Content Marketing Process

A guide to developing a standardized content marketing process and framework

TOPO© 2013 TOPO

www.topohq.com

Content marketing is putting marketers under a lot of pressure

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

EARNED MEDIA

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

MARKETING AUTOMATION

MOBILEDEMAND

GENERATION

EMAIL MARKETING

INBOUND MARKETING

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

POSITIONING

EVENTS

BLOGGING

VIDEOWe’re gonna need more

content.

CUSTOMER PRIMING

ONLINE MARKETING

How can marketing create great content at scale with limited budget

Top three content marketing challenges

• Producing high quality content 41%

• Producing enough content 20%

• Budget to produce content 18%Source: Content Marketing Institute

Frameworks are good at solving these types of problems

Frameworks make day-to-day operations and tactics more efficient by providing…

• Standard definitions of objects and activities

• Best practices for common processes and tasks

• Reusable templates and libraries

• High level, conceptual methodologies

• Software that automates tactical activities

A proposed framework for content marketing

Use networks of contributors such as employees to create content

Content is published into libraries that include different asset types

Distribute content to target audience via various channels using automation

Understand content performance and optimize programs accordingly

Identify content marketing programs based on business objectivesPLAN

CREATE

PUBLISH

DISTRIBUTE

ANALYZE

Plan – Develop themes that will convert buyers up and down the funnel

1. Ask 10 buyers what 3 pieces of content they most want from you – try to understand why they want it and how they would use it

2. Remember that remarkable content has 3 parts: it’s fun/engaging; it’s useful; and it’s easy to consume (balancing fun with useful varies by market)

3. Start at the top of the funnel with big, engaging topics and then move down the funnel with more specific topics - registration requirements should change accordingly

Create – Get other people to create content for you and use workflow

1. Get other people to create content for you – employees, customers, third part experts, and freelancers will all create content

2. Establish a simple workflow that sources raw material from subject matter experts, routes it to an editor, and then routes it to a designer

3. Invest in creating a core asset that is substantive enough to support your content marketing program in many different ways

Publish – Create once, publish many is the ultimate point of leverage

1. Create once, publish many – use that core asset for each theme to publish many different types of assets

2. A single core asset can be published into various blog posts, syndicated articles, presentations, videos, and countless other assets

3. Identify the common asset types that you will support as a marketing organization and standardize around these

Distribute – Promote content using a variety of distribution tactics

1. Invest in a core set of no more than 3 distribution tactics that will allow you to hit your numbers for this specific campaign

2. Surround those 3 core tactics with other distribution tactics that can deliver upside against the number

3. Allow for some unscientific distribution – some times it’s ok to set content free into the wild and watch what happens

A proposed framework for content marketing

Use networks of contributors such as employees to create content

Content is published into libraries that include different asset types

Distribute content to target audience via various channels using automation

Understand content performance and optimize programs accordingly

Identify content marketing programs based on business objectivesPLAN

CREATE

PUBLISH

DISTRIBUTE

ANALYZE

Three companies producing great content at scaleMr PorterMenswear ecommerce company publishes original editorial content, generating 22M monthly page views

AirbnbMarketplace for finding accommodations publishes focused neighborhood guides

ZendeskSaaS-based customer service software publishes engaging B2B content such as white papers

Mr Porter

Airbnb

Zendesk

Content Marketing Process

A guide to developing a standardized content marketing process and framework

TOPO© 2013 TOPO

www.topohq.com