Winning with Content Marketing in 2014: A Roadmap for Success

www.redbamboomarketing.com


DEFINING CONTENT

Content is all the ways we share and communicate ideas. Content Marketing is sharing ideas about your products/services with customers to educate, persuade and influence their decisions.


WHY CONTENT?

Content marketing became important when the balance of power shifted from brands to consumers. In the past, we relied heavily on advertisements, sales reps, packaging, and other brand-supplied messaging to make purchase decisions. Advertising was king of the kill.


WHY CONTENT?

Today, consumers have the power to fact-check, research, and explore competing brands. The old barriers have been broken down. Brands must now appeal to this new information-hungry customer. And we must feed them content.


TELL ‘EM, DON’T SELL ‘EM!

Content marketing caters to the new customer by supplying them with all the information they need to make an informed decision. It helps us align with our customers wants, needs and desires, and makes us stand out from our competitors.


ARE YOU B2B OR B2C?

B2B brands must focus on leveraging their expertise to convince and convert buyers.

»  AMEX Open Forum for SMBs »  HubSpot Inbound Marketing Library

B2C brands must focus on connecting with the interests of their customers by entertaining and inspiring them.

»  Red Bulletin – Sports, Culture & Lifestyle »  The Lego Movie


LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED Finally…


“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.

Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”

Sun Tzu, The Art of War


CREATING A CONTENT MARKETING PLAN

The reason most content marketing initiatives fail is lack of planning. We won’t make that same mistake!

Step 1: Resources •  People •  Budget •  Tools •  Limitations

Step 2: Roadmap •  Goals •  Audience •  Strategy •  Tactics

Step 3: Running It •  Launch plan •  Execution •  Testing •  Analysis


RESOURCES: PEOPLE

Content creation is impossible without people. A few of the people that may be involved are: Marketing Manager // Writer // Web Developer // Graphic Designer // Data Analyst // Social Coordinator Figure out what you can do in-house, then decide if you can bring in an outsider like a freelancer or an agency. (Ahem.)


RESOURCES: BUDGET

Everything has a budget. Whether it is a hard cost (like paying for ads) or a soft cost (like the time of your staff), you need to decide how much $$ you’re willing to spend to make your campaigns a success. Decide before you begin to avoid headaches and missed targets.


RESOURCES: TOOLS

The right tools can help you save time, money and labor. Some invaluable tools of the trade are: Marketing Automation: HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot CMS: WordPress, Joomla, Drupal Analytics: Google Analytics, MozPro, Optimizely Social: Hootsuite, Buffer


RESOURCES: LIMITATIONS

Some industries have legal restrictions or compliance limitations to keep in mind. Industries like Real Estate, Finance, Healthcare and others must first understand what they can and cannot say before acting on a content marketing plan.


ROADMAP: GOALS & TARGETS

Once your resources are mapped out, its time to answer the big question: What are we trying to accomplish with our marketing?



Common goals might include: »  Increase sales/revenue »  Reduce customer churn »  Increase repeat purchases »  Recruit new talent »  Grow subscriber list



Having goals isn’t everything – they need to be realistic and attainable. That’s where we set targets.

Every goal should have a target to help you determine if your marketing was successful. Examples: »  Increase subscribers by 50 each month »  Increase customer retention from 80% to 85% over 6

months


ROADMAP: AUDIENCE

In order to hit your goals, you will have to focus your content marketing plan on specific audience(s). A great way to define your audience is by creating Buyer Personas. Buyer Personas are semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers. They help you craft content that will resonate with your target audience.


ROADMAP: AUDIENCE

Ollie is a small business owner that knows he needs marketing, but doesn’t have the time or experience to get it done himself. He is interested in the bottom line and doesn’t speak marketing talk. Ollie wants someone to “get things done” and wants a partner who can show him results at the end of each month.

Oscar the Owner •  1-20 employees •  Smaller Budget •  Ideal for

Monthly Full Service Marketing Pack


ROADMAP: AUDIENCE

Mary is the Marketing Manager at a growing software firm. Tasked with managing a small team of marketers, it is up to Mary to supply sales with a constant flow of new leads. Mary talks the talk and has a firm understanding of her strategy, but lacks the resources to execute effectively. She consistently has new initiatives launching and needs more strategic insight into her marketing programs.

Molly the Marketer •  50-200

employees •  Medium Budget •  Ideal for Projects

& Consulting


ROADMAP: STRATEGY & TACTICS

Strategy is the big-picture way to achieve your goals. Tactics are the means to get the strategy done. The two work together to fill out your content marketing plan.


ROADMAP: STRATEGY

Your strategy should align directly with the goals you set out earlier. Your strategy can include: -  Who to target (buyer personas) -  Internal positioning (what makes you different?) -  External messaging (what will convey this

difference?)


ROADMAP: STRATEGY

Online Software Company Goal: Increase customer retention after month 3. Strategy: Feed new customers a series of ongoing product education content to keep them engaged and using the product often.


ROADMAP: STRATEGY

Fitness Center Goal: Increase sales of personal training packages. Strategy: Upsell existing customers by showing them the benefits of personal training vs. standard gym memberships alone.


ROADMAP: TACTICS

With our strategy in place, we now get to the fun part: tactics. Tactics are the “how the hell are we gonna do this” part of the plan, and the piece most marketers are familiar with.


ROADMAP: TACTICS

Tactics will pull from all parts of the plan so far. -  Strategy determines all the ways we can achieve our

goals -  Audience shows us which tactics will work best in

each campaign -  Resources show us how much we are capable of

doing, and where we need help


ROADMAP: TACTICS

Attract Traffic -  Blogging -  Web Content -  Press Release

Engagement -  Email Marketing -  Video Marketing

Convert Leads -  Landing Pages -  How-to Guides -  Quizzes/Tests

Close Deals -  Brochures -  Case Studies -  Webinars


ROADMAP: TACTICS

Online Software Company Goal: Increase customer retention after month 3. Strategy: Feed new customers a series of ongoing product education content to keep them engaged and using the product often. Tactics: Write a series of educational emails and deliver them via an automated email drip program on a weekly basis. Add how-to videos on landing pages to increase engagement.


ROADMAP: TACTICS

Fitness Center Goal: Increase sales of personal training packages. Strategy: Upsell existing customers by showing them the benefits of personal training vs. standard gym memberships alone. Tactics: Give gym members a blank personalized fitness and nutrition template to fill out, and offer a 1 hour session with a trainer. After this, send a series of case studies via email showing before & after results and testimonials from happy personal training customers.


RUNNING IT: LAUNCH PLAN

Finally, the time has come to launch our amazing content marketing plan. Here is where we list out everything we need to create, who is involved, and how its delivered. Let’s try a new example to see how it all works.



Joe’s Mortgage Company Goal: Attract 15 new inbound leads a month from my website. Audience: First time homebuyers (Newlywed Nick & Jan buyer persona).



Strategy: Provide educational & insightful content about the process of buying your first house, and position ourselves as the go-to experts for new homebuyers. Our message to customers is that we make it easy for you to buy your first home by taking care of all the details. Every piece of content will make it clear that we’re here to help make your journey easier.



Tactics: -  Write a weekly blog post focused on popular first-time

homebuyer questions in our area to attract new visitors to our website.

-  Create an all-in-one excel spreadsheet that will calculate all your expenses and help you budget for your home. Make this download only behind a form. All content points here.

-  After conversion, create a series of emails that automatically send to the prospect and help further qualify them.

-  Follow up with customer testimonials, and ask for a formal appointment.



People Needed: -  Marketing Manager -  Writer -  Graphic Artist -  Web Developer

Technology Needed: -  CMS or Website -  Marketing Automation or Email Software -  Spreadsheet Software



Content Needed: -  4 blogs per month (List topics) - Writer -  1 spreadsheet template - Marketer -  1 landing page & form – Marketer + Writer + Web -  1 graphic Call to Action - Artist -  3 email templates – Artist + Writer -  2 customer testimonials - Marketer


RUNNING IT: CREATING CONTENT

Writing great content is key to making your plan work. The key is hitting the “sweet spot”:

What your customers care about

What you’re really good at

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When writing your content, always ask yourself from your customer’s perspective: “What’s in it for me?” Doing this will help you create meaningful, engaging content that your customers will love.



A few tips to help you make your content sing: 1.  Reuse content whenever you can. 2.  Personalize! 3.  Create processes & templates.


RUNNING IT: TESTING

A/B testing is an excellent way to improve campaigns as they are running. It allows you to remove personal biases from your team and focus on content that works.


RUNNING IT: TESTING

If you’re new to testing, the key is to keep it simple. Test only a single element at a time to control for outside factors. Test A: Green Button Test B: Blue Button Getting into a habit of testing will make your content marketing more effective over time.


RUNNING IT: TESTING

Email -  Subject line -  Text vs. HTML -  CTA

Website -  Button Color -  Video Marketing -  Pictures

Landing Pages -  Size of forms -  Headline -  Left vs. Right


RUNNING IT: ANALYSIS

Testing and performance analysis will give you deeper insight into your content to understand what worked, what didn’t and help you identify unforeseen opportunities.



Identifying KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) linked to your goals will help you measure overall performance of your campaigns. Goal: Increase sales of Product A KPIs: Total Sales, ROI (Revenue-Cost/Revenue) Goal: Increase awareness KPIs: Branded website visitors, Video views



Creating a reporting dashboard for yourself in Google Analytics can save you valuable time each month and give you a real-time view of your performance.


PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Content marketing success stems from two branches: creating memorable, valuable content and having a well thought out plan.


LET’S GIVE IT A TRY


THANK YOU!

You can contact me at: [email protected] www.redbamboomarketing.com www.linkedin.com/in/sbcmurphy Direct: 732-977-2429

Winning with Content Marketing in 2014: A Roadmap for Success

Marketing

Transcript of Winning with Content Marketing in 2014: A Roadmap for Success