What a story told a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away can teach us about Content Marketing Strategy here and now?
- It’s a story of how your beliefs can shape your way of thinking;
- It’s a story of how to build authority;
- It’s a story of how to endure in face of destruction and chaos.
What we talk about when we talk about Content Marketing Strategy?
We talk about content, for one.
Contents are all about stories, aren’t they? They all come filled with metaphorical truths that can shape our way of seeing the world.
Stories raise boundaries, beliefs, ways of thinking and acting. Stories make us who we are.
Then we have Marketing.
Which is all about how do we present ourselves to the world and how it sees us.
What leads us to the strategy.
You better have one if you want to survive the Internet Content Clone Wars.
To succeed in online marketing, sometimes you have to do the opposite of what everybody is pointing to.
You must take that you need to:
- Create your own set of values and learn from it;
- Stay true to yourself as a way to stand out from the competition;
- Learn from the consequences of your actions.
As a Star Wars fan, I chose one of the most iconic characters in History of storytelling to teach you important business factors.
What’s behind the scenes it’s how you can create powerful content and authority by learning to handle both light and dark sides of the force.
Nobody has done it extensively as Darth Vader.
What Darth Vader story can teach us about Content Marketing Strategy? Well, one thing is why he's never used mind trick and why you also shouldn't. Share on XKeep reading to know more about:
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Why slaying Tusken Raiders in anger is a bad Content Marketing Strategy
They’re like animals. I slaughtered them like animals.
This was the first action that turned Darth Vader’s former self in the most iconic villain in History. The slaughter of a Tusken Raider colony.
What’s behind this action and the reason why it was a bad idea for a Jedi and a bad idea for your Content Marketing Strategy?
Motivation.
Everything you create, including your business, starts with motivation. It’s the fuel for the fire.
Anakin’s problem, foreseen by the Jedi council, was that his fear of losing his mother could be a temptation to the dark side.
This temptation is an outside motivation to do something and every time you have an exterior motivator, you run the risk of losing yourself, losing your beliefs by acting against them.
What does it mean when you say you have your business?
- It must have your beliefs in it;
- It must have your vision;
- It must have the content you see fit.
Do not follow a path just because you think it has made others successful. You’re going to lose yourself in tasks you don’t believe and you’re not good at.
The content you create must embed your point of view, your values, your dreams.
Don’t try to emulate another business, don’t copy someone’s else content or style.
Being yourself will give your Content Marketing Strategy the one thing nobody else has and the one thing that can’t be copied by the competition:
You.
You are the one thing that makes your business unique. Use it! Share on XHow to keep your Content Marketing Strategy limbs when you’re fighting a Jedi Master
It’s over, Anakin. I have the high ground.
Anakin Skywalker lost his limbs, was burned, defeated, and became a cybernetic, smoking breathing, almost dead fellow because he did one thing wrong.
He fought face-to-face with someone he couldn’t beat: Obi-Wan Kenobi, his Jedi Master.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4UiQX-Rf3U
Do you want to give your business a pair of broken limbs? Just do the same.
I mean, in order to survive the competition, you must learn how to avoid some battles you’ll never win in the present conditions.
To do that, you need to analyze the competition using, at least, three indicators before you plan to publish another content:
- Keyword Competition;
- Moz Domain Authority & Page Authority;
- SemRush Domain Score & Trust Score.
These elements will give you a precise clue if your Content Marketing Strategy has a chance to succeed.
To understand their Force powers and avoid the black suit, keep tracking in these steps before publishing any new content.
Force Power #1: Long Tail keywords
An important part of your Content Marketing Strategy is to have a list of all the main keywords of your niche.
These are the seed keywords, basic and fundamental terms related to your niche.
You have to be aware of two aspects of this type of keyword:
- They all must be covered by your content-driven business;
- They are usually very powerful (competitive);
The thing is, your content-driven business must cover that topic so your audience and search engines robots can understand your topic authority.
This will grant you good rankings.
But if you face them like: You’re underestimating my power! – so limbs gone and black suit!
There’s a way around this.
You can use seed keywords inside a longer phrase and rank for that.
Long tail keywords have less competition, making easier to rank on the first positions of search engines and they still have the core keyword within…
…assuring you have that topic covered and topic authority leveraged.
Let’s say, for instance, that one of the main topics of your niche is: “Stormtrooper”.
As a seed keyword, the number of people looking for this key-phrase is huge.
If you turn this in a long tail keyword: “How to make a stormtrooper hit a target”.
Bingo!
You have the seed keyword (the main subject of your niche) covered but you’re ranking for the entire key-phrase with less competition.
Why long tail keywords are so powerful?
As you input more words, the chances are that people looking for that exact match decreases.
Fewer search volumes is the other aspect you should know about long tail keywords.
What’s the best? Have 100% of nothing or 50% of something?
It’s better for you to rank #1 on Google for a long tail keyword than rank #100 for a seed keyword.
You’re going to achieve more organic traffic going for the long tail.
Force Power #2: Moz Domain Authority & Page Authority
[ Moz] has developed 2 valuable ranking engine scores:
Domain Authority (DA) predicts how well a website will rank on search engine result pages (SERPs).
The score ranges from 1 to 100, with higher scores corresponding to a greater ability to rank.
The score grades the entire website (domain).
Page Authority (PA) does the same but regarding only that particular page you’re looking at.
[MozBar] free Chrome extension can show you a website’s DA and PA scores.
It will show the scores below each result on the SERP.
How can I use this to get a competitive advantage?
A good score for the competition is related to the score of your own website, as DA and PA are comparative scores.
Let’s say you have a DA of 20. You don’t want rank against websites with DAs of 70s or 80s.
Ranking for long tail keywords with less DA and PA authority is the best approach.
Run competition research as part of your Content Marketing publication plan and aim for lower score long tails.
You will be able to create the content your audience is looking for (keyword research) and rank better at the same time (competition research).
Remember: These 2 factors must always be applied together when we’re talking about Content Marketing Strategy:
- Keyword research;
- Competition research.
WHAT you’re going to create matters the same as HOW you’re going to create.
[Check what Moz has to say about it the use of DA and PA.]
Force Power #3: SemRush Domain Score & Trust Score
[SemRush] (affiliate link) has also developed a grader for websites’ competition.
Domain Score (DS) and Trust Score (TS) measure how trustworthy a webpage or domain is based on the number of links coming from highly trusted websites.
They measure the importance of a web page or domain based on the volume of links pointing back to the page or domain.
The scores go from 0 to 100.
[SEOquake] Chrome extension can help you start tracking down the competition for DS & TS scores by adding it to your browser.
It will show the scores below each result on the SERP.
Run an additional analysis with this tool by clicking on the “i” icon on the SEOquake bar.
How to achieve the best performance possible for your keyword and competition research.
Finding the seed keywords of your niche must be your first Content Marketing Strategy asset.
Research for some seed keywords you think are part of your business and study the page results to see what else they are covering.
These other things mean more topic in your niche. Take notes.
Once you have that, you must find which long tail keywords are being searched around the web.
It can be painful to put all these keywords together and make some sense out of them.
To invest time and effort to produce awesome quality content, you must be sure that:
- The keyword is worth it by the number of searches;
- The keyword is trending;
- The keyword has low competition.
To give you not only an idea but the proper means to do so…
…I’ve developed a simple but powerful tool so you can run keyword and competition researches and come out of it with something solid.
It is an online cheat sheet that will guide you in every step needed.
[ Cheat Sheet ] The incredible painless Keyword Tool
With this tool, you can create a list of all your seed keywords to check their searches, clicks, competition, and CTR easily.
It will suggest you tons of long tail keywords based on your seed keywords so you can pick the ones with the best indicators.
This will answer the question:
What long-tail keywords should carry your seed keyword so your content achieves better rankings for it and leverage your topic authority?
From that, you can compare the top 5 long tail keywords you selected adding more information about their performance.
The Incredible Painless Keyword Tool Cheat Sheet will automatically pick the best resulting long tail keyword to be the one you must rank for.
Run a competition SEO analysis to see how you can perform better for that long tail keyword than the other websites ranking on the first positions.
This keyword and competition analysis above led me to write this very article you’re reading right now.
Cool, right?
Do not publish another content without the The Incredible Painless Keyword Tool Cheat Sheet.
Did I mention it is for free?
Crazy, isn’t it?
Unleash your unlimited power!
Why Darth Vader has never used mind trick and why you also shouldn’t do it in your Content Marketing Strategy
During the whole saga, Darth Vader managed to manifest almost every classic Force power known but one.
The mind trick.
The first time we’ve seen this amazing Jedi power was when Obi-Wan used it to get in Mos Eisley with Luke and the droids to find a ship out of Tatooine.
He just waved his hand and told the stormtroopers: These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.
Magically, the stormtroopers repeated what he said and let them go.
From that moment we could see a bunch of times when this power was useful to help a Jedi make his way without any direct confrontation.
But in one scene, in particular, it just didn’t work as it should.
Qui-Gon Jinn was looking for parts for Queen Amidala ship’s hyperdrive generator.
He found it and tried to convince a Toydarian dealer that he could accept republic credits for the parts.
The first thing we have to understand here is that the fact that didn’t work out “forced” the Jedi Master into a series of events where he needed to figure out a solution.
A solution that granted him:
- No money expenses;
- Finding Anakin (the chosen one) that he wasn’t even looking for;
- Put the Toydarian slaver in his proper place.
Every single NO is an open door you wouldn’t get any other way around.
Obi-Wan might have got an easier way out with the stormtroopers but that’s that.
His Master, on the other hand, didn’t get so lucky but ended up more victorious.
What this has to do with your Content Marketing efforts?
Starting a business is all about facing obstacles. It’s part of being an entrepreneur.
In a lot of ways, your entrepreneurial efforts will be regarded to persuade people of doing something.
Including yourself.
People might think how great it would be to just wave their hands and the customers would attend their will.
Really? Just that?
What about the whole going around obstacles and ending up kicking and punching things better than when you started?
Do you want the master approach or the apprentice one?
Manipulation vs Persuasion (The true power).
What’s the difference between manipulation (mind trick) and persuasion (authority)?
The one that makes the decision.
When a Jedi uses mind trick power, he decides what the target audience is going to do.
After the effect, they are unable to realize what they just have done.
When Qui-Gon negotiated the terms for the Pod Race with Watto, he was using powerful arguments but no manipulation (no force powers).
The Toydarian slaver chose to agree with the terms and, because of that, he was morally obliged to it.
In persuasion, the target makes the decision.
The target audience you’re talking, needs to be convinced by good and true arguments.
This way they can make a conscious decision to agree or not.
If your arguments are well presented, you won’t have problems with unsatisfied customers that woke up from you selling tricks after the purchase and realized they made a bad call.
To build authority, you need to focus on presenting your audience a solution they really need by their own terms, not yours. Share on X5 laws to persuasion.
Humans often show similar behaviors, even being very different from each other. This human nature can be used to persuade anyone more easily.
Persuade, not manipulate. I think I’ve made my point here, right?
1. WE LIKE TO HEAR OUR OWN NAME
Email Marketing Campaign open rates can be increased by 20% just by inputting the recipient’s name in the subject line, according to [Super Office].
Using a person’s name reinforces the relationship and respect.
Calling your audience by name makes people feel that you are not only interested in closing a sale…
…but that you’re also interested in it as a human being.
Personalization goes far beyond that, of course, but this is a great way to start.
2. THE MINIMUM EFFORT EFFECT ON DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
The law of minimum effort can be applied to both physical activities and decision-making processes, says Daniel Kahneman in his book [Thinking, Fast and Slow].
Yes, we are all lazy in some way.
And what does all this have to do with persuasion?
Everything!
- The more fields you ask your audience to fill in an email subscription form, the fewer the subscriptions;
- Better font settings and readability scores lead to more readers;
- A simple and clear call-to-action produces more clicks.
3. WE TEND TO REMEMBER INCOMPLETE TASKS.
If something still needs to be done, that’s easier to remember than completed tasks.
To persuade someone to join your email list, you can simply add call-to-actions like:
- CTA for name fields: How can I call you?
- CTA for email fields: Insert your best email;
- CTA for click buttons: Click NOW;
The chances of following it become much better since the visitor has already made a small commitment by reading that.
It’s like an unfinished conversation.
You feel that’s something is not done and it keeps punching your brain.
4. ANTICIPATION IS A KEY TO HAPPINESS
Anticipation is a fundamental step to find happiness, according to the author of [The Happiness Project], Gretchen Rubin.
Having a goal to be pursued, makes us automatically happier in the present.
How to use anticipation to persuade others?
- When launching a product or service soon;
- Showcasing its features and how it can help people by touching their pains and desires;
- If it is well done, even those who do not need the product can feel attracted to it.
Good advertising affects our imagination, and the act of wanting something can end up being more enjoyable than possessing it.
Either way, with high expectations, we’ll be likely to make a purchase when it’s available.
5. WE LIKE PEOPLE
Notice your behavior after spending some time with a group.
Acting in a similar way to them, is a permanent result, no matter if in the form of speaking or acting.
This is a survival instinct. We look more pleasant to the group by becoming more like them.
Repeating what a person is saying in their own arguments shows that you are paying attention.
Keywords, key-phrases, and well-planned content do right this if you’re talking to the right audience.
A powerful persuasion asset is being able to speak what’s in the mind of your audience by choosing the right words.
Words are the currency of your Content Marketing Strategy.
It’s like you’re repeating their beliefs, griefs, pains, and desires.
It resonates.
[ Infographic ] 10 Mental Triggers to persuade your audience of (almost) anything.
To help you presenting powerful persuasion arguments and conditions, I’ve compiled 10 Mental Triggers to expose your audience to.
What you’re going to find:
- Scarcity;
- Authority;
- Reciprocity;
And 7 more…
Download it for free and build authority with no mind tricks.
How to face destruction and chaos and still stay true to yourself at the end (a love story)
Darth Vader – a love story.
Once upon a time, a not known powerful kid that was born in a remote place.
(Don’t you dare thinking about Midi-Chlorians)
The problem with the boy, according to the Jedi order, was attachment.
He was too old to let go of his feelings toward people.
He loved his mom and this made him afraid of losing her.
When he was taken to the Jedi by Qui-Gon Jinn, he already had feelings for Padme.
Because of this attachment, Anakin destroyed everything he was supposed to protect.
To avenge his mom, he slaughtered a Tusken Raider colony.
To save his wife, he turned to the dark side and wiped out the Jedi order.
He even killed the younglings – let’s not forget that.
The outcome of that massacre was totally the opposite of what he was expecting to be.
He ended up being a pawn to the uprising Emperor and his order 66.
Years later, he was completely consumed by grief and hate from his actions.
His destructive actions were no longer a product of sick love, only anger.
When he struck his own son’s hand in battle, he was not trying to save a loved one anymore.
- He was compelled by the dark side;
- He was compelled by someone else’s vision;
- He was compelled by his loss of identity.
What was still truth behind all that was his conflict.
Nobody can live without some sort of meaning and purpose and get out ok with that.
When confronted by Luke at the moon of Endor, he just ended up saying what he kept saying to himself for decades:
That name has no longer any meaning to me.
In the end, he finally saved Luke from the hands of the Emperor and regain his true self-identity.
We discovered that he was not totally lost, but broken.
By saying to Luke: – You were right about me. – we realized that all his deeds were doomed by the loss of meaning.
What we take from all that?
Well, I believe we can take, at least, 3 rules for life.
Rule #1: Love will ultimately save you from living someone else’s life.
What keeps you focused?
What energizes you?
What makes you lose a sense of time?
The answer to these questions is what you truly love and that, my friend, is the only shot you have to find meaning and purpose in life.
There’s no time for anything else.
When we face loss and destruction.
When what we care the most is taken from us.
What do we do?
You dream of building your own online business, you want to succeed, stand for your own name but….
Life is hard, isn’t it?
We need to make money in order to survive and, sometimes, when we try to save what we truly love, we destroy it.
How?
By neglecting our own beliefs and dreams and living someone else’s life just because is the only choice we think we have.
For Anakin, giving himself to the Emperor’s teachings was the only way to save what he loved the most – his wife.
It turned out that it killed her and destroyed him.
He was only saved from that decision decades later facing his son to look inside himself and finding purpose once again.
He could find himself, after all, but the time can’t be rewind.
- You might be stuck in a job you don’t like;
- You might be stuck in a life with no meaning;
- You might be stuck in your own bad choices.
But you can always come back from that by [finding your why].
Why is this important? Because…
Pursuing a career you don’t truly love will always make you ordinary and this can’t give you the necessary results to succeed.
You can’t see yourself doing more than necessary in this job.
You don’t want to be there more hours than your contract says you have to.
You don’t want to do more things you’re asked to.
The only thing that will make you wake up thinking of it and go to bed dreaming about it is what you truly love.
There is where you’re going to find your true self.
That’s your return from the dark side.
Rule #2: You are your only true competitor.
What is between you and your dreams?
Not these lies:
- Lack of money;
- Lack of time;
- Lack of opportunities.
Do you think that successful people are successful by chance?
May a small part of it is but this can’t be the rule.
When you look at a successful person. What do you see?
- Their possessions?
- Their amazing way of life?
- Their wealth?
Do you know what I see?
A tremendous amount of suffering and tears that I still haven’t faced so far.
Long hours of dedication, losing and overcoming, facing great risks, finding energy from tears, giving away leisure time, reading, developing, striving, working a day job and building an online business working at night at home, weekends denied, holidays denied, money invested, and so much more.
Do you see how big this paragraph is?
How many people you think are willing to work 100 hours a week, every week, for years?
Not many, as far as I’m concern.
So tell me: Who is your true competitor?
Whom are you fighting against?
Is that clear?
So let’s talk about how to move from that point to your success.
Rule #3: Destruction and chaos can be an asset
How all of this can be related to your Content Marketing Strategy, you might be thinking.
Well, every-single-thing.
Let me start unfolding this by asking you to do a simple task.
Open a new tab and search for a keyword in a niche you’re willing to build content to.
Read the titles for at least 2 full results pages (SERPs), including the meta-description.
Do it and then come back here, please.
Now. You must have realized 3 things:
- A lot of people are trying to accomplish the same as you. There’s competition there;
- There are different approaches to the same subject;
- Not everyone is doing great.
Let me suggest another exercise. An introspective one.
What are the things in your life that have changed in the past 5 years?
Think of that for a moment.
Now answer to yourself: Which of these things were the result of the choices you made and which ones were the result of circumstances?
The ones that are the result of your own choices are the things you’ve become good at.
The ones that are the result of circumstances are the ones you you’ve become GREAT at.
Adverse circumstances have made you stronger, even without you realizing it.
You are shaped by both choices, the ones you make and the ones that are made for you.
But you can be in control of both outcomes.
The pages you just saw ranking in the first positions on Google are the ones which the creators have been through more time and effort doing the things we’re discussing here:
- They quit living someone else’s life;
- They are competing with themselves;
- They are making chaos an asset.
All these aspects combined have made them perfect every single aspect of their business over time.
Love is the most powerful thing in the universe.
It can shatter and build and ultimately makes you successful.
Make your online business, your love story.
PS: Content Marketing Strategy: The science of reinvention
You’re not too late in the game.
There’s no such thing as a saturated market or niche.
Why not?
You can bring something new even if for a concept used in so many other ways and it can be even better than never before.
A great example is what the [Bad Reading YouTube Channel] have done to Star Wars iconic scenes.
Millions of views about something we’ve already watched millions of times over decades in so many different ways, just because they have input their unique vision and talent to it.
The world needs your unique set of values and creativity. Don’t keep it to yourself.
May you realize you’re the one thing that makes your business a great idea.
May you realize that you are your only true competitor
May you realize that destruction and chaos can be an asset.
And may the Force be with you, always.
