Create a Content Marketing Strategy
Your Customers Will Love, in 7 Steps

ConvinceAndConvert.com

Content Marketing
Isn’t New

How to keep your plants
watered on vacation, circa 1910 (from U.K. cigarette company)

How to keep your plants
watered on vacation, circa 2013 (from Lowe’s, via Vine video)

Content Creates Trust, and This
Has Always Been True

And Trust is the Filter
Through Which All Business Success Must Pass

Our Emphasis on Content is
What’s New

Nearly a third of B2B
marketers are spending 25% of their budget (or more) on content marketing Content Marketing Institute, 2014

Why? ! The Old Ways
of Marketing Don’t Work (like they used to)

Top-of-mind Awareness is Difficult and
Expensive

Inbound Marketing is Only Half
the Battle

Inbound marketing doesn’t create demand
for your products, it simply fulfills it. Nobody goes to Google and says “just surprise me.”

Content Marketing Works if it
is Useful, Inspirational, Motivational.

if you have a documented
strategy

83% of B2B marketers have
a content strategy, but only 35% have it documented Content Marketing Institute, 2014

let’s fix that also, my
company - Convince & Convert - creates killer content marketing strategic plans for some of the most interesting companies in the world. ! ! ConvinceAndConvert.com

Content Marketing Strategy in 7
Steps objectives 1 what’s your one thing? 2 measurement 3 audiences 4 audience needs 5 content executions 6 content amplification 7

1
Objectives

Why are you doing this
at all?

Is Content Marketing going to
increase awareness?

Is Content Marketing going to
increase sales?

Is Content Marketing going to
increase loyalty?

Content objectives are all over
the board. Don’t do that. Pick a rationale for content marketing and stick with it.

Remember: the goal is NOT
to be good at content. ! The goal is to be good at business because of content.

document this: Because of content
marketing, our customers will _______, our prospective customers will ________, and our business will _________.

2
What’s Your One Thing?

Guess what? Someone has already
thought of your great idea.

What’s special about YOU and
YOUR content?

It’s usually not your products
and services

Your “ONE THING” is the
soul of your company that shines through all your content marketing

Give yourself permission to make
the story BIGGER

How to buy a used
car infographic….from a locksmith!

document this: People will care
about our content because of _______. Our content will inspire and motivate them because of _________.

3
Measurement

Your objectives
dictate your metrics

If your objective is brand
awareness, you must measure that, not something else

The 4 Categories of Content
Marketing Metrics

Remember: if you want to
track behavior, you have to do something that is trackable

!
!
!
ConvinceAndConvert.com

Don’t track everything. Track a
few things that actually matter

document this: We will know
our content is working because we will track _______, ________, and ____________.

4
Audiences

Your objectives also dictate your
audiences

Use personas to model your
desired audiences

Who are they? What do
they like? How do they spend their time? What influences them?

document this: The audiences for
our content marketing are described by this persona (_______), this persona (_______), and this persona (_______).

5
Audience Needs

What content do your audiences
WANT from you? ! What is Youtility for them?

Youtility is marketing so useful,
people would pay for it ! ! ! YoutilityBook.com (free resources)

Multiple sources to find audience
NEEDS: ! • Web analytics (popular content) • Internal search data • Search analytics (popular search terms) • Social listening • Sales/customer service • Customer interviews

Remember: don’t settle for data.
! Get real insights.

Organize your audience needs by
persona and buying stage

Awareness! Confirmation! Interest! Purchase! features
price suitability and risk avoidance

How much content do you
need?

Personas X Buying Stages X
Questions per Stage

Personas (5) X Buying Stages
(4) X Questions per Stage (5) = 100 pieces of content

Don’t be afraid to pursue
Cooperative Content

Instagram photo posted by dog
lover, and noticed by NestlePurina’s Beggin Strips brand

With permission, Beggin re-crops photo
and posts to it own Instagram account

Beggin then re-crops again, adds
watermark and headline, and posts to its Facebook page. Cooperative Content at work!

Employees are also a great
source of Cooperative Content

document this: Our buying stages
are_______, _______,_______ and ______. We have listed all the questions our personas need to move through each stage here: _______.

6
Content Executions

Remember: don’t do this step
out of order. ! You don’t have to have a blog, you have to satisfy audience needs.

Use personas and audience research
to determine optimal content types

What works in content marketing
varies considerably. Content Marketing Institute, 2014

Remember: don’t rely on other
people’s case studies…do your own research

Remember: if you only pay
attention to averages, you’ll always be an average marketer

Two main types of content
executions: Bricks Feathers

Bricks are: ! • Heavier
• More permanent • More production value • Passed along and saved • Usually targeted closer to decision

Awareness! Confirmation! Interest! Purchase! features
price suitability and risk avoidance

Feathers are: ! • Lighter
• Disposable • Less production value • Usually targeted at initial stages

Awareness! Confirmation! Interest! Purchase! features
price suitability and risk avoidance

This very detailed research report
is a brick

This blog post is a
feather

Unless personas have VERY clear
content format preferences, consider atomizing content across multiple types

Remember: you can take your
bricks and turn them into many feathers, in many places

The BBC now creates 15-second
news stories with Instagram video. A BBC television broadcast is a brick. This is a feather.

Create a content planning worksheet:
Date Format/Channel Author Description Persona(s) Audience Need(s) Funnel Stage Call-to-Action Measurement

Remember: define WHAT you want
content consumers to do next !

Put your content strategy on
a detailed calendar with views by week, month, quarter, year

Excel or Google docs at
first, dedicated software eventually for calendaring

document this: For each audience
need, we will create content in one or more ways, and will create a worksheet to organize content, timelines, and calls-to-action.

7
Content Amplification

The fact that you created
some content does NOT mean anyone will see it (or care about it)

Remember: Content is fire. !
Social media is gasoline. !

You must market your marketing
and create a distribution plan for each piece of content

Amplification options: Employees’ social Customers’
social Email (internal + external) Organic search Paid search Display ads Organice social Paid social Guest posts Earned meda (PR) Offline ads

document this: For this piece
of content, we will amplify it with ______, ______, and ______.

Content Marketing Strategy in 7
Steps objectives 1 what’s your one thing? 2 measurement 3 audiences 4 audience needs 5 content executions 6 content amplification 7

Remember: your job is not
to make brochures ! Your job is to tell interesting and informative stories.

ConvinceAndConvert.com how can we help
you?