Remember when a content marketing plan might have consisted of a single blog post a week? With consumers constantly bombarded with news and content via an ever-expanding array of media and social platforms, brands have been pressed into a “content arms race” that has them posting to blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Vine, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. multiple times a day. They’re hiring teams of content strategists, creating social media war rooms, and even using automated content creation and curation platforms to feed the beast and improve their reach and engagement metrics. But how much of this activity actually serves a brand’s business goals? Or truly engages consumers?

2. How to Avoid the Content Marketing Arms Race
INTEGRATE 2015
West Virginia University

3. 3
Content Marketing has had so much potential

4. 4
How did it come to this?

5. 5
We’re in a content marketing arms race

6. 6
“The more content I can put out, the
more luck I have,” he says. He’s
redeployed an employee at VaynerMedia,
his social media consultancy, to “shadow
my life” by following him to record his
remarks and turn them into social media
content.”
- Gary Vaynerchuk in Forbes, June 2013
Once you’re ready to film, just throw the Lily in
the air and it will follow you wherever you
go, filming HD video of your most extreme
stunts.
- Quartz, 2015

7. 7
Rather than creating useful content
for people, we’re creating
mountains of garbage for machines

8. 8
Email connected people
directly to other people

9. 9
And then marketers saw an
opportunity to make it more
efficient

10. 10
Websites connected people to
vast amounts of helpful
information

11. 11
And then marketers saw an
opportunity to make it more
efficient

12. 12
Social media was going to
change all that though

13. 13
And then marketers saw an
opportunity to make it more
efficient

14. 14
Branded content was going to
become the next evolution of
advertising

15. 15
And then marketers saw an
opportunity to make it more
efficient

16. This is why we can’t have nice things
16

17. 17
Stop trying to figure out the tricks
to gaming the system

18. 18
Because the system will change
tomorrow

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The current way isn’t working
anyway
*Source: Forrester, April 2014

20. 20
“Instead of relentlessly demanding more consumer attention,
treat the attention you do win as precious. Then ask yourself
a simple question of any new marketing efforts: is this
campaign/email/microsite/print ad/etc. going to reduce the
cognitive overload consumers feel as they shop my
category? If the answer is “no” or “not sure,” go back to the
drawing board. When it comes to interacting with your
customers, more isn’t better.”
*Source: Harvard Business Review, “Three Myths about What Customers Want,” May 2012

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Easier said than done
“We need more leads coming in!”
“Are we on Flayvr yet? We totally need to be on Flayvr!!”
“Why is our blog traffic down? Make sure you post more so we get that back up!”
“I just saw that Brand X had 1,000 Likes on a Keep Calm and Carry On poster – I want us to do that too!”
“If you’re going to create new content, that all needs to go through Legal before it gets published and that takes
2-3 weeks”
“We need to have more likes than our competition”

22. 22
If you put your audience first,
everything else will follow.

23. The Copernican Shift – Consumer Centricity
Consumer
Google
Brand
23
Google
Brand
Consumer

24. 24
Fills a consumer need
Drives measurable consumer action
Reflects the brand
Satisfies a brand’s business needs
Great content:

25. 25
• Consumers want to have
relationships with brands
• Interactions build relationships
• The more interactions, the better
• More people are engaging with
our brand

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• Consumers want to have
relationships with brands
• Interactions build relationships
• The more interactions, the better
• More people are engaging with
our brand
No, they don’t
Not the ones you’re having
Please, make them stop
I’ll pay more if you make
them shut up

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By putting the audience first, we create
content they will read, share, and talk about
 Who is our audience? (Who isn’t?)
 What do we want readers to do?
 How does it make them feel?
 What do readers want from us? (Do we have it?)
 What assets do we have – people, places, things?
 How do they talk about us when they think we’re not listening? (Are we?)
What do we have to offer that
no one else does?

28. 28
Do more than tell a story, tell your story

29. 29
Your brand produces content every day
• Your history
• Ideas that didn’t make the cut
• The “why” behind business decisions
• Challenges
• Your culture
• New product uses
• Requests for feedback
• Your causes
• Your POV

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You don’t have to create it all
• Original
• Curated
• Co-created
• Sponsored
• User-generated

32. 32
MISSION
Build some downtime.
Enjoy the backyard.

33. Fully Integrated

36. 36
“Never sacrifice the quality of your copy for
the sake of the search engines.”
- Matt Cutts, Head of Google's Webspam team

37. 37
Ultimately, good SEO is about providing a good
user experience and compelling content.

38. 38
1. Optimize Content Environment
http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en/us/webmast
ers/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

39. 39
2. Adapt your content so the reader can find it

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3. Distribute your content

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1. Help the consumer
2. Align with your brand and its business goals
3. Then optimize for Google

42. 42
• Steve Radick
• VP, Director of PR at Brunner
• www.steveradick.com
• @sradick
• @brunnerworks

43. Questions?
43