workbook how to create irresistible content marketing
TRANSCRIPT
How to Create Irresistible Content Marketing
Workbook
Stats, checklists, exercises and templates
How to Create Irresistible Content Marketing 2
Table of Contents
3 Audience insights
13 Offering value
19 Creating your plan
26 How do you stack up?
28 Measuring your impact
30 Convincing your boss
35 Need help?
37 Notes
39 Appendix/Stats
How to Create Irresistible Content Marketing 3
Audience insights
How to Create Irresistible Content Marketing 4
AUDIENCE INSIGHTS
Key research methods.Below are a variety of research methods to help you gather thick data about your customers. Choose the approach that makes the most sense for you based on your timeline, budget and goals.
PROS CONS
What you already know (research reports, surveys, institutional knowledge of sales and account people, etc.)
Extremely cost-effective. Allows you to gather information quickly and efficiently. A very lean approach.
Assumes you know who in your organization has the knowledge you need.
Secondary research (industry trends, consumer trends are good for B2C while social trends, technology trends, interviews with people like your customers are good sources of information for B2B)
Helps you develop a big picture and understand the trends impacting your business.
You need strong research skills and know the keywords to use to find the information you’re looking for.
In-depth interviews The best way to understand motives and needs because you are able to talk to customers directly.
Can be time consuming.
Try it yourself. Experience your brand marketing from your customers’ perspective
By signing up for emails, downloading thought leadership, etc. you get a real sense of the customer experience of your marketing firsthand.
There really are no downsides. This is the easiest way to identify issues and understand what’s working.
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Research checklist.Use these checklists to plan your approach to research, whether you leverage institutional knowledge or use secondary research.
AUDIENCE INSIGHTS
Checklist for Internal Research
Sales team
Government affairs team
Public affairs team
Customer service team
Membership team
Donor services team
Checklist for External Research
LinkedIn profiles
Analyst and research reports on the industry
Industry blogs and webinars
Competitors’ content
Twitter hashtags
Articles about or interviews with people that match your audience profile
Job descriptions
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AUDIENCE INSIGHTS
Define your research questions.Don’t research for what customers like. Look for information that helps you understand them.
These questions will help you explore the larger context of your opportunity:
• What are the best practices?• What are the trends and innovations to consider? What are
the uncertainties? (these could include consumer behavior, technology, society or industry, etc.)
• Are there any policy changes to consider?• What is the current attitude and behavior of your customers?
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Interview questions.Here are some sample questions to help jumpstart your research.
AUDIENCE INSIGHTS
Tell me about a time when … (the challenge for which you are the solution)—situation, process, decision factors.
• What was the situation?• What steps did you use? Ask for a referral? Research online, company website, etc.? • What information were you looking for? What is the most critical information when making a decision? • What type of content do you prefer: case studies, testimonials, long form vs short form content, video, etc. • What are your communication preferences and tech usage around these kinds of decisions?
What has been your experience with (Company X)?
• Why did you choose Company X/service/product?• What was your experience like? What worked well? What could be improved?• What do you value about working with Company X? What do they do better than others? • What would you say to someone considering hiring /buying from Company X?
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Formulate your research question.Use this formula to identify how research will help you achieve an important goal.
AUDIENCE INSIGHTS
I want to find out more about so I can .
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AUDIENCE INSIGHTS
Persona profile template.Use simple personas to make sense of your research.
Persona Name: Description:
Representative Quote:
Demographic Description:
Needs & Goals:
Tech Usage & Media Consumption:
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AUDIENCE INSIGHTS
User studies.Use this formula to understand your product or service from your customer’s point of view.
I am a
I am trying to
but which makes me
so that I can ,
.
.
type of audience
problem to solve for
challenge or barrier emotion
goal
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Role storming.Ask people to imagine themselves as your key audience (customer, client, member, donor, etc.) Why might they be dissatisfied? What would it take for them to to feel better about their experience or outcomes? What looks like a win for them? Role play and act out scenarios.
AUDIENCE INSIGHTS
Source: Gamestorming.com
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How to respond to common objections.
No time or it will take too long A small upfront investment can make all the phases of work go faster and run more smoothly
No budget We can conduct the research ourselves. Critical analysis of our assumptions costs nothing.
No resources Access to staff, a laptop and internet access is all we need
Source: Erika Hall, Just Enough Research, 2013
AUDIENCE INSIGHTS
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Offering value
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OFFERING VALUE
Market at the intersection of your purpose and your customers’ passion.
PASSION PURPOSE
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OFFERING VALUE
Positioning statement.Complete Geoffrey Moore’s classic positioning statement for your company to define your unique promise of value.
For
our service is a
because unlike
who must
that provides
only we .
target audience
our category/business type
competitor
solve a specific problem
breakthrough benefit that solves problem
reason to believe
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OFFERING VALUE
Collaborate and gain consensus.To build consensus and help people feel invested in the brand, use a team workshop to complete the formula.
Create a note for each blank to be filled, hang them on the wall and ask people to use Post-It notes to add their ideas for each blank.
Next, use dot voting with stickers for people to vote on the options they think best represent the company’s mission and brand purpose.
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OFFERING VALUE
Personality exercise.Need a simple way to define your brand personality? Create a set of adjective cards. Generate as a many as you can. Aim for around 50. Get a group together to review each adjective one by one, voting whether or not the term describes your brand.
Another option is to gather writing samples that relate to your organization and its mission, then place them on a wall. Choose writing from your communications and from other sources. Vote on samples that resonate the most to you.
Need help agreeing on your brand personality? Use this card deck to identify your brand’s key characteristics.
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OFFERING VALUE
Brand personality template.Use this template to flesh out your personality by describing how your brand behaves and what your tone of voice is.
How We Should Appear How We Should Sound
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Creating your plan
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CREATING YOUR PLAN
Define your goals.Gain clarity and generate consensus around your content marketing by identifying key business goals or strategic initiatives it will support.
Why do you want to use content marketing? How will it support your mission or vision? How will it support your business goals?
Boost brand awareness
Change brand perception
Launch a new product or service
Generate leads
Improve your sales process
Convert users of other brands
Attract past customers
Engage existing customers
Reward loyalty
Something else?
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Customer Need Role of Content Marketing Your Goal
CREATING YOUR PLAN
Connect your goals to customers’ goals.You know what you need. Connect your goals to your customers’ needs or pain points.
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CREATING YOUR PLAN
Assess your relationship.To help you identify where content marketing can have the greatest impact, evaluate what parts of your client relationship you can deliver the most value.
What are the points in your relationship where marketing can have an impact?
Instead of your sales cycle, focus on your customer relationship cycle. Consider the length, nature of the interaction, etc.
I don’t know that I have a need/issue problem
I know I need help with something not sure what
I know what the problem is
I am looking for answers
I am choosing/considering between options
I am buying from you
We are currently working together
I have bought from you in the past
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Needs/MotivationsStep Themes & Messages Content Types Channels
CONTENT PLANNING
Content plan template.Build your strategy around your customer relationship cycle.
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CREATING YOUR PLAN
Make collaboration easy.No matter what platform you use, from a spreadsheet to robust content management and publishing platforms, you need to make collaboration easy.
Get everyone on the same page with a shared calendar to plan content over time and across channels for unified brand communications and a cohesive brand impression
Build individual channel calendars to manage communications and cadence at the brand touchpoint level
Structure the channel calendars to mimic the structure of your content (email, social, ad, etc.) so you can compose, edit and approve in one place
Include a system to organize and share assets
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Write audience-centered copy.To create irresistible content, develop copy that shows you understand your customers’ challenges and can help customers overcome them.
CREATING YOUR PLAN
StepAudience Need Message
Headline 1 Headline 2
Subhead 1 Subhead 2
CTA 1 CTA 2
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How do you stack up?
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How customer-centric is your content?Leverage what you already have. Keep content that is relevant, identify what needs to be updated and get rid of content that doesn’t serve you.
HOW DO YOU STACK UP?
Audience Challenge Message Date Developed
Step in the Relationship Cycle Content Type Notes Score 1-10
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Measuring your impact
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The problem with measuring the effectiveness of marketing.You can’t tell why someone took the action they did. So why not ask them directly in a simple survey?
To identify reach—how many people were exposed to your marketing—ask:
• Which of our marketing communications have you seen? Check all that apply. • List your marketing: ads, emails, social media etc. and include a line for “Other” where
people can write in anything they saw you didn’t include.
To understand the role marketing played in an audience’s decision to act (buy, register, download, etc.), ask:.
• What were the key factors that impacted your decision? Check all that apply. • Create a list based on the particular action you are tracking. For example: cost,
marketing, a colleague recommended it, reviews, etc. Don’t forget to include a line for “Other.”
MEASURING YOUR IMPACT
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Convincing your boss
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CONVINCING YOUR BOSS
Content marketing costs less and is more effective than traditional marketing.
3xContent marketing generates
the leads per dollar spent when compared to paid search marketing.
Kapost and Eloqua
62% lessDemandMetric
Compared to traditional marketing programs, content marketing costs
and generates approximately 3x the volume of leads.
6x higherAberdeen Group
On average, conversion rates are
for companies and brands using content marketing than those that aren’t, at 2.9% vs. 0.5%, respectively.
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CONVINCING YOUR BOSS
Great content drives purchase decisions.
85% of consumers regularly seek out content from trusted experts when considering a purchase.
Consumers engage with 11.4 pieces of content on average prior to making a purchase.
By a factor of 3 to 1, B2B buyers educate themselves by going to sellers’ websites and learning about their offerings before making a purchase decision.
Sources: Nielson 2014, Forrester 2015
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CONVINCING YOUR BOSS
Building your case for content marketing.Use this formula to succinctly describe the impact content marketing can have in your organization.
We should be
We need to
but
by
.
.
goal
your POV/solution
challenge that stands in our way
proposed approach
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Formulate your plan.Outline what you need from research topics, resources and budget to who will help with the research.
CONCINCING YOUR BOSS
WHO OR WHAT ARE WE RESEARCHING?
WHAT IS OUR TIMETABLE?
WHO WILL CONDUCT THE RESEARCH
WHAT IS THE BUDGET?
WHERE WILL WE FIND THE INFORMATION WE NEED?
(INCLUDE # OF INTERVIEWS IF APPROPRIATE)
WHAT QUESTIONS DO WE NEED TO ASK OR ISSUES DO
WE NEED TO RESEARCH?
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Need help?
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Tackle important challenges.I’m Leigh George and I founded Freedom—a strategic branding and marketing un-agency—to help marketers innovate and tackle important challenges. I remove the stress and uncertainty around critical branding and marketing decisions by helping you connect deeply with your audiences and uncover new opportunities to engage with them.
Engagements are structured based on what you need, but typically include:
Research & Insights Organization, audience, competitor and market research, personas and journey mapping, brand audits.
Brand Strategy Naming, brand architecture, brand positioning, messaging, personality and voice, brand guidelines.
Marketing Strategy Acquisition and engagement plans, multi-channel content calendars, training.
Leigh George, PhDEmail: [email protected] Twitter: @leighgeorge
NEED HELP?
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/leighgeorgeWebsite: find-freedom.co
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Notes
How to Create Irresistible Content Marketing 38
Write it down.
NOTES
How to Create Irresistible Content Marketing 39
Appendix/Stats
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Consumers can access brand information (pricing, reviews, etc.) and shop anywhere, anytime. Source: The Comprehensive Modern Consumer Shopping Habits Study, BigCommerce & Square, 2016
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In B2B Sales, your content is your sales rep.
68%of B2B customers prefer to
research independently online.
60% of buyers would rather not
communicate with sales reps as their primary information source.
62% say they can now develop
selection criteria or finalize a vendor list — based solely on
digital content.
Source: Forrester
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More content than ever is vying for a share of consumers’ time.
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People spend most of the day on a wide range of media.
Source: Nielsen Total Audience Report, 2019
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People are inundated with content.
27 million pieces of content are shared everyday.
Source: AOL/Nielson 2013
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The battle for attention is fierce.
Source: SJ Insights
ADS/DAYADS/DAY2,000 5,000In 1984, a person
saw an average ofBy 2014, we saw around
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People can’t focus.
Source: Microsoft
At 8 seconds,
we have a shorter attention span than
a goldfish.
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People check out.
Source: TrackMaven
35% 17%In 2015, branded content
output climbedbut content engagement
decreased by
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People ignore you.
Source: Vidyard
Marketing emails only see click-through rates of 1.5%.This means that when we email 10,000 people, only 150 click through, on average.
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They avoid you.
Source: AdKeeper™ and WPP’s 24/7 Real Media
Online display ads have a click through rate of less than one-tenth of 1%.
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Almost half U.S. consumers now subscribe to streaming video services.
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You get blocked.
Source: Digital Information World, 2019
Source: Statitsa, 2018
Source: PageFair 2017 Global Adblock Report
47%of internet users globally use
an ad-blocker today.
More than
615 MILLION
devices now have ad-blocking software.
Ad blocking in the US has increased from 15% to
30% in the last four years.
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You give consumers a reason to care about and listen to you.
The top 3 things that make content effective:
AUDIENCE RELEVANCE ENGAGING & COMPELLING STORYTELLING
TRIGGERS A RESPONSE/ACTION
58%
Source: LinkedIn Technology Marketing Community
57% 54%
How to Create Irresistible Content Marketing 53
You build relationships and establish trust.
66% of consumers say they are likely to switch brands if they are treated
like a number instead of an individual.
Source: State of the Connected Customer Report, Salesforce Research
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Source: Deloitte, July 2017
Your business grows.
Customer-centric companies are
6 %more profitable compared to companies that
are not focused on the customer.