6 strategies for B2B brands to help you kickstart your content marketing strategy.

1. 6 STEPS FOR BUILDING A KILLER
Content Marketing
Program in 2017

2. 88%
of B2B marketers surveyed in the 2016 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and
Trends - North America Report are currently using content marketing in their arsenal,

3. 88%
of B2B marketers surveyed in the 2016 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and
Trends - North America Report are currently using content marketing in their arsenal,
although they’re not all entirely sure what
they’re doing…

4. Less than a third said they had a documented
content marketing strategy.

5. Less than a third said they had a documented
content marketing strategy.
32% | Yes and it is documented
Yes but it is not documented | 48%
No | 16%
4% | Unsure
[1] Data from: 2016 B2B Content Marketing Trends—North
America: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs

6. What’s going wrong here?

7. What’s going wrong here?
and how can you best use your budget in 2017 to build out a kick-ass plan that’ll help you
drive leads, conversions, and industry recognition...

8. What’s going wrong here?
and how can you best use your budget in 2017 to build out a kick-ass plan that’ll help you
drive leads, conversions, and industry recognition...
Instead of blowing your budget on mediocre content that sits there gathering mothballs and
spam comments?

9. What’s going wrong here?
and how can you best use your budget in 2017 to build out a kick-ass plan that’ll help you
drive leads, conversions, and industry recognition...
Instead of blowing your budget on mediocre content that sits there gathering mothballs and
spam comments?
Here are
6key steps:

10. Step 1 :
Seek expert guidance.

11. Who is running your content program?
Step 1
Seek expert
guidance.

12. Who is running your content program?
• If you hire someone new to the field without a defined roadmap to work
from, you might stay within budget, but what is the program really going to
deliver if you don’t have clear goals or metrics to track against?
Step 1
Seek expert
guidance.

13. Who is running your content program?
• If you hire someone new to the field without a defined roadmap to work
from, you might stay within budget, but what is the program really going to
deliver if you don’t have clear goals or metrics to track against?
• Spring instead for an expert, senior level content marketing director to
develop and manage your program off the bat, or contract with an agency
partner to help you formulate an initial strategy, which can later be handled
by more junior employees.
Step 1
Seek expert
guidance.

14. Step 2:
Make sure your senior leadership
is all on the same page.

15. What is the aim of content marketing?
Step 2
Make sure
your senior
leadership is
all on the
same page.

16. What is the aim of content marketing?
First and foremost, content marketing is about building trust through developing
genuinely useful and educational content aimed at a target audience.
Step 2
Make sure
your senior
leadership is
all on the
same page.

17. What is the aim of content marketing?
First and foremost, content marketing is about building trust through developing
genuinely useful and educational content aimed at a target audience.
It’s not about selling a product or promoting your company.
Step 2
Make sure
your senior
leadership is
all on the
same page.

18. What is the aim of content marketing?
First and foremost, content marketing is about building trust through developing
genuinely useful and educational content aimed at a target audience.
It’s not about selling a product or promoting your company.
Make this clear when discussing your program, and ensure that
your leadership team understands and buys into the goals, or your program is
destined to fail.
Step 2
Make sure
your senior
leadership is
all on the
same page.

19. Step 3 :
Line up your internal subject matter experts.

20. Step 3
Line up your
internal subject
matter experts.
How much access does your content team
have to the company’s SMEs?

21. Step 3
Line up your
internal subject
matter experts.
How much access does your content team
have to the company’s SMEs?
Whoever is managing your content program needs to have access to the wealth
of knowledge that lies within the brains of your team, so they can:

22. Step 3
Line up your
internal subject
matter experts.
How much access does your content team
have to the company’s SMEs?
Whoever is managing your content program needs to have access to the wealth
of knowledge that lies within the brains of your team, so they can:
• Identify key executives who can share their valuable experiences and insights

23. Step 3
Line up your
internal subject
matter experts.
How much access does your content team
have to the company’s SMEs?
Whoever is managing your content program needs to have access to the wealth
of knowledge that lies within the brains of your team, so they can:
• Identify key executives who can share their valuable experiences and insights
• Commit them to a regular cadence of interviews

24. Step 3
Line up your
internal subject
matter experts.
How much access does your content team
have to the company’s SMEs?
Whoever is managing your content program needs to have access to the wealth
of knowledge that lies within the brains of your team, so they can:
• Identify key executives who can share their valuable experiences and insights
• Commit them to a regular cadence of interviews
• Ask them to review articles for accuracy; they may even wish to byline them

25. Step 4:
Build a staged approach to your content strategy.

26. Step 4
Build a staged
approach to
your content
strategy.
What does that mean?

27. Step 4
Build a staged
approach to
your content
strategy.
What does that mean?
Don’t put the cart before the horse.

28. Step 4
Build a staged
approach to
your content
strategy.
What does that mean?
Don’t put the cart before the horse.
Give your content marketing director or agency strategist time to understand
your brand and your customer personas before asking her—or her team—to
produce any content.

29. Step 4
Build a staged
approach to
your content
strategy.
They need to:

30. Step 4
Build a staged
approach to
your content
strategy.
They need to:
• Engage with internal stakeholders to review and refine key messaging and
goals for your content strategy

31. Step 4
Build a staged
approach to
your content
strategy.
They need to:
• Engage with internal stakeholders to review and refine key messaging and
goals for your content strategy
• Build an editorial calendar template

32. Step 4
Build a staged
approach to
your content
strategy.
They need to:
• Engage with internal stakeholders to review and refine key messaging and
goals for your content strategy
• Build an editorial calendar template
• Focus on a distribution plan for the content, whether managing it
independently or in tandem with demand generation or social media marketers

33. Step 5:
Run a pilot program.

34. Start small.
Step 5
Run a pilot
program.

35. Start small.
Evaluate and optimize your results as you go.
Step 5
Run a pilot
program.

36. Start small.
Evaluate and optimize your results as you go.
While you’re identifying best practices for your specific industry, roll out content
more slowly and do a “soft launch” of your program while regrouping with
internal stakeholders on what’s working and what’s not. Then, your content
marketing director or partner can refine the strategy to enhance results.
Step 5
Run a pilot
program.

37. Step 6:
Scale up your team.

38. Now you have a strategy that’s been
tested and refined.
Step 6
Scale up
your team.

39. Now you have a strategy that’s been
tested and refined.
It’s finally time to grow your program and build upon your results.
Step 6
Scale up
your team.

40. Step 6
Scale up
your team.
If you’re working with an agency:

41. Step 6
Scale up
your team.
If you’re working with an agency:
• Use this time to either commit more resources to content development and
outreach or begin working on internal recruiting and creating a transition
plan to build a team, starting with a content marketing director.

42. Step 6
Scale up
your team.
If you’re working with an agency:
• Use this time to either commit more resources to content development and
outreach or begin working on internal recruiting and creating a transition
plan to build a team, starting with a content marketing director.
If you already have a content marketing director:

43. Step 6
Scale up
your team.
If you’re working with an agency:
• Use this time to either commit more resources to content development and
outreach or begin working on internal recruiting and creating a transition
plan to build a team, starting with a content marketing director.
If you already have a content marketing director:
• Give her the green light to begin building her own in-house team.

44. Content marketing requires a thoughtful, deliberate
approach, and the results may not be immediate.

45. Content marketing requires a thoughtful, deliberate
approach, and the results may not be immediate.
But by beginning with a sound strategy, and building that into an optimized program that’s integrated
with your organization as a whole, you’ll be able to create a strong content marketing effort that will
spotlight your organization as a market leader in your industry.

46. Content marketing requires a thoughtful, deliberate
approach, and the results may not be immediate.
But by beginning with a sound strategy, and building that into an optimized program that’s integrated
with your organization as a whole, you’ll be able to create a strong content marketing effort that will
spotlight your organization as a market leader in your industry.
Contact us for a free consultation on building your content strategy.

47. Eucalypt is a small agency that specializes in developing, executing, and
optimizing successful content marketing strategies for clients including
LinkedIn, Intel, Cray, and many other B2B technology companies. Our
writing team has extensive journalism experience, bringing clients
the same in-depth, engaging, and accurate reporting that we bring to
national publications.
We take a personal and agile approach to each client engagement,
partnering to understand their brands and to collaborate with internal
teams to help scale their businesses sustainably.
eucalypt.co
hello@eucalypt.co