Content Marketing All-Stars Q&A: Christopher Carfi of GoDaddy
What makes GoDaddy’s content marketing exceptional is that it succeeds across the spectrum.
The domain registration, web hosting, and online services provider stands out by being able to consistently develop both huge, comprehensive offerings (step-by-step e-books that can reach 100+ pages in length) as well as much smaller, highly-targeted pieces (a wealth of blog posts, infographics, etc.).
Recently we chatted with Christopher Carfi, Director of Content Marketing at GoDaddy, to learn how the company creates this diverse array of content and to find out which metrics, tools, and distribution channels he relies on to get the job done.
Check out the Q&A below:
Q: What is your role at GoDaddy? And what role does content play for the company?
A: I head up our content marketing efforts. So, I am looking after a range of content, including everything we are doing on our domestic blog as well as heading up strategy for our international blog.
The content we are creating for the blogs appears all over the GoDaddy universe, including in emails, across various parts of the site, on product pages, and more.
With our content we are looking to educate and inform our prospective customers in such a way that lets them find answers to the questions they’re asking and, where appropriate, to guide them to learn more about how GoDaddy can help them succeed.
The focus is on individuals and small businesses that have a venture they are trying to start or trying to bring online. We’re looking to help with their online presence in setting up a website and their domain, and also with their email, bookkeeping, and the other host of services we provide.
Q: We’re big fans of the blog. Can you talk a bit about how it came about and what the goals are?
A: The blog is intended to be a resource for small businesses and individuals who are starting online ventures.
When I started here at GoDaddy about three years ago, we didn’t even have a blog. We mainly had product pages. People knew exactly what they were looking for and came to us to purchase that, but they didn’t come for tools and resources. If they had questions like: How do I start a blog? Or, how do I pick the best domain name? There were not places they could go on our site to get those answers.
So, over the past three years or so, we've building up that base of content. Now we've got a host of articles as well as lots of other deeper, richer resources, like e-books. An e-book for us can be 50, 75, even 100 pages of detailed, useful content. These are educational resources, not sales pieces.
Internationally, we have a number of different teams in different geographies. We’ve come up with a process where our team is sort of the center of excellence around content marketing for GoDaddy. Those international groups outside of the U.S. have the ability to go out and create the content that’s going to be most useful and relevant to their audiences; but there’s also a way of doing things that’s consistent across the business.
Q: How do you ensure your content reaches the right audiences? Do you use both organic and paid distribution channels?
A: A lot of our traffic comes from organic search. We are focused on creating things that people want to read and therefore which the search engines find relevant.
We also have a lot of owned resources such as email lists and websites in various geographies.
As for external distribution, it's primarily through social and some paid amplification.
Historically, the main thing that we've focused on is trying to get people to the site. So, SEO and organic search have been our primary tactics, but we are always looking for other places where individuals can get access to our content. We’re always exploring other options.
Q: How do you measure the success of your content? Which metrics do you pay close attention to?
A: The primary focus has been around organic traffic to the site, so the main thing we want to ensure is that our content is very relevant. We watch to make sure that the articles that we're creating are rich, informative, fast to load, work across devices, and are answering the questions that people are asking.
Additionally, we watch behavior once someone comes to our site. We want to know if they are going to take advantage of other assets, and that we’re following up with potential leads and prospects.
It’s pretty straightforward: traffic, conversions, and revenue.
Q: Are there any tools or platforms that you find especially helpful with your content creation or distribution?
A: Well, one interesting thing is that our blog is a GoDaddy Managed WordPress site. We run it on the same infrastructure that we provide for our customers because we want to explore how far we can take it.
We want to make sure that we understand what the capabilities are of our WordPress offering and to really focus on customer empathy. We want a direct line to the things that our customers are experiencing so that we can continue to iterate and improve.
The experience has been fantastic. We publish 50 to 100 pieces a month and we’re using literally the same system that a small venture would be using.
Q: Final question: Do you have a few pieces of GoDaddy content that you think showcase what you guys do well?
A: Two come to mind.
The first is a blog post and accompanying e-book we published last year on how to get your small business online. It is full of knowledge, useful tips, and inspiration that our customers can take advantage of.
The other one is a series of pieces that we created on how to start a WordPress maintenance business. It has been downloaded thousands and thousands and thousands of times. We realized that we have a large audience of designers and developers who use GoDaddy’s products to create websites. The e-book helps them get out of that feast-or-famine grind of being a freelancer. It gives them the tools they need to build a business with recurring revenue. Then there are accompanying webinars, checklists, and other tools.
We’ve gotten a great response to both of those because they are rich and valuable; they answer the questions our audiences are asking.
