The document outlines 5 stages of a content marketing journey: 1. Reactive stage where content experiments are sporadic and brand-centric. 2. Repeatable stage where teams ramp up processes but quality suffers from increased repurposing. 3. Managed stage where best practices are acquired working with vendors and engagement becomes the goal. 4. Optimized stage where customer experience and conversions are priorities and tools are deployed. 5. Scale stage where content marketing is omni-channel, centralized globally, and assessed for business results.

1. Five Stages of Content
Marketing Journey
Sep 15, 2014
MWG/

2. Content Marketing share of total marketing
budgets at most companies
30%
2

3. 3
Content Marketing share of total marketing
budgets at more successful companies
39%

4. 4
One question has become urgent: how can
content marketing be done more effectively?
?

5. 5
Knowing where you are in this evolution is
the key to creating content marketing
programs that deliver
ROI

6. 6
321
In our experience, we’ve found companies
pass through five distinct stages of evolution.
54Reactive Repeatable Managed Optimized Scale

7. Stage 1 Reactive

8. 8
Companies begin with some content
experiments for marketing. Typically,
sales or marketing team comes
across a competitor using content
marketing powerfully.

9. 9
Their efforts at this stage are however sporadic.

10. 10
Marketing is mostly very own brand-centric.
brand
marketing
audience

11. Stage 2 Repeatable

12. 12
As their experiments start producing some
results, teams realize content marketing
actually works!

13. 13
The first serious ramp up begins – a small
team with some basic processes are set up.
Content volume increases suddenly, mostly
through repurposing existing collaterals.

14. 14
Quality often takes a hit at this stage as the
need for more sophisticated content is felt
– video graphics, interactive
presentations, infographics, etc.
!!
!!

15. Stage 3 Managed

16. 16
Companies start working with content
marketing firms. Working with the vendor
helps companies acquire best practices,
and refine processes.

17. 17
Quality becomes an explicit goal.

18. 18
Success is about increasing engagement -
time spent, shares, and social interactions.
This is the beginning of the content
marketing maturity phase.
!

19. Stage 4 Optimized

20. 20
Customer experience and acquisition is
at the center of everything that is done.
Conversions, or leads, become the key
program goal.

21. 21
Content marketing gets integrated with the
rest of marketing.

22. 22
Companies begin to reap the rewards
of their efforts as tools for content
management and distribution are
deployed, processes and workflows
get standardized.

23. Stage 5 Scale

24. Companies now eye the marketing goal:
Brand
Leadership

25. 25
Content marketing becomes omni-channel.
Companies aim for leadership in defining
customer experiences and managing
customer lifecycle.

26. 26
Content marketing operations get
centralized—and goes global.

27. Content marketing programs are now
assessed for business results. In this most
mature form, content marketing becomes
ROI-driven.

28. When you know where you are in your
content marketing journey, you can make
content synonymous with ROI.
321 54Reactive Repetitive Managed Optimized Scale

29. To download a 12-point content marketing
maturity checklist, visit bit.ly/MWGchecklist