Content Marketingthat Breeds Better Customers
Why Higher-Value Customers Pay Off in Gigantic Ways BY ROBERT ROSE

2 Why are we still
focusing on the quantity of the content we create? We’re generating tons of traffic — but it’s all bouncing away. Stop Creating More Content. Start Creating Better Content. Creating remarkable content means spending time on experimentation. It means taking the time to listen to your customer and using that to craft great content — instead of just pumping it out in large quantities. To get the best results, remember that content marketing does not need to compete with your other tactics — it should enhance them. Done right, it becomes a centerpiece for them. Better content ultimately translates to less work. The end result is higher-value customers. For example…

3 What Can Happen When
You Make Remarkable Content the Centerpiece of Your PPC Campaign? Marketers at an enterprise software company spent time creating a remarkable piece of content for their industry. They experimented with distribution, testing PPC results that pitted direct marketing (request a demo) against content marketing (download a white paper with a “request a demo” call to action). Approach Impressions Click Through Visitors Cost Per Click Demo Requests Downloads Demos Performed Cost Per Demo Conversions Cost Per Conversion Direct 50,000 1% 500 $6 30 NA 10 $300 1 $3,000 Content Marketing 50,000 .5% 250 $6 NA 75 9 $166 3 $500 The direct marketing route was more successful at getting clicks. But a strong piece of content resulted in more customers at a lower acquisition cost. The company’s approach was remarkable because it leveraged an old channel in a new way. PRO TIP: When your PPC campaign points to remarkable content, the cost per customer conversion may be lower.

4 What Can Happen When
You Make Remarkable Content the Centerpiece of Your Press Release Strategy? Oracle acquired Eloqua competitor Market2Lead in 2010. To announce the merger, the IT giant wrote a boring, corporate press release. In contrast, an Eloqua press release pointed to a blog post that explained, in plain language, what the acquisition meant to its customers. Eloqua closed two deals based on that piece of content. Eloqua’s approach was remarkable because it rethought the traditional approach to corporate news, told a story rather than “informed the public,” and stole the competition’s thunder.

5 As another example, one
Thanksgiving, actor William Shatner burned himself on a deep fryer. When it heard about the incident, State Farm asked Shatner to reenact the event and offer safety tips for a YouTube video. The insurance company issued a press release about the video that resulted in millions of dollars of earned media. Additionally, the video itself helped cut claims on deep fryer incidents by millions of dollars. State Farm’s approach was remarkable because it told a story through the news and created a timely, unique spin on traditional holiday marketing. PRO TIP: Have your press releases highlight useful and entertaining content instead of talking about your company in staid, corporate language.

6 What Can Happen When
You Make Remarkable Content the Centerpiece of Your SEO Strategy? An open-source CMS company in the Netherlands wanted to gain a search presence in the U.S. They couldn’t compete on common keywords, so they created great content on up-and-coming niche-focused search terms. They lost 30 percent of their organic traffic — but engagement went up 150 percent. Inbound links rose 40 percent. Social sharing was up 100 percent. And even with the traffic loss, sales from organic search rose 185 percent, year over year. The company’s approach was remarkable because it banked on forecasting what the next big trend in its industry would be, and fueled content that the company could be passionate about. PRO TIP: With search, focus on your ability to lead on a particular content topic, and use search to drive engagement, conversion, and sales metrics instead of traffic.

7 What Can Happen When
You Make Remarkable Content the Centerpiece for Converting Higher-Value Customers? A debt consolidation company had achieved a high close rate through traditional marketing, like PPC, ads, and telemarketing. They could close customers in an hour, and wanted more leads. Changing their focus to great content led to a three-week close rate, in the short term (yikes!). But over time, those customers were 217 percent more likely to make the first payment on their loan and continue to make payments. These customers were engaged from the outset. They weren’t going to sign up just to get a sales guy off the phone. They were educated and committed.

8 A CEO of a
B2B company in a similar situation was dubious of content marketing. After giving content a shot, the company’s customer acquisition cost was 1.2-times the original; it also took 1.5-times as long to close a customer. But those customers spent twice as much, stayed with the company five-times as long, and were twice as likely to share their stories through social channels and PR-originated press coverage. These companies’ approaches were remarkable because they were willing to stick with a strategy that needed time to show results and wasn’t about delivering “MORE” — but rather “BETTER.” PRO TIP: Content marketing may not appear to be the most cost-effective solution from the outset, but the long-term benefits are huge.

9 It’s Not Easy to
Create Remarkable Content, but Everyone Is Capable of Doing It. You have content that you know you absolutely must create to stay true to your brand. Then, you have the truly explosive content that nurtures better customers and helps form a powerful narrative. According to Coca-Cola’s Jonathan Mildenhall, his company runs on a 70-20-10 content model: • 70 percent is content they know they have to create. • 20 percent is content they create expressly for campaigns. • 10 percent is the experimental, weird, creative stuff (which typically does not cost very much, either). What is your 10 percent? Marketers have outsourced creativity for far too long. Take ownership and start telling compelling and amazing stories. Your customers will reward you for it.

10 Chief Content Officer magazine
CCO is the first globally-distributed magazine devoted to the fast-growing, evolving field of content marketing. It is written by, for, and about the most innovative, influential global content marketers. Sign up here. CMI Consulting Content marketing is changing your marketing process. Connect with CMI’s consulting team to get personalized help. Managing Content Marketing The follow-up book to Get Content Get Customers, but focuses on how to manage and structure content marketing inside the organization. A must read for anyone who “gets” content marketing and needs to execute content programs. Available now at Amazon.com. Content Marketing Research Understand current budgets, benchmarks and trends for B2B, B2C, Australia, the UK and more. View all CMI research. CMI Content Marketing Framework Learn the common building blocks of any content marketing strategy. Read the Framework. 100 Content Marketing Examples See how companies big and small from various locations and industries are producing creative, and successful content marketing campaigns across multiple online, in person and print channels. Find it here! Content Marketing World THE premier annual event for content marketing, where thousands of content marketers come together in one location from around the world. Find out more about CM World today! Essential Content Marketing Resources ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Content Marketing That Breeds Better Customers Why Higher Value Customers Pay Off In Gigantic Ways Written by Robert Rose & Mark Sherbin Illustrations By Andrew Moir Design By “JK” Kalinowski