how to start creating better content in large b2b organisations

How to start creating better content in B2B organisations

October 5th, 2010

New York/London/Glasgow

We are Bourne. A digital agency not satisfied being called a digital agency.

A digital agency not satisfied being called a digital agency.

• 3 offices: New York, London, Glasgow

• 45 planners, marketers, creatives, technical developers, writers, and project managers

• Delivering work in over 25 languages

• Providing strategic planning guidance and operational excellence across all digital channels

• Specialising in making digital marketing fast, flexible and effective

• www.wearebourne.com

• Twitter: @wearebourne

Client Services / Planning

•Account Mgmt•Project Management•Project Definition•Research / Insights •Analytics•Strategy

Acquisition

•Online Marketing•Data Planning•E-mail Marketing•SMS & Mobile

Content Development

•Content Strategy•Content Research•Copywriting•Translation & Localisation

Technical Development

•Content Management•E-commerce•Database Development•Intranets / Extranets•System Integration•Hosting

Creative Design

•Websites / Micro-sites•E-mail Marketing•Landing Pages•Online Advertising•3D Modelling•Video Post Production•Illustration

Front End Development

•Information architecture•Usability•HTML/CSS•Flash & ActionScript•Accessibility•Game Development

Key stages

Bourne has a comprehensive methodology for full-scale content strategy management, which covers:

•Research

•Audit

•Planning

•Content creation

•Build and deploy across key touch point and channels

•Test/Measurement/Optimisation

The key is looking at this as a cycle of activity that works continually across business objectives rather than a on-off sequential process.

Building a long-term content strategy approach

An introduction to content strategy

The way customers consume your brand has changed.

Customers have always asked hard questions. But now they don’t always ask you directly. At least not in the beginning stages. And then when they do, they just want to find the answers. Now. And more often than not, this happens online.

This change has happened faster, and to a greater extent than most businesses realise.

Customer expectations are very high. They don’t simply trust a few advertising headlines any longer. Brands are now read, viewed, heard, experienced, sampled, used, poked and prodded, and laid open to public trial and judgement in a wide variety of channels; not all of which you control.

This means that Content has a very big job to do.

Content is now branding.

Fleeting encounters with ads and straplines don’t make brands any more. Deep analysis and interrogation of your business builds brands. And much of this is done via content.

So, brand = content.

And it’s definitely sales.

So much of the sale process happens before you ever meet your customer. B2B buyers often arrive at a vendor shortlist before making contact with any one of them. Vendors that provide the right information at the right time to help buyers work through the pre-purchase process, are far more likely to make it to the final sales conversation.

But, this presents a problem.

Most businesses are not prepared for marketing in this environment.

They don’t work like this. They don’t employ the right people for this. They don’t plan marketing and they do not budget for this. For most, content is one-dimensional and the delivery is slow and painful.

This problem has been ignored for some time now.

*• Thought leadership• CRM• 1:1 marketing• Personalisation• Micro-segmentation• User experience• Behavioural targeting• Customer lifecycle marketing

* Nearly every major online marketing trend/strategy over the last decade has been held back, not by strategy or technology but, by content.

• Search engine optimisation• Pay-per-click• Viral marketing• Lead nurturing and marketing

automation• Websites• Social media

People Structure Process Tech

Developing content as a strategic business asset is about more than just content. And, in the long run you’ll need to

address each of these areas.

However, getting started doesn’t need to be complex.

• Create content for human consumption

• Think outside the context of what you sell

• (Start to) Think like a publisher

• Focus content around long term themes

• Build metrics and value around content

Create content for human consumption.

Whatever you sell, It exists in a wider context. This includes but is not limited to People, Politics, Bosses, Complexity, Budgets, Implementation, Projects, Risk, Competing Priorities, Emotions, Egos, Careers.

Less you, more them.

What job does your content need to do.

It puts a face to your nameIt motivatesIt reassuresIt creates expert statusIt differentiatesIt manages expectationsIt builds trust, or breaks itIt drives decision makingIt answers questions

What job does your content need to do.

It puts a face to your nameIt motivatesIt reassuresIt creates expert statusIt differentiatesIt manages expectationsIt builds trust, or breaks itIt drives decision makingIt answers questions

An OK personaJohn is the IT Director of Data Centre Management of Apex International Bank.

He’s 43. He manages 172 staff and has a budget of £15 million.

John has a degree in Electrical Engineering.

He reads Computer Weekly and Scientific Computing World.

A better personaJohn is the IT Director of Data Centre Management of Apex International Bank.

He’s facing pressure to plan and budget the future needs of his IT infrastructure but he struggles to turn the high level business strategy sound bites from senior management into tangible direction for his IT organisation.

John spends up to 80% his time and 60% of his budget maintaining existing systems and finding time and resources to innovate is extremely difficult. Furthermore, he’s now been out of formal training for 20 years and pressure is coming from beneath to keep up to do date.

Finally, John is being asked to do a number of new things. As the bank grows, he’s being asked to understand customer behaviour, drive innovation behind new product development and help customer services re-engineering.

Focus on creating human focused personas.

Think about the personal challenges your buyers face

Think about their risks, and how you can mitigate them

What do they need to accomplish in their businesses before they can do business with yours? Help them with that!

What role do they play in a decision and how does that influence the information they need?

Think outside of the context of what you sell

Are you making things simple for your customers and prospects through your content?

Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers: A recent study looked into the roots of customer loyalty: Two critical findings emerged that should affect every company’s customer service strategy.

1.First, delighting customers doesn’t build loyalty; reducing their effort—the work they must do to get their problem solved—does.

2.Second, acting deliberately on this insight can help improve customer service, reduce customer service costs, and decrease customer churn.

http://hbr.org/2010/07/stop-trying-to-delight-your-customers/ar/1

User supportRolloutsTraining

User/customer adoptionInternal marketing

Support

Before AfterIdea generationBusiness cases

ROI calculationsSteering committees

Procurement processesBudget approvals

Peer influencePro-forma project plans

Change management Boards

DuringCompany background

StandardsCertifications

Delivery MethodologiesDemonstration

Proof of credibility

1) Start by looking at all the things your prospect needs to do before they even meet a vendor. 2) Then provide info they need during the transaction beyond the features of your product. 3) Then, help them

with the things they need to deal with after the deal is done.

7 places to look in your office outside of the marketing team.

1. Sales2. Product experts3. Customer service staff4. Research and development5. Project review meetings6. Customer complaints7. Automated content indexing

But, you really need to get out of the office.

1.Surveys and short polls2.Focus groups and customer interviews3.Online panels4.Market research online communities5.Mystery shopping (both you and competitors)

There are tools you can use to capture and manage this information.

Capture:

- Content Audit- Customer Personas- Customer Lifecycle- Decision Maker Maps- Data modelling

Manage:

- Editorial Calendar- Information Architecture- Workflow processes- Publishing Tools- Content Toolkit

Start to think like a publisher

• Brands that are online are publishers and they must act like it

• Publishers develop themes and create stories. Then they create editorial schedules that find as many creative ways of talking about that theme as possible. Then they fight to meet their schedules

• Staff must be either recruited or trained to facilitate insight and content generation. It must be in their job descriptions.

• The fact is that right now, the responsibility for this task is limited to a few – and almost no one else has a vested interest in supporting these people.

B2B content strategy demands that business change their behaviour and structure.

DDaily

W

M

Q

Weekly

Monthly

Quarterly

Tweets Short Press Releases

New Blog Post New News Articles

Webinar(Tactical)

Big Webinar(Senior Manager)

RSSFeed

Long Article/News Posts

Podcast

Research Release

MajorWhitepaper

iPhone App and Updates

Mini-Whitepaper(i.e. 5 ways to…)

Newsletters

Your first editorial calendar doesn’t need to be complicated

Invest in developing content as a strategic business asset:

Recruit or develop a content strategy role in your organisation

Work with your marketing partner to develop over all content strategy and production methodology

Continuously develop a content development toolkit outside of any one project:

• Content requirements checklist

• Content matrix

• Content library

• Marketing calendar

• Editorial guidelines

Focus content under a long term theme

Build metrics and value around content

Content strategy moves from treating content as a project phase to treating it as a strategic business asset

Like any asset, content requires investment, management and nurturing to achieve maximum performance.

Can you measure how big the shift in the importance of content is in your organisation?

• Build in Dashboard management approach

• Build in metrics that focus on engagement (repeat usage and exposure)

• Build in lead generation metrics

• Understand and measure business follow-up to leads generated

• Track and measure the businesses ability to do online marketing

• Track development and progress of content as an asset across the business

• Track the availability and production of content source material

• Track rollout and usage of content, most popular, most effective etc

£100,000 Display ad spend3 million impressions60,000 clicks (0.02%)24,000 customers beyond the home page (60% bounce rate)240 leads (@1%conversion)

Cost-per lead = £416 per lead£100,000 Content Production166 days x 2 articles = 333 articles333 pages indexed +666 back links+333 Tweets599,400 views in 3 months (10 per day)5999 leads (1% conversion)

Cost-per lead = £16.66 per lead

Comparing content spend to media.

Content is finally getting onto the radar of B2B organisations.

Summary

By all means, build a long-term 360 degree approach to content. However, start with the basics…

• Create content for human consumption

• Think outside the context of what you sell

• (Start to) Think like a publisher

• Focus content around long term themes

• Build metrics and value around content

Chad Butz Planning Directorcbutz@wearebourne.com+44(0) 781 775 4015

Holly ManderGlobal Account Directorhmander@wearebourne.com+44(0) 7896 259 885

Dan KershManaging Directordkersh@wearebourne.com+44(0) 781 775 3803

www.wearebourne.com

Twitter: @wearebourne

Any questions?

Speak soon.

New York/London/Glasgow