In this workshop for LeadsCon Path2Conversion, Michael Brenner explains the importance of content for B2B Marketing in today's digital world.
You will learn:
1. How to build a content marketing strategy
2. Editorial strategy
3. Distribution best practices
4. How to measure results
2. Goals for Strategy Workshop
Understand what an effective content marketing strategy looks like
Determine where your content will live. Understand important site elements
Understand Editorial Strategy and gain clarity on editorial mission and topics
Brainstorm content ideas
Understand distribution best practices
Determine the measures of success
@BrennerMichael
17. “The buyer journey is nothing more than
a series of questions that must be
answered.
- IDC -
”
@BrennerMichael
18. Awareness Consideration Preference
Online Communities
Search Engines
eBooks
Email Newsletters
Editorial Articles
White Papers
Podcasts
Case Studies
Online Videos
Webcasts
Virtual Trade Shows
Product Literature
Trial Software
Online Vendor Demos
Begin
decision
process
Make
decision
Identify
business
problem Establish
requirements/
build RFP
Align IT with
business
objectives
Explore
technology
options
Research
solutions
Determine
solution
strategy Assess ROI
Research
products/
vendors
Build
short
list
@BrennerMichael
20. Ann Handley: “Take your brand out of the story. . .
. . .Make your customers the hero.”
Our Natural Instinct
Content
Marketing
What
Brands
Publish
What
Customers
Want
Charity
@BrennerMichael
22. “Content marketing is the marketing and business process for creating and distributing
relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and
understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”
-Content Marketing Institute
• Not advertising or PR
• It is continuous not campaign-based
• Customer-focused, not brand-focused
• Seeks to answer customer questions across the buyer journey
• Owned media = An asset for your business with LTV and ROI
Content Marketing Defined
@BrennerMichael
23. The Promise of Content Marketing:
To earn your audience . . .
. . . versus buying it!
@BrennerMichael
25. Key factors to content marketing success:
1. Documented content strategy and mission statement
2. Have someone accountable for content
3. Consistently publish quality content
4. Map content to consumer journey
5. Paid Distribution
6. Focus on Content Subscribers
7. Track Content Marketing ROI
@BrennerMichael
26. Now: Give yourself a grade . .
Best Practice R Y G
Have a documented content strategy?
Have someone managing content
Content hub maps to the consumer journey
Publishing quality, volume and variety
Social activation of content
Paid distribution
Focus on Content Subscriptions
Measurement template / ROI defined
Overall:
?
@BrennerMichael
27. Why is it important to have a documented
content strategy?
28. Content Marketing Mission Statement
Become a destination for [target audience]
interested in [topics]. To help them
[customer value].
This will help us [content marketing goals]
• Earn your audience’s attention vs. just
buying it
• Reach, engage and convert NEW buyers
AmEx Open Forum Example: Help Small
Businesses Do More Business. To become
the largest source of inbound leads.
@BrennerMichael
29. What Is Your Content Marketing Mission Statement?
Become a (premier?) destination
for [target audience]
interested in [topics]
to help them [customer value].
@BrennerMichael
30. Steps to crafting a content strategy
Discovery
Destination
Branding +
Design
Roles +
Responsibility
Editorial
Strategy
Distribution +
Optimization
Measurement
•Current State
•Target Audience
•Business Case
•Mission
Statement
•Budget
•Branding
•UX
•Platform
•Who does
what?
•Tech Partner
•Agency
•Structure
•Topics
•Types
•Sources
•SEO
•SEO
•Platforms
•Paid
•Owned
•Earned
•Email
Newsletter
•Business Case
KPIs
•Define report
•How often
@BrennerMichael
31. Building the content marketing business case
1. Reach early
stage buyers
2. Engage new
buyers with your
brand
3. Conversions you would
have never reached
@BrennerMichael
36. Look at Content by Buyer Stage
Early Stage
Middle Stage
Late Stage
66% 28%
Early-Stage Content
Late-Stage
Content
Middle-Stage
Content
6%
@BrennerMichael
37. Your Business Goals
Select one or more from the list (or add your own):
1. Create affinity for your core products and brands
2. To reach new potential buyers with unbranded search
1. To retain existing customers
2. Upsell existing customers / retention
3. Convert them through digital offers, paths to sale
@BrennerMichael
38. Joe Pulizzi:
“Don’t build your house on rented land.”
- Publish On Your Own Content Hub -
@BrennerMichael
40. Design Structure
1) Categories across the top show
visitor what space you are in
2) Images help humanize the site
and break text
3) Published content horizontally
shows frequency (add dates and
authors)
4) Share buttons encourage social
sharing
5) Mid-stage offer on right
6) Newsletter/subscription sign up
@BrennerMichael
47. Define Content Marketing Roles and Functions
Content
Marketer /
Editor
Strategizes,
writes,
and oversees
content projects
to ensure brand
consistency and
alignment with
business
objectives.
Community
Manager
Distributes content
across social
channels, engages
online communities,
and contributes to
content projects.
Designer
Brings content to life
through the user
experience and rich
visuals.
Contributors
Any content creator-
blogger,
photographer,
designer — who
contributes to your
project.
SEO / Paid
Specialist
Manages the paid
distribution of
content online.
Analytics
Defines best/ worst
performers,
conversion
optimization and
measurement
communications.
Curation
Fines and re-
purposes the best
content from your
business and from
around the web.
@BrennerMichael
49. • Thinking and acting like a publisher
• Mapping keywords to the buyer journey
• The “persona filter”
• The importance of imagery
• The impact of volume on reach and conversion
What we’ll cover in this section:
@BrennerMichael
50. What Are We Going to Write About?
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51. How brands can become consumed with their
story, not their customers.
Unique Point of View Trap
@BrennerMichael
53. The Biggest Mistake Brands Make
With Content Marketing Is Making
The Content All About Them
Think and Act like a Publisher!
54. • Thinking and acting like a publisher
• Create the content your audience (actually) wants
• Build an audience, then monetize it
• Manage content as an asset with an ROI
Effective Editorial Strategy
@BrennerMichael
55. How do you give a pile of bricks order?
• What are different ways you could organize content?
• Consider recurring themes / series / trigger events
• Look at publishers in your space
@BrennerMichael
56. Reach, Engage and Convert
the Right People.
Early-stage Searches
Middle-stage
Brand Searches
Search/SocialVolume
What is Content Marketing?
(10-3000 X)
Who is the best Content
Marketing provider?
(2-10 X)
NewsCred Content
Marketing software
is how awesome?
@BrennerMichael
61. Secondary Early Xyz
Late Xyz Xyz
Persona Questions/Concerns
Xyz
Middle Xyz Xyz
Keywords
Main Early What is [your solution]
Late How much is [your solution] [your solution]
Persona Questions/Concerns
[your solution]
Middle How to succeed with [Your solution] [your solution]
Keywords
Stage
Stage
Research Keywords, Then Filter By Personas
@BrennerMichael
62. Utilize the Right Mix of Content
Custom Content
Share on-brand stories and recipes which are created
specifically for your brand.
Community Content
Leverage content from customers, employees,
influencers that grows and engages your community.
Licensed Content
Boost credibility, publishing cadence, and direct traffic
with a high-volume of fully-licensed, compliant
content.
63. Content Mix (Monthly Average)
Licensed
Custom
Social
Custom
Content
20%
User /
Employee
50%
Licensed
Content
30%
@BrennerMichael
64. How To Rank For SEO? The 3 Vs (Content Mix)
Volume
Number of posts
on the topic
Value
The best answer
on the internet
Variety
Text, images,
video, slides
@BrennerMichael
65. Imagery matters
60,000 X the brain processes images
faster than text.
78% of consumers say that the quality of a
product image is “very important” in selecting
and purchasing a product
94% more total views on content featuring
compelling images than content without
images. @BrennerMichael
73. The Impact Of Volume On Reach and Conversion
• Publishers publish every day on each topic, category or theme
• Organic Traffic goes up with each new article published
• Diminishing return? (see below)
• Optimize content budget vs. paid distribution budget
• Increasing frequency will increase Organic + Social % of Total PVs
A few times
a year
1-2X per
month
< monthly 1-2X per
week
1 per day More than
1 per day
77. • The Converged Media approach
• Best Practices for Distribution:
• Email
• Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram)
• Paid
What we’ll cover in this section:
@BrennerMichael
78. Maximizing the Reach of Your Content
A “converged media” approach utilizes paid, owned, and earned media to deliver content the
audience wants and maximizing the reach of that content.
Paid Social Influencer
Leverage your owned
content and channels
Maximize organic buzz,
social engagement,
and PR
Organic traffic & SEO
Quickly grow your
audience & jumpstart
engagement
Converged
Paid Content Distribution
(Outbrain, Sharethrough)
@BrennerMichael
80. Social media can have a real
impact on your
bottom line.
78% of consumers said that
companies’ social media posts
impact their purchasing
decision
30% of buyers say that social
media is very important in
making their purchasing
decisions
@BrennerMichael
81. Other people’s content Your helpful posts Promotional
Best Practices: Overall
• Establish a unique voice and stick with it
• Be transparent and authentic
• Give due credit to authors and sources
• Play to the strengths of each platform:
post the content that makes the most
sense
• Maintain a consistent cadence
• Respond to fans (and haters) in a timely
manner
• Truly know your audience
• Have variety of content: original,
licensed, UGC (see below)
@BrennerMichael
82. Tactics for distribution
1. Ad networks (example: Google AdWords)
2. Organic Social (example: LinkedIn)
3. Paid Social (example: LinkedIn Sponsored Update)
4. Native advertising (example: Sharethrough)
5. SEO
6. Lead nurturing (both paid & earned) (example: newsletter)
@BrennerMichael
83. Tactics for distribution
1. Ad networks (example: Google AdWords)
2. Organic Social (example: LinkedIn)
3. Paid Social (example: LinkedIn Sponsored Update)
4. Native advertising (example: Sharethrough)
5. SEO
6. Lead nurturing (both paid & earned) (example: newsletter)
@BrennerMichael
85. Benefits of email newsletter distribution
1. Keep your audience engaged
2. Free distribution channel
3. Provides instantaneous trackable results
4. Nurture and convert leads
45%
of NewsCred’s
traffic came
from email
@BrennerMichael
86. • Digestible content: Top 2 posts are infographics.
• The BuzzFeed effect: 4 of top 10 articles had headlines with words like: "top," "best," "most.”
• Know your audience: 35% of top 20 articles have the mention of "content marketing" or "content
marketers.”
• Stats matter: 70% of top 10 articles have numbers in the headline.
• Stay familiar: 25% of top 20 articles have a brand name mentioned in the headline - Ello, Vice,
BuzzFeed, Nike, and Red Bull.
Newsletters are Vital for Identifying Trends and
Takeaways
@BrennerMichael
87. Steps to creating an email marketing plan
Who will
manage?
What content will
you include?
Determine sending
frequency and goals
Make a schedule
@BrennerMichael
89. Just because you can publish to every social
channel, doesn’t mean you should.
Find out which channels are most important for your
audience and focus on 2 – 3 to start.
@BrennerMichael
90. Where is your target buyer?
*Buffer, Pew research 2013
Cheat Sheet:
@BrennerMichael
91. Pros and Cons
Pros Cons
Facebook Everyone is on it! High competition
Twitter Younger, tech-savvy
crowd who loves
information
Need to be able to
keep up with cadence
LinkedIn Highly-targeted. Very
educated audience of
business
professionals (great
for B2B)
B2C companies need
to figure out
Instagram Younger audience. Hard if click-through is
end-goal or text-heavy
content
Pinterest TK TK
@BrennerMichael
93. The positive feedback loop of
social:
Build an audience, share great
content, engage on each
platform.
94. Tag brands/people where appropriate
1. Good social media etiquette
2. Great way to show influencers some love
3. Can be a great way to get more followers
@BrennerMichael
96. What Is the ideal cadence for each channel?
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Pinterest
Suggested
Cadence
2 times per
day, 5-7
days per
week
1 tweet per
hour
2x per day Varies (best
to test). 1-2
times per
day 2/3
times per
week
On the low
end, try for 5
pins/day. If
you have
more
content you
can go up to
30/day (Best
results from
15-30
pins/day)
@BrennerMichael
97. Overwhelmed by that last slide?
1. Don’t be afraid to post the same piece of content multiple times.
• Use the headline once
• Use a quote from the article once (or many different quotes
different times!)
• Grab a stat from the article and share that
2. Pre-schedule tweets… but have an action plan in place for real-time.
3. Evergreen content is your friend!
4. Ask your writer/team to come up with multiple tweets per each article
@BrennerMichael
99. Even great content needs a push
The average Hollywood movie spends 50-60% of production budget on distribution.
@BrennerMichael
100. Twitter: promoted tweets, lead
generation cards, web cards, etc.
Facebook: boosted posts, ad sets
LinkedIn: sponsored updates, ad
campaigns
• Unsure about what platform and what ad
to use?
• A/B test until you get it right - companies
who test are 75% more likely to show ROI
for content marketing than those who fail
to test their strategies.
Paid Social
101. Help new audiences discover your content with Outbrain
or Taboola
• “Recommended For You!”
Get in front of audiences who are
Already reading content
about your topic on other sites
but who you aren’t already reaching.
Best choice for
budget distribution
@BrennerMichael
103. Three key metrics to measure for Brand Awareness
Website Traffic
• Visits
• Time Spent on Site
• Pages consumed per visit
Social Engagement
• Followers
• Shares
• Reach
Content Consumption
• Subscriptions
• Content Downloads @BrennerMichael
105. Organic and Social Traffic: The Health Of Your Program
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
30,000
35,000
UniqueVisitors
Traffic from Organic, Social & Referrals
@BrennerMichael
107. What to track and when
Track top content / shares / topics on related sites monthly
• Top 50 Influencers
• 10 Blog Sites
• Terms You Need To Know
• 10 Predictions For…
• What Is [Keyword]?
• Infographics
• SlideShares
• Videos
@BrennerMichael
108. Social KPI Overview: Audience size + Engagement
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn
Brand Awareness Page likes, page visits,
impressions, reach
Followers, impressions, reach,
follower/following ratio
Company page likes, page views,
visitors
Engagement Post likes, comments, shares,
clicks, “stories created”
RTs, favorites, replies, @mentions,
clicks, engagement rate
Likes, comments, shares, clicks,
engagement
Lead Generation Link clicks to form or gated page,
blog subscribe
Lead generation card clicks, link
clicks to gated page, blog
subscribe
Link clicks to form or gated page
@BrennerMichael
Content marketing company that helps brands develop and execute their strategies online
We were founded in 2008 and currently have about 200 employees across the US, London and Dhaka
Ant that can be your brand
Core components the way we need to think. We need to think different.
We’ve all asked the question, why content marketing?
To set the stage, there’s been a fundamental shift in the way we as consumers consume and share content. Momentous amount of content being created, consumed and shared. An amazing amount of content, the real question is how does a brand stand apart?
Ant that can be your brand
The secret to content marketing is that its not that hard. There are obstacles, but what we’re going to do is give you our secrets and let you know what’s worked for other brands to drive a content marketing strategy.
The secret, content marketing is relatively simple. The buyer journey is just a series of question to be answered and we as brands have a role to play. Its simply to answer the customer questions.
A more complex view, content marketing explained on a page. What types of different content we consume at different parts of the buyer journey.
Awareness, we’re wanting to learn, get our questions answered and read thought leadership.
Consideration, we want more types of content.
By Preference, there’s less thought leadership and learning, and more about what makes your brand different.
As a brand, our natural instinct is to talk about ourselves. Customers are asking questions, they want to be informed and entertained, but we can’t just do that because that’s just charity.
So the way we balance is make your customers the hero of the story.
Take your brand out. How do you do that? You solve their problems at every stage of the journey.
As a brand, our natural instinct is to talk about ourselves. Customers are asking questions, they want to be informed and entertained, but we can’t just do that because that’s just charity.
So the way we balance is make your customers the hero of the story.
Take your brand out. How do you do that? You solve their problems at every stage of the journey.
The formal definition of content marketing.
NOT advertising or PR – important
About helping your customers answer those questions in the journey they’re taking
Owned media – its specifically content that lives on a brand owned media.
Help your customers with something. Do their jobs better, become heroes. You need to fill in the blanks.
Help your customers with something. Do their jobs better, become heroes. You need to fill in the blanks.
Corporate websites bounce rate are down at 40% because the only people going there are those who want to be there
No matter where you are in your content marketing strategy, NewsCred's Strategy Services team can help ensure you're successful.
Not only do we provide 24/7 global product support, but we also offer daily editorial curation and can help set your long-term strategy with customized consultations, workshops and brainstorms.
94% of all the content we were creating was for late and middle stages. Most of the content we made was promotional…why we were better.
However, more people are in the early stage, so we were completely upside down.
Is it an on brand or off-brand strategy? Depends on your brand and goals.
Timeline – totally unbranded. Off-branded domain. Branding that’s almost invisible.
Monster – you can see its completely in line with their corporate website. Logo, typography, similar structure.
Pepsi pulse – completely reinvented their website. Seeking to be a destination about anything about pop culture.
OPEN Forum
First Round Capital – The Review
Makeup.com / L’Oreal
Small Biz Ahead – The Hartford
Capgemini – Content Loop
Four Seasons Magazine
These are not all necessarily people, but instead responsibilities. One of my first hires was a curator. Someone who finds and repurposes the best content from around the web. Look at what your audience is interested in.
SEO on the other hand, understand what kind of content you need to create.
A lot of people jump to topics. Google trends, competitors, online properties serving needs. Thinking about topics and architecture is an important step.
Brainstorm
Key words appropriate
Finding the right combination of licensed content, original content and social content is key to executing a well-rounded content strategy.
Licensed content gives you an easy way to access a high-volume of content from credible sources, allowing you to boost publishing cadence.
Original content gives you the ability to share hyper-targeted stories which resonate with your audience and are optimized for SEO.
Social content allows you to always stay topical and publish content that is buzzworthy and trending. Co-created content.
We call this combination The Rule Of Thirds – a starting point. AS you’re publishgin you can optimize.. Diversifying your content strategy allows you to scale in a way
Research was backing up what I witnessed first hand.
Consumers were learning to turn out the noise of conventional advertising. They preferred to speak with brands through content.
Other marketers were seeing this shift too.
Help your customers with something. Do their jobs better, become heroes. You need to fill in the blanks.
Research was backing up what I witnessed first hand.
Consumers were learning to turn out the noise of conventional advertising. They preferred to speak with brands through content.
Other marketers were seeing this shift too.
4-1-1 Rule: 4 of your content (original, licensed, UGC, whitepaper/guide, etc.), 1 influencer post, 1 publisher post
Follow and mention influencers, publishers as often as possible
Make sure your social accounts demonstrate interaction. You want to interact with who you’re trying to reach. How many of your own posts you’re going to share? Or sharing other people’s content and influencers.
For example, LinkedIn is used primarily for business networking, job searches and highly-focused B2B advertising. Facebook and Instagram are more personal and consumer focused. And Twitter is an interesting hybrid with active usage by everyone from teenagers to famous athletes and actors to professionals, and companies using it to reach both consumers and businesses.
For example, LinkedIn is used primarily for business networking, job searches and highly-focused B2B advertising. Facebook and Instagram are more personal and consumer focused. And Twitter is an interesting hybrid with active usage by everyone from teenagers to famous athletes and actors to professionals, and companies using it to reach both consumers and businesses.
How do we know what’s working? By constantly examining and measuring our content:
This is what we learned ( and here are the takeaways):
MARCUS WILL SET UP HOW WE BUILT OUR DATABASE OF CONTENT KNOWLEDGE/AMBER WILL EXPLAIN HOW WE TURNED THOSE TAKEWAYS INTO STRATEGY KNOWLEDGE.
Make a plan, but that doesn't mean your work is done. Start with your customer pain points, then build your editorial calendar off of these needs. Your content strategy should be constantly evolving.
Got a great piece of content? Update it and do it again! Chances are your audience will still love it - if not more.
10 Reasons You Should Use Numbers In Your Headlines could have been the title of this slide.
Familiarize yourself with analytics and what benchmarks are important, and track constantly! If something isn't growing fast enough you can act in real time to tweak your strategy.
Keep at it: maintain a consistent cadence. Content marketing is an “all-in game.”
Define your audience
If you already have subscribers on your list, their signup method can be used to help identify them. For example, if they subscribed during the checkout process through your online store, they're customers. A collection of subscribers that found you through your website or at a public event (like fairs, trade shows, etc.), would be classified as more of a general audience.
If you don't have subscribers yet, think about who is your target audience. How will you find these people, and what do you envision they'll want to read in your emails?
Determine your content
Think about why this audience signed up for your emails in the first place, then focus on delivering that to them. It can be helpful to outline general content types that you might include in each email campaign. Later, as you're putting together your newsletter, you can refer to this outline to make sure you're staying on track. For instance, The Atlanta Rollergirls keep a content list:
Upcoming events
Recaps/photos from past events
Popular posts on Facebook, Twitter, blog
News coverage
Determine sending frequency and goals
Not all sending frequencies are created equal. Decide what works best for you and your subscribers. Remember to look ahead and plan accordingly for hoildays or special events.
From there, decide what you’d like to get out of your email marketing. Are you looking to direct readers to your website? Help promote sales? Increase traffic at events?
Make a schedule
Your email marketing schedule will depend on your industry, type of content, sending frequency, and so on. With that in mind, here is an example of how you might plan out your campaigns:
Day 1: Jot down content topics, art ideas, and other basics for your upcoming newsletter.
Day 2: Write out what you'd like to say about each topic, pull photos or art into a folder.
Day 3: Log in to MailChimp and create your campaign. Proofread for errors and grammar. Send a few test campaigns to make sure everything is just right.
Day 4: Send your campaign
There are dominant channels for every industry and type of product or service. What you need to know is which channels are dominant for your market and focus your organization’s time and money on winning against the competition in those targeted channels.
In social media, it’s about quality, not just quantity. Doing two or three channels really well with consistent, highly engaging content that is reaching and interacting with your target audience is what will lead to conversion and customers.
For example, LinkedIn is used primarily for business networking, job searches and highly-focused B2B advertising. Facebook and Instagram are more personal and consumer focused. And Twitter is an interesting hybrid with active usage by everyone from teenagers to famous athletes and actors to professionals, and companies using it to reach both consumers and businesses.
I.e. Do I have a lot of video content? Do I have a lot of visual content?
Facebook – almost everyone there, but lots of competition.
Twitter – yes if interested in a younger, tech-savvy crowd. Also need to be able to keep up (highest cadence here)
There are dominant channels for every industry and type of product or service. What you need to know is which channels are dominant for your market and focus your organization’s time and money on winning against the competition in those targeted channels.
In social media, it’s about quality, not just quantity. Doing two or three channels really well with consistent, highly engaging content that is reaching and interacting with your target audience is what will lead to conversion and customers.
Different for each channel
Let your goals dictate the decisions you make in regard to social media content
Different for each channel
Let your goals dictate the decisions you make in regard to social media content
1 hashtag is fine. 10 hashtags are not.
Good way to join a conversation that MAKES SENSE
Different for each channel
Let your goals dictate the decisions you make in regard to social media content
Different for each channel
Let your goals dictate the decisions you make in regard to social media content
Thousands of carrier pigeons flying over the Olympic stadium in Helsinki. They were released during the opening ceremony to convey the news of the Games to other countries. (1952)
Thousands of carrier pigeons flying over the Olympic stadium in Helsinki. They were released during the opening ceremony to convey the news of the Games to other countries. (1952)
Tracking over the course of a year.
Are we gaining traffic from organic and social. Up and to the right.