Author: Kevin Sandlin

My process for creating blog content
When you create blog content for a living, you can’t wake up each day and say, “ok, how we gonna do this today?” You have to have a process. Just like the process that we teach in Pitch Practice every week, it’s a construct that you start with and then adjust to your own style, pace, and ability. I walk through a similar process for every blog post I write, whether that blog post is for Atlanta Tech Blogs or for a client. Here are the steps I go through.
1. Idea – I try to keep a handful of ideas in a simple notes file on my iPhone at all times. For my clients, we collaborate to create a list of possible topics within our content strategy. For my blog, most of the time, though, I just get an idea and decide to write a post about it. My ideas are no different from yours, and include many of the things on this list, which is basically the answers to these three questions:
  - What happened yesterday? Sometimes literally yesterday, but most of the time from sometime in the past like the first time you learned the lesson for some challenge that you overcame recently. For example, I recently learned that, if I start off with a solid chunk of someone else’s writing, the end result stinks. I have to start with a clean slate.
  - What’s happening today? Current events in your market space or area of expertise on which you have an opinion or that you want to share. For example, today, I’ll be attending the “Creating Content that Converts” lunch seminar today at ATV.
  - What are you planning for tomorrow? We all look into the future at least a little bit to make plans, share plans, opine on what we think will be in the next iPhone, or whatever. For example, the Digital Marketing class (DGM4) at General Assembly begins next week! It’s full (25 students!) and we’ll have two Teaching Assistants and at least 4 really great guest speakers who are much smarter than I am.
2. Outline – Once I’ve sold myself that I can write a decent piece of content on the idea, I quickly jot down an outline of the major points I want to make. Each major point usually becomes a paragraph, and unless I have at least 2-4 major points, I don’t move on to the next step.
3. Write – Everybody’s work style is different here. I prefer to write everything from start to finish, so I maintain my thought process throughout the time that I’m writing. I really don’t like to start, stop, come back, start again, stop again, come back again. Sometimes that’s required for a series like this one, but most of the time, once I start writing, I shut everything out until I’m done.
4. Step away – When I finish writing the first draft, I make sure it’s saved in the right place (usually not an issue with Google Docs, but if you’ve ever lost an article before, you always make sure), and then step away from the PC. Maybe not literally, but I will close that doc and do something else – anything else – to clear my head of what I just wrote. In college, I used to do something similar before a test or exam. While my friends were frantically cramming the hour before the test, I’d take a nap to clear my head.
5. Review – An hour or so later, I’ll return with a fresh clear mind to read the entire article start to finish as if I am the audience. I’ll notice things I want to change during this step, but I won’t note or change them yet. I want to read it all the way through to see if it flows properly to a solid conclusion.
6. Edit – After that thorough read, I go through it again, start to finish, and make any and all edits that I noticed during that first read, as well as some that I did not see that first time around.
7. Finalize – By “finalize”, I mean re-read the article (3rd time) start to finish to pick up any errors I may have missed on the first two runs (I still always miss at least one), add a relevant and eye-catching image (always use an image!), create the social post text, and publish (or send to the client).
That’s my process. As I say each week in Pitch Practice, “it’s not the Gospel, so you’re not going to hell if you don’t follow it to the letter, but it works.” There’s always deviations from any process and this one is no exception, but I generally follow all these steps. What’s your content creation process?
August 13, 2015
3 Reasons Why Every Digital Marketer Should Learn to Code

This post originally appeared on the General Assembly blog in Digital Marketing, Work Life.

The definition of “marketing” hasn’t changed in 100 years or more. However, the methods, tactics, and tools of marketing have changed rapidly in the last 10 years. Today, if you want to lay claim to the title “digital marketer,” you’d be wise to learn at least the basics of web development. From search engine optimization, email, and landing pages, to web analytics and data analysis–every facet of digital marketing is powered by code, and understanding what’s going on behind the scenes will give you the insight necessary to make informed and strategic marketing decisions. Here are just a few reasons digital marketers should learn how to code.

1. Understand the modern marketing landscape.

Print advertising and marketing has been on a downward spiral for more than a decade, and those who embraced the transition from print to digital early on have survived and even thrived in this ever-changing media landscape. Now, we are immersed in the blazing transition from computer screen to mobile screen, and this is occurring far faster than the previous change.

Now that marketing has become an increasingly digital activity, it’s crucial for marketers to have a deep understanding of the online world and how it functions. Without a basic understanding of how websites are built, along with various apps, tools, and tactics, you’ll be left behind in the race to consumers.

2. Quickly iterate and optimize campaigns.

Digital marketing has the edge over traditional forms of mass media because we can design, execute, and iterate campaigns faster than ever before. Unlike marketers of yore, digital marketers can test a complete strategy in a matter of days, if not hours, and optimize until the desired results are achieved.

With this real-time access to data, we know what changes to need to be made to improve our website, landing pages, or email templates. However, the optimization process can become bogged down if you can’t implement these changes without the help of a developer. And if you work for startup, you may not even have access to a dev team. When we as marketers are able to dig in and make those changes we have the freedom and power to make a huge impact on our organization’s top and bottom lines.

3. Communicate effectively with interdisciplinary teams.

As a modern marketer, you’ll need to communicate with your more technical co-workers—from product managers to UX designers and web developers—often on a daily basis. If you can’t “speak their language,” or communicate your technical needs, you’ll have a hard time executing on your marketing initiatives. This is true when implementing tracking pixels, A/B testing, or setting up analytics and CRM tools like Google Analytics, KISSMetrics, or Salesforce.

Learning to code will empower you to to become a more effective digital marketer—and therefore, an indispensable member of your team. You will develop a firm grasp on the world of online marketing, be able to make quick design or development changes, and communicate more effecitively with your more technical colleagues.

August 8, 2015
7 Upcoming Speaking Events at SuperNova South and General Assembly
Summer is almost over, the kids’ school starts next week, and the fall schedule is about to kick into high gear. I’ll be teaching, leading, and otherwise getting up in front of people on several occasions for various reasons on a plethora of different topics in the coming weeks. Here’s the list of upcoming events. If you can tolerate me blathering on in front of a room for more than a few minutes, I’d love to see you at almost all of these events. Except one. See below.
- Digital Marketing Bootcamp Saturday August 22 from 10am – 4pm – We will crunch the 10-week Part Time Digital Marketing Class from 60 hours down to 6 hours, so this class will move fast, covering branding, metrics, the marketing funnel, owned & paid content marketing, and the marketing funnel. Put your seat belts on and come ready to learn and apply that learning immediately to your organization.
- Blogging for Your Brand Bootcamp Saturday August 29 from 10am – 2pm – We’ll expand on the original “Blogging for Your Brand” seminar, and dive deep into blogging platforms, getting started, writing, best practices, promoting and measuring your blog. You’ll leave this session with a clear road map for creating your own blog, as well as your first blog post (or two!).
- Digital Marketing Bootcamp Saturday September 19 from 10am – 4pm – same stuff as above, different day.
- Advanced Social Media Strategies Monday September 28 from 1pm – 4pm – Take a half day off of your Monday, and dig deep into best practices and new practices for the major social media channels specifically, and your social media marketing strategy in general. Social media is an amazing tool for your organization, if used wisely, properly, and professionally.
- SuperNova South October 5 – 9 at Tech Square – I’m honored to be included in this year’s Startups track. I’ll be speaking on the topic of Product Management Discipline in Startups. David Cummings recently wrote that “there’s an even harder position to fill (than software engineers and sales reps) and that’s the role of the product manager.” We’ll be discussing exactly how one goes about the discipline of product management in the early stages of a startup. My specific time slot is Friday, October 9 at 9am. Register here.
- How to Measure Social Media ROI Monday October 12 from 9am – 12 noon – Social media marketing is not free and, done properly and consistently, social media can generate huge returns. Just like every other arrow in your marketing quiver, social media marketing must be measured, campaign by campaign, so you can properly calculate your ROI. If you don’t measure your ROI, you cannot improve your ROI.
- Digital Marketing Bootcamp Saturday October 17 from 10am – 4pm – same stuff again, different day. This all day class is becoming very popular among folks who are trying to either decide if they want to go deep into learning digital marketing and those who really need to understand what they can and cannot do at their current organization. It’s a fun day, includes lunch, and you’ll learn a lot.
I hope to see you at one or more of these great classes, but there’s another class, too. Unfortunately, for those who didn’t get there in time, the 10-week Part Time Digital Marketing class starts August 18th, and is SOLD OUT! Woo hoo! That’s right, 25 eager students will become new digital marketers before Thanksgiving. And this time we’re doing something a little different, as we engage Atlanta’s nonprofit community, and have each student adopt a nonprofit and create a digital marketing strategy for that nonprofit. Should be a great class, and I’ll be sharing our learning experience as go. If you play in the digital marketing space, and have something unique to share, please send me an email. We’d love to have you as a guest speaker at one of our classes. Here’s the syllabus. Check it out and see where you’d fit in best.
August 6, 2015
The 3 Ingredients for Outstanding SEO

This post originally published on the General Assembly Digital Marketing Blog.

Since Google took over ownership of the search functionality on the internet, the term “SEO” (search engine optimization) has been top of mind for any serious website owner. If you cannot be found easily when someone searches for your product or service on Google, you have a far smaller chance of success in internet sales and marketing.

And, while it’s very true that there are some seriously technical aspects to achieving proper and excellent SEO, there is a simpler recipe for achieving the crown jewel of being above the fold on the first page of the Google SERP (search engine results page). That recipe has three ingredients.

1. Content

Content is king. If you create a small website with good, descriptive copy, that’s a good start. But if you never update the content on your website, Google will eventually penalize you for not updating your content, and as a result, your website will appear lower and lower in the results that are shown when a potential customer searches for whatever it is that you do.

How do you solve this issue? Create new content on a regular basis. The easiest way to do this is your blog. Every business should have a blog, and every organization should update their blog regularly, meaning at least once a week. Back in “Internet 1.0” days, the “about” page on your website was where visitors got to know you. That’s no longer the case. Now visitors go to your blog first to learn who you are, what you do, why you do it, and what you stand for.

When you create content, Google looks for things called “keywords.” These are simply the words that best describe what you do. If you’re a blogger who writes about making adirondack chairs out of teak, then including the words “teak” and “adirondack” and “chairs” naturally in your blog posts will let Google know to show your site first when someone searches for “how to make teak adirondack chairs.”

2. Care

You can’t just toss any old content out there willy nilly. You need a strategy, even a simple one like “we’re going to blog every week to educate our audience on how to use our product.” It really can be as simple as that for your strategy. The larger your business and the more content you create, the more complex your content strategy will be, but it can start out very simple as you learn.

But, that’s not all. When you seek the Holy Grail of SEO domination, you’re essentially saying, “Hey, Google! We love you! Will you please come into our house and then go tell the world about us?” You’re inviting Google into your house, so you need to get your house in order. The good news is that Google offers many tools to help you do just that. The first tool is called “Google Webmaster Tools,” and it gives you everything you’ll need to make simple adjustments and test your site to see if Google likes it.

And, as of spring 2015, you’ll need to test your site for what Google calls “mobile friendliness.” You can do that here.

3. Clock

OK, it’s really “Time,” but I’m a fan of alliteration. SEO magnificence is not an overnight process. It takes time, sometimes months. During those months, you would do well to do regular checks and tests using the Google tools mentioned above. But, most of all, you should be creating great, relevant content on your site every week. Google loves regular updated content, and will reward you for creating and publishing it.

Finally, if you’re like me, you’ll enjoy seeing the fruits of your labor by searching for your keywords on Google just to see where you’re ranked. But be aware that your ranking will change on a daily basis. Unless your business so totally dominates your space that you are #1 every single time (don’t count on that), then you will most likely see your placement on the SERP move up and down. When it takes a big jump up or down, you should try to figure out why, using the Google tools that you’re now so familiar with.

Outstanding SEO is valuable, and it’s not easy, but it is within your reach. Take these first three steps, and you will soon see results. Remember, great content over time will result in higher Google rankings.

August 4, 2015
Three great questions about social media strategies
Last night I led a full house class called “Advanced Social Media Strategies” at General Assembly. This class is fun to teach, and we had a very large group with tons of great feedback, questions, and anecdotes to share. There were three questions in particular that we spent some extra time on.
1. Should “going viral” be a goal of your social media strategy? No. I could leave it at that, but some explanation is due here. Of course, it’s all great and fun when you post an image or a blog post or a video that generates hundreds of thousands or even millions of views and shares and engagement; however, “going viral” is not a goal. If that is, or becomes, your goal, then you will undoubtedly get caught up in link baits and tricks and gimmicks to try to entice people to engage. That is not the point of social media marketing. Yes, you want to create shareable content, but all your content – every social post you publish – is a reflection of your brand.
2. Does Facebook penalize you for scheduling posts through Hootsuite or other post scheduling software? I had not heard of this issue before, so I did some research and discovered that it is possible that Facebook might ding your organic reach if you schedule your posts using a third party software like Hootsuite. IAG.me has a very informative write up from this past May that includes this issue and one other that does occur when you use social schedulers. There are two issues here. First, if you bulk schedule (upload posts in a .csv file and schedule dozens of posts in advance) from Hootsuite, your posts will not include images. That’s just an issue that Hootsuite has not yet addressed, but not a “penalty.” Second, and this may or may not be a “penalty”, your Facebook EdgeRank score may be affected negatively when you schedule through a third party app. IAG.me’s article doesn’t really give confirmation on this issue, other than to note that “most people in the industry don’t see it as a problem any more” and that Facebook now has it’s own scheduling system. That may mean that Facebook will indeed expressly penalize posts that don’t use their scheduling system.
3. Should you post to all social media all the time using the same tool same image and same text? Again, no. Each social channel – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest, etc. – has it’s own parameters for great looking images as well as text limits, links, etc. So, while you might be able to auto-share one image without across all those channels using one automated tool, the image will look somewhat differently on each channel, and you won’t have any text. Taking the time and paying attention to the details to optimize your posts for each channel is what will get you the most engagement on that channel. Also, your audience is not on every channel, and you do not have to be everywhere. Find out where your audience is, and use that channel primarily, while testing other channels for possible fit.
It’s good to remember that social media marketing is – or should be – a part of your content marketing strategy, because everything you push out on social media is your content, and should reflect your brand. Most brands are not about “going crazy viral”, and thus should not set that as the goal. If it happens, great, but what will win over the long haul is sharing beautiful, shareable content that is optimized for each channel where your target audience is most active.
July 31, 2015
Content Marketing Takes a Turn for the Worse

When content marketing was first hailed as an initiative for brands to reach customers, marketers and consumers alike couldn’t get enough of it.

But in the past couple of years, content marketing has turned down a dark path.

We’re now producing gobs of articles and podcasts and social posts that mostly repeat each other.

They annoy rather than inform.

Many of my marketing friends and colleagues have swallowed the koolaid that the more words they produce, the better their marketing will work.

Our gurus – and there are plenty of them – urge us that “content is king” and “write attention-grabbing headlines” and other nonsense mantras that don’t hold water.

More, more, more! scream the so-called experts.

But what ever happened to quality over quantity?

My past six years as a freelance and professional content producer – everything from newspaper articles to product descriptions to blog posts to email marketing and more – have ingrained in me the intrinsic value of thought-provoking, well-researched content.

At one point, I was required to post daily blog updates! Of more than 600 words! With quality, well-researched information!

That kind of content production is foolish, and doesn’t help anyone.

In a world where attention spans are zero and inboxes are crowded, no one has time to ingest content coming at them so quickly.

And when you aren’t zealous about bringing something new and eye-opening to the table, you lose your readers’ trust.

You haven’t helped anyone, not even yourself.

The sales teams I’ve had the pleasure of working with read and follow the direction of a book called Integrity Selling, the primary tenet of which is to be up front with the person you’re selling to at all times. If the product isn’t a good fit for their timing or budget, you tell them.

I vote as marketers we bring the same kind of integrity back to our content. Take a deep breath and walk with me through what that might look like.

Imagine producing one piece of content a month you’ve had weeks to research and prepare. You’ve interviewed three different people for their perspectives. A designer has mocked up images that complement your thesis perfectly, translating those images to stunning social posts.

When you hit publish on that content, you take the time to ask influencers to share it with their networks and you dedicate a week of time to promoting it in your email marketing, on your website, and on your other channels.

This is the basic process I follow as marketing manager at Orderly. My measurement of success is that I never publish anything I am not 100 percent proud of or that I know without a doubt will help my audience in the independent restaurant industry.

When I take the time to make sure others in the industry know about the helpful info I’ve put out there, it’s invigorating when they get excited about it, too.

Sure beats the drill of over-publishing under-appreciated content.

This is what I tell the students at General Assembly who sit through my content marketing classes because this is the perspective I want the new generation – young or old – to have about producing content.

As I’ve urged and encouraged them, so I do the same to you: Stop shooting yourself in the foot with over producing shoddy content.

Instead, concentrate on what matters: research, SEO, depth, images, share-a-bility, influencers, and conversations.

Remember, people don’t buy from content or websites or blogs. People buy from people.

Bring the personality, sincerity, and empathy of a person back to your content marketing.

July 28, 2015
Digital Marketing Terms & Metrics
We kicked off a new class last night at General Assembly called “Digital Marketing Key Terms & Metrics.” We had a great turnout, and I tried a non-traditional delivery of this class. I didn’t use a slide deck. #FREEDOM!

Instead, we started off with a little brain-freeing inspiration from this fantastic video.

No, instead, I put all the terms that are generally or specifically defined in the basics of digital marketing on one wall, and a huge marketing funnel diagram on another wall. Then we walked through the digital marketing funnel for three different kinds of business models, from brand to reach to revenue for each business type.
1. Ecommerce
2. Services
3. Media
The math is ultimately the same for each, but the path from reach to revenue is very different, as are the sales cycle and KPIs, among other metrics.

The big take-aways from this 2-hour class are to measure everything, experiment using small, focused digital campaigns, and work towards repeatable predictability in your marketing campaigns.

Saturday, we’ll expand all this knowledge in the #DGM Bootcamp, and add Chipotle for lunch. I hope to see you there!
July 24, 2015
Try a sample, then eat the whole cake
Have you ever seen a big tasty-looking carrot cake in the window of a bakery, then run in and bought that $21.99 carrot cake, and then you get home, nuke a piece, dive in, and…ugh. That’s how my grandmother made carrot cake!! Where are the raisins? It’s so dry! But you bought the whole cake, and fresh baked goods are a bit of a gamble. Either you love them, or not.

I think this analogy works for the plethora of bootcamps and technical education classes that abound in Atlanta and other growing tech cities. I mean, $21.99 is pretty steep for a cake, and some of the classes being offered today are pretty expensive. Many of them are worth it, and worth much more when the class gives you the skills and know-how that you need to change jobs, get promoted, or get your first job in the area you really want to be.

But how do you know the cake (you know, the class) will be good? If you’re going to spend the better part of 3 months learning in a class, you should be able to take a taste, so to speak, of the class itself and see if that’s really how you want to spend your money. You see, one piece of cake is just $3. If it sucks, you’re out $3, not $22, in addition to that 37 minutes of unimaginable anticipation as you speed home to your now totally unfulfilled dessert craving.

That’s what’s happening this Saturday at General Assembly at Ponce City Market. We’re conducting a one-day bootcamp for Digital Marketing. It’s this Saturday from 10am-4pm, includes lunch, and is a great primer for exactly what to expect if you decide to enroll in the 10-week Digital Marketing Course that starts August 18th. The purpose of the Digital Marketing course is to prepare students to actually do the job of a digital marketer, a job which is increasingly in demand, as this most recent study clearly demonstrates.

Saturday’s bootcamp is $100 for six hours of very hands-on, very interactive, very fun learning about the ins and outs of digital marketing. Here’s the basic topical outline:
The link in each one of the above topics points to a blog post originally from the GA Blog specifically aimed at that topic, so right here and right now you can get a free sample of what you’ll be learning. Then on Saturday, you’ll have your sample exactly how you’ll be learning it (and whether you can tolerate me standing up front ~~blathering on about~~ teaching #DGM for 10 weeks!). That should be just enough carrot cake to determine if that’s the cake you want, and need, to take your career or small business to the next level.

I hope to see you on Saturday! Register here for the 1-day bootcamp and here for the 10-week DGM course.

Unfortunately, there will not be carrot cake.
July 21, 2015
4 Steps to Determine How Well You Know Your Brand
This post originally appeared on the General Assembly Digital Marketing Blog.

How well do you know your brand? DO you know your brand? Actually, “brand” is an uncomfortable topic for many startup founders and small business owners, simply because they weren’t thinking about their brand when they started. It’s not a knock on them. Every entrepreneur has a vision of how their organization can change the world and how they can make a lot of money. But very few enter into the world of entrepreneurship intentionally considering and planning their brand.

But don’t worry! It’s never too late to establish your brand—though you may have to re-establish that brand because the market has told you what your brand is, instead of the other way around. Once you intentionally create your brand, then you can set out to make sure you hire and partner with people who uphold and support your brand, and then build your brand into everything about your company.

In the meantime, try this simple 4-step exercise to see how well you – or your employees – know your brand. Answer each of these 4 questions in the form of a tweet, using 140 characters or less. Add an image if you like, if that helps illustrate your brand, but the 140 characters should also stand alone.
1. What are your core values? Here’s a great recent example.
2. What industry or market problem are you solving? Hint: Start with “why.”
3. Who is your optimal customer and how do you reach them? Here’s how to find them.
4. Describe your business. See what Guy Kawasaki says.
Per Mr. Kawasaki’s advice, you and everyone who works for you should be able to spout everything in these four tweets verbatim. It’s not a memory game, but a culture game. You hire people who uphold the values on which you created the company, and then you bake it into the culture each and every day, with the understanding that your brand is everything you do.

Also, this isn’t anything new, but perhaps more people are talking about it. Way back in 1994, Charles Brewer started Mindspring, which eventually became Earthlink, one of the largest ISPs in the business. He built the company on what he called “CV&BVs” or core values & beliefs.earn More About Branding In Our Digital Marketing Course
July 12, 2015
It’s easier – and better – for someone else to tell your story
Since transitioning from a simple content aggregation publication into a content marketing service, I’ve had dozens of meetings with entrepreneurs and marketers about “telling their story.” A consistent pattern has emerged out of those meetings that has become predictable in all my initial consultations with potential clients:

It’s easier for me to tell your story than it is for you to tell your story.

Here’s why, and, while these reasons don’t apply to absolutely everyone, they are very consistent.
1. You’re too close to your product. You know it so well that you lose sight of what your audience doesn’t know. I liken this scenario to when I tried to teach my mom how to use Microsoft Excel a few years back. I’m going on and on about formulas and dragging cells and charts and stuff, and she stops me and asks, “what’s a ‘cell’?”
2. You don’t like to talk about yourself. Most people, despite the requirement of a solid amount of confidence and ego to start, run, and own a business, don’t really like to write or talk about themselves. However, in order to position you or the company you run as an industry authority, thought leader, or expert, you have to talk about you. It’s much easier for me to compliment you than for you to humble-brag about you. Sounds better, too.
3. A third party lends credibility. At the TAG Business Launch Competition finals in May, Gimme Vending reached the final round. Instead of taking the entire 10 minutes to present themselves, they put a customer on stage to talk about them. It was so much more powerful to hear someone outside the company talking about the company than to hear the longer version of their 3-minute pitch. The same thing applies to your marketing content.
4. From your audience’s point of view. This last point is actually the most important, and is related to point #1 above. The words we use inside our own teams are different than the words we use when speaking to our customers and prospects. We just use different language, and we see things from our side of the table, not theirs. Bringing in a 3rd party to voice your message enables that third party to see – and speak or write – from an outsider’s point of view, namely, your prospect’s point of view.
Again, these 4 reasons for third party content creation are not hard and fast, nor do they apply to absolutely everyone. However, the more potential clients I meet, the more I see this pattern. It helps to hear and tell your story from a fresh, different perspective.
July 10, 2015