The November Issue of The Content Advisory, a monthly publication of the current state of developing Content Marketing and Customer Experience strategies.
This is a 2.0 version of the presentation I did at Content Marketing World in September 0f 2013. I've updated it with more practical examples - and a new structure. Still a journey - but one step further.
Customers, Content & Experiences - Beyond Random Acts Of TechnologyThe Content Advisory
This is the talk I gave at Intelligent Content 2014 #ICC2014 and also the keynote address for ContentTech #ContentTech. It's about how CIO/CMO Alignment is about more than just understanding one another - and suggests a framework for addressing the landscape of technology.
A visual guide to inbound marketing with tips on how to grow your business.
This is a bonus addition to the newly released 2nd edition of "Inbound Marketing" the book by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah
Lessons Learned From Five of Marketing's Top Minds - starring Robert Rose, An...Workfront
Marketing is a Learning Experience
Great marketing has always been about trial and error and knowing when things are working and when they’re not. This has never been truer than it is now.
Now long ago, the most prominent voices in marketing were fresh out of school, just starting their careers, and making their own share of mistakes. Between then and now, what experiences turned them into the thought leaders they are today?
We asked five of these thought leaders to share with us their most transformative job experiences and what they learned. We hope you enjoy what they shared with us.
As always, fellow marketers, keep experimenting, keep learning, and keep improving!
- Joe Staples, CMO, Workfront
In January 2013, a relatively unknown company, called LeadPages, came onto the scene. This lead generation platform began as most start-ups do -- with zero customers.
However, a lot can happen in a year. Within the next 365 days, LeadPages grew their customer-base from zero to 15,000 customers.
Join Tim Paige as he shares the insights on how he and the team at LeadPages grew the company with incredible speed and shows you how you can do the same.
In this webinar we will show you:
- 3 Insights On How LeadPages Did It
- 3 Steps On How You Can Too
- 5 New List Building Secrets Gleaned From Processing Over 3 Million Opt-Ins Per Month To Help You Get There Faster
Paid search best practices are crucial to your success, but no longer sufficient. If you are spending money on PPC but not actively evaluating the competitive landscape for risks and opportunities you will quickly fall behind.
In this webinar, WordStream's founder Larry Kim joins up with competitive intelligence experts at SEMrush to bring you a completely new approach to PPC advertising. They'll share the 4 most important strategies for a comprehensive, holistic approach to paid search sure to make you the leader in your market.
You’ll learn how to:
-Analyze the competition’s performance and strategy
-Assess and optimize your campaign performance
-Apply PPC best practices
-And repeat. adjusting to trends and changes in your market
Visit www.wordstream.com for more details.
The Social Lifecycle: Consumer Insights to Improve Your BusinessHubSpot
Our new survey of almost 600 consumers revealed some pretty nifty new insights on using social media to improve your business's sales, marketing, and customer service. Here's all the data plus what it means for you.
This is a 2.0 version of the presentation I did at Content Marketing World in September 0f 2013. I've updated it with more practical examples - and a new structure. Still a journey - but one step further.
Customers, Content & Experiences - Beyond Random Acts Of TechnologyThe Content Advisory
This is the talk I gave at Intelligent Content 2014 #ICC2014 and also the keynote address for ContentTech #ContentTech. It's about how CIO/CMO Alignment is about more than just understanding one another - and suggests a framework for addressing the landscape of technology.
A visual guide to inbound marketing with tips on how to grow your business.
This is a bonus addition to the newly released 2nd edition of "Inbound Marketing" the book by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah
Lessons Learned From Five of Marketing's Top Minds - starring Robert Rose, An...Workfront
Marketing is a Learning Experience
Great marketing has always been about trial and error and knowing when things are working and when they’re not. This has never been truer than it is now.
Now long ago, the most prominent voices in marketing were fresh out of school, just starting their careers, and making their own share of mistakes. Between then and now, what experiences turned them into the thought leaders they are today?
We asked five of these thought leaders to share with us their most transformative job experiences and what they learned. We hope you enjoy what they shared with us.
As always, fellow marketers, keep experimenting, keep learning, and keep improving!
- Joe Staples, CMO, Workfront
In January 2013, a relatively unknown company, called LeadPages, came onto the scene. This lead generation platform began as most start-ups do -- with zero customers.
However, a lot can happen in a year. Within the next 365 days, LeadPages grew their customer-base from zero to 15,000 customers.
Join Tim Paige as he shares the insights on how he and the team at LeadPages grew the company with incredible speed and shows you how you can do the same.
In this webinar we will show you:
- 3 Insights On How LeadPages Did It
- 3 Steps On How You Can Too
- 5 New List Building Secrets Gleaned From Processing Over 3 Million Opt-Ins Per Month To Help You Get There Faster
Paid search best practices are crucial to your success, but no longer sufficient. If you are spending money on PPC but not actively evaluating the competitive landscape for risks and opportunities you will quickly fall behind.
In this webinar, WordStream's founder Larry Kim joins up with competitive intelligence experts at SEMrush to bring you a completely new approach to PPC advertising. They'll share the 4 most important strategies for a comprehensive, holistic approach to paid search sure to make you the leader in your market.
You’ll learn how to:
-Analyze the competition’s performance and strategy
-Assess and optimize your campaign performance
-Apply PPC best practices
-And repeat. adjusting to trends and changes in your market
Visit www.wordstream.com for more details.
The Social Lifecycle: Consumer Insights to Improve Your BusinessHubSpot
Our new survey of almost 600 consumers revealed some pretty nifty new insights on using social media to improve your business's sales, marketing, and customer service. Here's all the data plus what it means for you.
Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help not Hype - Exclusive Free ExcerptJay Baer
Exclusive free excerpt of Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help not Hype, the new marketing book by Jay Baer. The difference between helping and selling is only two letters, but those two letters make all the difference. What if your marketing was so useful, people would pay for it?
How-to: Find and Stop the 7 Growth Killing Ghouls of the #FUNNELPOCALYPSEHubSpot
There be monsters here. Inside our companies. Inside our very funnels. Ghouls so deadly, so insidious, they can eat your prospects alive!
Yes, 7 deadly demons may plague your funnel, eating your visitors, leads and prospects and killing your company's growth if you let them run wild. Undefeated, these monsters could even bring on... The #FUNNELPOCALYPSE!.
Read more: http://hubs.ly/y0fQ_W0
The Ultimate Guide to Creating Inbound Marketing Buyer PersonasSmartBug Media
Personas are the anchor or any inbound or content marketing campaign. With this guide you will learn 75 questions to accelerate and refine your persona develop, and you help you start marketing smarter.....faster!
In her session, Jill will share data that illustrates the benefits of aligning Sales and Marketing, the key elements required to effectively align Sales & Marketing teams, how salespeople can leverage content to visible and valuable to buyers, and the mindset, skillset and toolkit required to successfully find, relate, connect, engage and nurture modern buyers
Is The Way We've Been Doing Marketing And Sales Broken?Drift
Here's how the traditional approach to marketing and sales works:
Step One. Get people to your website.
Step Two. Once people are on your website, get them to convert on a form.
Step Three. After they fill out a form, nurture them with emails and phone calls until they buy from you, unsubscribe, or even worse -- do absolutely nothing, forever.
Yes, I dramatically oversimplified the process, but stick with me for a minute.
Now that we laid out how traditional marketing and sales work, take a second and think about the way that you buy and behave as a consumer.
If you're anything like me, when you're thinking about buying something, I bet the last thing you want to do is fill out a form or talk to a sales rep.
You try to avoid those things at all costs. Because these days, we can find out just about everything we need to know before making a purchase, and many times, we can buy things or get the information we need without ever having to talk to sales at all.
But in our jobs in marketing and sales, we stick to those traditional methods. That's how we do marketing and sales every single day -- because that's how it's always been done. That's how everyone does it.
But there are already examples of companies that have broken the mold of traditional marketing and sales.
Companies like Slack, Buffer, Trello, MailChimp, Zapier, InVision, Shopify, Quip, and others. They let us buy things the way we want to buy them -- on our own time.
Want to try before you buy? Go for it.
Want to buy something without ever talking to sales? Great.
Have a question and need to talk to someone? Yep. You can do that, too.
As Shopify’s chief sales scientist Loren Padelford said about the future of sales: “Our job is to do what our customers want. Customers are in control of the sales process now. We need to customize to the customer process, not to the sales company process.”
Those modern businesses believe helping is the new selling. They believe that customer experience is the new marketing. And they've figured out how to have 1:1 conversations at scale.
We think that there are two paths forward for businesses from here:
1. They can stick to their guns, keep doing what everyone else has been doing, and wait for that threshold level to get higher.
2. They can follow the lead of those modern businesses and change the way they do marketing and sales to match the way that people actually want to interact with a business today.
And that's what we're talking about in this SlideShare -- the future of marketing and sales and why the current model is starting to break.
9 ways your auto shop can attract customers on social mediaMoving Targets
Social media for the auto industry changes and evolves daily ─ making it hard to stay current, let alone relevant. Your automotive business deserves an exceptional digital presence. Reach thousands, create fans, captivate your audience, broadcast your brand, engage your community and define your competitive advantage. It's not about how much you're sharing, it's about WHAT you're sharing. Your fans’ expectations are getting higher & higher. And the quality of content your competitors are sharing is getting better & better. Here are 9 ideas of what to share.
Joe Pulizzi uncovers the six steps to creating a content-first business, as defined from his latest book, Content Inc. Considers ideas such as the content marketing mission statement, how to find your content tilt and your sweet spot, and how to monetize your content.
A presentation I gave to NACUE (National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs) on zero-budget online marketing techniques for startups and entrepreneurs, aka inbound marketing.
Interested in Content Marketing World? Our 6th annual conference and expo taking place September 6-9, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio will be our best. Take a look at our presentation to find out more, and to register! We hope to see you along with 4,000 of your marketing peers for the largest content event on the planet.
Services and Stories - why marketing and product innovation need to play niceAndy Whitlock
I gave this talk at the Google Firestarters event in London on 17th September 2014. It’s a personal tale about my transition from marketing to product innovation and an attempt to talk sense about why they’re different and why they need each other.
Motivate Design Presents the What If TechniqueMona Patel
Why "what if"...?
The What If Technique tackles the challenge of engaging a disruptive mindset when it comes to design thinking and crafting user experiences.
Thinking disruptively is a disruptive thing to do, which means it's a very hard thing to do, especially when you add in risk-averse business leaders and company cultures.
The What If Technique offers key steps, tools and examples to help you achieve incremental changes that promote disruptive thinking and lead to big, innovative differences for business leaders, companies, and ultimately user experiences and products.
Want help with your What Ifs? Check out http://www.motivatedesign.com. Or, gives us a "Hey, you there!" at http://www.motivatedesign.com/contact-us
Viral Traffic is something most marketers would practically kill for, yet it’s
often more elusive than the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot! It can be tough
to get viral traffic, but as you’ve undoubtedly seen others do it, you know
it’s possible.
So why exactly is viral traffic so valuable, anyway?
Well, it’s somewhat like the power of word-of-mouth marketing. You’ve
undoubtedly heard how valuable word-of-mouth marketing is, right? It’s a
form of social proof.
Let me ask you a question. If you were looking to buy something, who
would you be more likely to trust… the salesperson who stands to gain a
commission for selling you the product, or a good friend or family member
who recommends the product as one they have tried and loved?
Gerald
gerald-pilcher.com
How we think about marketing at Drift. From focusing on words more than design, making it simple, writing like a human, and focusing on our customers above all else.
This is an Intro presentation on "Why Social Media works"
Stats, screenshots, and a short Facebook 101 tutorial in included...
Feel free to download it and customize for your use :)
Rebooting the whole idea of content marketing as a different kind of business activity, rather than as an alternative form of advertising and marketing. This was my keynote at #ContentJam16
My Keynote for Content Marketing World 2016 - a new hero origin story for Content Marketing - a new approach to making Content Marketing a success in business.
Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help not Hype - Exclusive Free ExcerptJay Baer
Exclusive free excerpt of Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help not Hype, the new marketing book by Jay Baer. The difference between helping and selling is only two letters, but those two letters make all the difference. What if your marketing was so useful, people would pay for it?
How-to: Find and Stop the 7 Growth Killing Ghouls of the #FUNNELPOCALYPSEHubSpot
There be monsters here. Inside our companies. Inside our very funnels. Ghouls so deadly, so insidious, they can eat your prospects alive!
Yes, 7 deadly demons may plague your funnel, eating your visitors, leads and prospects and killing your company's growth if you let them run wild. Undefeated, these monsters could even bring on... The #FUNNELPOCALYPSE!.
Read more: http://hubs.ly/y0fQ_W0
The Ultimate Guide to Creating Inbound Marketing Buyer PersonasSmartBug Media
Personas are the anchor or any inbound or content marketing campaign. With this guide you will learn 75 questions to accelerate and refine your persona develop, and you help you start marketing smarter.....faster!
In her session, Jill will share data that illustrates the benefits of aligning Sales and Marketing, the key elements required to effectively align Sales & Marketing teams, how salespeople can leverage content to visible and valuable to buyers, and the mindset, skillset and toolkit required to successfully find, relate, connect, engage and nurture modern buyers
Is The Way We've Been Doing Marketing And Sales Broken?Drift
Here's how the traditional approach to marketing and sales works:
Step One. Get people to your website.
Step Two. Once people are on your website, get them to convert on a form.
Step Three. After they fill out a form, nurture them with emails and phone calls until they buy from you, unsubscribe, or even worse -- do absolutely nothing, forever.
Yes, I dramatically oversimplified the process, but stick with me for a minute.
Now that we laid out how traditional marketing and sales work, take a second and think about the way that you buy and behave as a consumer.
If you're anything like me, when you're thinking about buying something, I bet the last thing you want to do is fill out a form or talk to a sales rep.
You try to avoid those things at all costs. Because these days, we can find out just about everything we need to know before making a purchase, and many times, we can buy things or get the information we need without ever having to talk to sales at all.
But in our jobs in marketing and sales, we stick to those traditional methods. That's how we do marketing and sales every single day -- because that's how it's always been done. That's how everyone does it.
But there are already examples of companies that have broken the mold of traditional marketing and sales.
Companies like Slack, Buffer, Trello, MailChimp, Zapier, InVision, Shopify, Quip, and others. They let us buy things the way we want to buy them -- on our own time.
Want to try before you buy? Go for it.
Want to buy something without ever talking to sales? Great.
Have a question and need to talk to someone? Yep. You can do that, too.
As Shopify’s chief sales scientist Loren Padelford said about the future of sales: “Our job is to do what our customers want. Customers are in control of the sales process now. We need to customize to the customer process, not to the sales company process.”
Those modern businesses believe helping is the new selling. They believe that customer experience is the new marketing. And they've figured out how to have 1:1 conversations at scale.
We think that there are two paths forward for businesses from here:
1. They can stick to their guns, keep doing what everyone else has been doing, and wait for that threshold level to get higher.
2. They can follow the lead of those modern businesses and change the way they do marketing and sales to match the way that people actually want to interact with a business today.
And that's what we're talking about in this SlideShare -- the future of marketing and sales and why the current model is starting to break.
9 ways your auto shop can attract customers on social mediaMoving Targets
Social media for the auto industry changes and evolves daily ─ making it hard to stay current, let alone relevant. Your automotive business deserves an exceptional digital presence. Reach thousands, create fans, captivate your audience, broadcast your brand, engage your community and define your competitive advantage. It's not about how much you're sharing, it's about WHAT you're sharing. Your fans’ expectations are getting higher & higher. And the quality of content your competitors are sharing is getting better & better. Here are 9 ideas of what to share.
Joe Pulizzi uncovers the six steps to creating a content-first business, as defined from his latest book, Content Inc. Considers ideas such as the content marketing mission statement, how to find your content tilt and your sweet spot, and how to monetize your content.
A presentation I gave to NACUE (National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs) on zero-budget online marketing techniques for startups and entrepreneurs, aka inbound marketing.
Interested in Content Marketing World? Our 6th annual conference and expo taking place September 6-9, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio will be our best. Take a look at our presentation to find out more, and to register! We hope to see you along with 4,000 of your marketing peers for the largest content event on the planet.
Services and Stories - why marketing and product innovation need to play niceAndy Whitlock
I gave this talk at the Google Firestarters event in London on 17th September 2014. It’s a personal tale about my transition from marketing to product innovation and an attempt to talk sense about why they’re different and why they need each other.
Motivate Design Presents the What If TechniqueMona Patel
Why "what if"...?
The What If Technique tackles the challenge of engaging a disruptive mindset when it comes to design thinking and crafting user experiences.
Thinking disruptively is a disruptive thing to do, which means it's a very hard thing to do, especially when you add in risk-averse business leaders and company cultures.
The What If Technique offers key steps, tools and examples to help you achieve incremental changes that promote disruptive thinking and lead to big, innovative differences for business leaders, companies, and ultimately user experiences and products.
Want help with your What Ifs? Check out http://www.motivatedesign.com. Or, gives us a "Hey, you there!" at http://www.motivatedesign.com/contact-us
Viral Traffic is something most marketers would practically kill for, yet it’s
often more elusive than the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot! It can be tough
to get viral traffic, but as you’ve undoubtedly seen others do it, you know
it’s possible.
So why exactly is viral traffic so valuable, anyway?
Well, it’s somewhat like the power of word-of-mouth marketing. You’ve
undoubtedly heard how valuable word-of-mouth marketing is, right? It’s a
form of social proof.
Let me ask you a question. If you were looking to buy something, who
would you be more likely to trust… the salesperson who stands to gain a
commission for selling you the product, or a good friend or family member
who recommends the product as one they have tried and loved?
Gerald
gerald-pilcher.com
How we think about marketing at Drift. From focusing on words more than design, making it simple, writing like a human, and focusing on our customers above all else.
This is an Intro presentation on "Why Social Media works"
Stats, screenshots, and a short Facebook 101 tutorial in included...
Feel free to download it and customize for your use :)
Rebooting the whole idea of content marketing as a different kind of business activity, rather than as an alternative form of advertising and marketing. This was my keynote at #ContentJam16
My Keynote for Content Marketing World 2016 - a new hero origin story for Content Marketing - a new approach to making Content Marketing a success in business.
Presentation for the Asia Content Marketing Association (ACMA) event - Content Marketing: Moving Beyond Content Shock in Asia - in Singapore, 8th December 2016. #ACMAevent #contentmarketing
As part of Biblefresh celebrations of the anniversary of the King James Bible this year, Wycliffe Bible Translators have run a series of evening classes, helping people to engage more with the Bible.
In November, Margaret Sim - a translation consultant working in Africa - spoke about irony and metaphor in the Bible, whether it's there and how we approach it. Her talk was entitled 'Does the Bible mean what it says?'
workshop for UXPA DC on April 12, 2014, entitled "All this UX data! Now what?" Attendees learned how to deal with large amounts of user experience data from tests, and how to combine certain data to tell a succinct story.
Reconsidering talent development in a connective eraCarmen Tschofen
Nurturing unusual learners often requires unusual educational approaches. Connective and personal learning offers different ways of thinking about learning processes and intents, especially for those who seek– and thrive in– complexity. Conversely, gifted education theory, developed for the "edges," may offer insights into how new and "edge" theories such as connectivism and personal learning can benefit all learners.
Education and policies for gifted students are based on past research and learning traditions. But are these ideas sufficient for anticipating and understanding what might come next for developing learners and ourselves? This session draws on futures (or “foresight”) studies to explore evolving contexts for understanding and supporting gifts, giftedness, and creative talent development in our rapidly shifting and complex environments.
The Future of Content Marketing: 10 Things to Consider Today
Over the last few months. Joe Pulizzi has been sharing exclusive insights in CMI’s weekly newsletter, The Content Marketing Revolution. These tips are things that struck him each week, but when we looked at them in total many had a theme: they help marketing leaders prepare for the future of content marketing. The ideas range from big to small and quick to implement and a bit longer-term, but all are things you should be thinking about today. For more exclusive insights from Joe, subscribe to The Content Marketing Revolution. What do you really need to know to prepare for the future of content marketing?
This eBook is the second of three from TopRank Marketing & Content Marketing World. Inside you'll find valuable advice from some of today's top marketers on how to take your content from supporting cast, to leading character.
10 Rules for Building a Successful Content & Social Marketing ProgramEllie Behling
Read a blog about this presentation here: https://www.marketers2marketers.com/blog/10-rules-for-building-a-successful-b2b-content-and-social-marketing-program
Content and social marketing can get huge results -- and yet many companies run into the same pitfalls when trying to launch these initiatives. Regardless of industry, budget, size, and goals, these are the 10 guiding principles any company should follow to make sure your content and social marketing succeeds.
The present and future of the content marketing industry, by the editors of The Content Strategist. Trends, data, and best practices in brand publishing.
As a small business owner, you might not have a huge marketing budget or the monetary resources to plunge into extensive marketing efforts like billboards and TV advertisements. Therefore, it is essential that you equip yourself with the knowledge to create effective content marketing campaigns, which result in more inbound traffic and create ample awareness and exposure for your offerings.
Try this: go to Google and type ‘content marketing’, what do you discover?
You are not looking at just some results; you are looking at millions of Google results for content marketing, millions! This makes it extremely clear why marketers (like myself,) around the world are going crazy about content marketing, and why wouldn’t they? Content Marketing is currently one of the most effective and rapidly growing strategies for effective digital marketing.
Sure, you might have heard about the importance of content strategy from a tech-savvy friend, or maybe you’ve even seen the term somewhere on your Facebook news feed, but do you truly know what it is or know the IMMENSE POWER that it contains?
The more original and optimized content presented, the more chances you have of seamless exposure and awareness.
Formulating a content strategy not only helps you boost sales but through carefully thought over steps, you can turn an entire audience (derived from your websites and social media platforms) into leads and/or clients, who will then bring in more clients through referrals.
In addition, the nature of your content gives a face and voice to your business. As the marketing environment advances, customers now have more and more buying power. They are looking for companies, services and solutions that make them feel valued through responsive and exciting content!
Here are a few ways you can effectively use content to promote growth and development for your small business.
Dentsu Aegis Network - Quarterly on content marketingiProspect Norge
Content Marketing is essentially what it says – marketing with content, rather than with advertising. The new digital age has produced far more sorts of content – pictures, videos, apps - and therefore far more way for brands to use content in their marketing.
We are in a time where some people choose to block ads, and others choose to pay to avoid ads (for example in Spotify and Netflix); content marketing can bypass some of this avoidance.
Before you start creating content, you need to build your strategy. We collected such valuable insights from over 40 major brands and thought leaders that we are rereleasing this ebook to help make your content marketing successful.
A presentation from London marketing consultancy Pink Mingo:
1. Why content still reigns supreme
2. What works in terms of content tactics and delivery
3. 2017 content trends
4. Examples of good content
Enjoy!
This was my keynote presentation at this year's ContentTech virtual event. It talks through the layered approach to technology strategy to help de-silo content, marketing and the digital technology teams. It ends with a selection process.
Marketing At A Profit: Transforming Strategic B2B Content Creation In A Post ...The Content Advisory
My new keynote that talks through the transformation of marketing and media in a post-digital world. The evolution of content and marketing in large enterprises.
My keynote PPT for the new book Experiences: The 7th Era Of Marketing. This is an introduction to Content Creation Management and the focus of the new book.
Evolving Beyond Analytics - Getting To Meaningful MeasurementThe Content Advisory
A presentation on content marketing measurement that I did at the #BCon Event in Toronto Canada. This presentation discusses the measurement pyramid - and how working toward a more structured series of measurements and reporting can help us drive toward meaning instead of mediocrity.
The Power OF Story - 4 Archetypes For Content Creation StrategiesThe Content Advisory
My presentation for Content Marketing World - it's my introductory session to talk about creating processes for the Content Marketing Creation process.
The Content Marketing Imperative is an updated version of a presentation I've been giving, introducing the concept of the value of the approach of content marketing in this new landscape of an increasingly fragmented media world.
My talk for SDL's Innovate ( #SDLInnovate ) conference in San Jose. I discuss how content can be a centralizing force to content marketing, context is the new CMO mandate - and the embrace of context can actually be a smart way to construct a process for driving better customer experiences.
These are the slides for my session at The Bolo 2012 Conference. Here I'm sharing the experiences of the strategy division of Content Marketing Institute and how we've structured a content marketing strategy/planning practice.
This is a storymapping template that I've created for helping to brainstorm out content marketing strategy such as a blog, a video series - or some kind of story that will happen over a period of time. It's a work in progress to be sure.
This is an EBook of my talk at Content Marketing World 2012 in Columbus. It's called Getting The Choir To Sing - it has all my speaking notes as well as the slides formatted in what I hopd is a nice ebook.
I participated in a Webcast for FierceCIO and the topic was content in the cloud... I changed it a little bit to talk about Context - and how this was really affecting mobile content marketing
Core Web Vitals SEO Workshop - improve your performance [pdf]Peter Mead
Core Web Vitals to improve your website performance for better SEO results with CWV.
CWV Topics include:
- Understanding the latest Core Web Vitals including the significance of LCP, INP and CLS + their impact on SEO
- Optimisation techniques from our experts on how to improve your CWV on platforms like WordPress and WP Engine
- The impact of user experience and SEO
10 Video Ideas Any Business Can Make RIGHT NOW!
You'll never draw a blank again on what kind of video to make for your business. Go beyond the basic categories and truly reimagine a brand new advanced way to brainstorm video content creation. During this masterclass you'll be challenged to think creatively and outside of the box and view your videos through lenses you may have never thought of previously. It's guaranteed that you'll leave with more than 10 video ideas, but I like to under-promise and over-deliver. Don't miss this session.
Key Takeaways:
How to use the Video Matrix
How to use additional "Lenses"
Where to source original video ideas
Most small businesses struggle to see marketing results. In this session, we will eliminate any confusion about what to do next, solving your marketing problems so your business can thrive. You’ll learn how to create a foundational marketing OS (operating system) based on neuroscience and backed by real-world results. You’ll be taught how to develop deep customer connections, and how to have your CRM dynamically segment and sell at any stage in the customer’s journey. By the end of the session, you’ll remove confusion and chaos and replace it with clarity and confidence for long-term marketing success.
Key Takeaways:
• Uncover the power of a foundational marketing system that dynamically communicates with prospects and customers on autopilot.
• Harness neuroscience and Tribal Alignment to transform your communication strategies, turning potential clients into fans and those fans into loyal customers.
• Discover the art of automated segmentation, pinpointing your most lucrative customers and identifying the optimal moments for successful conversions.
• Streamline your business with a content production plan that eliminates guesswork, wasted time, and money.
Digital marketing is the art and science of promoting products or services using digital channels to reach and engage with potential customers. It encompasses a wide range of online tactics and strategies aimed at increasing brand visibility, driving website traffic, generating leads, and ultimately, converting those leads into customers.
https://nidmindia.com/
When most people in the industry talk about online or digital reputation management, what they're really saying is Google search and PPC. And it's usually reactive, left dealing with the aftermath of negative information published somewhere online. That's outdated. It leaves executives, organizations and other high-profile individuals at a high risk of a digital reputation attack that spans channels and tactics. But the tools needed to safeguard against an attack are more cybersecurity-oriented than most marketing and communications professionals can manage. Business leaders Leaders grasp the importance; 83% of executives place reputation in their top five areas of risk, yet only 23% are confident in their ability to address it. To succeed in 2024 and beyond, you need to turn online reputation on its axis and think like an attacker.\
Key Takeaways:
- New framework for examining and safeguarding an online reputation
- Tools and techniques to keep you a step ahead
- Practical examples that demonstrate when to act, how to act and how to recover
It's another new era of digital and marketers are faced with making big bets on their digital strategy. If you are looking at modernizing your tech stack to support your digital evolution, there are a few can't miss (often overlooked) areas that should be part of every conversation. We'll cover setting your vision, avoiding siloes, adding a democratized approach to data strategy, localization, creating critical governance requirements and more. Attendees will walk away with actions they can take into initiatives they are running today and consider for the future.
The session includes a brief history of the evolution of search before diving into the roles technology, content, and links play in developing a powerful SEO strategy in a world of Generative AI and social search. Discover how to optimize for TikTok searches, Google's Gemini, and Search Generative Experience while developing a powerful arsenal of tools and templates to help maximize the effectiveness of your SEO initiatives.
Key Takeaways:
Understand how search engines work
Be able to find out where your users search
Know what is required for each discipline of SEO
Feel confident creating an SEO Plan
Confidently measure SEO performance
Monthly Social Media News Update May 2024Andy Lambert
TL;DR. These are the three themes that stood out to us over the course of last month.
1️⃣ Social media is becoming increasingly significant for brand discovery. Marketers are now understanding the impact of social and budgets are shifting accordingly.
2️⃣ Instagram’s new algorithm and latest guidance will help us maintain organic growth. Instagram continues to evolve, but Reels remains the most crucial tool for growth.
3️⃣ Collaboration will help us unlock growth. Who we work with will define how fast we grow. Meta continues to evolve their Creator Marketplace and now TikTok are beginning to push ‘collabs’ more too.
A.I. (artificial intelligence) platforms are popping up all the time, and many of them can and should be used to help grow your brand, increase your sales and decrease your marketing costs.In this presentation:We will review some of the best AI platforms that are available for you to use.We will interact with some of the platforms in real-time, so attendees can see how they work.We will also look at some current brands that are using AI to help them create marketing messages, saving them time and money in the process. Lastly, we will discuss the pros and cons of using AI in marketing & branding and have a lively conversation that includes comments from the audience.
Key Takeaways:
Attendees will learn about LLM platforms, like ChatGPT, and how they work, with preset examples and real time interactions with the platform. Attendees will learn about other AI platforms that are creating graphic design elements at the push of a button...pre-set examples and real-time interactions.Attendees will discuss the pros & cons of AI in marketing + branding and share their perspectives with one another. Attendees will learn about the cost savings and the time savings associated with using AI, should they choose to.
In this presentation, Danny Leibrandt explains the impact of AI on SEO and what Google has been doing about it. Learn how to take your SEO game to the next level and win over Google with his new strategy anyone can use. Get actionable steps to rank your name, your business, and your clients on Google - the right way.
Key Takeaways:
1. Real content is king
2. Find ways to show EEAT
3. Repurpose across all platforms
Mastering Multi-Touchpoint Content Strategy: Navigate Fragmented User JourneysSearch Engine Journal
Digital platforms are constantly multiplying, and with that, user engagement is becoming more intricate and fragmented.
So how do you effectively navigate distributing and tailoring your content across these various touchpoints?
Watch this webinar as we dive into the evolving landscape of content strategy tailored for today's fragmented user journeys. Understanding how to deliver your content to your users is more crucial than ever, and we’ll provide actionable tips for navigating these intricate challenges.
You’ll learn:
- How today’s users engage with content across various channels and devices.
- The latest methodologies for identifying and addressing content gaps to keep your content strategy proactive and relevant.
- What digital shelf space is and how your content strategy needs to pivot.
With Wayne Cichanski, we’ll explore innovative strategies to map out and meet the diverse needs of your audience, ensuring every piece of content resonates and connects, regardless of where or how it is consumed.
The What, Why & How of 3D and AR in Digital CommercePushON Ltd
Vladimir Mulhem has over 20 years of experience in commercialising cutting edge creative technology across construction, marketing and retail.
Previously the founder and Tech and Innovation Director of Creative Content Works working with the likes of Next, John Lewis and JD Sport, he now helps retailers, brands and agencies solve challenges of applying the emerging technologies 3D, AR, VR and Gen AI to real-world problems.
In this webinar, Vladimir will be covering the following topics:
Applications of 3D and AR in Digital Commerce,
Benefits of 3D and AR,
Tools to create, manage and publish 3D and AR in Digital Commerce.
Come learn how YOU can Animate and Illuminate the World with Generative AI's Explosive Power. Come sit in the driver's seat and learn to harness this great technology.
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INTRODUCTION
WADING THROUGH THE RUT OF DISILLUSIONMENT
“The only difference between a rut and a grave is the dimensions.”
- Ellen Glasgow
Lately, I've been experiencing a bit of an existential crisis. After dedicating much of my
career over the last half-dozen years to content marketing, I've come to discover that, not
only is this particular marketing approach currently in its death throes, the practice may
not even exist.
Based on some of the recent headlines in both trade magazines, blogs, and even a few
technology publications, one would have to assume the 100+ companies I’ve worked
with over the last 36 months were simply tilting at windmills. Had they somehow gotten
themselves caught up in a “content marketing” cult, requiring a Don Draper-esque "4 P's"
intervention to bring them back into reality? Or, are brands like Red Bull, LEGO, and
Visa just special because they have inherently interesting content and, therefore,
represent the tiny fraction of companies that actually could replace traditional marketing
and advertising with an "overhyped, buzzword-y" concept like content marketing?
Well, I have bad news. Are you ready for it? Here it is:
Content Marketing isn’t a replacement for advertising, or
any other form of classic marketing.
Whew, is everyone okay? Do you need a minute to catch your breath? Maybe now we
can stop with all the frantic posts that scream, “Oh my god, why is the internet filled with
crappy brand content... content marketing is dead!”
No? Still feel the need to rant and rage? Well, I suppose I can roll with that, so let's move
on.
Yes, Virginia, Content Marketing Does Exist
First, let’s just agree that the business practice of creating and deploying useful, relevant,
owned media content for the purpose of building an audience isn't a figment of our
collective imagination — it does actually exist.
Want proof? L’Oreal just launched Fab Beauty, a completely unbranded site focused on
helping salon owners optimize their business practices. Or, how about Marriott? They are
a self-proclaimed “media company” now, launching a content studio that will produce
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both long-form and short-form content. Or, consider Pepsi – and their declaration that
they will not only launch a content studio to create long form content for their brand, but
will also (for a price) create content for other brands. And think about this: If you were
to ask what media company has the best coverage of soldering materials, I’d tell you it’s
not a media company at all. It’s Indium, which publishes 17 different blogs on the subject
in six different languages. Or, consider a recent report authored by Rebecca Lieb, in
which she details how General Electric CMO Linda Boff has "pulled back from television
advertising, excepting live events, due to fragmented consumer attention and a lack of
engagement. Meanwhile, the company has doubled down on content marketing
initiatives.”
What these businesses seem to recognize (and what others are ignoring) is the
tremendous value that exists in creating, managing, and publishing valuable content —
not as a complete replacement for advertising, but rather as an additional component of
the overarching business strategy. In other words, they’re not looking to replace
advertising with content — they’re evolving their content to make advertising better.
So, Where’s the Beef?
The general tenor of these content-marketing-as-a-bullshit-buzzword articles boils down
to what I call the “you suck at it ” argument: Basically, they assert that media companies
can create awesome content, but brands can’t (or won’t) manage this; thus their
conclusion is that content marketing itself doesn’t work.
On this matter, I have more bad news: It's true; we do mostly suck at it. Content
Marketing is difficult to do well, let alone at the level of scale enterprise brands typically
expect to be achievable. But, yeah, welcome to Marketing in 2016. It’s hard. In fact, at
CMI we've found that brands often achieve success with their content only after they've
done one (or both) of the following two things:
1. They’ve committed to content marketing as a strategic initiative, investing in the
business process and developing capable in-house talent (a la GE’s investment in
Thomas Kellner, a former Forbes reporter and Columbia School of Journalism
graduate, as their managing editor for GE Reports).
2. Alternately, they acquired an already-successful media property — for example,
L’Oreal’s initial purchase of Makeup.com, Arrow Electronics' acquisition of
United Technical Publishing or even Johnson & Johnson’s purchase of
BabyCenter.com. (Of note is that J&J acquired BabyCenter in 2001 for $10
million; or about three-tenths of one percent of their current advertising budget.
See, in most cases where we are seeing success, it is due to the company's view of
content as a strategic business activity that just happens to be performed by marketers,
rather than as a marketing and advertising tactic that gets applied for the expressed
purpose of amplifying upper-funnel marketing results. So, it isn't that marketing should
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alter the purpose of content; it's that content contributes a new form and functionality to
the practice of marketing.
As content marketers have been saying for years, our practice isn't something new — for
example, Eugene Schueller, the founder of L’Oreal, started out as an editor who, in the
1920’s, founded Votre Beauté, one of the first women’s beauty magazines. It's the
operational aspects involved in managing content that most modern marketing
departments and agencies are finding to be a challenge. Like nearly every other aspect of
marketing, content marketing is more complex and more dynamic than ever before — in
fact, changes are likely happening right underneath our feet, as we speak.
What counts most is that we look at the approach as a means of providing specific and
multiple lines of business value. It’s not solely a replacement for top-of-the-funnel
activities — though, when done well, it actually can drive results like an additional 1,500
sales appointments and a $1 billion pipeline, as it did for Xerox. Or, content marketing
done well may have nothing to do with purchase intent; instead, perhaps it can increase
the effectiveness of a business's advertising spend four-fold, as it did for Kraft. It may
also be the future of R&D, informing the product and marketing teams with insightful
consumer behavior, which it's doing for Johnson and Jonson’s Babycenter.com
As these examples, and many others, show, there is real business value to be found in
spending at least a portion of our strategic efforts on delivering content-driven,
experiential value to customers. As Henry Ford said, “whether you think you can, or think
you can’t – you’re right.” Existential or not, I don't see how you can possibly go wrong
with believing we can.
But, let’s hold that conclusion for a moment. Let’s take a step back and actually look at
the practice that we’re attempting to create in our business. Let’s rebuild the business
case for Content Marketing in the Enterprise.
Ready?
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REBUILDING THE BUSINESS CASE
“There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind”
- Buffalo Springfield
At almost every content marketing conference session, or workshop I see or conduct,
someone from a brand comes up to the speaker and asks the same question about content
marketing:
“How do I convince my boss that Content Marketing is worth doing?”
This is the part where the speaker sighs, smiles, and agrees “yes, it’s hard”. You might try
buying my book, and giving it to them”, they’ll say. These are all stalling tactics by the
way – we’re trying to actually think of what to say. But, lately, I’ve taken a bit of a
different tack. See, the question that we’re asking isn’t really the question we want
answered. As marketers we are saying “gee, there are all these really interesting
examples of companies doing interesting and productive things with content – how do I
convince my boss that we should do that.” Then, what the boss is actually hearing is:
“why we should invest in content, when that’s seemingly ALL we do.” That “I don’t get
it” look on their face is basically – “we already create a HUGE amount of content that
costs us a big amount of money – where’s the return for what you’re asking for?”
In other words – we’re asking for a car – and the CEO
is saying “what the hell have you been doing with all
the parts that we’ve been buying?”
Make no bones about it – this pushback is going to hit every aspect of content strategy
and the business this year. I’m already starting to feel it. The last two advisory
engagement inquiries we received weren’t about how to start a strategic content approach
– they were how to fix one that’s clearly broken. “Beware,” one of them said. “Our CEO
now doesn’t believe that content is a necessary strategy in our business.”
Somebody else (seemingly gleefully) pointed out to me an article in the Wall Street
Journal that questioned the efficacy of content questioned the efficacy of content.
Apparently GoPro laid off 100 people and lost its head of content. Of course the author of
the article didn’t mention that said head of content had taken a job as CEO at
SurveyMonkey and had also been named to the board of GoPro. The author hinted that
the “bloom is off the rose” for brands acting as publishers.
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Here’s the thing that will either comfort you or keep you up at night. Ready for it?
Nobody has this figured out. Nobody.
Whether you’re a small business or a Fortune 100 global conglomerate, we’re all feeling
our way, exploring, on a journey together.
For the last few years when we got it right, we were “early adopters” and “outliers” and
“case studies.” When we got it wrong? Well, nobody really heard about that. But, guess
what? It happens to everybody.
As we enter this era of pushback, the successes will come to those who are patient. It
won’t be enough to get early wins. We have to sustain the effort. Those who do will still
be the outliers, the case studies. The difference will be the failures. You’ll start to hear
more and more about them.
But – let’s look at the common pushbacks and address them one by one.
Let Me Count The Ways
In our 2017 research across more than 3,500 marketers, we looked at those that felt that
their success in content marketing was decreasing over time. The top five answers
(basically everything with more than 30% responding) were:
Not enough time devoted 51%
Management Changes, Staffing issues 48%
Content Creation Challenges 46%
Lack of a strategy (or inability to adjust) 38%
Content Marketing not a high enough priority 35%
Content Marketing budget issues 31%
So – just to the point made above – those marketers that are not feeling successful with
content marketing, the main reason for the frustration is that we are in a catch-22
situation. We’re so focused on creating more and more content, we feel like we don’t
have enough time, or budget, or what we lack the business priority to focus on it. So, this
is where the “you-suck-at-it” push back then comes from senior management. Why
should we invest MORE in content, when we already suck at the content we’re creating.
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Now – no one actually says this. We use much more “business” language for this. We
get these questions:
1. There is too much content already – how will we stand out in our industry
2. This approach is costing more than advertising
3. We can’t create great content
4. We can’t tie the content marketing approach to revenue
So let’s first acknowledge something. Every single one of these is true. But now, let’s
address these one by one.
1. There is too much content already – how will we stand out in our industry?
This is also known as the “content shock” argument, where we look at the noise
out there and, as if it were a thunderstorm, say “well it’s just too nasty to go
outside.”. But, here’s the thing: this storm isn’t going to blow over. The “storm”
of content started just after Gutenberg invented the printing press, expanded with
the invention of mass media technology such as radio, television, and now the
internet.
My answer to this question is “what’s the alternative?” Do we really expect the
content “storm” to subside and for it to become less noisy. Do we really believe
that direct advertising, marketing, social or other mechanisms for conversing with
our customers will become easier, or less complex over time? Yes, there is too
much content in our industry. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t create content. It
just means we have to be GREAT at it.
2. Content Marketing costs more than advertising
Somewhere in the collective conscious of marketing – especially digital
marketing - “advertising” became the de facto standard for how much things
should cost. Any approach that comes along is put through the same filter: is it
cheaper or more expensive than advertising? If it’s cheaper it must be worth
doing, and if it’s more expensive it’s not.
The troubling thing about this question is that it assumes two things. The first
thing it assumes is that “advertising” and the costs associated with it is as good as
it’s going to get, and won’t degrade any further. In other words, it may actually be
true that Content Marketing is more expensive than advertising today. But what if
advertising completely fails one day, and we haven’t invested in any alternative
form of marketing. And that brings us to the second assumption about
advertising: that content marketing is a replacement for advertising. This isn’t
true. Content Marketing provides multiple lines of value (as we’ll see) and
actually can make paid media approaches like advertising more effective over the
long run.
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3. We can’t create great content
If our business was hurting, and the head of product management came to the
CEO and said – “we can’t create great products”, how might the CEO react?
What if that situation was reversed. In either case, the head of product
management is either looking for a job, or someone who actually can create great
products. The ability to create great products and services is CORE to our
business.
So, if we’re treating content seriously, why would we expect anything less. The
reason that this assertion is true is almost certainly because we haven’t tried very
hard. We haven’t truly exercised the muscle of creating great content – because
we are so wrapped up in creating content that describes the value of our product.
Have we trained our folks to create great content? Have we hired people who
know how to create great content? Whatever the reason is – this is something that
is not an objection to the approach – it’s an objection to our skills in the approach.
4. We can’t tie Content Marketing to Revenue
The short answer here is – “then don’t.” There are myriad other ways to associate
content marketing with business value. Revenue is but one of those values. If
you can tie ANY of your marketing and advertising to revenue, then you can tie
content marketing to revenue. But, if we dig deeper, the real assertion here is that
it’s “too fuzzy” to associate with a sale – and thus it’s hard to draw a straight line
to revenue. Now, this may be true – but it’s not an argument for content
marketing broadly – this is simply a challenge to our measurement capability.
More sales, or more direct revenue, is but one very simple way to apply a value
proposition to content marketing. Don’t trap your business into the fallacy that the
only thing content marketing is good for is as an alternative to direct marketing.
Content Marketing Is Not Supercharged Campaign Marketing
The sum of all of this is that content marketing is NOT supercharged campaign
marketing. It is not an approach that is meant to supplant direct campaign based
marketing and advertising. It is an approach that makes the entire approach of marketing
better.
You’ve seen the definition from CMI before that describes “content marketing” as
“owning the media as opposed to renting it.” “Owned” is the key word in that sentence.
Because what it suggests is that the content has a purpose to draw in a subscribed
audience. And, here’s the key: if content marketing is to provide ANY value to the
business it MUST create a subscribed, engaged audience. If it doesn’t, then the content is
worthless.
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This is what’s at the heart of the frustration. Our content – the stuff we churn out day
after day after day – is simply about high consumption, and not about driving the result of
a subscribed engaged audience. This is the critical difference. Content Marketing isn’t
about the content. Content Marketing is about the audience. The audience is the
value.
WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE
“Tell me how you measure me and I will tell you how I will behave. If you
measure me in an illogical way… do not complain about illogical behavior.”
—Eliyahu Goldratt
THE NEW BOSS – SAME AS THE OLD BOSS
In our experience, there is no shortage of innovative ideas in companies. However, a
huge wealth of ideas never gets a chance to be expressed.
Leadership in companies often talks the talk of innovation, but rarely walk the walk. A
great example of this comes from the world of PR Agencies. We all know that for the last
10 years, the PR Agency business has been under a fundamental disruption.
One senior manager in one of the largest PR Agencies in the world recently told us:
“We often have all-hands meetings where senior management gives a very
inspirational speech, about how we must be innovative and deliver new content
marketing, and strategic social media solutions to our clients. And then, once the
speech is over, we all go back to our cubes and try to get reporters on the phone
to get coverage for our clients.”
Companies want their marketers to be innovative – you know as long as they can prove
ROI on that innovative new thing they want to try.
But there is another miscommunication here as well.
Starting a Stopping List
At the end of almost every advisory session that I do – after the group has spent the
entire day talking about either the launch of a new content initiative or the creation of a
centralized, strategic content function in the business – a funny thing happens.
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Someone (sometimes it’s me, but most of the time it’s someone who has been quiet for
much of the meeting) says something like this:
“Um, we should probably align our expectations with reality.”
The room goes quiet. Heads nod. The realization sets in: This is going to be hard. Real
people are going to have to DO all this stuff. As the heads nod, the inevitable objections
arise:
• “We still have to support the sales guys with the materials they need.”
• “We still have to publish those four customer newsletters every week.”
• “We still have to update the customer-resource website.”
• “We still have to launch that new-product website next quarter.”
Having watched groups go through this arc of realization over and over, I start these
sessions – even before we get to the new initiative – by asking about all the things that
the content team is doing. Then I ask why they do each thing, and we list all the juicy
reasons.
At the end of the day, when the heads nod, I trot out their list and ask, “Which of these
things can you stop doing?” People look at each other. Uncomfortable laughter. “None of
it. Senior management will want us to keep doing it all.”
The business case we have to build now isn’t why we should do the new thing. It’s why
we should stop doing the old thing.
As business professor Michael Porter famously says, “The essence of strategy is choosing
what not to do.” Whenever we tackle a new content initiative – a blog, a resource center,
a customer help publication – one of the worst outcomes is to avoid addressing what
we’re going to stop doing.
So when you find yourself putting together content objectives that will result in to-do
lists, take the time to create a to-stop-doing list. How about the newsletter that goes to
20,000 customers who don’t read it? How about the resource center that no one uses?
Before you start something new, start a stopping list.
But when you ARE ready to start…. Remember…
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Content marketing is a strategic business activity that marketers
perform.
Whether your company has a marketing army of one or a 100, setting and achieving
shared goals should serve as the core of your ongoing success.
However, it's critical to understand one way that marketing differs from many business or
marketing activities: It is not a campaign. Each and every content marketing initiative
you embark upon should be designed to operate continuously, over the long term, rather
than terminating at any set point.
In this, content marketing is much more like developing a product than running a
campaign. In time, content marketing will produce assets that help you to achieve
campaign-oriented goals. But, if you view content as simply an alternate format for
producing direct marketing collateral, you'll lose out on 90% of its potential to drive
value for your business.
Build goals around your ideas, not your assets
Content is a different type of marketing investment: It doesn't just create campaign assets
– it creates ideas, some of which can exist for long periods of time and may increase in
value over time.
Thus, the primary question you should answer when developing a strategic plan and
establishing your over-arching content marketing goals is:
How do we create business value from an idea of content?
How can this initiative provide multiple lines of value to the business, over time?
You will truly only be able to answer the big question after you have assembled the rest
of your strategy. Until then, you are either working from a business mandate, or a
hypothetical guess.
Start by creating a content marketing mission, which includes defining multiple goals
that will support your program. Ultimately, the content marketing mission you create
should answer four fundamental questions:
• What are your business goals (i.e., the results we expect to achieve through
content marketing)?
• To whom can you deliver value in order to satisfy these goals (i.e., the
audience we will target)?
• What is the valuable content experience (independent of the products/services
you offer) you will deliver at the particular stage of our customer’s journey?
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• How is your voice/value unique (i.e., what is your "content tilt" – i.e., the unique
content experience that only you can provide)?
How do you define your goals? You will likely discover is that, to deliver against
multiple goals, you will need to monetize the ideas behind your assets – not the digital
content assets themselves. For example, let’s take the simplest form of owned media –
the blog. It is not any one individual blog post that will provide the multiple lines of
strategic value. It is the fact that people subscribe to the blog more broadly (the bigger
idea) that enables you to deliver that value. Here are three types of goals:
• Campaign goals may be met because subscribers actually turn into leads more
readily, or they purchase more, or go through your sales process faster.
• Cost savings goals may actually precede the campaign goals and come from the
rich data generated by an owned media platform. You may start to understand
which paid campaigns actually generate the highest quality prospects, creating a
more effective paid media strategy.
• Business value may come from actually monetizing physical events. Just look at
companies like Hubspot or Salesforce.com and how they have monetized their
marketing events by offering paid sponsorship opportunities.
In short: different kinds of value (or achieved goals) can be delivered from multiple
vantage points of a content marketing operation – but only if your mission is focused on a
central idea that unifies all your distinct content goals.
Conclusion – The Future of Marketing Isn’t Automated
Marketing practitioners have largely taken the term “marketing automation” literally. As
a result, they’ve automated a process that should instead be augmented with valuable
content. Content Marketing isn’t a replacement for marketing – it is an evolution, an
augmentation to a more holistic customer experience strategy. Thus, the answer is never
“more”, it is always “more valuable”. Rather than using marketing as a fancy and
expensive content gun – blasting out every available message in the hopes that some of it
sticks – successful marketing teams of today, and the immediate future will be those that
actively utilize a smart, content strategy to reduce the amount of output, and increase the
valuable experiences being created.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert helps marketers become stellar storytellers.
For more than 20 years, Robert has been helping
marketers tell their story more effectively through
digital media. Over the last five years, Robert has
worked with more than 500 companies of all
sizes, including 15 of the Fortune 100. He’s
provided strategic marketing advice and counsel for
global brands such as Capital One, Dell,
Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, The Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation and UPS. Robert is
currently the Chief Strategy Advisor for
the Content Marketing Institute.
Robert’s second book – Experiences: The Seventh Era of Marketing has been called a
“treatise, and a call to arms for marketers to lead business innovation in the 21st century.”
His first book, Managing Content Marketing, spent two weeks as a top ten marketing
book on Amazon.com and is generally considered to be the “owners manual” of the
Content Marketing process.
Robert is also the co-host of the podcast PNR’s This Old Marketing, frequently a top 20
marketing podcast on iTunes, with more than 50,000 monthly downloads across 100
countries, and consistently one of the top rated marketing podcasts.
In addition to consulting, Robert is a frequent keynote speaker, host and workshop
facilitator, advising top professionals in the successful strategy of content marketing and
Web site management. Robert is, and has been, widely quoted worldwide in the press,
including publications such as The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Wired, CBS Interactive
and BusinessWeek.
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A SPECIAL OFFER
First, Welcome to the November issue of The Content Advisory. Each month we publish
a issue on the issues facing the development of strategic content marketing and customer
experience.
I hope you’ll consider subscribing. We send two emails per week. The first on Monday
morning is a weekly thought for you to consider as you develop your content business
strategy. The second is on Friday afternoons and is a round-up of the week’s most
important content marketing and customer experience news.
And – each month we’ll also send you the newest edition of The Content Advisory
report.
Second – since you’ve gotten this far – if you contact us with your information We’ll
send you a copy of Robert Rose’s book Experiences: The 7th
Era of Marketing – For free.
It has a much more detailed plan for developing the Strategic content marketing plan.
Or – let me know if you’d like me to come in and do an advisory or education for your
team or your executives. Let’s convince them of the change.
Contact:
By Email: info@thecontentadvisory.net
Web Form (if you like those better): http://thecontentadvisory.net/contact-us/