In the slides you will see: - What you should look for in a content marketing solution - What trends are driving the adoption of content marketing tools - About the capabilities provide - Recommended steps to making an informed purchase for a suitable content management tool Who could be benefited from this: - Internet marketers and agencies doing their due diligence in selecting a content marketing solution for large and enterprise level organizations - Analysts and vendors looking for current intelligence about this dynamic marketplace - Anyone who needs to be up to speed on the key players and major trends in the market for content marketing tools

1. A Marketer’s Guide

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
 Content marketing overview
 How will your content marketing budget change in the next
12 months?
 What are your organization’s top content marketing
challenges?
 Five core elements of content marketing
 Content marketing tool capabilities
 Content creation and curation
 Content management
 Content amplification/distribution
 Content optimization
 Content analytics
 Choosing a content marketing tool
 The benefits of using content marketing tools
 Recommended steps to making an informed purchase

3. This presentation describes current market for content marketing tools and
the considerations involved in implementing content marketing software.
The deck focuses to answers the following questions:
 Why is content marketing growing so quickly?
 Why do marketers need content marketing tools?
 What are the core elements of a content marketing strategy?
 What capabilities do content marketing tools provide?
 Who are the leading vendors of content marketing tools?
 How much does content marketing software cost?
The use of software services to automate one or more of the following
marketing functions with the organizational goal of increasing consumer
engagement and ultimately, conversions:
 content creation, content curation (discovery);
 content management (planning, workflow, regulatory and brand compliance);
 content amplification/distribution;
 content optimization
(SEO, testing, recommendation engines, audience identification and targeting);
 content analytics.

5. CONTENT MARKETING OVERVIEW
Content marketing has become ubiquitous among digital marketers in a wide range of
industries. Three quarters of B2C marketers and 88% of B2B marketers now use
content marketing to increase sales, generate and nurture leads, and improve brand
awareness and engagement, according to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI).
Source: B2B and B2C Content Marketing: 2016 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends – North America, Content
Marketing Institute
How will your content marketing budget change in the next 12 months?
On average, B2C and B2B marketers use at least a dozen types of content assets, the
CMI found, and more than three out of four marketers reported creating more content
in 2016 than in 2015. Topping the list for most popular content type among all
marketers are blogs and videos, according to Conductor’s What Content Marketers are
Doing Now research.
Fundamental shifts in the relationship between brands and consumers are driving
significant changes in how – and how often – marketers communicate with their target
audiences.

6. CONTENT QUALITY AND MEASUREMENT TOP LIST OF
CHALLENGES
The challenge for marketers has become how to create, distribute, optimize, analyze,
and manage the growing volume of content that needs to be generated on a daily basis.
Producing engaging content is the number one challenge cited by both B2C and B2B
marketers, according to the CMI’s research.
Organizational factors such as a lack of resources or content marketing strategy, as well
as the rapid pace of Google’s algorithm changes and emphasis on content quality also
impact marketers’ ability to use content marketing effectively. Less than 40% of all
marketers consider their organizations to be effective at content marketing.
More than half of
both B2B and B2C
marketers are not
clear about what a
successful content
program looks like
within their
organization, the
CMI found.
Source: B2B and B2C Content Marketing: 2016 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends – North America,
Content Marketing Institute

7. MARKET OPPORTUNITY CREATES CROWDED, MATURING
VENDOR MARKET
This gap between the use of content marketing and the ability to manage it
has given rise to
a complicated landscape of content marketing vendors. The software and
services available
range from interactive content apps and testing tools to artificial
intelligence-based analytics, automated editorial calendars and social
publishing apps, and global networks of content creation professionals.
Venture capital continues to pour into the market. Taboola received nearly
$120 million
in Series E financing in early 2015, and went on to acquire programmatic
ad platform
ConvertMedia for $100 million in July 2016 (see Table 3). Outbrain is using
$45 million
in private equity funds to accelerate product development both organically
and through
acquisition. The Israel-based company bought ad technology platform
Revee in March 2016
and subsequently launched Outbrain Automatic Yield.
Foreign companies such as Outbrain are leveraging the growing interest in

9. FIVE CORE ELEMENTS OF CONTENT MARKETING
•Create, compile, organize, store content assets
•Discover relevant external content sources
•Establish links to curated content
Content creation
and
curation
•Editorial calendar/collaboration/scheduling
•Permissions/access by role, department, location, etc.
•Brand compliance/review/approvals/process
•Centralized, searchable asset library or repository
Content
management
•Publish original content to paid media, publisher sites, and social
networks
•Identify and push content to social influencers
Content
amplification /
distribution
•SEO through keyword/phrase analysis and optimization
•Multivariate and A/B testing
•Recommendation engines
•Audience identification (i.e., persona building), segmentation, and
targeting
•Mobile device optimization
Content
optimization
•Centralized dashboard
•Track and measure key metrics including views, downloads, traffic, leads, conversions
•APIs for integration with CRM, MA, PPC, digital analytics, and other marketing platforms
Content analytics

11. CONTENT MARKETING TOOL CAPABILITIES
Content marketing tools come in a variety of shapes and sizes,
from point solutions that automate workflow to full-service
platforms that provide content creation, management, publishing,
amplification, and analytics solutions. The content marketing
vendors profiled in this report provide one or more of the five core
content marketing capabilities.
Several content marketing vendors offer more advanced features
including apps to repurpose passive content into interactive assets,
1. Content creation and curation
2. Content management
3. Content amplification/distribution
4. Content optimization
5. Content analysis

12. CONTENT CREATION AND CURATION
Relevant, engaging content is the lynchpin of
content marketing. The definition of content
has expanded to include advertising text, blog
posts, landing pages, emails, infographics,
pictures, and videos. Content can be created in
house with existing marketing staff, or
outsourced through a content marketing
vendor that offers access to a network of
content creation professionals. Brands can also
curate content from external online sources
with links to their owned media properties.
Content creation and curation tools facilitate
the development, organization, compilation,
storage, and publishing of original and curated
content assets. Authoring tools vary from
WYSIWYG editors and title wizards to content
scoring tools that optimize content as it is
written. Some tools also provide customizable
templates that incorporate brand and design
guidelines for consistency. Several vendors
repurpose existing content assets into

13. CONTENT MANAGEMENT
Content management centralizes the important functions of content
scheduling, collaboration, workflow, and compliance with brand, style,
and regulatory guidelines. These tools feature customizable
permissions and access that cover both internal and external roles
(such as agency partners). Content management is a critical aspect of
content marketing because it streamlines, formalizes, and
communicates content strategy across the organization. Several
vendors profiled in this report offer a managed services options for
brands that lack the internal resources to execute a content marketing
strategy.

14. CONTENT AMPLIFICATION/DISTRIBUTION
Content amplification or distribution tools push content assets out to
target audiences across multiple channels, including paid media,
websites, and social networks. Social sharing among fans, followers,
and influencers further drives traffic and consumer engagement.
Content amplification tools also can help publishers find the most
relevant audiences for their content assets across aggregated
publisher networks or manage paid media campaigns.

15. CONTENT OPTIMIZATION
Content optimization software is
designed to improve content
performance through search engine
optimization (SEO), multivariate and
A/B testing, recommendation engines,
and audience development and
targeting tools. The goal is to identify
audiences and their interests, develop
audience segments and personas, and
create content that is relevant to those
personas. The majority of content
marketing tools that provide
optimization software also offer APIs to
facilitate integration with existing CRM
and marketing automation systems.
Content can also be optimized by
device, including for desktop, tablet,
and smartphone.

16. CONTENT ANALYTICS
Tracking and measuring content performance have become critical
tasks, as CMOs come under increasing pressure to prove the ROI of
their content marketing efforts. Nearly one third of B2B marketers
say that sales lead quality is the most important content marketing
metric their organization uses, while 30% of B2C marketers say
sales/conversions are most important, according to the CMI.
Content marketing tool vendors have
invested heavily in artificial intelligence
and scientific algorithms to offer more
sophisticated analytics. Metrics related
to content consumption and sharing
include total views, attention time,
social actions, influencer mentions,
and engagement rates. Lead
generation and sales metrics include
total views, lead scores, sales-qualified
leads (SQLs), conversions, and return
visitor rates. The majority of vendors
use a centralized dashboard to track
content assets. Many include real-time
reporting and notifications and/or
predictive analytics to optimize

18. THE BENEFITS OF USING CONTENT MARKETING TOOLS
 Increase content relevancy and effectiveness.
When consumers view and interact with content, they reveal a lot
about their preferences and buying stages. By capturing and
analyzing their content consumption, you can provide them with more
relevant information that may push them further into the sales funnel.
 Improve message consistency across all marketing channels.
Managing brand style and consistency is a huge challenge for global
brands and multi-location marketers. By centralizing content assets in
a CMS or database, those assets can be standardized and monitored
for compliance with style and regulatory guidelines.

19. THE BENEFITS OF USING CONTENT MARKETING TOOLS
 Collect more accurate customer data.
Content marketing optimization and analytics
tools track and measure content consumption
across multiple touch points. Metrics are moving
from quantity based (i.e., how many pages
viewed) to quality based (i.e., time spent reading
specific pages). By automating the process, data
can be integrated with CRM and marketing
automation systems to enhance prospect data.
 Grow social sharing, referrals, and engagement.
More personalized, relevant content is shared
more frequently across social networks, which will
amplify the impact and awareness of your brand.
 Enhance marketing campaign profitability. By
sending the right content to the right consumers
through their preferred channels, campaign
efficiency increases and campaign costs decrease.

20. RECOMMENDED STEPS TO MAKING AN INFORMED
PURCHASE
Deciding whether or not your company needs a content marketing tool
calls for the same evaluative steps involved in any software adoption,
including a comprehensive self-assessment of your organization’s
business needs, staff capabilities, management support, and financial
resources. Use the following questions as a guideline to determine the
answers.
 Have we identified our content marketing strategy and goals?
 Do we have existing content assets that are effective and can be used?
 Do we know where our audience is?
 Do we have the staff to execute content marketing?
 Who will own or manage content marketing?
 Do we have C-level buy-in?
 Have we established KPIs and put a system in place for tracking,
measuring, and reporting results?
 What is our budget? Can we invest in staff training?
 Can we integrate content marketing with our existing marketing
systems?
Step 1: Do you need a content marketing tool?

21. RECOMMENDED STEPS TO MAKING AN INFORMED
PURCHASE
Once you have determined that content marketing software makes sense
for your brand,
spend time researching individual vendors and their capabilities by
doing the following:
 Make a list of all the content marketing capabilities you currently
have, those that you would like to have, and those that you can’t live
without. This last category is critical, and will help you avoid making a
costly mistake.
 Take your list of capabilities and then do some research. The
“Resources” section at the back of this report includes a list of blogs,
reports, and industry research that will help.
 Once you’ve done the necessary research, narrow your list down to
those vendors that meet your criteria. Submit your list of the content
marketing capabilities you’ve identified, and set a timeframe for them
to reply.
Step 2: Identify and contact appropriate vendors

22. RECOMMENDED STEPS TO MAKING AN INFORMED
PURCHASE
Set up demos with your short list of vendors within a relatively quick
timeframe after receiving the RFP responses, to help make relevant
comparisons. Make sure that all potential internal users are on the demo
call, and pay attention to the following:
 How easy is the tool to use?
 Does the vendor seem to understand our business and our marketing
needs?
 Are they showing us our “must-have” features?
Step 3: Scheduling the demo

23. RECOMMENDED STEPS TO MAKING AN INFORMED
PURCHASE
i. How will the platform help us create more valuable content or get
more value
ii. out of the content we’re already producing?
iii. Does your platform make it easier to manage the content marketing
process, such
iv. as asset review, approval, and publication?
v. What metrics or analytics do you provide?
vi. How easily does the platform integrate with our existing PPC, CRM,
and other
vii. marketing technology platforms or tools?
viii.Do you have customers in our vertical industry? How successful have
they been
ix. with the platform? When they’re not successful, what are the
reasons?
x. How quickly and efficiently can we set up, train our staff, and use the
platform? How
xi. involved will our IT team need to be?
xii. How scalable is the platform?
xiii.What kind of ongoing support and client engagement will your
Other questions to ask each vendor include:

24. RECOMMENDED STEPS TO MAKING AN INFORMED
PURCHASE
Before deciding on a particular vendor, take the time to speak with one
or two customer
references, preferably someone in a business similar to yours. Consider
also asking these basic questions:
 Why did you move to a content marketing tool or platform?
 Why did you select this tool over others?
 Has this tool lived up to your expectations?
 How long did the system take to implement?
 Are you also using additional tools for content creation, optimization
(SEO), amplification, or management?
 Were there any surprises that you wish you’d known about
beforehand?
 Where have you seen the most success? The biggest challenges?
 How are you measuring your own success?
 How easy was the set-up process and how long? Did the vendor help?
 How responsive is customer service?
 Has there been any down time?
 What is the most useful, actionable (favorite) report the tool
Step 4: Check references, negotiate a contract