1. G00271566
Content Marketing Comes of Age
Published: 12 March 2015
Analyst(s): Jake Sorofman, Kirsten Newbold-Knipp
For many marketing leaders, the exuberance around content marketing has
given way to a more pragmatic, outcome-oriented view. Here's how content
marketers' efforts are maturing from experimental to operational — and how
marketing leaders can do the same.
Key Challenges
■ Sustaining a content marketing effort can be costly, protracted and resource-intensive, and
most marketers are unable to demonstrate a return on their considerable investments.
■ Content marketers often submit to the false promise that if you build it, they will come by
overinvesting in content creation and underinvesting in amplification and development of
audiences.
■ The growth of content marketing as a discipline means greater competition for audience
attention, making traditional content marketing tactics less effective over time.
Recommendations
■ Define measurable goals and close the loop on content marketing performance.
■ Live by personas and journey maps to illuminate audiences and their needs.
■ Bring content to life with interactive content elements.
■ Apply paid media techniques to "prime the pump."
Table of Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................................2
Analysis..................................................................................................................................................3
Define Measurable Goals and Close the Loop on Content Marketing Performance...........................3
Understanding the Differences Between B2C and B2B Content Marketers.................................4
Close the Loop on Performance................................................................................................. 5
2. How to Get Started.................................................................................................................... 6
Live by Personas and Journey Maps to Illuminate Audiences and Their Needs.................................7
How to Get Started.................................................................................................................... 8
Bring Content to Life With Interactive Content Elements................................................................... 8
How to Get Started.................................................................................................................... 9
Apply Paid Media Techniques to Prime the Pump............................................................................ 9
How to Get Started.................................................................................................................. 12
Case Study.......................................................................................................................................... 12
Seagate Proves That Age Has Little to Do With Content Marketing Maturity................................... 12
Gartner Recommended Reading..........................................................................................................13
List of Figures
Figure 1. Content Marketing Drives Business Value at Many Levels........................................................ 4
Figure 2. Sample of Leading Metrics by Level of Reach and Engagement.............................................. 5
Figure 3. A Content Planning Framework Using Personas and Journeys................................................ 7
Figure 4. PayScale's Interactive Personality Assessment........................................................................ 9
Figure 5. Understanding Content Promotion Alternatives......................................................................11
Introduction
This document was revised on 20 March 2015. The document you are viewing is the corrected
version. For more information, see the Corrections page on gartner.com.
Gartner's annual Digital Marketing Spending survey suggests vulnerability in the content marketing
promise: While marketers see content marketing as a top spending priority, there's evidence of
frustration in their own abilities to turn these investments into measurable business outcomes (see
"CMO Spend Survey 2015: Eye on the Buyer").
Specifically, many marketing leaders tell us:
■ They often struggle to attribute their content marketing efforts to profitable revenue growth.
■ They often prefer paid media for its control and predictability in reaching audiences.
The highest performing content marketers are tackling these issues head-on. They're closing the
attribution and measurement loop, laying the foundations for creating the right content, amplifying
the reach of the content, and engaging audiences in more innovative ways. The content marketers'
efforts are maturing from experimental to operational (see "How Digital Marketers Make Content a
Strategic Competency").
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3. Rather than producing content speculatively, these marketers define clearer strategies upfront and
tune into audiences and their needs. They tap into audience and market signals to detect demand in
order to create the right content in the first place. They tag content for measurement, and map it to
personas and buying journeys. They look to paid media techniques to amplify content and
experiment with richer, more interactive forms that more effectively capture audience attention.
They're becoming operational content marketers. What does that mean in application? Follow these
four best practices to graduate your content marketing efforts to the practices of the most mature
practitioners.
Analysis
Define Measurable Goals and Close the Loop on Content Marketing Performance
Any marketing program — content marketing or otherwise — is doomed without a defined strategy
and measurable goals (see "How to Measure and Prove the Business Value of Your Content
Marketing Program"). Of course, your specific strategy and goals will depend heavily on your
business model and value chain (for example, B2B, B2C or business-to-business-to-consumer
[B2B2C]).
For many marketers, the ultimate goal of any tactic is direct revenue attribution. Savvy content
marketers know that it takes significant time for content efforts to yield revenue impact, which can't
be proven without the instrumentation to accurately measure these results. On the road to content
ROI and optimization, mature organizations identify leading metrics that provide visibility into their
content efficacy that they rely on for day-to-day operations. Then, they apply varying levels of
attribution analysis, taking into account both causation and correlation to evaluate content
marketing's impact to the bottom line on a longer-term basis. Figure 1 illustrates where content
marketing falls on the continuum of direct versus indirect impact.
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4. Figure 1. Content Marketing Drives Business Value at Many Levels
Note: Some totals may not add to 100% because of rounding.
Source: Gartner (March 2015)
Understanding the Differences Between B2C and B2B Content Marketers
One key performance indicator for a B2B marketer is the generation of leads for sales pursuit.
Closing the loop for B2B marketers generally depends on a CRM foundation and the ability to track
a lead from initial capture through conversion and retention.
On the other hand, with the conspicuous exception of many online and traditional retailers, many
B2C firms often have complex supply and distribution channels that separate them from the user-
level data and the one-to-one attribution that are necessary to close the loop on content
performance. However, there are a number of common, lightweight-leading metrics any type of firm
can pursue to derive input on content efficacy. These might include clicks, unique page views, time
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5. on site, likes and shares among others (for a more exhaustive list of metrics, see "Toolkit: Inventory
of Digital Marketing Metrics").
Such common leading metrics rely on engagement or interaction data that yields improvements in
brand awareness, preference and recall, which can lead to increases in revenue over time. These
signals are linked to discrete events and data that are readily available through site analytics
platforms or from platforms such as YouTube and Facebook. This data provides information about
the relative impact of different pieces of content and the health or growth of the program overall, but
it is usually not tied to any particular customer or outcome, such as sales.
Both B2B and B2C companies should identify which of these engagement metrics matter in their
business model and which are indicative of their persona's reactions to, and value perception of,
their content. Figure 2 illustrates a sample of how common leading metrics align to reach and
engage objectives.
Figure 2. Sample of Leading Metrics by Level of Reach and Engagement
Source: Gartner (March 2015)
Close the Loop on Performance
To derive a complete picture of the revenue outcomes, you'll need to marry conversion data with
user- or segment-level data to identify if content has a direct impact on the key performance
indicators or influences sales and retention.
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6. B2B Marketers
For B2B marketers, closing the loop means mapping lead capture and sales data to content
interactions. This can be done in a few ways, depending on the sophistication of systems and
available data analyst teams. In all cases, both causation and correlation should be evaluated:
■ Causation: The most powerful way to attribute ROI to content marketing is through proof of the
first touch or conversion. Here, B2B marketers should identify and track content interactions on
the path to initial capture of a prospect's contact data.
■ Correlation: Many mature content marketers also measure behavior by cohort — the behavior
of prospects who consume content versus prospects who do not. Comparing lifetime value via
the sales conversion rates, average order values and retention of the population of users who
consumed content against the population of those who did not can provide very telling insight
into whether content marketing may have a broader impact on revenue.
At Dell, which serves both businesses and consumers, the velocity of leads from content is faster
than any other lead the company generates. The majority of new contacts in the company's
marketing database come through its content marketing lead machine, which it tracks through all
channels to attribute value to which channels held the greatest influence on revenue.
B2C Marketers
For B2C marketers, unless you also have access to customer-level data at the point of sale, closing
the loop means testing and mapping transaction, sales and average order data to a specific
geography or end-user segment that can be discretely targeted and measured. Both causation and
correlation should be evaluated:
■ Causation: If your B2C brand does direct-to-consumer marketing and sales, you are in a good
position to observe some of the practices of your B2B peers. By using contact capture tactics
to build email and promotion lists, you can tie your content marketing efforts to online or in-
store transactions that have email or loyalty contact data. New techniques, such as Facebook
ad conversion pixels, also connect content to transactions. These techniques enable that direct
causal link between your content efforts and total lifetime value.
■ Correlation: If you lack access to user-level data, then performing demographic or geographic
segmentation to target your content efforts and measure lift — similar to TV or radio test
marketing and attribution analysis — is one of the best ways to determine content's impact.
Kraft Foods has used content through its Food & Family magazine to drive both engagement and
purchase behavior, which it has been able to track back to actual sales impact. Through
anonymous matching of shopping data with content consumption patterns, it can see that high
levels of content engagement correlate with purchases — in fact, so much so that the company
finds the degree of engagement with content tends to outperform other forms of advertising.
How to Get Started
■ Determine which leading and closed-loop metrics are most applicable to your situation.
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7. ■ Prioritize which metrics you will use based on instrumentation and availability of data.
■ Start with two to three key metrics, using these to communicate program value, optimize
performance and expand your analysis over time.
Live by Personas and Journey Maps to Illuminate Audiences and Their Needs
The highest performing content marketers are disciplined about serving their audiences. For these
organizations, the emphasis is on the audience first and the brand second. This approach to
audience service isn't just a high-minded ideal or a vague philosophy; it's the practice of knowing
your audiences and their specific needs on a decision journey and over the lifetime of a customer
relationship, as well as using that knowledge to explicitly inform the content you source and publish.
This approach begins with well-researched and validated personas and journey maps (see "Use
Personas to Drive Exceptional Customer Experiences" and "How to Design Customer Experiences
Using Persona-Driven Buying Journeys"). According to a 2014 Gartner survey on marketing's role in
customer experience (see "Gartner Survey Finds Importance of Customer Experience on the Rise —
Marketing Is on the Hook"), slightly fewer than half of marketers are actively using personas and
journey maps to guide their efforts. Figure 3 illustrates a content planning framework based on the
output of persona- and journey-mapping efforts.
Figure 3. A Content Planning Framework Using Personas and Journeys
Source: Gartner (March 2015)
At the intersection of a persona and a moment (which may also be called a touchpoint or a buying
stage) is an opportunity to create an inventory of the stories you tell through your content marketing
efforts. This may include creation of original content, curation of third-party content aligned to your
points of view, and cultivation of user-generated content from your communities (see "Digital
Marketers: Are You Ready to Think Like a Publisher?").
One of the primary benefits of this structured approach to content planning is the discipline of
aligning content to what's relevant and appropriate to a specific audience at a specific moment. As
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8. you engage audiences with rich, value-added content that serves their needs, you earn the right to
ask for something in return: richer profile information, engagement with more brand- and product-
centric content, or even direct interaction with sales. Note, however, that mistiming these overtures
can alienate your audience. Your engagement must be an exchange of value that accrues over time
and emphasizes the audience's needs first.
You can also use this framework for gap analysis of content inventories. Start by defining the to-be
state — the content you require to serve audiences at key moments. Next, define the as-is state by
auditing your existing content assets. Identify and prioritize the gap between the as-is and to-be
states. Kapost, a content marketing vendor, provides a free SaaS-based tool that allows you to
automate the discovery, and streamline the indexing and organization, of your published content
assets.
How to Get Started
■ Research and model out personas and journey maps to create a content inventory framework.
■ Define a content plan that corresponds to specific audiences and moments.
■ Audit your existing content and identify the gaps based on your content plan.
Bring Content to Life With Interactive Content Elements
The rapid growth of content marketing and the attendant glut of available content mean that content
marketers must work harder to deliver something of differentiated value. Increasingly, this means
inclusion of interactive, often-gamified content elements, such as polls, quizzes and data
visualizations, and efforts to turn static content assets — white papers, blog posts, infographics and
so forth — into more interactive variants of the same.
Vendors such as ion interactive and SnapApp provide frameworks that allow marketers and
agencies to create these types of interactive experiences. For example, Pearson uses ion interactive
to produce an interactive eBook and quiz as resources aimed at helping school and district leaders
to improve student outcomes. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia uses ion to educate
consumers on consumer-driven health plans via quizzes, choose-your-own-adventure style pathing
and interactive infographics. PayScale uses SnapApp to build an interactive personality assessment
called "Find Your Inner Purple Squirrel," which utilizes a whimsical design and interactive
experience to engage and further profile prospects. Figure 4 is an illustration of PayScale's
personality assessment.
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9. Figure 4. PayScale's Interactive Personality Assessment
Source: PayScale
As competition for audience attention increases, interactive content can set your brand apart.
Perhaps more tangibly, it can also drive improvements in dwell time — or the time spent engaged
with content on a site — which is a key measure of content quality and relevance. Sometimes these
interactive elements — polls and quizzes, for example — also generate interesting findings that, in
aggregate, can further feed your content marketing efforts as you report out what you've learned.
How to Get Started
■ Evaluate design options available from agencies and specialized vendors.
■ Identify assets and ideas in your content plans that have potential for interactivity.
■ Design interactive content elements and run tests to determine which perform best.
Apply Paid Media Techniques to Prime the Pump
For years, content marketing acolytes have espoused the idea that "content is king," leaving many
marketers building their very own field of dreams — publishing libraries of content that no one is
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10. perusing. A cardinal flaw of any content strategy is to focus solely on creation to the exclusion of
promotion and amplification.
Despite centuries-old forms of corporate content marketing, it's no secret that during the past 10
years, the volume of content has exploded. Despite dramatic increases in audiences consuming
content online, brands find themselves feeding what is already an oversupply of content. This
means that content must be of remarkable quality and relevance to rise to the top, and that
supporting quality content — with paid media tactics — yields the greatest likelihood of
consumption across channels.
With this explosion of content, many valuable organic audience sources, such as search engine
optimization (SEO) and unpaid social, have become more competitive and challenging to master.
Common SEO tactics, such as high-volume link building and guest blogging, have been deemed
not only ineffective, but in some cases, detrimental to organic rankings, as occurred after Google's
Panda update. In concert with the explosion of social content creating competition for attention,
Facebook's algorithm changes have resulted in many brand pages' organic reach dropping to less
than 10% in 2014.
Mature content marketers are taking this changing environment in stride and have built plans
around the active promotion of each and every piece of content they create. Tactics range from no-
dollar co-marketing arrangements to full-scale paid campaigns with rich, educational content at
their core. The type of spend and outcomes vary by tactic, as delineated in Figure 5.
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11. Figure 5. Understanding Content Promotion Alternatives
Source: Gartner (March 2015)
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12. How to Get Started
■ Identify your two to three strongest-performing content assets.
■ Use the list of tactics to decide which tactic could amplify reach to the appropriate target
audience for that content asset.
■ Test each of the two to three assets with two to three paid amplification tactics, as well as
measure the results over a minimum of four to six weeks, comparing them against the ROI of
other tactics, to determine if any of these channels can work efficiently for you.
Case Study
Seagate Proves That Age Has Little to Do With Content Marketing Maturity
The age of a program doesn't always correlate to maturity. For example, the Seagate content
marketing team is a relatively new functional group that has already graduated to an operational
model, which is indicative of a stable, ROI-positive and mature content program. All four of the
behaviors outlined in this document are being practiced and scaled by the team at this global data
storage solution brand:
■ Defining measurable goals: When the team set out to build a proper content program, they did
so with the end in mind. Instead of continuing to measure classic Web metrics, they had a
transparent conversation with their marketing executives about what success looked like.
Ultimately, they were able to settle on specific commerce revenue growth rates as well as a
specific increase in marketing qualified leads (MQLs) for a named business segment. This first
step is too often overlooked, but it has enabled the team to align their resources and decision
making to the priorities that truly matter and cut any efforts that don't fit.
■ Living by personas and journey maps: Seagate has four business segments with four different
customer personas. The editorial team built journey maps for each segment and engaged in an
audit to determine where there were content gaps. This approach both informed their near-term
content plans and helped them to identify areas for unique or interactive content that would aid
them in achieving organic rankings success, as well as social reach.
■ Bringing content to life with interactivity: With the dramatic increases in types and formats of
data, many of Seagate's customers needed help deciding how much storage they require. In
addition to infographics, the team has several capacity calculators that provide utility content to
their target audience — helping educate them along the buyers' journey. More interactive
experiments are in the works as the results to date have been promising.
■ Priming the pump with paid media: Early forays into paid media are building the case for wider-
scale use of this tactic at Seagate. The team has used Outbrain to promote proven content, and
they are testing different markets and calls to action to find the formula that will yield the best
results. They have found that by slicing larger content offers into smaller "bite-size" items, they
are able to promote snippets of content that drive users to the primary content asset with a
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13. willingness to complete a form — in essence, using their own content in an evergreen fashion
as they promote.
Gartner Recommended Reading
Some documents may not be available as part of your current Gartner subscription.
"How to Measure and Prove the Business Value of Your Content Marketing Program"
"Build a Content Supply Chain to Tell Your Brand's Story Every Day"
"Content Marketers Must Adopt Newsroom Habits"
"Market Guide for Content Marketing"
Evidence
This research was developed based on client inquiries, vendor briefings, existing Gartner research
and field experience in content marketing leadership.
G. Precourt, "How Dell Recovered From a Disastrous Social Start," Warc.com, July 2014.
"Content Marketing All-Stars: Julie Fleischer of Kraft," News360, 5 November 2014.
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