1. IT’S NOT SEXY, BUT IT’S ESSENTIAL:
6 REASONS TO GET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER
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2. OVERVIEW TRUEISMS
Statements that brands actively strive for, or that our customers
demand from us:
> We’re all publishers now
> Multichannel is where it’s at
> Quality content is essential
> Mobile – it’s the future (again)
> Local = more relevant
> We all love a great story
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3. OVERVIEW TRUEISMS AND CONTENT
> Do we agree?
> Can a brand stay present and relevant let alone innovate?
> Content is the ideal lever to help make the internal changes
needed to meet the challenges set by these truisms.
> I’ll address each truism and break down how you can get your
house in order to help make them a reality for your brand.
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4. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
Context
> Spawned new disciplines
> Content Lab
> eBooks
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5. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
> Content Marketing Institute’s 2011 survey
> 1000+ people who market using content
> International, but heavily weighted to U.S.
5
http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/12/2012-b2b-content-marketing-research

6. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
> Differences year on year
6 http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/12/2012-b2b-content-marketing-research/

7. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
> Predicted spend in 2012
7 http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/12/2012-b2b-content-marketing-research/

8. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
Other interesting findings
> Those who felt that their content marketing efforts were successful
differed from those who don’t in three key ways:
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9. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
Other interesting findings
> Those who felt that their content marketing efforts were successful
differed from those who don’t in three key ways:
1. They allocate more budget (31% of budget vs. 18%).
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10. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
Other interesting findings
> Those who felt that their content marketing efforts were successful
differed from those who don’t in three key ways:
1. They allocate more budget (31% of budget vs. 18%).
2. They consider their customer’s stage in buying cycle and
tailor content to suit
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11. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
Other interesting findings
> Those who felt that their content marketing efforts were successful
differed from those who don’t in three key ways:
1. They allocate more budget (31% of budget vs. 18%).
2. They consider their customer’s stage in buying cycle and
tailor content to suit
3. They benefit from substantially more buy in from senior
members of the organisation.
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12. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
> But does is take to produce content - really well?
> Follow the process editors and content strategists have always
used:
Develop
strategy
Analyse Plan
Publish Create
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13. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
Editorial cycle for a brand:
> Requires everyone who produces content to be:
– Consist
– Coordinated
– Strategic
> It needs those focused on users’ ongoing journey too:
– SEO
– Customers services
– Brand
– PR
– CRM/eCRM
– Product
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14. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
Transparency
> Transparency is increasingly expected – it’s a marker of trust.
Publishers have that trust already, brands have to earn it.
Solution
> Be open and transparent through your content. Show personality
and voice, highs and lows, failings and successes.
> It’ll show you’re genuine, and in the long run, build trust
14 http://www.slideshare.net/PewInternet/citizen-20-12618601

15. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
Solution
In a nutshell…
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16. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
Reality check
> To be a publisher, act like a publisher
> Strong content ownership
> Organisational change
> Relationship building
Results
> Better return on your efforts (efficiencies)
> Maximum benefit from budgets
> Finding new, better ways of working
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17. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
So who does this well?
> Red Bull
– Bold
– Confident
– Creates brand associations
– Addresses truisms head on
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18. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
So who does this well?
> Boden
– Bold – they walk the talk
– Community from scratch
– Clearly value customers
– Give them value in return
– They’ve committed to it
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19. TRUEISM 1. WE’RE ALL PUBLISHERS NOW
So who does this well?
> Boden
– Bold – they walk the talk
– Community from scratch
– Clearly value customers
– Give them value in return
– They’ve committed to it
– They have engagement
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20. TRUEISM 2. MULTICHANNEL IS WHERE IT’S AT
Context
> If previous section focuses on the “what” and the “who”, this is the
“where”.
> Challenges
– Who manages what?
– What content are you producing and where?
– Lack of internal systems that support a joined up approach
> See it simply as your brand’s cost of entry into being a publisher.
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21. TRUEISM 2. MULTICHANNEL IS WHERE IT’S AT…BUT…
> But aligning channels can be
like creating a big marble run.
> You never know whether things
will turn out as you anticipate
21
Photo from zimpenfish

22. TRUEISM 2a. MULTICHANNEL CONVERGENCE IS WHERE IT’S AT
Solution
> A single, robust foundation that defines how your brand thinks
about its customers, messaging and content
> This will pave the way for consistent brand experiences
Source: Ron Rogowski’s The Unified Customer Experience Imperative, Forrester
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23. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Context
> Those of us passionate about content have always known that it:
– Is a valuable brand asset
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24. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Context
> Those of us passionate about content have always known that it:
– Is a valuable brand asset
– Gives you permission to directly communicate with your
customers
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25. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Context
> Those of us passionate about content have always known that it:
– Is a valuable brand asset
– Gives you permission to directly communicate with your
customers
– Unlocks access to the conversations most pertinent to your
brand across digital channels (provided you put your customers
first)
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26. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Context
> Those of us passionate about content have always known that it:
– Is a valuable brand asset
– Gives you permission to directly communicate with your
customers
– Unlocks access to the conversations most pertinent to your
brand across digital channels (provided you put your customers
first)
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27. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
You’re
Context welcome
> And more recently, SEO is in on the action with Google measuring
‘quality content’
Content farms
> So how do you balance quality content for a brand, for customers
and for Google?
27 Photo from Kevin Dooley

28. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Solution
> Think, plan and invest only in content that delivers results.
28 Tom Critchlow, Distilled

29. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Solution
> Salon’s recessionary publishing dilemma.
29 Source: http://open.salon.com/blog/kerry_lauerman/2012/02/03/hit_record

30. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Solution
> According to Kerry Lauerman, they changed their approach by:
– Spending more time on stories that would have greater impact.
30 Source: http://open.salon.com/blog/kerry_lauerman/2012/02/03/hit_record

31. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Solution
> According to Kerry Lauerman, they changed their approach by:
– Spending more time on stories that would have greater impact.
– Published less of the content you can get elsewhere.
31 Source: http://open.salon.com/blog/kerry_lauerman/2012/02/03/hit_record

32. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Solution
> According to Kerry Lauerman, they changed their approach by:
– Spending more time on stories that would have greater impact.
– Published less of the content you can get elsewhere.
– Tightened their content strategy: focus on originality
32 Source: http://open.salon.com/blog/kerry_lauerman/2012/02/03/hit_record

33. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Solution
> According to Kerry Lauerman, they changed their approach by:
– Spending more time on stories that would have greater impact.
– Published less of the content you can get elsewhere.
– Tightened their content strategy: focus on originality
– Published roughly one-third fewer posts on Salon than they
had the previous year.
33 Source: http://open.salon.com/blog/kerry_lauerman/2012/02/03/hit_record

34. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Solution
> Result:
– In December 2011 and January 2012, they published 33%
fewer posts but saw a 40% increase in traffic year on year
34 Source: http://open.salon.com/blog/kerry_lauerman/2012/02/03/hit_record

35. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Solution
> Creating great content
sometimes means simply
making more of what you have.
> New York Times used Tumblr
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36. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Solution
> M&S Lingerie timeline 1920-
present
> Published on the M&S Stories
website
> Sharable, and embedded on
third party sites
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37. TRUEISM 3. QUALITY CONTENT IS ESSENTIAL
Solution
> In a nutshell: put your customer first, create great content that
they need or want, and the rest will follow.
> What’s the rest?
– SEO rankings
– brand awareness
– trust
– loyalty
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38. TRUEISM 4. MOBILE – IT’S THE FUTURE
Context
> Many of you in this room know the context better than I do but
there are a few stats that are particularly related to content.
– One in 20 sales are lost (according to Internet Retailing, April 2012)
– Bounce rates 10% higher (according to Internet Retailing, April 2012)
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39. TRUEISM 4. MOBILE – IT’S THE FUTURE
Context
> The Economist’s Lean Forward 2.0 initiative
39 http://www.slideshare.net/emmaturner/lean-back-media-the-shock-of-the-old

40. TRUEISM 4. MOBILE – IT’S THE FUTURE
Context
> The Economist findings:
– 49 minutes
– 2 hours
– browsing
– reading
> NPR’s COPE (create once, publish everywhere)
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41. TRUEISM 4. MOBILE – IT’S THE FUTURE
41 From: http://www.slideshare.net/zachbrand/npr-api-create-once-publish-everywhere

42. TRUEISM 4. MOBILE – IT’S THE FUTURE
Solution
> Plan for and create content that’s platform agnostic
> Publish flexibly, stay close to the data then watch and learn, as the
Economist did
> Turn content into data by chunking it for different purposes, giving
it structure, tags and metadata
> Doing this will set your content free, so it can easily travel
wherever your customers want it this year, and next
> Partners in responsive content design
– SEO
– UX and design
– Technology
Read more about COPE here: http://blog.programmableweb.com/2009/10/13/cope-
42
create-once-publish-everywhere/

43. TRUEISM 5. GROWING HUNGER FOR LOCAL INFO
Context
> Pew Research Center shows
increase in demand
43 http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Location-based-services/Summary-
of-findings.aspx

44. TRUEISM 5. GROWING HUNGER FOR LOCAL INFO
Solution
> Test, manage and exploit every angle of local information for and
about your brand, including:
– Facebook Places, Foursquare and Gowalla
– Yelp, Qype
– Local offers, such as VoucherCloud
– Ensure Google Maps displays correct and up to date
information about your brand
> Develop content and distribute it locally if relevant to your brand
> Build and strengthen partnerships that will facilitate this
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45. TRUEISM 6. WE ALL LOVE A GREAT STORY
Context
> “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be
forgotten.” Rudyard Kipling
> Horrible Histories
> Mr Parr’s science songs
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46. TRUEISM 6. WE ALL LOVE A GREAT STORY
> Context
Andrew Stanton, Pixar writer-director (until 2:39)
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47. TRUEISM 6. WE ALL LOVE A GREAT STORY
> Solution
> So how can brands make people care?
– Know your customers – truly
– Commit to serving them – their needs and desires
– Look for stories everywhere
– Share them in lots of different ways
– What’s the KPI for trust?
• Define it
• Measure it
> The payoff will be huge
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