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘢 𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 6 𝘐𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘋𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵 𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘱𝘴 And I wrote up the highlights for Top of the Funnel… 🎯 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆 Becoming a ✨ 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 ✨ is easy; you’ve just gotta publish tonnes of content (about the stuff you learn while working on hard things), become known for one thing, piggyback on other people’s credibility, come up with catchy names for your ideas, and repurpose the hell out of your best stuff! 💬 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗼𝘁𝗲 “Thought leaders—at least, the ones worth following—are big nerds who can’t help but share the nerdy stuff they’re working on. That provides a clear path for us all to follow: to become a thought leader, you need to spend less time 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨, more time 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨.” 🗝️ 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 I’m just putting the finishing touches on the script of the romantic comedy I’m writing. It’s called 𝘖𝘩, 𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘐 𝘚𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦... 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦? And who do you think I want delivering the iconic line: "I mean, look at us—you're here, I’m here, and, well... blasted feelings are here, too. So, yes. Love. I suppose. Probably." Vin freakin’ Diesel? Are you serious? Hugh Grant was born to play this role. Because we all know and love him as the charming but bumbling romantic lead. And that’s been his ticket to fame and erm, gosh, well… fortune. There are a bunch of SEOs and marketers out there Hugh Granting it, too. Ross Simmonds → content distribution Masooma Memon ✍️ → BOFU content Lily Ray → algo updates Luke Carthy → ecom SEO Brie E Anderson → analytics Britney Muller → AI for marketers Joy Hawkins → local SEO Brooklin Em Dash Nash 💡 → expert-driven content Ryan says there are two benefits of being know as an expert on one topic – even when it’s far from the only string in your bow: 1️⃣ “It’s very easy for people to understand my value proposition in a heartbeat: I share ideas about content marketing. If you care about content marketing, I might be worth engaging with.” 2️⃣ “Every single thing I’ve published, recorded, said or done in the past fourteen years has compounded. All of my old ideas, articles, talks, and podcasts are still relevant to people who care about my current ideas.” The biggest shortcut to becoming a ✨ 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 ✨? Become “the [insert niche topic here] person” to your target audience 🎯 I'll pop a link to Ryan's full article in the comments 👇

Procrastinating, huh? Well if you’re not gonna do The Thing, why not treat yaself to a read of one of the articles I did a deep dive on for Top of the Funnel this year? Crimbo crackers, the lot of them 💥 And if you read them all? Well, in Whoville they say—that your brain will grow three sizes that day. 👇 Daniel Cheung – Dumb Things Agencies Do That Get Them Fired ↳ https://lnkd.in/exqj3u7x Andy Chadwick – AI For Writing? How To Use AI to Write Content (the right way…) ↳ https://lnkd.in/eVfHuVd2 Ian Lurie – For Unforgettable Marketing, Teach The Shit Out Of Everything ↳ https://lnkd.in/epWRttaF Tim Soulo interviewing Glen Allsopp for the Ahrefs pod ↳ https://lnkd.in/ekdXjB-t Ross Simmonds – Navigating Content Marketing Amidst the Rise of AI (for Moz) ↳ https://lnkd.in/eu82yXDp Rosanna Campbell – Why Content strategies fail (for Relato) ↳ https://lnkd.in/esypUVjR Michael Ofei – Information Gain: How Top Content Leaders Win at SEO (for Backlinko) ↳ https://lnkd.in/exyV2hDm Andy Crestodina & the Orbit Media Studios team’s 2024 Annual Blogger Survey ↳ https://lnkd.in/eVE8b8Xw Samantha McKenna – The 7 Elements of a Perfect Cold Email (for Apollo.io) ↳ https://lnkd.in/gKh3sRJz Lars Lofgren – Forbes Marketplace: The Parasite SEO Company Trying to Devour Its Host ↳ https://lnkd.in/eybRdFnU Philipp Götza – How to get more of what you want in SEO (for Search Engine Land) ↳ https://lnkd.in/e4spQNAk Amanda Jackson – Want to become a better writer? Try out these tips from the top 2% of writers (for Beam Content 💡) ↳ https://lnkd.in/ewMt_66g George Nguyen – 5 of my best editing tips for content marketers (for Wix) ↳ https://lnkd.in/eUuqwE_a Aleyda Solís – 15 tips for advancing your career (from Women in Tech SEO's WTSFest) ↳ https://lnkd.in/eC63CCB8 Mordy Oberstein – The rise of situational content: Lessons from Google’s March 2024 core update (for Wix) ↳ https://lnkd.in/eDYXpV-e Rosanna Campbell – Playing The Long-Game: How to measure the ROI of content (for Relato) ↳ https://lnkd.in/eq-2U9nS Ryan Law – Why Big Companies Make Bad Content (for Ahrefs) ↳ https://lnkd.in/eaGtfJSR Joy Hawkins – Regaining Trust: Lessons Learned From Losing a Local SEO Client (for Moz) ↳ https://lnkd.in/e56CTgeu Ah help I've ran out of charact

Regrets I’ve had a few… → That time I bit into a McDonalds apple pie without respecting the five hour cool-down period → My third marriage to my second wife → My “No Regrets” face tat But luckily, none that have lost me a client (Yet!) But that’s mainly down to luck. Because, as my fourth wife told me when she ended our second marriage: I’m a terrible communicator Luckily, Daniel Cheung has got me 🍻 His banger article 𝘋𝘶𝘮𝘣 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘈𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘋𝘰 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘎𝘦𝘵 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘥 is a crash course in client comms And I wrote up the best bits for Top of the Funnel... 🎯 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆 Daniel walks us through everything he’s realised most agencies and freelancers do wrong since he started hiring them as an in-house SEO. 💬 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗼𝘁𝗲 “Let’s say you believe on-page content is a strategic lever worth pursuing. Ask your POC who needs to be involved to produce net new content. They may not even know, and this simple question can reveal all the different roles that are part of the supply chain.” 🗝️ 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 Do you deliver good work within the deadlines you commit to? Congratulations! You’re officially ahead of 90% of other freelancers and agencies. But as my seventh wife liked to say to me during our fifth marriage: Don’t go gettin’ too big for your britches there, Bucko. Because even the most experienced freelancers have been know to commit Daniel’s three Client Communication Sins: 1️⃣ Your clients don’t know what you're doing for them One day, your point of contact’s boss is going to ask them how the content strategy is going. And you can say sayonara to that retainer contract if you haven’t provided them with the necessary talking points to reel off to their boss. 2️⃣ You take more than 24 hours to reply to an email When a client asks you a question, be sure to respond within a working day. Even just to let them know when they can expect to hear an answer from you. 3️⃣ The only time your clients hear from you is just before you invoice them 𝘋𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘋𝘰 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴: 𝘈 𝘛𝘸𝘰 𝘈𝘤𝘵 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘺 𝘈𝘯 𝘈𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘎𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘰 𝘎𝘦𝘵 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘼𝙘𝙩 𝙄 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝘁 𝟰:𝟬𝟳𝗽𝗺: “Hey client, Hope you’re well :) Please find the latest deliverable/monthly report attached. Thanks!” 𝘼𝙘𝙩 𝙄𝙄 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝘁 𝟰:𝟭𝟭𝗽𝗺: “Hey client, Hope you’re well :) Please find this month’s invoice attached. Speak again just before I send my next invoice :) Thanks!” 𝗘𝗽𝗶𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘂𝗲 Daniel Cheung: “This is the worst way to nurture a relationship because your interactions become transactional. And when your relationship becomes transactional, there is no emotive reason why your client will want to keep you.” I'll pop a link to Daniel’s full article in the comments Check it out for a crash course in client comms (from someone who’s worked for agencies and hired them) 👇

Help! I’ve been hustled, scammed, bamboozled, hood winked, lead astray!!! I learned a bunch from Andy Chadwick’s Search Engine Land article on tangential SEO. Then – plot twist! – the lil' rascal revealed he used AI to help him write it 😱 On behalf of content writers everywhere may I be the first to say: FOR SHAME!!! Except… The article was good? 🤷 Plus, it got: → 21,000+ reads → 141 social shares → Backlinks for days And what’s that Andy? It only took you three hours to write? And it was how many words long? Oh, 4,500… Well, maybe you could tell me a lil’ bit about how you used AI to write it… Here are the three best tips, tricks, and prompts from Andy Chadwick’s 𝘈𝘐 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘞𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨? 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘛𝘰 𝘜𝘴𝘦 𝘈𝘐 𝘵𝘰 𝘞𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 (𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘺…) I just shared in Top of the Funnel 🧅 𝗚𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻 (𝗽𝗹𝘂𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀) If there are five ways to blorple a doohickey, your article on ‘How to Blorple a Doohickey FAST’ better cover them all. And since AI spews out an aggregate of everything that’s been published on a topic online… It’s super useful for making sure you’re leaving no stone unturned. Andy used this prompt to do just that in his tangential content guide: → "I’ve come up with these three benefits for creating tangential content: [list points]. Can you suggest more reasons and expand on all of them?" Which gave him three more benefits he hadn’t thought of 💡 🤦 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗽𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿 “𝗺𝗮𝗺” Metaphors and analogies help you bring esoteric topics like doohickey blorplulation back down to earth in a memorable way. And AI can help you come up with ‘em. Here’s the prompt Andy fed ChatGPT to get it to help him explain a complicated topic in a way that would stick with readers: → "Explain the concept of tangential content using a food metaphor. Make it engaging and conversational. Provide three distinct examples that highlight different aspects of the concept." ➗ 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗮 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗵𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 The right example can really drive your point home. But man, they can be hard to come up with. ChatGPT comes in clutch here, too. Andy came up with one example of tangential content himself for his guide: Nike creating workout playlists. Then he hit ChatGPT up with this prompt: → "Here’s my example of tangential content: [insert example]. Can you suggest three more similar examples that are creative and relatable?" He ended up using three of its suggestions in his article 💥 Plenty ✨ 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 ✨ have been telling us content folks we need to “aDaPT TO Ai Or lOsE OUr JoBS” Which is cool and all, but… How? 𝘈𝘐 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘞𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨? 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘛𝘰 𝘜𝘴𝘦 𝘈𝘐 𝘵𝘰 𝘞𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 (𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘺…) by Andy Chadwick shows us the way. I’ll pop a link in the comments 👇

Wanna know the secret to unforgettable marketing? Grab your 137-page brand guidelines doc And your 52.5-part welcome email sequence And your A/Z-tested landing pages AND THROW THEM IN THE SEA Because your audience will forget all of that in seconds But if you teach them something? 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺’𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 That’s what whatshisname says, anyway (I think it was Ian Lurie?) And he showed us how to get our Ned Schneebly on in 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘜𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘖𝘶𝘵 𝘖𝘧 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 Let’s dive into the key takeaways I wrote up for Top of the Funnel… 🎯 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆 Teach your audience something and they’ll keep what you taught them – and a reminder of you and your brand 💬 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗼𝘁𝗲 “𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨? 𝙏𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙩 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜. 𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦. 𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘵.” 🗝️ 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 I think of Neville Medhora every time I use the Javascript trick I learned from his blog to edit the text on a live web page (pretty nifty right?👇) I think of Ian Howells every time I boot up Semrush’s Keyword Gap tool to do his “Milkshake Method” of keyword research (bonus points if you give what you’re teaching a catchy name btw 🥤) And I think of Macaulay Culkin every time I hang a paint can from my ceiling by a piece of string to stop Joe Pesci from breaking into my house These folks live in my head rent free Because they stuck to Lurie’s Three Laws Of Teaching The Shit Out Of Anything: 1. 𝘋𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦 2. 𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘻𝘦𝘳𝘰 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 3. 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘦 That means: 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝘇𝗲𝗿𝗼-𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗸 (shoutout Amanda Natividad). Posting on Instagram? Include everything folks need to know in the post. 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹. A subtle lil’ CTA is cool. A gigantic popup that blocks your view when I land on the page? Get in the bin 🗑️ 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗳𝗳. Grab the juiciest bits from your whitepaper and share ‘em. Folks are a lot more likely to fill out your 10-field form if you’ve shown them it’s worth their time. Check out Ian Lurie’s short-and-sweet article 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘜𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘖𝘶𝘵 𝘖𝘧 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 to learn why teaching is the best marketing tool you’ve got (good news for us content marketers, ey?) 🧑🏫 I’ll pop a link in the comments 👇

Glen Allsopp just ruined my day He waltzed right into my inbox with a shiny new Gaps article So I thought I’d have a quick look… and literally couldn’t stop reading 🫠 I’ve got deadlines, Glen! Why you gotta do me like that!? It’s not the first time, either Every time one of Glen’s emails hits my inbox I lose at least an hour of my day If you’re familiar with his content then you know what I’m talking about It’s 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘺 good Like "I’ll just read one more sect… oh shit when did it get dark?" good I’ll die happy if I ever write an article half as good as one of Glen’s So the scream I scrumpt when I saw that Tim Soulo managed to wrangle Glen onto the Ahrefs podcast and grill him on his content creation process 😱 After giving that a listen, I reckon there are four key things that set Glen Allsopp apart from the average content marketer And I did a quick breakdown of each one for Top of the Funnel... Which it turns out is over the LinkedIn post character limit by more than 4,000 characters 🫠 So here's my fave of the bunch 👇 𝗛𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝙙𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗹𝗲 Let’s be honest: Most articles we write are a book report on the top three blog posts already ranking for the target keyword Glen’s content is built different Him and his team put days of research into each article If this guy had a travel blog, he wouldn’t go to Tenerife for research He would go to Elevenerife 😎 Check this out: → Him and his team handpicked 10,000 keyphrases to analyze for an article on the state of affiliate SEO → He uses a tool called Visualping to track hundreds of webpages so he’s the first to know when they’re updated → He's listened in on hundreds of companies earnings calls → Each day, he scans a list of every article published on the internet that includes keywords he tracks in the title (“millionaire” is one of them) → He follows 120+ digital-first companies on Seeking Alpha so he gets an alert as soon as they publish their quarterly earnings reports But Glen didn’t always put this much effort into his content “I wrote 300 articles that sounded like everyone else and didn’t really add anything to the conversation”, he tells Tim And that got him nowhere He reckons those 300 articles took about as much effort to write as ten of the whoppers he’s known for these days But he’s seen a MUCH bigger ROI on the deep dives Its what’s earned his site Detailed.com: → A couple hundred thousand visits in the last year → 40,000 newsletter subscribers → Mentions in the likes of Techcrunch, Business Insider, and The Guardian And here's what Glen says it's done for his agency: "I don’t know how to say this without sounding egotistical, but we get enough inbound enquiries that I’ve never sent an email saying ‘we’re taking on clients now'" 👀 I'll pop a link to the podcast ep in the comments Give it a listen to learn more about how Glen Allsopp creates some of the best content on the internet 👇