9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

44
Laurie Paleczny, President, Dash Digital Group November 18, 2014 CONTENT, CHANNELS AND CULTURE Connecting the Content Marketing Dots…

Transcript of 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Page 1: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Laurie Paleczny, President, Dash Digital Group November 18, 2014

CONTENT, CHANNELS AND CULTURE

Connecting the Content Marketing Dots…

Page 2: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

The challenge•  Content marketing is forcing marketing

professionals to rethink how they engage audiences

•  Hundreds of digital channels offer potential •  How do you decide? •  How do you measure what works and what

doesn’t?

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 3: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

It’s all about youWhat is right for your

•  Business

•  Customer

•  Resources

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 4: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Source: The Guardian

Page 5: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

The Content Marathon•  It’s not a race

•  It’s not a campaign

•  Content marketing is a practice

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 6: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Run, Laurie, Run! Let the parallels begin…

Running is a journey, full of lessons and insights

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 7: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

What does it take to win?•  Goals •  Focus •  Tenacity •  Thrill of accomplishment •  Willingness to learn (and share)

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 8: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

DECIDING TO RUNThe First Step

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 9: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Now it’s all about me J•  First half marathon at 47

•  friend put me up to it

•  Once committed, I took ownership

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 10: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

DEFINE YOUR GOAL(S)Step Two

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 11: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon
Page 12: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

What does success look like?•  Content marketing can have many purposes

that benefit your company — what is most important? •  Drive sales • Generate leads •  Foster loyalty •  Support customers (displace calls) •  Brand affinity / awareness •  Reduce costs

Page 13: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Start with smaller goals•  Confirm progress: weekly, monthly, quarterly,

annually

•  Put meaningful metrics in place — know that you can measure progress and understand

•  Build on success

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 14: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

ESTABLISH MEANINGFUL METRICS

Step Three

Page 15: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Meaningful metrics

•  Don’t take on someone else’s goal

•  What really matters?

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 16: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Measurement Framework Purpose

Drive specific insights about the quality and performance of content, amplification, and conversions

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 17: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Measurement Framework Goal

Create comprehensive framework that marketers can use to benchmark and test new tactics (content, amplification and conversions)

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 18: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Measurement FrameworkBuild effective reports for key stakeholders:

1.  Executives

2.  Managers

3.  Blog owners / authors

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 19: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Sample Framework

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Content Activity

Amplification Performance

Amplification Activity

Engagement/Conversions

Content Performance

Page 20: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

CHOOSE YOUR TOOLSStep Four

Page 21: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon
Page 22: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Right tools that work together•  The wrong tools will only distract

•  Understand your capability and limitations

•  Still have to put in the training, the hard work to make content successful -- crafting good stories, producing quality ideas and creative

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 23: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

CHOOSE YOUR RUNNING PARTNER(S)

The Fifth Step

Page 24: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Partner•  Work with experts who understand your goals

and will run alongside to help you achieve them

•  Partners can introduce you to new •  Tools •  Approaches •  Processes •  Partners

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 25: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

PICK THE RIGHT RACEStep Six

Page 26: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Know which channels matter•  Where is your target audience?

•  How does engagement differ from channel to channel?

•  Which online venues perform?

•  Know how to tailor content and engagement strategies for each

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 27: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Example – financial services•  Researched how personal finance topics were

discussed in various channels •  Industry marketed in Twitter and Facebook •  Consumers read blogs and posted in anonymous

forums

•  Cultural norms were different in each channel

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 28: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Research volume of content

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 29: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

The culture of the race Different races have different cultural norms; they may not be a good fit for you, or to run them, you may need to embrace a different culture

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 30: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Know the channel culture•  Learn

•  what values and attitudes exist online about your brand/industry

•  the political, cultural or sociological reference points

•  Understand the cultural nuances of audiences in order to more effectively influence or inform their behavior

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 31: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Who is my target client?

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 32: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

MAP YOUR RACEStep Seven

Page 33: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Content Journey - healthcare

Awareness

Program Info

Partner Information

About

Benefits

The Team

Interest

Information

White papers

Tools/Lists

Contests

Portfolio/Case Studies

Intent

Testimonials

Studies

Awards/Certifications

Memberships

Partners/Endorsements

Action

Find a provider

Request Info

Share/Follow

Click/Call

Submit form

Page 34: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Enterprise example – phase 1•  Global B2B software company •  Goal: Lower support costs and drive interest in new products •  Approach: Build IT practitioner community for product

support, sharing and collaboration •  Action: Selected Lithium as its platform for forums and blogs

•  Initial launch was a success, but then stagnated — weren’t ready to run the long marathon •  Community needed content

Learn through practice runs - assess what works and what doesn’t.

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 35: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Enterprise example– phase 2•  Product blog teams to create practitioner-focused content

•  Useful, step-by-step, including code samples •  Empathetic to changing job demands •  Best practices for images, headlines, build blogger profile

•  Created front-page to community •  Better UX / navigation •  Surface evergreen content - How-to articles, videos •  Drive conversion to lead gen (webinars, white papers) and

featured software downloads (“conversion”) •  ROI conversation •  Newsletter - sign-up campaign

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Awareness Interest Intent Action

Page 36: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Editorial Calendar

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 37: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

PLAN TIME TO RECOVERStep Eight

Page 38: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Evaluate Performance•  Marathons take their toll •  Take time to recover and think about what

worked, what didn’t •  Engage stakeholders and partners

You should have some failures

Learn your way to success © Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 39: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Measurement•  Have defined goals •  Have a defined set of tools •  Understand gaps •  Structured taxonomy is essential

•  SqueezeCMM •  measure the constellation of social clicks,

content consumption and CTA conversions

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Page 40: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Content chain results

Free Software Registration Page

240

46

58

55

364

9 88 23

8

1

9

267

Guide to Analytics

901

63

Page 41: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

Content chain results

Free Software Registration Page

240

46

58

55

364

9 88 65

143

1

9

Guide to Analytics

901

267

63

11

3

Page 42: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

KEEP RUNNINGStep Nine

Page 43: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon
Page 44: 9 Steps to Winning Your Content Marketing Marathon

© Dash Digital Group Inc. 2014

Laurie Paleczny [email protected]