Presented at the High Five Conference (Raleigh 2014), this is an overview of how our division switched from collateral to valuable online content. The journey was rooted in winning internal influence and finding small wins to keep momentum. If you are struggling with earning budget, making the case for content marketing, and fighting against the 'brochure + ads' marcomm culture, I'd love to hear your experience.

1. Escaping Brochures
How we got started with
content marketing
@Steven_Pepe, GE Water
Imagination at work.

2. GE content
vs. GE Water content
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3. This was our
growth strategy

4. How did we get started (with digital)?
Finding a shared painpoint
Leads!
Earn equity + influence
by showing revenue impact
We knew…
Leaders needed to hear….
Better content = better leads
Competitors are doing it better
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5. Title or Job Number | XX Month 201X
See tutorial regarding
confidentiality disclosures.
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6. How we got started (with content)
How did we get started (with content)?
By auditing what we had.
Title or Job Number | XX Month 201X
See tutorial regarding
confidentiality disclosures.
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7. The good news?
We had plenty of technical
content.
Gobs of it.
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8. But did it match up to the “journey”?
Awareness
Consideration
Justification
Overview +
splash videos
How does it
work?
Case studies
with ROI
Product
summaries
Tech papers
TCO
comparisons
Fact sheets
Benchmark
reports
Case studies –
ease of use
Savings
calculators

9. So we reorganized to appeal to different stages…
Industry, Application, Products
Finding user flows for all
stages of customer Q’s
Start telling more stories…
video, webinar, case studies
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10. … Our early results helped win influence
• Reached 60K visits/month
• Began converting web visitors
into marketing-qualified leads
• Simplified all lead collection
through 2 Marketo forms
• Upload/assign leads in CRM,
minimize data entry for reps
• Measure website traffic 
$ closed won
250+ leads
130 new opps
7-digit return

11. And we can start telling more
interesting stories…
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12. Now the content investment has opened up
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13. … and use content in automated campaigns
Open rate - 59% , Click rate - 28%, Reuse of all existing content
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14. The hardest step was from
brochures to valuable content.
The next step is the fun part…
to emotional storytelling.
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15. The Steps Needed for Change
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16. Thanks for reading!
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