How To Create Content People Want

Michael Brenner NewsCred – Head of Strategy @BrennerMichael How To Create Content People Actually Want

Just 3 Things . . . The world has changed. Most content stinks. Attract people through stories they love.

Me, 20 pounds years ago

Today we are all connected

@BrennerMichael

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 Every single day…

What is going on?

5,000 78% 94% 44% 90% marketing messages per day “Do Not Call” list skip TV ads direct mail never opened of emails never opened

We tune out the noise.

Less likely to click on a banner than…

60-70% of marketing content goes completely unused(Sirius Decisions)

Behind every piece of bad content is an executive who asked for it. TWEET THIS!

73% of people surveyed wouldn’t care if the brands they use disappeared from their life. (Co.Exist)

The average attention span of a person has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds. The average attention span of a goldfish is 9 seconds. ~ (Statistic Brain)

The half-life of a piece of content shared on top social networks is 3 hours. (Half-life: amount of time for content to reach 50% of the clicks it will ever receive). Source: Bit.ly

Content today must compete with pictures of babies and kittens.

Behind every tweet, share, and purchase is a person, like you and me.

“The customer journey is nothing more than a series of questions that must be answered. ”

Reach and Engage the Right People Early-stage Searches Middle-stage Brand Searches Search/SocialVolume What is Content Marketing? (10-3000 X) Who is the best Content Marketing provider? (2-10 X) NewsCred Content Marketing software is how awesome?

Ann Handley: “Take your brand out of the story. . . . . .Make your customers the hero.” Business Instinct Content Marketing What Businesses Produce What Customers Want CharityEmpathy

“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 continuous • Customer, not brand-focused • Seeks to answer customer questions across the buyer journey • Owned media = An Asset for your business with LTV and ROI Content Marketing Defined

Don’t build your house on rented land. Publish on your own Content Hub.

The Promise of Content Marketing: To earn your audience . . . . . . versus buying it!

“We need to stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in. - CRAIG DAVIS - ”

How brands can become consumed with their story, not their customers. Unique Point of View Trap

If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something better. ” “

Brands need to take the phrase ‘acting like a publisher’ literally. ” “ Dietrich Mateschitz Founder + CEO, Red Bull

Old way Brand-led Ad campaigns Demographics New way Customer-driven Continuous content People Marketers are taking a new approach.

The Future of Content Marketing is INFORMATIVE

SAP Case Study

Understand the Buyer Journey IDC: “The buyer journey is nothing more than a series of questions that must be answered.” Cluster Brand? Total Monthly Searches (est.) Analytics Brand 458 3000xAnalytics Non-Brand 1,520,761 Cloud Brand 398 1000xCloud Non-Brand 578,460 Data Brand 28,884 17xData Non-Brand 470,967 Mobility Brand 12,488 28xMobility Non-Brand 345,598 BI Brand 532,486 -2xBI Non-Brand 277,156 CRM/Sales Brand 156,028 40xCRM/Sales Non-Brand 6,313,329 ERP Brand 777,092 -2xERP Non-Brand 324,595 HCM Brand 55,536 7xHCM Non-Brand 379,954 Accounting. Finance Brand 30,497 24xAccounting. Finance Non-Brand 720,493 TOTAL Brand 1,688,883 13xTOTAL Non-Brand 13,616,715

• 1 in 10,000 visitors used “early- stage” search terms • Less than 0.1% were net-new or early-stage prospects Not answering top customers’ questions…

Business Innovation (launched March 27, 2012) A“Content Hub”to earn trafficinsteadof buying it http://blogs.sap.com/innovation “SAP Business Innovation’s mission is to help executives develop a deeper understanding of the trends affecting the future of business through fact-based executive research, supplemented by the latest thinking from expert bloggers.”

The Future of Content Marketing is PROVEN ROI

Content Marketing ROI is 4X our traditional marketing spend. ” “ Julie Fleischer Sr. Director, Kraft Foods

We shifted investment from advertising to content marketing so we could shout louder than we spend. Beth Comstock CMO, GE ” “

The Future of Content Marketing is VISUAL

The Future of Content Marketing is FUN

The Future of Content Marketing is FUNNY

Kmart 2014

The Future of Content Marketing is ENTERTAINING

Examples of Brand Entertainment

Great Content Marketing Examples

AMEX OpenForum Mission: Help Small Businesses Do More Business. Approach: Publish every day, authoritative voices, community = Outcome: The largest source of inbound leads.

BufferApp Blog Lesson for Brands: Think bigger than yourself and what you sell. Help people with their biggest problems and you will earn their attention.

Cleveland Clinic success with content marketing • #2 most visited hospital website • More than $204 million in annual revenue • #1 most visited hospital blog with 2.5+ million visits per month • 15+ email newsletters with a combined distribution of 250k *Source: Content Marketing Institute

“Our overall strategy is really around content that helps people anywhere in the world, whether they're our patients or not. Our strategy is to write not just about clinical conditions and treating people when they're sick, but also around preventative medicine. We want to show we're there for you, even in those times. We want to be useful, helpful and relevant every day.” - Amanda Todorovich, Manager of Digital Engagement, Cleveland Clinic Cleveland Clinic’s Goal for Content Strategy

Mayo Clinic uses human and emotional storytelling

Red Bull's Red Bulletin “Turning brand love into can love.” Lessons for Brands: • Take the buzz phrase "act like a publisher" literally. • Divert paid media dollars to earned and owned value • Build in-house production resources

What is the ideal length of blogs, articles, tweets, and more?

Source: FastCo

How to rank for SEO? Volume Number of posts on the topic Value The best answer on the internet Variety Text, images, video, slides

Get the most out of your content by recycling it into different formats Start by creating an eBook Read the eBook aloud and make it an audio book Interview a customer for a quote in the eBook and put that up as a video Take the audio from the video and make a podcast Create a presentation from the eBook with highlights

Distribution Recommendations • Interact with people • 4-1-1 Rule: 4 of your posts, 1 influencer post, 1 publisher post • Follow and mention influencers, publishers, authors in each topic • Help your authors build social presence • Test paid distribution with LinkedIn and Outbrain • Measure engaged visitors from paid vs. organic visitors Your Content Influencer Publisher

3 Tips For Killer Content: 1. Write for real people. 2. Be the best answer on the internet. 3. Keep it real. Maybe even funny.

Youraudiencewantsstories. Willyougiveittothem? @BrennerMichael