Off the Page #1: Jonathan Bass
David McCarthy
In this first edition of Off the Page, Jonathan Bass, growth marketing manager at Urban SDK, reveals what SEO content is really for, why content marketers with generalized skills may impact the business more than specialists, and what non-content marketers misunderstand about creating content.
Meet Jonathan Bass
Full disclaimer: Jonathan and I worked together on the content marketing team at RevenueWell. And full disclaimer: he may be one of the most talented content marketers I’ve worked with, not to mention one of the best teammates I’ve ever had.
He makes content better, individuals better, teams betters, and culture better.
His professional experience is enviably diverse—and prolific. He was the managing editor at FanSide, a premier sports blog network, where he scaled the publication to reach 22 million unique users before he left. He then optimized another digital sports media outlet’s operations, leading to a 125% traffic increase in less than 18 months.
He ventured into health care next. At RevenueWell, a high-growth Chicago-based dental marketing software company, he launched the company’s first official content-marketing program and managed dozens [hundreds?] of content-driven initiatives. Earlier this year, he took on a new role: growth marketing manager at Urban SDK.
As Jonathan references below, nowadays, creativity (and value) comes from synthesizing disparate subject matter and skills. His answers demonstrate just how deft he is at doing that.
Off the Page with Jonathan Bass
Tell me about a recent piece of content (you didn't create) that made you jealous.The New York Times’ look at a California homeless camp. If you didn't know this was Oakland, you'd swear it was a third-world country. It's the one piece of content that's really stuck with me.
Source: New York Times
What content marketing skill or tool are you learning this year?
All things Intercom.
Which other brand’s content do you admire most?
I love HubSpot. They have an answer for anything I ever need, which, to me, is the perfect use for organic content marketing.
If you could recommend one book to every content marketer, what would it be?
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein. Great content marketers know a lot about a lot, and can work across all parts of an organization. Epstein's book will make you feel confident in having a broad skill set.
Which individual or organization would you love to collaborate with on a content project?
I'd love to work with FiveThirtyEight, mapping the rise and fall of traffic flows in states during the pandemic.
“Having an answer for anything your customer needs is the perfect use for organic content marketing.”
What don’t non-content marketers understand about content?
The stretching and shrinking of one's brain to be both analytical and creative (and that creativity isn't a light switch).
What part of the content-marketing workflow do you wish went faster?
Keyword research.
What do you consider the most underrated type of content?
A beautifully researched and presented case study.
“Great content marketers know a lot about a lot, and can work across all parts of an organization.”
What type of content marketing do you secretly hope goes extinct soon?
Backlinking — there's just not enough time in the day.
Which content marketing talent would you most like to have?
I've worked with design teams that are miracle workers. To have 1/100 of their skill in InDesign would be incredible.
What is your most treasured content marketing tool?
Wordcounter.net is my everything.
Source: WordCounter.net
What do you most value in your teammates?
Open communication and the ability to conceptualize a project from ideation to completion.
When you hang up your content-marketing hat(s), what one word do you hope colleagues and clients will use to describe you?
Collaborative.
About the Off the Page series
Legend had it that Marcel Proust, a French novelist, had a list of twenty questions that could reveal a person’s true nature. Vanity Fair later adopted and popularized the questions for a series of interviews with cultural figures and celebrities.
Off the Page (probably) won’t reveal any of these have-to-follow marketers’ true nature. But it hopefully uncovers attributes, points of view, and experiences worth learning from.
Who else should Off the Page Feature?
Recommend a content marketer for a future edition of Off the Page.