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!
About Our New Hire Expectations
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- 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.
About the Dealer’s Products
We write for dealerships across a variety of industries, which we refer to as “verticals”. It’s important to spend some time learning about each of these verticals before you begin writing for our dealers.
Our Verticals
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A Quick Terminology Breakdown
Guide → Here, this means an internal resource we created for our team
Master → A document that includes several sections from content we created for a dealer, which is more thorough than a single piece of content written for a dealer
Blog → A blog post that we created for a dealer. It may be live on their website or they may be a client that cancelled, but we still can use the Google Doc that we made for them as a writing resource.
All of these resources can be useful in learning about what you’ll be writing about!
Learning About the Powersports Vertical
- Read through the Powersports Definitions Guide
- Read through the Powersports Buying Guide Master
- Read through the ATV vs UTV Master
Learning About the Motorcycle Vertical
- Read through the Motorcycle Definitions Guide
- Read through the Motorcycle Buying Guide Master
- Read through the Types of Motorcycles Blog
- Read through the On-Road vs Off-Road Motorcycle Blog
- Read through the Motorcycle vs Scooter Blog
Learning About the RV Vertical
- Read through the RV Definitions Guide
- Read through the RV Buying Guide Master
- Read through the RV Floor Plans Master
- Read through the Towable RVs vs Motorhomes Master
Learning About the Marine Vertical
- Read through the Boat Definitions Guide
- Read through the Boat Buying Guide Blog
- Read through the Personal Watercraft Buying Guide Master
- Read through the Boat vs PWC Blog
Learning About the Trailer Vertical
- Read through the Trailer Buying Guide Master
- Read through the Cargo vs Utility Trailer Blog
Learning About the Equipment Vertical
- Read through the Equipment Definitions Guide
- Read through the Common Tractor Features Blog
- Read through the Common Types of Construction Equipment Blog
- Read through the Attachments vs Implements Blog
- Read through the OEM vs Aftermarket Parts Blog
Learning About the Vehicle Vertical
- Read through the Heavy Duty vs Medium Duty Truck Blog
Learning About the Golf Cart Vertical
- Read through the Electric vs Gas Golf Cart Blog
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”.
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
Edit the Content to Meet Our Standards
Submit the Content
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.
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.
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 )
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!
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!
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