How to use content marketing to implement successful business strategies.

1. The anti-promotional, counter-intuitive approach that is
winning over modern consumers.
(Part 2 of a 2-Part Series)

2. “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach
focused on creating and distributing valuable,
relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain
a clearly-defined audience—and, ultimately, to drive
profitable customer action.”
-Content Marketing Institute

3. Non-Interruption Marketing:
Content marketing communicates with prospective
and existing customers without selling.
How Does That Work?

4. 80% of business decision-makers
prefer to receive company
information in a series of articles
rather than in an advertisement.
70% reflect that content marketing
makes them feel closer to the
sponsoring company.
60% feel that company content
helps them make better product
decisions.
-Roper Public Affairs

5. • The proliferation of mobile platforms and Internet-
connected devices means that consumers are
increasingly in charge in the production-consumption
cycle.
• Audiences consume content on their own terms: when
they want it, where they want it, and how they want it.
Engaging stories—not banner ads—are resonating with
customers.

6. -NewsCred

7. Marketers need to shift their mental dispositions away from
selling products and towards publishing conversation-driving
content.
They must think like magazine editors, creating compelling
stories that touch each of their customers and address their
needs and pain points.

8. Buyers Connect With Content That…
• Answers a question: what do they need to know?
• Relieves a doubt: why would they think your solution wouldn’t work?
• Simplifies complexity: makes the issue easy to understand.
• Provides a path: shows them how to get their desired end result.
• Corrects a misconception: discredits misinformation and explains
why.
• Mitigates a risk: proves your solution’s credibility and builds
consumer loyalty and trust.

9. 1. Shareable (aka SOCIAL)
Stories are inherently social and social media is about making connections. Create content that motivates
people to share.
2. Visual
Emotive images, especially in video format, get shared the most. This trend is supported by the rise of visual-
centric social networks: Vine, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook timeline.
3. Mobile
“Mobile storytelling” is now synonymous with brand storytelling. Nearly 2/3 of Americans own a
smartphone and this number continues to rise (Pew Research Center). Consumers are developing co-
dependent relationships with their mobile devices and such devices are the chief platform through which
commercial content is received.
As seen in Part 1 of this series:

11. Working with Y&R New York, the brand has launched a pair of Instagram accounts
(@solitudeinsawtooth and @brotherhoodofwonderstone) that stitch together dozens
of Instagram photos into seamless panoramas that encapsulate a unique visual
narrative of each location.

12. How to create shareable, visual
content:
• Listen to your target market—what stories are they
sharing? What meta-narratives are they following?
• Leverage SEO: Set up search streams with relevant
keywords.
• Engage with your audience; ask them to participate in
your campaigns.
• Emotively convey classic story structures; evoke
inspirational feelings.
• Strategically build momentum: schedule your social
channels to release content at the same time; target
influencers and amplifiers that will share your content
with a large and captive audience.

14. 1. Define your key goals and associated deliverables.
2. Craft a mission statement.
3. Document your strategy.
4. Prioritize the topics you plan to cover.
5. Strategically choose content formats.
6. Craft a social media channel plan.
7. Make use of SEO.
8. Hire a managing editor to lead your content marketing team.
9. Plan how to communicate your KPIs (key performance indicators).
10. Analyze the performance of each content piece to find out what
is working and what isn’t.

15. 1. Define your key goals and
associated deliverables:
First ask, “Why am I implementing a content marketing strategy?”
Continually check in with how content marketing is supporting your over-
arching business goals. Set clear metrics for ensuring deliverable success.

16. 2. Craft a mission statement:
1. AUDIENCE: research and craft detailed buyer personas of
your target market.
2. PRODUCT: what information will your content provide?
3. OUTCOME: what will your audience be able to do once it
has consumed your content?
Commit to
specific
objectives
along 3 key
marketing lines:

17. 3. Document your strategy:
What differentiates successful content marketers?
1. They have a clearly documented strategy in written
and/or electronic form.
2. They regularly review and refer to the documented
plan.

18. 4A. Prioritize the topics you plan to
cover:
Tailor your topics to best engage your target audience:
1. Profile your database through a survey.
2. Use Google Analytics to see which posts and pages are
resonating with your audience.
3. Compile user comments. Talk to people.
4. Categorize your content according to identified topics.
This will make it easier to measure which topics are
working and to curate and repackage those that are.

19. 4B. And Don’t Stop There…
High-quality content will get lost in the abyss if it lacks
strategic micro-content.
Micro-content: a short abstract of full content.
 E.g., a 15-word quote from a blog post, an eye-catching graphic
from an infographic, or a 6-second Vine from a video interview.
 Delivers a condensed form of full content to audiences, peaking
their interest and lowering the entry barrier for longer-form
productions.
 Perfectly suited for sharing on social platforms such as Twitter
and Instagram, where users are reluctant to post clunky white
papers.

20. 5. Strategically choose content
formats:
Great content is undermined by inconsistent broadcasting schedules.
Make sure to release content in a regular and timely manner, and
understand the user expectations of each format.

21. 6. Craft a social media channel plan:
Social media is an essential driver of brand
engagement. Use it judiciously, guided by the
following lead questions:
What is the goal for this channel?
What is the desired action?
What is the specific type of content the audience
wants to get in this channel?
What is the right tone for this channel?
What is the ideal velocity?

22. 7. Make use of SEO:
Search is increasingly focused on semantics (the context
of a search) rather than page and keyword rankings.
Marketers should readjust how they measure success by
focusing on 4 components:
1. Volume: how much content you’re presenting to
prospective clients.
2. Velocity: the speed at which your content moves.
3. Variety: the combination of blogs, eBooks, social
posts, videos, and other formats you’re creating.
4. Veracity: how your content is perceived—why Google
should present it to searchers.

23. 8. Hire a managing editor to lead your
content marketing team:
• Content ideation and prioritization
• Content categorization
• Finding and managing writers
• Content flow and scheduling
• SEO
• Editing, curating, and repurposing
• Measuring ROI and communicating content
effectiveness

24. 8. Continued:
-Content Marketing Institute

25. 9. Plan how to communicate your KPIs:
Select and define the high-level metrics most critical for
evaluating your content marketing program’s performance,
such as the number of email subscribers earned,
completed registration forms, sales increases, etc.
Communicate the progress in something as simple as a
spreadsheet:

26. 10. Analyze the performance of each
content piece to find out what is
working and what isn’t:
1. Audit the content by platform.
2. Decide which information you want to collect (e.g., key
audience, format, topics, buying cycle location, etc.).
3. Determine which KPIs relate to each piece of content.
4. Calculate a baseline for each metric to determine what
is performing above or below average.
5. Regularly update your tracking document.

27. Key Take-Aways:
• Content marketing is not a tactic—it is a long-
term strategy.
• Successful content marketers document, track,
and prove the value of their efforts.
• Visual, relevant, and social content drives
brand engagement.