Neil Morgan, EVP Digital Marketing, Sage, on how to create a successful content strategy that aligns to business objectives and delivers ROI.

1. How to create a successful
content strategy that aligns
to business objectives and
delivers ROI
Neil Morgan | EVP Global Digital Marketing, Sage
A CONTENT-LED DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION:

2. and transform our business?
How could we best serve the
heroes of the economy…

3. We serve small and medium business
Source: The State of Small Business Report, 2017, Sage and Nesta

4. Sage personas range from startup to enterprise
Kate Biber, Owner, Alkalign Studios
+ Irvine, California
+ Sage customer
Gavin Marshall, CFO, Bristol Sport
+ Bristol, UK
+ Sage customer

5. Global content function
20 FTE:
50% Creation
40% Distribution
10% Promotion
Content
Team
PR/Comms
Customer
Marketing
Product
Marketing
Social
Media
Web
Content
Brand
• Three in-house capabilities –
Creation, Distribution, Promotion
• 16-country footprint
• Unification through global content
calendar
• Multi-channel, multi-format, weekly
publishing

6. Content

7. First there came the blog…
• 65 company blogs in 11 countries
• Product focus, Sage news
• 79% had less than 10k page views/month
• 94% had no lead conversion opportunity
• 38% had no subscribers
• Lacked fit-for-purpose platform

9. Influencers in Sage content
• 100+ “Sage Business Experts” in the US
and UK
• Blog for Sage Advice in the Sage Author
Program
• Those with global social reach ranked in
the SageTop100

11. YouTube & Social Media
• YouTube strategy aligned with Sage
Advice
• Low-fi production for “reality” feel – ‘CEO
Chronicles’ vlog
• Content promoted in Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn
• Content crowdsourced on Instagram, 5x
greater engagement than other channels

12. July OctSepAug
Results
• Sage Advice 35% WoW growth in page
views (July 2017 launch)
• Organic search is top traffic source (34%)
• Content drove 30% of leads in CRM in
FY17
• +250% improvement in social media
engagement

13. • An army of 13,000 fully coached and
empowered colleagues on Social Media
• Desktop and app versions for on-the-go
sharing
• Personalised feed: curated content per
country and department
• Different content sources: Sage (20%),
colleagues (20%), 3rd party (30%) and
influencers (10%)
Sage Voices – one-stop social
advocacy hub

14. Thank you