Keywords & Numbers: We're Back

Squarely Digital's Email for Busy Entrepreneurs and Marketers

Hi {"ANONYMIZED":"2022-09-05"},

It’s been a few weeks since the last email, and in that time, I came up with a name for these emails. And I made a format change to match.

As you can see, this newsletter is now called “Keywords & Numbers.”

What’s in that name? Well, it gives you an idea of what to expect in each edition: Key words (i.e., my writing) and numbers (i.e., a statistic or two) that will help busy entrepreneurs and marketers make sense of the digital marketing landscape.

“Words and numbers” also hints at a distinctive strength of Squarely Digital’s offerings. We’re good with words, as you would expect from a company run by an ex-journalist. But we also are fluent in numbers — the data that informs smart digital marketing decisions and shows return on investment for a campaign. More concisely, I love crafting an elegant sentence. And I also love Excel.

The newsletter name is also a reference to the two types of marketing Squarely Digital specializes in: content marketing and pay-per-click advertising. Content is driven by words (usually), and to succeed at PPC you need to be comfortable with numbers like click-through rate, search impression share and the dreaded Google Ads Quality Score.

So welcome to Keywords and Numbers, Issue #1. Let me know what you think.

Keywords

Subject Matter: The first step, and often the most important step, of effective content marketing is choosing a good topic.

My latest blog post, What Does Good Content Marketing for Home Care Providers Look Like?, highlights two pieces that do just that.

One of the topics works because it’s fun. The other works because it’s useful. In both cases, the business has found a smart way to connect with potential customers and move them down the funnel toward a sale.

This post marks the second time I’ve used real-world examples to show what good content marketing looks like. In the first post, I looked at content by business and executive coaches. Drop me a line if you have a suggestion for an industry to feature next.

Sematic Satiation: One more thing about “Keywords & Numbers.” You may have noticed that the title includes a pun. So much of digital marketing is built on using and understanding keywords — marketers perform keyword research before creating content, they check their site’s rank for organic keywords, they bid on search keywords in Google and Bing’s ad platforms …

I would go on, but 1) I’ve probably over-explained this pun already; and 2) I just hit the point of semantic satiation with the word “keyword.” If you don’t know the term, look it up — or go watch Ted Lasso.

Numbers

9/8/21: That's the start date for my next four-week workshop, Content Marketing for Business and Executive Coaches. The workshop will help coaches create content that attracts qualified prospects, balances education and sales, creates thought leadership and enhances their networking.

If you're not a business coach: 1) Please share with any coach you know who might benefit; and 2) I am planning a workshop for other types of businesses that would start in late September or early October. Let me know if this might be something you'd be interested in.

12: My latest productivity obsession is The 12 Week Year, a method which aims to help you “get more done In 12 weeks than others do in 12 months.”

I have a built-in skepticism about claims like this (don’t get me started on the “4-Hour Workweek”). So I’ll be clear: I don’t think employing this method makes everyone who tries four times as productive.

But I’m reading Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington’s book and it makes a lot of sense. I’m already incorporating some of its strategies into my workweek. One is the three-hour, uninterrupted strategy block — a time to focus solely on your business.

I’m not sure I’ll go all-in on the full plan … but I might. I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, for a detailed description of how The 12 Week Year works, I suggest my friend Rene Morozowich’s blog post — it’s where I first learned of the book: Reaching Your Goals With the 12 Week Year.

30: Here’s a nugget from my journalism days to wrap up: Have you ever seen news reports or press releases that end with the number 30?

I would not be surprised if you, a savvy reader of a newsletter like this, have. And you may well know that newspeople used to type “30” at the conclusion of their stories to mark the end.

But do you know where “30” comes from? Neither do I. Nor does anyone, really. Read this American Journalism review piece from 2007 for a raft of potential answers.

See you next time,

Jon