Prelims

Half Title Page

DATA-DRIVEN MARKETING CONTENT: A PRACTICAL GUIDE

Praise for Data-driven Marketing Content: A Practical Guide

Lee has been my go-to guy for search marketing advice for almost five years now, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of search engine optimisation (SEO), is obsessed with detail and knows exactly how to explain his innovative techniques – and the benefits of them – clearly and concisely.

Graeme Parton – Freelance Copywriter and Journalist

I had the absolute pleasure of working with Lee in his capacity as Head of SEO at a leading search agency. His passion for delivering content driven search and digital strategies is second to none, as is his passion for creating content that works, sells and delivers value. If you're struggling to make content work for your business or clients, read this book. Better still, talk to Lee.

John McMurray-Williams – Sales Director – Innovate Creative

I have been working with Lee for nearly 10 years in the field of SEO at a leading search marketing agency. During that time I’ve seen Lee, as Head of SEO, build a successful specialist search team and deliver winning SEO strategies across many clients. The knowledge and experience he has to offer is overwhelming, and there is much, seasoned digital marketers or new, can learn from him.

Dave Colgate – Senior SEO Specialist – Vertical Leap

Title Page

DATA-DRIVEN MARKETING CONTENT: A PRACTICAL GUIDE

LEE WILSON

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2019

Copyright © 2019 Emerald Publishing Limited

Reprints and permissions service

Contact: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78973-818-6 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-78973-817-9 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-78973-819-3 (Epub)

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the four people who never fail to motivate, inspire and drive me towards all achievements in life: my wife Ayako, daughter Sophia, and parents Cynthia and Douglas.

This is also written for and dedicated to the memory of family members lost over the past few years.

List of Figures

Author Biography

Lee Wilson (BA Hons) has worked in digital marketing, delivering thousands of integrated content and marketing campaigns since 2003, after he successfully graduated from Winchester University, England, UK, with honours in Business Management and Communications.

Lee is a Certified Web Applications Developer through the Open University (Cert WAD), individually Google Analytics (GA) qualified and has Search Engine Marketing Professional qualifications (SEMPO) relevant to the authoring of this book.

For the past number of years, Lee Wilson has been employed as Head of Enterprise SEO for a top 10 UK Search and Digital marketing agency (Vertical Leap). During that time, he has worked on and led huge numbers of data-driven campaigns within search marketing, digital and content niches, spanning leading global brands, start-ups, SMEs, plus new entrepreneurial ventures.

Prior to working in the agency side of marketing, Lee Wilson was employed in-house for over seven years as the marketing head and leader of direct and digital marketing departments. Lee took the step towards setting up and running his own digital content and marketing business in 2008.

Personally, Lee is a passionate author (his first solely authored book was published in 2016 – Tactical SEO: The Theory and Practice of Search Marketing), has vast experience and insights covering many marketing specialist areas and has been mentally ideating and developing this body of work into this business guide since working on his first few websites back at the start of the 2000s when his interest in this realm was sparked.

As an industry expert, Lee Wilson can be seen providing expert opinion and content contribution to many influential websites and businesses including being regularly cited on; Search Engine Journal, State of Digital, plus a host of other media sites and mainstream publications.

Outside of content, marketing and writing, Lee derives inspiration from his wife, young daughter, mum and dad, plus close friends who inspire him every day, bringing lots of light and love into his life.

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Foreword

When I first started leading digital content and marketing teams in the early 2000s, I quickly acquired a passion for sharing practical advice, expertise and helping others through my experiences.

This has driven me to communicate and distribute my expertise spanning many of the most popular business, search, digital and marketing sites on the Internet.

Over the past 15+ years working in the marketing industry within senior positions, I’ve had the privilege of driving many hundreds (likely thousands) of integrated marketing projects, cross-channel marketing/content campaigns, ongoing projects and long-term retainer bodies of work.

I have worked with some of the largest international businesses, brand new start-up companies and hundreds of small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), all bringing new challenges and opportunities to explore marketing content approaches to deliver increased results.

The most common thread spanning all of this time collaborating with businesses regardless of scale, historical performance or budget, is that business, marketing and wider user content can always deliver more.

In 2016, I created my first solely authored book which has now launched into international audiences (Tactical SEO: The Theory and Practice of Search Marketing), and ever since then have been planning to complete this guide, helping businesses and practitioners generate business and marketing content that works.

This book empowers content professionals, marketing teams and practitioners of all industries to take gut feel out of the content creation process and replace it with something much more powerful and effective – data-driven insight.

Throughout this guide, you will be provided with everything you need to take your marketing content to a higher level of contribution towards attaining and exceeding your business goals and objectives.

This guide will improve and grow your data ecosystem to empower more meaningful marketing content creation. You will also be able to identify, understand and strengthen your business marketing content to make every word you produce contribute more towards your aims and company aspirations.

Practical expertise is apportioned spanning the key marketing channels, enabling you to target new and existing users regardless of medium or industry with effective content. Added to this, everything is fuelled by data and expertise.

Common marketing content barriers are explored, plus tips are shared to help you overcome the challenges being faced by most companies, plus you can see how to efficiently evaluate your content progress, set the right benchmarks for your business goals, as well as report on your future content successes.

If you want to solidify your content success, gain ground on the top competing businesses within your market and create unique marketing content differentiation, this book is for you.

Acknowledgements

Throughout my career I have had the opportunity to be mentored directly and through standards setting by truly inspiring business leaders, entrepreneurs and key staff in all levels of organisations.

Upon reflection, a great deal of insight has come from my peers and the people I have had the privilege of managing directly.

At the time of creating this business guide, I took the decision not to name specific people in these acknowledgements, as by doing so I will be omitting direct thanks and appreciation to many others, who without their knowledge, approach and expertise I would not be in the position of creating and sharing this practical content guide today.

Without doubt, most of the knowledge I’ve gleaned over the years has been as a direct result of discussion (active and passive involvement), and perhaps the most valuable contribution has been made from working in passionate, open and inclusive business cultures.

When a company culture places positive emphasis on knowledge sharing and all staff and service progression, this creates an open and trusted environment stemming creativity, expression and experimentation – all key component parts of effective and continuous improvement.

Thinking back, this business guide began when I worked on my first few websites at the start of the millennium and has been built on with each and every relevant experience since.

By reading this practical data-driven marketing content guide, you will gain a distilled, real-world understanding and fast-tracked insights into the lessons I have learnt, plus the successes achieved over many years in content, digital and marketing senior roles.