How To Plan And Build A Successful Content Marketing Strategy

1. How to Plan and Build a Successful Content Marketing Strategy Michael Brenner NewsCred – Head of Strategy @BrennerMichael #thinkcontent

2. Agenda • The key factors for content marketing success • The core components of a content marketing strategy • How to utilize content across the buyer journey • How to work with NewsCred to document your strategy and achieve success #thinkcontent Liven this up? Color?

3. Content Marketing Success Building a Successful Content Strategy Utilizing Content Across the Buyer Journey Working with NewsCred: Crafting a Successful Content Strategy

4. There’s been a fundamental shift in the way we create, consume, and share content. Every single day… 4.75 billion piece of content are shared 1.8 billion photos are uploaded and shared 500 million tweets are posted 700 million snapchats are sent #thinkcontent

5. “ Marketing used to be about making a myth and telling it. Now it’s about telling a truth and sharing it. ” - MARC MATHIEU - Unilever #thinkcontent

7. I have no patience for useless things.

8. “ The buyer journey is nothing more than a series of questions that must be answered. ” - IDC - 8 #thinkcontent

9. Awareness Consideration Preference Align IT with business objectives Explore technology options Determine solution strategy Begin decision process Assess ROI Make decision Identify business problem Establish requirements/ build RFP Research products/ vendors Build short list Research solutions

10. Content Marketing Defined • “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 Customer, Not brand-focused • Seeks to answer customer questions across the buyer journey • Owned media #thinkcontent

11. Behind every tweet, share, and purchase is a person, like you and me. #thinkcontent

12. Put Your Customers’ Needs First. Make them the hero. Brand Purpose Content Marketing What Customers Want Our Natural Instinct Charity #thinkcontent

13. “ We need to stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in. ” - Craig Davis - #thinkcontent

14. Unique Point of View Trap Too easy to become consumed with your story, not your customers. #thinkcontent

15. Six key factors to content marketing success: Document content strategy Have someone in charge of content Consistently publish quality content Map content to buyer journey Balance Paid, Owned, Earned Media Track Content Marketing ROI #thinkcontent

16. Content Marketing Success Building a Successful Content Strategy Utilizing Content Across the Buyer Journey Working with NewsCred: Crafting a Successful Content Strategy

17. What is a Content Strategy? • Delivering content your audience wants • Managing content as an asset (with an ROI) • Thinking and acting like a publisher #thinkcontent

18. Why is it important to have a documented content strategy?

19. 3 Steps to Building a Content Strategy 1 Why? What’s the Business Case? 2 How? Team, actions, and budgets needed. 3 What? Show results tied to your business objectives. #thinkcontent

20. Content Marketing Roadmap • Budget • Destination • Frequency • Amplification / Optimization • Collaboration (Who does what) Discovery Destination Team Topic Models Customer Journey KPIs / Reporting Optimization • Content • Platform • Distribution • Business Case • Current State • Budget • Branding/Design • Platform • Firm Integration • Who does what? • Agency • NewsCred • Distribution • Structure • Topics • Types • Content by Stage • Conversions • Subscriptions • Define report • Who / when? #thinkcontent

21. 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 • AmExOpen Forum Example: Help Small Businesses Do More Business. To become • the largest source of inbound leads. #thinkcontent

22. Commit To Measuring Your Results Awareness / Reputation: Classic Brand / PR objectives. SOV, SOC, and press mentions. With Whom? On What Topic? Measured by? Reach: Who is the target Audience? What are their online interests? How can we measure? Engagement: Drive deeper relationship with the brand. Measured by time spent, bounce rate, social shares Convert: Subscribers, Leads, Sales #thinkcontent

23. Define Content Marketing Roles and Functions SEO / Paid Specialist Manages the paid distribution of content online. 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. Analytics Defines best/ worst performers, conversion optimization and measurement communications. Designer Brings content to life through the user experience and rich visuals. Curation Fines and re-purposes the best content from your business and from around the web. Contributors Any content creator- blogger, photographer, designer — who contributes to your project. #thinkcontent

24. Please?!

25. Define The Business Case, Workflows, Gain Organizational Buy-in • Make sure all stakeholders understand your mission statement and business goals • Determine who needs to sign off on content • Set approval processes for publishing and sharing content in order to cut down on • back-and-forth • Leverage technology to automate that entire process is a great way to get ahead

26. Consider Your Destination and Branding #thinkcontent

27. Content Marketing Success Building a Successful Content Strategy Utilizing Content Across the Buyer Journey Working with NewsCred: Crafting a Successful Content Strategy

28. Conduct A Content Audit • A Content Audit will help you: • Give you a true sense of scale • Identify gaps • Seize opportunities for content repurposing • Determine performance issues • Evaluate content quality • Improve your information architecture Download this template now!

29. Look at Content by Buyer Stage Early-Stage Content 6% Late-Stage Content 66% 28% Middle-Stage Content #thinkcontent

30. Where in the journey do we want to connect? Online Influences Discover Consider Decide • Reviews • Comments • Blogs • Forums • Why buy? • Educate • Search • Why buy now? • What • When • Who • Why buy from you? • Trust • Capability • Capacity #thinkcontent

31. Defining Topics • What are we going to talk about? • [Sample at left – SAP “The Customer Edge” blog keyword analysis] #thinkcontent accessadaptiveanalyticsbasement bench bestbinds brand brandlove buyers canada center chief contact contentcontextual customerdaviddecemberdigital don’t earlier edge email engage engagement examples experience extreme fanbaseferragamofree global good grows highlights holiday kind luxury marketingmediameerman mensch news officer premium process product providing resolutions roots roundupsalesscottsellservice shark showstoppingsocial story strategy survival tank technology their thinking timely weeklywhole your

32. NewsCred’s best practices for utilizing content across buyer journey Content across the buyer journey Awareness Top of the Funnel Quality, licensed content around broader, shareable topics that drives visibility and engagement Evaluation Middle of the Funnel A combination oflicensedand custom content that’s not only useful and timely, but also hits on niche topics specific to your offering and solutions. Potentially gated. Purchase Bottom of the Funnel Custom content promoting your products and services: case studies, product offers, customized demos, etc. Customer Stage Consistent cadence of TOFU/MOFU content as well as personalized recommendations, service options, case studies, etc. Retain #thinkcontent

33. Show me the money!

34. Social Content Custom Content Licensed Content Utilize The Right Mix of Content Custom Content Share on-brand stories and recipes which are created specifically for your brand. Licensed Content Boost credibility, publishing cadence, and direct traffic with a high-volume of fully-licensed, compliant content. Social Content Leverage snackable content through UGC that engages your target audience. #thinkcontent Custom Content Share on-brand stories and recipes which are created specifically for your brand. Licensed Content Boost credibility, publishing cadence and direct traffic with a high-volume of fully-licensed, compliant content. Social Content Leverage snackable content through UGC that engages your target audience.

36. Distributing your content “Even great content needs a push!” Average Hollywood movie splits 40-50% production with 50-60% distribution #thinkcontent

37. Maximizing the Reach of Your Content We believe in a “converged media” approach utilizing paid, owned, and earned media to deliver content the audience wants and maximizing the reach of that content. Paid Social Influencer/ movable media Quickly grow your audience & jumpstart engagement Earned Paid Maximize organic buzz, social engagement, and PR Converged Native Ads (Nativo) Paid Content Distribution (Outbrain, Sharethrough) Organic Traffic & SEO Owned Leverage your owned content and channels #thinkcontent

38. Distribution Recommendations • Make sure your social accounts demonstrate interaction • 4-1-1 Rule: 4 of your posts, 1 influencer post, 1 publisher post • Follow and mention influencers, publishers in each topic • Help your authors build social presence • Test paid distribution with LinkedIn and Outbrain • Measure engaged visitors from paid vs. organic visitors • Based on time on site or pages per visit Client Influencer Publisher #thinkcontent

39. Blog Benchmarks Bounce Rate 85% Pages Per Visit 1.3 Average Time Spent On Site 46 Seconds Uniques Per Month 346,400 #thinkcontent

40. Define Key Measures and Targets Download this template now! #thinkcontent

41. Organic and Social: Up and To The Right #thinkcontent

42. Content Marketing Success Building a Successful Content Strategy Utilizing Content Across the Buyer Journey Working with NewsCred: Crafting a Successful Content Strategy

43. No matter where you are in your journey, NewsCred can help. • Our team of strategists can help you: • Document your content strategy • Build Business case / Define ROI • Content Audits • Buyer journeys • Content Mix • Build / Source Content Team • Distribution strategy • Provide metrics and ROI guidance #thinkcontent

44. We’re helping some of the world’s largest brands with their strategy: #thinkcontent

45. Ways to work with our Strategy Team Ongoing Strategy Engagements One-Day Strategy Workshop Multiple Strategy Sessions Strategy Health check Custom engagements #thinkcontent

46. Sample content strategy exercises we’ll help you with #thinkcontent

48. Persona Stage Questions/Concerns Keywords Early Xyz Xyz Xyz Middle Xyz Xyz Late Xyz Xyz Persona Stage Questions/Concerns Keywords Early Xyz Xyz Xyz Middle Xyz Xyz Late Xyz Xyz #thinkcontent

50. How To Implement A Successful Content Marketing Strategy Key Takeaways: Commit to publishing content that your customers actually want Figure out what questions your customers ask (Google) what content they share (Social) and what channels they use. Start publishing content Distribute the winners Measure what works #thinkcontent