In this one-hour webinar, Rebecca Lieb will share findings from her recent research report on how content marketers should go about selecting content marketing tools. With input from 143 ecosystem contributors, we'll explore the plethora of content tools available, how the market is evolving, and how marketers should think about content tool selection.
2. Growing channel and media
complexity + increasing adoption
of content marketing
3. This has created a complex,
disparate content marketing
software ecosystem
5. Agenda
· Welcome
· Trends Driving Market Complexity
· Media Convergence is Driving Content Stack
Evolution
· Technology Decisions Must Begin with Use
Cases
· Content Tool Best Practices
· The Vendor Landscape
6. Organizations lack a cohesive,
coherent, strategic approach to
content.
of marketers surveyed lack a consistent
or integrated content strategy.
70%
7. Trends driving market complexity
· Content creation pressure
· Lack of strategy begets tool proliferation
· Lack of enterprise integration
· Misaligned buyer needs vs. planned
investments
9. Tangled and Emerging Vendor
Landscape adds to the complexity
• Solution proliferation
• The landscape is bifurcated
• Content marketing evolution is driving
consolidation
10. As marketer needs evolve over time,
so will solutions sets."
The key is not more or better point
solutions but how they come together."
13. By 2016, there will be “content
stack” offerings in the marketplace
— end-to-end solutions akin to ad
stacks.
15. Currently, no single vendor has an
end-to-end solution.
Eventually, a few will partner,
merge, acquire, and/or collaborate
to create a total solution.
17. Altimeter recommends taking the
following 3 steps to determine your
content marketing tool stack:
1. Determine your content marketing use
cases.
2. Plan for integration and evolution.
3. Identify and prioritize vendors based on
those use cases.
18. Altimeter recommends taking the
following 3 steps to determine your
content marketing tool stack:
1. Determine your content marketing use
cases.
2. Plan for integration and evolution.
3. Identify and prioritize vendors based on
those use cases.
20. Feed the Beast
þ Is your organization struggling to keep up with
the unrelenting demands of regularly creating
quality content for one or more channels?
• This scenario is about mastering the foundational use
cases in content marketing: efficiently creating and
collecting content at scale
21. Refine
þ Is your organization struggling to apply process
to creation and production?
• In this scenario, roles expand, intelligence &
optimization increase:
• Analytics, audits, channels, audience, personas, repurposing,
optimization, etc.
22. Govern
þ Does your organization need to formalize and
communicate content strategy throughout the
enterprise?
• This scenario is characterized by scale, and the ability
to create experiential, cross-channel, transmedia
content while ensuring compliance
24. Gather Cross-Functional Requirements
Solicit stakeholders’ and end user requirements,
input, collaboration
• Workshops
• Workflow requirements
• Permissions
• Employee empowerment & adoption
25. “We did a series of workshops with the
content creators and manipulators…
So much came down to workflow,
particularly around transparency and the
ability to understand what’s happening
with content at any given point.”
-- Meg Walsh, Senior Director of Digital Strategy &
Distribution at Marriott International
26. Altimeter recommends taking the
following 3 steps to determine your
content marketing tool stack:
1. Determine your content marketing use
cases.
2. Plan for integration and evolution.
3. Identify and prioritize vendors based on
those use cases.
27. 10%
of marketers say their content
marketing technologies are “fully
integrated across people,
processes, and platforms.”
28. Integration needs are essential,
and tripartite:
1. Integrations with systems. This includes legacy and
often future platforms, such as data and analytics,
CRM, and inbound marketing.
2. Integration with the organization, such as internal
communications, corporate intelligence and internal
networks.
3. Integration with processes, including workflow and
organizational structure. This may include taking
outside partners and/or agencies into account
29. 8.81
8.76
7.87
7.35
6.97
6.49
6
5.9
5.56
5.38
4.56
4.34
0 2 4 6 8 10
Business communications (e.g. telecom, ESN)
E-commerce solution
Public data integration
Customer support solution
Advertising/Native advertising
Email markteting solution
Business intelligence
CRM solution
Community platform
Brand monitoring solution
Web analytics
Marketing automation
Marketers’ top ranked content
marketing software integrations
Q. Which of these would be most valuable when integrated with content marketing
solutions? Which would add the most value to content marketing strategy?
(Forced Rank)
Source: Altimeter Group Content Marketing Survey 2014, Base: n=80 marketers
31. of the content marketers we
surveyed report that the lack of
inter-departmental coordination is
leading to disparate tools used.
40%
32. Altimeter recommends taking the
following 3 steps to determine your
content marketing tool stack:
1. Determine your content marketing use
cases.
2. Plan for integration and evolution.
3. Identify and prioritize vendors based on
those use cases.
33. “You can’t retrofit activities to
the tool; you have to align the
tool with your activities.”
--Kristina Halvorson, CEO &
founder of Braintraffic
34. How to Identify & Prioritize Key
Criteria
ü Understand priority use cases & sub-
categories
ü Identify priority integration needs
(immediate and long-term)
ü Map these needs in a checklist to help
prioritize your most important buying criteria
36. How to Prioritize Vendors
ü Now assess which vendors satisfy the
requirements of priority use cases
ü Shortlist 3-5 vendors
ü Consider full suite vs. multiple point
solutions
ü Leverage Altimeter Group’s Vendor Use
Case Matrix to aid
39. Content Tool Best Practices
· Train staff
· Avoid redundancies
· Build for speed
· Consider IT support (or lack thereof)
· Scale towards the future
40. I. Train staff
· Educate staff on content strategy, and train to
leverage tools
of the marketers we surveyed say employees
are formally trained and empowered to publish
on behalf of the brand.
24%
41. II. Avoid redundancies
· Eliminate redundant toolsets with overlapping
secondary or tertiary features
· Integration helps drive “one version of the truth”
vs. “multiple realities that don’t align when
viewed in aggregate.”
42. III. Build for speed
· Real-time Marketing requirements require speedy
deployment
· Rapid personalization, delivery, and the ability to build
content based on buzz are primary considerations
• Speedy implementation, set-up, training,
and ease of use are key to adoption
43. IV. Consider IT support (or lack
thereof)
· Assess the level of support needed for software
implementation and ongoing support
· Many solutions today bypass IT for day-to-day
publishing needs
44. V. Scale towards the future
· Monitor emerging technologies and potential
integration needs
· Mobile
· Real-time marketing
· Localization in international markets
· Native advertising
· Sensors, beacons, etc.
· Adopt a test and learn approach
48. Content Marketing Vendors Most
Frequently Cited as Competitive
Altimeter Group asked all Content Marketing Vendors surveyed to list their top three competitors. These 10 vendors received
the highest number of mentions. The size of the cloud correlates with the total number of mentions for that vendor.
Source: Altimeter Group Content Marketing Survey Q2 2014
Base: n=80
49. Thank You
Disclaimer: Although the information and data used in this report have been produced and processed from sources believed to be
reliable, no warranty eXpressed or implied is made regarding the completeness, accuracy, adequacy or use of the information.
The authors and contributors of the information and data shall have no liability for errors or omissions contained herein or for
interpretations thereof. Reference herein to any specific product or vendor by trade name, trademark or otherwise does not
constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation or favoring by the authors or contributors and shall not be used for
advertising or product endorsement purposes. The opinions eXpressed herein are subject to change without notice.
Altimeter Group provides research and advisory for companies
challenged by business disruptions, enabling them to pursue
new opportunities and business models.
Jessica Groopman
Senior Researcher
@jessgroopman
Rebecca Lieb
Industry Analyst
@lieblink