Brian Dean: I think some people put the cart before the horse when it comes to creating content designed for leads. A lot of people will create thought leadership content or whitepapers. Not to say these are formats that are bad. The problem is if your prospect reads this thought leadership content and it's really good, they're more likely to become a customer because they're going to see you as an expert, or they're more likely to take the action that you want them to take, like actually sign up for a lead or fill in more information if they're already in your CRM.

The challenge is if you create it and no one sees it, it doesn't really do any good. I think the emphasis should be on figuring out where these people hang out online, and specifically what they search for online, and how you can get in front of them with any content, whether it's a podcast like this, a YouTube video, an info graphic, a blog post, a whitepaper, an e-book. The important thing is to understand where these people are online so that you can get in front of them. It's kind of like the old advertising adage, it doesn't matter how good your ad is, if you're selling dog treats to people that don't have dogs, it's not going to convert. You could have the best dog treat ad ever, but if you try to get it in front of people that don't own a dog, it's not going to convert.

It's the same idea here. You can create the best content in your niche that has ever existed, but if it doesn't get in front of people who are your ideal customers, it's not going to do anything for you. For me, the first step is finding these things that they search for online, even if it's not just searching for your product or service, just what they tend to search for online, and using content as a way to get in front of them.

George B. Thomas So are you currently selling dog food to cat owners or people who have aquariums and no dogs? Anyway, that was some great information, but it immediately shot my brain in the direction--to a secondary question, What the heck is the best type of content to create to generate this quality traffic that generates quality leads?

Should we be focused on videos because those have been hot, like everybody's talking about: do video, do video. Should we be creating podcasts? Because you know, you wanna have people be able to take you with them and put 'em in your ear. And anyway, it just led me to a lot of questions of what is the best direction to go when you're creating this content for traffic and lead generation, and it's interesting, somewhat surprising, but maybe not, what Brian had to say about that.

You wanna hear it? Let's hear it.

Brian Dean: The blog post. Nothing beats the old blog post, in my experience. It seems so simple and kind of antiquated at this point when we have TikTok and podcasts, but the reason the blog post tends to be the best format for most companies is because it just has a certain durability to it that can last for years. You can create a piece of content that will get people reading it for years, and you can always update it.

Plus, it's really easy to turn that reader into a lead, or at least a subscriber that you can turn into a lead and then a sale down the road, because you can have all the calls to action on that page and you own the platform. As opposed to a YouTube video, which has the power of being video where it's dynamic and people are watching you, and it's a powerful medium, but to get someone to leave YouTube to go to your site is tricky. Or a podcast, great format for teaching and for people on the go, but right now if someone is at the supermarket checkout line and we're like now you need to do this, it's difficult sometimes for them to do that.

So, the reason I like the blog post is just because it's a format that once you publish it and keep it updated, it can bring in traffic for years. Also, it tends to convert a little bit higher, in my experience, than some other content formats.

George B. Thomas So did you like the setup there? I love that it just came in with the blog post and it got my brain thinking while some things are changing, i.e. TikTok was our actual Marketing Smarts In the News section.

Some things stay the same, but you have to take a look at your blog articles or have you taken a look at your blog articles lately? Are they optimized? Are you updating them? Are you making sure they're the best resource for what you do? Because if it is the blog, then are we spending the time and coming back and spending more time for that valuable resource?

Or is there a way you can use your blog content in a happy mix with your videos or podcast content if you're not doing so right now? Maybe the answer is yes. The answer is yes, but only if you start asking yourself and your team this question, Is it possible? Is it possible that we could make the content better?

Is it possible that we could mix the content together? Is it possible that we could create some collaborative content to plug into? By the way, speaking of collaborative content, if you haven't listened to the episode with Andy Crestodina on collaborative content, you should do that now again.

We'll get back to Brian in a few minutes where we dive into the question, where does pillar page or skyscraper style content fit into the generate quality traffic and leads conversation?

But first, it's time for some dope B2B learnings from the vault of MarketingProfs articles. That's right, it's time to dig into the treasure trove of valuable information and pull out two pieces of gold to help you be a better B2B marketer. Now, since we're talking about traffic and leads and all that good stuff.

Of course. And that's where my brain went. So Article one this week is Five Ways to Get Keyword Ideas for your Website: A Beginner's Guide, by Daniel Brunell, and hopefully Daniel, I said your last name correctly. In this article, you'll start to take a journey into brainstorming keyword tools, Google, and much, much more when it comes to keyword ideas for your website. Bonus tip, you may not be paying attention to tip number five. I'm just saying, just saying.

Article number two for this week's episode is Three SEO Trends. Marketers Need to Know in 2022 by Tom Capper. I love, love, love how this article starts off. SEO is a vital marketing channel for modern businesses. For other marketing efforts to reap dividends, users need to be able to find you. Yes. Didn't Brian Dean just talk about like, Hey, if you're settling dog food, or if you have the best resource and nobody can find it, and all those good things anyway, users need to be able to find you or at least see you in their list of options.

Good SEO practices. Give that visibility by making website rank high on search. Enter results pages. Like Brian said, in one of the clips, you can have the best content around, but if no one can find it, well marketing's kind of dead in the water.

Now, to learn more after the broadcast and to read both articles in full, head to the links located in the description below. That's right people, all the right links in all the right places, at just the right time, which is not now, because I don't want you to click away and actually go start reading things. When you should be paying attention to the rest of this Marketing Smarts YouTube Live show now.

Back to Brian. We've covered a ton of ground pertaining to SEO and creating content that generates quality traffic, that then leads into quality leads. One thing I love, and to be honest, I'm pretty bullish on is great pillar page content. Personally bullish on pillar page content. Just love the concept. Got a lot of thoughts around it. So since I was sitting with the one, the only, the man, the legend, Brian Dean, I had to ask him what--since he brought up blog articles-does pillar page or skyscraper style content play in our conversation?

Not only that though, how can we make pillar page content that knocks it out the park and around skyscraper content is what he calls it. Pillar page content, which is what I call it. Doesn't matter what you call it. This is what Brian had to say. And by the way, if there was a rewind in live video, this might be the rewind point.

Brian Dean: The thing to keep in mind when you're creating skyscraper content, pillar content, like you said, there's a million names for it but it's all more or less the same thing, which is creating a piece of cornerstone content on your site that is by far above and beyond the best out there. The reason that has a special name is because it's kind of impossible to do that for everything that you publish. You sort of want to pick your battles with these.

Usually, when you're just starting out or you don't have a lot of traction with SEO yet, I would recommend picking lower competition keywords, a low competition topic that is maybe newer, a little bit trendy, that hasn't been saturated yet, and creating the best-in-class on that. Maybe it doesn't have a million people searching for it per month, but it can get you going. If it's really that much better than everything else out there, then it does have a good chance to rank in Google eventually.

The key with the skyscraper content or pillar pages is really to look at the current landscape of what people have already written on that topic. It could also be a podcast to record, a video on YouTube or whatever, but it's mostly related to blog content. Getting a feel for the landscape of what's already ranking, what's already done well, and how you can create something that is significantly better than what's out there.

There's a couple of ways to do it. You can create more up to date content. Say you look at the landscape of content and it's all out of date, you're looking at how to do something and all of the content is from 2018. You can go back and create something that is similar but more up to date. Up to date screenshots, up to date steps. Maybe it refers to a tool that no longer exists, you can create something there.

You can create something that is visually better. Content isn't just written, even in a blog post. It can have graphics, info graphics, charts, visuals, just to spice it up a little bit and to make the content easier to digest for someone that is reading it.

It can be written by an expert. You'd be surprised how much content on the web is written by people that don't have firsthand experience with that topic. You can go and create something that is written by an expert. Maybe you're the expert, you can hire an expert, maybe you work with an expert or know an expert that can be the person that writes this content, or at least contributes to the content in a way that adds that level of expertise that's not out there.

And there are a million other things. You could look at something and say this content is good, but it could use this, and that's where the skyscraper comes in and that's where you can add what is missing.

George B. Thomas Did you happen to catch the plethora of ways that you can make your pillar page content better than your competition? Do you see a way to use pillar pages, blog articles, and other rich media types to generate quality traffic and leads? I hope you're starting to connect the dots. Remember, these clips are only a small portion of the conversation I had with Brian around this topic. Make sure to check out the full interview on your favorite podcast app.

So one of my favorite portions of the original podcast episodes and of this is bringing people wisdom. So let's kick it back to Brian and some words of wisdom around this topic of how to generate high quality traffic that turns into leads and sales, and it is a doozy. Here is what Brian left us with.

Brian Dean: The number one thing, I would say the most important thing, is to understand what your customers are looking for online when they're not looking for what you sell. In your space, you're going to know all of the ways that people search for your product or service. It's usually pretty straightforward. If you sell business coaching, people are searching for business coaching and variations around that. Using some of the tools and tactics that I went over on this podcast, you can find some hidden gems in there, but for the most part they're going to be saturated.

The real gold when it comes to creating content that drives quality traffic is figuring out terms that people search for when they're not searching for what you sell. It's your perfect customer in every way. Usually, in the course of their life, they're going to search for millions and millions of things, they're going to search for your product one or two times. It's kind of high pressure to be able to think that you have to be in front of them those one or two times to have a chance to convert, versus all those other times that you have a chance to get in front of them. They can sign up for your newsletter, maybe they can become a lead. The key is understanding it.

To give you a real life example from my startup Exploding Topics, people are searching for trend software and trend analysis. Those are the straightforward. What's not so straightforward is that because our target customers are VCs, they're also searching for startups, electric vehicle startups, SaaS startups, B-to-B startups. So, we created all these lists of startups to get in front of them.

Even though at that time they're not searching for trends whatsoever, we're still getting in front of the right type of person, getting them on the email list, and then down the road because we're sending them valuable content via email, they're likely to covert. We get 100 times more leads and traffic from those than we do from the content that is specifically targeting those keywords where people are searching for exactly what we do.

George B. Thomas What your customers are looking for when they're not looking to purchase from you. Come on. I mean, figuring out the terms they search for when they are not ready to spend money with you and use those terms to get in front of them. To be a friend, to add value, to become might, I dare say, trust. Great words of wisdom.

Hey, have you enjoyed today's journey? Let us know. Use that hashtag #mpb2b. Head to the description below. Click on the link to the Full Marketing Smarts podcast with Brian Dean, and keep on learning more about generating quality traffic and leads.

Remember, these were just a few clips of the original Marketing Smarts interview that, by the way, was sponsored by Superside. If you got value out of today's show, hit that like and better yet, share it with a friend. To keep learning more, hit that subscribe or watch additional marketing Prof videos, or go tune in to the original Marketing Smarts podcast episode on your favorite podcast app. Now, don't forget to become part of the MarketingProfs community by heading over to mprofs.com/mptoday.

And as always, remember to be a happy, helpful, humble B2B marketing human. And we'll see you in the next Marketing Smarts Live show next week. Enjoy and be good to yourself.