Download - Building Your Content Marketing Strategy
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Content Marketing Strategy
January, 2014
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About Me
Chief Marketing Technology Officer
Content Marketing Institute Consultant
Dad, BBQ Fan Featured in Gourmet
Magazine @willdavis @rightsource
#MDSG
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The Game Has Changed
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The Game Has Changed
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The Game Has Changed
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The Game Has Changed
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The Game Has Changed Buyers are educating themselves Corporate Executive Board - 60% of a buyer’s decision-making
process in B2B is complete before they even talk to a salesperson
Sirius Decisions cites that number at 70% IDG Research: Enterprise organizations download an average
of 10 informational assets during the purchase process.
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The Game Has Changed78% of chief marketing officers think custom content is the future of marketing. (Source: Hanley-Wood Business Media)
78%
The average, annual spend on branded content outsourcing was a $371,364, and $987,417 for companies that exclusively outsource. (Source: Custom Content Council)
$987,417
58% of consumers trust editorial content. (Source: Nielsen)
58%
Companies with over 1,000 employees typically allocate 24% of their marketing budget to content. (Source: Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs)
24%
82% of consumers like reading content from brands when it’s relevant. (Source: The CMA)
82%
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Content Marketing Planning Only 44% of B2B Marketers have a written content marketing
strategy Only 11% of companies that rate content marketing as
ineffective have a written strategy B2B Marketers with a content marketing strategy are 600%
more likely to be effective 2/3 of B2B Marketers without a content marketing strategy
are creating more content now than they did in the previous year
View full CMI Research
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Strategy Still Wins
Image Source: Placester.com
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What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.
Image Source: Content Marketing Institute
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The Content Marketer’s Mindset
Content marketing is not another tactic
Content marketing is not another line item
Content marketing impacts marketing AND customer service, public relations, recruiting and more
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How Do I Attack Content Marketing?First, understand that content creation is merely one, isolated, basic step.
Content Planning Content Creation Content Optimization Content Distribution Content Reporting and Analysis
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Why Are We Doing This?
“Brands have to become publishers”
…but brands have different business models and business goals than publishers.
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Content Supports Business Objectives
Yours probably isn’t selling ad impressions
How does your content marketing strategy fit in with the business strategy to drive business results?
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Content Supports Business Objectives
Business Objectives
Business Strategy
Marketing Objectives
Marketing Strategy
Content Objectives
Content Strategy
Content Tactics
Content
Metrics
Credit: Jay Baer/CMI
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Content Strategy Comes From:
Business Objectives
Business Strategy
Marketing Objectives
Marketing Strategy
Content Objectives
Content Strategy
Content Tactics
Content
Metrics
Business objectives (business plan)
Marketing objectives (marketing plan)
Content objectives (content plan)
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Answer these 12 questions
1. Why are we doing this?2. What’s the goal?3. What is our unique story?4. Who is our audience?5. Who is on our team? What
is everyone’s role?6. Who will handle each
piece of content marketing?
7. What are our primary themes?
8. What types of content should we create?
9. When will each piece of content get published?
10. How will we distribute each piece of content?
11. How will we report on the content marketing effort?
12. What’s the budget?
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Understanding Your Audience Who are your buyers and influencers? What do they care about? What problems do
they face? How can you help
solve them? What are their
objections?
VP Marketin
g
CFOIT Director
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Example: Consulting Firm Helps clients solve complex challenges across the
industry spectrum From public companies to private companies to
investors A nimble, experienced, unique team of expert
advisors, analyzers and problem solvers
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Buyers/Influencers Large Company BD (VP Strategy or BD) Smaller Firm C-Level Exec (CEO, COO) Investors, VCs (Managing Partner) Chief Financial Officer Chief Technology Officer Chief Medical Officer
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What Are Their Questions? Address Who can help us commercialize our tech? Who can we acquire that does XYZ? What is their background? Who have they worked with that’s like me? What are their specialties? How do they understand my company’s unique
challenges? How do they work?
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…And So Many More From: Talking with your clients Talking with your prospects Talking with your got-aways Talking with your sales team Reviewing analytics Reviewing industry trends Online research RFP Questions
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Informed Content - Keywords
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Informed Content – Keyword Trends
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Address Questions With Content Different content topics for different buyers Different content topics for different stages
Different content types for different buyers Different content types for different stages
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Editorial Calendar
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Content Plan
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Content Plan
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Content Pyramid
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The Content Creation Challenge Goal for each piece of content– In line with overall marketing goal?
Stick to the plan– If you wander, the audience wanders
Dedicated content staff– Content creation duties can’t be shoehorned into existing
jobs– Hire dedicated staff or outsource– Writers should be great, not just good
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The Content Creation Challenge Provide writers (internal or outsourced) with: – Background– Story framework– Access to experts– “Garbage in, garbage out”
Have content ready as back-up for emergencies Enlist staff for content ideas
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The Content Creation Challenge Keep the pipeline full of ideas– Brainstorm– What questions are customers/prospects asking? – Spin off new topics from a successful idea– Create series
Make sure enough content is in progress at all times Edit– Anything less than remarkable will be lost in the sea of
mediocrity
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Make It Remarkable
2,000,000 blog posts
294,000,000,000 emails
864,000 hours of video
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Content Optimization Not just for search engines (the robots) but buyers
(the humans) too What do you want them to do? What calls to action (CTAs)
should you include? AKA – “Uh, Now what?”
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Content Optimization - Lead Capture “Forms are the enemy of spread” – but… “You can’t have a prospect if you don’t know who
they are” Determine what information is worth a “gate” (fewer,
but known readers) and what isn’t Determine follow-up process – be helpful but not
creepy
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Content Distribution Where does your target audience live, online and off
(Google, Compete, Alexa) Write down 5 sites right now!– Social media as part of your content strategy– Guest blogging– Co-branded webinars, seminars, events– Email (don’t miss out on this one)– Print – Mobile
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Email: The Oldest Social Network 1-Offs and Group Newsletters
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Content Distribution: A Story
July 25, 2013: Shared/viewed by 100s
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Content Distribution: A Story
July 26, 2013: Shared/viewed by 10,000s
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Content Distribution: A Story
August 2, 2013: Shared/viewed by 100,000s
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Content Distribution: A Story
August 2, 2013: Shared/viewed by 1,000,000s?
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Content Marketing vs. Social Media
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Image Source: Pew Internet
Don’t let the social media tail wag the content marketing dog!
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Set Up Conversion Opportunities eBook Guide Webinar
(live or recorded) Email Newsletter White Paper
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Content Reporting & Analysis
Consumption • Traffic• Page views• Downloads
Sharing• LinkedIn shares• Tweets• Emails
Lead Generation• Lead forms• Phone calls
Revenue• $$$$
Measure everything that you possibly can But - report very few, very business-focused KPIs Discard vanity metrics wherever possible How do KPIs align with business objectives?
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Tools Of The Trade
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Track And Manage Prospects Leverage your best content for your best leads Use technology to nurture your leads Do everything you can to track activities to revenue
generated
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Track And Manage Prospects
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Closed Loop ROI
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Closed Loop ROI
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Additional Benefits Recruiting Client Retention Employee Retention Sales/Marketing Relationship Raising Capital Reinforce Company Messaging Public Relations …and more
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Thank You!
will@rightsourcemarketing.comwww.rightsourcemarketing.comwww.marketingtrenches.com
Free eBook: How
to Grow Your Business with Content
Marketing
Will DavisRight Source Marketing@willdavis