Joe Pulizzi reveals how he uses content marketing to get great results

Last week I asked a question over on LinkedIn:

If you’re a coach or consultant, how are you using content on the Web to market your services? What gets you the best results?

Joe Pulizzi, who runs Junta 42 responded:

"Blogging
works the best for me. Consistent blogging has been able to expand my speaking
business internationally, which would have been difficult to do any other way."

Joe is co-author of Get Content. Get Customers , and an expert on Content Marketing. So I was very interested in learning his responses to my email interview. Here they are:

1. Tell us what your profession is, and who your typical clients are.

Author, Speaker, Evangelist and Consultant for content marketing. Our
typical consulting clients are small-to-medium sized businesses and
media companies.

2. What marketing tools do you use on the Web?

Quite a few, actually. Junta42 (www.junta42.com) is our community for those interested in content marketing. It’s sort of like Digg for content marketing. Through Junta42 we have a weekly newsletter called the Junta42 Content Marketing Most Popular (get it by joining at http://www.junta42.com/join/) where we focus on the most popular content marketing articles of the week that have been uploaded by the community and our staff.

I also have the Junta42 blog (http://blog.junta42.com), The Content Marketing Revolution, which just cracked the AdAge Power 150. We also use various social media like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter on occasion. Finally, Newt Barrett and myself just published Get Content. Get Customers. which is THE handbook for content marketing (available at Amazon.com).

3. What kinds of content do you write or use to market your business?

You name it, we do it. We publish and write about research on the content marketing industry (http://www.junta42.com/resources/Business_to_Business_Custom_Publishing_Research/) through Junta42, as well as having about 40-50 content marketing-related articles or more per week come out of the Junta42 community and staff.

Consistent content is the driver of our entire business model. We also publish white papers. The first one was entitled "How to Attract and Retain Customers with Content NOW".

4. What sources, besides your own, do you use to find content?

We continually monitor the Junta42 Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs (Patsi’s note: we’re on this list!) to find out what’s going on in our industry. We are also members of the Custom Publishing Council (I’m on the board) and American Business Media (Vice Chair of the Custom Media Committee).

5. How much of yourself, your personality, your own experiences do you include?

I try to keep my own personality out of most of it except for the blog, which comes straight from my business experiences. I also have orange everywhere, which is, of course, my favorite color.

6. What kinds of results do you see from your online content? And which media (ezine, blog, articles, etc.) bring best results?

Important question. Overall, the blog and the Junta42 site have been the most important factors in creating the leading website in the content marketing industry. Our traffic continues to grow, and we’ve been able to launch products like Junta42 Match, which helps companies find content providers fast and easy.

None of that would have been possible without the regular, consistent content we generate.

If I had to pick one, it’s the blog. It was the springboard to launching the entire brand. It also has helped (me personally) gain speaking gigs across the country and internationally (I’ve had offers from both Belgium and Finland in the last few months).

In addition, the blog helped me generate the initial content for the book, which was recently acquired by a leading business book publisher (we initially self-published).

7. How much time do you spend daily writing or posting content on your blogs or sites?

Between myself and staff, I would say at least two hours per day, with many more hours reviewing content.

8. What advice would you give to others in your profession about using content for marketing?

Creating valuable, relevant and compelling content is necessary for the survival of all businesses.

Without great content, how can you effectively market your products and services and form relationships with your customers and prospects – when they can shut you out in seconds without giving you a chance?