Delivering content marketing from the ground up

Delivering content marketing from the ground up

B2B Content Marketing WebinarJuly 8th, 2010

New York/London/GlasgowChad Butz: Planning Directorcbutz@wearebourne.com@chadatbourne

We are Bourne. A digital agency not satisfied being called a digital agency.

A digital agency not satisfied being called a digital agency

• 3 offices: New York, London, Glasgow

• 40 planners, marketers, creatives, technical developers, writers, and project managers

• Delivering work in over 25 languages

• Providing strategic planning guidance and operational excellence across all digital channels

• www.wearebourne.com

• Twitter: @wearebourne

• Planning and Strategy

• Content Strategy

• Editorial Planning and Development

• Demand Generation

• Campaign Localisation

• Marketing Technology

• Social Applications

• Interactive Customer Experience

• Online Community Development

A digital agency not satisfied being called a digital agency

Experience in building brands and increasing sales for national and international brands

Some Housekeeping

Traditional marketing tells people what you do.

Content Marketing lets people experience….

…why you do what you do, how you do it, how they can do it too, why they should do it, how they convince others to do it, and how to measure how they do it.

Content Strategy:

…defines who you want to tell, what you want them to think and do

and…

It defines how, you as a business, are going to deliver it.

The term content marketing itself isn’t great. But at least it focuses on the root of a problem.

(Hint: it might be content)

This problem has been ignored for some time now. *• Thought leadership• CRM• 1:1 marketing• Personalisation• Micro-segmentation• User experience• Behavioural targeting• Customer lifecycle marketing

* Nice ideas. But, who was thinking about the content?

• Search Engine optimisation• Pay-per-click• Social media• Viral marketing• Lead nurturing and

marketing automation

Why content marketing now?

Google has changed us.

We don’t shop the same, we don’t buy the same. We don’t trust the same. We don’t believe the same.

Customers still ask hard questions. Actually, even harder ones. But now they don’t always want to ask you. At least not in the beginning stages. And then when they do, they just want to find the answers. Now. Whenever now is for them.

And social media has pressed the accelerator. The content engine that is social media will never be matched by you, me or any business. Ever again.

This is now branding.

The definition of a brand hasn’t changed. But they are built differently, much differently. They are read, viewed, heard, experienced, sampled, used, poked and prodded and laid open to public trial and judgement.

And it’s definitely sales.

So much of the sale process happens before you ever meet your customer. And, chances are, if you are at this webinar you are interested in things like lead generation and marketing automation.

So, you are a publisher.

But, this presents a problem.

Businesses are not prepared for this.

They don’t work like this. They don’t employ people for this. They don’t plan like this and they most certainly do not budget for this.

2 weeks!

There is plenty of this happening

Content ‘phase’

And quite a lot of this.

Brief

20-30 Days

E-mail

And, tackling the challenge requires a holistic view.

Business/brand strategyKnowledge and buy-inInsight collectionUser-centred designBusiness structure and processesTechnology decision making

Content StrategyContent Marketing

New perspectives on content to achieve buy-in

What is content? Really.

#1: Content is not a project phase:

It’s a business asset. And, like any asset it needs investment, resourcing and management.

#2: Content is the new media:

What is media? It’s space to advertise. Well, it’s actually space to advertise stuck in between content. TV, Radio, the Tour de France, The World Series. All content, aimed at selling more advertising. And, it’s all pretty expensive. So, your content is media. Only it’s better. You own it. You control it. You pay yourself.

#3: Content is the substance not the delivery mechanism:The delivery (web, e-mail, video) is obviously key. But if your organisation starts to think of content as the substance behind the outcome, it will start to behave differently because it focus as much on the process as it does the production.

#4: Content is your brand:

Fleeting encounters with ads don’t make brands any more. Deep analysis and interrogation of your business builds brands. And much of this is done via content.

So, brand = content.

#5: Content is the story of your business. Storytellers make interesting friends. Storytellers make excellent salespeople. Storytellers make excellent teachers. We’re pretty sure that customers will like you more if you do all of these well.

So, content is storytelling. And this story is about you.

Understanding how to create content

Whatever you sell, it exists in a wider context. This includes but is not limited to People, Politics, Bosses, Complexity, Budgets, Implementation, Projects, Risk, Competing Priorities, Emotions, Egos, Careers.

Talk about these things too, and you will stand out.

7 places to look for content in your office (hint: it’s not in marketing)1. Sales

2. Product experts3. Customer service staff4. Research and development5. Project review meetings6. Customer complaints7. Automated content indexing

But, you really need to get out of the office a bit more

- Surveys and short polls- Focus groups and customer interviews- Online panels- Market research online communities- Mystery shopping (both you and competitors)

There are tools you can use to capture and manage this information.

Capture:

- Content Audit- Customer Personas- Customer Lifecycle- Decision Maker Maps- Data modelling

Manage:

- Editorial Calendar- Information

Architecture- Workflow processes- Publishing Tools- Content Toolkit

Deeper organisational change is needed

• Marketing planning models are still rooted in traditional cycles, that were driven by rules that don’t exist online

• Digital has actually fostered a culture of ad-hoc planning and this needs to change

• Brands cannot change opinions over the long term if they are only ever planning (or, more likely reacting) to what they are doing next week

• Brands are impatient these days and the traditional lessons of frequency and repetition are getting lost. Run with something for six months, and yes internally, it feels like a long time. But to customers, they’ve hardly noticed.

Content Marketing requires a commitment to commitment

• Business must dig deep. Deep enough into their own businesses and into the lives of their customers to build in-depth personas, filled with lots of actionable insights

• Brands must use these to build brand messaging platforms that have legs beyond a one-off campaign

• And then plan to work this with a structured communications programme that combines useful and relevant content experience with sales and marketing messages.

Brand must invest in research and insight generation

• Brands that are online are publishers and they must act like it

• Publishers develop themes and create stories. They create editorial schedules that find as many creative ways of talking about that theme as possible. Then they fight to meet their schedules

• Staff must be either recruited or trained to facilitate insight and content generation. It must be in their job descriptions

• The fact is that right now the responsibility for this task is limited to a few – and almost no one else has a vested interest in supporting these people

Content marketing demands that businesses change their behaviour and their structure

• Marketing has so far failed to take control of digital technology strategy

• For large organisations, the technology decisions that IT departments make can limit the capabilities of marketing and sales for up to a decade if the wrong decision are made

• There are two types of technology: 1) That which enforces consistency and control; and 2) that which enables flexibility and speed. They mustn't be confused.

• It is always better to get to market first with lightweight technology and backfill once you know what everyone wants

Businesses must do strategy first.Then technology

Any questions?

Speak soon.

New York/London/GlasgowChad Butz: Planning Directorcbutz@wearebourne.com@chadatbourne