I did an interesting experiment this week. The result was 1.1 million views, 3.6 thousand added followers, and a lot of sales to Compact Keywords, my SEO course.
And I’m convinced something similar can be replicated in most, if not all, industries.
Before I explain the experiment though, I have to give some background.
Jump Ahead
My system for coming up with viral social content
A few weeks ago I shared this: my system for coming up with viral social content.
In short – I’m using a spreadsheet to track hooks, subject matter, and benefits given for viral content in my niche.
Before I get into the experiment – I have to say – this has made one of the biggest differences in my content performance. I’ve improved FAST.
The simple act of writing out hooks and scripts from viral content has made me A LOT better at recognizing and coming up with more viral concepts. I wish I had done this sooner.
If you want visibility, I can’t recommend doing this enough, really.
Brian Dean’s Skyscraper Technique
Many years ago, the SEO legend, Brian Dean, came up with what he called the Skyscraper Technique.
Basically – make a massive SEO article – many thousands of words in length – that goes way deeper than any other SEO article targeting your keyword.
Don’t just answer the intent of the main keyword… answer it then go deep into what searchers will want next, and next, and next, and next. Go deep into everything related to the keyword. Above and beyond.
Make a damn skyscraper of an article.
The desired result is: you rank #1 for your target keyword, but also for hundreds or thousands of other related keywords – due to the depth of the article.
When Brian Dean introduced this concept in SEO – it went viral. Marketers, including myself, thought it was so cool.
So this week, years later, I started thinking, “What if I did the Skyscraper Technique for an IG Reel/TikTok?”
The experiment
I set out to make a massive IG Reel/TikTok tying together proven viral concepts from my spreadsheet with other tricks which I knew increased visibility.
For example, I previously wrote about how recording in cafés or restaurants makes videos do better. My self-conscious whispering and the background activity makes it feel like I’m about to share a big secret. I literally went to a café down the street for the sole purpose of making my video.
I ended up putting in 9 concepts that had previously gone viral into this one video:
- Recording in a café
- Spinning the camera from my face to computer screen mid-hook
- How to find the searches that ChatGPT is using
- How to use ChatGPT and the Detailed Chrome extension to write an SEO article
- How TL;DRs increase conversions by 33%
- A ChatGPT Custom Instruction prompt to humanize your writing
- How to use Google Search Console to find ranking pages with which to internal link from
- How to submit your new content to Google through Google Search Console
- Using all of this to ultimately get more coverage in ChatGPT while still pleasing existing users of your site
On Instagram, there is a 3 minute limit for content that will be put out to non-followers. So I had to keep the video under 3 minutes. It ended up being 2:47.
With ideation, recording, editing, and posting it ended up taking around 2 hours to make. Recording everything through a phone, instead of doing a screen recording, is a lot easier for editing.
The final product
Here’s the finished video:
At the end, because this video was so much longer than normal, and because I felt like I gave so much value, I plugged Compact Keywords a lot harder than in other videos. It’s a long plug, “Learn my exact method of doing search engine optimization that gets paying customers, users, and warm leads, pages that get recommended by AI, pages that show number one for your target keyword for years and years and years – learn my method at compactkeywords.com”
I built trust over the course of this long, deep video. That trust aided conversions a lot. I noticed a tangible increase in sales when this video started taking off – again, the video so far has received 1.1 million views.
Apply to your industry
I’m convinced this can be done in any industry.
Start your spreadsheet. Look at all creators in your niche. Track viral hooks, topics, and benefits given. Track everything with a lot of depth to improve your ability at making similar high-performing content.
Now actually make the content. String together many of the viral concepts you wrote down and maybe others which you think will be relevant and interesting.
Make something that goes deeper on your topic than other pieces of content.
And finally – sell your product/service at the end. You’ve earned that trust. Sell hard.
Selling your product/service
Speaking of selling your product or service at the end after building trust…
I already talked about my SEO course, Compact Keywords, a good deal in this article.
But here’s some testimonials from customers of the course:
“These pages drove an extra $3 million in revenue from organic search over the following year.”
– Dominick DeJoy
“Compact Keywords was able to pay for itself in about a month and nine days.”
– Angel Olavarria
“Booked about $100,000 of business through SEO in my first year with the Compact Keywords method.”
– Robert Brill
“Compact Keywords contributed to a $4,000 sale within the first six weeks.”
– Omar Abu-Shaaban
“I’m now ranking #1 on Google for 25+ keywords and hundreds on Bing – with a new site – after starting Compact Keywords only two months ago. Everyone needs to take this. You will see results you can’t even comprehend.”
– Jacob Darrah
“Give it to a junior employee, have them follow it exactly as Edward’s laid out, and you’re going to gain a six-figure SEO-level employee just by having them go through this course.”
– Jon Ray
“Now I have more than 20 pages ranking #1 and #2 for my company.”
– Alejandro Morelli
“I bought Edward’s course a couple months ago. Recently I got my first sale from my high-ticket dropshipping store. The sale was $500. I did the bare minimum just to test the strategy.”
– Kristijonas Grigauskas
Get Compact Keywords for your website at https://edwardsturm.com/compact-keywords/
