This document summarizes mistakes made with content marketing in 2015 and provides solutions to improve for 2016. It identifies 7 common mistakes: being too impatient, self-involved, smart, ambitious, easy, insular, and reactionary. For each mistake, it provides an explanation and recommends focusing on customers' needs rather than the company, starting small, tying efforts to sales metrics, developing content partnerships, and regularly posting engaging social media content. The document advocates for creating demand through various types of content and capturing leads through educational and promotional content.

1. Content Marketing
Mistakes Made in 2015
And Ways to Improve Next Year
Gregory Kennedy, AdRoll

2. @NEILPATEL @Kissmetrics
#KissWebinar
@kearacho

3. A former designer and creative director. Gregory’s
writing has been published in a number of publications
including: The BBC, VentureBeat, YahooFinance and
Entrepreneur.com.
GREGORY KENNEDY
Director, Content Marketing, AdRoll
@iamgkennedy
Keara is responsible for telling impactful stories for the
Kissmetrics brand and its’ products. Prior to
Kissmetrics, she worked at Salesforce, Bizo, and
Chase. When she’s not telling stories or running
campaigns, you can find this bay area native watching
a Warriors game with family and friends.
KEARA CHO
Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Kissmetrics
@kearacho

4. @NEILPATEL @AdRoll
#KissWebinar
@iamgkennedy

5. Content Marketing is Everywhere in B2C
Kraftrecipes.com
1 billion views a year
Pepsi.com
Powered by Newscred globally

6. Content Marketing is Everywhere in B2B
Adobe’s CMO.com
2 editors / $1 million annual
budget
Nanagins
Big investment in data and
reports

7. Why? Driven by Shifting Media Consumption

8. What Gets Me Excited for Content Marketing?
Digital content marketing is the most scalable and cost effective approach to
marketing, ever.
Traditional Media at Scale
● Largest circulation magazine: The Watchtower, 52 M Monthly
● Largest televised event: Superbowl, Seahawks vs. Patriots, 114 M Viewers
● Largest radio program: Tom Kent, 23 M Weekly Listeners
Digital Media at Scale
● Facebook 1.4 B
● What’s App 700 M
● LinkedIn 468 M
● Instagram 300 M
● Twitter 280 M
● Tumblr 230 M

9. What Does Content Marketing Include?

10. You worked hard in 2015.
So why were there still
issued with your content?

11. Problem:
Too Impatient
Did you stop investing in your content initiatives like social media or
blogging because they didn’t show results in only 30 days?

12. Solution: Great Content Marketing takes both patience
and skill
Promote:
Creating Demand and
Confidence
Examples
● Press Releases
● Byline Articles
Educate:
Thought Leadership and
Knowledge
Examples
● Blog Posts
● Whitepapers
Capture:
Turning Leads Into
Opportunities
Examples
● Webinars
● Account Signups

13. Problem:
Too Self Involved
Did you write posts for your blog only about your company, your
product, your team, and your needs?

14. Develop a deep understanding of their pain points and aim
to create content that helps them achieve their goals.
FONTS
Content
People
Will
Engage
Possible
Content
Content in
Exchange
for
Information
Lead Gen (Webinars, Whitepapers,
Events)
Blogs, Infographics, Videos, Newsletters, Social Media
Solution: Focus on your customers to find
your marketing “sweet spot”
Sweet
Spot

15. Problem:
Too Smart
Did you fail to understand your customer? Did you create content
that was too sophisticated and hard for them to understand?

16. Solution: Customers value products that solve their
problems. Stay focused on your customer’s needs.

17. Problem:
Too Ambitious
Did you poorly execute on your content plan because it was too
ambitious and resource intensive?

18. Solution: Start Small and Get the Basics Right

19. Problem:
Too Easy
Did you fail to tie content marketing efforts to hard lead generation
numbers? Did you measure success based only on raw output?

20. Solution: Tie your content marketing efforts directly
to sales.
Start evaluating efforts on how many marketing leads your sales
team can actually work, not just total responses.

21. Problem:
Too Insular
Did you fail to develop a content partner strategy? Did you find like
minded thought leaders to help validate your ideas and approach?

22. Solution: Don’t Fear Rejection
Just accept some rejection as par for the course and pursue multiple
opportunities.
How to Co-Market:
● Start planning well in advance.
● Agree on a topic that
compliments both brands.
● Agree on your methods of
promotion and set a numbers-
based goal.

23. Problem:
Too Reactionary
Did you post on social media infrequently? When you did, was it
mostly in response to complaints?

24. Solution: Get Excited About Social!
2.2+ billion active
users on social, global
penetration of 30%.
Facebook alone has
1.49 billion global
monthly active users

25. Recap
Things your content is not going to be in 2016:
Too Impatient
Too Self Involved
Too Smart
Too Ambitious
Too Easy
Too Insular
Too Reactionary

26. Recap
What your content is going to be in 2016:

27. Thank You!
@NEILPATEL
@Kissmetrics @adroll #KissWebinar #YourHashtag

28. Focus callout slide,
update icon to fit content
ALL CAPS SUBHEADLINE

29. KEARA CHO
Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Kissmetrics
@kearacho
GREGORY KENNEDY
Director of Content Marketing, AdRoll
@iamgkennedy
Questions?