Content Marketing Case Study: Drive engagement, SEO, and GEO

In one of my previous content marketing roles, our marketing team faced a bit of a dilemma. Our YouTube podcast content wasn’t really gaining the traction we were hoping for. At this point in time, the podcast focused largely on niche industry interviews. It was good, solid content! However, it wasn’t clicking with algorithms or audiences at the level we wanted. There were a few things we specifically wanted to accomplish:

  • Getting featured more in YouTube’s algorithm
  • Increasing prominence in SEO (search engine optimization)
  • Increasing AI shoutouts through GEO (generative engine optimization)
  • Increasing website traffic, clicks, and lead generation

Here’s a look at what we did, how it turned out, and lessons learned.

P.S. If you need a content marketing expert to boost your own brand awareness or conversions, reach out to me!

Pivoting to different podcast content

The Marketing Director and I held a brainstorming session. We came to the conclusion that adding news to our podcast segments could be the gamechanger we were looking for. We immediately pivoted and began sourcing news to add to our podcast. There were three main criteria we used for news selection. It had to be…

  • Getting a lot of buzz
  • Relevant to the industry
  • Something we could provide a unique perspective on

Incorporating the news itself was not too difficult. We aggregated several top stories of the week and discussed them during our usual podcast development call. Then we moved forward with what we saw as the top three stories of the week.

We largely put interviews on the backburner during this period – which were more development intensive. This actually cut down on the commitment and resources required for each podcast episode. This translated to more consistent publishing – which made our content more relevant and timely.

Additional content marketing pivots

Around the same time this was happening, I was sourcing other ways to increase brand awareness and website traffic.

Building longform blog articles from our podcasts

One thing I began doing was turning each podcast into a full-blown longform article on our website (previously we had only posted short synopses alongside an embedded YouTube video widget).

This was achieved using a few key AI tools – which greatly cut down on the time required to develop the articles. That said, a final review and edit is always necessary – whether your writers are human or AI-assisted.

Adding more video shorts and shorter longform video segments to our content pipeline

In addition to creating longform blog articles, I decided to start breaking our longform podcasts into smaller segments. The titles, descriptions, and content for these videos were geared toward answering relevant questions likely to be asked by our target audience. In addition to posting these on YouTube, they also got associated longform blog articles on our website.

We also used an AI-assisted video editor to reduce the development of video shorts while increasing the number of clips we were producing. This gave us a wealth of content to work with on social media, making posts across our channels more consistent.

Key use of boosted posts on YouTube

Additionally, on YouTube, we did a few small post boosts when we released content. The aim of this was to increase our subscriber count. We largely targeted secondary markets to save money. The thinking was that channels with a lower subscriber count wouldn’t be seen as as trustworthy as channels with a higher subscriber count – regardless of content quality.

With a negligible amount of money over a roughly one month period we managed to boost our subscriber count substantially, from hundreds to over 3,000 – improving our brand trustworthiness and visibility.

The results of our content marketing pivot on engagement, SEO, and GEO

The results of this overall pivot in strategies spoke for themselves. We saw…

  • More views and longer watch times on YouTube
  • More clicks, website traffic, and lead generation
  • Much higher SEO ranking on valuable keywords
  • More prominence in AI-generated answers to questions
  • More prominence with Google Snippets

Overall, these tweaks led to a huge success in what we set out to do!

Optimizing content for lead generation

The results of these pivots definitely showed we were on the right path. However, while focusing on news proved positive for visibility and brand awareness, it did not do as well in regard to lead generation. Throughout this process, we continued to test, iterate, and measure – and started honing in on content that connected better to qualified leads, specifically.

Help others with unique content only you can provide

There are a few things I would continue to tweak and refine, based on what we were seeing in our routine data analysis, if given the chance. If I were to distill everything though, it would be this: The content actually needed to pivot away from news and focus on relevant answers to pressing issues and concerns – particularly with the analytical insights, experiences, and expertise only our company could offer.

This is a best practice for search engine optimization (SEO). It’s also an emerging best practice for generative engine optimization (GEO). Aside from that, it just makes sense to showcase this capability if you want to connect with the people who need your products or services.

Content marketing collaboration is key

In my view, it is paramount for a marketing team to have access to a company’s internal experts, existing clients, and industry partners – so that they can collaborate with these stakeholders to pull data, build narratives, and provide deeply relevant insights for those most in need of it: Established and prospective consumers and clients!

This is what content marketing is all about, after all. Helping people out – whether it’s by connecting someone to a vital piece of knowledge, a vital tool, or a vital service provider.

I’m a big believer in building community and helping people – and I believe that’s the best way to approach content marketing, too.

Reach out to get content and campaigns that build brand awareness and convert!