kdm white paper - content marketing
TRANSCRIPT
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When one of the world’s biggest companies starts shelling out billions of dollars in a particular area, everyone else sits up and takes notice. So, when Proctor & Gamble starts allocating more than 30% of its U.S. marketing budget on digital media, it is no wonder that others are quickly following suit. In fact, during the current fiscal year, it is reported that they will increase that figure considerably, sending their digital media advertising budget to an all-time high.
Why would a multibillion-dollar market leader start shifting its focus online rather than rely on traditional methods that have worked well for decades on end? Why would P&G, specifically, look at the internet and its related technologies as the new source of business for the 21st century? The assumption is quite logical when you analyze the facts. There are clear trends emerging that have caught the attention of Big Pharma and other major players irrespective of their industry.
DIGITAL MEDIA SPENDING ON THE RISE
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In short, online and mobile seem to be the catchwords being bandied about across the globe. Here are some interesting facts to support that:
The data are there. The message is clear. Everyone is jumping on the digital media advertising bandwagon because of the phenomenal organic growth that this field is currently experiencing.
The shift is clearly towards online media and mobile technology – serving those areas where people spend most of their available time. Essentially, they’re going with the flow and where the
crowds are – which is the intent behind mass advertising in the first place.
A 14% growth is expected in digital advertising spending this year, pushing up the yearly spend to $41.9bn.
An average adult spends nearly 2.5 hours a day online on devices such as smartphones and tablets.
In contrast, TV ad spending is only expected to grow by 3%. However, that figure still brings it up to $66.4bn. The opportunity is clearly there.
3%Content marketing, through digitalmedia, is set to grow at 29.2% this year over 2013 figures.
29.2%
2.5HOURS A DAY
Pinpoint advertising – or micro-targeted ad campaigns – is projected to grow at 7%7%
Search personalization techniques, such as Google+ optimization, are predicted to grow by 5.5%
5.5%
WHAT ARE THESE TRENDS?WHAT ARE THESE TRENDS?
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Here are just three examples that reflect what P&G is doing. These three companies are even more
aggressive in their approach to digital marketing, and it highlights how all-pervasive this movement
really is.
Dave Nordstrom, VP for Social Media at Lexus (Toyota’s luxury brand)
says that 50% of his company’s marketing spending goes towards
“digital and emerging technology”, which broadly refers to all forms of
digital marketing.
Chief Marketing O�cer at Converse, Geo� Cottrill, revealed an even
more astonishing figure at the Ad Age Digital Conference held recently
in New York: he said that his company was putting as much as 90% into
what they call “content development.” Again, this is about creating
content that can be marketed to a wider audience through the power
of the internet.
Virgin America’s VP of Marketing Porter Gale says that 70% of her
company’s marketing budget is allocated towards “digital initiatives”;
essentially, the same thing referred to by Nordstrom.
MORE SPENDING STORIES
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CONTINUED...MORE SPENDING STORIES
All of these examples merely exhibit a shift towards digital media; some companies lead the field
while others run behind trying to catch up before the competition does. But what it doesn’t talk
about is the shift in attitudes about digital media versus the former kings of advertising – print and
broadcast. The entire approach to advertising and marketing is shifting from o�ine to online. As
recently as ’08 or ’09, says one publisher, about 80 percent of the e�ort put in by a typical
marketing team went into approaching traditional media houses. That figure is now at only 50%,
which means that companies are now looking at digital marketing as being equal to traditional
marketing channels in terms of where the company needs to focus its energies and resources. The
budgeting naturally follows.
Obviously, there has to be a solid reason why all of these companies are looking towards the
internet as their savior in an otherwise traditional-media-dominated arena. The next yellow brick to
step on in this path to discovery, therefore, would be the source of that changing landscape.
Every marketing expert knows that the individuals and groups comprising the target market are
responsible for the market forces that define the success or failure of a particular marketing
strategy. It follows that if consumer behavior changes, marketing strategies must be in-step in order
to succeed. This kind of thinking is very unlike that of Henry Ford’s attitude of “They can have any
color as long as it’s black!” The only kind of attitude that survives today is one that focuses on
customer needs, and every company worth its P&L statement knows this.
THE SOURCE OF CHANGE
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THE P FACTOR THEORY
Though user preferences seem to be the ultimate reason for the changing horizon of marketing
trends, this is not necessarily the case. Where technology is concerned, users must first embrace a
particular technology before it becomes popular. Just like television was “used” by the general
public in the 20th century, users in the 21st century are looking online as a solution to all their
problems. In a sense, they are embracing the internet because it gives them limitless reach and
unmeasured power, just like television rocketed to the top of the popularity pyramid by providing
unlimited entertainment in a box!
This embracing of technology and popularizing it to the heights of success is a self-feeding cycle,
and this is how it works:
The P Factor is a fancy name that you’ve probably never
heard of. Essentially, it is an unknown variable that
converts a technology or an invention from ‘just another
invention’ into a ‘phenomenon’ – that’s why the P. Such
technologies or products destroy the limitations of
statistical or economic analysis and create new markets
and new opportunities for everyone.
The technology is exposed to the public -> the public
assesses it and declares it as hit or a miss -> entrepreneurs
step in to take advantage -> the industry grows
organically and inorganically -> a technology milestone
has been created -> what was once a mere technology
has now become a phenomenon.
And that’s the P Factor at work.
CONTINUED...THE SOURCE OF CHANGE
FACTOR THEORY
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This is the simplest explanation of what happens, and it has happened over and over throughout
history. Today, we are smack dab in the middle of the era of the internet and all related technolo-
gies: smartphones, tablets, phablets and more. The more this technology grows, the bigger the
market becomes. In fact, with such technologies, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A SATURATION
POINT. Remember that because this is why TVs are still purchased; smartphones are still bought
(probably more frequently now per consumer than ever); tablet sales are still growing; in fact,
anything that oers users far more intrinsic value than its actual ‘price’ can exhibit the P Factor –
from cancer medication to retail space travel!
Coming back to Earth, the phase we are currently witnessing in the internet era is that of prolifera-
tion – the organic/inorganic growth phase of the phenomenon. And this is exactly why companies
are investing billions into what they believe is the one thing that will get them out there under the
spotlight where potential customers can see them and become viable leads that anyone would pay
an arm and a leg for.
At the center of all this attention is CONTENT with a capital C-O-N-T-E-N-T! Why? Because this
particular technology – like the TV phenomenon of the 20th century – relies heavily on content.
The technology is merely the base – the foundation. The real meat and potatoes of the “business”
of technology are the variety of content that it delivers. That, and the way it delivers that content in
a targeted, niche-like manner. If you want to reach 25-year-olds who own an iPad Air and work in
the hospitality industry in the Western part of a state that begins with the letter A, then digital
marketing is the only way to go. It is the only option. That’s just a random example, but it shows
how market-specific digital ad campaigns can be.
CONTINUED...THE P FACTOR THEORY
HARD FACTS THAT SUPPORT THE P FACTOR THEORY
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What is also happening at the same time as this phenomenal growth in digital advertising is the
way business is being done. It is following the exact same pattern that television did when FMCG
companies hogged up advertising space on TV. Here’s what one search engine giant just did…
According to the Financial Times, Google has inked an agreement with MediaVest (owned by
Publicis) by which the latter will spend tens of millions of dollars of its clients’ money (the likes of
Coca Cola and Walmart) with Google towards advertising. Reportedly, such “digital upfronts” as
they are known, are slowly taking over traditional online advertising where you only pay for the
virtual real estate space you are currently using or have already used (PPI and PPC).
Online advertising revenues are on the rise. Anyone who is currently exploring the internet as a
way to gain visibility, reputation and customers should know this.
NOW FOR THE DATA :
According to a report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the first two quarters in 2013 saw a double-digit growth in online ad revenues in comparison to the same period in 2012
The 18% increase in revenue over 2012 during that time pushed the revenue to a high of $20.1bn
Mobile advertising revenue alone grew by a whopping 145% year-on-year, to hit $3bn
Digital video ad revenue hit an impressive $1.3bn
Search advertising revenue grew at a steady 7% to reach $8.1bn
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What is happening now is that these upfronts are guaranteeing the buyer some prime spots, while
guaranteeing the seller accurate revenue on something that hasn’t been used yet! This is exactly
the same as the “soap opera” phenomenon in the United States in the mid-20th century: large
companies buying up blocks of prime time so they could dominate the advertising horizon.
The only di�erence is that this is happening right now in front of our own eyes and the opportunity
is still very much open to anyone who wants a piece of the revenue pie.
There is no denying that the internet is home to an astounding amount of content in all forms
possible. But has anyone really measured it? According to CenturyLink, it is estimated that by 2015,
there will be 8 Zettabytes of digital assets accessible on the internet. What does that figure really
mean? Let’s have a look…
CONTINUED... HARD FACTS THAT SUPPORT THE P FACTOR THEORY
WHY MORE CONTENT?
ZETABYTES
BYTESBILLION
TERABYTES
The entire U.S. Library of Congress’s digital assets total a mere 245 terabytes,
So if an analogy were to be drawn, it would mean needing 18 Million Libraries of Congress to hold all of the information on the internet! !
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Considering the fact that 8 Zettabytes of content are expected to be floating around on the internet
by 2015, why should a business seriously look at adding to that mind-boggling figure? Here are
some valid reasons:
Data organization is in its infancy. Google is the current master of that domain, but even they have
only begun to scratch the surface. As they look at new ways to organize that content, they are
realizing that the best way to approach the problem is to figure out how to ‘serve’ that content.
That’s where the Panda, the Penguin and now the Hummingbird come into the picture. The idea is
to push the best content to the top and leave everything else to fend for itself. Therefore, the
logical assumption is that the better and more diverse your content, the more it will be highlighted
on search engines like Google.
It also follows that a company that has multiple channels of distribution for multiple types of content
will likely be seen and noticed by its target audience in a much more powerful way than ever
before, which, again, means that the content needs to be there first.
CONTINUED... WHY MORE CONTENT?
DIVERSE CONTENTIS MARKETING-FRIENDLY
DIVERSE CONTENTHAS GREATER REACH
DIVERSE CONTENTIS HIGHLY TARGET-SPECIFIC
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THAT’S why companies should look at adding to the ever-increasing volume of information on the
internet. Let us explore the importance of content marketing and content diversity in more detail.
What this means is that when you have content in various formats, your marketing strategy can be
multipronged. This is important because Digital Marketing itself is a tremendously diversified
approach in comparison with traditional marketing avenues. It requires content to match its
capabili-ties, meaning that it is completely content-driven. Here are just some of the content types
that every company should first develop, then market:
CONTINUED... WHY MORE CONTENT?
BLOGARTICLES
EBOOKS PDFDOCUMENTS
PRESENTATIONS& SLIDESHARES
AUDIOSTREAMING &
DOWNLOADABLE
VIDEOSSTREAMING &
DOWNLOADABLE
IMAGES INFOGRAPHICS NEWSFEEDS
PODCASTSCASESTUDIES
STATUSUPDATES
SURVEYS FORUMPOSTS
WHITEPAPERS
REPORTSBLOGCOMMENTS
PRESSRELEASES
EMAILCONTENT
ONLINE ADCOPY
INDUSTRYSPECIFIC
PUBLICATIONS
NEWSLETTERS
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The sheer expansiveness of this list might put o� most top level executives, but what management
needs to understand is that not every channel needs to be utilized. For example, a company can
have great success just running a YouTube channel with a few videos that went viral. Similarly,
many highly popular blog sites primarily survive – and enviably so – on page views and subse-
quent ad revenues. The sheer goodwill of the target audience is what drives these businesses
forward. But imagine if that success could be tripled, quadrupled or even quintupled by merely
re-purposing your content and marketing it through the appropriate marketing channels. The
resulting influx of leads is likely to be overwhelming.
Why is this so? The basic assumption is that every segment of the target audience has a “preferred
input mode”, so to speak. For example, if someone would rather look at an infographic than read a
long article, it makes sense to have the article converted into a visually appealing infographic
because you are expanding your scope and reach to that person who never has time for articles.
Similarly, people who love videos are better reached by video campaigns – even if they talk about
exactly the same thing your article does! In fact, it’s much better if the information is consistent
across all content media types.
CONTINUED... WHY MORE CONTENT?
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Understanding the need for content marketing takes some convincing for many people, but figur-
ing out the actual process can be a mind-bender even for professional marketers. The reason for
this is that there are so many avenues to think about that the sheer planning and coordination can
take up considerable time. However, for seasoned experts, this is what you might call “all in a day’s
work.”
There are essentially three parts to content marketing: asset development, asset re-purposing and
asset marketing.
If you are part of a media company, the asset development is an integral part of your business
anyway. For example, as a news channel or a national paper, you already have the content. Now all
that remains is to have that asset re-purposed for other online media channels and then aggres-
sively and intelligently market those assets across those channels. Simple? Hardly! Here are the
basics involved in each of these stages:
The core substance of your content marketing strategy is, of
course, the content itself. If you do not have this, however, it does
not matter – any type of content can be developed from scratch.
All it requires is the right expertise to take on the job and com-
plete it to your satisfaction. For example, if a company intends to
set up a blog as part of a search engine optimization (SEO) initia-
tive, it will require a website designer/developer, a content writer,
an editor and a desktop publishing expert. All of these can either be
done in-house, or outsourced in return for considerable savings.
Once this is in place – or if the content is already archived and
ready – then the next stage can begin.
ASSET DEVELOPMENT
HOW TO GO ABOUT IT ALL: THE CONTENT MARKETING PUZZLE
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In this stage, all digital assets are first evaluated
against several criteria such as quality, target market
requirements, lead generation goals, conversion
estimates and so on. The purpose of this is to analyze
the ‘depth’ of the content so work can begin on the
‘width.’ The width part is where repurposing comes in.
As the name suggests, this stage involves converting
the existing content into its equivalent in other
formats. As shown in the list of content types above,
one single piece of content can take on 20 other
forms – each focused on a particular market segment.
All it takes is content of one format to derive the rest
of the others.
Depending on how wide you intend to go, the
percentage of your budget that goes towards
repurposing can be tweaked accordingly. The final
stage in the content marketing process is asset
marketing – where all of the content you now have is
pushed out into the world to do the job it was
intended for in the first place. This is the most
complex part of the entire process because it involves
several campaigns running simultaneously or in a
planned sequence. Ideally, the strategy for this should
have already been developed and decided on well
before any additional content creation happens.
ASSET REPURPOSING
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ASSET MARKETING
The final frontier! This is where all the action happens – and also where all the reactions happen!
This is the stage where all of the content you have developed in the preceding weeks and months
is put to the ultimate litmus test – the end user experience. A well-developed strategy will always
focus on the primary target markets, while reaping benefits from easy-to-reach secondary markets.
The e�ort needs to be concerted in order to show significant RoI figures; much like SEO, content
marketing heavily depends on analysis and planning for it to work successfully. Proper planning
and strategizing will allow the content to penetrate deep into the target market and reach the right
profile of people for maximum e�ect. Which brings us to the most important part of all this – the
purpose of content marketing.
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You’re probably wondering why this section has been placed all the way down here. After all,
shouldn’t you know the purpose of something before learning more about it? Yes and no would be
the appropriate answer here: yes, because you obviously don’t want to waste your time reading
something you may never have use for; no, because you can only understand the real power
behind something after you know what it’s all about. Regardless of which group you fall into, the
fact remains that content marketing has two primary purposes – creating revenue opportunities
and creating exposure and awareness.
This is the reason most companies explore the possibility of content marketing – as a lead genera-
tion channel that can lead to added revenue. Businesses are in the business of doing business,
and the bottom line is often the only line that needs to be crossed in order to separate the boys
from the men, so to speak. It has already been established that the trend is now shifting (or has
already shifted, rather) from traditional means to digital methods. What is still to be established is
this: how many companies are actually willing to put their money where their customers are -
online? In some small way, SEO, PPC and Social Media Advertising are filling up the void left by this
paradigm shift. But the only way that the gap can be completely nullified is by engaging in compre-
hensive content marketing initiatives.
WHY CONTENT MARKETING?
LEAD GENERATION
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BRAND AWARENESS
If lead generation is the short-term priority of any growing business, then, branding is the critical
long-term consideration. Brand awareness is directly related to share of market, but even more
relevant than that – albeit more abstract – is 'share of mind'. This underrated concept is best
understood with an example:
Assume that Product A is everyone's idea of 'the perfect product' in a particular segment. When
people think of buying that type of product, they automatically think of Product A. If Product A is
constantly bombarding consumers' senses with their brand, they will continue to dominate the
market's 'share of mind'.
Now imagine that Product B is being introduced into the market. Product B is more advanced than
Product A; it is more economical, more power-efficient and it is a 'green' product with a much
smaller footprint.
Product B, to start with, has zero share of mind.
As promotion begins and the product reviews start appearing,
it starts seeping into the collective consumer mind as a
dependable brand that goes above and beyond what
Product A has been able to achieve.
Many consumers will continue to go with Product A
because it is more familiar to them. However, as
Product B makes its mark, their choice will naturally
gravitate towards 'either/or' rather than exclusively towards
Product A. The share of mind is now shifting from a monopoly product to two comparable
products.
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CASE STUDY
This share of the consumers' minds that Product B is able to 'grab' from Product A is essentially
the ultimate objective of branding.
Branding, therefore, is the art of capturing the attention of your primary and secondary target
segments, and retaining and strengthening that presence through continual promotional activities.
And this is something that content marketing does with flair.
If you want your business to be at the forefront of your prospect's mind all the time, and the only way to
do that is to have your name or logo or product or service or content appear in front of them
several times a day for all eternity! This 'Flood the Internet' approach is at the core of Content
Marketing.
COMPANY NAME: City Index
INDUSTRY: Financial Services
OBJECTIVE: To increase their trader base by simplifying trading and opening their doors to
newbie traders
What they did: In order to show the lack of innovation in their industry, City Index started an
initiative called the Trading Academy. This was conducted in a reality TV elimination-style format,
and came with a cash prize of GBP 100,000 (about USD 170,000) for the top trader. Each episode
was taped in front of a live studio audience at City Hall. These videos were uploaded to YouTube,
and their trading were shown in real-time on the page that City Index had created for the purpose.
Twitter profiles and blog spaces on the City Index website were also give to each of the
contestants.
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CONCLUSION
WHAT THE RESULTS SHOWED:
The highest number of new trading accounts being opened – ever!
20m impressions generated by the #TradingAcademy Twitter feed.
1m views across all content channels.
67,000 clicks generated by the #TradingAcademy Twitter feed.
1443% increase in social referral visits.
81% increase in unique site visitors.
60% increase in PPC acquisition for brand terms.
Essentially, the company used the best of reality TV and premium content to showcase
themselves – and they were very successful at it. The creativity of their content was one aspect,
but another key aspect was the fact that they employed social media to leverage that content.
That's the power of content marketing, and it can be used for your own growth.
There is only one possible conclusion you can arrive at after reading this paper: that content
marketing is here to stay. If you want to jump on the band wagon and get more bang for your
buck, you're welcome to all you can handle. The sooner you employ your content to work for your
brand, the sooner you will begin to see the numbers rolling in and racking up.
The upside is that any company can initiate a content marketing campaign using in-house
expertise and resources. On the down side, content marketing is a complex process that requires
specialized knowledge of Internet user behavior, psycho-demographic modeling, RoI analysis, pin-
point content-to-target matching and several other key areas.
Therefore...
Outsourcing this part of your business is often the only option.
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COMPANIES LIKE KEY DIFFERENCE MEDIA CAN
Take your digital assets,
Repurpose them for target segments and
Re-target your content to a growing base of prospects over and over again
THE BENEFITS TO YOU AS A BUSINESS OWNER ARE
Increased reach for your content
Increased audience engagement
More inbound leads
Enhanced brand awareness
The idea of putting your content 'out there' for more people to see may be old, but the Internet
and social media have put such a fantastic spin on it that no company can afford to resist the call
for change. This is the moment in time when people can get in “on the ground floor”, as it were.
The companies that take advantage of content marketing today will be the market leaders of
tomorrow.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Whether it's a million views on YouTube or 100,000 Facebook likes for your fan page,
content marketing is the undeniable wave of the future. All signs prove this to be true. The
only question remaining is: “When are you joining us?”
