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.

1. CONTENT MARKETING:
PRODUCING LOW-COST
CONTENT THAT WORKS
@JonathanWich / 13.12.2013

2. WHY IS CONTENT MARKETING
SO IMPORTANT?

3. 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
Predominantly
Marketing
Define Needs
Access Options
Make Decision
Predominantly
Sales
Source: CEB, 2012

4. 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

5. 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.cocacolacompany.com/

6. The B2B sales funnel has changed too
Demand is being shaped
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.
Impact
Ultra short-form
Make people know you are there, via SEO,
social media etc.
Communication
Short-form
Give them a reason to visit your website via
blog posts, infographics, videos etc.
Convince
Purchase
Long-form
Convince them through articles, guides,
whitepapers, free e-books, webinars, demos etc.

7. 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.

8. HOW DO YOU PRODUCE LOWCOST CONTENT THAT WORKS?

9. It all begins with having a content infrastructure
Dedicated staff
Internal copywriters, journalists,
campaign managers, videographers etc.
External hired professionals
Agencies or freelance content
producers hired by the company
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
Engaged fans and followers
All sorts of stakeholders – e.g. photos via
Instagram or retweetable tweets
Content

10. You need content in many forms (sorted by length)
The 15 sec. interaction
Ultra short-form
Short-form
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
Long-form
The long-form includes online articles, e-books,
podcasts, webinars , whitepapers, video guides etc. In
principle, it includes hard copy books and articles too.

11. ANALYZING THE MOST COMMON
CONTENT FORMS BY WHAT IT
TAKES AND WHAT IT DOES

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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
= Ability to engage
= Consumption time
= Ability to convince

15. WHICH OF THESE TYPES OF
CONTENT WILL YOU BE ABLE TO
SOURCE FOR FREE?
AND WHICH ARE YOU WILLING
TO PAY FOR?

16. 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.

17. THE END