Tommy Walker - Former Shopify Plus editor-in-chief on creating industry leading content

Tommy Walker never really wanted to be a writer, but when his family was on the verge of homelessness he used the storytelling tricks he learned from years in acting and film to become a content marketing guru. In this episode, he shares those strategies with us — but chances are you’ve gotten advice from him before. As editor-in-chief at Shopify Plus, CXL, and Quickbooks, he led the creation of top-performing content that helped position those brands as leaders in their respective industries. Plus, he’s contributed to other online publications like Unbounce, Smashing Magazine, Crazyegg, and more. So if you work in ecommerce, you’ve probably read something Tommy helped produce.  You’ll learn:

• Only invest in content with measurable outcomes
• How to truly put yourself in your customers’ shoes and understand what they want
• Bobbing and weaving: how to use startup agility to compete with the big guys
• The importance of building out a weekly content calendar
• How to use storytelling intrigue to break the mold
• How Tommy used his acting background to break into ecommerce marketing
• Writing: Practice makes perfect

Links and resources

• Maryville University - 54% of readers trust blogs over brand 
• Clearscope - Optimizing your content for SEO 
• The Ultimate SEO Tutorial For 2020 by Backlinko - Basics of SEO
• Andy Crestodina on Internal link building - SEO ranking hack
• Screaming Frog - Mapping out links
• Story by Robert McKee - Tommy Walker’s “storytelling tome”
• Hooked by Nir Eyal - Silicon Valley thought leader

Brands mentioned

• Beardbrand 
• The Hundreds
• Urban Outfitters
• Zappos
• Warby Parker