ADS WILL BE CONTENT, CONTENT WILL BE ADSThe Path to Your Content Strategy

The Path to Your Content Strategy

WHAT IS A CONTENT STRATEGY?

…the practice of planning the content creation, delivery, and governance. A repeatable system that defines the entire editorial content development process…

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- WIKIPEDIA

I define it as the mindset, culture and approach to delivering your customer’s information needs in all the places they are searching for it, across each stage of the buying process. It is a strategic approach to managing content as an asset, with a quantifiable ROI.

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”- MICHAEL BRENNER, VP OF SAP GLOBAL MARKETING

The Path to Your Content Strategy

WHY CONTENT MATTERS

GAME: IS IT CONTENT MARKETING OR CLEVER ADVERTISING

RULES:• Focused on attracting or retaining a target

customer audience• Share compelling, useful and/or entertaining

information• Be consistently delivered

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Q1. Dollar Shave Club’s Viral Video

With more than 10 million views on YouTube, Dollar Shave Club’s video has been referred to as an example of content marketing:

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Q1. Dollar Shave Club’s Viral Video

Clever Advertising. Why?• Heavily focused on the brand’s product• One-time campaign effort

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Q2. AMEX Open Forum

Resource for small businesses that provides operational, financial, and marketing advice.

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Q2. AMEX Open Forum

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Content Marketing. Why?• 99% of the content created not about AMEX• Program delivers information every day• Kept its associated subscription program

Q3. Oreo Twist

For 100th anniversary, Oreo shared an original, Oreo-centric image each day (for 100 days) that marked a day in history; e.g., Mars Rover Landing.

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Q3. Oreo Twist

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Clever Advertising. Why?• Campaign with a built-in stop date• Heavily focused on the brand’s product

The Path to Your Content Strategy

HOW DO WE CREATE A CONTENT STRATEGY?

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PLAN• Questions to ask your organization:

• What is your organization poised to accomplish?• What are the differentiating factors of your product

or service?• Who are the unique YOUs that differentiate your

business?• What is your organization best at providing?

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AUDIENCE• Who are we talking to?• What is each group’s persona? • Create a content segmentation grid

• What meets each groups needs?

• Where do we have content gaps?

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STORY• This is where your BRAND is important• Developing content is developing stories about

you, it represents the big ideas• Build relationships over selling• Establish the story, then build pillars of content

that help tell it

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CHANNELS• Where do we put this stuff?• Identify all channels (existing and future)• Objectives for each channel, how they support

each other• Editorial and budget planning starts here

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PROCESS• This is your “playbook”

• Who does what?

• What style and writing guidelines do we have? (Brand Book)

• What time slots for posting are effective for us?

• How do we converse with our community?

• Who can we engage to assist us in the our efforts (internally and externally)?

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CONVERSATION• Creating good content isn’t enough, you have

to talk to people about it.• Establish “listening posts” to understand

where the conversations are happening• Establish how you are going to listen

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MEASUREMENT• What worked and why?

• Wrong type of content?

• Wrong channel?

• Did we have a conversation?

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MEASUREMENTConsumption Metrics• Page views• Video views• Document views• Downloads• Social chatter

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MEASUREMENTSharing Metrics• Likes, shares, retweets, +1s and pins• Forwards• Inbound links

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MEASUREMENTLead Gen Metrics• Form completions and downloads• Email subscriptions• Blog subscriptions• Blog comments• Conversion rate

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MEASUREMENTSales Metrics• Online sales• Offline sales• “Talk to your sales people” metrics

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THE CONTENT CONUNDRUM...

THE CONTENT CONUNDRUM

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How do you identify good content?

Recognize Your Own Brilliance. Every day you read things, have original thoughts, create content (newsletters, white papers, blogs, presentations) that your audience would appreciate or relate to so...

• Set aside 20-30 minutes a day to think about what you did yesterday or today— what projects you are working on, lessons you have learned, things you have read, observations you have made, discussions you have had with co-workers, etc.

• Read accounts of brands or people you respect to see what they are posting.

• Make a list and eventually, you will get in the habit of recognizing good content.

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How do you connect with an audience?

The Talk Show Rule. Guests that are featured on a talk show (Letterman, Leno, etc.) spend about five minutes talking about relevant news, events, anecdotes or personal stories and only two minutes plugging their project; e.g., a movie or book.

• Apply the same rule to social media content.

• Keep content fresh by mixing relevant news, stories, humor and valuable information with promotional messages.

• This helps build a community versus being an ad.

THE CONTENT CONUNDRUM

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How do you apply it to social?

Be The Cool Kid. You don’t develop a “cool” reputation overnight and not everyone is genuinely liked, so work on building your “cool kid cred” online.

• For every company-related post (content push), seek out 3-5 opportunities to retweet, comment or compliment followers, fans or connections.

• The more users notice you engaging and participating, the more likely they are to return the favor.

• The more “social spectators” who see you conversing, the more intrigued they will be to closely follow and eventually be a part of the "clique."

• Be genuine with your comments and compliments. Don’t repurpose, re-imagine. Users will see right through a shallow or two-timing comment/compliment.

THE CONTENT CONUNDRUM

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A Shifting Mentality.

• Too much content is noise.

• A Facebook post isn’t content, it’s a snippet.

• When a brand posts on Facebook twice a day, the second posts only receive 57% of the “likes” and 78% of the comments that a single post receives.

• Brands are not media companies.

• This isn’t an excuse to skimp on content; it’s a responsibility to produce solid content.

THE CONTENT CONUNDRUM

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THE CONTENT CONUNDRUMEmotion vs. Logic : Advertising vs. Content Marketing

LINKED CONTENT...

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Cross-platform content strategies helps message saturation

• Stories• Spread• Value

Target Example:

Story: Launch of a new product line—Prabal Gurung, Spread: Website, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Mobile, Tumblr, YouTube, Paid AdvertisingValue: Giveaways, tips, ideas, etc.

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WEBSITE: CORPORATE

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FACEBOOK: CORPORATE

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TWITTER: CORPORATE

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FACEBOOK: TARGET STYLE

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TWITTER: TARGET STYLE

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PINTEREST: TARGET

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INSTAGRAM: TARGET & TARGET STYLE

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MOBILE SITE & MOBILE APP

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TUMBLR

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YOUTUBE: TARGET

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PAID ADS: TARGET

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Q&A

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