Through Content Pros, Digital Marketing agency NuSvara leverages the power of ebooks for itself and its customers
Sean Conboy has been a thought leader in the field of digital marketing for years. NuSvara, which he launched in January 2012, is a full-service digital marketing agency that provides everything from web design to content marketing services. Providing highly consumable content for their clients has naturally been a focus from the get-go.
In December of 2017, NuSvara turned to Content Pros because Sean knew they needed to up their game in terms of content production. As an agency that provides both wholesale and retail content”meaning they provide it for both their clients and their clients’ clients”they needed to deliver enticing material that people want to share with friends and colleagues. Partnering with Content Pros to accomplish that goal was absolutely the right move, Sean affirms.
Meeting the Rising Demand for Highly Sharable and Consumable Content
For us, it’s a combination of what you write and how we design, Sean explains. We take what you guys write, and we add kick-ass graphics and compelling imagery. By adding their own flair to posts and ebooks that Content Pros produces, they tailor them to their clients’ brand campaigns. Since data-driven graphics are shown to boost response exponentially, it’s a winning combination.
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Focus on creating content that offers visuals to convey key messages quickly and that performs well on multiple formats, says Harvard Business Review. Between the visuals that Content Pros’ writers add to articles and those added by NuSvara’s own graphic designer, the company nails that goal time after time.
Sean used to write his own content, but as the company’s major thought leader, he lacked the time to write posts and ebooks that were truly consumable. Financially, it just wasn’t the smartest use of my time for the company, he says. When trying to fit in writing tasks between other pressing responsibilities, those tasks tend to take much longer than they need to.
Content Pros’ turnaround time is fast, Sean asserts, and the need for revisions is minimal. A piece might require one or two minor tweaks that the writer makes very quickly.
NuSvara’s content typically targets a company that’s trying to increase its lead generation or enhance its marketing strategies. Sean and his team work to reach marketing directors and business owners who are trying to gain more expertise in a specific area or improve their approach. The team uses their own blog and ebooks to demonstrate their thought leadership in these areas. So far, Content Pros has produced four ebooks that NuSvara shares on their own website, with titles like the following:
- 6 Factors to Consider When Choosing a Website Solution for Your Business
- Ebooks Bringing Clarity and Impact to Your Message
- How to Generate More Leads with Consumable Content
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The client companies that NuSvara shares content with cover everything from weddings to technology, aiming to provide thought leadership in their respective fields.
Overcoming Institutional Sameness
According to Sean, at one point, NuSvara had seven different writers on staff who wrote for their customers. One writer was blogging for 30 clients a month, producing one piece a week for each one. The others were handling a similar volume of content.
It gets predictable, says Sean, referring to the content produced by a small in-house team. Organizations have what’s called institutional sameness, and it’s the idea that everything that they write just starts sounding like the same thing. With their diverse array of clients”and clients’ customers”NuSvara needed a diversity of writing styles, areas of expertise, and new ideas.
Establishing a distinct voice for each brand is vital as well, as the Content Marketing Institute asserts. In Content Pros, NuSvara found a team of writers who each bring different perspectives, creative ideas, and individual styles; and who can consistently represent the voice of each customer, Sean notes. Some focus on the top of the lead generation funnel, the middle, or the bottom. This diversity of angles and styles helps NuSvara and its customers target the right audience, providing the information they’re looking for.
Transcending Writer’s Block
Working with Content Pros has also provided a solution to writer’s block, asserts Sean. His own time limitations made generating new ideas and angles tough, so Content Pros provided him with a tool that helps with idea generation. After he plugs in keywords, the tool generates potential blog topics. Sean has used that tool with clients to put together their strategic content calendars. Additionally, the writers themselves offer ideas for blog posts and ebooks.
Plus, his own team now has the time to occasionally cover a topic of particular interest, since they’re not trying to tackle every subject under the sun. Partnering with Content Pros has helped their creative juices to flow, letting them create highly consumable content on the topics most aligned with their own background.
Enlisting the Help of Experts
Though NuSvara has tried working with individual freelancers, the company found that freelancers are often too highly specialized to handle a wide array of clients. Having Content Pros find the best writer for the job within its team has proven much more effective.
NuSvara needs content on everything from what’s trending for weddings to how to leverage LinkedIn within a marketing campaign and use consumable content for SEO purposes. They need writers who are well-versed in technology but can explain it to those who are not.
I haven’t found a topic you can’t do, he says of Content Pros.
Despite their expertise, the writers know how to write in accessible language. I don’t talk over people”I’m just a straight shooter, says Sean. That’s what resonates with his clients and their customers as well, he explains.
Content Marketing Strategy
Ebooks are the main type of material that Content Pros produces for NuSvara’s clients, says Sean. The main strategy is creating consumable content for our clients that they can use for lead generation, he explains. We use ebooks as lead lures for our clients, and that works out really, really well. Customers use them in email marketing and in PPC campaigns, for instance.
Long-form content gets results, as Neil Patel illustrates on his blog. Ebooks that take a deep dive into a subject are far more enticing to prospective leads than short articles that share only a cursory overview. [Customers] won’t need to jump on 10 different websites to get the same information, Patel says. Thus, long-form content gets more backlinks, driving more traffic.
As this segment of an infographic by Curata illustrates, ebooks can play a pivotal role in establishing a company’s position in its industry:
As pros in the content marketing field, the NuSvara team knows how to leverage the articles and ebooks that Content Pros writes. They’ve also found success with rebranding and repurposing an article or ebook for different companies. They can tweak the piece for use by different customers, or their clients can do the same for their own customers, repurposing it multiple times.
Within an ebook, NuSvara can swap out the calls to action for others that pertain to a different audience, says Sean. They can also include different links. Often, they’ll write a synopsis that a particular client can share on LinkedIn or other social media to lure clients to the ebook itself. Because the ebook itself isn’t indexed by Google, multiple clients can use it after these easy modifications without jeopardizing their search rankings.
An Immediate Success Story
Sean started noticing results immediately after posting content created by Content Pros’ writers.
After a writer produced an ebook on what’s trending in weddings, which was uploaded onto the client’s website as part of a B2C campaign, people began downloading it within 48 hours. Within two and a half weeks, it was delivering 25% of the website’s traffic; even though the company was running six other promotions at the same time.
Sean and his clients have also noticed that the shareable content that Content Pros writes moves prospective customers further down the sales funnel.
My benchmarks for clients are: have we provided content that people download and are interested in using? Sean explains. Quite frankly, the use of ebooks has been tremendous, especially in our LinkedIn marketing campaigns. It’s a way of providing value for a potential customer without expecting anything in return. Customers don’t feel like they’re being reeled in by a crafty salesperson; rather, the company is simply proving its expertise to them. Sean and his team aim to share valuable content with none of the marketing fluff that many competitors use.
People appreciate that you’re not sending them a brochure. You’re sending them content that they can consume. We’re leveraging it with LinkedIn, with email marketing, with sales reps to send as attachments. Ebooks are also highly shareable when they cover a relevant subject well, people tend to share them with friends or business contacts. For instance, according to Sean, NuSvara’s ebook on strategically leveraging ebooks has received numerous downloads and shares.
As the Content Marketing Institute asserts, eBooks are unique marketing tools because they don’t seem like marketing tools ” digital books usually exist to provide expertise or entertainment.
This segment of an infographic from Marketingprofs shows how instrumental content downloads are in generating B2B leads:
The full infographic also notes that ebooks are particularly adept at creating leads, as they convince the audience of a company’s expertise in its area. A blog may initially draw in a customer, before the ebook seals the deal.
Regarding NuSvara’s recent ebook 6 Factors to Consider When Choosing a Website Solution for your Business, Sean says that by the time prospective clients read through it, they feel thoroughly convinced of NuSvara’s expertise in that area. They’re much closer to becoming customers. Thus, when sales staff reach out to potential leads, they often share resources like that ebook; and many are drawn to the website through inbound marketing as well.
NuSvara’s success with ebooks as demonstrated by the high number of downloads validates what Sean tells people all the time; Focus on creating podcasts and ebooks, which are both highly shareable forms of content.
Real Talk, Real Solutions
From the beginning, Sean felt that NusVara and Content Pros were philosophically aligned. During his early interactions with the company, he appreciated the way the team went above and beyond to treat him like a human and not just another sale to close. The team takes a hands-on approach, engaging personally with prospective new clients. They are personable, professional, and down-to-earth. All this showed Sean that partnering with Content Pros was clearly the right choice for him.
Through Content Pros, NuSvara and their clients are providing prospective customers with helpful, actionable content that gives them clear tools and strategies and since those early signs of success, they’ve never looked back.
