The Animalz Content Marketing Podcast

Ash Read, Editorial Director at Buffer, talks through: how to compete in an industry saturated by content marketing; finding your unique differentiator; the power of brand and vision in content; how to create and update “topical” content; and the content strategy he used to grow his side project’s traffic from 0 to 130,000 monthly pageviews.---HostsAsh Read is the Editorial Director at Buffer, and the founder of modern homeware directory, Living Cozy.Ryan Law is the Director of Marketing for Animalz, an agency that delivers high-quality content marketing to enterprise companies, startups, and VC firms.Mentioned in the EpisodeAsh's side project, Living CozyWebinar, How to Manage Big Blogs (feat. Buffer, Zapier & Amplitude)Breaking Brand, a Buffer podcast seriesThe Animalz article about "content whales," Here’s How to Handle a Wildly Successful Article That Makes the Rest of Your Content Look BadConnectConnect with Ash on Twitter and LinkedInConnect with Ryan on Twitter and LinkedIn

Blake Emal, Chief Marketing Officer at Copy.ai, explains how AI can help small content teams, how to get great at Twitter marketing, and why Copy.ai encourages its team to embrace side projects.---HostsBlake Emal is the Chief Marketing Officer at Copy.ai, and the founder of Float, an online course creator for Notion.Ryan Law is the Director of Marketing for Animalz, an agency that delivers high-quality content marketing to enterprise companies, startups, and VC firms.Mentioned in the EpisodeGPT-3 is the Sparring Partner You Didn’t Know You NeededConnectConnect with Blake on Twitter and LinkedInConnect with Ryan on Twitter and LinkedIn

Dr. Fio Dossetto, editor-in-chief of contentfolks and former Senior Editor at Hotjar, talks through "product-led" content, writing search content without becoming a copycat, and levelling-up your career by thinking less like a writer, and more like a strategist.---HostsDr. Fio Dossetto is the editor-in-chief of contentfolks, and the former Senior Editor at Hotjar.Ryan Law is the Director of Marketing for Animalz, an agency that delivers high-quality content marketing to enterprise companies, startups, and VC firms.Mentioned in the EpisodeFio's newsletter, contentfolksFio's talk for Wynter: Product-LED Content: A Powerful (& Under-utilized) Approach to ContentExamples of product-led contentAhref's free course, Blogging for BusinessAnimalz's article, Copycat Content: SEO Tools Got Us Here, Humans Will Get Us OutAnimalz's article, You’re a Content Marketer, Not a WriterConnectConnect with Fio on Twitter and LinkedInConnect with Ryan on Twitter and LinkedIn

In this webinar recorded for Superpath, Ryan and Andrew talk Jimmy Daly through Animalz's first annual Content Marketing Benchmark Report. They explore six key findings from the data; cover the methodology and process behind the report; and share stories and experience from working with the 70+ SaaS companies analyzed in their research.---Mentioned in This Episode:The Animalz Content Marketing Benchmark Report 2020Read the deck that accompanied the webinarVisit Superpath

In today’s episode, Animalz's COO Haley Bryant talks with Sydney Carlton, Director of Brand Marketing at Storyblocks, a stock videos, images and audio provider. In October, Storyblocks launched Re:Stock, a campaign to more than double the representation of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC content in their library from 5% to 10% by 2021 and 20% by 2022.The deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor sparked unprecedented focus on the Black Lives Matter movements.  Diversity, equity and inclusion transcends this moment, and to make significant progress, our focus has to be evergreen. As companies are challenged to figure out how to improve internally, some companies are taking their commitment to DEI a step further by sharing their action plans externally to challenge themselves, their customers, and their competitors to step up.---Mentioned in the EpisodeStoryblocksStoryblocks’ Re:Stock Campaign Seeks To Boost Diverse Stock ContentFollow Sydney:TwitterLinkedInFollow Haley:TwitterLinkedIn

In today’s episode, I set out to answer one of the hardest questions in marketing: how do you become a thought leader?I pick the brain of Animalz’s strategist Katie Parrott, and we chat through the defining traits of a true thought-leader (and why it requires more than adding the phrase to your LinkedIn bio); we discuss the idea of “earned secrets” as the fuel for thought leadership; we dig into the 5 “sources” of thought leadership we use at Animalz; and we wrap up by asking—is it really worth it? (spoiler: yes).---Mentioned in the EpisodeEverybody Wants Thought Leadership Content. But How Do You Do It, Exactly?a16z Podcast: Earned SecretsFollow Katie and RyanFollow Katie on TwitterFollow Ryan on Twitter

In today’s special episode of the Animalz podcast, you have questions, and we have answers.I enlisted Animalz CEO Devin Bramhall to help me answer some of the hardest content marketing questions you could throw at us. We tackle launching new websites, balancing paid and organic spend, content promotion, offline buying processes, and a whole lot more. We’ll do another Q&A episode in the not-too-distant future, so if you have a question you’d like us to tackle, click the link in the show notes.---Share your questions via Google Form5 Content Marketing Strategies for Niche B2B IndustriesFollow Devin on TwitterFollow Ryan on Twitter

In today’s episode of the Animalz podcast, I enlist Animalz Head of R&D, Andrew Tate, to talk through the good, the bad, and the downright mind-blowing aspects of GPT-3, the uncannily powerful natural language model from OpenAI.We share examples of the type of content you can create with GPT-3, we analyze the quality and calibre of its writing, and we answer the question on every content marketer’s lips: should we be worried?---Mentioned in the EpisodeTitles and URLs written by GPT-3Tweetstorm partially authored by GPT-3Creative writing authored by GPT-3Copycat Content: SEO Tools Got Us Here, Humans Will Get Us OutOpenAI GPT-3 waitlistFollow Andrew and RyanFollow Ryan on TwitterFollow Andrew on Twitter

Few industries are more saturated with content marketing than ecommerce. From juggernauts like Shopify and Bigcommerce, to a growing multitude of scrappy startups, every ecommerce company is hungry for rankings, traffic and mindshare.In today’s episode, I’m chatting with Laura Moss, Animalz resident ecommerce pro, and the founder of her own ecommerce brand, Adventure Cats. We chat through strategies for turning the saturation and rate of change in ecommerce to your advantage; we dig into the power of “niching down” and competing for search volume on your own terms; we look at the short- and long-term impact of COVID on ecommerce marketing; and Laura shares nascent trends that she thinks all ecommerce marketers should pay close attention to.--- Visit Adventure Cats Follow Laura on Twitter Follow Ryan on Twitter

Content audit. Two words to strike fear into the heart of every content marketer.Well, not really. For any blog more than a year or two old, getting to grips with the performance of your older content is a necessity. But the tools used to do that, content and SEO audits, generally get a bad rep. And with good reason: most audits are long, bloated documents crammed full of context-less keywords and statistics.Here at Animalz, we’ve been on a mission to reinvent the content audit, and create a new process that’s fundamentally more useful. In true Animalz fashion, we wanted to experiment with our new audits on... ourselves. So we did! Our head of R&D, Andrew, audited the entire Animalz blog, and surfaced a few familiar problems. And as Animalz Director of Marketing... well, it’s up to me to solve them.--- Learn more about content audits for your content and website Revive, our free tool for finding content that needs refreshing Follow Ryan on Twitter Follow Andrew on Twitter

As a company whose entire reason for existence is creating the world’s best content marketing, we spend a LOT of time thinking about quality:What does it really mean to create something quality?How can we consistently create quality, despite the fact that we work with hundreds of customers, in dozens of industries, each with their own, idiosyncratic tastes and preferences?How can we stay ahead of changing trends, technology and expectations?In today’s episode, I dive deep into the quality rabbit hole with Animalz CEO Devin.We share the foundational, six principle benchmark we use to safeguard quality at Animalz; we talk through a strategic framework for adapting content to the expectations of other people; and we explore how the defining characteristics of “quality content” change over time.---Follow Devin on TwitterFollow Ryan on Twitter

In today’s episode, Ryan chats with Animalz team members Cassie and Stephanie about Education Technology, an industry undergoing a gold-rush style boom in the wake of COVID-19.We talk through the different business models used in EdTech, and the supporting role of content in each;  we discuss the biggest opportunities facing EdTech companies as they launch go-to-market strategies in the wake of coronavirus; and we dig into practical advice for creating killer content marketing for audiences of academics and industry experts.--- Follow Cassie on Twitter Follow Stephanie on Twitter

In today’s episode, Ryan talks with Andrew Montalenti, Founder and Chief Product Officer at content analytics platform Parse.ly.We use Andrew’s experience working with some of the world’s largest publishers—the likes of WIRED, The Wall Street Journal, and Medium—to explore the changing face of content marketing. We talk through “platform-risk” and the growing need to diversify marketing channels; we dig deep into content attribution and analysis; and we share “publication”-inspired strategies that B2B and B2C brands can apply to their own content marketing.---Show LinksExplore Parse.lyFollow Andrew on TwitterRead more about Library vs Publication

In today’s episode, Ryan chats to Emily Byford, Content Marketing Manager at SaaStock.We discuss SaaStock’s pivot from one of the premiere in-person SaaS conferences to an entirely online event in the wake of COVID-19; we dig deep into category creation, by way of Emily’s work at would-be category king Akkroo, and explore the role content plays in conceiving, evangelising and owning an emergent category; and we wrap-up by discussing the differences between agency content marketing, and working in-house at a startup.---Show LinksSaaStock Remote, June 10th - 11th (Get 20% off with discount code ANIMALZ-20)Follow Emily on TwitterEmily's reflections on category creation

The Degreed 2020 marketing plan is changing, and fast. With their original plans out the window, learn how their team is adapting their marketing strategy to keep growth trending up and to the right. Degreed's head of content and comms Sarah Danzl and managing editor Bella Lazzareschi joined us to talk about the importance of a diversified marketing plan, the role of PR during a crisis and how the best marketing is empathic.

In this episode, Jimmy and Ryan talk about our new product: on-demand consulting for your content team. We explain what it is, who it's for and why now. We also talk through some of the behind-the-scenes of putting this together. Enjoy!

Are you rethinking your content strategy right now? So is Joei Chan, content director at the e-learning company 360Learning. She was hired to lead content just a few weeks before the Covid-19 crisis and is now launching a new content program right in the midst of it. In this episode, Devin and I interview her about the experience, plans, goals, resources and constraints.

In an environment where acquisition of new customers is very challenging for most business, retention is extremely important. In this episode, Jimmy and Devin talk about what we're doing to retain our customers, and what our customers are doing to retain their customers.

In our first-ever live podcast, Devin and Jimmy talk about content marketing during a crisis. We talk through a few situations that we're seeing our own customers experiencing and take questions from the group. Check the show notes for links, snippets and the video.

Join us for an upcoming LIVE podcast. We're going to talk about content marketing during a crisis and answering live questions. If you'd like to submit a question, just send to podcast@animalz.co. Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rgucukfsTmuP3t6qTSMrvQ