How CMOs can spark profit-generating conversations with technology decision makersby operationalizing content marketing.
Includes a 5-step self assessment, report card, and 10-step action plan for creating, deploying, and optimizing a content marketing program at scale.
We, as marketers, strive to get our brand to stand out, connect with an audience, and get into their purchase consideration set. But it’s getting harder to tell your story with modern media
Today’s marketing story begins with a moment of unbalance. The game’s changed, and it has left us off kilter.
For the past 50 years, media (newspapers, radio, television, cinema, etc.) provided an effective storytelling platform. And as marketers, we took advantage of the opportunity to interrupt those stories with our own. People soaked it all in...
…and technology enabled them to escape and seek out content they love without being interrupted.
As a result, we fade into the background, unable to get our story read/heard/seen
Budgets shifting. Reported worry about technology.
Free form slides to discuss solution.
A platform only solution should include relevant product screen shots that illustrate the important aspects of their needs
A full-service solution will communicate the creative strategy we are proposing as well as supporting content.
Free form slides to discuss solution.
A platform only solution should include relevant product screen shots that illustrate the important aspects of their needs
A full-service solution will communicate the creative strategy we are proposing as well as supporting content.
So with all that, let’s build the foundation of your strategy.
Based on our previous conversation(s) with you, and our own research…
Your brand essence is “____________” What have we missed?
Your target audience is “____________” What have we missed?
Let’s dig into your target audience further. Tell us more about them as people.
Now, what topics do we believe holds their interest as professionals, or in their personal lives? Let’s be expansive. We’ll winnow the list and prioritize later.
Where do we have the right to play? Given your brand and your business, which of the topics DON’T fit? (for example, Pampers could not focus on extreme sports, but RedBull can). We believe you have an opportunity to own _____________
But what does the “competition” look like. In this case, let’s dive into the search volume of the remaining topics to determine volume of searches AND let’s look at sites that are competing with the same content topics.
Let’s prioritize.
A detailed account of the target audience the prospect is trying to reach
But we live in a B2B tech world. It’s not like we can create Harry Potter for our buyers. That’s true, but we can still give them powerful stories that inspire and educate and inform. A lot of the products we’re selling are purveyors of hope. They combat fear and helplessness, acting as antidotes to problems that buyers really struggle with. They offer relief.
So we all know the most effective way to connect with people is through story telling. Always has, always will.
Think about how you first learned about the world. Probably stories at bed time.
There’s neuroscience research to back this up: As humans, we gravitate to stories. We prefer information that’s communicated this way. Stories activate parts of our brains that immerse us in feelings and emotion — what psychologists call empathy networks.
Free form slides to discuss solution.
A platform only solution should include relevant product screen shots that illustrate the important aspects of their needs
A full-service solution will communicate the creative strategy we are proposing as well as supporting content.
Parents of high school athletes may have the wallets, but think about who they rely on, who they trust. It’s the coaches. Let’s become the brand that the coaches depend on. And let’s make THEM the heroes of our campaign.
The average attention span of people in 2013 was about 8 seconds.
People are creatures of habit. We’ve known for years that people view the same 10 television channels; rarely broadening beyond them. We now see studies that people also build similar habits around web sites. We have the opportunity for our Web site or blog to become a habit of our target audience. If successful, this will give us our always-on marketing platform that will be hard for our competitors to break through.
With each topic remaining, let’s create some sample headlines that fit in your Reach, Engage, and Convert categories (Example: IBM Mid-size Insider – Reach: Affordable Healthcare Rolls Out, What Does That Mean for Your Small Business; Engage: Big Data, Small Company – Data Giving You The Edge; Convert: How IBM Is Building Watson and Big Data to Help Small Businesses Grow)
3…2…1…
With each topic remaining, let’s create some sample headlines that fit in your Reach, Engage, and Convert categories (Example: IBM Mid-size Insider – Reach: Affordable Healthcare Rolls Out, What Does That Mean for Your Small Business; Engage: Big Data, Small Company – Data Giving You The Edge; Convert: How IBM Is Building Watson and Big Data to Help Small Businesses Grow)
3…2…1…
All content will equip enterprise business leaders and their teams of mid-level managers with information that will solve their challenges while pushing them to be change agents for the future of work. This will be a future-forward environment that celebrates enterprise innovation.
All content will equip enterprise business leaders and their teams of mid-level managers with information that will solve their challenges while pushing them to be change agents for the future of work. This will be a future-forward environment that celebrates enterprise innovation.
All content will equip enterprise business leaders and their teams of mid-level managers with information that will solve their challenges while pushing them to be change agents for the future of work. This will be a future-forward environment that celebrates enterprise innovation.
Our benchmarks show that when great content is optimized for search, is short, and people can share it easily, you will get the most exposure.
Frequency. How often do you want your audience coming to your site? Daily? Weekly? Monthly?
Sample IBM Weekly Publishing Cadence
Sample IBM Weekly Publishing Cadence
Detail our all the specifics – what are they buying? Be inclusive.
Detail our all the specifics – what are they buying? Be inclusive.
Detail our all the specifics – what are they buying? Be inclusive.
Detail our all the specifics – what are they buying? Be inclusive.
Detail our all the specifics – what are they buying? Be inclusive.
With the strategy structured, we have to build a plan to execute the strategy. It will include all of the following: 1) Recruit subject matter experts and journalists, 2) Train them on brand voice, content standards, 3) Build an editorial calendar, 4) Issue assignments, 5) Create, optimize, publish, amplify, measure, refine.
Fortunately, we live in a rich, freelance economy. Combined with great creation and optimization workflow software, scaling is relatively easy and cost effective.