I recently finished Hubspot’s Content Marketing Certification and was blown away by the quality of the course. The instructors are engaging, and I found myself learning way more than I ever could paying thousands of dollars for some digital marketing class somewhere.
Content marketing is a vital function of every organization; doing it well requires an intentional, well-planed out strategy. Hubspot has several, mostly free certifications that will improve anyone’s digital marketing chops in a matter of hours.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur looking to grow your audience or a digital marketer in charge of cultivating new leads for your company, investing time in Hubspot’s Content Marketing Certification is well worth your time.
Here are three lessons I learned from the course.
1.Content Creation Is A Process
An idea is nothing more nor less than a new combination of old elements.” – James Webb Young
Digital Marketing requires a structured process around everything you do, and content creation is no different. But how do you come out with fresh content–day after day–without running out of ideas?
Most people, when asked about how “eureka” moments happen, might think, “Isn’t the muse supposed to hit or something?” Well, kinda. This course leans heavily on a book called A Technique For Producing Ideas by James Webb Young.
Young’s thesis is that idea creation isn’t simply about waiting for inspiration to strike:
it’s a methodology.
The Ideation Process
Young’s formula for creating new ideas is known as ideation. Ideation is a process by which you can assimilate various ideas into new patterns; it’s idea sex. According to Young, the process goes like this:
- Gathering Raw Material– Read and gather as much material as you can from a variety of sources. Interested in cars? Read a book on the history of the Ford assembly line. After that, feel free to read about Richard Branson’s quest for commercial space flight. There are no wrong or right ways to do this. When you’re done reading, brain dump what you’ve learned into a “swipe file.”
- Digesting The Material- Now that you have some material to work with, take some time to ask yourself questions about any relationships, commonalities, or interesting elements that exist between the disparate ideas. Write down anything you think is important.
- Unconscious Processing- Now that you see patterns emerging and have ideas from step 2, you’re ready for your big idea, right? Wrong! This is the time to get far away from everything. Go take a walk. Go to a movie. Don’t think about coming up with ideas in this step. Let your unconscious mind go to work processing the different ideas in your head.
- Eureka Moment- This is the big moment you have been waiting for. This is when you give birth. Your mind will give you a “eureka moment” of discovery. Young says, “It will come to you when you are least expecting it…”
Does this process work? I have no idea, but I’m going to start using it.
2. Make The Most Of What You’ve Got
Coming up with original ideas is tough. One lesson that really stood out was the idea of utilizing the content you already have more effectively.
Two ways that you can make the most of the content that you already have:
1. Republishing– The act of reposting your content, mainly blogs, on other authoritative websites with proper credit given to the original author. This is a great way to build authority and strengthen your SEO. Be sure to change the headline of the article when you republish your content.
2. Recycling– This means getting creative with the content you already have. Do you have short-form blog posts? Why not put them together and create an E-book? These E-books can later be recycled into podcasts, webinars, and infographics. An easy way to recycle content is to use the acronym A.C.E:
- Adjust. What needs to be added, removed, or re-worded?
- Combine. You may be able to combine related or unrelated content to provide new value and meaning.
- Expand. Is there an opportunity to expand on something you’ve already done in order to dig deeper into that topic?
By republishing and recycling the content you already have, you’ll save time, expand your reach, and increase your online authority.
3.Embrace Growth Hacking
Content marketing is made up of two pieces: content creation and creating context. You can have all the content in the world, but if you can’t get it to the right people at the right time–you’ll fail.
Gary Vaynerchuck on content creation and context
This is where “growth hacking” comes in. By using the “bullseye framework,” you can growth hack your way to discovering new distribution channels for your business.
The center (bullseye) of the framework lists the strongest distribution channels of your business, while the concentric circles illuminate potential areas of improvement or experimentation; the framework is basically an internal audit of what’s awesome, what’s ok, and what the possibilities are.
By using this framework, you can quickly understand how to create better context and engagement around your content.
Growth Hacking Through Concierge Services
Often times, potential customers won’t convert when it comes time to purchasing the product. This is usually due to bottlenecks in the buying process.
Concierge services alleviate bottlenecks by helping your customers make informed decisions when they have questions or concerns. Coincidentally, I experienced concierge services firsthand soon after taking this course.
It went something like this: There I was, shopping online for a new phone. I’m hesitant to click the buy button due to some lingering questions I have about the service. I really, really hate contracts. Is this a contract (I’ve read the fine print five times)?! After minutes of scrolling, a chat box pops up with a live person on the other end. Holy smokes, a real person! This person educates me on the service and addresses my concerns. With my questions answered, I proceed to hit the buy button.
If it wasn’t for my non-robotic online friend (A real human!), I probably would’ve put this purchase on hold. This is the power of concierge service–knowing when and where customers face buying dilemmas and being there to help.
The Beauty Of Online Education
I love online education. I don’t have to go to some dingy, ill-lit, cold classroom, fighting hard to keep myself from falling asleep on some rickety old desk. Instead, I can turn on my computer, put on my headphones, and start and stop the class whenever I feel like it; it’s a beautiful thing.
I invested less than a full day’s work into this class and learned how to put together a complete content marketing strategy, from start to finish. Content creation, repurposing, growth hacking–these are things that I can apply to my work right away. And, if I ever need a refresher, I can always revisit the course (lifetime access).
Oh, and this class, among others, is FREE. Yep, it doesn’t get any better than that. If you’re looking to take your knowledge of digital marketing to the next level, you’ll find no better resource than the courses provided by Hubspot.
Get started on the certification of your choice by heading over to the Hubspot Academy.
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