playbook 1

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ULTIMATE CONTENT STRATEGIST PLAYBOOK

CONTENTLY1

The Ultimate Content Strategist

Playbook No. 1:

Evangelizing Content and Setting Yourself Up for Success

Copyright © 2015 Contently. All rights reserved. contently.com By Joe Lazauskas


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CONTENTLY2

I. Introduction 4

II. Why This Guide 6

III. Content Marketing: Why 7

IV. Content Marketing: When 12

V. Content Marketing: How 17

VI. Conclusion 25

Table of Contents

http://150202_playbook.pdf/http://150202_playbook.pdf/http://150202_playbook.pdf/http://150202_playbook.pdf/http://150202_playbook.pdf/http://150202_playbook.pdf/


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CONTENTLY3

“Conen markeing is he aomic paricle of all he

res of a brand’s markeing campaigns.”

REBECCA LIEB, ALTIMETER GROUP


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CONTENTLY4

Marriott’s first forayinto content is the stuff

of marketing legend.Seven years ago, Kahleen Mathews, he hoel gian’s

EVP o communicaions, walked ino Bill Marriot’s o-

fice wih an idea. Afer 25 years as a reporer and news

anchor or an ABC News affiliae in Washingon, D.C.,

she knew he power o a good sory—especially when i

came rom a compelling figure. So, naurally, she wan-

ed Marriot o have a blog, and she waned Bill Marriot

o wrie i.

“Why he heck would anyone wan o

read a blog from me?” Marriot, hen 76

years old, responded.


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CONTENTLY5

Mathews quickly convinced Marriot he was he bes

person o ell he company’s sory, even hough he

didn’ use a compuer. And or he pas seven years,

he’s been elling ha sory—one weekly “On he Move”

blog pos a a ime. Meanwhile, Marriot has expanded

his conen operaion, building a 65-employee sudio o

power heir ar-reaching conen operaion, which is led

by ormer ABC execuive David Beebe. The hoel gian

only sared building heir conen sudio in he all o

2014, bu he early resuls are exremely impressive, a

successul TV show, “The Navigaor Live”; a ouching

shor film series, “Year o Surprises”; a personalized

online ravel magazine; and even exciing orays ino

virual realiy wih Oculus Rif.


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CONTENTLY6

Why This Guide

For mos brands, however, conen markeing doesn’

go his smoohly. Jus as mos millennials can’ walk

righ up o he boss and ask or a job like heir grand-

ahers once did, mos markeers can’ walk ino he

CEO’s office and pich he idea o building a small me-

dia company wihin a large corporaion. Insead, mos

conen markeers are aced wih a ask o consisenly

and persisenly evangelizing he pracice o conen

markeing while creaing a sraegic roadmap ha will

ensure success once hey ge he resources o sar exe-

cuing.

This isn’ easy. In ac, i’s incredibly difficul, and while

here are housands o bis o advice ou here abou

how o “do conen markeing” effecively, here’s no

comprehensive guide or geting sared. Tha’s why

we’ve decided o creae he Ulimae Conen Sraegis

Playbook, a five-par guide o evangelizing a conen

markeing program, creaing a roadmap o success, and

execuing and opimizing your conen program over

he long haul. We’ll be revealing our own secres o

success a Conenly, and we’ve also apped he smar-

es and mos successul conen markeers on Earh o

share heir insighs. Over he nex wo monhs, we’ll

ell you everyhing you need o know o ruly succeed

by building an audience and ying your conen back o

concree business goals:

— Ulimae Conen Sraegis Playbook: Conen Road-

map

— Ulimae Conen Sraegis Playbook: Conen Execu-

ion

— Ulimae Conen Sraegis Playbook: Growing Your

Audience

— Ulimae Conen Sraegis Playbook: Opimizaion

and ROI


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CONTENTLY7

3. Content Marketing: Why

Evangelizing a content marketing program starts with

a fairly simple question: "Why content marketing?"

Content marketing is a popular practice right now, and

when you look around the marketing landscape, it’s

easy to see why. Interruptive advertising simply isn’t

working, and as a result, creating content people

actually choose to read, watch, and interact with isbecoming an increasingly attractive alternative for

brands.


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CONTENTLY8

I you're reading his e-book, you're probably amiliar wih

hese noorious sas: The average click-hrough rae or ban-

ner ads is jus 0.10 percen, and he sandard 468x60 banner

ad has a CTR o jus 0.04 percen.

The news isn' much beter on mobile, where Inerne usage

is becoming concenraed. Mobile banner ads see jus a 0.35

percen CTR, and hal o hose clicks are accidenal. Even

more roubling, 85 percen o display ads are clicked on by 8

percen o people, some o whom may acually be bos. Tha

resuls in some sark realiies: You're more likely o survive

a plane crash or join he Navy SEALs han click on a banner

ad. On a relaed noe, 86 percen o consumers exhibi ban-

ner blindness, unable o recall he las display ad hey saw.

And o hose who did recall he ad, jus 2.8 percen ound i

relevan o heir needs. While i may be easy or consumers

o oally ignore banner ads, i's impossible or markeers o

ignore hese problems.

Traditional Advertising FacesMonumental Struggles

.1%

.04%

.35%

AVERAGE CTR FOR

BANNER ADS

AVERAGE CTR FOR

468X60 ADS

AVERAGE CTR FOR

MOBILE ADS


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CONTENTLY9

The news is geting worse or TV adverising as well. Sev-

eny-six percen o U.S. households now use DVR, Neflix,

or VOD, and one-hird o millennials claim hey wach no

broadcas TV, according o The New York Times. This year, an

addiional 4.9 percen o people aged 25–34 are expeced o

cu he cord, as are 2.9 percen o American pay TV cusom-

ers overall, including he 25–34 demographic. Plans o cu he

cord are on he rise 16 percen year-over-year, resuling in

an increasingly shrinking marke or TV adverising—which,

hanks o he rise o second screens, is becoming increasing-

ly easy o ignore.

16%

2.9%

YEAROVERYEAR INCREASE

IN CUTTING CABLE

PLANNING TO CUT CABLE

THIS YEAR, ADDITIONALLY

1/3OF MILLENIALS CLAIM THEY

WATCH NO BROADCAST TV


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CONTENTLY10

Meanwhile, he sampede owards conen markeing is

impossible o ignore. Consider:

Content Marketing on the Rise

&86%B2B Marketers

are now using content marketing in

a strategic fashion

77%B2C Marketers

76% 69%&B2B Marketers

are creating more content than they

were a year ago.

B2C Marketers

companies that excel at lead nurturing generate

50% more sales-ready leads at a 33% lower cost

15 1,200Blog posts per month Avg new monthly leads


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CONTENTLY11

Conen markeing's impac also exends o social me-dia, where brands ha don' have compelling conen o

share sruggle o make an impac. TrackMaven recen-

ly released an incredibly comprehensive sudy abou

brands experiencing declining social media effecive-

ness and came o a clear conclusion:

"We’ve reached a ipping poin where

here is a greaer burden on digial

markeers o creae beter conen.

Smar conen can overcome bad

disribuion, bu smar disribuion

canno save bad conen."

Simply pu, high-qualiy conen markeing posiively

reverberaes hrough every aspec o a brand's marke-

ing effors. As Alimeer's Rebecca Lieb pus i, "Con-

en markeing is he aomic paricle o all he res o a

brand’s markeing campaigns.”

The impac o conen markeing also goes beyond henumbers, as Alimeer explains in heir excellen “Cul-

ure o Conen” research repor:

“Companies ha evangelize, reinorce, and insiuion-

alize he imporance o conen hroughou and beyond

he markeing organizaion are more successul no

only across heir markeing iniiaives bu also wih

oher inernal and exernal success benchmarks, such

as sales, employee advocacy, cusomer service, audi-

ence engagemen, hough leadership, and hiring.

When conen becomes an ingrained

elemen of an enerprise’s culure, he

culure funcions like a well-oiled

engine, producing, circulaing, and

begeting conen, creaing numerous

efficiencies in he process.”


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4. Content Marketing: When

Figuring out if content marketing is right for your business.

While that broad case for content marketing is

strong, each brand needs to make the case for

themselves on an individual basis. The biggest

mistake a brand can make is deciding to “do

content marketing” and simply making content

for content’s sake. You need clear documented

goals with your content marketing, a robust

strategy for making it happen, a detailed road-

map to guide you forward, and a plan for how

to staff and execute your efforts. You also need

to plan how you’re going to take a data-driven

approach to optimizing and distributing your

work so you can create better content and con-

tinuously build a bigger and better audience.

The numbers bear this out. CMI’s 2015 survey

found that just 53 percent of marketers have a

documented strategy, but 54 percent of those

marketers with strategies identified their efforts

as effective, compared to a 35 percent average

overall.


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CONTENTLY13

Defining Business Goals

Successfully evangelizing and planning

a conen markeing operaion sars

wih deciding on wha business goals

you wan o achieve.

Do you wan o build brand awareness, rus, and

affiniy? Do you wan o drive more leads? Boos SEO?

Do you wan o influence curren cliens in some way?

Successul conen markeing requires significan

resources, and very ew chie execuives will green-

ligh and susain a conen operaion i i doesn’ drive

significan resuls.

Wai, you migh be asking, can I even measure any o

hose hings? The answer is yes. Conen markeing has

a roublesome repuaion as being hard o measure,

bu in many ways, ha repuaion is oudaed now ha

markeing auomaion echnology has goten beter.

We’ll dive ino he dephs o conen markeing mea-

suremen laer in he Conen Sraegis Playbook series,

bu here’s a quick primer on how o ie your conen o

he mos common goals idenified by oday’s markeers

in CMI’s recen survey:


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CONTENTLY14

LEAD GENERATION

Through he use o markeing auoma-

ion sofware such as Markeo and Sales-

orce, one can easily rack and atribue

how conen markeing helps generae

leads.

BRAND AWARENESS

A combinaion o widely used conen me-rics such as readers, reurn readers, shares,

and engaged ime spen reading can be com-

bined o creae a deailed brand awareness

score. For a more precise score, simple reader

survey widges can pinpoin a definiive

brand lif number. For insance, BuzzFeed

does his or heir sponsored conen cam-

paigns, ideniying a 230-percen-plus lif

in senimens like “Virgin Mobile is a brand

ha I’d invesigae or my nex phone” and

“Virgin Mobile is a brand ha undersands

me and he hings I like.”

LEAD NURTURING

Conen markeing is considered he mos e-

ecive acic in lead nururing. Smar conen

racking will le you see how many pieces o

conen a lead consumed during heir pur-

chase journey and will atribue a moneary

value o he impac a piece o conen had in

moving hem hrough he unnel. The impac

o conen markeing can be urher deer-

mined by comparing he close rae or leads

ha consumed muliple pieces o conen

versus hose who did no.

MOST COMMON GOALS

as identified by today’s marketers in

CMI’S recent survey:

http://s3-ak.buzzfed.com/static/downloads/CaseStudyDigital_Virgin.pdfhttp://s3-ak.buzzfed.com/static/downloads/CaseStudyDigital_Virgin.pdfhttp://docs.cdn.marketo.com/definitive-guide-to-lead-nurturing.pdf?url=/library/definitive-guide-to-lead-nurturing.pdfhttp://docs.cdn.marketo.com/definitive-guide-to-lead-nurturing.pdf?url=/library/definitive-guide-to-lead-nurturing.pdfhttp://docs.cdn.marketo.com/definitive-guide-to-lead-nurturing.pdf?url=/library/definitive-guide-to-lead-nurturing.pdfhttp://docs.cdn.marketo.com/definitive-guide-to-lead-nurturing.pdf?url=/library/definitive-guide-to-lead-nurturing.pdfhttp://s3-ak.buzzfed.com/static/downloads/CaseStudyDigital_Virgin.pdfhttp://s3-ak.buzzfed.com/static/downloads/CaseStudyDigital_Virgin.pdf


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CONTENTLY15

SALES

Similarly, using conen markeing auo-

maion in conjuncion wih a cohesive

effor beween markeing and sales allows

you o atribue he impac o each piece

o conen o a given sale. While an imper-

ec science, i’s ar more precise han a-

ribuion or mos oher markeing acics.

I’s also worh noing ha companies ha

excel a lead nururing—largely hanks o

heir conen markeing effors—generae

50 percen more sales-ready leads a a 33

percen lower cos.

CUSTOMER RETENTION & LOYALTY

The “always-on sales unnel” is a mod-ern markeing cliché or a reason. Today’s

brands are in a consan batle or cus-

omer loyaly, and high-qualiy conen

is an incredibly effecive way o keep ha

relaionship srong. Tracking he effec ha

pos-purchase conen consumpion has

on uure consumpion makes he case

or conen markeing even sronger. Jusconsider he lieime value o your average

cusomer.

Wheher you wan o ocus on SEO, lead

generaion, brand awareness, or a holis-

ic approach combining all o he above,

coming o your chie execuives wih a

clear lis o goals and a game plan or how

o measure perormance will ge you he

go-ahead. Bu here’s more you need o

figure ou i you wan o walk ou wih a

green ligh o creae grea conen.


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CONTENTLY16

Good Content = Good SEO

Though not identified as a top concern in CMI’s survey,

it can’t be ignored, since it’s tied so closely to the con-

cerns listed above. Consider that SEO leads have a 14.6

percent close rate, compared to just 1.7 percent for out-

bound leads. And in the wake of Google Hummingbird,

high-quality, engaging content that people spend lots

of time consuming is the biggest key to SEO success.

We asked Cyrus Shepard, the “Content Astronaut” and

SEO sage at Moz, what’s in store for SEO in 2015. “The

14.6%

Close rate for SEO leads

1.7%

Close rate for outbound leads

first thing that comes to mind,” he says, “is less of an

emphasis on pure technical perfection in terms of SEO

and more of an emphasis on user experience. There’s

a lot of evidence to indicate that Google is looking at

user engagement metrics and quality of your website—

how long are people spending on the page, how easy it

is to navigate.”


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CONTENTLY17

5. Content Marketing: How

Planning for the road ahead.

Once you’ve identified your goals, there are four cru-

cial steps you need to take to set your content mar-

keting operation up for success. We’ll go over all of

these in great detail over the next two months in our

Content Strategist Playbooks, telling you everything

you need to know to complete each successfully.


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CONTENTLY18

Internal Audit, External Audit, and Audience Identification

Many brands only audi he exernal media landscape

when planning heir conen sraegy, and ha’s a

criical misake. Be hones abou wha you’re rying o

achieve. Wha can you do and wha can’ you do? Wha

roadblocks can ge in he way o your effor o consis-

enly publish high-qualiy conen and ac like a media

company? Wha processes need o be in place wih

compliance and oher sakeholders? Where are your

srenghs, and where do you need ouside help?

“The enire ecosysysem is compeing

for atenion from everybody else.”

STEVE RUBEL

A candid evaluaion o your curren capabiliies is

absoluely necessary i you wan o se yoursel up o

succeed.

While you’ll probably sar examining your inernal

inrasrucure, an exernal audi is needed as well. And

we’ll explain how o successully execue boh in our

nex Ulimae Conen Sraegis Playbook: Conen

Roadmap. A Conenly, we advocae a “gap analysis” o

pinpoin he conen areas ha are being underserved


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CONTENTLY19

and how a brand can succeed agains he curren compeiion. One key

misake brands ofen make is only considering companies in heir in-

dusry as poenial compeiion.

“The compeiion isn’ jus, say, Samsung versus Apple or Unilever

versus P&G,” Seve Rubel, chie conen sraegis a Edelman, explains.

“The compeiion is or every minue o ha sakeholder’s ime. How

do we creae somehing ha’s going o compee wih ha? And ‘ha’

could be Hollywood, could be Bollywood, could be he radiional media

companies or digially naive media companies. The enire ecosysem is

compeing or atenion rom everybody else.”


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CONTENTLY20

No jus any gap in he marke will do. I mus be oneha allows you o creae conen ha aligns wih your

broader business goals. For GE’s wildly successul GE

Repors online magazine, ha arge audience consiss

o company shareholders and he broader ech commu-

niy alike.

“I you look a GE Repors, we are a science, ech, inno-

vaion online magazine, sor o in he vein o Wired or

Popular Science or The Economist’s science and ech-

nology secion,” explains he managing edior o GE

Repors, Tomas Kellner. “Engineers—ha audience is

really big or us. Shareholders are poenially a really big

audience. Mos people will no buy a je engine during

heir lieime, bu who knows wha’s going o happen in

10 years? Maybe hey’ll ge smaller, and everybody will

have a personal plane or a flying car.”

“We are a science, ech, innovaiononline magazine, sor of in he vein of

Wired or Popular Science or The

Economist ’s science and echnology

secion.”

TOMAS KELLNER


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CONTENTLY21

Content Execution Plan

How will you manage o creae your conen? Will you

build an in-house eam, rely on a combinaion o ree-

lancers and in-house alen, or rely primarily on ree-

lance alen? Are you in need o a echnology plaorm

o manage your ediorial calendar, workflow, approval

process, hierarchy, and consisen publishing cadence

so ha you can creae conen a he speed o news?

Mos imporanly, how will you coninuously produce

beter conen and become more efficien over ime?

These are all quesions ha much be answered, and in

our hird e-book in his series, Conen Sraegis Play-

book: Conen Execuion, we’ll examine how op brands

srucure heir newsrooms, and provide a emplae or

evaluaing all he poenial conen markeing parners

a your disposal.


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CONTENTLY22

For insance, Coca-Cola Journey is he beverage gian’s online magazine,

which atracs over a million readers each monh. Managing Edior Jay

Moye publishers 15 o 20 sories each monh hrough a “virual news-

room,” as mos o he eam, including Moye, works remoely. They use

he Conenly plaorm o manage heir ediorial calendar and collaborae

wih reelance alen. “We’ve really ried o carve ou a bea sysem wih

our Conenly wriers,” Moye explains. “I’s nice o know who we can go

o or cerain sories.” Those beas include a spors wrier, a ood wrier,

and business wriers.

“We’ve really ried o carve ou a

bea sysem wih our Conenly

wriers.”JAY MOYE


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CONTENTLY23

Distribution Plan

“I you build i, hey will come” may have worked or

Kevin Cosner in Field of Dreams, bu i sure as heck

doesn’ work in he modern media landscape. In 2015,

here are more opions or paid conen disribuion

han ever—rom recommendaion widges like Ou-

brain and Taboola o hyper-argeing on Facebook,

LinkedIn, and Twiter o emerging experimenal opionslike Snapcha and cha apps like Kik and WhasApp. You

need o simulaneously build your organic disribuion

channels no jus on social media, bu more imporan-

ly, via email and search.

For Tomas Kellner o GE Repors, email is especially key.

Kellner buil he GE Repors subscriber lis rom scrach,

bu ha lis o 15,000 devoed daily readers is now a big

way or each sory o gain racion. “We love email. I

may sound like old school, bu e-mail subscripion is

really a hard-wired link o your audience. For us, email

subscribers are an exremely valuable audience ha we

wan. Every day, 15,000 people ge he blas rom GE

Repors ha a new sory is ou,” he explains, adding

ha he number o email signups ha a sory drives is a

key conen meric.

Tha link beween disribuion and key merics is

srong. Geting he mos ou o your disribuion re-

quires a daa-driven approach in which you’re con-

sanly esing and weaking differen combinaions and

ieraions o conen. Luckily, here are some secres o

success, which will be he subjec o he ourh Ulimae

Conen Sraegis Playbook: Building an Audience.

http://contently.com/strategist/2015/01/06/why-2015-will-be-the-year-of-the-chat-app-for-publishers-and-content-marketers/http://www.gereports.com/http://www.gereports.com/http://contently.com/strategist/2015/01/06/why-2015-will-be-the-year-of-the-chat-app-for-publishers-and-content-marketers/


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CONTENTLY24

Content Measurement and Optimization Methodology

Ulimaely, mos conen markeing programs will be

judged by wheher or no hey drive business resuls,

and ha’s a scary proposiion. According o CMI’s 2015

repor, only 21 percen o B2B markeers say ha hey’re

successul a racking he ROI o heir conen markeing

program. For B2C markeers, ha number sis a 23 per-

cen. Those numbers aligns wih our own research romhis pas summer, which ound ha only 9 percen o

markeers are highly confiden ha heir key conen

merics are driving business resuls.

As we oulined earlier, i doesn’ have o be ha way.

I’s very possible o ie conen markeing o differen

merics, and we’ll show you how nex monh in our

fifh Ulimae Conen Sraegis Playbook: Conen ROI

and Opimizaion.

Also remember ha conen measuremen isn’ jus

abou reporing. Your key conen merics should be in-

orming your sraegy, execuion, and disribuion on a

daily basis. I’s somehing we call he Conen Flywheel,

he visualizaion o a process in which key conen

merics are he core componens ha inorm how you

creae conen, engage your audience and gain newreaders, and hen opimize accordingly.

C R E A T E

E N G A

G E

O P T

I M I Z

E

http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2015_B2C_Research.pdfhttp://contently.com/strategist/2014/05/20/over-90-percent-of-marketers-are-not-confident-in-how-they-are-measuring-content/http://contently.com/strategist/2014/05/20/over-90-percent-of-marketers-are-not-confident-in-how-they-are-measuring-content/http://contently.com/strategist/2014/05/20/over-90-percent-of-marketers-are-not-confident-in-how-they-are-measuring-content/http://contently.com/strategist/2014/05/20/over-90-percent-of-marketers-are-not-confident-in-how-they-are-measuring-content/http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2015_B2C_Research.pdf


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Conclusion

Conen markeing akes ime, and i’s a process o rial

and error. Marriot’s effors sared wih weekly blogs

rom an iconic CEO, and i sill ook six and a hal years

o successes, duds, and lessons beore he brand was

ready o go all-in wih is ambiious 65-person conen

sudio.

In 2015, however, he pressure o launch and scale a

successul conen markeing operaion is greaer han

ever beore. The digial media landscape has never

been more compeiive as brands, media sarups, and

old-guard salwars alike compee or a finie amoun o

audience atenion. For any new conen endeavor, you

can move pas any early growing pains as long as you

have a comprehensive plan in place and proocol or

learning rom your misakes. Bu ailing o pu in place

a cohesive sraegy? Tha’s unaccepable.

The smares brand publishers on earh have heir

game plan figured ou, and hey’re ready o compee

and sand ou in a crowded media environmen. I your

brand isn’ here ye, ha’s okay. Take his e-book and

sar making he case or a conen markeing wihin

your organizaion, and over he nex five e-books, we’ll

guide you hrough everyhing you need o know obuild a powerul conen markeing machine. Head here

o ensure you ge each one in your inbox he momen

i’s released.


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CONTENTLY26

Want more insights into the

state of content marketing?

For daily insights, subscribe to our online magazine,

The Content Strategist.

And if you’d like to talk to someone about Contently’s services,

please reach out to us at [email protected]

or visit contently.com.

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