How DigitalMarketer Increased Traffic by 1125% with Russ Henneberry

How DigitalMarketer Increased Traffic by 1125% Do you think your content strategy is the obstacle in brining increased traffic to your agency's website? If your agency’s content marketing strategy is blogging - and just blogging - you’ve got to catch this episode. My guest is Russ Henneberry, Editorial Director at DigitalMarketer and he’s here to tell us how he has increased traffic on their front end by 1125%. That’s not a typo - you read it right - 1125%!!! In this episode, we’ll cover: How you can enjoy increased traffic with a content strategy. The 3 elements to a successful content marketing funnel. How to uncover your marketing agency’s black box. Russ is All-Pro at the content marketing game. Prior to working at DigitalMarketer, he was on the content team at Salesforce.com. He  also launched a blog for a well-known marketing SaaS where he grew visitors from 0 to 120,000/month in under a year. Content is where it’s at in digital marketing. The problem is too many people think content just means random blogging. Russ says the solution to is to create your content with purpose and strategy behind it. A successful content funnel will carry your prospect through the various stages of their buying decision. There are three levels to an effective content funnel: Awareness on top, Evaluation at middle, Conversion on bottom. Content that Raises Awareness According the Russ, the very first step in a great content marketing strategy begins with prospect awareness. They must become aware there’s a problem. Then they need to be aware that your agency’s service offering is the solution. To create content that raises awareness and increased traffic, ask yourself: What do I need prospects to believe or what doubts do they have? What do my prospects need to understand, learn or know before they’ll work us? What objections might the prospects have to working with us? What are my prospects researching prior to hiring an agency? When you figure all this out you can create all your content around the answers. And remember to be specific - speak to your niche using industry-specific words and phrases. Successful content marketing makes the reader/viewer feel as though it was created specifically for them. Therefore, speak to an audience of one to really nail it. Content that raises awareness should educate, entertain and inspire so vehicles for this type of content include: blog posts, social media updates, infographics, photos, e-books, podcasts. Content for Evaluation This type of content is a level down from Awareness content and is useful for helping a prospect decide between their options. When a prospect is considering working with your agency, this type of content helps facilitate the decision. Prospects have choices and your obligation is to educate on the pros and cons of those choices. Evaluation content should answer things like: How does your agency stack up against the competition? What are the consequences if the prospect chooses not to solve the problem at all? How will working with your agency differ from solving the problem in-house? Your responsibility with this type of content is to weigh the options and help facilitate a decision. It’s important to be honest and fair with these content pieces because they aren't smarmy sales content. You can use a lead magnet or opt-in, or even retargeting to drive back to your site. The goal is to give your prospect the opportunity to re-evaluate your process compared to their other options. Another effective strategy for Evaluation content is a testimonial where someone walks through the before, during and after process of working with your agency. Some great vehicles for this type of content is lead magnets such as: educational resources (case study, white paper, etc), useful resources (swipe file, checklist, templates, etc.), webinars and live events. Content that Converts So now it’s sale time. What do you need to do or say to tip the scale in your favor? Content that Converts is the final piece. It’s all about making them feel good about signing with your agency. Things like customer stories with results, webinars, live events, mini classes and a great Foot in the Door offer all make great Conversion content. To create this type of content, you’ll need to ask yourself: “what’s missing?”. Russ says every business has a Black Box that causes mystery or confusion. Creating content that solves the mystery is the final element in a successful content marketing strategy. The key is uncovering our your agency’s black box and eliminating the problem. How to Uncover Your Agency’s Black Box You’re too close to identify it right away but it’s there, and mystery and confusion are the #1 things that hinder conversion. When a prospect leaves your site with questions or confusion that is a lost opportunity. They will ultimately go to a competitor, do the work in-house or do nothing. So ask yourself: “what’s missing?” then create content that fills that hole. Ready to Discover the Best Agency Strategies Working Today? Most agency owners struggle to scale. We’ve developed an amazing mastermind to guide you through the journey of implementing the right systems so you can scale your agency — instead of feeling overwhelmed by it. We do this by bringing together successful agency leaders to share strategies, offer advice, and reveal what’s working (and what’s not working) in their agency. The truth is, whatever you want to accomplish in life, nothing will help you go further, faster than getting the right adviser in the context of motivated peers. If you want to GROW fast and smart, Digital Agency Elite mastermind will help. Cashflow or Bookkeeping Issues? FreshBooks is the solution. FreshBooks makes ridiculously easy­ to ­use cloud accounting software for agencies that will help you work smarter, become more organized, and most importantly, get you paid quickly. Check out FreshBooks.com/SmartAgency and enter SMARTAGENCY in the "How Did You Hear About Us?" section for a FREE 30-day, unrestricted trial. Need More Advice? So we’ve taken a closer look at ways of improving your content strategy for increased traffic to gain that exposure and lead building for your business but what other advice do you need right now? To improve your agency, you should take a step back and really look struggles you need to focus on to improve your business. I have all you need to get through these obstacles. I have advice to share with you from gaining agency exposure in the news, how to build authority for your agency or even ways to use facebook marketing strategies to expand your brand awareness. If growth is your focus, I’ve discussed the four phases of growth within your agency and how website issues could be holding your business back from reach your potential. You can learn more about my life and my experience as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. If videos are more your thing, did you know I have a Youtube channel? You can check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.