In this episode of the Thrifty Titans Podcast, we connect with Araminta Robertson, the founder and managing director of Mint Studios, a distinguished UK-based content marketing agency specializing in transforming businesses' content into an effective customer acquisition channel.
Our conversation delves into mastering organic content distribution, exploring conversion tracking and attribution, unlocking the potential of content marketing over traditional advertising, understanding the significance of blogging in 2022, and much more.
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Saikat Pyne: Hello. I'm sale marketer, Creative and all around Alpha nerd.
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Saikat Pyne: Welcome to the you incorporated podcast On this show, I
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Saikat Pyne: catch up with bad ass entrepreneurs, marketers, storytellers and content
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Saikat Pyne: creators to understand how they built their personal brands, their
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Saikat Pyne: voices their way. If you want to carve out an
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Saikat Pyne: individual agenda with your work and take charge of your
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Saikat Pyne: own narrative, you are in the right place.
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Saikat Pyne: Hello. Hello. Welcome to the you Incorporated podcast. Please join
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Saikat Pyne: me in welcoming Araminta Robertson, the founder and managing director
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Saikat Pyne: of Min Studios, a UK based full service content marketing
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Saikat Pyne: agency that helps FINTECH companies turn their content into a
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Saikat Pyne: customer acquisition channel.
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Saikat Pyne: Araminta has worked with some of the biggest fintech brands
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Saikat Pyne: on the planet. She's also a dear friend and on
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Saikat Pyne: this episode will spend some time talking about how to
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Saikat Pyne: come up with a content strategy for your brand. Why
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Saikat Pyne: organic content doesn't get the attention it deserves from marketers
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Saikat Pyne: and content creators and the potential of content marketing over
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Saikat Pyne: advertising and much, much more. Welcome to the podcast parameter.
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Saikat Pyne: Thank
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Araminta Robertson: you. Thank you for having me like cat.
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Saikat Pyne: So tell me if I'm a marketer, how do I
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Saikat Pyne: come up with a content strategy for my brand.
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Araminta Robertson: So by definition, a content strategy is, uh, an activity
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Araminta Robertson: in evaluating the landscape around you and understanding what your
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Araminta Robertson: competitive advantage are. Advantages are. And then what the what
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Araminta Robertson: are the opportunities that you can take advantage of? That
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Araminta Robertson: is the definition of a strategy
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Araminta Robertson: in order to then understand that, understand what your advantages
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Araminta Robertson: are and what landscape is, and then how to take
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Araminta Robertson: advantage of those opportunities. You kind of I usually go
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Araminta Robertson: through a process. Uh, that helps me set up a
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Araminta Robertson: content strategy for the clients that we work with. Um,
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Araminta Robertson: we use I mean, I'll just go through the process.
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Araminta Robertson: Usually start with something like, um, looking at what your
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Araminta Robertson: competitors are doing.
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Araminta Robertson: Uh, and in a content from a content perspective, that
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Araminta Robertson: would be, you know, going to their websites, checking what
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Araminta Robertson: kind of content they're producing. Is it good quality? Is
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Araminta Robertson: it Is it bad quality? Um,
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Araminta Robertson: and, uh, what kind of keywords they're ranking for and
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Araminta Robertson: just in general, um, how they're doing, seeing if the
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Araminta Robertson: bar is high or low. Really? That's the main objective
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Araminta Robertson: of that part. The second is to do a content audit.
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Araminta Robertson: And I mean, you could do the content audit first.
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Araminta Robertson: It kind of doesn't really matter. Um, but this is
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Araminta Robertson: us evaluating the landscape, right? Competitor, looking at your competitors.
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Araminta Robertson: And now the content audit, which is your own website.
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Araminta Robertson: How is it doing? Is is, uh do you already have, uh, contents? Uh,
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Araminta Robertson: is it ranking for good keywords? Is the content good quality?
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Araminta Robertson: Are the articles easy to read and, well formatted, um,
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Araminta Robertson: are the Are we getting conversions? Are we getting customers
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Araminta Robertson: to the blog? Is it working? Basically that kind of stuff, Uh,
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Araminta Robertson: so that those two exercises are to help understand kind
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Araminta Robertson: of the competitive landscape.
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Araminta Robertson: Um, the next step is to then understand what your
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Araminta Robertson: own advantages are, and, um, kind of what the opportunities are. Uh,
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Araminta Robertson: this is the part where you go out there and
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Araminta Robertson: understand who your target market is, what their pain points are.
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Araminta Robertson: So the way that we do content strategy is, uh,
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Araminta Robertson: some people call it Pain point s C o. Which
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Araminta Robertson: basically means understanding your customer pain points and then creating
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Araminta Robertson: content that targets. Um, those, uh, pain points.
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Araminta Robertson: Um So to understand customer pain points. It depends a
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Araminta Robertson: little bit on how your company or brand is set up. Uh,
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Araminta Robertson: if you are a B to C, then it's just,
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Araminta Robertson: you know, set up some interviews with your target market,
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Araminta Robertson: and there's a very good book on how to do that.
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Araminta Robertson: It's called the Mum Test, and they do a much,
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Araminta Robertson: you know,
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Araminta Robertson: the the author does a much better job than I
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Araminta Robertson: do at explaining how to do customer research. So I
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Araminta Robertson: just recommend you read that. And then, uh, in our case,
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Araminta Robertson: when we work with companies that usually involves talking with
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Araminta Robertson: the sales team, the product team, the customer service team, uh,
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Araminta Robertson: those that are the most customer facing and understanding from
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Araminta Robertson: those interviews and and conversations what it is that, uh,
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Araminta Robertson: the our target markets pain points are and how our
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Araminta Robertson: product solves those.
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Araminta Robertson: And that's kind of the key of the entire strategy.
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Araminta Robertson: Without understanding this, you basically do not know what what
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Araminta Robertson: type of content to create. Based on that those interviews
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Araminta Robertson: and that research, we then kind of have a quite
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Araminta Robertson: a good understanding of of, you know, kind of where
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Araminta Robertson: to get started. Um, and that's when that's only then
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Araminta Robertson: do we do, you know, keyword research, which is just
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Araminta Robertson: understanding what specific words people are using to find, um,
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Araminta Robertson: a solution to their problems.
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Araminta Robertson: And, uh, then it's just a matter of kind of prioritising. Um, so,
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Araminta Robertson: you know, you could do something like, you know, the
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Araminta Robertson: the the the pain points that are most painful to
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Araminta Robertson: your customers. You know, start with that. Start with that
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Araminta Robertson: kind of content. Um, and then also, this is also
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Araminta Robertson: where you take into account your competitive advantages, uh, when
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Araminta Robertson: compared to your competitors. So, for example, we have a
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Araminta Robertson: client who, um their main competitive advantage is that they
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Araminta Robertson: offer credit.
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Araminta Robertson: Uh, so, like, other companies don't do that. Um and
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Araminta Robertson: so we were like, OK, well, we want to start
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Araminta Robertson: by creating content. That's really focused on credit because no
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Araminta Robertson: one else can kind of talk about that. So that's
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Araminta Robertson: kind of a strategy. It's, um, you know, understanding what's
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Araminta Robertson: happening around you, understanding your target market and then creating
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Araminta Robertson: a plan to take advantage of the opportunities in front
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Araminta Robertson: of you.
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Saikat Pyne: That's a great way of putting it. Now let's talk
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Saikat Pyne: about what qualifies as good content because you touched upon
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Saikat Pyne: that very briefly. Uh, in your explanation. When you are
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Saikat Pyne: doing a content audit, what qualifies as good content? What
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Saikat Pyne: qualifies as bad content? And is that a standard metric
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Saikat Pyne: for you? Or does that metric change? According to a
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Saikat Pyne: brand's plans?
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Araminta Robertson: It depends a little bit on the product and the
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Araminta Robertson: target market. So in a B to B scenario, good
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Araminta Robertson: quality content is is advanced, usually technical. It's it's for,
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Araminta Robertson: you know, it's targeting decision makers. Um, the average person
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Araminta Robertson: on the street, you know, probably might not understand the stuff, um,
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Araminta Robertson: in the articles. And that's fine, because this is for
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Araminta Robertson: you know, this is B to B.
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Araminta Robertson: So that's that's good quality content that's actually useful. That's
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Araminta Robertson: actually valuable, that our decision makers would actually be interested
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Araminta Robertson: in reading and that you're not embarrassed to to produce
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Araminta Robertson: or for anyone to read. Um and yeah, Not only
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Araminta Robertson: is it, you know, genuinely useful and answers people's questions,
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Araminta Robertson: but it's easy to read. It's well formatted. Um, you know,
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Araminta Robertson: the font is the right is big. The
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Araminta Robertson: The paragraphs are narrow. There's spacing. It's easy to read
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Araminta Robertson: on on online essentially. And also you've got the right
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Araminta Robertson: culture actions in the right places. So people know, you know,
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Araminta Robertson: Should they be subscribing to a newsletter or should they
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Araminta Robertson: get in touch with you? Et cetera. Um so bad
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Araminta Robertson: content would be anything. That's not that. And there's a
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Araminta Robertson: lot of bad content out there. So you know, your
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Araminta Robertson: typical beginner articles that aren't really, you know, targeting the
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Araminta Robertson: right people.
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Araminta Robertson: Um, that talk about really basic stuff when the person
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Araminta Robertson: who's searching this up would probably already know. Um, so
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Araminta Robertson: I'm sure most people listening will have experienced bad content,
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Araminta Robertson: and they know what that is because there's just so
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Araminta Robertson: much of it. Good content is you read that and
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Araminta Robertson: you're like, Wow, that was incredible. I want to learn more.
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Araminta Robertson: I want to read more. This is great, or or
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Araminta Robertson: good content is when you bookmark it and you save
00:08:13
Araminta Robertson: it for later because it's so good and you want
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Araminta Robertson: to read it again. That's that's good content,
00:08:17
Saikat Pyne: right? There's a term you used. It was lovely, Which
00:08:21
Saikat Pyne: was pinpoint S e o. Talk to me a bit
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Saikat Pyne: more about your definition of pain. 00.0 and how How
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Saikat Pyne: do you define it? And how do you judge it
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Saikat Pyne: on on a scale?
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Araminta Robertson: Yes. So, Pain Point S E O. Is a phrase
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Araminta Robertson: that was coined by a content marketing agency called Grown Convert.
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Araminta Robertson: And they they describe Pain Point s E o as
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Araminta Robertson: essentially s E O that focuses on people's pain points. Um,
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Araminta Robertson: too many companies and websites in general focus on top
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Araminta Robertson: of the funnel. So kind of stuff, like, you know,
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Araminta Robertson: if we're trying to rank for if we're a, um,
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Araminta Robertson: a shop that sells shoes,
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Araminta Robertson: they're gonna create articles like, what are the different types
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Araminta Robertson: of shoes that's top of the funnel. It's just interesting,
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Araminta Robertson: but it doesn't really help you make a decision. Um,
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Araminta Robertson: when really what we want to be doing is if
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Araminta Robertson: you want to actually get customers, is create content like,
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Araminta Robertson: uh, shoes for runners or shoes for desk workers or, um,
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Araminta Robertson: something that is very specific. And that's what pain point
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Araminta Robertson: S E. O. Is some some that the S e o. People.
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Araminta Robertson: People in the S E o industry also call it
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Araminta Robertson: long tail.
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Araminta Robertson: You can also call it long tail keywords, but it's
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Araminta Robertson: a bit more than long tail because it's also bottom
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Araminta Robertson: of the funnel. So it's basically, um I mean their
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Araminta Robertson: Their argument is that this is where your best customers are.
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Araminta Robertson: These are people who already have a problem already know
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Araminta Robertson: what their solution is, and they're already researching online for
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Araminta Robertson: that solution. And the argument is, why not create content
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Araminta Robertson: for those people? Um, you want to start with your
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Araminta Robertson: best customers with those customers that are ready to convert,
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Araminta Robertson: And then you can go and write about the best
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Araminta Robertson: types of shoes and the best
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Araminta Robertson: the top types of colours for shoes and other stuff
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Araminta Robertson: like that. But their argument is start with the bottom
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Araminta Robertson: start with the pain points because then you can capture
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Araminta Robertson: those low hanging fruit,
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Saikat Pyne: right? So rather than trying to hit wide and hit big,
00:10:18
Saikat Pyne: you're trying to hit small and hit hard with long
00:10:21
Saikat Pyne: with long tail s u keywords that are actually going
00:10:23
Saikat Pyne: to get you transacting users. And you're not trying to
00:10:27
Saikat Pyne: optimise for, uh, keywords that would have more competition on
00:10:32
Saikat Pyne: its tail. And, uh and you're not up against the
00:10:35
Saikat Pyne: big boys that way, right?
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Araminta Robertson: Yeah. I mean, sometimes you will be up against the
00:10:40
Araminta Robertson: the larger companies. But, you know, if you're creating content
00:10:44
Araminta Robertson: that you know that your target market is really going
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Araminta Robertson: to read, um, and is really interested in, Then you
00:10:50
Araminta Robertson: can still even beat the bigger companies. Um, so,
00:10:55
Araminta Robertson: uh, yeah, but it's also a fact of, you know,
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Araminta Robertson: your competitors are unlikely to be doing this kind of
00:11:00
Araminta Robertson: content and targeting these key words, it's also an advantage because, um, yeah,
00:11:04
Araminta Robertson: you'll be you'll be targeting,
00:11:06
Araminta Robertson: uh, people that no one else is. And also, it
00:11:09
Araminta Robertson: doesn't always have to be high keyword volume. You know,
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Araminta Robertson: sometimes no one's searching for that because also, you have
00:11:14
Araminta Robertson: to remember these S E O tools are not the
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Araminta Robertson: most accurate. So, um, if you know, just from interviews
00:11:19
Araminta Robertson: or from understanding your customer really well, this is a
00:11:22
Araminta Robertson: really big pain point, and it doesn't turn up as
00:11:24
Araminta Robertson: a keyword on any of the tools. Go ahead and
00:11:26
Araminta Robertson: still write that article because stuff we've seen, we've done
00:11:30
Araminta Robertson: this kind of thing, and we've still seen traffic and
00:11:32
Araminta Robertson: conversions come in because, you know, people are still researching
00:11:35
Araminta Robertson: that kind of stuff,
00:11:37
Saikat Pyne: right? Right. Right now, once you've, uh you've decided on
00:11:41
Saikat Pyne: the topic that you want to write about and you've
00:11:44
Saikat Pyne: created the content, it's about cracking content distribution. And there
00:11:49
Saikat Pyne: is this presumption that for us to get customers that
00:11:53
Saikat Pyne: we need to put money in So how do you
00:11:56
Saikat Pyne: crack organic content distribution in the most effective manner for
00:12:00
Saikat Pyne: your brand?
00:12:01
Saikat Pyne: So once, once you started creating content that resonates with
00:12:04
Saikat Pyne: your target audience, how do you really track conversions? How
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Saikat Pyne: do you track attribution from your content to your website
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Saikat Pyne: or your online
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Araminta Robertson: platform? So I mean it. It depends a little bit
00:12:15
Araminta Robertson: on what conversion means for you. So if it's a
00:12:18
Araminta Robertson: newsletter subscriber, it could be it could be, you know,
00:12:21
Araminta Robertson: a form submission. It could be create an account,
00:12:24
Araminta Robertson: so it really it really varies quite a lot. Um,
00:12:27
Araminta Robertson: but you, you we we like to keep it quite simple,
00:12:29
Araminta Robertson: which is agree on what a conversion is and then
00:12:34
Araminta Robertson: track it with the right tools we usually use Google
00:12:36
Araminta Robertson: tag manager. You can also use hubspot. You can also use,
00:12:39
Araminta Robertson: you know, just
00:12:40
Araminta Robertson: Google analytics, Um, and and then you just, um and
00:12:45
Araminta Robertson: it'll it'll kind of tell you when a conversion comes
00:12:48
Araminta Robertson: through and then you can go on to Google Analytics
00:12:50
Araminta Robertson: or hubspot and you'll see for yourself which article it
00:12:54
Araminta Robertson: comes from. That conversion comes from, so it's quite straightforward.
00:12:57
Araminta Robertson: We use also the model comparison tool, which basically tells us,
00:13:01
Araminta Robertson: you know, first attribution and last attribution click. Um, and
00:13:04
Araminta Robertson: the main difference between those two is that one will,
00:13:07
Araminta Robertson: um, basically tell you our first attribution is someone read
00:13:12
Araminta Robertson: your blog article and then leaves clicks around, read some
00:13:16
Araminta Robertson: other articles, maybe doesn't come back until one month later
00:13:20
Araminta Robertson: and then converts That's first click. And then second, Last
00:13:23
Araminta Robertson: click is you know, they click through the blog and
00:13:25
Araminta Robertson: then they immediately convert. So with that model
00:13:29
Araminta Robertson: and through Google Analytics, you can kind of tell who's
00:13:31
Araminta Robertson: converting on more articles. And sure, it's not the most
00:13:34
Araminta Robertson: accurate tool in the world because obviously, attribution is very messy,
00:13:39
Araminta Robertson: and people have very complex customer journeys. But our argument
00:13:43
Araminta Robertson: is it's better to track a little bit,
00:13:45
Araminta Robertson: uh, then no tracking at all. So we we do
00:13:48
Araminta Robertson: track and, uh, based on that information, we can also
00:13:52
Araminta Robertson: tell you know which article is doing well, which needs
00:13:55
Araminta Robertson: some more work on it, et cetera. Um, so yeah,
00:13:59
Araminta Robertson: it's quite straight forward. There's a lot of tutorials online
00:14:01
Araminta Robertson: on how to get all your tracking. Correct. Um, but
00:14:04
Araminta Robertson: once you've got it correctly, then yeah, it's just a
00:14:07
Araminta Robertson: matter of keeping track of it every month. Is
00:14:10
Saikat Pyne: the content team guided by
00:14:12
Saikat Pyne: the analytics? The results of what's working or is it
00:14:15
Saikat Pyne: the other way around? Um,
00:14:18
Saikat Pyne: would does the content creation come first and the analytics
00:14:22
Saikat Pyne: comes after that that you measure and you create more
00:14:24
Saikat Pyne: of that content? Or do you measure first in terms
00:14:28
Saikat Pyne: of what's working, what's not working, and then start creating
00:14:32
Saikat Pyne: content only for that niche? How how do you go
00:14:35
Saikat Pyne: about it? Does? Is it it is the chicken first
00:14:38
Saikat Pyne: or the egg first?
00:14:40
Araminta Robertson: I mean, it's It's a mix of both, of course, um,
00:14:42
Araminta Robertson: so if if you're if your website has been around
00:14:46
Araminta Robertson: for a few years, then you'll have some information already,
00:14:49
Araminta Robertson: and based on that information, then you can. You can
00:14:51
Araminta Robertson: then that will influence your strategy. And that will influence
00:14:55
Araminta Robertson: kind of what kind of content you want to create.
00:14:57
Araminta Robertson: But often we we start a content strategy with with
00:15:00
Araminta Robertson: from zero. So there's no information really apart from what
00:15:03
Araminta Robertson: competitors are doing.
00:15:05
Araminta Robertson: Uh, in that case, you know the content creation will
00:15:07
Araminta Robertson: will start. And then, um, we will keep checking some.
00:15:11
Araminta Robertson: Some people like to check every month. They're like, OK,
00:15:13
Araminta Robertson: this is working. This isn't we like to do it
00:15:15
Araminta Robertson: every quarter. So every three months, because then that gives
00:15:17
Araminta Robertson: us enough time to really see the results come in.
00:15:20
Araminta Robertson: So every three months, we will look at the numbers
00:15:22
Araminta Robertson: we'll look at, you know what is not working, what
00:15:25
Araminta Robertson: is working? What are the most highest converting pages, the
00:15:28
Araminta Robertson: highest traffic pages, the pages that should be on the
00:15:33
Araminta Robertson: first page or the page, the pages that are declining
00:15:36
Araminta Robertson: in traffic or in conversions And then based on that
00:15:39
Araminta Robertson: information will then, um,
00:15:41
Araminta Robertson: create a well, not a new strategy, but just update it,
00:15:43
Araminta Robertson: tweak it a little bit and work on that. So, yes,
00:15:47
Araminta Robertson: it's a mixture of both. Um, and the one thing
00:15:50
Araminta Robertson: that I would say is make sure to have a
00:15:51
Araminta Robertson: really good understanding of your customers with that. If you've
00:15:54
Araminta Robertson: got that, then the rest is a lot easier, but
00:15:56
Araminta Robertson: without that, then you'll be always really, really hard to
00:15:58
Araminta Robertson: prioritise because then you don't know what to start with. Um,
00:16:02
Araminta Robertson: but if you understand your customers really well and you
00:16:03
Araminta Robertson: understand their pains and their knees and you'll, it's a
00:16:05
Araminta Robertson: lot easier to say, OK, we need to start with this. Uh,
00:16:08
Araminta Robertson: so that's the first? Yeah, The main thing that I
00:16:10
Araminta Robertson: would say
00:16:11
Saikat Pyne: right, most people in the in the content creation team
00:16:14
Saikat Pyne: might just be creatives, and they would want to go
00:16:16
Saikat Pyne: about on the creative tangent creating content. Um, that they
00:16:20
Saikat Pyne: feel might resonate with the target audience. So how much
00:16:24
Saikat Pyne: is the creative team given liberty to work on creative projects?
00:16:29
Saikat Pyne: And how much of the decision is led by data
00:16:32
Saikat Pyne: and analytics and and harsh realities of the ground?
00:16:36
Araminta Robertson: What do you mean exactly by creative projects? I I
00:16:39
Saikat Pyne: just mean, um, there might be a very creative idea
00:16:43
Saikat Pyne: for for a a blog piece that the creative team
00:16:47
Saikat Pyne: or the the content creation team believes will work. But
00:16:52
Saikat Pyne: based on the data, you might infer that that piece
00:16:56
Saikat Pyne: might not work. So
00:16:58
Saikat Pyne: when when it's it's a choice between the creative decision
00:17:02
Saikat Pyne: versus the more, uh, levelheaded business analytical decision. How how
00:17:08
Saikat Pyne: do you decide between working on projects purely by instinct
00:17:12
Saikat Pyne: versus operating based on data?
00:17:15
Araminta Robertson: I would say it depends on how well you know
00:17:19
Araminta Robertson: the customer pain points. So, as I said before, many times,
00:17:22
Araminta Robertson: you know, the the search volume will be zero for
00:17:24
Araminta Robertson: a keyword, and that doesn't mean that you shouldn't create
00:17:26
Araminta Robertson: the content. Uh, if you know that a customer that's
00:17:30
Araminta Robertson: a really big pain point and maybe the data doesn't
00:17:33
Araminta Robertson: prove it, then yes, I would say, of course, create
00:17:35
Araminta Robertson: that piece of content,
00:17:36
Araminta Robertson: but make sure it's based on a really good understanding
00:17:39
Araminta Robertson: of your customer. Um, so as usual, you know, when
00:17:42
Araminta Robertson: it comes to these things, it's a bit of content.
00:17:44
Araminta Robertson: Marketing is an art, it's intuitive. And, of course, also
00:17:48
Araminta Robertson: the more you do it, the better you get at it. Um,
00:17:50
Araminta Robertson: but when in doubt, and if you really know that
00:17:52
Araminta Robertson: someone's actually going to read this and it's really helpful,
00:17:55
Araminta Robertson: then yes, go ahead and create that piece of content.
00:17:58
Saikat Pyne: Right
00:17:59
Saikat Pyne: now, let's talk about the potential of content, marketing or
00:18:02
Saikat Pyne: advertising because content. Marketing is both a a paid content effort.
00:18:08
Saikat Pyne: It may also be an organic content effort. Um, but more, more, uh,
00:18:13
Saikat Pyne: more commonly, it costs way less than advertising. So what's
00:18:18
Saikat Pyne: your take on where content marketing can get to versus
00:18:22
Saikat Pyne: B play advertising?
00:18:23
Araminta Robertson: I mean it. It costs less than advertising, although it
00:18:25
Araminta Robertson: depends a little bit on at what stage you are at.
00:18:28
Araminta Robertson: You know, there are some companies that spend a lot
00:18:31
Araminta Robertson: on content marketing. Um, but yeah, Over the long term,
00:18:34
Araminta Robertson: I would say content marketing costs less the the main,
00:18:38
Araminta Robertson: the main. Um, the main advantage of content is that
00:18:43
Araminta Robertson: it's an investment, so that means that you'll see the
00:18:46
Araminta Robertson: benefits for a really long time, whereas advertising is, although
00:18:50
Araminta Robertson: you'll see the
00:18:51
Araminta Robertson: you know, the the benefits are are short term, immediate, almost.
00:18:55
Araminta Robertson: They are short term, uh, so there's there's other benefits
00:18:59
Araminta Robertson: to content marketing than just customer acquisition. So, for example, um, it's,
00:19:05
Araminta Robertson: you know it'll help you build a brand. It'll help you.
00:19:08
Araminta Robertson: Kind of that brand will will reach further, and more
00:19:11
Araminta Robertson: people will notice it because you know your content is
00:19:13
Araminta Robertson: around for longer. It's evergreen. It's just sitting there online.
00:19:17
Araminta Robertson: Um, it will also help with retention. So your current
00:19:20
Araminta Robertson: customers might also want to read that content. So that's
00:19:24
Araminta Robertson: also really good, because then other people will be reading it,
00:19:26
Araminta Robertson: and maybe that will help them understand your product better
00:19:30
Araminta Robertson: and then content can also help you with partnerships. So, uh, people,
00:19:34
Araminta Robertson: people who read your content regularly and really you know,
00:19:37
Araminta Robertson: really like you Then they maybe they're more willing to
00:19:40
Araminta Robertson: reach out to you and want to work with you
00:19:42
Araminta Robertson: if they read your content regularly because you're producing content.
00:19:45
Araminta Robertson: Um, and and just in general, online content helps increase,
00:19:50
Araminta Robertson: you know, serendipity, which just means more opportunities will come
00:19:54
Araminta Robertson: along because you're easier to find. Basically, and all these
00:19:58
Araminta Robertson: things are really hard to measure, which is why you know,
00:20:01
Araminta Robertson: it's it's It's difficult to explain and to convince people
00:20:04
Araminta Robertson: to do content marketing often because it it's hard to measure.
00:20:07
Araminta Robertson: And that's why we we really do. We focus on
00:20:09
Araminta Robertson: the customer acquisition side, which is kind of
00:20:12
Araminta Robertson: the main thing you can measure. But there are so
00:20:14
Araminta Robertson: many other benefits to content. Um, and that those you know,
00:20:17
Araminta Robertson: all those that I mentioned you can't really get it
00:20:18
Araminta Robertson: with advertising. So yeah, that's why I would say there's
00:20:22
Araminta Robertson: there's a large amount of benefits,
00:20:24
Saikat Pyne: right? And I think many Indian brands like Zat and
00:20:28
Saikat Pyne: who are now waking up to the realisation that content
00:20:30
Saikat Pyne: marketing can be a solid part of their overall marketing efforts.
00:20:35
Saikat Pyne: Which is why they are now investing in,
00:20:38
Saikat Pyne: uh, in house teams that are producing some truly great content. Um,
00:20:43
Saikat Pyne: throughout the Europe. And that's aiding in the customer acquisition
00:20:47
Saikat Pyne: and retention cycles as well, right? There's only so many
00:20:50
Saikat Pyne: times that you can put a front page ad, uh,
00:20:53
Saikat Pyne: you know, in the Times of India or Economic Times.
00:20:56
Saikat Pyne: But you could do great content marketing
00:20:58
Saikat Pyne: on social channels on your blog and other online platforms,
00:21:02
Saikat Pyne: and that can get you customers consistently throughout the year. Right? So, uh,
00:21:08
Saikat Pyne: um but tell me about so the we're speaking about
00:21:12
Saikat Pyne: the power of content and content marketing, but,
00:21:15
Saikat Pyne: uh, you know, when you speak about content creation, there are, uh,
00:21:18
Saikat Pyne: I I read some report that said there are over
00:21:21
Saikat Pyne: a billion blogs on the Internet. That's not that's roughly
00:21:24
Saikat Pyne: around one blog for every seven people. Right? So with
00:21:28
Saikat Pyne: so much content out there,
00:21:30
Saikat Pyne: um, how are you? Still optimistic about the power of blogging? Because, um,
00:21:36
Saikat Pyne: when When you're putting an ad out there, it's still
00:21:39
Saikat Pyne: very premium. Uh, real estate in terms of content. Right?
00:21:44
Saikat Pyne: When you're putting out a blog, you are
00:21:47
Saikat Pyne: one in a billion blogs on the Internet, right? So
00:21:51
Saikat Pyne: how how do you, uh, how do you look at
00:21:54
Saikat Pyne: the power of blogging in 2022? Given that there's so
00:21:57
Saikat Pyne: much content out there and then and and people are
00:22:00
Saikat Pyne: creating new websites every other day, people are creating new
00:22:03
Saikat Pyne: blogs every other day,
00:22:05
Araminta Robertson: So there is a lot more noise for sure. But
00:22:08
Araminta Robertson: let me tell you, the bar is solo, as in
00:22:12
Araminta Robertson: most of the content out there is just terrible. So
00:22:15
Araminta Robertson: I think, actually, in a way, um, it there's even
00:22:19
Araminta Robertson: more of an opportunity in blogging to just create really,
00:22:23
Araminta Robertson: really good quality content. And that just basically, essentially means that,
00:22:26
Araminta Robertson: you know, hiring a journalist writer to do some research
00:22:30
Araminta Robertson: on Google and then regurgitate it and put it in
00:22:33
Araminta Robertson: a blog. It's just not gonna work anymore. That worked
00:22:35
Araminta Robertson: 10 years ago when there were not many blogs. But nowadays,
00:22:38
Araminta Robertson: as you said, there's so many blogs and there's so
00:22:40
Araminta Robertson: much noise that just doesn't work anymore. So the standards,
00:22:43
Araminta Robertson: in order for anyone to notice you, you really need
00:22:45
Araminta Robertson: to put a lot more effort into it. And that's
00:22:47
Araminta Robertson: why our approach allows us to do that because basically,
00:22:51
Araminta Robertson: our content is based on interviews with subject matter experts.
00:22:55
Araminta Robertson: So instead of,
00:22:56
Araminta Robertson: you know, our writers just, you know, creating content based
00:23:00
Araminta Robertson: on research, which sometimes does happen, of course. But we
00:23:04
Araminta Robertson: prioritise and we try to do content that's based on
00:23:07
Araminta Robertson: that's a bit more advanced, a bit more technical, and
00:23:10
Araminta Robertson: we can do that because we set up interviews with
00:23:12
Araminta Robertson: the experts. So in our space, which is finance and
00:23:15
Araminta Robertson: and payments, we you know, we would, um, create, uh,
00:23:18
Araminta Robertson: you know, content.
00:23:19
Araminta Robertson: That is based on an interview with a payment expert.
00:23:22
Araminta Robertson: Just today I was doing some research for on this
00:23:25
Araminta Robertson: payments company, which is B to B and all these.
00:23:28
Araminta Robertson: I was doing all this research and there was no
00:23:30
Araminta Robertson: content at all for these very specific keywords because no
00:23:35
Araminta Robertson: one no one is producing really hard to produce content.
00:23:39
Araminta Robertson: So I would say there is a lot of opportunity
00:23:43
Araminta Robertson: if
00:23:44
Araminta Robertson: you know your your your topic is technical. And if
00:23:47
Araminta Robertson: you know you know you can be more advanced. It
00:23:49
Araminta Robertson: is true that maybe if your topic is more general
00:23:53
Araminta Robertson: and everyone has written about it before, I would say,
00:23:56
Araminta Robertson: for example, S C. O is one, although even then
00:23:59
Araminta Robertson: I can be surprised. You know, some people have very
00:24:01
Araminta Robertson: new and different takes on S E O.
00:24:03
Araminta Robertson: So never say never. But there are some topics that
00:24:06
Araminta Robertson: have been rehashed and done a lot. And maybe then
00:24:10
Araminta Robertson: it's like, OK, maybe it's better putting your money towards
00:24:12
Araminta Robertson: a different channel that is more cost effective.
00:24:15
Araminta Robertson: But if and just a little bit of research on
00:24:17
Araminta Robertson: your competition and on on your landscape can tell you this,
00:24:21
Araminta Robertson: if you know that the bar is low in your
00:24:23
Araminta Robertson: industry on on your topic and that there's not much
00:24:26
Araminta Robertson: very good content, then that's an opportunity, because you'll stand out.
00:24:30
Araminta Robertson: And as I said before, you'd be surprised. But I mean,
00:24:32
Araminta Robertson: a lot of the content out there is pretty bad. So, um,
00:24:36
Araminta Robertson: there's still an opportunity to create really good content. It's
00:24:38
Araminta Robertson: just that it's a little bit harder now. You need
00:24:40
Araminta Robertson: to be willing to put the effort
00:24:42
Saikat Pyne: right, right? And it's the bar lower for B to
00:24:45
Saikat Pyne: B as compared to B to C because B to
00:24:48
Saikat Pyne: C content uh, is often that there are more brands,
00:24:52
Saikat Pyne: there's more competition. Often, uh, so is the bar lower
00:24:56
Saikat Pyne: for B two B as compared to B to
00:24:57
Araminta Robertson: C. Well, B to C is easier, and more people
00:25:00
Araminta Robertson: are doing it because it's, you know, customer. The customer
00:25:04
Araminta Robertson: is usually a beginner,
00:25:05
Araminta Robertson: so anyone can write about it. So it is true
00:25:07
Araminta Robertson: that there is more competition. But, you know, you would
00:25:10
Araminta Robertson: still be surprised. There are some markets where this just
00:25:14
Araminta Robertson: doesn't really happen, like we have some clients in Australia,
00:25:16
Araminta Robertson: and there's still a lot of opportunity in the B
00:25:18
Araminta Robertson: to C space. Um, so
00:25:21
Araminta Robertson: and then the B to B. What's difficult is that
00:25:23
Araminta Robertson: it's it's you're not going to get anywhere with beginner
00:25:25
Araminta Robertson: content with B to B because you're the people reading
00:25:28
Araminta Robertson: it who are decision makers. You know, their CTO s.
00:25:30
Araminta Robertson: They CMO s their heads of whatever. Um, these are advanced.
00:25:36
Araminta Robertson: You know, people with advanced knowledge who are experts and
00:25:39
Araminta Robertson: they're not going to take you seriously if you're going
00:25:41
Araminta Robertson: to write something like 10 ways to improve your I
00:25:45
Araminta Robertson: don't know payment experience or something like that.
00:25:48
Araminta Robertson: Um So the bar is higher in the sense that
00:25:51
Araminta Robertson: you really need to produce high quality advanced content if
00:25:54
Araminta Robertson: you want to be taken seriously. But also, it is
00:25:57
Araminta Robertson: lower in the sense that it is quite easier to, uh,
00:26:00
Araminta Robertson: get noticed because very few people are creating good quality
00:26:03
Araminta Robertson: content in, uh, in the B to B space. So
00:26:07
Araminta Robertson: I mean, it depends if you're willing to put the
00:26:08
Araminta Robertson: effort in, then yes, there's great. There's a huge amount
00:26:11
Araminta Robertson: of opportunity. But if you
00:26:13
Araminta Robertson: if you're going to hire a journalist writer who isn't
00:26:15
Araminta Robertson: gonna write advanced content, then you will struggle a little bit.
00:26:18
Araminta Robertson: I would say
00:26:19
Saikat Pyne: Right. So the opportunity is really in the niches in
00:26:23
Saikat Pyne: B to B or even in B to C. Right?
00:26:25
Saikat Pyne: Uh, the opportunity is in going places where nobody else
00:26:29
Saikat Pyne: is ready to go. Uh, the opportunity is in the
00:26:32
Saikat Pyne: long tail keywords. The opportunity isn't discussing topics. Um, that
00:26:37
Saikat Pyne: your audience cares about. But, uh, no brand has yet
00:26:40
Saikat Pyne: tapped into, right? Uh, so those those just might be
00:26:44
Saikat Pyne: low traffic keywords. That might be, uh,
00:26:47
Saikat Pyne: topics that you feel that the audience cares about, but
00:26:51
Saikat Pyne: nobody is writing about as yet. And these are the
00:26:54
Saikat Pyne: things that you can then use an expert writer to
00:26:58
Saikat Pyne: create content on, uh, that will drive traffic for your brand, um, and, uh,
00:27:03
Saikat Pyne: and would set you apart as compared to your competition
00:27:06
Saikat Pyne: at a far lower cost than advertising would, right?
00:27:10
Araminta Robertson: I mean, I there you said a lot in there,
00:27:12
Araminta Robertson: so I'm not sure I would
00:27:14
Araminta Robertson: once again, as we say, a lot in the in
00:27:16
Araminta Robertson: the S u and content space. It depends a lot. Uh,
00:27:18
Araminta Robertson: but in general, um,
00:27:22
Araminta Robertson: it's Yeah, it is in the niches, and it's also
00:27:26
Araminta Robertson: to me, it's all about understanding your customer and for example,
00:27:30
Araminta Robertson: if if you know your customer doesn't read articles online,
00:27:33
Araminta Robertson: then then what's the point? You know, just forget about it.
00:27:36
Araminta Robertson: So you you also need to make sure that the
00:27:39
Araminta Robertson: people that you are writing to they read online, they
00:27:42
Araminta Robertson: like it. They they share this kind of stuff, and
00:27:46
Araminta Robertson: it also feels a lot better when you're creating content that,
00:27:48
Araminta Robertson: you know people are reading. So
00:27:51
Araminta Robertson: it's just, you know, it all comes down to your
00:27:54
Araminta Robertson: understanding your target markets, and you can even I mean,
00:27:57
Araminta Robertson: I'm even going to go as far and as say,
00:27:59
Araminta Robertson: You know, throw s e o out the window and
00:28:01
Araminta Robertson: just create content that you know that your customers want.
00:28:05
Araminta Robertson: If you keep seeing the same question coming up again
00:28:07
Araminta Robertson: and again and again, then create an article to answer that.
00:28:10
Araminta Robertson: And if you have a sales team and they have,
00:28:12
Araminta Robertson: they they you know, they tell you that they keep
00:28:14
Araminta Robertson: getting this question, create an article so that they can
00:28:18
Araminta Robertson: use it, and they will love you for it.
00:28:20
Araminta Robertson: Um, so that you know, s e is just one
00:28:22
Araminta Robertson: small part of it. It's really all about answering your
00:28:24
Araminta Robertson: customer's questions. That is the the main kind of foundation
00:28:30
Araminta Robertson: of content marketing. So it all comes down to that,
00:28:33
Saikat Pyne: right? Right. Listen to your customer. Listen to what he
00:28:36
Saikat Pyne: or she wants, um, and solve for them solve their questions. Um,
00:28:41
Saikat Pyne: answer their questions, uh, solve their problems. And That's how
00:28:45
Saikat Pyne: you will be rewarded. Uh,
00:28:48
Saikat Pyne: you've just got to keep your head to the ground
00:28:51
Saikat Pyne: and listen to your customer. That's all their pain points, right?
00:28:54
Saikat Pyne: If I'm just starting out, uh uh, And I have
00:28:59
Saikat Pyne: launched a brand of my own. What are the couple
00:29:01
Saikat Pyne: of tools that I got to use, uh, to up
00:29:03
Saikat Pyne: my content game? If I want to create content that
00:29:06
Saikat Pyne: makes a difference to my customers?
00:29:09
Araminta Robertson: I mean,
00:29:10
Araminta Robertson: a few tools? Um, there's a few. I mean, first
00:29:15
Araminta Robertson: of all, as I said, customer research, that would be
00:29:17
Araminta Robertson: the first thing to do. Uh, so that would be
00:29:19
Araminta Robertson: the tools there would be. Um, you know, I don't know,
00:29:24
Araminta Robertson: zoom setting up interviews, um, or even just going to
00:29:28
Araminta Robertson: conferences or wherever your audience hangs out. Just chatting to
00:29:31
Araminta Robertson: them a lot. Uh, I know some companies use intercom,
00:29:34
Araminta Robertson: so going through your intercom, uh, going through your emails
00:29:38
Araminta Robertson: and seeing what questions pop up a lot.
00:29:41
Araminta Robertson: Um, And then when it comes to creating the content itself,
00:29:45
Araminta Robertson: I would say, um, you know, you've got your typical
00:29:48
Araminta Robertson: s e o tool. We personally use Seru. Another one
00:29:52
Araminta Robertson: that's quite useful is clear scope, although it's it's a
00:29:54
Araminta Robertson: bit more expensive, but clear scope will kind of tell you,
00:29:57
Araminta Robertson: you know, it's it's more focused on keywords And it'll
00:30:00
Araminta Robertson: tell you if you're on the right track for for
00:30:02
Araminta Robertson: the keyword that you're trying to rank for.
00:30:04
Araminta Robertson: And um, yeah, um I would say, Yeah, there's not
00:30:10
Araminta Robertson: that many tools. You'd be surprised we use Excel quite
00:30:13
Araminta Robertson: a bit. Uh, in terms of, you know, managing your calendar,
00:30:17
Araminta Robertson: we also use Treo. Actually, to be fair, we use
00:30:19
Araminta Robertson: Treo because obviously we're a team. So communication between teams, um,
00:30:25
Araminta Robertson: between inside the team is quite important, so we can
00:30:27
Araminta Robertson: kind of see how each article is going along.
00:30:30
Araminta Robertson: Uh, so, yeah, there's those are the tools that I
00:30:32
Araminta Robertson: we we personally use and, you know, others use. I
00:30:35
Araminta Robertson: know I have. I know some content marketers who use
00:30:37
Araminta Robertson: no tools at all, and they still still do amazingly well. So,
00:30:41
Araminta Robertson: you know, if you understand your customers inside out, it
00:30:43
Araminta Robertson: doesn't really matter what tools you use. Uh, these are
00:30:46
Araminta Robertson: just kind of aids. I would say
00:30:49
Saikat Pyne: lovely, lovely. And if I'm an entrepreneur and I want
00:30:53
Saikat Pyne: to reach out to you How do I How do
00:30:55
Saikat Pyne: I reach out? Um, in case I want somebody to
00:30:59
Saikat Pyne: lay out a content strategy for my brand, uh, and
00:31:02
Saikat Pyne: and help me create content that converts. How do I
00:31:05
Saikat Pyne: reach out?
00:31:06
Araminta Robertson: Sure. So you can head to our website mint copy
00:31:09
Araminta Robertson: writing studios dot com, and you can get in touch
00:31:13
Araminta Robertson: with me. I'm araminta at Mint copy writing studios dot com,
00:31:18
Araminta Robertson: and I'm also on Twitter and on LinkedIn, so feel
00:31:21
Araminta Robertson: free to connect on all those places.
00:31:23
Saikat Pyne: That's lovely. There you have it, folks. Armina Robertson from, uh,
00:31:29
Saikat Pyne: Minkoff writing studios. It was lovely having you over armina
00:31:33
Saikat Pyne: enjoyed our conversation shortly and, uh, feel free to reach
00:31:37
Saikat Pyne: out to armina on all social media channels and on
00:31:41
Saikat Pyne: her email.
00:31:42
Saikat Pyne: And that's a rat, folks.
00:31:44
Araminta Robertson: Thank you.
00:31:53
Saikat Pyne: Thank you for tuning into the you incorporated podcast with
00:31:57
Saikat Pyne: me sack.
00:31:59
Saikat Pyne: You can write to me at contact at the rate
00:32:02
Saikat Pyne: sa pine dot com. That is s a i k
00:32:05
Saikat Pyne: a t p Y n e dot com
00:32:10
Saikat Pyne: d m me on most social platforms and check out
00:32:14
Saikat Pyne: my YouTube channel for more interesting content on personal branding.
00:32:19
Saikat Pyne: PR and creativity catch you guys in the next episode