Content Marketing and Generation

Trends and Success Factors

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Content Marketing Defined

“Content marketing is a marketing technique of 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

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Content Marketing Defined

Relevant and valuable content is content that is less about you and more about your audience. It …•Addresses issues customers care about•Supports people with your knowledge•Provides insights and solutions•Gives people confidence you know what you’re talking about 

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Content marketing and generation enables you to educate and influence buyer behavior by:

– Building brand recognition– Reaching targeted audiences through multiple

channels– Becoming an industry influencer– Establishing expertise and thought leadership– Creating opportunities for two-way conversations– Generating leads and referrals

How It Works

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More Important Than Ever

• Outbound tactics often less effective• Clients and customers are:

– More savvy– More immune to direct

advertising/promotional messages– Can leverage technology to surf around ads,

fast forward through commercials, buy commercial-free services (Sirius/XM)

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High Growth Path for B2B

Dramatic increases in content marketing •84% B2B marketers making stronger focus

– 20% of marcomm budget to 30% in next year alone•Top goals:

– Compensate for reduction in traditional tactics effectiveness

– Generate leads– Thought leadership/market education– Brand awareness – Customer retention

Sources: B2B Marketing Trends, 2012 Survey, and Entrepreneur Magazine

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Biggest Challenges

• Time and bandwidth• Producing enough content• Producing relevant and effective content• B2B marketers create content in following

ways:– From scratch (94%)– Leverage third-party content (39%)– Reuse existing content (32%)– Encourage users to generate content (30%)

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Biggest Gaps

Too many organizations are still engaged in random acts of content development,

without having implemented cohesive and effective strategies, customer-centric themes and platforms and efficient

publishing and delivery capabilities or the necessary content performance tracking

systems. Source: CMO Council, June 2013

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Biggest Gaps

Too many lead generation campaigns are failing … They lack rigorous targeting,

filtering, tracking … of prospect flow. They rely on poorly conceived content that doesn’t connect with customer needs and concerns.

Or they fail to provide access across essential channels and touch points, such

as mobile devices. Source: CMO Council, June 2013

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B2B Trends

Most popular content generation tactics and social media delivery channels are not always the most

effective or bring highest ROI.

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B2B Trends

Most Popular Tactics

•Twitter•Articles on website•e-newsletters•Blogs

Most Effective Purchase Influencers

•Articles•Case studies•Videos •eBooks

What Brings Greatest ROI?ArticlesVideos

White papersCase studies

Sources: Content Crossroads, B2B Content Marketing Trends

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B2B Trends

Most popular social media platforms•LinkedIn•Twitter•Facebook•YouTube•Google+•Pinterest•SlideShare

Source: Content Marketing institute

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Best Practices

Effective content marketing requires:•An understanding of all the possible vehicles•Strategic approach to leveraging those vehicles in the right way, with the right message, at the right time•Creative, meaningful and engaging content to ensure ROI is realized

– Compelling storytelling– Originality– Strong writing

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Content should help achieve business objectives, not content objectives.

•Know who you are reaching•Understand how they use the content channel•Recognize different social networks suit different audiences

and content types•Additionally, ask yourself:

– Is this the best channel for me to post or present this content?– What are people in this channel interested in?– What action do I want them to take (more followers, download report)?

Best Practices

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There is no “One-Size-Fits-All” - Content Marketing Institute

•Efficiency of creating one piece of content for multiple socialmedia platforms is not the best way to go

•Doing so short changes your content and the audiencesyou’ve cultivated in each network

•Different social networks suit different content types/formats– Example: People who subscribe to your blog could be different

audience than those following you on LinkedIn

Best Practices

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A Good Content Generation and Marketing Program…•Requires a cohesive and comprehensive approach

– eBooks, webinars, research reports, newsletters, articles •Utilizes internal and external mediums

– Blogs, websites, e-mail lists– LinkedIn Groups, social media platforms

•Creates engagement through audience segmentation– By service or product offering– By buyer persona or profile– By industry vertical

How To Be Successful

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How To Be Successful

• Generates leads and creates opportunities for follow up– Tailor content to sales cycle stage, i.e., initial

engagement to lead nurturing• Is monitored and measured to understand:

– Who is interacting and to what level– Which topics are of the most interest– What contributes to most effective lead generation– How can content be adapted accordingly to increase

engagement

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Bottom Line

B2B marketers…•Believe in the power of content marketing•Are devoting more dollars/focus to it•Are time pressed, so need help•Often don’t know where to begin•Use many platforms without always knowing which is most effective

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Success Factors

Marketing Works can help solve challenges and meet goals with:

•Content marketing roadmaps•Content topics and ideas•Content generation storytelling/writing •Content marketing execution•Content marketing measurement