How to Launch a Successful Global Content Marketing Program
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Today’s brands understand the need for original brand storytelling to connect with their audiences on a global scale; however, up until this point, the challenge for marketing leaders has been deploying a strategy locally without compromising brand messaging or control. Join experts from our Skyword Global team to find out how to: -Articulate a global content marketing vision to local markets -Manage teams, strategies, and processes across borders -Develop localized global content guidelines -Find local editors and establish regional knowledge -Execute a plan for scaled production
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How to Launch a Successful Global Content Marketing Program
- 1. 1©2015 Skyword How to Launch a Successful Global Content Marketing Program
- 3. 3©2015 Skyword Agenda • Speakers • Global Content Marketing Framework – Vision – Strategy – Execution • Q&A
- 4. 4©2015 Skyword MaryAnne Flynn, VP Global Operations Regina Vertiz, Director, Global Services Matt Johnson Sr. Director, Editorial
- 5. 5©2015 Skyword It starts with a story….
- 6. 6©2015 Skyword Framework for Launching a Global Marketing Program • Vision • Strategy • Execution
- 7. 7©2015 Skyword Vision: Articulate & Evangelize • Broad • Consistent • Shared
- 9. 9©2015 Skyword Strategy: Create Your Plan • Draft global editorial guidelines • Identify key global topics your target customers love • Prioritize regions to launch first • Determine global technology platform • Determine budgets and owners
- 10. 10©2015 Skyword It’s okay to start small
- 11. 11©2015 Skyword Execution • Editorial Guidelines • Local vs. Global • Original vs. Translated vs. Transcreated • Storytellers • Global Program Management Process
- 12. 12©2015 Skyword Editorial Guidelines • Global guidelines that can be refined • Tone & voice that reflects region, country or city • Content created with local audience in mind
- 13. 13©2015 Skyword Local vs. Global • Success hinges on authentic, local experience • But don’t forget, universal content! • Local: global content
- 14. 14©2015 Skyword Content Development • Original: Creating new pieces from scratch specifically for market • Translation: Translating existing content into another language without taking new audience into account • Transcreation: Taking essence of existing content and reworking/rewriting it with new audience in mind
- 15. 15©2015 Skyword He’s a Ghost!The Sixth Sense Chinese transcreated title:US English title:
- 16. 16©2015 Skyword Storytellers • How do I find creatives? • How do I vet them? • How do I source the right editors?
- 17. 17©2015 Skyword
- 18. 18©2015 Skyword Global Program Management
- 19. 19©2015 Skyword Keyword Strategy Topic Generation Local Content Creation Local Content Editor Final Review and Publish Results and Analysis Streamline Process
- 20. 20©2015 Skyword • What will you talk about? • How will you deliver it? • …and on time? Generate Topics
- 21. 21©2015 Skyword • Target Audience • Location • Language • Images • Hyperlinks • Headers • Metadata Research Keywords
- 22. 22©2015 Skyword Enforce Keyword Use
- 24. 24©2015 Skyword • Purpose of the Video – Audience – Delivery Location • Live Action • Animation • Length • Supporting Meta Data Video Creation
- 25. 25©2015 Skyword • Recruit specific photo journalists to tell your story through images • Crowdsource your image needs (FOAP) • Infographics Photos and Other Images
- 29. 29©2015 Skyword Key Takeaways • Vision • Strategy • Execution
- 30. 30©2015 Skyword Localized Content Guidelines Sampling of Global Contributor Profiles •Local Editors & Writers •Global Program Managers •Platform Translation •Guidelines & Standards •Time Zone Flexibility •Localized: •Keyword Search •Optimization •Spelling and Grammar •Native Currency Payments Localized Editorial Review in Russian Localized Editorial Review in Russian Localized Content Guidelines in Portuguese SKY W ORD GLOBAL
- 31. 31©2015 Skyword Where will your global journey take you?
Editor's Notes
- INTRO: LS: Welcome to today’s global content marketing webinar. My name is Lauren, I’m the Director of Product Marketing here at Skyword, and I’ll be kicking off today’s panel. Thank you all for joining us. We have a great group of listeners with us this afternoon, and hope to provide some ideas that you can all bring back to your teams. What does it mean to go global? To BE global? You all understand the need to connect with your audiences on a global scale. Or else you wouldn’t be here. It is not the lack of vision, or ambition to go big, It’s execution strategy that’s often overlooked in our rush to go global.
- Consider managing writers across multiple time zones and compensating them in their native currencies. It’s not as simple as translating one piece of content into a dozen languages – it’s about shaping individual stories for each market, paying attention to the nuances in dialect, and employing creatives who actually inhabit the spaces brands are trying to reach. It’s about seamlessly spreading a message that is consistent with your brand voice throughout the world. These are just some of the challenges our customers brought to us… You can probably relate these and have your own pain points that you’re trying to solve. There are a lot of moving pieces involved in content marketing even for a single location. It can become chaotic as you consider the challenges of working with teams located across the globe - each with their own priorities.. Today we’re going to talk through a framework that will help you address these challenges.
- Todays webinar will address these challenges. We’ll be ending with a Q&A where we open up the lines to your questions. Type into chat box. And we’ll address as many as we can get to after the presentation.
- LS – our first speaker today is Skyword’s VP of Global Operations, MaryAnne Flynn MA: Hello my name is MAF and I’m so pleased to be with you today. I’ve been in operational roles nearly all of my career, and I’ve been in content marketing since before we called it that – since 2006. Prior to my position as VP of Global Operations at Skyword I lead the editorial team, support services and recruitment of all of the creatives who make the amazing stories for Skyword’s clients LS - Up next, our Director of Global Services, Reggie Vertiz LS – Finally, introducing our Sr. Director of Editorial, Matt Johnson
- Before you can even start thinking about a global content marketing program, you have to take a step back You may be familiar with the benefits of content marketing, but that doesn’t mean that your counterparts in other markets see it that way. They may think that putting up product offers is content marketing, versus telling a story that engages, that entices, that hooks. So before you can build your strategy, make sure that there is buy-in to brand storytelling. For brand storytelling… Think about who you are trying to influence… who are your target customers? What topics do they love to read about and to watch? Which of those topics aligns with your brand? … Focus on those topics that your target customers find valuable, are timely and help you to build a relationship with them Global story telling it’s about shaping individual stories for each market, paying attention to the nuances of the target customer, the culture & dialect, and employing creatives who actually inhabit the spaces you are trying to reach.
- We’ve created a framework for launching a Global Content Marketing program. The framework consists of [CLICK] a Vision [CLICK] a Strategy And [CLICK] Executing on the strategy
- Your vision should be broad and should address your reason for using storytelling to connect with your global target customer Your vision will be consistent across regions Here is an Example: To Connect with consumers all over the world in a personal way. To Use local, authentic content to raise awareness and build trust To Focus on stories about places and experiences This brand is reaching their target customers with stories they love and that are aligned with their brand. So when their target customers around the world need their products and services this brand is top of mind. Only You can decide what vision makes sense for your organization. Once you have that vision articulated, you need to communicate it widely within your organization. Evangelize: Identify who your content marketing champions are in priority regions around the world and talk through your vision with them. Listen to their feedback and incorporate it into the vision so that you start to create buy-in and so the initiative is relevant and meaningful to other regions.
- MAF- I can’t emphasize enough how critical it is to put a communication plan in place for all of the region involved. Whenever possible, have those conversations Face to face We can have all the technology in the world, Skype, email, teleconference. But without forging those connections in person, the old fashion way, you’ll never be able to create a strong vision that is so critical t a successful global content marketing launch.
- You’ve communicated your vision, now it’s time to create a plan to achieve that vision 1)[CLICK] Draft Global Editorial Guidelines: At a high level, editorial guidelines provide direction to your story tellers and your editorial team, about your brand’s tone, voice and target audience. They create an overarching mission for this content and ensure there is brand consistency across regions. The guidelines can be nuanced for the local regions, but don’t move too far away from your global editorial guidelines or there can be disparate messages that won’t resonate with your target customer. 2) [CLICK] These are specific topics you want to cover in all markets. They are a portion of the overall topics, but by having each region create stories around a few key topics you’re providing a consistent user experience that’s executed uniquely around the world. EXAMPLE: A travel company who creates content in every city about the best way to navigate within that city. It could be the Tube, it could be gondolas, it could be walking. It doesn’t matter what the best way is… it matters that this company makes sure they cover a topic they know their customers want through a creative story. Another key topic may be much less practical and speak more to the emotions of their customers. They may decide no matter the location they want a story about the best places to watch the sunset. 3) [CLICK] Determine where it makes sense for you to expand your content marketing to first. What are your priority regions around the world? 4) [CLICK] With any content marketing program you need a technology platform to manage the many moving pieces. When you’re expanding to a global plan, you need a platform that can handle all of the languages, currencies, that has Localized Keyword search and optimization and Localized spelling and grammar checks, and adapt to time zones. Skyword handles all of these critical elements and is the only content marketing platform that does. 5) [CLICK] You need to determine if budgets will be from headquarters or will be from local regions. That will depend on your own organization’s practices. Based on my experience, headquarters is usually the one driving a global strategy because they’ve seen great results at regional or local levels and want to replicate that success, or they see inefficiencies without a global plan. When headquarters drives the initiatives they often cover the costs for the first year with a plan to have local regions pick up the budget after a set period of time. Image by: Dave Meier Image by: Dave Meier
- Important: Build a plan that recognizes regions may be strapped for resources, and each of your local marketing people may already have a lot on their plate. It’s OK to START Small when launching globally – give regions time to understand the process and after early learnings and success at the local level you will have the buy-in needed to ramp up. With the vision and plan in place… now the rubber hits the road and you execute the plan. I’ll turn the discussion over to Matt Johnson to kick off this area.
- So now that you have your global vision and a strategy in place. How do you actually get it done? Reggie and I will talk to you about your execution plan. [CLICK] Creating editorial guidelines [CLICK], deciding the split between local and global content [CLICK], original versus translated content [CLICK], how to recruit the storytellers to make the connection to the audience [CLICK], and how to manage the whole process at scale.
- Start from the top down — As MaryAnne mentioned, you want to use the global vision to inform a set of global guidelines that define content vision and goals, articulates your brand’s tone and voice, and spells out who the audience is. These editorial guidelines tell your storytellers who the audience is and how to speak to them. BUT Even within the same global company, different markets are going to speak to different audiences, or the same audience in a different way. That’s why you need to let the local market refine the global guidelines to meet the needs of their specific audience and content goals. The editorial guidelines must still fit the global vision, but you can refine audience and goals to meet the needs of that region, country or city. You can also refine tone and voice to a degree, but try to keep these consistent globally so that your company has a consistent image across markets. One example of an acceptable voice change was for a B2B client we worked with who wanted a very casual and conversational approach to the English content, but when we spoke to the German market, they told us that their audience would take conversational to be unprofessional, so a more formal approach was taken. Trying to lock a local market into a set of guidelines that is either overly general or only takes into account your US audience will alienate your regional team and make them feel like you don’t understand their needs. You want them to be bought-in and excited about the global vision and their part in it, not hog-tied into something that doesn’t work for them. The regional audience is also going to be disengaged when they realize the content they’re reading hasn’t been created with them in mind. Once they lose trust in the content and your brand, they won’t be back. As part of your global vision and local refinement, you need to decide whether the content is produced in English or in the region’s native language. The audience is the prime driver in this decision. If you’re creating culinary content for foodies in Paris, you’ll probably produce that in French. But if you’re creating tourism content for affluent travellers coming to Paris, you’ll probably stick with English. Your local editorial guidelines are also going to call out local market language usage and grammar nuances. Even between two English-speaking countries, words and phrases have different meanings, and you risk cultural kickback and cringe if you use the wrong word in the wrong country. Use the local guidelines to call out the correct terms to use in that region. If you’re trying to explain to your Australian or British audience how to change a diaper, you’ve immediately lost them because they say “nappy”. As you’ll see in a few minutes, there are ways you can safeguard against potential misuse of terms and ideas across regions.
- You should be starting to see that, when going global, your success hinges on an authentic local experience. The Local market brings creativity and cultural relevance in their execution of the vision. The local market will also be working on other campaigns using social media, events, and offers, and these can be used to enhance the local experience. But that doesn’t mean you need to go totally local. You may have some universal content that works across all markets, and it would be a shame not to use that. If you do, determine a split between global and local content volumes - i.e. 2-3 editorial topics/month out of the 20/month for each region may be globally focused. The remainder articles cover what’s relevant to the local market. Seque into original vs transcreation
- How do you decide which to choose? What are the challenges and benefits of each We believe in the value of original content in each region. It’s the best way to speak to your local audeince BUT there could be awesome content you’ve already produced that appeals to a global audience, and you want to utilize that asset. That’s where transcreation comes in. It’s the act of translating the content, but taking into consideration regional nuances to rewrite and redirect the content specifically for that market. HOW do you transcreate? With a partner. A B2B tech company we work with says about 70% of their content they think is appropriate for a global audience. They need to be sharing that content with the local markets, so they will set aside a larger budget for transcreation, coupled with original content creation in that market. A B2C client we work with creates content about unique experiences in cities for people in those cities. BUT they also know that their audience in other regions is traveling to that city, so they transcreate to make content that appeals to that audience. It is still an article about the best museums in NYC, for example, but it is now directed to people arriving in the city from elsewhere, giving them some different information that wouldn’t be useful to a New York audience.
- Now it’s time to find the people that will be telling your stories; connecting your brand with your audience. You need two levels here: the creator and the editor. You MUST use local creators that are either native to the area or have vast experience and knowledge of it. It’s the only way to create an authentic connection between you and your audience. Creators can mean writers, videographers, photographers and more. But all should know your regions inside and out. HOW DO I FIND CREATORS? It doesn’t matter if you’re creating content in English or in the region’s native language - the local market should be driving the search for creators. You find creators in the same way you find any new partner or employee. You can advertise, search your networks and reach out to freelancers through social media and creator groups. Or you partner with someone who works with global creators. HOW DO I VET CREATORS? Vetting is the trickier part. You have people in the local markets who are fluent in the local language, of course, but can they recognize relevant and strong content creators? Again, you work in much the same way as you would when you hire anyone. Check references, check portfolios for regular similar work. And seek the help of a partner you trust to help you decide who to create the content. EDITORS All of these considerations also apply to editors. These local editors aren’t just your defense against spelling and grammatical errors and poor flow and clarity, they will also call out anything that isn’t authentic. A regional nickname misunderstood, a word or phrase that has no meaning in that region, or a description of an area that just isn’t right - your editor will instinctively know when it’s not right. If you don’t have that line of defense and something inauthentic gets through to your audience, you’ve lost them. You’ll need to leverage your local markets to help not only find and recruit the creators, but also to vet their abilities. Or partner with someone that has experience recruiting creative talent globally. You can’t create content need writers who know the audience, and you’re not going to get that anywhere other than that region Here you see some of the storytellers we've used to create global content:
- Animated Clicks
- Plaza de Toros en Sevilla Managing a Global Content Marketing program can be as intricate a dance as bull fighting. It has an art, it has technique, and most of all precision. One slip in the wrong direction could turn a thing of beauty into something ugly. Here’s how we’ve worked out our dance:
- First of all, you need a consistent editorial process and the technology in place to maintain that process. How do you keep track of all of the moving parts? You have to create a system, a process that incorporates the feedback of all stakeholders. From Top Generation to Content Creation to Reporting, here is the process we take when working with our clients.
- TOPIC GENERATION First you have to figure out what you’re going to talk about. What will resonate with your audience? More importantly, how will you keep them on track to keep up delivery? You need the creatives and the editors to brainstorm topics, and the editorial calendar to keep them on track. Transition: Once you’ve established a topic direction and schedule, the next step is to figure out how audiences will find this great material….
- Keyword Reach is an essential element to any program. You want to identify a keyword that is relevant to: -target audience -location -language A few tools I use to research keywords are -Google Keyword Planner -Google related searches -Google, Yahoo! And Bing Trends -Twitter trending topics and trend maps -And Social listening tools such as sysomos.
- SEO Scorecard in Portugese & English Industry has a set of SEO best practices to help you produce quality content Customize these to your needs, website design and corporate guidelines, i.e. Have at least one image, maybe more. Also consider the metadata you are sending with that image. What about links that your including? Again this is A LOT to be thinking about, but very essential considerations.
- Once the keyword and topics been assigned, now it’s time to create! Matt mentioned the necessity for local storytellers earlier. The Key is getting the creatives to adhere to the editorial and program guidelines that will make your program a success.
- Multiple steps involved in the creation of videos for your Content Marketing Program Transition: Photos similar method
- Similar to videos You need to determine the goal for each of your photos or images Do you need a local photo journalist to tell your story Original images to compliment your story – crowdsourcing the work can help you obtain the best images for your story – Tools such as FOAP where you create missions anf 2 Are you looking for an infographic to explain a concept, explain your process, capture methodology How are you going to distribute the image? Is it complimenting a written article Stand alone? Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram
- COPY EDITOR/REVIEWER – If you are in the London Headquarters, how do you make sure al story from Berlin checks out? You need to have teams engineered around the local content. So the content editor to take a first pass at what the creative has produced. Consider tracked changes. Consider all stakeholders must signed off. It is imperative to be organized about your review and work flow process. Make sure you keep track of your history, noting who’s touched the piece when and what they said about it. Otherwise could be surely lost in translation.
- Once the article has made its rounds, we make sure the program manager gets the final say. This last official quality check – is what separates the good from the great. If you’re investing in a global program you want to make sure it is top notch, which is why it’s critical that all parties involved in the program get their eyes on the content.
- Publishing Platforms – Tumblr, Facebook, Microsite Also talk to Metrics/Reporting? Transition: With those steps in place, your global content marketing strategy will become more of an artful dance than an exact science. Being both nimble AND precise, will help you drive your strategy forward. Now that I’ve brought you through the operational details, I’ll hand it back to MaryAnne to bring it back home…
- Today we talked through a framework to address launching global content marketing in an organized way. We started by sharing our perspective of how critical it is to articulate a vision for your global content marketing program As you’re thinking through how you’ll crystalize your vision, float it to other content marketing champions in your company, especially those from other markets. Incorporate their best ideas so you end up with a broad but succinct vision. One that is universally understood and valued. We shared ideas for creating your strategic plan. Deciding which markets to prioritize, a system for managing the process and assembling assets to produce relevant content for local markets Keep your plan managable, not overwhelming. We walked you through how we execute content marketing programs globally.
- Here’s a snapshot of Skyword’s global platform capabilities. At Skyword we are currently managing content marketing programs in 18 countries. We’ll be launching programs in 3 additional countries in Q2. Our platform is actively used in 7 languages and the platform will be rolled out in 4 additional languages in Q2. Skyword’s storytellers are creating stories in 11 languages today and we administer payments to them in 14 local currencies.
- The Where will your global journey take you? my notes: You’ve seen how we’ve been tackling these challenges. Now we’re going to open up for some Q&A. What are you experiencing? What’s working for you? What are your challenges? Q&A – Recruiting writers? Writer compensation? Cadence? Editorial Calendar? Frequency in different countries.