5 Steps to Effective Content Marketing

5 Steps to Effective Content Marketing: How to extract the maximum revenue from your content

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Today’s team

Dr. Flint McGlaughlin Managing Director

Ninan Chacko CEO PR Newswire

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PART 1: A Case Study from the MECLABS Library

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Case Study: Background

Background: Sermo is the largest physicians-only social network that allows pharmaceutical companies to conduct survey research and promote products to its audience. Goal: To reduce cost-per-lead Approach: To leverage the power of Sermo’s social network and create a content marketing campaign to add to the company’s current direct-response campaigns.

Case Study ID: CS1067 Record Location: MarketingSherpa Research Library Research Partner: Sermo, Inc.

Research Notes:

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Case Study: Background

Homepage • Sermo is the largest online

community, exclusive to physicians.

• By leveraging its network of physicians, Sermo can allow companies in the pharmaceutical industry to conduct cost-effective market research for their products.

• Sermo utilizes multiple ways to drive people to its website.

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Case Study: Current Situation

Yellow Pages Ads

Direct Mail

Rented Email Lists

Lead Campaign

Could content marketing generate more qualified leads?

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Case Study: Content Marketing Strategy

• With the survey data from its network of more than 125,000 physicians in 68 specialties, Sermo was able to create custom content to be syndicated across multiple external channels.

Sermo Content Sample

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• Sermo began to syndicate its content through different industry publications like this FiercePharma Newsletter.

Industry Newsletter

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Landing Page

• People interested in the content clicked through and were given the opportunity to download the full report of a specific study.

• Visitors were required to provide their name and email in order to see the report.

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Case Study: Before and After

After: Content Marketing

Before: Direct Response

Before: Basic Lead Form

After: Content Focused Lead Form

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90% Decrease in Cost-Per-Lead The new content marketing campaign reduced cost-per-lead by 90%

Case Study: Results

Campaign Type Lead Cost Relative Difference

Direct Response $295* -

Content Marketing $30* 90%

What you need to understand: By moving from mainly direct response campaigns to a content marketing strategy, Sermo was able to reduce cost-per-lead by 90% and build a content asset for the company.

*Lead cost numbers have been anonymized to protect Sermo.

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Why does Content Marketing Work?

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Why does Content Marketing Work?

F Key Principles

1. There is a natural progression in the development of any relationship. Healthy relationships typically move through a series of transitional commitments.

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Initial meeting

Conversation

Exchange numbers

First date

Serious relationship

Engagement

Marriage

Relational Transitions

Icon Source: Icon Drawer

http://icondrawer.com/

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Why Does Content Marketing Work?

F Key Principles

1. There is a natural progression in the development of any relationship. Healthy relationships typically move through a series of transitional commitments.

2. In a business context, there are generally three key levels of customer relationship/commitment:

1. Relational

2. Transactional

3. Contractual

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Relational

Transactional

Contractual

Webinars/Events

Newsletters/Emails/Publications

Website/Blog/Social

Product - Tier #1

Product - Tier #2

Product - Tier #3

Ongoing

Contractual Relationship

The Role of Content Marketing

For many businesses, content marketing can facilitate a smooth transition into a transactional relationship.

Content Marketing

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Two Common Errors with Content Marketing

Macro-Distortion: Some companies overlook/minimize the importance of the micro-decision in the overall conversion process.

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Webinars/Events


Website/Blog/Social

Product - Tier #1

Product - Tier #2

Product - Tier #3

Ongoing


ERROR #1: Macro-Distortion

Some companies try to move past the relational stage before the prospect is ready.

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Two Common Errors with Content Marketing

Macro-Distortion: Some companies overlook/minimize the importance of the micro-decision in the overall conversion process.

Horizontal-Diffusion: Some companies spend more time attempting to move their customers horizontally and not vertically.

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Webinars/Events


Website/Blog/Social

Product - Tier #1

Product - Tier #2

Product - Tier #3

Ongoing


ERROR #2: Horizontal-Diffusion

Some companies only focus on relational content and never actually drive people up the funnel.

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Today’s Focus

Today, we will discuss how to avoid these common errors and effectively use content marketing to build

profitable relationships with your prospects.

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PART 2: A 5-Step Framework for Effective Content Marketing

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Five Steps to Effective Content Marketing

STEP 1: Map your existing content across the funnel

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F Key Principles

STEP 1: Map Content

1. When mapping content, the goal is to simplify and sequence your content/product mix as clearly as possible.

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STEP 1: Map Content

Simplify

From this… To this…

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Relational

Transactional

Contractual

????

????

????

????

????

????

????

????

????

STEP 1: Map Content

Sequence

Content & Product Maps

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STEP 1: Map Content

Simplify

Not this But This

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Not this Sequence

STEP 1: Map Content

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Sequence

STEP 1: Map Content

But This

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F Key Principles

STEP 1: Map Content


2. Often, our offerings can be clear to us but confusing to our prospects. As marketers, we must learn to see our offerings through the eyes of our customers.

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STEP 1: Map your existing content across the funnel STEP 2: Craft a biographical sketch of your ideal customer

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Marketing Practitioner

CE/MO

Agencies Academics

STEP 2: Conduct a Biographical Sketch

• First, identify the key prospects/audience that you intend to serve.

• Next, list the key traits and behaviors of these prospect categories.

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• She/he is a well-educated marketing practitioner.

• She/he strives to be honorable in a notoriously dishonorable profession.

• She/he is tired of marketing advice that is not backed up with evidence that it works.

• She/he is laser-focused on achieving tangible ROI for marketing efforts.

• She/he understands that “adequacy is the enemy of excellence.”

• So she/he works hard to achieve that ROI.

• But she/he struggles against market forces and management that doesn’t share his/her vision.

• And she/he desperately wants to hit his/her numbers in the meantime.

Biographical Sketch of a Marketing Practitioner

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• Copywriting on Tight Deadlines: How ordinary marketers are achieving 103% gains with a step-by-step framework

• Subject Lines Tested: How to write subject lines that double your clickthrough rate

• Quick Win Clinic (Part I): The 5 easiest changes to make to your landing pages right now

• 263% Higher Conversion Rate: How reducing anxiety helped one company improve conversion rate three-fold

• Discovering Your Value Proposition: 6 ways to stand out in a crowded marketplace

• Five Steps to Better Metrics: How one marketer leveraged Web analytics for an annual revenue increase of $500,000

Sample Content (Webinars)

• Finally, connect content to the biographical sketch of your customer(s).

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? How do I write content that applies to multiple customer segments? Do I always have to write separate content for each customer type?


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STEP 1: Map your existing content across the funnel STEP 2: Conduct a biography sketch (profiles and path) of you ideal

customer STEP 3: Identify distribution channels in which you have the

greatest potential influence

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STEP 3: Identify Influential Channels

Content Channels

By identifying key distribution channels in Sermo’s space, Jon was able to maximize the influence of its content.

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STEP 3: Identify Influential Channels

1. REACH – How many are people are we influencing?

2. INTENSITY – To what depth is our influence on each person?

3. CAPACITY – To what degree can each person we have influenced enact change?

One can measure the potential influence of a channel with three criterion/factors:

F Key Principles

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STEP 1: Map your existing content across the funnel STEP 2: Conduct a biography sketch (profiles and path) of you ideal

customer STEP 3: Identify distribution channels with the greatest potential

influence STEP 4: Create a clear connection between relational content and

transactional and then contractual decisions

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STEP 4: Connect to Decisions

Marketing only exists where choice exists. Marketers influence choice. Indeed, any marketing effort (even content marketing) that does not influence choice is waste.

F Key Principles

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Transactional Connection

Content connects to an incremental transaction: the lead capture.

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? Is it better to put my content behind a registration “wall” or give it away for free?


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STEP 1: Map your existing content across the funnel STEP 2: Craft a biographical sketch of your ideal customer STEP 3: Identify distribution channels in which you have the

greatest potential influence STEP 4: Create a clear connection between relational content to

transactional and then contractual decisions STEP 5: Optimize the message of transactional and then

contractual transitions

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Experiment: Background

Background: After the success of the content marketing campaign, Jon wanted to test on the landing page to extract more leads from the Fierce Pharma traffic. Goal: To increase lead rate on the content marketing landing page Primary Research Question: Are users more likely to convert with only one article featured or multiple articles? Approach: A/B multifactor split test

Experiment ID: TP1483 – SMO Barrier Page Test Record Location: MarketingExperiments Research Library Research Partner: Sermo, Inc.

Research Notes:

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Experiment: Control Control

• The control followed many so-called “best practices” of landing page optimization.

• But Jon and the researchers at MECLABS decided to add multiple CTAs for Sermo’s many other reports.

• They hypothesized that the perceived value of the individual reports would increase when presented alongside a larger selection of content.

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Experiment: Treatment Treatment

• Note the additional surveys (content) provided in attempt to broaden the potential appeal of the offer.

• Note the option to search through specific topics.

• Note the sidebar that

gave visitors the option to learn about the main offer directly.

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Experiment: Side-by-side Control Treatment

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Experiment: Results

Design Lead Rate Relative

Difference Statistical Level of Confidence

Control 18.2% - -

Treatment 54.1% 197%

197% Increase in lead rate for returning visitors The landing page’s lead rate increased by 197% for returning visitors

99%

What you need to understand: By increasing the number of available reports, the perceived value of the individual reports may have increased which offset the increase in friction on the page for returning visitors.

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Summary: Putting it all together

F Key Principles


2. Often, our offerings can be clear to us but confusing to our prospects. As marketers, we must learn to see our offerings through the eyes of our customers.

3. One can measure the potential influence of a channel with three criterion/factors: 1) Reach 2) Capacity 3) Intensity.

4. Marketing only exists where choice exists. Marketers influence choice. Indeed, any marketing effort (even content marketing) that does not influence choice is waste.

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F Key Steps

Summary: Putting it all together

STEP 1: Map your existing content across the funnel STEP 2: Craft a biographical sketch of your ideal customer STEP 3: Identify distribution channels in which you have the

greatest potential influence STEP 4: Create a clear connection between relational content and

transactional and then contractual decisions STEP 5: Optimize the message of transactional and then

contractual transitions

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5 Steps to Effective Content Marketing

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Transcript of 5 Steps to Effective Content Marketing