create a content marketing strategy your customers will love, in 7 steps

Create a Content Marketing

Strategy Your Customers Will

Love, in 7 Steps

ConvinceAndConvert.com

Content Marketing Isn’t New

How to keep your plants watered on vacation, circa 1910 (from U.K. cigarette company)

How to keep your plants watered on vacation,

circa 2013 (from Lowe’s, via Vine video)

Content Creates Trust, and This Has Always Been True

And Trust is the Filter Through Which All Business Success

Must Pass

Our Emphasis on Content is What’s New

Content  Marketing  Institute,  2014

Nearly a third of B2B marketers are spending 25% of their budget (or

more) on content marketing

Why? !

The Old Ways of Marketing Don’t Work (like they used to)

Top-of-mind Awareness is Difficult

and Expensive

Inbound Marketing is Only Half the

Battle

Inbound marketing doesn’t create demand for your products, it simply fulfills it. Nobody goes to Google

and says “just surprise me.”

Content Marketing Works if it is Useful,

Inspirational, Motivational.

if

you have a documented strategy

Content  Marketing  Institute,  2014

83% of B2B marketers have a content strategy, but only 35% have it

documented

let’s fix that

also, my company - Convince & Convert - creates killer content marketing strategic plans for some of the most interesting companies in

the world. !!

ConvinceAndConvert.com

Content Marketing Strategy in 7 Steps

objectives 1what’s your one thing? 2

measurement 3audiences 4

audience needs 5content executions 6

content amplification 7

1Objectives

Why are you doing this at all?

Is Content Marketing going to

increase awareness?

Is Content Marketing going to

increase sales?

Is Content Marketing going to

increase loyalty?

Content objectives are all over the board. Don’t do that. Pick a rationale for content marketing

and stick with it.

Remember: the goal is NOT to be good at content.

!

The goal is to be good at business because

of content.

Because of content marketing, our customers

will _______, our prospective customers will

________, and our business will _________.

document this:

2What’s Your One Thing?

Guess what? Someone has already thought of

your great idea.

What’s special about YOU and YOUR content?

It’s usually not your products and

services

Your “ONE THING” is the soul of your

company that shines through all your

content marketing

Give yourself permission to make

the story BIGGER

How to buy a used car infographic….from a

locksmith!

People will care about our content because of

_______. Our content will inspire and motivate them because of _________.

document this:

3Measurement

Your objectives dictate your metrics

If your objective is brand awareness, you must measure

that, not something else

The 4 Categories of Content Marketing

Metrics

Remember: if you want to track

behavior, you have to do something that is trackable

!

!

!

ConvinceAndConvert.com

Don’t track everything. Track a

few things that actually matter

We will know our content is working because we will

track _______, ________, and

____________.

document this:

4Audiences

Your objectives also dictate your audiences

Use personas to model your desired

audiences

Who are they? What do they like? How

do they spend their time? What

influences them?

The audiences for our content marketing are

described by this persona (_______), this persona

(_______), and this persona (_______).

document this:

5Audience Needs

What content do your audiences WANT

from you? !

What is Youtility for them?

Youtility is marketing so useful, people would

pay for it!

!

!

YoutilityBook.com (free resources)

Multiple sources to find audience NEEDS: !

• Web analytics (popular content) • Internal search data • Search analytics (popular search terms) • Social listening • Sales/customer service • Customer interviews

Remember: don’t settle for data.

!

Get real insights.

Organize your audience needs by

persona and buying stage

Purchase!

Confirmation!

Interest!

Awareness!features

price

suitability  and  risk  avoidance

How much content do you need?

Personas X Buying Stages X Questions per Stage

Personas (5) X Buying Stages (4) X Questions per Stage (5) = 100 pieces of content

Don’t be afraid to pursue

Cooperative Content

Instagram photo posted by dog lover, and noticed by

NestlePurina’s Beggin Strips brand

With permission, Beggin re-crops photo and posts

to it own Instagram account

Beggin then re-crops again, adds watermark and

headline, and posts to its Facebook page. Cooperative

Content at work!

Employees are also a great source of

Cooperative Content

Our buying stages are_______,

_______,_______ and ______. We have listed all the questions our personas need to move through each

stage here: _______.

document this:

6Content Executions

Remember: don’t do this step

out of order. !

You don’t have to have a blog, you have to satisfy

audience needs.

Use personas and audience research to

determine optimal content types

Content  Marketing  Institute,  2014

What works in content marketing

varies considerably.

Remember: don’t rely on other people’s case

studies…do your own research

Remember: if you only pay attention to averages, you’ll

always be an average marketer

Two main types of content executions:

Bricks Feathers

Bricks are: !

• Heavier • More permanent • More production value • Passed along and saved • Usually targeted closer to decision

Purchase!

Confirmation!

Interest!

Awareness!features

price

suitability  and  risk  avoidance

Feathers are: !

• Lighter • Disposable • Less production value • Usually targeted at initial stages

Purchase!

Confirmation!

Interest!

Awareness!features

price

suitability  and  risk  avoidance

This very detailed research

report is a brick

This blog post is a feather

Unless personas have VERY clear content format preferences, consider atomizing

content across multiple types

Remember: you can take your bricks and turn them into many

feathers, in many places

The BBC now creates 15-second news stories with Instagram video. A BBC television broadcast is a brick. This is

a feather.

Create a content planning worksheet: Date

Format/Channel Author

Description Persona(s)

Audience Need(s) Funnel Stage Call-to-Action Measurement

Remember: define WHAT you want

content consumers to do next

!

Put your content strategy on a

detailed calendar with views by week, month, quarter, year

Excel or Google docs at first, dedicated

software eventually for calendaring

For each audience need, we will create content in one or more ways, and will create

a worksheet to organize content, timelines, and

calls-to-action.

document this:

7Content Amplification

The fact that you created some

content does NOT mean anyone will see

it (or care about it)

Remember: Content is fire.

!

Social media is gasoline.

!

You must market your marketing and create a distribution plan for each piece

of content

Amplification options:Employees’ social Customers’ social Email (internal +

external) Organic search

Paid search Display ads

Organice social Paid social

Guest posts Earned meda (PR)

Offline ads

For this piece of content, we will amplify it with

______, ______, and ______.

document this:

Content Marketing Strategy in 7 Steps

objectives 1what’s your one thing? 2

measurement 3audiences 4

audience needs 5content executions 6

content amplification 7

Remember: your job is not to make brochures

!

Your job is to tell interesting and

informative stories.

ConvinceAndConvert.com

how can we help you?