How to Build a Content Marketing Strategy

How to Build a Content Marketing Strategy
How to Plan and Build a Successful Content Marketing Strategy #thinkcontent Michael Brenner NewsCred – Head of Strategy @BrennerMichael
Agenda •  The key factors for content marketing success •  The core components of a content marketing strategy •  How to utilize content across the buyer journey •  How to work with NewsCred to document your strategy and achieve success #thinkcontent
Content Marketing Success Building a Successful Content Strategy Working with NewsCred: Crafting a Successful Content Strategy Utilizing Content Across the Buyer Journey
There’s been a fundamental shift in the way we create, consume, and share content. Every single day… 4.75 billion piece of content are shared 1.8 billion photos are uploaded and shared 500 million tweets are posted 700 million snapchats are sent #thinkcontent
5 “Marketing used to be about making a myth and telling it. Now it’s about telling a truth and sharing it. - MARC MATHIEU - Unilever ” #thinkcontent
6 I have no patience for useless things.
7 “The buyer journey is nothing more than a series of questions that must be answered. - IDC - ” #thinkcontent
Awareness Consideration Preference Online Communities Search Engines eBooks Email Newsletters Editorial Articles White Papers Podcasts Case Studies Online Videos Webcasts Virtual Trade Shows Product Literature Trial Software Online Vendor Demos Begin decision process Make decision Identify business problem Establish requirements/ build RFP Align IT with business objectives Explore technology options Research solutions Determine solution strategy Assess ROI Research products/ vendors Build short list
“Content marketing is the marketing and business process for creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.” -Content Marketing Institute •  Not Advertising or PR •  It is Customer, Not brand-focused •  Seeks to answer customer questions across the buyer journey •  Owned media Content Marketing Defined #thinkcontent
Behind every tweet, share, and purchase is a person, like you and me. #thinkcontent
Put Your Customers’Needs First. Make them the hero. Our Natural Instinct Content Marketing Brand Purpose What Customers Want Charity #thinkcontent
“We need to stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in. - CRAIG DAVIS - ” #thinkcontent
Unique Point of View Trap Too easy to become consumed with your story, not your customers. #thinkcontent
Six key factors to content marketing success: 1  Document content strategy 2  Have someone in charge of content 3  Consistently publish quality content 4  Map content to buyer journey 5  Balance Paid, Owned, Earned Media 6  Track Content Marketing ROI #thinkcontent
•  Delivering content your audience wants •  Managing content as an asset (with an ROI) •  Thinking and acting like a publisher What is a Content Strategy? #thinkcontent
Why is it important to have a documented content strategy?
3 Steps to Building a Content Strategy 1 Why? What’s the Business Case? 3 What? Show results tied to your business objectives. 2 How? Team, actions, and budgets needed. #thinkcontent
Content Marketing Roadmap •  Budget •  Destination •  Frequency •  Amplification / Optimization •  Collaboration (Who does what) Discovery Destination Team Topic Models Customer Journey KPIs / Reporting Optimization •  Business Case •  Current State •  Budget •  Branding/Design •  Platform •  Firm Integration •  Who does what? •  Agency •  NewsCred •  Distribution •  Structure •  Topics •  Types •  Content by Stage •  Conversions •  Subscriptions •  Define report •  Who / when? •  Content •  Platform •  Distribution #thinkcontent
Content marketing mission statement Become a destination for [target audience] interested in [topics]. To help them [customer value]. This will help us [content marketing goals] •  Earn your audience’s attention vs. just buying it •  Reach, engage and convert NEW buyers AmEx Open Forum Example: Help Small Businesses Do More Business. To become the largest source of inbound leads. #thinkcontent
Commit To Measuring Your Results Awareness / Reputation: Classic Brand / PR objectives. SOV, SOC, and press mentions. With Whom? On What Topic? Measured by? Reach: Who is the target Audience? What are their online interests? How can we measure? Engagement: Drive deeper relationship with the brand. Measured by time spent, bounce rate, social shares Convert: Subscribers, Leads, Sales #thinkcontent
Define Content Marketing Roles and Functions Content Marketer / Editor Strategizes, writes, and oversees content projects to ensure brand consistency and alignment with business objectives. Community Manager Distributes content across social channels, engages online communities, and contributes to content projects. Designer Brings content to life through the user experience and rich visuals. Contributors Any content creator- blogger, photographer, designer — who contributes to your project. SEO / Paid Specialist Manages the paid distribution of content online. Analytics Defines best/ worst performers, conversion optimization and measurement communications. Curation Fines and re- purposes the best content from your business and from around the web. #thinkcontent
Define The Business Case, Workflows, Gain Organizational Buy-in •  Make sure all stakeholders understand your mission statement and business goals •  Determine who needs to sign off on content •  Set approval processes for publishing and sharing content in order to cut down on back-and-forth •  Leverage technology to automate that entire process is a great way to get ahead
Consider Your Destination and Branding #thinkcontent
Conduct A Content Audit A Content Audit will help you: •  Give you a true sense of scale •  Identify gaps •  Seize opportunities for content repurposing •  Determine performance issues •  Evaluate content quality •  Improve your information architecture
Look at Content by Buyer Stage Early Stage Middle Stage Late Stage 66% 28% Early-Stage Content Late-Stage Content Middle-Stage Content 6% #thinkcontent
Where in the journey do we want to connect? Online Influences Discover Consider Decide •  Reviews •  Comments •  Blogs •  Forums Why buy? •  Educate •  Search Why buy now? •  What •  When •  Who Why buy from you? •  Trust •  Capability •  Capacity #thinkcontent
Defining Topics What are we going to talk about? •  [Sample at left – SAP “The Customer Edge” blog keyword analysis] #thinkcontent
Content across the buyer journey Top of the Funnel Quality, licensed content around broader, shareable topics that drives visibility and engagement Middle of the Funnel A combination of licensed and custom content that’s not only useful and timely, but also hits on niche topics specific to your offering and solutions. Potentially gated. Bottom of the Funnel Custom content promoting your products and services: case studies, product offers, customized demos, etc. Customer Stage Consistent cadence of TOFU/MOFU content as well as personalized recommendations, service options, case studies, etc. Awareness Retain Evaluation Purchase #thinkcontent
Show me the money!
Utilize The Right Mix of Content Custom Content Share on-brand stories and recipes which are created specifically for your brand. Social Content Leverage snackable content through UGC that engages your target audience. Licensed Content Boost credibility, publishing cadence, and direct traffic with a high-volume of fully-licensed, compliant content. #thinkcontent
3 Distributing your content “Even great content needs a push!” Average Hollywood movie splits 40-50% production with 50-60% distribution #thinkcontent
Maximizing the Reach of Your Content We believe in a “converged media” approach utilizing paid, owned, and earned media to deliver content the audience wants and maximizing the reach of that content. Paid Social Influencer/ movable media Leverage your owned content and channels Maximize organic buzz, social engagement, and PR Organic Traffic & SEO Quickly grow your audience & jumpstart engagement Converged Native Ads (Nativo) Paid Content Distribution (Outbrain, Sharethrough) Earned Paid Owned #thinkcontent
Distribution Recommendations •  Make sure your social accounts demonstrate interaction •  4-1-1 Rule: 4 of your posts, 1 influencer post, 1 publisher post •  Follow and mention influencers, publishers in each topic •  Help your authors build social presence •  Test paid distribution with LinkedIn and Outbrain •  Measure engaged visitors from paid vs. organic visitors •  Based on time on site or pages per visit Client Influencer Publisher #thinkcontent
Blog Benchmarks Uniques Per Month 346,400 Time Spent On Site 46 Seconds Pages Per Visit 1.3 Average Bounce Rate 85% #thinkcontent
Define Key Measures and Targets #thinkcontent
Organic and Social: Up and To The Right 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000 UniqueVisitors Traffic from Organic, Social & Referrals #thinkcontent
No matter where you are in your journey, NewsCred can help. Our team of strategists can help you: •  Document your content strategy •  Build Business case / Define ROI •  Content Audits •  Buyer journeys •  Content Mix •  Build / Source Content Team •  Distribution strategy •  Provide metrics and ROI guidance #thinkcontent
We’re helping some of the world’s largest brands with their strategy: #thinkcontent
Ways to work with our Strategy Team 1  Ongoing Strategy Engagements 2  One-Day Strategy Workshop 3  Multiple Strategy Sessions 4  Strategy Health check 5  Custom engagements #thinkcontent
Sample content strategy exercises we’ll help you with #thinkcontent
Brand Map Framework Audience The content that you publish largely depends on your target audience – their interests, behaviors and motivations. This demographic plays a key role in your content creation and distribution process. The publications you license content from, the topics you write about and the distribution channels that you use. What is your target demographic? What kind of publications does your audience read? What social channels does your audience frequently engage on? What events does your audience care about? Brand Strategy Understanding your brand's identity is key to understanding the type of content that your brand should source and create. Content marketing should always convey your unique brand personality consistently, from the photos that you publish to the blog posts that you create. What is your brand’s ambition or purpose? What is your brand voice? What are the design principles of your brand’s visual identity? What owned assets (color, typeface, etc.) signal your brand? Content Strategy Our mission is to help brands simplify and scale their entire content marketing process: content planning, discovery, creation, publishing, distribution and measurement. Understanding your current process and challenges as well as your future goals will help us shape a content marketing strategy unique to your brand, resources, internal creative/compliance processes. Who is the organization responsible for your content strategy? What does your current content workflow look like? Do you currently use a mix of content types (original, licensed, social, etc.)? What do you like about your content marketing strategy and what do you want to change? What are your content pillars? What are your SEO keyword priorities? What longtail keywords are you interested in? What type of content do you want to feature? What products or services (if any) do you want us to keep in mind? Are there specific geographic regions or cities we should keep in mind? Which social channels would you like to prioritize? What is your ideal content cadence? Distribution Strategy Distribution is just as important as the content itself. It is important to understand which channels will reach your target audience and how you should share content across each channel. What channels do you use for organic distribution? What channels do you use for paid distribution? What demand generation programs do you use?
Xyz Early Xyz Late Xyz Xyz Persona Questions/Concerns Xyz Middle Xyz Xyz Keywords Xyz Early Xyz Late Xyz Xyz Persona Questions/Concerns Xyz Middle Xyz Xyz Keywords Stage Stage #thinkcontent
SUCCESS METRICS MEDIA METRICS What do we measure? KPIS: BUSINESS OBJECTIVES Is our content producing the desired result? ROI: MEDIA PERFORMANCE How efficiently is our content and distribution working to produce the desired result? CONTENT PERFORMANCE •  Impressions •  Social shares •  Time spent •  Return visits •  Is our content being seen? •  Are people engaging with our brand & content? •  How much time are people spending with our brand and are they returning? •  What is our cost/value per exposure, action or view? AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT •  Subscriber / audience size •  Share of voice •  Audience penetration across org •  How large is our audience? •  What’s our share of voice in a market/ channel? •  Is engagement growing across the workflow chain of a single organization? •  What is the cost/value per point of share? •  What is the cost/value per active audience member? BRAND AWARENESS •  Brand lift •  Perception / attitudinal change •  Are we creating awareness? Is our message memorable? •  Are we changing perceptions? •  What is the cost/ value per point of lift? LEAD GENERATION AND SALES •  Behavioral conversions •  Lead generation •  Sales lift •  Are people discovering and understanding our product & service offering? •  Are we driving quality leads? •  Are we driving overall sales? •  What is the cost per qualified lead? •  What is the multi-touch attribution cost? •  What is the cost per sale?
How To Implement A Successful Content Marketing Strategy Key Takeaways: 1  Commit to publishing content that your customers actually want 2  Figure out what questions your customers ask (Google) what content they share (Social) and what channels they use. 3  Start publishing content 4  Distribute the winners 5  Measure what works #thinkcontent
michael.brenner@newscred.com sales@newscred.com #thinkcontent | @newscred Thank you! Learn more about our strategy services: http://newscred.com/learn-professional-services Enter our raffle for a free Content Strategy Workshop: http://newscred.com/content-strategy-workshop-raffle

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