3-2-1 Fridays: repurposing case studies, using an SME for E-E-A-T, and writing original intros

Hey friend, welcome to today’s issue of Efikó. This newsletter by Dozie Anyaegbunam helps you curate content marketing and life insights from across the web. Anyway, hello, it’s good to see you. You’re doing great 😀

Hi there, superstars!

How has your week been?

It’s been an intense one for the family and me.

Ronan spent all of Sunday night at the Children’s Hospital.

Then Dodo had a procedure on Tuesday. Now, that went well.

But it was traumatizing to watch him struggle with the anesthesia as the effects wore off. The most horrific thing to watch is your child suffer (even temporarily), and you can’t do much except cuddle and tell them you love them.

The good news is he’s healing up nicely. I have been deep in post-surgery care for the past three days.

On the content side of things, I am still building out The Department of Content. And will share it with you all soon.

Let’s get into today’s insights!

1. Storytelling with case studies

Insight from Lashay J. Lewis.

I love writing case studies. But more often than not, they can feel restrictive because you can only re-use them for so much.

As quotes on social. Or as inserts on a blog post.

Well, Lashay shared a brilliant tactic for repurposing your case studies. I am currently working on it with our case studies/customer stories.

And you should too. Here goes:

1. Pick a BOFU keyword that’s relevant to your sales motion. For example, I might use “best lead generation software.”

2. Understand the use case. What does this mean for your target audience(s)? This is an excellent time to speak to your sales team, the customer success team, or the customer support team if you have one.

3. Here’s the fun part. Find some case studies (Lashay recommends 4) that match the use cases.

   • Give a brief overview of the company and the pain points that brought them your way

   • Show how your product solved these issues

   • Use real numbers, customer quotes, or anything that adds more credibility to the piece

4. Repeat for the three other case studies.

You end up with not just a product-focused article. But an essay that’s

• Product focused

• Shows how your product solves their use case

• Has customer quotes

• And verifiable ROI numbers

• While still looking to rank for the keyword

What could be better?

Maybe yam and eggs fried in cheese!

2. Cracking E-E-A-T by using an SME

Insight from Ahrefs.

ChatGPT and the resulting A.I. writing tools that have flooded the market means incorporating the Experience factor of Google’s E-E-A-T became doubly important.

One way to do it?

Invite a subject matter expert to write on your blog.

Aside from the benefit of the SME acting as a distribution node, you signal to Google that your blog contains deep expertise on the topic.

Bonus points if you find an SME who’s well-known in the industry. Your audience starts to see your blog as a source of authoritative insights. And spend more time on your content.

This also signals to Google that your blog is good to show on the SERPs when someone else searches for that topic.

Here’s an example on UserGems:

3. Writing original intros

Insight from Beam Content.

There are tons of advice out on the interweb on writing good intros.

So, apologies for trotting another out. But this tip by the folks at Beam Content is simple but genius. And it is:

Be curious.

Keep a swipe file of fun anecdotes, analogies, odd or exciting metaphors, surprising comparisons, and quirky facts.

Read widely.

And keep a journal for interesting thoughts that cross your mind.

Think of these as a mental inspiration folder you can pull out anytime you write.

2 things I am thinking about

i.

ii.

One book recommendation

V2 of Erica Schneider’s Book of Hooks is out. If you are looking for a library of hook examples and frameworks you can use on Twitter and LinkedIn or a step-by-step process for turning a general idea into a specific hook, Erica’s got you covered.

Thanks for reading to the end. You all make writing this newsletter worth the trouble.

Be good out there. If you can't be good, be careful.

I'll return on 4/14 with a Friday Deep Dive.

Dozie.

P.S.: If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing it on LinkedIn or with a friend.