Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler, will explore The Content Marketing Strategy Trap and how failing to avoid it often leads well-intentioned strategists down the wrong path. Attendees will learn how avoiding the trap led one retailer to become a publisher of online repair manuals designed to teach “do-it-yourselfers” how to fix things, while selling them the goods they need to do the job. Sales are driven completely by visually engaging, standardized instructional content delivered to the web, to smartphones and to mobile devices. Return on investment is no longer a wild guess. It’s directly tied to individual pieces of content. And, the community is not only allowed to participate, but they are encouraged to create their own content. By thinking outside The Content Marketing Strategy Trap, the retailer has become a leader in their market. Their strategy is so successful that other retailers of products that require assembly, sometimes break, or need occasional maintenance are clamoring to replicate it.

1. Thinking Outside The
Content Marketing
Strategy Trap
Scott Abel
The Content Wrangler
#cmworld
@scottabel • #cmworld

2. thinking outside
the content marketing
strategy trap
#cmworld

3. scott abel
the content wrangler
#cmworld

4. #cmworld

5. like Jesus,
I’m on Twitter
@scottabel
#cmworld

6. I’m here to share
four things
with you
#cmworld

7. the difference between
content marketing
and
content strategy
#cmworld

8. how to think strategically
about your
content marketing
efforts
#cmworld

9. case study of one company that has a
kick ass
content marketing
strategy
#cmworld

10. advice to help you avoid
the
content marketing
strategy
trap
#cmworld

11. first things first...
where
do we
start?
#cmworld

12. it’s always best to start by
establishing
a common
vocabulary
#cmworld

13. by now, we all know
what
content marketing
means
#cmworld

14. #cmworld

15. but, just
in case,
let’s review
#cmworld

16. Content marketing is the
creation and distribution of
relevant, valuable content...
#cmworld

17. ...content designed to attract,
acquire, and engage a clearly
defined and understood
audience...
#cmworld

18. ...with the objective of
driving profitable customer
interaction...
#cmworld

19. did you notice the presence of these words...
creation,
distribution,
relevant
#cmworld

20. and the presence of these words...
attract, engage
valuable, profitable,
defined
#cmworld

21. did you notice the absence of these words?
style guide,
tweet, voice, tone,
inbound, SEO
#cmworld

22. did you notice the absence of these words?
branding,
cost per ‘like’, clicks,
social media
#cmworld

23. did you notice the absence of these words?
storytelling,
PR, engagement,
buzz, channel
#cmworld

24. to be sure, content marketing is about
planning,
revenue, metrics,
scheduling
#cmworld

25. as well as...
audience,
engagement,
distribution
#cmworld

26. but, there is some confusion between...
content
strategy and content
marketing
#cmworld

27. these two terms are often treated as synonyms
words that
mean exactly or
nearly the same
as other words
#cmworld

28. confusion is often introduced by our peers
marketing
and strategy
#cmworld

29. #cmworld

30. being inexact does not help us make the case
synonyms
they aren’t,
not even close
#cmworld

31. when words are misused, they lose meaning
people hear
them, and they
disengage
#cmworld

32. definitions are important
so, what does
content strategy
mean?
#cmworld

33. let’s take a look at the first word
what is the
definition of
strategy?
#cmworld

34. simply put
strategy is
about shaping the
future
#cmworld

35. strategy helps you figure out
what to do now
to get what you want
later
#cmworld

36. strategy isn’t just about planning
strategy is
about outthinking the
competition
#cmworld

37. strategy is about decisions
strategy is
the art of the
possible
#cmworld

38. strategy is about using what is possible now
to do things
in the future that are
impossible today
#cmworld

39. strategists who
don’t take
time to think are
just planners
#cmworld

40. strategy is about
vision,
planning,
adapting
#cmworld

41. strategy is about adaptation, being flexible
reacting to
real-world
situations
#cmworld

42. definitions are important
so, what does
content strategy
mean?
#cmworld

43. Michael Brenner, SAP says
content strategy is
having the content
your audience needs...
delivered in all the
places they go
#cmworld

44. #cmworld

45. #cmworld

46. content strategy is
a repeatable system
that governs the
management of
content throughout
the entire content
lifecycle
#cmworld

47. a content strategy spells out how you plan to
leverage your
business assets to
achieve goals
#cmworld

48. do you know...
what do
content strategists
do?
#cmworld

49. Content strategists manage
the cost of value. They are
business consultants who
deal with content.
#cmworld

50. content strategists are concerned with
authoring,
management, and
delivery
#cmworld

51. content strategists are involved in
planning,
governance, change,
process
#cmworld

52. content strategists are responsible for
measuring,
communicating,
influencing
#cmworld

53. content strategists are often challenged to
reduce wasted
effort, guide changes
in process
#cmworld

54. their audiences are
internal
more often than
external
#cmworld

55. everything they do...
must
track back
to value
#cmworld

56. Content strategists rely on
mathematics to make the
business case for changes
that create value.
#cmworld

57. case study of one company that has a
kick ass
content marketing
strategy
#cmworld

58. iFixit.com Case Study

59. millions of potential
customers in the US alone
iFixit.com: Challenge/Opportunity
to become the largest third-party
seller of Apple replacement parts

60. become a products
and parts distributor
iFixit.com Strategy: First Step
identify manufacturers
to provide products

61. put it on the web
and sell world wide
iFixit.com Strategy: Second Step
set up an online catalog
of replacement parts

62. lather, rinse, repeat...
iFixit.com Strategy: Third Step
make sales, earn
tremendous profit

63. iFixit.com Strategy: Results
not the results they had hoped for

64. #cmworld

65. iFixit.com: First Lesson Learned
“build it and they will come” (and buy) isn’t
an eCommerce strategy, it’s a movie theme

66. content provided by parts manufacturers
is often of *questionable quality*
iFixit.com: Second Lesson Learned

67. too much creativity and
freedom is a bad thing
iFixit.com: Third Lesson Learned
consistent, high quality content requires
a standardized, repeatable structure

68. big images accompanied by a little text
often communicates better than many
words accompanied by a few pictures
iFixit.com: Fourth Lesson Learned
images help consumers believe they
can “fit it” without messing things up

69. in a mobile, global world, old
approaches no longer suffice
iFixit.com: Fourth Lesson Learned
Fifth Lesson Learned
pdf is not
the answer

71. recognize role
as publisher
adopt a formal mobile-focused ,
content strategy
Content Marketing Strategy: First Steps
re-imagine the service repair manual as a high quality,
media-rich, socially-enabled, mobile-device-friendly,
eCommerce platform and community

72. create multi-channel, device-
and platform-agnostic content
Content Marketing Strategy: Second Steps
recognize the need for authoring environment
that supports the separation of content from its
formatting information

73. enlist the help of
publishers that “get it”
Content Marketing Strategy: Third Steps
create an easy-to-use standard designed to support the
needs of readers and make content available on mobile
devices of all types, including ones not yet envisioned

74. build a community-based
software platform
Content Marketing Strategy: Fourth Steps
allow both writers and community
members to create repair manuals

75. Content Marketing Strategy: Fifth Steps
leverage keyword-rich content to drive traffic and
generate sales of repair tools and replacement parts

76. The Result

77. users often discover
iFixit.com via search
iFixit.com Results: Google Juice
the site is most popular
non-Apple site

78. iFixit.com: Paradigm shift
dominant image plus minimal text

79. iFixit.com: Multiple outputs
provide various viewing options

80. iFixit.com: Multiple outputs
if you require a pdf, you can have one

81. iFixit.com: Multiple outputs
embed code provided for social & blogs

84. iFixit.com: Multiple outputs
content is marked up in oManual xml

85. iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android
content is ‘future-proofed’
iFixit.com: Multiple devices
content is dynamic published to mobile devices; updated automatically

86. iFixit.com: Questions/Answers
community / collaboration / co-authoring

87. iFixit.com: Patrol
users edit and monitor content

88. iFixit.com: Badges
awards, points, deputizing

89. iFixit.com: Users
user community, ratings

90. iFixit.com: Teams
forming groups, consulting firms, niche communities

91. iFixit.com: Contribute
users encouraged to contribute / form-based entry

92. iFixit.com: Contribute
behind the form: oManual xml standard

93. iFixit.com: eCommerce
they sell tools and parts to pay for it!

94. Next steps: Adapting Content Strategy
professional / crowd-sourced translation

95. iFixit content marketing strategy
relevant keywords +
rich media + simple
instructions + social
sharing = sales
#cmworld

96. recommended resources to get you started
#cmworld

97. recommended resources to get you farther
managingenterprisecontent.com
#cmworld

99. the content wrangler
scott abel @scottabel www.thecontentwrangler.com #cmworld

100. thinking outside
the content marketing
strategy trap
#cmworld

101. Thinking Outside The
Content Marketing
Strategy Trap
Scott Abel
The Content Wrangler
#cmworld
@scottabel • #cmworld