We all need to acknowledge change. We can’t think we can communicate in a way that we did a few years ago. One thing will stay the same, we still want people to buy our products and services. However the channels to be present and to differentiate from the competition has exploded. It is time to assess how a content marketing approach that you are either, just starting or progressing can be maintained. This is devised to encourage you to develop a commitment and responsibility for what you have ownership of. When a commitment is made, a relationship with your audience deepens.

1. THE CONTENT
MARKETING MOT

2. THE CONTENT MARKETING MOT
SELF-EVOLVING
EXTENDED
PROGRESSING
DEVELOPING
EMERGING

3. SUPPORTING YOUR CUSTOMERS
Your customers today want support. It is your opportunity to
become a trusted advisor.
If you don’t put your audience at the heart of what you do, you
won’t succeed. It is time to walk in the shoes of others and be at
the heart of what you do.
A content marketing/owned media approach can help build an
ongoing relationship based on trust, authenticity and having soul in
what you do.
It is time to provide a committed and consistent message across
all platforms. Pick your spaces and be good at it. Don’t portray
your business in a spray and pray, fingers crossed, mentality.
So, what do you need to consider? The Content Marketing MOT
is here for you to see how your own path is developing and a
benchmark to work to. We are all learning together, we’re just at
different stages of the journey for how the world and business
is evolving.
This is broken down into five areas of development.
Media/Social
Human, present, consistent, authentic, sharing, knowledge,
entertain.
Measurement
Regularly reflection, organic subscribers, comments, emails,
responses, conversations….helping to solve problems or missing
the mark?
Raising Profile
Build authenticity to what you stand for, leader in your field, taking
content marketing beyond the blog, podcasting, events, other
company links, community, wider purpose and recognising that
nobody knows what you know, until they know you care.
Self Study
Commitment, consistent, staying knowledgeable, leader, passion,
search for the truth, inquisitive, creative, problem solver, new
areas, open mindset, books, courses.

4. AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT
Media/social Measurement Profile Self study
• Use of different platforms driving traffic
to your website
• Encourage subscribers
• Establishing deeper connections
• Consistency and dialogue
• What you stand and your brand
message (human traits trust)
• Knowledgeable (industry) and
problem solving
• Be that stick of rock
• Google analytics
• Responses to articles
• Conversations
• Increasing organic subscribers
• Praise by customers
• People share content
• Discussion and interaction from others
(articles generate)
• Recognised as a resource by others
• Leads converting to sales
• Events
• Community projects
• Show your personality: a clear viewpoint
so people know who you are
• Collaboration projects
• Wider community work
• Teaching others (young enterprise
or speaking)
• Show proof of the things you say that
you are e.g. detailed case studies
• Position yourself alongside other key
influencers in your field
• Consuming resources: reading books/
articles, listening to podcasts
• Learning from others: courses, talking
to and learning from peers/other
companies
• Self reflection, adaption and
improvement cycle
• Taking feedback from others and using it
to improve practise
• Having ‘mentors’ (e.g. someone you
admire or connect with)
Areasofdevelopment

5. EMERGING
Media/social Measurement Profile Self study
• You are present on different channels
although may not feel you have
developed a ‘voice’ yet
• You may be publishing your content on
sites that do not belong to you
• Your presence may be focussed on
product/service or promoting your
company (e.g. ‘we’re better than the
competition’ statements
• Your messages are generalised rather
than personalised e.g. ‘I’d like to connect
with you on LinkedIn’ - Emails/contact
are blanket in style titled ‘Dear friend
/ It was nice to meet you at recent
networking event’
• No real measurement system in place/
unsure of how to know if what you are
doing is successful
• May focus at false/ superficial
measurement tools e.g. likes on
Facebook, followers on Twitter
• You are present on different channels
but dialogue is one way (from you)
• You may be over reliant on networking
events to ‘get your name out there’
• You may be overspending or have an
over reliance of Google Adwords or
purely SEO
• You may be buying databases to grow
your audience and profile
• You speak to peers about thoughts,
feelings and changes within your field
• You share ideas and learn from and
with others
• You attend courses/events that are
relevant to your field
• You consume viewpoints via blog
articles, video and audio
Areasofdevelopment

6. DEVELOPING
Media/social Measurement Profile Self study
• You know what you want to stand for,
but are not sure how to portray this to
your audience
• You may have begun to write your own
content, but have not yet developed
consistency with this e.g. content is
updated but sometimes weekly or
sometimes fortnightly and on
different days
• You are not sure what to write about (or
know if it is of interest to your audience)
• Your content writing is still product/
service focussed
• You measure the use of ‘gated content’
i.e no. of opt ins via e-books and guides
• You are able to see via programs such
as ‘Mail chimp’ who is opening your
emails, and click through rates
• Brief use of ‘Google analytics’ to view
the number of visitors and the time spent
on your site
• Your content is starting to grow an
‘organic’ audience (email opt-ins)
• You audience grows beyond your
immediate local area (friends and peers)
• You enter competitions and industry
awards and share when you are
successful in ways that connect with
your audience or invite dialogue
N.B. You may not yet have loyal customer
base that returns to you time and time again
• Read particular sources regularly ie.
industry press titles
• You read lengthier publications (books)
relevant to your field
• You record your ideas and share these
with other people
• You are beginning to think about how to
change and improve practises within you
company
Areasofdevelopment

7. PROGRESSING
Media/social Measurement Profile Self study
• You have a clear media strategy in place
• Content focuses on customers needs
and solving problems for them
• You know what to write about and are
able to use your measurement tools to
see what connects. You can then use
this to hone your topics to what your
audience seems to want from you
• You update content both regularly
and consistently
• You adapt your messages for the various
channels you use
• You can show proof of the things you
say you are e.g. detailed case studies,
groups that you are a part of or projects
that you are involved in
• You are predominantly publishing
content on sites that you own
• You receive praise from your customers
for the content themes you are creating
• You respond personally to comments
people make about your content to
promote ongoing dialogue
• Increase in email subscribers
• People are sharing what you are
creating with others
• Your content is reaching a wider
audience than you originally delivered
it to
• Leads converting to sales
• You show consistency in your viewpoint
and company ethics (through your
online presence, actions as a company
and in face to face meetings)
• You initiate links with your company and
collaboration/wider community projects
N.B. You are starting to see repeat business
from your customer base
• You begin to use the research/
discussions you are a part of to shape
your practice
• You have a good understanding of
where your business is currently, what
problems you are facing, and actively
search for ways to overcome these
• You learn from the successes of other
key influencers in your field
Areasofdevelopment

8. EXTENDED
Media/social Measurement Profile Self study
• You have a clear idea of who you are, business
objectives, what you stand for and know how to
communicate this with you audience
• You have a clear media strategy in place and
portray a consistent message (of who you are
and what you stand for) across the different
platforms. Although you make sure this
message is adapted to the appropriate form for
each platform
• You know which channels are most appropriate
for your company rather than blanket using of all
• You know which channels your audience prefers
to consume and focus on these
• You have consistent regular communication with
your audience e.g. email sent out every week
without fail!
• You consistently publish different types of
resources across a range of channels (e.g.
podcast/blog/info graphics)
• You own the spaces where you publish (your
website, your email, your subscriber details)
• You take time to update your media strategy in
light of what the measurement tools tell you on
a regular basis
• Other influencers within your field are sharing
and commenting on the content you create
• Ongoing praise and acknowledgement for what
you create
• The content you create encourages discussion
• You have ongoing dialogue with your audience
and have built ‘relationships’ with them rather
than just ‘contact’
• You are starting to get a return on your
investment of time.
• Your content has created relationships with
others that’s beginning to bring business for you
• You have repeat and continued custom from
many of your clients
• You’re committed to teaching / helping others
and do so – e.g. through links with universities,
guest lecturing, young enterprise, local
business groups
• You are involved in organising your own /
collaborative events that significant numbers of
relevant individuals attend
• You have a clear strategy for how to raise the
profile of your business: this includes both short
term and long term goals
• You have positioned yourself alongside other
industry influencers and have good working
relationships/ ongoing dialogue with them. This
may lead to new avenues you explore or future
collaboration projects
• You share your good practice with others
• You try out new approaches and ideas. You
evaluate how successful they are
• You discuss and share new ideas/approaches
with other trusted sources to gain their input
• You have regular discussion with other key
influencers (or a ‘mentor’) in your field and use
this to help shape and clarify your thinking
• You consume high quality content that provokes
ideas that in turn become actions
• You learn from others (study and seeing other
companies and good practice),
• You read a wider field of publications that may
stimulate alternative thoughts / ways of working
e.g. psychology
Areasofdevelopment

9. SELF-EVOLVING
Media/social Measurement Profile Self study
• You have a clear on and off line personality that is
consistent. People buy into and are loyal because
they know who you are
• You share your thoughts, feelings and opinions on
topics within your field with your audience
and encourage them to respond with you to
promote dialogue
• You have a growing resource library that contains
different types of content (podcasts, e-books,
guides, blogs, webinars, workshops) that others
check into and are able to use as a resource in its
own right.
• You are seen by others as a key influencer in your
field, and they may actively seek your advice/
thoughts/opinions
• You are interested in new software and learning
how to use it to see if it can move your approach /
business forward
• You are committed to trialling uses of different
systems and evaluate effectiveness so you know
what to adopt and what to ignore
• You are excited about how this arena continues to
develop and a thirst to know more
• You are connected to other key influencers within
your field and have professional dialogue with them
• You are seeing significant organic growth in the
number of subscribers/audience members
• You have continued professional dialogue with
other key influencers from your field which may
include: being asked for your opinion/ involvement in
different projects
• Other companies begin to try to align themselves
with you
• You regularly reflect on your practise, successes
and failures and use this to shape your practice
• You are approached by others who wish for you to
be a part of community / collaborative projects
• Others begin to try to position themselves
alongside you
• Learning / self study has become a habit that
you enjoy
• You continuously reflect and refine your practise in
light of self-study.
• You see learning as a continuous journey and
promote this ethos across your company and
to others
Areasofdevelopment
(N.B. gains momentum and continues to build – it becomes what you do and
the way you work – it becomes a trait in its own right)

10. GET IN TOUCH
Anything that you would like to discuss further
and to make this approach work for you and your
business, lets talk.
Phone: 01202 989 316
Email: mark@theidgroup.co.uk
Website: www.theidgroup.co.uk
Twitter: @heyidgroup
Office 27, Briggs House
26 Commercial Road
Poole, Dorset
BH14 0JR