Creating a Content Strategy in HubSpot

Hi, I’m Rachel.

Inbound Professor for HubSpot Academy educating and inspiring people about the HubSpot CMS

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I could talk forever about: SEO, UX design, musicals, and Game of Thrones.

Let’s talk about HubSpot Academy.

Our purpose is to educate and inspire people so that we together transform the way the world does business.

Introduce yourself!

What You’ll Need:

1. A laptop
2. Access to log in to your HubSpot portal
3. Permissions to use the SEO tools in HubSpot

Agenda

2 min

10 min

10 min

10 min

Agenda Continued

Exercise

Group Discussion

Recap

Next Steps

30 min

10 min

2 min

2 min

Create your content marketing strategy

Let’s get started!

Why use a topic cluster content strategy?

The way we search has changed.

Then:

• Simple
• Non-conversational
• Keyword focused

Restaurants in D.C.

Now:

• Longer
• Conversational
• Contextual
• Voice search

What’s the best restaurant open near me right now?

The way Google interprets and ranks content has also changed.

To remain relevant and helpful, Google released a series of algorithm updates over the past several years.

The most important of these was RankBrain in 2015.

RankBrain

A machine learning algorithm Google uses to search for synonyms and related words, not just the exact word you searched for

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So what does this mean for you?

Search engines aren’t your customers —

humans are.

To create content that converts visitors into leads and eventually customers, you need to create a helpful, positive user experience that solves for both the searcher and the search engine, not just one or the other.

How do you do that?

Create targeted clusters of relevant content that each cover a specific topic in depth.

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Topic clusters rearrange site architecture to clusters of related content that link to a central pillar page.

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Having a clean, organized site architecture allows bots to crawl your site quicker and easier...

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And enables your audience to find the resources they need quickly and easily.

Pillar Page

A website page (or blog post) that covers a specific topic in depth and is linked to a cluster of related content.

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Let’s cover how a company called Etuma

created their business’s first pillar page.

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TEXT ANALYSIS

TEXT ANALYSIS GUIDE

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Pro Tip:

If you’re going to take the time to create content

that educates your audience, make sure it connects to, and supports, at least one of your products

or services.

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TEXT ANALYSIS GUIDE

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How do you categorize customer comments?

TEXT ANALYSIS GUIDE

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How do you categorize customer comments?

What is feedback text analysis?

TEXT ANALYSIS GUIDE

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How do you categorize customer comments?

What is feedback text analysis?

Text analysis categorization systems

TEXT ANALYSIS GUIDE

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How do you categorize customer comments?

What is feedback text analysis?

Text analysis categorization systems

Correct text analysis method

Pro Tip:

If you’re looking for a place to start when identifying subtopics, consider the questions your audience has around the specific topic you chose to write about.

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Answer The Public

Keywords Everywhere

TEXT ANALYSIS GUIDE

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How do you categorize customer comments?

What is feedback text analysis?

Text analysis categorization systems

Correct text analysis method

LINKS

Questions?

How to build a content strategy

Activity

Create your business’s content mission statement.

Time: 5 minutes

Fill in the blank:

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We market/sell ____, but when it comes to our content strategy it’s not about marketing/selling ____, it’s about the idea that everyone should know how to ______________________________________.

01

How to build a content strategy

Determine a broad topic area that you want your business to be known for and build authority around.

TEXT ANALYSIS

02

How to build a content strategy

Contextualize your broad topic area into specific core topics.

TEXT ANALYSIS GUIDE

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Activity

Determine a broad topic area that’s relevant to one of your products or services.

Time: 10 minutes

1. Based on the mission statement you wrote, select 1 broad topic area you want your business to be known for.
2. Search this term in Google in Incognito.
3. Review the page one results and make notes of what you find. What are they writing about? How long is the content? Who is it written for? Is there a featured snippet?

Activity

Determine contextual core topics in support of your broad topic.

Time: 5 minutes

• Using your notes from the last exercise, identify 1-3 core topics in support of your broad topic.
• Pick 1 to start with.

Demo:

Let’s take a look at this in HubSpot.

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Activity

Create a topic cluster in HubSpot

Time: 5 minutes

• Now it’s your turn! Log into HubSpot and navigate to Marketing > Planning & Strategy > SEO.
• Click “Add a topic” and enter your core topic from the last exercise.

03

How to build a content strategy

Identify a series of subtopics in support of your core topic.

TEXT ANALYSIS GUIDE

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How do you categorize customer comments?

What is feedback text analysis?

Text analysis categorization systems

Correct text analysis method

Activity

Identify subtopics for your core topic.

Time: 10 minutes

• In your topic cluster in the SEO tool, research subtopic keywords.
• Add 3-5 subtopics to your topic cluster.

04

How to build a content strategy

Outline a practical resource to cover your core topic comprehensively.

Recap:

• Determine a broad topic area that you want your business to be known for and build authority around.
• Contextualize your broad topic area into specific core topics.
• Identify a series of subtopics in support of your core topic.
• Outline a practical resource to help your audience achieve their goal.

Let’s recap

Using a topic cluster content strategy:

• The way we search has changed
• Search engines aren’t your customers, humans are
• Topic clusters rearrange your site architecture to make it easier for bots and humans to navigate
• Use this strategy to build authority around topic areas you want your business to be known for
• Use your content mission statement as your guiding light

Next steps

What to do after this session:

• Perform an audit of your existing content
• Create new content to fill in the gaps
• Put together a pillar page
• Build links between your pillar page and cluster content
• Promote the pillar page to your audience

Resources:

• Content Strategy Course
• Creating a Content Strategy in HubSpot lesson
• Content Marketing Certification (for much more on different content marketing methods!)
• Keywords Everywhere
• Answer the Public
• Google Search Console (integrates with HubSpot)

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Let’s connect

@InboundRachel

@HubSpotAcademy

Thank you