Creating a Business-Driven Content Marketing Strategy
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Many brands have an interest in content marketing but flounder with successful planning and execution. In most cases it’s due to a lack of strategy. Marketers struggle to create content relevant to audiences and prioritize activities in order to consistently publish, yet only 35% of marketers take the time to create a content strategy. This workshop takes attendees through the process of creating a content strategy that will be immediately actionable. By discovering what matters to your audience and how they make decisions, you’ll create a content strategy that enables you to create highly relevant content that builds awareness, engagement, conversion and loyalty.
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Creating a Business-Driven Content Marketing Strategy
- 1. Creating a Business-Driven Content Strategy October 14, 2015 Carla Johnson Michael Brenner
- 4. Agenda • How To Build Your Content Marketing Strategy • Sourcing Content and Editorial Planning • Content Distribution And Amplification • Measuring with Meaning • Reflection and Action Plan
- 5. ANA L.E.A.D. Learning Model The L.E.A.D. learning model will guide you on the path from knowledge infusion, to experiencing best practices and success, to real-world application, to an ongoing learning discovery
- 6. Understanding Strategy “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland
- 7. Learning Objectives • Why telling your company’s story in a compelling way connects prospects with your brand and can make a powerful emotional connection. • Learn how to fill the gap between what your audience wants and what your business produces so you can properly position your product or service in an entertaining and educational way to engage decision makers at every point in the decision journey.
- 8. “Content today must compete with pictures of babies and kittens.”
- 10. What Is A Strategy? “Astrategy describes how the ends (goals) will be achieved by the means (resources).” Wikipedia
- 11. The Outside / In Approach • Not, “We need content for this line of business or product.” • But, “This prospect has these information needs. How can we fill them?”
- 12. Documented Strategy Drives Success Source: Content Marketing Institute & MarketingProfs
- 13. Components of Effective Content Marketing Strategy 1. Documented content strategy and mission statement 2. Have someone accountable for content 3. Consistently publish quality content 4. Map content to consumer journey 5. Paid distribution 6. Focus on content subscribers 7. Track content marketing ROI and adjust
- 14. Give Yourself A Grade? Best Practice R Y G Have a documented content strategy? Have someone managing content Content hub maps to the consumer journey Publishing quality, volume and variety Social activation of content Paid distribution Focus on Content Subscriptions Measurement template / ROI defined
- 15. The Promise of Content Marketing: To earn your audience . . . . . . versus buying it!
- 16. Defining Success • What business objectives to you want to accomplish? • What do you want your content to do? • Prioritize what’s most important, i.e…. – Build brand awareness – Establish expertise – Educate buyers – Move leads through sales process – Improve retention
- 17. Recognizing “Success” • Drives business objectives • Creates value in and of itself • Educates, informs, changes perceptions, sells, upsells, retains, entertains • Multiple channels, multiple formats • Meaningful measurement
- 18. The Framework Discovery Destination Branding + Design Roles + Responsibility Editorial Strategy Distribution + Optimization Measurement • Current State • Personas • Objectives • Mission • Budget • Branding • UX • Platform • Partners • Agency • You • Structure • Topics • Types • Sources • SEO • Organic • Paid • Owned • Earned • Email • KPIs • Template • Cadence • Optimization
- 19. Ex: SAP Business Innovation • In 2011, SAP’s new CEO asked why the company’s thought leadership was not reflected on their website. • It took 12 months to deliver a solution
- 20. SAP Business Innovation The team began with a content audit, seeing the difference in search terms like “Big Data” versus SAP product names like “HANA”
- 21. SAP Business Innovation They found there were many magnitudes more search queries for non-branded search terms across nearly every one of the categories. Cluster Brand or Non-Brand Total Monthly Searches (est.) Analytics Brand 458 3000x Analytics Non-Brand 1,520,761 Cloud Brand 398 1000x Cloud Non-Brand 578,460 Data Brand 28,884 17x Data Non-Brand 470,967 Mobility Brand 12,488 28x Mobility Non-Brand 345,598 BI Brand 532,486 -2x BI Non-Brand 277,156 CRM/Sales Brand 156,028 40x CRM/Sales Non-Brand 6,313,329 ERP Brand 777,092 -2x ERP Non-Brand 324,595 HCM Brand 55,536 7x HCM Non-Brand 379,954 Accounting. Finance Brand 30,497 24x Accounting. Finance Non-Brand 720,493 TOTAL Brand 1,688,883 13x TOTAL Non-Brand 13,616,715
- 22. SAP Business Innovation They then looked at how much traffic SAP.com received from these non-branded searches. The answer 0.01% And their analysis of content by buyer stage reflected their findings…
- 23. Content by Buyer Stage Early-Stage Content Middle-Stage Content Late-Stage Content66% 6% 28% Early-Stage Content Late-Stage Content Middle-Stage Content
- 24. SAP Business Innovation Created “SAP Business Innovation” (now SAP Digitalist) to help business leaders grow and innovate through technology. Today the site has more 12,000+ blog posts from employees, customers and industry thought leaders.
- 25. Reaches Millions of Visitors And Delivers Hundreds of Leads 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000 UniqueVisitors Traffic from Organic, Social & Referrals
- 26. Exercise: Content + Objectives 1. What’s your content mission? Become a destination for [target audience] interested in [topics]. To help them [describe customer value]. 2. Who’s your target audience?
- 27. Editorial Strategy “The buyer journey is nothing more than a series of questions that must be answered.” IDC
- 28. Learning Objectives • How to create an editorial strategy that meets the needs of your buyer and drives conversions for your business
- 29. Ann Handley: “Take your brand out of the story. . . . .Make your customers the hero.” Content Marketing What Brands Publish What Customers Want Charity Our Natural Instinct
- 30. Why does your brand exist? What purpose does it serve? Content Marketing What Brands Publish What Customers Want
- 31. Example: Marriott Become the world’s destination for travel lifestyle content.
- 32. The Customer Journey Plan • Personalized • Social • Travel profile Departure • Notifications • Upsell • Location Return • Feedback • Service • Upsell Trip • Activities • Context driven • Ratings and reviews • Mobile Purchase • Upsell • Cross-sell • Upgrades Next trip • Collect data • Update profile • Individual Offerings
- 33. Hero – Once or twice a year. Hub – Episodic things. Help – Blogs, what’s trending, utility Tiered Engagement
- 35. Awareness Consideration Preference Online Communities Search Engines eBooks Email Newsletters Editorial Articles White Papers Podcasts Case Studies Online Videos Webcasts Virtual Trade Shows Product Literature Trial Software Online Vendor Demos Begin decision process Make decision Identify business problem Establish requirements/ build RFP Align IT with business objectives Explore technology options Research solutions Determine solution strategy Assess ROI Research products/ vendors Build short list
- 36. Content by Buyer Stage Early-Stage Content Middle-Stage Content Late-Stage Content66% 6% 28% Early-Stage Content Late-Stage Content Middle-Stage Content
- 37. Reach, Engage & Convert Early-stage Searches Brand Searches Middle-Stage Searches What is your solution category? (10-3000X) How do I solve my problem? (2-10X) Our brand is how awesome?
- 38. Publishers publish everyday on each topic/category • Organic Traffic goes up with each new article published • Diminishing return? (see below) • Optimize content budget vs. paid distribution budget • Increasing frequency will increase Organic + Social % of Total PVs A few times a year 1-2X per month < monthly 1-2X per week 1 per day More than 1 per day
- 40. Putting it Together 3 questions to ask when building the editorial calendar 1. What do I want to achieve? 2. What gaps do I have? 3. What are my resources? The underlying question is ALWAYS…how do I create value for my audience?
- 41. Take Stock Of Your Assets • Create an inventory of what you already have – Sales sheets − Blogs – Slide decks − Whitepapers – Website − Videos • Who are subject matter experts who can contribute? • Who has incentive to contribute?
- 42. Identify Topics • Different personas will have different topic needs. Brainstorm a list for each of them. • What are the top 20 questions that your audience has? • What current topics are performing well? • What questions do your sales and customer service teams hear?
- 44. Exercise: Editorial Strategy • What are 4-6 steps that your customer goes through to make a decision? • What are questions do they have at each stage? • In what format do they want information?
- 45. Key Take Aways • An editorial strategy ensures that relevant content is delivered to the right person at the right time and place and in the right format • Content mapping requires understanding what content already exists • Content must be balanced by buyer stage based on persona needs
- 46. Content Amplification and Distribution “Even great content needs a push!” • The average Hollywood movie spends 50- 60% of production budget on distribution.
- 47. Learning Objectives • See how a “converged media” approach drives success in brand-owned content marketing. • Learn how to maximize the reach, engagement and conversion of your content with amplification and distribution • Determine the channels your customers use most for content discovery.
- 48. Converged Media
- 49. Social Networks Dominate Content Discovery
- 50. Tactics For Distribution • Ad networks (example: Google AdWords) • Organic Social (example: Twitter, Facebook) • Paid Social (example: LinkedIn Sponsored Updates) • Native advertising (example: Sharethrough) • Organic Search / SEO • Email (example: subscriber newsletter)
- 51. Don’t Forget Email • Keep your audience engaged • Free distribution channel • Provides instantaneous trackable results • Nurture and convert leads 45% of NewsCred’s traffic came from email
- 52. Example: Intel IQ • Doubled their traffic in less than a year on the same paid distribution budget. • Content Focus: “Winning the internet everyday.” • Engagement: Measure organic social shares / frequency • Paid media: put budget behind the winners – When you concentrate on what’s doing well, finding a new reader is five times more efficient on a cost per reader basis.” ~ Luke Kintigh, Intel Source: http://digiday.com/brands/intel-doubled-blog-traffic-less-year/
- 53. Exercise: Where’s Your Customer? Just because you can share on every social network doesn’t mean you should. Pick the two most important networks for your customer:
- 54. Key Takeaways • Content marketing is an important element in the new approach to buying media. • Creating content is just half the battle. • Email is still an important channel across every demographic. • Paid distribution can dramatically increase your results.
- 55. Measurement “Content Marketing ROI is 4x our traditional marketing spend.” Julie Fleisher, Kraft
- 56. Learning Objectives • Understand why measurement needs to connect back to business objectives
- 57. Measurement is for feedback, not to determine “right” or “wrong”
- 58. Measurement • Lots of marketers will measure what they can • Fewer will measure what has meaning • Fewer still will ties those to business objectives
- 59. Content Marketing ROI 1. Reach early stage buyers • Fair “Share of Conversation” • % Unbranded Search traffic on your website • Banner effectiveness at driving brand visits • Cost of advertising / search landing pages with low organic and social traffic • Cost of organic and social website traffic vs. paid 2. Engage new buyers with your brand • Time spent, Bounce rate on content vs. advertising landing pages • Cost / Repeat visits, Time engaged with your brand • Subscribers, value per subscriber 3. Conversions you would have never reached • Cost per lead, Pipeline touched, Cost per registration (content or events), Cost per sale • Content % source of leads • ROI vs. Avg. Marketing ROI
- 60. The Measurement Pyramid Source: Experiences: The 7th Era of Marketing
- 61. Goals and Indicators Objective + Time Frame + Constraint Objective: Increase qualified leads by 10% Time Frame: 6 months Constraint: With only a 5% budget increase
- 62. Tiers of Measurement Goal Increase qualified leads by 10% in six months with a 5% budget increase Primary Indicators • # of qualified leads • Cost Secondary Indicators (examples) • Unqualified leads • Cost per lead (CPL) • Blog subscribers • Email subscribers • Downloads • Webinar attendees • Website visitors User Indicators (examples) • Likes/followers • A/B test results • Cost per visitor (CPV) • Video views • Webinar registrants
- 63. Exercise: Tiers of Measurement Goal Objective + Time Frame + Constraint Primary Indicators • #1 • #2 Secondary Indicators (examples) • #1 • #2 • #3 • #4 • #5 User Indicators (examples) • #1 • #2 • #3 • #4 • #5
- 64. Key Take Aways • The purpose of metrics is to show progress toward contributing to business objectives • “Success” doesn’t mean everything goes up and to the right • Some metrics you will report on. Others are feedback for you as a team and individuals • The focus is on content performance, not team performance
- 65. The Framework Discovery Destination Branding + Design Roles + Responsibility Editorial Strategy Distribution + Optimization Measurement • Current State • Personas • Objectives • Mission • Budget • Branding • UX • Platform • Partners • Agency • You • Structure • Topics • Types • Sources • SEO • Organic • Paid • Owned • Earned • Email • KPIs • Template • Cadence • Optimization Your top insight from the day: _______________________________________ One action you can commit to: ______________________________________
- 66. My L.E.A.D. Action Plan Actionable goal name: Desired state (90 days from now): By [ _ /_ / _ ], I/we will: Current state: Key milestones to reach goal: How will it be measured: Who are you accountable to: After the 90 days, assess your progress: 1. Did you accomplish your goal? 2. How were you supported in achieving your goals? 3. Did anything prevent you from achieving your goals? 4. What ongoing goals are you now driving to achieve?
- 67. Carla Johnson Speaker. Storyteller. Strategist. Type A Communications Carla@TypeACommunications.com Michael Brenner Head of Strategy NewsCred Michael.Brenner@NewsCred.com