content marketing: producing low-cost content that works
DESCRIPTION
A take on how to get the basics of content marketing right. It's all about having a content infrastructure in place, knowing what the different content forms are good at, and – of course – knowing your products and your target groups.TRANSCRIPT
CONTENT MARKETING: PRODUCING LOW-COST CONTENT THAT WORKS @JonathanWich / 13.12.2013
WHY IS CONTENT MARKETING SO IMPORTANT?
The decision journey has changed
• The customer decision journey has changed dramatically in recent years. Today, buyers (except FMCG buyers) do up to 70% of their research online (websites, P2P, social media) and in many cases make their purchasing decision without contacting the supplier / sales rep.
The average purchase decision is 57% complete, and more than 10 information sources have been consulted, by the time a supplier is engaged.
Learn Define Needs Access Options Make Decision
Predominantly Marketing
Predominantly Sales
Source: CEB, 2012
What must your content do for you?
• Taking the altered customer decision journey into account brands need to produce online content that can do the job on its own – right from creating impact to convincing them to buy.
• In short, content should be produced to do at least one of the following three things:
1. CREATE IMPACT
2. COMMUNICATE
3. CONVINCE
What does “communicate” mean?
• “Communicate” (see last slide) includes the capability to involve, educate, nurture, stimulate interest and keep the brand or product top-of-mind.
• The communication is the ongoing dialogue-oriented content (e.g. blog posts and eye-level videos), and the vast majority (70-80%) of content produced will usually belong to this category.
Content marketing is as relevant for B2C as it is for B2B. This is Coca-Cola’s new corporate website. It’s 100% content marketing. Source: http://www.coca-colacompany.com/
The B2B sales funnel has changed too
Demand is being shaped
Impact
Communication
Convince
Purchase
NB: Brands can play a part here too. Pre-funnel engagement is about sharing knowledge to make potential buyers aware that they have a problem – and need to purchase something in order to solve it.
Ultra short-form Make people know you are there, via SEO, social media etc.
Short-form Give them a reason to visit your website via blog posts, infographics, videos etc.
Long-form Convince them through articles, guides, whitepapers, free e-books, webinars, demos etc.
What is the biggest challenge for content marketers?
• According to the Content Marketing Institute the biggest challenge (or headache) is the actual production of content.
• What’s missing is a clearly defined (and well-functioning) content infrastructure. It’s not necessarily about budgets.
HOW DO YOU PRODUCE LOW-COST CONTENT THAT WORKS?
It all begins with having a content infrastructure
Content
Dedicated staff Internal copywriters, journalists,
campaign managers, videographers etc.
Voluntary staff From all functions – contributing with
blog posts, photos, video etc.
External voluntary professionals Journalists, bloggers etc. publishing on
own site or doing guest posts
External hired professionals Agencies or freelance content
producers hired by the company
Engaged fans and followers All sorts of stakeholders – e.g. photos via
Instagram or retweetable tweets
You need content in many forms (sorted by length)
Long-form
Short-form
Ultra short-form The 15 sec. interaction Content shared directly on social networks, e.g. photos on Instagram, videos on Vine, a fact or a famous quote.
The 2-3 min. interaction The short-form is actually not that short: It includes blog posts, 90 sec videos and infographics.
The >10 min. interaction The long-form includes online articles, e-books, podcasts, webinars , whitepapers, video guides etc. In principle, it includes hard copy books and articles too.
ANALYZING THE MOST COMMON CONTENT FORMS BY WHAT IT TAKES AND WHAT IT DOES
Production time (cost) vs. consumption time
• Long and short refers to the time it takes for users to consume or digest the content, not the time it takes to produce it (or the external cost).
• Here’s a comparison of production time vs. consumption time using eight regular content forms:
Instagram Blog post Video Infographic
Podcast Webinar E-book Whitepaper
= Production time
= Consumption time
Adding the ability to create impact
• Here, impact is defined as getting people’s attention. Simply saying “Hi!” (which cannot be done by waving a whitepaper).
Instagram Blog post Video Infographic
Podcast Webinar E-book Whitepaper
= Production time
= Consumption time
= Ability to engage
Adding the ability to convince
• Content can be of a more or less convincing nature. • In general, the content that’s most engaging is not very convincing
(except for FMCG) – so you often need a good mix of content.
Instagram Blog post Video Infographic
Podcast Webinar E-book Whitepaper
= Production time
= Consumption time
= Ability to engage
= Ability to convince
WHICH OF THESE TYPES OF CONTENT WILL YOU BE ABLE TO SOURCE FOR FREE? AND WHICH ARE YOU WILLING TO PAY FOR?
And when you do decide to spend…
• The key when hiring agencies etc. to produce content for you is to make sure that:
1. The content or solution produced is reusable
and has a lasting value;
2. It lends it self to many or even all of the previously mentioned formats.
THE END