The overarching theme of Authority Intensive was learning to trust your own little secret insight when tackling the ominous task of content marketing and gaining authority through the process. Almost every session addressed the strategic problem of developing content that is actually found and used by customers. It was reiterated over and over again that it is not enough to produce boring, bland, regurgitated content.

Day Two of Authority Intensive saw some well-respected speakers in the marketing community with the likes of ProBlogger’s Darren Rowse, Copy Hackers Founder Joanna Wiebe and Search Engine Land Author Annie Cushing offering up some insights into the practices of content marketing. These thought leaders emphasized the need to deliver meaningful content, indicating that vapid content would start failing faster and faster as time goes on. The following are some of my key takeaways from Day 2 of Authority Intensive.

Stop Producing Fluff

Rowse, the founder of ProBlogger.com, kicked off day two with one of the most memorable talks of the conference. He started off with his own disclaimer of how he is just an ordinary guy at heart, but with the Internet he was able to shake off this ordinary façade and turn it into something remarkable. He states, “Ordinary people can do extraordinary things. We live in remarkable times!” He continued, “Every time I come to a conference like this I meet people who feel like impostors. They think, ‘I don’t have the skills or the success to qualify to be here.’ They compare themselves to others, but you’re not alone, we all feel that way sometimes.”

“Stop producing fluff,” he said. “More frequency is not good. While it may work now, it won’t be able to compete long term because it lacks meaning. The real opportunity is to deliver something that has impact and takes readers on a journey.”

He then went on to list 6 things that you should be doing to become extraordinary. “Success is about doing the things you already know than discovering the things you don’t know,” he says.

1. Start. “Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started. The way you figure yourself out is by doing things.” Your excuses [for not wanting to start] will dissolve upon starting and so will your fear. Basically, starting will lead to opportunity and self-discovery. So do something. Anything. Make a start. “Fear,” said Rowse, “is a signal that something important is about to happen. That’s good.”
2. Put Readers First. Rowse made it very clear that when you’re in the content business, you’d better put the reader first on your priority docket. Understand who your readers are and what their needs are (problems, desires, challenges, dreams, fears, goals, languages, habits, loves, hates). Then get clarity about the change you want to see in them and leave a permanent mark on them with your content. “If you can change their lives in some way [through your content], you’re creating meaning in their lives,” he said.

On Day 1 Ann Handley expounded on this concept by stating that you need to use empathy to best serve your audiences’ needs. “I want you to have pathological empathy for your reader,” she says. “That means really knowing your customer.”

1. Usefulness is King. Become a prolific problem solver by spotting the problem and building into your workflow. Even the most basic problems are important problems. “When you get clarity about your readers, you can change their journey and benefit them,” says Rowse.
2. Build Culture. “The success and failures in my own business have related to the health and culture of my blog,” said Rowse. Cultures need leadership. Cultures need rhythm. Culture is built upon shared experiences and grows around story. Cultures need to evolve.
3. Create meaning. “I’m seeing fluff everywhere,” Rowse said. “People are just curating content with a clickable headline and asking for the like and share.” Meaningful content is so important. Don’t compete for the moment; compete for the meaning which will lead to trust, authority and influence. “In this time of fluff,” he said, “is an opportunity to create something with soul and meaning. This builds lasting trust and influence.”
4. Persist. Rowse stated that 99.9% of great bloggers are not awesome on day 1. Keep at it … this is a marathon, not a sprint. Creating great content is not going to happen overnight. “Anyone who’s telling you that there’s instant gold in blogging is telling you a story,” he said.

 

In an earlier talk Sonia Simone mentioned that is perfectly acceptable to suck. She says, “You’ll never be able to do something remarkable until you’re willing to suck badly for longer than you’d like.”

Overall, Rowse quoted Shayne Tilley: “The trend is to chase eyeballs. They can have the eyeballs. I care about hearts and minds.”

Basically, what I took away from his talk is how Rowse expanded upon Seth Godin’s keynote from the day before. Bring something else to the table rather than providing banality and talk to the people that would miss you when you’re gone. Don’t be afraid … just do it!

6 Unremarkable Yet Powerful Principles of Building an Online Business from Darren Rowse

The Secret Life of Buttons

On a more practical side of things, Joanna Wiebe talked about the “the secret life of buttons,” referring to call-to-action buttons on your website that you are hoping people will click on to result in some kind of conversion. Wiebe’s talk was a quick dive into the unconscious mind of the consumer, but made a ton of sense to me … Visitors who don’t click, don’t convert. But why are buttons so important? Buttons are the point at which a visitor takes an action, whether it be subscribing to an email list, buying a product or registering as a member.

Wiebe said to think of your customers as lizards and speak directly to their lizard brain. Ask yourself, what would the lizard do upon visiting my landing page? She outlined her theory into 3 discernable actions: Fear, Friction and Test.

1. Fear. She equated the customers’ fear of clicking on a button to the notion of a closed door. We, as web designers, know exactly what’s on the other side of this “door,” but the potential customer has no idea what to expect upon clicking the button (or opening the door). Wiebe suggested, as a way to reduce this fear, to add some “click triggers” that will reassure people that there is something positive on the other side of the door. This would show up as a “call to value” rather than a “call to action.” Put more anxiety-reducing text next to the button with a testimonial or some verbiage that says, “no credit card needed to sign up” … a reminder of a value that one is moving towards.
2. Friction. If there are too many choices, make the choice obvious to reduce the friction. Simplify it! If you have four choices of buttons, maybe consider reducing it to three. Maybe apply a different color to the button or something that makes it look more clickable.
3. Test. Something that works for one person may not work for another. You always want to test different versions of what you are trying to achieve and see what is working.

Overall, according to Wiebe, the goal is to find the fear and friction in your sales process and eliminate it with how you display “the humble button.”

6 Proven Ways to Boost the Conversion Rates of Your Call-to-Action Buttons by Joanna Wiebe

The Assisted Conversion

Another confusing, but interesting talk was by Annie Cushing and her insights into “The Assisted Conversion.” Marketing is all about the end game … did you make the sale through your marketing efforts? With the Internet, your online marketing efforts are more trackable than ever before. There are a multitude of software platforms out there to help with analyzing your results, but one thing to keep in mind is that marketing is an ecosystem … the pieces all work together. It is not enough to use one specific online avenue and hope for the best … you must use all the pieces in tandem.

Cushing outlined this theory when talking about multi-click attribution versus last-click attribution. In a nutshell, this means that while the ultimate conversion (or sale) might have come from a call to action on your website, this CTA was not the only contributor to this conversion. She said to think of the conversion as a football game – while the running back might have been the one to score the winning touchdown, there was an entire team that ultimately assisted in the victorious play. Within your marketing ecosystem, don’t discount the other “players” that assisted in the conversion. A lot of people will discount the role of social media in the final “sale,” but Cushing emphasized that social media tends to just introduce people to the brand early on in the conversion funnel.

My takeaway … don’t discount all the avenues that might have contributed to the ultimate goal.

Over the two-day conference there was just so much information to take in that as my colleague Jeff McElhattan says, “It’s like trying to drink from a fire hose.” But, the over-riding message of Authority Intensive was very clear. Brands must differentiate their content to avoid the “me too” trap of producing content for content’s sake, and falling to the wayside.

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