Why Creating Good Content Is Necessary (With Lisa Lepki)

Welcome to the Marketing Growth podcast. I’m your host, Shane Barker, and today I’m going to continue my conversation with Lisa Lepki, the Chief Marketing Officer of ProWritingAid.

For those of you just joining us today, let me give you a little recap. Previously, we touched upon her professional career and also discussed the growth story of ProWritingAid. Today, I want to talk to her about content creation and her ideation process. Let’s get the conversation started.

Lisa, what’s your take on content creation and ideation? Do you think brands should invest more money in creating good content?

Yeah, once you find a good funnel of content that you created—especially if you can dominate in Google for certain terms—and a lot of times you don’t even know, you know? You go write a piece of content and all of a sudden it starts getting traction.

Because we obviously, from the SEO side of things, we’re a little more strategic about the content we put out now. But seven or eight years ago, I was just writing to write. I knew there was an issue here, a problem, and we had to get the solution out there. Or we didn’t figure out the solution and I’d tell the whole world what we did and what didn’t work.

And I’ve interviewed people on the podcast that talk about these articles they wrote five, six years ago that still index well and are now their number one revenue generators. Some of those were intentional—you’re going after keywords—and some were just solving a pain point.

No, trust me, I know. So how do you guys create that type of content? Is it something where you go, “Hey, we think this is an issue”? Do you do more SEO-type stuff, like look at keyword phrases? Or do you talk to the community and write content about what they’re dealing with?

So it’s a nice fusion, yeah. I mean, obviously you guys have probably some of the best writers, right? It doesn’t get better than a pool of 1.5 million users—pretty sure they like writing or are at least interested in it.

So how much content are you guys producing monthly?

It doesn’t get any better than that. You have a pool of people that are the best writers in the world who listen to you. And if you need them, you just send out the bat signal—and everybody shows up.

Yeah, doesn’t get any better than that, for sure. So do you guys have any other projects you’re working on?

It sounds like the good thing about it is you have this phenomenal foundation of users. You’re now adding more videos and education so writers can improve over time.

The idea is they might eventually become amazing writers with no issues—which probably isn’t realistic—but what else are you working on that either plays into what you already have or is something outside of it?

Yeah. Once you’ve built a community like that—it’s awesome. We’ve built Facebook groups for clients, and it’s the absolute best when you have a new feature coming out or someone has a question, and someone else from the community answers it before you do. You’ve made it when that happens.

That’s when you know you’ve built a great community—when people have your back like that. Somebody has a bad day, writes something, and the community checks them in a nice way.

Not hateful, just supportive—like, “Hey, we’re all here to support each other. Maybe you’re having a bad day, but don’t take it out on Lisa and the crew. Come on.”

We’re giving you a free tool, for God’s sake! What more do you want? This is all free, folks.

Yeah, why would you need to make money? I’m so confused. You’re not doing this out of the kindness of your heart? You would’ve done this when you were in the Philippines for free.

No salary needed!

But that was a long time ago. Now guess what—we have mortgages, families. I know, shocker. Who knew?

If 1.5 million people just gave you $1—just think about that. That’s… yeah. Talk about numbers. $2? Let’s not be greedy. Or $3? No, no. Why not? Everybody needs to eat, right?

You’ve got a comedy show to go to tonight. I mean, we need drinks, lobster. We’ve got to live the good life, exactly.

So we’ve touched a little bit on what the future holds for ProWritingAid—is there anything we’ve missed? Any fun stuff coming down the pipeline? Anything you can tell us, or maybe shouldn’t but will anyway?

Yeah, and I think that’s the key— you don’t have to make decisions on money right away. It’s like, “Hey, this is our audience, we know this is our audience.” And because of the level you guys are at now, the relationships you’re building— once again, doors you knocked on three years ago that weren’t answering, now you’re like, “Hey, this is what we’re bringing to the table,” and they go, “Wow, you guys are a legit platform.”

Like, we need to have you guys involved. I think it’s nice to have that feeling because you’ve been working so long to create it. It takes a while.

Sounds like strategic partnerships, right? That’s kind of the key— if they have the same goals you have of really helping people become better writers, then that’s what you’re looking for.

And I think the webinars— I’ve done a lot this past month. It’s kind of crazy. We used to do a lot of speaking events, and then we were like, “Let’s just start doing webinars.” I’ve done webinars in the past, but this past month I’ve done like nine or ten. I feel like I’m always presenting.

But for me, because of the current state of the world, with COVID and everything, I feel like I need to get the word out sooner to help businesses and be able to get information out there faster.

So okay, cool. So we know about you, Lisa. We know about ProWritingAid, right? I feel like we’re solid there.

So now we’re going to ask some of the hard questions. There’s no time limit, but I’ll let you know— these are smart ones. Just make sure you’re ready. I don’t know if you need to stretch out or anything.

Okay, you look ready. I didn’t want to bring it up in this podcast, so nobody knows what you look like, but she does look ready. I will confirm that.

So— if there was one place you could travel in the world for free, and we’ll say COVID-free too, where would it be? I know you’ve done some traveling—Vietnam, Calgary, all the fun stuff— where would you go?

I’ve been to Thailand—Koh Samui— just beautiful. Great food, great people. Went with my dad and my brother. Nothing but a good time.

So that’s what you’re doing for your son, and maybe next—

This is going to be a weird question, but I’m 45 and I’m looking for new parents. If you guys are doing those kinds of trips, I’m just saying— I’m a little old, kind of like an old dog nobody wants to adopt, but I’m letting you know, if you want to take me on a trip, I do have some ideas. I’ve got a list of 20 places.

I didn’t want to bring it up, but I’m glad you did. I feel it now, I feel more comfortable. At the beginning I was like, “Should I ask her about adoption and where she’d take me if I joined the family?” Obviously you have to talk to your husband—lots of details to work out—but we can figure that out outside the podcast.

Another thing— if you could have any superpower, what would it be? My wife wants to move the elements— like water, fire, all that stuff. She watches a lot of sci-fi.

What would your superpower be?

Yeah. Why not? That’s not too bad.

I would think you could. You’ve got to bundle it all up. Maybe just convince yourself and do it.

Let me know if it works. I remember in college, I had a stuffed animal that flew—oh, that’s right, I was drinking. That’s why I thought it was flying. It was moving, but so was the whole room. Another conversation.

All right, last question. I like to ask everybody this: if you could have dinner with three people, dead or alive, who would they be?

For sure. That guy is funny. He is funny. He absolutely is.

I gotta be honest. I think I’d want to be at your table. That sounds like it would be a good night. You’re all about the comedy, right?

Yeah, let’s have a good time. You’re going to a comedy show—I couldn’t imagine Winston being at that table. You’ve already got Tina, Trevor—it’s going to be fun. I’m sure there’d be alcohol involved. For sure.

Cool. So if anyone wanted to get in contact with you or learn more about ProWritingAid, where can they go?

That’s awesome. Lisa, this was fun. I mean, I knew it was going to be fun—I didn’t know it was going to be this fun. I surprise myself sometimes. I knew in the beginning this was going to be a good one, folks.

Thank you so much for being a guest. We were excited when you said yes.

So, cool. That was our episode with Lisa. If you want more info about ProWritingAid, you’ll find it below. As for Lisa’s email—you’ve got to listen for that. But we’ll definitely share the website.

Lisa, thank you so much again for being a guest.

Next week, we’ll be back with another interesting guest and an engaging conversation. Stay tuned to Shane Barker’s Marketing Growth Podcast.