How to Overcome the 3 Most Common Content Marketing Barriers to Increase Traffic and Conversions
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"Our customers … are really the best ambassadors …We want to make sure that we’re connecting with those people when they’re engaging in conversations online and make sure that we’re supporting them.” – Shannon Hughes, Senior Director of Marketing, Udemy MarketingSherpa reporters interview more than 250 marketers every year to find out what really works across marketing channels. In this session, Daniel Burstein, Director of Editorial Content, MarketingSherpa, will share how leading brands connect with their customers using content marketing as part of a multichannel strategy based on lessons from: Udemy’s 43% increase in mentions across social media channels IBM’s 291% increase in social referral traffic River Pools & Spas’ 80% conversion rate MarketingExperiments’ 232% increase in blog traffic And many more B-to-B and B-to-C case studies
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How to Overcome the 3 Most Common Content Marketing Barriers to Increase Traffic and Conversions
- 1. How to Overcome the 3 Most Common Content Marketing Barriers to Increase Traffic and Conversions
- 2. 1. Use a significant offer to attract attention 2. Ensure you can track from social to in-store 3. Build on previous success to develop an audience Case Study 1: Hesselson’s Sporting Goods Store Challenge: Small family-owned business that operates only as a brick-and-mortar, wanted to reach customers online. Campaign: Hesselson wanted to see how much a small business could benefit from social media by creating a coupon campaign hosted on the store's existing Facebook page for three weeks. Steps: Source: http://bit.ly/Hesselsons Creative Sample: Facebook Coupon
- 4. Coupon Results: • A 23% increase in online-to-offline conversion • Over $5,500 generated in net store sales • A 1,100% boost in ROI Source: http://bit.ly/Hesselsons
- 5. 1. Find weak spots in your program 2. Grow an engaged list 3. Begin building testing strategies Case Study 2: HomeAdvisor tests personalization Challenge: For the first 13 years, it was known as ServiceMagic. In 2012, the company rebranded itself to become HomeAdvisor Campaign: After developing their marketing team, the first thing they did was onboarding their first email service provider. Steps: Source: http://bit.ly/SherpaHomeAdvisor Creative Sample: Email
- 6. Creative Sample: Email test Source (and more creative samples): http://bit.ly/SherpaHomeAdvisor Control Treatment The results from the relevant content test were a conversion rate that doubled and a clickthrough rate that was 1.5 times greater than that of the control, according to McEwan.
- 7. Creative Sample: Email test Source (and more creative samples): http://bit.ly/SherpaHomeAdvisor Overall Results: The overall results from this effort across 2012-2014 have been: • Open rates have increased six percentage points • A conversion rate increase of 120% • An increase in email-generated revenue of 114% Growth in 2013, year over year: • 59% increase in transactions Growth in 2014, year over year: • A 37% increase in transactions
- 8. Focus on the audience and the message … NOT THE MEDIUMContent Callout: Content marketing is all about telling a compelling story. -Joe Pulizzi Content Marketing Institute
- 9. Why content marketing? Print Advertising Social Media Mobile Marketing Direct Mail Trade Shows SEO Optimization PPC Webinars Email Marketing CONTENT 0% 40%10% 20% 30% 10% 20% 30% DEGREEOFDIFFICULTY LEVEL OF EFFECTIVENESS Lead Generation Benchmark Survey Fielded January 2012, N=1,915 MarketingSherpa Content Callout: Content: there is no easy button. -Scott Abel Content Strategist
- 10. About the MECLABS Institute MECLABS is a research institute focused on discovering what really works in marketing. We conduct real-world experiments with companies around the world to understand why people say “yes”. Our scientific approach provides the basis for education and training resources that help create exceptional, customer-centric marketing organizations.
- 11. Speaker Daniel Burstein Director of Editorial Content MECLABS @DanielBurstein Daniel oversees all editorial content coming from the MarketingExperiments and MarketingSherpa brands while helping to shape the editorial direction for MECLABS – working with our team of reporters to dig for actionable information while serving as an advocate for the audience. Daniel is also a frequent speaker and moderator at live events and on webinars. Previously, he was the main writer powering MarketingExperiments publishing engine – from Web clinics to Research Journals to the blog. Prior to joining the team, Daniel was Vice President of MindPulse Communications – a boutique communications consultancy specializing in IT clients such as IBM, VMware, and BEA Systems. Daniel has more than 15 years of experience in copywriting, editing, internal communications, sales enablement, and field marketing communications.
- 12. Topics of discussion 1. Overcoming the three most common content marketing barriers 2. How to effectively sell your content 3. How to identify your story
- 13. What is content marketing? ?
- 14. Not this
- 16. What constitutes as content marketing? E-booksTip sheets Webinars Blogs Case studiesArticles Videos And so much more.
- 17. We don’t want to give away our secrets We don’t want to give away our content for free Three content marketing barriers We don’t have time to produce quality content
- 18. We don’t want to give away our secrets We don’t want to give away our content for free Three content marketing barriers We don’t have time to produce quality content
- 20. MarketingSherpa example 1 Case study 11 Pieces of content
- 21. Measurement 20% Golf Platform 7% Transactions 5% Government Relations 6% 60% Brand Launch 2% Thought Leadership Expertise Advocacy Employer of Choice Content Dependent Activities Source: http://bit.ly/19zX8k4
- 22. Implement project management Source: http://bit.ly/19zX8k4
- 23. Develop a project “form” Source: http://bit.ly/19zX8k4
- 24. Archive content and report results "Archiving content helps repackaging efforts and organizes content. [You can] search by topic, author, industry, service line, keywords, buy-cycle alignment." Eric Webb Sr. Marketing Director McGladrey Source: http://bit.ly/19zX8k4
- 25. Measurement 20% Golf Platform 7% Transactions 5% Government Relations 6% 60% Brand Launch 2% Thought Leadership Expertise Advocacy Employer of Choice Content Dependent Activities + 100% Increase in Web visits per month Source: http://bit.ly/19zX8k4
- 26. We don’t want to give away our secrets We don’t want to give away our content for free Three content marketing barriers We don’t have time to produce quality content
- 27. 2012 Lead Generation Benchmark Survey: Fielded January 2012, N=1,915 Marketers’ expected changes to channel budget 3% 4% 6% 9% 13% 14% 14% 19% 23% 24% 27% 29% 17% 19% 17% 29% 32% 33% 38% 44% 39% 44% 46% 45% 59% 59% 60% 57% 49% 52% 46% 32% 37% 30% 24% 23% Print advertising Tradeshows Direct mail Webinars Paid search (PPC) Mobile marketing Marketing… Email marketing Content marketing SEO Social media Website… Increase greatly Increase slightly No change 62% Increase
- 28. Billion Spend on media Billion $1.59 $1.43 Million $958 2012 US, Measured-Media Spending, Source: http://bit.ly/AdSpends
- 29. You pay with help, you receive attention and trust Your Company Customers Share of Mind Trust Content Relevant Helpful Entertaining
- 30. We don’t want to give away our secrets We don’t want to give away our content for free Three content marketing barriers We don’t have time to produce quality content
- 32. Real content marketing adds value for the customer, no matter the topic http://bit.ly/19zX8k4 Content Callout: Be the best answer. -Lee Odden TopRank Marketing
- 33. Real content marketing adds value for the customer, no matter the topic We tell potential customers, ‘You know what, fiberglass might not be for you. And that’s OK, we’re going to figure it out together.’ – Marcus Sheridan “ “ http://bit.ly/19zX8k4
- 37. Topics of discussion 1. Overcoming the three most common content marketing barriers 2. How to effectively sell your content 3. How to identify your story
- 38. How to identify your story Every customer wants two things: Eliminate the negative Accentuate the positive Content Callout: Content is anything that adds value to the reader's life. -Avinash Kaushik Google
- 39. Help women identify new beauty trends Facebook 395,440 likes 842 people talking about this Twitter 782K followers Company: Beautylish Industry: Beauty Project: Brand journalism http://bit.ly/18PBt4s
- 40. Help people learn about wine 154% lift in organic traffic 50% increase in monthly email opt-ins 153,535 Facebook likes Company: Wine Enthusiast Industry: Wine retailer Campaign: Product education http://bit.ly/1tjGlqm
- 41. Help marketers improve their ecommerce efforts Help ecommerce marketers see where they stand, and insights for improvement. Company: MarketingSherpa Product: Ecommerce Success Score Survey http://bit.ly/1vx8P2k
- 42. Free is not free Value Cost The Prospect’s Mind • What is truly free? • Every action requires a value proposition
- 43. The value proposition http://www.meclabs.com/methodology Content Callout: Treat your content like a product. -Drew Davis Brandscaping 1 3 2 Question: If I am your ideal customer, why should I engage with your content rather than any of your competitors’ content? Prospect B PRODUCT #3 PRODUCT #4 PRODUCT #1 PRODUCT #2 PRODUCT #3 PRODUCT #4 PRODUCT #2 PRODUCT #3 PRODUCT #4 Primary Value Proposition Conversion steps associated with a specific product PRODUCT #2 PROSPECT-LEVEL PROCESS-LEVEL PRODUCT #1 PRODUCT #1 PRODUCT-LEVEL
- 44. Even “free” offers require a conversion Not this
- 45. But this Not this Orientation Small form Single CTATestimonial Quantifier Even “free” offers require a conversion
- 46. But this… Not this… Orientatio n Small form Single CTATestimonial Quantifier Start Rate Conversion Rate Control 0.73% 0.73% Treatment – Optimized 10.37% 4.76% Relative Difference 1,312% 548% Increase in conversion Selling free content on the registration page increased conversion rate by 548% 548% Even “free” offers require a conversion
- 47. What is the value? Submit Comment
- 48. Listen to your audience Submit Comment
- 49. What are we trying to communicate? Join the conversationSubmit Comment
- 50. What are we trying to communicate? Join the conversationSubmit Comment 4,357 4,278 38 50 0.87% 1.74% Visits Comments Conversion
- 51. What are we trying to communicate? Join the conversationSubmit Comment 4,357 4,278 38 50 0.87% 1.74% Visits Comments Conversion 39% Increase
- 52. Topics of discussion 1. Overcoming the three most common content marketing barriers 2. How to effectively sell your content 3. How to identify your story
- 53. 1. Familiarize team with new content process 2. Cultivate key influencers 3. Curate stories for content 4. Optimize course language for SEO 5. Share customer insights throughout the organization Case Study 3: Udemy - Join the conversation Challenge: Udemy was unable to see discussions that were happening on instructors' personal blogs or those conversations happening outside of the U.S. Campaign: Connect with people engaging in conversations about Udemy online and identify key influencers and make sure they felt supported. Steps: Source: http://bit.ly/SherpaUdemy Creative Samples
- 55. "We felt like we were missing pieces of conversations or we were missing conversations entirely, and so that was a lot of what drove the decision [to change] was … trying to understand better places where we had just been missing that conversation." Shannon Hughes, Senior Director of Marketing, Udemy
- 56. Results Results: • A 43% increase in Udemy mentions across social media channels • A 12% boost in positive mentions • A 35% boost in people engaging with content Source: http://bit.ly/SherpaUdemy
- 57. 1. Tell (only) the (verifiable) Truth 2. Purge all vague modifiers 3. Let someone else do your bragging 4. Substitute general descriptions with specific facts 5. Admit your Weaknesses Case Study 4: Improving MarketingExperiments Blog Challenge: January – August 2010, Blog traffic was below expectations for the quality and amount of content produced Campaign: Incorporate specific changes to reach a bigger audience base and strengthen SEO using transparent marketing techniques. Steps: Source: http://bit.ly/CMI-Mex Creative Sample: Blog
- 58. 1. Tell (only) the (verifiable) Truth 2. Purge all vague modifiers 3. Let someone else do your bragging 4. Substitute general descriptions with specific facts 5. Admit your Weaknesses Case Study 4: Improving MarketingExperiments Blog Challenge: January – August 2010, Blog traffic was below expectations for the quality and amount of content produced Campaign: Incorporate specific changes to reach a bigger audience base and strengthen SEO using transparent marketing techniques. Steps: Source: http://bit.ly/CMI-Mex Creative Sample: Blog Result: • 232% increase in visits over 8 months
- 59. 1. Conduct audience and conversation research to develop the Hub's framework 2. Create a Big Data & Analytics Hub editorial board 3. Determine content types for the Hub 4. Brainstorm how to drive users to the Hub by rethinking how IBM uses social networks 5. Launch the Hub Case Study 5: IBM helps people understand Big Data Challenge: IBM team needed to create a warm landing spot for people coming from those dynamic, real- time social media environments to increase exposure to messaging and content via social engagement. Campaign: Development of the Big Data & Analytics Hub – a dynamic website optimized for multimedia content, search and social sharing. Steps: Source: http://bit.ly/1f5DQqH Creative Sample:
- 61. Creative Results: • 291% increase in social referral traffic • 151% increase in organic search • 269% increase in average time spent on the website Source: http://bit.ly/1f5DQqH
- 62. Content Marketing is hard, keep moving forward.
- 63. Questions?
- 64. Additional Resources Blog Case Study: Three Lessons Learned from a 232% Increase in Visits http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2010/08/blog-case-study-increase-visits/ Selling Free Content: Why Seth Godin never gives anything away for free http://www.marketingexperiments.com/blog/marketing-insights/free-content-value-exchange.html Content Marketing and SEO: The world doesn’t need another blog post http://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/search-marketing/customer-focused-content-marketing/ Content Marketing: 3 tips for how to get started http://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/inbound-marketing/content-marketing-getting-started/
Notas do Editor
- In these examples, you saw YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, tools, articles… the key is to focus on understanding how to give your audience the valuable content they want with a good message, and let the medium come into play later. When they started, they might not have known that they would be using a certain channel. In the beginning, it’s all about finding what you want to say, and then how you want to say it.
- In our research from marketers around the world, we asked them about what types of marketing are most effective, and also their difficulty. Content was very high with effectiveness, but im sure as you can imagine, it’s difficult as well to pull the resources to put together great content. You need writers, editors, IT support for the websites, social media plug ins and people to promote content. It takes a lot of time and resources to get it right. But, with that said, it’s a very effective tactic to reach targeted audiences, and get them aware of your brand
- We hear all kinds of challenges from marketers when it comes to content marketing…
- The first is that many marketers say they don’t have the time to do this.
- Selling free content must be valuable. Take for instance our event presentations: they run around 30 minutes long, which is a BIG commitment. To help our readers decide if that’s going to be a good use of their valuable time, we provide short 2-4 minute excerpts from the presentation on the blog, and link back to the full presentation…
- Selling free content must be valuable. Take for instance our event presentations: they run around 30 minutes long, which is a BIG commitment. To help our readers decide if that’s going to be a good use of their valuable time, we provide short 2-4 minute excerpts from the presentation on the blog, and link back to the full presentation…
- I’ve been talking a lot about consumer brands, but this works for the B2B sector as well. Take McGladrey, you probably have not heard of them. They are the fifth largest assurance, tax and consulting firm globally, and they spend 60% of their marketing focus on content.
- The next challenge we hear is that we don’t want to give away this content for free.
- But in reality, the only way to do content marketing is make it free. We saw a 62% increase in content marketing budgets projected from our research. More and more marketers are looking to allocate more time and resources into content marketing because it works.
- You pay with help, and you receive their trust. Even if they aren’t ready to buy your products yet, they’ll come back to you again and again if you can produce that valuable content.
- Finally, another challenge we hear about often is we don’t want to share our secrets.
- The thing is, there are no more secrets anymore. You can google how to do just about anything now. Companies are sharing their knowledge about best practices and what they’ve learned. We publish on the MarketingExperiments Blog about tests we run for research partners and share results and what marketers can take away from it. We do this to help marketers, and to also showcase our knowledge on optimization so hopefully one day, they can look to us as experts, and reach out to form a research partnership.
- Back to the example with river pools, Marcus knows that sharing content, even if maybe that content leads to his prospects going to a competitor if River Pools isn’t the best fit for them, that’s OK. They are still getting new business from clients and those that interact with him had a positive experience, and will continue to look to his brand for content. Maybe in the future, they’ll come back to River Pools.
- Having great content is one thing, so how do you use it to your advantage, and present it ina way that will help customers but also lead to sales. Here’s a great example of one marketer that sells pools. Normally, they would send out an email confirming an appointment for them to come out and give a consultation. This works fine, but they wanted to help customers further to help them make a decision. This goes even if the content helps them not decide to buy. Its very transparent, and helps them make their decision no matter the outcome.
- As a result of sharing their articles and posts related on buying pools, he found that overall, if a potential customer sees 30 articles, they are 80% likely to convert.
- Sells beauty products and makeup online, publishes content on how to use products to their full potential In 2011
- Teaching people about wine pairings, types of wine, buying guides, videos, reviews, ratings, best of lists
- Help them overcome challenges, too. This is a special tool we created that was a short survey that told marketers their unique success score, and provided ways to improve it with our content.
- It’s not enough to provide free content, and hope people eat it up. You need to sell it, just like any other product. Nothing in life is free. Here on campus, I’m sure you see events or meeting where they have free pizza or cookies or something, but it’s always to get you to attend a club meeting or join a group. You’re paying with your valuable time. You could be studying or hanging out with friends, but you’re here at a meeting for a club perhaps because of the allure of free food. Same goes for free content. People are weighing not monetary costs, but costs in time. Is this content pertaining to me efforts? If it is, is it useful? Llike the content youre seeing today, it was presented in a free 30 minute webinar. That’s a long time for someone to stop their work, and focus on what we have to say for that long. You must balance the value of what you have with the mental costs. Every action requires a value proposition…meaning
- For every piece of content, you need to answer questions like “why should my target customer read this blog post, instead of any other blog post?” or “attend this webinar, instead of any other webinar: You have to look at the value of the content being produced.
- For a lot of free content out there, you must enter in your information to get access. You cannot simply put out a piece of content and expect people to come running just because it’s free. You need to sell it. This is a B2B company, looking for people to sign up and try their free demo. There’s not much value on the page. Why should people take the time to fill in this form. It’s not clear.
- They tweaked their messaging. They added a big blue banner that explained what the product did, why it would be useful with the “cut your work load up to 64%,” and added a testimonial of their customers. There was a smaller form and a clear CTA to get FREE access.
- So, let’s dive into how we applied this knowledge to our own MarketingExperiments blog. We encourage our readers to interact with our content, not just through social sharing, but also commenting on what we talk about and sharing their own insights. This appears at the bottom of every post, and you can see the button says “Submit Comment” We have taught many times through our free webinars and our research that submit is a bad word. You are demanding something from people. SUBMIT TO US! One of our readers knew this, and asked
- Hey, you should set up a test, and see if maybe changing the button copy will engage more people. Be more inviting and ask them to share their thoughts.
- Well, we did. We set up an A/b split test. Half of the people seeing blog posts on the site would see the normal, Submit comment button, and the other half saw “join the conversation”
- And for this, we saw an increase in the number of comments for a blog post,
- Which translates into a 34% increase in people commenting and talking with us and their peers.
- Support of a vendor
- Support of a vendor
- Support of a vendor
- And finally, the last piece of successful content marketing is to stop at nothing.