Content Strategy & Management
I thought it might help to share a synopsis of when I came in as the first content manager and strategist for a growing technology company. The content strategy addresses digital needs such as the website content, advertising, blogging, social, and partner content. The strategy addressed the needs of multiple diverse and varied audiences while servicing content requirements of more than 8 marketing and channel partner managers. I developed SME personas and ghost wrote articles, positioned them at conferences to built trust in our subject matter expertise and then helped our SMEs transition to owning the content development of their own personas long-term.
In addition to supporting the content for the company, I managed two product lines for all marketing efforts, building lead pipelines for our sales teams.
Launching TaxRates.com
I was tasked with owning the content for the primary Avalara site and a related site, taxrates.com. FYI: taxrates.com no longer exists. TaxRates.com site needed a refresh as it had been disabled for quite some time. The goal was to build the site with relevant, fresh information targeting the sales and use tax audiences, engage them and drive them to the Avalara site for conversions and leads.
The webmaster and I sketched out layouts for the pages, defining the types of content we wanted on the site. We wanted to engage, so we added some humor and interesting facts.
For Launch
I wrote state descriptions and produced 3-4 fun facts for each state (tax rates can be dry so we wanted to add some humor), collected the relevant compliance information such as current tax rates, links to the state websites and wrote CTAs plus an initial blog for each state page. We went live in 3 months.
Ongoing Content Needs
I continued to research and identify key sales and use information each week. I blogged the latest sales and use tax updates in each state and pushed out on social channels to increase exposure and notifications. Based on the Google Analytics and Search data, current, and new sales tax information was what was resonating with the audience.
Results
100% month-over-month growth of new unique visitors in the first year. TaxRates.com was one of the two top referrers of leads to the Avalara.com website. Plus positive feedback from our audiences that continued to encourage direction.
Content Calendar and Cadence
My content calendar included monthly, quarterly, mid-year and annual goals. I defined types of content needed, being mindful of each marketing managers’ needs as well our social and website requirements.
Measuring the impact of that content enabled me to better define impactful future content. Each content goal and piece of content included:
- Audience
- Keyword(s)
- Cross-posting on social
- Analytics monitoring
- Link strategy
- Evergreen re-use strategy
Types of Content
White Papers
Social Posts
Articles (digital magazines)
Articles (blog)
Video scripts
Infographics
Tradeshows
Customer Stories
Sales Sheets
Technical Diagrams
Installation Guides
Fun Facts
Samples of Work
Content Development Cadence
Annual Goals
- 12 White Papers
- 12 Customer Stories
- 5-12 blogs per week (usually 3-5 per day) for taxrates.com
- 1-2 blogs per week for avalara.com
- 5-12 social posts per week (a post for each blog)
- 3 articles per month
- Tradeshow collateral
- Updated sales sheets for partners
- Ghost write 1 article per quarter
- Support 8+ marketing and channel managers
- Cross-functional team support with social, client engagement, sales team
- Provided sales sheets and tradeshow literature
How Achieved
- Evergreen content with re-use strategy
- Consistent pattern of writing specific blog & social post types
- Prep for customer interviews
- Effective researching
- Evaluating analytics and behaviors to target content
- Managed style guide
- Organized content calendar
- Large white board on the wall displayed current content in progress, what was recently released so marketing managers could find content relavent to their campaigns and know what was coming!
Personas and Ghost Writing
While at Avalara, I identified opportunities for our tax experts to participate in panels and other conference-type of events to build our reputation in the industry. With their buy-in, I also encouraged a few of them to begin writing articles and expanding their personal brand along with Avalara’s. I worked with each expert to develop their tone and voice and ghost-wrote the first few articles until they were comfortable taking over the work.