Quality customer service and extensive product knowledge are important pieces of a brick & mortar business. It's what truly sets specialty retailers apart from the pack. Customers today require an online experience that matches the energy and attentiveness they receive in person, but how do you work this into your marketing strategy? In this seminar you’ll learn how to build your community efficiently and effectively through social media strategies, Pay Per Click advertising, and original content to enhance your SEO tactics. You will leave with easy steps to streamline your processes and maintain a strong presence on the right platforms.

1. CONTENT
MARKETING

2. MIKE DUNCAN
CEO / CREATIVE DIRECTOR
MDUNCAN@SAGEISLAND.COM

3. WAREHOUSE
SKATEBOARDS.COM

4. CONTENT
ISN’T KING.
YOUR CONTENT
PLAN IS.

5. SO, WHAT EXACTLY IS
CONTENT MARKETING?
@sageisland

6. Our definition:
Content marketing is the creating
and sharing of published content with the intent of
acquiring customers—not through selling or
promotions, but by delivering consistent, relevant,
valuable, informative, inspirational, or entertaining
content for the purposes of building trust,
awareness, understanding,
and positive sentiment.

7. WHAT DOES
IT LOOK LIKE?
@sageisland

8. WEBIS O DES

9. WEBIS O DES

10. LONG-FOR M VIDEO

11. SOCIAL V IDEO

12. AP P S

13. BLO GS

14. MAGA Z INES

15. E-ZI N ES

16. They’re Making Connections.
NOT TRYING TO MAKE A
SALE.
@sageisland

17. 10 STEPS TO
CREATING
AN EFFECTIVE
CONTENT STRATEGY

18. STEP 1:
DETERMINE
YOUR OBJECTIVES.
@sageisland

19. » Understand your organizational priorities
» Set S.M.A.R.T. marketing objectives (Specific,
Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound)
» Start thinking about measuring success
» Consumption metrics — views, downloads, time on page
» Share metrics — tweets, likes, shares, Diggs, etc.
» Lead generation metrics — click-throughs to your site,
newsletter sign ups, catalog requests, etc.
» Sales metrics — e-com funnel, brick & mortal sales
@sageisland

21. STEP 2:
IDENTIFY YOUR
AUDIENCE PERSONAS.
@sageisland

22. » Go deeper than your traditional target audiences
» Look at buying behavior, social and technological
tendencies, leisure habits, needs and desires
» Focus on their content “watering holes”
» Use customer surveys or other basic demographic and
psychographic research
» Use your search data from site analytics tools to identify
themes
» Use your social media monitoring metrics
@sageisland

23. WHO’S YOUR
CUSTOMER?

24. CUSTOMER PERSONA:
Joe
Customer

26. DEMOGRAPHICS
Gender, Age, Income, Education
PSYCHOGRAPHICS
Insights, Motivations, Values
PURCHASING BEHAVIOUR
Shopping, Needs
NEEDS AND DESIRES
Experience, Product, Service Style
COMMON OBJECTIVES
Why Won’t they Purchase?
MAIN SOURCES
Online, Offline

27. STEP 3:
CONSIDER YOUR
AUDIENCES AND THEIR
STAGE IN THE BUYING CYCLE.
@sageisland

28. » Develop key messages based on audience at the different
stages of the “consumer decision journey” (sales funnel)
@sageisland

29. CUSTOMER DECISION JOURNEY

30. STEP 4:
DEVELOP
THE STORIES.
@sageisland

31. » Goal: create useful content that will be shared
» Gather a team with different perspectives on the
consumer and product (athletes, product, brand, sales)
» Include your storytellers (agency, writer, videographer)
» Brainstorm the resonant stories
» Develop the storylines
@sageisland

32. Be Authentic.
GENUINE
UNDERSTANDING
!
= MEMORABLE!
@sageisland

33. YOU CAN BE
AUTHENTIC!

34. “Some companies have customer
service reps. We have ninjas. And
they’re here to make sure
everything about your shopping
experience is awesome. Questions
about fit? Issues with a return?
Looking for a great chili recipe?
Just holler at the Ninjas.”
DETERMINE YOUR
VOICE.

35. Ditch the Sales Pitch.
HELP PEOPLE SOLVE
PROBLEMS.
@sageisland

36. DITCH THE
SALES PITCH!

37. HELP PEOPLE
SOLVE PROBLEMS!

38. KEEP IT SIMPLE.
SIMPLE > COMPLEX
EVERY TIME.
@sageisland

39. l
n
KEEP IT
SIMPLE STUPID

40. STEP 5:
NAIL DOWN YOUR
CHANNELS.
@sageisland

41. Cross-reference story ideas against these channels:
» Owned: collateral, websites, social channels, etc.
» Earned: public and media relations opportunities
» Partnered: channels available for leverage with
corporate or strategic partners
» Paid: advertising channels both off and online
- PPC, social ads but also content distribution
networks such as Outbrain
@sageisland

42. » Set performance objectives/metrics for every channel
» Consumption metrics — views, downloads, time on page
» Share metrics — tweets, likes, shares, Diggs, etc.
» Lead generation metrics — click-throughs to your site,
newsletter sign ups, catalog requests, etc.
» Sales metrics — e-com funnel or brick & mortar sales
@sageisland

43. DREAMING
Awareness
CONSIDERING
BUYING
ADVOCATING
Planning / Research / Evalustion
Shopping
Experiencing / Advocating / Bonding

44. STEP 6:
CONFIRM YOUR RESOURCES
AND WORKFLOW.
@sageisland

45. » Don’t rush to start developing content yet
» The best laid plans are derailed by not having the people
or systems in place
@sageisland

46. Identifying who will be creating your content is a good
start, but you should also think about who will:
» Edit and direct all content production
» Ensure brand adherence and creative integrity
» Optimize for search
» Manage the distribution
» Measure its success and trigger necessary changes
@sageisland

47. ARE WE EVER
GOING TO DO
ANYTHING?

48. STEP 7:
CREATE.
@sageisland

49. » This is the part you’ve been waiting for,
so knock yourself out!
@sageisland

50. MAKE IT MORE
ABOUT YOUR
CUSTOMERS.
40/40/20
» 40% Content Generated By & In Response to Fans
» 40% Category/Context: Latest News, etc.
!
» 20% Brand & Products

51. EMPOWER CUSTOMER
CONTENT.
40/40/20 and Building Relationships

53. STEP 8:
OPTIMIZE FOR
SEARCH ENGINES.
@sageisland

54. Optimizing content means giving search engines
required, essential data to determine what your
content and brand is all about:
» Do your keyword research and use the relevant search
terms your business dominates
» Don’t forget keywords that are relevant to your brand
» Include those keywords in your content’s title tags and
meta descriptions
» Seriously consider engaging an SEO professional
@sageisland

55. STEP 9:
DISTRIBUTE
YOUR CONTENT.
@sageisland

56. » Create a distribution chart by channel, week, etc.
» Detail your owned, earned, paid, and partnered
channels and the appropriate timing for each
» Work your industry contacts for channel opportunities
and interesting partnerships that will let your content
shine
@sageisland

57. GOALS IT SUPPORTS
AUDIENCE
STAGE OF BUYING CYCLE

58. POST FREQUENCY
FACEBOOK
5-10 times per week
TWITTER
2-3x per day
Instagram
1x/day optimally, 4-5x/week at the very least
Blog
1x/week, share across multiple platforms

59. STEP 10:
LISTEN, RESPOND,
MONITOR, MEASURE, REACT.
@sageisland

60. » Be ready to engage immediately
» Amp up and loop in your customer service, quality
assurance, and social media people
» Monitor channels and performance against
benchmarks
» Make small changes to content as necessary
» Be ready if big changes are needed
@sageisland

62. 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Determine objectives
Identify personas
Develop key messages
Develop stories
Nail down channels
Confirm resources and workflows
Create content
Optimize for search engines
Distribute content
Listen, respond, monitor, measure, react
@sageisland

64. MIKE DUNCAN
CEO / CREATIVE DIRECTOR
MDUNCAN@SAGEISLAND.COM