Content Marketing Strategy Workshop

Content Marketing
Strategy Workshop
August 24, 2015 // New York City
Michael Brenner
Head of Strategy, NewsCred
@BrennerMichael

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

Content Marketing Strategy
@BrennerMichael

Just 3 Things . . .
The world has changed.
Most content stinks.
Attract people through stories they love.
@BrennerMichael

Content today must
compete with pictures of babies and
kittens.
@BrennerMichael

Content Marketing Strategy Workshop

“We need to stop interrupting what
people are interested in, and
start delivering what people are interested
in.
”
@BrennerMichael

We tune out
the noise.
@BrennerMichael

“The buyer journey is nothing more than
a series of questions that must be
answered.
- IDC -
”
@BrennerMichael

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

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

Content
Marketing
Your
Brand
Purpose
What
Customers
Want
Exercise: Why does your brand exist?
What purpose does it serve?
@BrennerMichael

“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

The Promise of Content Marketing:
To earn your audience . . .
. . . versus buying it!
@BrennerMichael

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

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

Why is it important to have a documented
content strategy?

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

What Is Your Content Marketing Mission Statement?
Become a (premier?) destination
for [target audience]
interested in [topics]
to help them [customer value].
@BrennerMichael

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

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

60-70% of marketing content
goes completely unused.
*Sirius Decisions
@BrennerMichael

Behind every piece
of bad content
is an executive
who asked for it.
TWEET THIS!
@BrennerMichael

Conduct A Content Audit
• Content Type
• Audience / Target
• Buyer Stage
• Primary Destination
• Performance
@BrennerMichael

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

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

Joe Pulizzi:
“Don’t build your house on rented land.”
- Publish On Your Own Content Hub -
@BrennerMichael

Consider Your Destination and Branding
@BrennerMichael

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

Categories across the top show visitor what space you are in

Images are authentic and create context for the content

Author bylines show authenticity and the dates show frequency

Share buttons encourage social sharing

Recommended or Most Popular
@BrennerMichael

Heavy call-to-action + subscription

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

April 27, 2015
Editorial Strategy

• 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

What Are We Going to Write About?
@BrennerMichael

How brands can become consumed with their
story, not their customers.
Unique Point of View Trap
@BrennerMichael

The Biggest Mistake Brands Make
With Content Marketing Is Making
The Content All About Them
Think and Act like a Publisher!

• 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

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

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

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

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.

Content Mix (Monthly Average)
Licensed
Custom
Social
Custom
Content
20%
User /
Employee
50%
Licensed
Content
30%
@BrennerMichael

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

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

66
Case Study:
Bloomberg uses stunning imagery
to bring “dry” topics to life

‘Big Data’
@BrennerMichael

‘Technology’
@BrennerMichael

‘Intraday Settlement Compresses
Trading Cycle’
@BrennerMichael

‘Transform Data Into A Strategic
Access’
@BrennerMichael

‘Intraday Settlement Compresses
Trading Cycle’

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

Content Amplification and
Distribution

• The Converged Media approach
• Best Practices for Distribution:
• Email
• Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram)
• Paid
What we’ll cover in this section:
@BrennerMichael

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

Social networks dominate content discovery

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

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

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

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

• 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

Steps to creating an email marketing plan
Who will
manage?
What content will
you include?
Determine sending
frequency and goals
Make a schedule
@BrennerMichael

Creating a Social Media Content Plan

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

Where is your target buyer?
*Buffer, Pew research 2013
Cheat Sheet:
@BrennerMichael

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

Best practices across social channels

The positive feedback loop of
social:
Build an audience, share great
content, engage on each
platform.

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

Know the art of the hashtag
@BrennerMichael

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

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

Even great content needs a push
The average Hollywood movie spends 50-60% of production budget on distribution.
@BrennerMichael

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

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

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

Define Key Measures and Targets
@BrennerMichael

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

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

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

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. Balance Paid, Owned, and Earned Media
6. Focus on Content Subscribers
7. Track Content Marketing ROI
@BrennerMichael

Hope you’re excited to create
amazing content!

Content Marketing Strategy Workshop

Content Marketing Strategy Workshop

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