In recent years, content marketing has come to replace traditional marketing as the most effective method of achieving business objectives and driving sales. This presentation defines content marketing, describes how it works, and explores interesting examples of successful content marketing that push the boundaries of traditional marketing. The final section also includes some tips and strategies for writing compelling content.

1. Content Marketing 101
(and how to write a kick ass blog post)

2. Agenda
• What is content marketing?
• What is content?
• What does content have to do
with the customer?
• What does content have to do
with Cake & Arrow?
• How do we create compelling
content?

3. What is content
marketing?

4. the art of providing
relevant, useful content
that people want to
consume.
Content
Marketing is

5. “We need to stop
interrupting what people are
interested in and be what
people are interested in.”
CRAIG DAVIS, CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER AT J. WALTER THOMPSON

6. Traditional Marketing
Interrupts
Content Marketing
Interests

7. Traditional
Marketing is …
• Brand centric
• Self-promoting
• Product/Service focused
• Uninformative
• Irrelevant
• Intrusive

8. Content
Marketing …
• Customer centric
• Provides value
• Educates, interests,
entertains and inspires
• Connects with an
audience’s values
(emotional, cultural,
political, personal).
• Creates trust
• Is aligned with audience’s
interests
• Aligns to the customer
journey

9. • Brand awareness
• Credibility
• Connection
• Lead Generation &
Nurture
• Customer Nurture
• Recruitment
What are the
goals of
content
marketing?

10. All content should have a goal.

12. Content marketing does more than
attract visitors. It nurtures them
through the sales cycle.

13. 1
How it Works
1
2
3
4
Attract Visitors
Share content with the
audience you want to attract.
Gather Info
Use a call to action to get
someone to fill out a form.
Nurture the Lead
Share relevant content with
contact tailored to their
interests.
Close the Sale
Use content to prove that you are the
best option.
2
3
4

15. What is content?

16. CONFIDENTIAL
“Relevant, compelling, timely
and valued knowledge and/or
entertainment.”
DAVID ERICKSON
FACEBOOK

17. CONFIDENTIAL
content is more than just writing

18. OLIVIER BLANCHARD
FACEBOOK
The thing about the term “content” is that it’s just vague enough to mean
everything and anything, which is to say it doesn’t mean anything at all. It’s
essentially a word that means “stuff to fill an empty space with.” It could be
photos, video, marketing copy, thorough analysis, poetry, farts, vacuous
nonsense, cat hair or cheese cubes. The only thing it hints at is that there is a
finite volume of the space it must fill. Ironically, the word itself is a vessel for
more content: Here’s an empty word. Now fill it with meaning.
“
18
CONTENT CAN BE PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING

19. And can take many different forms
•Case Studies
•Infographics
•Videos and Photos
•White Papers
•Tweets
•Apps and Tools
•Products
•News
•Blog Posts
•Quizes
•Emails
•Memes
•Webinars
•Campaigns
•Landing Pages
•Microsites

20. Campaigns are often used for
brand awareness and to create
engagement around the brand.
There is typically a social aspect
involved. Coca Cola’s “Share a
Coke” campaign is an example of
how content can create content
can create content.
The website, all of the advertising
assets, and the product itself –the
personalized Coke bottle – are all
kinds of content that produce
even more content in the form of
social media posts etc.
There will also be press releases,
newspaper articles and other
media that all fall under the
umbrella of content.
CAMPAIGNS
Share a Coke
Campaign

21. Microsites are typically interactive
or personalized websites that stand
a part from a brand’s website ,
allowing them to engage with their
audiences on a specific issue or
topic. Assess Your Risk is a
Microsite created by the non-profit
Bright Pink, which promotes breast
and ovarian health in women.
The interactive site guides women
through a series of questions,
culminating in a personalized risk
assessment for breast and ovarian
cancer, explaining how their
answers were used to calculate risk.
The site encourages women to take
charge of their own health and tips
for how they can stay cancer free.
MICROSITES
Bright Pink’s
Assess Your Risk

22. White Papers provide brands an
opportunity to dig deep into a
specific issue that matters to their
brand, and to offer their unique
insights on the topic, often using
their own research or experience.
In March, Cake & Arrow published a
white paper based upon primary
research we conducted on the front
end usability of Shopify Plus
compared to Magento 2. The white
paper provided us an opportunity to
show off our research skills and to
position ourselves as experts in
ecommerce, and specifically in
Shopify and Magento.
WHITE PAPERS
Shopify vs.
Magento

23. Blog posts can serve many
different functions. They can
provide news on a topic,
perspective on an issue, a recap of
an event, or can provide a space to
showcase your work or expertise.
Blogs often times stand along side
other content. For example, if you
are conducting a webinar, you
may use your blog to announce
the webinar, or recap the webinar
once it is over. If you have
launched a campaign, you may
use your blog to explain the
campaign or share the campaign’s
progress.
BLOG POSTS
News, Tips,
Insights, POVs
etc.

24. There are hundreds of different formats that a
blog post can take. The most important thing to
keep in mind is who you are writing for. Once you
have figured that out, here are a few common
formats to choose from.

25. A list pertaining to pretty much
anything your heart desires. May
easily cross over into some of the
of the other genres, but a true
listicle is hyper focused. In its
purest form, it is not so much a
list of recommendations, tips or
pointers, as it is a “top 10” style
list.
BLOG GENRES
The listicle

26. Discuss a tool you use in your
work, or a new feature of an app
you like, and talk about how you
like it, relate back to specific
examples from work or connect it
to Cake & Arrow’s branding and
positioning.
BLOG GENRES
A Product, Tool ,
or Feature
Review

27. Discuss a book you recently read
or choose a book that is popular in
your field, read it, and review it.
You could also choose a random
book (fiction or otherwise) that is
popular, and then relate it back to
work/Cake & Arrow.
You could also do the same with a
movie.
BLOG GENRES
Book Review

28. Everyone is talking about (fill in
the blank). Here’s my take.
BLOG GENRES
POV

29. Describe a journey you have been
on and what you have learned.
BLOG GENRES
Personal
Narrative

30. Describe how to do something.
How to use Design Thinking to
Plan Your Wedding, How to Get
Your Clients to Trust You, How
Create a Project Plan that Kills it
Every Time - you get the idea.
BLOG GENRES
The How-to

31. Similar to the POV, discuss a
current trend, and tell us what
you think about it or how it
relates to what you or we as a
company do.
BLOG GENRES
The Trend Piece

32. This can be a popular TV show, a
character in a book, a book itself,
or a movie. Pick any of these and
relate it back to yourself, Cake &
Arrow, or your work.
BLOG GENRES
The Cultural
Connection

33. Do a write up of an event you went
to, a class you took, or something
fun you did. If it doesn’t already,
relate it back to work or C&A
somehow.
BLOG GENRES
The Write Up

34. What does content
have to do with
customers?

35. No matter what kind of content
you are creating, it should always
be in the service of customers.

36. Thinking about who your audience
is for a specific piece of content is
perhaps the most critical thing to
keep in mind as you are creating
content. This will help you not
only create content that is
interesting to the people we are
targeting, but will help you
monitor your tone of voice when
writing.
MAPPING CONTENT TO
CUSTOMER PERSONAS
All content
should be
written with a
specific audience
in mind

37. C&A Personas
Melissa Marketing
CMO at a midsize retail or
ecommerce company.
Margaret Marketing
CMO or VP at a fortune 500 insurance
or financial services company
Frank Finance
CFO or VP of a line of a business at a
fortune 500 financial services company
Emily Employee
A potential employee of C&A. A
designer, project manager, etc.
Denis Digital
A CX or Digital Innovation exec
at a fortune 1000 company
Seth Smallbusiness
The owner of a small retail or
ecommerce company who plays all C-
level roles within the company.
These are examples of the types of people we might be targeting. There are surely many more
personas to be added to this list.

38. Whether it is a webinar, a white
paper, or a blog post, in addition
to being mapped to a specific
persona, all content should be
mapped to the customer journey
and be used with the express
purpose of nurturing customers
along this journey toward a sale.
MAPPING CONTENT TO
THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY
Understanding
the Stages of
the Journey Awareness
Consideration
Decision
Customers in the awareness stage are looking for answers, or just or something
interesting to read or to look at. The awareness stage is about answering
questions, educating, capturing attention, and inspiring customers to pay
attention and to want to learn more about you.
Customers in the consideration stage know who you are, a bit about what you
are about, and are ready to learn more. Content in this stage should be about
building credibility. Show them that you care about the same things they care
about and that you are capable, knowledgeable, and have an interesting take on
solving problems that matter to them.
Customers in the decision phase are sold on you– or just about. They like what
you do, they know they have a need, and now are looking to make the next step in
order to fill it. This is pretty much the only brand-specific content you will have. It
may include case studies and testimonials or statistics about customer satisfaction
etc.

39. Awareness
Blog Posts
Campaigns
Microsites
Webinars
White Papers
E-books
Decision
Case Studies
Testimonials
How-to guides
Emails
Consideration
Blog Posts
Webinars
White Papers
E-books
What types of content belong in each phase?

40. Awareness DecisionConsideration
Here are some examples of our content, and how it maps to the
different phases in the journey.

41. What does content
have to do with
Cake & Arrow?

42. While content always exists for
the customer, and for the most
part we don’t want our content to
be brand centric, content does
need to map to our values and who
we are as a company.

43. Personality
Brand Traits
The Morgan Freemans
(our values)+

44. Personality Brand Traits
Resourceful Noble EmpatheticRigorous Eccentric
As a collective group, these represent who we are
at our core. They are our innate set of traits.

45. Our values are the expression of who we are.
It’s the framework for how we behave.
The Morgan Freemans (Core Values)
Merry
Craftsman
Forever a
WIP
Killer
Work
Entrepreneur
At Heart
This Place
Is Mine

46. So how do we create
compelling cotent?

47. Long before you begin writing,
you’ll need to do some work to
figure out what you are going to
write about. Here are some
questions you can ask yourself.
Once you pick a general topic,
spend a few minutes free writing
about the topic and even doing a
bit of research to see if it has legs.
Deciding
what to
write about.
• What do I know a lot about?
• What do I care a lot about?
Causes? People? Interests?
• What do I want to know more
about?
• Is there anything I want to learn
how to do?
• What am I excited about at work
right now?
• What have I been reading or
watching?
• What is happening in the news
right now?
• Are there any new developments
in my field or in our industry?
• What other content have I read
recently that intrigued me?
• What have our clients been
talking about lately or asking
me about lately?
• What have I been talking about
with my colleagues lately?
• What I am obsessed with
outside of work?
• What have I been struggling
with at work?
• What keeps me up at night?
• What do my clients care about?
• What do my colleagues care
about?
• What are people talking about
on Twitter?
• What are the people I follow
talking about?

48. Write about
what you know
Write about what you
want to know more about
Write about what
you love
Deciding what to write about.

49. It’s not enough that you care
about this topic, others need to
care about it too. Take a look at
some of the personas, and
consider who your best audience
might be. Think about how you
might need to adjust your
Identifying
your
audience.
Melissa Marketing
CMO at a midsize retail or
ecommerce company.
Margaret Marketing
CMO or VP at a fortune 500 insurance or
financial services company
Emily Employee
A potential employee of C&A. A
designer, project manager, etc.
Denis Digital
A CX or Digital Innovation exec at a
fortune 1000 company
Frank Finance
CFO or VP of a line of a business at a
fortune 500 financial services company
Seth Smallbusiness
The owner of a small retail or
ecommerce company who plays all C-
level roles within the company.

50. Is your blog intended to raise
awareness and to generate
interest? Or is it more about
educating the customer about our
business processes and how we
work? As a general rule, the more
the content has to do with C&A,
the further along the customer
journey it will fall.
Identifying the
phase of the
customer journey.
Awareness
Decision
Consideration
High level, high interest, general
interest, not brand specific.
Digs deeper, explores processes,
methodologies, POVs on issues
pertaining to work. Educates and
informs and aligns our interest,
value and work ethic with the
customers.
Brand specific. Proves that we are
the right choice and that we will
make the project successful.

51. Once you know what you are
going to write about, who your are
writing for, and what phase they
are in in the journey, you are
ready to determine the goal.
Remember the goals from the
beginning of the presentation and
get more specific. Whats your
blog post trying to do?
Determining the
goal of your
content.
• Brand awareness
• Credibility
• Connection
What is your blog
posts’s goal?
• Lead Generation
• Customer Nurture
• Recruitment

52. When it comes to values, try owning
one of the Morgans. Which one will
you be when writing your blog post?
On the spectrum of personality
traits, think about where your topic
falls. It it’s heavily focused on
customer-centricity, maybe it’s
empathy. If it’s describing a
research regimen, maybe its
rigorous. It may very well be more
than one.
Connecting it to
our values and
personality.
Resourceful Noble
Empathetic
Rigorous
Eccentric
Merry
Craftsman
Forever a
WIP
This Place
is Mine
Entrepreneur
at Heart
Killer Work

53. No matter what you are writing
about, it is always a good idea to see
what other people have had to say
about the topic. This may provide
some inspiration, will definitely
educate you, and will also help you
develop a unique POV. Do some
google searches, check out your
favorite blogs, read the news, and
make a list of sources and citations
you may want to use in your article.
Doing your
research.

54. Now you are ready to start
writing.

55. Even if you don’t stick to it, an
outline will help you get started.
Always start
with an
outline.
Introduction
¶1: Lead or Hook
¶2: Nutgraph (Transition)
Body
¶3:Idea 1
¶4: Example 1
¶5:Idea 2
¶6: Example 2
¶7:Idea 3
¶8: Example 3
Conclusion
¶9:Sum it up. Give some advice. Call to action.
¶10: Kicker

56. If you are
stuck,
considering
writing out
what you
want to say
in bullet
points first.

57. Or save your
introduction for
last and skip to
what you know
you want to say.

58. Or talk it
through with
someone.

59. And be sure that
every point you
make is connected
to an example
from work (ie.
case study), and
example from your
life, or a piece of
research (ie an
article etc.).

60. First AND last
impressions
matter. Spend as
much time on your
conclusion as you
do on your intro.
•Ask an interesting question
•End with an anecdote that
illustrates your point
•End with a quote
•Make a joke
•End with a surprise
•Close with some good advice

61. CONFIDENTIAL
And yet it is this cosmopolitan transit—the sharing of tastes and expectations across a single
world, from Down Under to Dumbo—that the enemies of avocado toast seek to quash. Problems
arise as the world’s variety blurs toward a vast consumer mainstream: lattes in every café, Adidas
workout pants on every subway car. But there’s refreshing opportunity for generative collaboration,
too. Jet-lagged in London, a few weeks ago, I dipped into a café for lunch. The menu included a ragù
(too much for my displaced stomach), some inscrutable sandwiches (probably containing
mayonnaise and raisins), and then, on the specials board, “smashed avo on toast.” The dish had a
regional flourish: rocket, feta, and a cocktail-like wedge of lime. It looked delicious. I ordered it, ate
it, and went to do my business in a city that was not my own. It felt like home.
NATHAN HELLER, THE NEW YORKER, JULY 13 2017
“A GRAND, UNIFIED THEORY OF AVOCADO TOAST”
An Anecdote

62. CONFIDENTIAL
According to Fadell, this is largely a matter of unintended consequences–but that doesn’t free
designers and developers from responsibility. Fadell wants there to be a Hippocratic oath for
designers, where they pledge to work ethically and “do no harm.” “I think we have to be very
cognizant of the unintended consequences, but also acknowledge them and then design them out–
make sure that we are ethically designing,” he says. “This is the slowest technology will ever
progress ever again in your life. It’s only speeding up. So what are we going to do as designers to
bring that element in all the time?”
KATHARINE SCHWAB, FASTCO, JULY 7 2017
“NEST FOUNDER: ‘I WAKE UP IN COLD SWEATS THINKING,
WHAT DID WE BRING TO THE WORLD?’”
A Quote

63. CONFIDENTIAL
A Surpise
KATE MUTH, CAKE & ARROW,
MAY 3, 2017
“NAVIGATING THE TRANSITION
TO WORKING PARENT”

64. Once you have finished a draft,
use this checklist to make sure
you have everything you need
before sending it off for feedback.
Covering
your bases.
Does my blog have a clear goal?
Does my blog have a clear, interesting topic that
communicates something unique from what
others are saying?
Is my blog post written for a specific audience/
persona?
Does my blog post map to the customer journey?
Does my blog post connect to Cake & Arrow
values and brand identity?
Is my blog post to brand centric?
Does my blog post have a strong introduction
and conclusion?
Is my blog post supported by real life examples
and research?
Does my blog post have a call to action?
Blog Post Check List

65. Plan RewriteWrite
Remember that Writing is a Three Step Process

66. Once you have a draft, share it.
Getting feedback—and then
rewriting—is one of the most
important parts of the process.

67. Thank You.
67