Everybody's a Storyteller: What the Rise of Content Marketing Means for Your Product OrganizationMatt Volpi | Tovana Consulting, Inc.

What is "Content Marketing" Anyway?

"Content marketing is the commitment to become

the leading destination of helpful insights for your audience by answering

their top questions" - Michael Brenner

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What is "Content Marketing" Anyway?

"Optimally executed content marketing

delivers useful, relevant information assets that

buyers consider a beneficial service rather than an interruption or a

'pitch.'" - IDC

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What is "Content Marketing" Anyway?

Content marketing is a strategic and ongoing initiative to create and

distribute compelling and valuable content for a

defined audience4

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Let's break that down...

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It is a STRATEGICinitiative

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It is an ONGOINGinitiative

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It is CREATINGcontent

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It is DISTRIBUTINGcontent

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It is DISTRIBUTING other people's content

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It is COMPELLINGcontent

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It is VALUABLEcontent

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It is a DEFINEDaudience

What ISN'T Content Marketing?

• Corporate Marketing• Product Marketing• Social Media

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Why Are We Doing This Again?

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Also, Everyone ELSE Is Doing It

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And They Are Spending A Lot Of Money On It

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$50 Billion2015 U.S. spending

on content marketing

Go-To Content Marketing Vehicles

• Blogs• Listicles• How-To Articles• Infographics• Videos

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How Is That Different From Regular Marketing?

• The sales pitch is minimal if it exists at all

• Customers and stories are front and center

• The focus is on benefits vs. features

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B2B Customer Benefits• Help them do something faster• Help them do something cheaper• Help them do more• Help them stop doing something they

don’t want to do anymore• Help them do something new• Help them use their resources

differently

B2C Customer Benefits• Make them happy• Save them time• Save them money• Help them do something new• Help them stop doing something they

don’t want to do anymore

Finding the Sweet Spot

Benefit

IndustryCompany Type

Benefit

InterestCustomer Type

B2B B2C

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Here are some examples of the tools of the trade

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Fun-yet-informativeblog posts

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Posts from guestblogging customers

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Thought leadership articles in industry outlets

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Custom publishing of branded periodicals

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Content-rich resourcedestinations

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Registration-required whitepapers

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Whitepaperaggregation

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Infographics

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Video content

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So... we're talking about a lot of writing, right?

Content Curation: Spotting & sharing high quality content

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Ghostblogging: Otherscreate content with your byline

Guestblogging: Featuring industry experts & customers

56% of companies outsource some or all of their content

marketing (Oracle/LookbookHQ)

How Does This Change My Life?

• Your company now has an army (in-house or outsourced) of people that are talking about your solutions

• They must generate content constantly

• They need ideas and input• They need guidance (but may not

realize it)

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Here's your content marketing homework

43% of companies have an executive responsible

for content marketing (Curata)

Do you know if your company has one? If so,

do you know who they are?

Align your company's content marketing calendar with your

product release calendar

Use the analytics to identify what customers are interested in when

roadmapping

Use content to test the market demand for new features or expanding

into new verticals

Leverage your product's content marketing

strategy to build your own personal brand

A Quick Word About Me and Tovana Consulting

• Tovana Consulting, Inc. – http://tovana.com– Providing market research, strategy & marketing/

content creation services since 2002– Clients in a range of industries including

technology, financial services and education• Matt Volpi – @mattvolpi | mvolpi@tovana.com– 20-years in product management and marketing– PM at (former) mobile & Internet giants

• CMGi, Nokia and Sun Microsystems– Executive roles at two start-ups

• BigBelly Solar• Modiv Media (acquired by Catalina Marketing)