NewsCred faced challenges in standing out in a crowded content marketing landscape. Their goals were to grow brand awareness and engagement with their target audience of B2B and B2C marketers. They built a newsroom team focused on original and licensed content creation. Their approach focused on educating readers rather than traditional branding. This people-focused strategy led to increases in traffic, social engagement, and blog subscriptions. Careful content optimization and tracking conversions at each stage helped measure the impact on leads and sales.

1. #Meta: What We Learned
From Our Own Content
Marketing Case Study
#thinkcontent | @newscred
Marcus Stoll
NewsCred – Demand Generation Specialist
@stollyolly
Amber van Natten
NewsCred – Managing Editor
@moxieingreen

2. Agenda
• The challenges we faced
• Our goals and approach
• Building our newsroom and distribution
• The results of our efforts, and how you can set yourself up to track effectively

3. Our Challenges
Our Goals and
Approach
The Results of
our Efforts
Building our Newsroom
and Distribution

4. How can we stand apart in a
crowded landscape?
#thinkcontent | @newscred

5. #thinkcontent | @newscred
We realized we needed to
stop marketing to brands.

6. #thinkcontent | @newscred
And instead, start connecting
with people.

7. #thinkcontent | @newscred
We needed to educate
the market.

8. There’s been a fundamental
shift in the way we create,
consume, and share content.
Every single day…
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
#thinkcontent

9. The content journey is
the customer journey
70% of B2B and B2C buying decisions are
made before a buyer ever reaches sales.
Sirius Decisions 2014

10. Our Goals and
Approach
The Results of
our Efforts
Building our Newsroom
and Distribution
Our Goals and
Approach
Our Challenges

11. NewsCred Goals
Is our content reaching the right audience?
Grow brand awareness with our target audience, measured by growth in social followers,
traffic, and social engagement.
#thinkcontent | @newscred

12. Is our content reaching the right audience?
Grow brand awareness with our target audience, measured by growth in social followers,
traffic, and social engagement.
Are the right people engaging with our content?
Grow number of influencers engaging with our content (people meaningful to our Sales Team).
NewsCred Goals
#thinkcontent | @newscred

13. Is our content reaching the right audience?
Grow brand awareness with our target audience, measured by growth in social followers,
traffic, and social engagement.
Are the right people engaging with our content?
Grow number of influencers engaging with our content (people meaningful to our Sales Team).
Is our content converting?
Total subscribes to our blog, subscribers that convert to leads, % of people that convert from
our blog to our main website.
NewsCred Goals
#thinkcontent | @newscred

14. Is our content reaching the right audience?
Grow brand awareness with our target audience, measured by growth in social followers,
traffic, and social engagement.
Are the right people engaging with our content?
Grow number of influencers engaging with our content (people meaningful to our Sales Team).
Is our content converting?
Total subscribes to our blog, subscribers that convert to leads, % of people that convert from
our blog to our main website.
Is our content driving the business forward?
How many blog subscribes convert to actual leads and how does this trend over time? What is
the conversion rate to opportunity stage and deal? And, for every sales deal and customer,
how many (and which) pieces of content influence the customer journey?
NewsCred Goals
#thinkcontent | @newscred

15. OLD WAY
Brand-led
Ad campaigns
Demographics
NEW WAY
Value-driven
Always-on content
The individual
We took a different approach.
#thinkcontent | @newscred

16. NewsCred
Brand Purpose
Fundamentally
disrupting the
marketing industry
from the ground up
by transforming the
way brands connect
with people. Content
Marketing
BRAND
PURPOSE
WHAT
CUSTOMERS
WANT
Target Audience:
Marketers
• B2B and B2C
marketers and
executives from
small businesses
all the way to
Fortune 500
companies.
• Looking for help
in doing their job
better and
delivering real
results
The NewsCred blog: A destination filled with industry news, trends, and
thought leadership to educate and provide value to marketers
#thinkcontent | @newscred

17. Our Goals and
Approach
The Results of
our Efforts
Building our Newsroom
and Distribution
Building our Newsroom
and Distribution
Our Challenges

18. We built our marketing team with
content at the core:
- Managing editor
- Social strategist
- 2 designers
- 8 freelance writers
- Employee contributors
#thinkcontent | @newscred

19. Utilize The Right Mix of Content, and Scale it
Custom Content
Share on-brand stories and recipes which are created
specifically for your brand.
Social Content
Leverage snackable content through UGC that
engages your target audience.
Licensed Content
Boost credibility, publishing cadence, and direct traffic
with a high-volume of fully-licensed, compliant
content.
#thinkcontent | @newscred

20. Content for Every Stage of the Buyer’s Journey
Top of the Funnel
Quality, custom and licensed content focused on helping to answer our
customer’s challenges and define the future of content marketing. Often focuses
on longtail SEO keywords.
Middle of the Funnel
High value, original resources created for our Academy. Useful, timely, and also
hits on niche topics specific to NewsCred’s offering and solutions.
Bottom of the Funnel
Custom content converting leads to customers: case studies, product offers,
comparison guides, analyst reports, etc.
Customer Stage
Retaining customers with content specific to their industry and pain points,
newsletters, product updates, and tutorials/training
Awareness
Retain
Evaluation
Purchase
#thinkcontent | @newscred

21. #thinkcontent | @newscred
We Take Design Seriously

22. Our Goals and
Approach
The Results of
our Efforts
Building our Newsroom
and Distribution
Our Challenges
The Results of
our Efforts

23. • Digestible content: Top 2 posts are infographics.
• The BuzzFeed effect: 4 of top 10 articles had headlines with words like: "top," "best," "most.”
• Know your audience: 35% of top 20 articles have the mention of "content marketing" or "content
marketers.”
• Stats matter: 70% of top 10 articles have numbers in the headline.
• Stay familiar: 25% of top 20 articles have a brand name mentioned in the headline - Ello, Vice,
BuzzFeed, Nike, and Red Bull.
#thinkcontent | @newscred
Newsletters are Vital for Identifying Trends and
Takeaways

24. Our Social Marketing
Best Practices
#thinkcontent | @newscred

25. Best Practices: Twitter
– Cadence: NewsCred shares 1
Tweet an hour, 7 days a week
between 8am and 2am – an
average of 18 tweets per day
– Don’t be afraid to post the same
Tweet more than once – or with
A/B variations*
– Say thanks – it’s the most
effective way to increase
organic engagement + followers
*Companies who test are 75% more likely to
show ROI for content marketing than those
who fail to test their strategies.
#thinkcontent | @newscred

26. Best Practices: Twitter
– Interact with your audience on a
personal level.
– Be visual: Tweets with photos
are 150% more likely to be
retweeted (78% of user
engagement with a brand’s
tweets is via retweeting)
– Tell a story: 120-130 character
tweets get the most
engagement but you have 1
second to get their attention
#thinkcontent | @newscred

27. Best Practices: Facebook
– Cadence: NewsCred posts 2x
per day, 5-7 days per week
– Visuals are the most crucial
element to Facebook posts –
posts with photos get 53% more
likes, 104% comments, 84%
click-throughs
– Content: should be varied,
cultural + educational
#thinkcontent | @newscred

28. Best Practices: LinkedIn
– Cadence: NewsCred posts 2x
per day, 5-7 days per week
– Content: must have content in
addition to company updates
and recruiting posts
> High value content works
very well here
– Voice: most authoritative of the
three platforms due to
demographics
#thinkcontent | @newscred

29. Distribution Recommendations
• 4-1-1 Rule: 4 of your posts, 1 influencer post, 1 publisher post
• Follow and mention influencers, publishers as often as possible
• Test paid distribution
• Think of social as a two-way street
Client Influencer Publisher
#thinkcontent | @newscred

30. 1 original and 5 licensed
posts/week
5 original and 5 licensed
posts/ week
By Increasing our Original Content Production
Our Traffic Jumped
#thinkcontent | @newscred
BEFORE AFTERApril
2014

31. 1 original and 5 licensed
posts/week
5 original and 5 licensed
posts/ week
___
Unique visitors increase
By Increasing our Original Content Production
Our Traffic Jumped
#thinkcontent | @newscred
BEFORE AFTERApril
2014
49%

32. 2-5 new articles shared/
week across social channels
~2 new articles and 20
recycled articles shared/ day
Our Social Sharing Drove Increases in Reach
and Engagement
#thinkcontent | @newscred
BEFORE AFTERApril
2014

33. 2-5 new articles shared/
week across social channels
~2 new articles and 20
recycled articles shared/ day
Our Social Sharing Drove Increases in Reach
and Engagement
#thinkcontent | @newscred
BEFORE AFTERApril
2014
___
Social traffic jump
60% ___
Social share increase
2.6x

34. -
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
$-
$1,000
$2,000
$3,000
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep
Social promotion ($) Social Shares
-
20,000
40,000
60,000
$-
$1,000
$2,000
$3,000
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep
Social promotion ($) Reach (uniques)
Social Ad Spend Directly Related to
Reach + Engagement(duh!)
#thinkcontent | @newscred

35. 2-5 new articles shared/
week across social channels
~2 new articles and 20
recycled articles shared/ day
But How Did This Translate Into Conversions?
#thinkcontent | @newscred
BEFORE AFTERApril
2014
___
Blog subscribe increase
30% ___
Of our normal MQL cost
50%
1 original and 5 licensed
posts/week
&
5 original and 5 licensed
posts/ week
&

36. #thinkcontent | @newscred
We Carefully Optimize Our Blog for Conversions

37. High value content plays a huge role as well. These pieces are our best way to
turn blog subscribes into more than just an email address.
– On average, one whitepaper drives:
2,000 leads
400 leads (20%) in our target demographic*
3 opportunities
– Including costs around paid distribution, the ROI for one of our
whitepapers is nearly 800%
That’s about $8 back for every $1 we put in
* our target demographic is a Marketing Director or above at a company with $700m+ in annual revenue
But it’s not Just About More Blog Articles
#thinkcontent | @newscred

38. #thinkcontent | @newscred
Our Targeted Landing Pages Convert at Over 40%

39. Our Promotion Strategies
• Sponsored emails
• Sponsored webinars
• Native ads
• Events
• Paid social updates
• Organic social updates
• SEM/SEO
• Direct traffic
• Internal emails (sales + distro)
#thinkcontent | @newscred

40. How We Are Tracking ROI
• Marketing automation + CRM
• UTM parameters on our links
• Campaigns for each effort
Track total cost + leads
• External “warehouse” to roll up your programs
#thinkcontent | @newscred

41. How We Are Tracking ROI
• Marketing automation + CRM
• UTM parameters on our links
• Campaigns for each effort
Track total cost + leads
• External “warehouse” to roll up your programs
#thinkcontent | @newscred

42. Measure Everything–From Lead to the Sale
Measure revenue
• Deals closed
• Monthly Revenue
• MRR / Customer
Track costs
• Cost
• CPL
• CAC
Understand value
• Monthly Profit
• Months to break even
• LTV
• LTV/ CAC
#thinkcontent | @newscred

43. But That’s Only First-Touch, What About Multi-
Touch Attribution?
• Lead Source tracking: Original AND Recent
• Field for # of pieces of content engaged with (1, 2, 3…)
Can segment this out – guides, articles, emails, etc
• Sequence of 5 blank fields
As someone downloads a new piece, these fields start filling out:
1 – Ed. Calendar
2 – ROI Guide
3 – Strategy Webinar
From there, lists and filtering!
• Software bolt-ons to Salesforce
#thinkcontent | @newscred

44. Leads that have engaged with content are twice
as likely to accept a meeting with us.
#thinkcontent | @newscred

45. Leads that have engaged with content are twice
as likely to accept a meeting with us.
…and once they turn into a client
#thinkcontent | @newscred

46. #thinkcontent | @newscred
Client Engagement w/ Content = Loyalty & Renewals
___
Higher renewal rate
41% ___
More likely to be upsold
33% ___
Higher MRR than average
24%

47. #thinkcontent | @newscred
Our content directly influenced over
$72M in customer lifetime
value in 2014.

48. Want to learn how to apply similar
strategies for your brand?
#thinkcontent | @newscred

49. Want to learn how to apply similar
strategies for your brand?
We can help. Our end-to-end software platform and strategy team are
built to help you create and execute on content people love.
#thinkcontent | @newscred

50. Want to learn how to apply similar
strategies for your brand?
We can help. Our end-to-end software platform and strategy team are
built to help you create and execute on content people love.
Trustedbytheworld’sleadingbrands

51. marcus@newscred.com
amber.vannatten@newscred.com
sales@newscred.com
#thinkcontent | @newscred
Questions?

52. Let’s build
something
incredible.
sales@newscred.com