Podcasts about cornerstone content

In this podcast, we discuss the importance of cornerstone content for building a successful content marketing strategy. Cornerstone content acts as a guide for creating related content and provides an overview of the main areas of focus for your business. We explain the benefits of using this approach, how to plan and create cornerstone content, and how it can improve your SEO efforts. Tune in to learn more about creating a strong content structure with cornerstone content.

Are you tired of conventional marketing methods, such as blogging, podcasting, creating landing pages, sending emails, and hosting networking events & webinars? If so, you're in for a treat! In this enlightening podcast episode by Dr. Terri Levine, we dive into a unique and game-changing approach to marketing - the power of cornerstone content. She discusses the advantages of focusing on just one cornerstone content and the incredible ways you can leverage it for maximum impact and reach. Don't miss out on this opportunity to revolutionize your marketing game.   Key Highlights From The Episode: [00:34] Intro [01:01] The unique, game-changing approach to marketing with cornerstone content  [01:25] Advantages of focusing on one cornerstone content [01:42] Ways to leverage your cornerstone content [04:30] Get free audios on how to leverage your cornerstone content: https://www.facebook.com/groups/heartrepreneurswithterrilevine/   Golden Nuggets: • Focusing on one piece of cornerstone content saves you time, money, and energy. [01:25]  • You can leverage your cornerstone content by transforming it into different forms to maximize its impact and reach. [01:42]   Let me help you grow your coaching business:  Grab this free training and see my revolutionary process in action! Join me and my Inner Circle Students for a behind-the-scenes Live Group Coaching Call: www.6figsin6months.com If you want to join me in one of our connect and collaborate sessions. Go to https://calendly.com/heartrepreneur/mcm-live-connect-and-collaborate-session, and select a date & time! Oh yeah, feel free to join our free Facebook community here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1024921757544017.   Want More!? Listen to the podcast version of this content on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts Watch all the episodes and more to gain more insight on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@coachterri/videos.   Please connect with me on social: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mentorterri Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeartrepreneurTerriLevine LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terrilevine/ 

Whether you are new to blogging or a seasoned veteran, it is important to create cornerstone content that helps identify you as an expert on your topic, leads your audience to all of the various options you have for them, and helps your SEO rankings.Meg Casebolt shares more about cornerstone content and the best way to use it effectively.Get Meg's SEO Starter Kit Here. Read More Here

Justin Simon (a content strategy consultant) shares his 3C Content Repurposing Strategy for getting off the content creation hamster wheel. Download the free powerups cheatsheet: https://marketingpowerups.com/026In this Marketing Powerups episode, you'll learn:Why content distribution is so important.The benefits of considering content distribution first.Justin's 3C content strategy.How diversification accelerated Justin's content career.

In this episode of the Humane Marketing podcast, I talk to Meg Casebolt, founder of Love At First Search, about search engine optimization (SEO) and specifically about Cornerstone content. We discuss the basic steps to optimize a website for search, using empathy in keyword research, whether to aim for high traffic or low competition keywords, how to write Cornerstone content, the length and structure of the content, and how fast to expect results. We also touch on the evolution of search with the arrival of AI and so much more. Meg Casebolt is the founder of Love At First Search and host of the Social Slowdown podcast. Meg loves to help businesses spend less time trying to hack the algorithms and instead creates SEO content that attracts your ideal audience to your website while helping entrepreneurs cut their dependency on social media for their business visibility. It was never her vision to run an agency, but as her reputation grew, she made the decision to build a team of women that could support these mostly women-owned businesses in a powerful, feminist way - to help them climb the ranks and get their digital voices heard in a crowded marketplace. Today we're talking about websites, or more specifically about generating traffic to our websites. Meg and I also discuss: How SEO is combining the tech with the human need Basic steps to get your website optimized for search Keyword research - myths and truths How we can use empathy in our keyword research Whether to write content for the keywords or for our people How Meg thinks search will evolve (with the arrival of AI) And much more Ep 163 transcript [00:00:00] Sarah: Hello, humane marketers. Welcome back to the Humane Marketing Podcast, the place to be for the generation of marketers that cares. This is a show where we talk about running your business in a way that feels good to you, is aligned with your values, and also resonates with today's conscious customers because it's humane, ethical, and non-pushy. [00:00:23] I'm Sarah z Croce, your hippie turn business coach for quietly rebellious entrepreneurs and marketing impact pioneer. Mama Bear of the Humane Marketing Circle and renegade author of marketing like we're human and selling like we're human. If after listening to the show for a while, you are ready to move on to the next level and start implementing and would welcome a community of like-minded, quietly rebellious entrepreneurs who discuss with transparency what. [00:00:52] Works and what doesn't work in business, then we'd love to welcome you in our humane marketing circle. If you're picturing your [00:01:00] typical Facebook group, let me paint a new picture for you. This is a closed community of like-minded entrepreneurs from all over the world who come together once per month in a Zoom Circle workshop to hold each other accountable and build their business in a sustainable way. [00:01:16] We share with transparency and vulnerability what works for us. And what doesn't work so that you can figure out what works for you instead of keep throwing spaghetti on the wall and seeing what sticks. Find out more at humane.marketing/circle, and if you prefer one-on-one support from me. My humane business coaching could be just what you need, whether it's for your marketing, sales, general business building, or help with your big idea like writing a book. [00:01:47] I'd love to share my brain and my heart with you together with my own. Almost 15 years business experience and help you grow a sustainable business that is joyful and sustainable. If you love this podcast, [00:02:00] wait until I show you my mama bear qualities as my one-on-one client can find out more at humane.marketing/coaching. [00:02:10] And finally, if you are a marketing impact pioneer and would like to bring friends back, podcast, have a look at offer conversation on my website, website Promotion Humane, and I'm talking to Casebolt about seo. Search engine optimization and specifically about cornerstone content, which Meg will explain in this episode. [00:02:34] If you're a regular here, you already know that I'm organizing the conversations around the seven Ps of the Humane Marketing Mandala. But if you're new here, you probably don't know what I'm talking about, but you can download your one page marketing plan with the humane marketing version of the seven Ps of marketing at Humane. [00:02:54] Dot marketing slash one page. That's the number one in the word [00:03:00] page. And this comes with seven email prompts to really help you reflect on these different piece for your business. So it's not a blueprint where it tells you what to do, but it really invites you to think for yourself and, uh, think about these different peas for your business. [00:03:19] So here's a little info on Meg. Meg Case Vault is the founder of Love at First Search and host of the Social Slowdown podcast. Meg loves to help businesses spend less time trying to hack the algorithms, and instead creates SEO content that attracts your ideal audience to your website while helping entrepreneurs cut their dependency on social media for their business visibility. [00:03:45] It was never her vision to run an agency, but as her reputation grew, she made the decision to build a team of women that could support these mostly women owned businesses in a powerful feminist way to help them climb the [00:04:00] ranks and get their digital voices heard in a crowded marketplace. So today we're talking about websites or more specifically about generating traffic to our websites. [00:04:11] We address how. SEO is combining the tech with the human need. Basic steps to get your website optimized for search keyword research, myths and truths, how we can use empathy in our keyword research, whether to write content for the keywords or for our people. How Meg thinks search will evolve with the arrival of AI and so much more. [00:04:39] So, are you ready for seo for Humane Marketers? Well, then let's talk to Meg. Hey Meg, good to speak to [00:04:47] Meg: you. It's so good to be here with you. Thank you for having me, Sarah. [00:04:51] Sarah: Thanks. We just recorded another episode where I was the guest on your podcast and now you're here. I just love doing those. It's, it's when you [00:05:00] really get a feel for the human, you know? [00:05:02] It's not like, oh, we're just pitching each other for being a podcast guest, and then we never speak again this week. Like, yeah, we get to know each other a little bit, [00:05:11] Meg: so, And I think when you find somebody that you resonate with, the reciprocity comes naturally versus more of a, you know, well, you know, you scratch my back, I scratch, yours doesn't feel good, but hey, this, we have different things to say to different audiences, but there's a lot of alignment in there, so let's talk to both of these different groups. [00:05:30] It feels really good, you know? [00:05:32] Sarah: Exactly. It's not just like, oh, because. Yeah, you pay me now. I pay you back. [00:05:38] Meg: Yeah, that's true. Collaboration versus reciprocity, right? Yeah. Yeah. [00:05:43] Sarah: Mm-hmm. So your business is called, uh, love at First Search, and I just want you to start there and, and explain what that means. Well, I kind of gave it away in the intro, but still, uh, tell us, you know, how he came up with [00:06:00] that and. [00:06:01] And just, yeah, the word love already gives it away. Right? So like, tell us, give us more info [00:06:07] Meg: on that. Sure, so love it. First Search is a search engine optimization firm where we're helping small businesses mostly to be found on search engines like Google or Bing, but also YouTube is a search engine and any podcast, wherever you're listening to this podcast, that's also a search engine. [00:06:26] So we're talking a lot to content creators, um, about how to bring in people who. Want to hear your message, how to create content that makes them feel. Seen and valued and appreciated and understood. Uh, a lot of search engine marketing is like a numbers game. It is what is the keyword that you can that has the right amount of search volume, and also it has the low keyword difficulty and not too competitive in terms of our AdWords numbers. [00:06:59] And like, [00:07:00] there's a lot of metrics around it. Um, And I've had several clients come to me and say, I tried search before and my consultants all tried to push me in a direction that didn't feel good. Um, and so what we are trying to do at Love at First Search is show up in the search results that feel like we understand what our clients need from us, not just what is the most obvious opportunity we want it to feel relevant. [00:07:30] To what people need versus just kind of a spray and pray approach to marketing. [00:07:36] Sarah: Yeah, I love that. That is such a more human and humane way of explaining just, just the word s e o alone. Right? If you hear that, and I know that there's a lot of people. Who have never heard of seo, right? Mm-hmm. They have their websites, they're coaches or healers or, or consultants even. [00:07:58] Uh, and so [00:08:00] whenever we use an abbreviation that assumes that they are supposed to know what it means, but they don't, and then they feel really embarrassed and they're like, oh, I, should I be doing that? What's that? Mm-hmm. Right? And so the, the way you explain it makes so much more sense. Also for people who, who are in humane business because it's, it's not just, it's not just a keyword. [00:08:25] It, it is about this idea of resonating with ideal clients, right? So, yeah, I love [00:08:31] Meg: that. And I think a lot of times when people think about surge engine optimization, about s e o as a marketing tactic, um, they see it as a mass marketing tactic of how many people can I get in front of? Um, but. As we know from the ways that kind of the pendulum is swinging in the digital marketing world, it's not necessarily about quantity anymore. [00:08:55] Um, if you're running, I mean, it is for specific, some specific types of businesses. If you're [00:09:00] running sort of more of a blog or content platform type of business where the number of podcast downloads that, that you get impacts your sponsorship packages and the number of paid views that you get impacts your, you know, cost per visit, like, There is a place for those kinds of businesses where you can be a, a free resource because you have these, these backup monetization options. [00:09:24] But for so many of us, that's not how we're getting paid. We're getting paid because we are service providers or we sell very specific products to a small group of dedicated people. [00:09:39] Sarah: Hmm. Yeah. [00:09:40] Meg: And often the solutions that we're helping our, our audience with are not mass market solutions. We're not Nike trying to sell shoes to everybody. [00:09:50] We're like, I wanted to sell, you know, shoe insoles to joggers who, uh, have planter fasciitis, right? Like we get really [00:10:00] targeted down and we solve. Problems that people have. So why not? When those people are having those problems, why not be the ones that show up and help help those people in your audience to feel like they're understood? [00:10:15] Sarah: Yeah, that is such a good point that you, that you mention people are humans, right? Because what we usually hear is traffic or generating traffic. But when you think about traffic, you either see like, you know, a huge traffic jam on a highway and what you see there is cars. You don't see humans or on the internet, you think of traffic. [00:10:43] I don't see humans, when I think of internet traffic, I just, right. See like. Empty nothing. You know, it's like maybe wires or, or something like [00:10:51] Meg: that. And so much of the, the noun choices, the word choices that are used in the mass marketing approach and, uh, you've said like hype marketing or [00:11:00] bro marketing, like the, the phrases and choices that we make are traffic and users and page views and visitors. [00:11:09] They're, it's very, um, The leads, right? Like they're not, they're prospects. Um, especially when we get into like really metric space where it's like, these are the marketing qualified leads and these are the sale qualified leads. And they're not even people anymore. They're just s qls. Right? Like, and there's, there is a place for trying to figure out where your marketing resonates and where people may or may not fit for your messaging. [00:11:32] Right? But when we start to zoom out that far, we lose sight of Sure. You have. Hundred thousand users on your website. Every single one of those is a human sitting at a computer scrolling through your [00:11:49] Sarah: words. Exactly. Yeah. So you talk about using empathy in keywords, and so that already is kind of like I. [00:11:58] Feels like an oxymoron. It's like [00:12:00] what? Empathy keywords, how does that go together? I'm, I'm seeing like spreadsheets with empathy and I'm like, Hmm. How does that work? So tell us how that works. [00:12:10] Meg: Uh, I think, I think the core of how we need to do marketing better is not just, you know, look at the spreadsheet and figure out the easiest solution, but truly understanding. [00:12:26] Why our businesses exist, what they do for our audience, and like how we can really start to have that connection with them. And a lot of times, I don't know exactly how to explain this. Let me, you know, a lot of times when people are having some sort of problem or issue, they don't necessarily want to ask their friends for help. [00:12:53] They don't want to go on Facebook. Um, if, if you're a health coach and you're helping clients who have [00:13:00] Crohn's disease, Then they have a lot of symptoms that are not things that you want your friends to know about. We'll just leave that as like a nice clean answer there. Um, but when people have those kinds of problems, they go to search engines and they go like, I'm having a constant stomach ache. [00:13:19] Right? That's the nicest, cleanest way to say it. Um, there's a lot of poop keywords out there, so I'll try not to get too heavy in that. But, um, you know, the. They don't want people to know, but Google feels like a safe place to get slightly unbiased answers to questions that you don't wanna go on Facebook and say to people like, I'm struggling in my marriage and I'm thinking about getting a divorce, or, my child is struggling with this and, and like, there's a lot of pride that people have and they want to present themselves to their friends, to their, their networks as having it all together, but, When it comes to search, that's a safe place to ask the questions [00:14:00] that you don't feel safe asking in other places. [00:14:02] Sarah: Yeah, it, it reminds me of an exercise we do in the marketing, like we're human program where we look at the empathy map. Yes, you've seen this, right? Mm-hmm. Where you think about your ideal client and you, um, think of what they say, think, feel, and do. Mm-hmm. I don't know if I got the order correctly, but, but yeah, it's exactly that. [00:14:24] It's like, what are they thinking or, or what are they Googling would be a good way also to, to say it, right. What are they Googling? But they're never gonna say that in a first session with you, right? Mm-hmm. It's like, it's the embarrassing things that. If you then, and I guess what you're saying is where the empathy shows up is if you then write a post that in addresses that issue with empathy, not with shaming, of course. [00:14:54] Mm-hmm. Then they feel heard and seen because they just found a. The solution and [00:15:00] they found the human who offers that solution. [00:15:03] Meg: Yeah, sometimes it's not even like the post absolutely can be empathetic and that will help with the conversion, but just seeing the name of the post show up in those search results can sometimes be a validation of the experience. [00:15:16] Mm-hmm. You know, I was talking yesterday with a play therapist in Virginia and some of her keywords will be very obvious, like, Play therapy, Virginia, right? Like her specific town. Um, she's works specifically with adoptive families, so it's like play therapy for adoptive children. Um, so sometimes the keywords can be very clear, but we also tried to get to the empathy of it. [00:15:37] What are the problems that these children are exhibiting? That they're getting the calls from school saying Your child seems to have anxiety, or the preschooler is biting. What are those things that they, the, the parent doesn't know where to go. The parent doesn't know what to do next. Or the, they're, they're like, oh, my kid's [00:16:00] about to get kicked outta preschool cuz they're hitting and bit, what can I do to help them? [00:16:03] Right? Like when people have problems they go seeking solutions. And if you can be that port in the storm, that safe place to say, I know what to I'm, yeah, my kid bit too. I know how to help them work through that. I know how to help you as a parent, work through it with them. You're not alone, because just by the fact that this is showing up in those search results, it proves that I've been there. [00:16:30] Mm-hmm. And I can help you with it. There's a certain amount of connection that happens in just having your experience acknowledged. [00:16:38] Sarah: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. From there, you then, So, so now we're kind of, kind of learning, okay, to do keyword research, but coming from this place of empathy, right? Mm-hmm. So all of a sudden it doesn't just feel like this left brain analytical mm-hmm. [00:16:57] Uh, activity because we're bringing in the right brain [00:17:00] and actually thinking, well, what would they be searching for? How can I really show empathy and help them with their problem? So we're doing the research, uh, the keyword research. What's the next step? So how, or, or maybe already still like. You talked quickly before, volume and, uh, difficulty of, of competition and all that. [00:17:25] Tell us what we need to look for, uh, in these keywords. [00:17:29] Meg: Well, so let's define keyword research before we leap too much into sort of the strategy behind it. Right. So when we, keyword research is another one of those phrases that can feel overwhelming because people go, oh, that's a lot of spreadsheets. Um, keyword research is. [00:17:44] Figuring out what people are typing into Google. That's it. And those phrases that you sit down and you type in, or you know, most of us are doing it from our phones now sometimes us are speaking into Siri for it, right? But, [00:18:00] um, whatever you are asking, Google is your keyword. So it doesn't have to be one word, it can be a phrase, it can be a question, it can be a statement. [00:18:10] Um, anything that you can search is a keyword word. Now the next step, like you said, is to figure out for not necessarily every page on your website, but every page on your website can be found for different keywords. So it's not that you have to be found for, you know, humane business coach, and that is the only phrase and you have to put it on every page of your website so that people who are looking for that can find that one phrase and you have to put all your eggs in that basket. [00:18:42] Um, this is not the Lord of the Rings. There is no like one keyword to rule them all. This is an, and one of the reasons I love SEO and I feel like I can talk about this with you, is like it's an abundance mindset. Mm. Mm-hmm. This isn't a scarcity thing where like, I have to be found for SEO consultant or nobody [00:19:00] will ever find me. [00:19:01] This is what are all the different on-ramps to this highway that different people need at different points, but the destination is the same. Right. Yeah. So you can, you can be found for that one phrase of humane businesses or gentle marketing. Like you can have those sort of branded search terms where you have spent time to build a brand around the titles of your books and the titles of your business and the, you know, your community name. [00:19:30] Like those are branded search, but we also have search terms that are just like, what do people need from us? What questions do they ask and each of those concepts each, I call them keyword clusters, but each of those search intents can go to a different page of your website. It doesn't all have to filter in through your homepage. [00:19:56] Your copy doesn't have to convert all from right there. You have [00:20:00] the opportunity to create infinite number of entry points. So every podcast episode that you record can be found for a hundred different search terms. How cool is that? It's very cool. [00:20:14] Sarah: It's very cool if you, if you, if you know how to do that keyword research. [00:20:20] Mm-hmm. Because I think also maybe what you need to explain is this idea of, you know, the volume and the, the difficulty of actually ranking. Because 15 years ago when I started out, it was relatively okay. You know, you could rank. Highly, pretty not, I'm not gonna say easily, but it was definitely much easier than today. [00:20:44] Today we have so much content out there. You do have to have a certain knowledge about, you know, what do people search, how much do they search for that? And then also how much content does already exist. [00:21:00] That is. Optimized, I think you would say for that keyword word, right? [00:21:04] Meg: Yeah. You just nailed the, the three big things is what do people search for? [00:21:08] How many people search for it and how many other people have written about it. Um, and that's where some of those search metrics come into place is figuring out, not just like, what are people saying, but if I were to target this idea, could I actually show up for it? Right? And so sometimes people aim too high. [00:21:30] And they go, I'm gonna try to be found for online business without that recognition of, but why? Mm-hmm. I'm like, why that phrase? Oh cuz I'm an online business coach. Um, okay. Cool. But what do you, what do you help people with? What do you do differently? What are your what, how, what about your approaches different? [00:21:50] Um, we have a student right now in one of our programs who is, she calls herself a, a conscious business coach for changemakers, which is not a phrase that. [00:22:00] Anybody would know to look for, right? Um, but she does really well in a post that she has about why she doesn't do discovery calls and how you can run, uh, a more, um, streamlined and better feeling business if you have an alternative to discovery calls. [00:22:16] And the phrase that shows up is alternative to discovery calls. Hmm. [00:22:22] Sarah: Wow. Go figure. Yeah, [00:22:23] Meg: sometimes it doesn't have to be, you know, hundreds of thousands of people searching for a keyword. But those people who are going to Google after doing another discovery call that tanked, and they're going, oh, how do I stop doing discovery calls? [00:22:37] And they find her website. But [00:22:38] Sarah: here's the question. How did she come up? Like how did she think of. Using that as a keyword, or was that just a fluke? And then she noticed, and [00:22:49] Meg: sometimes it's a fluke, right? Sometimes you stumble into a phrase and you sudden, and you can use the metrics to figure out what that is. [00:22:58] I'd be happy to teach people how to go into their [00:23:00] Google search console and go, you know, there are ways to know exactly what every single phrase is that people find you for, but sometimes. In her case in particular for Caroline, it was like, I just know that people would come into that and then go to my contact form and then say, I found you through this blog post. [00:23:17] Nice. It doesn't always have to be this like automated user flow. What's the conversion rate from each landing page? It's important information. Yeah. But sometimes you can get the same information from a conversation. Yeah. [00:23:32] Sarah: So [00:23:33] Meg: nice. And then if you're trying to figure out what to create next that might attract those ideal clients, like listen to your ideal clients. [00:23:42] What else don't they like about what's happening in the online, in her case, in the online or your case too? Probably. Like what's, what are those things that they don't like? Okay. Create blog posts or podcast episodes about your unique approach to it, right? Yeah. [00:24:00] And your content can come either from, you know, the key being keyword driven. [00:24:07] Which is making sure that you know that exact phrase that people are looking for and then putting it when you're, when you're publishing the document for the first time, you can say, okay, I'll put this in my SEO title and my, my blog post title and my subheadings and my alt text. Like there's a way to do it that way, but I find that for a lot more of my kind of heart-centered marketers that I work with, it can be easier to create something. [00:24:33] Think about what would people search. If they needed this, include some of that thought process into the post and then hit publish and wait and see what happens. [00:24:45] Sarah: Hmm. Okay. [00:24:47] Meg: It doesn't always have to be driven from the keywords. It can be what resonates and then how can I optimize what's already working? [00:24:56] Sarah: Right. Yeah. So, so flipping it on its head [00:25:00] and starting. Instead of starting with the strategy, starting with the empathy, because you're writing content that your ideal clients, uh, will resonate with, and then seeing, okay, this works. This one doesn't. Let me take the one that works and make it even better and more optimized for the, the search [00:25:19] Meg: engine. [00:25:20] Exactly. And it can also, if you, if you, if, if that approach. Resonates with you, then it can also feel a lot more connected to the needs of your clients and take away some of that perfectionism. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because there's absolutely a feeling when you have some sort of like, I'm gonna spend so much time writing these blog posts, and I wanna make sure that they show up and search results right away, and if I don't get it right, then what's the point? [00:25:49] Right. But if we're creating for our audience first and then optimizing for search second, then you know what it, [00:26:00] this is everything about marketing is the 80 20 rule, right? The Pareto principle, that 20% of your work creates 80% of your results. So if you publish things and you also send them out to your newsletter and you, you know, share them wherever your audience is and 20% of them bring in search traffic, then maybe that's. [00:26:21] That's actually very normal. Um, but then when people land on the pages that are working for search, then you can link to them to the other ones that are still valuable, that are still important, but are still part of your unique approach to things. And once people arrive on your website, then they can go explore that information. [00:26:40] We don't need to be found for every search result. We need to be introduced and then let your website tell your story. [00:26:49] Sarah: Basically what you're saying is you, you don't need every page or every block post to bring you, you know, all this traffic because if you just have one or [00:27:00] two or three or, or I know, obviously the more the better. [00:27:03] But if you just have a few that really work and. And they can really work. Like, they can really work. Some of them is like, oh my God, you know, all of a sudden you're like getting tons and tons of new signups to your, to your, uh, freebie or whatever. Mm-hmm. So, so yeah, that's enough, right? It's, and then like you said, you just link it to your other blog posts so that, um, so that people could still discover more, more content. [00:27:31] I guess that also leads us to this idea of. Cornerstone pages because that's another thing you mentioned when we, uh, exchanged by email. Um, so yeah, was what you described already, maybe an example of a cornerstone page where you linked to other. [00:27:49] Meg: Not, not quite. There is, there is what it is. Something relevant there, so. [00:27:53] Mm-hmm. Um, what we were talking about earlier with some of these metrics around, you know, there are certain amounts of keywords [00:28:00] that a lot of people are looking for, but other people have talked about, so it can be harder to rank for those terms. Right. Um, It can be really helpful if you're in that boat to create a longer piece of content that shares everything that you've created on a topic. [00:28:16] So you know, you might create a, a piece of cornerstone content called the Humane Approach to Online Business Marketing. The ultimate, well, you can almost think of these as like ultimate guides. Everything you need to know about this topic, humane marketing, one-on-one, whatever we wanna call that post, right, where you've talked about humane marketing on. [00:28:39] Every page of your website, right? Every single one. Well, maybe this is not maybe the right phrase for you because it is your domain name, so it'll go to your homepage. Well, we can talk about that. I'm, I'm spitballing here a little bit. Um, but let's, let's think about that core value that you have or that core idea, that category that you're talking about. [00:28:56] There. There can be a point where you can create an outline of what [00:29:00] are the, the framework, what are the principles that I'm talking about all the time, and what have I already created that supports this? Mm. And then you can create one ultimate guide that covers all of that. And if we're talking about a phrase like humane marketing, gentle marketing, ethical marketing, that's sprinkled throughout your website, Google doesn't always know like, what is the right page? [00:29:28] Mm-hmm. To share that information. Um, But if you have a guide on your website that's longer, that links to all those other things and that all those other places around the website where you've talked about that, it links back to that guide, that cornerstone content. Sometimes it's called silo content. I. [00:29:48] Then that is a clear indicator to Google that that is the place on your website for that term. And you can rank for terms that a lot of other people have talked about. If they haven't gone [00:30:00] into the level of detail that you have in that guide, then you can like, Jump up ahead of them in those search results because you've created something that is better quality that positions you as a, an authority on that topic, and that proves to Google that you know what you're talking about. [00:30:16] And so that's what we're talking about with cornerstone content. And I often talk to podcasters who are like, I have a hundred episodes talking about this particular topic. And I'm like, okay. Create, you know, an overview guide. Basically take take a, a. Piece of thread and tie a narrative through the most important things that you're talking about. [00:30:36] Mm-hmm. Um, for my podcast, we created a cornerstone guide called, um, mental Health, entrepreneurship and Social Media, because nobody's talking about those three pieces together. Right. Yeah, [00:30:49] Sarah: I love that. And so did you research whether there is search volume for mental health and social media? [00:30:57] Meg: Yeah, so it was conversations that I was having [00:31:00] on the podcast already with therapists and social workers and you know, like I was having those conversations already. [00:31:07] The content was already created. Mm-hmm. And I knew that it was a topic that we wanted to discuss more. And I was starting to see some of these keywords show up in our metrics around mental health and entrepreneurship or around social media. Anxiety was a phrase that we targeted for that particular page. [00:31:25] Um, And so we wrote a longer post that was just like, here are the entrepreneurs that we've interviewed who talked about anxiety. Here are the ones that, uh, and, and here are the mental health professionals that we've interviewed. And we took poll quotes from their episodes and then linked to those episodes. [00:31:41] So if people are looking for that, they, it's basically like, almost like a playlist, right, of what's already been created. But instead of just a list of hero, the things that we've created in this category, we're telling a story in that post. So here's what [00:31:56] Sarah: I just finished, um, is, uh, a hugely [00:32:00] long, uh, post about humane marketing words we love. [00:32:04] Ooh. And so it goes through all these wor words like abundance and intuition, integrity and conscious, like all of these words that I use all over the book. And then I linked, yeah, to. Podcasts or, or, or blog posts or so. So would that be an example of a, uh, cornerstone page? Totally. Even though there, there's probably no search volume for humane marketing words yet, right? [00:32:33] Meg: So ye yes and no. So the thing about cornerstone content is that it is a guide in one place. And in your case, it's almost like a thought leadership. Mm-hmm. Piece of cornerstone content so that when more people become aware of these terms, um, they can then, like Google will already know that it exists. [00:32:52] You're ahead of the curve, hopefully. Mm-hmm. Um, but the great thing about it is that. Now it exists. [00:33:00] Right. And sure, Google can find it and they can send you traffic for it, but it's still an incredibly powerful asset in your business, right? [00:33:08] Sarah: Yeah. It's thinking of using it like in the menu bar, um, like as a start here or [00:33:13] Meg: something like that. [00:33:14] Mm-hmm. I would say a start here button, I could say, I could see you calling it almost like a, a term glossary. Mm-hmm. Like a humane marketing term glossary. Like what? What is it? It's use that people might need from it. They might go, oh, what are all these terms? Like how would you define these things? [00:33:29] Right. Um, So you could include it on your homepage and say, come check out our humane dark marketing glossary. Mm-hmm. To give people that idea of what is that resource for them? Right? Yeah. Um, but then also every page on your website that is linked from that, that glossary, you can then link back to it. Mm mm-hmm. [00:33:51] So if somebody listens to your episode about abundance, And then goes to the show notes, and then checks out the glossary, and then [00:34:00] goes and listens to the one about, uh, consciousness. Right? Like it can be a, a piece of, sometimes they'll call it hub content, right? Yeah. That it doesn't have to just be there for Google. [00:34:11] It can be a really great navigation tool. Um, and maybe, I mean, maybe you wanna turn it into a downloadable PDF that people can have as a [00:34:20] Sarah: guide. Right. Yeah. That would be another option. Exactly. I saw that's that's what you have because it's so long. Right? It's like, well, well you want a PDF of [00:34:29] Meg: that? Yeah. [00:34:30] When people get to, we have a cornerstone guide on the Loveit first search website. No, I was talking about the podcast, um, cornerstone a minute ago. But we have one on our loveit first search site that is just like, here's our 15 step approach to creating a really search friendly website. Um, And the, the post itself is 7,500 words. [00:34:48] It is a short novel. Um, it's a novel. It's, it's a novel. It's a blog post novella. You don't have to write that much. I, this is what I do. Right? Like, this is what we do best. Um, yours does not. [00:35:00] Absolutely. It can be, it can be. I. 1500 words and still be considered cornerstone content. Right. So don't feel like that's the norm. [00:35:05] Mm-hmm. Um, this was a labor of love that we put together last year. It took me 50 hours to create That's not normal. Yeah, right. But knowing that it is a 7,500 word blog post, our calls to action on the cornerstone guide for the first third of it, for the first like 2000 words is like, Yeah, this is really long. [00:35:25] Do you just want me to email this to you? Do you want me to, to just, so we send it as a pdf d and then we send follow up emails that, you know, we turned it into an automated funnel to make, to break it down and make it feel more reasonable to consume, um, where we break it into a three, sort of like a three act process and then provide those. [00:35:45] Like resources in those documents and each one has a video. And so we created it into more of an opt-in guide. But that's not, not everyone has to go to that level of extreme. Right. But our, our opt-ins are insane on it. It's like, uh, our op, we get a [00:36:00] 7% opt-in rate when people land on that guide. Because it has value. [00:36:05] It doesn't always get surge traffic because there's so much on the internet about web design, but when people land on that page, they join my email list, they join my programs, like it converts very well for us, and it's. It tries to meet people at every stage of that process and let them choose where they are in that process and not feel like you have to start from step one. [00:36:26] So there's a lot of, you know, when you're creating a guide based on your approach or your framework, it can be hard to figure out how to organize it. But what you just said about having a glossary, like that's, that's a way of proving that you are using these terms and sharing where they fit on your website and allowing people to go exploring in a way that feels good. [00:36:48] Sarah: Yeah. Yeah. No, I really like this idea of, of first helping your clients, but then also hopefully helping your, uh, helping the search engines, right. [00:37:00] Understanding, more learning about your unique approach. So, so yeah. That, that really feels good. Um, can you have more than one cornerstone content? Yeah. Or is that just like, you have to have one piece and that's it. [00:37:16] Meg: No, anytime that you have sort of a core idea mm-hmm. You can create cornerstone content around it. Um, some people, and again, this comes back to like, do you start from the keywords or do you start from the content, um, you know, the chicken or the egg of all of it. Some people who have been creating for a long time, they could go through, audit their content, maybe just kind of note like what are the, the themes that continue to show up? [00:37:41] Right. And come up with an idea for a cornerstone guide. Um, And then those people who already have all that content might then create an outline and say, you know, based on what's here, I can see the the gaps. I can go create more content, I can build this up. Right? And then there are gonna be the [00:38:00] folks who are like, I already know that I wanna talk about, you know, mental health and social media. [00:38:04] So here are the topics that I wanna talk about, and I'm gonna go create each of those. Podcast episodes. I'm gonna go seek out the guests that I need. I'm gonna create the guide in order. There's no right or wrong way to create these. It's just more of take the building blocks. And build a wall. Mm-hmm. [00:38:22] Sarah: Yeah. What I like most about talking with you just now is that you, you hand out these permission slips as well. It's like, no, you don't have to start with the keyword research because, um, before we started, Talking, I, I went on to Neil Patel again and saw all his videos and I'm like, I just, no, I can't go back there. [00:38:46] Like, it's [00:38:47] Meg: just, it's so prescriptive. It's so, it's so [00:38:50] Sarah: prescriptive and it's just like all this Yeah. Kind of masculine energy and Yeah. Spreadsheets and all. I'm like, it's just not for me. [00:39:00] But to hear you say, well, you can start it with the content and then start to optimize it. That, yeah, that feels really, really good. [00:39:08] So thanks for handing us, it's so [00:39:11] Meg: slip, it's so clear that I'm neuro divergent. Right. Like that there are all these rules and as, as an industry, it's very much a like linear approach to the way of doing things. And my brain is just not linear. Mm-hmm. And I don't want it to be linear. And there are a lot of rules out there that are like, Here, do this checklist, follow this plan, get these results, re improve on the results. [00:39:34] And I sit down to do the plan and I'm like, but I don't wanna, [00:39:38] Sarah: no, it's like, I'm a rebel. I don't wanna follow your, your silly [00:39:42] Meg: rules. Yeah. And like where is the space in that for inspiration? Where is the space in that? For intuition? Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes the best, the best content that you create is not the stuff that's in the plan. [00:39:53] It's the stuff that you stumble into because you're following your gut. Yeah. [00:39:59] Sarah: And we [00:40:00] talked earlier on, on your show about, you know, chat C p t and, and AI and all of that. Imagine now with how easy it is to just tell chat. C p t, write me a blog post St. Six steps for blah, blah, blah. And we're gonna have be bombarded while with all this like, inhumane, boring content that just feels like, you know, the same guy wrote it. [00:40:26] Um, and so imagine now, You showing up with your content. That starts from within. That starts from the heart, and sure. Once you posted it, you're gonna pay attention to some keywords, but it doesn't start with that. How different is that gonna feel? Right. To the reader? It's completely different. It really is. [00:40:47] Meg: Yeah. And that's what can set you apart, right? Yeah. That's where, that's where all of this empathy comes into play is right. You can sound like everyone else, but the thing that's going to set you [00:41:00] apart, the, and you, the thing that's going to make your quality matter more than someone else's quantity is your humanity, right? [00:41:10] Sarah: Yeah. Mm. That's a nice line, I think to end mic drop. Yeah. Wonderful. Well, this has been, this has been really joyful and fun. Thanks so much for hanging out. Please do tell people where they can get that really, really long. PDF that they need to download. [00:41:33] Meg: You don't have to go download it. You can just go browse around. [00:41:36] You don't have to. That's the other thing about me. I'm like, you don't have to do anything. I'm very like rebellious in nature. Um, if you would like to find out more, you can head over toLove@firstsearch.com. We have an SEO starter kit right there that can help you start to get at the I your head. [00:41:50] Wrapping around this idea of keyword research. You can check out our SEO website guide, which is that long. Forum guide of, you know, pop in wherever you are in the framework and [00:42:00] figure out where it makes sense to, uh, to optimize your website. Um, whether you're creating it from scratch or it's been up for years, there are steps in there that make sense based on where you are progressively. [00:42:11] Um, we also do have a podcast and you can come listen to Sarah on the podcast cause we just recorded that. Um, that is called the Social Slowdown Podcast, so you can find that on whatever podcast device you're listening to or social slowdown.com. [00:42:24] Sarah: Wonderful. I always have one last question, and that is, what are you grateful for today or this week? [00:42:30] Meg: I mean, today you and I had to push things around because my, my elder son has been struggling in school, and so the school actually brought in a clinically trained psychologist to observe him in class and help us come up with ways to support him both in the classroom and at home, and that's a really powerful thing. [00:42:50] Too. Now I'm getting a little choked up, but you know that feeling of, of. Having somebody that you care about, be seen and supported. Um, and for me, that's [00:43:00] a huge amount of gratitude of being, being supported as a parent and knowing that my kid's getting what he needs. [00:43:06] Sarah: Yeah. What a wonderful service that, yeah. [00:43:08] School is offering. [00:43:09] Meg: That's great. Yeah. And it turns out, um, it's occupational therapy. It's sensory, sensory inputs. So I'm like, okay, I guess we'll be doing more army crawls in the morning before you go to school. That's the answer to all of it. [00:43:22] Sarah: Thanks so much for sharing. Thanks for being here, Meg. And uh, yeah, we'll talk again, [00:43:27] Meg: I hope. [00:43:28] All right, talk to you soon, Sarah. Thank you so much. [00:43:32] Sarah: I hope you learned a lot in this episode, specifically how you can use empathy in our seo. I find that so empowering. Please have a look at me's work atLove@firstsearch.com, and check out me SEO starter Kit atLove@firstsearch.com slash. Start also check out Meg's podcast called The Social Slowdown, where I was a recent guest on and we [00:44:00] talked all things humane marketing. [00:44:02] If you are looking for others who think like you, then why not join us in the Humane Marketing Circle? You can find out more at humane.marketing/circle. You find the show notes of this episode@humane.marketing slash 1 63 on this beautiful page. You'll also find a series of free offers, such as my Saturday newsletter, the Humane Business Manifesto, and the free Gentle Confidence mini course, as well as my two books, marketing like we're Human and selling like we're human. [00:44:38] Thank you so much for listening and being part of a generation of marketers who cares. For yourself, your clients, and the planet. We are change makers before we are marketers. Now go be the change you want to see in the world. Speak soon.

Meg Casebolt is the founder of Love At First Search, she's all about a simple strategy that you can use to get more out of the content that's gathering digital dust on your website. Cornerstone Content is the best way to play into Google's SEO requirements by repurposing the content you already have to improve your authority and capture users and qualified leads (at a better rate than ads).   In this episode we talked about:  What is a cornerstone content? Why is Cornerstone content important? How long should cornerstone content be? How do I make cornerstone content that Google loves? And so much more Connect with Lucy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mslucyliu Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mslucyliu Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/mslucyliu LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mslucyliu TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mslucyliu YouTube: https://youtube.com/@mslucyliu Website: https://www.lucyliucoaching.com Podcast: https://www.lucyliucoaching.com/podcast   Wanna double your confidence in 30 seconds?  Get the ultimate secret here:  http://www.confidentandepic.com   Connect With Meg Casebolt Website: https://loveatfirstsearch.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loveatfirstsearch Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loveatfirstsearch  

In the world of coaching and consulting, being good at what you do is not enough. To stand out and establish yourself as an authority, you need to differentiate yourself from others in your field. The solution? Creating cornerstone content that showcases your expertise and using it to boost your influence and income. In this episode, Dr. Terri Levine shares practical tips on how to create effective cornerstone content and leverage it to maximize your influence and income in coaching and consulting.  She also delves into finding the right channels to share your message and crafting content that fosters a deeper connection with your audience. Don't miss out on this insightful discussion! Tune in now and take the first step towards growing your influence and income.   Key Highlights From The Episode: [0:47] Today's focus; How to own your niche by creating Cornerstone Content [1:16] How to create heart-to-heart relationships with prospective clients  [2:24] What is the best way to create impact, influence, and income? [2:30] #1 Find out the channels that are best for you to use  [3:00] #2 Create one piece of cornerstone content and leverage it  [3:46] #3 Only show up to teach and help [4:20] #4 Focus on content that deepens the connection with your audience [4:29] Terri Levine's final words and how to connect with her   Golden Nuggets: The best way to create heart-to-heart relationships with prospective clients is to invite them to be featured in an interview. [1:08] To create a circle of influence, create one cornerstone content that becomes the epicenter of all your activity. [3:15]   Let me help you grow your coaching business: Grab this free training and see my revolutionary process in action! Join me and my Inner Circle Students for a behind-the-scenes Live Group Coaching Call: www.6figsin6months.com If you want to join me in one of our connect and collaborate sessions. Go to https://calendly.com/heartrepreneur/mcm-live-connect-and-collaborate-session, and select a date & time! Oh yeah, feel free to join our free Facebook community here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1024921757544017. Want More!? Listen to the podcast version of this content on your favorite podcast platform: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts Watch all the episodes and more to gain more insight on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@coachterri/videos. Please connect with me on social: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mentorterri Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeartrepreneurTerriLevine LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terrilevine/   

https://DarkHorseSchooling.com/podcat This conversation is about the importance of Cornerstone Content on websites. The host of the Dark Horse Entrepreneur Podcast, Tracy Brinkman, provides seven easy steps to creating these anchor pieces of content. She then explains that she has been in the coaching, course creation and online space since the 90s and is still learning. Tracy then encourages entrepreneurs, coaches and course creators to take action and learn tips from the Dark Horse Entrepreneur Podcast. She believes that driven entrepreneurs should start or restart their businesses with great marketing, personal, or business tips and results.     Cornerstone content is the key to growing a business into the empire it deserves to be. These articles provide the most important, complete information on the topic and should not be written with the goal of selling. They help to raise brand awareness, rank higher in search engine results, and attract prospects that can be nurtured into customers. Writing and publishing this content helps to position oneself as an authority in their industry and builds trust in the brand and its products. Ultimately, the goal is to help other people and build relationships.     Creating Cornerstone Content can be intimidating, but it doesn't have to be. By following seven easy steps, anyone can create content that will attract their ideal customers. Step one is to choose a topic. When deciding on a topic, it is important to consider if it aligns with your business and will attract customers, if it is something that would make your customers life easier, and if it interests you. If you choose a topic that you are passionate about and have a bit of knowledge on, it will be easier to write and optimize the content.   Creating content for your business can be an intimidating task, but with the right preparation and research, it doesn't have to be. The first step to creating great content is to do extra research which will help your prospects and customers. Research what your customers want to know, talk to existing customers, read posts, books, and interviews, and take copious notes to quote as sources. Once you have a plan, start outlining topics and subtopics, and then write the content. Make sure it is clear, concise, and genuinely helpful in solving one or more of your customer's problems. Also, include links from expert sources, build your keywords in naturally, use tools like Grammarly or Hemingway to make it easy to understand, and get a few people to read it in advance. Lastly, optimize your article with your primary keyword in the URL, title tag, and headline.   TIMESTAMPS   0:00:00   "Creating Core Content: 7 Easy Steps to Becoming an Authority in Your Field"   0:02:10   "Unlock the Power of Cornerstone Content to Build Your Business Empire"   0:04:17   "7 Steps to Creating Cornerstone Content for Your Business"   0:06:10   "Tips for Writing Effective Content"   0:12:08   "Optimizing Your Content for Search Engines: Tips for Improving SEO"   0:13:50   "Six Tips for Promoting Your Cornerstone Content"   0:16:39   Creating Cornerstone Content: 7 Tips for Successful SEO and Reader Engagement   HIGHLIGHTS   Contact every expert and website that you quoted inside your article and let them know about it. Some of them heck, many of them will tell others through their social media, right? Sometimes they'll even link to your content from whatever the article or whatever piece of content that you referenced that you used. They'll link them together. Now you're getting some of that Linked use. You might even consider investing a little paid promotion as well. You can reach a highly targeted audience this way and use the new traffic to further build your email list and becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Make it simple for visitors to share your content with others by adding social media buttons, share me links, email, all the little tricks.   Use your social media accounts to tell your followers about the article, right? Schedule social media posts several times a day for the first couple of days after you post that Cornerstone Content, and then periodiotically afterwards, re remind them. Use personalization whenever possible. Thank you, guys, all my sales folks. I did this amazing piece of content about handling objections, right? I drew blank there for a second. Whatever it might be, you can even take a snippet of this piece of content and use it as your social media content and say, hey, this is just one piece of this amazing piece of content. Put it out there, click the link down in the Show notes or whatever it is, and check out the full content, right?   So wherever your keyword you're trying to tweak for, you're trying to optimize for. Make sure it's an url in the title tag and in the headline. Ideally, the title should answer an exact question being asked in Google, so it might be part of your research early on. What questions are being asked on this topic? Create subheadings that hold keywords as well as other keywords being populated throughout your text.. This will help your readers and the search engines alike to recognize the relevance of your content. This search engine have gotten really smart over the past couple of decades. And so make sure you don't know we're not talking about keyword stuffing here. We're just talking about make sure it's relevant to the content you're trying to the questions you're trying to answer and the content you're trying to share.   Right? Tip number three plan your content. Now this is where the fun begins. You might be writing something called the Complete Guide to Blank whatever the Topic Is or everything you ever wanted to know about. Blank. Again, whatever your topic is or how to achieve blank whatever your topic is. Once you have a basic plan of what your article will achieve, start outlining your topics and your subtopics.. You might want to use a step by structure from beginning to end, or a list, like we talked about in episode 348, ways to Make Your Listicles Amazing. So you can create a listicle or whatever works best for the topic that you have chosen. Okay. By the way, you might want to go back to listen to episode 348 where we talked about listicles. Listicles are very popular. You see them all the time. Where it's like the top ten ways to X or the top whatever. Anyway, you know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I won't beat that one to death.   Please do not be intimidated into thinking that it's beyond the scope of your abilities to create this kind of content. Why? Because I'm about to break it down into seven easy steps. Here we go. Step number one pick your topic. There are three questions that you're going to want to consider when choosing a topic. Does it align with your business and will it attract your ideal customers? Right. Does it align with your business and will it attract your ideal customers? For example, let's say you're in the niche of stock investing. You don't want to create some cornerstone Content about buying a home.

Join our resident Business Ninja Kelsey, together with Megan Morreale of Taboola, a company that provides recommendations on the open web and focuses on two main audiences, advertisers and digital properties like publishers, mobile carriers, blogs, and more. Their content strategy seeks to educate advertisers on how to effectively reach audiences on the open web, based on data-driven insights. Learn how they identify their target audience and use content to grab their attention. We share thoughts on paid vs organic content—and what you should be focusing on creating for your business.Find out more about Taboola by visiting their website at https://www.taboola.com/.Connect with Megan on:Medium: https://medium.com/@meganrosemLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganmorreale/Twitter: https://twitter.com/meganrosem-----Do you want to be interviewed for your business?  Schedule time with us, and we'll create a podcast like this for your business:  https://www.WriteForMe.io/-----https://www.facebook.com/writeforme.iohttps://www.instagram.com/writeforme.io/https://twitter.com/writeformeiohttps://www.linkedin.com/company/writeforme/https://www.pinterest.com/andysteuer/Want to be interviewed on our Business Ninjas podcast? Schedule time with us now, and we'll make it happen right away! Check out WriteForMe, more than just a Content Agency! See the Faces Behind The Voices on our YouTube Channel!

Bei Cornerstone Content kann es sich sowohl um Seiten (pages) als auch Beiträge (posts) handeln. Wie der Name „Cornerstone“, also Grundstein oder Eckpfeiler, schon andeutet, finden sich hier die wichtigsten und qualitativ hochwertigsten Artikel. In den beiden Folgen des Podcasts wird erklärt, was Cornerstone Content ist und warum er wichtig für das SEO ist.

Bei Cornerstone Content kann es sich sowohl um Seiten (pages) als auch Beiträge (posts) handeln. Wie der Name „Cornerstone“, also Grundstein oder Eckpfeiler, schon andeutet, finden sich hier die wichtigsten und qualitativ hochwertigsten Artikel. In den beiden Folgen des Podcasts wird erklärt. was Cornerstone Content ist und warum er wichtig für das SEO ist.

With a talent for creating special events that blossomed while working for her dad's car stereo shop, Nicole Mahoney got her start in marketing at Frontier Field in Rochester and she began serving as the executive director of the internationally known Lilac Festival. Later on, Nicole headed the Canandaigua, New York Business Improvement District while also performing projects for the tourism promotion agency Visit Rochester. In 2009, Nicole founded Break the Ice Media, with more than 20 years of experience in tourism marketing. She now hosts “Destination on the Left”, a highly successful tourism marketing podcast. As a business owner, Nicole knows what it takes to be successful. She founded BTI to help businesses tell their brand story through public relations, digital and traditional channels. She has the ability to uncover unique marketing opportunities and develop marketing and public relations initiatives that help clients build long-term success. What you'll learn about in this episode: How Nicole founded her marketing agency, Break The Ice Media, and how she specializes in the travel, tourism, and hospitality industry Why the industry at large is experiencing a workforce shortage, and how it is impacting businesses during the global pandemic How Nicole built a team that is as passionate about helping businesses in their industry as she is, and why industry collaboration is one of Nicole's main focuses How launching the Destination on the Left podcast helped Nicole clarify her focus and led her to doing a collaboration research study to be helpful to her audience Why Nicole set out to answer the question “what makes collaborations work or fail in the travel, tourism, and hospitality industry?” in her research How Nicole used her team, her podcast, and her network of connections in the industry as the foundation of her three-month collaboration research project What results Nicole and her research partner Susan Baier were able to discover through their research, and what content Nicole was able to develop based on the survey How Nicole determined her two-pronged webinar strategy with separate private client and public-facing webinar offerings How Nicole uses the research results as cornerstone content and then slices and dices it into many different smaller pieces of cobblestone content How planting her flag as the authority on travel, tourism, and hospitality industry collaboration has created new opportunities for Nicole's agency Resources: Email: nicole@breaktheicemedia.com Destination on the Left Podcast: https://breaktheicemedia.com/podcast/ Website: www.destinationontheleft.com/summit Website: https://breaktheicemedia.com/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nicolemahoney/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/break-the-ice-media/about/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/BreakTheIceMedia/ Twitter: @Break_TheIce Additional Resources: Edelman's 2020 Trust Barometer Special Report “Trust and the Coronavirus”: https://www.edelman.com/research/2020-edelman-trust-barometer-special-report-coronavirus-and-trust Pricing Creativity by Blair Enns: www.winwithoutpitching.com/pricing-creativity/ Listen to episode 999 of the Onward Nation podcast featuring Brett Gilliland: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/brett-gilliland-4/ Listen to episode 735 of the Onward Nation podcast featuring Clate Mask: https://predictiveroi.com/podcasts/clate-mask/ Listen to episode 35 of the Elite Entrepreneurs podcast featuring Brett Gilliland and Clate Mask: https://growwithelite.com/podcasts/solocast-8/

Hoy hablamos de SEO y no de cualquier cosa dentro de la optimización para motores de búsqueda sino de algo que tiene principal relevancia. El cornerstone content (o dicho en buen romance, el contenido esencial) Se trata de elegir páginas o artículos de tu web que contengan el ADN de tu negocio.

Stephen Woessner is the founder and CEO of Predictive ROI, a digital marketing agency, and the host of Onward Nation — a top-rated daily podcast for learning how today’s top business owners think, act, and achieve. Onward Nation is listened to in 120 countries around the world with over 28,000+ email subscribers. Since the advent of the commercial Internet, Stephen has collected tens of thousands of data points that have given him the ability to identify what he calls the “8 Money Draining Mistakes” and the “8 Money Making Opportunities.” Darren Hardy, then-publisher of SUCCESS Magazine, interviewed Stephen to discuss how business owners can identify and fix the mistakes. Stephen served in the United States Air Force, spent six years at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse as a full-time academic staff member and taught digital marketing classes to small business owners throughout the state including the prestigious School of Business at UW-Madison, has owned five businesses, and is the author of three books, “The Small Business Owner’s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization”, “Increase Online Sales Through Viral Social Networking”, and “Profitable Podcasting.” His digital marketing insights have been featured in Forbes.com, Entrepreneur.com, The Washington Post, and Inc. Magazine. What you’ll learn about in this episode: Stephen offers a high-level review of the “Sell With Authority” methodology outlined in the book of the same name he co-authored with Drew McLellan How the research presented in the Edelman Trust Barometer illustrates that an audience trusts industry experts and people like them more than anyone else What four key qualifications serve to make someone a true thought leader, and why each of these qualifications matter when creating your cornerstone content The three steps to take to “plant your flag of authority” within your chosen niche and with build trust and credibility with your target audience How “cobblestone content” can lead people back to your cornerstone content and down your sales funnel How to find the real “golden nuggets” in your cornerstone content that can be sliced and diced into your cobblestone content Stephen provides several real-world examples of slicing and dicing content and the power of cobblestone and cornerstone content in thought leadership Why a weekly Q&A session can be a fantastic way to connect with your audience, and how content can interconnect and cross-promote to expand your reach What other powerful and proven resources, tools and other content Predictive ROI has found useful in reaching out to their audience Why low-pressure and no-pressure email content can turn out a surprising number of high-quality leads Resources: The Edelman Trust Barometer: www.edelman.com/trust/2021-trust-barometer Additional Resources: Free Executive Leadership Summary report from Predictive ROI: https://predictiveroi.com/research Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13 Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/ Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/

If you want to rank high in Google with a popular search term, you have to deal with a lot of competition. How do you ensure that your webpage is placed at the top of the search results? Content marketing is an important part of this, especially when we talk about cornerstone content. Writing cornerstone content helps you on your way to the top of the search rankings. In this episode I will explain what cornerstone content entails and I will take you through creating cornerstone content step by step. Before we start I want to ask you to subscribe to my podcast. If you would like to read along with the podcast or just get more information about cornerstone content, you can find the show notes for this episode on my blog and website, onlineblogacademy.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lieze-neven4/message

Cornerstone content is a topic full of grey area, misunderstanding, and confusion. We attempt to clarify the meanings and strategies based on this idea.  We also introduce a new content type, the Hero Post. This can be a helpful way to differentiate between Cornerstone, Supporting, and Hero posts in your content strategy. 

Make sure other pages on your website link to the important pages (known as cornerstone content) because it will help Google know what your website is about, SEO is important! Learn more about it by following the SEO pros on Twitter. I do it! You'll see a definite increase in website traffic from your Google Analytics numbers.More from Jan Rossi of Marketing Residency tomorrow! Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

- 03:20 Helping Shape The Future Of Marketing And Sales  - 05:05 Moving Into An Integrated Campaigns Approach- 06:20 Joining A Hypergrowth Company Starting To Scale The Marketing Team- 08:10 It All Starts With The Who- 09:40 Shifting Into Value-Based Marketing And Selling Value- 10:50 Going Really Deep Into Persona Research- 12:15 Always Be Building Up Your Branded Community- 13:35 Time-To-Value Is A Really Important Metric- 14:25 Building A Voice Of The Customer Type Of Program- 17:10 Building Community With Events And Drift Insider- 19:20 Using Content For Community And Brand Building- 21:30 The Five Categories Of Cornerstone Content- 25:50 Prioritizing Cornerstone Content Creation- 27:35 Including The Community In The Content- 28:40 Leveraging Virtual Events- 33:07 Setting Goals And Choosing KPIs- 36:20 More Is Not Always Better- 38:40 Revenue Teams And The Growing Importance Of Your Website- 40:30 Lightning Questions

Our first interview episode of the podcast is live now, and it may be the best episode yet! In this episode, we talk to Nina Larsen Reed about her success with SEO, and specifically dig into her thinking about cornerstone content. We talk about her venue guides, and not only the significant traffic that they drive, but how she used them to build real-life relationships with venue directors (and ended up on several preferred vendor lists). If you want to get a real look at how SEO pairs with smart business... this episode is for you! Nina's website: https://larsenphoto.co/ Her Boulder wedding venues guide: https://larsenphoto.co/boulder-wedding-venues/ More of her resources: https://larsenphoto.co/resources/

Good Morning Onward Nation — I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host. And holy bananas — it’s a New Year and a brand new DECADE! This time of year is special…maybe it’s because how much I love Christmas…or maybe it’s the second chance to get things right that each New Year represents. Between Thanksgiving and New Years — I intentionally take time to reflect back on what was accomplished in the previous year — and — consciously direct my attention toward the year ahead. I map out strategies, action steps, draw out illustrations in my journal of how it will all coming together — and when it’s done — I feel at peace with what is about to be put into place. Then with each passing day — as we get closer to January 1st — the excitement builds and I can’t wait for the starting line to get here!!! Because that line was just a few day ago — I elected to focus today’s solocast on two topics that will be helpful to you and your team if your goal for 2020 is to Double Down! And for covering the two topics — I’m going to take you behind the curtain to shine a light on some of the biggest obstacles to building and scaling that we experienced during the early days of Predictive ROI. I decided to share these lessons with you in full transparency — although embarrassing — because getting them right was a key to stabilizing and then growing Predictive. And — I wanted to share tangible examples with you…not marketing hyperbole or theory. I also decided to share these lessons in the hopes that if I can help you avoid some of the mistakes, missed opportunity, or gain traction faster than we did…well…that’s rock solid awesome! So buckle in — here we go… The early years of Predictive ROI started over a decade ago. I wrote my first book — The Small Business Owner’s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization — back in 2009. Shortly after it was published — I started getting offers to do side work projects for companies. At the time — I was part of faculty and academic staff at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse and happy with my position within the College of Business. I was teaching at UW-La Crosse and several other UW campuses include the School of Business at UW-Madison. I was also involved in on-campus research, publishing, and serving our community through board seats and committee work. I loved being on campus and my plate was full. For a while — I just declined the side work that came as a result of my book. I said “thank you but no” because I didn’t want there to be any conflict of interest with the university. But then I did some research — determined that it would be fine to say yes here and there — did a project — and holy bananas…it was a lot of fun. The side work grew to the point that I had to make a difficult decision. Was I going to stay at the university — or — take on the challenge of trying to build a company? I couldn’t say no to the challenge — so I resigned from the university and most of the people who knew me thought I was making a mistake. Not going to sugar coat it for you — the first 5 years of Predictive ROI felt like an impossible grind. There were exceptionally long hours, we aimlessly wandered through wins, losses, and tried to figure out our identity. On the personal side — my wife and I invested everything we had into the company — and we racked up personal debt. We were beyond “all in.” Now that we’re on the other side of it — Praise God — I can see that we struggled because of several fundamental flaws within the business. One — we lacked clarity around a vision for Predictive. Two — we had zero idea of what an ideal client or prospect looked like. And Three — because of points One and Two…we said “yes” to every project and every client, which cost us time and money each and every time but we were too blind to see it. But thankfully — with the help of incredible mentors and lessons learned from our generous Onward Nation guests — we began to see that in order to be excellent at points 2 and 3 — we had to get our vision for the business down on paper and begin living by it. So we dug in. And when we did — we learned that “vision” actually meant three things: 1) defining our core values 2) getting clear on our purpose 3) constructing a mission that embodied a bold and audacious goal for Predictive We didn’t have any of these in the early years. Because here’s the reality. We were working hard just to survive and we didn’t give ourselves the time to think strategically about the direction of the business. Candidly — I would have rolled my eyes at the notion of taking the time to work on it. I likely would have said, “Yeah, that’s all well and good — but I have sales to make.” It’s really hard to think about vision when the pressure of making payroll is upon you. Sound familiar? Ever heard the expression, “Running a business feels a lot like fixing the plane while flying it”. Whoever came up with that line was so spot on. My team and I did a lot of “fixing while flying” and we knitted the early years of the business together. Then — we got a little breathing room. Then a little bit more. We paid off several chunks of debt and began to see the sun through the clouds. But as nice as the breathing room was — we also felt some obstacles to going further. We could see ahead but also felt stuck. Then it clicked — we had taken Predictive as far as we could without putting a proper foundation into place. Thanks to lessons from our mentors (Drew McLellan and Brett Gilliland if you’re reading this…THANK YOU!), and the hard work put in by my leadership team — and all of our teammates — we now have a foundation (vision) for Predictive that include values, purpose, and mission. You can find our core values on PredictiveROI.com here. And funny thing… As we were going down the path of doing our vision work — I was also interviewing successful business owners for Onward Nation episodes — and I kept hearing our guests talk about the importance of vision, values, purpose, and mission and how completely that work made a huge difference in the trajectory of their companies. Quick aside for a second… Have you ever bought what you think is a unique car? And then “all of a sudden” as you’re driving along — you see versions of your new car driving down the road? The cars were of course there all the time but you didn’t see them because of the “reticular activating system” — or RAS — inside your brain. Your brain was literally blocking your ability to see the other cars. But your RAS let them in once there was commonality and that data point became relevant to you. Weird how our brains work, right? The lessons around vision were always there in front of me — either from mentors or Onward Nation guests — but my brain blocked the knowledge until I was ready to receive it. So I’m hopeful that if your goal is to DOUBLE DOWN in 2020 — you’ll be open to what I’m sharing with you. Getting your vision down on paper, building the right team around your vision, and having a structure in place to measure progress is critical if you’re going to scale to an 8-figure business and reach $10 million+ in annual revenue. I’m going to share two resources that will be helpful as you do your visioning work. First — I recommend reading some of Jim Collins’ earlier work. You may be familiar with Jim as the author of “Good to Great”, which is a rock solid awesome book to be sure. But in my opinion — Jim’s earlier and a lesser-known book, “Beyond Entrepreneurship” is better because of the deep dive around vision, values, purpose, and mission. You can find Jim’s book on Amazon here. Second — I encourage you to attend the free training that I’m co-hosting tomorrow (January 9th) with Brett Gilliland, CEO of Elite Entrepreneurs. As I mention earlier — Brett is one of my mentors and he’s also a 2-time alum of Onward Nation. Before founding Elite Entrepreneurs, Brett was one of the key executives at Infusionsoft that helped grow the company from $10 million in annual sales to over $100 million. He now teaches his Elite members the principles he and the team at Infusionsoft used to build, scale, and dominate their industry. Because I felt the tremendous impact of working through vision alongside Brett and his team — I asked if he would be open to sharing his expertise in a free training session so you could learn directly from him, too. He graciously agreed. The free training is TOMORROW, January 9th at 1:00 Eastern. This is a private training — just for you and other business owners in our community. You can find the details here. If you can’t make it live — still register so you get the recorded replay. Okay — just a couple more insights around the visioning work we did at Predictive. One — it doesn’t have to take you and your team years to get the work done. I wish we put ours on paper WAY BEFORE year 8 in our journey. Good grief. Learn the framework from Brett on January 9th, study Jim’s book, and get your vision down on paper…quickly. If you do that — you will be YEARS ahead of your competition as you step into 2020. Most of them are aimlessly wandering through the wilderness — but you won’t be and that’s a powerful advantage. And Two — no matter what you put down on paper…just recognize it will evolve over time. As you bring more people onto your team — they will make it better by pushing against it in new ways. And they will add things to it that you would have never thought of and likely help make it even more audacious. Awesome. Stop waiting. Push the fear to the curb — take an afternoon. It won’t kill your business if you step away for a few hours (you just think it will — trust me — been there). Promise yourself that you’ll get it done. Good? Okay — I look forward to hearing more about your 2020 plan with your newly defined — or updated — vision. Drop me a line at stephen@predictiveroi.com — would love to hear from you. Now that the foundation of a vision has been set in your business — let’s work through how to go about building a sales funnel to ensure you have enough opportunity flowing into your business…so there’s enough cash to fund all of the things you need to get done in order to DOUBLE DOWN in 2020. And let’s start off with setting some expectations and some definitions around what sales funnels are — and — what sales funnels are not. I’m starting us here because there is so much marketing hyperbole around sales funnels that I can barely spend time on Facebook any more. If I have to see one more Facebook ad from “business coach” claiming that all I need to do in order to build my business is to download his or her 7-figure email swipe file…I think I might scream. Most of those ads are gimmicks and are being promoted by coaches who don’t really have an actual business. They have built a revenue stream by selling you a thing that will show you have to build a similar revenue stream by selling the same thing to other people just like you. Do you remember back in the day the classified ads…mail in $7.00 and you will get this thing that will show you how to place classified ads and you will make a ton of money? Same game — it’s just now being played on Facebook. That’s not a business. And that’s not a sales funnel that will help you build a 7-figure or 8-figure business delivering real value to your clients. And here’s another reality check about those 7-figure business coaches we see and hear on Facebook. Did you know that… According to the US Department of Labor — only 4% of the 28 million businesses in this country ever…like ever…reach over 1 million in annual sales. And I’m pretty sure that the majority of coaches and quasi-experts making the 7-figure claim haven’t truly reached a million dollars in their business, they haven’t owned an actual business, or they’ve never built and scaled a company like what you and I are building. So our discussion around how to build a sales funnel is going to be much different. You and I are going to focus on the content you need to create to establish yourself as THE AUTHORITY in your market — and — how to structure your service offering into a VALUE LADDER that actually works for filling the sales pipeline in your business. No gimmicks. But instead — it will take time and effort but you will have something in the end that is actually helpful to your business. Good? The speed at which you build and scale your business will largely depend on two things: 1) your ability to teach and share your expertise to build and nurture your audience through consistent cornerstone content… And 2) how well you construct your value ladder. Okay — let’s tackle each of these. How do you build and nurture your audience? You do that by creating “Cornerstone Content” and sharing it with your audience. So what is cornerstone content? Drew McLellan, CEO of Agency Management Institute and host of the Build a Better Agency Podcast, and I recently finished writing a book entitled, Sell with Authority. So here’s how Drew defines Cornerstone Content…it’s content that’s: Meaty enough to produce lost of smaller pieces Significiant enough to serve as the epicenter of your promotion, activity, and eventual fame within your circle of influence Consistent in how often you create content and how much you stay focused on one topic or area of subject matter Sales-free. This is about teaching and helping. Stop. Period. End of story. It’s always about your audience. That should be your primary goal. It’s a long term play. No one’s going to recognize you as an Authority after three months. Now do you see why I think the 7-figure email swipe file sounds ridiculous? Argh. Cornerstone Content is meaty, dense content that gives you plenty of opportunities to slice and dice into what Drew and I call, smaller “Cobblestones.” Depending on the channel you choose for your cornerstone content, you might only need to create it once a year — like a research study — or in the case of a video or podcast series…it should be once per week. As you and your team talk through how, what, where, why that you should be creating cornerstone content for your 2020 content strategy — I encourage you to go back to Episode 676 of Onward Nation…because I break it all down. I think it will be helpful to you and your team. And it is through consistent cornerstone content that you will build and nurture your audience. Drew and I are often asked, “But…how long will it take?” And as you may have guessed — the answer is…it depends and there are several factors… First — the consistency of your content creation. Are you disciplined with a weekly schedule? Second — the quality of your content. Are you saying something fresh or just repeating old news? Third — the amount of time and effort you spend promoting and sharing your content. Fourth — the hunger of your audience. Some of them are starving and will gobble up everything you share. Others may only consume the tastiest of offers. Fifth — the level of competiton and how narrow you decide to go. If you’re writing about general healthcare marketing, for example, it’s going to be a long haul. If you’re writing about marketing to women over 50 with breast cancer…you’ll have much quicker adoption. And sixth — those luckly-strike moments like having someone else with a similar audience share your content in their world. But as I said earlier — building a nurturing your audience is not a get rich quick scheme. Drew and I will often say that you should count on taking six months to a year before you reap any significant benefit from your efforts. By year two, you should be dancing a jig at how well it’s working, and by year three, you should be well-established as the authority you are. If you go back to Episode 864 of Onward Nation — I walk through the pros of going narrow…and how going narrow is the secret to monetizing faster. Now that you have a framework for your 2020 content strategy — we can turn our attention to how your content ought to be structured in a sales funnel that will act as a pipeline to grow your business. In order to do that…you need to think of your audience in four different categories. You have a MACRO audience…a MICRO audience…a NANO audience…and an EXISTING audience. Let’s break each of these down. When someone is part of your MACRO audience — they engage with your cornerstone content from the sidelines…at a distance. They consume…they may even subscribe to your podcast via iTunes or your YouTube series…but they are not addressable. Meaning — they yet haven’t stepped forward and shared their email address with you in exchange for a downloadable thing or some other resource. Website visitors, most social media traffic, and podcast subscribers are all part of your MACRO audience. For example, iTunes doesn’t allow you to download an email list of your podcast subscribers. You also can’t download an email list of everyone who visits your website on a daily basis. Yes, your website visitors can be retargeted through paid ads — but even then — they’re still not addressable one-to-one via email. So your goal is to grow your MACRO audience while remaining focused on your niche. You don’t need a million downloads of your podcast episodes if you’re focused on serving a small, super profitable niche. Now for MICRO… Once someone decides to share their email address with you in exchange for a piece of content like an eBook or some other resource…they become part of your “addressable” MICRO audience. They have moved to the second stage of your sales funnel. MACRO is stage one — and MICRO is stage two. They have raised their hand and said — “Okay — you have earned enough of my trust that I am willing to give you my email address to get access to X resource.” Yes, one could argue that social media followers are addressable because you could send a direct or a private message to a specific follower. Or…you could download the email addresses of all your LinkedIn connections and send them an email campaign. All true. But — in reality — you have a business to run and will not likely have the time to do much one-to-one messaging on social — and — GDPR made downloading the email list of a LinkedIn connections and hitting “send” — pretty risky. So — in thinking about what’s realistic — MICRO for you is most likely when someone opts in for your e-newsletter or downloads a helpful resource from your website. Before we move on to NANO — I want to share another lesson from Drew that had a significant impact on me…and my guess is…it will be helpful to you, too. And that is that someone may stay in your MICRO audience for a day or a decade. All you can do is be helpful over that period of time. Provide them with helpful resources, great recommendations they can take and apply, and be patient. When someone in your MICRO audience feels comfortable — and you have delivered the best of what you’ve got — and have done that for years — and have always put their interest ahead of your own — some of them will be ready to move on to stage three…or NANO. NANO is where the monetization happens. A whole lot of trust needs to be built before someone moved to NANO. For example, if one of the podcast guests who happens to be a member of your “Dream 25 Prospect List” decides to engage you and team for a project…or a guest books you teach a workshop, deliver keynote at their conference…or you offer a course to your MICRO audience and it sells…these are all examples of monetizing at the NANO level. But — and this ties directly into the next chunk of what I wanted to share with you during this solocast. It will be difficult for you to monetize at NANO — or to build a consistent sales pipeline for your business if you haven’t taken the time to build out a value ladder. Your value ladder provides new and existing clients with defined ways to begin or continue doing business with you. It starts with a low price point and limited scope of work…and progressively increases in price and scope. When you have your value ladder fully built out — it might include 3, 5, or 8 different rungs that go from free all the way up to your highest priced, and most valuable service level. But for the ease of discussion and getting started…I want you to think of just three rungs on your ladder…and then you can build it from there and make it more sophisticated over time. The price point on the first rung on your ladder is FREE. So if you’ve completed the MICRO stage in the sales funnel…you’ve already got the first rung of your value ladder built. But don’t stop with just one downloadable eBook, guide, or tip sheet. Because if you offer up one thing…it will appeal to a segment of your MACRO audience…but of course…not everyone. So I encourage you to build out a Resource Library where you are offering your MACRO audience many FREE resources that can be helpful to them across a number of different situations or scenarios. The Resources Library on PredictiveROI.com could be a helpful example as you and your team build out your own. Okay — the second rung on your value ladder should be a service offering that you can provide a client priced at about 10-15% of your desired gross profit. Gross Profit is your revenue less any cost of goods sold. So let’s say your ideal client represents annual gross profit of $50,000 to $200,000 for your company…then the second rung on your value ladder would be scope of work that you could price anywhere between $5,000 and $20,000 in gross profit. The goal of the second rung is for your prospect client to step into a relationship with you. To evaluate what it’s like to work with you and your team. To see if you can deliver what you promise for a $5,000 project before they commit to a $50,000 spend with you. So maybe that’s you and your team building out a strategic plan for them. Doing some research with defined scope. Maybe delivering a training program on-site for their team that they can take and apply internally for the remainder of the year. You decide how you want to knit it together — but the second rung on the ladder is your foot in the door — and your opportunity to demonstrate the smarts of your team in action. With that said — will some clients step into a larger relationship with you right away and essentially by-pass rung two? Yes, it will happen and has likely already happened with you. But you also know — that it doesn’t always happen that way, and my guess is, if your sales strategy is to only present your full scope of work at the maximum price point…you have lost more opportunity than you have won. So if rung one is free…and rung two is 10-15% of your ideal client spend…then rung three is 50-100% of the ideal clients spend. Or in this example…$50,000 to $200,000 in annual revenue. This is where your team is delivering everything. Putting all of their smarts to work in order to solve a client’s business challenges. You’re delivering the best of what you have to offer at rung three — and — this is where you are establishing what will hopefully turn into a long-term relationship with your new client because you and your team have demonstrated how you can deliver significant value. So let’s sum up a few points before we close out and say goodbye. Building a scaling a business is hard — I know you don’t need me to tell you that — but sometimes having someone from the outside acknowledge the struggle and the super courageous thing you are doing…well, quite frankly…it feels good. Next — get your vision down on paper. Read Jim Collin’s book “Beyond Entrepreneurship” and attend tomorrow’s webinar with Brett Gilliland. After that — build your strategy for cornerstone content. Then take that content strategy and map it against the MACRO, MICRO, and NANO sales funnel. And lastly — build your value ladder so it’s as easy as possible for a prospective client to move from MICRO into the NANO stage and begin a relationship with you and your team. Okay — with that said – I’m over the moon excited for you as you step into 2020. This is the start of more than just the New Year. It’s the start of a new decade…and my bold prediction is…if you take and apply even just slices of what you and I reviewed during this solocast…you and your team will Double Down in some key areas in 2020. That’s darn exciting and I’m grateful to you for giving me this opportunity to walk alongside you on the path. And one last thing before we close out and say goodbye, Onward Nation — I want to give you a very big thank you…in fact…let’s call it a virtual hug. There’s absolutely no way we’d be approaching 1,000 episodes — and — there’s no way we’d have this opportunity to serve business owners in 120 countries without your support, your encouragement, and your feedback. Here’s the reality — you help us get better every day, Onward Nation. To have you here means a lot — so THANK YOU! I look forward to being back with you again next week – until then – Double Down – and move Onward with Gusto into 2020!

In this episode we will touch the surface of SEO, PPC, Conversion optimisation, Back links, Domain Authority, Cornerstone Content and everything else in between. We are joined this week by Chris Ogle from Venture Stream who will share some of his insights on the topics. This will have a little bit of everything and depending on feedback from the show, we could possibly dig into this further at a later date.Chris is responsible for generating new business acquisition opportunities in web build, digital marketing and customer engagement tools for e-commerce. Also a promoter of connecting charities to the funds available to them to help them get connected to the digital world, or create for those with an existing online presence, a plan to generate revenue through lotteries, events, volunteering or legacy donations.

Ontdek de Kracht van Cornerstone Content, Hoe Je Hiermee op de Belangrijkste Zoekwoorden Scoort en Passief Backlinks Aantrekt.

Snappa is an online graphic design tool for non-designers that's growing rapidly. Co-founder Christopher Gimmer explains the unlikely origins and how growth has been fuelled by close attention to developing and promoting cornerstone content.

This is an in-depth episode talking about what cornerstone content is, how to create it and why it's so valuable for getting traffic to your website.

Cornerstone content supercharges your efficiency. It not only carries some the sales load, but it's good for SEO too. With a little investment of time up front, it can pay dividends for years to come. Let s look at why cornerstone content is so important, what it can do for your business, and a simple guide for how to get started. The post Creating Effective Cornerstone Content appeared first on Control Mouse Media.

Search Engine Optimization Tips and Tricks: Cornerstone Content. In this episode we discuss what Cornerstone Content is, why it is so important, and how to create it. Hint: It is INCREDIBLY important if you want to rank on search engines like Google!

My Digital Strategist suggests focusing on developing cornerstone content as a way to help you increase visibility on the web. It's not so difficult, and it's a skill that you can learn and get better at over time, just like developing any new skill or practice - learn the basics and get stronger with diligent practice, or supportive resources. For resources and links mentioned in this episode, visit http://positivitystrategist.com/ps90  

MIX/SIZZLE&SHAKE Your Business w Cornerstone

MIX/SIZZLE&SHAKE Your Business: Guide to

MIX/SIZZLE&SHAKE Your Business with Cornerstone Content

How to strategically create cornerstone content, with Stephen Woessner. Good Morning Onward Nation – I’m Stephen Woessner and welcome to today’s solocast. Before we dive into the strategies that I wanted to share with you this morning – I first wanted to say thank you. Thank you for making 2017 the best year for Onward Nation – the most downloads we have ever had...the most countries we have ever reached...and the most impact we have ever created. Each and every day – my team and I are so very grateful for your generous gift of you sharing your time with us by listening to our episodes and then sharing your feedback by letting us know – thumbs up or thumbs down and how we can get better the next time. I am honored that you choose to invest a portion of the 86,400 seconds you have each day with our guests and with me. So I want you to know how much I appreciate you and that we are committed to raising the bar – the standard of excellence – the value we deliver to you. We as business owners – each of us every day – when we wake up and our feet hit the floor – need think of ways to deliver even more value to the customers and clients we have the privilege of currently serving – and – the customers and clients we look forward to serving in the future. There needs to be that insatiable hunger in you that drives your business to give more...to create more...to deliver more...because when that hunger is there...it not only elevates your business to that next level – but – it protects you by giving you what you need for survival. I have a Successories quote hanging on the wall behind my desk that encapsulates how I feel about the power of starting the day with the right momentum. The quote is called... “The Essence of Survival” and it goes like this... “Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed...every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter if you are the lion or the gazelle...when the sun comes up...you’d better be running.” So thank you, Onward Nation, for being the driving force for my Predictive ROI team and I. We appreciate all of the hugs you have given us – and we appreciate the pushes, too. Please know – we are working hard to get better each and every day and please keep the feedback coming. So now let’s turn our attention toward today’s strategies... During Episode 659 several weeks ago...I shared some insight into why I firmly believe that most business owners look at marketing through the wrong end of the lens – and because of this – they tend to see an incomplete set of vital metrics – and consequently – they miss opportunities in lead gen, selling, and driving revenue. Onward Nation...in addition to expecting your sales and marketing efforts to create and nurture demand for your product and service offering...your marketing, and the content you create to power it, should also represent a profit center in your business – not a cost center. Yes, you should get paid to create content. And that is possible when you begin looking at your marketing through the correct end of the lens. You will see revenue opportunities beyond lead gen and customer acquisition. You will begin to see the opportunity for sponsorships, events, book deals, speaking engagements, and much more. During Episode 659 several weeks ago...I shared tangible examples of what I call Cornerstone Content. I defined what cornerstone content is and shared several specific strategies for how you can monetize the cornerstone content you create. So for today...we are going to take a step backward in the process – well before monetization – because I want to share with you a strategic framework that you and your team can use to create the content that you will later monetize. And yes, I agree – this does seem a bit backwards. Why share monetization strategies before sharing the strategy framework that makes it all possible. I decided to organize it this way...because if you are like me...and most business owners...I thought I need to paint the picture of what was possible in Episode 659...to give you a why this matters...because I could give you the road map for the “How”. So for today – I am going take several pages right out of the Predictive ROI cookbook so it can guide the strategic conversations you should be having with you and your team. This recipe contains the actual ingredients my team and I use when we are on-site working with clients during our 2-day intensives. The topics are deep...the topics will likely push you and your team to think creatively about your business development...and will challenge you to hold each other accountable. This framework will chart the course for you and your team so that when you wake up, you can start running and confidently know...you are running in the right direction. And ultimately, as a result of this process...you will be able to look at your marketing through the correct end of the lens, which will help you move your business onward to that next level because your marketing will no longer be a cost center – but a profit center for your business. Let’s get started by reviewing what I believe you and your team need to accomplish during Day One. Begin the process with a deep dive into your point-of-view – your position about why you do what you do within your business. Your point of view, or POV for short...is a bold statement about what you believe to be true. It might be provocative and thought-provoking...maybe even controversial. It may be turn off a wide swath of people who are not your audience – but for those who are part of your tribe, or could be...it will be a beacon in the night for them. When you say it...when you share it...when you build content around it...your tribe will hear and respond. Your POV will help you build an audience – it is that magnetic. And because of these attributes of a well-crafted POV...it may take some digging to find it. It typically doesn’t reside on the surface. You and your team will need to push each other to find it. It’s not about customer service, features, advantages, or benefits. It is about experience – why a customer chooses you over the myriad of other options in the marketplace. To help...think of some thought leaders and what they stand for and what their brands stand for...or what their positions stand for...or how they built a category when previous to them entering the market...the category didn’t even exist. Just like Simon Sinek did when he encouraged us to “Start with Why”. Simon now owns that very simple phrase – but because of his POV – and the cornerstone content he builds around it – it is very clear what he stands for and it drives everything in his business. Here’s my point. You can do the same thing in your business when defining your POV. You just need to take the time to do it. So...ask yourself...what do you stand for. What is the flag you want to plant in firm ground? And don’t move on to the next piece in the process until you have your POV complete. Next...who is it you want to serve? I often to refer to the client avatar lessons I learned directly from Darren Hardy, former publisher of SUCCESS Magazine. In fact, if you go to Episode 308 of Onward Nation...you will find a detailed recipe for mapping out and identifying the attributes of your client avatar. But identifying the attributes of your client avatar is only one piece of the puzzle. You need to take that a step further by converting the avatar into a list of your Dream 25 prospects – these are the people you would most like to serve as clients for your business. So how do you do that? LinkedIn. Here again...another free resource for you. Just go back to Episode 455 of Onward Nation and you will have access to our full recipe on using LinkedIn to identify your Dream 25 prospects. The recipe is comprehensive – but working through it – will give you everything you need to ensure you are using LinkedIn effectively to fill your sales pipeline. Next...you and your team will need to identify three unique attributes to your brand – what truly makes you distinctive in the marketplace? What do you provide that no other company provides? For example...at Predictive ROI...our three uniques are: One -- we help clients get clear on their point-of-view Two -- we help them create high-quality cornerstone content that cements their POV into the hearts and minds of their audience with consistent thought leadership And three -- we help clients drive revenue by transforming their content into a Trojan Horse of Sales, which you can learn more about this strategy back in Episode 600 where I break it down in full transparency. We also help our clients attract an audience so a third party brand will want to pay to gain access to our client’s valuable audience. All of this combined typically represents a 5x to 7x return on our client’s investment, which gives Predictive ROI a compelling – and unique – value proposition. So what are your three uniques? Talk about it with your team. But don't accept surface answers. Dig deep. And when someone suggests that it might be X...push back with the question, “Okay, why is X important to our customers?” And when one of your teammates answers the question, ask the same question again, “Okay...that makes sense...but why is that important?” Repeat the process three times to keep peeling back the layers. And by the third time...you will arrive at something truly unique about your offering. Okay, by this time in the day – you will have accomplished a lot – your team will likely be ready to wrap and be finished – and deservedly so – you have checked some large boxes off the list. There is just one more box that needs to be checked to complete Day One – and that is to give your process for delivering your uniques...a name. At Predictive ROI...we call ours The Predictive ROI Method. I encourage you to keep it simple. Simple is best because if you are not careful, it will start to sound like marketing hyperbole, a bit slick, and too showy. And you don’t need that. Keep it simple. And then go celebrate with your team – you just accomplished some serious business development and strategic work. Okay...now come back refreshed for Day Two, which is all about defining what type of cornerstone content you plan to create -- and -- how you will define success and measure your progress along the way. You will begin the process by deciding what type of content will become your cornerstone. For example...do you prefer to speak or do you prefer to write? If you prefer to speak, you may want to consider a podcast, speaking engagements, or a video series as your cornerstone. Or, if you prefer to write...you might select blogs, articles, books, or research reports as your cornerstone. Or, you may enjoy aspects about both. For example, I enjoy interviewing guests for our Onward Nation episode – but – I also enjoy writing books. So for now, these are my primary cornerstones. So what do you prefer? To begin – you only need to – and only should – select one cornerstone. Then master the system and process with it before you select another one. Ideally, you should have at least two because that will keep you from being seen as a one trick pony – true thought leaders share their content across multiple channels, which gives – or creates the impression – that their content is everywhere, which of course it isn’t – but it sure seems that way to their target audience. Your POV will be the anchor within your cornerstone content. Each and every episode – every article – every blog post – will all point back to your point of view, which continues to plant your flag in firmer and firmer ground. And one of the most powerful aspects to creating high-quality cornerstone content is the amount of leverage each piece of content gives you through slicing and dicing. For example...you could take one of your podcast episodes...and transform it into 10 tweets, an eBook, top insights briefing that can be shared with your best customers, etc. Or, you could distill the content from 100 episodes down into a research report that truly sets your company apart from competitors in your industry. The point is that there a myriad of ways for you to slice and dice your cornerstone content into additional “spokes” that move out from the hub...and each spoke helps you extend your thought leadership even further and attract an even larger audience. Once you define the type of cornerstone content you will be producing and some of the spokes – the slicing and dicing that each cornerstone will provide you...it is time to begin formalizing your 1 and 3-year plans. Obviously, 3 years is a long time given the dynamics in tech, ever-changing economy, and the other factors that make predicting the results of a 3-year plan challenging at best. So for this exercise, I recommend you focus your attention around what success would look like for you at the end of 3 years. How will you know when you have reached where you wanted to go? Is that a number of employees, is it the size of audience, is it the amount of revenue generated by sponsorships, is it the number of attendees at a private event you are hosting, or how you have turned your business into a media channel? If you don’t take the time for you and your team to conceptualize a 3-year view of your business – then you may lose valuable time aimlessly wandering the wilderness, much like a leaf blowing in the wind. It has been my experience, that the following core elements are what makes up a simple – yet sound – plan to keep you and your team on track: First...identify your most vital priorities – the core things that you must accomplish or nothing else matters. Second...what are the measurables? How will you know when you have arrived - what does it look like? Third...what is the tactical plan? Who is going to do what, and when? Fourth...what are the obstacles or roadblocks that will likely rise up to get in your way – and if they do – what are the likely solutions that can be executed quickly? And lastly...accountability – who will be held accountable, to what, by whom, and when will checkpoint meetings or scorecard reviews be held so that progress can be evaluated and course corrections can be made if necessary? So...as we bring today’s solocast to a close...I want to leave you with one more example as to why this final thought regarding the strategic framework that we just reviewed. When you get this right – you give yourself the freedom and flexibility to build the kind of business that you want – that you desire – to truly live the kind of life that you want to live. Recently, I interviewed Dianna Booher for an encore episode, which airs on Monday, February 5th as Episode 678 – and during our discussion – Dianna explained how she was able to sell her company because of the reputation she had built in the industry as a thought leader because of her books, training courses, and other ways she helped create impact with her audience. Her body of work is impressive and she was rewarded for it – and you can follow a similar path if you are willing to put in the work. ------------------------------- So with that said...I want to again say thank you. Thank you for being here...thank you taking some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have today and sharing them with me. Please drop me a line at Stephen@predictiveroi.com and let me know what you thought of today’s solocast – thumbs up or thumbs down. I always want to know what you think so we can continue to get better and better and be of greater value to you and your team. We will be back tomorrow with an encore interview with Eric Levenhagen. You may remember Eric from the tax planning strategies and recommendations he shared way back in Episode 25. And when the new tax laws were passed, Eric and I quickly compared schedules to get him back from an encore interview. I wanted Eric to share his insights and recommendations from the perspective of a business owner to help make sense of the new legislation – but even more importantly – what you can do about it to protect yourself, your family, your business – while minimizing the taxes you pay. What Eric shared could represent tens of thousands in tax savings for you and your business. Until then...onward with gusto!  

Episode 21 of The Redirect Podcast: News has come out recently that trying to game the system by updating your blog posts' publish date could be seen as spam. Insights on what to do if you're a victim of manual penalties by Google, and developing solid cornerstone content that serves your brand best. Show notes here: https://blacktruckmedia.com/podcast/redirect-podcast-episode-21/

Good Morning, Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner and welcome to Episode 600! Today’s episode is going to be a solocast — where I fly solo without a guest so that you and I have an opportunity to explore a topic with some real depth — and in the process — I can share practical and tactical steps — also with some real depth — that you can take and apply into your business right away to accelerate your business development with more leads and sales. And we are going to follow that exact recipe today. But before we do — I owe you a very big thank you. Seriously…episode 600!?! Seriously…it feels like yesterday when Scott McKain and I recorded Episode 1. And we have had the privilege and honor — that we take very seriously — of being able to serve business owners in 115 countries with our daily episodes. All of which is possible because of the questions YOU ask me, the feedback YOU send my way where you help us see what we are doing right — or — when YOU push us to go where we need to go in order to get better. So before we get into today’s lesson — I wanted you to know how much I appreciate you…and how I do not take for granted the generous gift that your time and attention represents. You make my team and I better every single day — so thank you, Onward Nation — thank you so very much. So now let’s shift our focus toward today’s lesson…and why I believe so strongly that business owners are going about selling the wrong way. To help illustrate that…let me share a couple of scenarios that I see happening inside the typical business. The owner is busy…so he or she doesn’t believe they have the time in their day to do “prospecting” so they hire a junior person, or several junior people, to run point and “get out there and kick up some prospects for us to sell to”. The owner rationalizes their decision by saying, “Well, if we are going to scale this business…then someone other than me needs to be able to sell what we do.” And the sales team does what they are asked to do. They research…they call…they follow up…they schedule appointments…and sometimes they make pitches. And sometimes…they even close a deal or two giving them confidence that the hard core sales process works…and it does from time to time…it just isn’t that efficient or cost effective. And you know what? That is exactly how I learned some extremely valuable sales skills early on in my career. One of my first positions inside an advertising agency when I was 21 years old was to go through the yellow pages (I know, cringe…the yellow pages!) and then cold call everyone in town…and then go meet with anyone who would listen. I learned a lot about persistence and tenacity…and we closed some business… but I wasn’t really that effective. So now let’s also consider another scenario…this time replacing the heaving lifting of hand-to-hand combat — that sometimes prospecting can become — with inbound digital tools designed to advertise and promote your business to a vast audience who doesn’t yet know you — where there is no context of relationship — but over time and if you invest the right budget — you will be able to win them over and they pick up the phone and call you…to become your next big client. But oftentimes…this is filled with marketing hyperbole because it is not that simple as launching a Facebook ad and connecting it to an email sales funnel…then voila — you have well prepared prospects who are desperate to become your next client. Logically, we know it takes more than one Google Adwords campaign, or one Facebook ad, or a retargeting campaign on AdRoll to earn the trust of your next client. Digital marketing is great — heck — Predictive ROI…my core business is a digital marketing agency…and we have worked hard to earn our chops in this space. Relying on a purely digital model is the wrong sales strategy for a business, too. Because…what I oftentimes find is that the business owners who are reluctant to get out and sell are the owners who are the most attracted to an inbound or digital marketing model for what should be a true sales strategy. So let’s set these two scenarios aside for a moment — and instead — I want you to consider the potential impact on your business if you and your team stopped the aimless prospecting — and paused your digital marketing budget budget — so you could take some time to get really clear on who you wanted to serve. Where you and your team sat down and made a list of your Dream 50 prospects — the companies you would most like to serve — but for whatever reason — you haven’t had an at bat just yet. And take it deeper that just saying… “Oh, we want to work for Harley Davidson!” Of course you do…and so do all of your competitors. Instead…you and your team need to get laser focused and say… “We want to develop a relationship with Sarah Jones at Harley Davidson because she is the type of business leader we most like to work with and for whom we can create the greatest impact.” And then instead of unleashing your junior salespeople or a digital armada on Sarah Jones and your other 49 Dream prospects…you first reached out to Sarah personally to begin building a relationship. But not a cold call. Instead, you will be seeking to build a relationship that is architected to remove all of the friction and uncomfortableness that can sometimes creep into the sales process. You will make Sarah feel valued…and most importantly…she no longer felt like a prospect. Wouldn’t that be rock solid awesome for Sarah and for you? And the sales process I just described…is what I call The Trojan Horse of Sales…and it has the potential to change the game for you and your business. The legend of the Trojan Horse comes from the story of the Trojan War between the Greeks and Troy chronicled in the Odyssey written by Homer near the end of the 8th century BC. The story – which could be fact or fiction – is a great illustration of strategy and subterfuge. According to the legend, the Trojan War ended in a stalemate because Greece was unable to devise a strategy to circumvent the city walls of Troy. The 10-year battle ended and the Greek army made what looked to be a retreat to their homeland. The Trojan army investigated and found the beach abandoned. The Greek armada was gone and a large wooden horse was all that remained on the desolate shore. The Trojans believed the Greeks had left the horse as a peace offering. They gleefully accepted the offering and pulled the horse from the beach, past their impenetrable city gates, into the city square, and began to celebrate their victory over the Greeks. However, a little due diligence by the Trojans would have been prudent. Perhaps they would have found the Greek strike force tucked quietly inside the horse. The Greeks seized their opportunity late that night when they snuck quietly out of the horse and opened the city gates so the balance of their army could enter unencumbered. The Greeks proceeded to sack the city. The story gave birth to the expression “Beware a Greek bearing gifts.” The business development strategy for your company, if executed properly, will work in a similar way. For example, a typical salesperson may have their access to a decision maker within a dream prospect’s company — like Sarah Jones in our example — blocked by a “gatekeeper.” Any sort of sales opportunity is thwarted and the salesperson may be forced to move on to her next prospect. However, what if you happen to be the host of a top-rated podcast — or a YouTube channel — or a popular blog with a lot of subscribers — and you are getting in touch with Sarah Jones — one of your Dream Prospects — because you would like to interview her about her journey, her secrets to success, and the wisdom she could share with others in her industry or the broader business community? Well now, you just changed the entire game, didn’t you? Your podcast — video interview — or article for your blog — just increased the probability of a one-on-one, private, 60-minute conversation with your ideal prospect. But how did your podcast give you this “All Access Pass?” Your podcast changed the game because you are no longer perceived as a business owner looking for a new account. You are now perceived as a journalist and your show is a media channel – a conduit – to an audience the guests on your show want to reach and influence. It’s as simple as letting the decision maker at your dream prospect wheel the horse past the company’s gatekeeper – and park it right in the center of the C-suite. You now have an opportunity to dazzle your dream prospect with your brilliance and intimate industry and company knowledge during the interview. Your podcast has done its job. Now it’s time for you to do yours. Sell to Sarah! And your sales strategy should be a blend of traditional sales tactics like scheduling appointments, making presentations, providing proposals, evaluating your sales team’s workflow in your CRM, and so forth — AND — employing some digital marketing tools, too. So after your interviews with your Dream prospects, you share the insights and wisdom collected from your guests through research guides, eBooks, webinars, and tag your guests in social media so they can feel the love — and — the appreciation you have for their contribution to your community. My Predictive ROI team and I call this process creating “Cornerstone Content” and it plays a vital role in the long term success of your Trojan Horse of Sales strategy. So whether you are comfortable writing articles, recording audio, or being in front of a camera — you should…without a doubt…interview each of your Dream 50 prospects with the result outcome being “Cornerstone Content” that you can share to build your platform — AND — relationships you can build, nurture, and cultivate over time so your Dream 50 prospects truly KNOW you…they truly LIKE you…and most importantly…they TRUST you. And all the while…you are also sharing your message publicly through your platform…and then an interesting thing begins to happen. You — yes, YOU as the business owner become known — you begin receiving invitations to be a guest on podcasts, you get quoted in the media, perhaps an agent or publisher approaches you to write a book, you are asked to speak at an industry conference, and on and on. All of this content forms the foundation of your thought leadership — and it is thought leadership — true thought leadership in today’s world of biz dev that separates the progressive market leading companies from the wannabes. In a future solocast — I will share some specific strategies and recipes you can use to create cornerstone content as well as how you can plug it into your Trojan Horse of Sales strategy. But for today…I want you see how the sales process in your business likely needs to change — and how if you put a Trojan Horse of Sales out in front of your business — and get clarity around your Dream 50 prospects — how you will improve your entire sales pipeline from end to end. I wanted to get you thinking about that. To take that thought process even further…I am going to share a story of how the strategy of the Trojan Horse of Sales changed every aspect of biz dev for my core business, Predictive ROI — and in the process — took us to a completely different level. It was a quiet Sunday afternoon in the middle of May 2015. I was sitting at my dining room table looking out the front window at my daughter and her friends having fun at our neighborhood playground. All was well outside – but not inside. I was under a great deal of stress. We had a just lost a major client. And although every business experiences this pain from time to time, what made this particular loss so painful was that we were overstaffed. The loss in revenue made our reality even more excruciating. I had purchased the domain name OnwardNation.com about 12 months earlier but had no idea why. No strategy; I just felt compelled to make the purchase. Funny how God whispers the seeds of inspiration into your ear sometimes and then just lets them sit until He is ready for them to germinate into some remarkable. That Sunday must have been germination day. As I sat there at my dining room table, I remembered the OnwardNation.com purchase and made the decision that we would create and launch a daily podcast using that name. Next, I crafted an enthusiastic, optimistic email explaining that Onward Nation was the solution we’d been seeking to turn Predictive ROI lead gen and sales activity around (mind you, I had zero strategy, only unbridled optimism). In the email I set an aggressive launch date of June 15th. I closed the lid to my Mac Book, and somehow felt good about the decision (or chaos) that I had just initiated. Why chaos, you ask? Well, I should probably share that the decision to create and launch a podcast in 30 days was made in complete and utter ignorance. I knew nothing about creating or launching a podcast. Sure, I had been a guest on a couple of podcasts such as EOFire with John Lee Dumas and ReLaunch with Joel Boggess. So I knew how to put on a headset and open Skype, which comprised my entire body of knowledge in the podcast world up to that point. Now let’s fast forward to launch day, Monday, June 15th. Remarkably, we launched on schedule and the first day of Onward Nation ran smoothly. We aired three episodes on launch day: Episode 1 with Scott McKain, Episode 2 with 10-time New York Times best selling author Don Yaeger, and Episode 3 with real estate mogul Stacey Alcorn. All three guests are rock stars and Onward Nation was off and running. Several weeks later, I attended my Agency Management Institute mastermind group. By then, Onward Nation had aired 47 episodes, daily downloads were steadily increasing, and we had scored top rankings in iTunes. I was feeling proud about our accomplishments. We had gone from zero to 60 in about 3.5 seconds. Not bad. But we were missing a vital outcome: Revenue! My mastermind group – all exceptional agency owners from across the country – asked me how I was going to make money from Onward Nation. Excellent question, but I had no idea of the answer. “I don’t know,” I said. “But we will figure it out.” Then providence set in. Two of our Onward Nation guests got in touch with me and asked, “Hey, could you do that for me?” “Do what for you?” I asked. “Build me a podcast!” they said. Like any enthusiastic entrepreneur in need of revenue, I said…achem…“Yes, we can!” So my team and I stripped out the branding and content from the Onward Nation system and replaced everything with our client’s branding, episodes, content – and voila! We launched two more podcasts and earned $26,000 for our effort. Rock solid awesome! Now, a smart businessperson would have said, “Hey, we might be onto something here. This could be worth pursuing.” But I didn’t say that. Instead, I returned to thinking about how we were overstaffed and needed to grow revenue. Ironic, isn’t it? I often say that if God wants me to get the message, He needs to take out a billboard or hit me over the head with the brick. Subtlety is lost on me. In late October, one of those clients (Drew McLellan, host of the Build a Better Agency podcast) said to me, “The podcast you built for me is awesome. And Onward Nation is awesome. Why in the world are you not building more of these?” In my brilliance, I said, “For who?” Drew rolled is eyes and said, “There have to be more Onward Nation guests who would love to have a podcast of their own!” He took the lesson he was teaching me deeper, adding, “Look, here’s what you do. You create a Silver, Gold, and Platinum Elite package…you charge this much, this much, and this much, and get out there and sell them to guests.” Brilliant! My team and I immediately got to work creating the packages Drew had recommended. And then providence struck a second time. On November 17, 2015 — I interviewed Wendy Keller, literary agent extraordinaire, for Episode 106 of Onward Nation. The conversation started out lovely – just what I had envisioned. Then, suddenly, I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach and the air knocked right out of me. Wendy told her emotional and devastating story about the tragic car accident that she and her husband, along with their two children were in while on vacation in Europe. Her children were killed, she was critically injured, and her life was changed in an instant. My legs felt weak. In shock, I didn’t know what to say. Wendy had to be the strongest person I’d ever met. After continuing for a few minutes, she paused and gave me a moment to catch my breath. Then we continued the interview. I was captivated by Wendy’s courage, her commitment, and her resolve. What could stop this woman? When we finished the interview she turned the tables on me, asking about Onward Nation. Why was I doing it? What was the end game? I told her I was planning to write a book that distilled all the wisdom collected during the episodes of the podcast. I could practically feel her smile on the other end of our Skype connection. And then she asked me a life-altering question: “Hmm… Why don’t you write a book about how business owners can use podcasting to grow revenue and their business? That’s where the real opportunity is for a book.” Bam. Providence! Quick side note…Wendy is the one who gave me the idea and push to write Profitable Podcasting…which we released a few short weeks ago…and it became a #1 New Release on Amazon.com in just 18 hours and is currently rolling out to retail stores. So…back to the story…following the interview with Wendy, my Predictive ROI team made it a vital priority to accelerate the sales of our newly minted Silver, Gold, and Platinum Elite packages. We were on a mission to create a bone fide monetization strategy. Our goal was to grow revenue, and at the same time, create a compelling proof of concept for the system that would eventually become this book. We grew podcast-related revenue to $223,000 between November 17 and December 31, 2015 and built a sales pipeline of $380,000 during Q1 2016. We scaled our production and sales teams and created step-by-step documentation of our system. And now we predict $2 million in podcast-related revenue during the next 12 months. We accomplished this thanks in part to several amazing mentors who stepped into our path. We listened to them, and we did exactly what they recommended — and — we put the Trojan Horse of Sales to work and built a complete business development system around the entire process. But your story of growing your business, expanding your platform, and building a nation of true fans can be just as amazing if you put the right sales strategy to work for you. So in my next solocast…I will take this lesson deeper with more of the “How to” — but for now — I encourage you to take some time to consider the “Why” and how the game would change for you and your business if you were open to the possibilities of what the next level of biz dev may hold. In the coming weeks, I will share our full blueprints or “recipes” for success with you. I will share each and every step we took along the way in complete transparency. Not a single step will be hidden from you. It will all be here, in plain sight. So before we go…before we close out and I say goodbye…I just wanted to say thank you again. Thank you for listening…thank you for making Onward Nation what you listen to and study. Thank you for making Onward Nation part of your daily routine — please know — I am grateful for your time and I encourage you to drop me a line at stephen@onwardnation.com if you ever have any questions, concerns, or feedback on how we can get better. Let me know what you think of the show — thumbs up or thumbs down. I want to know because that is the only way we can get better. Until tomorrow — onward with gusto!

Sierra is a wedding & family photographer based in Central Florida. Specializing in authentic moments in vibrant color, she thrives on connection. Ultimately helping people LOVE having their photo taken.   Her personality is mix of contradictions: A love of health and fitness with an addiction to mac and cheese. She has an adoration of the infamous business hustle, but still a deep rooted appreciation for adventuring in the quiet outdoors with her husband.   Sierra has won:  - 2017 Orlando's BOW Awards "Best of Weddings" #1 wedding photographer - Lake Business Magazine "30 Under 30" Young professionals making a name for themselves in business. - Featured: Huffington Post, North Central FL Bride Magazine, Southern Celebrations Magazine, Borrowed & Blue, How He Asked.

Cornerstone content, how to create compelling content for an “overexposed” topic, and predicting the future for our businesses. It’s Q&A day! Our wonderful community of listeners shared three questions with me today. In this 29-minute episode, I talk about: How to, in Wayne Gretzky’s phrase, “skate to where the puck is going” What to look... Listen to episode

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