Freelance Content Marketing Consultant For Hire: Mihael D. Cacic

Hi, my name is Mihael 👋

I’m a freelance content marketing consultant, strategist, and SEO writer helping SaaS & service businesses get more customers from their blogs.

I’ve worked with quite a few high-profile clients like Sujan Patel, Insider, Mailshake, VoilaNorbert, Rightinbox, etc., and got pretty awesome results:

… I grew this blog from 19 to over 560 (June 2022) monthly signups after a 3-year stalemate.

Note: we’re talking direct traffic-to-product-trial signups here; which directly translate to a seven-figure profit for this client.

Would you like me to do similar for you?

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First, use my automatic Online Pricing Calculator to get a price range for my services.

Contact

Then schedule a 5-minute call with me using this link and let’s see if we truly are a great fit 🙂

During the past year, I’ve developed two signature processes for how I do content marketing. I’m proud to say that after a lot of trial and error, these two processes solve two biggest challenges in content marketing in 2021:

1.) Content Strategy Challenge: how to pick topics that attract wallet-ready customers to your business (and not ask-holes, struggle bunnies, or tire kickers).

2.) Content Writing Challenge: How to write advanced, specialized articles that rank high on Google and show visitors that your company is the industry leader on the topic.

I offer both of these signature strategies as part of my content marketing consulting offer, but before I make my pitch I want to talk more about them so you know exactly what you’re getting into.

(Note: the third challenge in content marketing is the challenge of content distribution: either through link building, ad buying, or audience sharing… This is something I’m currently dabbling with but I can’t claim I’ve developed any signature strategies around this just yet. Although I do offer classic white-hat link building as part of my consulting offer but more on that later.)

The “Lean Content” Strategy is a collection of principles and mental models that I use to find high-converting article topics for my clients.

I developed this content marketing strategy because I was following the generic advice of targeting “high-volume, low-KD” keywords… Sure, I was getting traffic, but nearly no one was converting.

That’s because I was focusing on top-of-the-funnel content…

And top-of-the-funnel content has very low buying intent.

To compensate for that, most content marketers create complex email marketing systems on top of their blogs. The idea is that they’ll attract a huge audience with top-of-the-funnel content, collect their emails, and slowly nurture them to become customers.

Don’t get me wrong, this approach works…

IF you’re willing to invest 2-3 years into content marketing, be very aggressive with link building, and develop a complex email marketing system on top of your blog.

And even if you do, realize that you’ll be playing the “double waiting game”.

First, you’ll wait months (or years) for your content to rank…

Then you’ll wait months for your email leads to warm up and convert into customers.

That’s a lot of time before you see any money.

(And even then it’s a big IF… After all, you can’t know beforehand that your content is good enough to rank or that your email sequence is good enough to convert.)

Instead, I prefer to stay “lean” and write only bottom and middle-of-the-funnel articles that I know for sure will get organic traffic with a very high buying intent and convert right from the blog.

Sure, they don’t have as many organic searches…

But they also have little competition since everyone is focusing on high-volume keywords. And because there’s little competition, these articles attract very few passive backlinks so they rank muuuuch faster than top-of-the-funnel content.

“But doesn’t my customer need nurturing?”

Yeah, but you don’t have to be the one doing the nurturing. We can let other companies nurture the market for us. After all, the customers don’t care where they get their education, they just want a great offer to appear in front of them when they’re ready to buy.

Here’s an example of the “lean content” strategy in action:

The articles underlined with purple are top-of-the-funnel content produced by my client before they got me as their freelance content marketer. The articles marked with red were made by me. Notice the insane conversion rate. Again, these are direct blog-to-free-trial conversions so no need for any kind of email marketing here.

Sure, after I’m done writing all bottom and middle-of-the-funnel content for this client I’ll start focusing on top-of-the-funnel content and start building an email system on top. But by the time that happens, this client will get enough passive blog conversions to more than cover my monthly consulting fees.

If you want to learn how to apply the “lean content” strategy to your business, I’ve written a 5000-word behemoth of an article right here. Read it and do it yourself — you don’t need me if you just put in the time…

But if you have other stuff to do, then send me an email to Mihael@21writers.com and I’ll help you out 🙂

“Increased our blog conversions by 220%”

“Mihael completely transformed our blog and optimized it for conversions. His eye for detail is incredible and knows exactly how to create a blog that attracts customers. Highly recommend working with him.”

David Campbell
Marketing Strategist — Right Inbox

“He solved our whole marketing problem.”

“Not only has Mihael written impressive texts, he is also a remarkable visionary, planner and strategist. Through analysis, he quickly created a comprehensive content plan and started solving our problems one by one and step by step. I can only talk in superlatives about him.”

Simon Sanda
CEO — Illuspire

“He is smart, honest, thorough, and very easy to work with.”

“We love working with Mihael. As a startup, we needed it all: strategy, content, style, and everything in between. Mihael is smart, honest, thorough, and very easy to work with. A perfect mix of listening and advising — without him, we would be lost!”

Crist Khachikian
Founder — GrantPuma

“I couldn’t recommend him enough!”

“Mihael’s insights on content strategy is a breath of fresh air. He is very articulate and passionate about what he does and it shows in the quality of his work. After just a few strategy calls, I had a clear content marketing plan of how to market my agency. I couldn’t recommend him enough!”

Imani Roberts
Founder — Copywriters Corner

“21writers is a one-stop if you’re looking for marketing help!”

“Mihael is an amazing guy and a great content specialist! I’m so happy to work with him and really impressed by his knowledge and expertise in content strategy, planning and writing. 21writers is a one-stop if you’re looking for professional content marketing help!”

Andriy Zapisotskyi
Growth Marketing Lead — Mailtrap

Next, besides having a signature process for identifying high-converting topic ideas, I also have a signature process for writing highly specialized and advanced articles.

I call it the “9-step” writing framework and it helps my articles get a ton of conversions and rank super fast:

What you’re seeing here is an article I wrote for my client back in late June. This article started getting decent traffic (for a bottom-of-the-funnel blog post) after only one month. By month three, this article became the most profitable post on my client’s blog.

Now I suspect that this isn’t the case for you.

In fact, your experience with content marketing is better described like this:

You’ve taken a perfectly fine keyword and had someone write the article for you… but after a few months, all you get is crickets. The content isn’t ranking, and the tiny stream of traffic that you’re getting out of sheer luck isn’t reading the article from start to finish — and they definitely aren’t getting excited about your product. You don’t know what to do. It’s frustrating. Content marketing sucks. But you already invested so much. So you decide to invest some more: publish more long-form content, invest in expensive conversion rate optimization, and hope that everything will pay off in a couple of years… After all, SEO takes time. Right?

Well, yes and no.

If you’re convinced you’ve picked the right keywords for your business (according to my “lean content” strategy) but Google isn’t making any attempts at ranking your piece or you aren’t getting any conversions then the problem is in the articles you’re publishing.

And it’s not your fault.

It’s the fault of the content marketing agency that’s writing these fluff pieces for you.

They outsource article creation to content farms that have inexperienced writers read the top 10 Google results on the topic and basically write a 2000-word summary on what they learned that afternoon.

Now let me ask you two questions…

1.) Why would Google replace any of the top 10 articles with a summary on them?

An article like that adds nothing new to the web, so Google will ignore it. But even if it doesn’t, by the time your summary ranks, a dozen other companies will publish the same kinds of summaries making your article even more obsolete.

2.) Why would people trust you’re the expert when you’ve shown no expertise in the article?

The writers that content agencies employ aren’t real experts in your field.

(If they were, they wouldn’t be writers.)

That means the person who wrote your article has NO idea, no hands-on experience with the topic. An article like that doesn’t have the specific little details needed to make the reader think “Oh shit, these people know what they’re talking about: only an expert would know these kinds of details… I better stick around and learn more.”

It’s like selling enterprise CRM software to 20-year sales veterans… Or diet plans for bodybuilders… Or productivity consulting to poker players…

…and you’re having fresh-out-of-college newbies write content for you.

How can they possibly impress your ideal target audience and help you win the content marketing game?

They can’t, unless…

They follow my “9-step” Writing Framework.

With this framework, you can create expert-level articles even if you know nothing about the topic.

It works because of one major mindset shift: the writer takes on the role of a journalist.

So instead of forcing the writer to become an expert overnight, you get the writer to interview an actual expert on the topic and let his or her wisdom drive the piece.

It takes the pressure off the writer and lets her focus on what she’s really good at… Putting a structure around information and shaping it into a compelling story.

That way, you can produce advanced, specialized content for any business in any industry… The kind of quality content that outranks fluff pieces and instills trust in visitors.

The 9-step framework goes beyond just that — in fact, interviewing an expert is only step #6. If you want to learn more about this process, I have an entire article written about it here. But I’ve included a summary of the 9 steps below so you can see the scope of it:

1. Find high-converting topic ideas — we already discussed this in the previous section on the “lean content” strategy.
2. SERP analysis — type your keyword in Google, read the top 10 results, and write down what they do good and what they do bad. This will give you a concrete idea about what you need to do to beat your competition. (30 minutes per article: 5-10 hours total)
3. Topic ideation — after analyzing what’s on the market, think of an angle for your article that will be more unique and more interesting than what your competition wrote. (30-60 minutes)
4. Brainstorm ways to create even better content — now find 20 more ways you can make your blog content unique based on your intuition for what your target audience wants. We can’t just be following what other companies are doing. We need to walk our own path. (1-2 hours)
5. Outline the article — Take all your ideas and structure them in an outline. Explain exactly what you’ll write under each section. (1-2 hours)
6. Interview an expert — Run your outline in a form of questions through an expert on the topic. Look for unique insights then tweak your outline to include this wisdom in your article. After this, re-do your outline. (2-4 hours)
7. Write & Edit — Write the piece. Include the ideas you brainstormed and everything you’ve learned from the expert. For each claim that you make explain why, show how, give examples, and provide data. (1 hour per 250 words)
8. Optimize for engagement & conversions — Design the article so that it pulls the reader in. Include CTAs in three different places across your article. (1-2 hours)
9. Do on-page SEO and NLP optimization — Finally, optimize your article for search engines. Also, make sure your article has an “above average” score in any NLP optimization program: Frase, Clearscope, or SurferSEO. (1-2 hours)

Now doing this helps you create something that’s original, interesting, in-depth, and useful as hell.

But writing quality content like this takes time… About 20 to 40 hours per piece — and it definitely can’t be outsourced to a content farm.

So if you don’t have the time, patience, or expertise for doing this yourself, send me an email at Mihael@21writers.com and I can help you out.

“Mihael always delivers value packed content”

“Most writers are garbage. Good thing Mihael isn’t most writers. He always delivers actionable, insightful, and value packed content making it a no-brainer to work with him. If you’re looking for a content writer or strategist, you’d be crazy to not give Mihael a call.”

Lucas Wollschlager
Marketing Expert — Baremetrics

“Best agency work I’ve read!”

“I am so happy we got in touch with Mihael. He did a phenomenal job on our articles. He has a wonderful attitude and can-do spirit! Kudos! Here’s to a bright future together!”

Lia Schmidt
VP of Content Marketing — Insider.

“His techniques actually work”

“Mihael is great. All his writing is top-notch and the link building techniques he employs actually work (unlike a lot of other link builders that don’t care if it looks spammy or is completely irrelevant). Quick, thorough, effective and very friendly – a solid recommendation for anybody looking to hire a content marketer.”

Vlad Orlov
Brand Partnerships — Respona

“A true long-form master.”

“I’ve worked with Mihael on a number of projects and he always overdelivered. He’s a perfectionist that makes sure every word and sentence is in the right place and isn’t fluff. The real kind of stuff that attracts links and moves the needle. A true long-form master.”

Vikas Kalwani
Mentor — 500 Startups

“Mihael is a content writer extraordinaire!”

“Mihael is a content writer extraordinaire! He writes with clarity and ease, which makes it easy for his audience to understand what he’s talking about. Michael has the rare ability to take complicated topics and turn them into digestible chunks of advice that are actionable, insightful, and full of value. If you’re looking for someone who can take your business’ blog to new heights — then it sounds like Mihael might be just what you need!”

Marija Mladenovska
Content Manager — DigitalNovas

Freelance content marketing consultants have flexible services, they can either be there as mentors and:

• Give you feedback on your writing, content, or SEO strategy.
• Coach you one-on-one until you’re ready to do content marketing solo.
• Consult you on what to do to improve your on-page, off-page, and technical SEO.
• Educate you on content marketing in general and the deeper principles behind it.
• Give you tactical advice on what kind of link building campaigns to run

Or they can get their hands dirty and:

• Write monthly articles for you
• Do content strategy for you, write briefs for the writers, and oversee the content calendar.
• Build a set number of links for you every month

Whatever suits you best!

“Mihael in 3 words: Genius. Witty. Quick. Brilliant”

“That was actually 4 words, but it’s a pretty good way to describe my experience working with Mihael. I’ve worked with many content marketers/consultants over the years and seldom do I find someone who over-delivers and makes the process as easy and efficient as possible. Throw in a great sense of humor and it makes working with him a no-brainer.”

Jessica La
Founder — ByJessicaLa.com

“Took my writing to the next level…”

“Mihael is not only a masterful content strategist, but also extremely hardworking, honest, and fun to work with. During our time working together, he thoroughly critiqued my work and helped me take my writing to the next level. He’s a great mentor and a friend. If you need help with your content, go to him!”

Eilaf Meenai
Content Writer — Ramp Ventures

“His techniques actually work”

“I’ve been sitting on so much dormant potential that honestly, it’s embarrassing. It took Mihael hopping on a call with me and showing me step by step how to boost my website’s organic traffic with what I currently have, without having to produce a single new article, and without having to build a single new backlink. That you Mihael for straightening up my site and getting it ready for the exciting journey ahead. You saved me from a ton of headaches. Cheers!”

Nikola Roza
Founder — NikolaRoza: SEO for the poor and determined

“Hire him before he’s fully booked”

“Mihael is an excellent content writer. His in-depth research helps to produce engaging content for the right audience. Structuring long form content is tough and he’s one of the few who can do it right. Working with him will help you get your dream clients. Go hire him before his calendar gets fully booked.”

Samuel Ng
Content Marketer — SamuelNg.com