8 Steps To Brand Publishing
Michael Brenner
Vice President Marketing & Content Strategy @SAP
@BrennerMichael

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Me, 20 pounds years ago
@BrennerMichael

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Content used to be easy . . . Today, YOU are the news!
50 years ago, Gallup released research that said delivering news
is the most effective way to attract people to your business…

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Today we are all connected
@BrennerMichael

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What’s Wrong With Our Content? It’s Too Much Like This…
@BrennerMichael

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@BrennerMichael

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And Not Enough Like This…
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What is a Content Strategy?
• Delivering the content your audience needs, in all the
places they go (by persona, buyer stage, channel, type)
• Managing content as an asset with an ROI
• Thinking and Acting like a publisher (like a business)

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Social Media
(Get Shared)
Lead
Generation
(Get Leads)
Search Engine
Optimization
(Get Found)
STORYTELLING
Why Is Content Marketing Important?
From: Joe Pulizzi, Content Marketing Institute

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Business Innovation (launched March 27, 2012)
A “Content Hub” to earn traffic instead of buying it
Mission Statement:
To become a destination of insights for business professionals
looking to understand how technology and innovation can help
them grow their business, out-perform their competition and
advance their careers.
http://blogs.sap.com/innovation

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Step 1: Build The Business Case
How Much “Early Stage” Search Traffic Do We Get?
Later Stage Visitor:
Asks “SAP Software”
• 100s of searches / mo
Early Stage Visitor:
Asks “What is Big Data?”
100,000’s of searches / month

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Step 2: Build A Content Team
Source: Ann Handley
www.annhandley.com

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Step 3 – Design
Look at Content Hub examples

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Step 4 – Branding
“On” or “Off Platform” / Brand Subtlety?

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Step 5: Identify and Answer Customer Questions
The buyer journey starts with a search . . .
Top Customer Terms:
• What is real-time analytics?
• What is cloud computing?
• What is Big Data?
• What are mobile solutions?
• How are companies benefiting
from …?
• Who are the top vendors in…?
Terms SAP Ranked For:
• What is SAP?
• SAP Software?
• SAP HANA?
• SAP ERP?
• SAP Business
Intelligence?
• SAP Crystal Reports™?

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Step 5 – Answering Customer Questions (cont’d)
Topics: driven by top, long-tail, low competition
keywords (“What is Hadoop?”)
Authors: curated for win-win
Mix: Creation, curation, syndication to maximize
impact (and decrease cost)
Type: Mostly articles. Constant battle for more video,
infographics, slideshare decks
Conversion: monthly reporting on the content that
converts

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Step 6 – Conversion
Appropriate OffersFocus on Subscriptions

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Step 7 – Editorial Strategy and “Editorial Board”
NO PROMOTION ALLOWED
• Marketing Program / Campaigns
• Solution Marketing / Product Management
• Customer References
• Thought Leadership / “Corporate Story” (About Us)
• Global Communications and Local PR
• Value Engineering
• Competitive Marketing Intelligence / Market Research
• Partner / Channels
• Regional Marketing
• Internal Bloggers
• External Influencers

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Traffic, engagement and leads we
would’ve NEVER seen
• What content drives Unique Visitors?
• How much traffic from Social +
Search?
• How much of our search traffic is
non-branded or using product terms?
• Are we showing true ROI?
Recognized for customer-centric content
strategy by Fast Company, Digiday,
Content Marketing Institute and more…
Step 8 - Created An Infographic to Report on Goals:
Reach, Engagement AND Conversions
. . . Step 8 – Test and Learn . . .

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A Content Hub Run Like a Business
PAID POE Converged EARNED
Awareness Ads
Demand Gen extensions:
E-mail, digital assets, mailers
Paid social promotion: Via
Twitter, Linked-In, Facebook,
YouTube
SAP.com:
Events
Social Communities:
- Twitter, Linked, facebook, G+
PR: Content promoted and
showcased via Press Releases
and PR initiatives
Publish stories
OWNED

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Organic & Social Traffic “Up and To The Right”

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Most Popular Articles (10X average Pageviews)
•Top 50 Influencers for each topic
•Top 10 Blog Sites for each topic
•Terms You Need To Know
•Myths…Busted
•10 Predictions for…
•What is…?
•The First Step to Success in…
•How To Get Ahead With…

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Business Innovation From SAP: What’s Next?
Help Our Customers Tell Their Stories
• Personalized Homepage
• More visual design
• More visual content ($$$)
• Focus on Subscribers

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Activating SAP Employees: Where to blog?
Business Innovation, Forbes, “SAP Community Network”
Where million of engaged
professionals discuss the
intersection of IT and business
strategy.
http://scn.sap.com/community/business-trends
Connecting SAP thought
leaders to the business
leaders on Forbes..
http://blogs.forbes.com/sap/
Earning an engaged audience
by answering customer
questions to help them
innovate and grow.
http://blogs.sap.com/innovation/

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Forbes “BrandVoice”: A Blogging Platform For Premium
Advertisers

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Business Insider: Future of Business Site Sponsorship

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NYTimes “Ricochet”: Wraps Ads Around Curated Content

Thank
you!
Michael Brenner
Vice President,
SAP Marketing & Content Strategy
Michael.Brenner@SAP.com
Connect with Me:
Slides available on:
Slideshare.net/MichaelBrenner
Marketing Blog:
B2B Marketing Insider
SAP Content Hub:
Business Innovation
Twitter:
@brennermichael