Creating an Effective Content Marketing Strategy

Transcription

1 Creating an Effective Content Marketing Strategy Building Your Strategy 10 Guiding Principals to Execute the Strategy Building a Full Funnel Content Marketing Plan 1

2 What Is Content Marketing? Content marketing is the voluntary delivery of highly relevant, educational, inspirational information to a targeted audience of prospects and existing customers with the objective of increasing awareness, consideration, brand advocacy, and driving customer acquisition. Roy Williams, an advertising pro who s been studying why people do what they do for decades, once said: In marketing, you must choose between boredom, shouting and seduction. Which do you want? 2

3 What is Content? Content in the broadest sense of the word. Content Types Text Audio Video Imagery Tools Interactive Polls Live Source Editorially Created Curated Evidence-Based Formats Articles ezines Apps Slide Shows Infographics Microsites Social Posts Guides/White Papers ebooks Blogs Newsletters Continuity Series Web Casts/Webinars Podcasts Purpose Customer-Serving Self-Serving 3

4 Developing and Implementing an Effective Strategy A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to and approach for overcoming the obstacles for progress Richard Rumelt, Author, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy 4

5 ACME Technology Services Serving the IT needs of small to mid-sized entrepreneurial companies. Developing and Implementing an Effective Strategy THE SITUATION Cloud-based IT services are the firm s core revenue generators. THE DILEMMA Cloud based services is a crowded, hypercompetitive market where product and service is perceived to be a commodity. THE CHALLENGE: Become the go-to resource for small to mid-sized businesses that need IT expertise and technology infrastructure to fuel their growth. GUIDING PRINCIPALS Expand IT services portfolio to appeal to a broader audience and opportunity to sell deeper. Communicate our thought leadership, expertise and knowledge of the market more effectively. Execution eats strategy s lunch Action Plan: Content Build trust in our market by helping prospects and customers better understand how and why technology can fuel their growth. Develop and deploy a thought leadership platform and full funnel content marketing plan to broaden our reach, increase consideration and generate demand. 5

6 Executing a Content Marketing Plan #1: Philosophy: Give Before You Ask We live in a world of ask follow the different path and give before you ask. Great content marketing is rooted in effectively influencing customers and prospects to buy. 6

7 Executing a Content Marketing Plan #2: Get Buy-in from All Stakeholders Understand Content Marketing s Value Driving brand differentiation Building sales relationships Retaining customers Increasing share of customer Creating brand advocates Generating qualified leads Lowering cost per lead Communicate Content Marketing Value Employees Management Investors Customers Vendors Present Your Case Your current challenge The role of content marketing to overcome the challenge The action plan Launch, Build, Test, Improve Performance Social followings Re-blogs Keyword rankings Site visits Backlinks Inbound calls Leads Sales 7

8 Executing a Content Marketing Plan #3: Know and Understand Your Objectives Enterprise-Level Marketing Organizations 82%: Brand Awareness 74%: Lead Generation Organizational Goals for Content Marketing 71%: Customer Acquisition 68% : Thought Leadership 64%: Engagement 57%: Website Traffic 57%_ Retention/Loyalty 47%: Lead Nurturing/Sales * Source 0% 2017 B2B Content 50% Marketing Trends, 100% North America 8

9 Executing a Content Marketing Plan #4: Understand Your Audience (Their Commonalities and Differences) Technology Services Buyer Personas (All entrepreneurial companies have two things in common) A great idea to change MY world The product Failure The Artisan Risk aversion with tendency to not see the forest for the trees Expertise, knowledge, stability, service Staying current, deepening knowledge, protecting my niche They re Looking for: They re Focused On: Their Enemy: Their Vulnerability: Their Core Values: Their Key Challenges: The Crusader A great idea to change THE world The business Complacency Embracing failure too much with a tendency not to see the tree for the forest Opportunity, innovation, vision Focus/choosing a course Help your customers and prospects solve problems and challenges; address and appeal to their interests. 9

10 Executing a Content Marketing Plan #5: Know the Difference Between Market-Serving and Marketer-Serving Content and When To Use Each Type Independently and Together Market-Serving Content Serves customer needs and interests only. The Give Objective Broaden reach to drive maximum engagement and increase consideration. Marketer-Serving Content Serves the interests of the marketer. The Ask Objective Leverage engagement and consideration in product and service messaging. Market- and Marketer-Serving The juxtaposition or adjacency of market and marketer serving content Objective To drive crossselling, lead generation, and activation, typically deeper in the sales funnel. Avoid the thinly veiled sales pitch! 10

11 Comcast The Juxtaposition of Market- and Marketer-Serving Content Michael Hyatt Marketer-Serving Market-Serving Market-Serving Marketer-Serving Market-serving content increases consideration that leads to higher engagement in marketer serving content 11

12 Executing a Content Marketing Plan #6: Understand the Type of Sales Relationships You Need to Build and Nurture Contractual Transactional Functional Affinity Customer purchasing through formal agreement. Profitable on net present value of contract, but susceptible to aggressive tactics from competitors. Repeat purchasing of product or service stimulated with promotion or rewards programs. Loyalty can be difficult to sustain and rewards programs are ubiquitous. Product attributes are perceived as superior. Often the first hope of efforts to differentiate. But with perceived commodity-like services, this level is difficult to sustain. The customer develops preference to product or service based on appeal to individual s needs, values, sensibilities, unique characteristics. Marketers must nurture the relationship between contract cycles. Marketers need to drive customers into deeper levels of sales relationships. Marketers must focus on building multi-level sales relationships. Customers identify with your brand seeking nonfunctional benefits from the association or experience. A well-executed content marketing strategy helps drive all types of sales relationships, leading to more durable and profitable affinity relationships. 12

13 Executing a Content Marketing Plan #7: Develop the Right Resources and Create Quality Content for Maximum Engagement Create content relevant to your customer profiles or personas Inform, educate, inspire to scale engagement Quality of Content Over Quantity Tap independent contractors to write and edit your content Consider hiring college students part-time to write and edit content 13

14 Executing a Content Marketing Plan Referrals #8: Know and Understand the Metrics You Need to Measure Brand Awareness Engagement Loyalty Convert Brand Advocacy Lead Generation Consideration Cross-Selling Retention Lifetime Value Thought Leadership Lead Qualification Activation Community Sales Social Following 14

15 Executing a Content Marketing Plan #9: Measure Performance for Trending and Improvement Over Time Engagement Analytics Where is it working? SearchMetrics SpyFu SEMRush Track keyword rankings Authority Labs SEOmoz Rank Tracker Google keyword tool Backlink growth Open Site Explorer Majestic SEO Link Diagnosis 15

16 Executing a Content Marketing Plan #10: Leverage Your Content Across Multiple Distribution Channels to Maximize the Return on Your Investment Articles Videos White Papers Webinars Infographics Products & Services BLOGS E-NEWSLETTERS SOCIAL MEDIA WEBSITE TRADE GROUPS SALES ORG Leverage Content Across Multiple Distribution Channels Content Engagement Builds Contextually Relevant Audiences Prospects Interact or Download Content Qualified Leads to Sales Organization and Nurturing Programs 16

17 LET S BRING YOU INTO THE CONVERSATION 17

18 BOB LAPOINTE PRESIDENT & FOUNDING PARTNER 18

19 Develop and Deploy a Unique, First-in-class, Strategic, Full Funnel Content Marketing Initiative That Clearly and Quantifiably: 1) Underscores and communicates your understanding of, and commitment to, entrepreneurial companies; Build Community Thematic/Inspirational -Short form to drive scale of engagement, and -Thematic content posted with frequency across distribution channels. Informative/Educational - Short-form content with product and service integration, - Social posts, and - Case study posts with product/service integration; Instructional / Solutions Gated community requiring registration. Access to deeper, long form content 2) Fuels the top of the sales funnel by delivery of highly relevant content to increase engagement and activity; Build Brand Voice, Awareness, Consideration, and Activation Content Engagement Give : Market-serving, short-form content tells the story and fuels the top of the engagement funnel. Short-form content types: Videos, Articles, Social Posts Give and Ask : Market-serving content with product and service integration creates need, increases consideration. Registration Gate Ask : address, customer prospect data collection 3) Increases consideration for your products and services by providing mutual value; and 4) Pulls engaged entrepreneurs, community members, social media followers and existing customers to activation. Leveraged Distribution Organic Search SEO, SEM Influencer Network Socialization Nurturing Programs Leverage content for retention; Media Partner Distribution Native advertising Social Media Syndication LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube Third Party Distribution Outbrain, YouMe, Dataxu, Nativo, Zapp360 PR Campaigns Recurring releases, trade journals Thematic Pillars Pillars synchronized to strategy for credibility and engagement Cloud Power Remote Office Activation Cross Sell Tech As Competitive Advantage Product and Service Content Strategy, Implementation, and Leveraged Distribution

20 BOB LAPOINTE PRESIDENT & FOUNDING PARTNER 20