1. Beyond “Content is King”
– How Successful
Organizations Actually
Design and Implement
Built-to-Last Content
Marketing
AMA Phoenix July Signature
Lunch Event
2. The plan
Expect to come away with best practices and practical tips
that you can use this afternoon to enhance your content
marketing program
Agenda:
1.Content marketing – what it is and why it matters
2.How to overcome the 3 most common content marketing
challenges
3. Metrics for measuring the effectiveness of your content
4. The B2B IT services company that crafted a narrative, not a
whitepaper, and realized a 17500% ROI
castelazocontent.com
3. About me
Founder & Chief Content Strategist at
Castelazo Content
Board member of the American
Marketing Association and Business
Marketing Association
e: molly@castelazocontent.com
li: linkedin.com/in/mollycastelazo
About Castelazo
Content
We exist to help our clients sell more.
We accomplish that by establishing the
client as a thought leader – one who leads
prospects through the sales cycle by
addressing their problems and needs,
questions and concerns.
The content we develop includes
whitepapers, blogs, bylined articles,
videos, infographics, and other content
that engages prospects, generates leads,
and converts leads into clients.
castelazocontent.com
@cmmarketing
castelazocontent.com
5. Your sales machine
An effective sales organization
is a machine. But instead of
turning raw materials into
widgets, it turns prospects into
customers.
Within the sales machine,
many parts contribute to
turning prospects into
customers. Content is one of
them.
Watch the Prezi at
castelazocontent.com/what-we-do/
castelazocontent.com
6. The sales cycle
Engage prospects
Turn
prospects into
leads
Prospect
engages a
sales person
Nurture leads
Prospect
signs the
deal
castelazocontent.com
Social
media
Articles Blogs Videos White
papers
Case
studies
Use
cases
Articles White
papers
7. “Content is King.”
(“Queen,” we say.)
“Content is anything that adds
value to the reader's life.”
– Avinash Kaushik, Google
Done right, content helps you
Engage prospects
Generate leads
Convert customers
castelazocontent.com
8. HOW TO OVERCOME THE 3 MOST
COMMON CONTENT MARKETING
CHALLENGES
castelazocontent.com
9. Content marketing challenge #1: A
burdensome review & approval process
How to overcome the challenge:
1. Organization. And process.
2. Regular communication.
3. Technology (novel idea!)
castelazocontent.com
10. Content marketing challenge #2: No
one can explain what you do
While you need a writer who can
understand the language you
speak, you also need that person
to be able to speak the language
your target audience speaks.
Think like a journalist.
castelazocontent.com
11. Content marketing challenge #3: Not
having enough fodder
Some call it drafting, others call it
newsjacking, but the principle is
that we take a little of your
thought leadership and mix it in
with a big dose of commentary
on whatever everyone else is
talking about at the moment.
castelazocontent.com
12. METRICS FOR MEASURING THE
EFFECTIVENESS OF YOUR CONTENT
THROUGH THE SALES CYCLE
castelazocontent.com
13. Measuring engagement
Source Metrics
Website Unique visitors, average time on site,
average pageviews/visit, referral
sources
Blog Unique visitors, average time on blog,
average pageviews/visit, referral
sources, traffic flow (after exiting blog),
blog engagement (commenting,
sharing)
Social media Page likes/follows, post
likes/shares/comments, click-thrus
Advertising Click-thru rate, cost-per-click or cost-per-
impression, referral sources
= total # of prospects engaged
castelazocontent.com
14. Measuring lead generation
Source Metrics
Landing pages Unique visitors, average time on page,
form submissions (and/or other call-to-action
responses), referral sources
Webinars # of attendees, referral sources
Events # of attendees, referral sources
Downloadable content # of downloads, referral sources
Call-to-action responses # of responses, referral sources
= total # of leads generated (aka Marketing Qualified Leads or
MQLs)
castelazocontent.com
15. Measuring lead nurturing
Source Metrics
Website Visits, pageviews, time on site, traffic
flow
Social media Page likes/follows, post
likes/shares/comments, click-thrus
Webinars # of attendees
Downloadable content # of downloads
Blog Visits, pageviews, time on blog, traffic
flow, blog engagement
Emails Open rate, click-thru rate
Events # of attendees
Phone calls # of sales calls, # of meetings set
= total # of leads nurtured through sales cycle (aka Sales
Qualified Leads or SQL)
castelazocontent.com
16. Measuring ROI
Source Metrics
Estimated lifetime value For ongoing engagements, this is
monthly recurring revenue × average
length of engagement
Cost of acquisition Cost of all client acquisition-centric
sales and marketing activities
castelazocontent.com
Estimated lifetime value
Cost of acquisition
= ROI
17. THE B2B IT SERVICES COMPANY
THAT CRAFTED A NARRATIVE, NOT
A WHITEPAPER, AND REALIZED A
17500% ROI
castelazocontent.com
18. Your buyers are people.
And people like stories.
The whitepaper was the most
successful that the client had
ever published, resulting in:
• 20% uptick in prospect
engagement
• 5 discovery calls for the sales
team
• 2 closed deals
In all, the client saw a return of
$1.75 million on the cost of
developing and marketing the
whitepaper, for an ROI of
17500%.
castelazocontent.com
19. Taking this home
For the majority of the sales cycle,
your content is your sales person
Done right, content helps you
Engage prospects
Generate leads
Convert customers
To overcome a burdensome review
& approval process: get organized;
communicate; and leverage
technology
To overcome the “no one knows
what we do” challenge, think like a
journalist
To overcome the “not enough
fodder” challenge, think: drafting
Measure results of engagement,
lead generation, and nurturing
activities but remember at the end
of the day it’s all about:
Estimated lifetime value
Cost of acquisition
= ROI
Finally: Your buyers are people.
And people like stories.
castelazocontent.com
20. Any last comments or
questions?
Molly Castelazo, Chief Content Strategist
castelazocontent.com
molly@castelazocontent.com
linkedin.com/in/mollycastelazo
@cmmarketing
Editor's Notes
An effective sales organization is a machine. But instead of turning raw materials into widgets, it turns prospects into customers.
Within the sales machine, many parts contribute to turning prospects into customers. Content is one of them.
White papers - Articles - Blogs - Case studies - Use cases - Social media - Videos - Infographics
All cogs in the machine.
The average B2B buyer gets nearly 60% of the way through the buying process before ever engaging a sales person.
For the majority of the sales cycle, your content is your sales person.
The most important metric of all is the value that your content is generating for the business. Because you could have the highest website traffic or whitepaper download rate and if those prospects aren’t converting to clients – or if you’re spending more to generate those leads than you’re making in revenue from them – then something has to change.