6 Steps to Monetizing Your Agency's Content with Joe Pulizzi | Ep #90

Are you reaping the benefits of monetizing agency content? If not, in my 6 step guide, I will show you how and elevate your business through monetizing agency content moving forward. In this episode we discuss: How to build a CONTENT EMPIRE that converts and retain clients. Two tips you need for successful content marketing. What you need to do with your content right now.   How you can begin monetizing your agency content by following this simple, proven strategy. My guest on this episode is Joe Pulizzi. He has spent his entire career in the content world… He got his start in publishing in 2000 where he spent 7 years, until founding and growing Content Marketing Institute in 2007. Since establishing CMI he's been educating marketers on the use of content to build an audience that knows, likes and trusts their brand and how to turn that audience into customers. Here's the one thing you need to make sure you're doing with your content marketing. Take a look at your content and determine how it's different than everyone else's. Ask yourself: What is different about my story? How am I causing a disruption against the other content that is out there? Joe calls this differentiation your content tilt (more on that in a minute). In his book, Content Inc., Joe interviewed several different entrepreneurs and startup founders to uncover their process for building a successful content marketing strategy. What he discovered was a pattern in each business' success story. He realized every successful content marketing strategy followed the same 6 step process. Joe breaks down that process so other marketers can learn from it and replicate it. Monetizing Agency Content: My 6 Step Guide The 6 step process for building your Content Empire: The key is to initially set aside your products/services and make your content useful, reliable and dependable to build an audience. Then, after establishing trust and authority, you can cash in on your content investment through monetizing agency content moving forward. Step 1 - Find the Sweet Spot The sweet spot is the point where your knowledge and skill set intersect with your passion. For me, that's my knowledge and skill set in owning a digital agency coupled with my passion for helping other agency owners reach their goals. Step 2 - Determine your Content Tilt Your content tilt is what separates you from everyone else in your market area. It's your unique perspective on your content niche. Without content tilt you risk blending into the rest of the noise and being forgotten. Step 3 - Build the Base It takes time to build your base audience. And it requires a commitment to a specific content type via one main platform at a consistent day/time for a long term period of time. Own one type of media, delivered on one channel at a specific and predictable time. Joe says there is no perfect time or frequency - the best interval is just a consistent one, whether that's daily, weekly, or whatever your resources allow. Step 4 - Harvest the Audience Don't sew the seeds without harvesting the fruits of your labor! Building the base audience is great, but Joe tells us that most visitors will only come to your site once. need to capture their subscriber information to keep reaching them. Include a call to action in everything you do and seize every opportunity to have them opt-in to your content. Step 5 - Diversification The diversification step comes in when you've mastered one type of media on one platform. Joe says the best way to measure this is by having a predetermined goal for the number of subscribers you want (back in step 3). When you reach that goal, set a new goal and begin a new form of reaching another type of audience by diversifying your content vehicle and platform. He says you should become a media octopus by wrapping many arms around your audience in many different ways. Step 6 - Monetization Up until this point, the objective of your content marketing has been to generate interest and be sought out for knowledge and expertise. In the monetization step, you're trying to achieve 1 of 2 objectives: convert leads into new opportunities or retain existing customers by upselling or cross-selling. To achieve this you must identify how a subscriber behaves differently than an audience member. Here are Joe's 2 best tips to being successful with content marketing: The real goal is to produce the minimal amount of content with the maximum amount of impact. Focus on owning one type of media and one platform. Whether it's text, audio or visual - pick just one and be really great at it. Also, select one platform for distributing your content (iTunes, blog, YouTube, etc.) and own it. Consider yourself like a media company building a loyal audience over time. It's not easy and requires patience but it's the key to success in your content marketing efforts. Be consistent so your audience knows how, where and when to find your new content. By having a predictable schedule you are setting up an appointment with your audience. Whether it's once a week or every single day, consistent delivery will build trust and get you looked at by your audience as a resource. Become a Better Owner Monetizing agency content can help elevate not only your business but improve you as an agency owner. This doesn't mean that this is the end of your struggles but I can help you get through all of it. From my own experiences, I can give you advice on recognizing new client opportunities to different ways of building authority to improve your agency. If you are having issues with growing your agency, I can show you how performance-based pricing can be the best pricing strategy for your business as well as the three questions you need to ask yourself to sell more! Learn all about my career and different experiences as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. Make sure to check out my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my YouTube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.