760: Be Pathologically Helpful: Content Strategy, Creation and Distribution with Ray Van Hilst

Ray Van Hilst is a marketing expert with over 20 years of experience. He works at Yoko Co, a digital marketing agency, where he helps clients define their web and digital marketing strategies. In this conversation, Ray discusses the importance of continuous website improvement, rather than the common cycle of rebuilding a website every few years.

Quotes

“Look at who your users and audiences are, and think about what questions they're having that would bring them to the site in the first place. Then, architect that content based on those questions they might be having.” - Ray Van Hilst

“Content on the fly is not a content strategy.” - Ray Van Hilst

“If you can stand out and solve some real problems, that makes the extra difference and gets you noticed.” - Ray Van Hilst

Takeaways

01:41 Continuously improving and updating a website is more effective than the common cycle of rebuilding it every few years.

04:22 Applying the concept of the hero's journey can provide a useful framework for approaching website development.

12:10 Developing detailed user personas and mapping out their content needs is crucial for creating helpful and engaging content.

16:31 Driving users back to the company's owned website is important to control the user experience.

20:41 Repurposing content across multiple channels, like a movie franchise, can be an efficient content distribution strategy.