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Cortes Distortion, Oil on Canvas by Michael Longhofer. [source: blog.art251.com]
ZERO DISTORTION CONTENT MARKETING
Seven Non-Negotiable Disciplines For Success in 2016
Stephen Bateman. SmartInsights.com
A tried, tested and trusted framework that blows the fuzz and distortion off content marketing, so that strategic digital marketing can succeed.
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Hello
About Stephen Bateman
o Career marketer since 1995
o DipM CIM / CAM Dip o Author of 2 Smart Insights
content marketing strategy guides and e-learning toolkit
o Founder of concentricdotscontentmarketing.com and iGlimpse.co.uk
o Consultant / trainer in digital marketing since 2013
o Past: educational / trade publisher
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shbateman
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“Hands up if you’re exploring ways to position and promote your marketing content so that it reaches your target audiences and converts them into
subscribers and customers, and keeps them coming back.”
@concentricdots
WorldwideUnited StatesUnited KingdomIreland
Interest in content marketing.
Google Trends
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My early experimentation with content marketing.
I started blogging here in early 2012For a year, I didn’t break 100 visits/day Then a post got some attentionBut visits flatlined againMost people would have given up hereBut I’m glad I saw it through
Analytics
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Stephen’s Healthy Back Blog.
I started blogging here in early 2012For a year, I didn’t break 100 visits/day Then a post got some attentionBut visits flatlined againMost people would have given up hereBut I’m glad I saw it through
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The Hype Cycle concept is an accurate way to follow the adoption curve of a disruptive technology.
1. The technology trigger point for content marketing: Any business can publish on the web. Big platforms, huge
audiences. No fees.Aspirant status
2. Content marketing seen as shiny, amazing, and novel. We
all jump on the wagon. Explorer status.
3. Slide into trough. This isn’t as easy as we thought. It
doesn’t work. Blame the tool. Disillusioned status. Most
give up here.
4. With expert help we can learn the process. Find the optimal way. Enlightened
status.
5. This works. Greta ROI. Experienced, knowledgeable
status.
Content Marketing Through the lens of Gartner’s Five Step Hype Cycle
Gartner Five Step Hype Cycle
@concentricdots 13http://bit.ly/Content-Marketing-Strategy-e-Learning-Course
What’s your content marketing maturity level?
Assess your capability.
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USAGE & EFFECTIVENESS
How would you describe your organization’s content marketing maturity level?
This was a new question this year. In general, effectiveness levels are greater among marketers with higher levels of content marketing maturity.
Among those who reported being the most effective:• 78% were in the sophisticated/mature phase• 22% were in the adolescent phase• 0% were in the young/first steps phase
SAY SOPHISTICATED OR MATURE32% SOPHISTICATED
MATURE
ADOLESCENT
FIRST STEPS
YOUNG
Providing accurate measurement to thebusiness, scaling across the organization
Finding success, yetchallenged with integrationacross the organization
Have developed a business case,seeing early success, becoming more sophisticated with measurement and scaling
Growing pains, challengedwith creating a cohesive strategyand a measurement plan
Doing some aspects of content,but have not yet begun to makecontent marketing a process
9%
14%
23%
30%
23%
How UK Marketers Assess Their Content Marketing Maturity Level
Content Marketing in the UK 2016: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends: Content Marketing Institute
SPONSORED BY
7
http://bit.ly/cmi-uk-benchmarks-2016
Content marketing maturity levels in the UK 2016
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The return on content marketing lags, and the benefits aren’t apparent until later.
Rule 1.
http://bit.ly/content-roi-webinar
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30 day trials don’t work. Content marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t give up too soon.
Takeaway #1
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For more on costs, KPIs, measurement and ROI.
ROI =Return
Investment £ cost of producing content £ cost of sourcing content £ time planning / managing strategy £ time distributing content £ paid promotion £ software and tools
£ visibility in search £ share of voice, brand uplift £ thought leadership, mentions £ conversions £ leads and revenue
http://bit.ly/Content-ROI-Guide
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Work on
4 Manage the editorial.
4 Themes, topics, 12 month calendar, production plan, content hub.
5 Create great content.
5 Writing, headlines, formatting, on-page SEO, curation, atomisation.
6 Market your marketing.
6 Channel management, influencers, paid promotion.
Non-negotiable
1 Audit and set clear goals.
1 Capability assessment, content audit, smart goals, metrics.
2 Define audiences and personas.
2 Customer segments, ideal buyer personas, buying cycle, keywords.
3 Create a strategy.
3 One pager: Mission statement, value proposition, sweet spot, governance.
7 Evaluation and measurement ROI.
7 Costs, metrics, analytics, reporting.
7 Critical success factors.
http://bit.ly/cm-strategy-guide
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4 Manage the editorial.
4 Themes, topics, 12 month calendar, production plan, content hub.
5 Create great content.
5 Writing, headlines, formatting, on-page SEO, curation, atomisation.
6 Market your marketing.
6 Channel management, influencers, paid promotion.
1 Audit and set clear goals.
1 Capability assessment, content audit, smart goals, metrics.
2 Define audiences and personas.
2 Customer segments, ideal buyer personas, buying cycle, keywords.
3 Create a strategy.
3 One pager: Mission statement, value proposition, sweet spot, governance.
7 Evaluation and measurement ROI.
7 Costs, metrics, analytics, reporting.
5 critical focus areas.#1
Pro
duci
ng e
ngag
ing
cont
ent
http://bit.ly/cm-strategy-guide
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4 Techniques
1. A content marketing mission statement to define the purpose of your content marketing
2. A customer buyer persona to avoid publishing egocentric content and focus your content production on “buyer-relevance.” so you can develop themes and topics that stick and a 12 month calendar of content.
3. A content curation system to help you get inspiration and ideas you don’t lose track of, which inspire you to create even better content.
4. A great content creation checklist to make you content attractive, discoverable, consumable, shareable.
Prod
ucin
g en
gagi
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onte
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http://bit.ly/cm-strategy-guide
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Three-step content marketing mission statement#1
Pro
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cont
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http://bit.ly/cm-strategy-guide
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Persona Profile: Laura | Age: 24 – 34 years old | Demographic: B or C1
Job: Laura is employed within the same sector in which she did her degree. Either an office based, professional services job or a nurturing role such as a teacher or healthcare. Laura is determined to keep climbing her chosen career ladder and is currently working toward a promotion into middle management, if she isn’t there already!
“I wish there was an
extra hour in the day!” Between organizing her active social life, staying late at work, catching up with mum, reviewing the wedding budget with her fiancé and replying to numerous WhatsApp messages from her bridesmaids – Laura finds herself saying this phrase often! Anything that can help her spend her time more efficiently, is King.
Her main online frustration is:
“There is a glut of information available
online, but most of it isn’t relevant to me. I haven’t got time to wade through it all!”
Laura loves visual,
graphical and concise content!
Laura knows her Facebook usage is out of control! She can’t help checking Facebook on her smartphone throughout the working day. She also uses her smartphone to browse Pinterest and wedding blogs during her commute to work. In the evening, if she isn’t out at the latest bar or restaurant in town, she curls up on the sofa with her tablet or laptop to continue her Pinterest search, whilst checking in on Facebook and Instagram throughout the evening.
Family, friends and social acceptance are central to Laura’s decision making process.
Laura has a realistic, but not bottomless, budget. She wants to avoid cutting corners so will
invest her precious time in ensuring that she is spending
her money wisely.
In her spare time, Laura catches up with friends at local foodie establishments. She is prepared to pay for quality food and drink if she has heard positive reviews from her social circle.
#2 P
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tCustomer Persona
http://bit.ly/cm-strategy-guide
For B2B Buyer Persona generation visit:http://bit.ly/B2B-Buyer-Persona-Generation
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#3 P
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tThree-step content curation system
Select the most important evergreen content. Organise / tag and file it in a content repository. Filter-out the mediocre stuff. Act like a museum curator working on an outstanding exhibit. Curation is a human practice.
Identify big trends from small musings. Mash up / merge content to create fresh perspectives. Publish to your social networks. Distribution is semi- automated.
Use a combination of tools to grab / trap / scoop gather content from scattered places and bring them into one place. Aggregation is a technology.
Content Curation
I
Adapted HiveFire Inc
I
Content Elevation
http://bit.ly/cm-strategy-guide
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#4 P
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tA great content creation checklist
http://bit.ly/cm-strategy-guide
Attractive1
Discoverable 2
Consumable3
Understandable 4
Shareable 5
Actionable 6
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Takeaway: Spend minimum 20% of your time researching and testing headlines
Pay special attention to headlinesOn average, five times as
many people read the headline as read the copy
body. When you have written your headline, you have
spent eighty cents of your dollar.
David Ogilvy
80% of people make a decision about whether or not they should check out an article based on the headline.
#4 P
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PersonaliseWords that stand out from the crowd
You and Your
• “You” is the 5th most popular word in viral headlines.*
• “Your” is in the Top 20.
• Combined, these two pronouns appear in 16 per cent of all the headlines in the study.*
Takeaway: Use You and Your to signal your content is about the reader, not about the writer.
*Rippen survey: http://bit.ly/viral-headlines
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Test your headline for attractiveness
http://bit.ly/headline-analyser
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4 Manage the editorial.
4 Themes, topics, 12 month calendar, production plan, content hub.
5 Create great content.
5 Writing, headlines, formatting, on-page SEO, curation, atomisation.
6 Market your marketing.
6 Channel management, influencers, paid promotion.
1 Audit and set clear goals.
1 Capability assessment, content audit, smart goals, metrics.
2 Define audiences and personas.
2 Customer segments, ideal buyer personas, buying cycle, keywords.
3 Create a strategy.
3 One pager: Mission statement, value proposition, sweet spot, governance.
7 Evaluation and measurement ROI.
7 Costs, metrics, analytics, reporting.
2 critical focus areas.#2
Mea
surin
g co
nten
t effe
ctiv
enes
s
http://bit.ly/cm-strategy-guide
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2 Simple Techniques
1. A content auditing system to stop you haemorrhaging potential customers, reduce your bounce rate, and increase your reader engagement and conversion levels.
3. A simple reporting system to report your content marketing KPIs, get buy-in and earn more budget.
#2 M
easu
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cont
ent e
ffect
iven
ess
http://bit.ly/cm-strategy-guide
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POLISH / optimise KEEP / do more
3 TRASH
4Spreadsheet
Existing Content Assets1
RubbishStar content Moderate2
Gaps
Ideate /CREATE
http://bit.ly/cm-strategy-guide
#2 M
easu
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cont
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ffect
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A content auditing system
@concentricdots 37http://bit.ly/cm-strategy-guide
#2 M
easu
ring
cont
ent e
ffect
iven
ess
A simple reporting system
Source: Ryan Skinner for Forrester
@concentricdots 38http://bit.ly/Content-Marketing-Strategy-e-Learning-Course
Plan your journey to content marketing excellence
Assess your capability.
• What’s my capability? • Is content marketing right
for me and my business? • How much does it cost? • How do I get buy-in? • How do I decide what skills
and disciplines to focus on? • What techniques can I learn
to improve my content marketing ROI.
• What tools will help me promote my content and increase my reach?
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1. Ideal buyer personas are non-negotiable: we can only create content that works when we understand what out target audience is looking for.
2. Understand your buyers issues and challenges: Define eight category themes and topics in your sweet spot, stick to them, relentlessly, if you want search engines to index and rank your content as expert and authoritative.
3. Know your buyer cycle intimately: There are 6 phases and 13 touch points in the buying cycle (funnels) where your potential buyer is open to influence. This is where your content marketing can win or lose the battle. This is where you pick your formats. It’ your marketing, but it’s their time. Have you got the formats that are required for the job, or are you leaking profit?
4. It’s better to publish one truly excellent post per week than five mediocre posts every week. 5. If you’re creating great content, but have poor on-page SEO, you might as well not be creating content. 6. If you’re still in the early stages of earning your domain authority and page rank, use programmatic paid solutions to
promote your content. 7. Allocate 25% of your time and budget to paid promotion. 8. Define your process. At Concentric Dots / Smart Insights we use a seven step process. 9. Don’t aim for perfection with your strategy, rough is enough. Create a simple one-page content marketing strategy which
has your goals, metrics, mission statement, target audiences, editorial ideas, frequency, and channel management plans. 10.Get specialist training and support in creating great content that has the six attributes, without which you will just waste
your precious time and money.
My 10 departing best practice tips.
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Thank you! Let’s Connect! Questions & discussion welcome after the show,
or via social media
Free, Basic member toolsManaging Digital Marketing 2015 reportManaging Customer Experiences 2015 reportSample planning templatesPlanning infographicswww.smartinsights.com/membership
Premium, Expert member learning7 Step Guide To Content Marketinge-Learning Toolkitwww.smartinsights.com/membership/expert-member-reasonsDMX 2016 Personal Discount! Code: SIDMX20 - this is a 20% discount on the Annual Professional Expert level, for first year of membership.
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shbateman
https://www.facebook.com/groups/concentricdots.membersclub/
http://twitter.com/concentricdots
http://www.slideshare.net/stepbate
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