NewsCred CEO and Co-founder, Shafqat Islam, on how to create predictable revenue in the performance era of content marketing.

1. Shafqat Islam | CEO and Co-Founder, NewsCred
THE SCIENCE OF CONTENT MARKETING:
How to create predictable
revenue in the performance era

2. Content Marketing
has entered the
Performance Era

3. Source: PQ Media
$0
$100
$200
$300
$400
$500
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Global Spending by Brands is
Projected to Double by 2021
$Billions
Forecast of global content marketing spend

4. Source: Brightedge
But, Most Brands’ Content Underperforms
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Less Than 10% 10% - 25% 25% - 50% 50% - 75% More Than 75%
Brands’ reported percentage of consumed content
PercentofBrands
Percent of content consumed

5. The goal is not to be
good at content.
The goal is to be good at
business using content.

6. 1
Grow
Marketing
Influenced
Revenue

7. Drive
Operational
Efficiency
2

8. Increase
Brand
Equity
3

9. What makes the
Performance Era of
content marketing
different?

10. We can have both
EXCEPTIONAL CONTENT
and the ability to
MEASURE IT

11. 26%
of marketers
are able to
track their
Content
Marketing ROI
BUT ONLY
Source: MarketingProfs

12. The Science of
Content Marketing

13. 120
PUBLISHING CONTENT
TO PRIMARY CHANNEL
MEASURING ENGAGEMENT
AND OPTIMIZING
DRIVING TO MICRO-CONVERSIONS
CONNECTING ACTIONS
WITH ROI OF CONTENT MARKETING
OPTIMIZING TRAFFIC, SUBSCRIBERS,
AND DISTRIBUTION FOR INCREASED
ROI
DOCUMENTED CONTENT
MARKETING STRATEGY
DISTRIBUTING CONTENT
ACROSS CHANNELS
REPLICATE PROCESSES ON
A GLOBAL AND CROSS-
REGIONAL SCALE
Content
Marketing
Maturity

14. The Content
Marketing
Maturity Index
• 100-question assessment of
performance era content marketing
overall readiness
• Evaluates: strategy; traffic;
engagement; actions; monetization
• Leading indicator of future content
marketing performance
• Baseline to measure future
improvement and demonstrate growth
• Identifies specific areas of strength
and weakness

15. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Some Industries are Ahead of Others
Emerging Established Mature Expert
CMMI results: industry benchmarks

16. 123
A Repeatable
Methodology with
Predictable Results

17. 124
The NewsCred Methodology
Document Content
Marketing Strategy
STRATEGY
Attract Highly
Qualified Traffic
TRAFFIC
Optimize for Depth
of Engagement
ENGAGEMENT
Drive Desired
Behaviors
ACTION
Correlate Actions to
Business Outcomes
MONETIZATION
A repeatable methodology with predictable results

18. Breaking It Down
STRATEGY
Tie your content marketing to a measurable business goal and deploy
systems to ensure successful execution and performance tracking
TRAFFIC
Start with quality content that boosts organic traffic and ensure you are
distributing across channels
ENGAGEMENT
Develop content standards and ensure you are tracking content-specific
engagement accurately
ACTION
Map the key conversions along your customer’s journey and track how
content influences actions to optimize content for enhanced results
Align your tech stack and acquisition teams (Demand Gen, CRM, etc.) to
track the ROI of your content marketing
MONETIZATION

19. Measure Key Metrics Across Audience Journey
Newsletter Sign-Ups
Cart Checkouts
Pricing Page Visits
Contact Us Form Fills
Revenue
Brand Lift
New Pipeline Created
Revenue InfluencedReturning Visitors
Articles Viewed
Time on Site
Engagement RateSite Traffic
Top Performing Sources
Top Performing Content
Search Traffic
TRAFFIC ENGAGEMENT ACTION MONETIZATION

20. Exceptional
Content
MeasuredOptimized

21. 3 Trends Will Impact the
Performance of Content
Marketing in 2018

22. 1
Convergence
of SEO and
Content

23. Content marketing
helps you win in
unbranded search

24. Sources: Forrester Research, Search Engine Journal, BrightEdge
of online
experiences begin
with a search93%
75%
of search engine
users never click
past the first page
51%
of content site
visits are driven by
organic search
SEO is Critical to
Content Marketing
Performance

25. Focus on Key SEO Elements
SITE HEALTH EXPERIENCE AUTHORITY
CONTENT

26. Create Content that Wins in Unbranded Search
Data Driven Ideation
Social data
Search data High
performing
content

27. Create Content that Wins in Unbranded Search
Data Driven Ideation
High
performing
content
….or

28. Don’t forget to amplify
SEO strategy with paid
long tail search

29. Personalization

30. Segmentation vs.
Individualization

31. Let the Audience
Guide You On Their
Own Journey
Descriptive
Awareness
Conversion
Monetize
You need to follow the clues
• Individual Characteristics
• Content Preferences
• Content Engagement
• Actions Taken

32. In Return, Marketers Must
Deliver Personal Value

33. Personalization done
right requires lots of
the right content

34. A.I. + Machine
Learning

35. Having jumped 13 places in a year, leaping from
14th to 1st, Leicester City are easily the most
improved side in the league and Jamie Vardy’s
role in their staggering rise cannot be overstate.
The second top scorer in the league with 24
goals, Vardy has scored 35.29% of Leicester’s 68
goals. Only Harry Kane and Odion Ighalo were a
bigger source of goals for their team, with Kane
scoring 25 of third-placed Tottenham Hotspur’s
69 goal (36.23%) and Igahlo scoring 15 of 13th-
placed Watford’s 40 goals (37.5%).
It was a season for the ages for Leicester City
as they lifted the Premier League Trophy and
were crowned champions of England. Leicester
City feature one of the leagues most skillful
attacks netting 68 goals. Jamie Vardy led the
way with an incredible 24 goals. In addition to
their offensive prowess, Leicester City
possessed one of the strongest defenses in
England.
Which Paragraph was Machine Generated?
1 2

36. 1 2
It was a season for the ages for Leicester City
as they lifted the Premier League Trophy and
were crowned champions of England. Leicester
City feature one of the leagues most skillful
attacks netting 68 goals. Jamie Vardy led the
way with an incredible 24 goals. In addition to
their offensive prowess, Leicester City
possessed one of the strongest defenses in
England.
Having jumped 13 places in a year, leaping from
14th to 1st, Leicester City are easily the most
improved side in the league and Jamie Vardy’s
role in their staggering rise cannot be overstate.
The second top scorer in the league with 24
goals, Vardy has scored 35.29% of Leicester’s 68
goals. Only Harry Kane and Odion Ighalo were a
bigger source of goals for their team, with Kane
scoring 25 of third-placed Tottenham Hotspur’s
69 goal (36.23%) and Igahlo scoring 15 of 13th-
placed Watford’s 40 goals (37.5%).
Which Paragraph was Machine Generated?

37. This does not apply to
you at all.

38. Reality Check: AI Applications Within Content Marketing
EASY
TO IMPLEMENT
HARD
TO IMPLEMENT
Tagging and
classification
of content
Predicting headline
or content
performance
Content
personalization or
recommendations
Chatbots Automated
content creation

39. Adoption depends on
access to data

40. 4 Bonus: Email is still the
Best Social Network

41. Conversion Rate
3x Visitors from email newsletters
convert into high-value goals at 3x
the average site conversion rate.
Email Newsletter Performance

42. Make Subscription Growth a Priority
Talk to your demand gen or CRM team
Document an email marketing strategy
Collect email subscribers via popup
Segment your list
Set up UTM so you get the credit
Start emailing
Profit!

43. 1 Reset your content marketing objectives to focus on business outcomes.
2 Use NewsCred Methodology to move up the maturity curve.
4 Start personalizing content. First segmentation and then individualization.
Don’t stress about AI. Begin thinking about future ways it can help.
5
Key Takeaways
Set email subscription growth as a content marketing KPI.
6
3 Focus on unbranded search and use SEO data to inform content creation.

44. A riveting headline is only
as good as the revenue it
generates…

45. Thank you