Welcome to LeadVenture! Whether you’re part of our Dealer Spike team, or ARI team, or both, we’re excited to have you on board. This page offers a quick overview of resources you’ll need and processes you’ll need to become familiar with. Bookmark this page, leave it open while you’re working, and use it as much as you need. You’ll be trained by me (Lyra) and I’m excited to show you the ropes!

Phase One

Learning about our company, new hire expectations, and the products our dealers sell

About the Company

Many of your coworkers are spread across the United States and the world. You may be just down the street from a fellow writer or on the other side of the world. If you’re unsure what time zone the person you’re talking to is in, try hovering your cursor over their Teams or Outlook profile.

I started in 2018 and remember the Days of Old being in the startup office and Dealer Spike milestones such as The Great Flood. Crazy how far we’ve come!

LeadVenture is a digital marketing company with many brands under its umbrella, including Dealer Spike and ARI. While all brands offer something a little different for our customers, we work together to share knowledge and improve efficiency.

You have joined either Dealer Spike or ARI. Each brand has its own team of writers, and you’ll notice the work is very similar, which is why we still work closely together. You may even find yourself jumping to the other team to help with the workload.

The entire Digital Marketing team can be found on this organization chart. You likely won’t need to interact with many of the people listed, but it can still be helpful information to have.

You can also find this link in the Kickback Sheet on your monthly tracker.

The Content Team interacts with the SEO team on a regular basis. The SEO reps are in charge of creating monthly requests and curating keyword lists that drive each client’s SEO campaign.

You can find the full list of SEO reps on the organization chart or in the Kickback Sheet on your monthly tracker.

Our QA team assumes many responsibilities, including copy editors. They may screen some or all of your content for basic errors and let you know when larger sections require revisions. Our teams work closely together to establish best practices and create the best possible content for the clients. In fact, you’ll find a separate Teams chat reserved just for QA and Content. Our QA team assumes many responsibilities, including copy editors. They may screen some or all of your content for basic errors and let you know when larger sections require revisions. Our teams work closely together to establish best practices and create the best possible content for the clients. In fact, you’ll find a separate Teams chat reserved just for QA and Content.

Our Juniper team, based out of La Paz, Mexico, offers support for teams across most Digital Marketing teams, including Content. They’re primary role in the content process is to published fully written and approved content onto the clients' websites.

While you likely won’t interact directly with them, you can find their names and titles in the organization chart, linked in the Kickback Sheet of your monthly tracker.

About Our New Hire Expectations

We don’t expect any new writer to hit the ground running. While you’ll be coming with in essential writing skills, you may be significantly less familiar with the products you’ll be writing about. That’s okay! We didn’t hire you to be an expert in telehandlers. We hired you because you’re a strong writer with excellent resource literacy skills. Those will come in handy while you work at LeadVenture.

Keep in mind that while you’re a gifted writer, there’s a lot to learn at this job! There are a lot of products to familiarize yourself with and picking up the work may not be as easy as it seems. It’ll take time to adjust and eventually you’ll find it’ll get easier. Until then, don’t be afraid to ask for help and take this time to learn everything you can. The more foundational knowledge you gather in your first month, the easier it’ll be to pick up some of the harder pieces down the road.

In your first live training session, you’ll get an overview of the full content fulfillment process. It’s helpful to know the context of the big picture, but rest assured - you aren’t expected to memorize everything right away and you will later get an in-depth training for each step of the process.

You’ll be trained on one step of the process, do it for a while, and then get trained on another step in the process, do it for a while - until eventually you are doing the full process on your own!

~ ACTION ITEM ~

Read through our content Style Guide so you know what’ll be expected of the content you create. It’s a helpful resource to bookmark - or even have open while you write content.

Phase Two

Learning more about the topics we write about, how to edit pieces, and how to submit pieces

You’ll begin by learning just a few steps out of our entire content fulfillment process. At this stage, you’ll be editing and adding to pieces known as “Up-for-Grabs”.

Up-for-Grabs (or UFG) pieces have already been written, but are not currently live on a dealer’s website.

Usually, it’s because a dealer eventually cancelled their contract with us. Since LeadVenture owns the copyright to the content we create, our team can repurpose these pieces for another dealer.

Some of the pieces were written by 3rd party freelancers and vary in their quality (and have a different format for headers, which will need to be changed to match our format).

I’ll pick an Up-for-Grabs assignment for you and put it in your Trello column. You will then go through the following steps.

Add Any Missing Information

An Introduction Paragraph

A Conclusion Paragraph

The Specific Keyword Requested

More Words If Needed

Optional: Mention the dealership name and its target location(s)

Mention the dealership name and its target location(s)

The UFG piece may use a term (such as “three-wheeled motorcycle”), but the rep requested a keyword synonym (such as “trike). Simply change some of the “three-wheeled motorcycle” mentions into “trike' mentions.

The minimum word count is 250-words.

Edit the Content to Meet Our Standards

Update Formatting As Needed

Fact Check Claims As Needed

Add Trademark Symbols As Needed

For titles/headers, we use Title Case. Simply put your header into this tool and it’ll do it for you.

Pieces like this need to be changed to match our format like this

Articles can be fact checked using the linked article on the topic in the 2024 Index. Pagefooters about brands can be fact checked with the company’s website. Unless the UFG piece was written in the last 6 months, you’ll need to check that claims match the current company’s lineup. Their 2020 RV lineup may have 10 models, but their 2023 RV lineup may have 7.

The Trademark Guide is a helpful resource!

Submit the Content
1. Use the template to post the content link in the Trello card comments. This helps the QA team and the posting team know where to find your work so they can do their part of the process.
2. Add the content link to the dealer’s Work Done Import tab. This helps keep a record of what is created for a given dealer and what month it was fulfilling.
3. Go to “Actions”, then click “-> Move”, then click “Madison - In Progress”. I’ll quickly glance over your piece, let you know if there's any suggestions, then I’ll send it onto QA )

If you’re curious, here is a snapshot of the overall process. The bolded parts are the steps that you are doing, the other steps are handled for you by the Content Team Trainer.

Pick a topic that both fits the keyword request and has not been covered yet for that dealer
Pick a resource for fulfilling that content request (Up-for-Grabs, AI, or writing it)
Create the content document
1. For Up-for-Grabs content, this means moving the piece out of the Up-for-Grabs folder and into the dealer’s folder. For AI/writer made content, this means making a document in the dealer folder.
2. Update the file name to fit our file naming process
Create the content
1. For Up-for-Grabs, this means editing and adding to the UFG piece in your column.
2. For AI content, this means putting information into the AI, fact checking what it creates, and editing what it creates.
3. For rewrites, this means writing the piece from start to finish yourself.
Submit the Content
1. Use the Trello template to submit the top half of the request
  1. For articles only, use the Trello template to submit the meta data
2. Record the content in the dealer’s Work Done Import tab
  1. How to Find the dealer’s spreadsheet
    1. Sometimes, this spreadsheet is already uploaded onto the Trello card. It’ll be located in the middle of the card: under the “Custom Fields” section and above the “Activity” section where you leave your comments. It’ll be in the “Google Drive” section. It may have a name (like Dealer Spreadsheet) or it may just be a URL.
    2. If the spreadsheet isn’t attached to the Trello card, you can search the drive for it. I usually just copy and paste the dealer name from the top of the Trello card. Usually, the dealer spreadsheet will pop up among the first few search results. If all you see is a long list of Google Documents (the various articles and pagefooters written for the dealer), you can filter the search results by file type and click “spreadsheet”, then it should pop up.
  2. Once you open the dealer’s spreadsheet, find the “Work Done Import” tab.
  3. Then, find the corresponding month’s row. If the content request is for February, for example, find the February row.
  4. Scroll over to the column that says “Content Google Doc Link”.
  5. Paste the URL to the document (you can also hyperlink the keyword, such as “motorcycle” or “boat benefits”, but it’s not required).
3. Send it onto the next stage
  1. During training, that’s to the Madison In-Progress column. Once you are done with training, you’ll send it on to QA.

Phase Three

Learning how to do the meta data for articles

Next, you’ll learn how to do a handful of small tasks that we collectively call “article meta data stuff”. These are created by the writers and submitted alongside your completed work, but are uploaded to the dealer’s website by the posting team.

You’ll submit your completed work with the Finished Article/PF template. The top half is the format you’ve been using to submit UFG/Researched Originals, the bottom half has previously been done for you by the Content Team Trainer.

Here is the breakdown:

Image Link → This is the image that shows on the dealer’s blog post. We use Adobe Stock Images. Our posting team has the accounts that let them download photos and upload them to the dealer website. With our 2024 Index that I’ve built out, each topic already has a pre-picked photo you can use. If you want to use something different, all you’ll need to do is submit the URL to the photo you want them to use. Search for a term, click the photo that you like, then click the file number for that photo and submit that URL on the Trello comment.
Title Tag → This is the blurb that pops up when you hover your cursor over a tab. There are a few ways to structure yours. You want to keep it at or below 160 characters (you can use this awesome tool for that). Remember that the Title Tag should be written in Title Case.
- Option 1: Summary of Topic | Primary Target Location
  Example: Kanye West Explained | Tokyo, NE
- Option 2: Summary of Topic | Dealer Name
  Example: Kanye West Explained | Jimmy McJimmy’s Power Shop
- Option 3: Summary of Topic | Primary Target Location | Secondary Keywords*
  Example: Kanye West Explained | Tokyo, NE | Ye’s Brain
  *If you choose to use secondary keywords, please do NOT use “For Sale”
Tags and Categories→ These help group like topics together on the dealer’s site, making the site easier to navigate for the reader. You’ll simply use the tags and categories in the 2024 Index for the given topic.
Meta Description → These provide the value of the article to the user, including keywords relevant to it that could get highlighted on SERPs.
- Example #1: Trying to make sense of Kanye West? No need. Let us explain it all in this guide!
- Example #2: Questions about what in the world happened to Ye? This guide has all the answers you’ll need and then some!
- Example #3: From Taylor to Kim, Trump to Tweets, and more, if you wonder if Kanye’s spiral downward will ever end, this guide has your answer!

If you’re curious, here is a snapshot of the overall process. The bolded parts are the steps that you are doing, the other steps are handled for you by the Content Team Trainer.

Pick a topic that both fits the keyword request and has not been covered yet for that dealer
Pick a resource for fulfilling that content request (Up-for-Grabs, AI, or writing it)
Create the content document
1. For Up-for-Grabs content, this means moving the piece out of the Up-for-Grabs folder and into the dealer’s folder. For AI/writer made content, this means making a document in the dealer folder.
2. Update the file name to fit our file naming process
Create the content
1. For Up-for-Grabs, this means editing and adding to the UFG piece in your column.
2. For AI content, this means putting information into the AI, fact checking what it creates, and editing what it creates.
3. For rewrites, this means writing the piece from start to finish yourself.
Submit the Content
1. Use the Trello template to submit the top half of the request
  1. For articles only, use the Trello template to submit the meta data
2. Record the content in the dealer’s Work Done Import tab
3. Send it onto the next stage

Phase Four

Learning how to create content

Now that you’ve learned and practiced some steps of the process, it’s time to add in a few more and learn about Researched Originals!

These are topics that a previous writer already researched and wrote for one of our dealers. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel here and do all that same research again! Instead, you can use the content they created as your research resource while you make a brand-new original piece of content for the dealer.

Create the document in the dealer folder

Create the File Name

Create and edit your content

Submit the Content

Go to the CONTENT: Dealer Spike folder. Click on the corresponding letter that matches the first name of the dealer, then find the dealer among the list. There are some dealers with similar names or with multiple locations, so be sure you’ve found the right one!

Follow our File Name Guide.

Dealer Name (State Abbreviation): Keyword - Topic (Type of Content) #/#

If the state is in the dealer’s name, you don’t need to repeat it
- For example: “Joe Schmoe’s of Portland (OR)” vs “Joe Schmoe’s of Oregon”
The “Keyword - Topic” will match its entry in the 2024 Index
- For example: “Motorhomes - Buying Guide” or “Boat - Preventative Maintenance”
For now, the only Types of Content you’ll be doing are articles and pagefooters. Later, you will learn about the 2022 New Product Packages which have a slightly different file name approach.
The “#/#” refers to the number that piece is / the total number of pieces that dealer gets each month
- For example: 1/1, 1/2, 2/2
- This helps the QA and Posting team, so it’s important to be accurate

Side Note - I love writing in WordCounter so I can see key pieces of information (the word count and the most common keywords) as I type. I also find it helpful to edit my piece here, paste it into a Google Doc, and then edit it again. The different formatting/fonts make it easier to catch issues. Feel free to use this tool, a different tool, or to write in the Google Doc itself.

Same process you’ve been doing submitting Up-for-Grabs content

If you’re curious, here is a snapshot of the overall process. The bolded parts are the steps that you are doing, the other steps are handled for you by the Content Team Trainer.

Pick a topic that both fits the keyword request and has not been covered yet for that dealer
Pick a resource for fulfilling that content request (Up-for-Grabs, AI, or writing it)
Create the content document
1. For Up-for-Grabs content, this means moving the piece out of the Up-for-Grabs folder and into the dealer’s folder. For AI/writer made content, this means making a document in the dealer folder.
2. Update the file name to fit our file naming process
Create the content
1. For Up-for-Grabs, this means editing and adding to the UFG piece in your column. For AI content, this means putting information into the AI, fact checking what it creates, and editing what it creates. For writer content, this means writing the piece from start to finish yourself.
Submit the Content
1. Use the Trello template to submit the top half of the request
  1. For articles only, use the Trello template to submit the meta data
2. Record the content in the dealer’s Work Done Import tab
3. Send it onto the next stage
  1. During training, that’s to the Madison In-Progress column. Once you are done with training, you’ll send it on to QA.