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rightsourcemarketing.com
Content Marketing Strategy
Will Davis
June, 2014

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rightsourcemarketing.com
About Me
 Chief Marketing Technology
Officer
 Content Marketing Institute
Consultant
 Dad, BBQ Fan
 Featured in Gourmet
Magazine
 @willdavis
 @rightsource
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rightsourcemarketing.com
The Game Has Changed
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rightsourcemarketing.com
The Game Has Changed
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rightsourcemarketing.com
The Game Has Changed
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rightsourcemarketing.com
The Game Has Changed
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The Game Has Changed
 Prospects are educating themselves
 Sirius Decisions - 70% of a prospect’s decision-making process
in B2B is complete before they even talk to a professional
 IDG Research: Enterprise organizations download an average
of 10 informational assets during the purchase process.
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rightsourcemarketing.com
The Game Has Changed
78% of chief marketing officers think custom content is
the future of marketing. (Source: Hanley-Wood Business
Media)
78%
The average, annual spend on branded content
outsourcing was a $371,364, and $987,417 for
companies that exclusively outsource. (Source: Custom
Content Council)
$987,417
58% of consumers trust editorial content.
(Source: Nielsen)
58%
Companies with over 1,000 employees typically
allocate 24% of their marketing budget to content.
(Source: Content Marketing Institute and Marketing
Profs)
24%
82% of consumers like reading content from brands
when it’s relevant. (Source: The CMA)
82%
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rightsourcemarketing.com
Content Marketing Planning
 B2B Marketers with a content marketing strategy are 600%
more likely to be effective
 Only 44% of B2B Marketers have a written content marketing
strategy
 Only 11% of companies that rate content marketing as
ineffective have a written strategy
 2/3 of B2B Marketers without a content marketing strategy
are creating more content now than they did in the previous
year
View full CMI Research
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rightsourcemarketing.com
Strategy Still Wins
Image Source: Placester.com
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What is Content Marketing?
Source: Content Marketing Institute
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“Content marketing is a marketing
technique of creating and
distributing valuable, relevant and
consistent content to attract and
acquire a clearly defined audience
– with the objective of driving
profitable customer action.”

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Not New

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Red Bull
credit: redbull.com

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Red Bull
 “Red Bull has introduced its content marketing
around and about the product, but it is never
directly correlated to the drink itself. Nobody is
going to go to a website and spend 45 minutes
looking at video about a drink. But Red Bull has
aligned its brand unequivocally and consistently
with extreme sports and action. They are
number-one at creating content so engaging that
consumers will spend hours with it, or at least
significant minutes”
- Rebecca Lieb, Altimeter Group.

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rightsourcemarketing.com
McDonald’s Canada
 Our Food, Your Questions
credit: McDonald’s Canada

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The Content Marketer’s Mindset
 Content marketing is not
another tactic
 Content marketing is not
another line item
 Content marketing impacts
marketing AND customer
service, public relations,
recruiting and more
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How Do I Attack Content Marketing?
First, understand that content creation is merely one, isolated,
basic step.
 Content Planning
 Content Creation
 Content Optimization
 Content Distribution
 Content Reporting and Analysis
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Why Are We Doing This?
“Brands have to become publishers”
…but brands have different business models and
business goals than publishers.
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Content Supports Business Objectives
 Yours isn’t selling ad impressions
 How does your content marketing strategy fit
in with the business strategy to drive business
results for your firm?
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rightsourcemarketing.com
Content Supports Business Objectives
Business Objectives
Business Strategy
Marketing Objectives
Marketing Strategy
Content Objectives
Content Strategy
Content
Tactics
Content
MetricsCredit: Jay Baer/CMI
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rightsourcemarketing.com
Content Strategy Comes From:
Business Objectives
Business Strategy
Marketing Objectives
Marketing Strategy
Content Objectives
Content Strategy
Content
Tactics
Content
Metrics
 Business objectives
(business plan)
 Marketing objectives
(marketing plan)
 Content objectives
(content plan)
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Answer these 12 questions
1. Why are we doing this?
2. What’s the goal?
3. What is our unique story?
4. Who is our audience?
5. Who is on our team? What
is everyone’s role?
6. Who will handle each piece
of content marketing?
7. What are our primary
themes?
8. What types of content
should we create?
9. When will each piece of
content get published?
10. How will we distribute
each piece of content?
11. How will we report on the
content marketing effort?
12. What’s the budget?
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Example: Understanding Your Audience
 Who are your prospects and influencers?
 What do they care about?
 What problems do
they face?
 How can you help
solve them?
 What are their
objections?
Marketing
CFO
IT
Director
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Example: Digital Health Consulting Firm
 Helps clients solve complex challenges across the
industry spectrum
 From public companies to private companies to
investors
 A nimble, experienced, unique team of expert
advisors, analyzers and problem solvers
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Prospects/Influencers
 Large Company BD (VP Strategy or BD)
 Smaller Firm C-Level Exec (CEO, COO)
 Investors, VCs (Managing Partner)
 Chief Financial Officer
 Chief Technology Officer
 Chief Medical Officer
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What Are Their Questions? Address
 Who can help us commercialize our tech?
 Who can we acquire that does XYZ?
 What is their background?
 Who have they worked with that’s like me?
 What are their specialties?
 How do they understand my company’s unique
challenges?
 How do they work?
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…And So Many More From:
 Talking with your clients
 Talking with your prospects
 Talking with your got-aways
 Talking with your business development team
 Reviewing analytics
 Reviewing industry trends
 Online research
 RFP questions
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Informed Content - Keywords
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Informed Content – Keyword Trends
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Address Questions With Content
 Different content topics for different prospects
 Different content topics for different stages
 Different content types for different prospects
 Different content types for different stages
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Editorial Calendar
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Content Plan
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Content Plan
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The Content Creation Challenge
 Goal for each piece of content
– In line with overall marketing goal?
 Stick to the plan
– If you wander, the audience wanders
 Dedicated content staff
– Content creation duties can’t be shoehorned into existing
jobs
– Hire dedicated staff or outsource
– Writers should be great, not just good
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The Content Creation Challenge
 Provide writers (internal or outsourced) with:
– Background
– Story framework
– Access to experts
– “Garbage in, garbage out”
 Have content ready as back-up for emergencies
 Enlist staff for content ideas
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The Content Creation Challenge
 Keep the pipeline full of ideas
– Brainstorm
– What questions are customers/prospects asking?
– Spin off new topics from a successful idea
– Create series
 Make sure enough content is in progress at all times
 Edit
– Anything less than remarkable will be lost in the sea of
mediocrity
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rightsourcemarketing.com
Make It Remarkable
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Every single day…
 2,000,000 blog posts are written
 294,000,000,000 emails are sent
 864,000 hours of video are
uploaded to YouTube

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rightsourcemarketing.com
Content Optimization
 Not just for search engines (the robots) but
prospects (the humans) too
 What do you want them to do?
 What calls to action (CTAs)
should you include?
 AKA – “Uh, Now what?”
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Content Optimization - Lead Capture
 “Forms are the enemy of spread” – but…
 “You can’t have a prospect if you don’t know who
they are”
 Determine what information is worth a “gate” (fewer,
but known readers) and what isn’t
 Determine follow-up process – be helpful but not
creepy
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Content Distribution
 Where does your target audience live, online and off
(Google, Compete, Alexa)
 Write down 5 sites right now!
– Social media as part of your content strategy
– Guest blogging
– Co-branded webinars, seminars, events
– Email (don’t miss out on this one)
– Print
– Mobile
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Email: The Oldest Social Network
 1-Offs and Group Newsletters
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Content Distribution: A Story
July 25, 2013: Shared/viewed by 100s
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Content Distribution: A Story
July 26, 2013: Shared/viewed by 10,000s
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Content Distribution: A Story
August 2, 2013: Shared/viewed by 100,000s
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Content Distribution: A Story
August 2, 2013: Shared/viewed by 1,000,000s?
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Content Marketing vs. Social Media
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Content Marketing vs. Social Media
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Image Source: Pew Internet
Don’t let the social media tail wag the
content marketing dog!

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rightsourcemarketing.com
Set Up Conversion Opportunities
 eBook
 Guide
 Webinar
(live or recorded)
 Email Newsletter
 White Paper
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rightsourcemarketing.com
Content Reporting & Analysis
Consumption
• Traffic
• Page views
• Downloads
Sharing
• LinkedIn shares
• Tweets
• Emails
Lead Generation
• Lead forms
• Phone calls
Revenue
• $$$$
 Measure everything that you possibly can
 But - report very few, very business-focused KPIs
 Discard vanity metrics wherever possible
 How do KPIs align with business objectives?
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Tools Of The Trade
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Track And Manage Prospects
 Leverage your best content for your best leads
 Use technology to nurture your leads
 Do everything you can to track activities to revenue
generated
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Track And Manage Prospects
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Closed Loop ROI
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Closed Loop ROI
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rightsourcemarketing.com
Additional Benefits
 Recruiting
 Client Retention
 Employee Retention
 Sales/Marketing Relationship
 Raising Capital
 Reinforce Company Messaging
 Public Relations
 …and more
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rightsourcemarketing.com
Thank You!
will@rightsourcemarketing.com
www.rightsourcemarketing.com
www.marketingtrenches.com
Free eBook:
How to Grow Your Business
with Content Marketing
Will Davis
Right Source Marketing
@willdavis
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